Interesting reference in Kelly Theisers article on the draft.

"Former scouting director Mike Radcliff, who is currently the vice president of player personnel, has indicated that the Twins feel there will be a shift in the game in coming years, focusing more on athletic, speedy players rather than the bulked-up power hitters seen during the "boom or bust" days of the past 10-15 years. The Twins have tried to adjust their thinking to that when obtaining players, and perhaps center fielder Carlos Gomez is one of the best examples of that trend."

I find this to be a very interesting perspective. The Twins seem to have made their own "moneyball" assessment that power hitters are overvalued in the post-steroid era. They certainly have loaded their minor league system with singles and doubles hitters who can run.

While I'm dissappointed they haven't picked up more big bats in the infield or at the corner outfield positions, I do tend to like their logic. These players are cheaper, and don't have the same risk associated power hitters who can't get the ball to the seats.

I'm just worried that the Twins are overloaded on talent in CF. While I understand the "take the best player" approach, it is extemely difficult to trade good prospects for other good prospects. If Gomez sticks in CF for a couple of years, and they don't get rid of Span, there is a real jam in giving other CF opportunities to improve at higher levels. The Twins need to seriously start looking at prospect only trades. How do they swap a Span/Revere/Martin for a 3B/SS with similar potential. The same is true for pitchers. While most of us respect the Twins patient approach with pitching, at some point they need to move these guys up. That means trading away from their strength.

I assume the problem is that if you call up a team and say "we want to trade you one of our better prospects for one of your's" the other team is going to get nervous that they're being sold a lemon.

I wish Slowey had gotten the shutout, so this post wouldn't sound affected by the run he gave up.

Gardenhire shouldn't have left Slowey in the game for the 9th, and possibly even the 8th. In light of the low pitch count, and especially the heavy innings the bullpen got in this series, I understand the 8th inning, but the 9th was a mistake. This is a pitcher that has been injured, and isn't as "stretched out" as other major leaguers. He was clearly already getting tired, as his fastball was registering 89-90 in the 8th and 9th. While he still pitched fine tonight, this will catch up to him in the next start. While he only threw 101 pitches, remember that he threw an extra 8 warm-up pitches for each extra inning. Say thats an extra 15-25 pitches, and that is a lot.

I think they should have put Rincon in. He isn't real dependable right now, so this was the perfect outing.

Different issue: Does anyone who understands good baseball technique have any insight on Kubel's swing. It looks to me like he is opening up his front hip really early, especially against left-handers. Presumably, this is because he is trying to pull the ball. He should be staying back, and pulling the ball by getting the bat-head out in front, and hitting it the other way on the pitches he is late to. Opening up, as I understand it, means that any opposite field hits will have no power, and a lot of the powerful hits will be foul. I'm no expert though, and I'd love to hear someone else's analysis.

I didn't watch the game tonight, so I don't know how the at-bats looked, but I did see the box score. Combined 1 for 8 with 4 strikeouts. I have high hopes for both players (less so for Casilla), but I think they should be forced to watch each other's at-bats closely, and go through tape together. I'm real worried that our future 1-2 are a pair of strikeouts in a row every other time.

What do we think of Casilla? I think a lot of people were pretty high on him a year ago, but I'm somewhat concerned now. He hasn't shown much ability to hit MLB or AAA pitching, and he is still erratic in the field. Obviously we all want to have a high level, high ceiling middle infield prospect, but I'm just not sure he's it. I think he's just the best we've got.

Thoughts?

"The first month, I struck out 24 times; I can get that to 10 [per month]," he said. "That's what I want to do. When I get on base, I change the game."

Said Twins hitting coach Joe Vavra: "That's good he's talking about it. That shows me he's getting it. ... We've been on him about cutting down his swing and trying to keep his feet underneath him."

http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/18551434.html

I've been complaining for a while that Gomez looks terrible in the batter's box, and that it was ludicrous of the team to be supporting this aggressive approach (wild swings, terrible balance, nearly jumping mid-swing). It is now my responsibility to own up to the fact that I wasn't giving management enough credit. Clearly they have been working on strikeouts and mechanics (keeping his feet underneath him). I guess this serves as a good reminder that just because someone said it for an interview, it doesn't mean that's their true opinion. Gardy was obviously just trying to show support for Gomez publicly, while working quietly behind the scenes on the areas of improvement.

Maybe this means that he doesn't really like getting Punto in their whenever he can.

If we trade Santana for Melky, Ellsbury or Crisp, its pretty clear that to me that they will start in CF. It is less clear what happens if we trade for Gomez or, in some crazy change, don't trade Santana.

The Twins are much more cautious with their prospects than the Mets, and it seems to work. Gardenhire has also proven to be uncomfortable with very young players. Will/should the Twins start Gomez in AAA if he doesn't have a great spring? He has not yet shown that he can hit in the show or even dominate in the Minors.

2006 (age 20): AA 430 AB, .281/.349/.423 41 SB
2007 (21):     AAA 140 AB, .286/.363/.414 17 SB
                     MLB 125 AB, .232/.288/.394 12 SB

So he can clearly burn on the basepaths, and even seems to have a decent ability to draw walks. I realize that he will be another year older, with the experience that comes along, but if he had been in the Twins system the whole time, I would be sure that he would be at AAA until at least the all-star game.

What should the Twins do? I don't know if anyone will agree with me, but I propose the following, at least for discussion purposes. The Twins put Gomez at AAA (unless he has a spectacular spring) and start Pridie in CF. Pridie is not going to be a strength, but solid defense would be enough for me. He and Everett would be our only two weak spots in the lineup, which is an improvement over last year, and we have better pinch hitters. At the all-star break we swap the two. Gomez gets 80 games of practice/instruction, and they are probably less concerned about damaging Pridie by bringing him along too quickly. Any thougths?

Other options:
1.Try to have Monroe or Young play CF for half a year.
2. Sign Lofton or Patterson. I like the idea of Patterson, but I doubt he and the twins could agree on length. We only need him for 1 year.
3. Trade for Crisp - which prospect(s) would get it done?
4. Start Gomez from the beginning. Expectations from fans may demand this anyway, and Gomez might get upset if he gets "demoted".
5. Put Punto or Casilla there. Casilla has the speed to cover some ground, and Gardy loves playinig Punto.
6. Other?

Santana - Heart Attack
Morneau - Concussion
30 year Extension to Metrodome lease, Pawlenty vetoes new stadium plans,
We traded to get Castro back. Kubel's ACLs (both) torn again, Matthew Lecroy our opening day catcher, Bartlett/Gardy fight, Bartlett back to AAA for maturity

or better yet:
Silva - In Starting Rotation

April Fools

This is a topic that has been mentioned, but is rarely discussed in anything more than a reference. I think that we should trade Castillo. I like him a lot as a player, but I don't think he is the right fit for our team. He is another slap hitter (we have like 20). He is relatively expensive ($6M at second base). He also has bad knees, which means he wears out over the course of the season, and probably shouldn't be playing on turf.

I think that trading him, we could put punto at 2nd base (they gave us about the same hitting for the season, Punto was better June on). Then Punto is an ideal player in the twin system. A relatively in expensive, slap hitting, slick fielding middle infielder. We can trade Castillo for a pitcher or a 3rd baseman (or even a good prospect, and use freed money for one of the two).

The big question is who leads off? I suspect that Gardy won't want Bartlett to lead off out of fear for his sense of pressure. So maybe Punto leads off (No one seems to worried about his confidence changing his play). Bartlett could hit two.

Or if Bartlett leads off, and Kubel looks like the player we hope for, maybe its

Bartlett
Kubel
Mauer
Cuddyer/RH 3B
Morneau

Thoughts?

I finally created an account out of outrage at Batista batting 4.

First: I was happy that we signed Batista, a cheap home run hitter. But, he may never, I repeat, absolutely not, bat higher than 6, and probably 7. Logic as follows:

At the top of the order you have people who get on base. So your three and four hitters, should the most chances to hit with runners on base. Their job is to keep the inning alive. They often get rbi's if they do, but that is actually a secondary benefit. Maximizing hitters in an inning maximizes run producing opportunities. If the 3 hitter is OBP and 5 hitter is Power, there is a better chance that they both get to hit in the inning.

Everyone wants a HR when two guys are on base, but with 0 or 1 outs, who cares. A single might score the guy, but it definitely creates an extra chance down the order. The BA w/RISP is a more descriptive stat when you consider that it not only leads to his rbi's, but also to RISP chances for people below him. The 3 hitter may not bring them all home at once, but if they both get a chance to hit, more runs will be scored. With 2-outs, a HR does much more damage, since in baseball, the guy below you will probably end the inning 7 out of 10 times.

Which leads to protection:
Just to be clear, let me draw protection as follows: With a power hitter lurking, a hitter sees better pitches, because no one wants to pitch to a power hitter with runners on. This effect increases as outs increase, as described above.

If the three hitter is OBP and the 5 hitter is poweer

Batista actually does provide protection for the middle of the lineup. So I say, if we don't want white hitting 4 (which i'm actually comfortable with), then put
4 Hunter
5 White
6 Morneau
7 Batista

That way White gets some nice pitches, a chance to correct his swing on some meatballs. They'll pitch nice to him with people on, because they definitely won't want to give Morneau or Batista two-out opportunities.