One year ago today, the Twins landed Carl Pavano.
- The Twins signed their 2010 first-round draft pick Alex Wimmers late yesterday afternoon. He'll receive the recommended slot signing bonus of $1.33 million, and will report to Fort Myers.
- Wimmers, who turns 22 in November, doesn't have far to go in terms of the difference between "who he is" and "who he will become". He'll likely spend all of 2011 in the system before making a bid to surface sometime during the 2012 season. Even if he struggles a bit, I doubt we'd see him any later than 2013.
- Alexi Casilla continues to ride his hot streak, and after a 2-for-5 night in which he drove in four runs is now hitting .272/.346/.402. In his 13 games since returning he's reached base in 11 of them, going 15-for-53 (.283) with two doubles, two triples, a home run, ten RBI, 11 runs, four walks, four strikeouts and a pair of stolen bases.
- If Casilla produced at that pace over 130 games instead of 13, he'd finish with a .283/.333/.453 triple slash, with 20 doubles, 20 triples, ten home runs, 100 RBI, 110 runs, 40 walks, 40 strikeouts and 20 stolen bases. Or, basically, he'd be a rich man's version of Alexei Ramirez.
- Jim Thome was robbed of a home run last night, in case you missed it. Not by a spectacular catch by a Cleveland outfielder, but by the umpiring crew. Down 6-4 in the 9th, Thome's bomb cleared the wall, bounced off a rail and back onto the field. Reviews show this conclusively. Yet even after a review, the umpring crew apparently couldn't see the forrest for the trees and said the ball actually bounced off the wall.
- I'm not sure what's happening with umpiring this year. We had a discussion Thursday night and through yesterday about the merits of umpires, the human element and technology, and here's a situation where even when the technology couldn't help the umpires make the right call. Everybody at home saw it, from Montana to Podunk, Ohio, and yet four men being shown slow-motion replay couldn't get it right.
- Not that it mattered, mind you. Casilla drove them both in anyway to knot the game at six. Matt Guerrier helped the Twins lose a game they probably had no business winning.
- Oh, Matty G. An 8.00 ERA in July, and so far a 9.00 ERA in August. Last night's game was already is fourth of the month. He'd had a rough stretch at the end of June and early last month, but then had settled down and pitched better.
- Since July 28th, he's made six appearances in which he's thrown six innings, and he's surrendered just four hits. But two of them were home runs, and one of those came in a one-hit, two-walk performance in Tampa. It's been just three bad games, but when they come in bunches like this it makes everyone nervous.
That's all for now, stick around for Roger's weekly Minor League Report!