Friday, January 23, 2009
Friday Notes
Good Friday morning to
everyone!! Today is likely to be another relatively quick posting as “busy”
remains the word that best describes my life.
I do want to be sure to thank
LaVelle E. Neal for mentioning this site
yesterday as it pertains to my blog posting regarding the Twins interest in
reliever Russ Springer. I also need
to thank Tim Dierkes
of MLB Trade Rumors who commented that the Springer story was first
reported here. Now, LaVelle comments that he would
not be in favor or at least would not be excited about the Twins signing
Springer. For an excellent article showing plenty of reasons that signing
Springer would make a lot of sense, head over
to Over the Baggy for some excellent analysis on relievers. LaVelle doesn’t think he profiles to be the 8th
inning guy. My comment would that I think the 8th inning is likely
to be covered by Jesse Crain and Jose Mijares,
along with Springer (if the team does sign him). Add in Matt Guerrier, Boof Bonser, Craig Breslow and maybe Phil Humber to the bullpen equation and
there are plenty of options to get hitters out. And who knows… maybe Rob Delaney, Zach Ward and Anthony Slama are all fairly close as well.
OTHER NOTES
·
This morning, I
will be going to a screening of Sugar. Peter Schilling’s The End of Baseball is being turned into a movie
which will be out in the next couple of months. Just reading about the book, I
am really excited to see the screening because it sounds like a wonderful movie
opportunity. I will be sure to let you know what I think! Schilling currently
lives in St. Louis Park. The
End of Baseball was his first novel.
·
I will be in
attendance at Twins Fest
Friday night, and I will also be there most of Saturday. As I have in the past,
I will be there in my red SethSpeaks.net hat, so feel free to stop by and say
hi. Again, if you’ve got your copy of the Minnesota Twins
Prospect Handbook – 2009, be sure to bring it to get signed by some of
the players in attendance.
·
On Saturday night
from 5:30-10:00, I will be at the 2nd Annual ‘Final’ Ballpark Tours
Hot Stove League Banquet and Charity Auction at the Harriet Island Pavillion building in St. Paul. (for details, see here) Our friend Howard Sinker will be the MC of the
evening. Former Twins 3B Corey Koskie will be there. LaVelle E. Neal will be there. Big league umpire Tim Tschida will speak. There will be
another former Twins player there. Oh, and the Twins Geek will
be there. He’ll be giving away Gameday magazines
from 2008. I will be at a table with him selling the Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook – 2009. From what I am told,
it is a wonderful event. And yes, you can still go to the event, even if you
haven’t bought a ticket yet. They will sell tickets at the door. (For a great
look at the history of the event, check
out Jay Weiner’s MinnPost.com article).
·
The other day, Aaron Gleeman posted his
choices for Twins prospects 31-35.
·
Josh
Johnson continues his Top 40
Twins prospects. He ranked
Joe Benson at #27. David
Bromberg was at #26.
·
It is good to see
that Joe Christensen is back to
blogging after taking some time off to be with his wife and their new baby Noe. Here is a posting on why he
will miss Dennys Reyes.
·
Howard Sinker
posted his optimistic
thoughts looking toward Spring Training 2009.
·
Nick Nelson has
been Charting the Competition, first looking at the White Sox, and then the
Royals.
·
Kevin Slowey added another post on his blog, regarding his Winter
Caravan trip. I’m sorry I
missed that Glen Perkins was blogging about his Winter
Caravan trip last week as well. He really did a great job!
·
At John
Sickels Minor League Blog, they are running a
community prospect ranking for all of baseball. They are currently
voting on the #127 ranked prospect in baseball.
Ben Revere was the highest rated
Twins player on this list, at #54. Aaron
Hicks ranked 73rd.
Alright, I must sleep. I hope
you all have a great weekend. I am not certain when I will be posting, but
expect a couple of updates on my weekend throughout the weekend. If you have
any thoughts, please e-mail me or leave a
comment here. Have a good weekend!