Monday, March 19, 2007
Monday Morning Notes
Good Monday morning, everyone! Let me first announce the Winner of an A&E box set of the 1987 World Series and our Contest #1. I asked readers of the site to e-mail me a list of six Twins prospects that they would like to see in the Prospect Watch on the left of this site this season. I am happy to announce that there were 79 people that chose to participate and enter this contest. Thank you to all of you. But... there could be just one winner, so shortly after 8:00 on Friday night, I put all 79 names into a big bowl (the baseball cap was just too small) and pulled out the name of this contest's winner. Congratulations to David McGraw, a Twins fan in Maryland. I will be sending him the DVDs shortly. David wanted to see Kevin Slowey, Jay Rainville, Tommy Watkins, Oswaldo Sosa, Yohan Pino and Paul Kelly in the Prospect Watch.
But will he? Well, I will be updating the pictures and stat lines on the left by the start of the minor league season, but here are the results of the survey/contest. The first six names on the list will be on the left at the start of the season.
Kevin Slowey - 59
Chris Parmalee - 51
Alexi Casilla - 47
Denard Span - 39
Glen Perkins - 36
David Winfree - 35
The rest of this list is just for your information and to give the results of the survey:
25 - Matt Moses
21 - Anthony Swarzak
20 - Alexander Smit
17 - Oswaldo Sosa, Matt Garza
15 - Yohan Pino
13 - Joe Benson, Eduardo Morlan
12 - Jay Rainville
8 - Erik Lis
7 - Trevor Plouffe
6 - Eli Tintor, Jeff Manship, Trent Oeltjen
5 - Brandon Roberts
4 - Loek Van Mil, Kyle Waldrop, Brian Duensing
3 - Matt Tolbert, Garrett Jones
2 - Danny Valencia, Paul Kelly, Danny Santiesteban, Whit Robbins, Tommy Watkins
1 - Jay Sawatski, Juan Portes, Adam Hawes, Deibenson Romero, Brian Dinkelman, Errol Simonitsch, Jeremy Cummings, Garrett Olson
So again... Congratulations to David McGraw for winning Contest #1. Thank you to all of you that participated. And finally... I have one more set of 1987 Minnesota Twins DVDs to give away. Be sure to check back later in the week when I announce Contest #2.
With that, I am just go to post some notes and thoughts on the Twins and more today, so please feel free to leave some Comments below, or of course, you can also e-mail me.
The great Jayson Stark wrote an article on Johan Santana. Can Santana really do even more, get even better?
Pat Neshek has written three postings in the last couple of days that are great. First, he opened up two 2007 boxes of baseball cards and reported on what he got. Not sure how many baseball card fans and collectors read this site, but if you enjoy it, be sure to check those out. But then on Sunday, Neshek had a couple of pretty remarkable stories and a couple of very exciting autograph successes. Be sure to stop by, and again, be sure to sign up and participate in his message board.
More Prospect Profiles at the Twin Cities Dugout. Check out profiles of #11 Denard Span and #10 JD Durbin.
LaVelle E Neal has some very interesting thoughts on the Twins rotation. For 'prospect' fans like myself, it doesn't look good. But, the logic behind it makes a lot of sense. Well, it makes sense, but of course, I don't think it makes sense.
In the same article, we find out that Kevin Slowey was cut after the game. This is not surprising at all. However, it is important to know that his demotion had nothing to do with his inning pitched yesterday. If you look at the box score, Slowey gave up one run on four hits and a walk in one inning. But, if you watched the game, you likely have a completely different perspective. Slowey struck out the first two hitters, both on fastballs. The next batter hit a slow roller to shortstop where Alexi Casilla fielded the ball, but double clutched and the runner beat it out for an infield single. The one mistake was a walk to the next hitter. But then he gave up three straight hits, and none of them were hit hard. Each blooped in front of an outfielder. Denard Span was sent down earlier in the day. It wasn't because of poor play, but instead it was just his time and will allow those that are on the bubble of making the team can get more time. It is much the same with Slowey. He has made a great impression on the Twins brass and coaching staff, and he will play for the Twins within short time.
It was a rough day for Slowey though, I'm sure. The main reason? Being sent across the parking lot to minor league camp? Maybe. Winthrop losing to Oregon in their attempt to get to the Sweet Sixteen. I'm sure both Pat Neshek and The Baseball Savant are thrilled that Butler did reach the Sweet Sixteen.
Kelly Thesier wrote a very nice article on Trevor Plouffe and his future. Also in the article are comments on David Winfree, Denard Span and the top four Twins picks in the 2006 draft.
Joe Christensen had a great article on Mike Redmond in the Strib yesterday and added a couple more comments that were not included in the article at his Around the Majors blog.
Entering Saturday's game, Justin Morneau was hitting just .241 (7-29) with no home runs. If you check. Saturday, he went 3-3 with a home run. Sunday, he went 2-3 with a home run (off a lefty). He is now hitting .343/.378/.514 (12-35). Yeah, I'm not worried. It's not worth worrying about anyone's batting average when a 3-4 can almost raise your average .100 points!
Taking that theory to the extreme, Garrett Jones went 4-5 with a home run and four RBI on Friday. Of course, that big day only raised his average to .179. Denard Span was also 4-5 that same game.
OK, not much today. I had a pretty full weekend. I should be back each day this week, and hope to have several postings that people will enjoy. As always, I welcome your comments or ideas or suggestions. Compliments are welcome too! Ha! Anyway, have a great week!
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