Thursday, March 22, 2007
Another Quick Day
Good Morning, everyone! Well, I did get some sleep last night, but not enough as I ended up violently ill over night and yesterday. Needless to say, it will likely not be a real large posting today either, but I do want to be sure to provide some new content for you. So everything today will be in bullet form. Let's get started.
Aaron Gleeman finished up his Top 50 Prospects in Baseball series yesterday by posting his Top 10 Prospects. It includes one Twins player.
Apparently there is a possibility that we could see some of Jeff Cirillo at shortstop this season. The torn labrum of Alejandro Machado leaves the Twins without (what they consider) a viable backup SS option. Jeff Cirillo is not a shortstop. He's a corner infielder who was able to play some 2B in the past. He even played 3 games at SS last year for the Brewers. We have read so much about this backup SS situation this spring, and it is really ridiculous. Remember that Jason Bartlett came up last year and played 99 straight games. Some say he tired at the season's end. That's debatable. However, how often will Jason Bartlett be out of the Twins lineup? I mean, will this needed backup SS play once every two weeks? Maybe twice every three weeks? I'm willing to let Luis Rodriguez play SS twice a month! And, why are they so hesitant to move Nick Punto over to SS for twice a month? It would be another opportunity to get Cirillo's bat in the lineup, and he can play a position he is comfortable with. The craziest thing is that there are people thinking that the Twins should trade for a backup middle infielder. Absolutely crazy! It all really is much ado about nothing to me!
I was having lunch yesterday with a friend, and he told me about the Vikings blog at the Star-Tribune. So, real quickly, I thought I would check it out. Judd Zulgad's blog is good. But, did people know that it is late March? The Twins season is about to start. There are several topics of discussion. Yet, each of Zulgad's blog entries are getting over 180 comments. The Twins writers' blogs get 50 or so most days (although there was nearly 100 on one of LaVelle's yesterday). One of the Vikings blogs entries was on Jermaine Wiggins visiting the Jaguars. Another was on the Matt Schaub trade from Atlanta to Houston. One pondered if that trade meant that the Vikings could acquire David Carr. This is totally a purple state. This is one of the things that has frustrated me for a long time. When was the last time that the Vikings were good? Eight years ago? The Twins win a lot, and they just don't have the same following and it really makes no sense to me!
Ubelman wrote a great article on the small sample size of spring training stats, over at Stick & Ball Guy.
I think Matt Garza thinks that he should be in the Twins starting rotation... I think I agree!
Justin Morneau says that he and the Twins will not be reaching an agreement on a multi-year contract this spring. He is not able to become a free agent until after the 2010 season, so this is not a huge deal. Hopefully, he can have another solid year and a four-year deal can be reached next year.
To no one's surprise, lefty Randy Choate was sent over to minor league camp. He was horrible during training camp. As Josh Taylor writes, I can't see him sticking with the Twins primarily because I can't imagine the Twins wanting to keep him around. With lefties Carmen Cali (who should also be dropped), Jason Miller and Ricky Barrett already likely to pitch in Rochester, and Mike Venafro possibly also being sent to AAA, why keep Choate?
By the way, does anyone out there have their personal fantasy baseball cheat sheet available? If so, please send it to me... if you want! I have three fantasy drafts next week and unlike last year when I did projections for all of the big league hitters, I have nothing yet! That is a scary proposition!
Joe Vavra discusses things from his first year as the Twins batting coach.
Who is the better young catcher... Joe Mauer or Brian McCann of the Atlanta Braves? Twins Fans, it may not be as obvious an answer as we want to believe.
A Twins player shows up in Pro Trade's Top Sleeper Top 3 list... Which one?
Tigers' manager Jim Leyland called up Gardy and asked him to be one of his assistant coaches during the All-Star game this summer. Of course Gardy said yes. It was a great gesture by Leyland.
Will Young has a Twins Retrospective on Les Straker.
And finally, my American Idol Thoughts. Ryan named off three people at a time. The first group obviously was safe. The second group obviously was safe. The third group consisted of Sanjaya Malakar, Gina Glocksen and Haley Scarnato. Certainly this was the Bottom Three, right? I mean, those were the bottom three on my rankings for the week. But no, those three were also safe. That meant that the bottom two were Chris Richardson, who I ranked 5th this week, and Stephanee Edwards, 7th in my ranking. This is another example of why the voting in this thing is all wrong. Instead of voting for your favorite, people should vote for who should be eliminated. That would make things a little more right and fair. Anyway, in the end, it was Stephanee Edwards who was sent home. I don't think Chris really is a candidate to leave even next week, but then again, I would not have thought that Stephanee Edwards would have been eliminated this week. Sanjaya continues to stick around for no reason. VoteForTheWorst.com must really be working again this year! And finally, seriously, does anyone know anything about that creepy crying girl?
OK, I must call it a day! Happy Thursday!
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