Friday, August
27, 2010
Friday Links and Thinks
We’re back with another week of “Friday Links and Thinks.” I hope
everyone has a great weekend and it’d be great to see several of you in St.
Cloud on Saturday!
QUESTION OF
THE WEEK
Wednesday is September 1st, the first day that teams can
expand their major league rosters beyond 25. Of course, that doesn’t mean that
teams will only bring up players on September 1st. My guess is that
the Twins will call up a couple on the 1st, and then 2-3 more after
the Rochester season ends on Labor Day. The Rochester Red Wings and New Britain
Rockcats were both eliminated from playoff contention
sometime around Memorial Day, so that’s one less obstacle. So, here are some
candidates for consideration:
THE GIVENS
·
Jose
Morales – he’s a given if only to help make Gardy more
willing to sit Mauer a little bit in the season’s
final month. He can also pinch hit.
·
Anthony
Slama – He came up for two days and was sent
back down. I’d expect he’ll be called up sooner rather than later.
·
Trevor
Plouffe – He’s been up three other times this
year, might as well get him back up here.
·
Pat
Neshek – I think that Neshek
is a given or at least he should be.
THE MAYBES
·
Alex
Burnett – he spent most of the season with the team until his control caught up
to him. He has really struggled since going to AAA. But he definitely fits into
the Twins future plans.
·
Rob
Delaney – he had a bad first half and has really been solid in the second half.
How many arms will they want to bring up?
·
Brendan
Harris – They do owe him money for next year, almost $2 million, but he was
already removed from the 40 man roster and would need to be added. Does he have
any future with the team?
·
Jacque
Jones – not on the 40 man roster, not an improvement defensively over even the
current Twins outfielders (really!), bats left-handed, provides the Twins
nothing but a nice story, which is the only reason he’s a maybe.
·
Brock
Peterson – he should be considered if only as a right-handed bat off the bench
with some power potential. Another great story, he was the Twins 49th
round pick in 2002. If Jones is considered, Peterson has to be ahead of him on
the list of 1.) more deserving, and 2.) more likely to help the Twins.
THE DOUBTFULS
(but don’t be completely shocked)
·
Jose
Lugo/Tony Davis – These guys are left-handed and breathing. Lugo has been over-worked
with the Red Wings and his numbers show, but from a scouting perspective, he’s
got the stuff to succeed. 94 mph fastball with a slider in the upper 80s. Lacks
control. Davis was a 2009 draft pick who has advanced quickly to AA. He’s
left-handed and gets a lot of strikeouts, just too many walks.
·
Toby
Gardenhire – Just throwing him out there to get a
reaction… don’t worry!
·
Anthony
Swarzak – he is on the 40 man roster and was good
for about four starts last June with the Twins, but he’s been bad in 2010.
What do you think? Who would you send? I would bring up Morales, Slama, Plouffe, Neshek, Delaney and Peterson. My guess is that Delaney and
Peterson will not be included, but could help.
WEEKEND AHEAD
Delmon Young provided the Twins with the type of jolt they
needed early in Thursday night’s game. Young knocked a three-run home run off
of Cliff Lee in the second inning. In the third, Michael Cuddyer drove in two more runs with a double. But on
this day, the story was Francisco Liriano.
Pitching on extra rest, Liriano did a great job early
in the game. He got ground balls and he limited base runners. It was exactly
what the team needed after losing three games against someone they are fighting
for position with. With the win, the Twins took a ½ game lead over the Rangers
and remained 3 ½ ahead of the White Sox. The White Sox will face the New York
Yankees this weekend while the Twins travel out west to take on the Mariners in
Seattle.
Here are the pitching matchups:
·
Friday
night – Scott Baker (11-9, 4.63, 1.33, .280) vs
Jason Vargas (9-6, 3.43, 1.20, .241)
·
Saturday
night – Nick Blackburn (7-8, 6.49, 1.65, .338) vs
Doug Fister (4-9, 3.87, 1.25, .271)
·
Sunday
night – Carl Pavano (15-9, 3.56, 1.16, .260)
vs. Luke French (2-4, 4.57, 1.41, .274)
TWINS MINOR
LEAGUE NOTEBOOK
Here is a look at the Thursday night’s minor league scores and
highlights:
·
Rochester
1, Pawtucket 3 – David Bromberg is quietly putting together another very
solid season. In this game, he gave up three runs on eight hits in 6.1 innings.
He walked one and struck out five. Jose Lugo got the final two
outs of the seventh inning. Anthony Slama got
back to the Red Wings quick and threw a scoreless inning. Kyle Waldrop threw
a scoreless inning, allowing one hit. The Red Wings had just five hits. Brandon
Roberts was 2-4. Danny Lehmann hit his second double.
·
New
Britain 6, Binghampton 8 – Chris Parmelee
led
the offense in this game by going 3-4 with a walk and his first triple. Steve
Singleton went 2-3 with two walks. Steve Hirschfeld
gave up four runs on four hits and four walks in four innings. Guess how
many he struck out. That’s right, four. Tony Davis gave up four runs
(just one earned) on three hits and two walks in three innings. He did strike
out four. Loek Van Mil threw two shutout
innings.
·
Game
1 – Ft. Myers 4, Palm Beach 1 – Alex Wimmers made his second
start and threw three shutout innings. He gave up one hit, walked two and
struck out four. Dan Osterbrock came in out of
the bullpen and
gave up one run on two hits and a walk in two innings. Matt Williams and
Dakota Watts each threw a scoreless inning. Deibinson
Romero had a great game. He went 3-3 with a walk, his 10th and
11th doubles and his fifth triple. Brian Dozier went 2-3.
·
Game
2 – Ft. Myers 7, Palm Beach 3 – Kane Holbrooks has been
terrific all season. In this game, he gave up one run on four hits in six
innings. He walked three and struck out five. Shooter Hunt came in and
walked the two batters he faced. Steve Blevins came in and got the final
three outs. Yangervis Solarte
went 3-4 with his seventh double and first triple.
Chris Herrmann hit his second home run.
·
Beloit
4, Kane County 3 – The Snappers are still alive in the playoff race
in the Midwest League. Aaron Hicks kept them in the running on this
night. Hicks went 2-3 with a walk, his 27th double and 19th
stolen base in the game, but his sixth home run came in the 8th
inning and gave the Snappers the lead. Tom Stuifbergen
started and gave up three earned runs on six hits and three walks in 5.2
innings. He struck out six. Andrei Lobanov came
in and gave up three hit in 2.1 shutout innings. He struck out two. Miguel
Munoz came in for the save opportunity and shut the door, striking out two
in the ninth.
·
Earlier on Thursday, Oswaldo
Arcia was named the Player of the Year in the
Appalachian League.
·
Elizabethton
2, Pulaski 3 – Andy Leer led the offense by going 3-4 with his fifth home
run. Oswaldo Arcia went
2-4 with his sixth triple. Brian Burke went 2-4. It wasn’t enough on this
day. Pat Dean started and gave up three runs on four hits in five
innings. He walked one and struck out eight. Adam Achter
came in and threw two shutout innings. Dallas Gallant struck out
four in two scoreless innings.
TWINS BLOGS
Here is a look around the Twins blogosphere. A good site to find 66 Twins
blogs is Newsbobber’s Minnesota Baseball Blog site., but you
can also look on the left side of this page for many. I’ve only included blogs
that have been updated in the last few days (let me know if I’m missing any
sites that I should add):
·
Aaron
Gleeman posted his Link-O-Rama
for the week.
·
Check out Twinkie
Town’s Roger Dehring’s Minor League Recap.
·
Jeff
A updates us on the
week for former Twins at The WGOM.
·
Twinkie Talk gets in to the
highly debated (at least of late) role
that advanced stats play in awards discussion.
·
Check out Part 1 of Coffeyville Whirlwind’s
look at The
Franchise 1991.
·
Ed
Thoma, the Baseball Outsider,
writes Stephen
Strasburg the inevitable. Sad stuff!
·
North Dakota Twins Fan only posted one
new blog this week. What the heck!!? You’d think he was busy with other stuff
or something… Oh yeah, he got married last weekend and moved… OK, I’ll lay off! But next week, I’m expecting a couple of new postings!!
Regarding the Randy Flores signing, Off
the Mark writes “At Least He’s Not Glen Perkins.”
·
For the Love of the Game offers a stern
warning, Don’t
Mess with Texas!
·
Knuckleballs discusses the Minnesota
State Fair and lets us know when Twins alumni will
be present at the team’s booth.
·
That’s Twins Baseball is about to
release a new book, Gardyball.
·
On
the road with… went to see the Rockcats
play in Binghampton and has a good
summary of his time, pictures and video. Great stuff!
·
Did I mention… Congratulations to Cody, the North Dakota Twins Fan (who
no longer lives in North Dakota) on his wedding! Best wishes!
·
Last weekend, Kevin from Twin Nation posted a Q&A
with Kyle Gibson.
·
You can still sign up for a Twins Train trip to Detroit in
September! Or a Twins Train
trip to Lambeau Field in Green Bay to watch a Sunday
night game.
·
The Glorious Nation of Hrbekistan played another 9 innings this
week with some great Twins notes.
·
Check out Judd Spicer’s City Pages Blog
called Waiting
for Morneau: Drama in need of an end.
·
Happy
40th Birthday to the great Jim Thome!!
TWINSCENTRIC
STUFF
Here are the links to the StarTribune.com TwinsCentric blog postings for this week:
·
Monday – John Bonnes – Surprise
Hero
·
Tuesday – John Bonnes – Looking
for a Bump?
·
Wednesday – Nick
Nelson – No
Place Like Home
·
Thursday – John Bonnes – Gratis
Flores
·
Friday – Parker
Hageman – ?
·
By the way, the next TwinsCentric (and Sooze)
Viewing Party will head out of the Twin Cities Metro and up the road to
St. Cloud. The lovely and talented Sooze is running the show on this one. On
August 28th from 2:30-6:30 at Howie’s in downtown
St. Cloud, there will be drink and appetizer specials as well as some give-aways. Those in the Metro, it’s not too far away, and those
in the outstate, come on down! These events have been
a lot of fun and a great opportunity to meet some of your favorite bloggers.
·
Following the TwinsCentric
Viewing Party, I am going to stay in St. Cloud and head over the Joe Faber
Field. The St. Cloud River Bats of the Northwoods
League (a college wood bat league) are hosting the Minnesota Twins alumni game
at 7:05. Several former Twins players, including Corey Koskie,
Jim Eisenrich, Juan Berenguer,
Al Newman and several others will be playing in a game. There will be a
lot going on throughout the night. Following the game, the player’s jerseys
will be signed and auctioned off. Proceeds from the evening will be going to
the Miracle League of Central Minnesota. Check out the River Bats website for much more
information.
·
And then you’re also probably reading the other Twins
blogs at StarTribune.com: LaVelle
E. Neal’s Twins
Insider, Joe Christensen’s Around
the Majors, and Howard Sinker’s A
Fan’s View.
·
John
Bonnes is on The Power Trip Morning Show on KFAN Tuesdays and Friday’s
during the 7:00 hour. (Podcasts
available here.) I am on KFAN with Paul Allen each
Thursday morning at about 9:20. If you would like to listen, the podcast
is available here.
PODCASTS AND
MORE
·
On Monday night’s SethSpeaks.net
Weekly Minnesota Twins Podcast, I discussed the Twins and took a few
questions from callers.
·
On Tuesday night, Travis Aune
and I co-hosted Twins
Minor League Weekly. We talked to Wes Sharp from the St. Cloud River Bats, and then talked
about the Twins minor leagues throughout the show. It was a really fun podcast.
Any thoughts on the Twins or the Twins blogosphere? Feel free to leave
your questions and comments here.