Archive for March, 2010

At the Twins split squad game vs. the Yankees today, Denard Span was lucky enough to have about 20 family members, including his mom, sitting near the 3rd base dugout. But in his first at bat of the game, Span took a defensive swing and lined one over the third base dugout…..and hit is mom. Of all the luck. Span stayed by her side while paramedics treated her, and eventually she was taken in for precautionary reasons. Fortunately she appears to be fine, but I’m sure Denard will have his allowance docked.

A 4ish hour argument erupted on Twitter today over who should serve as the Twins interim backup catcher while Jose Morales is out after having wrist surgery. Fortunately the biggest issue for the Twins heading into the year (besides Joe Nathan) is who is going to be backup catcher for a month, so that’s good. The two candidates are prospect Wilson Ramos, whom I most recently named the Twins #4 prospect, and defensive specialist Drew Butera, who came over in the Luis Castillo trade. Fortunately, the answer is short and sweet. Drew Butera. Why? Let’s take a look. 1. Service [...]

Sorry I haven’t been posting lately. Not a ton of news going around and the last week of spring training isn’t doing it for me. To make it up to you, an awesome video.

Praise the holy Joesus. Joe Mauer has signed an 8 year deal worth 184 million according to Joe Christensen at the Star Tribune. Also according to (the other) Joe, Mauer gets a full no trade clause. This keeps Mauer in Minnesota through his age 35 season. Since Mauer will be making 23 million a year, in order for this to be a “good” deal Mauer needs to have value somewhere in there. Mauer last year was worth 8 fWAR (that’s Fangraphs WAR), without even factoring in his defense. 8 WAR multiplied by the current cost per win (3.5 million) = [...]

An AL Central preview (Twins Target) Super blogger Aaron Gleeman has a new URL (AG) A look at who the Twins backup catcher will be (Twins Centric) An open letter to Joesus (Curve for a Strike) A look at WPA (BtB) Looking at Marlins lefty Andrew Miller (Marlin Maniac) Our Royals blog has a sweet new layout. That jerk. (KoK) A look at Padres lefty Cory Luebke (Chicken Friars)

Who: Wilson Ramos Position: Catcher How Acquired: Minor league Free Agent Highest Level Reached in 2009: AA What’s not to like about Ramos? He has had one professional season under a .340 OBP, and his worst season was a 120 wRC+. Ramos is in every top 100 prospect, and for good reason. Ramos has raw power that scouts rave about, but it hasn’t translated into game power yet as the catcher’s career high in ISO is just .149. Ramos has had uncharacteristically high BABIP’s (for catchers anyways, given their generally slow speed). He has generally hovered around the .340 mark. [...]

Well, once again it’s not Joe Mauer, but it’s nice to see that Denard Span will be a Twin for awhile, according to Star-Trib writer Joe Christensen. The deal will be for five years, which covers his controlled seasons, as well as an option for a 6th year. The salary breakdown, courtesy of Twins Now: 10: 750k 11: 1M 12: 3M 13: 4.75M 14: 6.5M And then 2015 features a 9 million dollar option with a 500k buyout. Although he struggled with his plate discipline in the minors, Span has found it in the majors, posting .387 and .392 OBPs [...]

Repeat after me: The worst part about losing Joe Nathan for the season isn’t losing Joe Nathan for the season. Confused yet? Nathan would have been worth ~2 wins this year. His past three years were 2.2, 2.1 and 1.9 so we can say that with a pretty high degree of certainty. His likely replacements, Jon Rauch or Matt Guerrier, are worth roughly 1 and .5 wins apiece. Rauch has had better strikeout numbers (except for last year) so it would probably be best to put him in the middle innings to give him more high leverage situations, then give [...]

Who: Kyle Gibson Position: RHP How Acquired: 2009 Draft, 1st round (22nd overall) Highest Level Reached in 2009: N/A Kyle Gibson was ranked as high as a top 5 selection in last year’s draft by Baseball America before a stress reaction in his forearm sidelined him and caused him to plummet to the 22nd pick. Credit the Twins for doing the medical diligence on Gibson and taking a risk with the 22nd pick, which is right where you should be taking risks in a draft. Gibson, when healthy profiles as probably a #2 starter. He uses mostly a two seamer [...]

The Twins defeated the Orioles 5-0 today thanks to the work of Kevin Slowey and newly rich Nick Blackburn. Slowey threw three scoreless innings, which were followed by three scoreless by Blackburn. Each pitcher struck out two and walked one. At the plate the Twins were led by Michael Cuddyer, who went 2 for 3 with 2 RBI. Ben Revere, who you will eventually see in my prospect rankings, went 3-5 with a triple. Brian Matusz got the loss for Baltimore, tossing 2.2 innings, giving up 2 runs on 3 hits. Although he did strikeout 6 hitters. The Twins are [...]