Tsuyoshi Nishioka looks like he is going to attack us with that bat. But that is not why he was cut today. Photo by Kim Klement-US PRESSWIRE

Topping the news on this brand new week is the latest round of roster cuts. The list of cuts is dominated by one big name: Tsuyoshi Nishioka. As TWIT noted last Monday, Nishioka’s fielding was not quite up to snuff this spring. His hitting did not help, either, as he batted a subpar .240 in 25 Spring at bats. This is obviously a big setback for a player who generated so much excitement when he came to the Major Leagues last year, but it is the right move. Nishioka is a talented, athletic player who just needs to build confidence and work on his mechanics for awhile. I think a year at AAA is the right prescription for him, and I look forward to seeing what he learns by next spring.

Carlos Gutierrez, Rene Tosoni, Jason Bulger, Luis Perdomo, Daryl Thompson, Dan Rohlfing, Esmerling Vasquez, P.J. Walters, Chris Herrmann, Aaron Bates, and Wilkin Ramirez also got cut. Minnesota now has a leaner (meaner?) locker room, occupied by only 45 players. The non-roster invitee list, which Puckett’s Pond has been following very closely, is now down to 15 names.

The remaining Twins start their week with a game against the Red Sox today. Before the week is onver, they’ll also play the Orioles, Yankees, Rays, and Cardinals, and they’ll enjoy their only off-day of the Spring on Tuesday. But the highlight of the week will be Wednesday, when the Twins face off against the division-rival Tigers for the first and only time in 2012 Grapefruit League play.

Weekly Winners:

Twins Pitching. At first glance, it seems silly to congratulate the Twins’ pitchers when they allowed two blowout losses: an 8-2 stomping against Toronto and a 17-6 debacle against Pittsburgh. Dig a little deeper, though, and both of those were flukes. The Toronto game was marred by one bad inning from Francisco Liriano, who more than redeemed himself on Sunday. And the Pirates game just got off to a bad start, thanks to a 10 run first inning. Ignore those two games, and the Twins allowed just 11 runs in the other six games this week, culminating in yesterday’s one-hit gem. Also of note: Liam Hendriks silenced the Red Sox for three innings on Friday. The Australian prospect has not allowed a run in seven innings this spring.

Mike Hollimon. Hollimon has become a Puckett’s Pond favorite, and if he keeps up his hitting tear, he ought to become a Twins favorite as well. The infielder went 4-4 plus a walk on Saturday, and he ends the week with a stellar .533 batting average.

Weekly Weaklings:

Terry Doyle. The Twins’ Rule 5 pick just did not have it together in his start against the Pirates. It resulted in the aforementioned 10 run inning. The Twins obviously saw some potential in Doyle when they selected him, but his Grapefruit League performance makes it clear that he is not ready to stay on the Major League roster for a full season. Presumably, the reason the Twins have not cut him is that they are thinking about working out a trade with Chicago to keep him.

Jason Marquis. Marquis has been battered by opposing hitters so far, yielding 14 hits and seven walks in 8.2 innings. If we were to decide roster spots based on stats alone, we would have to axe Marquis and pencil in Hendriks at this point. But wait! If you look at Marquis’ history, it is perfectly normal for him to get knocked around in the spring. He has posted a spring ERA above 9.00 in two of his last three seasons, including 2009, when he had a  10.08 Spring ERA then went on to win 15 games with a 4.04 ERA at Coors Field in the regular season. Conversely, his ERA in the spring of 2006 was a dazzling 1.96; that year his regular season ERA ballooned to 6.02 for the Cardinals! In other words, when Marquis gives up a lot of hits and runs in Spring Training, it might actually be a good thing.

But now both are with the Minnesota organization: Krivsky as an assistant to Terry Ryan and Thompson as a non-roster pitcher with an invitation to Spring Training. Thompson, a six foot tall, 205 pound right-hander out of La Plata, MD, will wear jersey number 68 in camp.

Thompson has shown some promise in his minor league career, but injuries have delayed his rise to the MLB level. The Expos selected him in the eighth round of the 2003 draft. After some up and down seasons in the Expo/National system, Thompson was putting together a solid 2005 – and then he tore his labrum. That injury cost him the rest of 2005 and a chunk of 2006. After the trade to the Reds, Thompson rose quickly. He pitched at five different levels in 2008 (Rookie League, A Ball, AA, AAA, and MLB). In the minors, he had a 2.70 combined ERA, an 8-4 record, and 99 strikeouts in 126 innings. In the Majors, he had a 6.91 ERA in three starts. The 22 year old looked to have a bright future ahead of him. Unfortunately, more shoulder problems limited him to 22 minor league starts in 2009 and 2010. 2011 was a sort of bounceback season; Thompson made 24 starts between AA and AAA, and he struck out a respectable 8.1 batters per nine innings, but his 4-8 record and 4.26 ERA were less than impressive. (more…)

Peanuts from Heaven had some fun last week and handed out their Most Valuable Peanut award to Michael Cuddyer.  To celebrate, they followed Michael Cuddyers’ baseball card around for a few days and photographed him in some pretty interesting places, like a bowl of green curry.

To much less fanfare than Patrick Reusse, Twins Trivia awarded their own Turkey of the Year award.  Their award winner was Joe Mauer, which seems like an obvious choice, but Twins Trivia looks past the surface and presents a pretty convincing case for Joe Mauer.

A week later there has been a more thorough analysis of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement between Major League Baseball and the Players Association.  Drew Fairservice from Getting Blanked examines how the CBA affects Super 2 players going forward.  Twinkie Town’s Jon Marthaler tackles the CBA from a fictional perspective to find 15 Little-Known Provisions, including the Super 2 status, “All players who are eligible for “Super 2″ arbitration status will have the option of wearing a cape in the field.”  FanGraphs does a great job analyzing the impact that the new CBA will have on player salaries, and argues that increased playoff revenues will drive up player salaries.  Hard to argue with author Matt Swartz’s point of view, but just how big that impact will be is yet to be seen.   (more…)