Blackburn pulled after another brief outing, an all too familiar scene in 2011. Credit: Rick Osentoski-US PRESSWIRE

Recent reports out of Ft. Myers are saying that Nick Blackburn is uninhibited after surgery to repair ligaments in his throwing forearm in 2011.  The tall right hander is said to be gaining strength and is consistently working down in the zone as he ramps up for the start of Spring Training games, less than a week away.  Strength and mechanics will be key for Blackburn in 2012 if he hopes to recapture the performance that has eluded him the past two seasons in Minnesota.  In 2008 and 2009 Blackburn was successful posting an ERAs just over 4 (4.05, 4.03 respectively) and pitching above the Major League average posting an ERA+ above 100 both years.  Banking on that success, and the number of innings Blackburn was pitching, the Twins signed him to a 4 year, $14 million dollar contract, that includes a team option for 2014 of $8,000,000.  Unfortunately for the Twins, Blackburn has been unable to replicate his early success due in part to a string of minor injuries that Blackburn attempted to pitch through.  The results were as expected and his ERA ballooned to 5.42 in a 2010 season that saw Blackburn optioned to AAA-Rochester to work through some issues.  Blackburn came back in 2011 and carried a 3.16 ERA through the middle of June.  But then the wheels started to fall off, and he posted a 6.59 ERA through August 21 when he was shut down after throwing just 1.1 innings in a start against the Yankees with discomfort in his forearm.  While ERA is only part of the story when evaluating a pitcher, when an ERA doubles, it is more than just bad luck.  Overcompensating for an injury, Blackburn was likely over throwing his pitches, flattening them out, leaving them up in the zone, and serving them up like meatballs to opposing hitters.  (more…)

We’ll start the week off with the great Rob Neyer, arguing that Chris Volstad, who the Cubs acquired in the Carlos Zambrano trade, might be even better than Gio Gonzalez.  Neyer’s key argument?  The Sabermetrically friendly xFIP.

There is interesting analysis happening over at FanGraphs thanks to Josh Weinstock.  In a recent article he digs into the idea that baseball is essentially made up of small, relatively benign moments, and that the run expectancy (RE) of most pitches thrown is fairly low, with the exception of pitches hit for home runs.  From there, Weinstock unravels the disconnect between Command and the strike zone, when most home runs are hit off of pitches that are in the strike zone.  I may have just confused you, so click through, Weinstock is less confusing than me, I promise.

Tight race this week for the Video of the Week.  This collection of GIFs probably could have been the Video of the Week, but it wasn’t, so enjoy it now, and wait for something even more awesome to come.

Over at Getting Blanked, Matt Klaassen looks at the state of the Rockies franchise, and wonders what, if anything, they’re really doing this winter.  Are they rebuilding, reloading, or are they just making a bunch of moves independent of one another?  Clearly, Klaassen is Lost in the Rockies.

When I think of team building, I think of boring corporate training exercises where rich executives pretend to care about the people doing the grunt work in their office.  Parker Hageman, on the other hand, applies team building to a real team, the Minnesota Twins, and examines the way their new offseason acquisitions will perform at Target Field.  (more…)

In a column for the Star Tribune on Monday, Patrick Reusse noted that the Twins will shed $37 million in payroll this offseason ($40 million if you count the $3 million that Jim Thome is making). Reusse argues that the Twins must use this money to acquire two starting pitchers to head their currently-awful rotation. In reality, not all of the money that the Twins save will be available; they may re-sign Michael Cuddyer or Joe Nathan, the front office may require a payroll reduction, or the team may choose to spend some money to shore up a terrible middle infield. But as Reusse correctly points out, there may be  as much as $30 million available for starting rotation help.

In any other year, this would be enough to bring in a true ace pitcher. But the free agent market for 2012 looks pretty thin. A list of potential 2012 free agents can be found here. As you can see, other than CC Sabathia, who might opt out of his massive contract to extort even more money from the wealthy Yankees, there isn’t a lot available on the starting pitching market.

Here are a few highlights, though, with some notes on how they could help the Twins: