2010 was supposed to be Scott Sizemore's coming out party. The fates however, had other plans. During the off season, Sizemore broke his ankle, and though he was ready to play on opening day, he was nowhere near ready for the challenge of the Major Leagues. Instead of heading into the season, and the greatest challenge of his professional career with a full off season of preparation, he was going in cold.

For an accomplished MLB veteran, such a return would be easier to make. They have a better idea of what to expect, they're better acclimated to the stresses of a Major League season. Sizemore however was essentially running in blind. It sure showed. On offense Sizemore struggled to make contact, on defense he looked slow, and unsure of himself. He was sent down after his disappointing start but caught fire in AAA, earning a pair of callups that helped him build some confidence through the season.

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Yesterday I posted a FanPost postulating that the injuries in the Twins bullpen were a result of it's key setup men being consistently overused. Now comes the process of proving or disproving the hypothesis. However, undertaking that sort research is a tad bit daunting, that's where you come in. I'm looking for 4-5 volunteers to help take on one division each.

The task:

Compile data on each teams primary relievers over the past decade. I'm thinking that by compiling the usage and injury data on each teams two or three primary relievers for each season, we can get an idea of 1) how other teams use their relievers and 2) what sort of injuries result.

If teams use pitchers the same way the Twins do, and injuries do not result, it could be assumed that the Twins have simply been unlucky, as some people think. However, if teams are using their primary relievers differently than that Twins, and NOT seeing injuries, one could speculate that those lighter workloads are at least somewhat to credit for the increased health.

If you're interested, you can simply leave a note here or e-mail me at CoreyEttinger@gmail.com. I'll be happy to take on which ever division the others don't want - you know, like the NL Central.

Ron Gardenhire's Usage Tendencies: AKA, How to Ruin Relievers Careers 101, and why Joe Nathan's injury happened in the first place.

Since taking over the helm of the big league club in 2002, Ron Gardenhire has received tremendous praise for his teams play. He is someone held in high esteem throughout the game of baseball. Gardy has also generally had some of the strongest bullpens in baseball. Rarely was this more true than in the early years when the bullpen featured Eddie Guardado as it's closer with Juan Rincon, JC Romero, LaTroy Hawkins, and Johan Santana as reliable setup men.

As the years wore on the names changed - Johan moved to the rotation where he became the best starting pitcher in baseball for a number of years, Hawkins signed with the Cubs, Romero was traded and Rincon fell apart - many speculate due to his steroid use, or lack-there-of. New names replaced the departed, Joe Nathan became the new closer, Pat Neshek, and Matt Guerrier emerged from obscurity, but the drum beat simply marched on. New names, largely the same results.

Something else has stayed the same as well however, and it's a tad more sinister. I'm referring to the aforementioned managers usage tendencies in regards to his setup men. While Gardenhire has generally steadfastly refused to use his closer in non-save situations (Nathan has appeared in 70 games just twice in his six years with the Twins), and was loath to use him for more than three outs - he has never minded abusing his setup men. It's a pattern that has borne itself out time and again.

While Twins fans have every right to believe that long-time setup man Juan Rincon's deep and drastic decline that began after his phenomenal 2004 campaign was due to his PED use, what if there was another, more likely explanation? Could it simply be that Rincon was ridden too hard? In 2004, Rincon appeared in 77 games, 2nd most in baseball. In 2005 and 2006 he pitched in 75 games each, placing 6th and 3rd overall respectively. Or put another way, he pitched in more games than any other pitcher in baseball during that time frame.

While Rincon's number's slid in 2005 and 2006, they fell of a cliff in 2007 and never came back. PED's are perhaps an easy excuse, one that makes the player the criminal, and gives fans who are disappointed in a players performance an easy target. But the more likely culprit in my mind, is the manager who insisted on running his best non-closing reliever onto the field nearly every other game. It should have surprised no one should Rincon have simply fallen apart from overuse had no PEDs ever been used.

That Rincon managed to escape without suffering a devastating injury should be considered impressive. Other Twins pitchers who have fallen into Gardy's usage crush have not proven so lucky.

We'll begin our retrospective with Jesse Crain. Crain, who many Twins fans love to hate now, was once one of the organizations most promising pitching prospects. He possessed a live arm and a very good curve ball/slider combination. After pitching in 22 games out of the bullpen for the Twins in 2004, and another 41 for the Red Wings, Gardy increased his workload to 75 games in 2005 - as a 23 year old. The 75 games that year would be good for 6th most in the league, and his 79.2 relief innings were more than anyone else in the Twins bullpen - even the significantly overworked Rincon logged only 77.0 innings.

One must wonder if it ever occurred to anyone within the organization to blow the whistle. That maybe, just maybe, taking a kid who had logged just 39.0 innings at AA in 2003, and then doubling his innings, while more than tripling this total outings, and shooting him to the Major Leagues in the process the very next year might be a concern. We'll never definitively know the answer to the question, but it deserves to be asked.

While Crain's total appearances would decline in 2006 to JUST 68, his overall workload of 76.2 innings remained almost the same. Then, after 18 games in 2007, Crain felt soreness in his shoulder. It turned out to be a torn rotator cuff AND labrum. For Crain to simply have a chance to return to baseball, he'd have to brave two of the three toughest rehabs a pitcher could undergo. And he'd have to do it all at once. Crain would make it back though and in 2008, just as the next overused Twins reliever was preparing to fall victim to Gardy's pattern of overuse.

When Jesse Crain finally, and probably fairly predictably succumbed to injury in 2007, and with Juan Rincon's production in free fall mode, the Twins found themselves in desperate need of someone who could be relied upon to setup Joe Nathan's single inning saves. Enter: Pat Neshek.

The day Pat Neshek arrived with his funky sidearm delivery in mid 2006 is the same day American League hitters learned that there was more than one way to skin their bats' cats. Gardenhire and the Twins faithful's prayers were answered. There has long been some weird belief within the Twins broadcasting crews that Pat Neshek struggled against left-handers - a belief probably first voiced by his manager in 2006. A belief based more on guesswork than fact. In truth, Pat Neshek dominated everyone he encountered with near equal aplomb, holding lefties to a .244 average with a 33% K rate in 2006, and only getting better from there.

While Neshek didn't make his first appearance of 2006 until the 84th game of that season - he had pitched in 33 games and 60.0 innings at AAA Rochester - he would go on to log 32 more appearances and 37 more innings. This bringing his season total to a shocking 65 games and 97 innings! While it wasn't quite the shock to the body that Crain received, it was still a significant increase from the 55 games and 82.1 innings he had logged in AA during the 2005 campaign.

From there Neshek would only see his appearance rates increase as Gardenhire fell in love with Neshek in a way I've never really seen. Things got so out of hand that Will Young, a retired Twins blogger who will be a definite first ballot Twins Blog Hall Of Famer (should such a thing ever exist) created one of the most aptly named devises ever and gave it directly to Gardy. While the recap from that link was somewhat tongue-in-cheek when it was written, in retrospect, it exists as a microchasm in cyberspace for all that is wrong with Gardenhire's bullpen philosophy. In 2007 Gardenhire would push the Neshek button 74 more times - that is, until he went down with 13 games remaining with what at the time was called a "dead arm." Had Neshek not gone down with the dead arm and instead continued to be used at the same rate he had been, he would've pitched in a mind-boggling 80-81 games.

Neshek had been pitching with this dead arm for his last 25 games or so, as he saw his production fall off the map. During the first 49 games of 2007, Neshek was his regular dominant self, posting a line of;

1.48ERA - .147BAA - 60K/16BB 48.2IP

Then came the final 25 games before being shut down;

6.23ERA - .278BAA (.868OPS!) - 14K/11BB - 21.2IP

It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion.

Neshek would come back in 2008, but it was evident that his arm had not recovered completely, and while he was effective enough, he would appear in just 15 games before suffering a torn ulnar collateral ligament that would force him to miss the remainder of the 2008 season, and the entirety of the 2009 season.

Again, one must wonder why this sort of usage was allowed to happen? Obviously others in baseball recognize the need to bring arms along slowly and not subject them to more than their ready for. And generally speaking you hear the same sort of level headed response from Ron Gardenhire. Except when it comes to his primary setup men. For those lucky few, the rules are apparently thrown out.

With Neshek sidelined for the duration of 2008 and 2009, Gardenhire needed yet another new arm to become the teams whipping boy every second day. The lucky contestant? Matt Guerrier. For the past two years, Guerrier had served primarily as the teams long-man, logging 43 and 39 appearances respectively for total of 71.2 and 69.2 innings. Averaging around 2 innings per start (very roughly).

When Crain went down in early 2007, that role changed somewhat. Guerrier continued to log more than three outs on average, but instead of going for 5-6 outs per outing, he started appearing for 3-4 outs. In 2007 Guerrier would pitch in 73 games (7th most in the AL), throwing 88 innings. From there, Guerrier's workload increased even more. When Neshek went down in 2008 with his own career threatening injury, Guerrier logged 76 appearances. That number increased in 2009 to 79 outings! Both his 2008 and 2009 numbers led the AL.

While Guerrier has been able to avoid the same injury fate of those who came before him, he has suffered with regressions. His 2008 second half in particular was abysmal. He suffered from second half regression (exhaustion?) again in 2009, though thankfully for the Twins, and probably Guerrier's career, Bill Smith brought in the cavalry when he traded for Jon Rauch.

For the firs four months of 2009, Guerrier averaged 13 outings per month - appearing in a mind boggling 52 of his teams 103 games: AKA OVER HALF! While Guerrier would continue to appear in nearly half the teams games even after Rauch was brought on board - it was for less time per outing. While he had averaged slightly more than an inning pear appearance before Rauch, he would average less than an inning per appearance afterward. Mercifully, 9 of his final 27 games were stints of less than three outs.

Should Guerrier prove to be human after all and suffer an injury this season - which should almost be expected at this point - it could prove to be the death knell for a bullpen already beleaguered by the loss of it's closer.

All of which of course brings us to the man everyone cares most about, Joe Nathan.

Joe Nathan, the man Gardenhire fights like mad to protect. The one who is seldom allowed to pitch for more than one inning at a time, or in non-save situations. Gardenhire insistence on NOT using Nathan in anything other than a three out save situation is a large reason for the other pitchers overuse. Every time Gardenhire insists on warming up his setup man de jour, he forces that pitcher to expend valuable effort, regardless of whether he comes in. Pitching a third of an inning in a firemans role to simply get a game to Nathan forces that pitcher hurry his warmup and come in perhaps colder than desired. This is something that was common place for the Rincon's, Romero's, Crain's, Neshek's, and Guerrier's of the bullpen world. Whereas Nathan would generally have the luxury of being able to warm up at his own pace while watching the Twins bat prior to his upcoming save situation.

But last year wasn't quite normal. The Twins for the first time in a long time didn't have a prototypical setup man. Guerrier did his best to fill the role, and did so as well as his limited talents would allow. Indeed, he did so superbly. But the lack of depth in the bullpen often meant that Gardenhire was forced to use Guerrier and Nathan more extensively than perhaps he would've otherwise.

Remember earlier in this piece when I mentioned that Joe Nathan had only twice pitched in 70 games in a season? Well, would anyone care to venture a guess as to how many he pitched last year? If you answered 70, you were either cheating or have a freakishly good memory. Either way I applaud you. Now, who remembers Nathan's mammoth 53 pitch effort on August 21st against the Royals? In that game he threw 24 more pitches than he had in any other game of the year. Indeed, the only other time in Nathan's Twins career where he threw 40 or more pitches was on September 3rd of 2008 at Toronto.

I tell you all of that to tell you this. That game, was the beginning of the end, because that was the game where Joe Nathan hurt himself. The Twins would go on to win that fateful game in mid-2009 5-4, and indeed, without it, there would've been no playoffs, there would've been no game 163. But it was the beginning of the end. While we can't be sure when the Twins were made aware of Nathan's injury, or even that he suffered it during that game, even the casual observer could see that Nathan was less than 100% from then on.

Before the 53 pitch game, Nathan was in the midst of perhaps his best year ever, his line was;

46.2IP - 2HR/11BB/61K - .160BAA - .463OPSA

After that game his line was;

22.0IP - 5HR-11BB-18K - .193BAA - .716OPSA

The batting average against might not look much different, but his strikeout, walk, and homeruns rates were all WAY off. Nathan was pitching hurt - and me saying that should come as no shock to anyone who was paying attention.

As I think we all know at this point, there is widespread belief that injuries to pitchers occur primarily when a pitcher is throwing with a tired or sore arm. One that causes his mechanics to change and in turn, creates stress on joints, tendons, and muscles that they are not accustomed to. The general idea being something like limping with your arms. If you've ever suffered any kind of leg injury (and that should include just about everyone I would imagine) then you know what it's like when  you have a bum wheel. You compensate in other ways. You adjust the pressure you put on the other leg and this in turn leads to soreness and fatigue in the non-injured leg. Well, much the same is true of pitchers arms.

When an arm is tired, the ligaments in the elbows and the muscles in the shoulders pay the price.

If you're a Twins fan, you've bore witness to this over, and over, and over again. And while I'll stop this piece short of accusing Gardenhire of knowingly putting his pitchers at risk - it's time that this was issue was brought up. Because knowingly or not, Ron Gardenhire's use of his bullpen pitchers is leading to injury after injury of key personnel. Or at least that's what I've come to believe.

What say you?

Red Wings:

One night after being two-hit and shutout, the Red Wings had yet another tough evening at the plate, this time mustering only three hits. However, they also managed to draw three walks and all three of their hits went for extra bases, including homeruns from Garrett Jones (20) and Bobby Kielty (4). That would prove to be enough as Kevin Mulvey pitched another solid game as he delivered six innings, allowing just one unearned run on just three hits. He walked five (yikes) and struck out seven (yay). After Mulvey departed the Wings tandem of Ricky Barrett and Bobby Korecky lashed the game down, allowing just one hit and one walk over the next three innings while combining to strike out five.

The Wings are continuing to surge over the second half of their season as numerous offensive players such as Jason Pridie, Garrett Jones, Alejandro Machado and Luke Hughes have all been contributing strong numbers. Yankees pitching prospect Mark Melancon pitched two solid innings of relief tonight. Melancon has moved quickly this year from A ball to AAA now and could make a September appearance for the Yanks.

Rock Cats:

In a chance to get an early look at some of the Tigers up-and-coming players, the Rock Cats squared off against the Erie SeaWolves for the first of a three game set. On the mound for the Cats was Jay Rainville who has struggled mightily through what has been a terrible season. Today he managed to pitch a pretty good game however, going five innings while allowing three runs (all earned) on seven hits and a pair of walks while striking out five. Hardly a dominant or impressive game, but still decidedly better than many of his starts this year. For the SeaWolves, twenty two year old catcher James Skelton, who crushed A ball and is playing well in 47 AA at-bats had three more singles and a walk. He could certainly be someone to watch. Wilkin Ramirez, the Wolves left fielder has been someone to keep an eye for awhile now and he went 2-5 with a double. Hes carrying a .929 OPS this year as a twenty two year old. The Cats would go on  to win this game late however with a pair of runs in the bottom of the ninth to walk off. Contributing to the Rock Cats six runs were shortstop Felix Molina and first baseman Toby Gardenhire (who hadn't been seen or heard from in awhile) as each had a pair of singles. Matt Tolbert started the game at short before being relieved by Molina, and he went 1-3 with a single, a strikeout, a stolen base, and was caught stealing once. Also chipping in were DH Steve Tolleson who went 1-3 with a single and three walks and third base prospect Danny Valencia who was 1-4 with a single.

Miracle: No game scheduled.

Snappers:

The Snappers avenged a couple tough losses to the Kernels the past two nights with a turtle-time 11 run beat-down. Everyone in the starting lineup had a hit tonight, but no one had as good of a game as the one guy we care most about - Alexi Casilla. Casilla went 3-4 with three singles and is hitting .571 in his two games at Beloit. Four other players had two hits apiece including DH Jeanfred Brito, right fielder Yangerves Solarte, center fielder Mark Dolenc, and third baseman Juan Richardson. While the Snappers plated 11, and had 16 hits in all, only two went for extra bases, both doubles. On the mound for the Snappers was righty Steven Hirschfeld who picked up his 10th win of the season by going seven inning sand allowing just one run. He gave up three hits, walked three, and struck out six.

E-Twins:

Elizabethon suffered one of its worst losses of the season in this one, falling 10-1 to Princeton. Righty Bradley Tippett had been having a great season coming into this one, but from the start nothing went right, and while he didn't pitch a good game, his defense didn't help him out at all either. Tippett made it just 2.2 innings and allowed nine runs - though only three of them were earned - on nine hits and a pair of walks. Yuck. Offensively the only player to have more than one hit for the Twins was third baseman Nicholas Romero, who had a pair of singles.

via media.scout.com

The list of moves I present will not make the Tigers a great team overnight, but it will begin the process of transforming the lineup and pitching staff. The changes I present may seem pale to others, but given the magnitude of the work involved to make things happen, I believe these to actually be very bold. Hopefully you'll see improvements both in the quality of the starting rotation and bullpen along with minimal downgrades in the lineup and a general upgrading of the defense with more team speed being provided on a day-to-day basis with little payroll fluctuation, making my idea's, I believe, feasible.

Anyways, please enjoy and I look forward to feedback and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask away. I'm always glad to explain my reasonings.

1) My first fix would be to TRY bring in someone who can keep things lose, a joker in the clubhouse who can and will pull pranks and just do stupid things to keep guys loose. This team 'feels' too tight, like they're trying too hard. I don't know who that guy is, but he certainly doesn't need to be anyone special, for us (the Twins) its Mike Redmond, our backup catcher who everyone loves. I'm not a big believer in that whole team chemistry thing, I think mostly its an overblown pile of smoldering dog poo, but to a certain extent it can help - especially when things are going wrong. It may not be possible, but if a small move can be made to obtain a role player whos personality can lighten the atmosphere, I'm all for it.

2a) I'd release Kenny Rogers and  Todd Jones. I know thats pretty much the common consensus, but its an easy call to make. Its not that they're bad pitchers, but this team needs an infusion of youth in the worst way. No better place to start than the pair of 40 year olds.

2b) Sign Jon Garland as a free agent. He wont be cheap at 3 years, 14 million per, but he's a capable innings eater who's been there before and knows his way around the AL Central.

2c) Replace Chuck Hernandez. Usually a manager gets to choose who he wants to have on his staff, and I'm sure this is a fight Dave Dombrowski doesn't want to have, but the guy just isn't getting it done and this is a results oriented business. I don't believe as so many do that the pitching mess is somehow his fault, but his job is to get it right and he hasn't.

2d) Trade Gary Sheffield in the offseason and package him with Joel Zumaya (Fernando Rodney if you can, but I doubt it). I know Sheffield has 14 million remaining and I'm aware of what a huge talent Zumaya is, but unless you really think you can fix him - its time to cut bait and get as good of a return as possible. Offer to eat 10 million of Sheffield's contract and try and ship him to the A's for starting pitching prospect James Simmons, and reliever Joey Devine (or Andrew Cardigan if you're willing to look for a bit more long-term upside). The A's have frequently been willing to take on reclamation projects, and both Sheffield and Zumaya fit that billing. If the dollar figure is right, and they can get back a huge talent like Zoom, they just might bite.

If the new pitching coach really believes he can help Zumaya, then hold him and just try and deal Sheffield for Simmons while eating most, if not all of the contract.

The 2009 staff;

SP1 - Justin Verlander (0.6m)
SP2 - Jon Garland (14.0m)
SP3 - Armando Galarraga (0.4m)
SP4 - Jeremy Bonderman (12.5m)
SP5-  Spring training battle between Nate Robertson (7.0m) and Dontrelle Willis (10.0m) with the loser moving to long relief.

LR1 - Willis/Robertson
MU - Fossum (~0.5m)
MR1 - Lopez (~0.7m)
MR2 - Miner (~0.75m)
MR 3 - Seay (~0.95m)
SU - Rodney (~2.4m)
CL - Devine (0.4m) / Zumaya (~1.70m)

Total ~50.2m

4) Trade Marcus Thames to the Devil Rays for pitching prospect Jeff Niemann and outfielder Sergio Pedroza. Neimann is a low ceiling guy, but he's pretty much ready to go and frankly, he's about #582 on the Rays list of young, quality, MLB ready arms. Its embarrassing how much pitching talent they have. Seriously, they're rotation could have 5 or 6 ace quality pitchers by the end of next year. Thats vomit inducing to think of. Kazmir, Garza, Shields, Price, Wade, McGee. Sweet Jesus. Toss in Jeremy Hellickson and this is just absurd. Lord help the Yankees because they're going to need it, along with the rest of the AL.

5a) Let Edgar Renteria walk and pay out his 3 million buyout.

5b) Target Orlando Cabrera and Rafael Furcal as they hit the market. They'll each command big salaries as quality shortstops do, but they're young enough and talented enough to be worth it. I'd probably focus on Cabrera, he isn't as talented, but he's proven he can hit in the AL, and is what the team really needs - a very good glove. Furcal probably has more raw talent and is a pure spark plug, but he's also injury prone and hasn't proven he can hit in the AL, something that's becoming more and more obvious is a hurdle for guys make the jump to the junior circuit. Expect Cabrera to run you three years and 10-12 million per.

The Lineup and positions;

1 - Granderson - CF / LH (3.5m)
2 - Polanco - 2B / RH (4.6m)
3 - M. Cabrera - 1B / RH (15.0m)
4 - Ordonez - RF / RH (18.0m)
5 - Guillen 3B / SH (10.0m)
6 - Joyce - DH / LH (0.4m)
7 - Inge - C / RH (6.3m)
8- Thomas - LF / LH (0.4m)
9 - Cabrera - SS / RH (~11.0m)

BN1 - Raburn - INF / RH (0.4m)
BN2 - Sardinha - C / RH (0.4m)
BN3 - Larish - INF /  LH (0.4m)
BN4 - Clevlan - OF / RH (0.4m)

Total 70.8m + 13.0m (Sheffield's contract & Renteria's buyout) = 83.8m

Grand total: 134.0m

Photo via cache.daylife.com

Hello everyone, first time poster here at this site but I've taken a keen eye to Mr. Galarraga this season and made a point of watching as many of his games as possible.  Galarraga has certainly posted an unexpectedly impressive year after emerging from near obscurity to pitch very well, and given that those numbers have managed to hold - and improve even - with the league now having seen him at least once, its fair to begin projecting him as a long-term member of the rotation. 

Of course, as with any player on the team, it's important to be able to accurately project him over a longer term so that one can make reasonable assessments as to the teams needs in the offseason.  In that vein, its probably time to take a good long into not just his impressive production numbers, but also the peripherals that have led to this impressive season.

Using data from Fangraphs.com, we can see that he averages 90.1 mph with his fastball and can work as high as 92.  That alone isn't overwhelmingly impressive, particularly from a right-handed pitcher, however as studies have shown, the difference in effectiveness between a guy who throws 90 and a guy who throws 94 is marginal at-best.  He also brings a strong slider that certainly rates as his best pitch with sharp, late bite at 84.5 mph which is very effective both against right and left handed batters.  Galarraga also mixes in a solid changeup at 83.6 mph.  The pitch doesn't have impressive movement, nor does it have ideal speed differential (9.0+ mph), but he's deceptive enough with it that it can be effective.

That gives him - in my opinion - two + pitches (the fastball and slider) and an average one (the changeup).  That certainly qualifies as the makings of a fine starter from a standard scouting perspective.

Continue reading this post »

• Talk about an easy writing night for me. The Twins top two Minor League affiliates had the night off while High A Fort Myers was rained out at Sarasota. But the Snappers did manage to play their game against Cedar Rapids, falling for the second time in as many nights. Twenty four year old righty Esmerlin Jimenez got the start for the Kernels and pitched seven good innings allowing just one run while scattering seven hits and five walks. He was followed for an inning by twenty three year old reliever Tim Keily who pitched one inning allowing no hits or walks while striking out one. He's having a strong year for them out of the pen. Twenety one year old first baseman Gabriel Jacobo is also putting together a fine season and he went 2-4 with a triple. New Britain ran out Dave Bromberg who actually pitched a pretty solid game, allowing just two runs (one earned) in six innings of work while allowing just four hits and four walks while wiffing seven. Things fell apart for the Snappers however when Chris Anderson took over in relief as he yielded six runs (five earned) in just 1.1 innings of work on eight hits and a walk. Not a good night. Offensively the Snappers were again paced by Ben Revere and catcher Greg Yersich for a second straight evening. Each had a pair of singes.

• The E-Twins had yet another dominant offensive performance, shelling the Princeton [Devil] Rays for 16 runs. had this game been played during the Little League World Series, the game would've been done after four innings due to the 10-run rule. It's going to take awhile, but I'm going to try and run down all of the noteworthy offensive performances... Leading off the second baseman Dominic De La Osa went 2-5 with a double and a walk. One spot behind him in the order Nathan Hanson went 2-5 as well with a walk. Hitting third and fourth in the order were first baseman Jonathan Waltenbury, and  left fielder Evan Bigley who went 3-6 and 2-5 respectively. Waltenbury doubled while Bigley hit a pair of homeruns and drew a walk. Nineteen year old catcher Daniel Rams then went 2-5  with a walk to carry the back half of the lineup. Everyone in the lineup not named Angel Morales however, had at least one hit. On the mound 21 year old righty Bobby Lanigan pitched a great game, tossing six scoreless innings with just three hits allowed, no walks, and seven strikeouts.
  

• Down in the GCL Aaron Hicks hit his fourth homerun of the season while going 1-3 with a walk. Right fielder Daniel Ortiz,  designated hitter Michael Gonzalez, and shortstop Juan Sanchez each had two hits apiece. On the mound twenty year old southpaw Jean Mijares pitched six solid innings, allowing just two runs on five hits and a walk. He struck out eight.

• The Red Wings played host to the Blue Jays AAA affiliate Syracuse  this evening and it turned into a rough night for the offense as they were two hit by Sky Chiefs southpaw, 22 year old Brett Cecil who went seven innings, striking out six. Cecil has moved quickly through the Blue Jays system this season with stops at the Jays A+ and AA affiliates and handled the Wings easily last night before handing the game off to reliever Jonah Bayliss who closed the game out with a pair of shutout innings. Both hits for the Wings came off the bat of Howie Clark who singled twice. On the mound for the Red Wings Philip Humber got the start and pitched well, going eight innings while allowing just two runs on four hits and three walks while striking out three.
  

• This afternoon New Britain played the Akron Aeros, Cleveland's AA club. On the mound for the Aeros was 24 year old Steven Wright and the Rock Cats didn't provide a friendly host for him as they cranked out eight hits, and two homeruns over his five frames before tacking on three more runs against a trio of Aeros relievers. Regular second baseman Steve Tolleson played short and went 3-5 with a double. Dustin Martin played center field and had a triple and homerun, Dave Winfree singled and hit his 18th homerun, a grand slam. Danny Valencia also continues to display power and an ability to move quickly as one of the Twins couple solid 3rd base prospects going 2-5 with a double and his 5th homerun. Outfielder Brandon Robertss who has been on the rehab track went 2-3 with a pair of singles and a walk. Kyle Aselton got the start going six solid innings allowing just six baserunners on two hits and four walks while striking out a pair and allowing his lone run on a solo shot by the rehabbing Victor Martinez. Reliever Jose Mijares pitched another scoreless frame in the 8th to help close the game out.
  

• Down in Flordia, the Mircale took on the Sarasota Reds and laid down and offensive beat-down pounding out 16 hits and drawing three walks to plate 15 runs. Most of the damage was done early against Sarasota starter Rafael Gonzalez and reliever Logan Ondrusek. By the time the fifth inning was closed out the Twins had scored 14 times, helped by Juan Portes who went 1-2 with a homerun and walk. The offense was led by a heart-of-the-order comprised of Steven Singleton who went 4-5 with a pair of doubles, Daniel Berg who went 3-6 with a triple, and first baseman Johnny Woodward who went 3-4 with a homerun and walk. Shortstop Garrett Olson and catcher Danny Lehmann each chipped in by going 2-5 with a double. On the bump for the Miracle was Matthew Fox who pitched seven shutout innings allowing six hits and a pair of walks while striking out six and pushing his record to 7-6. 2008 first rounder Carlos Gutierrez came in and pitched a scoreless frame, walking one.
  

• Beloit squared off against the Cedar Rapids Kernels this afternoon, eventually succumbing in 13 innings. The Kernels were paced by seven innings of brilliant relief by their bullpen which was closed out by three great innings from 22 year old lefty Naldy Calderon who struck out three. On the mound for the Snappers was Michael McCardlell who struck out eight in just five innings, allowing four runs, two earned, on seven hits and a pair of walks. Ben Revere singled and tripled in his six at-bats, and left fielder Andrew Schmiesing, and third baseman Chris Cates both had a pair of singles. Catcher Greg Yersich had three hits, all singles.
  

• Both the E-Twins and the GCL club had the day off which I'm sure the players appreciated.

Down in Rochester, Alejandro Machado is coming back to Earth a but his last few games, with just four hits in his last twenty one at-bats with six strikeouts. Nothing major, and nothing unexpected either. Luke Hughes had a hit game going 2-3 with a double and his third homerun. Its a new level but he just keeps on hitting. Matt Marci homered for the 4th time in as many games. Bobby Korecky picked up his 23rd save with 1.2 scoreless innings.

Down at New Britain third base prospect Danny Valencia went 1-4 with his 4th homerun. Dave Winfree also hit his 17th. Winfree at this point however isn't much of a prospect anymore. On the bump Jeff Manship went five innings, striking out five while allowing just one walk and seven hits. One of his better starts at that level where he has mostly struggled thus far.

Not much of note to report from Ft. Myers, but Anthony Slama pitched, allowing a run on three hits and a walk while striking out three to bring his ERA over 1.00 for the first time this year. Catching prospect Wilson Ramos went 1-4.

At Beloit, Ben Revere went 1-5 with a single, after spending most of the year above .400, his average has dipped to a more reasonable .380. On the mound 1st round pick Shooter Hunt went six innings striking out seven while allowing just three hits. However he continues to struggle with his control, walking three more batters. Hunt has the stuff to miss bats, but he's going to have to work hard on his control to make the leap. Hopefully he can figure that out next year as this season is almost over.

The GCL Twins squared off today against the Red Sox club and 1st rounder Aaron hicks went 1-5 with a double and a pair of strikeouts. He's now hitting .303. The biggest plus in my opinion is his 25BB/29K ratio. I figured that would be his greatest hurdle, but at least thus far, he's shown a stron eye at the plate with the ability to develop power. Certainly looks like a raw five tooler. It'll be interesting to see if they start him at Beloit next year or Elizabethon. Second round shortstop Tyler Ladendorf continues to struggle with the bat going 0-4 and he's now hitting just .193.

At the Twins advanced rookie ball club Elizabethon, 18 year old center fielder Angel Morales continues to make a case for the Twins top center field prospect as he went 2-3 with two more homeruns. His hitting line is almost without flaw save for his 61K/24BB ratio.  Of course thats concerning but you hope young kids can develop their grasp of the strikezone.  Outside of that all he's done is hit  .329/.431/.683 with 15 homeruns in  just 167 at-bats. Amazing.  At 6'1" 180 he isn't as tall as Gomez (6'4") or Hicks (6'2")  but the power displayed has been nothing short of phenomenal. Though it should be noted the park they play in is definitely a big-time hitters park. That said, no one on the team is hitting like this kid is.

• I've been saying for a while now that the Twins would be wise to try and trade Livan Hernandez this summer. They probably have enough good young arms to contend with or without him, and letting him walk at the end of the season for nothing makes little sense when he could bring back a quality minor leaguer or two.

The counter-argument that I always get is that trading Livan when the team is in contention is tantamount to quitting. I couldn't disagree much more with that assessment, though in large part, that stems from a belief that you should never focus on any one season as a small/mid market team when you could do the organization a service in the long run. The Twins made this mistake last season - one where they were technically not 'out of it,' but didn't seem to have the horses to run with the Indians or Tigers. Indeed they didn't and trading Luis Castillo, a move decried both by fans and some players, made very little difference in the outcome of the season. That being the case, the Twins might have been well served to try and trade off some other veterans (Silva and Hunter) who they saw leave via free agency for either nothing, or the relative pittance of a couple draft picks.

In not trading Hernanez, its this mans belief they'd only be repeating the mistakes of the past.

In that vein, Buster Olney writes;

"It makes all the sense in the world for the Twins to explore this: In a season in which there is little available pitching, there will definitely be a market for someone like Hernandez, who always battles and seems capable of throwing 250 pitches. One team that could use him: the Atlanta Braves, who have been asking around about starting pitching."

Shocking *sarcasm* mostly because I have been pitching the idea of a swap for Braves third base/shortstop prospect Brent Lillibridge since about the same time the season began. Lillibridge isn't an all-star in the making, but he's a guy the Twins could use at third or short for the next 5 years almost immediately. Besides, Livan doesn't have enough value to bring in any top-end prospects, but Lillibridge is the perfect fit. Olney also cites the Astros as a possible landing spot for Livan. I hadn't given the Astros much thought heading into this year due to their status as unlikely to contend, but here we are, and they're contenders. The same could be said about the Cardinals, though they have received very good pitching so far this year, despite having an unimpressive rotation on paper.

As far as the Astros are concerned, the Twins would likely take aim at players such as 24 year old third baseman Chris Johnson, 22 year old right fielder Mitch Einerston, 23 year old starter Bud Norris, or reliever Ryan Thompson. Though frankly, I can't say any of those players strike me as capable of getting a deal done.

Twins righty Kevin Slowey has been posting very good strikeout and walk numbers and for the most part pitching well with just his two fastballs. It will be interesting to see if he brings anything else to the table tonight - like his curveball - and can pitch into the 6th inning or beyond. Something he's failed to do in his last 3 starts.

The Royals send out prospect Luke Hochevar who has an interesting honor in baseball history. He's the only player to be drafted with the first pick in the amateur draft. Twice. After being drafted first in 2005 by the Dodgers, Hochevar and super-agent  Scott Boras held out for money that the  Dodgers never ponied up. Hochevar switched agents, accepted a deal with the Dodgers, then reneged after bringing Boras back on-board one day later. This prompted Dodgers General Manager Ned Colletti to publicly vow that he'd never work with Boras again.

He was back in the draft the next year and this time the Royals managed to lock him down ponying up huge money for the kid, with a contract that gave him a 3.5 million signing bonus and incentives that could bring his four year Major League contract up to 7 million dollars.

Hochevar own a 4.13 career ERA in his two minor league seasons, but moved quickly through the system, posting good strikeout and walk rates at every step except for AAA.During his last start, Hochevar did his best Boof Bonser impersonation, allowing a first inning grand slam to Brad Wilkerson.

Colletti went on to renege on his own vow, signing Boras client Andruw Jones this winter. Jones has been predictably miserable during his time with the Dodgers.