Metrodome Memories

Luis Castillo’s contract is up after the 2007 which means the Twins will either have to re-sign him or find a replacement.  The Twins might have his replacement already in Alexi Casilla, who had a solid season at Double A and then had a fantastic season in the Dominican Winter League.  Casilla finished fourth in hitting (.338) and he also had a solid postseason.  He might start the season at Triple A, but he’s worth keeping an eye on and he showed up at number five on Kevin Goldstein’s Top Ten Twins prospect list.

Recovering from knee surgery is no easy task, and to do while competing at the major league level is even tougher.  Jason Kubel’s career was temporarily derailed when he suffered a knee injury that kept him out actioon in 2005.  Even last year, as he recovered from the injury, his other knee began to flair up.  Regardless, he made it to the show again and while he struggled, he got about a half season of big league experience.

Now Kubel has shown up to the Twins fanfest about 10 pounds lighter and in much better shape.  The Twins will be careful with him for now and he’ll probably start the season as the DH until he shows he can take Rondell White’s place out in leftfield.  Hopefully that happens sooner rather then later because White doesn’t bring much to the table out in left.

Kevin Goldstein recently published his list of the top ten Twins prospects in his latest Future Shock.  His final prognosis is that the Twins are deep with pitching but not so much with hitting so it’s an imbalance they might need to address.  Especially with a team that relies so much on it’s farm system like the Twins do.

Coming in first is Matt Garza, who started at High A, then made stops at Double A and Triple A before filling in with the Twins when Francisco Liriano went down.  Goldstein projects Garza as a potential All Star and also says he should have a spot in the 2007 rotation.

Left handed starter Glen Perkins comes in at number two.  He got a cup of coffee in September after a solid stint at Double A and successful yet short stint at Triple A.  Goldstein concludes that Perkins has the potential to be the team’s fifth starter.  Good stuff here as well.

After that, things thin out a bit.  Chris Parmalee, who will be all of 19 next year, comes in at third.  Kevin Slowey and Alexi Casilla (a middle infielder!!) come in at four and five. 

So some good stuff here, and some names to remember come time for spring traning.

ESPN.com has a great column on Terry Ryan and some of the mistakes he made, and later corrected, in 2006.  It’s a nice look at the Twins general manager.

In other Twins news, Ramon Ortiz was signed Ramon Ortiz to a one year deal for $3.1 million.  Ortiz had a rough season for the Nationals and his last good season was 2002 when the Angels won it all.  Since then he’s played for the Reds and then the Nationals.

The Twins are really dipping into the bottom of the barrell to round out their rotation.  Between Sidney Ponson and now Ortiz, I’ll almost be hoping that someone like Scott Baker catches fire and makes the rotation.

As a follow up on his piece about recently elected Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, Jr., John Sickels put together a prospect retro on the runner up for the rookie of the year award in 1982 to Ripken.  Kent Hrbek was a serious power hitter through out the 1980s and he was a stud in a top notch Twins lineup.  It looked like Hrbek showed flashes of greatness through out his minor league career and he always had that nice strikeout to walk ratio.  He’s always one of the guys I pick up when I’m playing retro Start-O-Matic leagues.

Bryan Smith at the Hardball Times recently called Twins pitcher Oswaldo Sosa the most underrated prospect in baseball right now.  Sosa put together solid seasons at both High A and Low A and he looks to move up to Double A in 2007.  Smith goes as far to say that Sosa could be with the Twins by the end of 2007 and we all know how much we’ll need the arms this year.

Sosa combined a good but not great strikeout rate with an excellent homerun rate to put together an overall ERA of 2.60 in both stops in 2006.  He definitely keeps the ball down and he gave up only two homeruns in 152 1/3 innings.  The Baseball Historians network is going to put up some minor league sites soon and while I’m not sure there will be a Twins one just yet, I’ll be sure to keep an eye on Sosa to see how he’s progressing in 2007.

Brad Radke is gone and Francisco Liriano is done for the year so it looks like the Twins are looking at the bottom of the barrell to round out their five man rotation.  Sidney Ponson will get a shot and has signed a minor league deal with the Twins.  If Ponson makes the team, he’ll make $1 million with a shot at $2 million more. 

Ponson’s last good season was back in 2003.  Since then his ERA hasn’t been below 5.00 in any given season.  It’ll be really interesting to see if this works out.

Buster Olney wrote a great piece on Justin Morneau in the latest ESPN The Magazine.  He talked about everything from Morneau’s game day dinner ritual as well as his fondness for Punto Slurpee’s.  This is some really good stuff.