Metrodome Memories

The Twins signed outfielder Josh Willingham to a three year, $21 million deal.  Of course this came in light of Michael Cuddyer signing with the Rockies and he was paid $30.5 million so there’s some savings there.

Willingham had a career for the Athletics last year.  He belted 29 home runs and drove in 98.  His strikeouts were up but he also walked 56 times.  This is a guy who’s had an OPS+ of 115 or more in the past six seasons.  Durability is a concern though and he’s never played more then 145 games and the past four seasons, he’s played in 136, 114, 133 and 102.  When he’s healthy, he’s good but there’s always the chance he’s going to be out of the lineup for a few weeks at a time during the season.

The Twins were one of the hottest teams in baseball for a while but now they’ve lost five in a row.  They had passed the Royals but now they’re percentage points back in last place. It doesn’t help that interleague play put them in the paths of the San Francisco Giants and the Milwaukee Brewers because those are two of the better teams in the senior circuit.

It’s also nice to see Joe Mauer back in the lineup.  He’s still not quite up to his usual self but just having him on the field is nice.  It’ll be interesting to see what happens if the Twins fall further in the standings.  Getting Mauer some much needed rest might be the way to go if the Twins are going to just fall out of it.

Francisco Liriano’s come back has been quite impressive.  He was horrible for a while but other then his last start, he’s been really good since throwing that no-hitter. His strikeout rate is low so hopefully he’ll pick that up but he’s reverted back to front of the rotation form.

Scott Baker has really turned into a workhorse.  His shortest outing in June was six innings and he picked up his first complete game of the season. I also like that strikeout rate.

I’m still watching Twins so don’t let up just yet.  The Dodgers are in town and they have their own problems.

The Twins finished the week 5-2, with the first game of the Indians series being postponed (to be made up in September). The injury prone Twins bats lit up for a 10-3 win. Tribe leftfielder, Michael Brantley, hit what appeared to be a three run home run in the fourth inning. Twins coaching staff disagreed and Ron Gardenhire, came out to argue. After further review, the home run was reversed to a ground rule double, costing the Tribe the game in a 4-3 loss. The Twins are hoping to get Joe Mauer back sometime this week.

The Twins went 2-5 this week, only winning one game of four against the Rays. Joe Mauer was placed on the 15 day DL with flu like symptoms. He showed up in the clubhouse earlier today looking paler and almost 12 pounds lighter. “I’m still not feeling very good,” he said. “I’ve been doing a lot better in the last couple of days though. You’re just beat up, like you normally are when you have any type of flu. It’s been beating up on me the last couple of days.” Hopefully Mauer will return soon enough and help lead his team to more wins.

The Twins are off to a to a slow start 9 games into the season. Twins reliever, Slowy, was put on the 15 day DL with shoulder issues. Alex Burnett was called up from Triple A to take his place. In the Twins recent 1-0 loss, Gardenhire tells Casilla not to hold his head down.  Castilla’s throwing error in the sixth led to the only run the game against the Athletics. Also in an act to try and get the bats jumpstarted, Gardenhire put Cuddyer in the lineup playing at second base for the first time since May 31^st, 2010. The Twins are off to a slower than expected start, but they aren’t worried, and being only a week into the season, they have no reason to be.

The Twins avoided a three game sweep today against the Blue Jays. Carl Pavano seemed to struggle in the Season Opener. J.P. Arencibia, the Jays nine-hole batter, went 3-for-5 with 2 homers, a triple and 5 RBI’s. Yesterday, Jays starting pticher, Kyle Drabek, in his MLB debut, struck out the side in the first inning, threw 5 1/3 innings of no hit baseball and threw 7 innings with only one run. It was a very impressive start for the Jays young pitcher. The Twins, though, avoided the sweep early today with a 4-3 win. Not the best start to their season but there is still 159 games left.

Twins second baseman Nishioka’s 13-game hitting streak was brought to an end yesterday after going 0 for 3 against Daisuke Matsuzaka. Yesterday was the first time the two faced each other since 2006 when both played in the Nippon Professional Baseball League. With the regular season around the corner, the managers start to slim the Spring Training roster down to the 25 man roster. Earlier today the Twins optioned infielder Luke Hughes and relievers Jim Hoey and Anthony Slama down. There are still 34 players left on the Twinkies Spring squad. More news on players optioned to Triple-A should come a bit later this week.

Michael Cuddyer and Jom Thome played in a minor league intrasquad game earlier this morning. Cuddyer has been experiencing discomfort in his left foot after having a wart removed on March 1^st. He played right field for three innings and went 2 for 4 with a two-run-homer. His pain and trouble with running the bases seems to have lessened in today’s game. Cuddyer said “today was a step in the right direction”. Cuddyer is expected to play another minor league game tomorrow. Twins fans are hoping he will be ready for the season opener less than two weeks away.

The Twins lost 6-3 to the Phillies earlier today, but there can be some positives taken away from it. Although all six runs were scored off Joe Nathan in 1/3 of an inning, Liriano had a quality start with three scoreless innings. Liriano is quite pleased with his spring training progression, after not liking his mechanics and feeling like “nothing was working”. After his performance today, with over 50 pitches, he felt a bit of a tight back. His focus on his mechanics is to stay back and not rush. Liriano could be ready at the start of the season.

Twins’ manager,Ron Gardenhire, has made up his mind for the season opener. Nishioka will start at second base, and Casilla will start at third base. The announcement was made yesterday morning before the Twins played the Rays. Gardenhire talked with Nishioka and was able to get him to admit he was more comfortable playing at second base. This came after Nishioka always responded to Gardenhire’s questions with something like “whatever you want me to do”. Gardenhire was happy Nishioka and him finally talked. He knew it would take sometime, but he is happy it happened now as opposed to during the season.

There don’t seem to be any major question marks with the Twins as Spring Training games approach. Cuddyer is expected to miss the first couple of games due to a bothering left foot, but he said it’s nothing to worry about this early in spring. Tsuyoshi Nishioka will make his first start in a Twins uniform tonight against the Red Sox. Twinkies manager, Ron Gardenhire, will be playing Nishioka at second base and at shortstop during spring. Nishoika should expect time at both positions along with Casilla. The Twins seem to be in good shape and ready to start real spring games.

Twin’s fans should  be happy with Spring Training underway. Liriano long tossed at 120 ft. and stated his sore left arm felt good after the toss. His next step will be throwing a bullpen session, which he is expected to do on Tuesday or Wednesday of this week. Slugger veteran, Jim Thome, return to his team, greeting everybody with smiles. Thome told the press that after battling plantar fasciitis in his left foot for almost a year and a half, his foot is finally healed and back to normal. His back is also feeling better,”All I can say is my foot feels good, therefore my back feels good. It goes hand in hand”. With an all around healthy Thome, he adds another threat to the Twinkies already deadly batting order, all the more reason for Twins fans to smile with Thome.

Catchers and pitchers report to camp Friday for the Twins with nothing but an AL Central Division three-peat in mind. Though much of the roster from last season is returning this season, there are still a few questions on Twins’ fan’s minds as the season nears. For one, there are six starters with five spots on the starting rotation. It is still uncertain if Tsuyoshi Nishioka, the Twins new Japanese middle-infielder will be playing second base or shortstop. But the question with the most wieght and possible impact would have to be, “Will Liriano come back and be the Lariano of old”? Only time will tell will all of these questions, but no matter the answer to any of them, expect the Twins to be finishing amoung the top in the AL Central. After all they’re only gunning for a three-peat…

With the Twins entering their sophmore season at Target Field, they also hope to win the AL Central again, and are making moves to do so. Left-hander Franscisco Liriano signed a one-year, $4.3 million contract with the Twinkies. Liriano was last season’s American League Comeback Player of the Year, going 14-10 with a 3.26 ERA. After Liriano’s elbow injury that many thought would swallow his career, the long road to recovery seems to have paid off. He missed all of the 2007 season and his 2008 recovery stint numbers were average. In 2009, Liriano recorded a personal best of 8 straight winning decisions helping the Twins to reach the AL pennant. If Lariano can remain healthy this season, the Twins look to have the starting rotation with the most depth in the AL Central.

The Twins rode a three run seventh and withstood a late rally to beat the Pirates 5 to 4. With the win, the Twins evened their Grapefruit record to 15 and 15. It was a game punctuated by errors on both sides that allowed runs to score.

It was an all-around good effort at the plate for the Twins. Michael Cuddyer drove in a run in the third and Delmon Young launched a solo home run in the fourth. The team rallied to tack three runs on the board in the seventh off of Pirates closer Matt Capps. All three were unearned, due to an error by Pittsburgh center fielder Edward Garcia.

In his final spring work, Kevin Slowey was decent, giving up 2 runs on 6 hits and no walks while making three Pirates whiff over three innings. However, the best pitching came from  the 6 relievers who combined to hold the Pirates  scoreless until  Danny Vais  gave up two unearned runs in the  ninth and still managed to get the save.

The Twins now turn their attention to Opening Day on Monday against the Angels, and will send Livan Hernandez to face Jered Weaver. The game is also anticipated because of the return of Torii Hunter to Minnesota, which is sure to make it an emotional game for the team, its fans and Hunter.

John Sickels recently unveiled his list of top 20 Twins prospects and topping the list is Tyler Robertson.  The top five is pitching heavy with four pitchers amongst the top spots and the only position player in the top five is outfielder Ben Revere.  Those five players grabbed a B rating or better with Tyler Robertson getting the only B+.

Also, the Twins picked up outfielder Craig Monroe from the Cubs for a player to be named later.  Monroe is one of those weird players who hacks away yet manages to drive in runs because he’s good for 20-25 homers a season.  His name should sound familiar because he played with in the division and while he put up some solid seasons in Detroit, they gave up on him last year during their playoff run.

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.

Alright, the Twins got the job done.  They rolled into Chicago and left with a half game lead over the White Sox for the Wild Card. 

Torii Hunter and Jason Bartlett were the heroes on Friday.  Hunter hit a huge three run homerun in the sixth to give the the Twins a 4-3 lead.  The White Sox tied the game up in the bottom half of that inning, but in the ninth, Bartlett singled home Lew Ford for the game winner.  Brad Radke lasted only two innings and it was Jesse Crain who picked up the win with two shutout innings.

The pen really tried to blow a fair start by Johan Santana yesterday, but Nick Punto’s RBI single in the eleventh gave the Twins the win.  Joe Nathan gave up a two run homerun in the ninth to Jermaine Dye and that sent it into extra frames.  Punto, Rondell White and Jason Tyner all had two RBIs in the 8-7 win.

The winning ended today wit Carlos Silva.  He gave up three more homeruns over six innings and he dropped to 8-12.  The only Twins’ run came in the first inning when Michael Cuddyer singled home Punto.

The Twins are off tomorrow and then they have three against the Royals.  It’s imperative that the Twins take care of business against Kansas City.  The Twins have only a half game lead so there’s very little margin for error here.