Twins Notes PLUS 2007 AL Central Preview - ChiSox Edition

That's Jermaine Dye in the picture.
Apparently, one time he shot a deer.

Opening Day is now three days away, and I admit, this blog has been ill-prepared for Opening Day so far.
Still have to do the Sox, the Twins, the Tigers...and of course bitch about Ron Gardenhire. This is all complicated by the fact that I have to do a story about the SD HS Bball Player of the Year (for the four of you who care, he averages 31 ppg and his initials are Louie Krogman), and I have to do a story about how the Stampede think they're going to win the Clark Cup.
They're not.
(Hartigan, that was a test to see if you're paying attention.)

The Twins have swallowed very hard and decided to keep Carlos Silva as their 5th starter, while sending Matt Garza to Triple-A.
At this point the move isn't really a major deal. The big deal was picking up Silva's $4.35 million option in November. That led to this.
Honestly, Garza could use more starts in AAA, especially since he'd be skipped a couple times in April if he was with the Twins. As Terry Ryan said, "This isn't about Silva. It's about Garza."
But that's not really the issue.

What bothers me is the Twins essentially lied to Garza, Scott Baker, Kevin Slowey and Glen Perkins when they told them they were all in competition for a spot.
Because all four of them pitched better than Silva, and all of them except for Baker pitched better than Sidney Ponson and Ramon Ortiz. Yet back to Rochester they go.
If you're not going to give the kids a shot, don't tell them the jobs are open in the first place.
Funny, the Twins believe they can contend for the AL Central, which figures to be the toughest division in baseball, and their own Triple-A team might have a deeper and better starting rotation.
If there's a silver lining here, it's that all indications are that Silva will be on a short leash. With all that talent in Rochester, Ortiz and Ponson probably will too. But if the Twins were to end up ditching all three of them, they'll have wasted $9 million in salary, which is just stupid for a small-market team.
Yes, the Twins could survive all this and still make the playoffs. But why make themselves go through with it?

Okay, on to the Pale Hose.
I think the White Sox are on the way down.
They're still a good team, and are still capable of winning the AL Central. But they're getting older, and Ozzie Guillen has been talking crazy all spring.
He wants to emulate the Twins, he says, and play small ball.
I get that, because that's what they did in 2005 (sort of), and it got them a World Series championship.
But I don't know that small ball is really what propelled the Twins and Tigers into the playoffs last year, and I don't think the Sox are necessarily built for that this year.
I've got serious questions about their rotation, and the bullpen is inferior to the Twins' and Tigers'. What's worse if you're a White Sox fan is that key players such as Dye, Mark Buehrle and Joe Crede are almost certainly in their last year with the team, so this is probably it for a couple years.
Probable Starting Lineup:
LF Scott Podsednik
CF Darin Erstad
DH Jim Thome
1B Paul Konerko
RF Jermaine Dye
3B Joe Crede
C AJ Pierzynski
2B Tadahito Iguchi
SS Juan Uribe
Starting Rotation:
LH Mark Buehrle
RH Jon Garland
RH Jose Contreras
RH Javier Vazquez
RH John Danks
Closer: Bobby Jenks

You'd be hard pressed to find two guys at the top of any order who will get on base less than Podsednik and Erstad. They both run well, but are actually just not very good offensive players.
3-6 is a murderers row, no question, but no way Dye repeats last year's numbers, while Thome, at 36, is always a threat to have injuries. Iguchi would be batting in front of them if Ozzie knew how to make a lineup, while Uribe finished last in all of baseball in OBP. He's terrible.

The Sox hit 236 homers last year, improved their OBP from .322 in their title year to .342, and led the league in batting avg. with runners in scoring position.
Yet Guillen says: "We hit too many home runs (last year). Our situational hitting was horrible. This year we're going back to small ball."
Good luck with that Ozzie. This is a prime example of a manager using his own poor memory to make decisions, rather than looking at those annoying things smart people call statistics (so that's the reason Ozzie and Gardy get along so well).

Buehrle had a terrible season last year, which made it all the more surprising to me that they traded their best starter, Freddy Garcia.
Garland is a solid No.2, but I don't think he's any better than Boof Bonser. Their 3-5 guys don't scare me, either.
Jenks has had a terrible spring, but he had a terrible spring last year, too, and still ended up with 41 saves. The rest of their pen is decent, led by Matt Thornton and Mike MacDougal.

The good: Except Podsednik, every hitter in their lineup could hit 20 homers in a full season, with their 3-4-5 guys all capable of 40-45. Rotation is full of innings-eaters. Jenks appears to be a top-tier closer. A nice bench.
The bad: Their 9-1-2 hitters could all post sub-.300 OBPs. That really sucks. If Buehrle is the same pitcher he was last year, they'll really regret trading Garcia.
Best-case scenario: Podsednik and Erstad find their stroke, and get on base for the big boys, who stay healthy and rip another 230 homers. Buehrle returns to ace status, while Garland, Contreras and Vazquez all throw 200 solid innings. Sox win the pennant.
Worst-case scenario: Ozzie's small-ball craziness is a poor fit for a team dominated by sluggers. Erstad is released by June, while Thome and Dye can't quite repeat last year's heroics. All of the starters pitch like 4's, and the pen is shaky. Sox struggle to reach .500.
Chicago White Sox
Manager: Ozzie Guillen
Offense: B
Defense: B
Starting Pitching: C
Bullpen: B
Bench: B
Prediction: 86-76, 3rd in AL Central.

Darrell Evans sucks and more rotation stuff

UPDATE: The Twins have cut Mike Venafro, despite the fact that he pitched 10 scoreless innings this spring, and despite the fact that competent lefties are somewhat scarce. Venafro could easily catch on somewhere else (he has a 4.09 ERA in 307 career major league games), but said he will consider reporting to Rochester. If that happens the Twins are too lucky for their own good.
And worse, just when I began to credit Gardy for seeing the light, the Strib reports that it looks like he's had a change of heart, and that Carlos Silva will in fact get the last spot in the rotation, with Matt Garza going back to Triple-A.
Awesome.

FSN replayed Game 5 of the 1987 ALCS Monday night as part of their Twins Classics series.
This was the most enjoyable replay of a 'classic' game I've ever watched, mostly because I didn't remember any of it.
I was 7 years old in 1987, and while I know I watched every game of that year's playoffs, the only ones I really remember were Games 1 (which I attended in person), 2, 5, 6 and 7 of the World Series (I remember that worthless buffoon, Tom Lawless, hitting that big 3-run homer in Game 5. Fuck him, by the way. I hope he's dead. (I felt bad for writing that, so I checked. He's not dead. So double-fuck him).

And even though I didn't remember that particular game itself, watching it brought back a lot of memories of players I loved, players who were responsible for me falling in love with baseball.

Some other observations from a game that happened 20 years ago. Really.

*Bert Blyleven's curveball was unbelievable. Wow. Better than Kerry Wood, better than Darryl Kile, better than Tom Gordon. WOOOOOSHHH!
*Kirby swung at everything. EVERYTHING. He's chasing shit in the dirt and over his head, then he gets rung up on a pitch on the corner at the belt. Geez.
*Randy Bush comes up in a big spot in the 8th and lifts a sac fly to center for a big insurance run. I don't think there would be a better way to epitomize Randy Bush's underrated Twins career than that AB.
* No knock on the G-Man (or the Rat, if you prefer), but Tom Brunansky should've got the ALCS MVP.
* Dan Schatzeder. Terrible in regular season, lights out in playoffs as the only lefty out of the pen. Ironically, the same thing happened in '91, when a largely useless David West turned nasty against Toronto in the ALCS.
*Tom Kelly was only 37. Darrell Evans was 40, and while he hit 34 bombs that year (amazing for a 40-year old), he was a paraplegic in the field and on the bases, a major factor in the series.
*Stirrups are ugly.
* Tony Kubek was 1.9 million times better as a color man than Tim McCarver.
* Jeff Reardon. Not that good, really. He had a 4.48 ERA in '87. That's about three runs higher than our man Joe Nathan.
*Don Baylor, Gaetti, Bush, Al Newman, Frank Viola, Kirk Gibson, Alan Trammell, Chet Lemon, Matt Nokes. All played in this game, all went on to coach or manage at some level after their playing days. There's probably some more I'm not aware of.

Turning our attention to the modern-day Twins:
*Turns out Carlos Silva does, in fact, have the ability to refuse a demotion to Triple-A. But if he did that, he would become a free-agent, and sacrifice the $4.5 million the Twins owe him for this year, so doubt that'll happen.
Unless Silva throws 7 shutout innings in his next start, my money's on Matt Garza for the final spot in the rotation. If Garza does get that last spot, I bet Silva gets sent to Triple-A (with Terry Ryan and Ron Gardenhire quietly hoping that he's dumb enough to refuse the assignment, getting them off the hook for the 4 and a half mil).

*Sidney Ponson threw six shutout innings with no walks Monday afternoon. His sinker is working. Maybe he'll turn out okay.

*JD Durbin relieved Ponson and was terrible. There's no way he makes the team, even if the Twins keep 12 pitchers. That means he'll have to clear waivers for the Twins to send him to Triple-A. I doubt that'll happen - he'll get claimed - but I don't think losing Durbin is the end of the world. He's got a nice arm, but I don't think he's a future All-Star.
Everyone kicked and screamed when Michael Ryan and Mike Restovich ran out of options and were claimed off waivers, and they are both still in the minors.

*Mike Venafro pitched another scoreless inning, making it 10 this spring. If the Twins do decide to keep 12 pitchers, I hope he's one of them.

Gardy catches the clue train?

The Twins made a series of controversial moves this off-season, all of which involved their starting rotation.
While Boof Bonser, Matt Garza, and possibly Scott Baker, Glen Perkins and Kevin Slowey all seemed like solid candidates to fill out the rotation, which lost Brad Radke to retirement and Francisco Liriano to injury, it was understandable that the Twins would want to bring in a veteran or two, so that the Twins weren't literally sending out 4 rookies to try to win a pennant.

Before that happened, though, the Twins picked up a $4 million option on RH Carlos Silva, whose three seasons in the Twins rotation had gone good, great and terrible.

Considering the Royals gave Gil Meche, a pitcher with lesser career credentials than Silva, a 5 year, $55 million deal, it sort of made sense.

Then came the additions of Sidney Ponson ($1 million) and Ramon Ortiz ($3 million).
Silva, Ponson and Ortiz were all coming off terrible, and I mean terrible, 2006 seasons, and now Ron Gardenhire was guaranteeing them all a spot in the rotation, leaving only one opening for the crew of youngsters (never mind the fact that if anyone deserved to be guaranteed a spot it was Bonser, who pitched like a No. 2 for the last two month).
And while Boof has locked up that lost spot, the talk all spring has been that he would be No. 5.
This would be colossally stupid, since the 5th starter gets skipped a few times, and Boof is clearly the Twins 2nd best starter.

It seemed the Twins were making the exact same mistake they did last year, when they handed jobs to shitty veterans (Juan Castro and Tony Batista), and nearly played themselves out of contention.

However, it's starting to look like the Twins (read: Gardy) learned their lesson last year after all.
Silva gave up 9 runs in 3.1 innings in his last start. He now has an 11.02 ERA this spring.
It's clear he's still the pitcher he was last year (if not worse), not the pitcher that finished 5th in the AL in ERA in 2005.
Finally, after that start, Gardy admitted that Silva cannot enter the season in the rotation if he's pitching this poorly.
The 5th spot is now down to Silva and Garza. With a 3 inning, 1 run relief effort Sunday, Garza has now pitched 12 innings this spring and allowed two runs.
While I know the Twins would love to get Garza some more minor league experience (he's pitched only a handful of games above A-ball), it appears he might've finally overtaken Silva for the last spot.
And in another shocking moment of intelligence from Gardy, he said that he expects Bonser to in fact, be the No. 2 starter.
("Looks to me like he's our second best starter," Gardy said. To which the entire Twins fan-base answered: "No shit!")

Not only is this good because Garza's flat out better than Silva, it's good because it shows the team that Gardy is perhaps finally going to inject some accountability into the process of winning jobs.
In the past, we've seen many veteran players, like Castro, Batista, Lew Ford, Rondell White, Shannon Stewart, Doug Mientkiewicz, Rick Reed and now Silva just to name a few, who Gardy has babied simply because they were veterans.
Maybe that will finally stop.

Ortiz and Ponson are still worth worrying over (Ortiz entered today's start with a 0.75 ERA, and was hammered for 6 runs on 9 hits in 4 innings, Ponson's spring ERA is 6.30), but at the very least, we can be reasonably sure that their will be a much quicker hook for these guys than there was for Castro and Batista last year.
With Perkins, Slowey and Baker (and perhaps Garza) in Triple-A, the Twins can't afford to let these guys stink it up.

The big question now is, what happens to Silva?
It sounds like the Twins are going to take 12 pitchers North, something they haven't done in several years (and that, scarily, is as much because of the team's lack of decent bench options as it is the pitching woes).
They would've loved to make either JD Durbin or lefty specialist Mike Venafro that 12th guy. But now perhaps Silva is the 12th guy, with Garza as the 5th starter. This wouldn't be bad, because it would give Silva some 'extended spring training' by being able to try and work through his problems on the side and in mop-up duty.

But if Durbin doesn't make the team he's gone, and Venafro would likely catch on somewhere else as well. Wouldn't seem worth losing them if Silva never pans out.
There's also the chance Silva gets sent to the minors, I don't believe he has the required service-time to refuse an assignment (a la Kyle Lohse last year).
The problem with that is Silva is somewhat of a head-case, and I don't see him taking that well at all (Silva insists he's fine and that his spring ERA is nothing to worry about, incidentally).

Personally, I have no idea how this is going to shake out. I'm just encouraged that Gardy finally seems willing to make decisions based on effectiveness, not seniority.

2007 AL Central Preview - Cleveland Indians

I have to admit, I kind of hate the Indians. Every year everyone talks about them like they’re the goddamm ‘27 Yankees, and every year they underachieve. For the record, Sports Illustrated has picked the Tribe to win the Central this year.
But you know, maybe they aren’t actually underachieving.
Maybe, if you’re like me, you looked at their team last year, picked by many, many morons to win the World Series, and said: “Gee, this team has no bullpen. And their shorstop is fat. And Aaron Boone sucks. Casey Blake should be a bench player. Their rotation is full of 4th starters after CC Sabathia.”

No, the Indians didn’t underachieve, it turns out. They played about like they should’ve under the above circumstances. That doesn’t mean they can be counted out this year. Boone is gone. The bullpen has been upgraded. The fat shortstop, Jhonny Peralta, might go back to his 2005 form. And a couple of those 4th starters look capable of being 2s or 3s.
Probable Starting Lineup:
CF Grady Sizemore
2B Josh Barfield
C Victor Martinez
DH Travis Hafner
SS Jhonny Peralta
RF Trot Nixon
1B Casey Blake/Ryan Garko
LF David Delluci/Jason Michaels
3B Andy Marte
Starting Rotation:
LH CC Sabathia
RH Jake Westbrook
LH Cliff Lee (DL)
RH Paul Byrd
LH Jeremy Sowers
RH Fausto Carmona
Closer: Joe Borowski
Sizemore is a stud at the top of the order and in CF. Truly one of the most dynamic players in the game. Victor Martinez is the only challenge to Joe Mauer as the AL's best hitting catcher, and Travis Hafner might be the most complete offensive player in the game. Those three alone make the Indians lineup a tough one. Josh Barfield is a quality player at second, and Trot Nixon is a good addition in RF. If Peralta gets his groove back, and young 3B Andy Marte proves ready, this will be a great lineup, regardless of how the platoons at 1B and LF work out.

The rotation has good potential. Cliff Lee opens the year on the DL, and will be replaced by Fausto Carmona (who isn’t very good). But Sabathia is still a legit No.1, and young lefty Jeremy Sowers might end up being their second best starter.
Paul Byrd and Jake Westbrook could be aces on a bad team, and are solid as middle-of-the-rotation guys.

The bullpen still isn’t very good. They signed Keith Foulke to a $5 million deal, and he promptly retired. Joe Borowski, who lost his job as Cubs closer to LaTroy Hawkins, is the closer. I never liked Bob Wickman, but he was much better. Former Twin Aaron Fultz, Rafael Betancourt, and 64-year old Roberto Hernandez, will also work out the Tribe pen.

The good: Strong lineup is still young, could rebound for a big offensive season. Rotation is solid top to bottom.
The bad: Not a great defensive team besides Sizemore, bullpen could be much improved and still be below-par.
Best-case scenario: The usual suspects keep mashing, while Nixon has a big year and Peralta returns to form. Marte develops into the game’s next great young 3B, the rotation stays healthy, and the bullpen holds up admirably. Tribe win the pennant.
Worse-case scenario: Aside from Sizemore, Hafner and Martinez they don’t get much offense. Defense costs them too many games, and the rotation is banged up. Bullpen is terrible again. Tribe lose 85 games.

Cleveland Indians
Manager: Eric Wedge
Offense: B+
Defense: C
Starting Pitching: B
Bullpen: D+
Bench: B
Prediction: 83-79, 4th in AL Central.

Yankees Suck

Remember the Rally Monkey?
That was gay.

AL Central Preview - KC Royals

This team has been soooo bad for soooo long.
When will it end?
Not this year. Or next.
One, they’re in a really tough division, and two, they spent the last half-dozen or so years doing nothing.

They weren’t winning, but they weren’t really rebuilding either. Their drafts continuously failed to produce quality players (hell, even quality prospects), and when they traded away veterans, they rarely got anything decent in return.

On that front at least, things are looking up a little bit for the Royals. They have two of the best offensive prospects in baseball in Alex Gordon and Billy Butler. Gordon appears set to open this season in KC, at 3B. That would move the Royals best current player, Mark Teahan, to RF. Butler is a future DH, and probably a year away. Luke Hudson looked like a promising starter last year, and No. 1 pick Luke Hochevar could be in the majors this year. He’s the best pitching prospect the Royals have had since they traded David Cone for Sean Hearn.
Zack Greinke looked like a top prospect until he took a year off for personal reasons. He came back and showed some promise, but that year off might have cost him a chance to become a frontline starter.

So while Royals fans can at least take comfort in knowing that there finally appears to be a light at the end of the tunnel, it’s still a very long tunnel. And the fact that new GM Dayton Moore thought it was a good idea to give Gil Meche a 5-year, $55 million contract this season, makes you wonder if they won’t again find a way to screw it up. Bottom line: 2007 could see them lose 100 games for the fifth time in six years.

Probable Starting Lineup
CF David DeJesus
2B Mark Grudzielanek/Esteban German
LF Mark Teahan
DH Mike Sweeney
RF Emil Brown/Reggie Sanders
3B Alex Gordon
1B Ryan Shealy
C Jason Larue/John Buck
SS Angel Berroa
Starting Rotation
RH Gil Meche
LH Odalis Perez
RH Zack Greinke
RH Luke Hudson
Elarton/Duckworth/Bannister
Closer: Octavio Dotel
Teahan developed into a solid player midway through last season, hitting .290 with 18 homers in 393 ABs. CF David DeJesus (pictured above) is a pretty good player, too. Mark Grudzielanek (who begins the year on the DL) is a great fielding 2B, and is still decent with the stick. Jason LaRue is a decent hitting catcher, and will push incumbent John Buck, who’s been a disappointment so far.
Some of their young arms show promise. Octavio Dotel isn’t much of a closer, but he’s better than Ambiorix Burgos (traded to the Mets). Mike Sweeney’s been talking all spring about staying healthy, but I, like many, are no longer listening. The guy’s washed up. I don’t see him making any impact, especially with Ryan Shealy at 1B and with Brown, Sanders, Teahan, Gordon, Butler or someone else available to take the ABs at DH.
The rotation is iffy. Meche is a similar pitcher to Kyle Lohse yet landed that $55 million, and Odalis Perez has struggled ever since making the All-Star team with the Dodgers. They’ll be followed by Greinke, Hudson and a fifth starter yet to be determined. Familiar names like Jimmy Gobble, Brian Bannister, Dewon Brazelton (he was picked after Joe Mauer and Mark Prior), Brandon Duckworth and others are somewhere in the mix for spots as a starter or reliever.
The good: Some developing young hitters, solid defense. Rotation should be a little better.
The bad: They’re simply below par in every area, even the ones they’ve improved.
Best-case scenario: Gordon is the AL Rookie of the Year, and Butler arrives midway through and shows promise. Teahan and DeJesus take another step forward, while Meche, Greinke, Hudson and Perez all post sub-5 ERAs. Royals flirt with .500 and finish with 76 wins.
Worst-case scenario: Gordon and Butler aren’t ready, and Meche badly fails to earn his contract. The rotation is a mess, and the bullpen is no better. Royals lose 105 games.
Kansas City Royals
Manager: Buddy Bell
Offense: C
Defense: B
Rotation: D
Bullpen: D
Bench: D
Prediction: 64-98, 5th in AL Central

One week later, 10-9

I was dying to update after the Twins caught fire this past week, but was unfortunately stuck without internet access in Rapid City, covering HS basketball.

While I was gone, the Twins went from 4-8 to 10-9, with most of their regulars getting hot at the plate, and most of their pitchers becoming un-hittable.

Some notes:
Boof Bonser is a lock for the rotation, having pitched 11 scoreless innings in his last three starts.
Apparently, Ron Gardenhire has him penciled in as the No. 5, which is stupid.
He should be the No. 2 behind Johan Santana.

Ramon Ortiz has a 0.75 ERA through three outings. I'm slowly starting to believe he could be a solid starter this year. Keeping my fingers crossed anyway.

Scott Baker has quietly settled down, having cut his ERA in half (though it's still 9.64 - that tells you how bad he was early on). I haven't given up on Baker, and hopefully the team hasn't either.

Kevin Slowey was cut Sunday after allowing three runs in one inning of work. That isn't why he was cut, as the three runs were largely due to cheap Texas-League hits. He'll go to Triple-A and pitch every five days, and I'll make the bold prediction that he makes his first Major League start later this season.

Carlos Silva continues to be up and down. He credited Santana for getting on his case at a recent bullpen session, in which CyTana urged Cheif to "stop thinking about mechanics and just throw."
This is the kind of stuff that makes for good copy in the paper, but it doesn't sit particularly well with me. If Silva's going to be effective this year, it's going to be from working with pitching coach Rick Anderson, not from the Little League wisdom of more talented teammates.

Friend of Twinstown Lee S. takes me to task for dissing Jason Tyner, but I'm going to stick to my guns.
Tyner, who is hitting .167 with just one walk this spring, has a career OPS of .624, which is unfathomably horrible (Braves pitcher Mike Hampton has a career OPS of .646). He's never homered in his career, which in itself isn't a big deal, but if you have a putrid .315 career SLG %, you'd better have better than a .309 OBP.
In fairness, the Twins would not have won the AL Central without him last year, and he showed an impressive knack for clutch hits, even against lefties. You just always had a good feeling when he came to the plate, certainly more so than with Lew Ford.
I think he could be a decent pinch-hitter, and while I'd love to see him hit .312 again this year, I wouldn't count on it.

I've noticed that one of the quickest ways to make Twins fans testy is to rip on fringe players who play hard (though I'm pretty sure they all play hard).
I got tons of emails last year from fans saying something to the effect of, "I can't believe how you keep ripping on Lew Ford, he plays hard and plays the game the right way and blah, blah, my kid loves him, blah, blah, he signed an autograph for my wife, blah, blah."

I don't have anything personal against any of the Twins (except maybe Joe Mauer for being totally boring). I don't like Lew Ford, and I wish the Twins would've released him this off-season, for one reason and one reason alone: He sucks at playing baseball. I'm sure he's a great guy.

These numbers should be enough to make any Twins fan smile.
Justin Morneau - .343
Jason Kubel - .353
Jason Bartlett - .303
Torii Hunter - .333
Rondell White - .300
Josh Rabe - .304
Chris Heintz - .357
Luis Castillo - .481
Michael Cuddyer - .350

Not bad. Especially if you compare some of them to where they were a week ago (below).

Within the next week I'll be putting up my predictions for '07, including a breakdown of each team in the AL Central.

Just as a reminder, last year I predicted the Twins would win the Central, Detroit would be the surprise team of the AL, Cleveland would be the most disappointing team in the AL, and that Justin Morneau would hit 34 homers.
Yes, I'm very smart.

4-8-1, updating the roster races

The Twins are off to a most unimpressive 4-8-1 start in Grapefruit League play.
More disconcerting than their actual record is the fact that injuries and in some cases poor planning is leaving them thin in a few areas, and many players are just plain stinking it up so far.

The Twins are hitting .233 as a team, with a .291 OBP and .339 SLG.
In other words, they have been the equivalent of nine Juan Castro's.

Some of the major culprits:
OF/1B Garrett Jones leads the Twins with 27 at-bats, and has just two hits, for a .074 average. Jones has been around forever as a power-hitting Triple-A first basemen, and made the move this spring to RF, since the path to the majors is obviously blocked at 1B. The Twins are giving him a long look, and he's falling on his face.

*Jason Tyner, .160
*Nick Punto, .130
*Justin Morneau, .167
*Jason Bartlett, .238
*Josh Rabe, .143
*Matt LeCroy, .211

So who is hitting?
Michael Cuddyer, .348
Torii Hunter, .333
Jason Kubel, .409
Mike Redmond, .333
Jeff Cirillo, .375 (3 for 8)
Luis Castillo, .333 (3 for 9)
Joe Mauer, .286
Chris Heintz, .400

Luis Rodriguez, who the Twins seem determined to get rid of at any cost despite having no alternatives for utility infielders, leads the team with 2 homers and 7 RBI.

A few other random notes:
*Lew Ford is out for 4-6 weeks after knee surgery, opening a spot on the roster.
I've begged and pleaded for the Twins to get rid of Ford, but they insisted on bringing him back, even at the ridiculous price of $985,000. Now they're paying him almost a million to sit on the DL.

*Sidney Ponson pitched poorly in his first spring start, but Ron Gardenhire went out of his way to make excuses for him. He's making it pretty clear that he has his heart set on Ponson as his 5th starter, regardless of the actual performance of the candidates. Sounds a lot like last year, when Barlett hit. 377 in spring training and Castro hit .183, and the shorstop job went to Castro.

*Glen Perkins pitched well in his first start, and has added a sinker to his repertoire. Good thing, since he, by his own admission, 'led organized baseball in fly-ball outs' last year.

*Matty LeCroy is probably finished as a big leaguer. He's too banged up and out of shape, and doesn't have the bat speed. My guess is he spends this year in Triple-A, maybe gets a call-up or two, and then retires. He wants to become a coach, and the Twins are already interested in using him as such.
I'll throw in the token reminder that the Twins kept this guy over David Ortiz. 54 homers in 2006, David Ortiz.

*The Twins lineup will be as strong as it's ever been, especially if Kubel keeps hitting and Rondell White plays like he did in the second half last year (both are pretty solid bets).
Unfortunately they're likely to have a poor bench. Tyner is now the primary backup OF, with Kubel serving as a 5th OF when he isn't DH'ing.
With no power, a below-average arm and little plate discipline, Tyner isn't as good as he appeared last year. I like him, and he belongs on the team, but the more time he spends on the bench the better.
And there's still no backup shorstop. L-Rod might make the team now with Ford out, but he still wouldn't be the backup at short, and Gardy refuses to simply slide Punto over on occasion and play Cirillo at 3rd (which could of course be economical and smart, but Gardy doesn't think that way).
Rule V pickup Alejandro Machado is still hurt, likely ruling him out of the competition. Alexi Casilla is under consideration, but he needs to play every day in Rochester.

*The answer may come in a trade, as the Twins could move one of their young arms (Scott Baker, JD Durbin perhaps) for an IF (hopefully not Juan Castro).
The Twins might keep 12 pitchers, too, and that would likely mean a spot for Durbin, who's out of options.
I've also heard that the Twins could consider releasing Matt Guerrier, who's been very reliable in long relief the last two years, to make room for Durbin, whom they understandably don't want to lose for nothing.

*Boof Bonser and Ramon Ortiz both pitched well in their last start. Carlos Silva continues to be up and down. Despite what they're saying publicly, it's pretty clear that those three have the 2-4 spots in the rotation locked up. Matt Garza returns from a sore neck to start Tuesday, and he is probably the one guy who has a decent shot to take the 5-spot from Ponson.

*Luis Castillo is battling sore legs (surprise!). Not only is this certainly his last season with the Twins, but I'm also placing the over-under on games for Luis this year at 100. It's a good thing Cirillo is aboard. He's the only decent spare part the team has.

*Randy Choate, a lefty with ML experience the Twins brought in as a possible second lefty out of the pen, was roughed up again Sunday. He's given up 7 runs and 8 hits in 4.2 innings. No way he makes the team.
However, Mike Venafro, another journeyman lefty, has been great, allowing no runs on two hits in 5 innings. He's still got a shot, especially if they take 12 pitchers.

*Thought there would be more haters out last week. Though the two lists submitted were both pretty good.

I Hate That Guy

Every winter I get so goddam sick of snow and cold that I convince myself spring training is the greatest thing ever, but in the last week I've realized that unless you're there (and I've gone 4 times), it's not really that great.
The games are boring because mostly scrubs play, it doesn't matter who wins, and Sportscenter still talks about nothing but college basketball.
Man I hate college basketball.
It used to be good when there were seniors. Like Jamal Mashburn and Christian Laettner.
Now it's lame. March Madness can lick my bung.
(I saw Christian Laettner at a gas station in Minneapolis a couple years ago. He had a beard.)

So yeah, I could talk about Matt Garza's sore neck (not a big deal), Carlos Silva's 3 scoreless innings Monday (encouraging), or the offense still sucking (slightly annoying), but I'm not going to bother. When they start making cuts, then it might be worth watching.

In the meantime, I thought it might be amusing (it will at least be amusing to me), to add another series to the oft-delayed (but still active, I promise) 'ugliest athletes' series.

This one will be, athletes I really, really hate.
I know what you're thinking.
Oh, I don't know, hate's a pretty strong word.
Well if that's really what youre thinking, I hate you.

There's such a huge pool of candidates. So many guys over the years who just pissed you off so much it made your teeth hurt.

Deion Sanders. Michael Irvin. Leon Lett. Jerry Jones.

See how much fun that was, and that was just one team!
Please feel free to offer your own contributions to the list. I know that the world of professional sports is literally teeming with dudes you've got a major hate-on for. Let's hear 'em. (I'm also taking suggestions for more uglies. I'm leaning towards Zane Smith for the next one.)

So let's go with the hate. I'll start.

Athlete I Hate No. 1
Manny Ramirez
Boston Red Sox OF
Man I hate this guy.
The laziest, most selfish, defensively challenged shameful excuse for a baseball player in the Majors. He's like Terrell Owens, only he doesn't play as hard.
I even hate David Ortiz now just by association. And because Ortiz is the dumbass that coined the dumbass phrase 'Manny being Manny', which is a euphemism for 'Manny being a spoiled, selfish prick who doesn't care about winning and only cares about his horrible haircut and swinging for the fences. (Ironically, the photo I chose to run with this entry came from a blog titled 'I love Manny Ramirez'. So I picked it out of spite)
The dude's a great hitter, but he's the worst OF in baseball, a terrible baserunner, and he's just plain dumb. I hate dumb people.
Show up for camp on time for once asshole.
And you know why the Sox haven't traded you? Because no one wants your overpaid ass stinking up their clubhouse.
Manny Ramirez, I hate you.

Nice knowin' ya, Scott

I set my alarm for 11:55 Sunday, so I could get up just in time to watch the Twins spring game agaisnt the Red Sox.
Instead, a women's college basketball game was on.
The Twins came on in the 6th inning, by which time they were already down 6-1, thanks to another miserable outing from Scott Baker.
He allowed five runs in two innings, raising his spring ERA to 24.30. In 3 1/3 innings he's allowed 13 hits and nine runs.
Terrible.

It's early, but with the stiff competition for spots in the ro', he's already pretty much taken himself out of the running.
The bigger question is whether or not he's pitched his last game as a Twin.
Besides the rotation, the Twins (more specifically, Ron Gardenhire's) biggest concern going into the season is finding a backup shortstop. Jason Bartlett played 99 consecutive games after his call-up last year, and the Twins don't want to make him play that much this year.

Luis Rodriguez looks unlikely to make the team because he's not an adequate shortstop, and Alejandro Machado, a Rule V pick from Washington who was brought in to perhaps fill the utility role, is hurt. Considering he hit only .260 in Triple-A last year, I don't think Machado is the answer anyway.
Alexi Casilla is a possibility, but the Twins want him to play every day in the Minors, which, since he skipped Triple-A on his way to a September call-up last year, is the smart thing to do.

Gardy hinted at a trade, and it wouldn't be surprising to see the team try to move Baker and or JD Durbin, who they would likely lose anyway (he's out of options and probably won't make the team).
Of course, if Nick Punto fails to play as well as he did last year, and Jeff Cirillo plays well, we could see Cirillo take over most of the ABs at 3rd, with Punto taking on a larger utility role, where he could get plenty of ABs at 2b, 3b and shortstop. That would leave a spot open for Rodriguez or perhaps Matt LeCroy, who Gardy would no doubt love to keep because of his misguided craving for a 3rd catcher.

*Torii Hunter was beaned in the side of the head by a Kyle Lohse fastball on Friday.
After an initial concussion scare, it turns out he's fine.
Lohse removed himself from the game after the pitch, and Hunter blamed it on Hammond Stadium's poor lighting (he's not the first to bring that up).
While Hammond Stadium was lauded when it was first built in 1991, it has already fallen into the lower tier of Major League spring training stadiums. Hunter swore afterwards he would refuse to play in any night games there until the lighting is improved.

*Saturday the Twins lost 14-1. Boof got roughed up, but the rest of the runs came against no-names that won't make the team anyway.

The Twins are now winless in five spring training games.
They've been outscored 35-9.
Not worth losing sleep over, but disconcerting to be sure.

Garza - good, Silva, Baker - bad

In the first baseball game the Twins have played since their vomitous loss in Oakland in Game 3 of last year's ALDS, Matt Garza pitched two perfect innings and struck out David Ortiz. (How depressing is it that we make such a big deal about a pitcher striking out a guy that used to be in our lineup? Sad. I digress.)
He was followed by Scott Baker, who (surprise!) couldn't keep the ball down and was hammered.

His reaction afterwards?
"I'm not disappointed in my performance." (1 inning, 4 runs, for the record. Might want to make sure you've got a nice place to stay in Rochester, Scott.)

That was followed today by Carlos Silva. Both Silva and the Twins staff seem awfully confident that the Chief will get back on track this year, but you couldn't ask for a worse omen than Johnny Damon taking him deep to lead off the game.

Ouch, Chief.

Silva pitched two innings and gave up 5 runs.

Granted, I'm getting way ahead of myself considering we're talking about a handful of pitches here, but what happens if Silva and Ortiz are both terrible this spring?
We know Ponson will simply be let go if he doesn't win a job, but Ortiz is guaranteed $3.1 million, Silva $4 million.
What if Bonser, Garza, Ponson and Baker all pitch lights-out the rest of the spring?
You can't just ignore that and give Silva and Oritz a job can you?

I hope this team hasn't dug itself a Tony Batista-sized hole.