Updated Combined Twins Bench and Bullpen Battle Dashboard; 3/23/12

This is the latest update of the Twins' Bench Battle and the Bullpen Battle Dashboards, to track player performance to date this spring. Performances include those in the last game vs the Yankees earlier this afternoon. You can read the basic premise behind the Bench Battle Dashboard here and behind the Bullpen Battle Dashboard here. At this point, there are 11 position players fighting for 3 bench sports and 9 pitchers fighting for 3 bullpen spots.

I will be updating them daily and post daily updates. Caveat: I am flying to Fort Myers and traveling pretty much the whole day tomorrow, so expect the next update after Sunday's game. Players who were assigned to the minor league camp were removed from the dashboards but kept in the rankings, denoted by "(MILB)". One thing I am doing differently from now on (Because if I kept the old way these would be very hard to read and very small) is to not denote performance on a particular day (and use DNP if someone did not play) but list them sequentially. An advantage of this way of listing is to see which players played more, which means that the Twins are interested enough to have many looks. Because it is getting close to the season and the pitching staff has been somewhat of a concern, I am listing the performances of the pitchers who are "locks" to make the team, but do not include them in the rankings.

Here is what the Bench Battle Dashboard looks like today:

Here is what the Bullpen Battle Dashboard looks like today:

Here is the ranking of the position player combatants today (based on position) :

Catchers:

-----
Rene Rivera 2.0
J.R. Towles 0.76
Daniel Rohlfing 0.67 (MILB)
Drew Butera 0.41
Danny Lehmann 0.28 (MILB)
Chris Herrmann 0.1 (MILB)
----
Danny Rams -0.98 (MILB)

Infielders:

Chris Parmelee 3.1
Mike Hollimon 2.0

----
Luke Hughes 1.9
Aaron Bates 1.3 (MILB)
Sean Burroughs 1.3
Ray Chang 1.1 (MILB)
Brian Dozier 0.78
Brian Dinkelman 0.77
Tsuyoshi Nishioka 0.84 (MILB)
Pedro Florimon 0.28
----
Steve Pearce -0.31 (MILB)


Outfielders:

Joe Benson 2.3
----
Wilkin Ramirez 0.43 (MILB)
Matt Carson 0.29 (MILB)
----
Darin Mastroianni -0.01 (MILB)
Rene Tosoni -0.07 (MILB)
Oswaldo Arcia -0.33 (MILB)

Here is the ranking of pitcher combatants today:

Matt Maloney 54.8
P.J. Walters 54.3 (MILB)
Casey Fien 53.2
Liam Hendriks 53.2
Jared Burton 51.7
Carlos Gutierrez 51.3 (MILB)
Luis Perdomo 51.3 (MILB)
Kyle Waldrop 51.2
---
Esmerling Vasquez 51 (MILB)
Daryl Thompson 50.8 (MILB)
Lester Oliveros 50.3 (MILB)
Samuel Deduno 50.2 (MILB)
Aaron Thompson 50 (MILB)
Tyler Robertson 49.7 (MILB)
Jeff Gray 49.5
Scott Diamond 49 (MILB)
---
Jeff Manship 48.6
Brendan Wise 47.6
Phil Dumatrait 46.2 (MILB)
Alex Burnett 45.8
Deolis Guerra 42 (MILB)
Jason Bulger 38.3 (MILB)
Terry Doyle 31.3 (MiLB - returned to White Sox)




As always you can find all Spring Training coverage at The Tenth Inning Stretch here.

Ranking the Twins hitters by Spring Training OPS

Because a lot of write-ups and reports from the beat writers about the Twins' Spring Training performance are mentioning how someone is "hitting", using only their batting averages (70s anyone?), I felt that it might be a good idea to rank all the Twins' hitters based on Spring Training OPS (which is a tad more meaningful.) Players denoted with "MILB" have been assigned to the Twins Minor League Camp. Clearly some players are having great performances, while other are struggling. We all know who there are. Also, in this ranking, a couple of cuts seem very curiously premature. Here is the list:

Hollimon 1.246
Parmelee 1.011
Valencia .923
Benson .884
Chang .883 (MILB)
Bates .879 (MILB)
Rivera .871
Hughes .867
Casilla .816
Span .783
Revere .778
Dozier .761
Mauer .746
Doumit .733
Dinkelman .714
Burroughs .713
Willingham .710
Towles .705
Plouffe .654
Butera .636
Nishioka .589 (MILB)
Florimon .508
Ramirez .481 (MILB)
Carroll .477
Carson .448 (MILB)
Mastroianni .445 (MILB)
Rohlfing .400 (MILB)
Herrman .333 (MILB)
Pierce .310 (MILB)
Tosoni .289 (MILB)
Lehmann .286 (MILB)
Morneau .258
Arcia .222 (MILB)
Rams .000 (MILB)

Updated Combined Twins Bench and Bullpen Battle Dashboard; 3/22/12

This is the latest update of the Twins' Bench Battle and the Bullpen Battle Dashboards, to track player performance to date this spring. Performances include those in the last game vs the Orioles earlier this afternoon. You can read the basic premise behind the Bench Battle Dashboard here and behind the Bullpen Battle Dashboard here. At this point, there are 11 position players fighting for 3 bench sports and 9 pitchers fighting for 3 bullpen spots.

I will be updating them daily and post daily updates. Players who were assigned to the minor league camp today are indicated with "MILB" and are italized in the dashboards. Players cut earlier, were removed from the dashboards but kept in the rankings, denoted by "(MILB)". One thing I am doing differently from now on (Because if I kept the old way these would be very hard to read and very small) is to not denote performance on a particular day (and use DNP if someone did not play) but list them sequentially. An advantage of this way of listing is to see which players played more, which means that the Twins are interested enough to have many looks. As a bonus, because it is getting close to the season and the pitching staff has been somewhat of a concern, I am listing the performances of the pitchers who are "locks" to make the team, but do not include them in the rankings.

Here is what the Bench Battle Dashboard looks like today:

Here is what the Bullpen Battle Dashboard looks like today:

Here is the ranking of the position player combatants today (based on position) :

Catchers:

-----
Rene Rivera 2.0
J.R. Towles 0.76
Drew Butera 0.73
Daniel Rohlfing 0.67 (MILB)
Danny Lehmann 0.28 (MILB)
Chris Herrmann 0.1 (MILB)
----
Danny Rams -0.98 (MILB)

Infielders:

Chris Parmelee 3.4
Mike Hollimon 2.3
Luke Hughes 2.1
----
Aaron Bates 1.3 (MILB)

Ray Chang 1.1 (MILB)
Brian Dozier 1.0
Sean Burroughs 0.85
Brian Dinkelman 0.76
Tsuyoshi Nishioka 0.84 (MILB)
Pedro Florimon 0.46
----
Steve Pearce -0.31 (MILB)


Outfielders:

Joe Benson 2.5
----
Wilkin Ramirez 0.43 (MILB)
Matt Carson 0.29 (MILB)
----
Darin Mastroianni -0.01 (MILB)
Rene Tosoni -0.07 (MILB)
Oswaldo Arcia -0.33 (MILB)

Here is the ranking of pitcher combatants today:

Matt Maloney 54.8
P.J. Walters 54.3 (MILB)
Casey Fien 53.2
Liam Hendriks 53.2
Jeff Manship 52.5
Jared Burton 51.7
Carlos Gutierrez 51.3 (MILB)
Luis Perdomo 51.3 (MILB)
---
Esmerling Vasquez 51 (MILB)
Daryl Thompson 50.8 (MILB)
Kyle Waldrop 50.8
Lester Oliveros 50.3 (MILB)
Samuel Deduno 50.2 (MILB)
Aaron Thompson 50 (MILB)
Tyler Robertson 49.7 (MILB)
Jeff Gray 49.5
Scott Diamond 49 (MILB)
---

Brendan Wise 47.6
Phil Dumatrait 46.2 (MILB)
Alex Burnett 45.8
Deolis Guerra 42 (MILB)
Jason Bulger 38.3 (MILB)
Terry Doyle 31.3 (MiLB - returned to White Sox)




As always you can find all Spring Training coverage at The Tenth Inning Stretch here.

Updated Combined Twins Bench and Bullpen Battle Dashboard; 3/21/12

This is the latest update of the Twins' Bench Battle and the Bullpen Battle Dashboards, to track player performance to date this spring. Performances include those in the last game vs the Tigers earlier this afternoon. You can read the basic premise behind the Bench Battle Dashboard here and behind the Bullpen Battle Dashboard here. At this point, there are 14 position players fighting for 3 bench sports and 11 pitchers fighting for 3 bullpen spots.

I will be updating them daily and post daily updates. Players who were assigned to the minor league camp were removed from the dashboards but kept in the rankings, denoted by "(MILB)". One thing I am doing differently from now on (Because if I kept the old way these would be very hard to read and very small) is to not denote performance on a particular day (and use DNP if someone did not play) but list them sequentially. An advantage of this way of listing is to see which players played more, which means that the Twins are interested enough to have many looks. As a bonus, because it is getting close to the seasons and the pitching staff has been somewhat of a concern, I am listing the performances of the pitchers who are "locks" to make the team, but do not include them in the rankings.

Here is what the Bench Battle Dashboard looks like today:

Here is what the Bullpen Battle Dashboard looks like today:

Here is the ranking of the position player combatants today (based on position) :

Catchers:

-----
Rene Rivera 2.5
J.R. Towles 0.97
Drew Butera 0.73
Daniel Rohlfing 0.67 (MILB)
Danny Lehmann 0.28
Chris Herrmann 0.1 (MILB)
----
Danny Rams -0.98 (MILB)

Infielders:

Chris Parmelee 3.6
Luke Hughes 2.5
Mike Hollimon 2.2
----
Aaron Bates 1.3 (MILB)
Sean Burroughs 1.1
Ray Chang 1.1
Brian Dozier 1.1
Brian Dinkelman 0.76
Tsuyoshi Nishioka 0.84 (MILB)
Pedro Florimon 0.55
----
Steve Pearce -0.31 (MILB)


Outfielders:

Joe Benson 2.8
----
Wilkin Ramirez 0.43 (MILB)
Matt Carson 0.29
----
Darin Mastroianni -0.01 (MILB)
Rene Tosoni -0.07 (MILB)
Oswaldo Arcia -0.33 (MILB)

Here is the ranking of pitcher combatants today:

Matt Maloney 54.8
P.J. Walters 54.3 (MILB)
Casey Fien 53.2
Jeff Manship 52.5
Liam Hendriks 52.4
Jared Burton 51.7
Carlos Gutierrez 51.3 (MILB)
Luis Perdomo 51.3 (MILB)
---
Esmerling Vasquez 51 (MILB)
Daryl Thompson 50.8 (MILB)
Kyle Waldrop 50.8
Lester Oliveros 50.3 (MILB)
Samuel Deduno 50.2
Aaron Thompson 50 (MILB)
Tyler Robertson 49.7 (MILB)
Jeff Gray 49.5
Scott Diamond 49 (MILB)
---

Brendan Wise 47.8
Phil Dumatrait 46.2
Alex Burnett 45.8
Deolis Guerra 42 (MILB)
Jason Bulger 38.3 (MILB)
Terry Doyle 31.3 (MiLB - returned to White Sox)




As always you can find all Spring Training coverage at The Tenth Inning Stretch here.

Can the Twins' "new" utility infielder be an old one?

We have heard rumors that the Twins might be shopping "outside the organization" for a utility infielder after the demotion of Nishioka.

These rumors have just started a couple days ago, and are fairly interesting. If I had to venture a guess, the Twins will not have to search far to find a utility infielder and the "new" utility infielder would not even need to move far to join the Twins' camp in Spring Training. The writing in the wall is almost getting clear:

Looking across the street in the other Fort Myers' spring training team, it looks like Mike Avila, Jose Inglesias and Pedro Ciriaco are ahead of our old friend Nick Punto for the 3 Red Sox vacancies of starting short stop and potential bench spots.

Is there a reunion of the Twins with Nick Punto in the cards? Only time will tell, but I do not discount the possibility...

Random Tuesday Twins Thoughts and Tidbits

Here is this week's installment (also heavily influenced by Spring Training) :

• I am on my way to Fort Myers this weekend. There will be in situ coverage of the Twins major league and minor league camps, as well as games all next week from there. So make sure that you check here early and often. This will also give me a chance to update my Fort Myers Spring Training Guide for next season. I am also planning on a few surprises, but those will have to wait. I will be tweeting a lot during the games and as I get news about the Twins, so feel free to follow me on twitter @thrylos98 or come back here and see my latest Twins tweets at the left hand side of the page.


• By now we all know about the second round of the Twins' cuts, and I suspect sending Nishioka to Rochester was a bitter pill to swallow, but the right decision. This opens the door for someone like Mike Hollimon to win a roster spot. At this point, the Twins might want to take Nishioka off the 40-man roster as well. If he gets claimed, he does, if he does not, nothing lost and a spot gained... I also suspect that there might be a trade or 2 before the rosters get finalized.


• Speaking of Nishioka, I sure hope that the Rochester Red Wings are now paying his translator instead of the Twins. They can afford him with all the income they are getting by the Yankees and by selling Yankee paraphernalia in their web site.


• Speaking of the cuts... the one that I kinda find unreasonable at this point is Aaron Bates. He has been outperforming a lot of people, and it is a shame he was cut, while Matt Carson, Brian Dinkelman and Danny Lehmann are still around.


• This is a killer video of the Twins' Spring Training. A MUST watch.


• Twins' LHP pitching prospect Ryan O'Rourke, blogged about his first days in the Twins' minor league camp in Fort Myers. So does fellow pitching prospect Dakota Watts.


• At least certain Twins' players enjoyed St. Patric's day. Can you identify the one not identified? Hint: all 3 of them were in Rochester for at least parts of last season, and 2 of them were cut yesterday. Meanwhile another Twins' player, was at least thinking of sporting the Jose Reyes look (before haircut).


• I would not "panic about Justin Morneau" (and I do not "panic"), but I might be a tad concerned about Jason Marquis and Carl Pavano at this point. A quote by Marquis from that ESPN1500 link with the Morneau story: "I worked in my slider and today was the first day I used it. I wouldn't say excessively, but I felt like it was where I needed it to be. So I was pretty excited about it." All I have to say is that I am glad to see that he is pretty excited about the outcome...


• Meanwhile, both Cleveland and Kansas City lost their closers for a while and the White Sox have traded theirs a while ago... On the other hand the Royals' Broxton is having a nice Spring Training. Additionally, the new Tigers' third baseman, loves to stop line drives with his face.


• If you live around the Twin Cities area and have a taste for Twins' minor league ball, make sure that you check out Territory Train. I think that they follow the major league team around too.


• It started yesterday, but I think that since the Do you know your Twins? challenge has been a hit, and since I have lots of Twins' memorabilia to give away, I may continue doing that. At least on a monthly basis


• Continuing the Twins' product of the week feature. Because there are so many out there and some of them are, well... interesting. But this one, I ordered one for myself. This weeks' winner is: MLB Minnesota Twins Classic Baseball Bracelet
  

The parting shot today is of dearly departed (to Rochester) Tsuyoshi Nishioka in full Chiba Lotte Marines regalia. I hope he returns to the performance he had then, via Rochester, soon.

Contest: do you know your Twins? Game-used bat reward

Here are the members of the Minnesota Twins' Hall of Fame:

Harmon Killebrew
Rod Carew
Tony Oliva
Kent Hrbek
Kirby Puckett
Calvin Griffith
Herb Carneal
Jim Kaat
Bert Blyleven
Tom Kelly
Bob Allison
Bob Casey
Earl Battey
Frank Viola
Carl Pohlad
Zoilo Versalles
Gary Gaetti
Jim Rantz
Rick Aguilera
Brad Radke
George Brophy
Jim Perry
Greg Gagne
Camilo Pascual

Here is the challenge: Find the one who is different than the others. That's the game. I'll let it run until I return from Fort Myers early April. The first person who will guess who is different that the others and why, will win a game used bat of a Twins' first round pick.

And you have to guess in the comments section here.

Shoot :)

the winner will be announced early April

Updated Combined Twins Bench and Bullpen Battle Dashboard, and a bonus; 3/19/12

This is the latest update of the Twins' Bench Battle and the Bullpen Battle Dashboards, to track player performance to date this spring. Performances include those in the last game vs the Red Sox earlier this afternoon. You can read the basic premise behind the Bench Battle Dashboard here and behind the Bullpen Battle Dashboard here.

I will be updating them daily and post daily updates. Players who were assigned to the minor league camp were removed from the dashboards but kept in the rankings, denoted by "(MILB)". Also, I have denoted today's cuts the same way as well. One thing I am doing differently from now on (Because if I kept the old way these would be very hard to read and very small) is to not denote performance on a particular day (and use DNP if someone did not play or MILB if they were assigned to the minors) but list them sequentially. An advantage of this way of listing is to see which players played more, which means that the Twins are interested enough to have many looks. As a bonus, because it is getting close to the seasons and the pitching staff has been somewhat of a concern, I am listing the performances of the pitchers who are "locks" to make the team, but do not include them in the rankings.

Here is what the Bench Battle Dashboard looks like today:

Here is what the Bullpen Battle Dashboard looks like today:

Here is the ranking of the position player combatants today (based on position) :

Catchers:

-----
Rene Rivera 2.5
Drew Butera 1.0
J.R. Towles 0.97
Daniel Rohlfing 0.67 (MILB)
Danny Lehmann 0.28
Chris Herrmann 0.1 (MILB)
----
Danny Rams -0.98 (MILB)

Infielders:

Chris Parmelee 3.2
Mike Hollimon 2.5
----
Aaron Bates 1.3 (MILB)
Ray Chang 1.3
Luke Hughes 1.3
Sean Burroughs 1.1
Brian Dozier 1.1
Brian Dinkelman 0.89
Tsuyoshi Nishioka 0.84 (MILB)
Pedro Florimon 0.63
----
Steve Pearce -0.31 (MILB)


Outfielders:

Joe Benson 2.2
----
Wilkin Ramirez 0.43 (MILB)
Matt Carson 0.37
----
Darin Mastroianni -0.01 (MILB)
Rene Tosoni -0.07 (MILB)
Oswaldo Arcia -0.33 (MILB)

Here is the ranking of pitcher combatants today:

Matt Maloney 54.6
Liam Hendriks 54.5
P.J. Walters 54.3 (MILB)
Casey Fien 53.6
Jeff Manship 52.5
Samuel Deduno 52.3
Jared Burton 51.7
Carlos Gutierrez 51.3 (MILB)
Luis Perdomo 51.3 (MILB)
---
Esmerling Vasquez 51 (MILB)
Daryl Thompson 50.8 (MILB)
Kyle Waldrop 50.8
Lester Oliveros 50.3 (MILB)
Aaron Thompson 50 (MILB)
Tyler Robertson 49.7 (MILB)
Scott Diamond 49 (MILB)
---
Jeff Gray 48.3
Brendan Wise 47.8
Phil Dumatrait 46.2
Alex Burnett 45.8
Deolis Guerra 42 (MILB)
Jason Bulger 38.3 (MILB)
Terry Doyle 31.3




As always you can find all Spring Training coverage at The Tenth Inning Stretch here.

Updated Combined Twins Bench and Bullpen Battle Dashboard; 3/18/12

This is the latest update of the Twins' Bench Battle and the Bullpen Battle Dashboards, to track player performance to date this spring. Performances include those in the last two games vs the Marlins yesterday and vs the Pirates earlier this afternoon. You can read the basic premise behind the Bench Battle Dashboard here and behind the Bullpen Battle Dashboard here. I will be updating them daily and post daily updates. Players who were assigned to the minor league camp were removed from the dashboards but kept in the rankings, denoted by "(MILB)".

Here is what the Bench Battle Dashboard looks like today:

Here is what the Bullpen Battle Dashboard looks like today:

Here is the ranking of the position player combatants today (based on position) :

Catchers:

-----
Rene Rivera 2.5
J.R. Towles 1,1
Drew Butera 1.0
Daniel Rohlfing 0.67
Danny Lehmann 0.28
Chris Herrmann 0.1
----
Danny Rams -0.98 (MILB)

Infielders:

Chris Parmelee 3.0
Mike Hollimon 2.5
----
Aaron Bates 1.3
Ray Chang 1.3
Brian Dozier 1.3
Luke Hughes 1.3
Brian Dinkelman 0.93
Tsuyoshi Nishioka 0.84
Sean Burroughs 0.78
Pedro Florimon 0.55
----
Steve Pearce -0.31 (MILB)


Outfielders:

Joe Benson 1.9
----
Wilkin Ramirez 0.43
Matt Carson 0.02
----
Darin Mastroianni -0.01 (MILB)
Rene Tosoni -0.07
Oswaldo Arcia -0.33 (MILB)

Here is the ranking of pitcher combatants today:

Liam Hendriks 54.5
Matt Maloney 54.3
P.J. Walters 54.3
Casey Fien 53
Jeff Manship 52.8
Kyle Waldrop 52
Jared Burton 51.4
Carlos Gutierrez 51.3
Luis Perdomo 51.3
---
Esmerling Vasquez 51
Daryl Thompson 50.8
Samuel Deduno 50.5
Lester Oliveros 50.3 (MILB)
Aaron Thompson 50 (MILB)
Tyler Robertson 49.7 (MILB)
Scott Diamond 49 (MILB)
---
Brendan Wise 47.8
Jeff Gray 46.5
Phil Dumatrait 46.2
Deolis Guerra 42 (MILB)
Alex Burnett 41.3
Jason Bulger 38.3
Terry Doyle 31.3




As always you can find all Spring Training coverage at The Tenth Inning Stretch here.