3/21/15

Twins Spring Training Report from Fort Myers: 3/21/15: A Tale of Two Starters

The Twins has a couple split squad games today, against the Rays at Port Charlotte and at the Hammond Stadium against the Orioles.  Here are my notes from the home game:

After Alex Meyers' demotion yesterday, there are only 3 pitchers left in the battle for the 5th rotation spot:  Mike Pelfrey, Tommy Milone and Trevor May.  The last 2 started the respective games today, with Milone taking the node for the home game.  While May ended up pitching a no-hit 4 innings at Port Charlotte, Milone had an adventurous start in Fort Myers.   He is a pitcher who really needs to be spot on and if he is not, it is like a batting practice, and the Orioles showed that in the second inning, when they timed perfectly his 83-87 mph Fastballs, hitting them all over the park, and one (by former Twin Steve Pearce) off the staircase that leads to the RF berm, for a HR.  He complemented his fastball with a 79-81 mph change and a 73-75 mph curve that were hit and miss.  Totally unimpressed with Milone, maybe because I do not think much about LH junk ball pitchers, but I think that after today Milone took a step back from Pelfrey and May in that competition.

To be noted: in the Orioles 4-run second inning, Josmil Pinto was hit three times!  by Adam Jones' back swing on the head and left the game after the inning was over.  Mildly surprised that the Twins' pitchers did not retaliate for their catcher, but the next pitcher who faced Adam Jones, was Glen Perkins...   Perkins had a decent outing, other than hanging an 82 mph slider to Delmon Young for a HR in the 5th.  9 pitches, 6 FBs (90-92,) 3 SLs (81-82) all but one strikes, but a strike was a long one too.   He was pounding the zone, but he is at least 4-5 mph with both of his pitches from where he needs to be.

Brian Duensing pitched 2 scoreless innings and he seems in mid-season form with all 4 of his pitches working:  His Fastball was 89-91, threw 2 curves at 73, one for a looking strike,  got a ground out and a couple of  looking strikes with a mid 80s change and his slider was fairly lively at the low 80s, inducing a couple of jammed pop ups.   Watching JR Graham pitch was a treat and I think that the Twins have found a good one.  Will be very surprised if he does not make the team.  He pitched 2 scoreless innings, and here is the sequence of his pitches (fastball unless mentioned) :  First inning: 91-ball (B), 93 swinging strike (SS), 94 ground out (GO).  94 fly out (FO). 94 Foul (F), 84 (SLider) Looking Strike (LS), 86 (SL) SS.  Second inning:  92 Hit. 95 B, 91 B, 93 LS, 94 F, 95 F, 81 (CHange up) B, 93 LS - K. To Mr Parmelee: 91 B, 96 F, 85 (SL) B, 84 (SL) F,  85 (SL) SS - K. 95 SS, 92 B, 95 B, 96 GO.   Very good movement with the fastball, and, as you can see, he does very his speeds.  Changeup is not his stronger pitch and he threw only one, but his slider is above average.  Looking forward to seeing him this season with the Twins.

As far as position players, disappointed with Torii Hunter who killed a couple of Twins' rallies, the first by hitting into a double play with the bases loaded and one out on the first and the second by striking out with runners in scoring position and one out.  If you read the box score, you'd think that Danny Santana had a good day with two hits,  but what the box score does not show is a couple of awful swinging strike outs and a dropped ball when Rohlfing tried to throw the runner away that ended up moving the runner to third.  I think that the battle for the starting Shortstop position is neck to neck as far as Santana and Eduardo Escobar are concerned.  Hicks had a bad day at the plate and had a mishap (took a bad route and the ball dropped inches from his foot, but was too shallow) at the outfield that went for a double and a trapped ball that he could have caught.  Between the four centerfield contenders nobody has really pulled ahead at this point.  Eddie Rosario is hitting .242/.235/.515, Shane Robinson .269/.345/.385, Hicks .222/.313/.370 and Jordan Schafer .217/.357/.261.  Pick your poison.   Oswaldo Arcia had a good play with the glove on a shallow fly ball that he aggressively called Hicks away and fielded cleanly; that ball would had been an adventure for Willingham last season.

Really impressed with the improvements at Hammond Stadium, but there are a few things sorely missing:  A couple of (small) infield boards; one to indicate balls and strikes and outs and the other pitch velocity.  The main board is not visible from all outfield seats well.  But there is always next year.

Tomorrow and Monday, there are no home games for the Twins, so expect full coverage of the action at the minor league fields.


3/20/15

Twins Spring Training Report from Fort Myers: 3/20/15: Where are the fastballs?

Today the Minnesota Twins hosted the Pittsburgh Pirates at Hammond Stadium.  As usual, before the game I trotted by the minor league fields that today were hosting a celebrity from the baseball world:


A dad watching his kid pitch a bullpen:


And then walk with him after he was done:

 
Interesting enough, not many fans had an idea of who the dad was.   And he was about as humble as a baseball superstar as I have seen.  He had his picture taken with fans and shook his head and smiled when I told him that his kid has a great arm, from one dad to another.  And Derek Rodriguez does have a great arm.  He was tossing nice crisp fastballs when he got his mechanics right. But his mechanics were all over the place to begin and his pitching coach was there talking to him pitch after pitch, and Derek incorporated the feedback.  I think that making the transition to pitching will be hard, but I think that he has the determination, the tools and the family and Twins support to do it.  Will likely start 2015 in Extended Spring Training, but I fully expect him to see him progress fast.

Every Spring Training there are a couple of players who are relatively unknown, but do make an impression to me.  The first one I will point this year is Jack Barrie, a 19 year old Aussie First Baseman who made his pro debut last season with the GCL Twins.  This kid has Kennys Vargas written all over him.  Great plate presence, quick wrists, one to keep an eye on.  And I bet you never have heard of him. 

Back to the big boys playing the Pirates.  Kyle Gibson started for the Twins and after his recent discussion about adding velocity,  I was betting that we'd see at least one 95 mph fastball on the (2 mph or so) fast Hammond Stadium radar, and we did.  The problem with Kyle today was that his 93-95 mph fastballs were lacking the movement and the downward break his 90-92 mph fastballs did.  Also his slider was not there (he threw 2 in the first innings, including the first HR to Cervelli).  In the third inning, he seems that he threw all sliders and change ups.  At least he was working the kinks out.  No worries about Gibson.

In a tale of two who are fighting for the 25th man spot on the roster.  Eduardo Nunez beat out a cleanly-fielded ground ball to the SS (our own Pedro Florimon, btw) for an infield hit and managed to steal second two pitches afterwards.  Shane Robinson (who is fighting for the same spot,) drove him in with a scorcher on the first base line and then, after Dozier was hit by a pitch to fill first, was thrown out at third on a double steal that found Dozier safe and sound at second.  Robinson had some decent plays at left today, but I still think that Nunez is probably fighting with Herrmann (who did not play) for this spot as is now...

Back to arms.  Blaine Boyer came in to pitch in the middle of an inning and was effective.  And then pitched another inning and was effect, but in his second inning his velocity picked up a few notches.  His fastball moved from 89-90 all the way to 93-94, his curve from 73 to 76 and he threw some change ups at mid 80s (all well commanded, btw,)  which made me think that indeed there might be some pitchers who are different (and better) if they come up with no outs and no ons on the top of an inning.  Michael Tonkin and Stephen Pryor followed.  Tonkin, who have since been opted, topped up at 94 and so did Pryor, who really did some nifty glovework in a comebacker, which made me think whether there are any real fastball pitchers left on the roster, since that gun is 2 mph or so fast and these 3 are pitchers touted to hit high 90s.  Maybe too early, but still somewhat concerning...

In another note, it was great to see Toper Anton again, and meet Steve Lein and John Bonnes.  See you guys around the next few days.


3/19/15

Best Fantasy Baseball Bets On Minnesota

The Minnesota Twins might not be ready to be a playoff contender in 2015, but they will definitely show improvement with their young roster. They are taking a somewhat long approach to rebuilding, but they have one of the most talented minor league systems in the game right now. For 2015, there are at least a few individuals who should be able to put up some pretty nice fantasy baseball numbers.

Brian Dozier might not be a household name around baseball, but he is turning into one of the best 2nd baseman in the game. He might not hit for a very high average, but he brings power and speed to the table. He is also a very disciplined hitter, so his on-base percentage will help players to play in a league with that type of format.

Glen Perkins had a few nagging injuries last year, but he was still pretty productive in the closer role for the Minnesota Twins in 2014. His ERA shot up a little bit, but he still finished with 34 saves and a pretty nice strikeout rate. He is going to slip a little bit in fantasy baseball drafts, but he still provides decent value.

Finally, Joe Mauer is still probably considered to be the face of the franchise despite the fact that he is clearly in decline. He is officially a full-time 1st baseman, but that’s still doesn’t help him stay in the lineup on a consistent basis. Injury issues really held him back in 2014, as he hit just 4 home runs and drove in 55 while hitting .277. His dynamic should go up a little bit, but the power numbers aren’t going to get all that high. At a deep position my 1st base, he probably slips out of the top 20 and therefore brings very little value except in deeper leagues.



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This post has been contributed by Hanna Miller

Twins Spring Training Report from Fort Myers: 3/19/15 Perk and the Prospects

Today the Minnesota Twins played against the Rays at Fort Charlotte, which meant minor league side by side double-header action of Rochester and Chattanooga against the Red Sox' AAA and AA squads at fields 4 and 5 of the Complex.  

The much anticipated moment today was the return of Glen Perkins who got the first inning with the AAA club against the PawSox.   Based on reports from people who were at Fort Charlotte, he did not feel any pain.   He was carted to and fro field number 4, which is the furthest away from Hammond Stadium and he threw warmup tosses to Kyle Knudson, who was also the starting Catcher for the Red Wings.   During the game, he threw 14 pitches, most strikes.  His fastball was sitting at 90-91, hitting 92 and 93 once each.  His slider was at 81-82, all figures that are a good 4-5 mph below his season form, but it is still the second (he pitched against the Gophers) game for him.  During his warm ups he did seem to throw a couple of changeups, but could had just been slow fastballs.  All in all a good appearance, but he has to ramp up pretty quickly.



The second biggest name, as far as players are concerned, was Miguel Sano who played at Field number 5 with the Chatanooga squad.  His agent, Rob Plummer, was on site and had a change to have a very enlightening (but off the record) conversation with him.  Interesting guy and he seems really proud of the fact that he signed Sano when he was 14.  Miguel answered with a three-run monster home run that likely broke a window or two at the subdivision past the fence, with this swing, off William Cuevas :



As a side note, Sano appears fitter than last season.

Speaking of celebrities, Tom Kelly was at hand and had a chance to meet with one of his former pitchers, Paul Abbott, who pitched for Kelly's Twins from 1990-1992:




I had a chance to see several other prospects and here are quick notes:

Greg Peavey was selected by the Twins from the Mets in the AAA portion of the Rule 5 draft last winter.  He came in to pitch after Glen Perkins in the AAA side and was pretty impressive.  He has three pitches:  A 90-91 mph Fastball, a low 70s slow curve and a low 80s change.  Pitching mostly with the first 2, but his change did produce strikeouts.  Good control and command of all his pitches, very fluid motion; he is definitely a dark horse.  A mature pitcher.  Also in the AAA side of things, Cole Johnson made a good appearance.  He is a fastball slider pitcher with his FB hitting 94 but his slider location was inconsistent.  Pretty early in Spring training for that.

On the AA side of things, both Nico Goodrum and Michael Gonzalez appear different.  Gonzalez appears much fitter and for the 27 year old, this might be his last chance in a Twins' uniform. Goodrum has been working with a personal trainer this off-season and he got some muscle.  He is also taking much more robust at bats, than last Spring Training.  If you squint really hard, you might confuse him with Byron Buxton, as far as physique goes:



As far as the pitchers at the AA side went, Tyler Duffey started, but I chose to look at Glen Perkins and Greg  Peavey next door.  I did have a good look at Jeff Reed, who was unhittable at the Arizona Fall League and was really impressed.  His fastball was at 95-96 this early and his slider at high 80s.  I will not be surprised is he and Nick Burdi are with the big club come August or so.  Interesting 3/4 delivery with a fairly aggressive motion.  Tim Shibuya pitched a couple good innings.  He is really deceptive and one of those "rubber arm" guys.  Good repeatable mechanics, good control and command, I really see him as the long man in a major league bullpen some day. 

It was a treat seeing Jorge Fernandez, my 19th Twins' prospect, to catch today.  Really good hands , excellent feet (he got a guy out on a difficult high bounce off the home plate) and very good receiving ability.  I never had any doubts about his bat, but really liked what I saw with the glove today.   He is a guy who is not considered a prospect, does not get many praises, but I really enjoyed watching Stephen Wickens play today.  Good fundamentals and instincts on both sides of the ball, good glove and versatility, might get the 26 year old into the big leagues some day, if he gets his contact rate and plate discipline a bit higher.

As a parting shot, here is Sam Perlozzo, the long time major league coach and manager, who started his playing career with the Twins, having an 1 on 2 base-running tutoring session with the Twins' number 2 and 3 prospects.


Tomorrow the Twins are hosting the Pirates at Hammond Stadium and I will be there.  You can find all my 2015 Spring Training posts here





3/18/15

Twins Spring Training Report from Fort Myers: 3/18/15

Today was my first full day at Fort Myers and the Twins had a split squad duo of games, with the half of the team hosting the Orioles at Hammond Stadium and the other half a few miles away playing the Red Sox at Jet Blue Park.  This was the second year in a row as far as renovations went for the facilities, and the Hammond Stadium looks really great.   The front facade is extended to both broaden the concession place plaza and put a roof over it and to host a couple new elevators and gift shops.  There are 4 gift shops in all now, which are much better than the single closet-size one that was there 3 years ago.  The main one, which about the size of an average AA ballpark gift shop, even had Miracle T-shirts.

For some reason there was no pregame batting practice on field number six, as it has been the norm the seasons before; I suspect that it has to do with the split-squad games today.  Joe Vavra was throwing batting practice to someone's kid in the under-stadium cages.   Not much activity in the minor league parks also;  Sporadic batting practice at the Chattanooga, including Miguel Sano and DJ Hicks hitting some good ones off Stew Cliburn, who looks scarily like Rick Anderson these days.  Jorge Polanco and AAA infielders had bunt practice at the Rochester field.  Nothing much there as far as minors go, other than Nick Burdi was surrounded by a whole slew of autograph seekers when he showed up.   No home game tomorrow, so I will be able so spend a full day with the prospects.

As far as the game today went, there were a few things of note: 

In the first inning, Joe Mauer hit a routine soft grounder to the shortstop, who had a hard time fielding it, dropped it, recovered it and threw to first to get a slow trotting Mauer out.   This was not a great thing to see from the Twins' highest paid player.  Had he run full speed, he would had been safe. I hope that these kind of plays do not happen again.   On the other hand, the subsequent inning Eduardo Nunez beat out a non-trivial cleanly fielded infield single to the shortstop; hard not to see the contradictions between someone who has a job and someone who is fighting for one.

Torii Hunter is a yeller at the outfield.  And this is a good thing.  And he does not only yell "I got it".  In  couple of situations, a fly ball to right center and a shallow fly to the right, he yelled for Schafer and Dozier respectively to go and get it.  And it worked.  That was a good thing to see.  Eddie Rosario was great with the glove at left.  He did throw out Delmon Young when he tried to stretch a single, but even more importantly (and you cannot see that on the scoreboard) he took a triple away from an Orioles hitter with a great route and a great below the knee catch.  He made it look so easy, that I bet that most of the Stadium thought that it was a routine play.  It wasn't.   Speaking of routes, I am not sure that Jordan Schaefer is the best one out there.  Had a long fly really misjudged and hit the wall, allowing eventually Torii Hunter to make the throw to the infield.  That ball was catchable.  Being a left hand throwing Centerfielder might have some disadvantages.

As far as pitching went, Stephen Pryor really surprised me.  He pitched fine, but there were earlier reports about him being healthy and being back with his mid- to high-90s velocity.  He topped at 92 in Hammond Stadium's (fast) radar today, which is not extremely thrilling, to say at least.  For comparison's shake, Ervin Santana hit 93.

Back there tomorrow morning and expect a full report on the prospects, tomorrow evening.



3/16/15

First Cut at the Twins' 25-man Opening Day Roster and Analysis of Remaining Spring Training Battles

After the 18 recent cuts the Twins made (some of them unannounced yet) yesterday, the camp roster was trimmed to 43 players.  I did provide a break down of those players by position yesterday, also mentioning whether they have options or whether they are on the 40-man roster.   Based on these numbers, I am taking a preliminary look at  the Twins' potential opening day roster, position by position:

Position players (13)

Catchers (2/3)

Suzuki, and one of Pinto/Fryer/Herrmann.  Herrmann might be added as a third catcher/Utility.  Fryer is not on the 40-man roster

Infield (6/7)

Mauer, Dozier, Santana, Escobar, Plouffe.  One or both of Vargas and Nunez.  Nunez is out of options


Outfield (4/5)


Arcia, Hunter and two or three of:  Hicks, Rosario, Robinson, Schafer. Schafer is out of options, Robinson is not on the 40-man roster.

Pitchers (12)

Starting Pitchers (5)

Hughes, Santana, Nolasco, Gibson; one of Milone, Pelfrey, May, Meyer.   All have options, but Pelfrey has to accept assignment.


Relief Pitchers (7)

Perkins, Duensing, Fien

one or two of Milone, Pelfrey, May, Meyer

two or three of Pressly, Stauffer, Thielbar, Tonkin, Achter, Graham, Thompson, Boyer, Pryor, Hamburger.  Stauffer and Graham (rule 5) have no options, Boyer and Hamburger are not on the 40 man roster.

These are the major battles right now in the Twins' camp:

The Starting Centerfielder and fourth outfielder:   Hicks/Scafer/Rosario/Robinson.  The first two have higher probability to win the CF starter.  If Scafer wins, both Hicks and Rosario will be optioned because they will need to play daily, making Robinson the fourth outfielder.  If Hicks or Rosario win the starting position, both Schafer and Robinson can make it as a fifth outfielder.  Robinson is on the 40-man roster, but might take Graham's spot if he does not stick.  Verdict:  Too early to tell, but looks like Hicks & Scafer will be the 2 who are going north

The backup Catcher: Pinto, Herrmann and Fryer are fighting for one spot.  Fryer is not on the 40-man roster, thus having a bigger mountain to climb.  Herrmann will be in the utility fight as well.  Verdict:  Too early to tell, both Herrmann and Pinto have been good with the bat this Spring, Fryer has not, but has been very good with the glove.  This might go until the last days.

The Utility Position: Nunez, the one of Schafer or Robinson who did not make the cut in the Outfield and Herrmann will be fighting for one position.   Verdict: Too close.  Scafer and Nunez are out of options, Robinson is not on the 40-man roster.

The 5th Starter and one or two bullpen positions: Milone, Pelfrey, May and Meyer are fighting for one spot. Verdict:  Milone and Pelfrey are the forerunners here, in a battle that will be bought to the end with the loser going to the pen.  I think that Meyer will likely start at Rochester; May has a chance to make the Twins' pen, thus getting 2 pen positions from this group.

The final 2-3 bullpen positions:   Pressly, Stauffer, Thielbar, Tonkin, Achter, Graham, Thompson, Boyer, Pryor, Hamburger.  The three most veteran pitchers in this group (Pressly, Stauffer and Tonkin) have been the Twins worst pitchers in Spring Training, while Hamburger, Pryor, Graham and Thompson have been shining.  Verdict: This can go both ways.  The safest would be to option May, and start with Stauffer, Thielbar and Graham.  Would it be the best?  Likely not, based on what Stauffer and Thielbar have shown.  Will be interesting to see how this will shake out as well.  This decision will also be very telling about Molitor's and Allen's philosophies.


Three things the Twins need to do to compete in 2015: Part III: Fix the attitude.

This is the third and last, but not least, segment in this series.  You can find the first segment (fixing the bullpen) and the rationale for the series here, and the second segment (fixing the outfield) here.  I think that the most important (and some times the hardest or the easiest) thing to fix for the Twins to win, is the team attitude.  

How do you measure attitude and how does attitude prevent some one to win, and what is that "attitude" thing anyway.  Isn't that thing that your parents and teachers talked about when you were growing up, or something else.  Well, as far as baseball goes, I will let former Twins' player and Texas Rangers' manager Ron Washington describe it in this 30 second video.   To borrow Washington's words from there, a winning attitude is when you "expect to win" and "do everything you need to do to win".  Arguably, the Minnesota Twins the last couple of decades has as motto (at their best,) do all you can do (aka bust your tail) and you win some, you lose some.  Those were exactly the words of a smiling Michael Cudduyer at the Twins' dugout, on September 30, 2008, after the Twins lost game 163 at the White Sox (and part of the reason was that Cuddyer did not do what he needed to do to win, colliding with and forcing the ball out of AJ Pierzynski's glove to score.)

And giving it all and being "good enough" has been the Twins' motto.  And the majority of the fans were ok with "good enough", winning the title of the weakest division in baseball about half of the time, going belly up during the post-season and when they played the AL East, in the 00s.   And if the fans are happy with "good enough", you get a brand new ballpark and brand new season ticket sales and that is more that "good enough" as far as revenue goes, when it is not broken, why even bother to think about fixing it?   That was the Twins' past decade of "Glory", in half a paragraph.  And then it went South.

What happened? Well, the Twins did not even do all they could do in the ballpark; add that to a culture of favoritism in the clubhouse, where it did not matter to whether the veterans did all they could do, but when people outside the inner circle opened their mouths were thought under the proverbial bus; add that to not expecting to win, to start with, and you got 99 + 96 + 96 + 92.  And most importantly, no excuses for even the most single-sighted fans to believe that this team can win, thus a drop in tickets, thus a drop in revenue, thus...

To win, a team needs a leader who expects to win and make sure that his players and coaches do everything they need to do to win.  Here was the most common expression of the previous Twins' leader during games the last several seasons (hanging on to the dugout railing optional) :



Is this the expression someone who is doing all he needed to do to win and lead by example.  Is this the expression of someone who expects his team to win?  Or is this the expression of someone who looks defeated and solemn?  Rhetorical question.

There was not a more obvious time for me to see that the Twins players not only doing what they needed to do, but not even all they could do, and was fine with the manager and the coaches, than this particular game last spring training.  Before I went down there last season, I did have hopes that with the changes they made in the rotation, plus some players improving, had a chance to break even and have an 81-81 record.  But after what I saw, I predicted that the Twins will end up the 2014 season with a 70-92 record.

That is the past, and tomorrow I am landing at Fort Myers where I will be for more than a week and be able to see how thing are, but I have a good feeling that they are heading the right way.  Other than getting rid of their manager and pitching coach, which by itself is adding 10 wins pretty much, and replacing them with good baseball people and a Hall of Famer as manager,  they brought back Torii Hunter.  It did not make much sense at the beginning, and I think that they guy is a prick, plus he left the Twins' in free agency just for money and he added insult to the injury, by singing with the biggest division rival in his second free agency, but there might be something positive:  As I indicated here, Hunter can help the young players (who were tainted by the Twins' clubhouse attitude, it is no secret) realize that they have to at least give it all and lead by example. 

I have seen signs from Molitor that he is leading his players towards doing what they need to do.  First example, was the no-cell phone policy during game days, which was awful last season.  Players need to focus in the game and not in their social media during game day.   Second, he benched Aaron Hicks during a game for losing track of outs; a gesture that has not happened during a Twins' Spring Training since 1965, when Sam Mele, the Twins' manager, took Zoilo Versalles (the eventual 1965 MVP) out of the lineup because of lack of effort.  And you know what the Twins did in 1965.  Also, after a couple of mishaps in short fly balls and lack of communication between infielders and outfielder, Molitor had extra drills of those circumstances with the whole team.  The whole team.  In previous years, veterans and the inner circle would be excluded and only few would participate in similar drills.

There are a lot of positive signs about (at least) a realization that the teams attitude needed to change to win, and actual steps taken this direction.  I will be able to know more about how things will play out in this department, in 10 days or so, after I return from Fort Myers and see the team play this Spring.  Last year I predicted that 70-92, based on what I saw, I hope that this year, it is the reverse...


3/15/15

The 43 Players left on the Twins Spring Training roster after today's 18 cuts

The Twins announced a whole bunch of cuts today, did not announce a bunch of others.  It was a good timing in that there is no MLB game tomorrow so the cut players can play with their teammates.   According to different reports the following eighteen players were cut, officially and unofficially:

Sano, Kepler, Berrios, Buxton, Duffey, Rogers, O'Rourke, Meneses, Garver, Turner, Darnell, Polanco, Salcedo, Diaz, Wheeler , Oliveros, Farris, Grimes

Who is still remaining at the Major League Camp (in no particular order, * denotes a non-roster invitee) :

22 position players (which means 9 more cuts to go and 7 non-roster invitees, which makes the position player situation much clearer than the pitcher;  Players on the 40 man roster with options are marked with #)

5 Catchers:

Suzuki, K
Herrmann, C (#)
Pinto, J (#)
Fryer, E (*)
Rohlfing, D (*)

10 Infielders:

Dozier, B
Escobar, E
Santana, D (#)
Vargas, K (#)
Mauer, J
Nunez, E
Beresford, J (*)
Bernier, D (*)
Plouffe, T
Martinez, J (*)

7 Outfielders:

Hicks, A (#)
Rosario, E (#)
Robinson, S (*)
Arcia, O (#)
Schafer, J
Hunter, T
Ortiz, D (*)

21 pitchers (which means 9 more cuts to go and only 2 non-roster invitees)

8 Starting Pitchers:

Hughes, P
May, T  (#)
Nolasco, R
Meyer, A (#)
Santana, E
Pelfrey, M (# - but has to give consent)
Gibson, K (#)
Milone, T (#)

13 Relief Pitchers:

Duensing, B
Perkins, G
Pressly, R (#)
Stauffer, T
Thielbar, C (#)
Tonkin, M (#)
Achter, A (#)
Graham, J
Thompson, A (#)
Boyer, B (*)
Pryor, S (#)
Fien, C
Hamburger, M (*)