Who is where in the Twins' minor league system - part B: pitchers

In the previous post, I listed all the current Twins' minor league position players with their former and current affiliations. Here is a list of all the 98 pitchers in the system, including whether they are left handed (*), their age in the middle of the 2009 season, the team they played for 2008 (if they played in other organizations, the level is included instead.), and the team they are playing for in 2009. The ones with no 2009 team assigned are either in extended spring training or in the Dominican Republic. I will try to keep it up to date and please let me know whether I have listed anyone wrongly or omitted anyone.

Player	                age   2008 team	2009 team



 Ramon Acosta 	        22	DSL	

*Omar Alcala 	        22	ELZ	

 Michael Allen 	        22	BEL	BEL

 Edison Alvarez 	20	DSL	

 Henry Arias	        24	A	FTM

 Santos Arias  	        22	BEL	FTM

 Daniel Berlind         21	BEL	

*Elliot Biddle  	22	GCL	

 Steven Blevins 	22	ELZ	BEL

 David Bromberg 	21	BEL	FTM

 Alex Burnett 	        21	FTM	FTM

*Alvaro Caceres 	23	DSL	

 Eliecer Cardenas 	21	DSL	

*Kyle Carr 	        22	ELZ	

 Carlos Carrillo 	19	DSL	

 Cesar Ciurcina 	18	DSL	

 Aaron Craig          	23	FTM	

 Alex Curry  	        21	ELZ	

 Robert Delaney  	24	NB	NB

 Cole Devries  	        24	FTM	NB

 Raynard Doran  	21	DSL	

*Brian Duensing  	26	ROC	

*Jarrad Eacott  	18	ELZ	

 Blair Erickson 	24	FTM	FTM

 Matthew Fox 	        26	FTM	NB

 Armando Gabino  	25	NB	ROC

 Jhon Garcia    	22	DSL	

*Martire Garcia  	19	DSL	

 Deivi Germosen  	19	DSL	

*Jose Gonzalez  	19	DSL	

*Mike Gosling	        28	AAA	ROC

 Wilmer Guanchez 	22	GCL	

 Deolis Guerra  	20	FTM	FTM

 Pedro Guerra	        19	DSL	

 Carlos Gutierrez 	22	FTM	FTM

 Ben Hendrickson	28	AAA	ROC

 B.J. Hermsen	        19		

 Danny Hernandez  	22	FTM	BEL

*Sean Henn	        28	MLB	ROC

 Steven Hirschfeld 	23	BEL	FTM

 Philip Humber	        26	ROC	

 Shooter Hunt  	        22	BEL	BEL

*Edgar Ibarra 	        20	GCL	

 Jason Jones	        26	AAA	ROC

*Ben Julianel 	        29	NB	ROC

 Bobby Keppel	        27	AAA	ROC

 Brian Kirwan  	        22	BEL	BEL

 Timothy Lahey 	        27	ROC	ROC

 Bobby Lanigan 	        22	ELZ	BEL

 Curtis Leavitt  	22	ELZ	BEL

*Andrei Lobanov 	19	GCL	

*Jose Lugo	        25	FTM	NB

 Jeffrey Manship 	24	NB	NB

*David Martin   	23	BEL	

 Lee Martin   	        23	ELZ	BEL

 Frank Mata   	        25	NB	NB

 Michael McCardell  	24	BEL	FTM

*Jean Mijares   	21	GCL	

*Jose Mijares  	        24	MLB	ROC

*Michael Mopas  	21	GCL	

 Kelvin Mota 	        21	GCL	

*Ryan Mullins 	        25	NB	NB

 Kevin Mulvey   	24	ROC	ROC

 Miguel Munoz  	        20	GCL	

 Khol Nanney  	        24	GCL	

*Daniel Osterbrock 	22	ELZ	BEL

 Leonardo Parra   	22	DSL	

*Carmen Pignatiello	26	MLB	ROC

 Yohan Pino  	        24	NB	NB

 Bruce Pugh  	        20	GCL	

 Jay Rainville 	        23	NB	NB

 Renzo Reverol	        18	DSL	

*Henry Reyes  	        24	BEL	BEL

*Tyler Robertson	21	FTM	FTM

 Dominique Rodgers	24	BEL	

 Danny Rondon 	        22	ELZ	BEL

 Adrian Salcedo  	18	DSL	

 Angelo Sanchez 	20	GCL	

 Eddy Santana   	21	DSL	

* Reid Santos	        26	AAA	ROC

 Mauro Schiavoni 	22	GCL	

 Anthony Slama   	25	FTM	NB

 Oswaldo Sosa  	        23	NB	NB

*Spencer Steedley  	24	FTM	FTM

 Tom Stuifbergen	20	GCL	

 Anthony Swarzak  	23	ROC	ROC

*Michael Tarsi  	22	BEL	BEL

*Joe Testa  	        23	FTM	BEL

 Bradley Tippett 	21	BEL	BEL

 Michael Tonkin  	19	GCL	

 Ludovicus Van Mil 	24	BEL	FTM

 Lesmir Vargas  	22	DSL	

 Orlando Villaroel 	19	DSL	

 Kyle Waldrop	        23	FTM	FTM

 Zachary Ward  	        25	NB	NB

 Blayne Weller  	19	DSL	

 Matthew Williams 	22	FTM	FTM

 Thomas Wright    	21	ELZ	BEL

Spring Training Final Summary

I have been doing a weekly summary of the Twins' players' performance during this spring training. The 25-man roster is set, all their bags are packed, they are on their way to Minneapolis and the season opener is less than 2 days away. This is an overview on the spring performance for the players who are coming up north. As in the weekly reviews, I will indicate the position player of the Spring, but instead of having one pitcher for the best spring performance as I did in the weekly reviews, I am breaking it out to the Starting Pitcher of the Spring and Relief Pitcher of the Spring. These are the cummulative statistics of all Spring Training. (The rankings are by decreasing OPS for position players and by decreasing WHIP for pitchers, the leaders in individual statistics on each category have their numbers in the leading stats in bold) :

Position Players:


Morneau .395/.439/.711, 3 HR, 3 BB, 10 RBI (38 AB)
Buscher .393/.470/.534, 2 HR, 9 BB, 11 RBI (56 AB)
Kubel .369/.429/.524, 3 HR, 7 BB, 12 RBI, (63 AB)
Cuddyer .317/.358/.583, 2 HR, 5 BB. 9 RBI (60 AB)
Punto .353/.395/.500, 3 BB, 5 RBI (34 AB)
Gomez .283/.358/.583, 3 HR, 6 BB, 5 SB, 8 RBI (60 AB)
Harris .311/.417/.410, 1 HR, 9 BB, 2 SB, 3 RBI (61 AB)
Young .292/.313/.492, 3 HR, 1 SB, 9 RBI (65 AB)
Redmond .306/.370/.367, 5 BB, 3 RBI (49 AB)
Casilla .306/.354/.361, 5 BB, 4 SB, 6 RBI (72 AB)
Crede .189/.259/.321, 1 HR, 4 BB, 6 RBI (53 AB)
Span .190/.274/.286, 1 HR, 9 BB, 2 SB, 10 RBI (84 AB)
Morales .233/.226/.265 4 RBI (30 AB)

Position Player of Spring Training:

Justin Morneau



Honorable mention: Jason Kubel, Brian Buscher, Mike Cuddyer, Nick Punto, Carlos Gomez


Pitchers:

Starter Performance:

Blackburn ERA 2.57, WHIP 0.64, 1 BB, 4 K, 14 IP
Slowey ERA 2.13, WHIP 0.87, 2 BB, 22 K, 25.1 IP
Dickey 2.04 ERA, WHIP 0.96, 4 BB, 18 K, 17.2 IP
Liriano ERA 4.94, WHIP 1.17, 12 BB, 27 K, 27.1 IP
Perkins ERA 2.03, WHIP 1.23, 6 BB, 13 K, 31 IP
(Baker ERA 6.85, WHIP 1.73, 3 BB, 16 K, 23.2 IP)


Starting pitcher of spring training:

Kevin Slowey



honorable mention: Nick Blackburn, R.A. Dickey

Reliever Performance:

Ayala 0.00 ERA, WHIP 0.71, 2 BB, 4 K, 7 IP
Crain 4.22 ERA, WHIP 0.84, 1 BB, 8 K, 10.2 IP
Nathan 2.70 ERA, WHIP 0.90, 2 BB,10 K, 10 IP
Breslow 3.09 ERA, WHIP 1.20, 6 BB, 14 K, 11.2 IP
Duensing 2.65 ERA, WHIP 1.35, 6 BB, 7 K, 18 IP
Guerrier 5.40 ERA, WHIP 1.46, 4 BB, 8 K, 11.2 IP
Humber 7.53, WHIP 1.47, 2 BB, 5 K, 11 IP

Relief pitcher of spring training:

Jesse Crain




honorable mention: Luis Ayala, Craig Breslow, Joe Nathan

Spring training weeks 1-5 summary.

Only one week of the Spring Training is left, and this is how the Twins' players involved in position battles are performing so far. These are the cummulative statistics through week 5 with a weep more of games to go (The rankings are by decreasing OPS for position players and by decreasing WHIP for pitchers) :

Position Players:

Outfield Starter Battle:

Gomez .286/.372/.592, 3 HR, 6 BB, 5 SB (49 AB)
Cuddyer .333/.377/.583, 2 HR, 4 BB (48 AB)
Young .293/.317/.517, 3 HR, 1 SB (58 AB)
Span .154/.257/.246, 1 HR, 9 BB, 2 SB (65 AB)

Spot on the Bench vs Rochester Battle:

Buscher .348/.426/.478, 1 HR, 7 BB (46 AB)
Tolbert .283/.395/.472, 3 HR, 10 BB, 2 SB (53 AB)



Mauer's temporary replacement battle
Butera .385/.438/.462, 2 BB (13 AB)
Morales .238/.227/.238 (21 AB)


Other 25-man roster position player stats:

Punto .423/.483/.615, 3 BB (26 AB)
Morneau .353/.389/.676, 3 HR, 2 BB (34 AB)
Kubel .367/.436/.510, 2 HR, 6 BB (49 AB)
Harris .292/.393/.396, 1 HR, 7 BB, 2 SB (48 AB)
Redmond .308/.386/.385, 5 BB (39 AB)
Casilla .288/.344/.339, 5 BB, 4 SB (59 AB)
Crede .174/.240/.304, 1 HR, 4 BB (46 AB)

Position Player of weeks 1-5:

Nick Punto



Honorable mention:, Justin Morneau, Jason Kubel, Brian Buscher, Carlos Gomez, Mike Cuddyer


Pitchers:

Starter Performance:

Blackburn ERA 2.00, WHIP 0.56, 0 BB, 2 K, 9 IP
Slowey ERA 2.21, WHIP 0.84, 1 BB, 20 K 20.1 IP
Liriano ERA 5.18, WHIP 1.19, 11 BB, 24 K, 24.1 IP
Perkins ERA 2.25, WHIP 1.25, 5 BB, 7 K, 20 IP
Baker ERA 6.85, WHIP 1.73, 3 BB, 16 K, 23.2 IP

Battle for set up man:

Ayala 0.00 ERA, WHIP 0.60, 1 BB, 3 K, 5 IP
Breslow 1.80 ERA, WHIP 0.90, 4 BB, 12 K, 10 IP
Crain 4.82 ERA, WHIP 0.96, 1 BB, 6 K, 9.1 IP

On the bubble; battle for the last 1-2 spots:

Dickey 3.63 ERA, WHIP 0.95, 3 BB, 15 K, 13.2 IP
Humber 4.91, WHIP 1.09, 2 BB, 5 K, 11 IP
Duensing 0.75 ERA, WHIP 1.17, 4 BB, 5 K, 12 IP

Mijares 9.80 ERA, WHIP 2.70, 9 BB, 7 K, 10 IP

Others in the 25-man Roster:
Nathan 3.38 ERA, WHIP 1.00, 2 BB, 8 K, 8 IP
Guerrier 6.52 ERA, WHIP 1.66, 4 BB, 5 K, 9.2 IP

pitcher of weeks 1-5, spring training:

Kevin Slowey




honorable mention: Luis Ayala, Nick Blackburn, Craig Breslow, R.A. Dickey, Jesse Crain, Joe Nathan, Phillip Humber

Five more cuts today

Jason Pridie was optioned to Rochester and Sean Henn, Bobby Keppel, Brock Peterson and David Winfree were re-assigned to the minor league camp. This leaves the following 33 in the camp, which means that 8 more need to be cut for the 25-man roster to be finalized. I suspect Christie is still there not because he is competing for a position, but because the team needs 4 catchers to handle the side work for its pitchers. At this point the only player not in the 40-man roster with a chance to make the club is R.A. Dickie. When Bonser moves to the 60 day DL, a spot on the 40-man roster will open. Within the next few days, expect to hear about the fate of Jason Jones and whether he is returned to the Yankees or a trade is made to keep him in the Twins organization (probably with the Red Wings, if that happens.) As I promised, here is the update on who remains in the major league camp, broken down by category:

non 40-man roster invitees:

Mike Gosling
Sean Henn
Ben Julianel
R.A. Dickey
Bobby Keppel
Kevin Mulvey
Jeff Christy
Danny Lehmann
Toby Gardenhire
Alejandro Machado
Brock Peterson
Danny Valencia
Dustin Martin
Luis Matos
David Winfree
Rob Delaney

40-man roster:

Luis Ayala
Scott Baker
Nick Blackburn
Boof Bonser *
Craig Breslow
Jesse Crain
Brian Duensing
Armado Gabino
Matt Guerrier
Philip Humber
Jason Jones
Fransisco Liriano
Jose Mijares
Joe Nathan
Pat Neshek *
Glen Perkins
Kevin Slowey
Anthony Swarzak
Drew Butera
Joe Mauer
Jose Morales
Wilson Ramos
Mike Redmond
Brian Buscher
Alexi Casilla
Joe Crede
Brendan Harris
Luke Hughes
Matt Macri
Justin Morneau
Trevor Plouffe
Nick Punto
Deibinson Romero
Matt Tolbert
Steven Tolleson
Mike Cuddyer
Carlos Gomez
Jason Pridie
Dernard Span
Delmon Young
Jason Kubel

* = out for the season (Neshek is on the 60 day DL, Bonser is not)
strike = original invitee optioned to AAA or AA or re-assigned to the minor league camp

Who is Still in the Twins' Spring Training Major League Camp

Here is the list of the players still in the Minnesota Twins' Spring Training major league camp, broken down by category. I will be updating, as cuts and/or transactions take place:

non 40-man roster invitees:

Mike Gosling
Sean Henn
Ben Julianel
R.A. Dickey
Bobby Keppel
Kevin Mulvey
Jeff Christy
Danny Lehmann
Toby Gardenhire
Alejandro Machado
Brock Peterson
Danny Valencia
Dustin Martin
Luis Matos
David Winfree
Rob Delaney

40-man roster:

Luis Ayala
Scott Baker
Nick Blackburn
Boof Bonser *
Craig Breslow
Jesse Crain
Brian Duensing
Armado Gabino
Matt Guerrier
Philip Humber
Jason Jones
Fransisco Liriano
Jose Mijares
Joe Nathan
Pat Neshek *
Glen Perkins
Kevin Slowey
Anthony Swarzak
Drew Butera
Joe Mauer
Jose Morales
Wilson Ramos
Mike Redmond
Brian Buscher
Alexi Casilla
Joe Crede
Brendan Harris
Luke Hughes
Matt Macri
Justin Morneau
Trevor Plouffe
Nick Punto
Deibinson Romero
Matt Tolbert
Steven Tolleson
Mike Cuddyer
Carlos Gomez
Jason Pridie
Dernard Span
Delmon Young
Jason Kubel

* = out for the season (Neshek is on the 60 day DL, Bonser is not)
strike = original invitee optioned to AAA or AA or re-assigned to the minor league camp

Three more cuts today:

Luke Hughes and Matt Macri were optioned to Rochester and Luis Matos was re-assigned to the minor league camp (about two weeks too late). I was hoping that Hughes (like Tolleson who was an early cut and wasn't really given a fair chance) would be still fighting with Buscher and Tolbert for that final spot on the bench... oh well...

In other news, Milwaukee returned Eduardo Morlan (whom they selected in the Rule 5 draft after the Twins by-passed him) to Tampa Bay today...

Spring training weeks 1-4 summary.

Four weeks of spring training are in the books, the team is one game over .500, Mauer seems to need a while to be healthy, and this is how the Twins' players involved in position battles are performing so far. These are the cummulative statistics through week 4 with 12 more games to go (The rankings are by decreasing OPS for position players and by decreasing WHIP for pitchers) :

Position Players:

Outfield Starter Battle:

Gomez .256/.341/.615, 3 HR, 5 BB, 3 SB (39 AB)
Young .325/.357/.550, 2 HR, 1 SB (40 AB)
Cuddyer .297/.325/.541, 1 HR, 2 BB (37 AB)
Span .157/.232/.275, 1 HR, 5 BB, 2 SB (51 AB)

Spot on the Bench vs Rochester Battle:

Buscher .355/.432/.516, 1 HR, 5 BB (31 AB)
Hughes .429/.429/.429, (21 AB)
Tolbert .220/.319/.317, 1HR, 6 BB (41 AB)
Macri .208/.240/.292, 1 BB (24 AB)
Machado .133/.235/.200, 2 SB, 2 BB (15 AB)


Mauer's temporary replacement battle
Butera .400/.455/.400, 1 BB (10 AB)
Morales .200/.188/.200 (15 AB)


Other 25-man roster position player stats:
Casilla .405/.444/.476, 3 BB, 4 SB (42 AB)
Kubel .364/.432/.485, 1 HR, 4 BB (33 AB)
Morneau .286/.348/.524, 1 HR, 2 BB (21 AB)
Harris .333/.444/.400, 5 BB, 1 SB (30 AB)
Punto .313/.353/.438, 1 BB (16 AB)
Redmond .250/.344/.357, 4 BB (28 AB)
Crede .200/.282/.343, 1 HR, 4 BB (35 AB)

Position Player of weeks 1-4:

Carlos Gomez



Honorable mention:, Delmon Young, Jason Kubel, Brian Buscher, Alexi Casilla


Pitchers:

Starter Performance:

Blackburn ERA 0.00, WHIP 0.40, 0 BB, 1 K, 5 IP
Slowey ERA 1.93, WHIP 0.75, 1 BB, 10 K 9.1 IP
Liriano ERA 2.20, WHIP 0.98, 6 BB, 14 K, 16.1 IP
Perkins ERA 2.25, WHIP 1.25, 5 BB, 7 K, 20 IP
Baker ERA 8.25, WHIP 1.80, 2 BB, 14 K, 17.2 IP

Battle for set up man:

Crain 0.00 ERA, WHIP 0.15, 0 BB, 4 K, 6.2 IP
Ayala 0.00 ERA, WHIP 0.33, 0 BB, 1 K, 3 IP
Breslow 1.13 ERA, WHIP 0.50, 1 BB, 11 K, 8 IP

On the bubble; battle for the last 1-2 spots:

Dickey 3.09 ERA, WHIP 1.11, 3 BB, 14 K, 11.2 IP
Humber 5.63, WHIP 1.13, 0 BB, 2 K, 8 IP

Keppel 3.45, WHIP 1.23, 2 BB, 4 K, 7.1 IP
Henn 1.42 ERA, WHIP 1.26, 2 BB, 5 K, 6.1 IP
Duensing 0.90 ERA, WHIP 1.30, 4 BB, 5 K, 10 IP
Jones 2.70 ERA, WHIP 1.40, 3 BB, 5 K, 10 IP

Mijares 12.86 ERA, WHIP 3.00, 9 BB, 6 K, 7 IP

Others in the 25-man Roster:
Nathan 4.50 ERA, WHIP 1.00, 1 BB, 5 K, 6 IP
Guerrier 8.22 ERA, WHIP 1.96, 4 BB, 4 K, 7.2 IP

pitcher of weeks 1-3, spring training:

Jesse Crain




honorable mention: Kevin Slowey, Nick Blackburn, Fransisco Liriano, Craig Breslow, R.A. Dickey

The fist cuts

Today was the announcement of the first cuts of spring training. The names were made public first, not by the conventional media and the beat writers who follow the Twins, but by Seth Stohs of Sethspeaks.net. Here is the list:

These 5 players are in the 40-man roster, so they were "optioned" to the minor league camp. Once a player is added to the 40-man roster, his 3 year option clock starts :

Armando Gabino
Trevor Plouffe
Deibinson Romero
Anthony Swarzak
Steve Tolleson


These 6 players were "non-roster invitees" (i.e. not on the 40-man roster) and were "reassigned" to the minor league camp:

Rob Delaney
Toby Gardenhire
Ben Julianel
Danny Lehmann
Dustin Martin
Danny Valencia


Surprises? Yes,actually quite a few:

• Jose Mijares is still in the big club camp. After he showed up overweight and out of shape, and pitched fairly erratically, the consensus feeling was that he will be one of the first cuts. At this point, he probably belongs more here, than in a major league club. I am not sure that the remaining of the ST for him should not be of the drop 25 lbs in 2 weeks variety.


• Kevin Mulvey and Brian Duensing are still in the camp. They have low chances of making the 25-man roster and as 2009 starters with Rochester, they would have benefited by more innings of work at the minor league camp


• Jeff Christie has not been cut. I know that there is need for catchers to catcher bullpens and workouts, but the Twins could have gotten college kids to do than, instead of keeping a guy who was in Rochester last year from getting game work this spring. Christie had all of 2 AB this spring


• Dustin Martin was cut. Dustin Martin was one of the best performers the first 3 weeks of the spring and outplayed Luis Matos, Jason Pridie and David Winfree. I would have thought that he would have been ahead of all 3 in the Twins' depth chart. For some reason, Gardenhire does not think so


• Luis Matos is still with the club. After hitting .158/.158/.211 in 19 AB, taking awful routes at the outfield and having balls sail over his head in multiple occasions, I would have thought that the fate of the 30 year old who hit .250/.323/.352 in AAA in 2008 was all but sealed. Martin's great Arizona League performance and great Spring Training performance as well as the signing of 26 year old Justin Huber of Team Australia fame, who is a legitimate power threat from the right side of the plate, would have been the last nails in Matos' coffin. What do I know what is in Gardy's mind?


• Steven Tolleson was cut. Steven was unlucky. He was out nursing injuries for a week and a half. He got all in all 11 unproductive at bats, putting zeros across the board (he had a double in the exhibition against team Netherlands.) Being part of the 40-man roster and having a great Arizona League performance to follow an excellent performance in the minors in 2008, in addition to the fact that he is a very good defender both in 2B and in SS, I thought that he had an outside chance to make the 25-man roster as a utility infielder. Gardy apparently did not think so.

·

Spring training weeks 1-3 summary.

Three weeks of spring training are in the books and this is how the Twins' players involved in position battles are performing so far. These are the cummulative statistics through week 3 (The rankings are by decreasing OPS for position players and by decreasing WHIP for pitchers) :

Position Players:

Outfield Starter Battle:


Gomez .333/.400/.815, 3 HR, 3 BB, 2 SB (27 AB)
Young .423/.464/.615, 1 HR, 1 SB (26 AB)
Cuddyer .280/.308/.560, 1 HR, 1 BB (25 AB)
Span .097/.200/.097, 4 BB, 1 SB (31 AB)

Spot on the Bench vs Rochester Battle:

Buscher .391/.444/.609, 1 HR, 3 BB (23 AB)
Hughes .444/.444/.444 (9 AB)
Ramos .308/.400/.385, 2 BB (13 AB)
Butera .286/.375/.286, 1 BB (7 AB)
Machado .200/.273/.300, 2 SB, 1 BB (10 AB)
Macri .211/.250/.263 1 BB (19 AB)
Morales .250/.222/.250 (8 AB)
Tolbert .138/.219/.138 2 BB (29 AB)
Plouffe .071./.133/.071, 1 BB, 1 SB (14 AB)
Tolleson .000/.000/.000 (10 AB)

Battle for Rochester vs. New Britain:

Peterson .313/.389/.625 1 HR (GS), 2BB (16 AB)
Martin .444/.421/.556 (18 AB)
Winfree .350/.333/.500 (20 AB)
Valencia .385/.385/.385 (13 AB)

Other notable starter stats:

Kubel .381/.458/.571 1 HR, 3 BB (21 AB)
Casilla .393/.433/.500, 2 BB, 1 SB (28 AB)
Morneau .333/.385/.500 1 BB (12 AB)
Harris .273/.360/.318, 2 BB (22 AB)


Position Player of weeks 1-3:

Carlos Gomez



Honorable mention:, Delmon Young, Jason Kubel, Dustin Martin, Brian Buscher, Alexi Casilla, Brock Peterson.


Pitchers:

Starter Performance:


Blackburn ERA 0.00, WHIP 0.40, 0 BB, 1 K, 5 IP
Slowey ERA 1.93, WHIP 0.75, 1 BB, 10 K 9.1 IP
Liriano ERA 2.19, WHIP 0.89, 2 BB, 12 K, 12.1 IP
Perkins ERA 3.00, WHIP 1.33, 4 BB, 6 K, 15 IP
Baker ERA 6.00, WHIP 1.80, 0 BB, 4 K, 6 IP

Battle for set up man:

Crain 0.00 ERA, WHIP 0.27, 0 BB, 2 K, 3.2 IP (plus 1.1 perfect innings with 4 K for team Canada in the WBC)
Ayala 0.00 ERA, WHIP 0.50, 0 BB, 0 K, 2 IP; WBC with Mexico
Breslow 1.50 ERA, WHIP 0.50, 1 BB, 8 K, 6 IP
Guerrier 4.05 ERA, WHIP 1.65, 4 BB, 3 K, 6.2 IP

On the bubble; battle for the last 1-2 spots:

Henn 0.00 ERA, WHIP 1.00, 2 BB, 2 K, 4 IP
Keppel 3.60, WHIP 1.00, 1 BB, 2 K, 5 IP
Jones 1.29 ERA, WHIP 1.29, 3 BB, 5 K, 7 IP
Dickey 4.70 ERA, WHIP 1.30, 2 BB, 9 K, 7.2 IP
Humber 9.00, WHIP 1.50, 0 BB, 0 K, 4 IP
Goslin 0.00 ERA, WHIP 1.91, 3 BB, 2 K, 3.2 IP
Mijares 10.38 ERA, WHIP 3.00, 7 BB, 4 K, 4.1 IP


pitcher of weeks 1-3, spring training:

Jesse Crain





honorable mention: Kevin Slowey, Nick Blackburn, Fransisco Liriano, Craig Breslow, Jason Jones

Friday the 13th is looming

And it is the opening day of the minor league camp for the Twins. With the return of Crain, Morneau and Punto from the WBC, it is almost guaranteed that there will be cuts from the major league camp and re-assignment to the minor league training camp. Who are the candidates? Here is a short list:


Trevor Plouffe
Danny Lehmann
Toby Gardenhire
Brock Peterson
Luis Matos
Ben Julianel

Do you think that someone else might be involved?

Spring training weeks 1-2 summary.

A couple of weeks have passed in spring training so far, with the Twins assembling a 6-3 record in the Grapefruit League. They were 2-0 in the exhibition games with WBC teams Puerto Rico and Netherlands, but those 2 games do not count in the standings, nor the player's statistics are included in their overall spring statistics. This is how the Twins' players involved in position battles are performing so far. These are the cummulative statistics through week 2 (The rankings are by decreasing OPS for position players and by decreasing WHIP for pitchers) :

Position Players:

Outfield Starter Battle:

Young .533/.563/.667, 1 SB (15 AB)
Gomez .313/.353/.750, 2 HR, 1 BB, 2 SB (16 AB)
Cuddyer .188/.235/.313 1BB (16 AB)
Span .111/.273/.111 4 BB, 1 SB (18 AB)

Spot on the Bench vs Rochester Battle:

Buscher .500/.529/.857, 1 HR, 2 BB (14 AB)
Ramos .333/.455/.444 (9 AB)
Hughes .333/.333/.333 (6 AB) WBC with Australia
Machado .143/.143/.250 2 SB, 1 BB (7 AB)
Tolbert .111/.200/.111 2 BB (18 AB)
Morales .167/.143/.167 (6 AB)
Macri .100/.182/.100 1 BB (10 AB)
Plouffe .111/.111/.111 (9 AB)
Tolleson .000/.000/.000 (4 AB)



Battle for Rochester vs. New Britain:

Martin .538/.500/.692 (13 AB)
Valencia .444/.444/.444 (9 AB)
Winfree .444/.400/.444 (9 AB)
Peterson .100/.250/.400 1 HR (GS), 2BB (10 AB)

Other notable starter stats:

Kubel .400/.538 /.800 1 HR, 3 BB (10 AB)
Morneau .429/.500/.714/ 1 BB (7 AB); now with Canada in WBC
Harris .400/.455/.500 (10 AB)


Position Player of weeks 1-2:

Brian Buscher



Honorable mention:, Delmon Young, Jason Kubel, Brendan Harris, Dustin Martin, Carlos Gomez.


Pitchers:

Starter Performance:

Slowey ERA 0.00, WHIP 0.00, 0 BB, 1 K 2 IP (+ 3 more perfect innings against the Netherlands)
Blackburn ERA 0.00, WHIP 0.00, 0 BB, 0 K, 2 IP
Perkins ERA 0.00, WHIP 0.89, 2 BB, 5 K, 9 IP
Liriano ERA 2.00, WHIP 0.78, 1 BB, 7 K, 9 IP
Baker ERA 6.00, WHIP 2.00, 0 BB, 4 K, 6 IP

Battle for set up man:

Crain 0.00 ERA, WHIP 0.00, 0 BB, 0 K, 2 IP WBC with Canada
Ayala 0.00 ERA, WHIP 0.50, 0 BB, 0 K, 2 IP WBC with Mexico
Breslow 2.25 ERA, WHIP 0.50, 0 BB, 5 K, 4 IP
Guerrier 6.75 ERA, WHIP 2.00, 3 BB, 1 K, 4 IP

On the bubble; battle for the last 1-2 spots:

Keppel 0.00, WHIP 0.33, 0 BB, 1 K, 3 IP
Dickey 3.60 ERA, WHIP 0.80, 1 BB, 5 K, 5 IP
Jones 1.80 ERA, WHIP 1.40, 2 BB, 4 K, 5 IP
Henn 0.00 ERA, WHIP 1.50, 1 BB, 0 K, 2 IP
Humber 12.00, WHIP 1.67, 0 BB, 0 K, 3 IP
Goslin 0.00 ERA, WHIP 1.88, 2 BB, 1 K, 2.7 IP
Mijares 2.25 ERA, WHIP 2.00, 5 BB, 3 K, 4 IP





pitcher of weeks 1-2, spring training:

Kevin Slowey (how can you beat perfection?)





honorable mention: Nick Blackburn, Fransisco Liriano, Glen Perkins, Bobby Keppel, R.A. Dickey

Does spring training record matter?

The conventional wisdom is that spring training is a time to try new players, have a look at the organizational depth and get an idea who to call up if necessary during the season, and a time for the veterans to get in top shape by opening day. A team's spring training record should not matter, right? This excellent analysis by Michael Wolverton of the Baseball Prospectus and ESPN, looked at all spring training records vis-a-vis a team's record the following season and reached the conclusion that "there's very little relationship between spring training records and regular season records, in the short term or the long term, whether you look at all teams or just the extreme ones."

That is the conventional wisdom proven. Also, the conventional wisdom is that the one single statistic measurement that has the closest correlation with wins in baseball is run differential (RS-RA). However, these Gardenhire Twins, break that conventional wisdom, as I showed here. How about that spring training record conventional wisdom and these Gardenhire Twins?

Here is the Twins spring training record the last few years and their finish in the AL division the same season:

2008: ST record: 15-15; season division rank: 2nd
2007: ST record: 14-17; season division rank: 3rd
2006: ST record: 20-12; season division rank: 1st
2005: ST record: 15-14; season division rank: 3rd
2004: ST record: 20-14; season division rank: 1st
2003: ST record: 19-13; season division rank: 1st
2002: ST record: 18-15; season division rank: 1st

So, it looks like the score is: Gardy Twins: 2, Conventional wisdom: 0

Spring training record does matter for these Minnesota Twins.

as a matter of fact, the correlation coefficient between the Twins' spring training record and their record during the season following that spring training is .849.

Here is a graph of the Twins' spring training (ST) records and regular season (RS) records, since 2002 (and the respective finish in the division during the regular season):




On a totally unrelated subject, Seth Stohs of Sethspeaks.net and the author of the Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook -2009 (the one and only book in its category) was more than kind to invite me to participate in his weekly podcast. You can here the podcast here. It was a spare of the moment, last minute thing and I was grossly unprepared, but it was fun. I hope to do that some time again.

Who is Mike Gosling?

So who was that guy who closed the third Twins' Spring Training game today against the Yankees and earned a heart-attack save, courtesy Danny Valencia?

Mike Gosling is a 28 year old leftie, from Salt Lake City, UT who was originally drafted by the Twins in the 14th round of the 1998 draft; did not sign and decided to attend Stanford University, where he got a degree in Biology (Breslow anyone?) and drafted in the second round of 2001 by the Diamondbacks. In 2002 and 2003 he was ranked by Baseball America as the second highest prospect in the Dbacks system and in 2004 as the 10th. In 2003 he was ranked as the number 59 prospect in the nation by Baseball America. In his last season in Stanford he started 14 games and relieved in 3 additional, acquiring a 7-3 record to go along with a 3.95 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP. His best professional season was his first in El Paso of the Texas League (AA), when he started 27 games pitched 166.7 innings winning 14 and losing 5, while assembling a 3.13 ERA and 1.27 WHIP. The rest of his professional career went down hill. He was rushed to AAA in 2003 (which happened to be with Tuscon in the pitcher unfriendly Pacific Coast League) and bombed. He earned a couple of cups of coffee with Arizona and was placed on waivers in 2006 because he was out of options. Picked up by the Reds, spending time between Louisville (International League) and Cincinnati the next 2 seasons did not prove career rejuvenating for him. His best season in AAA was in 2006 with Louisville where he started 13 games for 78 innings assembling a 5-3 record with a 3.00 ERA and 1.21 WHIP. This earned him a promotion to the Reds' pen where he appeared in 23 games as a LOOGY, posting a 4.91 ERA and 2.12 WHIP. Not too good. Last year he was picked up by Toronto and spent the whole season as a set up man in Syracuse (International League) finishing 26 games and earning 7 saves to go with a 3.67 ERA and an unremarkable 1.46 WHIP. Control is not his thing. He walked as many people as he struck out in parts of 4 major league seasons. He has a 86-87 mph 2-seamer, a 80 mph slider and a change.

His career major league pitching line is: 4 seasons, 43 games, 9 GS, 3 wins, 4 loses, 92 IP, 61 BB, 61 K, 4.79 ERA, 1.85 WHIP

His career minor league pitching line is: 7 seasons, 189 games, 126 GS, 46 wins, 37 loses, 7 saves, 788 IP, 299 BB, 576 K, 4.58 ERA, 1.52 WHIP

At this point, given the presence of Julianel in Rochester, I am not sure what Gosling's role could be with the Twins' organization, other than an occasional lefty in Rochester's pen, at best.

BTW, Mike Gosling has not relationship to this guy, as far as I know.

Play ball

It really smells like spring today :)

A bit of an update

The day almost passed and there were news about any roster moves for the Twins, so that Ayala can start being integrated with the team. As is he can run around the field and practice with the Twins (like Corey Koskie is doing) but cannot participate in team drills and team activities (the latter at this point of the Spring training are zero.) This delay is screaming to me that there is a trade brewing some place. Stay Put.

On other division news, after La Velle Neall III broke the possibility that the league and the union might agree to a sign-and-deal for type A free agents, there is more than a word from both Chicago and Kansas City that Orlando Hudson might end up with one of the Twins' division rivals.

Not sure what to think about Boof's and Mauer's injuries, but they seem more worrisome than previously thought.

The Crede situation is still brewing.

Liriano, will not pitch for the Dominican Republic in the WBC.

I will update as news come in, but so far this is soaking sun time for the Twins...

spring leaderboard, hitting, 19AB minimum:

AVG
1. R Ruiz .455
2. C Monroe .381
3. D Young .375
4. M Lamb .368
J Mauer .368

OBP
1. R Ruiz .500
2. J Mauer .480
3. A Casilla .423
4. C Monroe .417
5. D Young .412

SLG
1. R Ruiz .818
2. C Monroe .714
3. J Mauer.684
4. J Knott .571
5. M Cuddyer .536

OPS
1. R Ruiz 1.318
2. J Mauer 1.164
3. C Monroe 1.131
4. D Young .943
5. M Lamb .926

HR
1. R Ruiz 2
J Knott 2
J Kubel 2
C Monroe 2

R
1. R Ruiz 9
2. C Gomez 8
3. A Casilla 6
J Mauer 6
J Pridie 6

RBI
1. R Ruiz 7
J Morneau 7
3. C Gomez 6
D Young 6
5. M Cuddyer 6
J Kubel 6
C Monroe 6

SB
1. Gomez 5
2. Casilla 4
3. Span 3
4. Pridie 2
Punto 2

Put me in, coach....

Some numbers from various CFs this spring (avg/obg/slg/sb/r/ab):

Ellsbury: .190/.250/.429/2/1/16
Hunter: .600/.625/1.533/0/7/15
Melky Cabrera: .333/450/.467/0/3/15

C Gomez: .190/.208/.333/3/4/21
Pridie: .238/.247/.238/2/4/21
Span: .214/.421/.286/2/3/14

A few impressions from the Twins-Yankees game (and spring training so far):

1. I know it is pretty early in the spring training, but Gomez is really trying too hard both on the field and on the plate. Maybe he just needs to quit pushing too hard; some veteran mentoring could really help… So far looks like Span might be winning the CF spot, with Pridie being a bench OF and Gomez starting in the minors

2. Slowey had a second bad outing, but his pitching was better than what the numbers indicate. He had absolutely no movement on his fastball and his off-speed stuff was all over the place. Did not help that the plate umpire had a tight strike zone in the beginning of the game.

3. Delmon Young has been a very positive surprise. I think that he might make us forget about Mr. Hunter.

4. Keisler had a very good outing. With the Twins being fairly thin from the left side and Reyes being inconsistent, if he continuous his performance, he could break in the bullpen.

5. Harris was very tentative on the field whereas Casilla made two great plays, he seemed comfortable with the bat and very confident and composed.

6. Unless Monroe comes back flying, I can see Garrett Jones getting his spot as a DH platoon/1b/of/rh pinch hitter player for a discount (he has no options left)

7. Neshek made the Yankees’ batters look like a little league baseball team