Twins Trade Talk 2012: July 30

This continues the dialy trade talk updates for the Twins and of action around the league that influences the Twins trade moves, up until the deadline. You can find all the older updates here, in reverse chronological order. Here is the Twins Trade Talk the past 24 hours or so:

• Fransisco Liriano to the Chicago White Sox is old news. Here are profiles of the players the Twins received in return. Apparently the Twins did not even talk about an extension at this point. and the Boston Red Sox were finalists up to the trade time. I wonder what their offer was to make the Twins' interim GM, Terry Ryan, trade within the division...
• The last trade between the Twins and the White Sox was on September 3, 1986 when the Minnesota Twins traded Pete Filson to the Chicago White Sox for Kurt Walker. The last trade between the two teams that involved a decent player was on February 19, 1985 when the Twins traded Roch Scheer and Randy Johnson (Not THAT Randy Jonhson) to the White Sox for current TV analyst Roy Smalley. And both of those times, the White Sox were in a different division (AL East vs AL West.) The first ever trade between the two franchises was in June 13, 1903 when Ducky Holmes was traded by the Senators to the White Sox for a player to be named later and became Davey DUnkle a week afterwards.
• Meanwhile, Twins' players were disappointed by the Liriano trade and White Sox GM Kenny Williams apparently thinks that they see some flaws they can fix to improve Liriano. Here are some additional reactions of Twins' players and coaches. Liriano himself was surprised by the trade.
• On the Ron Gardenhire show on ESPN 1500 yesterday morning, Gardenhire said that there have been discussion about Justin Morneau and he really does not want Josh Willingham to leave the Twins.
• Bob Nightengale indicates that the Twins are talking to other teams about Denard Span, but unlike what Terry Ryan said (ie. that he is after single A prospects,) he is looking for an MLB-ready pitcher in return.
• This is a strange one (but very true) : The Seattle Mariners are interested in Josh Willingham. A package of Héctor Noesí and/or Erasmo Ramírez and maybe even Taijuan Walker could be in the works
• Justin Morneau, Matt Capps, Carl Pavano and Nick Blackburn all make Jon Heyman's list of players who can get traded via waiver trades after tomorrow's deadline. Nick Blackburn? That is hopeful.

Various off day Twins (and not only) thoughts

• This is a sight for sore eyes:
  
  
  
  Also it looks like the grass will be very close to the foul line in Target Field, which might help bunting.


• Case in point on why predictive metrics have some merit: If someone on June 17 told you that "Blackburn is living on the edge by giving too many hits, walking more batters than usual and striking out fewer than usual" at the same time when mainstream Twins' media and his manager were calling him a "stopper", and his ERA was hovering in the low 3's, you'd think that this someone must be nuts. What do you think now?


• Here is an interesting article about the status of international baseball, now that the sport is not an Olympic sport from 2016 on.


• You'd think that an unassisted triple play would be a feat that some Hall of Famers, or at least All-Stars accomplished. This is not the case. All fifteen players who have turned unassisted triple plays are not stars. Also interesting is the fact that 13 of the 15 unassisted triple plays happened in the same manner: The fielder caught a line drive, touched 2nd and tagged the runner coming from 1st.


• This is something that I missed (and I suspect that a lot of other people did), but it is very remarkable: On August 23rd, The Hudson Valley Renegades (New York/Penn League, short-season A, Tampa Bay Rays affiliate) broadcast their game against the Staten Island Yankees, live on Twitter using the Twitcam technology. A sign of things to come? The Renegades' next Live Twitter game is on September 3rd at 6:50 PM against the Brooklyn Cyclones (New York Mets' NPL affiliate). I think that it will be interesting to watch.


• Toby Gardenhire suffered a broken wrist in a collision last night and he is out for the season.


• About 5 days are left for the waiver trade deadline (Aug. 31) and for the roster expansion deadline (Sept. 1). I am not sure that the Twins will make any trades. Their biggest need right not is starting pitching and I do not thing that the names available might be an upgrade. I posted earlier my opinion on September call ups. Since then, two things have changed: Boof Bonser, currently on the 60-day DL, is expected to potentially see action in September and Joe Crede, received an epidural last night to alleviate pain from his back. Unless his back responds (it did last season after an epidural when he played for the Chicago White Sox), I expect a DL-stint for Joe Crede.

Spring training week 1 summary.

The first week of spring training passed and found the Twins within 2 runs of a perfect record. I will be giving weekly recaps of the cumulative performance of players in Spring training, focusing on the roster battles.

Here is the summary of week one:

Position Players:

Outfield Starter Battle:

Young .857/.857/1.000, 1 SB (7 AB)
Gomez .222/.300/.556, 1 HR, 1 BB (9 AB)
Cuddyer .167/.167/.167 (7 AB)
Span .111/.200/.111 1 BB (9 AB)

Spot on the Bench vs Rochester Battle:

Buscher .600/.600/1.100, 1 HR (10 AB)
Hughes .333/.333/.333 (6 AB)
Machado .200/.200/.200 1 SB (5 AB)
Tolbert .167/.231/.167 1 BB (12 AB)
Macri .000/.200/.000 1 BB (4 AB)
Plouffe .000/.000/.000 (5 AB)

Battle for Rochester vs. New Britain:

Valencia .800/.800/.800 (5 AB)
Martin .600/ .667 /.889 (5 AB)
Peterson .200/.429/.800 1 HR (GS) 5 AB

Other notable starter stats:

Kubel .500/.714/1.500/.500 1 HR, 3 BB (5 AB)
Morneau .429/.500/.714/ 1 BB (7 AB)


Position Player of week 1:

Delmon Young



Honorable mention: Brian Buscher, Jason Kubel, Danny Valencia, Dustin Martin


Pitchers:

Best Starter Performance:

Slowey ERA 0.00, WHIP 0.00, 0 BB, 1 K 2 IP
Blackburn ERA 0.00, WHIP 0.00, 0 BB, 0 K, 2 IP
Perkins ERA 0.00, WHIP 1.00, 0 BB, 3 K, 5 IP

Battle for set up man:

Crain 0.00 ERA, WHIP 0.00, 0 BB, 0 K, 2 IP
Ayala 0.00 ERA, WHIP 0.50, 0 BB, 0 K, 2 IP
Breslow 4.50 ERA, WHIP 1.00, 0 BB, 2 K, 2 IP
Guerrier 4.50 ERA, WHIP 1.50, 2 BB, 0 K, 2 IP

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

Dickey 0.00 ERA, WHIP 1.00, 1 BB, 3 K, 2 IP
Henn 0.00 ERA, WHIP 1.50, 1 BB, 0 K, 2 IP
Mijares 0.00 ERA, WHIP 1.50, 2 BB, 3 K, 2 IP
Jones 3.00 ERA, WHIP 2.00, 2 BB, 3 K, 3 IP
Goslin 0.00 ERA, WHIP 2.50, 2 BB, 1 K, 2 IP
Humber 18.00, WHIP 2.50, 0 BB, 0 K, 2 IP

pitcher of week 1, spring training:

Kevin Slowey





honorable mention: Nick Blackburn, Jesse Crain, Glen Perkins, R.A. Dickey

game notes

• Any questions why Monroe should have been starting instead of Span? Morneau hits another dinger early in the game. Blackburn is putting together a great performance. His fastball was at 93 in the 8th inning. Stikes were the name of the game and the longest performance of any Twins’ starter this season. Nathan is 6/6 in saves and neither him nor Reyes have surrendered a run this season. 3 pitcher shutout, Twins win 3-0


• Really, cannot feel sorry about Torri's latest predicament; here is a quote from him on that: “I tried to treat myself a couple of weeks ago, and look what happened. The air bags didn’t even deploy. You know, I’m kind of disappointed that I got rear-ended in a Bentley, and they didn’t deploy. I won’t feel safe in that no more.” Life is rough.


• Every other team in AL Central lost yesterday, so the Twins gained a game on everyone. DLIE number = 5


• On other unrelated news, the Vikings seem ready to spend their first round pick very successfully this year

Twins MVP: Blackburn

Today's game notes

• Back watching the game from mlb.tv... For some reason Gardenhire decided to leave Monroe out again, in favor of Span. I hope he does not regret the move. Also, with Guillen on 1st having hamstring issues and Cabrera on 3rd being Cabrera, I expect Gomez to bunt in every AB


• Gomez fouls off the 1st pitch. Bunt to 3rd, foul. Bunts fouls with 2 strikes. Strikeout. Span infield hit to short with broken bat flying over the pitcher. Mauer bunts foul towards 3rd. Mauer grounds to pitcher for a double play. 0-0. Ground out to Morneau, fly out to Span, pop out to Everett, 1-2-3 inning for Blackburn, 0-0


• Morneau pops to 3rd. Delmon singles down he middle. Young steals second, Kubel strikes out. Harris pops foul behind home plate Pudge can't get it gets an error, single to left, Delmon scores. Lamb singles off the right field wall (that ball looked like it was out), Harris in, 2-0. Everett strikes out. Twins 3-0. Ordonez singles, Cabrera flies out to Span, single to right, runners on 1st and second 1 out. Pop foul to Morneau. Ground out to Morneau, end of 2, 2-0 Twins. 29 Pitches for Blackburn


• Gomez grounds out to 3rd. Span flies out to center. Mauer walks. Morneau flies out to left. Ground out to Morneau, ground out to Harris, fly out to Span (great play). End of 3. Twins 2-0. 42 pitches for Blackburn.


• Young grounds out to the pitcher. Lamb grounds out to the pitcher. Harris strikes out, Twins down 1-2-3. Ground out to Lamb, fly out to Span, double to left, ground out to Harris. End of 4, Twins 2-0. 57 pitches for Blackburn.


• Lamb reaches to 1st on a Cabrera error. DLIE:4. Everett flies out to center. Gomez forces Lamb with a grounder to 3rd. Gomez steals second. Span grounds out to short (close play at 1st). Single to right, fly out to right (great play by Span), double play 1-6-3. End of 5, Twins 2-0.


• Mauer walks in 5 pitches. Morneau strikes out on a questionable called 3rd strike. Delmon doubles Mauer in off the left field fence. Kubel singles Young in to center, Thomas over runs in, Kubel to 3rd. Third error for the Tigers. Harris sacrifices Kubel in to deep center. Lamb grounds out to second. Twins 5-0. Ground out to Blackburn, ground out to Harris, infield hit to 3rd, single through the middle; 1st and 2nd, 2 outs. Guerrier up in the pen. Hit to the left. Tigers score a run. Two run double to the left. 5-3. Blackburn out Guerrier in. Single to left, batter out on a run down, but the lead runner scores. End of 6. 5-4 Twins


• Bonderman still in. Everett singles to left. Gomez forces Everett to short. Gomez really disrupting Bonderman, 2-0 to Span. 3-0. Hit and run. Single to center, Gomez to 3rd, 1 out. Pitching change. Lefty Seay in. Mauer walks, bases loaded. one out. Ball to Morneau, single to left, 2 runs in. Young singles to left, Mauer in, Morneau out in a rundown, Younf to second. Kubel up. Single to right, Young in. 9-4. Harris strikes out. Span kicks a long fly ball from Pudge over the fence. Assisted home run. That ball was not going out if Span did not push it... Ground out to Guerrier, ground out to Morneau, ground out to Harris. End of 7, 9-5 Twins.


• Lamb out to second. Everett doubles to left. Gomez strikes out. Span walks. Mauer grounds out to 1st. Punto in at 3rd. Double to left. Double to center, one run in. Error by Everett, men on 1st and 2nd. Hit to left another run in. No outs. Neshek in. Force out to Everett, runners 1st and 3rd, 1 out. Triple. 2 runs in, tied game. One out. Sacrifice fly. Tigers up 10-9. Triple. Hit down the middle, 11-9. Sheffield fouls a long out to the left and then strikes out. End of 8. Tigers 11-9.


• Todd Jones in. Morneau flies out to right. Young grounds out to 3rd. Kubel walks. Harris hits to right. Punto flies out to left. Game over. Twins lose 11-9.


• I can't believe that Gardenhire did not pinch hit for Punto at that spot...


• If Blackburn stays in the bigs all year, he should be a serious candidate for a gold glove

Twins MVP: Young

Notes & thoughts from today

• Twins lose 0-1


• Great close game. A pitcher's duo. Unfortunately, I thought that Saunders would be more hittable than that.


• Tolbert turned a cool DP in the 8th, with bases loaded and one out...


• Redmond's dp at the 8th after Monroe's walk was a backbreaker


• If people think that Gomez is green at the plate just look at Aybar (and he's 2 years older than Gomez)


• Morneau's backhand play on Figgins in the 5th was just amazing and the following play by Harris was great. Enough webgems, how about some O?


• Blackburn is a gamer. He was fighting with every pitch, kept his composure on the mount and kept going...


• I need a #22 jersey (and a #21 too...); don't know about a #27 though... He looks likes his buddy Torri in the box.


• What's up with the lack of crowd in the Dome?


• Blackburn, Lamb and Mauer are brothers in sideburns


• Detroit lost 0-4 to KC. No errors, but the lineup is not clicking and Inge is
  still the starting CF. Polanco is 0-10 for the season & Jacque Jones (0-7).


• Got an mlb.tv view of the Chicago - Indians game and Carmona started the gameb looking like "the wild thing" character from the movie Major League before he settled down. It seems very cold there also...[edit: eventually it seems like the Indians are winning comfortable this game]


• Here is all you need to know about the helmets worn by the Twins' base coaches this season. I think that the whole team should probably wear them. I really like the look it somewhat reminds me of those crazy Expos uniforms in the 80s.


• Brian McNamee is hitting ebay big times

Twins MVP: Blackburn

Story of the day

Most important story in today's Twins' game (IMNSHO): I am psyched to see Blackburn's first start for the Twins not only because I'd like to see him pitch but, most importantly, because he is such a great personal success story. The man on a bike is one of those athletes for whom you would want to talk about with your kids. And this (unfortunately) is becoming a rarity...