Santana suspension shock to Twins and to Twins fans

I was out on the back fields of the CenturyLink Sports Complex on Friday afternoon watching the Twins AA and AAA teams take on the Red Sox AA and AAA teams. Both games started about 1 PM but I was particularly interested in the AA Chattanooga game and was surprised to see Mark Hamburger start the game for Doug Mientkiewicz ‘s gang. I was disappointed that Miguel Sano was not playing but Byron Buxton, Adam Walker, and Max Kepler all played. Once of the hardest hit balls in that game was a bullet line drive over the head of the Red Sox minor leaguer center fielder off the bat of Max Kepler who was DHing in this game. I had asked Max earlier how his arm was doing and he said it was good but obviously management is still not ready to play him in the field, at least they didn’t on this particular day. Kepler has a beautiful level swing and line drives just shoot off his bat, with his size if he applied some lift to the ball he would hit a bunch of home runs.

The crowd watching the games was pretty small, the players not playing in either game and sitting in the stands watching the games out numbered the fans by about five to one. As normal GM Terry Ryan, with stop watch in hand was standing between the two fields and keeping an eye on both games. I decided to give the poor guy a break today and not bother him with my questions and comments. About 2 or 2:30 PM I looked over where Ryan had been standing and he was nowhere to be seen. That seemed very unusual to me because Ryan always seems to be out there when games are under way on the back fields, he seldom leaves before the games end. After a couple of hours in the hot sun I decided I had seen enough and headed home myself.

2015 Minnesota Twins Photo DayAround 5:30 PM I sat down on my PC to look at some of the pictures I had taken at the ballpark when I was shocked to see a report that Twins pitcher Ervin Santana had been suspended for 80 games for PED use. There was no chatter about this at the ballpark earlier and news like this would have spread like a wild-fire. Shortly there after Press Releases were flying in every direction. MLB had their PR announcing the suspension, the Twins had their PR statement on the suspension, The Twins sent out another PR on the recall of Aaron Thompson and of course Santana had his own PR through the players union which actually seemed to have a time stamp even before the official MLB PR regarding his suspension. I don’t know how the process works for these kinds of deals but MLB must give the player and team a heads up on what is coming in an upcoming PR and then at the agreed upon time everyone hits the send button on their press releases.

This suspension is a killer for everyone, Santana himself, the Twins team, and of course the fans. Santana loses about $6.5 million, the team loses a good starting pitcher, and the fans lose even more hope in a team that wasn’t expected to be in the playoff hunt but had hopes of at least making a run at .500 baseball.

Now as the new season is about to begin and fans all across Twins Territory prepare to watch their new team strut their stuff in 2015 this suspension strikes clear out of the blue and Twins haters come firing out of the woodwork to blame Ervin Santana and the Twins organization. I am not saying Santana is innocent here but who knows for sure if he took this on purpose or if he indeed did take it without knowing he did so. I haven’t heard any whispers about Santana and PED’s previously so I am willing to give the man the benefit of the doubt here. Still it hurts to lose a pitcher of his caliber for half the season.

How can you blame the Twins organization for this? They obviously would not have gone after Santana and paid him the money they did if they had any idea that something like this would happen. But yet it is another ding on team that has been barely treading water since 2010. The Twins have had their share of bad luck, injuries, and bad decisions by management. Twins fans are grasping for anything that will show them that there is reason for hope but it seems like when the Twins take a step forward they also take a step back and it is hard to get anywhere at that pace. The ballclub is mired in this muck and their only hope is their cadre of young future stars that are banging on the clubhouse door. The Twins have spent the last year or two bragging about the potential of their farm system and most everyone in baseball agrees that the Twins have some young stars in the wings but yet the Twins keep signing mediocre players to play at Target field and keep sending the young guns to Rochester and Chattanooga.

It is like a poker game, you can only bluff so long before you have to put your cards on the table and show us what you got. I think it is a bunch of BS that you can bring up a young player too soon and traumatize him to the point that he will never be the player that they could have been with another year or two in the minors. The guys have played baseball their entire lives and they have had their share of butt-kickings, losses, and lessons learned, another humiliation or two at the big league level won’t kill them. What is the old saying? What doesn’t kill you helps to build your character. Football and basketball have no problems bringing kids straight to the big leagues when warranted, why can’t baseball do more of this? I think it is time for the Twins to bring their young studs to the table and let Miguel Sano, Byron Buxton, Eddie Rosario, Max Kepler, Alex Meyer, Trevor May, and Jose Berrios play some ball at Target Field. Give us Twins fans a reason to come to the ballpark and see something new instead of the same old wait until next year crap. The Twins can’t spend $250 million dollars on player salaries so they have to look for new and creative ways to be competitive, maybe the old tried and proven older methods needs to be tossed out on their ear and some new radical ideas need to be tried.  What have you got to lose? Loyalty and experience are great but if you have young players that appear to be better than what you have on the big league club, why not give the young guns a chance to prove they are what you think and say they are.

So Mr. Ryan, do yourself and all of us Twins fans a favor and bring up these young stars sooner than later because every hit they get at Chattanooga or Rochester is one less hit they will get in Minnesota. If these guys show us they can’t pitch or hit at the big league level then we are ahead of the game, we know something that we didn’t know before. Potential is worth nothing unless it can be realized. Taking Mike Pelfrey from the bullpen and putting him in the starting rotation again isn’t exactly trying something new, how can you expect something new and better when you keep doing the same old things?

 

Twins Minor League Players of the Week & Month

Andrew Albers
Andrew Albers

Rochester (AAA-International League) left-handed pitcher Andrew Albers is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week. In two starts for the Red Wings, Albers went 2-0, pitching 15.0 innings allowing just four earned runs (2.40 ERA), with 11 strikeouts and just two walks. The 6’1″ and 195 lbs. 27 year-old Albers was signed by the Twins as a minor league free agent in 2011 but was originally selected by the Padres in the 10th round of the 2008 First-Year Player Draft from the University of Kentucky. In 12 starts with Rochester this season Albers has thrown 67.2 innings allowing 71 hits, striking out 60 and posting a 3.06 ERA. Previous winners this season include (in order): pitcher Tyler Duffey, infielder Miguel Sano, outfielder Adam Walker, infielder Jorge Polanco, pitcher Kyle Gibson, infielder Chris Colabello, pitcher Logan Darnell and pitcher Taylor Rogers.

MINOR LEAGUERS OF THE MONTH: Rochester (AAA – International League) infielder Chris Colabello is the Twins Minor League Player of the Month for May. In 20 games for the Red Wings, Colabello batted .425 (34-for-80) with 12 doubles, six home runs, 20 RBI while scoring 15 times. Colabello, who was signed as a minor league free agent in 2012, was added to the Twins roster today as the 26th man in time for today’s DH. Fridays Twins /Nats game was rained out and is being made up today. Major league rule allow teams to add an extra player for a doubleheader. The rule’s intent is to allow teams to add pitching, but the Twins are already carrying 13 pitchers and have an off day on Monday, so Gardenhire chose to add an extra pinch hitter

Rochester (AAA – International League) left-handed pitcher Aaron Thompson is the Twins Minor League Pitcher of the Month for May. Over a combined 11 appearances between Rochester and Double-A New Britain, he posted a 1.26 ERA in 14.1 innings and allowed 2 earned runs while holding opponents to a .143 batting average with a a 0.70 WHIP. Thompson, 22, was signed by the Twins as a minor league free agent in 2011 after being originally drafted in the first round by the Miami Marlins in 2005. Albers is in his 5th year of minor league ball after missing all of 2009 due TJ surgery. During his minor league career Albers has been primarily a starter going 21-7 with a 2.64 ERA and has averaged 7.7 KO/9.

MINOR LEAGUE GAME TELEVISED: FOX Sports North announced plans to televise the Cedar Rapids Kernels vs. the Kane County Cougars minor league game live at 12:00 p.m. on Monday, June 10. Coverage will begin at 11:30 a.m. with a live version of “Spotlight: Next Generation,” an in-depth look at the Minnesota Twins farm system with an emphasis on the Class A team in Cedar Rapids. The telecast is designed to educate fans about up-and-coming Twins players, FOX Sports North will profile some of baseball’s top prospects, including Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano. Anthony Lapanta and Roy Smalley will anchor the telecast from the FOX Sports North studio with Marney Gellner reporting from Cedar Rapids. Key members of the Twins front office, including Paul Molitor and Dave St. Peter will also join the telecast to help showcase the Cedar Rapids Affiliation.

Aaron Thompson suspended for 50 games

Aaron Thompson

Twins free agent signee LHP Aaron Thompson, 25,  was suspended by MLB for 50 games after testing positive for a banned substance. GM Terry Ryan confirmed that it was a “recreational” substance that triggered the positive result. Ryan stated that he was disappointed in Thompson but that the team planned to keep him. A few years back the released and ended the baseball career of 2005 first round pick and power hitting prospect Hank Sanchez after his 50 game suspension ended. Thompson had been reassigned to the Twins minor league camp earlier this month. Thompson is the third member of the Twins organization to be suspended for 50 games for positive drug tests this spring, earlier this month Twins’ Dominican league players Yeison Florentino and Ezequiel Zarzuela were both suspended as well for positive tests.

What is the Twins plan?

GM Terry Ryan

What exactly is the Twins plan going forward? In the past, the Twins have always stressed pitching and fielding. The Twins went into 2011 saying that they wanted to improve their defense and their speed. This past off-season the Twins signed Josh Willingham, Ryan Doumit and Jamey Carroll and none of these players can be seen even remotely as defensive stars or speed demons. On the pitching side they resigned Matt Capps to be their closer and signed Jason Marquis as another “innings eater” starter to replace Brian Duensing whom they want to move to the bullpen.  For middle relief they went after quantity versus quality hoping to catch “lightning in a bottle” by claiming or signing relievers such as Jason Bulger, Jared Burton, Samuel Deduno, Matt Maloney, Aaron Thompson, Daryl Thompson, Casey Fien, PJ Walters, Brendan Wise and Joel Zumaya. GM Terry Ryan also signed players with big league experience such as 3B Sean Burroughs, 1B Steve Pearce, OF Wilkin Ramirez, and catcher JR Towles.

In the past, Twins management has stated that they didn’t want to start camp too early because the players just got bored and burnt out waiting for the real games to begin. The Twins have historically been one of the last teams to report to and start training camp, this year they are one of the first teams to report and start work-outs.

This year the Twins will have at least 25 non-roster spring training invites this year, there will be more players out there than you can shake a stick at. In the past the Twins position has been not to invite too many players in spring camp because there was just not enough playing time and they wanted to give everyone a chance to showcase their talents.

Ron Gardenhire

This year the Twins seem to be desperate, picking up some veteran hitting help even though their defense and speed will suffer, they picked up a slew of relievers hoping that one or maybe two can find their way north to Minnesota. Speed? Gardy felt a need for speed going into 2011 but I have not heard him mention speed once this off-season. When you sign a 38 year old Jamey Carroll who has never had a full-time starting role to be your regular shortstop you are indeed close to a panic situation. Yep, these are desperate and trying times in Twinsville as the team tries to regroup from a horrendous 63-99 2011 season and the team is taking desperate steps to right a ship that is on the shoals of a major rebuilding effort. The problem they have is that Joe Mauer is making a ton of money and they haven’t a clue as to what will happen with 1B Justin Morneau who is coming off his seventh career concussion. Without big comebacks from both of these Twins stars the team has no chance at even finishing near the .500 mark. Ron Gardenhire will have to do his best managing act ever to get this team to win half of their games.

So it will be an interesting spring in Ft. Myers this year and I would expect to see a number of intrasquad and “B” squad games taking place on the back fields of Hammond Stadium. I will be there to watch the action and it should be fun. The beauty of this time of the year is that we all have hope and no one has lost a game as yet. It just seems to me that the Minnesota Twins are changing gears this year and things are going to be a lot different going forward into 2012 and beyond. So make sure you buy a scorecard when you attend your first Twins game this year.