Month: May 2012

Heads starting to roll

After last nights 6-2 loss to the Angels at Target Field the Twins record stands at 8-22 (.267) and the team is 9 games out of first place after having played just 30 games. After the game the Twins announced that 3B Danny Valencia was optioned to AAA Rochester, pitcher Francisco Liriano was sent to the bullpen and that reliever Matt Maloney was designated for assignment.

Darin Mastroianni

In turn the Twins called up 26-year-old Darin Mastroianni from Rochester. The Twins had picked up Mastroianni on waivers from the Blue Jays this past February. Mastroianni started the season in AA New Britain where he played outfield in just 9 games hitting .143 before being promoted to AAA Rochester where he has hit .346 in 20 games and has stolen 10 bases in 11 attempts. In his 20 games in Rochester, Mastroianni has played in the outfield 15 times and played second base on 5 occasions. I have to say that I don’t understand this call-up at all, why do the Twins need another outfielder when they already have Willingham, Span, Plouffe, Komatsu, Parmelee and Doumit?  And, what about Revere? This move just makes no sense to me at all. Where and when are they going tp play Mastroianni and who do they have as a back-up infielder besides Plouffe? This is crazy.

PJ Walters

To replace Liriano in the starting rotation the Twins called up PJ (Phillip Dewayne) Walters. Walters is a former 11th round pick of the Cardinals in 2006 and has seen brief big league action with the Cards in 2009-2011 and he also appeared in one game for the Blue Jays in 2011 after being traded in a big 8-player trade with St. Louis in July of 2011. The Twins signed Walters as a free agent this past December. The 6’4″ 200 pound  right-handed Walters has started 6 games for Rochester and is 3-1 with an ERA of 2.70, a 1.17 WHIP with 25 strikeouts in 33.1 innings.

It is about time that Liriano has been sent to the bullpen but why call up Walters when you could have just swapped Liriano out for Brian Duensing in the bullpen? Granted, Duensing has been solid in the bullpen but he has big league starting experience while Walters has started 4 games with St. Louis.

Sending Valencia down makes sense as he has not played like a big league third baseman for some time either in the field or with a bat. Some time in Rochester might be just what Valencia needs for a wake-up call.

I know the Twins need to make some moves because they don’t want to announce before Memorial Day that they are already out of the running and ready to go into full-blown rebuilding mode but I would sure like to know how they explain the Mastroianni call-up. This reeks of a panic move. Just announce that the team is in fire sale mode and let’s move on, you certainly will not shock anyone with that announcement. I am sure that some Twins bloggers will call this another negative Twins story but I will argue this is just being realistic, this is one bad Twins team and the sooner it is broken up and a rebuilding effort is put in motion the better off we will all be. To this point the Twins have not used the rebuilding word claiming that once all their injured players came back that they would be in the hunt again, that was a line of bull last winter and it remains so today. Come on Mr. Ryan, throw us a bone and at least give us some hope here.

Dozier and Liriano

Brian Dozier

Shortstop James Brian Dozier was called up from Rochester yesterday and made his major league debut against the Angels going 1 for 4 with a run scored. The soon to be 25 year-old (May 15) was drafted by the Twins in the 8th round of the June 2009 amateur draft and Dozier has a .305 batting average in 4 minor league seasons (345 games) and has not hit below .274 while playing 2B, SS, and 3B. It will be interesting to see if Dozier who only has 28 games of AAA experience can hold on to the shortstop role at Target Field. Dozier had a great spring and many fans thought that Dozier earned the Twins starting shortstop job in Fort Myers but GM Terry Ryan felt that Dozier needed some AAA seasoning. Although Jamey Carroll, 38 has played a decent shortstop so far this season, he is only hitting .212 and the team is off to a terrible start at 7-21 and some changes need to be made to see if anything can be done to salvage the season before the Twins go into a full sell mode and turn to a total rebuilding effort. Dozier is not going to turn the Twins around on his own but hopefully he can play a small role in getting the Twins moving.

Francisco Liriano

The Twins lost again last night and are now 7-21 for the season and 10 games behind the division leading Cleveland Indians. I sure didn’t think I would be saying “division leading Cleveland Indians” this season but the Detroit Tigers are struggling as they come out of the starting gate and they are playing just .500 ball but I think they will warm up soon and put the Indians and all the other AL Central teams in their rear view mirror. The Tigers have their share of pitching miseries but not like the cellar dwelling Twins do. The Twins sent Francisco Liriano out to the mound again last night and once again Liriano let the team and himself down. Liraino threw 90 pitches in 5 innings while giving up 5 hits, 3 walks and 4 earned runs and even with this line he actually lowered his seasonal ERA to 9.45. Liraino had one decent inning last night and other than that looked like the same old Liriano. I just don’t know how the Twins can continue to send Liriano out there every fifth day when he is pitching as bad as he is. Liriano brings down the entire team everytime he walks out to the mound. Gardenhire and pitching coach Rick Anderson have tried everything including skipping a start with Francisco but to no avail. After last nights game Gardy was quoted as saying, “what can we do, we just need to send him out there”. I for one have seen enough of Liraino this season in a starting role, it is time to move Liriano to the bullpen where he can have some chance of success albeit in a relief role. You have to do something, you can’t pay Liriano the kind of money he is getting and have him under perform as badly as he has todate. The team is 7-21 for pete’s sake, what have you got to lose? Send Liraiano to the bullpen now and move Brian Duensing back into the starting rotation. Duensing is no Warren Spahn but he has to be better than Liriano and you still have that lefty in the bullpen that you want. Maybe this is not the way to build Liriano’s confidence but you have 24 other players on the team that shouldn’t be punished every fifth day when you send Liriano out to the mound.

Twins Minor League Player of the Week

Miguel Sano

Beloit infielder Miguel Sano is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week for April 28-May 4. Sano, 19, appeared in five games, hitting .500 (10-for-20) with two doubles, two home runs, nine RBI’s, four walks and seven runs scored. Sano, who was signed as a free agent on October 9, 2009, entered the season ranked as the Twins top prospect and best power hitter in the Twins organization by Baseball America. In 28 games with the Snappers this season, Sano is batting .308 (32-for-104) with eight doubles, two triples, eight home runs and 28 RBI. Sano appears ready to take the next step soon.

According to Elias

The Twins, held to one hit by Seattle Mariners Felix Hernandez and Steve Delabar last night after being no-hit by the Angels Jered Weaver on Wednesday, now have accumulated a total of just nine hits over their last four games, the fewest hits over a four-game span by any team in modern major-league history (that is, since 1900). Minnesota surpassed the previous four-game low of 10 hits, done by the California Angels in 1969 and by the Reds in 1993.

Hits and extra base hits few and far between for Twins

47 hitless at bats for the Twins came to an end when Jamey Carroll hit a single in the first inning against the Mariners yesterday. That was the longest hitless streak by a major-league team since the Padres went 47 at-bats without a hit in June 1995. Source: Elias

Chris Parmelee’s run in the seventh inning last night snapped the Twins scoreless streak at 25 innings. It was the Twins first run since scoring three in the eighth inning in Monday night’s 4-3 loss against the Angels in Anaheim. The scoreless streak was the longest by a Twins team since they went 26 consecutive innings without scoring a run from July 31-August 3, 1994. Parmelee’s double in the seventh inning last night was the Twins first extra-base hit since Alexi Casilla’s double in the eighth inning Monday night in Anaheim. The Twins went 92 plate appearances between extra base hits. The Twins 65 extra-base hits are the fewest among American league teams this season. Source: Twins Game Notes

The Twins won for the first time last night when being out-hit by their opponent (1-12), it also marked the first time (in game number 25) that the Twins held their opponent to two runs-or-less.

Tonight’s Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Felix Hernandez is a true Ace. King Felix has gone at least 6.0 innings in 172 of  his 211 games started (81%), including 92 of last 101 starts (91%), and 6 of 6 so far in 2012. 29 of 32 (91%) in 2011.

So why do Twins pick up Erik Komatsu

Erik Komatsu

Put me down under the confused column. Why would the Twins pick up Erik Komatsu? I have no problem sending Clete Thomas packing as he had 28 at bats in a Twins uniform and he hit .143 and he struck out 16 times, enough said. But why pick up Komatsu who is a Cardinals Rule 5 pick-up in December of 2011? Komatsu grew up in California and graduated from Adolfo Camarillo High School where he was a teammate of Delmon Young. Komatsu was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 8th round in 2008, missed most of 2009 with a concussion and hamstring issues and was traded to the Washington Nationals in July 2011. Komatsu has 348 minor league games under his belt and he hit .302 but he has never played above AA ball. I know he can play all three outfield positions and he has stolen 57 bases in the minors but he also got caught 24 times. It’s not like Komatsu is a corner outfielder with power potential. If the Twins don’t keep Komatsu on the roster they need to offer him back to the Nats. Why would the Twins want a player like this? If you want to replace Thomas why not pick up one of your own minor league players? What kind of message does this send to your own minor leaguers? Do the Twins think so little of their own minor league players that they feel they need to pick up players like Clete Thomas and Erik Komatsu? Put yourself in Ben Revere’s or Rene Tosoni’s shoes, what are they thinking? If the Cardinals thought that Komatsu had potential why didn’t they strike a deal with Washington and keep him? The only reason he made the Cardinals team this year anyway was due to all the injuries the Cardinals outfielders suffered. I would like to know why a player from another organization that hasn’t played AAA ball can play in Minnesota but when it comes to their own players they would prefer they get AAA experience first. Don’t tell me about Parmelee, I know he has no AAA experience but the Twins are hardly playing Parmelee this season anyway. I know this team is playing poorly and need some changes but a fourth/fifth outfielder is hardly the answer here unless………. the Twins know they are going to move some players soon and go into full rebuilding mode sooner than later. If that is the case, then the Twins can keep Komatsu on the roster all season and this move might make some sense. I just don’t know if Terry Ryan and the Twins brain trust knows where they are going, they seem to wander aimlessly so far this season grasping at straws.

According to Elias

Jered Weaver after no-hitting the Twins

Jered Weaver threw a no-hitter against the Twins last night, while Angels batters scored nine runs on 15 hits off Minnesota’s pitchers.  It was only the second major-league game in the past 40 years in which one team had at least 15 hits and the other had none.  On June 27, 1980 Jerry Reuss no-hit the Giants at Candlestick Park, an 8-0 game in which the Dodgers collected 17 hits. Source: Elias

Box score

Who said it is good to be home?

Why can’t American league teams win in their home parks in 2012? Through the end of April, AL home teams are 73-84 and winning at a .465 clip. When the junior league takes to the road they are playing .535 baseball and have posted a mark of 84-73.  The Senior circuit on the other hand has posted a 102-79 (.564) mark at home and when they are on the road these same teams are 79-102 (.436).

In 2011 in the American League home teams were 607-530 (.534) and 532-599 (.470) on the road. The Twins were 33-48 (.407) at home last season, the fewest home victories of any team in the league and on the road they were even worse, 30-51 a .370 clip.

This year the Twins are 3-8 at home and 3-8 on the road. Tampa is 9-1 at home and Kansas City is 0-10 at home. The best road warriors in the AL this season are the Texas Rangers who stand at 9-1 and the worst team on the road is the Angels at 3-9. No team in the AL Central has a winning home record so far this year.

Strange going on in the American League to be sure.