Tag: Jason Bulger

Only in spring training

When the Twins play a team not too far from Fort Myers their minor league teams also play that same organizations teams at their level, usually the AA and AAA teams play at one of the host cities and the two A ball teams play at the other city. Yesterday the Twins were playing the Baltimore Orioles in Sarasota so the Rochester team played Norfolk and the New Britain played Bowie in Sarasota while Fort Myers played Frederick and Beloit played Delmarva at Hammond Stadium. I stopped off at Hammond Stadium about 12:30 PM expecting to be a little early for the Fort Myers and Beloit games but when I parked my car I could see that the games were already underway, had I read my schedule correctly I would have seen that the games today started at Noon versus 1 PM. Oh well no biggie. I wandered over to the first field and saw Beloit taking on Delmarva and on another field I saw the extended group of players playing an inner squad game but Fort Myers and Frederick were nowhere to be seen. After watching the Beloit game for a while I asked what happened to Fort Myers and Frederick and I was told they were playing in the main stadium today.

Marty Popham

I entered the stadium and the game was underway and there were so few fans there that the players that were not in playing in the game that day outnumbered the fans as they sat in the stands and watched their teammates play. I didn’t recognize many of the players but I sat down next to a pitcher that was keeping the pitching chart and manning the radar gun for the game. After introducing myself I found out that the player was RHP Marty Popham, a 24-year-old AAA Rule 5 draft pick from the Cleveland Indians this past off-season. Marty said that the minor league Rule 5 draft is a bit different from the major league Rule 5 draft in that the Twins keep him regardless of the team he may be assigned to play for. The 6’6″ Popham was a 20th round pick for the Indians in 2008 and last season he pitched A ball in Kinston, AA ball in Akron and AAA ball in Columbus going 6-3 with a 4.58 ERA, a 1.27 WHIP with 106 strikeouts in 112 innings. He is pleased to be with the Minnesota organization and hopes to make his mark with the Twins. Marty throws a 4 seam and 2 seam fastball, curve, slider and periodically mixes in a knuckleball. Marty lives in Louisville, Kentucky where he and his fiancée just bought their first home this past off-season. I also ended up talking briefly with reliever Caleb Thielbar, 25, a Northfield, Minnesota native who was with the Brewers organization for a while and then was released and played for the St. Paul Saints last year before the Twins signed him for their Fort Myers ballclub. Both Thielbar and Popham mentioned that they were surprised how many players there were with the Twins organization with roots going back to the North Star state.

I really don’t know what the final score of the game was and there is no score being kept that I could see but I think that Fort Myers did win. The only home run of the game that I saw was a 3-run shot over the left field fence next to the foul pole by 2B Andy Leer. That ball left the park in a hurry. I almost forgot to mention that Carl Pavano pitched a couple of innings in the game and Ryan Doumit caught Pavano for Fort Myers. Pavano looked sharp but then again he was pitching against the A ball Frederick Keys. I ended up taking some pictures that I have uploaded to my 2012 spring training pictures site and then I called it a day. How often do yu get a chance to sit in the stands and talk with the players as you watch a game, only in spring training baby, only in spring training. You can’t beat it, but it is quickly coming to and end, only a week or so to go and I think I will stop by on Monday and watch Rochester takes on New Britain, Beloit take on Fort Myers and the GCL extended team will play an inner squad game. It is an early start on Monday, 10AM local time  as the boys of summer need to wrap things up and break camp the next day. I will be “breaking camp” and heading home to Minnesota myself just a few days later so I can be sure to be home by the time the Easter bunny shows up because who knows, he might bring me something good.

This morning I read that the Twins gave Joel Zumaya, 27, his release, baseball has been a “tough row to hoe” for the fire-balling reliever as he has suffered injury after injury. I would have enjoyed watching Zumaya in a Twins uniform.

When you get cut by the big league club you almost always get to report to one of the minor league teams but when you get caught by a minor league club all you get is “an opportunity to look for a job” and for many of the guys the Twins cut today, it could be a job in the real world. Baseball is tough and your career can be over at any point in time. Good luck to pitchers Matt Bashore, Ben Tootle, Jason Bulger, and Deinys Suarez, infielders Chris Cates, Steve Pearce, and Roy Larson, along with outfielders Dustin Martin and Tyler Koelling.

Twins cut 12 including Nishioka and Tosoni

Tsuyoshi Nishioka

The Twins announced today that they had reassigned 12 players to their minor league teams. The biggest names were 2B/SS Tsuyoshi Nishioka and outfielder Rene Tosoni. Nishioka is guaranteed $3 million this season and next and he just has not shown that he is the player that the Twins thought they were getting when they paid $5.3 million just to gain his negotiation rights. Nishioka does not seem comfortable playing second or shortstop in the big leagues and the man who won a batting title in Japan has not shown anything to speak of with his bat. One of the main reasons for signing Nishioka last season was that Gardenhire wanted to add some speed to the team but all Nishioka could muster was two stolen bases in six attempts. Couple that with the perception that Nishioka appears to want to do things his way versus the Twins way and did not seem to fit in with the rest of his teammates and you have a player that will cost you $3 million for the next two seasons and if you are really honest, you would say that he does not even deserve to be in AAA Rochester with what he has shown the Twins in his year with the club. In my opinion, the Nishioka signing was one of the main reasons that Bill Smith was fired as the Twins GM, not the only reason, but it was a key contributor. If you spend $15 million of Pohlad money and make a “Nishioka” mistake, you had best be prepared to suffer the consequences. But why send Nishioka down about half way through spring training? It has to be a message that Ryan is sending to Nishioka and to the rest of the Twins team. The Twins are not exactly blessed with an abundance of infield prospects so sending Nishioka down should give players like Sean Burroughs, Pedro Florimon and Mike Hollimon some hope for a utility role with the big club. At this point the Twins have to look at Nishioka as sunk money and just want to move on without his distraction. I don’t see Nishioka as one of Ryan’s favorite players and Ryan really has no ties to Nishioka so sending him packing will not cause Ryan to lose any sleep at all. Besides, there is always the chance that Nishioka will be embarrassed by his demotion and ask the club for his release and that would be a win-win for all parties and would end a very sorry but hopefully short chapter in Twins history.

The numbers game has caught up with Rene Tosoni who is 25 and probably a career utility outfielder who is not talented enough to garner a starting role but would make an adequate 4th or 5th outfielder. However; with Willingham, Span, Revere, Plouffe, and Doumit a cinch to make the team and Joe Benson pushing hard, there is no room for Tosoni at this time.

Pitcher Carlos Gutierrez, 25, was also sent down to get more experience and prove that his control issues are a thing of the past. Gutierrez had no serious control issues in his 5 innings pitched this spring but in 66 innings at Rochester in AAA, Carlos has walked 33 batters. The other players that the Twins sent down today were pitchers Jason Bulger, Luis Perdomo, Daryl Thompson, Esmerling Vasquez and P.J. Walters; catchers Chris Herrmann and Daniel Rohlfing; infielder Aaron Bates; outfielder Wilkin Ramirez.

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.

GM Ryan busy, Twins sign Ryan Doumit

Ryan Doumit being checked out by Pirates trainer

Holy Cow, GM Terry Ryan has been busy, on the job less than two weeks and he has signed Jamey Carroll and now today the Twins announced they have signed C/1B/OF Ryan Doumit to a $3 million one year deal pending a physical.  The deal apparently has some incentives and that is a good thing because the switch-hitting Ryan Doumit comes to Minnesota with some baggage. Injury type of baggage, in the form of a concussion history and that is not a good thing for a catcher.

Doumit was drafted in the 2nd round of the 1999 June free agent draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates as a catcher and has been in the Pirates organization ever since. Doumit made his major league debut in June of 2005. Although not rated as a strong catcher defensively, in his 7 big league seasons Doumit has played in 521 games but he has caught in 426 games, played the OF in 60 and played 1B in 35 games. Injuries have limited Doumit’s time in the line-up and he has never had more than 465 plate appearances in any of his 7 big league seasons.

OK, Ryan Doumit has an injury history but he is still a very nice pick-up and worth the gamble as I see it. Doumit has suffered injuries such as a broken thumb, broken wrist, and a fractured ankle not to mention the concussion issues I brought up earlier. He can play three positions and is a switch-hitter and will be 31 when the season starts in April. He has a little pop in his bat as his 67 home runs in 611 games attest and he has a .271 career average although he did hit only .250 in 2009, and .251 in 2010 but he hit .303 in 77 games last year.

I like the signing but if you think this will send Drew Butera packing you need to think again. Doumit is weak defensively and his strength is offense so there is no way that Gardy keeps him on the bench strictly as a back-up catcher day in and day out. Doumit will be in the line-up some where most of the time so Gardy still needs to have a back-up catcher available and that man will probably be Butera or another catcher with some defensive skills. If Doumit is the DH, Gardy will not want to risk losing his DH if he would suddenly need Doumit to catch. Even if Butera fails to make the team, I see no way the Twins do not carry three catchers next year. In spite of needing to carry three catchers, I like this signing and I give GM Ryan a big thumbs up. Keep working those phones Mr. Ryan, a starting pitcher would be nice and the outfield is still a big question mark.

Jason Bulger

The Twins also announced they have signed yet another relief pitcher to a minor league deal, this time it is former Angel Jason Bulger. Jason is a right hander and stands 6’4″ and goes about 210 and will be 33 in a couple of weeks. Bulger has been in the big leagues off and on with the D-Backs and the Angels since 2005 but has only appeared in 125 games with a 7-2 record. Bulger is another of those relief pitchers with control issues as his career mark of 5.1 BB/9 will tell you.

Finally, the Twins also announced that they plan to add another bronze statue of a former player outside Target Field next year but as yet the player has yet to be publicly identified. He would join statues of Harmon Killebrew, Kirby Puckett, Rod Carew, Tony Oliva and the late Twins owner Carl Pohlad and his wife Eloise. Who is it going to be? My guess would be Bert Blyleven and my dark horse choice would be Kent Hrbek. We will find out soon enough.

UPDATE November 23 – The Twins announced that they have officially signed free-agent catcher Ryan Doumit to a one-year deal worth $3 million.