Nevada Twins Fan

This is a repeat of a forum post I made in December 2012. I'm blogging it now mostly for my own convenience; I took the time to look up several pitchers and I don't want to have to search again when I try to remember what I learned. The question was, if you were GM would you have matched the 5/$80M deal for Detroit's Anibal Sanchez? The context now is, when if ever would you sign a pitcher to a long term deal, given that there is room in the budget until the rookies start to earn big dough ... ...

I've been asked about my daily choice of avatar(s). That joke has pretty much run its course so I'm not going to continue it indefinitely, and I thought I should just put the lengthy explanation here as a blog entry for possible future reference.

I started out without any visual embellishment to my postings. After a while I decided to try it out, after seeing others' choices. I didn't like my own photo for the purpose, and the first one I ...

Updated 05-05-2013 at 10:41 AM by ashburyjohn

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Previously I posted anagrams of the 2013 Twins active roster. Here are permutations on some recent additions:

Oswaldo Arcia
Iowa Carloads
I Also A Coward
A Cow Loads Air

Scott Diamond
Candid Mottos
Misadd Cotton
Condom Tit Ads

Pedro Hernandez
Preharden Dozen
Pardoned Her Zen
End Red Porn Haze
...

There is already a lengthy thread in the forum, about the Twins' abortive offer to let fans watch home-team batting practice for $15; I did not get too worked up about the topic at first but I contributed and the obsessive reader may see a theme or two repeated here. Well written essays, pro and con, are also found at
http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/44474154/
and
http://www.brandonwarne.com/2013/04/...ch-bp-my-take/ ...

Updated 04-12-2013 at 12:23 AM by ashburyjohn

Tags: batting, lagniappe, practice

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It's been a few years since I did this. You'll either love it or hate it. Here are some anagrams of the 25-man roster. I don't claim a lot of creativity, and I used a program to generate possibilities. I spared the mods some grief by leaving out the dirty ones. Some names are pretty barren (had to cheat and use Mauer's given name Joseph), while others give an embarrassment of riches and you might think up better ones. Or you might even spot some typos/errors, ...

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I'll try this as a blog entry instead of a forum post.

The Tigers continue to shop Rick Porcello to no avail. MLB Trade Rumors states that the Padres turned down a chance to trade either Huston Street or Luke Gregerson to get him. Other deals have failed to materialize. I suppose the equivalent from the Twins standpoint would be Glen Perkins, factoring in the NL and the Padres home park. Would you make that deal, if the Tigers also saw it that way (and were willing to trade intra-division)? ...

Originally posted in reply to thread These Call-Ups Are a Downer

The Twins' 40-man roster is apparently at 39 right now, and the desire for waiver-wire flexibility is a reason given not to bring up one or two other players for September, such as Anthony Slama.

How can a last-place team have any issues at all managing their 40-man roster? Just sooooo many talented players, the other teams will scoop an All-Star-in-the-making right up, if the Twins aren't careful? ...

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The transactions of the last few days boil down to Blackburn being replaced by Deduno, and Parmelee being replaced by... Fien? So, we're back to a roster of 13 pitchers and 3 catchers. Very little scope for pinch-hitting and pinch-running. I guess this has been hashed to death, but it still seems weird to me. Wasn't so long ago that 11 pitchers were enough for a staff. And I think it detracts from the enjoyment of the tactical game - instead of managers having to anticipate opposing moves and ...

There has been much banter about whom the Twins might trade, and what they might get in return, if and when they decide to give up on the season and become "sellers" at the trade deadline in July. Folks seem to expect that several prospects can be obtained for the most prized of the Twins' trading chips, thus restocking the minors and/or bringing major-league ready talent to the parent club, particularly on the pitching side.

So I got ...

While looking for something else, I ran across on Yahoo's team roster page that Drew Butera is listed among the pitchers.

So that I won't think I was just imagining things after they correct it, here is a compressed screen shot:

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In a Marquis-out/DeVries-up thread, it was mentioned by more than one that Matt Maloney ought to be put into the Rochester rotation. I had been thinking along those lines for a while now, too.

In fact, I wonder if the Twins considered doing this in April for the parent club, before sending Maloney down, by putting him into a long-relief outing or two. Unfortunately he pitched so poorly that they couldn't even "stretch him out" for a few ...

Updated 05-22-2012 at 06:16 PM by ashburyjohn

Tags: maloney, rochester, starter

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Why is it that on most days, when I channel surf to ESPN during commercial breaks of the other show I'm watching, I never get an update on how the Twins' game is going, but when they lose a game 16-4 like yesterday it's constantly the game shown on the crawl at the bottom of the screen when I click over there? Ugh.

May 15: on this day in Twins history, 2012, Jason Marquis gave up three home runs in one inning, in a lethargic 5-0 loss that also featured (not to be outdone) four different Twins grounding into double plays.

Wait, what? You have to wait a year to mark a milestone like this one?

The Twins lost 2-1 yesterday, wasting a pretty good season debut by P.J. Walters. From the AP story:
The struggling Twins offense couldn't come up with a timely hit. Minnesota went 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position and stranded six runners over the final four innings.
"We had plenty of chances, but it just didn't work out for us tonight,'' Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said.

Hm. On offense, the Twins had 5 hits total, but 6 walks to go with them. The Jays ...