Post-Game (Exhibition Game 4)

Twinks 8, Red Snots 2 (Box Score)

• Livan's big Twins spring debut will be viewed as, for all intents and purposes, successful. Joe Christensen writes that in his 2 innings of work, Hernandez deployed his full arsenal in his 42 pitches. Unfortunately, this would have placed him at 125-pitches in the 6th inning if he continued this paced. In full disclosure, Boston is a lot better than more teams at working pitchers however a pitcher that is being brought in specifically for 200 innings might want to work on efficiency. Witnessing this on MLB.com, I can attest that it did appear that Hernandez was in command of the hitters, getting weak swings on his sweeping curveball. The ones that he failed to fool, David Ortiz and Mike Lowell, punished fastballs in the upper strike zone for a double and a home run, respectively. Lowell's home run came on a 3-2 belt high fastball.

• As Christensen indicated in his blog, his velocity on his 3-2 fastball to Lowell read 83-mph at the City of Palms Park which he calls "disturbing". This is nothing surprising considering he is a pitcher that throws for contact (his WHIFF rating average on his four pitches was .160). What pitch f/x research revealed was that in 2007, Hernandez was averaging 84-mph on his fastball (a good indication of why he surrendered 30+ home runs). Hernandez has been marginally successful with this high school velocity fastball for several reasons. First, while the majority of pitchers tend to throw the fastball more frequently around 65% of the time or higher Hernandez used his only 57% of the time. Secondly, he does not live in the strike zone with his fastball. In 2007, Hernandez's walk rate was the league average of 9%, this is a relatively low number in spite of having his fastball in the strike zone for only 55% of the time. Finally, Hernandez offsets this velocity with a slow curveball that he throws at 65 mph, a 15-mph difference, making the 84 mph fastball seem deceptively quick. Unfortunately, as Mike Lowell proved today, in circumstances in which batters can anticipate a fastball in the zone (as was the case on the 3-2 pitch), it can be absolutely crushed.

• Brian Buscher is putting together a very good spring. Though just 1 for 3 on the day, in his first at-bat in the bottom of the 2nd, following a Kubel's single off of Tim Wakefield, Buscher swatted a knuckleball that appeared to be a sure base hit that BoSox second baseman Dustin Pedroia made a diving snare on a hop fifteen feet away from right fielder JD Drew and threw out Buscher. Instead raising his average even further Buscher will have to settle for .400 so far on the spring. If he continues to hit well, there should be no excuse for the Twins not taking him north. As the old baseball adage goes: if you hit, we will find a spot on the field for you. Buscher's positional limitations would mean that his appearance in the line-up would come at the expense of Kubel or Lamb (dh or third).

• Dispatches from the Race for Second Base: In the bottom of the third with one out and Boston catcher Doug Mirabelli on first, a normally level-headed Nick Punto fielded a hard-hit chopper off of the bat of Coco Crisp. Instead of tossing to Adam Everett at second, Punto attempted in vein to tag a surprisingly agile Mirabelli out in the basepaths. After whiffing on the tag, Punto was left with only one play at first. This missed double-play was significant for two reasons because (1) rather than getting Matt Guerrier out of the inning with the double-play, the Red Sox were given an additional out and (2) the batter that was on the on-deck circle was David Ortiz, now with a runner in scoring position, a hitter very susceptible to trading places with Mirabelli. Fortunately, the situation was rendered moot when Guerrier coaxed an out from Ortiz but a team like the Twins cannot be soliciting more scoring opportunities. This is why I believe it is vital to record "double-play opportunity" as an on-going statistic in order to properly assess middle infield talent.

Post-Game (Exhibition Game 3)

Red Snots 7, Twinks 6 (Box Score)

• From the Boston Globe: "Sometimes it's hard not to be arrogant," Terry Francona joked after the game.

The starting left-handed pitching combo of Randy Keisler and Jon Lester was grossly ineffective. Keisler had little chance of making the squad without pitching flawlessly in spring training. His era - and hopes of seeing the Dome - was detonated today into the Glen Perkins stratosphere of 20.25. What seems to be the worst part for Keisler was not the three earned runs but rather, as John Gordon and Dan Gladden noted on KSTP-AM, the fact that the coaching staff reiterated prior to the game how important throwing strike was and allowing the defense to do the work. Instead of heeding the advice, Keisler walked three Red Sox in his 1.1 innings of work. (Of course it wasn't like that he intentionally walked three bats however when a coaching staff makes a conceited effort to point this out and you do the opposite, it is quite detrimental to your career.) Lester, meanwhile, was worse. He walked four and gave up five runs (4 earned). One came with a bases loaded walk to Casilla that brought in Mike Lamb from third (following his double). Needless to say for the remainder of his career I will be analyzing whether or not the Twins made the right decision to forgo trading Santana to Boston for Lester. Ditto for Ellsbury who went 0 for 3 with a run batted in.

• Carlos Gomez helped his cause by starting the game with a single off of Lester then stole second. Delmon Young knocked him in. Later in the game, Gomez got his first rbi in a Twins uniform. The other Twins centerfield candidate, Jason Pridie, also got his first (and only) hit as a Twins in 2 at-bats. Knowing that defense is critical, if these moments of offense persist, Gomez could be finding that he will be on the bus north although Joe Christensen noted that his giant swings-and-misses seemed almost "cartoonish". Point being that we have 30 more days until we figure out who will be in center come home opener, who ever lands the position will most likely come complete with some flaws be they offensive or defensive and then will have to learn on the job. The race for center might have tightened up along with Craig Monroe's calf muscle who is expected to miss a few days because of the strain.

• Meanwhile in Arizona, former Twin Torii Hunter went 2 for 2 with a home run (off of the rehabbing Kerry Wood), a double and four rbis. In the same game, Tim Lahey threw one inning of hitless and scoreless ball for the Cubs. Lahey's story is pretty interesting considering he was a converted catcher drafted by the Twins and then asked to take the mound. In recent years he has been closing games but does not have the lights-out stuff of your prototypical closer (16.1% k% in 2007 double-A), however he did induce groundballs on 65% of balls put in play. Scouts say that he throws a "heavy-ball" with an arm motion reminscent of Keith Foulke.

• Monitoring the "I wish we did sign" players: Mike Sweeney went 3 for 4 for Oakland with two runs, three rbis, and also stole second off of Barry Zito. Emil Brown, another Oakland shrewed offseason acquisition, finished 2 for 3 with two runs scored, two rbis and a walk. (Speaking of $100 million dollar pitcher freefalls, Zito couldn't even get out of the first inning against the A's as he was tagged for 8 earned runs on seven hits and two walks.) Kevin Mench, who signed a minor league contract, hit a solo home run for Texas against the Royals.

Post-Game (Exhibition Game 2)

Red Snots 8, Twinks 3 (Box Score)

• It is easy to dislike Boston sports teams these day. PiPress's Phil Miller characterized the sentiment appropriately when describing the arrival of the Red Sox team bus from across town (which may or may not have had a corporate sponsor).

• Yup, Boof lost weight. (Gleeman type poundage.) You can actually see cheekbones. To paraphrase a line from the movie Just Friends, he looks like that "retard from Subway." If two innings and seven batters is any early indication, it paid off for him too. Tasked with facing the bulk of the World Championship line-up, Bonser surrendered one hit to Ortiz but otherwise was nearly flawless. Two groundouts, three flyouts and a strikeout. The reduction in weight is suppose to allow him to maintain stamina to pitch longer into games. In 2007, Bonser had obvious problems laboring through the 5th and 6th innings of his starts. He completed seven innings in just eight of his 30 starts and managed to work into the 8th only once. Batters in the 5th inning hit .333/.421/.558 in 142 plate appearances against Boof in '07. Boof struggled to throw strikes (walking 11.9% of batters faced) and when he did find the plate, he was hit hard - he gave up 15 doubles in his 5th inning of work, a figure almost twice as much as his next closest inning (8 in the 1st). In the 6th inning, Bonser regain a bit of control but was pounded. Batters hit .333/.377/.694 in 77 plate appearances. In those 77 plate appearances, Bonser surrendered 7 home runs (a whopping 9.0% hr-rate) and half of the hits given up went for extra bases. His problem according to the coaching staff was the extra weight (somewhere in the 260 lbs range) he was carrying was wearing him out early. Now in 2008, 30 pounds lighter, Twins fans are hoping that Boof pitching in the 7th inning is the norm and not the exception.

• Last season in his major league debut against the Oakland A's on June 1st, I remembered an extremely lengthy at-bat. Looking back on the B-R gamelog, it may have been either the Dan Johnson 11-pitch at-bat in the bottom of the 1st where he walked the Minnesota native or epic 13-pitch at-bat with Eric Chavez in the bottom of the 3rd where he got Chavy to pop out to 3rd, but the point is, both were littered with foul balls. There was a moment of "uh-oh" while watching Slowey work. His statistics in the minors showed a pitcher who not only threw strikes but did so without being hit. In 2007 at triple-A, Slowey finished with 107k|18bb, a ridiculous amount of strikeouts to a ridiculously low number of walks. Not only that but in a 133.2 innings he only gave up 4 home runs, so he was doing something right. Now, obviously the A's are particularly adept at working counts as part of their overall philosophy or at least groomed to be in the minors, but it seemed to me that Slowey lacked that "out-pitch" - the one with bite that will get someone to chase (i.e. Radke's change, Liriano's slider, Santana's change). In a partial study* of Slowey's pitch f/x from last year the numbers showed that he indeed did have a tough time getting bats to miss. Stats, Inc developed a statistic called WHIFF which creates an average for inducing swings-and-misses. As a reference, Johan Santana's change-up had a WHIFF of .471 according to the partial database. To translate, when batters did swing at Santana's change up, they missed nearly 50% of the time. This is in the upper echelons of filthy. Of his three pitches, Santana maintains an average WHIFF rate of .327. Slowey's pitches fall well below Santana's threshold. Slowey's four-pitch average WHIFF was .142. His best "miss" pitch was his slider (.181) which he threw roughly 16% of the time. The pitch he leaned on most, his fastball, was in the strike-zone 71% of the time (one of the best in the study) but when contact was made with the fastball 6% of balls in play went for extra bases. Being consistently around the strike-zone and not having that "out-pitch" leads to 16 home runs in only 66.7 inning pitched (in fact, two of his home runs surrendered came on 0-2 counts). I am obviously not trying to compare Slowey with Santana. A more reasonable comparison, Carlos Silva, used his repertoire of pitches and maintained a WHIFF of .168. I do have confidence that Slowey will develop in to a top-tiered starter. Yesterday he showed some "movement" on his fastball which will hopefully led to more missed bats. His strikeouts of Ortiz and Manny inspired confidence only to turn the table once Lowell, Varitek and Youkilis and the bottom of the order came up. La Velle reports that Gardy said that Slowey was "over throwing the ball" which is probably accurate considering the two un-Slowey-like walks to Coco Crisp and Bobby Kielty. Once again, this is spring training so I am not putting too much stock into this but seeing as that 5th spot in the rotation is wide-open, Slowey might want to concentrate better in his next outing.

*I say "partial" because the pitch f/x database only accounts for 500+ pitches thrown while Slowey's season total pitches was 1,137 nevertheless it suffices for this illustration.

• Speaking of centerfield, our candidates went 1 for 6 (D-Span, Pridie and Gomez) while Coco Crisp went 2 for 2 with an rbi, a walk and stole a base on Slowey/Redmond. Rumors still persist that Crisp could be on the market for the right price. Personally, I think that shipping Santana to Boston in a trade that would have included Crisp would have been significantly worse then the package we obtained from the Mets (unless Epstein was loading it with additional prospects) but I wouldn't might bringing Crisp in to the mix either for some different players. If the alternative are Loften or Patterson, Crisp would be a better player while Gomez and Pridie take another season in the minors (or leaving one up at the bench player).

• Egad.

• Both Michael Cuddyer and Delmon Young knocked into double-plays in this game. I mention this because in addition to both being two of the top arms in right field last year, both we in the top five of grounding into double-plays for right fielders too. In 2007, Cuddyer managed to get doubled up 19 times (16th among all qualified batters) while Young was tied for the league-led at 23. If you look at the list of players leading the American League in gidp's it is a list that consists of some of the league's elite hitters: Maggilo Ordonez, Derek Jeter, Miguel Tejada, Aaron Hill, etc. Which is I do not put too much weight on this statistic. HOWEVER, on a team like the Twins that last year struggled to put guys on base and then score runs, a double-play can be very costly. That one run will be the difference of a win or a loss. Brendan Harris also hit into 19 double-plays in 2007.

• Brian Buscher hit a solo home run of Julien Tavarez in the 6th inning and, according to La Velle, made a fine play on a smash by Kevin Youkilis. Buscher cut short his winter ball and is looking to put himself back on the major league roster after his taste last year. I have stated that in an ideal world, Matt Macri would emerge as that third base candidate because of his right-handed bat, however, if Buscher continues to pound the ball, obviously the best player should be on the major league roster come March 31st.

Post-Game (Exhibition Style)

The nature of blogging is essentially re-reporting. Aside from the new era of legitimate reporters placed on the scene that update sporadically, blogging has historically been the art of taking one's reputable work and altering it into something that can't be interpreted as plagiarism but a thinly veiled version your own thoughts. I would be hard-pressed to even call it regurgitation. It's eating regurgitation, digesting it and then spewing it out again. That is how I feel about this post.

Since I didn't technically SEE any of the first spring training game of the season, I am relying on the reporters to spoon feed me this information. Most of my first-hand information was siphoned off MLB's box score (which is basically saying my "first-hand" information from the war in Iraq was from CNN.com), but Joe Christensen and Phil Miller did a good job feeding updates via their Strib and PiPress blogs in the afternoon in lieu of GameChannel or whatever ESPN, Yahoo or MLB.com function I would have normally decided to watch afternoon games on at work.

I do and I do not like the MLB.com's format for GameDay audio. On one hand, I like the idea of listening to the game with alternative broadcasters just to sample some of the favors of other markets. I feel like you do when you visit out-of-town Targets. The formats are basically the same in every city (i.e. aging play-by-play man, former player color commentary that wreaks of booze, lots of dead air, etc) though something seems OFF. You don't quite get their inside jokes and you might have to look something up on Baseball-Reference or Retrosheet to fully understand the context yet it feels like more active listening that way. On the other hand, I don't like that the streaming function for KSTP is turned off and directing you to feed the cougher at GameDay in order to listen from your workstation.

Forgetting about the technology that brings us the instant gratification of knowing the boxscore refreshed every 30-60-or-90 seconds, it felt oddly nostalgic. Other than being at the game in Sarasota or watching from a live feed near the ballpark, you are able were only to obtain information about this game in just a couple of mediums: (1) to tune in via radio where you are reliant on the spoken word, (2) if you are only to access websites which you are reliant on the written word or (3) internet radio and websites at the same time (the least productive work cocktail of them all). It is amazing how vital verbal communication and literary context is to baseball. For example, when the MLB.com website boxscore indicated that Carlos Gomez went 0 for 2, it lacked any sort of insight as to what transpired. Without proper framework that 0 for 2 could mean a myriad of things. To your average fan, an 0 for 2 afternoon mean two outs, end of story. But those two outs could have been frozen ropes pissed on to Norris Hopper in centerfield. They could have been dribblers in front of the plate. So when Joe Christensen says that Carlos Gomez had two at-bats that were not pretty, I have to take him for his word on it, much like the scribes from the evening newspapers of a bygone era. They put a good perspective to it.

Then again, that one blurb from Christensen raised a few more questions. How did Carlos Gomez behave as a lead-off batter? Did he let a few pitches go by in his first at-bat to make the pitcher show him something? Did Gomez work the count? Did he foul off several pitches? Did he look fooled by the breaking stuff, way out in front? Was he behind on the fastball?

At any rate, soon enough we all will get these answers, after all, television and hours of analysis will reveal some truths to Gomez's approach to the plate, but for now I am satisfied with asking the questions instead of being crammed with answers.

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• As Gleeman pointed out in his Twins notes, Josh Fogg was one of the alternate candidates being targeted by the Twins as the "innings-eater" position. Instead the Twins went with the most "consistent" Livan Hernandez for $5 to $7 million in 2008. The Reds GM Wayne Krivsky signed Josh Fogg to a contract that will be anywhere from $4 to $6 million dollars less. This inflation of pay could be attributed to the cost of reliability in spite of a steadily declining performance. The Twins have decided to pay an increased rate for piece of mind. Regardless, both starters should finish with very similar numbers at the conclusion of the season. Fogg, meanwhile, made his Cincinnati debut in the 3rd inning and pitched 2 scoreless innings giving up one hit and striking out two (one of them freezing Carlos Gomez for the backwards K) while receiving the win for his efforts.

• One of the most impressive things to read (via Joe Christensen's updates) was that Mike Lamb, a career .268/.336/.411 hitter against left-handed pitching, deposited a Kent Mercker pitch for a single. Naturally one match-up against a 40-year-old reliever is not like facing the likes of Sabathia, Willis or even Buehrle for that matter, but Mercker still held lefties to a .249/.332/.380 batting line in his career. It is almost common-knowledge that the Twins have had their struggles trying to find an everyday third baseman that has offensive success -- which Lamb clearly has shown with his prior Texan teams. The last being Corey Koskie whose career batting line against lefties was surprisingly low .248/.328/.378 (very similar to Mercker's numbers against left-handed batters). What does any of this mean? Absolutely nothing. However part of the Twins success will be contingent on Lamb's ability to handle left-handed pitching. As it stand right now, Nick Punto and Brendan Harris are the only right-handed bats available to substitute in games which lefties start.

• Carlos Gomez's first two at-bats in a Twins uniform came this afternoon and, as Joe C reported, neither were "pretty". Easy to say considering he was victim of a Josh Fogg strike out. This shouldn't be taken with too much salt since it was two plate appearances but it could be possible that the only reason he is batting lead off is simply speed. After all, he has not shown a great amount of patience in the minors or his major league stint. His highest season total of on-base percentage was .355 where he split time with high-A and triple-A last season (in only 153 at-bats). His minor league career is .336, better than his rival centerfielder, Jason Pridie's .326 obp (Branden Harris's minor league obp was .359 and he had no hits either). Pridie, also struck out once in Gomez's stead and was hitless in his two at-bats. Still, Gomez flashed some good glove in center: Gomez made a diving catch to end the third inning. Freel broke his bat and hit a pop up that looked like it might drop in shallow center, until Gomez turned on the burners. After making the grab, he stayed hunched over for a minute, and appeared to have the wind knocked out of him. He’s fine. Meanwhile in Arizona, Torii Hunter started his Los Angeles debut with two hits (one a double), a 2-out rbi and a run scored. The double came off of Eric Hurley, Texas' #3 top prospect according to Baseball America. Hurley dominated the lower levels of the minor leagues, often averaging more than a strikeout per inning (in 2006, Hurley struck out 106 in 101 innings in Bakersfield), but ran into better competition in triple-A Oklahoma where his strike outs (59) to innings pitched (73.1) decreased significantly. Maybe I am hunting for omens, but this does seem to be a foreshadowing of the coming season. Torii will undoubtedly have a solid season while Gomez and Pridie will struggle to find their major league legs. In the following season, I would assume that this will equalize that Gomez emerges as that elite player while Torii is relegated to corner outfield or designated hitter in his later years.

• I can't say that I am rooting against Craig Monroe because that would imply that there would be someone to root for in spring training. I wish there were other candidates signed to a minor league contract that could compete in that right-handed designated hitter role, like Mike Sweeney, who went 1 for 1 with the Oakland A's today while... PLAYING LEFT FIELD. That's how you know it is spring training folks, when they let the guy with the glass back play left field. It is valid to consider bringing in some form of competition, if for nothing else, so that Monroe can prove that he is the better, more capable player. Seems more democratic that way.

• A few Rule 5 picks from the Twins farm system were on display this afternoon as well. Garrett Guzman, the former Twins farm hand that was selected by the Washington Nationals in the Rule 5 draft this offseason, had a decent first outing with his new team (although playing against local powerhouse Georgetown U). Guzman finished 2 for 3 with a double, rbi and a run scored. While in the Twins system Guzman was a career .290/.339/.439 hitter. In 2,085 plate appearances over a six year career, he only hit 44 home runs but he hit 29 in his last 1,055 plate appearances the past two seasons. RA Dickey got the win for Seattle after blowing the save against San Diego. Alan Schwarz did an excellent profile on Dickey for the NY Times recently. I have to admit, I was hoping that he was going to make the team out of spring training after reading about his season last year.

American League Central Update (Spring Training Edition)

Chicago White Sox

• The man who affectionately refers to himself "Swish-a-licious", or as Joe Cowley of the Sun-Times describes him as, Mr. Electricity, reported to Tucson with his new team. Swisher, a former Buckeye, had some previous connections with Jim Thome, then with the Cleveland Indians: ''I couldn't believe a big-league player like that was actually talking to someone like me. I was like, 'Oh man, this guy is the greatest guy ever.' So that was a good story for a while. Then after that we ended up hooking back up at a tailgate party at an Ohio State game. Just a great guy, man. A gentle giant and automatic Hall of Famer. Now, I get to be his teammate.''
• Swish has absolutely mashed the majority of AL Central: In 103 plate appearances against the Twins, Swisher accumulated a .250/.373/.476 batting line with 11 extra base hits (52% xbh%). But he has also compiled a decent career against Cleveland (123 pa, .290/.382/.486, 48% xbh%) and Kansas City (112 pa, .236/.384/.483, 47% xbh%). The only team he has not faired well against is the Detriot Tigers where in 93 plate appearances has hit .211/.344/.355 with 5 extra base hits (31% xbh%). Still trading the majority of your remaining elite prospects for this kind of output is not exactly a good practice, regardless of his prior performance. Plus I can't help put hate his stupid abbreviation slang: "If you want to hit 35 homers or more in this league, you have to go to the 'oppo,' " said Swisher, using his slang for the opposite field. Couple Swisher with AJ Pierzynski and Gaaaaaaawwwd, I'm going to enjoy hating this team.
• It is probably just the white Minnesotan but I think how Ozzie Guillen describes newly dictator-less Cuban infielder/centerfielder Alexi Ramirez just sounds as if it would cause an uproar if the same words were uttered by Ron Gardenhire: ''[Ramirez] should be doing a commercial already,'' Guillen said Friday, pointing to his new infielder. ''He should have a man with his arm around him, saying, 'Hello, if you send $2 to the number below, you can help feed this kid from Ethiopia.'''
• Second base candidate Danny Richar is proving that it is not just Twins stuck outside the country and is late to report to spring training. It is a shame for the youngster who hit .230/.289/.406 - an out machine with power - from July 28th on last season in 206 plate appearances. He is up against stiff competition from the jaded Juan Uribe (who was displaced at short by Orlando Cabrera) and Ramirez.

Detroit Tigers

• Gary Sheffield, in the midst of his feud with former agent Scott Boras, is at least warning of becoming to "complacent" as he speaks from his 2004 New York Yankees experience, a team that acquired Sheff and Alex Rodriguez prior to the beginning of the season and were touted as the early favorites to win the World Series (despite not having a solid starting pitcher in the rotation). You can easily see parallels of the 2004 Yankees squad and the 2007 Tigers team that has brought on Edgar Renteria, Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis but still has a questionable rotation outside of Verlander and Bonderman.
• ESPN's Jayson Stark penned a column recently bringing that fact to our attention. Maybe I am just grasping at straws as well, but I have previously outlined why I think the hype about the Tigers is grossly overinflated. They certainly are a playoff caliber team, but I don't quite think they are the be-all, end-all.
• Warning! Feelgoodery ahead: Detroit News' Tom Gage profiled French-Canadian minor league catcher Max St. Pierre who nearly destroyed his career and his life with alcohol.

  "When I drank," St. Pierre said, "it became easier for me to talk to people, to talk to girls. Suddenly, they liked my accent because it sounded funny. They enjoyed it. They thought it was cute. They weren't laughing at me anymore. That's how I started down, going out more, getting in that routine. But I would drink and show up at the field the next day not remembering what I'd learned. I could play defense, but hitting was too involved for me to remember. I was more pumped about getting done with the game and going out. When I had a day off, I'd start drinking in the afternoon and get lit all day." Mickey Mantle or Babe Ruth never used it as an excuse, in fact, I believe they would have described booze as a performance-enhancing drug for those two. But yeah, truly inspiring. Don't do drugs kids.

Cleveland Indians

• This is the epitome of spring training baseball writing: fluff story on first baseman Ryan Garko and outfielder candidate Ben Francisco who played high school ball together in Anaheim. The story culminates in a tale of how the tandem's senior year team managed to blow the state championship after being up 10-0 with two outs to go before the mercy rule took effect. (Former Twins draft pick and current Toronto Blue Jay Brian Wolfe was their pitcher who surrendered several home runs including a grand slam and ultimately lost 18-17.) I would bet that even after last season's playoff elimination to Boston on a grander scale, the high school loss stings more when prodded. Those you never forget.
• The Tribe has signed Jason Tyner to a minor league deal. Tyner is resigning with the team in which he spent from July 30th to October 15th in 2004 with triple-A Buffalo where he hit .345/.420/.388 in 157 plate appearances and helped created 6.57 runs per game for the Indian affiliate. Without a doubt it was this performance that spurred the Twins to offer a minor league deal to this on-base machine. Cleveland, a team that frequently deploys platoons, most likely has signed Jason Tyner because of his left-handed bat that hit .299/.333/.374 in 259 plate appearances against right-handed pitching in 2007 with the Twins and hit .325/.363/.380 in 179 pa's in 2006.
• From the Blind Faith files: Josh Barfield still thinks he has a shot at winning the starting second base position away from second-half sensation Asdrubal Cabrera. Barfield hit a pitiful .243/.270/.324 which was punctuated by his 3.1% walk rate and 20.2% strike out rate in 444 plate appearances. Cabrera, on the other hand, added a spark to a team that was in a dog-race with Detroit for the AL Central. Cabrara, in his 143 plate appearances, hit .283/.354/.421 with a 9.1% walk rate (he drew 3 more walks than Barfield in 258 less plate appearances) and a 15.5% strike out rate. While Cabrera had an extra base hit percentage of 31%, Barfield managed to get extra bases in just 24% of his. In 1,032 innings at second, Barfield made 14 errors (a surprising 6 throwing), a revised zone rating of .784 with 41 balls out of zone. Though Cabrera played a considerable amount less (321 innings), he put up much more confidence inspiring numbers including only 1 error (fielding), a revised zone rating of .850 and nabbed 14 balls out of zone. Both offensively and defensively Cabrera has Barfield shook.
• Oddly enough, the Barfield acquisition could go down as one of the worst in Mark Shapiro's tenure. He parted with Andrew Brown, a right-handed reliever, and Kevin Kouzmanoff for Barfield. Barfield contributed 0 Win Shares Above Bench while Kouzmanoff provided San Diego with 5. Kouz was putting together a good season at the plate. In 524 plate appearances, Kouzmanoff hit .275/.329/.457 with 18 home runs. Cleveland was convinced that Andy Marte was destined to be at third, but since the trade the Tribe has had to use Casey Blake because Marte has not adapted to major league pitching. On the other hand, Shapiro's acquisition of Asdrubal Cabrera could also be construed as one of his best, stealing this prospect away from the Seattle Mariners for Eduardo Perez on June 30th, 2006. Cabrera finished the year off in Buffalo while Perez hit .195/.304/.241 for the Mariners down the home stretch. In 2007, Cabrera was 3 Win Shares Above Bench as Perez finished the second-half of the 2006 season -1 WSAB.

Kansas City Royals

• Even though I am an advocate of rooting for underdogs, I still can't get psyched up by this year's Royals team. Offensively, I am a demi-fan of Mark Teahen, Billy Butler and Alex Gordon (I secretly covet them in my forthcoming fantasy drafts), but I don't like Jose Guillen or Joe Buck (good start, bad finish). I do like Meche and think that both Bannister and Soria will have very good years, but I think Brett Tomko is silly. I like the direction this team is finally taking. But there is no way I can see the Royals overtaking Cleveland or Detroit (dare I even say the Twins?). Zip-zilch-nada. Write that down. The Stars' Joe Ponanski gives us a take at why they will be the surprise team this year. Tongue in cheeky.
• In there Ponanski quotes a scout as saying: There’s a surprise story in baseball every year. Look at Colorado last year. Look at Florida when the Marlins won it. Look at the Tigers when they went to the World Series. It happens every year. You need a couple of players to really emerge, and you need the rest of the team to play consistently every game. However, this is all hooey and here's why: the players like to cite the most recent Cinderella teams like Colorado that emerged last year after going 76-86 to claim the wild card team at 90-72. This is typically possible in the arguably weaker National League. Since the Twins and Atlanta Braves went from worst in 1989 (the Yankees finished with a worse record than the Twins but whatever) to first in 1991, all three teams that finished last in their division rebounded the following season came from the National League. In fact, two of the teams came from the NL West (Arizona '98-'99 and San Diego '97-'98). Unfortunately for the Royals a balance of their schedule consists of teams in the AL Central. Is my logic any better than that of the quoted scout? No, but at least I have some evidence to the contrary.
• Mark Teahen is displaced yet again, this time relinquished to left field per the request (demand?) of new arrival Jose Guillen. Despite a decline in his offensive potancy, Teahen showed that he has a HOSE of an arm, pegging of 17 base-runners, second only to Michael Cuddyer. In 2007, Teahen had the fourth-best revised zone rating in the AL (.871) only behind Bobby Abreu, Alex Rios and Magglio Ordonez. In fewer innings, Teahen was able to reach more balls out of zone (48) then any other right fielder. Guillen, however, had a weaker rzr (.857), made two more errors then Teahen and also had a weaker arm (9 kills) yet the guy with the bigger contract gets to come in and tell people where they are going to play.

Minnesota Twins

• After La Velle's profile, I think I like Mike Lamb even more. Gardy gives him the nickname "Deputy Dog". His defense will be suspect at third but I am confident that he will have to worry less about range due to Adam Everett and I like his bat. As a career .281/.339/.427 hitter that has had much better seasons the previous two years with Houston. In his limited time, he has proven to get on base (as highlighted by his .366 and .361 obp in 2007 and 2006, respectively) and hit for power (.453 and .471 slugging ). He also finished with high extra base hit rates (30% and 31.6%).
• Which brings me to Matt Macri. Somebody asked what my feelings towards Matt Macri. My sentiment is that in a perfect world, he would emerge as the platoon partner with Mike Lamb at third. He has shown flashes of the strong, right-handed bat the Twins need when lefties are on the mound. In double-A Tulsa last year, the right-handed hitting Marci finished .299/.350/.504 in 297 plate appearances. This was a significant change from his prior track record. He had not hit that good since his low-A 2004 season when he finish batting .333/.404/.569. In an early article, I attributed this resurgence of offense on his final position stability. He had been rotated to every position on the infield after starting as a shortstop in 2004 and finally landing on third in 2007. One commentor added clarity: "Macri's improvement had a great deal to do with technique. In about November and December, 2006 Macri returned to his former hitting instructor, Mark Wetzel, of Omaha, Nebraska. Wetzel took Macri back to the techniques that he and Macri worked on prior to the start of Macri's sophomore year at Norte Dame which was Macri's break out year and led to his high draft selection by the Rockies. When you look at the stats, Macri's production has improved dramatically each time he has worked with Wetzel. He stayed with Wetzel throughout the 2007 campaign and it showed. The unique thing about this story is that Mark Wetzel is legally blind! See www.blindguyhitting.com" Sure enough, you can see that if the aforementioned coaching is true then it has greatly improved Macri's hitting. Unfortunately, his overall performance in the Arizona Fall League dissipated after his first 46 at-bats where he was hitting .283/.313/.522 with 2 home runs for the Phoenix Desert Dogs. He finished with 101 at-bats but with a much lower .257/.315/.406 and did not hit another home run. He did finish with 11 xbhs (41% xbh%), leading the team with 9 doubles. He has a lot of work ahead of him in spring training if he plans to change minds. The most likely scenario will be for him to start in triple-A and await an injury.