Wednesday,
October 8, 2008
Quick Notes
First
of all, thank you to all of you who read yesterday’s So… Now What
posting and left your comments. I think there are a lot of great ideas and
thoughts on the 2009 Twins. It will be an interesting offseason. I just didn’t
have it in my to write too much after how much time I spent last night, so
today, just a few quick notes. Please continue the discussion.
·
Be sure to head over to Twinkie Town to keep up with the
voting for the Twins top prospects. Yesterday, it took a
Prospect Run-Off to determine the #1 Twins Prospect according to the
Twinkie Town community. It was Ben
Revere against Danny Valencia,
and it came down to a very surprising vote. The vote for the
team’s #2 prospect is now taking votes, so be sure to go there and make
your selection. Sometime around noon or 1:00 central time, we will determine
the winner and start the vote for Twins Prospect #3.
·
The Arizona Fall League began on Tuesday and seven members
of the Twins organization are playing for the Phoenix Desert Dogs. The team is
also managed by New Britain manager Stan
Cliburn. LaVelle posted some thoughts on each of
the Twins players in the AFL here,
and I left a couple of comments there, so please check that out. In their first
game yesterday, Danny Valencia
played 3B, batted fifth and went 2-4. Dustin
Martin played LF, batted sixth and went 1-4. Steve Tolleson pinch hit late in the game
and struck out. D-Backs prospect Max Scherzer started for the team and gave up two runs (1
earned) in seven innings. None of the three Twins pitchers pitched in the game.
·
Josh Johnson takes a
look at some
options this winter in the middle infield. Like me, he is 100% against
the idea of Orlando Cabrera coming to the Twins.
·
Nick Nelson is also against
bringing in Orlando Cabrera, but how does he
feel about Orlando Hudson?
·
Andrew Kneeland from Twins Fix says that the Twins should consider former Twin
Casey Blake as a 3B option.
·
Aaron
Gleeman
is, you got it, against
the idea of signing Cabrera, and gives a great statistical comp to
better explain it. He also posts some terrific thoughts on what Joe Mauer did
again in 2008!
·
For Week 5, we had three winners in the SethSpeaks.net NFL “Expert”
Picks. Twins pitching prospect Kyle Waldrop,
the infamous Marty Andrade and SethSpeaks.net’s Missy
Lien. At least one of the two SethSpeaks.net representatives is doing well.
I’m horrible! If you want to see the standings and who all is on the panel, click here.
There you will see that The Star Tribune’s LaVelle E Neal III has taken the overall lead
through five weeks!
·
Tim Dierkes of MLBTradeRumors.com
wrote an Offseason
Outlook on the Minnesota Twins. It’s always interesting getting an
outsider opinion on what the Twins have and what they should do.
·
Howard Sinker has a few ideas on how to make things better in 2009.
·
Here is a very
good story on the energy/enthusiasm of Rays
reliever Grant Balfour who dominated
the White Sox in three of the four games in their ALDS series. I was glad to
see he did well after he was on the SethSpeaks.net Weekly Twins
Podcast on September 30th for about ½ hour.
·
The Twins granted free agency to IF Howie Clark.
·
If you are curious which Twins
minor leaguers are participating in Instructional League down in Ft.
Myers, here is a list (although note that Jeff
Manship is on the list, and we know he is in
Arizona participating in the Fall League.
·
With just a handful of games left in the regular season, the
Red Sox called up former Twins farm hand (from 2005-2007), Gil
Velazquez. I pointed out that I thought that was a nice honor for
Velazquez, who will turn 29 later this month. He got eight at bats in the last
couple of Red Sox games. Well, with Mike
Lowell hurt and now taken off the Red Sox roster for the ALCS, Velazquez
was now added to their postseason roster. Good for him, even if no
one knows who he is, and even the Red Sox hope that they don’t have to
play him in the series.
·
And finally, the SethSpeaks.net Weekly Twins Podcast will be
on www.BlogTalkRadio.com/SethSpeaks
tonight at 8:00 central time. I am still trying to finalize a schedule
and will post it here Wednesday afternoon. If you have a chance, please listen
live. If you can’t, please listen later. Either way, please send
me an e-mail and let me know what you think. Thanks!
With
that, I’m going to call it a day! Please feel free to Comment here.