Wednesday,
November 18, 2009
Twins Notes
Hopefully you
have all had a chance to listen to last
night’s SethSpeaks.net Weekly Minnesota Twins podcast. Danny Valencia led off the show, and we
talked about everything from his time in New Britain, his promotion to
Rochester, playing winter ball in Puerto Rico, his thoughts on what it would
mean to be added to the 40 man roster on Friday, his offseason and much more,
including his thoughts on trying to make blogger TT happy! J Next on the agenda was a
very good interview with Steve Singleton.
We discussed his time down in Arizona, the level of play, what he’s learned
about himself through playing there, his thoughts on what it would mean to be
added to the 40 man roster, fantasy football, and much more. After that, I was
able to discuss some other Twins related topics and answer a few questions. So
again, if you haven’t yet listened to the show, you can listen
to it by going here. It’s pretty cool to have two guests on last night
who could conceivably both be with the Minnesota Twins sometime in 2010.
Speaking of
podcasts, I will be a guest on Twins Talk podcast
tonight at 9:00 p.m. central time which is hosted by Jack Steal of Fanatic Jack Talks Twins
and also Topper Anton of Curve for a Strike.
Also on tonight’s show will be Andrew Bryz-Gornia of Off the Mark.
The Twins have
eight minor league free agents. According to Baseball
America, they are: David Winfree, Brock
Peterson, Alejandro Machado, Brian Buscher,
Matt Moses, Oswaldo Sosa, Frank Mata and Reid Santos. It is likely that the
Twins will try to retain a couple of them, but others they will just let go
elsewhere. In my opinion, there are only three that they should try to retain.
·
The first choice would be David Winfree. He is just 24 years old and
had a very solid year in his first AAA season. He is a right-handed bat with
some power. He may never hit for average and doesn’t get on base at a great
clip, but I would think they would be happy to have him stay.
·
Brock Peterson had a very strong second
half in Rochester last year, arguably the team’s top hitter the last few
months. He is another right handed bat with a little power. He plays 1B, and
the Twins have a guy who plays there. They also have a backup in Michael Cuddyer
and may end up signing a bench bat there as well. Also, Erik Lis has spent the last two years
hitting well at AA New Britain. He likely will move up to Rochester. Also, Whit Robbins plays an excellent 1B and
was an All-Star in AA Eastern League last year. He may have an opportunity to
move up to AAA. If not, Peterson could be brought back, especially since Justin Huber is not coming back.
·
Frank Mata is the third that I
would try to bring back. He is a Tommy John survivor from a few year ago, and he throws very hard. He may or may not have a
big league future, but I think he’s got the kind of stuff that is worth giving
another year to.
There are
several other former Twins minor leaguers who now find themselves as free
agents. Since I follow the Twins minor league system so closely, I still am
interested in following the careers of former players. Here are those players
and the team that they played with in 2009:
·
Bobby Korecky (Arizona), Trent Oeltjen (Arizona), Mariano Gomez (Atlanta), Luis Rivas
(Cubs), Doug Deeds (Cubs), Michael Restovich (White
Sox), Alexander Smit (Reds), Korey
Feiner (Reds), Lew Ford (Reds), Levale
Speigner (Marlins), Michael Ryan (Marlins), Casey
Daigle (Astros), Tim Raines, Jr. (Royals), Henry Bonilla (Dodgers), JD Durbin
(Dodgers), Danny Ardoin (Dodgers), Luis Maza (Dodgers), James Tomlin (Dodgers), Mike Lamb (Mets),
Tristan Crawford (Phillies), Terry Tiffee (Phillies),
Matt Kinney (Giants), Ramon Ortiz (Giants), Julio DePaula
(Rays), Rashad Eldridge (Rays), Justin Jones
(Nationals).
I apologize for
not posting my thoughts on the Twins 2010 uniforms. Maybe I’m weird, but I just
don’t find that to be
an exciting piece of news. I like them. They’re cool. I like the gray ones
because they’re at least a little bit different. I know it’s all important, but
I’d much prefer to talk about free agents, trade targets and 40 man roster
decisions.
Chris Jaffe of The Hardball Times wrote a book
called Evaluating
Baseball Managers which will be released soon. He provided a fun
excerpt of the book. It was a section on Billy Martin when he was with
the Twins in 1969.
As Joe Christensen mentioned in his
blog today, the AL Manager of the Year will be announced this afternoon
and Ron Gardenhire
should receive strong consideration. I know that many blog readers disagree
many times with Gardy, but he has to be considered for
the award. My personal vote would go to Ron
Washington of the Rangers, but then I could make a case for either Mike Scioscia or Gardy
for 2nd place. If Gardy finishes second
yet again, he could officially be named the Susan Lucci of baseball!
Alright, that is it for
today. Are there any other Twins topics of note? If so, Send
me an e-mail, or leave your
Comments here.