Devon Young

I’m thinking the Orlando Hudson signing, is all about Brian Dinkelman.

See, the Twins finally decided that Steven Tolleson wasn’t the answer to their 2nd base issue, so they let him go on waivers. Then they sign a vet, Orlando Hudson, which looks like they’re just replacing one guy with another. Reality check though, even though Hudson’s offense has been improving year by year, he’s entering his age 32 season. So he probably has 1-3 definite good years left in him before his talents begin to fade or level off. That would be just enough time to fill the slot until Brian Dinkelman develops into a major leaguer. It makes sense to me.

Dinkelman put up a .383 OBP in AA new Britain this past year, which means he’ll probably be here in Rochester this summer, knocking on Minnesota’s door for a possible September call-up. He’s the highest ranked prospect in the Twins system who plays 2nd base.

Just a short note for now ’cause college is eating up my time and so is work. I’m sure I’ll adjust in a couple of weeks and give you plenty to read in the IL offseason. But for now, I want to express surprise and disbelief that the Twins are not calling up Danny Valencia anytime soon, despite Justin Morneau’s injury. Some of you might not quite grasp why this is shocking to me, partly because of what Joe Posnanski wrote today about Replacement Level Players. Note the part where he uses two examples of players who’ve lived in AAA but when given the chance this year, they’ve done quite well in the majors. Oh, the part that stings is that the two players he uses as examples are Garrett Jones and Randy Ruiz… who were both Rochester Red Wings in 2008. Yeah, they could’ve been doing their damage as Twins this year. Which just makes me want to ask why Danny Valencia isn’t getting a deserved September call up.

Before anyone tells me that Jones stunk when he played 31 games in Minnesota in ‘07, please go check his splits. His weakness was that he couldn’t hit lefties, but he seemed to come out of his funk in September, hitting a solid .297/.341/.486 in 14 games (more games than any other month that year), so he started to adjust to major league pitching and then the Twins gave up on him. It should also be noted that when Jones was batting in the 6th spot in the order, he was getting on base at a .368 clip and slugged a purdy .588! Then the Twins sent him packing for some odd reason and the next time he’s in the majors, he just picks up where he left off and everybody’s wowwed.

PS. if you don’t know what VORP is, here’s the definition.

Yohan Pino’s been traded. Are you kidding me? That’s not funny. Apparently he was sent to Cleveland to complete the Pavano deal.

It never crossed my mind that Pino was tradeable, especially after peeking at his stats. Never. Crossed. My. Mind. How do you trade away a prospect like Yohan Pino for Carl Pavano? My only guess is that the Twins actually think they have a shot at the playoffs this year and are willing to sell out their future for it. I feel like suing the Twins for this trade. It was so stupid. It reminds me of the Tigers trading away a young John Smoltz for Doyle Alexander, or the Red Sox trading off a young Jeff Bagwell for …who??

In all likelihood, it won’t turn out that historic. Still, this was crazy dumb. Obviously the Indians GM reads my blog.

If Rochester beats LeHigh Valley tonight, we’ll be 66-66 with 14 games to play. That would make the final couple weeks pretty exciting even if we haven’t got a shot at the playoffs. If you live near Rochester, come to Frontier Field and support the team in the drive for a winning record. If you can’t come, then listen to the game online at WHTK.com.

10th Inning Stretch thinks Twins 3B Crede will be on the DL soon. I agree. I think as soon as rosters are expanded & Danny Valencia is called up, Crede will go on the DL simultaneously.

Armando Gabino’s major league debut was a flop. Really. If he put up those numbers against the Yankees, Red Sox, or Rangers, I would say it wasn’t a flop. But it was Baltimore. And this is ok, because he won’t be fully baked ’til 2010.

I’m going to try recording one of the TV broadcast games during the upcoming Buffalo series & put them online. I’ll probably do Friday night’s. A friend of mine has this VCR-to-DVD machine so I can put the games on DVD and then break it up into chunks and put it on YouTube. I’ve slacked on this during the summer, and I really feel a need to get at least 1 more game done before the offseason….besides, I know you all want to see Danny Valencia before he arrives in Minnesota.

Did you know that Yohan Pino has a 1.82 ERA over 34 2/3 IP this month? Opposing batters are hitting just .177 against him. Yikes! I think he’s adjusted to AAA now. What really tickles me pink, is that he’s actually got better numbers than he did when he was in New Britain earlier in the year, with almost the same amount of innings. Does he get better against better opponents? It seems to look that way, and that would be a killer pitcher on the Minnesota staff…..next year. Yeah, don’t expect too much from him if he’s called up next month. He’ll need some time to adjust, and then he should be lights out.

Don’t worry about Anthony Swarzak yet. Lots of great pitchers had bad first seasons. Nolan Ryan was 6-10 with a mere 90 ERA+ in his first 23 games….and he was all-time greatness in the works. Swarzak could still be a #1 starter for Minnesota in the future. Stranger things have happened. Ask Dave Stewart how he went from 14 game loser to 4 consecutive 20 win seasons.

Since Mike Gosling left Rochester, he’s just 0-2 with an ERA of 5.27. When he was here earlier in the year, he went 7-1, 4.37 ERA.

Juan Morillo has been awful this month. 0-2 via a 6.98 ERA. Opposing batters are hitting .383 off him. Basically, he’s making them all look like Joe Mauer.

Red Wings leader in runs scored, Jason Pridie, still hasn’t gotten a base hit in the major leagues. I hope they call him up next month just to try to get him a base hit. A bloop single or an error-generously-called-a-hit… anything, please. I’m starting to worry that he’ll never get one.

David Winfree leads the Red Wings in doubles and strikeouts. Seems like an odd combo to me.

Danny Valencia walks just 6 times in 48 games, which is once every 8 games. Then walks 2 times in 10, which is once every 5 games. I hope there’s something to that.

Ok, so I’m finally finding time to make some updates. So I’m going to throw out some random things I’m noticing.

I’ve complained so much about Phil Humber, that I actually feel obligated to point out that he’s suddenly pitching very good. Really, he is. Check this out:

…now if that ain’t improvement, I don’t know what is. he’s nearly cut his ERA in half. I remember watching him on TV, when he pitched the July 10th game in Syracuse and was pretty surprised he had a good outing. Not just that his numbers were good, but that he actually kept the Syracuse batters off balance and really pitched well. At the time, I figured “even bad pitchers have their good days”. That’s all I thought it was. The Twins might call him up in September just because he’s doing well and he was part of the Santana trade. It’d be a nice way of saying to the fans “see, something we got for Johan is working out”…good pr.

Danny Valencia went into a slump just after I last blogged. At one point, he was hitting an awful .105 over a 10 game stretch. This, after hitting close to .400 for about a month since being called up from New Britain. He’s come out of it though, and has been .324 over his last 10 as of today. I’m glad about all this. Why? Because how a player deals with a slump, tells you a lot about the player. What did we learn about Valencia from his slump? Well, we learned he doesn’t give up and that he survives it. He doesn’t just fall apart and fall down and stay there. Everybody goes through slumps. His average is back up to .301 now. I believe you twin fans will see your third baseman of the future during September in the dome. Minnesota would be nuts not to get him up there. He seems to thrive on tough situations, so…I’m convinced being thrown into an AL division race, would just make him play a little harder. My only concern about Valencia is that he does not walk, and that’s a big concern to me. I’ve been noticing this the entire time he’s playing for Rochester.

Yohan Pino hasn’t been the pitcher (yet?) that I thought he’d be. He was awful in July, but he’s cut his ERA by 2 runs already this month while pitching more innings than he did last month. So, perhaps he was just caught up in the emotions of being in AAA? Let’s hope. So far in August, he’s 2.89 in 18 2/3 IP with 17 K’s to his name. If the offense could just score a little, he’d have more than 0 wins in his 3 August starts. My biggest concern with Pino, is his righty/lefty splits. Against right handed batters, his ERA is a nice 2.45, but when he faces lefties, his ERA balloons to 6.23. Yikes! If that doesn’t change, then he should go back to the bullpen and be a right-handed batter specialist when he goes major league. And yes, I do think he has major league stuff. It would be nice to see him as a September callup, but I don’t think they’ll do it if they have a shot at the division title.

Trevor Plouffe, Dustin Martin, and Matt Macri, are all batting beneath .250 for the season. I have no idea what’s wrong with them, but I know they’re better than that. I don’t even know what to say about that. It’s pithetic that 3 of your main prospects in AAA can’t even average 1 hit out of every 4 at-bats. Maybe they’re all just having an off year at the same time? Let’s hope. They’ve had their moments, but they’ve failed to be consistently solid at the plate.

Reid Santos should go back to the ‘pen and be the left-handed batter specialist. ERA of just 3.32 against lefties. As a starter, his overall stats are 1-5 with a 5.19 ERA. If Twins brass asked me… I’d say that Santos be good in the major league bullpen next year if used as a situational pitcher.

The only reason Jose Morales is in Rochester is because Joe Mauer is in Minnesota. I don’t know why Morales isn’t the backup for the Twins. Morales has a .410 OBP here in AAA. That’s phenomenal & wasteful to leave him in AAA. If they don’t want to use him as a backup, they should trade him for another peice of the puzzle they need desperately.

Last player I want to bring up is Rob Delaney. He should be another guy the Twins will call up in September. Since the All-Star break, he’s been killing the International League with a 1.62 ERA and opponents are batting just .203 off him. That’s domination. he’s ready for the majors.