Nightly Notes: Game #39

When I jokingly suggested that the Twins would get swept by the Blue Jays after taking 3-of-4 from the Red Sox, I wasn't serious. Sadly, my non-prediction may turn out to be accurate when all is said and done tomorrow. I guess that's part of why I love baseball -- it's just so unpredictable! Anyway, here are a few notes:

1.) When I praised Boof for hanging in there after his last poor first inning, I didn't intend for him to go and duplicate it. Unfortunately, he gave up 4 runs in the first and essentially cost his team this game -- stunningly, Roy Halladay wasn't great tonight, and a good start would have been enough to get it done. I don't think that Bonser is in any immediate danger of being removed from the rotation, but if Kevin Slowey and Glen Perkins were both pitching better than him when Scott Baker eventually returns, it could mean a trip to the bullpen for Boof, at least for a short while. It's frustrating to watch Boof struggle early, though, because he's been so good after that initial inning in his last couple of starts, demonstrating that he has good stuff. He just needs to put it all together for a good game.

2.) Juan Rincon had another good outing and has his ERA at 3.37. This bears watching . . .

3.) I wanted to see Alexi Casilla start. I got my wish and he went 0-for-3 with 2 K's. Ouch.

4.) Jason Kubel must not have liked seeing Craig Monroe play so well -- he's now gone deep and doubled twice in his last 5 at-bats. Hey, if worrying about playing time gets Kubel turned around, I'll be happy -- I certainly am not rooting for the guy to struggle. Best case scenario: both Kubel and Monroe get it going well enough to give Gardy some headaches deciding who to start.

5.) Sadly, the Twins are no longer in first place. It was fun while it lasted -- and hopefully they'll get right back up there in the next few days.

6.) With the Twins and A's falling out of first place, the Rays and Marlins are left holding down the line for "unexpected first place teams." While I like the Rays a lot better than the Marlins, Florida doesn't have to face anything like the Red Sox and Yankees twosome that confronts Tampa Bay. As a result, I'd say Florida is the best bet amongst the surprisingly strong teams to stay in first and make the playoffs.

7.) Minor league stuff hopefully tomorrow -- I spent too much time messing around after I got home from work today to get anything together for a post.

Blog Update

No "Nightly Notes" post tonight -- I'm taking the night off. Hopefully the Twins can come back and steal a win (Jason Kubel just hit a homer, so there's still hope). I'll be back with a Nightly Notes post tomorrow, and possibly also a post covering some minor league players I've been pleased with this season, and some I'm a bit disappointed in. Go Twins!

Oh -- and congrats to the Penguins, who made it 3-0 over the Flyers tonight. After the Stars left Minnesota, I didn't have any loyalty to a hockey team until I went to college in Pittsburgh, when I sort of adopted the Pens. If it came down to the Wild and the Pens, I guess I'd go with the Wild -- but since I don't have to make a decision I'm all about the Pittsburgh for the rest of this season, at least.

Nightly Notes: Game #37

Another day, another win. With the White Sox playing the Angels tonight, there's a good chance that the Twins will go into action tomorrow with a 1.5 game lead in the AL Central. Raise your hand if you anticipated this! Here are some notes:

1.) How exactly do the Twins keep winning games? The starting third baseman is hitting .231 and the starting shortstop is hitting .204. Expected contributors like Jason Kubel and Delmon Young have underperformed (although my apologies for lumping Young in with Kubel -- his failings this year have been much less than Kubel's). The bullpen has largely not been the dominant force it was expected to be (with the big exceptions of Joe Nathan and Dennys Reyes). The first franchise lefty was traded in the off-season, and the heir apparent is back in Rochester getting his head screwed on straight. By all accounts, the Twins simply should not be in first place -- and yet they are. And ya know what? Suddenly, I'm starting to say "bring on the Indians, Tigers, and White Sox." At the beginning of the season, I thought the Twins were at best the third best team in the division. Now, I think they've got a chance to do something special. Unbelievable.

2.) I don't know what kind of magic Rick Anderson worked on Livan Hernandez after that first inning, but it worked pretty darned well. Hernandez still ended up allowing 10 hits and a walk in 6 innings (far too close to a 2.00 WHIP for comfort), but he prevented those batters from scoring with the exception of the Manny homerun. He's now performed well enough, for long enough, to shed any comparisons with Ramon Ortiz. Bill Smith -- I'm sorry.

3.) Juan Rincon's 2 inning performance today was huge -- with Pat Neshek out of action, the Twins need people to step up. Rincon now has a 3.60 ERA and will almost certainly start to see some meaningful game action. Maybe, just maybe, he'll pull it off and re-establish himself as a legitimate option in close situations.

4.) There's been a lot of speculation of late that Danny Graves could find himself in a Twins uniform at some point in the not-so distant future. La Velle Neal touted the possibility this afternoon, noting that Graves was being given a spot start for the Red Wings tonight. Graves then proceeded to go 4.0 innings, allowing just 2 hits and striking out a couple of batters. So is all of this talk crazy? Well, maybe not -- with Neshek out for the year and the Twins having a hole in the 'pen (currently being filled by Bobby Korecky), there seems to be a natural spot for Graves. In fact, I think something like this could actually happen sooner rather than later -- the Twins will probably continue to monitor Graves' progress before they make a move, but if he goes out and puts together a few decent performances I could easily see them pulling the trigger and putting him in Korecky's place.

5.) Delmon Young is probably fine after rolling his ankle tonight, but when he left the game I started thinking about what the Twins would do if he went on the DL. It wasn't a very long internal discussion -- Denard Span would almost certainly get the call. I briefly considered the possibility that the Twins would go with Darnell McDonald, who is hitting .330 for the Red Wings, but with Span also playing well and already being on the 40-man roster, it seems clear they would just go with Span again in the event of another injury.

6.) The next series against the Blue Jays will be interesting because the Blue Jays haven't been playing particularly well of late. After beating up on the AL East leading Red Sox, the Twins now get the East bottom feeders (albeit bottom feeders with awfully good pitching). That's the sort of thing that the baseball gods tend to notice -- while I hope the Twins keep up their solid play, I wouldn't be terribly surprised if the Jays came away with a sweep. And no, of course I don't really believe in the baseball gods. Really . . .

Nightly Notes: Game #36

Well, that was a rollercoaster! The exciting thing about this series with the Red Sox is that the Twins have demonstrated that they can hang with Boston -- at least in the short term, and at home -- and that's tremendously important. These games haven't been pretty, but they sure have been interesting. Here are some notes:

1.) Nick Blackburn was awfully hot and cold tonight -- he gave up 4 runs on 9 hits and a walk in six innings work, but at times looked over-powering, such as when he struck out Kevin Youkilis and Mike Lowell back-to-back to end the first inning after getting himself in a bit of trouble. That's the mark of a young pitcher who hasn't quite found his way, I think. The important thing to remember is that the Red Sox offense is extremely good, and holding them to 4 runs is nothing to sneeze at. I'm sure Blackburn wasn't happy with his performance when he left the game, but I'll take it.

2.) Of course, the bullpen nearly coughed up the Twins lead thanks to rocky performances by Matt Guerrier and Joe Nathan. On the plus side, Dennys Reyes retained his 0.00 ERA, and Joe Nathan gutted out his save. That toss to third to nail J.D. Drew after Coco Crisp knocked the ball back up the box showed that Nathan had his mind in the right place. Of course, we aren't worried about Nathan -- he's been excellent all season, and this was an aberration. The Twins need Guerrier to step up in the absence of Pat Neshek. Brian Bass had an eighth inning performance yesterday that left a bit to be desired. Jesse Crain and Juan Rincon haven't yet stepped up. I have faith in this group, but someone is going to have to step up!

3.) Craig Monroe certainly threw down the gauntlet tonight in his quest for more playing time, going 2-for-4 with a couple of homers and 4 RBI's. Now, the homerun off of Wakefield was not really a typical major league homerun -- he basically destroyed a batting practice fastball, which you don't see that often -- but a 2 homerun game is still impressive. Monroe's average is now sitting at .284, while one-time phenom Jason Kubel is hitting .222 and looking completely overmatched. What to do in this situation? I still think Kubel has potential, but I've thought that for a long time and he hasn't panned out. He sort of reminds me of David Ortiz -- a player who the team kept thinking would bust out, and who never did with the Twins. Of course, we all know what happened next, and I hope something similar doesn't happen to Kubel! Nonetheless, the way Monroe is playing it seems pretty clear that he should be getting the bulk of the playing time right now.

4.) Mike Lamb has quietly raised his batting average to .238 while Adam Everett is hitting .200. Neither of those averages will blow anyone away, but they're heading in the right direction, at least. Also, how much fun is it to see a guy like Everett go deep? I always love it when tiny middle infielders uncork one.

5.) Could we see Alexi Casilla tomorrow? I don't know how Brendan Harris is feeling, but if he's not yet 100% I think we could see Alexi at second. It should be noted, however, that Twins officials have suggested several times that Casilla was more a shortstop than a second baseman, so it might be a mixed message to have him start at 2B. We'll see over the next couple of weeks. I was somewhat critical of the decision to call him up, but that doesn't mean I'm not excited to see how he performs on his callup.

6.) Just a quick blog update -- believe it or not, I should actually get a chance to finish the Relief Pitcher Organizational Rankings post sometime this week. I have done nothing on this in about two months, so I had to start from scratch putting together my materials and compiling my rankings. That work has once again begun in earnest, and I expect to be putting the post together a little at a time starting tomorrow or Tuesday.

Twins Players Dropping Like Flies: UPDATED

For the last few days, Nick Punto has been nursing a hamstring issue and has been unable to play. Now, we find out from Joe Christensen at the Strib that Punto is headed to the DL since the injury isn't getting any better. With Brendan Harris also nursing a leg injury, the Twins will be rather short-handed again tonight.

I know that many Twins fans completely gave up on Punto after last year's debacle. As has almost certainly been apparent to those of you who read this blog on a semi-regular occasion, I am not amongst that group. While I long ago conceded that he shouldn't be starting every day, I think his versatility and strength defensively is an asset to the team, as is his speed and (as unquantifiable as this is) his energy and heart. In my mind, he belongs on the roster to fill exactly the role that he has filled this season, and I'm disappointed to see him get hurt.

The Twins have not yet announced who will be called up from Rochester to replace Punto on the roster, but it seems pretty likely that it will be Brian Buscher, who of course was just with the team during Adam Everett's stint on the DL. If the Twins didn't have Matt Tolbert on the roster, they might have to consider calling up a player who could more naturally play at shortstop. Tolbert obviates that need, however, and Buscher seems like the logical choice because of relative big league experience and his success in AAA so far this season. As much as some fans might like to see Alexi Casilla at the big league level again, he's having a terrible year at the plate, and it seems to make a lot more sense to keep him playing every day in AAA. We should find out during or after the game what move the Twins have actually made. If it's in any way surprising, I'll comment further.

UPDATE: Joe C. is reporting that Alexi Casilla was scratched from his scheduled start for the Red Wings tonight, making him the likely callup. I confess to being a bit underwhelmed by this decision -- as I mentioned earlier, Casilla has not played well for the Red Wings. On the other hand, Casilla is more like Nick Punto than Brian Buscher is, and Buscher hasn't been playing so well that he had to be called up in this kind of situation. Best case scenario, I suppose, is that Casilla gets some playing time and plays well enough to get his confidence up and to regain his status as a top prospect in the organization. It felt throughout the spring like he kept taking steps backward, and for the most part that seems to have continued in Rochester. Maybe this will be a chance to turn things around.

Nightly Notes: Game #34

Did anyone see that one coming? Tonight's game felt pretty much unwinnable for most of the night -- in fact, right up until Mike Lamb drove in the winning runs. Here are some thoughts on the night:

1.) Check the post below this one for my thoughts on the Pat Neshek situation. Bottom line: I wish Pat the best in his recovery.

2.) I suspect that I'm often labeled an apologist for Twins management, from Terry Ryan to Bill Smith to Ron Gardenhire. Generally, I accept the label willingly -- when in doubt, I trust the professionals in the organization to make the right decision. I suspect Smith will prove himself to be an excellent GM in time, and I think Gardy is, overall, a very good manager. One of the things that I simply can't stand, however, is his propensity to bunt over a runner on first with no outs when trailing by a run. Occasionally, based on the context of a given situation, I actually think this move makes sense -- and you can usually make at least some sort of argument for such a move.

Unfortunately, I don't think tonight was such a night. I guess it's pretty brazen of me to be sitting here condemning a move that, in the end, turned out alright. However, this was quite possibly the worst possible time to bunt a runner over and give up an out. Here's why: first, you take the bat out of the hand of Matt Tolbert, who is hitting nearly .300 on the season; second, while that advances the runner to second, the next batter up was Adam Everett -- admittedly, Everett had 2 hits coming into that at-bat, but he's still hitting just .209 on the season; and third, that almost certainly was going to put Carlos Gomez at the plate with 2 outs and the tying run on 2nd. The same Carlos Gomez, mind you, who occasionally screws himself into the ground swinging the bat. It would be an understatement to say he's a bit excitable.

All of that, in my mind, adds up to a big old flashing "NO" when it comes to deciding whether or not to have Tolbert sacrifice. Again, things obviously turned out just fine -- better than fine, actually, since the team got the win. I've mentioned before, however, that judging a decision by the result can be a bit tricky, because in a one-of event like this the wrong decision can lead to the right result, if you catch my drift. I think over time, sac bunts with no outs are detrimental, and when the circumstances are such as those which faced the Twins tonight, I think the better move would be to let the hitter swing away.

3.) Since I'm on the subject, how about Gomez? The fact that he took a walk tonight was huge. He was up against one of the better closers in the game with a chance to tie the game, yet he still managed to avoid swinging at bad pitches and drew the walk. Admittedly, a couple of the pitches in that at-bat were about a mile out of the strike zone, so he should have been able to hold up. That doesn't make it any less significant that he did hold up. It's possible this walk was meaningless. It's also possible, however, that the walk was a sign of increasing plate discipline on Gomez's part. You would think that Gomez, as excitable as he is and in this kind of situation, would have swung like Jason Kubel against the Yankees in the playoffs (remember that?). Anyway, I'd at least like to think it was significant -- we'll see.

4.) Patrick Reusse thinks the Rays bamboozled the Twins in the Garza and Bartlett for Young, Harris, and Pridie deal. He bases this on 34 games of action. Mind you, Garza has a 4.91 ERA and a 13-11 K-BB ratio with a WHIP of 1.52. I'll admit, Delmon has left a lot to be desired so far this season, but how Reusse managed to draw the conclusion that he drew based on the numbers available to him is beyond me. Then again, we're talking about Pat Reusse. Maybe he has mystical powers that make things more obvious to him than they are to we mere mortals and shoddy bloggers . . .

Neshek to the DL

If you're watching the game, you just heard the news about Pat Neshek -- and unfortunately it isn't good. Neshek apparently has a torn muscle (Ok, the TV guys lie -- I guess it's a partially torn UCL) in his arm and will miss at least a couple of months (make that an absolute minimum of 3 months and probably the rest of the season). This is kind of what I think most of us feared yesterday when we saw the injury, because when a pitcher winces and grabs his arm the way Neshek did the news usually isn't good.

While I haven't yet heard any plans about what the Twins will do to replace Neshek, I'll reiterate what I said last night -- for the immediate future, I would guess that Neshek will go on the DL after the game and Glen Perkins will be activated to make tomorrow's start. That would leave Bobby Korecky on the roster, and I would presume he'll stay there until (at a minimum) Scott Baker is activated.

At that point, if Perkins has pitched adequately in the couple of starts he's going to receive, my guess is that he'll replace Korecky in the bullpen. Of course, if the Twins decide that Perkins is more important as a starter they may return him to AAA so that he gets regular work. That would probably leave Korecky in the 'pen, although other AAA pitchers like Julio DePaula, Ricky Barrett, and Carmen Cali could potentially be considered I suppose.

The other question is how the Twins will structure the bullpen. Obviously, Joe Nathan is still the closer -- but who is his setup man? The most likely answer would seem to be Matt Guerrier, who has pitched reasonably well this year. That means Juan Rincon and Jesse Crain will usually be left to handle the 7th with a lead on the line -- although I think Gardy will be very flexible (as he should be) and use whoever makes sense in the circumstances at hand.

As I said yesterday, while I'm disappointed that Neshek is hurt, I don't think that this dooms the Twins. They've been winning despite the fact that most of the bullpen has been underperforming (Joe Nathan being the obvious exception), and I don't think that's going to change. Hopefully Guerrier, Crain, and Rincon can step up and handle the pressure of pitching in more intense situations. So long as the Twins offense performs, I think the team will be fine.

Best wishes to Pat as he recuperates.

Nightly Notes: Game #33

The Twins were unable to utilize their 13-1 drubbing of the White Sox on Wednesday as a momentum-grabber, losing today to the White Sox 6-2 in a game that started off pretty interesting and then deteriorated rather quickly. Here are a few thoughts:

1.) First, some random speculation on the Pat Neshek situation. I saw a lot of angst after Neshek injured his elbow and left the game today (while trolling on a message board or two). Believe me, I understand why -- I like Neshek, and so far in his young career he's been a vital part of the Twins bullpen. However, even if he ends up missing significant time I'm not sure how much it will hurt the Twins. After all, they're above .500 with Neshek putting up a 4.72 ERA so far this year. I'm not saying it won't hurt at all -- he's a proven major leaguer who almost certainly will bring that ERA down substantially. My point is only that so far this season, Neshek has not been amazing, and I think the Twins would be able to survive without him for awhile if necessary. Again, I hope sincerely that it's not necessary to find out!

So what happens if Neshek needs to be disabled? I think the most likely solution is just to keep Bobby Korecky around for awhile longer. I don't say this because Korecky has necessarily earned it -- he has a 4.91 ERA in 3.2 innings of work, so who knows what he'd do in the long run -- but because it's just the easiest option. No one in AAA is burning things up to the point where they have to be called up, so why not stick with Korecky? If Neshek's injury winds up being long-term, I think there's a distinct possibility that Korecky could be swapped out for somebody like Glen Perkins, however.

2.) Speaking of Perkins, he's scheduled to make his first big league start on Saturday and I'm extremely excited to see it. I essentially see Perkins as being in an uphill battle to win a spot in the rotation over the next two starts -- if he puts up really solid numbers and Kevin Slowey struggles, I think it could be Slowey who heads back to Rochester when Scott Baker is ready to come back and not Perkins. I think it's an uphill battle simply because I think the Twins are a bit more convinced about Slowey's readiness to be a big league starter at this point -- but I don't think it's insurmountable by any means.

As for Slowey's start today, it wasn't great but I also don't think the team should overreact. Yes, the fifth inning (in which he gave up 2 homers and surrendered the lead) was rough -- but in 5.0 innings of work Slowey gave up just 4 hits and didn't walk anybody. Those are good numbers, and if he could have kept the ball in the park we'd all be raving. As it is, 3 runs in 5 innings isn't a bad line for a guy making his first big league start in over a month. I was fine with what he did today.

3.) I just noticed that Dennys Reyes has a 0.00 ERA, although he walked a guy without getting an out today. Despite that, his WHIP is still below 1.00 for the season. He's only pitched 9.0 innings, but he has to be doing something right, doesn't he? I wonder how long he can keep it up (now I suppose I jinxed him!).

4.) Just a rhetorical question -- Where would the Twins offense be without Joe Mauer? He's back to hitting .346 after today's 2-for-3 stretch. Of course, the only game the Twins won in the series was the one where he sat, but that's not Joe's fault. It just amazes me sometimes how good he is when he's hot (and not grounding into 3 double plays in a game).

5.) Just asking -- at this point, what's the rationale for starting Everett and Lamb ever? I'm saying this somewhat tongue-in-cheek, because I don't think either of them are really as bad as they've played so far. Nonetheless, when you look at the lineup and see that either of them isn't starting, doesn't it make you a little bit happy?

6.) Speaking of people who many fans don't want in the lineup, Nick Punto was supposed to be in the lineup today but was a late scratch. The fact that *gasp* Gardy was going to actually put him in the lineup (one day after a 2-for-5, 5 RBI performance, remember) caused many on the Strib message boards to shudder and scream about how he's not worthy to be on a big league roster and all the usual rubbish. Let me just point out that Brendan Harris, Punto's replacement for the day, went 0-for-3 and left 4 runners on base. His season average is now .248. Punto, meanwhile, is hitting .265. Once again -- chill out on Punto until he actually deserves to be catcalled. I bring this up fairly often, but that's because I just don't understand it. I'm not saying, by the way, that Punto should be in the starting lineup every day (although I would actually think long and hard about that if somebody said they were putting him at SS or 3B right now, to be honest). I am saying that I think the role he's in now is perfectly suited to him, and I don't think it's so horrible to see his name in the lineup.

Nightly Notes: Game #32

I need to head to bed early tonight, so I'm not going to get a chance to see the end of the game. All I'll say for the night is: Way to go Livan! I certainly don't expect him to do it a lot, but I have to admit he's been a pretty solid investment so far for the Twins. Also, congrats to Carlos Gomez on a GREAT night (still want him to go down?).

Oh yeah -- Barry Zito can't buy a break, can he? He dropped to 0-7 despite pitching well tonight against the Pirates. Since I think this was a bad baseball news, I admit that I sort of wanted to see him struggle for awhile, but what's happening is just brutal. As bad as the Giants are, you have to think that even if Zito turns it around for good, he's still got a great shot at 20 losses.

I'll be back tomorrow with my thoughts on Kevin Slowey's return, but don't expect it until fairly late; I have a class get together tomorrow night, and won't be writing until about 10:00 mountain time. Until then . . .

Nightly Notes: Game #31

The Twins couldn't keep winning forever, and tonight the White Sox snapped the nice 5-game winning streak the team had going. I don't have a lot to say about the loss -- what do you say about a 1-hit performance where the starter was so-so but not terrible? I do have a few other things to comment on, so here's an abbreviated nightly notes column:

1.) I'm not the first one to point out the absurdity of the MLBPA whining about collusion in the Barry Bonds situation, but there was another salvo fired on ESPN.com on the issue today. Apparently, the union has "opened an investigation" into the free-agent market, which has seen Bonds and other veterans such as Kenny Lofton without jobs.

Here's a thought: maybe teams have finally realized that hiring retread veterans like Lofton, or toxic clubhouse agents like Bonds, is smart neither economically or in a baseball sense. Look, Lofton has had a great run as he's aged, filling in beautifully as a one-year replacement for teams that were between center fielders. There's a distinct chance that he could still play. Unfortunately, he's also going to turn 41 on May 31, and one of these years there just wasn't going to be anything left in the tank. Why pay a veteran to sit on the bench when you can have a youngster get big league experience doing the same thing? And Bonds? I don't need to rehash what's been said by so many others. Collusion is not the issue here.

I don't usually say things quite this categorical, but the position of the union here is just utterly idiotic. The other important thing to recognize with this issue is that for every veteran who hangs in the league too long, a young player is left off a big league roster. Who do you think the union cares more about supporting -- guys like Barry Bonds (who, incidentally, cared so much about his union that he became the first player ever to drop out of the MLBPA licensing agreement) who make a ton of many and have lots of notoriety, or guys like Rajai Davis and Eidar Torres and Matt Tolbert who the average fan has never heard of? Not a hard question to answer.

Does the Union seriously have nothing better to do? Unbelievable.

2.) This is a day late, but I think it's interesting so I'm covering it. Back on April 29, I happened to be messing around with my MLB.tv account and stumbled across the Diamondbacks/Astros game while Max Scherzer was throwing his warm up tosses. I'd seen his name in an article on ESPN.com a day or two before when he was called up, and was quite pleased at my good fortune. In case you hadn't heard, Scherzer proceeded to throw down one of the best big league debuts imaginable -- he went 4.1 perfect innings, striking out 7 Astros in the process. To say the least I was impressed.

As a result, I was pretty interested in seeing how Scherzer performed in his first big league start yesterday against the Phillies. Unfortunately, he must have been a bit too amped up (remember Matt Garza's debut? Same problem), as he last just 4.0 innings and allowed 5 runs (2 earned) on 7 hits and 2 walks while striking out 5. Keith Law says Scherzer is more suited to the bullpen, for a variety of reasons, and I assume he's probably right (he knows these guys a lot better than I do!). Still, I was a bit disappointed -- I was hoping for the arrival of a new phenom. Maybe Scherzer will be able to dominant in his next start. Of course, since I'm a pseudo-Rockies fan since I live in Colorado I probably shouldn't be rooting for the D'Backs to get another stud pitcher . . .

3.) Poor Detroit.

4.) The Red Wings recently parted ways with superfluous outfielder Jon Knott and catcher Eli Whiteside. Maybe they shouldn't be stopping there -- veteran minor leaguer Tommy Watkins is hitting just .158 on the season, second sacker Howie Clark is at .225, and 1B/OF/DH Garrett Jones is hitting just .172. Far be it from me to suggest that these guys can't turn things around, but I have to think that the Twins could find a few younger, more promising players to fill those roster spots. Look, I don't have anything against these guys personally -- I just don't think they're adding much to the organization at this point.