Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Notes, quotes and comments

Day Two of the draft (rounds 2-30) for the Twins followed their recent form more closely than Day One did. There was an early emphasis on college pitchers, mostly hard-throwers reckoned more suited to eventual bullpen duties than starting.

Their third-rounder, left-hander Corey Williams of Vanderbilt, is deemed by Baseball America to be a "tough sign" as a redshirt sophomore. He's definitely tough: As a freshman, he was hit in the knee by a line drive, which cleaved the knee cap in half. He retrieved the ball and threw the batter out. Video and the x-ray of the kneecap here. As the headline on the link says, he's tougher than you are.

Also of note: The Twins drafted a couple more college shortstops in rounds 5 and 9, ... Their sixth round pick, Ivan Dereck Rodriguez, is the son of Pudge, the great catcher whose career is probably winding down. Baseball America lists the young Rodriguez as an outfielder, but some see him as a better pitching prospect

There's another day to go in the draft, but the deeper they go (50 rounds) the less likely the player is to sign.

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Francisco Liriano on Tuesday:
34 balls, 47 strikes, three walks
and seven strikeouts in five innings.
Francisco Liriano did OK Tuesday night in his return from the DL. He was held to 81 ptiches, and his control wasn't great, but then it seldom is. One unearned run allowed.

He was followed by two more southpaws, Chuck James and Phil Dumatrait, who contributed three scoreless innings. I'm curious who'll be out of a job when Glen Perkins returns.  I don't see the Twins carrying four lefties in the pen, and James and Dumatrait have been more effective than Jose Mijares, but it's been Mijares used to protect leads of late. If somebody has options left, that may settle it.

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Gotta be concerned about Denard Span, whose head isn't right. He sat out a couple of games after his minor-appearing home plate collision in Kansas City, played Monday and said his at-bats were blurry. They sent him back to the Twin Cities for further examination.

Adding to the concern is that he says he hasn't been completely symptom free since his 2009 problems with dizziness.

I would expect Span to join much of the Opening Day roster on the DL today. He has been, combining offense and defense, the Twins best player.

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Delmon Young is still showing up in some defensive metrics as a very good left fielder — John Dewan's plus-minus system has him at +9 with 6 runs saved -- but our eyes tell us that he's still brutal out there. His misplay Tuesday night set up the only run of the game.

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