Notes, quotes and comment

To my knowledge, the Twins have not announced any changes with their minor league managers. But there may be a defection.

Baseball America reported this week that Pete Dunn, veteran coach of Stetson University in Deland, Florida, was retiring a year earlier than planned, citing a troublesome recovery from knee surgery. One of the five finalists for the position is Jeff Smith, a Stetson alum who has managed teams on three different levels of the Twins farm system since 2006. His most recent assignment has been the Fort Myers Miracle of the Florida State League.

Of the current managers of the Twins four-full season minor league clubs -- Mike Quade of Triple A Rochester, Doug Mientkiewicz of Double-A Chattanooga, Smith and Jake Mauer of low-A Cedar Rapids -- Smith strikes me as the least impressive, although my opinion on such things is not worth a whole lot. His won-loss record is actually pretty solid, especially if you toss out what must have been a miserable first year at Double A New Britain (2010), when the RockCats went 44-98.

Whether Smith gets the job at his alma mater or not, it has to be said that Stetson has a great, if obvious, nickname: the Hatters. Of course.

---

Dan Rohlfing, a catcher-utility man who was for a few years annually one of the last players sent out of spring training for the Twins, is back:

Happy to announce I'll be back in the @Twins org again for next season! Back to where it all began in 2007!

— Dan Rohlfing (@DanRohlfing) December 11, 2016

That the Twins needed to add a catcher to the upper levels of their farm system was pretty obvious after Stuart Turner was taken in the Rule 5 draft. I think Juan Centeno is still in the organization after being outrighted earlier in the off season, but I'm pretty sure Carlos Paulino, who bounced between Double-A and Triple A in 2016, is gone.

And that's Rohlfing's role: catching depth in the organization.

---

Finally, a link to recommend: A Fangraphs group interview with Derek Falvey and Thad Levine. My biggest takeaway: their favorable assessment of the Twins analytics department they inherited. 

Notes, quotes and comment

I have a long-standing theory that the steal of home is too infrequently attempted, and therefore I will not be critical of Torii Hunter for going for it Wednesday night. It was a good opportunity, and I have little doubt that even the 35-year-old Hunter would have made it safely. The 39-year-old Hunter is a bit slower, and did not.

Good idea, inadequate execution.

---

Dan Rohlfing hasn't
appeared in a game yet
for Rochester because
of a sprained ankle.

The Twins sold minor-league utility catcher Dan Rohlfing to the Mets. Rohlfing has been in the Twins organization since 2007, when he was drafted in the 14th round, and it seems that every spring he's one of the last players sent out from major league camp.

He catches, he plays some outfield, he holds down first base on occasion, and he probably carries the ball bag when asked. What he hasn't done on any level is hit well enough to be considered a bona fide prospect, much less force his way onto the 40-man roster.

The Mets have had some catching injuries this year, and the Twins had three backstops in Triple A before sending Rohlfing on his way (the others being Josmil Pinto and Eric Fryer). I don't know if Rohlfing is going to be any closer to reaching the majors with New York, but it seemed unlikely to happen for him with the Twins.

Rohlfing -- and to a lesser extent Chris Herrmann, who is on the major league roster -- illustrate the flaw in the utility catcher. If a player who can catch competently hits well enough to play a corner position, he's going to be a regular catcher. If a player who can catch competently merely hits well enough to be a backup catcher, he's not worth playing at a corner. Versatility is nice; hitting is better.

---

I am not at all surprised by the reversal Wednesday of the Barry Bonds conviction for obstruction of justice. Which leaves the federal government with a big O-fer in their prosecutions of Bonds and Roger Clemens.

I will merely link to this 2012 post featuring my Free Press edit on the Clemens trial. One thing I should perhaps update on that post: I am now, as I was not then, a member of the edit board. (If I recall correctly, the edit ran as written.)

All the multi-position catchers

Dan Rohlfing has
had a good spring:
.296/.367/.593 in
30 plate appearances.

 

The Twins on Monday optioned out Drew Butera, which means they'll carry two catchers — Joe Mauer and Ryan Doumit — who'll both be in the lineup at five to six days a week. Catching, DHing, corner outfield, first base — flexibility is the byword.

Flexibility and hitting. Mauer's a gifted defensive catcher and Doumit is not, but they both hit well enough to be used at less important defensive positions. Butera is a good receiver, but he's not a quality hitter; there's no gain to have him play first base or left field.

The Twins also on Monday officially reassigned Dan Rohlfing, the last of the many non-roster catching invitees, to minor-league camp, but kept him on the major league side for depth. I'm not sure what, as a practical matter, the difference is between being a non-roster invitee and being a minor-leaguer on the major league side, but Butera's gone from the clubhouse and, at least as of Monday, Rohlfing was not.

Rohlfing's minor league record doesn't scream prospect, but he appears to have made an impression in camp, even if (or perhaps because) he played quite a bit at other positions than his native catcher.

Multi-position catchers seem to be proliferating in the Twins organization. Mauer. Doumit. Chris Herrmann, who figures to play at lot at Triple-A Rochester, has played considerable outfield in the Twins system and was a third baseman in college. Rohlfing, who has split the past two years between high A and Double A, has a few dozen games in the outfield in the minors and has played considerable first base this spring.

Catcher is a specialty position, and as illustrated by the fact that Drew Butera has almost three years and more than 500 plate appearances in the majors with a  .183 career batting average, defensive chops behind the plate are valued. Most catchers are strictly catchers.

The Twins appear to be making a conscious effort to break that mold.

But Herrmann and Rohlfing and any other multi-position catcher — perhaps Mike Kvasnicka, the Minnesota native and former Gopher the Twins traded for Monday — have to hit to make their multi-position ability meaningful.

A picture is worth a thousand words

Look, ma: Big-league meal money!

The AP on Friday moved literally dozens of mug shots from Twins training camp — stars, coaches, reserves, non-roster invitees — and  I spent a chunk of Saturday morning pulling and saving them.

All of them. I'm not likely to ever need a photo of Jair Fernandez (non-roster catcher) for the blog, but it might be more useful than a fresh mug of Joe Mauer. I have plenty of photos of Mauer. Fernandez, not so much.

But I was struck by the goofiness of this photo of Dan Rohlfing. He's a catcher who's been kicking around in the lower levels of the Twins farm system for four seasons now, has a career high of 152 plate appearances. You spend four years as a bench player in Rookie and A ball, you're probably not going anywhere.

But here he is in big league camp. The Twins are protecting Mauer's post-surgical knee, and their regular season bullpen catcher is back home for the birth of a child, and somebody's got to catch all these bullpen sessions.

So Rohlfing, who wasn't slated to be here, got a call, and he was there for photo day. This is as close to The Show as he's likely to get, and it won't last long. But he's enjoying it.