Notes, quotes and comment

Gonna interrupt the stream of "Handbook" posts for a few days and catch up on the news.

Awards season

Nothing on the National League side to comment on: Everything is as it should be. Kris Bryant won the MVP as expected; Max Scherzer was certainly deserving of the Cy Young;  Corey Seager merited designation as the Rookie of the Year; and Dave Roberts works as Manager of the Year.

On the AL side, the voters acknowledged the obvious in ROY (Michael Fulmer) and Manager (Terry Francona). But the other two awards deserve some comment, in one case because of old-school voting and in the other for new-school voting.

Mike Trout -- clearly the best player in baseball the past five years --  won his second MVP. I expected it to go to Mookie Betts, who obviously had a superb season and played on a team that won. The writers, this time, gave it to the best player even though it wasn't anything resembling a career year for him and even though his team was far from contention. And even though a wide range of September game broadcasts, when discussing the MVP possibilities, excluded Trout from the possibilities.

Trout in the past five seasons has finished second, second, first, second and first in MVP voting. He could easily have won all five seasons; the competing metrics that attempt to merge fielding and hitting into one figure often disagree, but they all agree each year that Trout is the best player in the American League.

The Cy Young voting was interesting, not least because of the Tweet storm it provoked from model Kate Upton, who is romantically involved with runner-up Justin Verlander. Rick Porcello won, even though Verlander had more first-place votes (14 to 8).

Had I a vote, I probably would have put Verlander at the top, but I also would have researched the question more thoroughly. A quick glance at Porcello's numbers suggest a stronger statistical case than I realized when the award was announced Wednesday. He's not an embarrassment as the winner.

But the biggest piece for Porcello was probably the gaudy won-lost record (22-4). Verlander was "only" 16-9. Perhaps most telling were the voters who ranked J.A. Happ (20-4) ahead of Verlander -- or, in the case of the two Tampa Bay-chapter voters who provoked Upton's ire, left Verlander off their ballots completely but found room for Happ. The only thing Happ had going for him was the won-lost record.

Old-school voting prevailed in the Cy Young contest, new age in the MVP.

Gardy in a dugout

Arizona hired Ron Gardenhire, not as manager but as bench coach. So he will presumably be advising new skipper Torey Lovello -- supposedly the runner-up to Paul Molitor when the Twins were replacing Gardy -- on when to bunt or change pitchers.

I've been skeptical that Gardenhire would get another managerial post. Taking a bench job at least puts him back in the game.

Korn Ferry fired

The search firm the Twins used to find Derek Falvey as director of baseball ops got axed by MLB this week because it was basically going to the same well (the Cleveland organization) over and over again to find candidates.

There does seem to have been a lack of diversity, not only racially but in background, of the people Korn Ferry promoted to teams for important front office positions. But I also suspect that owners wanted the kind of people Korn Ferry provided -- young, analytic, educated. That's certainly what I expected the Twins to demand, because it's what was lacking in the previous leadership model.

The search that produced Falvey was one of the last Korn Ferry did, and it may be that it was the last straw. But Falvey seems to be what the Twins bosses wanted.

Around the Division: Detroit Tigers

The Tigers traded for Anibal Sanchez in midseason.
He went 4-6, 3.74 in the regular season and 1-2, 1.77
in the postseason.

As has been the case in recent years, the Detroit Tigers have spent some serious money this offseason.

Torii Hunter, cast loose by the Angels, landed in the D last month on a two-year, $26 million deal. While the erstwhile Twin has been better in his 30s than I expected, that's a pretty fat salary for a 37-year-old outfielder.

And last week the Tigers outbid the Cubs for the services of pitcher Anibal Sanchez. If the Hunter salary seemed generous, Sanchez' is something closer to excessive: six years, $80 million. For a guy with two winning seasons out of seven, who has never pitched 200 (regular season) innings, who figures to be the fourth man in the rotation.

Sanchez is talented, but the results have never matched the talent.

The signing leaves the Tigers with six starters for their rotation. The odd man out figures to be Rick Porcello, whose pitch-to-contact style is less than a perfect fit with the Tigers' porous infield defense. Drew Smyly, a left-hander, gets strikeouts. And the Tigers could use a southpaw in the rotation.

So Porcello is likely to be peddled, and some early speculation has linked him to the Angels (for an outfielder) and Pirates (for a closer). I wouldn't be stunned if his destination turned out to be the Cubs in a deal involving Alfonso Soriano. This Detroit blog post even mentions the Twins as a potential trading partner, although I don't think that's likely.

Anyway, the Tigers have won the last two AL Central titles and seem well positioned for a third, even if their infield is regularly mystified by the process of turning a double play. They have the best rotation in the division, maybe the best in baseball -- if Porcello is traded to the Twins, he'd be their most logical Opening Day starter -- they have some hammers in the middle of the lineup; they have some heat in the bullpen; and they've improved the outfield defense.

I have a post in the works on how local cable revenues are fueling the overall increase in free-agent pay and how that leaves the Twins lagging, but in the case of the Tigers, it's not TV money getting spent. It's that Mike Ilitch is 83 and worth some $2.7 billion (according to Forbes), and he's decided that he'd rather die with a World Series parade than with $2.7 billion.

What happens to that "business model" when Ilitch does die and his heirs get to decide if they want to continue to divert resources to a vanity investment is a fair question -- and one that will be answered at some future date.

The lesson of A.J. Burnett and Rick Porcello

Pitching in an elimination game Tuesday,
A.J. Burnett got the job done for the Yankees.

I was driving around Mankato Tuesday evening running errands and listening to the static that accompanied ESPN Radio's pregame for the Yankees-Tigers game. Somebody -- I think it was Dan Schulman -- described the pitching matchup more or less thusly:

An inconsistent, frustrating 30-something .500 pitcher and a young nibbler.

If all you know about baseball comes from the cliches of Dan Gladden and Dick Bremer, that doesn't make sense. It's the young guys who are supposed to be talented but frustratingly inconsistent, and the old pros who fall back on their guile.

But the description is accurate. A.J. Burnett, age 34, has a wonderful arm but pitches seemingly without a clue -- a right-handed version of Francisco Liriano, right down to the ugly high-walk no-hitter.

In his three seasons to date with the Yankees, Burnett has led the league in wild pitches twice, in hit batters once, has averaged four walks per nine innings and has an ERA of 4.79, which is roughly a full run per game higher than he had in his time with Florida and Toronto. Had it not been for the series-opening rain delay, he would not have been entrusted with a start in this series. And he has two more seasons left to run on contract, at more than $16 million a year.

Then there's Rick Porcello, 23, who was far more highly regarded when he was coming out of high school than he is now. Considered a top-three talent in the 2007 draft, he fell to the Tigers late in the first round (one pick before the Twins tabbed Ben Revere) because of his bonus demands. Porcello made the majors in 2008 and has been, basically, the kind of pitcher we've come to associate with the Twins -- a sinker-slider guy with a low walk rate and a low strikeout rate. (Unlike most of the Twins "sinkerballers," Porcello actually does get ground balls.) Detroit signed him anticipating a future ace; he's a reliable change-up, at least, away from that status.

The Yankee lineup loves facing that kind of pitcher. That's been at the heart of the Twins' head-to-head problems with the Yanks -- the Minnesota starters don't miss bats, and the New York hitters can spoil the good pitches and wait for the mistakes.

And so it went Tuesday night. Burnett survived his wildness in the first inning, then found the release point for his curve ball and got the Yanks into the sixth inning with just one run allowed.

Porcello? He got one more out than Burnett did, walked three fewer, struck out two more -- and surrendered three more runs.

It was a one-game object lesson in the value of stuff over command. It's not a lesson I particularly like -- watching Burnett or Liriano in aimless mode is painful for a fan -- but it's real anyway.

Burnett is 34. If Porcello doesn't find a way to miss bats, he won't last as long as Burnett has.

Notes, quotes and comments

Wilson Ramos, the Twins catching prospect and primo trade chip (pictured) , will miss at least a week with a strained oblique muscle.

This does not damage his trade value. It doesn't require the reconstruction of a joint, it doesn't require surgery, it doesn't figure to be long-lasting. Rest it, heal it, and nobody will remember it a week after he's back.

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Rick Porcello, who did such a fine job for the Detroit Tigers last season as a 20-year-old rookie, has been returned to the minors.

Which happens with a 4-7, 6.14 line. His walk rate is about where it was last year, but his K rate is down — and it was too low last season.

The line on him last year was that he was deliberately avoiding strikeouts in order to keep his pitch counts down. But pitching just doesn't work that way. If he doesn't learn to miss bats, he will not become a star.

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First Akinori Iwamura, now Edwin Encarnacion — another third baseman on the market. Encarnacion was DFA'd Monday by Toronto.

The Twins should pass on him too.

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ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick has this column on Justin Morneau.

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Ron Gardenhire, from this Pioneer Press piece on Joe Mauer's "slump":

"We could watch video and I could show you probably 25 balls that he's lined out. I guarantee, most hitters, you might see 10. Mauer you'd see 25, maybe 30 balls where he's lined out. Rockets hit at people. It all evens out; that's what they say. Well, let me tell you, right now, Joe's got about two weeks of base hits (coming) to even out."

Division champs

I'm still absorbing one of the strangest, and best, games I've ever attended.

So much to say about Tuesday's 6-5 12-inning tiebreaker.

I'll start with this: I was seated in the upper deck right field, which means that the right fielder was just a rumor to me and that home plate was about 400 feet away.

To my eyes, the home plate ump (Randy Marsh) was brutal. I understand, having perused a few stories and columns since I got home, that people with a better angle than I agree.

Further comments:

*Nick Punto was a marvel. His last three plate appearances were superb — a single on a 3-2 pitch (and a run scored), a walk on another 3-2 pitch, and what should have been the game-winning sac fly. I believe he fell behind in all three at-bats and battled back. Plus he had that marvelous force play at the plate to save Bobby Keppel's bacon in the 12th inning.

* That forceout followed what I thought was a questionable decision by Ron Gardenhire to walk Ryan Raburn intentionally to load the bases. Yeah, Raburn is a better hitter than Brandon Inge or Gerald Laird; that's not saying much. My issue with it is that Keppel's command is always dicey.

Inge bounced into the force play, but only after apparently getting grazed by a Keppel pitch. I thought it caught his jersey, at least, but — again — I was 400 feet away, and if that's the best place to call pitches they'd put the ump out there. Laird followed the force out by getting ahead 3-1; I said to the guy next to me that Jim Leyland should give him the take sign. Instead, Laird fouled a pitch off — I suspect it was high — to go to 3-2, then chased a low pitch for the strike out.

Questionable decision by Gardy, worse one by Leyland.

* I wanted Brian Buscher to pinch hit for Alexi Casilla in the 12th. Gardenhire had other ideas. His worked. Still, Casilla had had just two at-bats since Sept. 11, as Gardenhire follows his pattern of running with a set lineup in the final month — and Casilla was the worst hitter with 200 plate appearances in the AL this year. And he was in the DH slot, so defense wasn't a consideration. But then, Buscher has had one game appearance — no trips to the plate — since Sept. 19.

*Rick Porcello struck out eight Twins. That matched his season high. Considering his low K rate — 4.4 K/ entering the game — and the tight leash on innings he's been kept on — I'm surprised he'd had an eight strikeout game. If he stays healthy, he's going to be great.

* Leyland apparently boiled his bullpen down the four guys he was willing to take a chance with: Fu-Te Ni, Zach Miner, Brandon Lyon and Fernando Rodney, which is how he wound up having his closer throw 48 pitches. Gardenhire went a lot deeper than that — I think he would have used Jeff Manship in the 13th if the game had gone that far — and was, if anything, over aggressive in pulling Ron Mahay after one batter.

* Jose Mijares may have hit the wall. Or be scared by the Delmon Young incident last week. Or something. Whatever it is, he's been brutal his last few outings, and they'll need him effective against New York.

* Other than Jason Kubel's home run — and wasn't that a bomb? — the Twins' RBIs came from Matt Tolbert, Casilla and Orlando Cabrera. Joe Mauer reached base four times, but when he came up with men on base, he was walked.

*Miguel (Drunk Tank) Cabrera doubled, walked and had a two-run homer (plus three ground outs). Had he rung up another 0-fer as he did through the White Sox series last weekend, he would have been a prime scrapegoat for the Tigers' failure to win the divisional title.

He still may be, but he's still Detroit's best player. Which, in a way, only deepens their dilemma about what to do with his behavior.

When 162 games just isn't enough

The Twins are making a habit of this extra regular-season game stuff.

I landed a ticket online Sunday evening. It's not a prime location, but I will be there Tuesday. One more trip to the mutant mushroom.

Jim Leyland on Rick Porcello, the 20-year-old who'll start for Detroit:

"He's been young all year and he pitched awful good against Minnesota the other day. I know one thing for a fact — he will not be scared. He'll be excited."

OK, but he hasn't heard the Metrodome in a playoff.

A few comments from the weekend:

1) Give the Chicago White Sox credit. They played that series in Detroit with passion, won two of the three games easily and came inches away from perhaps tying Sunday's tilt. They made it possible for the Twins to catch the Tigers.

2) Interesting quotes from Zach Greinke in LaVelle Neal's blog:

Even when they were getting out they were taking good at bats up there. The only team that I faced over the years where they…they actually elevate their game when the pressure is on the line. Most teams either stay the same or get tight and try to do more than they can do.

Delmon Young, perfect example. I threw a fastball to him hoping he would try to get big and hit a home run with it. He just stayed through it and hit it to the opposite field and I haven’t seen him do that a whole lot.

It shows how relaxed they stayed in pressure situations. And I don’t expect that.

3) Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune after Sunday's Twins-Royals games:

... (Y)ou know Joe Girardi and the Yankees will be rooting for the Tigers on Tuesday, and not just because the Tigers failed to protect a seven-game lead with 26 games to play. No visiting team ever wants to play high-stakes games in the white bubble that has been the Twins' home since 1982.

Game 1: Twins 3, Tigers 2 — and Porcello

The tragic number remains at six after the first game. A lot of twists and turns — a sloppy first few innings by Nick Blackburn followed by 12 straight outs; a failed suicide squeeze in the ninth; and a 10th inning homer allowed by Joe Nathan after the Twins scored twice in the top half of the inning.

The Tigers started Rick Porcello (left), the 20-year-old who opened the season as Detroit's fifth starter and ends it as their second-most reliable starter.

And so the question: Should he be the AL Rookie of the Year?

Pitchers seldom win the prize, but this has been, literally, the season of the rookie starter — there have been more starts by rookies this year than in any season since the 1800s. And yeah, there are more games, period, but the trend is there.

Porcello — 14-9, 4.04 — has been, arguably, the best of the bunch, even though he's worked all season on a short leash. He's made 30 starts but worked just 165 innings — 5.5 innings per start — and only four times been allowed to exceed 100 pitches. (He threw a season high 111 pitches Tuesday.)

Heavy exposure in the majors is usually hazardous to young arms, and Porcello entered the season with just 125 minor league innings on his resume, all in High A ball. But Jim Leyland has been successful at the tricky task of prying valuable innings out of vulnerable arms and keeping them healthy. He did it a few years ago with Justin Verlander, and he recognized years ago that Livan Hernandez could be pushed beyond the workloads of most youngsters.

Porcello has room to improve. His BB/K and K/9 rates — the two things I most want to know about a pitcher — are unimpressive at best. But he is establishing himself as an extreme groundball pitcher, the kind of pitcher the Twins always imagined Carlos Silva to be, and he may be the rare pitcher who can get by striking out less than five men per nine innings. More likely, he'll add strikeouts as the reins are loosened. And, of course, if he stays healthy.

So: Is he the Rookie of the Year? Well, I'm not sure that he's had a better season than Texas shortstop Elvis Andrus, whose hitting stats don't connect to the value of his glove. Andrus may

not win the Gold Glove — it generally takes players a while to establish their superiority to the managers and coaches around the league — but I'm convinced that he's the best at the position in the league.

If I had a vote, I'd probably go for Andrus, but I'm not certain I'm right. I know this: I'd take either one for the Twins in a heartbeat.