Saturday, January 13, 2018

Notes, quotes and comment

A warm thought on a frigid weekend: FSN will telecast 11 spring training games this year.


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No kidding.

Gibson is the only arbitration-eligible Twin who didn't reach a contract agreement before Friday's deadline to exchange figures, and there is an sense that he'll be the first Twin to go to an actual hearing since Kyle Lohse more than a decade ago. He's not a great starter, but his track record says he can be expected to give you 30 starts and a bit below league average ERA, and there is legitimate value in that. 

As the roster now stands, he'd be the No. 3 starter -- Ervin Santana, Jose Berrios, Gibson, probably Aldaberto Mejia as the fourth starter and, realistically, a rotating grab bag of prospects and rehab guys for the fifth slot.

But the slow pace of offseason moves not withstanding, I don't expect that to be the rotation by the time pitchers and catchers report in a bit more than a month. And this may be my tendency to be fascinated by the new shiny things, but there are unproven guys (including Mejia) who I'd rather see in the rotation.

But I've observed before, regarding the bullpen, that the Twins are minimizing their risk. Gibson isn't going to be great, but he's not likely to be a complete disaster either. High floor, low ceiling isn't a bad approach for the fifth starter, should the Twins be fortunate enough to land two guys to slot ahead of him.

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As one who aims to make at least one visit to the Midwest League (specifically Cedar Rapids) each summer, this was interesting news:



Clinton is on the Iowa side of the Mississippi River, not far from Cedar Rapids. The LumberKings are affiliated with the Seattle Mariners.

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