Ex-Twins watch: Jamey Carroll

Jamey Carroll has
just four hits in 42
at-bats since the
Twins sold him
to Kansas City.

Jamey Carroll picked up the 1,000th hit of his major league career Friday. One thousand hits is a lot for a career utility infielder — Nick Punto, for example, has 757 hits — and testifies to Carroll's longevity and perseverance.

There probably aren't a lot more hits in his future, quite possibly none. He's 39, and the decline in his numbers is obvious: a .290 batting average in 2011, .268 in 2012, .211 this season. The Royals hold a $2 million option for 2014; I can't imagine they'll exercise it.

If this is the end, it's still been quite the impressive career in its own way. He didn't make his major league debut until he was 28, but he still carved out a 12-year career and, by Baseball Reference's reckoning, earned more than $18 million in the process.

Not a great player by any means, but not everybody is cut out for greatness. Carroll found a niche he could fill, and did so competently for more than a decade.

Ex-Twins watch: Michael Cuddyer

Michael Cuddyer is hitting .339.394/.573 so far this year.

Colorado is a great place to hit, so it's not necessarily a surprise that Michael Cuddyer is putting up good numbers this year.

But his OPS+ — a stat that aims to remove park effects from a hitter's production — is still far above anything he's put up in the past. Even on the road, Cuddyer's slash line is .314/.364/.500. That's better than any full season he's ever had.

Cuddyer's 2012 was a bit of a disappointment. He missed a third of the season, and he had his lowest batting average for any 100-game season — and when you factor in Coors Field, it's even worse. Contrasted to Josh Willingham's career year, the Twins definitely got the advantage in swapping out Cuddy for the Hammer as their right-handed middle-of-the-order hitter.

This year is a different story. Cuddyer is riding a 21-game hitting streak. Even better, he's reached base in 40 straight games. Willingham, doubtless hampered by a troublesome knee (even if he insists otherwise), is having his worst season as a major league regular.

The Rockies are slightly above .500 at this point, and while that may not last, they've been better than almost anyone expected. Cuddyer's been a significant part of that.

Ex-Twins watch: Orlando Cabrera (playoff edition)

Orlando Cabrera played 59 regular season games for the Twins in 2009, during which Bert Blyleven probably told his television audience 58 times that the shortstop "wants to be in the lineup every day." As if this makes Cabrera unique.

Orlando Cabrera aggravated
his late-season injury on this
fourth-inning double play Friday.

Cabrera spent this season with Cincinnati. The Reds are his eighth team since Opening Day 2004; in those seven nomadic seasons, he has missed the playoffs just once. He's needed a couple of mid-season trades to get there,  but in each of those cases (Boston in 2004, the Twins in 2009) he was a significant reason his new team won. This kind of thing gets a player a reputation as a winner.

In that respect, 2010 was a success for the O-Cab. Few expected much of the Reds this year, but they won the National League Central title comfortably over the favored Cardinals and Cubs. Statistically, however, this was probably the worst season of the 35-year-old's 14-year career.

Cabrera spent almost a month on the disabled list  and hit .263/.303/.354 in 123 games, a dropoff of almost 50 points of OPS from 2009 — this despite playing in the weaker league and in a better hitters park. His backup, Paul Janish, hit .260/.338/.385, and may well be Cabrera's defensive superior at this point in their careers.

But Dusty Baker, the Cincinnati manager, loves his veterans, and it is true that the Reds were 68-51 with Cabrera in the starting lineup but just 26-25 with Janish starting. So when the NLDS opened, Cabrera was the Reds shortstop.

He went hitless in the opener, as did the rest of the Cincy lineup; Roy Halladay was incredibly good, and almost everybody acknowledged that. Cabrera did not: "He and the umpire pitched a no-hitter. He gave him every pitch. Basically, we had no chance."

In Game Two, he was 1-for-2 before injuring a muscle in his left side and leaving the game. The Reds led 4-0 when Janish took over at short; the Phillies won 7-4 with the aid of five unearned runs on four Cincinnati errors.

The presumption before Game Three was that Cabrera would not play, but after batting practice Baker took Janish out of his lineup and inserted Cabrera. Cabrera's first-inning throwing error allowed the Phillies' first run, and he was 0-for-3 at the plate.

Wanting to be in the lineup and actually helping the team are not necessarily the same thing.

Ex-Twins watch: Johan Santana

If you have the same grasp of detail of the structure of the shoulder that I do, knowing that Johan Santana needs surgery to repair the torn anterior capsule of his left shoulder doesn't tell you very much.

Johan Santana works in what proved to be
 his final game of the 2010 season

But the prognosis of almost half a year before he can being throwing — much less pitch — should tell us how potentially serious this surgery is.

Santana's season is over — another season in which he clearly outpitched his support. His 11-9 record belies the 2.98 ERA, 10th best in the National League. He may not be, as he was in his heyday with the Twins, the best pitcher in baseball, but he's still very good.

Or he has been very good, What he will be after this surgery is unknowable. Santana himself is optimistic, but the track record of the procedure on pitchers isn't particularly promising. Chien-Ming Wang and Kelvin Escobar, for example, have not bounced back well.

Santana, 31, is has another three years left on his contract — three years at more than $20 million per season, a hefty commitment even for a healthy pitcher. This is his third season with the Mets, and this will be his third significant surgery.

Setting aside the return on the Santana trade, it's quite possible the trade will prove worthwhile for the Twins because it meant they're not paying him $20 million plus to break down.

Ex-Twins watch: Don Cooper

Don Cooper was a forgettable pitcher (1-6, 5.14 in 70 innings) on some essentially forgettable Twins teams (1981-82). If you actually remember him with those Twins teams, you have a better memory than me.

What makes "Coop" interesting is what he's done since his brief pitching career ended.

He's the pitching coach for the Chicago White Sox, a job he's held since July 2002. And in his tenure, the Sox have had a remarkable record for durable starting rotations.

From 2005-2008 — a four season span — the Sox got at least 150 starts out of their first five starters of the season each year. Not impressed? The rest of the majors had, combined, ZERO such seasons.

They missed last year -- Bartolo Colon broke down and Jose Contreras flopped, and they settled for 128, which is still well above average.

They've gotten 110 so far this season, but Jake Peavy isn't making any more starts, and they won't get to 150 without him.

Still, it's a strong record for durability. A lot of people deserve credit for it, not least of them the pitchers themselves (especially Mark Buehrle, the common thread through those seasons). Cooper didn't do this on his own. But he sure played a role.

Ex-Twins watch: Craig Breslow and Steve Tolleson

I wasn't thrilled when the Twins tossed Craig Breslow aside in May of 2009, and nothing that has transpired since suggests to me that discarding him was the right move.

When the Twins waived him, Breslow had a 6.28 ERA in a bit more than 14 innings. He went to Oakland and ran off a 2.60 ERA in 55-plus innings — this while the Twins were cycling though lefty relievers.

And this season? He entered Saturday's game with a 3.12 ERA in 52 IP. His splits still suggest, as they did with the Twins in 2008, that he's overqualified for the LOOGY role.

In the wake of Jose Mijares' injury, the loss of Breslow continues to sting.

Yes, Breslow gave up a run Saturday, but that was in part because his infield failed to get the out at third base when Denard Span decided to go from second to third on a grounder to short.

And the shortstop involved in that play? Steve Tolleson spent years in the Twins farm system — they drafted him in the fifth round in 2005 — before he was waived to make room on the 40-man roster when the Twins signed Jim Thome.

With the Twins he was generally a second baseman; the A's used him mainly at shortstop in Triple A Sacramento this year (54 games at short, 13 at third, just five at second), where he hit .332. (Last year he hit .266 between Double A and Triple A for the Twins; this illustrates the difference between the Pacific Coast League and the International/Eastern Leagues.)

I don't know if the Twins underestimated Tolleson's defense or if the A's are overestimating it, but I do know that the Twins had a few years to evaluate him. Nor do I know if he's going to get serious playing time at short in Oakland; Cliff Pennington has been the regular there, and he's hardly emerged as a star. I suspect that neither is the answer to the shortstop question.

(Tolleson is the on-deck hitter in the photo above.)

Ex-Twins watch: Potentially serious injuries

Those of us who (sarcastically) figured that you couldn't hurt Carlos Gomez by hitting him in the head were wrong.

Go-Go took a pitch in the helmet Monday night, sat out two games, had tests on Thursday and now has gone on the disabled list with a concussion.

As far as I know, he doesn't have the concussion history of Justin Morneau (who has missed almost a month now) or Corey Koskie (whose career was derailed by post-concussion syndrome), but brain injuries are brain injuries. This might take a while, or he might be ready to go-go again before the DL stint expires.

It has not been a good season for Gomez, whose 2010 stat line looks a lot like last season's. I still root for the kid, but he's clearly as exasperating a talent in Milwaukee as he was with the Twins.

---

Another Carlos with a Minnesota background is on the DL. Carlos Silva left Sunday's start with shortness of breath and heart symptoms. He is to have cardiac catheterization on Monday.

Silva has had a good season, although the stats have been deteriorating of late. The Cubs have many problems, but Silva hadn't been one of them. Until now.

Ex-Twins watch: Orlando Cabrera

This has to be said for Orlando Cabrera in his bounce-around years: He finds his way onto winning teams.

He's missed out on the playoffs just once in the last six seasons — five playoff trips for four different organizations (Boston, Angels, White Sox, Twins). This year's model of the O-Cab is on the Cincinnati Reds, and the Reds have hit August running essentially dead-even with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Cabrera's numbers are down this season — .259/.299/.340 — and at age 35 his defense isn't of the highest caliber. Both Win Shares and Wins Above Replacement — both complex attempts to distill everything a player does into one number — ranks him as the weakest regular in the Cincinnati lineup. (Stats found on The Baseball Gauge)

But he's not preventing them from winning. Shortstop is not a gaping wound for the Reds. Very few, if any, teams in major league history have had a star, or even an above average player, at every position. Even good teams have a regular whose function (to extend the "gaping wound" metaphor) is as a suture.

That's what Cabrera did late last season for the Twins. That's what he's providing for Cincinnati this summer.

Now, the Reds will be in trouble in the long haul this way. Scott Rolen, who has a lot more to do with the Reds' success than Cabrera does, is also 35; catcher Ramon Hernandez —another plugging-a-gap type — is 34. Manager Dusty Baker prefers veterans, but even he (or his general manager) may realize that this is unsustainable.

So Cabrera may be on the move again this winter — a band-aid shortstop looking for another hole to cover.

Ex-Twins watch: Garrett Jones

One of my enduring memories of my one and only spring training trip — late March, 2008 — is that of being around the minor league fields the day Garrett Jones was passed through waivers and outrighted to the Twins Triple A team.

Jones was out of options. He clearly had expected to either make the Twins major league roster or get picked up on waivers by another big league team. Neither had happened.

And now he was standing on the sidelines as the Triple A infielders took fielding practice with manager Stan Cliburn talking to him. Or maybe at him; Jones wasn't making eye contact with Cliburn. He was staring vacantly in the direction of the teammates he didn't want to be with.

Quadruple A. That's a label no player wants to be stuck with. It means he's good enough to put up numbers in the highest level of the minors but not good enough to stick in the majors. And in 2008, Garrett Jones appeared to be Quadruple A.

He spent 2008 with Rochester, hit 23 homers, batted .279 and — this was always a problem for him in the minors — had a mediocre on-base percentage. He became a minor league free agent, latched on with the Pirates organization for 2009, did basically more of the same for a half season in Triple A, got called up to Pittsburgh.

And immediately started hitting like an MVP. Seriously: 21 homers in 358 at-bats, an on-base percentage of .372, a slugging percentage of .567.

He's receded this season to a line akin to his Triple A numbers, but with the Pirates, that's plenty good enough to remain in the middle of their lineup.

The Twins hardly miss him; he was a left-handed 1B/OF on a team with Justin Morneau and Jason Kubel, and they're both better than he is. His numbers fall off pretty sharply against southpaws, and he's not a defensive whiz.

But one thing Jones' story — like that of Denard Span — suggests is that the environment of the Twins farm system is sufficiently pitcher-friendly that the numbers hitters put up in Rochester and New Britain may actually understate what they can do in the majors.

Ex-Twins watch: Kyle Lohse

Kyle Lohse is at one of those injury-induced career crossroads pitchers so often come to.

But in his case, it's an odd one — something called "exertional compartment syndrome," in which the sheath of a forearm muscle won't expand. There is said to be no precedent for a pitcher with this condition, which may simply mean it's never been diagnosed in a pitcher. (I figure there's no such thing as a new pitching injury, just more specific diagnoses and surgeries.)

So ... surgery today (Friday) and nobody knows when he'll be back, if ever.

If this is it, I'm afraid I'll remember Lohse more for what he wasn't than for what he was. In 2003 I figured he was about to take off — he had a strong stretch at the end of the season, and I thought that in 2004 he and Johan Santana would both move ahead of Brad Radke. Santana did, Lohse didn't.

He's had just one winning season since 2003 — 2008, when he hooked up with the LaRussa-Duncan school for failing veterans — and he sports a career record of 85-94 with a 4.71 ERA.

He could/should have been better than that.

Ex-Twins watch: R.A. Dickey

A rather impressive outing on Tuesday from R.A. Dickey — six shutout innings with seven strikeouts. Against the Phillies.

More proof, I suppose, for the proposition that you really can't kill a knuckleballer.

Dickey, of course, had a pretty strong first half with the Twins last season before completely imploding in July. (On July 1 his ERA was 2.36; by Aug. 5 it was 4.62, and he was gone.) By September I could barely remember that he'd ever been on the roster.

But he's "only" 35 — old by baseball standards, young by knuckleball standards. It's possible he's got the flutterball worked out to the point where he can survive in the majors. More likely, he'll continue to bounce from organization to organization, from Triple A to the bigs and back again.

I root for knuckleballers. They're always the last to get a chance, and that chance usually comes with a bad team. Go get 'em, R.A.

Ex-Twins watch: Livan Hernandez

Livan Hernandez, now pitching for the Washington Nationals, allowed one run in seven innings Sunday against the Florida Marlins.

This raised his ERA to 1.04.

This ain't 1968, and even if it were, Livan has never reminded anybody of Bob Gibson.

Still, we're well into May, the rubber-armed Cuban has made six starts, and he's barely allowing a run per nine innings.

This too shall pass. He's struck out just 14 men in a bit more than 43 innings, and walked the same number.

He can't possibly maintain a low batting-average allowed with that puny strikeout rate — he's striking out fewer than three men per nine innings, yet opposing hitters aren't batting .200 against him. Nor is a 1-to-1 walk-to strikeout ratio consistent with good pitching.

Still, he's on a strong run.

Ex-Twin watch: A.J. Pierzynski

This always figured to be a crossroads season for A.J. Pierzynski. He's in the final year of his contract with the White Sox; he's 33, an age at which everyday catchers tend to crumble; the White Sox have at least one catching prospect (Tyler Flowers) marinating in the high minors.

The second point appears to be really strong right now. He's hitting .140 on the still-young season and adding to the deforestation of America with his broken bats.

Obviously, he's got to turn it around at the plate if he's going to remain a lineup fixture, on the South Side or anywhere else. Nobody's good enough defensively to carry a .140 stick.

Defense has never been Pierzynski's strong suit anyway. He's better than acceptable, but never a Gold Glove candidate. What he brings to the table are his competitiveness and his durability. He catches 130 games a year, he never goes on the DL, he grinds out at-bats, innings and seasons.

Looking at his immediate future ... he gets his 10-and-5 no trade rights (10 years of service time, last five with one team) in June, so if the White Sox want to flip him before his free agency, they are likely to act sooner rather than later. The Red Sox, as referenced late in the Monday print column, are having catching problems and might be a possibility.

Looking down the road ... I suspect that this will be his last season as a regular, even if he starts hitting closer to his career norms. Again: He's caught a lot of games over the years, and this takes a toll.

And I also suspect that he's not the type teams look to as a reserve catcher. He's more a hitter than a catch-and-throw guy, and the persona isn't exactly out of the clubhouse chemistry textbook. The "clubhouse cancer" rap from his season in San Francisco hasn't entirely washed away, not with Ozzie Guillen's witticisms ("If he's on the other team, you hate him; if he's on your team, you hate him a little less") echoing.

Nevertheless, there's a part of me that would like to see Pierzynski go out with the Twins, as Joe Mauer's backup. It's not likely to happen — besides the critique offered in the previous paragraph, the Twins have other options — but he did a good job for Minnesota early in his career, he brought a very nice return when the Twins traded him, and I think he deserves to hear cheers once more in Minnesota.

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Poll results: Not a lot of action on this one. Twenty-five votes on whether anyone will hit a fair ball completely out of Target Field. Ten said yes, 15 said no.

Me, I think somebody will drive one down the RF line and out the Puckett gate. Justin Morneau, Jim Thome, Jason Kubel — somebody's gonna do it this summer.

New poll up.

Ex-Twins watch: Carlos Silva (Update)

UPDATE: AP is reporting that Carlos Zambrano — the Cubs $91 million man — is being shifted to the bullpen. That's a surprise.

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Carlos Silva, the former Twins mainstay, makes his third start of the young season for the Cubs today against the Mets.

It's a potentially significant start for the right-hander, who may be pitching for his slot in the rotation even though he's allowed just one earned run in 13 innings. He hasn't walked a man yet this season, which fits his track record, but he's also struck out eight, which is above his norm.

Ted Lilly is to come off the disabled list this weekend. Somebody will have to make room for him, and it's unlikely to be Carlos Zambrano, Ryan Dempster or Randy Wells.

Tom Gorzelanny is the other current starter who could be bounced to the bullpen. He hasn't been quite as effective as Silva, but he's been pretty good himself.

Silva's at risk because of how poorly he pitched with Seattle the last two seasons — a combined ERA of 6.81. Taking him (and his contract) off the Mariners' hands was the price the Cubs paid for unloading Milton Bradley.

Silva is apparently throwing his sinking fastball less, his breaking ball and changeup more often. Getting out of Seattle and into the easier National League has probably helped too.