Camp battle: Extra catcher

Drew Butera had
the most time behind
the plate for the
2011 Twins.

The Twins have nine catchers in camp: Joe Mauer, Ryan Doumit, Drew Butera, Rene Rivera, J.R. Towles, Danny Lehmann, Chris Herrmann, Dan Rohlfing and Danny Rams.

The first two are assured spots on the 25-man roster. The second three are duking it out for a likely roster spot, with the two losers going to Rochester to await a call. The other four are around to catch bullpens, fill in at the end of exhibitions and try to leave a positive impression on Ron Gardenhire and Co.

Of those four, Herrmann is the one with the brightest future, but he remains a bit raw behind the plate. For this spring, he's not in the running; by next year, he might be the frontrunner to the backup catcher job.

For now, it's Butera, Rivera and Towles. A quick summary:

The Twins outrighted
Rene Rivera after the
2011 season, but
he opted to return on
a minor-league deal.

Butera has the advantage of being on the 40-man roster. He still has an option. A good defensive catcher (which Doumit emphatically is not) but no hitter.

Rivera is somewhat like Butera, except slower and not on the 40-man roster. Rivera put up even worse numbers in 2011 than Butera.

Butera's OPS+ -- a figure that adjusts On-base Plus Slugging for park effects and league -- was 24, which means he was 24 percent of league average at the plate. Rivera's OPS+ was 13. It is astoundingly difficult to hit that poorly and remain in the majors.

Which brings us to Towles, a thus-far failed prospect signed as a minor-league free agent after years in the Houston organization. He burst through the Astros system in a rush, but was unable to hang on to the job there in three opportunities.

While his minor league numbers generally look good, it should be remembered that the Texas League (Double-A) and Pacific Coast League (Triple A) are generally better for hitters than the Eastern and International Leagues, where the Twins have their affiliates.

J.R. Towles signed
in mid-December as
a minor-league free
agent.

I will take it for granted that Towles is a better hitter than Butera or Rivera; he can hardly be worse. And I will also take it for granted that Towles is a better receiver than Doumit; again, he can hardly be worse.

This may come down to how much the Twins really want Doumit to catch. He's supposed to do the bulk of the DHing, but the Twins under even the most optimistic scenario need someone other than Mauer to catch 30 to 40 games. If they are willing to live with Doumit's defense in most of those games, a defensive specialist might make sense; Butera or Rivera would be around to serve as a defensive sub for Doumit or a caddy for Mauer (taking the final few innings in blowouts).

But if Doumit is to be more tightly limited than that, the No. 3 guy might wind up with 200 or so plate appearances, and the Twins may well prefer Towles for that job.

Watching a Twins win

Tuesday's Twins game was, like Monday night's, telecast back home in Minnesota, and I watched most of it.

A few observations:

There is nothing quite like watching Grapefruit League games to realize limitations of the spring stats, even beyond the small sample sizes. There was a strong breeze blowing in Tuesday at the Port Charlotte, Fla., park, and that made it play a lot bigger.

For all the talk early in camp about how Ben Revere had improved his arm by throwing a football, it's pretty obvious that he remains a well-below average thrower.

The Twins had some more sloppy play, but unlike Monday the mistakes by and large didn't factor in the scoring. (One of Tampa Bay's two runs scored because of an error by Darin Mastroianni in left field.) The first few days of exhibitions have been marked by fielding miscues and baserunning blunders. Imagine how slipshod things would be without the three extra days of drills.

I've written before about liking Matt Maloney's minor-league stats, and he looked good Tuesday afternoon. He's out of options, and I don't know how he would fit on the staff, since there are five starters with multi-million contracts ahead of him and other long relief candidates (notably Anthony Swarzak and Terry Doyle) who are also use or lose.

An ugly first look

Man, I hope we don't see a lot of this.

Fox Sports North televised Monday night's spring training tilt on their alternate channel. I don't know how many viewers found it, but I'm pretty sure not many stuck with it as long as I did.

Hey, it was baseball. Bad baseball, but still baseball.

A few comments, most -- but not all -- of which come with the "it's the fourth game of spring training, lets not read too much into it:" caveat: 

Jason Marquis was brutal. Utterly no command; he couldn't get out of the second inning. Walked three, threw three wild pitches and could easily have had a fourth. The Twins also committed two errors behind him.

Terry Ryan described Marquis as a strike thrower when the veteran signed, but that's simply not part of Marquis' record. I don't expect him to be great, and I don't expect him to be this out of control.

Deolis Guerra gave up five runs in his outing. Guerra is one of a handful of bullpen candidates I said a few days ago I was particularly interested in. Two of them, Guerra and Jason Bulger, have already been embarrassed by the Red Sox.

Bert Blyleven's explanation of Guerra's issues differed somewhat from what I've seen for years from Baseball America. BA has said that Guerra, who has a power pitcher's frame, shies away from using his fastball. (Supposedly his strong second half last season after his move to the bullpen corresponded with more use of his fastball.) Blyleven says Guerra's inconsistent with his "dominant" fast ball.

He didn't look like much of anything Monday.

Ryan Doumit played left field ... poorly. His "handling" of the leadoff double in the second inning was reminiscent of Delmon Young.

Joe Mauer had two hits. What a pretty swing. That doesn't change, spring training or no.

On wild-card play-ins

It's official now: The baseball postseason will feature the six division winners, plus four wild card teams, two from each league, with the wild card teams playing one-game play-ins.

This idea caught momentum last winter as the new labor deal was being worked on. I would prefer a system that doesn't let a second-place team have any chance at the big prize, but I recognize that rocket has left the launch pad. This format figures to provide more incentive for teams to win their division rather than settle for a wild-card berth. That's a plus.

Ron Gardenhire, and doubtless others, dislikes the idea of being ousted from the postseason with just one loss. Tough. The teams facing that possibility will face it because they finished second.

The perfect system, as far as I'm concerned, for crowning the baseball champion was abandoned in 1969 with the advent of division play. For 67 years, the team that had the best record in the two leagues advanced directly to the World Series. But even in the days of eight-team leagues, it was difficult to sell tickets to an eighth-place team, and it just got worse with expansion.

Divisions and wild cards are a ruse to keep more teams in the running. That devalues the regular season. The more teams in the playoffs, the worse the devaluation. Making the postseason more difficult for the marginal teams might be a step toward restoring some of that value.

Try, try again

Joel Zumaya isn't giving up on
his pitching career yet.

Joel Zumaya told the Twins on Sunday that he will have Tommy John surgery and attempt once again to resuscitate his pitching career.

Which makes sense. Even if all he can get next year is the same low-guarantee money he got this year ($400,000), that's still pretty good coin by the standards of most of us non-pro-jock types. He's not likely to match that as a pro fisherman (which he mentioned as a possible alternative in the immediate wake of his injury).

Zoom-Zoom broke in to the majors in 2006. Assuming that he's averaged $450,000 a year -- which is less than the current minimum, but more than the minimum was when he reached Detroit -- that's well over $3 million. I have no idea how well he's managed his money, of course, but one would hope that he doesn't have to pitch for financial reasons.

Anyway ... the Twins haven't made a move with him yet and don't have to until the end of spring training. If they release him before the season starts, he gets just the $400,000; after that, as I understand it, the full $850,000 becomes guaranteed. I would expect them to release him unless he signs another team-friendly deal for 2013

No matter what the Twins do, they get to pay for his surgery and rehab.

Pic of the Week

Visual proof that baseballs are bigger than Matt Capps.

The Twins had almost two weeks of drills. Now it's time for the meaningless games down in Florida.

As far as I'm concerned, a B game in Fort Myers is more interesting than any Super Bowl ever played.

Around the AL Central: Kansas City Royals

Man, this is going to be one tough team to pitch to. Maybe not to so much this year, but down the road, as these kids get more major league experience and a better understanding of how pitchers are working them ... The Royals now have lot of hitting talent, with some more percolating up through the system.

Things are looking up for the Royals,
including Lorenzo Cain (foreground)
and Wil Myers.

A logical lineup for Ned Yost:

Lorenzo Cain, CF
Johnny Giovotella, 2B
Alex Gordon, LF
Eric Hosmer, 1B
Billy Butler, DH
Mike Moustakas, 3B
Jeff Francoeur, RF
Salvador Perez, C
Alcides Escobar, SS

You may not be real familiar with a lot of those names, but you will be. A lot of high draft picks there -- the fruit of almost 25 straight seasons of sub-.500 ball finally paying off. Hosmer didn't win the AL Rookie of the Year award last year (Tampa Bay's Jeremy Hellickson did), but he wouldn't have been a bad choice at all. Moustakas' rookie numbers don't look good in total, but he erupted in the final month. Perez so impressed the Royals that they signed him to what may be an eight-year deal.

This team will hit. It's skewed a bit to the left side, but it will hit.

Pitch, not so much. The Royals have run into the injury bugaboo with some of their starting pitching prospects, some of whom are nearly as highly touted as their young hitters. As long as Luke Hochaver is their No. 1 starter, it's going to be tough for the Royals to contend.

The bullpen was pretty good last season, and there are Twins fans who are envious of K.C.'s acquistion of former Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton this offseason. Broxton hasn't been effective for some time, however, and I suspect his chief value is as a security blanket that allows the Royals to move Aaron Crow, who made the All-Star team as a rookie middle reliever, to the rotation.

If Crow takes to starting (his minor league record is pretty dismal), and if the 30-start rule applies to Danny Duffy, and if Jonathan Sanchez somehow discovers the strike zone in the American League ... well, then Hochaver and Bruce Chen slide down from being their top two starters to being their fourth and fifth arms, and in that case the Royals might even win this divisional title

But that's asking for a lot of things to go right. Even if they don't, I fully expect the Royals to take a big step forward in 2012. They're primed to be "phony contenders" the way Cleveland was last season.