Not too much is going on for the Twins these days.  Every year we seem to come into the offseason with some modest free agent hope, something to really get us going here in the frozen north, only to ultimately have our hopes dashed and reminded of how the Twins do bussiness.

Furcal went to the Dodgers and the Yunel Escobar talk died, reports have indicated the Twins are doubtful they'll find the right price in the Ty Wiggington sweepstakes, the Brewers and the Twins haven't seemed to click much over JJ Hardy.

There are a couple small things for Twins fans to mull over though.  Let's start with the intriguing:  the Twins have been reportadly interested in pursuing Japaneese pitchers  Kenshin Kawakami and Koji Uehara.  Kawakami had a 2.30 ERA last year and, according to LEN III, would make the Twins confident enough to trade one of their young starts.  Uehara would probably be a reliever for the Twins.  Before you get too excited about fancy imports though, the market for these guys is rapidly expanding (San Fransisco, Atlanta, Boston, Anaheim, and Baltimore have all been reported involved) after the Yankees snatched up Captain Cheesburger and AJ Burnett and we're probably likely to read those " years and dollars might be a little bit of a stretch" words Twins fans are so accustomed to.  It seems to me like with the attention Kawakami is receiving at the moment, unless the Twins really like Kawakami enough to beat out his other suitors, which the probably don't, the Twins should aggressively pursue Uehara while he's still overshadowed by Kawakami.

Now for the horrifying.  Another pitcher the Twins have recently been linked to is Brett Tomko.  That's right, while we're sitting on a staff of 5 up and coming young hurlers, all of whom had success last year, with several good prospects in the high minors nipping at their heels, the Twins are thinking about filling out their rotation with a guy that got cut from not one, but two teams in the last year.  Tomko's 4.68 career ERA (mostly compiled in the NL) is lukewarm enough, now consider that he'll turn 36 before his second start of the season, and has a 5.42 ERA over the last three years.  He's spent time in the rotation and the pen, but hasn't been much different in either, and his 5.26 ERA in the bullpen over that time does nothing to indicate he could be the bullpen help the Twins need.

Then again, since paying a high price for Delmon Young, signing Livan Hernandez and Mike Lamb, and letting several cheap bullpen options go by, Bill Smith hasn't done anything for me to demonstrate he's any kind of competent, so I wouldn't be surprised if this is the one rumor that ends up with legs.

I tried to find a write up on Kawakami to offer some reading for those more interested, but I couldn't come up with much of anything.  If anyone finds, or has, anything going into detail on what kind of a pitcher Kawakami is, please post it in the comments section.  For now, all I know is he has a great cutter but scouts aren't sure if his flat, 90 MPH fastball is good enough when his cutter isn't working.

And because he's a great writer, he's been doing it for free for so long, and I'd like him to shameless plug for me if I ever write a book someday, check out Seth Stohs's Twins prospect book.  It details 200 Twins prospects, has a foreward by Pat Neshek, and is available for only 8 bucks by download or $12.95 for an oldschool paperback copy.  I've downloaded in myself, and it's a great read.  Pat Neshek calls it "deeper than anything ever published on the Twins Minor League System."  The best part about learning about these guys is they actually might play for the Twins someday, unlike the free agents in the news the Twins are reportedly "pursuing."

Dustin Pedroia came out the big winner today, a BWAA decision I actually can't argue with, but the Twins had a nice showing themselves.  Morneau recieved 257 votes, behind Pedroia's 317 to take second place in the AL, and, perhaps even more hearteningly, Mauer took fourth place with 188 votes.

It's nice to see Mauer get some recognition in that list.  it's been long speculated in the corners of the internet that Mauer has bene maybe more deserving of the national accolade mroe focused on Morneau, and its good to see Mauer's truely one in a generation talent get a little more national play.

Interestingly enough, with Kevin Youkilis finishing 3rd in the voting, the top four spots were horded by Red Sox and Twins.

Also, Jason Bartlett got one 5th place vote good for 6 points.  I know he's a good defender and an nice overall player but really, what's this world coming to.

According to baseball-reference.com, and as reported by Joe Christensen, the Twins' stadium ended the year tied with Kaufmann Stadium for the best place for pitchers in the AL.

There is a lot of legitimate speculation about the accuracy of park factors and how much the players on the team affect the outcome. Just taking a glance at the results seems to add some legitimacy. Noted hitters parks like Fenway, Coors, Minute Maid, and Bank One appear near the top of the lists and stadiums like Petco, PNC, and the Coliseum show near the bottom. Some teams who finished the year as pitching heavy teams, such as the (Devil) Rays also show with hitting friendly parks, providing evidence against the metric being determined by players.

It might be worth thinking about this since our new ballpark is going to be a bit smaller which may badly affect our fly ball heavy pitchers.

These findings are in line with a strange three year trend for the Metrodome. The Dome has been ranked on the pitcher's side of the list to an ever greater degree each of the last three years after finishing above average for hitters in all but one one of its previous dozen years. The Twins have had plenty of good years with good pitchers in those years, so maybe there isn't so much to worry about with the new stadium.

At any rate, it's interesting fodder for discussion. I'm at a total loss for theories as to why the Metrodome has become such a pitcher's park so suddenly after being a moderate hitters park for so long. There hasn't been a sudden glut of hitters parks opening to skew the average. They haven't made any sudden changes to the dome that I can say I'm aware of. Actually, this trend lines up with the change to the speaker ground rules, but that affects maybe 2 plays a year and should make the park better for hitters anyway. Any theories?

As random as this award is, it's nice to see Joe get some recognition he truely deserves.  He has been one of the top defensive catchers in the game for a few years now, and it's good to see him get some recognition.  Hopefully, this will put the final nail in the "move Joe to third base" coffin.

So, let me get this straight, Joe has won two batting titles, something no AL catcher has ever done even once, including leading all of baseball in batting average, something no catcher anywhere has ever done, twice finished in the top three in OBP in the AL, AND now won a gold glove.

The only thing Joe has to do now is turn 26.  What an amazing player.  Way to go Joe!

It's the start of the bottom of the ninth inning and the Bitch Sox are down by 4.  in for the Rays comes... Grant Balfour?

A little tiny bit of Twins involvement in the death of the Sox.

Lovely, just absolutely lovely.

Balfour's gonna have to face the heart of the orer, starting with Thome.  It's gonna be a sad city in Chicago, after the way the Cubs blew it.

Go Rays!

Hey, I'm a Twins fan here from over on the Twinkie Town.  I know you guys kinda stopped playing a month ago, and I know you have your own stuff to deal with, but could you do me a solid and get pumped up to play spoiler to the Bitch Sox?

We'd really appreciate it over at Twinkie Town.

Anyway, the family of Tigers fans is a lot bigger for one day tomorrow.

Jim Souhan wrote this in today's column about the unlikely Twins.

Even if the Twins fall apart in September, even if they can be needled for a few bad acquisitions last winter or their typical cautiousness in the midseason trade market, we should appreciate the most surprising baseball franchise of the decade.

I don't usually like Souhan too much, but it was a nice article apreciating the Twins run this decade (we've had the 6th most wins since 2001).

Just thought it was fair to shout out to Souhan when I thought he wrote a great article after bashing him so often for when he does not.

Source

Well, after hearing the bad news that Michael Cuddyer (a fracture in his second metatarsal, to be exact, which is like the bone that is part of your toe in the middle of your foot.  Apparantly the usual treatment for an injury in this bone is a walking cast for 6-8 weeks, after which one may resume sporting activity, which puts him right about at the end of the year) come in, things seemed pretty down.

But here's some GOOD news on injured players, courtesy of Mark Dent at mlb.com.

Alexi Casilla, who's on the 15-day disabled list with a torn tendon in his right thumb, will stop wearing his splint next week and start taking batting practice, according to manager Ron Gardenhire.

"It's going well," Gardenhire said. "And he could be back in the lineup [soon]."

Casilla recently visited a hand specialist again, and was told the thumb was OK. Gardenhire said Casilla thought he could swing the bat without pain right-handed, but not left-handed quite yet.

So that's something anyway.  Getting him back in the top of the lineup could be a HUGE help.  The whole Harris, Everett, Punto rotation isn't terribly ideal.  Plus, with Cuddyer not coming back anymore, we still have a hole in the 2 spot, which ideally Alexi could fill.

Nice to have SOME good news about fands and feet...

So Gardy finally brought Nathan in the the 8th tonight, and while it didn't work out this time LEN III leaves us with the happy information that Gardy is sticking with the idea.

Just wanted to make sure everyone saw this.  We've all been talking about this for awhile and all, and it's nice to see it happening.  We need it.  LEN III makes a good point that havng started it earlier in the year might have tired Joe out too.