Delmon Young is off to a pretty good start this spring. In 10 AB, the youngster has 5 hits including 1 HR. That gives him a .500/.575/.800 line. Brian Buscher is 3/8 with a HR. Garrett Jones also went deep off of Joba Chamberlain. Unfortunately, that was only his second hit of the spring. The Twins are 3-3, and the young hitters are showing some promise.

What sucks is the pitching is not. Kevin Slowey has 6 ER in 3.2 IP. Glen Perkins has 4 ER in 3.0 IP. Scott Baker and Boof Bonser each have a scoreless, 2 inning start to their credit, so that’s something. Fransisco Liriano is slated to start for the first time this Friday after his little visa snafu.

That’s right, folks. Your replacement for Johan Santana as the veteran anchor on a young pitching staff is Livan Hernandez. The Twins signed him to a one year contract worth $5 million with another $2 million in potential incentives (I know, I know. Old news. So I’m a day and a half late. Big whoop. Wanna fight about it?).

While this signing certainly has its pros and cons, and possibly more cons than pros, I think it’s pretty safe to say that this isn’t as bad as the previous veteran scrap-heap signings that have taken place over the last couple years. Livan can be a good pitcher. The problem is, he’s declined every year for the last four years. His innings pitched, walk rate, strikeout rate, homerun rate, and WHIP have all gotten worse over the last four years.

At the same time, he has thrown over 200 innings every year since 2000. If he can get near 200 innings again this year, it could help keep the bullpen rested as they will be seeing a lot of action this year. No one really knows how Boof, Glen Perkins, and Liriano will hold up this year should they all make the rotation. Nick Blackburn is quite durable, but may not be ready to step into the rotation yet.

Also, though Livan may not be able to even hit 90 on the radar gun anymore, he can still change speeds incredibly well…sometimes up to a 20 mph difference between his fastball and his curve. That ability alone is usually going to keep a guy in the league for a while. Basically, I think it means that he still has the ability to be moderately effective,  rather than a complete disaster…like Fatty Ponson. If he can keep the ball in the park a little better, I can see him putting up numbers similar to last season, which i suppose I could live with.

Ultimately, it comes down to this for me: do we need a pitcher like Livan Hernandez? I vote yes. We need a guy who can chow down some innings and save those precious arms in the bullpen. But it would have been nice if the Twins could have found a guy who hasn’t been declining consistently for the last four years, and who would actually be worth the $5-7 million price tag.

Per www.twinsbaseball.com:

1. CF Carlos Gomez:
.232 BA, .288 OBP, .304 SLG, 2 HR, 12 RBI in 2007
2. C Joe Mauer:
.293 BA, .382 OBP, .426 SLG, 7 HR, 60 RBI in 2007
3. LF Delmon Young:
.288 BA, .316 OBP, .408 SLG, 13 HR, 93 RBI in 2007
4. 1B Justin Morneau:
.271 BA, .343 OBP, .492 SLG, 31 HR, 111 RBI in 2007
5. RF Michael Cuddyer:
.276 BA, .356 OBP, .433 SLG, 16 HR, 81 RBI in 2007
6. DH Jason Kubel:
.273 BA, .335 OBP, .450 SLG, 13 HR, 65 RBI in 2007
7. 2B Brendan Harris:
.286 BA, .343 OBP, .434 SLG, 12 HR, 59 RBI in 2007
8. 3B Mike Lamb:
.289 BA, .366 OBP, .453 SLG, 11 HR, 40 RBI in 2007
9. SS Adam Everett:
.232 BA, .281 OBP, .318 SLG, 2 HR, 15 RBI in 2007
Projected rotation
1. Scott Baker, 9-9, 4.26 ERA in 2007
2. Boof Bonser, 8-12, 5.01 ERA in 2007
3. Francisco Liriano , Did not pitch in 2007
4. Kevin Slowey, 4-1, 4.73 ERA in 2007
5. Nick Blackburn , 0-2, 7.71 ERA in 2007, Glen Perkins , 0-0, 3.12 ERA in 2007, or Brian Duensing , never pitched in Majors

Projected bullpen
Closer: Joe Nathan, 37/41 saves, 1.88 ERA in 2007
RH setup man: Pat Neshek, 2.94 ERA in 2007
LH setup man: Dennys Reyes, 3.99 ERA in 2007

So it doesn’t look as horrid on the offensive side as one would have thought. The two gaping holes offensively (Gomez and Everett) make up for it with their gloves. This team’s weakness, as always, will be power. The hope will be that Delmon Young pops 30 out of the yard, but I’m not sold on him doing it this year.

The predictions for the opening day rotation surprised me a little bit. I expected to see Liriano - Bonser - Baker - Slowey - Mulvey/Blackburn/Perkins. Maybe they want to give Mulvey some more time at AAA before letting him throw with the big boys. The two who don’t make it in will undoubtedly fill out the bullpen.

And of course, there are 2 EXTREME bright spots to this lineup.

1. No Jason Tyner

2. No Nick Punto

Maybe not in 2008 folks, but this team could compete soon.

Johan Santana and the New York Mets agreed on an extension. 6 years/$137.5M. The deal includes some deferred money and a club option for 2014. The contract, if the option is exercised, would be worth about $150 million over seven seasons., which is a new MLB record. If Santana performs well, the option could become guaranteed.

Santana takes a physical today, and if he passes, its all done.

No extension signed yet. Per MLBTR:

UPDATE, 1-31-08 at 5:10pm: Jon Heyman says the Mets are offering a six-year, $129MM extension starting with the ‘09 season. Including his ‘07 salary that would amount to seven years and $142.25MM. Santana’s people want to get the total up around $170MM.

*Crosses fingers*

Santana is gone. To the Mets. For a package of players not including their top prospect, Fernando Martinez. Let’s take a look at the 4 people we did manage to get.

CF - Carlos Gomez

This 22-year old appears to have the upside of a Torii Hunter who doesn’t find his power. He strikes out quite a bit, doesn’t walk nearly enough, and only has mild pop. In his brief time with the Mets last year, he did steal 12 bases in 15 tries, so there’s that. Pitiful that this is the centerpiece in the deal that took the best SP out of the AL. He is rated as the best defensive outfield prospect in the Mets organization, so he should be able to at least fill THAT need consistently.

SP - Kevin Mulvey

The player with the most upside in this deal, Mulvey is still not enough to get Santana. The 22 year old right-hander impressed at AA Binghampton in 2007, striking out 110 in 151.2 innings while only walking 43 and giving up only 4 homeruns. He also got one start at AAA New Orleans, going 6 innings with 2 hits allowed, no runs, and striking out 3. He could find himself thrust into a thin Twins rotation this season if he has a good Spring Training.

SP - Philip Humber

25 years old. Was given 7 innings over 3 games for the Mets last year, and gave up 6 runs. I know, sample size and all, but he’s 25. He started his minor league career at High A ball in 2005, pitching not very well in 70 innings. He started over the next season, being placed in Rookie ball. He impressed greatly at his stays at High A and AA in 2006, but again only amassed 70 innings between the two. His 2007 was marginal at best at AAA but at least he got 139 innings in.

SP - Deolis Guerra

OK, so maybe this kid has the most upside. But he didn’t pitch very well at High A, not anywhere near like he did at A. Not to mention he has a long, hard road known as being a minor league pitcher ahead of him.

All in all, I’m severely disappointed. There were much better deals on the table months ago. The Twins blew their wad early and lost out on a lot of top minor league talent. I don’t hold out hopes of Gomez finding his rhythm offensively, and the only SP with potential past a #4 slot in the rotation won’t be ready for a few years, if ever.

The Mets have 72 hours to lock up an extension with Santana, or the deal falls through. Hopefully, it does.

MLBTradeRumors.com is reporting (via the STrib) that the Twins are interested in two different CF; Corey Patterson and Kenny Lofton.

First off, you guys need to know something about me. It will come up many, many times here. I am addicted to a baseball simulation game called Out of the Park Baseball. I have many posts in the forums there. One of the members has this in his signature, and it is the first thing I think of whenever I see the name Corey Patterson.

This is horrible, horrible news. Go to Corey Patterson’s BB-Ref page. You don’t even need to scroll all the way to the stats to see why this is bad news. Read what his sponsor had to say about him. If you’re the type that still has to see the stats (and since you’re here I assume you are), you probably looked at his OPS+ throughout his career. And you probably noticed that except for 2003, it was lower than 100. Usually much lower. So low, in fact, that his average through age 27 was 83.

Kenny Lofton I am less against, but he is old, will probably want more money than he is worth, and might not be able to stay productive all season, let alone has no chance at a long-term future. I’d rather have him in center over say, Cuddyer though.

Of course, at this point, this is mostly La Velle E. Neal III throwing out names, but it was enough to catch my eye.

Crazy-talented lefty starter Francisco Liriano was onhand for TwinsFest this weekend. He talked about how his practice for the upcoming season has been going. Since being cleared for release from his rehab assignment in November, he has been doing long toss, bullpen tosses, and even pitching for batting practice. Liriano claims that he “feels nothing in his elbow” when throwing fastballs, changeups, and even his filthy slider. But of course, this is the same Liriano that told us similar things before blowing out his elbow, which is what required him to get this Tommy John surgery in the first place. So of course, only time will tell how that new elbow will hold up to the long, hard season. But the news couldn’t be better at this point.

Nothing like the smell of cash in the morning! Justin Morneau and Michael Cuddyer signed new deals last week; 6 years/$80m and 3 years/$24m respectively. Cuddy’s deal also has a $10.5M club option for 2011. I like the deals for us; hopefully they make Santana think twice about whether he’d like to stay or not.

Thanks for stopping by to check out the site! I’ll be posting news/opinions/stat analysis junk here. I hope you enjoy my style of writing, and feel free to comment!