We here at Twinkie Town have started calling Caleb Thielbar "Meat Raffle." Thielbar is from Randolph, a town of fewer than 500 people that is six miles west of Cannon Falls. We're pretty sure that the meat raffle is a Randolph tradition, like in every small town in Minnesota - hence the nickname. It just rolls off the tongue: Caleb "Meat Raffle" Thielbar.

That's a good nickname. None of the following, however, are good nicknames.

1. Oswaldo "Dale Jr." Arcia
2. Joe "Old Ironsides" Mauer
3. "Encyclopedia" Vance Worley
4. Trevor "DJ Hey Beef" May
5. Josh "Spaceballs" Roenicke
6. Trevor "Mr. Wednesday Night" Plouffe
7. "Dishcloth" Casey Fien
8. Aaron "Bill" Hicks
9. Liam "The Professor" Hendriks
10. P.J. "A.J." Walters
11. Justin "Pig Snacks" Morneau
12. Pedro "The Legionnaire" Florimon
13. "Swedish" Ryan Doumit
14. Anthony "China Syndrome" Swarzak
15. Mike "Bazzle" Pelfrey
16. Brian "Futon" Dozier
17. Chris "Medium" Parmelee
18. Glen "MapQuest" Perkins
19. Jamey "The Old Goatherd" Carroll

Tune in next week, because frankly there's a chance we just come up with terrible nicknames every Monday for the rest of the season.

P.J. Walters had trouble hitting his spots for most of the afternoon. It felt like whenever he was in the zone the ball was right down the middle, and if he wasn't in the zone then the batters weren't fooled enough to lift the bat off of their shoulders. Such is the way of the world when your favorite team is forced to start replacement-level talent.

We did get to see Torii Hunter hit the 300th home run of his remarkably long and accomplished career. Austin Jackson's two-run shot in the fourth gave the Tigers all the help they'd need. But the Tigers managed to tally nine hits off of Walters, and it probably could have been more. Even when he came out for the sixth, the out that Walters recorded was off of a line drive.

The Twins, meanwhile, couldn't return the favor. Brian Dozier collected a pair of hits on the afternoon, including his fourth homer, but the only other player to get on the board with a hit was Clete Thomas - who also made a rangey catch in center off of a deep fly from Prince Fielder. Hunter was only kept from a three-hit day by a diving catch from Chris Parmelee, who was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts.

Today's highlight, really, was Hunter's 300th homer. He hit his first against the Tigers in Detroit; his 300th came against the Twins in Minneapolis. Not a bad bookend.

Studs

Brian Dozier Anthony Swarzak Clete Thomas

Duds

P.J. Walters Chris Parmelee Brian Duensing Josh Roenicke

Today is the Minnesota's chance to take a series from the AL Central leader. All you need is right here.

A lot happened in this game. Wait, let me start over: A lot happened in this game while I was out for my birthday with a bunch of people from Spain and Brazil where I was given the gift of watching Brazilian dancers and then dancing to Brazilian music and watching Capoeira. This isn't actually what I did for my birthday, it was for a work thing. So, I went to a work party for my birthday. Which doesn't sound any better.

But the Twins did win. There were a pair of controversial calls made at home plate. In the top of the third, Pedro Florimon threw home off of a ground ball and Ryan Doumit appeared to apply the tag to Don Kelly. Then, with the game tied at two in the top of the sixth, Kelly singled into right field and Prince Fielder was waved around third base. Chris Parmelee's throw was there in time and, once again, Doumit appeared to apply the tag. Replays revealed that the play in the second was incorrectly called, but the replay in the sixth proved the correct call was made as Doumit's glove landed while Fielder's left leg was still in the air. Both were critical calls and needed to have correct judgments made, but unfortunately replay isn't allowed for plays at the plate.

Jhonny Peralta's two-run single put the Tigers on the board in the fourth, before birthday boy and back-from-the-disabled-list specialist Trevor Plouffe jacked one into the left field seats to knot it up. Plouffe led off with a double in the sixth, eventually scoring on a Brian Dozier single. Three batters later, Joe Mauer's two-out, two-run single pushed the game to 5-2. Plouffe singled off the wall in left-center in the seventh to drive in another run, missing his second homer of the game by two feet. It was the Trevor Plouffe show.

Oh. He walked, too.

Samuel Deduno threw 93 pitches in seven innings tonight, only striking out two but also walking just one. Two of the game's runs were charged to him, although he should have been charged with an additional run had the correct call been made. Luckily for Sam, history won't care.

Game three is tomorrow afternoon, when the Twins have a chance to take the series from the AL Central leaders. See you back here in the morning!

ROLL CALL!

1. Sportsavenue (83)
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8. Uncle Randy (56)
9. less cowbell, more 'neau (49)
10. MNWildcat (35)

Bullet Point Highlights

• Sam Deduno has now made fives starts. Three have been quality, one wasn't far off, and only one was miserable. His season ERA is now 3.26. Maybe Deduno's June is like Correia's April?
• Jared Burton has been off his game in his last four outings, allowing seven runs (six earned) in 3.2 innings. The rough patch has increased his ERA by a run and a half.
• Clete Thomas continues to improve on his all-or-nothing campaign, going 2-for-5 today with three strikeouts. That's six Ks in his last three games.
• Since his return from Rochester, Oswalso Arcia is 6-for-17 with four doubles, three strikeouts and a walk.
• The power isn't there, but Justin Morneau is following up his .315/.362/.387 May with another strong month. In June, Justin is batting .316/.381/.395. Has Justin turned into a different hitter at this stage of his career? Or is there still something that hasn't come back? Either way, Justin's numbers going back into May would make him a reasonable number three hitter. Willingham can hit fourth, Doumit can drop to fifth as long as he doesn't go into another prolonged slump, and then Arcia and Plouffe could follow. It's not exactly a murderer's row, but there's some talent in that group. And unless Gardy is now buying into advanced metrics and lineup analysis numbers, he's going to drop Doumit in the order anyway. May as well put Morneau third.
• Brian Dozier initiated a fancy double play by tagging a runner and then throwing onto first base. Dozier tagged the guy in the balls, since he tried to jump out of the way. Whoops.

Studs Sam Deduno Trevor Plouffe Joe Mauer
Duds No duds! Twins win!

Your one-stop shop for Saturday night's Twins-Tiger's tilt.

It's pronounced "jif." Yes, like the peanut butter.

Perhaps I should back up a bit. Our work week bookends, Jon Marthaler and Randball's Stu, co-host a podcast with two other guys called The Sportive that started back in February and currently has 18 episodes. For some reason, I was completely oblivious of the podcast until Twinkie Town head honcho Jesse was a guest last week. It's a podcast about all of the major sports with more swearing than a high school locker room and more tangents than your 11th grade trigonometry class, but I find the podcast genuinely funny and Jon's stereotypical Minnesota accent is just amazing.

Anyway, their guest this week was Twins Daily's Parker Hageman, who is a master with animated GIFs and really was the inspiration for me getting motivated enough to learn how to make them. This is not the first time Parker has been on the podcast, and this was also not the first time the guys discussed how to pronounce "GIF."

Guys, it's "jif." The creator of the file says so (the guy on the left in the article's picture, not the one on the right, believe it or not). If that's what he wants, then why do people insist on saying it like "gift"? The English language is already so wonky that we have words like "gift" and "giant" that start with the same 2 letters but are pronounced differently. Hell, there's also the "'ghoti' is 'fish'" phenomenon.

I do understand that some people point out that GIF stands for "Graphics Interchange Format" and thus the 'g' should be a hard pronunciation. However, as a commenter on the CNN article pointed out, the JPEG format stands for "Joint Photographic Experts Group," which then suggests that JPEG is supposed to be pronounced "JFEG," except its not and no one argues about it. GIF should be the same way. Except it's not.

This concludes today's episode of "Bryz's Weekly Rant." Now back to sports.

• Readers of the Saturday Notebook will recall that I've linked to Dirk Hayhurst's work several times, and I'm going to do it once again. He has a blog on the Canadian Sports Net website, and one of his recent blog posts was about being drafted because of a lie he made to a Padres scout. It was 2002 and Hayhurst had finished his junior year of college at Kent State and he was expecting to be drafted. However, the call never came, and after some guesswork, he figured that he wasn't drafted because he needed to show he could throw more than a fastball and curveball. Thus, his senior year was spent as a junkballer as he attempted to master his secondary pitches. One day, a Padres scout came up to him and asked why he didn't throw his slider in his last start. Hayhurst wasn't willing to admit that those sliders the scout was referencing were actually very poorly thrown curveballs, and instead told the scout that he had a blister on his middle finger. As luck would have it, Hayhurst actually did have his middle finger bandaged up from a split fingernail, and the scout bought the story. It turns out that Hayhurst ended up getting drafted in the 8th round by the Padres in 2003, based on a "budding slider" that he didn't actually have.
• On one hand, drafting the son of coach Joe Vavra absolutely screams of a nepotism pick. But, your worries can be put to rest when you realize that Tanner Vavra didn't just hit .322 for Valparaiso this past season as a senior, he also did it while being blind in one eye. A condition he's had since he was 3 when he got a fish hook caught in his right eye that was cast from his father, Tanner was told repeatedly by doctors that he would not be able to play baseball due to the lack of depth perception. In theory, yes, but Tanner was still able to catch a baseball. I feel the Vavras did a great job with teaching Tanner to not use his disability as an excuse, and I'm sure that was a huge contribution to his success on the field. Like any other draft pick, he faces great odds as he now starts his journey up to The Show, but it's still a great story that he was even able to succeed at a Division I school while being able to see out of only one eye.
• We got to see a little insight into the draft room of a major league club from "Moneyball," though admittedly the scouting department was not painted in a positive light by author Michael Lewis. A fairer picture of a major league club's draft room is given to us by Corey Brock of MLB.com, who tells us of what goes on in the San Diego Padres war room prior to and during the draft. Even though the Oakland A's scouts were ridiculed by making comments about a player's ugly girlfriend meaning he lacked confidence, we see with the Padres scouts that they still discussed that a potential draft pick came from a single-parent home, another's father was a retired police officer, and one more's questioned as possibly being too nice. Hey, if the A's scouts did it, and clearly the Padres guys are making similar comments, perhaps there are more teams than we think that believe that a player's seemingly mundane life choices actually mean something.

Now, we come to our rapid-fire "jif" & tweet round that surprisingly contains quite a bit of nature today.

1. Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig has taken the Los Angeles area by storm, but if there's one thing the ManBearPuig does not do well, it's diving into 1st base.
2. Alexi Casilla always seemed to fall whenever receiving a throw at 2nd base on a stolen base attempt, and here he's doing it once again. The difference though is that he managed to receive a throw from Matt Wieters on the wrong side of 2nd base, spin around and still manage to tag out Desmond Jennings.
3. Back before I went mainstream at Twinkie Town, I wrote a post at my old blog about how fans will do anything for a baseball, which includes risking harm on themselves and others. This guy was in a little of both camps as he raced past a couple fans to literally jump into a shrubbery, only to see another guy come away with the baseball.
4. Back on Monday, the city of Chicago was hit by dense fog during the early evening. This led to a delay in the South Side as the White Sox chose to wait it out, but the Cubs were a little more hardy and chose to keep on playing. Below are two GIFs where you get to see just how terrible the playing conditions were for both games (you know the drill, click the GIF to play it).
   
5. A massive forest fire in Colorado led to this amazing picture.

   #prayforcolorado pic.twitter.com/JY0ADpyoIR

   — Peter McEvoy (@PeterMcEvoy2) June 12, 2013
6. Finally, if you watched the Cedar Rapids Kernels game on Monday, you were treated to a hell of a performance by Byron Buxton. Here is his amazing diving catch he made in left-center field.

Through five innings, Scott Diamond and Rick Porcello were locked in what ball guys call a "pitcher's duel." But Detroit put up what ball guys call a "crooked number" on the scoreboard against Diamond in the 6th, as the Twins' starter again appeared to run out of gas just after the game's midpoint. Those four runs would prove to be all the scoring in the game, as the Tigers blanked the Twins 4-0, or as ball guys call it, a "shutout." (I'll stop now.) Diamond actually had two outs posted in the sixth and was on the verge of escaping the Tigers' greatest threat of the night, but he hung a breaking ball to Prince Fielder, who is one of those "don't hang a breaking pitch to him as he likes to hit those hard and far" guys, and Fielder drilled his second double of the game and plated the game's first two runs. A single and another double followed, and the Canadian hurler was poutined (not a word and doesn't make a lick of goddamn sense in any context) after 5 and 2/3 innings. Casey Fein, Ryan Pressley, and Caleb "Meat Raffle" Thielbar finished out the game and allowed no further damage. This didn't matter, as the Twins were unable to solve the deep, abiding mystery of Rick Porcello. 7 innings, 3 hits, 5 strikeouts, 0 walks. Oswaldo Arcia drilled a ground-rule double to straightaway center, but otherwise, they had nothin'. Jose Valverde, Tigers closer and uninspected carnival ride that smells like gasoline, walked Joe Mauer to start the 9th, but a double play followed and any thoughts of a wonderful, gutting comeback disappeared in a Justin Morneau strikeout. Prior to the game, the Twins honored Eddie Guardado and Tom Mee by putting them in the team's Hall of Fame. That was your Friday night highlight. Enjoy your weekend, everybody. ROBOT ROLL CALL: 1. SooFooFan 2. kenzertz 3. BC Twins 4. jere.johnson.37 5. DavidRF 6. 2wins87 7. KOHG 8. twinsgirl197 9. markos 10. desertaaron CHARTS & GRAPHS:
Source: FanGraphs

This is where you go to talk and laugh about tonight's Twins/Tigers tilt.

Probables

• Friday, 7:10pm, FSN: Scott Diamond vs. Rick Porcello
  
• Saturday, 6:15pm, FOX: Samuel Deduno vs. Anibal Sanchez
  
• Sunday, 1:10pm, FSN, it's Father's Day, take your Dad to a game why doncha: P.J. Walters vs. Doug Fister

Tigers Notes

• Austin Jackson, on the DL since May 12, is headed to Minnesota this weekend to return to the big leagues after a rehab assignment. To make room, the Tigers sent down young Avisail Garcia, who is better than their other outfield option, Matt Tuiasosopo, but who needs to play every day. Look for this particular production to come to Minnesota later this year, with Aaron Hicks playing the role of Jackson, Oswaldo Arcia filling Garcia's shoes, and a star turn from Clete Thomas as Matt Tuiasosopo.
• Rick Porcello, Friday's starter, hasn't won back-to-back starts all season. He won his last time out, so one can only assume that (remainder of sentence deleted, owing to the Twins' ability to break any trend).
• The Tigers have the American League's fifth-best record... but the best run differential, as they've scored 81 more runs than they've allowed. Having the AL's best starting staff, by far, helps a lot - they've combined for a 3.40 ERA, nearly two runs better than the Twins, who've posted a AAA-in-the-majors 5.15.
• Miguel Cabrera has been on base 134 times already this year. Among American League hitters, only Dustin Pedroia (125) is within 15 of him in that category. He's just always there, always on base - or clearing them, as he's hit 18 homers.
• Detroit just finished playing three straight 3-2 games, losing two of three to Kansas City. (This is not really a note, I just thought it was a nice coincidence, somehow.)

Twins Notes

• I'm hoping Anthony Slama shows up to Target Field this weekend, sits behind the dugout, and screams at Gardy until security has to drag him away.
• According to that same story, from Phil Miller of the Star Tribune and linked above, Wilkin Ramirez is showing no signs of complications from his concussion. Other, of course, than not being able to name the months of the year in order.
• Vance Worley threw a shutout in his first game at Triple-A. He followed up with a seven-inning, four-run outing. Now, he's lost his last two starts, didn't make it through the sixth inning in either one, and opponents batted nearly .400 off him in the two starts combined. In conclusion, Vance Worley is not doing much right so far in Rochester.
• Scott Diamond, who starts tonight, has quietly compiled a terrible 5.19 ERA in 11 starts this year. If it wasn't for Mike Pelfrey (6.12) and Worley (7.21), we'd be hearing a lot more about how awful Diamond, the supposed staff ace, has been.

Your Uncle Randy, a lifelong Twins fan and someone who is mortally terrified of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, really likes how Clete Thomas has been playing since getting called up to the big leagues.

"Looks like he's really figuring some things out at the plate, and he sure can close on the ball out in center," said Randy. "Nothing crazy, just goes out there and takes care of his business."

Randy, 49 and never married, thinks Clete has a shot to stick even when Aaron Hicks gets healthy.

"I gotta tell you, Hicks hot dogs it a bit too much out there. I mean, I've heard him interviewed and he's really well spoken, but I don't care for that flashy BS. Guys like Bruno (Tom Brunansky), Randy Bush and Gene Larkin never showed anyone up, they just went out there and played the game the right way."

Randy, who still uses the phrase "ghetto blaster" in 2013 even though no one has one anymore or even knows what one is, also observed that, while he likes the potential of Oswaldo Arcia and Miguel Sano, he hopes that other players aren't lost in the wash.

"I tell you what, guys like Chris Parmelee and Brian Dozier, they still have a shot be something in the bigs. Kind of remind me of guys like Michael Cuddyer or Pat Meares, just good clubhouse guys who needed some time to get acclimated. With Arcia and guys like him, they have a lot of raw talent, but they get so emotional and hot-headed out there, you never know what's gonna happen."

Your Uncle, who has forwarded you multiple emails about "Barack HUSSEIN Obama"'s birth certificate, wants people to know that, while he likes Samuel Deduno's ability to strike batters out, he'd sure like to see someone like Cole De Vries get another look, too.

"I tell you, Sam can be fun to watch, but De Vries oughta get a shot. Sam gets a little wild, but Cole's one of us and has a real good head on his shoulders. Sam's probably a better pitcher, talent-wise, but Cole pitches smart. Can't have enough of those guys in the locker room."

Randy, who has never actually talked to an African-American in his entire life, is excited about Byron Buxton, though.

"Man, Buxton just sort of reminds me of Kirby (Puckett) and Torii (Hunter) out there in the outfield. He's fast like Torii and can hit like Puck. Don't know much about the kid, just hope he's got his head on straight, if you know what I mean." Randy then makes a hand gesture that he saw Tupac Shakur make on TV once, maybe the "California Love" video? You don't know if he knows what it means. You are not going to ask.

That first inning left a little something to be desired. For both sides, to be fair. Ben Revere singled and stole second before Kevin Correia shot himself in the foot, making it first and third with just one out. But the Phillies would score just one. And from that point until the seventh inning, the Minnesota and Philadelphia traded zeroes.

Correia, in spite of stringing together a bunch of goose eggs, was very hittable. After that first inning, the Phills had two base runners in the second and third; Revere tripled in the fourth; the bases were actually loaded in the fifth. Anthony Swarzak came on in the sixth and didn't fare any better but had Correia's luck: with three two-out singles Philadelphia sent Michael Young on Ryan Doumit's arm. Doumit's throw had just enough for Joe Mauer to apply an awkward-looking tag on an awkward looking slide to end the threat.

In the bottom of the seventh, for the first time all night, the Twins forced Cliff Lee to face more than the minimum number of batters in an inning. With two outs and runners on first and second, Justin Morneau looped one into center field. Revere ran perpendicular to the ball's trajectory in order to make a fantastic catch...but he missed it by more than a hair. Mornea cleared the bases, and with it the Twins took a 2-1 lead.

Unfortunately it was the only time all night that the Twins could do more than send three hitters to the dish. Instead, Jared Burton gave up the ghost in very fast order. A double, two singles, and a fielder's choice later, Philadelphia had scored two runs to re-take the lead.

With the loss, the Twins drop to 29-34, and Minnesota only "takes" the series instead of sweeping it. The Tigers come to town starting tomorrow night for three.

ROLL CALL!

1. kenzertz (56)
2. BCTwins (45)
3. ColossusOfRhode (28)
4. twinsgirl197 (27)
5. DavidRF (21)
6. d-mac (20)
7. amiller92 (19)
8. snakecharmer (16)
9. markos (11)
10. Devereau (10)
    

Bullet Point Highlights

• For better or for worse, Ben Revere was at the center of a lot of what happened tonight.
• It's worth repeating: in eight of tonight's nine innings, the Phillies pitcher faced the minimum.
• Give Morneau the crap he deserves for trying to come home to get Revere in the eighth, but it's worth noting a couple of things. First, foregoing the out at first didn't actually hurt the Twins. Whether Morneau got the out at first or not, the run was going to score to make the game 3-2. Understanding this, Justin clearly just took a shot in the hope that he could snag Revere and keep the game tied for a few more minutes.
• In spite of all the base runners, Correia allowed just the one run in five innings of work, striking out six and allowing eight hits and a walk. That's not ideal, but the one run is perfect. And in terms of runs allowed it was Kevin's best outing since April 28.
• Oswaldo Arcia made a great sliding catch in the seventh, pushing himself into the left field wall in foul territory. It's a good way to twist something or tear a tendon, but moves like that will endear you to a fanbase really damned quickly. You just got back, Oswaldo! Be careful!

Studs (It's all relative!)
Caleb Thielbar Justin Morneau Joe Mauer Ryan Doumit
Duds (Whole lotta no offense today)
Jared Burton Josh Willingham Jamey Carroll Clete Thomas Brian Dozier Eduardo Escobar

W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP 2013 - Cliff Lee 7-2 16 13 1 1 0 0 95.1 80 30 27 5 16 83 2.55 1.01

At the end of August, Cliff Lee will turn 35 years old. His arm doesn't seem to care. This he's pitched into the 8th six times, and completed fewer than seven innings just twice. His fastball is consistently effective, the cutter works. What more can you say? He's healthy. He's durable. He's consistent. Cliff Lee is everything you want in a starting pitcher.

And to think he would have been a Twin in 2010 had Wilson Ramos been healthy at the time that Seattle was looking to make a move. It's totally an over-reaction, but I still think that 2010 ends up a whole lot differently if Lee is pitching for the Twins.

W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP 2013 - Kevin Correia 5-4 12 12 0 0 0 0 76.2 89 35 35 14 12 36 4.11 1.32

Whatever kind of dark magic Correia has been spinning this year, I'm good with it. He struck out seven guys in 6.1 innings his last time out. Seriously - this could be a 1-0 pitcher's duel in the 10th inning and Correia would be pulling a Jack Morris.

Historically the Phillies batters haven't seen much of Corriea, and nobody has a big enough sample size to draw any real points of analysis. As a whole they've notched six doubles and a pair of homers in 62 at-bats, for a .290/.389/.484 triple slash, but I'm saying we just chalk a lot of that success up to small sample size. Cool? Cool.

Your one-stop shop for the Twins-Phillies finale in Minnesota!

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There was a time when an outfielder not named Mike Trout or Bryce Harper was taking baseball by storm. His name was Grady Sizemore, a five-tool player who hit for power, stole bases, played Gold-Glove caliber defense, while being the most productive leadoff man in all of baseball. In terms of saber metrics, from 2005-2008 only three players had a higher WAR then Sizemore, Albert Pujols, Chase Utley and Alex Rodriguez. Not to mention Sizemore is two, four, and seven years respectively younger then all those players listed.

Unfortunately, the knees of Sizemore caved in on him, as he was a shell of his former self when in the league from 2009-2011. Only playing 210 of 486 possible games and batting as high as just .248 in that time as well. Sizemore returned to Cleveland in 2012, but started the year on the 60 day DL and never saw any game time dealing with his ailing knees and back problems.

Sizemore has been out of work ever since, and is trying to make a comeback. With his career and reputation at stake now, Sizemore is attempting to make a return, but has insisted that he does not want to return until he is “baseball ready.” The Minnesota Twins are a potential suitor. As of right now, Aaron Hicks is on the DL, giving the Twins one true center fielder in Clete Thomas. Not necessarily a long-term answer there, and although Hicks has played above exceptional defense, his bat is still looking for any form of consistency when he does return from the DL.

That being said, should the Twins take a chance on the once promising star? The Twins went to watch Sizemore work out in March and when Sizemore does finally reach that “baseball ready state” the Twins are a supposed front-runner in winning the sweepstakes. It is a vintage Terry Ryan signing, and Sizemore is very familiar with the AL Central, as his entire career was spent in Cleveland. He would most likely be signed at league minimum, with maybe some incentives built into the contract as well. All though even if one month from now Sizemore is ready he would only at most play about 50-60 games. He also could be auditioning himself for another team for 2014. Who knows, maybe a little mentoring for Aaron Hicks from a guy like Grady Sizemore would do wonders, not to mention with Byron Buxton tearing through the minors, he may up here well before 2015 as originally anticipated. Maybe Sizemore could provide the same kind of mentoring that Carl Pavano was able to do, but to actually talented players this time.

In terms of the Minnesota Twins, the signing of minor league journeyman Cody Eppley isn't likely to make many waves. The 27-year old right-hander was a 43rd-round selection by the Rangers in 2008, reached Triple-A by 2010 and made ten relief appearances for Texas in 2011. The Yankees selected him off of waivers in April of 2012, and proceeded to collect 46 innings of 3.33 ERA baseball. Not bad for a waiver claim.

New York largely utilized him for his platoon splits, with 130 of his 194 batters faced bring right-handed. Righties managed just .227/.276/.319 off of him, with 22 strikeouts and eight walks. Lefties, meanwhile, hit .352 with a .444 on-base percentage, striking out ten times and walking nine. It's not uncommon for pitchers to have a weaker approach to a certain side of the plate, and that's certainly in evidence with Eppley whose funky sidearm delivery makes it easier for left-handers to pick him up. Righties can sometimes have difficult with the angles.

Eppley's fastball usually sits in the upper 80s, but has been clocked a tad slower this season. He compliments it with a very occasional changeup, but his true alternative is his low-80s slider. While he can't locate it well enough to be truly effective against left-handed hitters, the arm angle and the levels of his fastball/slider make it awfully tempting to righties.

What Eppley does provide is a history of big strikeout numbers in the minor leagues. In 248.1 career minor league innings he's sent down 282 on strikes, and if you split Triple-A out of that group he's still struck out 118 in 112.1 innings. In addition to a strong splits candidate, Eppley also has a history of higher than average walk rates and, this season, he's allowing a great deal of additional hits as well.

Triple-A Pitching Coach Marty Mason is going to have his work cut out for him, but if there's something to be fixed then there's certainly an asset there for the Red Wings' 'pen. Welcome to the organization, Cody Eppley. With Anthony Slama's slow start, Eppley will join Michael Tonkin and Luis Perdomo as another pitcher who is capable of posting strong strikeout rates.

Grab a cup of coffee and let's talk Twins. Nobody really wants to talk about boring work stuff anyway, right?

• Wilson Ramos has had a "setback" in his rehab as he works to come back from the disabled list. On a first-to-third drill, it seems there was tightness in his hamstring, and it now sounds like his return will be unlikely before the All-Star break. Since batting .267/.334/.445 as a 23-year old in 2011, Ramos has appeared in just 39 games for Washington (14 this season), with a .260/.338/.412 triple slash. There's no way the Twins will ever be seen to have made a smart baseball decision by flipping Ramos for Matt Capps, seeing your trade partner have a rough go of it does make you feel a bit better. But wow you have to feel for Wilson. His professional career has been full of hiccups so far.
• Kevin Slowey took the hill last night for his 12th start and 13th appearance of 2013 for the Marlins. While he'd been very effective through his first eight starts (44.2 IP, 1.81 ERA, 36 K, 9 BB), he hasn't been as successful recently. Excluding his non-start (he pitched the 13th-19th innings against the Mets on June 8th), Slowey has allowed 27 earned runs in 27.1 innings since his hot streak ended - striking out 20, walking six, but allowing 47 hits. On the whole he's still had a pretty good season, but he's trending backward. How long does Mike Redmond stick with his struggling former teammate?
• Mike Pelfrey delivered just his fourth quality start on Wednesday night, all of which have come in his last seven starts. He also finished the seventh inning for the first time since April 21, 2012 - his final start for the Mets before having Tommy John surgery. Ragging on Pelfrey for being terrible is a bit like blaming your dog for eating the burgers you dropped on the ground during your barbeque - what did you think was going to happen? The good news is that he's been pitching a little bit better of late, even if the results haven't been drastically better. Since the start of May his ERA is "only" 5.31. And because the Twins have made it clear that they're going to ride through this patch with Pelfrey, here's hoping his upward trend continues.
• Trevor Plouffe is due back to Minnesota any time. He was sent to Triple-A for a rehab assignment on Monday (June 10th), and should be over his calf strain.
• Ryan Doumit is now 0-for-13 going back to Sunday's double-header, but in 27 games from May 7 to June 8 he clobbered eight home runs while batting .275/.336/.578. He also notched 25 RBI in that stretch. With Justin Morneau's power outage it was critical to get Doumit back on track after his rough start. Keeping him in the lineup when Plouffe returns is a necessity.
• Clete Thomas was undeniably the star of last night's comeback victory against the Phillies, and considering the center field outlook we all may as well jump on the Cletesanity Wagon right now. Aaron Hicks, in spite of General Manager Terry Ryan's assurances of a "15-day thing", does not have a return date. Wilkin Ramirez is still working through his concussion-like symptoms, and Darin Mastroianni isn't schedule to return to duty until early July. For the next two or three weeks, we're stuck with Thomas whether we like it or not.
• If the Twins need another center fielder, their next choice is to add Antoan Richardson to the 40-man roster. For the Double-A Rock Cats, Richardson hit .336/.456/.403 in 33 games, including 25 strikeouts, 22 walks, and 14 stolen bases in 19 attempts. For the Triple-A Red Wings, he's maintained his impressive on-base skills with a .441 on-base percentage thanks to 27 walks (compared to just 22 strikeouts) in 28 games. Richardson is 29 and isn't likely to make any kind of a long-term impact, but if you're looking for minor league players who are making a difference and may as well be given a shot: Antoan Richardson is the guy.

If you weren't able to watch tonight's game, you missed out on a really good one. Mike Pelfrey, who has been struggling much of the 2013 campaign, pitched a very solid 7 innings for Minnesota tonight, the longest he's lasted in a game all year. Pelfrey only gave up 5 hits (three in the first inning--only two after the first) in his 7 innings pitched, and walked 1 while giving up 3 earned runs. Seeing Pelfrey's numbers get better game after game is really encouraging, and tonight's limited walks and seven (!) strikeouts is even better news for the recovering pitcher.

Casey Fien came in to relieve Pelfrey and promptly gave up two hits and only got one out, so Brian Duensing was called in to relieve Fien. Duensing isn't always a great reliever, but tonight he was definitely on his game. He struck Jimmy Rollins out on a very slow breaking ball over the plate to end the eighth inning, and the Twins went into the bottom of the inning down 3-2. We'll cover the offense in a bit, but I'll just note that Glen Perkins came in in the top of the ninth and had a nice, quick 1-2-3 inning, as we've become mostly accustomed to. Tonight was Perk's second one-run save in a row.

Alright, it's definitely time to discuss the offense. Clete Thomas, the recent call up (again), had a career night tonight. He had 4 hits, two of them doubles, and 2 of the Twins' 4 RBI. He also scored one of the runs, in the bottom of the eighth inning, on a wild pitch from Justin De Fratus (though Antonio Bastardo was responsible for both the runs De Fratus gave up). Thomas' efforts were helped by top prospect Oswaldo Arcia, who went 3-for-4 this evening, with a double and the other three of the Twins' runs scored. Arcia was basically on base all night, which was great to see.

Side note: I'm not a big fan of bunting, but I will say that tonight, Eduardo Escobar performed probably the most perfect bunt I've ever seen in a game. He hit it just up the first base line, but the ball had some spin on it so it rolled back toward home plate, and Escobar made it safely to first base. It was really well executed, whether it was intentional for that spin or not, and it was, admittedly, a great call.

Overall, the Twins really didn't play that well -- the bottom half of the lineup really produced most of the offensive help, but the combination of solid pitching and decent-enough offense definitely got the job done.

Roll Call

# Commenter # Comments 1 kenzertz 92 2 DavidRF 59 3 d-mac 43 4 Sportsavenue 41 5 twinscrazy_german 30 6 SooFoo Fan 21 7 twinsgirl197 19 8 ColossusOfRhode 17 9 jere.johnson.37 17 10 less cowbell, more 'neau 8

Congrats, kenzzzzertz.

Win Expectancy Graph

Source: FanGraphs

Note those delightful pivotal Clete Thomas moments. Amazing.

Studs
1) Mike Pelfrey. A big congratulations on the improvements in pitching.
2) Clete Thomas. Holy cow, it's #Cletesanity!
3) Oswaldo Arcia. The prospect showed why he was ranked so high tonight.

Duds
No one. Winning is always fun!

Coming Up
Tomorrow night, the Twins look to sweep the series as they face off against Cliff Lee (no one said it would be easy...) at 7:10 pm at Target Field. Minnesota will be looking to Kevin Correia to secure the series sweep and keep the Twins' winning streak going. Make sure you check back tomorrow for all the latest game information!

First Pitch: 7:10 pm CST
TV: FSN
Radio: 96.3 K-TWIN, TIBN
Know Thine Enemy: The Good Phight

After another rainy day, the Twins hope the poor weather conditions stay away long enough to beat the Phillies again at home at Target Field tonight. The pitching matchup tonight features Mike Pelfrey for Minnesota and Tyler Cloyd for Philadelphia. Both pitchers had quality starts in their last outing, with Pelfrey throwing 6 1/3 innings against the Royals last week, a season-high for him.

Your throwers

Mike Pelfrey #37 / Pitcher / Minnesota Twins

Height: 6-7

Weight: 250

Bats: R

Throws: R

Born: Jan 14, 1984

W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP 2013 - Mike Pelfrey 3-6 12 12 0 0 0 0 57.2 79 43 41 6 20 28 6.40 1.72

Tyler Cloyd #50 / Pitcher / Philadelphia Phillies

Height: 6-3

Weight: 210

Bats: R

Throws: R

Born: May 16, 1987

W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP 2013 - Tyler Cloyd 2-2 5 5 0 0 0 0 29.1 31 13 12 2 12 16 3.68 1.47

Lineups

Will be posted when available.

GO TWINS!

Your one-stop shop for tonight's Twins game

Tonight's game features the matchup of Mike Pelfrey and Tyler Cloyd. For some reason, I've been lucky enough to have to have covered the past few Pelfrey starts, and I have to say, it hasn't been a ton of fun. Admittedly, Pelfrey's start last Thursday against the Royals was pretty good for him -- 3 runs on 7 hits in 6/13 innings. Not shabby, especially considering some of the pretty awful starts he's had this year. Tonight, he looks to continue to upward trend and stay in the game past the 6th inning again.

Tyler Cloyd hasn't been outstanding for the Phillies, but he's been able to hold his own for sure. His last start was against the Brewers last week, and while he wasn't dominating, he did hold them scoreless over 6 2/3 innings.

The pitchers:

Mike Pelfrey #37 / Pitcher / Minnesota Twins

Height: 6-7

Weight: 250

Bats: R

Throws: R

Born: Jan 14, 1984

W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP 2013 - Mike Pelfrey 3-6 12 12 0 0 0 0 57.2 79 43 41 6 20 28 6.40 1.72

Tyler Cloyd #50 / Pitcher / Philadelphia Phillies

Height: 6-3

Weight: 210

Bats: R

Throws: R

Born: May 16, 1987

W-L G GS CG SHO SV BS IP H R ER HR BB K ERA WHIP 2013 - Tyler Cloyd 2-2 5 5 0 0 0 0 29.1 31 13 12 2 12 16 3.68 1.47