Twins notes

Tsuyoshi Nishioka is assumed by many to be the 2012 infield utility man, but I have to wonder if he and the Twins wouldn't be better served by starting the year at Rochester to play every day. And it isn't clear that he is anything but a backup shortstop in MLB right now. With Jamey Carroll's infield versatility, Alexi Casilla's middle infield ability, Luke Hughes' good right side defense and his ability to play third base, and Trevor Plouffe's ability to end a game at short if some infield disaster happens, I see Nishioka as a wasted roster spot right now. It's a spot that could go to a Pudge Rodriguez or a Jonny Gomes.

When will the Twins trade outfield depth for pitching needs? The list is massive: Denard Span, Ben Revere, Rene Tosoni, Joe Benson, Dustin Martin, Evan Bigley, Aaron Hicks, Oswaldo Arcia, Eddie Rosario (though hopefully he will be successfully converted to second base), Lance Ray, Nate Roberts, Danny Ortiz, Max Kepler, etc. (I may be forgetting a few other prospects). I am not saying that the Twins should trade the best of this bunch, but the depth is impressive, while the dearth of top of the order pitching prospects is alarming. Martin, Bigley, Roberts, and Ortiz are certainly viable trade candidates, in my view. Packaging two of them with a Kevin Slowey and Alex Burnett, might yield some very good returns.

I am terrified of the Twins attitude towards closers. I really hope that no more than $4-5 gets thrown towards Jonathan Broxton or Brad Lidge on one-year deals. Meanwhile, either train Carlos Gutierrez to close, or trade him.  I still think the best idea would be to sign Dotel, move Perkins to the closer role and work from within to build a successful bullpen.

I wonder, given this:

from Aaron Gleeman in March

"Ben Lindbergh of Baseball Prospectus did some very interesting research about how rapidly teams move their prospects up the minor-league ladder, finding huge differences between the slowest-moving teams and fastest-moving teams. For position player prospects the Twins are by far MLB's slowest-moving organization, allowing hitters to accumulate an average of 2,600 plate appearances in the minors before making their big-league debuts.

Not only is the Twins' average of 2,600 pre-debut plate appearances about 200 more than the next-slowest Angels, it's 1,000 more than the fastest-moving team, the Mets. That means the average Twins hitter debuts with two more full seasons' worth of plate appearances than the average Mets hitter. We saw that exact dichotomy in action with Carlos Gomez, as the Mets rushed him to the majors at age 21 and the Twins then kept him there at age 22."

Why the Twins traded for Carlos Gomez and Delmon Young, considering how rushed those two players were through the minor leagues. Those two careers may have substantially different had they been given 1-2 more years to figure it out with less pressure in the minors.