The Twins finished the week with a 4-2 record.
Scott Baker pitched on Friday against Tampa Bay and finally had a good start.  In 6.0 IP he allowed 5 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 1 HR and struck out 2.
Francisco Liriano pitched on Saturday against Boston.  He threw 3.0 innings while allowing 4 hits, 7 earned runs, 3 walks, 3 home runs and recorded 5 strikeouts.
Kevin Slowey pitched Tuesday against Florida and Sunday against St. Louis.  Both starts were very good.  Combined in 11.0 IP he allowed 10 H, 3 R, 0 BB, 2 HR and struck out 10.
Nick Blackburn pitched [...]

A little math to start off: fantasy baseball draft Saturday plus building a fence Sunday equals my reaction to the following move on Monday.
Saturday the Twins announced that they have traded RHP-Charles Nolte to the New York Yankees.  In return for Nolte, the Twins get to hang on to Rule 5 pick RHP-Jason Jones.
Jason Jones spent most of 2008 in AA where he had a 3.33 ERA and 1.31 WHIP in 149 IP.  He issued 49 BB and recorded 91 SO.  All 25 of his appearances came as a starting pitcher.  Right handed batters hit .280 off of him, but [...]

Today the Twins optioned OF-Jason Pridie to AAA Rochester, and reassigned LHP-Sean Henn, RHP-Bobby Keppel, 1B-Brock Peterson, and OF-David Winfree to minor league camp.
Jason Pridie (10/9/83) BA: NR / SS: #31
Pridie is the “other guy” the Twins got in the deal that sent Garza, Bartlett, and Eduardo Morlan to Tampa bay for Delmon Young and Brendan Harris.  He had a solid year at AAA Rochester in 2008 hitting .270/.305/.435.  In his 559 at bats last year he hit 16 triples, 13 home runs and stole 25 bases.  He projects to be a 4th outfielder in the major leagues and will [...]

Tomorrow I have my fantasy baseball draft and I can’t wait.Our league is a 14 team, head to head keeper league which is heading into its 11th season.  Our scoring categories are: BA, R, 2B, HR, RBI, SB, OBP and SLG for hitters.  For pitchers we use W, L, QS, CG, SV, ERA, WHIP and K.  Each week we start C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF, OF, OF, DH and 7 pitchers in any combination of SP and RP from our 25 player rosters.
My team was named the Minnesota M&Ms since I Mauer and Morneau on my team, but I [...]

Last night I was on Seth Stohs’ weekly Minnesota Twins Podcast (3/24 edition).  He had me on about 15 minutes into the show, but i recommend you listen from the beginnning.  On before me was Twins minor leaguer Zach Ward.  You can listen to it here.
In addition to the weekly podcast, you can read Seth’s work online here.  He does an excellent job covering the Twins with a strong focus on the minor leagues.  His interviews with Twins minor league players are always very well done and enjoyable to read. 
Seth also did a great service to Twins and baseball fans everywhere by writing and publishing the [...]

The Twins finished the week with a 3-3 record.
Scott Baker pitched on Tuesday against Boston and Sunday against Toronto.  In his 2 starts combined he pitched 7.2 innings while allowing 16 hits, 8 runs, 1 walk and struck out 7.  He has now had three rough starts in a row.
Francisco Liriano pitched on Wednesday against Pittsburgh and Monday against Baltimore.  In his two starts this week he threw 9.0 innings while allowing 5 hits, 4 earned runs, 6 walks and 7 strike outs.  Opposing batters are clearly having a tough time hitting him.  In his last 5 starts and 19.1 [...]

On Friday, the Twins optioned C-Wilson Ramos to AA New Britain and reassigned LHP-Mike Gosling and RHP-Kevin Mulvey to minor league camp.
Wilson Ramos (8/10/87)  BA: #3 / SS: #5
Signed out of Venezuela in July of 2004, the 21 year old Ramos is the heir apparent to Joe Mauer at catcher.  Last season at Hi-A Fort Myers, in 126 games, Ramos hit .288/.346/.434 while displaying developing power.  He also lead the Florida State League throwing out 43 percent of basestealers.  Ramos did nothing but impress in camp hitting .375/.444/.500 in 16 spring at bats.  With a solid year at AA New [...]

Michael Cuddyer was drafted by the Twins in the 1st round of the 1997 draft.  He was the 9th player taken overall out of Great Bridge High School in Chesapeake, Virginia.  Aside from his 2006 season when he hit .284/.362/.504, Cuddyer’s claim to fame was playing on a team with David Wright, BJ Upton, Justin Upton, Mark Reynolds, and Ryan Zimmerman.
Defensively Cuddyer has long been known as a solid player.  In 2008 his RF9 was 2.31 in RF, which was above the league average RF9 of 2.14, but well below Denard Span’s 2.58.  He possessed a very strong and accurate [...]

Today the Twins made the following moves:
Optioned to Rochester (AAA):
RHP Armando Gabino
RHP Anthony Swarzak
IF Trevor Plouffe
IF Steven Tolleson
Optioned to Fort Myers (Hi-A):
3B Deibinson Romero
Reassigned to the Minors:
RHP Rob Delaney
LHP Ben Julianel
C Danny Lehmann
SS Toby Gardenhire
3B Danny Valencia
OF Dustin Martin
Baseball America = BA (Ranks Top 30 Prospects)
Seth Stohs 2009 Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook = SS (Ranks Top 40 Prospects)
Armando Gabino (8/31/83) BA: NR / SS: NR
Gabino isn’t considered much of a prospect, but he pitched serviceably for the Twins in camp.  He threw 3.0 innings allowing 2 hits, 1 run and walked 1.
Anthony Swarzak (9/10/85) BA: #6 / SS: #6
Is regarded [...]

Twins Pitching Perspectives (3/10-3/16)
The Twins finished the week with a 2-4 record.
Scott Baker pitched on Thursday against Pittsburg. He threw 4.0 innings allowing 5 hits, 4 runs, 1 walk and 3 strike outs. Of the 5 hits Baker gave up, 4 of them were home runs.
Francisco Liriano pitched on Friday against Cincinnati. He threw 3.1 innings allowing 3 hits, 1 run, 1 walk and struck out 5. In his last 10.1 innings over his last three starts, Liriano has given up 5 hits, 1 run and 1 walk while striking out 12.
Kevin Slowey pitched on Saturday against Florida. In his [...]