OT: NBA Monthly Thread, February 2012

I estimate that there may be more than 10-12 Primates who want to talk about the inevitable dominance of the Philadelphia 76ers, and with our own thread, we won’t detract from what this site is really about: the pharmaceutical industry, allergies, and obscure movies.

One Hall of Fame finally welcomes Tony Oliva

Vote Tony O: Destination La Romana.

Oliva isn’t the only former Twin feeling a bit frustrated these days about Hall of Fame voting.

There’s Jack Morris, baseball’s winningest pitcher of the 1980s and author of arguably the greatest Game 7 pitching performance in World Series history… “He go next year,” Oliva predicted. “They give him a big push this year.”

There’s Jim Kaat, a 283-game winner who fell two votes short in the most recent balloting by the Golden Era Committee. “There’s a lot of guys — Jim Kaat, Luis Tiant,” Oliva said. “I don’t know what the Veteran’s Committee wants.”

And, there’s Oliva. He’ll have to wait until 2014 for another chance with the Golden Era Committee, which meets every three years.

He’s 73 now. With any luck, he’ll be 76 the next time he comes up for election — but nobody has that guarantee.

“We no have too much time, you know?” Oliva said of himself, Kaat and others. “We don’t live forever. We only have one life. “I mention to them, the guy who no make it now, he have to wait three years. A lot of those guys (being considered) will be 90 — why they have to wait three more years? “Why it not like the young players? They (are eligible for election) every year. I no care what group they consider.”

Twins’ Joe Benson on dangers of playing in Venezuela

Joe Benson went to Venezuela this winter with the intent of playing baseball for Tigres de Aragua in the offseason. He ended up getting much more than he bargained for.

Benson, a 23-year-old Minnesota Twins outfielder, was robbed at gunpoint when the taxicab he was in hit a boulder and crashed. As the Spanish-speaking cab driver was making a call from his cell phone, three gunmen approached Benson. They took everything he had except for a bag that contained some baseball spikes and a few T-shirts.

“When you don’t speak the language, there’s not much you can do,” Benson said. “You can’t really beg for your life. You can’t ask them not to pull the trigger. You can’t beg for mercy. I kind of sat there in silence, let everything happen.”

The cab driver was also robbed. It could have been much worse for both men, however.

“It wasn’t a setup. He wasn’t in on it,” Benson said of the cab driver. “He lost everything he had. The National Guard, thankfully, showed up about 10 minutes later and took me to a local police station, where I was picked up by some of the front-office guys from the Tigres.”

The Onion: Joel Zumaya Agrees To Throw One Last Amazing Pitch

Injury-plagued fireball reliever Joel Zumaya informed reporters Monday that his new $800,000 contract with the Twins obligates him to throw one last beautifully self-destructive pitch that will finally annihilate his arm forever.

“I’ve undergone dozens of surgeries and months of painstaking rehab to get my arm in good enough shape to pitch again, so that pitch is going to be absolutely incredible,” said Zumaya, whose single-pitch contract is laden with incentives for velocity, accuracy, and the horrifying sound his elbow makes when it implodes from the torque.

“Bones will splinter, arteries will be spouting in all directions, ligaments will twang through the air like snapped guitar strings, and when the shock and disgust finally subside, they’ll look at the radar gun and see ‘235 mph.’” Zumaya then broke his wrist clicking a pen.

RLYW: Too-Early Marcel 2012 Season Forecast

Crikey, such excitement in the NL West!

This is current through Francisco Cordero signing with Toronto, and assumes Prince Fielder at 1B and Miguel Cabrera playing a terrible version of 3B for Detroit in 70% of their games, and DHing in 25% of them.

Twins say they’re set in the outfield

All that…and a “shut the front door” sighting!

Revere played so well in center in relief of Span last year, using his exceptional speed to make all kinds of gravity-defying catches, that the Twins could have moved Span to right. He thrived there as a rookie in 2008 when Michael Cuddyer was hurt. Willingham, the team’s highest-profile and highest-paid free agent signing, has rarely played right — only 19 complete games out of 799 in the majors.

But Span, long groomed to inherit the position from Torii Hunter, is not moving. Gardenhire made that clear this weekend at the team’s annual fan festival.

“He’s going to lead off and be my center fielder. That’s my expectation,” Gardenhire said. “If somebody were to tell me that he’s not able to do that, then we’d have to ad lib. But if Denard comes in healthy, then he’s my center fielder.”

...When told he had appeared in 35 games in right with the Washington Nationals in 2009, Willingham’s eyes widened.

“Thirty-five games? Shut the front door. Really? I had no idea,” Willingham said. “Hopefully this spring I’ll just get a lot of reps out there and get comfortable. That’s the goal. Playing on the opposite end of the field, it’s different the way the balls come off the bat, so it’ll just take a little bit of time to get used to.”

Bill James Mailbag - 1/22/12 - 1/25/12

If you had to pick one position player to build a team around who do you pick?
Asked by: Florko
Answered: 1/25/2012

Jacoby?  I dunno; might be Jacoby, Braun, Kemp, Longoria.  Brett Lawrie, maybe.

Hi Bill. In Nick Punto’s career he has walked 303 times and struck out 486. However, in his 63 games for the Cardinals last year he walked 25 times and struck out only 21 times and had a very strong half season. Is 63 games enough of a sample size to assume he may be improving as a hitter, or are his previous 824 games a better indication of what type of hitter he will be next year?
Asked by: izzy24
Answered: 1/25/2012

It is most likely an aberration.  It is most likely that his strikeout/walk ratio will return to historic norms in 2012.

...[Win Shares] as you’ve set them up (3 WS= 1 Win) are MORE meaningful in huge samples (i.e., a player with 200 WS over a career is prefereable to one with only 150) but I still thought that even a single WS in one season means something…
Asked by: sgoldleaf
Answered: 1/23/2012

...When we divide one win into three win shares, rather than ten, then each win share has a worth of approximately three runs, and then the distinctions become more reliable, which is not to say ABSOLUTELY reliable, but more reliable.  We are less likely to be wrong by 3 runs than we are by one run, and we are much less likely to be wrong by 9 runs than we are by 3 runs. 

Still. ..and this is one of those points that a lot of people are just never going to get. . .it is not the main purpose of Win Shares to make distinctions between single seasons.  If you’re arguing about, let us say, who to put on an All-Star team, then there are a thousand things you can look at it pursue that argument.  Saying that “This player has 27 Win Shares and that one has 25”—OR saying that this player has 6.9 WAR and that player has 6.3—is something of an effort to end the debate, in that these measures SUM UP all of the other measurements.  It’s not particularly helpful in that way; it’s not really appropriate to try to end those debates by citing a master statistic that overrules all of the other statistics, and it’s not terribly persuasive.  That’s really not the value in Win Shares.

Bill, the 2011 Colorado Rockies got 217 relief appearances from pitchers named “Matt.” Do you happen to know, off the top of your head, whether this is a record for one team getting the most bullpen games out of one first name?
Asked by: TJNawrocki
Answered: 1/22/2012

I’m pretty sure Jesse Orosco pitched that many times himself for the 1987 Mets.  I can’t believe I put 7 minutes of my life into researching this, but. . .I think it is a record.  The 1967 Twins got 162 game appearances (not all of them relief appearances) out of pitchers named “Jim”—Jim Kaat, Jim Perry, Jim Merrit, Jim Roland and Jim Ollom… I don’t find anybody else going over the 200 mark.

Tom, it would have been funny if Bill actually did know that off the top of his head.

Baseball America’s Top 10 Prospects: Minnesota Twins

With so little to celebrate…at least Sam Mele turned 90 the other day!

1. Miguel Sano, 3b/ss
2. Joe Benson, of
3. Eddie Rosario, 2b/of
4. Aaron Hicks, of
5. Oswaldo Arcia, of
6. Levi Michael, ss/2b
7. Liam Hendriks, rhp
8. Kyle Gibson, rhp
9. Chris Parmelee, of/1b
10. Brian Dozier, ss/2b

Ryan immediately started reshaping the big league roster, signing Jamey Carroll, Ryan Doumit and Josh Willingham while allowing Joe Nathan to depart as a free agent. The big league team’s fortunes depend most on a return to health by Mauer and Morneau, however

The system isn’t as strong as it was when Ryan last was in charge, and 2011 was a rough season for the team’s previous three first-round picks. Outfielder Aaron Hicks (2008) had to rally to hit .242 in high Class A, righthander Kyle Gibson (2009) needed Tommy John surgery and righty Alex Wimmers (2010) missed half the year with a bout of wildness after walking the first six batters he faced in an April start.

Orlando Cabrera To Retire From Baseball

OH NO, EXPO!

Last season, Orlando Cabrera batted .238 with the Indians and Giants, posting a 61 OPS+. The season before that, he posted a 76 OPS+. The season before that, he posted an 85 OPS+. Orlando Cabrera has been declining, and just turned 37 years old. As a free agent, Cabrera didn’t drum up much interest, which I’m guessing is why he’s intending to hang ‘em up. Enrique Rojas:

  “Orlando Cabrera to retire from baseball, he said in Colombia radio station. Thanks for memories!”

Cabrera had a long career that’ll be difficult to forget. He debuted with the Expos in 1997, and remained there until the giant Nomar Garciaparra three-way trade in 2004. That year, with the Red Sox, Cabrera won a World Series. He wound up with the Angels, earning the unfortunate nickname “The Wizard of O.C.”, and then he wound up with the White Sox, and the A’s, and the Twins, and the Reds, and the Indians, and the Giants ... He remained a shortstop to the end, and collected 2,055 hits. He will always be remembered as a pest. An absolute pest.

Zumaya agrees to deal with Twins

Game on!

The Tigers could end up seeing a lot of Joel Zumaya this year after all. It’ll just be in a different uniform, albeit an awfully familiar one.

After throwing for teams in December and holding out for a roster spot and the right situation, Zumaya has agreed to terms with the Minnesota Twins, the reliever told MLB.com. The two sides spent Saturday putting together a deal that could pay him anywhere from $800,000 to $1.7 million if he reaches incentives.

A Twins official would neither confirm nor deny the deal to MLB.com, but said they’ve been in negotiations since December.

Zumaya weighed what he called “good offers” from three other clubs,  but the Twins included guaranteed money rather than a minor-league deal with a Spring Training invite. If he’s healthy, they’ll bring him to the same mound at Target Field where he last threw a Major League pitch. He fractured his elbow throwing for the Tigers against the Twins on June 28, 2010.

MLB Trade Rumors: Bartolo Colon Agrees to Sign With Unknown Team

Bartolo Colon has agreed to a deal with an unknown club reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today (on Twitter). The right-hander wouldn’t divulge the team because he has not yet passed his physical.

Pretty sure it’s either the All-Stars or the Champs.

BBPro:  Heartburn Hardball - Jack Morris in Motion

Morris, who was the face of the Detroit Tigers’ pitching staff for the entirety of the eighties before spending the early nineties hopping between the Twins, Blue Jays, and Indians, has every right to be thrilled at the news. And the rest of us, especially those who were too young to see him pitch, have every right to ask…why Jack Morris? Why now?

To answer that question, I decide to watch the most famous performance of his career, the game that proved once and for all that he was a true ace and a true winner.

....

The Twins will win 1-0 in the bottom of the 10th, winning the second World Series title in franchise history and solidifying Jack Morris’s place in baseball history.

And when it’s over, I will be more convinced than ever that Jack Morris is not a Hall of Fame pitcher.

Goldman: Bernie Williams vs. Kirby Puckett

Let’s ask Erardi!...okay, maybe not.

I was watching the Hall of Fame announcement show on the MLB Network on Monday–congratulations to a very deserving Barry Larkin–and something Peter Gammons said as an aside in a discussion of Bernie Williams’ suitability for the Hall of Fame stuck with me: “He wasn’t as good as Kirby Puckett,” the Great Gammo almost muttered, as they cut to a commercial break.

I haven’t been able to put that comment out of my mind, because I’m not certain why Gammons is so sure. Both were excellent hitters with very different skills who nonetheless arrived at similar results. Puckett was short and stout, Williams long and lithe. Puckett reaped a huge benefit from his Metrodome home park, hitting .344/.388/.521 at home, .291/.331/.430 on the road. Williams was about the same hitter everywhere. Both were Gold Glove center fielders who won several of the defensive awards with their bats. Both won a single batting title. Puckett led the AL in hits four times; Williams walked too much to compete in that department.

Career-wise, Williams looks a little worse overall, but that’s because his peak isn’t quite so high and his career is a little longer. Due to glaucoma, Puckett’s career came to an abrupt end, depriving him of a decline phase, whereas Williams got to play until he was no longer useful. If you consider both through their age-35 seasons, it’s a virtual tie: Williams had hit .301/.388/.488 in 1804 games, while Puckett hit .318/.360/.477 in 1783 games.

The Greatest Animated Sports .GIFs of 2011

32. Cliff Lee declines to run out his own grounder

I’m a firm opponent of the designated hitter rule, because just as I love to watch a punter try to scoop up a bad snap and try to throw it, or see a 7’1” center with no range try to chuck up a last-second three, I love watching pitchers hit.

Never will I come closer to seeing what it would be like if someone with my skill set tried to perform on a professional level. I mean, how nuts is this: in the National League, five to 10 percent of all at-bats are taken by men who, by everyone’s admission, are profoundly bad at it! It’s Dada performance art, and the ubiquity of such comical nonsense—over the course of a game, a season, and the history of baseball—is unrivaled by anything in any other sport.

This GIF features a delightful bonus: the catcher starts jogging to the dugout well before the play ends. It’s beautiful.

Jason Marquis, Twins agree on deal

Marquis de Target Field?

Mackey: Don’t laugh, but healthy Mauer, Morneau vault offense near top ?

Leapin’ Lavillenie’s! Good luck with that.

- The team run total projection was derived by using David Smyth’s base runs estimator formula—a formula that is generally accurate within 10-15 runs.

...- The biggest reason for the jump in runs, besides health, would be due to a massive injection of on-base percentage—specifically with Carroll and Willingham. Mauer and Morneau are on-base machines as well, when healthy.

- If any of these players performs better or worse than the numbers listed, the overall run total of the team will obviously be affected. In other words, if Morneau struggles like he did last season, all bets are off—and 771 runs could turn into 720 or fewer, and so on.

- Plate appearances for each player were rough estimates, and they may be optimistic in the cases of Span, Mauer and Morneau.

- It’s highly likely the Twins will use more than the 13 batters listed. In that case, the additional players will cut into the playing time of those listed above (Drew Butera and Joe Benson, for instance). Those additional players may or may not affect the overall end run total.

Scoring 771 runs would have ranked the Twins fourth in baseball last season behind the Red Sox (875), Yankees (867), Rangers (855) and Tigers (787).

But what are the chances Mauer and Morneau are healthy and productive for six months?

Kubel, D-backs reach two-year deal

Heyman says 2 years, $15 million. That is one expensive pinch hitter!

The D-backs have agreed to terms with free-agent outfielder Jason Kubel on a two-year contract with an option, a baseball source confirmed Monday.

The move is somewhat surprising in that the D-backs had not been linked in any rumors to Kubel, nor had they been rumored to be in the market for an outfielder.

Kubel, 29, hit .273 with 12 home runs and 58 RBIs for the Twins in 2011. He was originally drafted by Minnesota in the 12th round of the 2000 First-Year Player Draft…

Over his career, Kubel has split his time between the outfield corners. With the D-backs, it would appear that he would become the starting left fielder with Gerardo Parra being shifted to a fourth outfield position, or used in a trade to acquire another position of need.

Twinkie Town: Twins Officially Sign Josh Willingham: Contract Breakdown and Analysis

I’m guessing Willingham is a strike-throwing pitcher with no velocity?

Twitter is blowing up with the news that the Twins have made the Josh Willingham signing official. He’ll get three years, earning $7 million in both 2012 and 2013, with the possibility of adding another million on top of all that in 2014 should he reach 525 plate appearances in ‘13. It’s a good deal, and here’s why.

Over the next three years, each win above replacement should cost somewhere just north of $5 million dollars, depending on the baseball and more wide-ranging fiscal markets. With the understanding that we want to be conservative we’ll estimate that from 2012 to 2014, when Willingham’s contract expires, cost for each win above replacement will average at $5.25 million….

If Josh Willingham maintains his averages, he will have been worth almost twice what the Twins will pay him. And if he exceeds those numbers, the value of this contract obviously becomes even greater.

To be honest, I’d be surprised if he maintained his 2.5 WAR-per-season average at this point in his career. We’re paying a guy for his age-33, 34 and 35 seasons, so it’s unrealistic to expect him to perform like he has through his prime. But that doesn’t make this a bad deal. It’s still a very good one.

Where Does Target Field Concert Cash Go?

$300 to see Kenny Cheney and Tim McGraw? That’s the shitkickingest thing I’ve seen since Elton Britt ran for President in 1960!

If taxpayers pick up the tab for a new sports stadium which later hosts a concert, where does that money go and does the public get a kickback for their investment? That’s a question currently occupying many minds after the first concert at Target Field sold out in only four hours.

FOX 9 News reporter Tom Lyden began looking for the answer after a viewer e-mailed, asking if the team pockets all the profits from the concerts held at the ballpark—but when it comes to the money trail, there are few simple answers with public stadiums.

Baseball may be the game of the summer, but Target Field is now proving that there’s big money to be made beyond baseball. Soon, about 39,000 country music fans will pack the house to see Kenny Cheney and Tim McGraw. Some fans even shelled out $300 per ticket.

So who gets that money? Twins spokesman Keven Smith says he wishes they did, but the concert promoter and performers take in all the money generated at the gate. The Twins keep the concessions cash—but they don’t know how much that will amount to.

“We don’t know how concessions go,” Smith admitted. “We run a baseball team, not a concert venue. Not yet.”

Joe Mauer engaged

Joe Mauer, perhaps Minnesota’s most eligible bachelor, on Saturday became engaged to fellow Cretin-Derham Hall graduate Maddie Bisanz.

Mauer, 28, the Minnesota Twins catcher, proposed to Bisanz, a St. Paul nurse, in Sanibel, Fla.

“A place that is special to both of us,” Mauer said Sunday from Florida. “We couldn’t be happier, and we’re both really excited.”

No wedding date has been set. The couple has been friends for about seven years and has been dating for about 1-1/2 years.

Insert “well played Mauer” joke here.

Rule V Results

1.Astros take Rhiner Cruz from Mets.
2.Twins take Terry Doyle from White Sox.
3.Mariners take Lucas Luetge from Brewers.
4.Orioles take Ryan Flaherty from Cubs.
5.Royals take Cesar Cabral from Red Sox; traded to Yankees for cash.
6.Cubs take Lendy Castillo from Phillies.
8.Pirates take Gustavo Nunez from Tigers.
  21.Braves take Robert Fish from Angels.
22.Cardinals take Erik Komatsu from Nationals.
23.Red Sox take Marwin Gonzalez from Cubs.
  25.Diamondbacks take Brett Lorin from Pirates.
  29.Yankees take Brad Meyers from Nationals.

Closer Matt Capps to be back with Twins in 2012

This would never happen if baseball had a salaried Capps.

The Twins are finalizing a deal to re-sign closer Matt Capps, who struggled last year when handed the closer’s role during the season. Two sources with knowledge of negotiations confirmed the deal.
Capps was 4-7 with a 4.25 ERA and 15 saves for the Twins last season. He replaced Nathan as closer in April but lost the job later in the season. It was discovered later on that Capps was pitching with a sore forearm that affected his slider but didn’t want to use it as an excuse.
UPDATE:Capps to have physical Tuesday. He’ll earn $4.5 million in 2012. Option in 2013 is for $6 million, or a $250,000 buyout.  Performance bonues are in the deal too.

Rockies get Kevin Slowey from Twins

Well he tells you right in his name he’s going to suck. What did you expect Minnesota?

The Minnesota Twins have traded winless pitcher Kevin Slowey to the Colorado Rockies for a player to be named.

The deal was announced Tuesday during baseball’s winter meetings.

Slowey went 0-8 with a 6.67 ERA this year and was out from May to August because of an abdominal strain. He made eight starts and six relief appearances and the Twins went 0-14 in those games.

Slowey became the first major league pitcher to make at least eight starts and lose them all since Lou Sleater of the St. Louis Browns in 1951, STATS LLC said.

The 27-year-old Slowey is 39-29 with a 4.66 ERA in five seasons with the Twins. He’s been one of the best control pitchers in the majors over that span.

Former Twins pitcher Jim Kaat on his ‘squabble’ with Calvin Griffith

“Golden Era” Hall of Fame candidate Jim Kaat, the former Minnesota Twins pitcher, makes for an entertaining hour-long interview Monday evening on “Studio 42 with Bob Costas” on the Major League Baseball Network.

Kaat, who won 283 career games and 16 Gold Gloves, chats about his relationship with penurious late Twins’ owner Calvin Griffith.

“I had a contract squabble with Calvin every year,” Kaat said. “Calvin one day said, ‘Can you go downtown and earn 18,000 dollars a year working at any place in Minneapolis?’ I would say, ‘Can you go out on Cedar Avenue and find a left-handed pitcher who can win 18 games for you?’ “

Thanks to Parky.

Ken Davidoff: The best general managers, 2011

I’m assuming Dayton Moore just missed the cut.

3. Brian Cashman, Yankees (5 in ‘10, 6 in ‘09, NR in ‘08, 8 in ‘07) . It was a banner year for the Yankees’ baseball operations department, even if it didn’t end with a new banner to fly over Yankee Stadium.

(Sorry.)

After seeing their top target Lee bolt to Philadelphia, Cashman put his faith in the likes of Ivan Nova (whom he had refused to trade to Seattle for Lee in July of ‘10) and low-rent free agents Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia. No one could’ve anticipated how well those would work out, most of all Colon, but look: It’s not like the Yankees pulled his name from the sky. Cashman listened to a recommendation from Yankees bench coach Tony Pena, who was managing Colon in Dominican winter ball.

Cashman also hit on veteran additions Eric Chavez and Andruw Jones, and in all, luck dictates that the Yankees won’t do as well in the bargain bin this upcoming winter. But CC Sabathia is back, the lineup is largely intact and the Yankees have a farm system that appears poised to contribute even more in 2012 than it did this past season.

It also should be pointed out that the Yankees GM job, because it is the Yankees GM job, offers unique challenges both internally (the late George Steinbrenner’s “World Series title or bust!” philosophy lurks) and externally (the media and fan pressure is greater than ever). Cashman, who just re-upped with a three-year deal, handles those demands quite well.

Murray Chass: A GOOD POLICY IN NEED OF REVISION

Selig gets and takes credit for the [minority interviewing and hiring] program, and I suppose he deserves it because he was the commissioner who implemented it, and he did it before the National Football League instituted a similar program, the Rooney Rule. ...

This off-season clubs created openings for six general managers and five managers. A total of seven members of minorities were interviewed. White male interviewees numbered at least three times that number.

Clubs don’t always include minorities in their interviews, and the commissioner often shrugs it off, offering some lame excuse for the team. ...

But when Selig exempts teams, he misses the point of his own policy. The idea is to allow minorities to be exposed to the interviewing process and to enable themselves to be exposed to other teams for possible future consideration. No interview, no exposure. ...

Since the end of the 2009 season baseball has had nine subtractions and only three additions among minority general managers and managers. But two of the additions, Guillen and Fredi Gonzalez, also count among the subtractions, and the third addition, Edwin Rodriguez, became a subtraction when he resigned last season from his managing job with the Marlins.

In other words, no new minority appears on baseball’s landscape. ...

From what I have been able to piece together – Major League Baseball will not disclose lists of candidates for each team – three members of minorities (one each Hispanic, black and female) were interviewed for six general manager openings, two for the same opening, and four (three Hispanic, one black) were interviewed for five managerial vacancies, one candidate by two teams.

That’s not exactly a torrent of candidates. If Selig is “quite satisfied that all the clubs have done what they’re supposed to do,” he needs to set a higher standard. How can Selig be satisfied that Major League Baseball has only seven people who are considered worthy of being interviewed for top jobs? He shouldn’t be satisfied; he should be embarrassed.

Charlie Lea, former major league pitcher, found dead at Collierville home

Charlie Lea...RIP.

Former major league pitcher Charlie Lea, a star at Kingsbury High and then-Memphis State University before embarking on a successful pro career, was found dead in his Collierville home Friday. He was 54.

Collierville Police Chief Larry Goodwin said Lea died of a suspected heart attack.

Winner of 62 games in an eight-year major league career that ended with the Minnesota Twins in 1988, Lea pitched a no-hitter for the Montreal Expos against the San Francisco Giants in 1981, and was the starting and winning pitcher for the National League in the 1984 All-Star Game.

Dodgers are about to lose Jamey Carroll

Oh Carroll, don’t let them steal our heart away!

The Minnesota Twins reportedly are close to signing an everyday shortstop.

Jamey Carroll, who has spent the past two seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers, is closing in on a deal with the Twins, according to Jerry Crasnick of Baseball America and ESPN.com. Fox’s Ken Rosenthal is reporting it would be a two-year deal.

The Twins had a revolving door at shortstop last year en route to a 99-loss season. Alexi Casilla opened the season at short, while Tsuyoshi Nishioka and Trevor Plouffe also had opportunities to grab the job but never did.

Charley Walters: Ex-Minnesota Twin Tony Oliva getting Hall of Fame push

Red Sox Knox just gagged on a rolled up schwall of Yaz bread.

Tony Oliva has some big hitters lobbying for his election to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

“I was talking to Gene Michael the other day, and I told him there was one guy who really deserves to be in the hall of fame,” former Twins pitcher Dean Chance said Wednesday. “Tony Oliva’s the best hitter I ever pitched against. And Denny McLain says the same thing, that Oliva is the best left-handed hitter he ever faced. McLain said Oliva was a much better hitter than (hall of famer) Carl Yastrzemski.”

...Michael, the former New York Yankees infielder and manager, is among committee members.

“All those guys deserve to be in the hall of fame, but the one guy who really deserves it, talent-wise, is Tony Oliva,” Chance said.

Chance, who pitched for 11 seasons and was a two-time 20-game winner, was Oliva’s teammate with the Twins for three seasons (1967-69).

“The poor guy - when he got a hit, he had to get a legitimate hit to get on base because of that bad knee,” Chance said.

Christensen: Time has come to put Camilo Pascual in the Twins Hall of fame

With Patrick Reusse’s urging, I’ve been voting for Pascual, but I must admit that I knew little about the Cuban righthander’s career this summer, when we were putting together stories for Bert Blyleven’s Hall of Fame induction. I started interviewing folks about Blyleven’s legendary curve ball, and the ones who remembered, were quick to mention his predecessor.

“The best curve ball in history, and a guy who gets overlooked, is Camilo Pascual,” White Sox broadcaster Steve Stone said.

Hawk Harrelson heard us talking and launched into a story:

“We had a rainy day at the old Met, and Camilo did something I’d never seen somebody do: He struck out three guys all sitting on their butt. Rocky Colavito was hitting third, I was hitting fourth, and Jim Gentile was hitting fifth. The ground was wet, and we got out there so far—wham! Right down on our butt.”

“and Camilo did something I’d never seen somebody do”...and you still haven’t, because it nevah happened™. (™: Tracer Meth-a-done)