Minnesota Twins: Notes on Alexi Casilla, Juan Rincon

I apologize for my lack of activity around here lately. If you didn't know, I now live in Tucson, Ariz. The Internet people haven't come yet, so I am running off to wherever they provide free wireless. Ah, the life of a bum.

Now that I live across the county from the team that I love, it will be difficult to follow them. I have tried my best, though, and am discouraged once again by the ineptitude the Twins displayed against Chicago. Here are the latest thoughts I have about the team.

Alexi Casilla

Casilla drove in a run in the ninth inning and is now hitting .323 with three home runs and 22 RBI in the 27 games since he was called up.

Pretty impressive, considering his poor performance in Rochester. Aren't you supposed to do better against inferior competition than against major league pitchers?

Casilla hit .257 with three home runs and 23 RBI in 129 career games while playing for the Redwings. How does that work?

Aaron Hicks

I found an interesting analysis of Hicks' potential over at the Hardball Times:

"First, you can see the potential just ooze out of Hicks: a lot of athleticism; a frame with plenty of room to fill out; and a swing that can be worked on to produce a lot of power down the road from both sides of the plate.

Hicks shows fast hands, strong wrists and a fast bat. When he is efficient with his mechanics, his swing can pack a lot of pop. He aggressively turns his hips and lets the ball come to him, though there are times he can get a little handsy with his swing.

There are also times when Hicks opens up too early. Like Castro, he plants his front foot in a position that makes his hips vulnerable to opening too soon.

Other occasional problems:

Leaking: His body is still moving forward at foot plant, which can hurt a player's ability to generate power.

Swing length: You can have an easier time seeing this in his left-side swing: His arms get a little separated from his body for a longer swing, and a longer swing means that he has to swing earlier than he would like because the bat has a longer distance to travel.

So he has all these problems, but why do I still really like this pick? Because Hicks has the components for a powerful swing: the weight transfer, the aggressive hip rotation, the hips and hands turning together (at times) and the sight of seeing the ball jump off his bat. There are smaller things that need to be worked on, but Hicks' tools are phenomenal, and his athleticism should help with any adjustments he needs to make.

Personally, I like Hicks' left-side swing better than his right-side swing—his swing from the left side is longer, but he has better loft on his swing plane, and he does a better job of keeping his hands back."

So far, so good, right? Not so fast. Stepping off Cloud 9 for a moment, here's a realists' opinion:

"I've seen reports on a need for Hicks to improve his pitch recognition, so the coaches in the Twins organization are really going to have an interesting time turning this tremendous athlete into a complete player. One piece of advice if I were the Twins: Don't teach Hicks to hit the ball on the ground and "take advantage of his speed." Teach him to drive pitches over the outfield wall.

Juan Rincon

The latest news in that he has been designated for assignment, and I couldn't be happier. According to Aaron Gleeman research Rincon's strikeout percentage, strikeout-to-walk ratio, opponent's batting average, and Expected Fielding Independent Pitching have all decreased since 2004. Wow.

And we paid him $2.5 million this year?