Gemini Twins: In-Depth Analysis

The astrological sign of Gemini falls right at the height of the first half of the Baseball season, spanning the birthdays of mid-May to mid-June.  With the sun having passed out of the Gemini constellation about a week ago, the Geminians are my next candidate to continue my examination into how astrological signs affect talent on the baseball field.  A mutable sign, because it covers the transition from spring to summer, Gemini is associated with versatility and adaptability - attributes that would come in handy for a player traded mid-season (which has happened to roughly 6 of the players on the roster).  The sign's symbolic focus on duality (twins) leads to a talent for multi-tasking, which is useful in any profession.  As far as the ability to quickly formulate abstract ideas and interpret communicative symbols, those have no bearing on playing baseball whatsoever (short of picking up signs from the third base coach).

Looking at the depth chart, you can see that Gemini's strongest asset is its middle infield, both members of whom ranked in the top 20.  A second baseman who reached the 30-30 milestone for the second time last year (Ian Kinsler, below) and a shortstop who won the NL batting title (Jose Reyes) make a potent double-play combination indeed.  They were also valued almost identically by fantasy managers: looking at their Average Draft Positions (ADP, averaged over ESPN, Yahoo, CBS, and FOX fantasy systems), we see that Kinsler was 23.1, while Reyes found himself at 23.5 - a purely statistical distinction.

Although not exactly a 1st-round pick, Kinsler is pacing the club as the only batter to score more than 1,000 points so far (1,159 - Reyes is 4th on the team with 831).  The honor of highest scoring pitcher goes to SP Jake Peavy, below (1,110) who is exhibiting a return to the Cy Young-caliber form he displayed in San Diego before his last two mediocre/injury-plagued years for the White Sox.  The only other player with more than a grand in points is closer Craig Kimbrel (1,059), who is following up nicely on his 2011 Rookie of the Year performance by maintaining his NL lead in saves from last year.  Interestingly enough, the next highest-scoring pitcher on the team is resurgent closer Jonathan Broxton (859), who's currently posting the lowest ERA of his career over 29 games with the Royals.

I mentioned that Jose Reyes, despite his high ADP, is only the team's 4th-highest scorer.  In front of him is the surprisingly productive Jason Kubel (931 points) who has already nearly equalled his home run total from last year with his new team (the Diamondbacks) and is showing the promise that Twins fans hoped they would see from him back when he was a ranked prospect in 2005 and '06.  Next is Ben Zobrist (876), the multi-positional threat who got pushed to RF by the presence of Kinsler at 2B.  Although, not that this has any bearing on his fantasy usefulness, but "Zorilla" has actually spent most of his 2012 playing time in right, ceding second base to a motley crue of Rays infielders including Will Rhymes, Jeff Keppinger, and Sean Rodriguez.

After Peavy, the rotation features (in point order) Nationals #3 SP Jordan Zimmermann, veteran journeyman Bruce Chen, Baseball America's #2 prospect Matt Moore, and new-to-Miami Carlos Zambrano - not an ace in the bunch.  Their top three backups all find themselves on the DL: Joe Saunders strained his shoulder on 6/17, Bartolo Colon strained his oblique the next day, and Andy Pettitte fractured his left ankle yesterday, so this staff is pitching on a tightrope.  One starter who's notably absent from the rotation is their top-ranked pitcher Tim Lincecum, below.  "The Freak" was supposed to be the one sure pitcher on this team, but instead he's stymying Giants fans in the opposite way that he has stymied hitters and pitching coaches through his entire career.  I placed him on the depth chart above more deserving candidates such as Derek Lowe, Brad Lincoln, and Lucas Harrell because of his star power: he was the #30 ranked player by MLB, which is reflected in his ADP of 29.1.

Carlos Lee and Kendrys Morales were locked into a pre-season battle for 1B, but Lee is the obvious choice to take over the position since "El Caballo" become a full-time first baseman, while Morales has yet to qualify for any position other than DH in his first year back from an embarrassing ankle injury.  Jonathan Lucroy had surprisingly been blossoming into one of the league's most productive backstops (which made me feel a lot better about taking him with my last pick in this year's draft) before going on the DL for a fractured hand a month ago.  The team has to go all the way to Astros backup Jason Castro before finding a suitable replacement.  The best choice for this team's DH is Raul Ibanez, who has actually gotten the lion's share of the Yankees' LF ABs with Brett Gardner's elbow issues.

At the beginning of the season, Gemini's 3B and CF situations looked extremely bleak.  The best choices to start the season at the hot corner were bench players Eduardo Nunez or Jerry Hairston - but the position has gotten some stability when Trevor Plouffe gained eligibility after spending last season at SS.  A rash of injuries to the Mets outfield has allowed Jerry's brother Scott Hairston to make his mark, although ESPN for some reason doesn't grant him CF eligibility.  For now the team has to rely on Tony Campana, Roger Bernadina, and Chris Coghlan.

I admit that I haven't been updating rosters regularly, but currently the Gemini Twins are in a 3-way tie for the worst record in the league (4-7), but are just one game back of a 3-way tie for second-to-worst.  They rank at the absolute bottom in most of the main offensive categories (H, R, HR, RBI, BB), but somehow lead the league in 3B.  Most of their pitching stats are middle of the road, except that they've won the fewest games, but racked up the most saves.  At this point in time I'd rank their playoff hopes as marginal at best.

Thoughts about My All-Star Ballot

Voting for the 2012 All-Star Game ends tomorrow, after the polls opened seemingly on Opening Day.  And while I cast my first round of votes - the maximum of 25 times - about a month ago, I used my no fewer than 5 secondary email addresses to make my voice heard again at the last minute.  When I stringently evaluated players for the esteemed honor of representing their league in the vaunted midsummer festivities,  I used two methods: Fantasy Points (graciously calculated by ESPN's fantasy system) and Wins Above Replacement (or WAR, according to baseball-reference.com).  When these methods are at odds or inconclusive, I fall back on what makes the All-Star Game what it is today: rank popularity.

FIRST BASE

At the time I took my statistical snapshots (Monday), Prince Fielder had a slight lead in points over Paul Konerko (944 to 938) but trailed his AL Central rival by almost 3/4 of a WAR (1.8 to 1.1).  Considering they both have negative defensive WAR, I went with Konerko since he's a more complete hitter.  Joey Votto is his league's clear pick for this position as the only first baseman in the NL with more than 2.0 WAR.  If Brett Lawrie wasn't so spectacular with his glove, Votto's 4.3 WAR as of this week would lead the majors, but more on that later.

SECOND BASE

I went with Robinson Cano as he leads all AL 2B in both points and WAR (1,058 / 3.1).  Jason Kipnis (1,026) and Ian Kinsler (1,022) are both close behind in points, but while Kipnis is keeping pace with 2.7 WAR, Kinsler has racked up only a puzzling 0.7 WAR.  The NL was a little harder to crack: Darwin Barney surprisingly leads all NL 2B with 3.3 WAR, but most of those come from defense, and I'm of the opinion that an All-Star starter should be able to hit.  Brandon Phillips, Dan Uggla, and Jose Altuve all have that ability, but I went with the diminutive Astros sophomore (who leads the pack with 887 points, but trails with 1.7 WAR) because I like the idea of someone marginally shorter and stockier than me becoming a star in the big leagues.

SHORTSTOP

Defensive shortstops lead the pack in WAR - Brendan Ryan, Mike Aviles, and Yunel Escobar all have racked up over 2.0 largely with their gloves - along with Asdrubal Cabrera (sharing the lead with 2.4) who alone shows above average talent with the bat.  Elvis Andrus leads the pack in points (920 to Cabrera's 830), but I valued Cabrera's power over Andrus's speed - plus there are too many Rangers on the leaderboard already.  In the NL Starlin Castro seems the obvious choice - his 897 points and 2.8 WAR both lead the league.  Rafael Furcal may have deserved my vote in late May, but he's contributed just a little over half the wins of the Cubs sophomore.

THIRD BASE

If I asked you who was leading the majors as of the start of this week with 4.5 WAR, I'll bet precious few could've named Brett Lawrie without looking it up.  Granted, most of those are due to his superb defense (he already has 31 defensive runs saved above average!) and I think Miguel Cabrera's 1,011 points, plus the successful move from 1B constitute more All-Star-worthy accomplishments.  David Wright is dominating the competition in the NL with 1,131 points and 4.0 WAR and I will say no more on the matter.

CATCHER

I don't care that Mike Napoli is on my fantasy team, Matt Wieters has been the superior catcher this year.  Despite the fact that the Oriole leads the Ranger by about 50 points, Naps has played more than a quarter of his games at 1B this year - and while the added positional eligibility is a plus, I think it takes away from his standing as a pure backstop.  Carlos Ruiz (829 / 3.3) and Yadier Molina (892 / 2.7) were neck and neck in my estimation, so I flipped a coin and gave my vote to the incumbent... although on closer inspection, Chooch probably was the more worthy candidate... but a quick look at the leaderboard shows that neither of them will probably start the game.

DESIGNATED HITTER
Edwin Encarnacion has been a great story this year and has somehow amassed more WAR (2.4) than his competition (and vote leader) David Ortiz (1.8).  But looking at the numbers shows Big Papi has had a more impressive offensive season, and that's what the DH spot is all about.

OUTFIELD

Josh Hamilton (1,262 / 3.1) deserves a spot on the AL team, but I didn't feel like I needed to pour more votes into his pocket when he's approaching the all-time record for most All-Star votes already.  Mike Trout (988 / 3.7) likely deserves a spot, but I can't bring myself to vote for an Angel.  And I would have voted for Jose Bautista (1,147 / 2.4) since he was my first round pick for my fantasy team this year.  But instead, I decided to vote on only 2 AL OF spots to try to raise the vote totals of a couple of my favorite underrated outfielders: Josh Reddick (who is 5th among all AL players in WAR (3.0), 3rd among AL outfielders behind Trout and Hamilton) and Adam Jones (who is 3rd among AL outfielders in points (1,110), behind Hamilton and Bautista).

Ryan Braun (1,253 / 3.4) deserves a spot on the NL team, but I can't bring myself to vote for a loophole-rider.  (Take a page from Manny's book and serve your suspension like a man, even if it ruins what's left of your career.)  I gave my votes to Michael Bourn, who trails Braun by 0.1 WAR (also due to fantasy team solidarity), and Carlos Gonzalez, who trails Braun by 1 point.  Melky Cabrera, Andrew McCutchen, and Carlos Beltran all had legitimate claims to my 3rd vote, but I like Beltran's comeback story and the fact that he leads the other three in points.


UPDATE: Looking at the vote totals so close to the end of the polling period, it's a little depressing how unlikely it is that any of my marginal picks have any kind of shot at making the Starting 9.  On the one hand, I like to gather the largest sample size possible before casting the majority of my votes, but it's also an exercise in futility to wait so long because most of the races are already decided.  Not campaigning for whichever players I thought deserved spots would drum up the necessary support, no matter when I started doing my research.  I guess the hope is that enough like-minded people to myself are also mobilizing concurrently.  Which is also the hope in any voting process, political or otherwise.

Picture of the Week: 6/10/12

Who would have ever expected that we would see not just one but TWO perfect games already in 2012 and we're not even to the All-Star break?  I posted a Fantasy Baseball poll on this subject after Phil Humber was the first to make history, but sadly I did not keep track of the results... Who thinks it will happen a THIRD time...???

New York Mets: In-Depth Analysis

Mr. Met, introduced in 1963, is possibly the
first baseball mascot to appear in human form.

The recent discovery of some new case logs from the Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder (wherein they chronicle their newest adventures inside Arkham City) has drawn my attention somewhat from the world of Major League Baseball.  But now that I'm back on track, it seems perfectly logical (for reasons known only to myself and my college roommates) to follow the Minnesota Twins with the New York Mets.  The Mets, like the Twins, were expected to finish in the bottom of their division, but profoundly unlike the Twins, they have surprised everyone with a record above .500 as we speed towards the halfway point of 2012, the Mets' 50th Anniversary season.  This is a welcome change in the wake of two historic September collapses, followed by two losing seasons, capped off with a $1 billion lawsuit related to the Bernie Madoff scandal.

Arguably baseball's most successful expansion team, the Mets came into existence in 1962 to replace the recently-departed Dodgers and Giants - from which they take their team colors, blue and orange.  Their two World Championships (the 1969 Tom Seaver-led "Miracle Mets" and the 1986 Bill Buckner-aided "Curse of the Bambino" series) equal both the Blue Jays and Marlins, but their four World Series appearances (including losses to the A's in 1973 and the Yankees in 2000) are the most for an expansion team.  But enough talk about the past, it's time to MEET THE METS!

Highest Scorers (2011)

This is not a pretty category, so I might as well get it out of the way first.  R.A. Dickey led the team last year with just shy of 1,500 points, and while he's doing a nice job reinventing his career at age 37 (still relatively young for a knuckleball pitcher), an 8-13 record is not necessarily the poster boy you want for your team.  Dickey would have certainly been overtaken by David Wright had he not missed 58 games in 2011 with a stress fracture in his lower back - at his 13.0 points per game clip, Wright would have made up the 169 point deficit between them in just... 13.0 games.  Jason Bay comes next, who missed significant time in 2010 with a concussion, but couldn't blame injuries for his abysmal performance in 509 plate appearances last year.  Infielder Daniel Murphy (who made the full-time transition to 2B in 2012) was the only other Met to break 1,100 points in 2011.

Highest Scorers (2012)

R.A Dickey and David Wright once again find themselves atop this list, but this time with very respectable numbers.  Dickey is the 2nd ranked pitcher overall leading the league in Wins, W-L%, CG and SHO - maybe the release of his autobiography just prior to Opening Day gave him the confidence he needed to succeed.  David Wright is no. 7 among all batters, thanks to a .357 AVG and a 1.040 OPS.  Johan Santana is next up, his stats having been padded by his recent no-hitter, the first ever in Mets history.  As we leave the top 50 batters behind, we find 1B-turned-RF Lucas Duda and rookie CF Kirk Nieuwenhuis (don't ask me how to pronounce this) putting up middle-of-the-road numbers, hovering at around 10 points per game.  New closer Frank Francisco has amassed 600 points even, despite an ERA above 5.00, thanks to the grossly-overrated SV stat.

Newest Acquisitions

The above-mentioned financial problems through which the Mets owners are suffering prevented them from going after a glut of big-name free agents in the off-season.  The only major league deals they made involved shoring up their bullpen with Toronto's old closer-setup combo from 2011 (Frank Francisco and John Rauch) and picking up some infield depth (Ronny Cedeno).  They got a couple of players from the Giants in a trade for Angel Pagan: CF Andres Torres, who had a big year in 2010 but has yet to follow it up, and RP Ramon Ramirez, who strained his hamstring while celebrating Johan Santana's above-mentioned no-hitter.

In transactions that would only appear in mlbtraderumors.com's "Minor Moves" column, waiver claim Jeremy Hefner is helping out as an all-important swingman in the pitching staff.  The decision to bring in Rob Johnson to provide depth behind the plate looked awful good when starting C Josh Thole missed most of May with a concussion.  Omar Quintanilla is currently manning SS due to injuries to both Ruben Tejada (quad) and Ronny Cedeño (calf).  And Vinny Rottino is also on the team.

Highest Paid Players

Johan Santana leads the pack with a staggering $24mm owed to him in 2012, which increases to a slightly more staggering $25mm in 2013.  And if they want to cut ties with him in 2014 (provided he doesn't meet the criteria to gain control of his option), they'll have to cough up another $5.5mm, or the salary of their fifth-highest paid player in 2012 (free agent signee Frank Francisco).  Tough-Luck Jason Bay will get $16mm for a 2012 that has already featured DL stints for a fractured rib and yet another concussion (which just occurred yesterday, too late-breaking to appear on my roster graphic).  David Wright is earning his $15mm in the last guaranteed year of his contract, and while the team would like to sign him to a long-term deal rather than exercising their $16mm option for 2013, he won't talk contracts during the season.  Rounding out the top 5 is SP Mike Pelfrey, who will be spending his Make or Break Year recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Outlook

Baseball's eastern divisions are notoriously tough this year: at one point all 10 eastern teams across both leagues were over .500 - now only Boston and Philly are below the mark.  New York's starting pitching has performed remarkably, but none of their new bullpen acquisitions has an ERA below 4.60.  On the offensive side, David Wright's potential contract year can only carry this team so far without some help from his fellow big boppers in the lineup (Jason Bay had a .187 AVG before his latest injury and Ike Davis is sitting at .191) or anything better than a replacement level shortstop.  I didn't expect them to finish above 4th place before the season started, and I see no reason to change my prediction now.

Batman's Journal: Harley Quinn's Revenge

It had been a few weeks since that whirlwind night when all the shit went down in Arkham City - and when I say all the shit, I mean ALL the shit... Seriously, if you could think of an insane, character-defining moment (short of finally breaking the sexual tension with Robin) it happened that night.  There were the exciting and potentially deadly battles with Two-Face, Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Ra's al Ghul, Mad Hatter, Deadshot, and Clayface.  But to top it all off, Talia al Ghul - my beloved and one hope of a healthy and committed heterosexual relationship - murdered by the hand of the Joker, whose actions also led to his own untimely demise. To say that things haven't been the same since would be the understatement I've ever put in of my journals.

I had been back to Arkham City a few times since that night, mostly to tie up some loose ends related to Riddler and Hush, or for the thrill of beating up some random henchmen.  I might have punched a couple of thugs much harder than I had to, which I'm not proud of.  But I didn't have a real mission to complete in there until I heard from Commissioner Gordon about a group of his cops that Harley Quinn had kidnapped.  It seems that her grief over Joker has fueled her resolve to become a criminal mastermind in her own right, and she's pretty effectively organized the remainder of Joker's forces.  And she has no lost love for me, apparently holding me responsible for what happened to her "Puddin'".

I figured the best place to start looking for clues of the cops' whereabouts would be Joker's old Steel Mill - that is, what's left of it after the Protocol 10 strike that nearly took me out, were it not for Catwoman's timely assistance.  The main chimney was still spewing out smoke and the door by the cooling tunnels was locked shut, forcing me to access the facility a THIRD different way: through the gigantic hole Strange's missiles blew in the roof.  While making my way through Joker's old office, I saw something rather off-putting: a cradle, in which Joker's Scarface doll sat, littered with negative pregnancy tests.  These results contradicted one that I remembered seeing during my previous explorations, but perhaps the emotional burden of Joker's death was too much for her baby.

Looking down into the loading bay I could see a group of Harley's henchmen lining up for "Piñata Time" with a cop precariously dangling from the large motorized chain.  I had to act fast, because the thugs were fixing to find out what the cop's insides were made of - "And we'll be real disappointed if it's not candy" one of them shouted as he prepared to take the first swing.  It was no problem clearing the room, but the cop informed me that the rest of his crew were not being held in the Steel Mill.  I had to make my way back outside and find something to lead me to them.  Luckily one of the cops had dropped his radio out front, from which I could isolate a DNA trail.  It reminded me of tracking the League of Assassins across Arkham City, except with a lot less jumping over rooftops.  I tell you, no matter how many times I use it, this hyper-advanced forensic technology never gets old.

The trail led me to Harley Quinn's secret base, which was housed in the Sionis Industries Shipyard.  The security was surprisingly advanced, operating on a three-part code system, which was pretty sharp for Harley to come up with.  What wasn't too sharp was that she entrusted the code to three henchmen, who are notorious for telling me everything I want to know given a little... intimidation.  The first one was hanging out with some unarmed thugs, which meant I had to place my blows carefully during combat to avoid knocking him out before I got the information from him.  The second one had a gun and was patrolling an area with some more armed thugs - but a Freeze Blast on the one I was after allowed me to clear the rest of them without incident.  The third one was isolated on a high ledge, covered from all directions by snipers with high-powered rifles.  Taking out the snipers first allowed me easy access.

Once I got the code and headed inside, I found one of the cops held in the warehouse by a group of thugs, all equipped with sniper rifles.  They were patrolling around the rafters and it was a difficult task to get high enough to take one of them out without being spotted by the others.  But once I took out the majority of them and the last thug went down to ground level to check on the hostage, I unleashed the full fury of my Glide Kick Takedown.  I might have executed this move a little too close to the wall (see picture).... but he's not gonna bother those cops again, and that's the point.  I mean, it's not my fault that Sionis industries used subpar construction methods while building their shipyard, right?

After I cleared the room, who should emerge from a hidden door but Harley Quinn herself, surrounded by another group of thugs.  She didn't waste much time in conversation before pulling out an oversized novelty pistola and taking aim right at the cop next to me.  I had no choice but to dive in front of him and put my kevlar-reinforced armor to the test for the first time since Two-Face took a pot-shot at me in the courthouse.  I knew the armor would protect me, but the shock to my system was too much, and I went unconscious for a while...

Minnesota Twins: In-Depth Analysis

The last real team I profiled in this feature, the Philadelphia Phillies, was one that many were surprised to find in last place, even with the glut of injuries that has ravaged their roster.  This week's team, the Minnesota Twins, are a different story.  Although Sports Illustrated picked them to finish fourth in front of the White Sox, the Twinkies are currently 10 games back of the Southsiders, who nobody suspected to see atop their division in June, or in any month.  The Twins on the other hand, have managed to fall short of even the modest expectations that were set for them.

The originally-proposed name of "Twin Cities Twins"
was rejected, but the logo is still in use.

The Twins started their professional existence as the Washington Senators, one of the eight original members of the American League.  (The club actually spent a few years as the Kansas City Blues in the 19th century, but we're not concerned with prehistoric times here.)  They won their only World Series in the nation's capitol in 1924 behind the stellar pitching of Hall of Famer Walter Johnson.  When baseball wanted to expand in 1960, rather than set up a new team in Minnesota, the Senators moved to the Twin Cities (to fill the void left by the Lakers' re-location to Los Angeles in the same year) and were replaced by a new Washington Senators franchise.  (The new Senators would later move to Texas and become the Rangers.)

Despite bringing the people of Minnesota two World Championships (1987 and 1991) and Hall of Famers Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew, Kirby Puckett, and Bert Blyleven, the team was threatened with contraction in 2001.  The Twin Cities fought back, and in a momentous decision, fraught with moral and legal implications, the Minnesota appellate court ruled that the Twins were "obligated" to continue to play baseball.  The issue initially centered on the taxpayer dollars that went into subsidizing the extremely team-friendly lease the Twins signed to play in the Metrodome, but quickly morphed into something much deeper, as Minnesota Superior Court Judge Harry Seymour Crump deemed the Twins an "intangible community asset" and claimed that the Twin Cities area would suffer irreparable harm if the team were not allowed to play.  Score one for baseball's significance in our society... but I doubt if many current Twins fans would share Judge Crump's view based on the team's performance so far in 2012...

One notable aspect of the Twins 25-man roster is that it includes 13 pitchers and 12 batters, the opposite of how most teams are constructed.  Manager Ron Gardenhire says this is a necessity to avoid overworking a bullpen that has to constantly pick up the slack for an abysmal starting staff that has a chronic inability to go deep in games.  The Twins only have two players currently on the Disabled List, but they're both big parts of the starting rotation: Scott Baker, arguably their best pitcher, went in for surgery to repair scar tissue on his flexor pronator tendon, but ended up getting Tommy John surgery (on his ulnar collateral ligament, a much more serious deal) instead!  Nick Blackburn went on the DL with a quad strain in mid-May, but as he was pitching to a whopping 8.37 ERA before the injury, he's not the answer even when healthy.  UPDATE: Just today, Blackburn swapped places on the DL with Opening Day Starter Carl Pavano, who has an ERA of 6.00, despite leading the league with the fewest BB/9 IP.

But more than injuries, this staff has suffered from a general case of just plain bad pitching.  Two years after a seeming re-breakout season, Francisco Liriano was demoted to the bullpen after 6 starts, and new acquisition Jason Marquis was released last week.  That covers the entire projected starting rotation, and while they've had some help from stopgaps P.J. Walters (remember him from the Edwin Jackson/Colby Rasmus trade last summer?), Scott Diamond, and rookie Cole De Vries, this is not exactly the makings of a playoff-bound rotation.

The lineup has its share of troubles and question marks as well.  Joe Mauer, the lone player on the Twins roster ranked in MLB.com's Top 100 fantasy players prior to the season, has had no trouble  getting on base (.405 OBP), but in the 2+ years since signing his 8-year $184mm extension (the fourth-largest contract in MLB history at the time), he's hit just over half the home runs he hit in his AL MVP 2009 season alone.  The biggest bopper in the lineup is Josh Willingham (below), who has jumped out to a 716-point start.  But with Justin Morneau still dealing with injury troubles (the latest is a sore left wrist), absolutely no other even potential offensive threats in this lineup, and no help on the way (no roster players on MLB.com's list of Top 100 Prospects - however Joe Benson is 99 on Baseball America's list) this looks to be a long summer for the Twins.

Other than Willingham, new acquisitions didn't exactly light up the hot stove.  Ryan Doumit got a one-year deal to prove he can be a suitable backup catcher after being plagued by injuries his last couple years in Pittsburgh.  Veteran infielder Jamey Carroll just recently lost his starting SS job to rookie Brian Dozier, but he'll see plenty of time all around the diamond with a year and an option left on his contract.  And raise your hand if you've ever heard of Darin Mastroianni, Jeff Gray, or Jared Burton before this post.

The good news for the Twins is that they come relatively cheap: with the exception of their two former AL MVPs Joe Mauer ($23mm) and Justin Morneau ($14mm), no Twin makes more than $9mm in 2012.  Pavano, Liriano, and Baker do make a combined $20.5mm this year, but they'll all likely be free agents next year.  Willingham's $7mm salary seems very reasonable for the power numbers he's putting up.  The $65mm they've committed to the 2013 club doesn't look so bad, even if attendance continues to drop at Target Field.

In the nine years following the Twins' epic victory against the menace of contraction, the team won their division six times.  Since then they've gotten a new ballpark and a uniform redesign, but somehow their team and their farm system has fallen into disarray.  But at least Twins fans will know that however long they'll have to wait for the team to return to contention, Joe Mauer will still be playing in Minnesota... making $23mm per year.

Robin's Journal: Harley Quinn's Revenge

It had been about two weeks since Batman charged into the Arkham City facility and did his one-man wrecking crew routine, resulting in the deaths of the warden Hugo Strange, his beloved Talia al Ghul, and his arch-nemesis The Joker.  I knew it must have been one of his most challenging adventures, but I didn't understand the full scope of it until I read his extensive chronicles of the experience.  He sure went through a lot and accomplished an amazing amount of heroic feats in a single night!  But these journal entries help remind us that behind that gruff exterior and the molded plastic and kevlar costume, he's only human like the rest of us.

The emotional toll must have been pretty severe, cuz the big guy hasn't quite been himself since then.  Not that he ever really opens up and discusses his affairs with the rest of his superhero "family" - except for the occasional chat over one of Alfred's famous afternoon teas - but lately he's been brooding even more than usual, something I didn't think was possible.  I mean, this guy's devoted his entire existence to coping with the traumatic loss of two of the most important people in his life, and now to have it happen again?  I realize we're not talking about his parents, but who's to say that Joker and Talia don't mean as much to Batman as Thomas and Martha Wayne meant to young Bruce.

Needless to say, he's been taking this whole situation pretty hard.  So when all of a sudden he went missing without any sort of contact for two days, Oracle and I started getting worried.  We always had a hunch that Arkham City was involved in some way, but it wasn't until Barbara learned from her father that he had enlisted Batman's help to investigate a group of cops kidnapped by Harley Quinn that I decided to head in to check out her new base of operations at the Sionis Industries Shipyard.

She certainly had a full complement of armed thugs guarding the entrance, and all dressed up in new, Harley-specific garb.  I really like what she's done with the four-diamond motif, and of course you know I'm a fan of the red and black color scheme.  The makeup with the tears is a little much - I know she's in mourning and all, but couldn't all that time her henchmen spend in the makeup chair be used for something more productive, like training or planning?  I guess having a well-developed identity is just as important for a supervillain as having competent followers.  Plus it just makes them that much easier to take them out, as long as you don't count all the trouble it takes to wash the residual face paint off my gloves and cape.

Rather than deal with the armed thugs outside, I slipped silently in through a skylight and began a thorough search of the area.  I spotted Harley through a window claiming that she had some kind of plan for the kidnapped cops, which was perfect because it meant the cops would be kept alive long enough for me to search for Batman.  These supervillains' taste for the dramatic does help to keep the overall death toll down - a lesser criminal would probably have executed the cops on site - but it does force us heroes to use all our ingenuity to navigate their elaborate traps and schemes.

A large part of that ingenuity is our impressive complement of gadgets and equipment, all of which I had to employ to make my way through the twisting steel maze of the shipyard.  Of course I had some explosive gel (which I spray in the shape of a stylized "R" instead of the Bat-signal) and my Bullet Shield (an extension of my handy staff) was useful in getting past automated gun turrets and vents spewing molten hot steam, since I didn't have room in my utility belt for a Disruptor or some Freeze Blasts.  When I snuck up on some henchmen standing across a large body of still water, the only way I could traverse the distance was with my Zip Kick, which combines features of Batman's Batclaw and Line Launcher.  When I target a henchman with it, they remain stationary, while I fly through the air towards them, using my momentum to deliver a powerful attack.  Sometimes being a welterweight crimefighter has its benefits...

But before I took out that group, I stopped to listen into some of their idle conversation.  Seems like one of the henchmen had some aspirations to take over Harley's operation, but the others challenged his qualifications - not based on lack of skill or ruthlessness, but on the absence of a clear gimmick.  They made a good point: an effective supervillain not only needs the skill and intelligence to run the business aspect, but also the charisma to attract followers.  While I hate the guy, Penguin has a persona that I could see people joining up with - not so much "Turkey Man" who got his name by murdering his family on Thanksgiving because of an overcooked main course.

As I opened the door to the warehouse, I came upon a group of henchman standing over an object that I never expected to see in the hands of anyone but my boss: Batman's utility belt.  Although to be fair it wasn't in anyone's hands, since none of the henchmen had the nerve to touch the thing - it had apparently sent 50,000 volts through the unlucky sucker who removed it from the Caped Crusader.  While I was mercilessly pummeling the thugs, one question kept flooding through my mind: how did Batman end up without his belt?  I may never know.....