Minnesota Twins

The anticipated news of season-ending surgery for Kevin Slowey has finally materialized. Dr. Thomas Graham is going to perform the surgery, where bone chips will be removed and the involved bone surfaces will be cleaned up and smoothed out. The recovery time frame being reported is two to four months, but the actuality is that the bone will be healed in 4-6 weeks, followed by a gradual decrease in generalized joint capsule soreness over the next 2-4 weeks. He would then require lengthy rehab in order to regain wrist, forearm, and shoulder strength, and then head out on a rehab assignment - all of which clearly can’t happen before season’s end.

The Disabled List Informer

Jarrod Washburn and Nick Blackburn emerge from Fantasy oblivion to earn a rotation spot in roughly half of the leagues on this site. Washburn and Blackburn aren't just notable for their successes on the actual and virtual diamonds, but for achieving them without any significant change to their skill profiles. Both are sporting ERAs below 3.10 and below-average WHIPs despite the fact that neither misses a lot of bats. Owners are feelin' the 'burns, because the pair have improved their respective skill sets just enough to help with ERA, WHIP and wins. And a little bit of good luck hasn't hurt their stats much either. Washburn's WHIP would be nowhere near the neighborhood of 1.09 without a big assist from a .249 BABIP. Blackburn's 3.58 ERC tells us that someone with his skill ratios would have normally given up about seven more earned runs than he has by now. While both pitchers should continue to perform well enough to stay on mixed league rosters (though not necessarily on the active roster), both are practically locks to regress towards their more typical stats in the second half

FantasyNews.CBSSports.com

Ya Think?

Las Vegas doesn't have much confidence in Brandon Inge winning Monday night's Home Run Derby in St. Louis. Inge has 21 home runs, tied for fourth in the American League with Minnesota's Justin Morneau and the Yankees' Mark Teixeira. But Las Vegas odds-makers pit Inge as Monday's underdog. Lasvegassports-odds.com lists Inge as its biggest underdog of the Derby's eight participants, with odds to win at +950, which means a bet of $100 could earn the bettor $950 if Inge were to win. The favorite ..

• St. Louis first baseman Albert Pujols, is a +200.
• Philadelphia's Ryan Howard is second at +240,
• Milwaukee's Prince Fielder at +325,
• San Diego's Adrian Gonzalez at +465,
• Tampa Bay's Carlos Pena at +550,
• Texas' Nelson Cruz at +750,
• Minnesota's Joe Mauer at +800 and Inge.

detnews.com

Blackburn is on the waiver wire in a few leagues out there, and while yes, the lack of k's is a bit discouraging, the ratios sure won't disappoint ya. You could do much worse.

It's been a stellar season for Nick to this point, and I think you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who realistically thought that Blackburn would not just be the ace of the staff, but more than worthy of All-Star consideration. His ERA is outstanding, at 2.94, and his 116.1 innings should give him the fifth-highest total in MLB. The strikeouts don't look sexy, and the base runner numbers aren't elite, but there's no doubt that he's still been one of the most effective starters in the American League to this point. And it's been a lot of fun to watch.

Sunday afternoon, Blackburn kicked it all off by stringing up eight goose eggs in a row. Well, starting things off...topping them off...it was all the same today. The Tigers did pound a pair of runs across in the ninth, when Brandon Inge (an All-Star in his own right) hit his 19th home run of the year, driving in Don Kelly who had reached when Denard Span dropped one in center. Two runs, one earned, in nine innings for Blackburn, with six strikeouts and just a single walk. Is that good? Yes. Yes, it is.

Twinkie Town

He will be back in San Diego next season, take it to the bank.

"Hells Bells" are as loud as ever. Even if they are now ringing in Milwaukee instead of San Diego, the song still blares when Trevor Hoffman exits the bullpen and heads for the mound. Longtime Yankees closer Mariano Rivera earned his 500th save Sunday night, but he is still well behind career saves leader Hoffman (572), who has 18 saves for the Brewers this year after needing just one pitch to finish off the Mets on Monday.

One of the major reasons for his continued success is his changeup. That pitch was almost impossible to hit when he was in his prime, and it's still been hard to hit even in the later days of his career. The great thing about the changeup is that as long as you continue to reduce its speed in relation to a declining fastball, you can still be very effective. Some pitchers lose their fastball but can't get their changeup to match. If you throw a 90-92 mph fastball, you can usually figure out an 80 mph changeup. But if your fastball is now at 85-86 mph, can you throw a changeup around 72 mph? That takes artistry.

With any pitcher there is a risk of injury, and with older pitchers it can become more of a concern. Still, in my opinion, this won't be Hoffman's last season. Don't look now, but with his ability and dedication, I think 600 career saves is likely and even 700 is not out of the question.

ESPN

One of the first people I saw walking around on the field when I arrived at Miller Park this afternoon was Denard Span. The outfielder made it through his two rehab games at Triple-A Rochester alive -- although not without a new bruise, this one on the palm of his left hand.

Span was hit by a pitch in the fifth inning of Rochester's game on Tuesday night. His left thumb and the palm area around it are swollen and a bit sore today, but Span is planning to take batting practice with the team to see if he'll be activated for Thursday's series finale with the Brewers. Manager Ron Gardenhire said that he expects Span will be fine.

Kelly's Corner

Prior to yesterday's start, he had about the same number of innings he had last year. He also had about the same number of strikeouts and the same number of walks. It's spooky, really. He had given up 10% more hits, but what's really hurt him is he's given up so many more home runs.

So is he having trouble keeping the ball down in the zone? Having trouble inducing ground balls? Not any more than usual. Again, the ground ball/fly ball ratio from last year is almost identical. Using MyInsideEdge.com, one can pull more granular data, but it doesn't provide a lot more insight. Bert spoke last night about how Liriano is having trouble locating his fastball, and that's undoubtedly true, but he had the same problem last year, and it's dropped something like 3% from last year to this year.

And in a number of metrics, he's better. He's quite a bit better at locating his off-speed pitches than he was last year. He's actually better at throwing strikes earlier in the count. He even gets higher grades for his efficiency, which is really hard to believe. The only really big difference that I can latch onto is the quality of teams he's faced in the two years. Last year when Liriano returned to the majors I initially noted how many times he faced some bad teams, but looking back, that's almost all he faced.

Of his eleven August and September starts, ten of them were against teams that would end up finishing under .500. This year, he was the Opening Day starter, and thus lined up several times early this season against other Opening Day starters.

Twins Geek

"He's our left fielder. He's going to play. He has to get it done," Gardenhire said. "We had a meeting and a talk, and he understands that. He's been working very hard." Young has been working with hitting coach Joe Vavra to tweak his swing. One of the biggest adjustments Vavra has made to Young's approach at the plate has been to widen his stance. "He's trying different things," Gardenhire said. "That's all you can ask."

Since June 3, Young has hit .326 in 12 games, hitting three doubles and driving in seven runs. He also hit just his second home run of the year in Saturday's game against Houston, taking starter Brian Moehler deep to left field. But the strikeouts continue to be there for Young. He struck out 13 times in those 12 games to push his season total to a team-high 52.

Gardenhire hopes Young can reach the point where he's productive night in and night out. "Two days ago, he had a real rough day. It's day-to-day," Gardenhire said. "What we're looking for is consistency. Delmon is, too. He's been working very hard."

twinsbaseball.com

Is it me, or are more and more players experiencing dizziness this season?

Denard Span is flying back to Minnesota on Wednesday to see a specialist after experiencing dizziness for the second time in a month.

“Everything except for my energy level,” Span said. “The energy’s fine. It’s just I’m feeling the same as far as dizzy. I feel like I can’t focus or concentrate when I’m hitting. I can kind of get away with it when I’m playing defense because things aren’t happening as fast in the outfield. The last couple days I’ve been feeling it a little bit, but as the game would go on, things would get a little better.”