Links for 5/14

Oh Sidney. It seems as if we just met. And now we're saying goodbye. As I'm sure you know, parting is such sweet sorrow. And while we can't say we'll miss you, well, you weren't as bad as we expected. That's probably all we can say about your tenure, but it's something, and it's a lot more than we could say about others.

As they say, "Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end", and so we welcome Garrett Jones to the Majors with open arms (and visions of two of the three true outcomes). It's unlikely, but one can hope that Jones will have a Jack Cust like impact, at least until Saturday, when the Twins will have to make a decision between Kevin Slowey, Glen Perkins, Matt Garza and Scott Baker.

So who should be called up? The denizens of Twinkietown and Aaron Gleeman's site have already had this debate, and it really seems to come down to a matter of preference. Each candidate has their pros and cons. Thankfully, all four of them have pitched pretty well this year. Personally, I think that Baker should be the choice for the following reasons: he has the most seasoning (137IP in the majors), has performed well in AAA this year (42.2 IP, 3.16 ERA, .89 WHIP, 8.65 K/9) and is the oldest of the four prospects. The Twins need to figure out what they have in Baker soon (so as not to repeat what happened with J.D. "the Real Deal" Durbin) , whether he's trade bait for a young bat or a valuable part of the rotation. And while many seem to think he's the former, there's still a good chance he'll be the latter, despite his poor performance last year. Some of his struggles can be chalked up to his inconsistent usage, as he went more than a week between starts four different times. Another chance at the 5th spot in the rotation should be enough to answer how much of his problems were caused by missing starts. And the Twins, and Scott Baker should start figuring out that answer on Saturday.

And now...the Quick Links:

• Pulling a Blyleven busts out the Gobbledegookian
• Poor Little Nicky Punto: “Can’t get a hit to save my life and then I knock the MVP out of the game.”
• Taunting Ken Griffey, Jr. can have interesting side effects.
• The Twins' long term answer at third base is not on the DL right now. At least, that's what Joe Mauer thinks.