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I’m sure discussions were beginning about what would happen should this game need to go to extra innings. The Twins sent a split-squad roster to play the Rays, so there were only a certain number of pitchers available. That’s when catcher JR Towles stepped to the plate with a runner on in the top of the 9^th. The #3-catcher hopeful hit a fly ball that, with the help of a strong wind, landed on the other side of the fence for a two-run homer that gave the Twins a 5-3 lead.


Towles ...

Tags: alexi casilla, jr towles, minnesota twins, terry doyle, trevor plouffe

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This afternoon, the Twins made their official spring training debut and they came away with a 7-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.

This got off to an ominous start for the Twins. Starter Carl Pavano gave up a two-run, first inning home run to Matt Joyce. In the bottom of the first, David Price hit Jamey Carroll in the helmet with a fastball. Carroll quickly got to his feet and went to first base. (He said later he was fine. It was a glancing blow.) Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau each ...

Tags: brian duensing, carl pavano, chris herrmann, chris parmelee, cory provus, david price, denard span, joe mauer, justin morneau, matt maloney, minnesota twins, tsuyoshi nishioka

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Happy Opening Day of Spring Training Games!

No, it doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as Happy Opening Day! Then again, Opening Day should be a national holiday (in my mind, at least).

In about an hour, the Twins will take the field at Hammond Stadium to take on David Price and the Tampa Bay Rays. The Twins are going with what should be their primary lineup (with the Ben Revere/Trevor Plouffe/Left Field “platoon”) much of the season.

There are so many ...

Tags: box scores, cory provus, minnesota twins, spring training games

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It appears that the polarizing Twins topic of the first ten days of spring training is the Twins bullpen. There are many who believe that the Twins messed up by not adding more veteran relief pitchers to major league contracts during the offseason. I’m firmly on the opposite side of that argument. I believe that the Twins took a good, calculated risk that Joel Zumaya could actually stay healthy in 2012. If that happened, they could have a difference-maker in the bullpen. As it turned out, his spring ...

Tags: alex burnett, brendan wise, carl willis, carlos gutierrez, craig breslow, dennys reyes, deolis guerra, eddie guardado, esmerling vasquez, glen perkins, jc romero, jeff manship, kyle waldrop, latroy hawkins, lester oliveros, luis perdomo, mattguerrier, minnesota twins, samuel deduno, tony fiore

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Here we are, less than a week into full Twins spring training workouts. Games don’t even start for a couple of days. It’s time to start talking position battles, right? It appears to me that there are actually very few positions that are up for grabs at this stage of camp. Of course, as injuries mount through spring training, more position battles can spring up, but for now, there are a lot of givens on the roster.

Hitters: Joe Mauer, Ryan Doumit, Justin Morneau, Alexi Casilla, Danny ...

Tags: brian dozier, chris parmelee, danny lehmann, darin mastroianni, drew butera, joe benson, jr towles, luke hughes, minnesota twins, rene rivera, rene tosoni, sean burroughs, steve pearce, tsuyoshi nishioka

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One of my fantasy leagues started its draft this past week, so I thought it might be a good time to start writing a little about fantasy baseball. I will likely participate in three or four leagues this year, and each is a little bit different. One of my leagues is a keeper league with major and minor league rosters. It is a 5x5 roto league. Another league is a weekly head-to-head, points league. Another league is only on the weekend. I’m in one ten team league and two 14-team leagues. There are ...

Tags: alexi casilla, ben revere, carl pavano, danny valencia, denard span, fantasy baseball, francisco liriano, jamey carroll, joe mauer, josh willingham, justin morneau, matt capps, minnesota twins, ryan doumit, scott baker

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Within the last half-hour, Joel Zumaya impressed local media and then he abruptly ended his session, walking off the mound with trainer Rick McWane. Zumaya said he was OK but with his injury history, this does become a story.

Star Tribune's Jim Souhan tweeted "Never draw conclusions from BP but Zumaya is throwing quite hard. It seems."

Three minutes later, the scribe tweeted, "Zumaya ends session early. Walks off with trainer. Says he's ok but..."

The Twins ...

Tags: joel zumaya, minnesota twins

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“There comes a point when you can only torture yourself so long.”

Those are the words of Justin Morneau (courtesy Phil Mackey on Twitter), uttered just this morning while speaking to reporters for the first time since reporting yesterday to Hammond Stadium in Ft. Myers. Today the Twins will hold their first full squad workout of spring training.

Mackey tweeted Morneau’s quotes, “I don’t know if I can be a full, 100 percent go, but I’m going to go out there and participate ...

Tags: justin morneau, minnesota twins

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Over the next several months, Twins fans are going to hear a lot about the June MLB draft, and for good reason. The Twins have the #2 overall pick and five picks in the Top 100. Coming off of a 99 loss season, and having a middle-of-the-pack minor league system, it is important to take advantage of the draft. In coming months, you’ll read names like Mark Appel, Lucas Giolito, Devin Marrero, Byron Buxton and Mike Zunino frequently. Today I wanted to look at the draft a little differently.
...

Tags: minnesota twins, mlb draft

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Players with less than three years of major league service time will typically sign one year, two-way contracts. Now that spring training has started, expect many of the Twins players to sign such contracts in the next week. These two-way contracts are for a certain dollar value if the player is in the big leagues, and another (significantly smaller) dollar value if they are playing in the minor leagues.

The Two-Way Contract means that a player is EITHER making $X in the big leagues ...

Tags: minnesota twins, terry ryan

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We’ve been patient, at least as patient as we can. But it is really difficult. I mean, the last time we saw the Minnesota Twins play was September 28, 2011. What a game it was. Twins starter Carl Pavano threw nine shutout innings against the Kansas City Royals. Bruce Chen tossed eight scoreless at the Twins. Thankfully, the Royals brought reliever Blake Wood into the game, and you all remember, Trevor Plouffe lined a single that scored Denard Span and gave the Twins the win. That win came 143 days ...

Tags: minnesota twins, spring training

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Our good friends over at Twinkie Town have spent the past couple of months working on their community Top 50 Twins Prospect list. Each day, those who went to their site were able to cast their vote for a player. The player with the most votes gets the spot, and the next day they would vote for the next spot. They started at #1 and worked all the way to #50 and the best part was community discussion each round.

I thought it would be fun to compare and contrast my Top 50 Twins Prospect ...

Tags: minnesota twins, prospects

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Twins Rule 5 draft pick Terry Doyle was the star guest on last night’s SethSpeaks.net Weekly Minnesota Twins Podcast. The right-hander comes to the Twins organization after spending the past few seasons in the Chicago White Sox organization. The New Hampshire native went to Boston College where he went four years, was drafted twice and graduated with a math major. He teamed with the Twins prospects on the Mesa Solar Sox roster in the Arizona Fall League where he went 4-0. ...

Updated 02-14-2012 at 11:23 PM by Seth Stohs

Tags: minnesota twins, terry doyle

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Throughout the past few offseasons, the comments I hear most regarding the Twins needs involve the need to acquire an Ace. In fact, I’ve said it a few times myself. Of course, that isn’t completely true and it is never the full story. You see, for the mid-90s, the Twins had not only an Ace, but the best pitcher in baseball, and that didn’t get them to the second round of the playoffs. The 2011 Phillies boasted a starting rotation of Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt and didn’t ...

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