The worst kept secret in baseball is that teams need an abundance of starting pitching. Like crack, you can never have enough. Also, pitching, like crack, can be an expensive endeavor – particularly when you need a lot of it. And this is exactly the position the Twins are in so said the team’s general manager, Terry Ryan, during his offseason apology tour. In a recent interview with Twins Daily’s John Bonnes, Ryan admitted that his financial ...
As the World Series combatants are now set, and we all start putting together our thoughts for what the Twins offseason should look like, one of the key positions discussed by many is the middle infield. Specifically, people are asking now who the Twins shortstop will be early in the 2013 season. Some will say Jamey Carroll. Pedro Florimon’s name is mentioned. Could the Twins go outside the organization to fill the spot? One name that is hardly ...
In last night's do-or-die Game 7 of the NLCS, former Twins pitcher Kyle Lohse was given the ball to take the mound for the defending World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals. After one of the best seasons of his career, Lohse will most be remembered for what happened in the last pitching performance of the year. It's been six years since Lohse last pitched in the uniform of the Minnesota Twins and he has played in three different cities since that point. The 34-year ...
In our TwinsCentric Offseason Handbook, we’re including a transcript from a 45-minute meeting "State of the Twins" interview with Terry Ryan. As you can imagine, an 8000-word interview covers a lot of topics, including: the strengths of the new coaching staff,Joe Mauer’s future at catcher,additional offseason priorities beyond starting pitching,how Twins approach waiver wire or minor league free agents,thoughts on the state of the Twins minor leagues,his evaluation ...
This article was originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com. The Twins announced Monday that they’ve filled their three open Major League coaching positions. As had been speculated, two of those coaches are Bobby Cuellar (bullpen coach) and Tom Brunansky (hitting coach). But the third addition qualifies as a mild surprise, as Terry Steinbach will be stepping in as the Twins bench coach (and catching instructor). While many Twins fans had wanted Minnesota native Paul Molitor ...
Updated 10-22-2012 at 10:13 PM by Jim Crikket
This post was originally published at Peanuts From Heaven The playoffs are in high gear, but those who cling to hope for the underdogs might be forgiven for tuning out early this year. The league championship series featured the past three champions (Cardinals, Giants and Yankees) and a preseason favorite (the Detroit Tigers). Gone are the plucky upstarts: the Nationals, the A's, the O's, the Reds. In short all the teams who haven't sniffed the World Series in over 20 years, and in ...
When the Twins announced the retooling of their coaching staff at the conclusion of the regular season, one of the first names to come to mind for most Twins fans was former Twins player and Twin Cities native Paul Molitor. The Hall of Fame player is currently employed by the organization as a roving minor league instructor and he served as bench coach for Tom Kelly from 1999 to 2001. In interviews since the Twins cleared out their coach staff, Molitor expressed interested in coaching with the team if he was asked. ...
Aaron and John preview the Minnesota Twins offseason by reviewing possible free agents and then give a quick tutorial on how struggling organizations can take advantage of MLB's transaction rules. Here are: the podcaststhe rss feed if you want to subscribe andthe podcast on iTunes.
The World Series is almost underway, which means that the official start of the offseason is rapidly approaching. When the free agent market opens up, one of the central figures will be Zack Greinke, who is the clear top dog in a deep pitching pack. The former Cy Young winner offers ace-level ability, youth and a durable track record. Sure, there are a few question marks surrounding the right-hander, who turns 29 this weekend. He's had some anxiety issues ...
I am a teacher by trade. I am a teacher period. One of the most important parts of teaching is giving quality feedback. Students need to understand what mistakes they are making and how they can fix them. It is equally important to provide good feedback to students when they do something well. Without feedback, students have a hard time understanding whether or not they met expectations. Grades are given because they are fairly universal. Most people know what an A or an F is. ...
Updated 10-19-2012 at 08:47 AM by Brad Swanson
Episode 9 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact, is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here. (This post originally appeared at www.puckettspond.com) It's been a slow week in Twins news, but we still found some things to talk about in episode 9. Eric talks about Twins related items that he's trying to acquire from Ebay for less than a quarter (shipping ...
At the beginning of the season, it was the easy choice to pick the Tigers to win the American League Central because of their pitching depth and the additions the team made in the offseason. The run to the top of the Central didn't go as smoothly as fans of the Tigers would have liked during the course of the season. Detroit didn't runaway with the division as experts predicted because the White Sox turned out to be a better team than most thought they would be and there were some other struggles ...
This concludes my 2013 blueprint. So far it has involved adding Edwin Jackson and Shaun Marcum as the two new additions to the team. It also would mean a return of Scott Baker on an incentive-laded deal, giving Anthony Slama a chance, and a wait-and-see approach with Kyle Gibson. In terms of position players, instead of worrying about who to trade, I have argued that having a good PH option for every game is actually a good idea, whether it be (by rotation) Parmelee, Morneau, Mauer, Doumit, Willingham, ...
As Seth Stohs mentioned yesterday, while the rest of us at Twins Daily were all stark raving mad about Kyle Gibson’s performance in the Arizona Fall League, another Twins prospect was making noise even further south. Outfielder Aaron Hicks, who is playing winter ball in Venezuela, is off to a fast start this offseason, matching the expectation he set from his in-season performance at New Britain. Of course, ...