This article was originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com. If Wednesday night’s Beloit Snappers/Clinton LumberKings game does indeed mark the final time I see a baseball game in person this year, it was a heckuva game to end the season on! I don’t want to bury the lead, so let’s start by saying the Snappers came out on top in game one of their 3-game playoff series with Clinton, by a score of 8-6. But the score doesn’t begin to tell the story. Clinton scored ...
Updated 09-06-2012 at 09:14 AM by Jim Crikket
At the beginning of the year, Seth Stohs from the Twins Daily crew asks some of the bloggers from across Twins Territory to put together their picks for a variety of categories across the minor leagues. It's a fun exercise to do at the beginning of the year and it's interesting to track the progress of players during the minor league seasons. There were some breakout candidates at almost every level in 2012 but there were some setbacks along the way as well. Here are my picks from the beginning of the year ...
On Wednesday night, the Beloit Snappers traveled to Clinton to play Game 1 of their Best of Three Midwest League Quarterfinal. The LumberJacks are one of the hottest teams in all of baseball. They won the final ten games of the regular season and won 17 of their last 18 games. They won the division’s second half title by 10 games. However, on this night, the two teams went back and forth for nine innings, and in the end, the Snappers won Game 1 by a score of 8-6 in a game where literally every player ...
Originally posted in reply to thread These Call-Ups Are a Downer The Twins' 40-man roster is apparently at 39 right now, and the desire for waiver-wire flexibility is a reason given not to bring up one or two other players for September, such as Anthony Slama. How can a last-place team have any issues at all managing their 40-man roster? Just sooooo many talented players, the other teams will scoop an All-Star-in-the-making right up, if the Twins aren't careful? ...
A couple months ago, a bunch of extremely talented baseball writers came together to write a book about players who are not Hall of Fame worthy, but had careers worth remembering. The book is called The Hall of Very Good The Hall of Nearly Great. It is an eBook, it highlights about 40 players and it is amazing. It was a Kickstarter deal, and I can say I proudly contributed. There are three Twins profiled in this book: Frank Viola, Brad Radke and Mr. Battery-Magnet himself, Chuck Knoblauch. ...
The last two seasons have been rough for the Twins as the team has posted back-to-back horrible win-loss records. But some positive things came out of this madness. For instance, in this past June's amateur draft, the Twins selected Byron Buxton, arguably the best player in the draft. Also, all of the losing and injuries to pitchers have allowed the team to get an in-depth look at pitchers in their own organization and to bring in arms from ...
Updated 09-05-2012 at 07:06 AM by Cody Christie
If anyone wants to see what KC's Kauffman Stadium looks like or just wants to see more baseball pics, I've posted my pics from game two from Saturday and the afternoon game on Sunday.
My Twins season ticket renewal package arrived today in the mail. As per usual it's a beautiful and oversized PR masterpiece "dedicated to the greatness of our season ticket holders." In an attempt to come up with a theme to convince us to once again fill the seats at Target Field, the Twins are appealing to our loyalty for 2013. "There will be ups," the packet says. "There will be downs... Yet at the end of the day, the uniform ...
Updated 09-05-2012 at 01:13 AM by Teflon
With the Twins on pace to lose nearly 100 games for a second straight year, fans have to derive joy from the little things. In a season that was basically lost from the get-go, relative frivolities like the trade deadline, August waiver moves and September call-ups become focal points of interest. Unfortunately, the Twins have been extremely passive on all these fronts, to a degree that is highly disappointing for a rebuilding club. Their deadline activity ...
To think, just 5 months ago, I questioned whether Aaron Hicks had earned his promotion to AA. Of course, at that time, I was basing my concern on Hicks' less-than-impressive High-A slash line of .242/.354/.368 in 2011. Importantly, Hicks was repeating High-A that season, so I had reason to be suspicious. Boy, was I wrong. Hicks unquestionably had a breakout season ...
At this time last year, the Twins called up a couple of young prospects from Double-A to make their major league debuts. Joe Benson was the more highly-touted name out of the two young players but Chris Parmelee came up and made a much stronger impression in the final month of the year. Benson would bat .239/.270/.352 in his 74 plate appearances in September while Parmelee was putting on an offensive show. By season's end, Parmelee was hitting .355/.443/.592 with ...
Updated 09-04-2012 at 07:30 AM by Cody Christie
The discussion regarding outfield depth that took place earlier in the season was interesting because it had almost been assumed that the outfield was the brightest spot in the Twins system. In the early-to-mid part of the season, legitimate question marks about the outfield depth were raised. Joe Benson (24, AA/AAA), and Rene Tosoni (26, AA/AAA), the two prospects who had been with the Twins in 2011 for a bit of time, were struggling and struggling with injuries, and the only other prospect to ...
Updated 09-06-2012 at 12:49 AM by Shane Wahl
It was another very successful season for the Elizabethton Twins. In the regular season, they had a league-best 43-22 record. The second best record came from the East Division and was the 41-25 record of the Burlington Royals. The two teams rightfully met in the Appalachian League championship series. Burlington won a one-run, extra-inning Game 1. Elizabethton won Game 2 in one-run, extra inning style as well. So, it all came down to Game 3 in Elizabethton. To ...
Aaron and John talk about the September callups that don't include Brian Dozier, Denard Span's prompt inclusion on the DL, Joe Mauer waiver wire silliness, why Anthony Slama may be rethinking his career choices, Arizona Fall League participants, Parmelee's outfield play, Las Vegas, Jacqueline Bisset and date night. Here are: the podcaststhe rss feed if you want to subscribe andthe podcast on iTunes.