Episode 8 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) I love beer, and baseball, and pumpkins.In Episode 8 Eric and I discuss the Twins prospects in the Arizona Fall League, 2013 Payroll commitments, Justin Morneau and possible infield arrangements for the Twins in 2013. We take a closer ...
Last night, in Game 1 of the ALCS, the New York Yankees lost an extra-inning game to Delmon Young and the Detroit Tigers. More important, they lost their captain Derek Jeter for the rest of the season because of a broken ankle. The news is devastating considering he is one Yankees hitter who is actually hitting. Alex Rodriguez is taking all of the heat, but Robinson Cano, Nick Swisher, Curtis Granderson and others are doing very little. The ...
Aaron and John talk about the incredibly exciting postseason, the Twins' improved farm system, reveal what they're reading and listening to, give a quick tutorial on a bunch of sabrmetric stats and concepts, and note the many ex-Twins in the playoffs. Here are: the podcaststhe rss feed if you want to subscribe andthe podcast on iTunes.
Originally posted at http://www.theunplayable.com/ on 10/14/12 For a while last night, it looked like the same old story: (Insert Non-Yankee baseball team name here) has a lead in the Bronx in a playoff game, and it’s late in the game. You think you have them, and then it all goes horribly, horribly wrong. The Tigers had them last night, leading 4-0 in the bottom of the ninth. Of course Ichiro homers, and three batters later, Raul Ibanez does the same, the latter now meeting the minimum ...
For the past four years, we have produced an Offseason Handbook to put fans in the driver’s seat of the Twins franchise. Within it, we highlight all of the winter’s impending free agents, potential trade targets and review the organization’s strengths and weaknesses from top to bottom. This culminates with the presentation of our blueprints to improving the team. In my blueprint, I laid out a fairly elementary explanation as to why the Twins failed so miserably ...
End of year awards are fun. That is really all they are, but they are fun. Fun is fun, and everyone knows that. Therefore, I thought it might be fun to share my Award Winners. Regardless, I will have fun. My 5th grade Gym teacher always said, "if you had fun, you won." So, I win. Fun = Won. We'll start with the most fun award and move down the list. NL Cy Young Award - R.A. Dickey He lead the league in Batters Faced. Need I say more? ...
At the conclusion of every season, the members of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance (BBA) are asked to submit their ballots for the top awards across baseball. Each of these awards is named in honor of a player that epitomized the role in Major League Baseball. Over the course of the week, I released my ballots for each award and I will post the official announcements from the BBA with the combined votes of all member blogs. Today marks the final day of the awards and the other announcements from the ...
Last night's Yankees-Orioles game got me thinking about the idea of the Closer Mentality and the Closer Role. I absolutely believe in the Closer Mentality. I consider myself a statistically inclined baseball fan. I understand that research shows that closer is just a word. A good reliever makes a good closer and whatnot. However, I don't believe the Closer Mentality is a myth. The idea that some people perform better or worse in specific situations makes perfect sense to me. Human Psychology, ...
At the conclusion of every season, the members of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance (BBA) are asked to submit their ballots for the top awards across baseball. Each of these awards is named in honor of a player that epitomized the role in Major League Baseball. Over the course of the week, I will release my ballots for each award and I will post the official announcements from the BBA with the combined votes of all member blogs. Here is the list of awards that have been announced and ...
The Twins season ended a week ago, and we’ve all had a chance to look back at another 95+ loss season. Likely, you’ve also already started thinking about what you would do to get the Twins back to being a perennial contender in the AL Central. The question I have for readers today is: If you were in charge, would you look toward winning in 2013, 2014 or something in the 3-5 year range? How you would go about building your blueprint is largely ...
At the conclusion of every season, the members of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance (BBA) are asked to submit their ballots for the top awards across baseball. Each of these awards is named in honor of a player that epitomized the role in Major League Baseball. Throughout the week, I will release my ballots for each award and I will post the official announcements from the BBA with the combined votes of all member blogs. Here is the list of awards that have been announced and the others ...
In Part Two of the 2013 blueprint, I discussed the pitching staff. Now . . . that problem has . . . .clearly been solved. So something much easier is in store. This is the lineup/bench I propose for the 2013 Twins Span CF Revere LF Mauer C Willingham RF Morneau 1B Plouffe 3B Doumit DH Dozier 2B Florimon Parmelee Carroll Mastroianni Herrmann The bench is meant to be a return to the "Thome ...
Five spots in next year's rotation. One guy locked in. It's hard to look at the daunting uncertainty in Minnesota's rotation as a good thing, but there are some fringe benefits to the situation. One is that it may be easier for Terry Ryan to lure in pitchers who are left without a seat and forced to sign minor-league contracts when the music stops on this offseason's free agent class. There could be quite a few of those guys standing around ...
Was reading the chat today on ESPN and came across this. Hi David- Because they are rebuilding anyway, do you think the Twins should bring up Arcia and Hicks and let them play? Try to get some pitching for Span. Revere is only a fourth outfielder in my opinion he doesn't walk enough and has "0" power. Thanks! David Schoenfield (1:44 PM) I think both could benefit from at least half a season in Triple-A. Saw both play a couple times at ...