I was surprised at the suggestion earlier that the Twins should consider extending Burton. They have him locked up next year. In two years he will be 33. On the other hand, he has been very valuable this year. My first thought was it was a horrible idea. Take his season next year at the bargain level. Don't buy his 33 year old season now! That was clearly the minority opinion. I went to Baseball Reference for clarity. I searched for every season pitched by a 31 year old ...
Updated 10-01-2012 at 08:35 PM by jorgenswest
In assessing the Twins' payroll situation for next year, a depressing reality became clear. Between the contracts of Tsuyoshi Nishioka and Nick Blackburn, along with the $250,000 buyout that will be owed to Matt Capps, the club was set to be on the hook for about $9 million in what appeared to be totally sunk costs – all the results of clearly misguided decisions. That's a pretty significant chunk of money for a team with payroll restraints that needs to be putting all ...
This post originally appeared at http://puckettspond.com/2012/09/28/m...d-col-sanders/ Episode 6 of the Twins related baseball podcast, Talk To Contact, is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here. Episode 5 was pretty excellent, if I do say so myself, and in the 6th edition of the podcast Eric and I discuss why the Twins always seem to ...
The Twins suck. Sorry, had to be said. I do consider myself a bit of a shock-jock, so this is fitting. However, the reward for sucky teams is a good draft pick. I was talking with a friend of mine and he said, "who cares about the draft, it's a total crapshoot." This got me wondering; is the draft a crapshoot? Yeah, probably. However, is the MLB draft more of a crapshoot than the other 3 major sports' drafts? I did some research to see if any one league has ...
It's the last Friday of the regular season and that means this will be the last Friday the Twins will be playing until opening week of next year. That might be sad to think about for some fans but it has been two tough seasons in a row. The 162 game schedule can be grueling for the players and it seems logical to think some of them are ready for their up coming break. It's been the second year in a row that the Twins haven't been close to making the playoffs and that hasn't happened since the 1999-2000 ...
This is the first part of four parts of my 2013 Twins blueprint. The following is an overview of the roster. Part two will focus on the pitchers, part three on the position players, and part four will be centered around both contingency plans for 2013 and looking toward the future beyond 2013. Last year, I actually put out three versions of a 2012 blueprint depending on payroll (110, 105, 100) and I was right about a few things. Jamey Carroll and Ryan Doumit were added, and I even had ...
Updated 09-28-2012 at 01:06 AM by Shane Wahl
With the possible exception of the popularity of “Call Me Maybe”, nothing has spun more out of control in 2012 than the Minnesota Twins starting pitching. Categorically the Twins rotation has produced some of the least desirable stats in the American League. For starters, their misshapen 5.50 ERA tops the charts. Performances like Nick Blackburn (7.39 ERA in 19 starts), Brian Duensing (6.92 in 11 starts) and Liam Hendriks (6.13 ERA in 15 starts) shows where ...
Originally posted at k-bro's baseball blog On Thursday evening, Ron Gardenhire and Terry Ryan participated in a Fan Forum Conference Call with Season Ticket Holders. This is a nice little perk that allows fans to get a glimpse of the inside workings of the team. Nothing earth-shattering ever gets said, but it's always interesting. I hastily tried to take some notes as the call went along; here are my impressions. (Keep in mind that I'm not a good transcriber, so none of these ...
Updated 09-27-2012 at 11:41 PM by Kirsten Brown
One of the benefits of being a season ticket holder with the Minnesota Twins is the opportunity to participate in conference calls with current players, coaches, and front office personnel. Earlier this season, Scott Diamond and Trevor Plouffe discussed their breakout seasons with fans. It's fun to hear their answers to unique questions that might not pop up in a regular interview setting with reporters in the Twin Cities. There are also prizes handed out including ...
I was listening to this week’s Gleeman & the Geek episode. In it, they discussed briefly how many Twins prospects might make Baseball America’s 2013 Top 100 prospects list. It certainly is an interesting question, especially given that the Twins minor league system has been generally considered very weak the last few years. However, there is little question in my mind, that the Twins organization will likely rank in the Top 10 minor league systems again. ...
I think everyone would agree that the Twins greatest need is starting pitching. In order to get major league starting pitching, the Twins probably need to offer starting pitching prospects. Look at all of the Oakland deals where they traded established pitching for pitching prospects. The Twins don't have starting pitching prospects to offer. Conversely, the most attractive way to get starting pitching prospects is to trade major league ready starting pitching. Twins certainly ...
World came out on Tuesday morning that Byron Buxton had been named by Baseball America as the top prospect in the rookie-level Gulf Coast League. Last year's first round pick for the Twins didn't spend the entire season in the GCL but it was long enough to make his mark on the league. In 27 games for the GCL Twins, Buxton hit .216/.324/.466 with 11 extra-base hits including four home runs. He would spend the rest of the season with the Elizabethton Twins as they ...
Since assuming the closer’s role for good, Glen Perkins has been absolutely brilliant, now converting 11 consecutive save opportunities. There was one semi-minor hiccup – allowing a solo home run to Andruw Jones to bring the Yankees within one of the Twins. The pitch was clearly a slider which was intended to be buried at Jones’s feet but rather hung belt high over the plate. It wound up being the third home run Perkins has surrendered on his slider this ...
It is easy to despair over Liam Hendriks after starts like the one he turned in on Monday night against the Yankees, when he coughed up four homers en route to his eighth loss in 15 tries for the Twins this year. Certainly the right-hander has offered little cause for encouragement here in his first extended exposure to the majors, but we shouldn't let these rocky outings completely sour us on his long-term outlook. Earlier this month, Aaron ...
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