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So what kind of fan am I? When I was in Fort Myers that was one of the season-long advertising gimmicks they were touting – the varied nature of those who attend ballgames. Yesterday, attending my first Twins game since my minor league trip (I love watching a pitching duel!), I found myself thinking back to the various minor league parks I was at and comparing them to the relative cathedral that is Target Field. I also found myself thinking about who had attended those games, and who I saw around ...

Originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com.

These days, it’s not often that I go more than a couple of days without getting asked whether I think the Twins will be the Major League affiliate of my home town Cedar Rapids Kernels in 2013. When I’m not answering that question, I’m the one asking it of pretty much anyone I can think of who might have some insight.



At the beginning ...

The biggest debate in the baseball world over the course of the last few months has been surrounding the Washington Nationals and their decision to shut-down Stephen Strasburg, one of the best young starting pitchers in the game. He is pitching in his first full season at the big league level and he only pitched at the end of last season since he was recovering from Tommy John surgery. Nationals fans see their team in first place and they want Strasburg ...

Tags: adam johnson, chicago cubs, innings limits, jordan zimmerman, kyle gibson, mark prior, matt garza, pitch counts, pitching mechanics, rochester red wings, stephen strasburg, tommy john recovery, tommy john surgery, washington nationals

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Twins , Minor Leagues , Other Baseball

It’s August 28^th, just a handful of days remaining until September 1^st. At that time, Major League rosters can expand to 40. Of course, no team is going to have all 40 members of their 40 man roster on their big league roster. Generally speaking, the Twins say they want to bring up an infielder, an outfielder, maybe an extra catcher, and a couple of arms. Also, the minor league seasons finish on Labor Day, so most of the call-ups will not happen until after that ...

How far are the Twins from contention? One side looks at their dismal record and wants a complete makeover. The other looks at the team's players and thinks they’re just a couple of arms away from a pennant race. Which is it?

Let’s do some back-of-the-napkin figuring. As of right now, the Twins are 111 runs under .500. Not wins under .500, but runs under .500.

That isn’t good. The Indians are the only American League team that’s worse. The three teams who have the most ...

No one expected a slugfest when the Mariners and Twins got together to play in Target Field. Felix Hernandez was on the mound for the Mariners, but Liam Hendriks was on the mound for the Twins. It looked like a mismatch, but it turned into one of the best pitcher’s duals of the year! Liam Hendriks remains winless in the big leagues despite throwing a tremendous, tough-loss, complete game. The one mistake he made was giving up an 8^th inning, opposite field ...

What is the projected record for a 2013 Twins team with the following rotation:
(1) Diamond (2) De Vries (3) Hendriks (4) Walters (5) Gibson?

That would at least be a fun spring if we saw some early success stories. I recognize these are not all farm kids.


Additionally, could we see Scott Baker back in there ever?

Tags: #diamond, #gibson, #hendriks

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I've been thinking about this for awhile, prior to King Felix's perfect game a couple weeks ago. Perhaps I should have posted it then, as it wouldnt sound so pipe dreamish now. However, the Minnesota Twins are perfect trade partners for the Seattle Mariners if they look to deal Hernandez this offseason. And I am hoping that deal begins tonight with a strong Liam Hendriks start.

My proposed deal would include Oswaldo Arcia, Eddie Rosario, Liam Hendriks, and a lower level pitching prospect ...

Updated 08-27-2012 at 04:34 PM by 3rd Inning Stretch

Tags: kingfelix, mariners, offseason, trade scenarios, twins

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This was originaly posted my own blog at blogspot. Then John Bonnes left me a nice message telling me why he deleted it. He thought that is was spam because it wanst baseball related. Which is fine but I have retuned this post to make it more Twins and Baseball Centric

TED talks are one of the most popular ways a college student can waste time surfing the internet. If you are unfamiliar with them I highly reccmend that you stop reading this and check it out. http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinso...reativity.html ...

Tags: sir ken robinson, twins daily

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Originally published at www.knuckleballsblog.com.

It seemed to me like the first game of this Snappers/Kernels series on Saturday night was a long one… and it was. The game took three hours and twenty minutes to play and since the Snappers pretty much dominated the entire game, on their way to a 13-2 rout of their hosts, there really wasn’t enough excitement to make the game feel like it was moving along.

Fortunately, I was in the “all you can eat and drink” picnic area, ...

Finally, I made the trip.

Cedar Rapids is only an hour away from where my parents live, and I finally got out on the open road to watch the Beloit Snappers play the Cedar Rapids Kernels. The following notes and pictures will not provide any interesting baseball knowledge, but they might inspire others in the Twin Cities to make the trip to Cedar Rapids to see the visiting Snappers play.

All pictures are my own, which is more of a confession of guilt than an attempt at bragging. ...

Tags: beloit snappers, cedar rapids kernels, iowa, mr. shucks, seth stohs

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Here is a fun 14 minute version of You Can't Quit Me Baby, by Queens of the Stone Age to accompany these notes.

The Games

Monday - Win over Oakland - 7-2

WHOOO! Monday wins count double right? Oh, they don't. Well, at least they stopped the losing streak. Brandon McCarthy was awful in this game. He didn't command any of his pitches and he looked to be nibbling a lot. The Twins took advantage and Brian Duensing gave them a good start.

Tuesday ...

Tags: weekly notes

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Micro Posts

I wrote this 10 years ago. Today the Chatty Chatty Princess started her year as a sophmore and The Boy enters the seventh grade. Good luck guys. Love, Dad.

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He didn't feel the gush that everyone said he would feel the first time he held her in his arms. He frowned. "I've never been especially good about feeling emotions."

There was excitement to be sure. And a feeling of amazement. But mostly the infant seemed

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The buzz around the baseball world this weekend surrounded the blockbuster trade between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Boston Red Sox. In the deal, the Dodgers got Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, and Nick Punto. Besides dumping a ton of salary, the Red Sox got James Loney, Rubby De La Rosa, Allen Webster, Jerry Sands, and Ivan De Jesus. It is pretty amazing to see a deal like this getting done since players need to pass through waivers before being ...