Last night I posted an article musing about what it might take for the Twins to get back into the AL Central race in the second half. It was mostly the stuff of pipe dreams, naturally, since the club would need to play .650-plus baseball and leapfrog four teams, requiring an historically unprecedented turnaround. Nevertheless, it was a fun escape from the painful realities of a lost season. (At least for those who were willing to play along.) Even accepting those realities, there will ...
I, for one, suggest we definitely spend some time celebrating Aaron Gleeman on 10 years of maintaining his blog. Gleeman is a succinct and clear writer who never sacrifices quality, even when producing articles in great quantity. He makes it easy to join into online conversation with other Twins fans, and I'm thankful for what he's done. So with that in mind, the 10 year anniversary of AaronGleeman.com has to go down like it was classic Johnny Carson stuff. Here are some suggestions: ...
CH-CH-CH AH-AH-AH FEAR IN A HANDFUL OF ROSIN PART 3 A MR. HORRORPANTS SCREENPLAY THE CAMERA PANS OVER AN EMPTY TARGET. DESPITE THE STADIUM'S BARRENNESS, WE CAN HEAR THE SOUNDS OF BASEBALL. PERHAPS THE HAPPY SOUNDS OF THE 2010 SEASON. MR. HORRORPANTS IS STANDING ALONE AT HOME PLATE. HIS LAB COAT IS FLAPPING IN THE BREEZE. BEHIND HIM, FROM THE OPPOSING DUGOUT, THE SPECTRAL IMAGE OF JOHAN SANTANA APPEARS. ...
Here at the All-Star break, the Twins find themselves 11 games out of first place, with a record 13 games below .500. The most likely scenario is that they sell off their assets within the next couple weeks and coast to a forgettable finish near the bottom of the division. But just what would it take for the Twins to surge back to the top of the division here in the second half? Anyone would have to admit that it's still possible, if extremely improbable. We've seen this team make up ...
A ground ball to the shortstop for the first out.A walk.A ground ball to second base which was turned into an inning-ending double play. That may not seem like much to get overly excited about, but for Twins fans, it was a good day! For the first time since he was placed on the Disabled List on August 2, 2011, Kyle Gibson pitched off of a mound in a game on Tuesday morning. It may have been a 10:00 a.m. eastern time start time in the Gulf Coast League, ...
According to MLBTradeRumors, both Kevin Gausman (1,4 Orioles) and Mark Appel (1,8 Pirates) are both leaning against signing with their draft teams, both for different reasons. When teams learned that Appel, a Scott Boras client, wanted a $6 million+ bonus, he fell down all the way to the Pirates at the #8 pick. This means that instead of being able to get that much money for getting picked at #'s 1-3, he dropped to #8, and the most the Pirates can offer him without losing a first round ...
Joe Mauer is the Twins lone All Star representative tonight in Kansas City. In over 52 seasons in Minnesota, the Twins have had many All Stars, obviously at least one each year. There are the greats of the game, like Killebrew, Carew and Puckett who went to many All Star games. And there are the Coomer's and Engel's. Below, I'll post all of the Twins All Star representative by years, with some notes to follow. Feel free to discuss the best and the worst, and any other notes you find interesting: ...
This was originally posted at our independent site (with a poll for voting), please feel free to comment with your own rationale for why one deal seems superior to another...GM's don't operate in a vacuum the more you debate the better the choice becomes. It's time for the All-Star Game (a favorite event for we Peanuts, because it is just as silly as we always are, and because we feel proud to join the teeming masses who mock Joe Buck every year!) But before the big(ish) ...
Original post from North Dakota Twins Fan ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Prince Fielder put on quite the show in the Home Run Derby last night after a slow start in the first round. His violent swing helped him to win his second career Derby title by beating out Jose Bautista in the final round. Over the years, the Derby has turned into quite the spectacle as it last for three hours or more. ESPN provides a ton of camera angles so fans can see some of the best power hitters in the game take their hacks ...
Twins players scattered all over the place to enjoy their All Star breaks. Joe Mauer is the team’s lone representative in tonight’s All-Star game. On Monday night, it was the Tigers’ Prince Fielder who out-slugged Blue Jays’ Jose Bautista to win his second Home Run Derby. The Rochester Red Wings also began their All-Star break with no game on Monday. New Britain played an early afternoon game and with its completion, they are now on their All-Star break. Each of the other Twins affiliates played ...
Originally posted at k-bro's baseball blog We all know how crazy the Twins starting rotation has been this season. The club keeps moving guys around hoping to replace those who are hurt or ineffective. And it keeps happening because guys who are given a chance aren't always making the best of it. All these moves remind me of a metaphor that TwinsGeek John Bonnes likes to use: moving deck chairs on the Titanic. It's an intriguing phrase that perfectly describes ...
How low can it go? Not a whole lot lower. According to USAToday, the Minnesota Twins dropped their payroll $18.5M from last year ($112M) to this year ($94M). And while the mantra coming out of Target Field is that “payroll isn’t that important” ask youself: where this team would be with another $18.5M worth of starting pitching? That’s the bad news, but it’s old bad news. The worse (and new) news is that the team is again in last place and attendance is ...
Original post from North Dakota Twins Fan ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ With the All-Star Break at hand, it marks the unofficial midpoint of the 2012 season for the Minnesota Twins. Coming off of one of the worst seasons in franchise history, it was hard to have optimism for the 2012 campaign. There were question marks surrounding players that missed large chunks of last season due to injury, the bullpen had some unproven arms, and the starting rotation needed to prove itself. All of these story lines ...
The Twins had two, touch, extra inning losses on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday night, it was Nelson Cruz that provided the game-winning hit. On Sunday night, it was Ian Kinsler. Sam Deduno had a very wild, but effective, Twins debut on Friday night. Cole De Vries was terrific, throwing seven scoreless innings against the potent Rangers’ offense. Casey Fien made his Twins debut, showing off a mid-90s fastball in a scoreless inning. It was also a busy weekend in the Twins minor leagues this weekend ...