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 ...
There is an awful lot of noise being written about how the Twins should blow up their team for prospects, fire the entire staff or administration for some new direction, or call up everybody with a pulse to see how they perform in the "big show". I don't believe you will see any of that happen. I actually believe the Twins won't make any major moves at all. Here's why: The Twins looked at 2011 and basically chalked it up to a mulligan. With all of the injuries, and poor ...
If you're not familiar with the Twins' Official Scorecard, you should be. It's sold at the program stands near the entrances to Target Field, and it's only one buck. How many things can you buy at the ballgame for a dollar? Aside from providing the necessary tools for a scorekeeper to do his/her thing, the scorecard also includes content that changes for each series. Even if I didn't happen to be the guy supplying that content all year, I'd highly recommend picking up ...
Aaron and John talk about the endless game of musical pitchers, revisit their preseason over/under predictions, answer Twitter questions from listeners, try to decide who comes off worse owning the same shirt, wonder if Nick Blackburn is worth having in the 2013 plans, review Samuel Deduno's first start, and try to keep Aaron from coughing up a lung. Here are: the podcaststhe rss feed if you want to subscribe andthe podcast on iTunes.
I used to subscribe to BA's Top Performers email, but after looking at it - seeing batting and pitching lines for hundreds of prospects - and not getting much out of it, I unsubscribed. While browsing their website today, I found a link to "Yesterday's Top Performers". I clicked on it and expected to see the same format I saw with the emails. I was wrong. Instead what I saw where the top 10 daily performers based on Runs Created (for batters) and Game Score (for pitchers). ...
For Twins fans who were fortunate enough to tune into last night's Twins-Rangers broadcast on FOX, they were treated with the soothing baritone of former pitcher Mitch "Wild Thing" Williams. Turns out, Williams is the new Joe Morgan of saying semi-crazy things on the air. In the top of the first, Denard Span on first base and discussing Texas's starter Derek Holland return from the disabled list, Williams said that he "does not believe in the ...
Francisco Liriano did a tremendous job on Friday night of building his trade value. The lefty gave up just one run in 6.2 innings against baseball’s best offense. Jared Burton got four outs quickly. The Twins got enough offense, as well as some help from the Rangers defense, to put up five runs. Joe Mauer drove in two runs, and Justin Morneau homered. The two teams play again on Saturday as Sam Deduno makes his first Twins start. With that, here is a look at the Twins minor league scores ...
Liriano pitched a decent game tonight. He was mentally fragile as he usually seems to be, but made it through without incident. It might have made the game 45 minutes longer . (I’m not Bud Selig and game length is of no concern to me.) Liriano is greatly reminding me of Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade – he needs someone to watch over him at all times. Tonight Drew Butera was Liriano’s Charlie Simms. I am fearful of Liriano’s mental shortcomings. He has great stuff, but seemingly without ...
Summer in Duluth, MN is very short, as a retail worker I don't get many weekends off, and I don't get to spend enough time outside, I try to get as much sun as I possibly can, or clean up my house after horrible flooding in the city and my house. It really sucks trying to get ankle deep water out of your basement, on top of that at 1 a.m. trying to get someone to hire when every house is in the same boat. Thanks to a buddy that answered his phone at 1 am we saved as much as we could without getting ...
The transactions of the last few days boil down to Blackburn being replaced by Deduno, and Parmelee being replaced by... Fien? So, we're back to a roster of 13 pitchers and 3 catchers. Very little scope for pinch-hitting and pinch-running. I guess this has been hashed to death, but it still seems weird to me. Wasn't so long ago that 11 pitchers were enough for a staff. And I think it detracts from the enjoyment of the tactical game - instead of managers having to anticipate opposing moves and ...