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Aaron and John talk about the Twins' terrible starting pitching, Delmon Young not going to Hebrew school, booing Joe Mauer, putting past division titles in proper perspective, Ben Revere's brief return, skipping Francisco Liriano, Ron Gardenhire's odd bullpen usage, and jinxing anything and everything. Here are:

• the podcasts
• the rss feed if you want to subscribe and
• the podcast on iTunes (where you can listen, rate and subscribe).

Random thought based on two games...

HITTERS
*Miguel Sano has a long way to do. His bat's not ready. His glove's not ready. His head's not ready. Physically, he's a beast. He got one hit (a sharp grounder that slid under the third baseman's glove) in seven at bats. He struck out twice and looked susceptible to any ball that doesn't spin straight. He has time - and should be allowed it - to get that part of his game figured out. He did hit two flyballs that looked pretty routine, ...

Tags: rosario, sano, snappers

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The Twins actually won a game today. It's tough to complain about too much from today's Twins performance. Jason Marquis earned the win, and picked up the 4th Twins quality start along the way. The Twins scored 4 runs in the first, 2 runs in the third and 1 in the seventh, on their way to a 7-4 victory. Josh Willingham (a home run short of the cycle, go figure) and Danny Valencia (3 hits including a triple) led the way on offense, and the only Twins starters without a hit were Trevor Plouffe and ...

Updated 04-29-2012 at 04:54 PM by Twins Fan From Afar

Tags: beloit snappers, ft. myers miracle, new britain rock cats, rochester red wings

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With all of the blogs, threads, and comments about blowing up the Twins and promoting all prospects to the big club, I would like to remind you of a few things:

1) Calling players up starts the clock on these individuals toward arbitration and higher salaries. Even the Harpers and Trouts of the world where kept in the minors for periods of time to slow down their service time.

2) Calling players up before they are ready can have a negative effect on their development. ...

If I’d told you before the season started that, 20 games in, Denard Span would have a .386 OBP, Joe Mauer would be hitting .329 and Justin Morneau would have an IsoP of .236, plus newcomer Josh Willingham would have a 1.114 OPS, what would you have expected the Twins’ record to be? Better than 5-15, I hope. There are a lot of reasons why it is that poor, and some of them are not easily solved, but I don’t believe the offense is one of them.

Ultimately, it’s about scoring runs, and the ...

Hitter of the Day:
Joe Benson: 2-4 HR (2), 2B (3), 2 RBI, 1 R

Pitcher of the Day:
Deolis Guerra: 3 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 2 SO - First game in AAA in 2012

Today's Recap:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...VE&output=html

"You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes it rains."- Ebby Calvin LaLoosh, Bull Durham

The rain came a tumbling down at Target Field on Saturday afternoon and the contest between the Twins and Royals was postponed because of the weather. By mid-afternoon, the skies had cleared up but the game had already been rescheduled as part of a day-night doubleheader on June 30.

Even with the rainout at Target ...

Updated 04-28-2012 at 10:51 PM by Seth Stohs

Tags: aj achter, angel morales, eddie rosario, joe benson, oswaldo arcia

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This Twins team is not a playoff team. That shouldn't be a surprise. The over under 73 wins looks generous now. They are not 15 million dollars or a serviceable reliever away from 90 wins.

At some point this season it will be time to invest playing time in the future in spite of the growing pains. As I chose a date to put in the headline, I tried to account for the "Super Two" arbitration deadline. There will be some players with 2+ years of service time that will be eligible ...

Joe Mauer must have read my post yesterday. There can be no other explanation. He hit a triple in the first inning, driving in Span and then scoring on Morneau's single. If you reconstruct the inning with Mauer hitting a single or drawing a walk instead, and overlook that every change could result in a different approach by the opponents thereafter, this was worth an extra run.

He followed up with a none-out double in the third. This resulted in no scoring ...

After a close game decided by a questionable call, the conversation often turns to the topic of Instant Replay. This time, I’ll start it.

I’m not interested in rehashing the pros and cons of instant replay, which have been debated for years. The expansion of replay seems inevitable at this point. But as with most issues, the devil is in the details, and there does not seem to be a consensus on how expanded replay will work.

Who can initiate replay review? If managers can, ...

Going with a new format tonight. Less commentary, added Hitter and Pitcher of the Day.
Leave me comments with any suggestions or questions.


Hitter of the Day: JaDamion Williams - Beloit Snappers (A) - LF
3-5 2 2B (3), 3B (1), 2 RBI, 1 R, SB (5)

Pitcher of the Day: Andrew Albers - New Britain Rock Cats (AA) - LHP
6 IP, 8 H, 2 ER, 6 SO, 1 BB, ND


Here's Todays' Recap:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...VE&output=html

The Twins lost yet again in a back-and-forth battle against the Royals. The Twins had plenty of runners on base again but didn’t get enough to score. There was the occasional good pitch, good (or umpire-assisted) defensive plays and some bad luck. Carl Pavano just didn’t have it, and the defense was also unable to hold a lead. The Twins have now lost six in a row. The Royals have won 3-0.

Here is a look at the Twins minor league scores and highlights from Friday:

ROCHESTER ...

Tags: aaron bates, aaron hicks, andre albers, anthony slama, chris herrmann, danny santana, darin mastroianni, deibinson romero, eddie rosario, jd williams, lester oliveros, luis perdomo, madison boer, miguel munoz, minnesota twins, nate hanson, pat dean, sam deduno, wang-wei lin

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Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch
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This is the third installment in this series. You can find all of them here in reverse chronological order. I will be doing these approximately weekly or at the end of every 2 series.




In the last 2 series against the Rays and Red Sox the Twins as a team hit an underpowered .241/.326/.310 with 1 HR and scored 21 runs. This helped them finish only 1-5 in these series.

...

You are walking down the street on this Friday afternoon when you bump into something. You look down and notice that you just kicked a lamp of some sorts. You reach down and notice that it's quite dirty, so you start to rub it and notice that it is quite shiny. Suddenly, smoke starts coming out of the lamps opening and POOF! A magic genie is kind of floating in front of you. At least you hope it is a magic genie because otherwise the guy standing in front of you is a little scary.

...

Tags: minnesota twins

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