The first full day of Spring Training was a whirlwind of activities. Being my first March in Fort Myers, I wasn’t completely sure what to expect. Here is how it went: Leave home for the airport. Say goodbye to my fiancé. Check my bags, just under the weight limit. Take my shoes off, walk through a small door, put my shoes back on. Sit and read Hunger Games. Hope they make it out alive. Hangout with Nate Hanson. Board the plane. Watch Cole Nelson try to fit his long legs in a very small ...
Updated 03-07-2012 at 04:23 PM by Seth Stohs
Maybe one of the only good things about suffering through a 99-loss season with the Twins in 2011 was the fact that the organization would have a very good pick in the 2012 amateur draft. The Twins "earned" the number two selection for the draft this June and this means there should be some very good talent to select from with only the Astros picking before them. ...
I have been smiling from ear to ear since the Twins announced Terry Ryan was coming back as the general manager to replace Bill Smith. I believe it will take Ryan four years to rebuild this organization into an A.L. Central powerhouse like he did a decade ago. Smith is an affable guy but clearly was in over his head as the GM of the Twins. He decimated the depth of the team with some very bad trades. I really like the additions of Carroll, Doumit, and Willingham to provide more offense to a club ...
Updated 03-07-2012 at 03:56 PM by Fanatic Jack
When a team is successful, deciding on roster spots shouldn't be much of a chore. The stars have their spots guaranteed, the role players have already been identified, and there's maybe there's one player that has a chance at sneaking in. Last season, the Twins were anything but successful as they lost 99 games. While the departures of Michael Cuddyer, Jason Kubel, and Joe Nathan were eventually filled by the signings of Josh Willingham, Ryan Doumit, and Joel Zumaya (who is now ...
Updated 03-07-2012 at 03:12 PM by Andrew Bryz-Gornia
Nick Blackburn’s greatest redeeming quality is his ability to consume innings. Unfortunately, for the past two consecutive seasons, he has not come close to proving his worth in this department. When he was not sidelined by injuries, Blackburn pitched on either side of the spectrum for the Twins. One month - like May 2011 where he went 3-0 with a 2.53 ERA in 42 innings pitched - he would be dazzling, using his sinker effectively and keeping opponents off-balanced. The next month ...
This was originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch and is reposted here --- Previously, I listed all the players who are battling for one of the 3 bullpen spots this Spring Training. Because they are so many, I decided to create a spreadsheet and keep track of their performance this Spring day by day, using color coding and symbols to get a quick visual. In other words, creating a dashboard of their performance. Green (+) is better than average appearance ...
[Originally posted at Twins Fan From Afar] I've written before, as have others, that Joe Mauer isn't only valuable to the Twins for his contributions as the star catcher and third batter in the lineup. Make no mistake, that's how he earns his paycheck, but it's also evident that, over the last few years, he has become his own brand. Even where I live, far removed from Twins Territory, ...
The Twins took a chance when they signed Joel Zumaya to an incentive-laden contract. That high-risk deal could have come with some great rewards but Zumaya's time with the Twins was over before it even started. Only 13 pitches into his first workout with the Twins, he walked off the mound with soreness in his right elbow. Now the often-injured flamethrower will go under the knife ...
Twins fans who have a curiosity about how things are "down on the farm" may look at top 10 prospect lists or maybe merely look at those players who are September call-ups and judge the state of the Twins system accordingly. Seth Stohs does more than enough to provide fans with a wealth of information about minor leaguers, but I thought that I would take things a step further and look at the movement of players, by position, on some select prospect lists for 2011-2012. This ...
At my former writing home, I made an annual tradition of running through each position on the Twins' roster in March, sorting out the backup options and projecting the starter's performance. That tradition will continue here at Twins Daily, and today I'll kick off the Position Analysis series with catcher, where Joe Mauer is looking for a big comeback year. --- Likely Starter: Joe Mauer 2011 Stats: .287/.360/.368, 3 HR, 30 RBI, 38 R, 0/0 SB ...
Originally posted at k-bro's baseball blog If I think of my brain as a bucket, I sometimes imagine that it begins to overflow and I have to intentionally get some of my thoughts out of there before they just spill over and are gone forever. Here are some baseball-related bucket thoughts: Denard Falls Down During Saturday's ...
Huh. Just saw the following story pop up on Zite. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...&sct=hp_t11_a2 The primary thesis of which sounds an awful lot like my second point in the prior post - about the move of Houston to the AL leading inevitably to the abolition of the 'non-DH' rule. I'm not saying Mr. Verducci snuck onto Twins Daily for column ideas. We just ...
Originally posted at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- Not a game report by any means; just some random, stream of conscious type notes I took while I was watching the Twins' game on TV this afternoon: Jamey Carroll's strike zone is smaller than Ben Revere's. He really gets down in the boxDoumit looks like Kubel. A lotGreat double steal by Revere and Carroll in a botched pick-off move. Carroll seams a very astute base runnerBaker's fastball at 86 mph to start ...
Updated 03-06-2012 at 04:32 PM by thrylos98
On Tuesday, Twins minor leaguers need to report to spring training camp. Tomorrow, they will get going with their first official workout. With 66 players currently in big league camp (40 roster, 26 non-roster minor leaguers), another 120 or more players will report for minor league camp. This includes players in the rookie leagues on up. There are going to be a lot of stories from minor league camp that we’ll be following here throughout camp. You will hear plenty about Miguel Sano, ...
Updated 03-06-2012 at 11:19 AM by Seth Stohs
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