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The weather conditions have wreaked havoc on the baseball schedule for much of this week. Games from the Midwest to the Northeast have been postponed, and the story was the same for Friday night. The Cedar Rapids Kernels were weathered-out for the fourth straight day. New Britain was supposed to play a late-morning game on Friday but it was postponed. Finally, the Rochester Red Wings scheduled game in Pawtucket was postponed by rain. Doubleheaders are scheduled, hopefully for days that the weather ...

The Twins had their first scheduled off-day of the season on Thursday. They were in Minnesota watching the snow fall. As they look forward to a weekend, interleague series against the New York Mets, the forecast is for snow to fall in Minneapolis throughout the day on Friday. Hopefully they will be able to get some games in. Inclement weather caused the Cedar Rapids Kernels to postpone a game for the third straight night. Three affiliates did play last night. Kyle Gibson was on the mound for the ...

Yesterday, I posted Part 1 of my interview with Jake Mauer, the manager of the Cedar Rapids Kernels. Cedar Rapids is the home of the Twins Low Class A affiliate in the Midwest League. We discussed his goals as a manager/coach, the language barrier that there can be in baseball, the best part of managing and much more. He even discussed the similarities between Byron Buxton and Joe Mauer. In Part 2 today, Mauer will discuss several more topics including the importance of development versus winning, ...

As you know, I was able to spend four days in Cedar Rapids last week. I arrived in time for their Meet the Kernels event at Perfect Game Field. At a press conference, hitting coach Tommy Watkins introduced me to manager Jake Mauer. Over the next few days, I had a chance to talk to Watkins, pitching coach Gary Lucas and Mauer quite a bit. Below, you can read Part 1 of a two-part Q&A with the Kernels manager.

Before we start, here is a little background. Jake Mauer is the older brother ...

The Twins had a rough going in the early innings on Tuesday night. In the minor leagues, the Red Wings got a big, late-inning home run that led to a win. The Rock Cats scored nine runs for the second straight game yet they played a game that was close until the ninth. The Miracle won a 1-0 game thanks to great pitching and a big home run from a big prospect. Cedar Rapids’ game was postponed due to rain, but be sure to check out the rest of the Organizational Report.

The Twins fell 7-4 ...

Can you imagine the difficult decision that highly-drafted high school kids have to make? Do they sign a signing bonus for seven (or at least upper six) figures, or do they go to a college whose coaches have recruited them and clearly want him to play for their school? For a couple of Twins prospects, that decision was all too real.

The Twins had two supplemental first round draft picks in 2011 thanks to losing free agents Michael Cuddyer and Matt Capps. As a result of having one of ...

I have to say, I have been pretty lucky down here in Cedar Rapids. On Opening Night, I saw Twins pitchers strikeout 16 batters, Byron Buxton get a couple of hits and a steal and a couple of home runs. On Friday night, I got to see more individual performances that are exciting for Twins fans, and I got to see a come-from-behind, bottom-of-the-ninth, walk-off win.

One of the first observations that I have seen with this Cedar Rapids team is that they are very close, and that they have ...

On Thursday, the Minnesota Twins got a big 8-2 win over the Detroit Tigers to improve to 2-1 on the season, the first time they have been over .500 since the 2010 season. However, the game was not the blowout that the final score would indicate. In fact, there was a very key moment in the 7^th inning that could have altered the results of the game.

With the Twins leading 3-2 going into the 7^th frame, Josh Roenicke walked Omar Infante and gave up a double to Austin Jackson to put runners ...

Each night throughout the entire minor league season, Twins Daily will be writing up game notes and highlights from all of the Twins minor league affiliates. Thursday was Opening Day for the full-season minor leagues, so here is our first Minor League Report.

Since I am currently spending the opening weekend following the Cedar Rapids Kernels, that’s where we will start with our report. It will be followed by reports from the other Twins affiliates. As we did in 2012, there will be ...

Happy Minor League Opening Day! This is a great day for me. Opening Day with the Twins was tremendous, but when minor league opening day hits, we as Twins fans suddenly have as many as five games and box scores to follow!

Last September, the Minnesota Twins made the business decision to leave Beloit and enter into a player development agreement with the Cedar Rapids Kernels. It’s fair to say that both sides are excited about this relationship. Tonight, the Kernels will open their 2013 ...

The Twins season began on Monday. The season of the Twins full-season minor league affiliates will begin on Thursday. Below are the rosters of the Rochester Red Wings, the New Britain Rock Cats, the Ft. Myers Miracle and the Beloit Snappers.

The rosters were sent to the affiliates first, but here is a complete look at the Twins full-season affiliates.

Rochester Red Wings

Pitchers: Andrew Albers, Kyle Gibson, Pedro Hernandez ...

Target Field - Phenom Aaron Hicks is not the only Minnesota Twins player who will be making the jump from AA to the big leagues in 2013. Rule 5 pick Ryan Pressly is also making that jump, and he’s admittedly, and understandably, “pretty nervous right now” as the Twins and Tigers are preparing to open their 2013 seasons at Target Field this afternoon.

Hicks spent the entire 2012 season in New Britain. Pressly didn’t make his AA debut until mid-July, shortly after making the transition ...

There are a million ways to try to prepare for an upcoming season. In just four days, the Minnesota Twins will be at Target Field taking on the division-favorite Detroit Tigers.

Everyone knows that the Twins starting pitchers will not be able to compete on paper with the other pitchers in the division, but what about the hitters?

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The Twins have long credited themselves with being able to throw strikes and then catch the ball. It’s well known that it is very important to be strong up the middle. In 2012, the Twins middle infield was a mess which didn’t help a pitching staff that was already behind the eight ball.

The Twins addressed their middle infield deficiencies by, well, non-tendering Alexi Casilla. It appears that the Twins are counting on major improvements from the other guys that were there a year ago. ...