The addition of free agent Ryan Doumit during last offseason raised an interesting question for the Twins. Should the club carry a third catcher? Joe Mauer was coming off an injury-plagued year and it seemed like the club might need a little insurance with the big league squad. If Mauer and Doumit were in the line-up on the same day, the team could run into some problems without an extra catcher. There is a chance the team could lose the designated hitter spot or the club could be ...
Technology is amazing, isn’t it? Sure, we’re missing the flying cars, moon colonies and hover boards but the fact that we all basically carry around personal computers/television sets that can make phone calls in our pocket is pretty mind-blowing. Baseball, while it may seem archaic with the bats made from trees and game play which doesn’t involve a time clock, is actually progressive and embracive of new technologies off the field. Not long ...
The grounds crew is getting the snow off of Target Field and the beginning of the regular season continues to inch closer. Twins players continue to represent the organization in the World Baseball Classic while others are training in Florida for the start of the year. It seems like Opening Day can't get here soon enough and it helps that Team USA keeps winning in the World Baseball Classic. Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau could help the Stars and Stripes upend the two-time defending ...
After taking a break for the offseason, "Friday Links-N-Thinks" are back here at NoDak Twins Fan. For those that aren't familiar with this type of post, I will provide a bunch of different links to stories that have interested me from the last week. Some of the stories will be Twins related and others will just be interesting baseball stories. All together, it is a great way to catch-up on the baseball related news from the last week. The Twins are in the midst of spring ...
Nothing real special here...just some footage of Mauer from my seat at the Team USA vs. ChiSox exhibition game on March 5, 2013. He went 0-3 in the game: GIDP, K, F8
Rumors have been swirling about the possibility of the return of Jim Thome to the Minnesota Twins. There are plenty of different things floating out there so let's try and organize some of these thoughts. Here is some of the information that is known to the public. Thome, the 42-year old slugger, is still unemployed and he wants to find a team to play for in 2013. Over the past couple seasons, Thome has been looking to play for a contender so he could ...
When a club is in the rebuilding process like the Minnesota Twins, it can be tough to know which players need to stay and which players need to go. Fans are connected to a lot of the players that have been here for multiple seasons and it can be tough for the team to part ways with some fan favorites. In the end, it is up to Terry Ryan to decided what is best for the future of the franchise. He had to make the tough decision to trade away Denard Span ...
Updated 02-27-2013 at 12:27 PM by Cody Christie
Originally posted at Kevin Slowey was Framed! Sometimes inspiration strikes in odd ways. Today, Rhett Bollinger, the Twins' MLB.com beat writer, sent out this tweet: Joe Mauer just popped out. Something he did only once last year in 641 plate appearances. #MNTwins — Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) February 26, 2013 Wait, what? I saw that come through my feed and I was immediately interested. Was it true? @bridman77 Yep. It's actually only once in ...
Updated 02-27-2013 at 10:38 AM by Brad Swanson
One of the biggest surprises in the 2012 season was the performance of Josh Willingham. The veteran outfielder signed a free agent deal with the club before the season and he went on to have the best offensive campaign of his career. He led the Twins in a variety of offensive categories including home runs, RBI, and slugging percentage. After a season that stands out like Willingham's, there can be some questions about whether he will be able to replicate his fantastic numbers. The ...
When Twins position players reported to camp at the end of last week, Justin Morneau was one of the first people that the media hunted down. There was good reason to do this since he is in the last year of his contract with the club and his future is unclear at this point. According to Morneau, there haven't been any discussions about an extension between his agent and the club. This means that he is anticipating playing out the rest of his contract and testing the free agent market ...
It might have seemed like it would never come (especially with the recent snow storm that hit a chunk of Twins Territory) but Twins pitchers and catchers report to Fort Myers today. The first workout is tomorrow morning and there are plenty of questions to be answered before the start of the year. For the rest of the position players, the reporting date is on Friday with the first full squad workout taking place on Saturday. It sure doesn't feel like it is close to the start of baseball ...
Yesterday was the first part of a series that will look at the road that lies ahead for the Minnesota Twins as they try to rebuild after back-to-back 90 loss seasons. The team has already started the rebuilding process by trading away two of their most valuable major league assets in Denard Span and Ben Revere. In the first part of the series, Kyle Gibson was looked at as one of the key pieces to helping the rebuild get off to a good start. He might not end up being an ace for the ...
As the beginning of the season approaches, there can be a lot of focus thrown on different players for each team. Some fans will focus on starting pitching and other fans will look at the top players in the line-up. There are usually some players that sneak under the radar before putting together a very good season for the club. Last year, the Twins signed Josh Willingham and there wasn't a whole lot of buzz around him at the beginning of the year. Most fans were worried about the ...
The biggest topic of conversation (or at least one of the biggest) to come out of TwinsFest weekend surrounded Joe Mauer and how much he should be catching in the coming season. Mauer came out in multiple interviews and said that he wants to catch more next year. There are always positives and negatives when it comes to getting his 6-foot-5 frame crouched down behind the plate and it is up to the Twins to find the balanced formula for their All-Star player. ...