Very Well Then

Opening Day lineups are fun. But the real definition of a team is the composite lineup throughout the season.

Were the 2006 Twins defined more by opening day starter Tony Batista or the meteoric rise and fall of young Francisco Liriano?

IN 1984, the year Kirby Puckett established himself in centerfield for the Twins, the opening day center fielder was Jim Eisenreich.

The real test is to guess the season-long lineup. Baseball-Reference does a great job ...

Over at my blog VeryWellThen.Com I am hosting a contest -- a challenge -- for you to pick the predominant Twins lineup of 2013. By "predominant", I mean "what BaseballReference.Com will show at season end for the Twins."




Baseball Reference fills in the predominant lineup of the team -- generally, whoever plays the most at any position gets that slot on the BR page. The pitchers are classified as the starters based on some formula of games ...

[Originally posted at VeryWellThen.Com]

Harper’s magazine begins each issue with a list of number-oriented factoids called Harper’s Index. Below is VeryWellThen.Com’s third annual series of number-oriented factoids about the Twins baseball season. Here on the Twin-ternet, such a list has to be called “Brian Harper’s Index.”



The single-season homerun record for Target Field (set by Josh Willingham in 2012): 21


Number of Twins wins at

...

[Originally posted at VeryWellThen.Com]

Ben Revere does not yet qualify for the Batting Title. His 4 for 5 evening against Cleveland sent his batting average up to .331 – which would be good enough for second place in the American League. Except that to qualify for the leader board, he needs 3.1 plate appearances for every game his team has played. The Twins have played 109 games, which means that his 331 plate appearances fall 7 short of qualifying.

So in just ...

Updated 08-06-2012 at 11:51 PM by VeryWellThen

Tags: ben revere

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Originally posted at VeryWellThen.Com

It's time for the Second Annual Bobby Darwin Awards, issued by this very website: VeryWellThen.Com.


The award goes to the Twin with the fastest start within the first week to ten days of the season. The award gets its name from Bobby Darwin -- who debuted with a hot start as a 29 year old rookie center fielder for the Twins in1972, right around the time I was forming my first baseball ...

Tags: josh willingham

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Let’s cheer for the Minnesota Twins today. Because these Minnesota Twins – the 2012 Minnesota Twins – might not be around tomorrow.

I just took a look at the Opening Day lineup and I’m struck by how few players I see — at least in the starting lineup — as a reliable part of the Twins future. The same thing goes for the projected starting rotation (my feeling is amplified with newsflash update of Scott Baker lasting 3 batters in his minor-league start today).

The Twins are ...

[Original Posted at VeryWellThen.com]

Below are excerpts from various sources regarding today's shocking announcement from MLB.

Press Release: First Annual MLB Hunger Games
MLB.Com – 7 hours ago

The Capitol (AP) -- President Selig announced today that Major League Baseball is replacing its annual All-Star Game with the First Annual MLB Hunger Games, to be held in Kansas City from July 9 through July 11, 2012. Each MLB team will be required to provide ...