Jump to content
Twins Daily
  • Create Account

Blogs from our Community

The Twins All-Star All Decade Teams - Part 7 - The 2020s

Ok. We did it. On to the 2020s. This has been an interesting decade. We started with the pandemic-shortened season and empty stadiums. We have seen the introduction of larger bases, pitch clocks, shift limitations, and the Manfred Man. We have also had some pretty good teams, including one that broke our playoff losing streak.   As I mentioned in the first article in this series, we need to get a little creative here since the decade is only half over. As a result, I will double the WA

Eric Blonigen

Eric Blonigen in History

The Twins All-Star All Decade Teams - Part 6 - The 2010s

Welcome to part six of this series, in which we look at the all-decade teams comprised of only guys selected to an All-Star team in that decade. You can refer to part 1 for the full methodology. Without further ado, let’s dig into the 2010s. The 1960s are still reigning supreme. Can the 2010s all-decade team be the one to take the 60s down? The 2010s Twins Teams We are almost there! The 2010s featured the tail end of the Mauer/Morneau/Cuddyer core, and the introduction of the Dozier/Be

Eric Blonigen

Eric Blonigen in History

A Hall of Famer Through the Eyes of A First Timer

I have not written in any capacity in quite some time. It's been even longer since I wrote on baseball, so bear with me as I try and work off the rust here. At 34, I can say I have followed baseball easily for over 25 years. I have watched and attended many fun things in that time, but never have I been able to say I watched a hall of fame baseball player from the start to end of a career. Sure, I followed some players that went on to the hall. But nothing where I can say I watched a signif

Giles Ferrell

Giles Ferrell in Joe Mauer

The Twins All-Star All Decade Teams - Part 5 - The 2000s

Welcome to part five of this series, in which we look at the all-decade teams comprised of only guys selected to an All-Star team in that decade. You can refer to part 1 for the full methodology. Without further ado, let’s dig into the 2000s. Will they be the team to finally  overthrow the 1960s all-decade team? The 2000s Twins Teams At the turn of the century, the Twins were facing contraction. Rumors flew regarding plans to move the team. The Metrodome was one of the worst ballparks

Eric Blonigen

Eric Blonigen in History

The Twins All-Star All Decade Teams - Part 4 - The 1990s

Welcome to part four of this series, in which we look at the all-decade teams comprised of only guys selected to an All-Star team in that decade. You can refer to part 1 for the full methodology. Without further ado, let’s dig into the 1990s. Can they overthrow the 1960s all-decade team? The 1990s Twins Teams The 1990s! The start of my baseball memories. As a child, I recall staying up late each night during the 1991 World Series, and I fervently collected every Twins baseball card I c

Eric Blonigen

Eric Blonigen in History

The Twins All-Star All Decade Teams - Part 3 - The 1980s

Welcome to part three of this series, in which we look at the all-decade teams comprised of only guys selected to an All-Star team in that decade. You can refer to part 1 for the full methodology. Without further ado, let’s dig into the 1980s. Can they overthrow the 1960s all-decade team? The 1980s Twins Teams Oh, the 80s. We saw the introductions of franchise greats like Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek, and others. In 1988, the Twins set a league record for making the fewest errors in a sea

Eric Blonigen

Eric Blonigen in History

A Different View Shows Theilbar's Season as More OK than Awful

Relievers are a different then starters so judging a reliever by just his ERA doesn’t tell the whole story.  So lets look at Theilbar and see if he has been successful for the season or not so far.  We are going to start by going through game logs and comparing to a reliever with a similar ERA and another who is getting the job done and make notes. As of the All-Star break Theilbar has pitched in 31 games with 22.1 innings and given up 14 earned runs for a 5.64 ERA.  In his 31 games he has

Brandon

Brandon in Relief Pitching

My Favorite late round pick

The Twins front office and scouting department have done a really good job in recent drafts in finding talent later on, essentially throwing darts at a lot of strike throwing, but low velocity pitchers and this draft class was no different.  Christian Beccera, Xavier Kolhosser, Jacob Kisting, Cole Peschl, Aidan Haugh, Michael Ross, Merit Jones and Logan Whittaker were 8 of the 10 picks the Twins made on day three, all that were starters at some point in College. Air Force third basemen Jay

troyjuhn

troyjuhn in Blog

The Twins All-Star All Decade Teams - Part 2 - The 1970s

Welcome to part two of this series, in which we look at the all-decade teams comprised of only guys selected to an All-Star team in that decade. You can refer to part 1 for the full methodology. Without further ado, let’s dig into the 1970s. Can they overthrow the 1960s all-decade team? The 1970s Twins Teams In the 1970s, we saw the tail ends of the careers of storied greats like Killebrew, Oliva, and Carew. The team swung trades for Butch Wynegar, Roy Smalley, and Larry Hisle. The 197

Eric Blonigen

Eric Blonigen in History

The Twins All-Star All Decade Teams - Part 1 - The 1960s

With the All-Star break upon us, and no meaningful baseball for almost a week, I thought it could be a fun exercise to look at Twins All-Stars through the years (and decades). More than that, I was curious to see which decade has produced the best players. So, over the next several days, I will be writing a series of articles about these all-decade teams, and then looking at which team is the best. For methodology, I will be looking at all Twins that made an All-Star team. Then, I will atte

Eric Blonigen

Eric Blonigen in History

Send Kirilloff to the 60 day IL?

The Twins are putting Miranda on the IL. and calling up Diego Castillo to take his spot on teh 40 man. Since Diego is not currently on the 40 man roster there needs to be a corresponding move. What do the Twins do? the Twins COULD do something with a pitcher, but lets assume they stay position player... here are the positions players on the 40 man. and remember this is not just sending someone down, it is risk losing the player to another team. NA means there is no way that player

Doc Munson

Doc Munson in Twins Moves

Twins Trade Targets (Part 3): Playoff Caliber Starters

In 2023, the Twins starting rotation was the strength of the team. So far in 2024, that has not been the case. Last year, Twins starters combined for a 3.87 ERA (6th in MLB), 1560 strikeouts (led MLB), and 1451.1 innings pitched (3rd in MLB). This year, the team’s ERA has ballooned to 4.14 (19th in MLB), while their starters have pitched 822.1 innings so far (6th in baseball). Their starters still lead MLB in strikeouts with 842, which could be a sign of good things to come.  Joe Ryan has l

Elinoah1110

Elinoah1110 in Trade Deadline

The Ideal Trade Deadline Strategy - Go Big

We are currently less than three weeks away from the trade deadline. Fangraphs has the Twins with the second-best chance in the AL of making the playoffs, at 85%. With that in mind, I’m going to share what I believe to be the best strategy with a deep playoff run as the focus. To be realistic, I’m going to assume we won’t take on more than maybe $5M in additional salary. I also won’t decimate the farm system, or assume that we can swindle other teams. First, let’s look at the current state

How many wins has Rocco cost the Twins in 2024?

We all know Rocco is costing the Twins a chance for a win, every time he fills out the lineup card or comes out to make a pitching change.  And don't get me started on his pinch-hitting choices.  So, put a number on it. How many needless losses are on Rocco, so far this season?

ashbury

ashbury in Rocco

What went wrong for David Festa?

What went wrong for David Festa? David Festa —AKA The Slim Reaper — has had a lot of prospect helium over the past season and a half. Since being drafted in the 13th round in 2021, he has added a few MPH to his fastball, and greatly improved his secondary pitches to the point that he is now the 89th best prospect in baseball, according to MLB.com. He put up video game numbers in St Paul, setting strikeout records. He briefly walked too many guys, but seemed to solve that problem after a few

Saints Blanked by Stripers

Saint Paul, Minnesota – A wet Fourth of July in the Twin Cities caused the start of the game to be delayed by 90 minutes. The fans that stuck around got to see an interesting pitching strategy executed by the Saints. However, it would not matter as the Gwinnett Stripers built of Wednesday night. For the second straight night the Saints were destroyed. This time by a score of 11-0 in front of 8,295. The Saints dropped to 42-41 on the season and 4-5 in the second half. You never know what yo

Potential Trade Targets(Part 2)

Since posting my first trade-target article, the Twins have remained hot. Although they trail Cleveland by six games,  Minnensota’s 48-37 record further cements them as buyers at the trade deadline. Other teams, however, are struggling as the trade deadline approaches. Three potential trade candidates from these teams could be on the move: the Texas Rangers’ Kirby Yates, the Washington Nationals’ Robert Garcia, and the Miami Marlins’ Tanner Scott. Each player is enticing for different reasons, a

Payton Eeles Promoted to Saints, Saints and Stripers Celebrate Fourth of July

Saint Paul, Minnesota –Payton Eeles has spent the majority of the 2024 season with the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels and Cedar Rapids Kernels, which are low level affiliates in the Minnesota Twins organization. However, not no more! Payton Eeles got the call to join the Saints on July 4th. Eeles was born in Scottsdale, AZ, then went onto play college baseball at Costal Carolina. Following his college career Eeles played in familiar territory for the Saints. He spent the 2023 season as a member

First half MOST valuable players by win probability

In my last article, we looked at the bottom-5 performers by WPA at the halfway point. Today, we will look at the top performers. We will also take a look at some signature moments that led to this WPA. As a reminder, as with any stat, WPA is not perfect. It’s not predictive, and doesn’t really measure skill level. However, it’s a great shorthand to evaluate players relative value to the team through their performance when it matters most. To oversimplify things greatly, being worth .5 WPA is rou

Eric Blonigen

Eric Blonigen in WPA

First half LEAST valuable players by win probability added

As we have recently crossed the halfway point of the 2024 season, my next two posts will be taking a look at our most (and least) valuable players by win probability added (or subtracted). We will also take a look at some signature moments that led to this WPA. As with any stat, WPA is not perfect. It’s not predictive, and doesn’t really measure skill level. However, it’s a great shorthand to evaluate players relative value to the team through their performance when it matters most. To oversimpl

Eric Blonigen

Eric Blonigen in WPA

Potential Trade Targets(Part 1)

At the time of this writing, the Minnesota Twins are 45-36. This places them seven games behind the MLB-best Cleveland Guardians and a game ahead of a surprisingly competitive Royals team. The AL Central is almost unrecognizable from a year ago, as the Twins were leading the division with a 40-41 record at this time last year. The Twins have seen players like Willi Castro, Jose Miranda, Royce Lewis, Griffin Jax, and Carlos Correa step up, while others like Eduoard Julien, Matt Wallner, Christian

Confirmation

I stated a little while ago about how bad PIT pitch coaching was & how pitchers blossomed after leaving there, Gerrit Cole was one example. I got a rebuttal that Gerrit Cole was always a monster. Here is a statement contrary. "And yet as Cole adhered to the organization’s pitching philosophy, prioritizing efficiency and soft contact, the results were only good, not great. “Not the monster we know today,” said Ron Wolforth, founder of Texas Baseball Ranch. Cole struck out less than a bat

Doctor Gast

Doctor Gast in PIT pitching

Introducing: Little Papi

Twins fans of a certain age still bear the wounds of Terry Ryan non-tendering David Ortiz prior to the 2003 season prior to his first year of arbitration. Ryan was infamous for this — saving ownership money even when he didn’t have that specific mandate. After the non-tender, Ortiz, of course, went on to become Big Papi. He led the Red Sox to multiple World Series titles. Over his career, he was a 10x All-Star, and won Silver Slugger at DH no fewer than 6 times. He’s in the Hall of Fame, and wen

Eric Blonigen

Eric Blonigen in Little Papi

×
×
  • Create New...