Minnesota Twins

A few weeks ago, the Twins and Lee County FL officials announced a long term extension of the Twins' lease for Hammond Stadium and the Lee County Sports Complex, contingent on agreement on something like $45 million in needed updates for the complex. While there have been some articles lately citing some differences over who might have naming rights to the stadium, it seemed like a deal was never really in doubt.

But has that changed this week?

The most senior, and arguably ...

Terry Ryan says the Twins aren’t going to be able to buy themselves out of this funk they’re in. He’s absolutely right, especially when it comes to second base, where the Twins OPS ranks 29^th in the majors. Because there is almost nothing to buy.

The free agent market for middle infielders is often limited, but this year’s market for second basemen is especially sparse. I count one starter – Toronto’s Kelly Johnson. Johnson is 31 years old, has a 692 OPS and is slightly below average fielding (according to UZR). And he’s the class of this group.
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On Tuesday night, in a 8-4 loss to the Detroit Tigers, Ben Revere went two-for-five on the night and had his average settle in at .317 – one one-thousandth of a point behind teammate and three-time American League batting champion Joe Mauer. This average was a far cry from his numbers last year when on this same day he was hitting a paltry .245.

After being sent to Rochester in the early part of 2012, Revere worked with Red Wings hitting coach Tom Brunansky to get his swing back to the one which was producing consistent .300 averages over his minor league career. Together they found one small difference in his major league and minor league swing.

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This was originally posed at Knuckleballsblog.com.

I’m not sure any sport has spawned more clichés than baseball. Right now, though, even clichés that are applicable to multiple sports seem to make me think of the Twins.



As I’ve been following the the team lately, I keep hearing various clichés in my mind (“look the ball in to your glove, Nishi.” “Make sure of one, Nishi.”). A lot of them come to mind, however, as I reflect on the entirety of the Twins’ season.

Plenty of discussion in Twinsville recently has revolved around the fact that the Twins’ record since mid-May has been respectable… even slightly above .500 perhaps, depending upon when you start to measure those games in your cherry-picking exercise. I tend to think that kind of exercise is best reserved for the lonely off-season when you're trying to find hope for the future. ...

Earlier this week, Charley Walters of the Pioneer Press asked Terry Ryan whether the team's recent run of success has affected the way he's preparing for the offseason.

"Regardless of what you look like right now, you still look at the club and figure out where you're headed and where you need to add," Ryan told Walters. "My focus and our focus will always be, as you go through a season, to look at what you've got and what you've got coming up."

What the Twins have got and what they've got coming up are one in the same: bats. ...

Last year, Minnesota's outfield was a mess. Among players who put in significant time at an OF spot, only Michael Cuddyer and Jason Kubel posted an OPS over .700, and neither appeared in more than 77 games as on outfielder (Cuddyer due to Justin Morneau's injury, Kubel due to his own). This, along with Denard Span's costly injury, left a lot of at-bats for the likes of Delmon Young, Jason Repko, Rene Tosoni and a rookie Ben Revere, all of whom struggled mightily.

This year has produced a rather dramatic turnaround, as the Twins' outfield has been one of the most stable and successful in memory.
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