Very Well Then

We Didn’t Start (Tony) Fiore: An Ode to the 2002 Twins
Inspired by Billy Joel’s concert at Target Field on July 28th.

Tom Kelly retires. Terry Ryan rehires.
Carl Pohlad conspires with Commissioner Bud.
Contraction. Legal Action. Metrodome gets an injunction.
Forty year old franchise. Saved by a judge.

A decade since ’91. Losing in near every one.
New...

You know who I blame for this complete mess of a season that is the 2016 Twins?

Quentin Tarantino.

This winter, I sat down in a movie theater to watch the gory glory of Tarantino's Hateful Eight in all its 70 mm Ultra Panavision splendor. Tarantino set his most recent carnage-piece in an isolated stagecoach lodge called Minnie's Haberdashery.

"Minnie...

It’s that time of the year when everyone offers up their opinions on how they’d improve the Twins if they owned the team. Just like everyone else (including George Steinbrenner in real life), I’m going to ignore that the role of owner is distinct from the roles general manager and manager.
Here is goes. If I owned the Twins…
If I owned the Twins I w...

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 w...

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 sl...

[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 sing...

[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....

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 (m...

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 (...