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What a difference a year makes.
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Ben Rortvedt (Photo: SD Buhr)

A year ago, Ben Rortvedt was getting his first taste of full-season minor league baseball after having been drafted out of high school in the second round of the 2016 amateur draft by the Minnesota Twins....

With all the technological advancements made in baseball, its easy to get lost in the mess. There's new stats that make zero sense to some people, but the issue is just understanding what they tell us. Batting average and ERA are easy to grasp. What percentage of this batter's at-bats have resulted in hits? How many earned-runs does this pitcher give up o...

After a drubbing to the New York Yankees in their first matchup since the Wild Card loss last season, the Minnesota Twins had some questions to be answered. Jake Odorizzi struggled, and the bullpen provided little in the form of relief. With position player Ryan LaMarre finishing out the game, Paul Molitor needed some reinforcements, but the question now...

Brian Dozier was on MLB Network yesterday and the Twins' second baseman -- in the midst of a 25-game hitting streak , by the way -- and demonstrating the changes he made in order to go from a puncher of a middle infielder to a a second base capable of bopping 40 home runs.

If you are a player, coach, instructor or just a fan curious to know the thought p...

Putting a runner on base in extra innings, limiting the amount of trips to the mound, and different clocks have been implemented by MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred over the last few seasons in an effort to speed up the game of baseball. While we here at Twins And Losses didn’t mind the pace of play before Manfred’s time-saving chang… What’s that? The average...

It is many years overdue. I have been on this bandwagon for at least 3 years. Just been a waste of time.

The Twins offense has been right around average so far in 2018, ranking 7th in the AL in runs scored per game and 9th in wRC+. It’s early, but if we assume that Logan Morrison, Robbie Grossman and Byron Buxton (once healthy) improve as the season progresses, and even if Max Kepler can’t maintain a 1.000 OPS and Ryan LaMarre isn’t the greatest hitter of ou...

This is an excerpt of a story that originates on Zone Coverage here . Please click through to read it in full.

Mother Nature has a cruel and ironic sense of humor.

While the Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox had three-quarters of a four-game set turned into a winter wonderland last weekend, it’s going to be a balmy 67 degrees on Monday — just in t...

They say you should write your dreams down right when you wake up in order to remember them clearly. After returning from a dreamlike day and a half in San Juan, I’m feeling like the exercise will be helpful for me as well. Luckily, I don’t have the deadline many local writers had after the 16 inning marathon of game two.

The seed for the idea was plante...

Today, Sam Miller at ESPN wrote that the Strikeout rate in baseball is going up for the 14th year in a row. Last year pitchers struck out 8.2 batters per nine and this year it is 8.6 so far. The first question is why don't batters care? Second question is - how do we compare strikeout rates now with past pitching performances and careers - although Nol...

Don't look now, but Tyler Duffey is pitching very well in Rochester.

He's pitched eight innings so far, all in relief, in three games, and he's done something that's a bit odd: He has a 2-1 record with NO EARNED RUNS allowed. (He's allowed two unearned runs.)

He's struck out 10 in 8 innings, and has issued no walks and only 2 hits (That's a 0.25 WHIP ra...

Why can't Target Field have a yeti?

Even a dedicated master of the art of SUPERNATURAL BASEBALL has trouble cobbling together enough words to delve into the spirit of this wonderful sport. It's difficult enough to put on a face to open your door in these days of late, late winter. No baseball cap upon your head but instead a STOCKING CAP where the pom po...

Don't know for sure if this will affect tonight's game or not, but it just came across the news that the whole (yes the WHOLE) island of PR has lost power and initially, it is not expected to be restored for 24 to 36 hours.

But on a more humanitarian note, this really stinks for the residents of PR.

Being a Twins fan, and a statistics major, there are always connections to be made between on the field performance and statistics for a player. This has never been more available as statcast has allowed for measuring exit velocities, launch angles, and many other statistics for both pitchers and hitters. I wanted to look into which of these statistics ha...

FT. MYERS, Fla - A weekly rundown of what is happening with the Ft. Myers Miracle

4/8 @ Charlotte Stone Crabs- In the loss to Charlotte 4-1, Jaylin Davis went 2 for 4 with a home run which was the only run of the game. The starting pitcher, Brady Anderson hurled 6 innings and gave up 4 hits and 2 runs.

4/9 Florida Fire Frogs- In the first series again...

After struggling his previous two seasons in the Minnesota Twins organization, Rortvedt is on fire to start 2018. He is finally coming into his own and becoming the catcher many thought he would become when drafted in the second round out of high school in 2016. After two subpar years, the great Tom Froemming and I were still high really high on Rortvedt....

In 2017, Royce Lewis was a standout player on and off the field. Last year he hit .279/.360/.407 with the Gulf Coast League Twins and the Cedar Rapid Kernels. His exceptional skills made me wonder. How does he stack up against previous #1 draft picks out of High School?

There is no doubt that Ken Griffey Jr. was the best #1 pick out of High School. Howev...

For the Minnesota Twins 2017 was a year that surpassed the expectations of most fans. The team made the playoffs, and the manager kept his job (though we finally got rid of Neil Allen). One of the most encouraging features of the 2017 season was Byron Buxton's performance, which netted him a career high 3.5 Wins Above Replacement, placing him 11th among...

For the Minnesota Twins 4th round pick in the 2015 Amateur Draft, they selected Trey Cabbage. Since Trey was drafted, he has been hitting .229/.305/.325 for the GCL Twins, Elizabethton Twins, and the Cedar Rapids Kernels. I had a chance to speak to Trey via. Instagram.

Me: What has been your favorite memory in the Twins organization?

Trey: Obviously dra...

The Twins infield depth took a real hit when it was announced that Jorge Polanco would have to serve an 80-game suspension for testing positive for PEDs. As it stands, every Twins infielder on the Twins 40-man roster is also on the 25-man roster.

Again, for these projections I used PECOTA (via Baseball Prospectus ), along with ZiPS and Steamer (via Fangr...