When the Twins announced the retooling of their coaching staff at the conclusion of the regular season, one of the first names to come to mind for most Twins fans was former Twins player and Twin Cities native Paul Molitor. The Hall of Fame player is currently employed by the organization as a roving minor league instructor and he served as bench coach for Tom Kelly from 1999 to 2001. In interviews since the Twins cleared out their coach staff, Molitor expressed interested in coaching with the team if he was asked. ...
Aaron and John preview the Minnesota Twins offseason by reviewing possible free agents and then give a quick tutorial on how struggling organizations can take advantage of MLB's transaction rules. Here are: the podcaststhe rss feed if you want to subscribe andthe podcast on iTunes.
The World Series is almost underway, which means that the official start of the offseason is rapidly approaching. When the free agent market opens up, one of the central figures will be Zack Greinke, who is the clear top dog in a deep pitching pack. The former Cy Young winner offers ace-level ability, youth and a durable track record. Sure, there are a few question marks surrounding the right-hander, who turns 29 this weekend. He's had some anxiety issues ...
I am a teacher by trade. I am a teacher period. One of the most important parts of teaching is giving quality feedback. Students need to understand what mistakes they are making and how they can fix them. It is equally important to provide good feedback to students when they do something well. Without feedback, students have a hard time understanding whether or not they met expectations. Grades are given because they are fairly universal. Most people know what an A or an F is. ...
Updated 10-19-2012 at 08:47 AM by Brad Swanson
Episode 9 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact, is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here. (This post originally appeared at www.puckettspond.com) It's been a slow week in Twins news, but we still found some things to talk about in episode 9. Eric talks about Twins related items that he's trying to acquire from Ebay for less than a quarter (shipping ...
At the beginning of the season, it was the easy choice to pick the Tigers to win the American League Central because of their pitching depth and the additions the team made in the offseason. The run to the top of the Central didn't go as smoothly as fans of the Tigers would have liked during the course of the season. Detroit didn't runaway with the division as experts predicted because the White Sox turned out to be a better team than most thought they would be and there were some other struggles ...
This concludes my 2013 blueprint. So far it has involved adding Edwin Jackson and Shaun Marcum as the two new additions to the team. It also would mean a return of Scott Baker on an incentive-laded deal, giving Anthony Slama a chance, and a wait-and-see approach with Kyle Gibson. In terms of position players, instead of worrying about who to trade, I have argued that having a good PH option for every game is actually a good idea, whether it be (by rotation) Parmelee, Morneau, Mauer, Doumit, Willingham, ...
As Seth Stohs mentioned yesterday, while the rest of us at Twins Daily were all stark raving mad about Kyle Gibson’s performance in the Arizona Fall League, another Twins prospect was making noise even further south. Outfielder Aaron Hicks, who is playing winter ball in Venezuela, is off to a fast start this offseason, matching the expectation he set from his in-season performance at New Britain. Of course, ...
As the Twins enter their second straight offseason following 90-plus-loss seasons, I find it really hard to write a "blueprint". There are many directions the club could go to improve their team. Without any real idea which (if any) of those "directions" are feasible, I'm going to break it down into a series that previews upcoming roster moves. So far this offseason - besides the news that a few coaches wouldn't be returning - the only news has been the re-signings of a handful of ...
After our weekly podcast, Aaron & I are going to try doing a short video that recaps the podcast and gets into other silliness. Immediately following episode 63, Aaron evaluates the podcast & comments further on the state of the Twins farm system while John mocks him from behind the iPhone's blinding light. Make sure to tune in next week, when we brave the new frontier of landscape mode.
In a season with few positive notes for the Minnesota Twins, one had to be Scott Diamond's breakout. On April 6th, Diamond was barely an afterthought; he had been selected in the previous year's Rule V draft and stashed in AAA where he failed to impress anybody, pitching himself to a 4-14 record with a 5.56 ERA in 2011. By May 8th, Diamond had generated some buzz, starting 6 games and allowing just 12 runs in his third season in AAA. His first major league start was a resounding ...
This article was originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com. Yes, you read that right. If you live in Eastern Iowa or have been thinking about making a trip to Cedar Rapids to check out the home of the Cedar Rapids Kernels, the Twins’ new Class A Midwest League affiliate, the Kernels are inviting you to watch a World Series game with them. Thursday, October 25, ...
I realize that Ryan relies on his generalize and cover-all-the bases type of response to all questions, like “there are a lot of starters we need to look at” or “we need to make sure we put the right people in the right place”, but I too would be interested in more specifics. The biggest question I have is about multi-year contracts for a starting pitcher. Given the reluctance to for a three of four-year contract in the past, does anything change with the Morneau contract going off ...
In an interview over the weekend with 1500 ESPN, Terry Ryan spoke about one of the Twins biggest needs during the offseason. The starting rotation for the Twins was in shambles in 2012 due to combination of factors like season ending injuries, poor play, and inconsistencies on the mound. Scott Baker, Carl Pavano, and Jason Marquis were supposed to comprise three-fifths of the starting rotation coming out of spring training. Baker wouldn't make it out of Florida after injuring his elbow and undergoing ...