A year ago, the Twins went into the regular season with a bench consisting of Drew Butera, Jason Repko, Matt Tolbert and Jim Thome. In other words: three guys who possessed only defensive value, and one who possessed only offensive value. It was a pretty limiting group, and the lack of flexibility caused headaches for Ron Gardenhire with starters shuttling in and out of the lineup all summer. Repko, Tolbert and Thome won't be back this year, and that's probably no coincidence. Nor is ...
Fellow Twins fans, I can not understand how all of you and especially our ridiculously non-critical Minnesota media misses it, but can anyone see the five year plan the Pohlad crew has in store for you? Lets start by reminding everyone that both the Pohlad boys flat out admitted while pops was alive that they had no interest what so ever in operating or owning the Minnesota Twins......But then the money machine that runs the blood of the Pohlad's pointed out the cash cow that could be achieved ...
Blog Post #1 By: Aaron Bates Follow my daily Spring Training journey on twitter at: @A33bates Hey Guys! I'm very excited that Seth Stohs asked me to do a regular blog throughout spring training. It's truly one of my favorite times of year as I love getting back on the field and seeing my teammates after a long off season. I will be talking about a variety of things through my blogging, but sorry this won't be a place for any inside scoop or gossip. It's more ...
Updated 02-28-2012 at 09:17 PM by Nick Nelson
Hey everybody, Seth Stohs turned me on to this site. I am going to try my hardest to make sure to get on and blog about the daily life of a Minor Leaguer playing in the Twins organization. I will write as much as possible, hopefully once a week. I’d like to start off my introducing myself and giving you all a little background on myself. I’m Dakota Watts, born and raised in Oroville, California, son of Buddy and Brenda Watts, and am currently 24 years old. A little baseball ...
Updated 02-28-2012 at 09:25 PM by Nick Nelson
Many Twins fans have expressed disappointment in the Twins lack of spending. Do the Twins need to spend more money? The answer to this is no. The 2012 payroll is sitting at roughly 100 million, which ranks among the top in all of baseball. Also, spending more money does not always translate to wins, for example the 2011 Twins. The Twins will now have the flexibility to make a trade at the trading deadline and have the chance to acquire more talent. Finally, when Terry Ryan was in his first stint ...
The Minnesota Twins will win the AL Central in 2012. They have not made the flashiest moves this offseason, but they have made the right ones. While the Detroit Tigers get all of the attention, the Twins will fly under the radar. Under Ron Gardenhire, the Twins have become accustomed to being overlooked. The Twins need to keep in mind that history repeats itself. The Tigers will not win because they lack a solid defense. The old saying is "defense wins championships" and that's exactly ...
[Originally posted at my blog, http://twinsfanfromafar.blogspot.com] There is breaking Twins-related minor league news this afternoon in Central Connecticut, where it has been announced that the New Britain Rock Cats, which had done very well in the community and in terms of attendance, under owners Bill Dowling (former attorney for George Steinbrenner) and Coleman ...
Updated 02-28-2012 at 02:26 PM by Seth Stohs
Here we are, less than a week into full Twins spring training workouts. Games don’t even start for a couple of days. It’s time to start talking position battles, right? It appears to me that there are actually very few positions that are up for grabs at this stage of camp. Of course, as injuries mount through spring training, more position battles can spring up, but for now, there are a lot of givens on the roster. Hitters: Joe Mauer, Ryan Doumit, Justin Morneau, Alexi Casilla, Danny ...
This will be the debut post in what I hope to be a weekly column updating the performances and scouting reports on prospects I believe are/should be on the Twins radar. I hope to have a high school round up posted later this week, but for now let’s start with the college prospects. Stats from Feb. 17th-26th Mark Appel has dominated much of the Twins draft coverage so far this winter and rightfully so. In his most recent start, he turned in possibly his best career performance ...
The Butera problem goes like this - Drew Butera is both horrible at hitting baseballs and beloved by Twins fans. If only there was a way to keep him around Target Field without letting him get to the plate . . . Guess what? There is. Drew Butera should be the Twins mascot. There are lots of reason why Butera could step into TC Bear's shoes without much difficulty. -- He's kind of a wee little guy, and it seems like that helps with fitting into ...
This is a regular weekly feature at The Tenth Inning Stetch and is partially reposted here. You can find the original here Here is this week's installment (heavily influenced by Spring Training) : Wishing my best to Joel Zumaya, who's career with the Twins for all practical purposes ended last Sunday. Several media outlets have mentioned that he is considering retiring from baseball and becoming a professional fisherman. Terry Ryan indicated that the Twins most likely ...
The following was originally posted at www.knuckleballsblog.com I realize I’m several days late to the party in terms of discussing the arbitrator’s ruling in favor of Brewers’ star Ryan Braun, but it took me a while to come to grips with exactly how I feel about it. I’ve now done that and I’ve concluded one thing for certain… I want the movie rights. Before you scoff, remember that Hollywood made a successful movie last year about Oakland A’s General Manager ...
Well, I have exactly a week left before spring training and, I’m sure just like many of my teammates, there are plenty of things on my mind. The Emotions At one end of the spectrum, spring training brings about feelings of excitement and readiness that I cant really put into words. We’ve all quietly prepared ourselves. We know what we need to do. We can’t get moved up levels while were at home in the off-season. This is what its all about. It’s go time. ...
Updated 02-28-2012 at 08:11 AM by Seth Stohs
One of the Twins biggest offseason investments was in the form of 38-year old middle infielder Jamey Carroll. The versatile free agent was brought to the organization to help solidify a middle infield that waffled through a gargantuan amount of issues in 2011. He seems to get better with age and the Twins are hoping their two-year investment in the elder statesman can continue ...
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