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I went back to a January 18, 2017 blog by Brandon Warne in which he predicted the Twins would win 80 games and asked readers to comment and make their own predictions. The blog was eight pages long but by page five, the predictions stopped and the criticisms of the team began. Most of the negative comments were about how horrible the Twins defense would by in 2017, especially at third base with Miguel Sano~. Here is a summary of the predictions that I found: Brandon Warne: 80 Wsnydes: 70-
What a HUGE game! Have any or our pitchers pitched 4 straight great? Ervin? This was a big, big game for Twins, How about Polanco? Where would we be without him? AWESOME!
Please click through to Zone Coverage here to read this article in its entirety. A Minnesota Twins win coupled with a Los Angeles Angels loss on Wednesday flipped the script in the Wild Card chase yet again. The Twins halted a skid of losing three straight games and four of their last five, and jumped back ahead of the Angels by a half-game for the final Wild Card spot behind the New York Yankees. That half-game difference will go away on Thursday, as the Twins head to Kansas City to take on
Please click through to Zone Coverage here to read this article in its entirety. A Minnesota Twins win coupled with a Los Angeles Angels loss on Wednesday flipped the script in the Wild Card chase yet again. The Twins halted a skid of losing three straight games and four of their last five, and jumped back ahead of the Angels by a half-game for the final Wild Card spot behind the New York Yankees. That half-game difference will go away on Thursday, as the Twins head to Kansas City to take on
10 seasons into his Major League Baseball career, Joe Mauer was a number one overall pick playing for the hometown team, and owned the title of being the best catcher in the sport. Across that span, he had played in 1,178 games slashing .323/.405/.468. With awards piling up, it seemed certain a career was destined to be capped off with a Hall of Fame ceremony, the a traumatic brain injury occurred. Things have been different since, but in 2017, the Twins long tenured star is forcing us to recons
Please click through to Zone Coverage here to read this article in full. Robbie Grossman came off the disabled list on Tuesday morning and is in the lineup against the Rays, batting ninth and DH’ing against righty Jake Odorizzi. With that move, the Twins offense is almost completely healthy. That’s not to say that Miguel Sano is not a significant loss — he is — but rather from a health standpoint, the Twins only have one player on the shelf offensively — as opposed to, say, a handful of pitc
Recently spent 3 days outside of Cleveland watching Midwest League games between Lake County Captains and Lansing Lugnuts. Sitting behind home plate the first evening I glanced to my right and did a double take. There with a stopwatch in his left hand and radar gun in right was Terry Ryan. Watching him work gave me an appreciation of the hard work he puts in when watching a game. He had an 8.5 x 14" sheet for each team and he was evaluating every player. Every pitch he put the gun down and w
In 2017, the early narrative for the Minnesota Twins was again the offensive struggles for Byron Buxton. The uber prospect had slumped out of the gate, and that's putting things nicely. Through May, he was hitting just .201, and a June slump bottomed him out at .195 as of July 3rd. Then things changed, and they've only gotten better since. While Buxton has grown at the plate, it also appears he's able to command it as well. Early in the season, Buxton struggled with both pitch recognition, and
Swings dictate the outcome of virtually every game. That was no exception when the Kansas City Royals beat the Minnesota Twins 5-4 at Target Field to take a 2-1 series victory and again move onto the brink of .500 for the season at 67-68. However, in this case, it was two swings in the same plate appearance that sent the Twins to defeat — their 65th of the season — and, at the close of business Sunday, prevented them from expanding their 1.5-game lead on the Los Angeles Angels and Baltimore Or
The Minnesota Twins beat the Kansas City Royals 17-0 on Saturday night at Target Field to even the series heading into Sunday’s rubber game, and it wasn’t all Onelki Garcia’s fault. He didn’t give Nate Karns thoracic outlet syndrome. He didn’t impinge Danny Duffy’s elbow or pass out while intoxicated in a Burger King parking lot. He also didn’t purchase his own plane ticket to Minneapolis after posting a 5.04 ERA at Triple-A Omaha, with a 1.55 WHIP and nearly four walks per nine innings.
“The Twins just won’t go away. They could lose 10-0, but they just won’t quit,” said Casey Stern on Sirius/XM’s Inside Pitch show on Friday afternoon. It was almost prophetic, as the Minnesota Twins went from winning in the most improbable way on Thursday afternoon to nearly repeating it against the Kansas City Royals on Friday night in a 7-6 loss at Target Field. The Twins scored two runs and had the bases loaded with two outs in the ninth against Royals closer Kelvin Herrera, but could not c
There was a time, particularly during his first stint as Twins GM, that Terry Ryan was a trading partner to be feared, largely because of his ability to turn throw-in prospects into major league contributors. There are stories -- likely apocryphal -- of opposing GMs deeming a low-level prospect untouchable because Ryan had been inquiring as to his availability. The reputation wasn’t without merit: Dave Hollins became David Ortiz; Chuck Knoblauch turned into Eric Milton, Cristian Guzman, Buck Buc
Please click through to Zone Coverage here to read this article in full. A lot of fans lament about how players get better after they leave the Twins, and sometimes it’s fun to draw up a 25-man roster of former players to see just how true that is. We’ve changed that up a little bit with this exercise, however. Here, we’re looking for players who have Twins fingerprints on them. Did a player get picked in the Rule 5 draft and get sent back? They would count. Did the Twins draft them but not
Please click through to Zone Coverage here to read this entire story. Thursday’s win was a strange one for the Minnesota Twins. They came from behind to tie the game in the fifth inning, only to have closer Matt Belisle give up the go-ahead home run in the ninth. They bunted -- oh, they bunted -- to no avail in both the eighth and ninth innings. And yet despite all that -- they won. They won their 20th game of the month of August, wrapping up a sweep against a torpedoing White Sox club for t
Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc. What, you didn't take Latin in school? That's no excuse for not knowing the English translation of that phrase. After all, it played a pivotal role in an episode of the Aaron Sorkin political drama, "The West Wing," only a couple of decades ago. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/LewisWatkins17-600x400.jpg Manager Tommy Watkins and Royce Lewis (photo by SD Buhr) Fine, since most of you still probably have no clue, I'll provide the tran
Please go to Zone Coverage here to read this story in full. The Minnesota Twins came into Wednesday night with a 68-63 record. It might not mean much, but the 1987 Twins also headed into Aug. 30 with an identical record, en route to the first World Series in the franchise’s post-Washington D.C. tenure. That 1987 team also caught fire late in the season, including perhaps most notably going 16-11 in September. In an era where only two teams from each league made the postseason, that 85-win cl
Please click through to Zone Coverage here to read this in its entirety. Greetings from Target Field, where it’s overcast and very warm as the Minnesota Twins prepare for game two of a three-game series against the Chicago White Sox. It’ll be righty Jose Berrios (4.04 ERA, 3.99 FIP in 111.1 innings) on the mound for the Twins, while the White Sox will counter with lefty Derek Holland (6.05 ERA, 6.40 FIP in 129.1 innings). More on that in a bit. Tuesday night’s win guaranteed the Twins vic
Ok, I really think he is tied with Berrios.....I cant understand the constant banging of Gibson. Yes he has pitched some terrible gamea but he also has pitched some gems, and has been competitive in other games. Yes he fails about 25% of the time....but do you have a better option? Not only is he the best option the Twins have as middle rotation pitcher.....but he should come back next year as well, Souhan is wrong. On this subject do you realize how many clunkers Berrios has thrown? Wh
The 1987 season was a magical ride for the Minnesota Twins and their fans. The 162 game baseball season is often referred to as a “Marathon, not a sprint.” Thirty years later, one game on a Sunday afternoon in Milwaukee still stands out in my mind above all the rest. The Twins entered play on Sunday, August 30th, 1987 in a virtual tie with the Oakland Athletics atop the American League West Division, with a record of 68-63. (Coincidentally, the 2017 Twins also enter play on August 30th at 68-6
With his last three swings in Toronto on Sunday, Minnesota Twins center fielder Byron Buxton likely erased any doubts of his ability to hit Major League pitching — the final step in securing his place amongst the stars of Major League Baseball. New Twins’ president Derek Falvey and general manager Thad Levine have little reason to worry about signing Buxton to a long-term deal as early as this offseason, and that’s not an overreaction to Sunday’s three swings. This was originally published at
As the summer draws to a close, the Major League Baseball season is again set to throw us a roster shakeup. With teams having their rosters expand from 25 players to 40, there will be a host of additions to big league clubs across the sport. For a team like the Twins in the midst of a Postseason race, each call up could prove integral when it comes to squeaking out an extra win or two. The question is, who's on their way up? To refresh, virtually the only stipulation for September roster expan
Please click here to read this story in its entirety at Zone Coverage. Players Weekend is over and it went by without Ervin Santana throwing a single pitch. He still stood true to his jersey nickname on Tuesday night at Target Field, however, as for five innings he performed Magic in a 6-4 win over the Chicago White Sox. It was a nice bounce-back performance for Santana, if that’s what you’d like to call it. The Twins lost his last start 4-3 at Guaranteed Rate field on Wednesday -- also a Sa
It’s sunny and warm at Target Field as the Minnesota Twins prepare to open a three-game set against the Chicago White Sox. It’ll be a pair of righties doing battle, as the Twins send Ervin Santana (3.24 ERA, 4.66 FIP in 169.1 innings) to the mound to tangle with James Shields (5.63 ERA, 6.13 FIP in 80 innings) of the White Sox. This will be the second matchup in a row between the pitchers, with the White Sox beating the Twins 4-3 last Wednesday at Guaranteed Rate Field. More on that in a bit.
On Saturday, Tait went 2-for-4 with a walk and his 17th double. The 19-year-old is hitting .219 with 17 doubles and 15 home runs at High-A Cedar Rapids.
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