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“Babies for everyone!” was one of St. Paul Saints broadcaster Sean Aronson’s more memorable calls during the 2016 season. (It referred to a hitting tear Saints third baseman Nate Hanson went on after returning to the lineup following the birth of his child.) Throughout the year, sports fans let a few dulcet toned folks into their lives on a daily basis to bring them the sights and sounds of their favorite pastime. Did you ever wonder who these people are when the headsets are off? Aronson did, a
As the Minnesota Twins enter the 2017 Major League Baseball season, the focus will undoubtedly be on getting better pitching performances than those that saw the club post league worst numbers. It's fairly realistic to expect a rebound from an offense that was expected to carry the club, and we shouldn't be shocked if that happens. What Paul Molitor must do is utilize hometown hero Joe Mauer in the most sensible way possible. Once a surefire Hall of Famer, Mauer has watched his career be sappe
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Granted, it probably wasn't anywhere near the "worst of times" for Stuart Turner and Mitch Garver, but the excitement of learning they had been drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the June, 2013 Amateur Draft had to have been at least slightly dampened with the realization that the Twins had drafted both of them. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GarverAFL16ae-600x400.jpg Mitch Garver (Photo: SD Buhr) Going into th
The Rule 5 Draft took place at the conclusion of the Major League Baseball Winter Meetings. As teams selected players from other organizations that must stay on their 25 man roster throughout the duration of the upcoming season, Minnesota continues to reap the rewards of solid Rule 5 Draft success. In the 2016 version, Minnesota had the first overall pick and selected a pitcher from the Brewers organization, Miguel Diaz. He was sent to the Padres in exchange for Justin Haley, a pitcher from th
It was time for a change. On the first day of the 2016 Winter Meetings in National Harbor, Maryland, the Minnesota Twins announced a shake up within their scouting department. Deron Johnson, who was the director of scouting since 2007, has been promoted to senior advisor and will strictly evaluate the top talent here in the states and abroad. In a corresponding move, Sean Johnson was promoted from West Coast supervisor to director of scouting and will oversee all preparation for the upcoming MLB
There are some real intriguing arms in this draft. With Falveys guidance, I think there is a good chance the Twins strike gold in this draft. That said, i want to explain my choice and the one I hope the Twins will make. There are probably at least five arms to look at and all of them have their different merits. Can we all agree that the Twins will not be in the pennant race next year? If you agree, or even think thats plausible, then I say, go for potential, go for the rare arm as unrefi
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- The Twins have the first overall pick in the Rule 5 draft this week. Previously, I discussed the potential Twins' liabilities in the draft. Now that all major league 40-man rosters are settled in as far as who is unprotected, I will be listing five players who should be interesting targets for the Twins. A bit of a reminder regarding how the draft works: A team can select any unprotected player of any other team and pay $100,000 (increas
Aroldis Chapman is reportedly seeking a contract in the range of 6 yrs, $100M. Give it to him. Right now. Throw in an extra $10M bringing total to 6 yr $110 (which figures in the fact of actually getting him to WANT to play in MN). Why you may ask? Because we will turn him into a starting pitcher. As a reliever, he is not quite worth that type of money. However, when you add together the value of the prospect of him being a dominant starter, it is quite a different story--especially th
With plenty of different happenings going on in baseball during this time of the year, it's hard to stick simply to one topic. The Winter Meetings are now in full swing, and the Minnesota Twins should be plenty busy fielding calls on trade asset Brian Dozier. For the purpose of this post though, there's two notes I wanted to expand upon. The first is in the way in which Official Baseball Writers Association of America members handle their Hall of Fame votes. Recently former Commissioner Bud Se
As Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association came to agreement on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, the Mid-Summer Classic hardly went ignored. Sure there was decisions made on an International Draft, Qualifying Offers, and the new Luxury Tax thresholds, but it was the All Star Game decision that caught the attention of the Associated Press late Wednesday night. With the new CBA, Major League Baseball decided intelligently that the exhibition game should no l
Of recent, the Minnesota Twins have made a history of reuniting with players on the field that don't make a ton of sense. Whether it was Jason Bartlett, Matt Guerrier, or Jason Kubel, veterans on the tail end of their careers aren't a great move for a bad team. In hiring Torii Hunter, LaTroy Hawkins, and Michael Cuddyer as Special Assistants, Derek Falvey and Thad Levine seem to have picked a meaningful reunion. While the trio will no doubt be asked to provide value, they are not in significan
As is the case around this time of the year, Hall of Fame ballots are sent out. To Official Baseball Writers Association of America members, they are mailed and returned as such. Through the forward thinking Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, email is utilized to streamline the process. Once again, I have the privilege of completing a ballot. Before getting into the selections themselves, I wanted to lay a few guidelines out. First and foremost, the IBWAA has already voted in th
It's no secret that the biggest position of need for the Twins is the pitching staff. Sadly, this is a very weak free agent pitching class, and with arms like Santana, Hughes and Gibson still around and reports out that the Twins won't be adding payroll this offseason there doesn't look to be much in the way of room for additions anyway. Looks to be a bleak 2017 led by another dismal performance by the pitching staff. Or is it? What if the first step on the journey to fixing the pitching is a st
Recently, the Minnesota Twins made among the first big splashes in free agency this winter by signing catcher Jason Castro. He's not a bank-breaking starting pitcher, and he won't light the world on fire at the plate, but the acquisition sends all the right messages throughout Twins Territory. First and foremost you must understand who Jason Castro is. Sure, a three-year, $24.5 million deal for a player with a .684 OPS might seem egregious in today's offensive era of baseball. Looking at the f
The Minnesota Twins just added Triple-A catching prospect Mitch Garver to their 40-man roster. This is good news for Twins fans as Kurt Suzuki has entered free agency this offseason. Suzuki has been the starting catcher for Minnesota for the past three seasons, and it appears that the Twins will need a replacement. Garver just could be the right man for the job. The 26-year-old catcher was drafted in 2013 out of New Mexico. A ninth-round pick, Garver has made steady progress every year since h
The Surprise Saguaros headed into the final day of the AFL season needing to win their game with the Salt River Rafters to clinch a spot in the AFL Championship game, and were able to do so with contributions from four of the Twins players. Stephen Gonsalves punctuated his shortened time in the AFL with a six strikeout effort in his start on Tuesday, Nick Gordon finished the year near the top of several statistical categories, and a couple of the bullpen arms closed out their showings with goo
If you're not familiar with this award designation, that's more than understandable. After reading through Patrick Reusse's Turkey of the Year last fall, I found myself moved to create a designation for the Minnesota Twins. The Diamond Treasure award was designed to shed light upon an area of the organization that provides excitement for the future while displaying roots in the past. A season ago, the Diamond Treasure was given to Miguel Sano. After being talked about as a prospect for so long
(Author Note: Apologies on the late report again this week, but it’s still hunting season) Twins prospects playing with the Surprise Saguaros helped their team to a 4-2 record in Week 5, and their (current) record of 16-13 overall is tops in the West Division. On the position player front, Nick Gordon continued looking like a legitimate leadoff man, Mitch Garver stood out defensively, and Tanner English continued to pose as a piranha at the end of the Surprise Saguaros lineup. On the pitching
The Minnesota Twins have kicked off their 2016 offseason by introducing new Chief Baseball Officer Derek Falvey, and General Manager Thad Levine. Outside of the front office and coaching staff changes, the club hasn't done much with the roster thus far. Before the snow flies, that makes sense, but come Friday they'll need to make decisions on their 40 man roster inclusions. With the deadline to protect minor leaguers from the Rule 5 Draft quickly approaching, the Twins will have to do some shu
Entering into the 2017 Major League Baseball season, the Minnesota Twins might be very close to having to write off a long term organization staple. Glen Perkins is currently working his way back from shoulder surgery, and if his labrum issues weren't concerning enough, the sum of all parts presents plenty of reason for pause. After being name an All-Star for the third straight season in 2015, Perkins went on to post a 7.32 ERA across 19.2 innings the rest of the way. He recorded just four sav
The opinions of an agent regarding a baseball front office overhaul aren’t usually considered terribly important. However, when that agent is Scott Boras, the comments he makes tend to be worthy of closer attention from both fans and the media. In this case, the front office in question is the Minnesota Twins, which has brought in two key executives to run the team. Former Cleveland Indians assistant general manager Derek Falvey was named the Twins’ chief baseball officer and Thad Levine was t
A year ago, the Minnesota Twins had one of the best farm systems in all of baseball. There was a ton of top tier talent, and the bulk of it was near major league ready. Miguel Sano had paved the way by making his debut in 2015, and there was plenty of youth on the way to the Twin Cities to join him. This season, the Twins won't have quite that level of prospect talent, but there's reinforcements on the way. Prior to free agency getting underway, and the Twins shaping their 40 man roster for th
The hot stove season is just around the corner, and the GM Meetings have kicked off down in Arizona. As the offseason rolls on, we'll quickly get closer and closer to free agent signings taking place at a rapid pace. I don't believe there's too many names the Twins should be in on (see here), but Jason Castro is one I really like. Now I can understand why a catcher with a less than exciting hit tool might have Minnesota Twins fans down, but there's plenty more to the puzzle here. It's true tha
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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