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Let me preface what will undoubtedly be a long entry by saying I am a Dozier fan. I have spoken to him at Spring Training a couple of times and like the young man. I believe he has been the Twins MVP for each of the last four seasons (counting this one) and I have no doubt that he is the team's best player at this point. Certainly, he isn't flawless, but the Twins need more players like Brian Dozier, not less. Over the course of this long, horrible season, Brian Dozier has often been a hot top
I love the non-insane idea of a lineup that looks like this: Buxton Mauer Dozier Kepler Sano Vargas Polanco Rosario Garver/Murphy Backup catcher, Escobar, Park, and Palka/Walker on the bench. Santana May Berrios Gibson Santiago Pressly O'Rourke Hughes Tonkin Rogers Duffey X I am really not sure about the bullpen. Perkins might be done. Kintzler cannot be trusted. May has said for two years that the bullpen role creates injury problems.
In the spirit of putting stream-of-conscious rants in the blogs section, where nobody will ever see them or have to look at them, I submit this frustrated piece of work in response to the insanity thread poster Shane Wahl started. You have been warned! Another angle I come at this insanity from is the public messaging; in other words, the people who cover this team for the public. Let's start with the television guys, the guys with the most reach. I didn't see any of the broadcasts Jack Mo
And here is the Labor Day weekend edition of the Twins Almanac. While you're reading this I'll be attending my first State Fair of the millennium. Expect the next Almanac to read like it was written by someone five pounds fatter. September 3, 1971 Eric Soderholm’s Eventful MLB Debut Making his major league debut versus Oakland at home at Met Stadium in Bloomington, Eric Soderholm homered off of Diego Segui in just his second big league at-bat. A closer look at the game, though, reveals
In light of some posting styles we have been seeing lately on TD, I thought I'd do some venting of my own ... in a blog. The thread that broke this camel's back was this thread, 'It is time to end the insanity.' I've been meaning to address this for a while now, and have here and there in threads when posts become nothing more than venting general frustrations rather than addressing the topic at hand; and redundant threads get started on this same topic of frustration that seem more like rants t
Byron Buxton is back with the Twins and they won a game. So take that, 13-game losing streak! Transaction Report: Byron Buxton recalled from Rochester to the Big Leagues, Tanner English promoted to Rochester from Fort Myers to replace him, Logan Lombana promoted to fort Myers from Cedar Rapids. Colton Davis was promoted to Cedar Rapids from Elizabethton to complete the chain. Continue reading to find out more detail about Thursday in the Twins farm system: RED WINGS REPORT Lehigh Valley Ir
One of the great things about being a baseball fan is you can always find plenty to be positive about if you’re willing to look hard enough. While 2016 has been a bleak year for the Twins, having 100-plus players in the organization means there are 100-plus opportunities to find some bright spots. It’s no secret that the biggest issue for the Twins has been their pitching. While some of the prospects like Jose Berrios and J.T. Chargois have struggled in their brief time in the major leagues, t
As Major League Baseball allows big league teams to expand their rosters to 40 players come September 1st, it was probably a good bet the Twins would recall Byron Buxton. He was a consensus top prospect in all of baseball, and is absolutely vital to the Twins turning the corner. In calling him back up to the big leagues though, you have to wonder what the plan has been for the Twins as it relates to Buxton. 2015 was a tough debut season for the Twins centerfield phenom. He played in 46 big lea
In 2016, the Minnesota Twins have been among the worst teams in baseball. While that's far from an ideal situation, the reality is that it's provided an opportunity for the organization to get a look at a lot of different players. In too many cases though, they haven't taken it. Why not remains a realistic question. You can almost take your pick as to which players you may want to shake your head at getting significant time for Minnesota. Danny Santana has played in 75 games this season, Juan
The Minnesota Twins have played a lot of bad baseball in 2016. With the worst record in the American League, 49-81, the lone team below them in all of baseball is the hapless Atlanta Braves. In a matter of days though, we could see an influx of prospects from the farm as big league rosters expand. For a team looking for something of interest, this could be it. For the most part, the big names Minnesota Twins fans have been clamoring for have made their debuts. Byron Buxton has gone back and fo
There has been lots of discussion of Jim Pohlad's diagnosis of "total system failure." The owners are business people who rely on baseball experts to run the team, In one interview, Mr. Pohlad said the following: "I’m the type to stand back and let the manager do his job. That’s something I learned from my dad, he would find people he could relate to and had confidence in, and then he let them go and run a business....I believe in that....n this case, I don’t know more about baseball that Paul
And here is the Twins Almanac for Monday, August 29 to Friday, September 2, 2016. Mrs. Johnson broke the internet at my folks' place where we're staying, so I'm posting this from across the pasture at my sister's house. I kind of forgot about this whole humidity thing here in Minnesota. It's alright, though, I'm just pretending I'm on safari. http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w413/mjohnso9/killebrewallison_zpsq2qqq1gi.jpg August 29, 1963 Twins Hit 12 Home Runs The Twins hit a team
The Twins lost their 10th straight on Sunday afternoon, wrapping up one of the worst series we've seen this year, part of one of the worst stretches of Twins baseball we've seen since losing became so popular at 1 Twins Way. In addition to losing the game, the Twins lost Danny Santana to the DL with a sprained shoulder. Transaction Report: The injury to Danny Santana led to a late scratch for Rochester's Logan Schafer as the Twins selected his contract before the Red Wings started on Sunday ev
And here is the Twins Almanac for the weekend of August 27-28, 2016. Mrs. Johnson and I have been busy getting settled here in Minnesota. It's good to be back after a decade out west. Look for a fresh batch of Twins trivia by open of business Monday. http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w413/mjohnso9/20160810_105324_zpsinrwxudh.jpg August 27 Happy 46th Birthday, Jim Thome It’s the birthday of Jim Thome, born in 1970 in Peoria, IL. He had already hit 564 home runs when he signed with
Jose Berrios made his major league debut on April 27, 2016. He now has made nine starts for the Twins, the latest of which came today against the Detroit Tigers. As has been the case more often than not, he wasn't good. This time though, it resulted in Jose Berrios being demoted to Triple-A Rochester. This is the second time Berrios has been demoted by the Twins this season. The latest occurrence though highlights a culture of ineptitude at the big league level. Everyone from Paul Molitor on d
It has already been an interesting year in terms of how the Twins have deployed their players defensively. From Miguel Sano moving all over the place, to Jorge Polanco going from no reps a shortstop in the minors to the everyday guy there on the big club, there have been some decisions that have been worthy of questioning. Well, the questioning seems to be never ending during a down season, and I'd like to pile on and add Mitch Garver's usage on to the list of head scratchers in the organizati
Over the past few days, it seems the talk of Twins starting pitching has reared its head again. I talked about how bad it's been recently, and it probably can't be overstated. Right now, Minnesota has the worst ERA in the big leagues and it's not particularly close. They don't strike anyone out, and it's just not a great situation. A year from now though, they don't need pitching either. Now before getting all up in arms, let's take a step back. It's nearly guaranteed that the Twins will lose
If you've been reading Off The Baggy at all this season, there's been no one I've been more all over the place on than Brian Dozier. From wondering if he's selling out too much, or becoming defiant in his approach during his down swing, to marveling at his uptick, his season has been a roller coaster ride. Since May 25 however, he's turned it on, and the results have been incredible. At this point, you know what Brian Dozier is. He's a pull hitter, although doing so less often than in 2015 (ju
It was a low-scoring night throughout the system Tuesday, but that means there were several good pitching performances for the Twins affiliates. As an organization, they combined for just 19 runs (2.7 per game) on the day, but because of those performance went 5-2 on the day in the minor leagues. To see which other starting pitchers came through besides the dominating effort from lefty Jason Wheeler at AAA, keep reading! RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 6, Norfolk 0 Box Score Rochester’s offense
Your dose of history from my vat of Twins facts / folklore. It's the Mickey Mantle Homerun Video, from the game of August 22, 1968. The Bomber Bully deposited Twins lefty Jim Merritt's curve into the lower, leftfield stands at Metropolitan Stadium, in Bloomington. More importantly, it was his swan song, his arrivederci to Minnesota fans. Check it out.
There's no denying that 2016 has been a colossal disappointment across Twins Territory. Even if you weren't among the group of believers thinking this club could be a playoff team, you likely didn't see this level of disaster. That being said, it's probably past time to begin looking at next year. When doing so, maybe the most important factor is what names fill up the 25 man roster. Here's some stipulations for this exercise. I won't be using trades to acquire anyone. First, I'm not a great m
Now with the 2016 Major League Baseball season quickly racing to a close, the statistical output for teams has a solid base. When looking at team compiled numbers, no longer is there such a thing as a small sample size. For the Twins, that spells disaster once again on the starting pitching front. As has been the case plenty in recent years, Minnesota has failed to get out of its own when way it comes to getting games off on a good foot. In 2016, the Minnesota Twins own a major league worst 5.
The Twins minor league affiliates got (nearly) eight full innings of pitching from each of their starting pitchers on Sunday afternoon, but just one of those starters ended the day with a notch in the win column. That was thanks to a lackluster display of offense throughout as two of the lineups were shut out, and the other two totaled just four runs on the day. In Transaction news, the Minnesota Twins optioned one-day callup Adalberto Mejia back to Rochester after his 2.1 inning MLB debut on
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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