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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 Friday night, I found myself attending one of the first events at the recently opened US Bank Stadium. The new home of the Minnesota Vikings has been long anticipated, and was shown off to a soccer crowd, and a handful of concert goers prior to its intended debut on Sunday August 28. My unfortunate reality is that I wasn't at all prepared for what I experienced during what can only be described as one heck of a party put on by Luke Bryan. Let's start with the positives. US Bank Stadium has
In 2016, very few things have gone right for any extended period of time for the Twins. Whether it be losing, injuries, or mismanagement, the group has not had a good showing coming off of a near playoff year (flukey as it may have been). There's one guy, and his situation, that may embody most of the shortcomings for Minnesota this season, Jorge Polanco. Now, before you go leaping off the deep end, Jorge Polanco has been arguably one of the best players from the Twins in 2016. He's absolutely
Despite four wins from affiliates on Thursday, the games didn't produce a lot of stand-out performances. A couple key hits here and there, some solid relief work, and that's sort of how things worked out across the system. Transaction Report:Alan Busenitz promoted to Rochester, Omar Bencomo demoted to Chattanooga, Todd Van Steensel promoted to Chattanooga, Mason Melotakis placed on 7-day disabled list (Chattanooga), Continue reading to find out more detail about Thursday in the Twins farm sy
Coming into the season, arguably one of the most head-scratching decisions the Minnesota Twins made was to load up on first basemen and designated hitter types. There was Miguel Sano, Joe Mauer, Trevor Plouffe, and then the acquisition of Byung Ho Park. Given the scarcity of at bats to go around, more questions than answers were present in regards to how it would all work. Now nearing the end of the 2016 campaign, it seems the most likely to be moved of the bunch, may have a future role. Trevo
Heading into this season, it appeared Eduardo Escobar had cemented himself as the Twins' starting shortstop. He'd put together two-straight above average offensive seasons and ended his 2015 season with a big exclamation point. With a poor showing thus far in 2016, however, Escobar's place on the team is now very much in question. Escobar performed admirably in 2014, taking over for Pedro Florimon and fending off rookie Danny Santana for playing time. He hit .275/.315/.406 and ranked 10th in t
Over the past few years, the Twins have put forth some pretty poor displays of baseball. From 2011-2014, they were among the worst teams in baseball and routinely found themselves behind the pitching curve. While every team clamors for top tier starting pitching, the bullpen is an area that can generally be turned around more quickly. It appears that Minnesota is finally conforming to some league wide trends. After having some of the worst relief options in the big leagues the past few seasons
Eddie Rosario experienced a solid rookie season for the Minnesota Twins. He owned a .748 OPS, ripped off 15 triples, and was an outfield assists machine. There were some very real concerns as to how things were going to progress in his second season however. Now with some ups and downs experienced, are we ready to call Rosario a piece of the Twins future? In 2015, Rosario played in 122 games for the Twins. He ended up being worth 2.3 fWAR, which ranked him 8th among American Leagued left field
August 20, 1961 Two Twins Pitchers Homer in Same Game Twins starting pitcher Jack Kralick and reliever Al Schroll both hit solo home runs vs. the Angels at Los Angeles’s Wrigley Field. The Twins, incidentally, won by 2 runs, 9-7. Twins center fielder Lenny Green homered to lead-off the game. Bloomington High School graduate George Thomas tied the game for the Angels with an RBI single in the second. The Angels went on to build a 3-1 lead in the inning. Then, leading off the third inning, Twi
The Minnesota Twins could arguably be in the midst of the most critical juncture in franchise history. Terry Ryan was fired mid-season, and the club is going to lose 90 games after narrowly missing the playoffs a season ago. Attendance is in the tank, and the organization is relying on youth to turn things around. The biggest issue though could be that Paul Molitor doesn't seem to have gotten the memo. Over the course of the 2016 season, there's been plenty of instances in which Paul Molitor h
I am not a follower of Donald Trump. I have participated in several no kings rallies and am disgusted with what he and his followers have done to our country and the world. I would like to know what most Brazilians feel about the United States now and about the folks our citizens have elected to represent us.