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One of the fascinating aspects of ranking farm systems of every organization across baseball is that, to some level, it's kind of subjective. There's a general understanding on the level of Cubs-good-Padres-bad, but what's the real difference between each team? How do you mark the difference in system quality between, for example, Minnesota and Cleveland? Part of the challenge in finding that differentiation is that there is no single consensus on how prospects themselves are evaluated. Jonath
The 2016 Major League Baseball season is upon us, and it's still very, very new. What that means is that any analysis at this point is dealing with extremely small sample sizes. For the Twins though, it's pretty apparent there's a new approach at the plate, and the way in which offense is going to be generated. Through the first few games, some things have worked, and others haven't. Having began the season in Baltimore, the Twins were afforded the benefit of playing in a hitter's park against
On Tuesday, I checked the 25-man rosters of all 30 MLB teams, checking not for quality, but quantity - of players by positions. While this may not be the opening day roster, it was probably close. Of the 30 teams: • Most had 12 pitchers. Two teams - the Athletics and the Mets had 11 pitchers. the Mets actually only had 24 players on the 25-man roster. The Cubs, Giants and Indians had 13 pitchers. All others had 12. • Four of the AL teams – Athletics, Red Sox, Royals and Tigers had a player named
The 2015 Minnesota Twins returned to relevance for the first time since the 2010 Major League Baseball season. After a rocky first few games, a spring run put Paul Molitor's club in a great position down the stretch. Not being eliminated from playoff contention until the final weekend hampered Minnesota from exploring some less entrenched options, but no one was a by-product of that reality more than Michael Tonkin. Last season, the Twins jumped down a rabbit hole that has now begun to come fu
The Minnesota Twins and their full season minor league affiliates announced those affiliates’ initial rosters on Sunday and Monday this week and the one thing that stood out about almost every roster was the number of players returning to the same level where they finished their respective 2015 campaigns. The Cedar Rapids Kernels initial roster, for example, includes 16 players that also wore Kernels uniforms last season and many of them performed quite well in the Class A Midwest League – wel
As the 2016 Major League Baseball season kicked off, there were plenty of different narratives for this version of the Minnesota Twins. Questions about the bullpen and youth were present, but there was one position that was absolutely cemented in. Paul Molitor had no doubts about who his shortstop was going to be this season, Eduardo Escobar had taken care of those questions. Prior to the 2015 season, Escobar was locked into a competition with Danny Santana as to who would take over as the T
The Cedar Rapids Kernels organized two public events to give fans and media opportunities to meet the 2016 crop of ballplayers and coaching staff this week. The team arrived on Monday and were greeted at Veterans Stadium by fans and staff as their bus from the airport pulled into the players' parking lot. On Tuesday, the annual Meet the Kernels Night gave media an opportunity to talk to manager Jake Mauer and his coaches, as well as a trio of ballplayers, while other players mingled with fan
Waiting months for Opening Day to come, only to have it pass as the nine innings unfold, should help remind us as baseball fans to keep things in perspective. I wrote recently about the importance of Opening Day, and the relative lack thereof. It's a celebration of what is to come, but as a baseball fan, we are locked in for the long haul over the next seven months. There were a couple of key things that can be drawn from what the Twins underwent to open their season however. Over the course o
Ricky Nolasco hasn’t made many friends in Twins Territory over the past few seasons. Have you forgotten some of the reasons why? Well for starters; this, and lets not forget this gem to start to season. Not to mention Ricky has been underwhelming during his run with the Twins. The Twins knew what they were getting when they signed Nolasco: an average pitcher with strikeout potential. Over the first two seasons of his four-year deal with Minnesota, Nolasco has pitched 196 1/3 innings. That woul
For the 2016 Minnesota Twins, that’s the big question. Will they contend in 2016? After winning 83 games in 2015 and surprising pretty much everyone, except maybe themselves, by being in the hunt for the playoffs until the final series of the season, can the Minnesota Twins build off of that and make it to the postseason dance in 2016? We do know they enjoy dancing! The Twins competed in 2015. First year Manager Paul Molitor was a big part of that. He got his players to believe they could comp
Yesterday, Craig Calcaterra wrote an incredible piece over at NBC's Hardball Talk in regards to Opening Day and the celebration that it is. I urge you to read it, the perspective is truly necessary. The basis of the piece is that while Opening Day is no doubt a celebration, it's importance is sometimes overstated. That leads us to here, and what lies ahead. Don't get me wrong, Opening Day is a party, and it should be. We've made it. No longer are we spending days speculating about what moves t
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w413/mjohnso9/20160320_155536_zpshtz95lga.jpg 4/3/82: The Twins beat the Phillies 5-0 in an exhibition game, the first Major League game played at the Metrodome. Pete Rose collected the new stadium’s first hit, and Bloomington-native Kent Hrbek hit the Dome’s first two home runs. 4/4/90: The Twins traded future-KARE 11 anchor, Mike Pomeranz, to Pittsburgh in exchange for Junior Ortiz and a minor league pitcher. Ortiz, who wore #0, is best-remembered as Sco
A season ago, the Minnesota Twins were among the worst in the major leagues when it comes to bullpens. They didn't strike anyone out, the group struggled to hold leads, and they were generally overtaxed having to work long games pitching from behind. Although many of the arms didn't have full seasons of inefficiency, it was generally a tale of two halves for a good portion of them. No one experienced that narrative more than Glen Perkins. Making a third straight trip to the All Star Game, Perk
Prior to the 2015 Major League Baseball season, there was no Twins player I was more down on that Danny Santana. After exploding onto the scene in 2014, and garnering some AL Rookie of the Year votes, regression was looking him right in the face. Unsustainable production at the plate caused worry, and the fears turned out to be more than warranted. In 2016, there's a different tune however. Santana could be one of the Twins most integral roster components. In 2015, Santana produced an ugly .21
Originally Published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ----- With the Twins' Spring Training almost in the books and having spend about 10 days in Fort Myers following the Twins' closely (here are all my Spring Training articles in Chronological order,) I am ready to make a prediction for the 2016 Twins. This team has a few question marks left, but a lot of my concerns were answered: Miguel Sano will be a moster with the bat again this season, and regardless of his size, he will be at least as
The day has come and gone, Tyler Duffey and Ricky Nolasco had their show down as spring training draws to a close, and the rotation has been all but set. With Nolasco not seeming a likely rotation option coming into the season, Duffey opened the door with his tough spring, and the veteran capitalized. Now with the rotation looking set, a few other dominoes will fall into place. Despite getting a vote of confidence from manager Paul Molitor out of the gate, Duffey did the one thing he couldn't
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w413/mjohnso9/20160131_102737_zps4yadfqeb.jpg A week before the start of their 1987 championship season, the Twins released fan-favorite, Mickey Hatcher, and traded for the much more dynamic, Dan Gladden. In exchange for the Dazzle Man and a player to be named later, the Twins sent two minor league relievers and a player to be named to the San Francisco Giants. The player to be named that Minnesota would send to San Francisco wound up being Bemidji-native,
This offseason, the Minnesota Twins realized they were closer than ever to a playoff berth. Having just missed out a season ago, the organization realized that top prospects were going to be the key to making it over the hump. Having stayed internal for most of the 25 man roster tweaks, the goal was to put the best club forward on Opening Day. For Paul Molitor, that meant asking 22 year old Miguel Sano to learn right field. Another name came up as a possibility, but what really is next for Joe M
And here is The Twins Almanac for the week of March 27th to April 2nd, 2016. 3/27 is the birthday of Michael Cuddyer, born in 1979 in Norfolk, VA. He was the Twins’ 1st round draft pick out of high school in 1997. In 2009 he hit for the cycle (5/22), and homered twice in the same inning (8/23). He was an All-Star in his final season in Minnesota (‘11), and again with Colorado in 2013 when he was the National League batting champ (.331). 3/27/73: 37 year old future Twins HOFer, Jim Perry, okays
Im finally going to say it.....Twins Daily Coverage of Spring Training Sucks! The story on Max Kepler today illustrates my point exactly. Ok Kepler optioned....why? How did he hit? Did he play good defense? For those of us who follow the Twins, Kepler had to be one of the most intriguing stories. We barely heard a word. Same is true of our new catcher, yes lately there was some info, but are you like me, and want to look at and examine his stats, maybe even a running total? For the se
After a season in which the Minnesota Twins surprised many around baseball, 2016 presents a whole new opportunity for Paul Molitor and his squad. Now no longer toting the weight of multiple 90 loss seasons, Minnesota looks to expand upon its near playoff performance from a season ago. I have contended often that in 2016, the Twins remain the AL Central team most capable of finishing first just as well as last in the division. Despite having talked about plenty of narratives this offseason here
Originally Published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- Today was the last live game from Fort Myers. Yesterday, I shared some thoughts about the Twins 25-man roster and based on what I have seen previously, Rickey Nolasco should be the Twins' fifth starter. With another stellar performance today against the Rays, going for 6 innings allowing only 3 hits, no earned runs, walking 2 and striking out 7, he cemented that position, especially when in Field number 2 his only competition, Tyler Du
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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