You all care about this site. The next step is caring for it. We’re asking you to caretake this site so it can remain the premier Twins community on the internet.
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch --- (this is an edit to clarify a few points that were confusing previously) Recently when I was looking for an objective way to numerically describe how good Engelb Vielma's glove for my Minnesota Twins' top 40 prospect list, which is fairly easily understood as a concept, I came up with a simple metric: The percentage of putouts that resulted in a double play. I did a bit of research to see whether it will pass the stink test, and looked at
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- I have been counting down the Twins top 40 prospects with descriptions and scouting reports of the players, their potential, their likely destinations for 2015, and in some cases the reasons why they were ranked where they were. You can find all installments here in reverse chronological order. Here are the detailed rankings: 36-40, 31-35 , 26-30 , 21-25 , 16-20 , 11-15 , 6-10 and 1-5. You can find the 2014 off-season summary list here
<img src="http://assets.podomatic.net/ts/19/ad/da/paulpleiss/1400x1400-1796x1796+0+26_10245481.jpg" alt="itunes pic" /><br />After a week off celebrating 2014 and welcoming in 2015, the podcast crew was back together (minus a Rolf) to begin a new year of Talk to Contact radio gold. This week we make some New Year's resolutions on behalf of the Twins, to include Joe Mauer, Aaron Hicks and prayers for something (ANYTHING!) resembling a starting pitcher not named Phil Hughes. In thi
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch --- oday is the eight and last installment in the top 40 Twins' Off-season prospects countdown (other than the overall summary that is coming up next). You can find all installments here in reverse chronological order. Previous rankings: 36-40, 31-35 , 26-30 , 21-25 , 16-20 , 11-15 and 6-10. You can find the 2014 off-season summary list here In these listings in parenthesis, I am including their ranking in the last prospect list, which was the
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- Today is the seventh installment in the top 40 Twins' Off-season prospects countdown, and the descriptions of the player and rationalization of their rankings continue to a bit more detailed. You can find all installments here in reverse chronological order. Previous rankings: 36-40, 31-35 , 26-30 , 21-25 , 16-20 and 11-15. You can find the 2014 off-season summary list here In these listings in parenthesis, I am including their ranking in
Near the end of last season, the Twins featured a trio of players on the Twins magazine cover and dubbed them "The First Wave." Danny Santana, Kennys Vargas, and Oswaldo Arcia all made big impacts on the big league level. Even though Arcia played in almost 100 games in 2013, he's actually the youngest of the three who were all in their age 23 season last year. Each of these three players will have a role in the Twins getting back to playing winning baseball. This makes it interesting to consid
This year is going to be tough. The writers of the BBWAA have to narrow a stacked ballot down to the ten most worthy names. There are going to be some worthy candidates that aren't elected and some might even fall off the ballot. That's what happens when writers are limited to how many votes they can have on the ballot. I am a member of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance and a different approach was taken this year to avoid the roster crunch. Members were asked to make a simple "yes" or "no" vot
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch --- Today is the sixth installment in the top 40 Twins' Off-season prospects countdown, and the descriptions of the player and rationalization of their rankings continue to a bit more detailed. You can find all installments here in reverse chronological order. Previous rankings: 36-40, 31-35 , 26-30 , 21-25 and 16-20. You can find the 2014 off-season summary list here In these listings in parenthesis, I am including their ranking in the last pr
In the spirit of the New Year, we have 15 New Years Resolutions to offer for 15 key parts of Twins Territory. The resolutions are available in our New Gallery Album "Resolutions"...which hopefully will turn up as part of this post Any additions you want to make, or suggestions for how to make these resolutions more attainable are always welcome.
In recent years, the Twins have managed to stock the farm with flame throwers who project as late inning relievers. Several are projecting as shut down closers. These days, MLB pitching staffs have developed from two positions, starter and reliever, into several positions: starter, long relief, LH specialist, 7th inning guy, set-up guy, and closer. The hierarchy moves two directions: long relievers want to be starters, 7th inning and set-up guys want to be closers (I don’t know what to say abo
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch --- Today is the fifth installment in the top 40 Twins' Off-season prospects countdown, getting into the top 20 so the descriptions of the player and their rankings are a bit more detailes. You can find all installments here in reverse chronological order. Previous rankings: 36-40, 31-35 , 26-30 and 21-25. You can find the 2014 off-season summary list here In these listings in parenthesis, I am including their ranking in the last prospect list,
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch. ---- Today is the fourth installment in the top 40 Twins' Off-season prospects countdown. You can find all installments here in reverse chronological order. Previous rankings: 36-40, 31-35 and 26-30. You can find the 2014 off-season summary list here In these listings in parenthesis, I am including their ranking in the last prospect list, which was the 2014 mid-season list, with "--" if not ranked. You can find that list here. 25. Alexis Tap
What do the Twins do about Plouffe and Dozier? Extend? Go year to year? Hope to sell high at 30? There has been some great discussion started by Seth on Dozier and Plouffe. There also have been studies that show aging curves in the post steroid era are changing. Fewer players are maintaining their peak seasons into their thirties. There are many studies to read. Here is one by Jeff Zimmerman for Fangraphs. I wondered how players currently around 33 years old have aged. With the help of pla
One of the highlights of the off-season for a core of Twins fans is the release of the Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook. Seth Stohs has worked to put together this fantastic book for the last seven years. In 2012, he gave me my first taste of helping with the book. By 2013, I was writing an article for the annual and for the last three years I have been among a trio of writers that includes Jeremy Nygaard, Stohs, and myself. In the first part of my top 30 list there are a core of young pitche
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ----Today is the third installment in the top 40 Twins' Off-season prospects countdown. You can find all installments here in reverse chronological order. Previous rankings: 36-40, 31-35. You can find the 2014 off-season summary list here In these listings in parenthesis, I am including their ranking in the last prospect list, which was the 2014 mid-season list, with "--" if not ranked. You can find that list here. 30. Ryan Eades RHP (19) RHSP,
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- Today is the second installment in the top 40 Twins' Off-season prospects countdown. You can find all installments here in reverse chronological order. This is the 31-35 rankings. Previous rankings: 36-40. 35. Mat Batts LHP (--), LHSP, DOB: 7/6/1991, 5'11", 190 lbs. The Twins drafted Harrison Mathis Batts in the 17th round of the 2014 draft from the University of North Calorina Wilmington. The Lefty breezed through 3 levels in the organ
You can download the new Talk to Contact (@TalkToContact) episode via iTunes or by clicking here, and if you want to add the show to your non-iTunes podcast player, this is the RSS Feed. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rZl6xXzEO6k/VJrNsvxH7yI/AAAAAAAAKds/tW7cZWGDkBk/s1600/phil-hughes.jpg Phil Hughes renegotiated a contract adding three more years to his deal and keeping him in Minnesota through 2019. This was such a momentous occasion that we asked the Twins Hangouts fellas, Seth Stohs and Jer
You can download the new Talk to Contact (@TalkToContact) episode via iTunes or by clicking here, and if you want to add the show to your non-iTunes podcast player, this is the RSS Feed. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rZl6xXzEO6k/VJrNsvxH7yI/AAAAAAAAKds/tW7cZWGDkBk/s1600/phil-hughes.jpg Phil Hughes renegotiated a contract adding three more years to his deal and keeping him in Minnesota through 2019. This was such a momentous occasion that we asked the Twins Hangouts fellas, Seth Stohs and Jeremy
Originally posted at The Tenth Inning Stretch -- The Rule 5 draft is done, the Winter Leagues are in full blow, Catchers and Pitchers are 2 months away, which means that it is time for the Twins Off-season top 40 prospect list. Like last year (you can find the summary list here with links to all the posts) I will do a count down 5 at a time starting from number 40. I will give detailed descriptions of the players and justification why I ranked them where I did when needed. In parenthesis, I
Terry Ryan and the Minnesota Twins extended Phil Hughes through 2019, effectively making his contract a five-year, $58 million deal. He will earn $9.2 million in 2015 and 2016 before earning $13.2MM annually from 2017 to 2019. Considering his 2014 numbers, the $11.6 million per year average salary is more than reasonable. This blog was originally published at Go Gonzo Journal. If you consider the Twins’ recent signing of Ervin Santana, the extension looks even better. Ryan cut a check to San
One of the highlights of the off-season for a core of Twins fans is the release of the Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook. Seth Stohs has worked to put together this fantastic book for the last seven years. In 2012, he gave me my first taste of helping with the book. By 2013, I was writing an article for the annual and for the last three years I have been among a trio of writers that includes Jeremy Nygaard, Stohs, and myself. I already released the first part of my top 30 list and there are so
You can download the new Talk to Contact (@TalkToContact) episode via iTunes or by clicking here, and if you want to add the show to your non-iTunes podcast player, this is the RSS Feed. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iCf_DF11x9E/VJmIjI9v2iI/AAAAAAAAKbw/3Xz8RCtKWGM/s1600/twins%2B30.jpg We're old and not going to write an episode description. Deal with it. Regular beer, baseball, and the news. Cody and Eric and Paul and no Jay (because of his grooming habits). Thanks for listening and en
<img src="http://assets.podomatic.net/ts/19/ad/da/paulpleiss/1400x1400_10197651.jpg" alt="itunes pic" /><br />We're old and not going to write an episode description. Deal with it. Regular beer, baseball, and the news. Cody and Eric and Paul and no Jay (because of his grooming habits).
<a href="http://talk2contact.podomatic.com" class='bbc_url' rel='nofollow external'>Source</a>
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.
The Twins Daily Caretaker Fund
