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That day I’d been calling for the past three years is finally here, and we can now speculate as to who will fill Ron Gardenhire’s shoes as manager of the Minnesota Twins. I don’t see any problem with the decision, and apparently neither did Gardy. “I agree with this. I think this is right,” he said at today’s press conference, citing many times that he’s “a fan,” and joking with Mike Berardino that he could punch him in the face now. “I want to see this team win.” Gardy was in good spirits all
Looking back at the Twins fourth straight 90-loss season doesn't have to be full of glum recollections of another horrible year. There were plenty of bright spots throughout the Twins roster. Brian Dozier did something only a handful of Twins players have ever done. Phil Hughes set an all-time MLB record. Plus young players like Danny Santana were sure fun to watch. Every year at the end of the season, I look back at the Twins year and try and handout some end of the season awards. Many of the
In the immortal words of Michael Jordan, "I'm back." Consider this the Wizards portion of my blogging career. It's all been the Wizards portion, so it should be easy to adjust. Before the season started, I made 11 BOLD predictions. I had planned to make those predictions after the season, but the jagwagons who run the blogging cabal said that I had to make predictions before things actually happen. This will adversely affect my accuracy, but apparently that wasn't important. At this moment, I
In the movie “Breaking Away” Daniel Stern’s character Cyril stomps on a boulder next to his favorite swimming hole and says, “This is the spot where I lost all interest in life.” The reason? He saw Delores Roenicke with Fat Marvin. What they were doing was not revealed. In my basement hangs a poster sized 1984 Minnesota Twins schedule. On that schedule is Friday, September 28, Cleveland. That is when I lost all interest in life. The reason? The Twins lost a game to the Cleveland Indians, 11-10
You would be forgiven for assuming that this last week's worth of games did not matter. That things were irrelevant, unneccessary and wholly ornamental (well...for everyone but the Tigers). But the truth is that these games have proven that we have good news in town again, a champion, a victor, a bonafide winner! And that winner...is me. Yay for me! Yes, all you loyal readers out there (which blogger seems to think is in the 1,000 range and I know is much closer to the 1.000 range), I have
The Twins are closer than they seem. Santana, Vargas, Arcia, Sano and Buxton are going to lead this team somewhere. I see no reason why the Twins can't be aggressive this off-season and make it happen. I think if the Twins trade for an outfielder and a starting pitcher, the boost we would receive mid-summer with the arrival of Buxton and Sano could give the them what they need to be a legitimate playoff contender. I have selected my top five trade candidates for both pitcher and outfielders. Obv
Vance Worley was awful as a Twin. An absolute disaster. What happened with the Pirates? Maybe we should release Pelfrey and Nolasco to get them back on track. OR maybe we should get a new pitching philosophy and coach in place. Just saying it can't all be coincidence.
This week Eric and Jay are joined by long time podcast friend Chuck Ruether and new podcast friend Howard Sinker, from the Star Tribune. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vk5rzxPTijE/VCVDUl55s9I/AAAAAAAAIp0/ylYKtbKNZeA/s1600/catchers.jpg 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. Lots of chatter about the end of the season, what to look forward to in 2015,
Now that the season has wound down and the Twins have finished their fourth consecutive 90 loss season, it's time to start looking at a plan for 2015. While the 2014 season did not look so great in the record book, there were some very nice building blocks for the team. For one, the offense did quite well. This is especially noteworthy given that at the beginning of the season, the offense was, to put it mildly, horrid. The improvement was generated by seeing a healthy Joe Mauer return to the te
There is no reason the 2015 Minnesota Twins can’t be competitive. They have money to spend, prospects to watch, and changes to be made to the coaching staff that will reap rewards. Terry Ryan should be making drastic moves just to keep his job. Anywhere else and he would have been canned by now, but I believe in Terry Ryan’s ability to do the job. He can prove it by canning Ron Gardenhire and Rick Anderson. Gardy’s gotta go. He’s not the type of manager that can lead these young, mostly Spanis
http://assets.podomatic.net/ts/19/ad/da/paulpleiss/1400x1400_9959573.jpg This week Eric and Jay are joined by long time podcast friend Chuck Ruether and new podcast friend Howard Sinker, from the Star Tribune. Lots of chatter about the end of the season, what to look forward to in 2015, and how the Twins might go about finding a new manager, if they ever get around to getting rid of their current one. Then plenty of the regular beer, baseball, and the news.Thanks for listening, folks! Source
About the only reason to watch the Twins now is to watch young talent, So why is Pinto riding the bench? Is there a catch doctor in the house? Can he be so bad that he cant even be the backup catcher? What did he do to get into the doghouse? Every time i see Suzuki penciled in, I am a lot less interested...are the pitchers requesting Suz? Help me figure this out...please!!!
On Wednesday, Phil Hughes made his final start of the season for the Twins. It capped a memorable first year in Minnesota for the former Yankees pitcher. He signed with the club as the lesser of two big off-season upgrades to the rotation but he turned out to be the staff ace. One of the most amazing parts of this season for Hughes has been his ability to completely eliminate walks while still being a very effective pitcher. For the entire season, Hughes had 16 walks charged to him over the co
I want your help with this. The Twins draft Pitcher after Pitcher, and have failure after failure, How does that work? Even their two top prospects, May and Meyer, were traded for. Why can't the Twins develop pitching? Some organization seem to always have pitching, Rays, A's, Yankees (but they purchase theirs don't they? How about Seatte? Where do they get their great young pitchers? Ok, some of you stats guys, will chew me up about these respective teams. Please help with this
I’ve been a bit out of touch with Twinsville for a couple of weeks as I’ve had some business travel and other non-Twins-related matters to occupy most of my time. I did catch up a bit on my Twins reading in the past day or so, however, and – well – let’s just say I’ve been much more interested in the writing about the Twins than I have been with what’s transpired on the field with the Twins. I read the columns by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s baseball writers and columnists recently, in whi
As we near the end of yet another September stretch that's given Twins fans little incentive to tune in, our de facto staff ace Phil Hughes is about to give us one big reason to pop in the headphones at work on Wednesday: a genuine shot at history. As reported by NBC's HardBallTalk on Saturday, Hughes currently sits at the highest single-season K/BB rate in baseball history going into his Wednesday start against the Diamondback. His 11.31 K/BB rate narrowly edges Bret Saberhagen's 1994 rate of
Clayton Kershaw is in the midst of one of the best pitching seasons in baseball history. He looks to be a lock for the National League Cy Young and there's a chance he could win the NL MVP. Even after missing a chunk of games at the beginning of the season, he has rebounded to post one of the best seasons on record. Starting pitching seems to be one of the areas the Twins are struggling to find success. There hasn't been a player of Kershaw's caliber in the Twins rotation since the Johan Santa
http://i.imgur.com/7DNhJ0y.jpg Though he didn't exactly cruise through the first four innings, Nolsasco had put up zeros through 4 innings before getting tagged for 5 and not escaping the 5th. Control was down, swinging strikes hovered right around 9% again, but .588 average on balls in play is never a good sign.
http://i.imgur.com/u6zu9aq.jpg After his best start in the majors earlier this week, May struggled this trip through the rotation. He gave up 8 hits, 2 walks and 7ER through 4.2. As the numbers show, he struggled with his command just scratching over 60% strikes thrown. Swinging strike rates were nothing to write home about, but not bad, particularly on his change up. This is where it gets interesting. Over Trevor May's first 6 starts, his 4 seam fastball velocity averaged 91.7mph, which see
http://i.imgur.com/u6zu9aq.jpg A couple days late, as I was traveling, but here are the numbers on Hughes' start this Friday against the Indians. Cleveland was not fooled, swinging and missing only twice, and putting up 10 hits against Hughes through 7 innings. He didn't walk anyone, so a 1.429 WHIP on a night where Hughes didn't have his best stuff isn't horrible. He kept his team in the game and the Twins were able to get him off the hook and eventually get a win. The command is one th
I know I will be deluged with, way to early to give up on HIcks...Bah Humbug...Hicks has been given many chances and he is up with the club again, even though he didnt earn it. The one thing that intrigues me about Hicks is he can hit for power..but where did it go? I think it went down the Hitting Coach Hole..meaning the Twins are insisting he be a complete hitter... NOTE to Twins...If he can hit 20 HR's I will live with the 220 average, he is good enough in center field... but the thi
What a difference a year makes, not only did the squad reporting to this years 2014 Florida Instructional League look much different than last year but so did the newly renovated facility. When entering the new Player Academy, you're greeted by a large hill that was constructed for new strength exercises and a sign stating "This is Twin Territory" and a 12 ft picture of Kirby Puckett and the quote "And we'll see you tomorrow night!" Around the corner are more signage showing the Twins past succe
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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