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As of this morning, Astros and Cubs have better records: Astros 1 game better Cubs, 3 games better I thought I'd never see the day where the Astros pass the Twins in the rebuilding race but it has happened They got rid of the Manager, have young talent playing and don't seem to have any ridiculous contracts hanging over them, like the Nolasco fiasco. Yikes, Terry and the crew have been outdone. I've always been a fan of Terry because of his ability to build a Farm System but sometimes
http://i.imgur.com/wr12NTM.jpg Hughes continues to show incredible control, and the most amazing thing about tonight's performance is that of his 12 swinging strikes he induced, 10 of them came on his 4 seam fastball. Good miss rates, good strike out totals, and he pitched the entire 7th inning using only four seam fastballs (10 pitchees, 8 strikes, and 2 strike outs). A shame he couldn't get the win. Sorry the last two write ups were so brief. Posting at 3:45 will lead to that. Feel fre
http://i.imgur.com/fWS5pCP.jpg Sorry it's a day late, but it's going to be a dollar short. Long weekend, results in this being put up at 3:30am. Control was a little spotty, good swing and miss numbers. 8 hits, 2 ER against a decent LAA offense. Some bad defense really hurt him, particularly the Arcia error which not only led to a run, but also led to an extra 14 pitches being thrown that inning. Worked out of trouble a lot, but then again, was in trouble. After seeing an initial spike
The Twins will probably lose 90 games this year. That doesn't mean that they will be making wholesale changes of their roster, at least not from the position player standpoint. After watching half of the Angel series, I'm convinced that all of the 13 position players that will head north out of Fort Myers are playing for the Twins right now. Most of the players are givens. A couple of guys will have competition and two of the jewels of the system will probably get their chance sometime in 2015,
Let's face it, there isn't much left to talk about in terms of the Twins and their 2014 season. We know the story all too well at this point. Worst starting pitcher ERA in all of baseball, last place in the AL Central, can never seem to get a hit with runners on base, etc. This tired story has caused me, like many of you, to care way more about the future than the present. In this post, I am attempting to answer a simple question: Which players look OK to stick with in 2015 and which players cou
While the current edition of the Cedar Rapids Kernels have been making their way through the Midwest League playoffs this week, a group of 20 Kernels alumni are on the verge of claiming the first Florida State League championship in franchise history for the Fort Myers Miracle. (Click here for David Dorsey's story on the Miracle's pursuit of a championship) http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Walker1.jpg Adam Brett Walker lines a home run vs Clinton on September 2,
With the Minor League season all but over, this is likely the last time I will be writing the Minor League Report for the 2014 season. I won't disappear completely, you can still find me and the rest of the Talk to Contact crew talking beer, baseball and the news over at www.TalkToContact.com on our weekly Minnesota Twins podcast. Thank you for hanging out with me and talking Minor LEague ball this year at Twins Daily, it has been a blast. The Twins played host to the Los Angeles Angels of A
http://i.imgur.com/bsmdmBx.jpg Low Swinging Strike percentage, 7 hits, 2 walks and 1 K. I don't think Gibson had his best stuff tonight, but he still managed 7 innings, and despite one big inning kept his team in the game. His command was not impressive, throwing only 63% of his pitches for strikes. Exacerbating that was his struggles on the first pitch of at bats. He fell behind 11 of the 28 batters he faced, and only got ahead on 12 of them (8 called strikes and 4 foul balls). He gave up
Josmil Pinto (aka Beans) wants you to do the Target Field Helmet Challenge. He years for you to stuff your face with a helmet full of fries, another full of nachos and a third filled with ice cream for a savory dessert. He wants you to live large and be merry. He wants you to do the helmet challenge. On September 15th the Twins host the Detroit Tigers. Pitching match-ups are still a long ways off, but the boys from the Talk to Contact Podcast would like to invite you to join them at the
Coming into this year, there was hope that some prospects would "graduate" and move up to the Twins causing significant impact. Their names were Miguel Sano, Alex Meyer, and Byron Buxton. 2014, then, would be a year of significant development in the rebuilding process. Sano was done for the entire season after Tommy John surgery. Buxton was up and down with injuries before a concussion ended his season (though he is going to the AFL). Meyer was inconsistent at times and, well, that is apparent
The calendar has turned over, September is here, kids are going back to school and some of the Twins minor leaguers have arrived in Minnesota. Paul, Jay and Cody discuss the eight September call ups, the departure of Sam Deduno and the Trevor May's first career MLB victory. 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/-K_1-xkmWeFk
http://assets.podomatic.net/ts/19/ad/da/paulpleiss/1400x1400_9901595.jpg The calendar has turned over, September is here, kids are going back to school and some of the Twins minor leaguers have arrived in Minnesota. Paul, Jay and Cody discuss the eight September call ups, the departure of Sam Deduno and the Trevor May's first career MLB victory. E Rolf has abandonded the podcast crew this week, instead opting to drink beer at Target Field. We can't blame him. In fact, we invite you to join him a
Last season, I'm sure you remember the Twins' ill-fated attempt to charge a select group of fans to watch the Twins take batting practice at home games. To be fair, fans currently don't get to watch the Twins take BP at Target Field, and several teams have a similar program in place, so this idea was not at all unfounded. But the reaction was crazy. People railed against the team such that, only a few hours after the team released the announcement, it was retracted. I didn't blog about this at t
I have spent a lot of time reading blogs, posts, articles and comments about the Twins MLB and MiLB rosters, players, stats and More stats. Some comments really irk me. It is very easy to be anonymous on this sight and therefore put up hyperbolic comments like "cut the whole 25 man roster" and "fire all the field staff and the whole front office". Comments like these do not take in common sense of then what? It takes years to build a 25 man roster and MLB franchise. I have also seen many respons
http://i.imgur.com/Xiw0AIe.jpg Going to make this quick. A lot of four seam fastballs, and a lot less change ups. His Swinging Strike rates were down as a result, but he still picked up 6 Ks in 5 innings. He did walk one, and that walk came in to score on a 2 run homerun after he left a change up in the middle of the plate and Viciedo was waiting on it. His control did slip a little bit in the last couple innings. He got strike one on 15 out of 20 batters who didn't put the ball in play o
http://i.imgur.com/33FOlc8.jpg Control. It comes down to control. Before 2012, Tommy Milone's BB/9 had always been below the 1.71 that he posted in his first full season in the majors with the exception of one season at A+ ball in 2009. He pitched to a 13-10 record that year, a 3.74 ERA, and a 2.8 WAR that was indiciative of a solid mid to back end of the rotation arm. He even was seeing some decent K/9 numbers for a guy who throws as soft as he does (6.5 K/9). In 2013, his BB/9 jumped to
http://i.imgur.com/X2mm606.jpg 8 innings with three unearned runs on one swing of the bat in the 7th were the only blemish for Phil in today's game. He hung a cutter to Nick Hundley two batters after Plouffe air-mailed a double play grounder into right field. Hughes only tallied 5 strike outs over his 8 innings, but once again, didn't walk a batter and only gave up 5 hits. S for the peripherals, good control numbers, as he surpassed the 70% strike numbers. Foul balls were also down from prev
Chs. 4-5: July and August The fledgling, flickering hope alive in the hearts of the Twins and their fans at the end of June was doused with the frigid realization of inadequacy. The pivotal moment established by the previous chapters' foreshadowing was for the "All-Star Game" to be held in the middle of July. http://www2.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Kurt+Suzuki+85th+MLB+Star+Game+m2g5VjqmdOnl.jpg Yay! The Party's Over!! In hosting the party, the Twins had their moment to seize releva
http://i.imgur.com/7VklLWt.jpg I'm torn on how I feel about this outing. On the one hand, Nolasco didn't seem to have great command throughout the day. He gave up 12 hits, 2 BBs, only 2Ks and two home runs. He seemed to be working in trouble most the day, but outside of the third inning, he was able to get out of it. Baltimore is a very potent offense that will make you pay dearly for mistakes, and the 3 big home runs that accounted for 8 of Baltimore's 12 runs are evidence of that. I qu
http://i.imgur.com/RVCERK5.jpg Seemed like May was cruising through three, then a 2 hits, a hit batter and walk later and that's the game. From a numbers stand point, May's control was meh.....61% strikes. Got a lot of swinging strikes on his Change up and 4 seam, and a 16.7 Swinging Strike rate is nothing to shake a stick at, even for Baltimore (10.6% on the year). 8Ks in 4.2. Trying to list some positives as we see another disappointing outing....
http://i.imgur.com/qwgDMJC.jpg Sorry about the delay. Newborn child doing wonders for a consistent sleep schedule and free time :\. Command was sub par (59.3%), particularly with his 4 seam. Got good swing and strike rates, especially on his slider, and even his 2 seam, but wasn't efficient. Can't complain too much about 4 hits over 5 innings, Though three walks does put his WHIP at 1.4. Not terrible, but you'd like better. One earned run against a potent Baltimore line up does make it easier
If you have read my blogs, you know that I am a huge fan of Sam Deduno. I'm sad to see him leave the Twins, but I believe they gave him every opportunity to succeed, he just couldn't harness his "Krazy" fastball. However when Sam couild harness it, he was unhitable he could beat anybody, anytime and often did. The reverse is true too that he could be wild anytime and walk runners around the bases, then when he tried to throw it straight, opponents would tattoo it. Last year he was the te
Trevor May was cruising for the Twins early in Baltimore tonight, as he had struck five through the first three scoreless innings. But in the fourth the wheels fell off, as he plunked Adam Jones and Nelson Cruz consecutively to load the bases. He struck out old friend(?) Delmon Young, but a walked another, J.J. Hardy, to bring in the game’s first run. Chris Davis then launched a 3-1 pitch for a Grand Slam, and a 5-0 Orioles lead May and the Twins would not recover from. <rant> Of note
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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