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Bruce Brothers' Pioneer Press column on Tuesday's loss contains this quote from GM Terry Ryan, regarding the need to upgrade the 2014 staff: "I would like to think I'm going to be able to get Gardy some people here." http://www.twincities.com/twins/ci_24169672/minnesota-twins-have-plenty-issues-91st-loss This seems to confirm rumors about Gardy's future contract status raised by ESPN 1500's Wolfson, and provides the most clear evidence to date that, at the very least, a one-year extension
In Part 1, we looked at the Twins history of acquiring positional talent via the Amateur Draft, Amateur Free Agency, the Rule 5 Draft, Trades, Waivers, and Free Agency, during the Terry Ryan era (1995-2013). Here we will do the same for pitchers. PITCHERS 1. Amateur Draft Since 1995, the Twins trail only the Toronto Blue Jays in their reliance on the Amateur Draft for pitching talent, getting 136 player-seasons from 39 pitchers, good for 120 WAR. Notably, Brad Radke owns a full third (45.5
Plenty of Twins players will have things to reflect on this coming offseason. When a team has multiple 90-loss seasons in a row, changes are likely and some of those situations started to play themselves out. Minnesota needs pitchers to stand out in the final games of the season as the team tries to figure out the future. Liam Hendriks is one player on shaky ground for 2014. The team rushed him to the big leagues as a 22-year old and struggles followed him since he got called up. Next season,
Last Friday Terry Ryan spoke to Paul Allen about Free Agency: Free Agency is only one of the 6 most common methods of acquiring talent. The others are the Amateur Draft, Amateur Free Agency, Rule 5 Draft, Trades, and Waivers. Using Baseball-references Player registry data, I will examine the Twins' successes at acquiring positional talent via these 6 methods during the period 1995-2013 - the Terry Ryan era. (data here) POSITION PLAYERS The Amateur Draft Since 1995, the Twins have 194
Episode 52 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact (@TalkToContact), is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here. Eric spends most of this episode belittling Ryan Doumit and then trying to convince me that Doumit should play more often than I think is reasonable. We talk about Twins prospect Tyler Jones and wonder aloud what the roles will be for players like Doumit, Josh Willingham, Trevor Plouffe and Chris Parmelee. Summer is officially over and pumpkin beers have arr
http://assets.podomatic.net/ts/19/ad/da/paulpleiss/1400x1400-181x181+0+76_8781331.jpeg Eric spends most of this episode belittling Ryan Doumit and then trying to convince me that Doumit should play more often than I think is reasonable. We talk about Twins prospect Tyler Jones and wonder aloud what the roles will be for players like Doumit, Josh Willingham, Trevor Plouffe and Chris Parmelee. Summer is officially over and pumpkin beers have arrived across America. Tune in to find out about Paul's
After a modest season at Class A Ceder Rapids, Minnesota Twins pitching prospect, J.O. Berrios, will not participate in the Puerto Rican Winter League this offseason; instead, the youngster will get himself ready for next season. The 19-year old recorded an 18.00 run average in two relief outings for Puerto Rico at the World Baseball Classic, striking out Robinson Cano. But playing in that tournament put Berrios a couple of weeks behind once he returned to Minnesota camp and he was forced t
There is less than a week left in the regular season and the Twins don't have a manager under contract for 2014. With Minnesota on their way to a third straight 90-loss, there are questions about whether Ron Gardenhire deserves another opportunity at the helm. He won 2010's AL Manager of the Year but things have been ugly since that season. Since Tom Kelly was hired in 1987, the Twins have employed two managers so change has been far from commonplace. Terry Ryan cleared out most of Gardenhire'
Originally posted at Kevin Slowey was Framed! Twins/A's Recap The word "bludgeoned" gets thrown around so often... The Gardy 1000 Is this going to happen? Going into this week, the Twins needed to go 4-10 to finish the season "strong" and give Ron Gardenhire 1000 career wins. As bad as the Twins have been, that seemed reasonable. Star wipe to today and the Twins need to go 3-4 in their last seven to pull it off. Yikes. Anything short of a Spaghetti Jesus miracle and I don't see it
There are only eight players born in 1991 who make my top 80 list, but the range is from a player in AA who could be a Twin at some point in 2014 and two guys who could return to rookie ball at the beginning of the season. 4. Eddie Rosario, 2B, RH, DOB: 9/28/91 2013 A+/AA (combined stats): 544 plate appearances, .302/.350/.460 (.810) (.867 career), 32 doubles, 8 triples, 10 homers, 38 walks, 96 strikeouts, 10 stolen bases, 10 times caught stealing. Rosario dominated the FSL and earned the
[TABLE=class: tr-caption-container, align: center] http://ww2.hdnux.com/photos/23/72/01/5218401/3/628x471.jpg [TD=class: tr-caption]It's sweet of you to keep trying Pedro, really, it is.[/TD] [/TABLE] Entering the final week of the season there are many dramatic moments left in Twins territory. We could see a team clinch the central division, we could see a team clinch the wild card, neither of those teams could be us...but still...drama! Still there are a few people who are hoping t
Memory Lane Trips (Twins 6 As 8 -- Game 152) In 2006, I watched Boof Bonser take the mound against the Oakland As. I was close to Torii Hunter when he tripped up and misplayed a ball. I watched a good season end. Now the As are looking pretty good and the Twins are collapsing their way to 90+ losses. Again. Third time in a row. Nighttime is getting dark, and these games are just little tombstones in a season so forgettable you couldn't describe it by mentioning proud moments from actual ga
In a year of ups and downs the Twins will, without question, finish in the bottom half of the standing for the third year in a row, and end the season with possibly more questions than answers. Going into the year many wondered if this would be Morneau's last year, if Dimamond could repeat and lead the rotation this year, if Plouffe could tear the cover off the ball as he did the year, could Hicks excel at the majors, how long the middle infield would last and if the rotation got any better
Before jumping into 1990's class, I have to add in a player born in 1988 who I mistakenly skipped over. 50. Lester Oliveros, RHR, DOB: 5/28/88 AAA, but 2013 GCL: 6.1 IP, 8 strikeouts, 3 walks. Oliveros is making his way back from injury but is still a promising reliever. He should be off to AAA to start 2014 with a chance to make it again with the Twins soon. Now, getting on with it. There are 13 players born in 1990 who make it on my top 80 Twins prospects list. 1990 (13): 16. Da
Originally posted at Kevin Slowey was Framed! In case you missed it, a couple of prominent Twins rookies had difficult seasons. Well, difficult might be a massive understatement. Well, massive might be a huge overstatement. I'll calibrate my adjectives later, but we all know that Aaron Hicks and Kyle Gibson performed below expectations. Expectations may have been too high to begin with, but both players struggled to a surprising extent. Hicks and Gibson are hardly unique. Many producti
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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Winning the Cedar Rapids Kernel prize from TD is far better than winning the FIFA World Peace Prize. Thanks.· 0 replies
