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Let's get this one out of the way before the season starts. Some knowledge about baseball is much easier to get from personal observation than from statistics. (Does he look good in the field? Is he a confident or tentative baserunner?) Other knowledge of baseball is much easier to get from statistics than from personal observation. (How often does he hit into double plays? How many defensive plays does he make in a season?) In those situations where you can go either with what you see on th
It is easy to question the motive behind some of the moves that the Twins have made. Many people get caught up in the moment and feel that a move needs to be made. After Prince Fielder signed with the Tigers, many fans expressed disappointment in the Twins' front office. I assure you that Terry Ryan knows what he is doing. He is responsible for six division titles and much of the success over the past decade. He did it by building from within, not by making a big splash in Free Agency. The Twins
Twins Daily’s Seth Stohs tweeted that this morning on ESPN1500’s Judd & Phunn show, co-host Joe Anderson, aka “Phunn”, “just bashed blogs and big-timed all fans for not being in the clubhouse.” Anderson apparently said that only then could bloggers and fans have opinions. Not having heard the rant live (you can likely go to the show’s webpage and catch it on-demand shortly), I cannot comment on the overall tone of Anderson’s remarks. He’s a radio guy that is likely making a statement just
In his efforts to augment a bullpen that last year ranked last in the league in ERA, FIP and WHIP, Terry Ryan's moves essentially amounted to re-signing Matt Capps and adding Joel Zumaya to replace the departed Joe Nathan. That was hardly a recipe for guaranteed substantial improvement, and now with Zumaya's unfortunate yet unsurprising injury news, Ryan's passive approach to addressing this unit in a buyer's market looks all the more irresponsible. With their sole bullpen pickup gone for
If you're a Twins fan, you've questioned Ron Gardenhire's ability to manage. Even if you didn't question it before 2011, you do now. After a catastrophic season, any reasonably minded baseball fan would wonder if the man leaning on the dugout fence is going to fix his team or make it worse. If you're a fan like me, you're not in the dugout with Ron Gardenhire. Gardy has never coached me, nor has he attempted to coach me. I can analyze his performance based on what I see on television and read
This was originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch and partially reposted here for space considerations. The original can be found here. Joel Zumaya left the mount on Saturday with elbow discomfort, cutting his workout short. Terry Ryan announced on Sunday that an MRI showed that he has torn his UCL, will undergo Tommy John surgery and not pitch for a month. It is unclear whether the Twins released him yet, but at this point that is a technicality, because by releasing him they will sa
We used to bike to the Denver, Iowa, Kwik Trip (before it became Kwik Star) to buy baseball cards. I'd prop my dirt bike up on its kick stand, ignore it when it fell over anyway, and scramble into the store to buy packs of Topps and Donruss baseball cards. I didn't really know baseball at the time, so every card boasting a name I'd heard of was pure gold to me. I thought I had a pretty sweet collection going until my friends told me all I had were a bunch of commons. I couldn't even pretend l
Originally posted at k-bro's baseball blog. I didn't intend to start up the paper doll machine until the season started. After all, the point of it is to show who's been put on the Disabled List, and they don't really do that during Spring Training. But this one is a special case because ... well, I just feel so darned bad for him. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-apx70TKPH68/T0rm0Zrp9yI/AAAAAAAABvk/Uwl6BRMBAkY/s400/zumayaucl.PNG Joel Zumaya tore his right ulnar collateral ligament of th
One of my favorite spring training activities is looking to see how former Twins are faring with their new team. Box scores of spring games, especially those of teams you would not normally follow, tend to be pretty boring—lots zeros and ones. So, for me, I like to keep tabs on some “old friends”. In most cases, I really enjoy seeing former Twins players doing well, so I silently cheer them on as I watch for their name in the box scores. I suppose you could go the other way and say to yourse
Well, it took all of two days for the first major injury of Twins’ spring training to impact the 2012 season. That’s even fast by the Twins’ 2011 standards. As most are now aware, Joel Zumaya’s MRI showed a torn ulnar collateral ligament and will be out for this season. I suppose it’s possible, maybe even likely, that he never throws an MLB pitch again. For those of you playing Zumaya Injury Bingo, does UCL surgery give you the win? The bigger question for me: Is it too early to worry about
The TwinsCentric GM Offseason Handbook listed 23 right-handed relievers, sorted in descending order by what we thought they would receive on the open market. The 23rd was Joel Zumaya. He was listed last because of the obvious injury risk he represented. But Zumaya wasn't the 23rd one signed. Twins General Manager Terry Ryan was aggressive, like he had been all offseason, and Zumaya signed relatively early given his status. That signing was almost universally praised because Zumaya has such
One of my fantasy leagues started its draft this past week, so I thought it might be a good time to start writing a little about fantasy baseball. I will likely participate in three or four leagues this year, and each is a little bit different. One of my leagues is a keeper league with major and minor league rosters. It is a 5x5 roto league. Another league is a weekly head-to-head, points league. Another league is only on the weekend. I’m in one ten team league and two 14-team leagues. There are
I just read the news about Joel Zumaya. I suppose none of us should be surprised Zumaya could be injured. Some will use this as an opportunity to say that the twins should have signed more help for the bullpen. While that may be true, I think it ignores the bigger picture. The Twins need to improve their teaching staff as a whole and two thirds of the innings of a pitching staff come from starters. Now I've heard it said that the Twins have five number four starters. I think this is a litt
Not that it matters right now, but… It’s always nice to know what you’re going to be dealing with going into next offseason. And although teams might say the service clock doesn’t matter… we all know that it does. The Twins have 5 pending Free Agents: C Ryan Doumit, SP Carl Pavano, LSP Francisco Liriano, SP Jason Marquis and recently injured RP Joel Zumaya. The Twins have options on 2 players next offseason: SP Scott Baker ($9.25m team option or free agency) and RP Matt Capps ($6m team o
I constantly ask myself what does our organization need to differently in the draft to become dangerous in October. Well, in my opinion, we need to draft three types of players. Player type 1: No contact power starting pitchers. The Twins have proven that a staff completely made of "pitch to contact pitchers" will get you to the first round of the playoffs and then lose badly. The Twins need to have a slight change in philosophy regarding their pitching staff. Draft strikeout pitchers-
I've played Fantasy Baseball for a number of years in a number of formats, and while it's nice to be "steady" and "compete" in the Twin's way of thinking, it's still nice to know that you've got some players (in real life) that are good enough to make Fantasy Rosters in a 12 or even 14 team league. That said, outside of Mauer, and Capps (simply for the "saves" category that everyone tries to load up on closers for--but for no other reason), who do you see on the roster that makes the cut? I t
This was first posted at The Tenth Inning Stretch and reposted here. The original post can be found here By now we all know that Zumaya left yesterday's bullpen session with pain/discomfort on "the inside of his elbow" after he threw 15 pitches to Chris Herrmann. According to the observers he was throwing very hard. Terry Ryan announced that there will be an MRI today and the results will be announced either late today or tomorrow. Of course, the reaction of the Twins' Territory, especiall
The Twins are coming off one of the worst seasons in franchise history and the hope for 2012 is things will improve. I was excited in November when the quiet genius Terry Ryan returned as GM for an organization desperate for leadership. I believe he will transform this organization into a winner again, but it won’t be without some speed bumps along the way. It also will be done without the help of large payrolls. Ryan will rebuild this club through solid drafts, wise spending, player account
If you're at all looking forward to the June Rule IV baseball draft as a Twins fans, there is no doubt that you're already familiar with a handful of names: Appel, Giolito, Buxton, Zunino, and most recently, Zimmer. If you're a fan of following the Twins draft at all, there are some terms you're probably familiar with: "strike-thrower", "long and lean", "wiry/athletic" or (my personal favorite Gardyism) "a grinder". You're always going to find draft picks that are breaks from the normal "tha
Also posted at www.ontheroadwithshawn.blogspot.com As spring training rolls along, I have been counting down their top 50 prospects. Already looked at 50-46, 45-41, 40-36, 35-31 & 30-26. 25. Tyler Robertson Left-Handed Reliever 12/23/1987. Robertson was drafted by the Twins in the 3rd round of the 2006 draft out of Bella Vista High School in Fair Oaks, California. He went 10-3 with 16 saves and a 3.61 ERA in 55 appearances for AA New Britain. He struck out 88 and walked 29 in 89.2 inni
This was first published at The Tenth Inning Stretch earlier this month. I know it is kind of old, but I think that the topic might be interesting for the Twins Daily readers, so I am republishing it here... February is African American/Black History Month so I wanted to contribute by looking at the integration of the Twins franchise. And it did happen at the Senators' years. The Washington Senators, even though they were one of the first Major League teams to break the ethnicity barrier, in 191
Did I hear this correctly? Bremer and Hawkins had to evacuate the broadcast booth because of a possum on the loose?
Oakland really does need a new ballpark...
How did we lose? Lewis at bat, bases loaded or first and third. No outs. Asked to bunt. Twice. Jabs at it twice. Why ask? Nobody can bunt any more. What’s so hard about “catching” the ball with soft hands and give rather than jabbing?
The other one is Urshela with bases loaded and no outs and the pitcher struggling to throw strikes. Figured he’d take a pitch. Instead check swing double play.
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How did we lose? Lewis at bat, bases loaded or first and third. No outs. Asked to bunt. Twice. Jabs at it twice. Why ask? Nobody can bunt any more. What’s so hard about “catching” the ball with soft hands and give rather than jabbing?· 0 replies
What's the point of sitting a healthy guy, because you don't want him getting injured? It's just the same as... HIM BEING INJURED· 0 replies
