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Many Twins fans have expressed disappointment in the Twins lack of spending. Do the Twins need to spend more money? The answer to this is no. The 2012 payroll is sitting at roughly 100 million, which ranks among the top in all of baseball. Also, spending more money does not always translate to wins, for example the 2011 Twins. The Twins will now have the flexibility to make a trade at the trading deadline and have the chance to acquire more talent. Finally, when Terry Ryan was in his first stint
The Minnesota Twins will win the AL Central in 2012. They have not made the flashiest moves this offseason, but they have made the right ones. While the Detroit Tigers get all of the attention, the Twins will fly under the radar. Under Ron Gardenhire, the Twins have become accustomed to being overlooked. The Twins need to keep in mind that history repeats itself. The Tigers will not win because they lack a solid defense. The old saying is "defense wins championships" and that's exactly what the
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v0fuwzoau8g/T00s3AYerOI/AAAAAAAAALQ/VyO94XGtCr0/s1600/Rock+Cats.bmp [Originally posted at my blog, http://twinsfanfromafar.blogspot.com] There is breaking Twins-related minor league news this afternoon in Central Connecticut, where it has been announced that the New Britain Rock Cats, which had done very well in the community and in terms of attendance, under owners Bill Dowling (former attorney for George Steinbrenner) and Coleman Levy (local attorney), is being sol
Here we are, less than a week into full Twins spring training workouts. Games don’t even start for a couple of days. It’s time to start talking position battles, right? It appears to me that there are actually very few positions that are up for grabs at this stage of camp. Of course, as injuries mount through spring training, more position battles can spring up, but for now, there are a lot of givens on the roster. Hitters: Joe Mauer, Ryan Doumit, Justin Morneau, Alexi Casilla, Danny Valencia
This will be the debut post in what I hope to be a weekly column updating the performances and scouting reports on prospects I believe are/should be on the Twins radar. I hope to have a high school round up posted later this week, but for now let’s start with the college prospects. Stats from Feb. 17th-26th Mark Appel has dominated much of the Twins draft coverage so far this winter and rightfully so. In his most recent start, he turned in possibly his best career performance going 7+ inning
The Butera problem goes like this - Drew Butera is both horrible at hitting baseballs and beloved by Twins fans. If only there was a way to keep him around Target Field without letting him get to the plate . . . Guess what? There is. Drew Butera should be the Twins mascot. There are lots of reason why Butera could step into TC Bear's shoes without much difficulty. -- He's kind of a wee little guy, and it seems like that helps with fitting into mascot suits. -- Whenever I'm at a game, i
This is a regular weekly feature at The Tenth Inning Stetch and is partially reposted here. You can find the original here Here is this week's installment (heavily influenced by Spring Training) : Wishing my best to Joel Zumaya, who's career with the Twins for all practical purposes ended last Sunday. Several media outlets have mentioned that he is considering retiring from baseball and becoming a professional fisherman. Terry Ryan indicated that the Twins most likely will replace Zumaya
The following was originally posted at http://www.knuckleballsblog.com I realize I’m several days late to the party in terms of discussing the arbitrator’s ruling in favor of Brewers’ star Ryan Braun, but it took me a while to come to grips with exactly how I feel about it. I’ve now done that and I’ve concluded one thing for certain… I want the movie rights. Before you scoff, remember that Hollywood made a successful movie last year about Oakland A’s General Manager Billy Beane. Sure, it helpe
Well, I have exactly a week left before spring training and, I’m sure just like many of my teammates, there are plenty of things on my mind. The Emotions At one end of the spectrum, spring training brings about feelings of excitement and readiness that I cant really put into words. We’ve all quietly prepared ourselves. We know what we need to do. We can’t get moved up levels while were at home in the off-season. This is what its all about. It’s go time. At the other end of the spectrum, however
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-q9yTJA0HubY/T0u2kqT2SdI/AAAAAAAABGo/0my5j4SyCow/s320/Dozier+Twins.jpg One of the Twins biggest offseason investments was in the form of 38-year old middle infielder Jamey Carroll. The versatile free agent was brought to the organization to help solidify a middle infield that waffled through a gargantuan amount of issues in 2011. He seems to get better with age and the Twins are hoping their two-year investment in the elder statesman can continue to lead to success from
Aaron and John talk about pitchers and catchers reporting for spring training, Justin Morneau's discouraging quotes about his health status, Sean Burroughs' odds of making the roster, Aaron's ongoing car saga, John's marriage, and a bunch of mailbag questions. Here are: the podcasts the rss feed if you want to subscribe and the podcast on iTunes (where you can also subscribe and leave reviews).
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
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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
