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Best burgers in MN, a shocking amount of "Major League 2" discussion, answering the fan mail bag, and an excellent interview with Do Hyoung Park. All that in more in this week's Supershow! Follow along with all things Twins And Losses on Twitter, @TwinsAndLosses! You can also find our podcast on Spreaker, iTunes, Stitcher, and elsewhere! https://open.spotify.com/episode/4v1IO62sQEXEx0Zs02P10N?si=HzmGbYMsQmeHkot7M32lfA
You’ve heard of the Devil being in the details, well finding what advantage the Twins have crafted in 2020 may come from a surprising place, their defense. After finishing 23rd overall in team defense last season, Minnesota currently finds themselves 2nd in 2020. We knew many of the problems from a year ago. Jorge Polanco was not a good defensive shortstop, particularly coming in on the ball. Luis Arraez was stretched going to his right, and the outfield suffered every game Byron Buxton had to
Today WCCO posted a story regarding the Minnesota Twins longstanding logo of Minnie and Paul shaking hands. The depiction is of two individuals representing Minneapolis and St. Paul coming together over what would be the Mississippi River. In the ongoing effort to advance diversity and inclusion however, the imagery is now be called for questioning. While not a Twins employee, Dr. Charles Crutchfield acts as the Twins consulting dermatologist. He offers that the pair need a fresh look that, “h
A week ago, things were looking rosy in Minnesota sports land. Fast forward to today, the Twins are on a four game losing streak, the Wild crashed out of the playoffs and lost the draft lottery, the Timberwolves sill exist, and the Gopher football team went from losing their best receiver to likely losing their entire season. Perhaps tonight is the night for the Twins to turn this ship around. I follow the Twins very closely, but I rarely, if ever, sit down and watch an entire Twins game unint
I was reading MLB.com’s list - 1 possible Deadline upgrade for every team – and thinking about the Twins. Our trade was for a left handed reliever which I do think is a big item. However here are some intriguing trade options for Rooker, Kiriloff, Larnach since we seem quite set in the OF Needs: Blue Jays – OF Indians – OF – wrong division – sorry Tigers – a bat (wrong division, but they are the Tigers and they like ex-Twins) Athletics – 2B (Lewis?) Mariners – C Rangers – 1B/3B – maybe Rooke
Not sure why, but Randy Dobnak got me thinking about the odds of ever being a major league player. According to MLB stats there have been 18, 918 to play in the majors since 1871. I do not know if that is accurate – who does? Does it include the Negro leagues? Does it include the female league? No those last two are not included. It does not include the independent or the minor leagues, but even if it did it still represents such a small percentage of the population. There are 328.2 mi
You could call him a former Uber driver, but you’d be selling it short. You could call him a prospect, but he probably never garnered that status. Instead, Randy Dobnak is a self-made grinder that went from small-college West Virginia to one of the best pitchers on a staff that supports one of Major League Baseball’s best teams. After spending the better part of three seasons in the minor leagues as an undrafted free agent, Dobnak will toe the rubber tonight in what equates to his backyard. Fr
After his two-homer game to begin the season, Max Kepler said he wanted to be more aggressive at the plate. On Tuesday, in an extremely rare 1 p.m. game, Kepler showed a patient side to his approach, drawing four walks in five plate appearances but no at-bats. Normally 10 to 12 games into the season, there’s at least some pause as to whether we’ve seen enough to make a judgment on how well someone is playing. This isn’t your normal season. By now the importance of each game in this 60-game seaso
The Minnesota Twins have jumped out to a 7-2 start for the 9th time in franchise history, and first since 2001. Facing arguably the toughest portion of their schedule, they’ve certainly been up to the challenge. Now with some basement dwellers on tap, this is a massively important week. Rocco Baldelli’s club welcomes former bench coach Derek Shelton to Target Field tonight for a two-game, home and home series. The Pirates are just 2-7, don’t have much in the form of Major League talent, and al
With minimum games and the potential that not all the teams will play 60 games the playoffs get quite interesting With the 16 game playoffs who is in and who is out? Based on percentage: American League Yankees, Twins, Athletics are the division leaders Second place teams: Baltimore (really), White Sox, Astros Next two – wild cards – best percentages Cleveland and Detroit (yes Gardy’s gang) National League First seeds: Atlanta, Cubs, Rockies (really) Second group: Miami (yes on
We have had Marlins, Phillies, and now Cardinals test positive. We have had replacement games with the poor Yankees having to play the highly rated Orioles. Monday the Postponed games were - Yankees at Phillies; Orioles at Marlins. Tuesday - Postponed games: Yankees at Phillies; Orioles at Marlins. Wednesday - Postponed games: Phillies at Yankees; Orioles at Marlins. Replacement game: Yankees at Orioles. Thursday - Postponed games: Phillies at Yankees; Orioles at Marlins. Replacement game: Yan
This morning Major League Baseball was hit with another blow. The St. Louis Cardinals had two players test positive for COVID-19 with an immediate fallout of postponement of action against the Milwaukee Brewers. We’re playing through a pandemic here however, so what really was the plan? When Rob Manfred and the owners finally came to agreement on economics it appeared, they also had sorted out safety protocols. What it seems they didn’t have ironed out was the logistics surrounding continuatio
Over the winter Twins fans clamored for starting pitching. After losing to the Yankees in the Postseason again, a constant bugaboo was deemed the source of weakness. Needing an ace, the Twins sought out some arms. Swinging a deal for Kenta Maeda was nice, but it may be Rich Hill that represents the haul. Sure, he’s 40 years old but try telling Nelson Cruz that’s a milestone anyone should care about. The reality is that Hill has both been often hurt and often good. Good probably isn’t even a fa
The excitement of the home opener is a bit muted this year, but the excitement surrounding the release of the Twins walk-up song list is virus-proof, judging by the response to this Dustin Morse tweet this afternoon:
In an effort to break it all down and so this doesn't spin out of control, I’m mainly just going to cover the batting order for the home opener, but I’ve added a few other favorites from the pitchers and bench players, as well as a much-needed walk-up song for manager Rocco
This weekend was an absolute blast. The Minnesota Twins took the field and despite a hiccup on Saturday, looked the part of a superior team ready to assert themselves. On their off-day Monday, Major League Baseball did its best to go up in flames. I expected a rollercoaster this season, but I’m not sure this was how I envisioned it. Max Kepler started the season with a dinger, and then he went ahead and did it again. Nelson Cruz blasted his way into the record books with a seven-RBI performanc
Welcome to Twinternationals! This is a space for Twins fans from different countries to read about their team in their native language. This section is run by Venezuelan Mariana Guzmán (@TwinsLatinos) and Brazilian Thiéres Rabelo (@TwinsBrasil). Por Thiéres Rabelo Minnesota não teve vida fácil em sua primeira série do ano. O Twins venceu duas das três partidas contra o White Sox, fora de casa e apesar de ter tido certa dificuldade contra este bom e renovado Chicago, a primeira impressão foi
Here are a couple quotes from ESPN - "The Minnesota Vikings announced Monday that head trainer Eric Sugarman and members of his family have tested positive for the coronavirus. "Sugarman also is the Vikings' infection control officer. He said in a statement that he and his family immediately quarantined and "are all doing fine and experiencing only mild symptoms." "The Vikings said they are sanitizing their facility and contacted anyone who was in close contact with Sugarman. The team said t
It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. When I went down to Fort Myers in early March to cover the Twins, I wasn’t supposed to leave under the haze of a global pandemic. My office has been closed for months. Sports have been shelved just as long. The Twins defending the AL Central crown wasn’t intended to take place in just a 60-game sprint. None of this was supposed to happen, but here we are, and we have baseball. I don’t know if we’ll get through the entire schedule. I think MLB has done a
With Opening Day of the 2020 Major League Baseball season now upon us, I thought I would take a quick peek at what, if any, adjustments the sportsbooks I subscribe to have made compared to those I posted in Part 4 of this "Bet On It!" series earlier in July, as teams were making their way back into their abbreviated summer camps. It turns out, however, that my fellow betting subscribers have given the oddsmakers at William Hill and Elite Sportsbook very little reason to make adjustments to the
We’ve finally made it and baseball is back in just a matter of days. The Minnesota Twins will kick off this 60-game sprint in Chicago, and they’ll look to distance themselves from a team looking to prove they’re ready. I put out a 162-game projection back in February, but with so many logistical changes and update is necessary. I don’t foresee any changes in the positioning among the teams from where I had them at the beginning of the year, but we’re obviously only going to play roughly one-th
We’ve made it, we have finally made it. The long-running national nightmare seems to be nearly over. On Friday night we will have a Twins baseball game that counts. Back in late June I projected the 30-man Opening Day roster for Minnesota. A few changes have been made and it’s time for an update. While Summer Camp has been relatively uneventful for the Twins, there have been a few key developments. Thankfully, Byron Buxton’s injury scare doesn’t seem like it will hold him back. Luis Arraez als
I am always curious about trades – do they work in the short run, long run or not at all? How do we judge the Twins trades? I am not interested in the end of the career moves of Killebrew and Thome, but rather the movement of players who will have a career that goes on for a few years after the trade. Most likely the balance between good and bad will even out after a number of years, although David Ortiz will always be a thorn in the Minnesota Twins field. But then Ortiz was not traded - we cut
There’s no denying that the Minnesota Twins are one of baseball’s most exciting teams. Their bullpen should rank among the league’s best, and the lineup is one that provides envy to virtually every other group out there. Kicking off a weird 2020 season though, they may need to make some changes. When Byron Buxton went down in a heap after tracking a fly ball on Monday night the worst was feared. Fortunately, it’s just a mid-foot sprain, and while that may have some lingering effects, there’s s
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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