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The year is 2016. The Chicago Cubs are well on their way to breaking their 108-year World Series title drought, Mike Trout is raking at an eventual MVP rate, and the Minnesota Twins are without a doubt the worst team in the Major Leagues. On October 2, the season would mercifully end with a win over the division rival Chicago White Sox. Although the season ended on a win, those would be few and far between in 2016. As we dream about the coming months here in 2019, let’s take some time to rem
The Minnesota Twins are one of the most well positioned franchises in baseball to acquire serious assets this month. Needing help on the mound, the optimal plan would be in acquiring two relievers and a starter. Without knowing how it will shake out, we do know that Derek Falvey's club has been connected to the San Francisco Giants and Madison Bumgarner. Should a deal be struck, what may that look like? Given the Giants current standing, and free agency looming for the pair, both Bumgarner and
I am struck by some comments about Gibson and Mejia and Littell in the July 13 recap and it makes me wonder how we would rank our own pitchers right now. I would certainly have Rogers first and Blake Parker does not rate high on my faith index. Here is my attempt at ranking them all. Taylor Rogers - two inning saves are great. 41 innings in 34 games, 1.73 ERA and for what it is worth 13 saves. Jose Berrios - He is our Ace Jake Odorizzi - I hope he can keep this going all year. Ryne H
Edit to note: the tables are now fixed, I believe. Fans, we are a demanding bunch! We want fixes now, and we want them cheap, so our favorite teams can do more fixing. I maybe spend too much time on Twins Daily, and I post a lot. That makes me wrong a lot……or maybe I’m just not all that good at this baseball thing, who knows. One of the main things being discussed right now is that the Twins should add some pitching, and I’ve been wondering just how realistic that is. What does it cost to ge
At this point the Minnesota Twins are undoubtedly amping up their efforts to acquire big league assets for the stretch run and Postseason. I've been on record multiple times suggesting I'd like to see at least to moves made, and a starter coming more as a luxury. Unless the starting pitcher is under team control, go big on expiring relief help and call it a day. The most realistic name I'm intrigued by in that vein is Marcus Stroman. So, how does Derek Falvey pry him away from the Toronto Blue J
Lots of great ideas for what Falvey and company should be doing this month. If you believe,as I do, that this team is for real and with a few significant upgrades, have a realistic chance to go far in October, then half-way measures will be hard to take for us long-suffering fans. Hard to say if there is a greater need in the rotation or bullpen. Let's just agree both need upgrading for this team to approach quality of Yanks, Astros, or Dodgers. Yes, the bullpen has been somewhat of a surpr
The other day I was listening to one of my go-to baseball podcasts, Effectively Wild. The hosts interviewed John Bitzer, creator of BaseballTradeValues.com. BTV is designed to simulate trades scenarios and estimate relative value of the players included, and the model incorporates variables like projected performance, prospect rankings, committed salary, inflation, years of control, aging curve, and roster flexibility. The timing couldn't be better with the trade deadline fast approaching. I s
It seems pretty clear at this point that a realignment is on the horizon in Major League Baseball. Different ideas have been shared, but the most popular and most sensible one is for baseball to realign their divisions so that the teams are in closer proximity to each other. Such an alignment would probably not help any team more than the Seattle Mariners, who currently have to play 6 series in the state of Texas; more than 2,000 miles away from Seattle. These ideas have arisen in light of the
This is my second installment tracking all of the FA relievers. This was a personal nit to pick with the front office given the team's need and the plethora of available options. At the quarter pole though, the results were not as good as I'd have liked personally. At this point, the sample sizes are large enough that we should be able to get a feel for who was worth it, or if FA relievers really are just a crap shoot. The cream of the Crop: Kelvin Herrera - Herrera signed a 2/17 deal with
As the door closes on the first half of the 2019 Major League Baseball season the Minnesota Twins sit in sole possession of first place in the AL Central Division. They have a 5.5 game lead over the favorited Cleveland Indians and find themselves with Postseason odds north of 96%. This drastic turnaround is because of the work both Rocco Baldelli and the front office has put in, but one player on the field has made an incredible impact as well. After being cast aside by plenty of Twins fans du
Game Summary The Twins were able to scratch cross just a single run in the first, despite hitting 4 singles. Two of them were infield hits, not allowing for runners to take an extra base. Schoop struck out with the bases loaded to end the inning... and then Pineda fell apart. - Pineda gave up 2 runs in the second, 2 in the third, and despite pulling him early in the fourth, he gave up another 4 runs. Asdrubal Cabrera let the Rangers take the lead as he hit a 2 run HR in the second. The next in
I think Taylor Rogers may have been the greatest Twin to be snubbed from anything since Joe Mauer didn’t get the 2017 Gold Glove. After earning the longest save from any Twins pitcher since 2000 yesterday against the Rangers (he retired all seven batters he faced) and becoming the pitcher with the most saves of three or more outs for the club this century, he made it clear once again that he’s definitely one of the best relievers in the game. If you look at the group of relievers that were inv
Apparently Carlos Carrasco has been diagnosed with leukemia. While the Indians and MLB haven't made an official announcement, he gave an interview in the DR. https://sports.yahoo.com/carlos-carrasco-diagnosed-leukemia-103854235.html This is bigger than baseball. Hopefully he can get the treatment he needs.
What if the all star game was the end of the season? What kind of records would we have? Home Runs – 12 have 33 or more – Harmon Killebrew in 1964 had 30 and the total with 30+ first half homeruns is – 36 and Harmon is the only Twin on the list. TOP 12: • Barry Bonds, 2001 Giants, 39 • Chris Davis, 2013 Orioles, 37 • Mark McGwire, 1998 Cardinals, 37 • Reggie Jackson, 1969 Athletics, 37 • Luis Gonzalez, 2001 D-backs, 35 • Ken Griffey Jr., 1998, Mariners, 35 • Frank Howard, 1969 Senators, 34 •
Needing a starting pitcher, the Minnesota Twins front office send minor leaguer Jermaine Palacios to the Tampa Bay Rays for Jake Odorizzi. Palacios had some hype but was never a top prospect, while Odorizzi had been largely mediocre and was set to turn 28. It’s hard not to see more upside in a big-league starter under team control, but this leap forward has been immense for the former Tampa starter. Odorizzi was often chided for his efforts by Twins fans last season. He posted a 4.49 ERA backe
At the half way mark the one area of Twins baseball that is really bothering me is fielding. It used to be that the fundamentals of fielding were the Twins specialty, but now that we have the bats, we seem to be slipping in the field. I went to the various web sources to see if my eye test was right on a night that Adrianza makes two errors behind Berrios in a loss to the White Sox. Looking at fielding stats in Baseball Almanac http://www.baseball-almanac.com/teamstats/fielding.php?y=2019&
Okay - I just read that Lewis Thorpe is up and Adrianza is back and Wade is up and Rosario is down and Buxton is still???? This has been a fascinating year - despite being in first place all season, in spite of great production and such a strong showing there has been a tremendous amount of shifting and turn over. Some of it because of injuries, some to give a player a reset and some because we have played such long games and given the MLB roster so many innings they need a break. But who has be
love Arreaz who doesnt? J Scoop hits an occasional homerun, but is he worth keeping around? Id have trouble deciding between Scoop and Sano for next player outside looking in.
Each year the Stadium Club line is one to circle in the Topps Baseball release calendar. A product with strong affordability and not driven by extraordinary chase cards, the allure here is the stunning visuals. There’s short prints and photo variations across a plethora of Topps products but it’s Stadium Club that showcases images on the most beautiful level. Stadium Club is not a massive product and boxes include 128 total cards. The base checklist is 301 cards and there’s only a handful of i
Max Kepler used to be relatively vocal about his decision to avoid an increased launch angle. He wasn’t looking solely to hit home runs, and while his goal was to enter the zone on a level swing path, he was just fine with ground balls. Former Twins beat writer Mike Berardino talked to the outfielder back in the spring of 2018 and Kepler said as much there. Now he’s become one of the best outfielders in baseball, and it’s because he’s changed his approach.
Baseball has transitioned to a
Just throwing this out there: Is the Twins' front office actually maybe kinda sorta mad that the team is playing so well? Obviously, this seems preposterous on its surface, but bear with me for a moment. Falvine nailed it with almost every FA acquisition made this offseason, with most of the signings being short-term guys at spots the Twins have heralded prospects coming up behind them. Schoop= Lewis/Arraez/Gordon etc, Cron/Cruz=Rooker/Kirilloff, Perez=Graterol/Gonsalves, and so on. If
Wow what a concept and a really good one too. Tampa Bay has had a great team and lousy support, Montreal had lousy teams and good support. Put them together and we have something fun to talk about. 82 games is an expensive season ticket, 41 might be more affordable. Each city would compete to be the most supportive and the team and MLB comes out on top. Yes, I like these kind of out-of-the-box ideas. Remember the time with Mr Pohlad was willing to contraction? http://a.espncdn.com/mlb/columns/mc
With the Tampa Bay Rays set to make the 2019 MLB Playoffs and turn the 115-year-old approach to playoff rotations on its head, it’s well past time for questioning the effectiveness of the traditional approach to postseason pitching. But it’s the Minnesota Twins and José Berríos who present the most interesting postseason pitching situation. This was originally published at FoulPlaybyPlay.com. The Tried and Not-so-true Approach I get it. Put your best pitcher out there in Game 1 of a playoff
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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