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For years baseball played with shortstops that could cover a lot of ground and if they hit well it was a bonus - Marty Marion and Ozzie Smith made the hall like this. Mark Belanger was the glue of Earl Weaver's championship Orioles and Zoilo Versalles brought the Twins to their first World Series. Now we masquerade SS with all the shifts but still we look at Lindor and Correa and other great gloves with great arms as prototype shortstops. Notice how many professional athletes began as Shorts
This is an excerpt from an article on Zone Coverage; read it in full here. Over the weekend the Minnesota Twins made waves in the baseball community by announcing that they were not bringing Byron Buxton up when the Triple-A season ends on Monday. The decision effectively ended Buxton’s 2018 season before it really got a chance to get going, and created a take-storm for one big reason. By not bringing Buxton up for the last month of the season, they’ll retain his rights through the 2022 seas
After recently writing a piece at Twins Daily about the Twins doing the unthinkable and playing the service time game with Byron Buxton, Thad Levine came out and said that's exactly what's going to take place. Minnesota's horrible "This is how we baseball" has been mocked all season long, thanks to lackluster performance and confusing decisions, but I really didn't expect something to take the cake in September. I have been quite vocal about my support of the Twins new front office. Derek Falv
The Minnesota Twins have had a strange season in 2018. Unfortunately, that doesn’t compare to the nightmare season their center fielder, Byron Buxton, has gone through so far. A myriad of injuries and struggles at the plate have made the Twins front office of CBO Derek Falvey and GM Thad Levine decide to not have Byron Buxton be a part of their September call-ups so his season will end tomorrow when the AAA Rochester Red Wings season ends. The GM gave us three reasons why they made this decisi
Wow - no Abbott and Costello needed for this joke - just Falvey and Levine. The Twins are playing right now against the Rangers - okay, just 60 games left, open roster, we could bring up Vargas, Wade, Petit, Wiel and have a nice surprise players at first base. Or we could stay with Mauer or Austin, or give Sano or Grossman the 1B glove for a day. But not this advanced metrics group of geniuses - nope we outsmarted everyone. We swung a secret trade of Wilson for Gimenez to boost our future and
With the minor league season coming to an end, I thought a quick update on my “adopt-a-prospect” would be good. It was back in early March when I was looking forward to providing “bi-weekly(ish)” updates on Twins prospect Felix Jorge. I had predicted that we would see him at some point in 2018 with a September call-up being the worst case scenario. Not too long after that, he was placed on the disabled list for the Twins AA affiliate Chattanooga with soreness in his right triceps, which is his
Sorry Dickens' fans, this is about the Twins, the Cubs and White Sox. As a lifetime Senators/Twins fan and a longtime resident of Chicago, I've followed all three franchises quite closely - thru thick and thin. Don't worry, we're not going all the way back to 1961 - just wanted to review all three team's recent "rebuilds" and see what lessons we might draw, particularly in regards to the Falvey team going forward. Might as well start with the one success story, the Cubs under Epstein. Takin
Let me preface this post by acknowledging that the odds are low Machado signs with the Twins in real life. With low odds, we need to be BOLD and aggressive right upfront to schedule a meeting with him. Mr. Machado, I want you to remember 3 numbers. 60, 40, and 3. We'll go into more detail what those numbers represent. Let's start with the first number, 60. That's the number (in millions) I'm willing to offer you to play for the Twins in 2019. The organization is in a great spot financially
Thought I might add my two cents as to what is needed in the offseason to vault the Twins into playoff contention. It should be clear by now that there are simply too many holes on this current group to seriously believe they would be strong contenders next year without significant additions(we'll leave the Manager position to others for now). Here are my top three priorities for the FO to consider in the off season: 1. A #1 Starter -Yes, I know the starting rotation has been one of t
In 2018, the Minnesota Twins star centerfielder Byron Buxton has played just 28 games at the major league level. Among hitters with at least 90 plate appearances, he checks in third from the bottom (above just Trayce Thompson and Magneuris Sierra). With a potential to play a maximum of 162 games in 2018, Byron has gotten in just 61 across all levels of pro baseball. If there's anything to take away from a lost season, it's that the most important trait going forward has to be availability. Inj
I know that RP refers to relief pitching – for me it amounts to Really Poor baseball. KC won a series and did damage to the rest of baseball just like the jerk with the bomb that makes me take off my shoes at the airport. We have always had some relief pitchers, but now we have a stat head jamboree of pitchers. No longer is half the team pitchers and half batters, now we have 2 -3 on the bench and a bullpen that has to add folding chairs. Does this help the game? No. Do any of you enjoy the vi
Growing up in Minnesota during the days of Kirby, Hrbie, and World Championships I developed a love of not only the Twins but the game in general. I went to dozens of Twins games as a kid, making the three and a half hour trek one way to Minneapolis usually a couple of times each summer, and would often attend either Redhawks games or whatever semi-pro type teams that made Grand Forks their home. As an adult, I took my love of baseball (and traveling) and started making Minor League games a big
The Minnesota Twins went the route of signing multiple veterans on one year deals to supplement their relief corps for 2018. Now that the season has taken a different turn, all of those players have been shipped out to greener pastures. For 2019 and beyond, a goal of the organization has to be finding the next Trevor Hildenberger or Ryan Pressly. As things stand currently, there's a duo of dandies that have begun to stand above the rest. Whether or not the Twins have a proven closer going into
This is an excerpt of an article from Zone Coverage. Please click here to read the entire piece. Mike Herman still remembers it like it was yesterday, and can recall it down to the minute. “June 8, 2012....10:30 a.m.,” he said when we sat down in his satellite office in the Twins clubhouse at Target Field prior to an early-August game. Prior to that moment, Herman was the team’s No. 1 public relations guy. Dustin Morse -- who has that role now -- was second in command. But that morning, th
Ask Akil Baddoo about his mentality as the Cedar Rapids Kernels’ leadoff hitter and the young centerfielder keeps it pretty simple. “Just score runs. That’s the goal and that’s how you win games.” http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Baddoo062418a-2-600x400.jpg Akil Baddoo (Photo by SD Buhr) Of course, being a consistently productive leadoff hitter at any professional level, is really is a little more complicated than that. “Just really getting on base,” Baddoo said
The Minnesota Twins have allowed Kohl Stewart to make his major league debut, and Stephen Gonsalves will now join that company. Fernando Romero got that treatment earlier this season, and it sounds like Paul Molitor isn't suggesting a slow down any time soon. With the Twins out of it in the big leagues, and Rochester all but eliminated at Triple-A, opportunities lie ahead. Joel Sinner and the Rochester Red Wings play their last game on September 3. From that point forward, Minnesota has ample
This is an excerpt from a story originating at Zone Coverage. Please click here to read the full story. One thing I really like about baseball is that there’s always just so much going on. If you don’t pay attention 100 percent, you can easily miss something. One thing I hone in on is weird personality quirks or tics players have while on the field. Josh Willingham used to open his eyes really wide before stepping into the batter’s box. Addison Reed immediately props his cap atop his head th
Logan Morrison Hip Impingement Q&A Heezy1323 Twins DH/1B Logan Morrison was recently shut down for the remainder of the season and, by reports, is expected to undergo surgery for a hip condition that has been bothering him for much of the year. The problem is being reported as ‘hip impingement’, which is a fairly common diagnosis. Some may recall that the NBA’s Isaiah Thomas dealt with this problem over the past couple seasons and underwent surgery more recently. So what is ‘hip impingemen
Today, the Pittsburgh Pirates and Tampa Bay Rays completed the deal that sent Chris Archer to the Buccos. With a PTBNL up in the air, Shanez Baz ended up being the final piece to the blockbuster. This whole situation remains relevant in the context of the Minnesota Twins due to conversations surrounding the Rays former ace and Minnesota slugger Miguel Sano. Over the summer there were multiple headlines that linked the two organizations with regards to trade talks. Twins fans were down on Sano
Means 9 trips through the rotation for each starter, and got me to questioning what would be the best way to appropriate those starts from now - 117 games in - through the rest of the season. The clear emphasis must be on 2019 and 2020 and what will best serve the club moving forward. That is not to say that you stop pitching Berrios, Odorizzi, or Gibson; those guys need to stay in rotation and continue to demonstrate that they can last an entire season and get their 30+ starts in. In
The Minnesota Twins shipped their closer Fernando Rodney to the Oakland Athletics recently. Prior to his departure, he was the only pitcher on the roster to record a save. Over the weekend Trevor Hildenberger joined his graces picking up his first on the year, and second of his career. With no real closer in tow, it’s time for Paul Molitor to open the floodgates and utilize this opportunity. Going into 2019 the expectation should be that the Twins can once again be competitive. The same core t
I’m at Target Field, and it was the Sunday before the all-star break. We were already losing to the Tampa Bay Rays, and it was a high leverage spot in the 5th inning. Suddenly, my friend and I hear the infamous Lil Jon song start to heat up. Fernando Rodney is coming in? I think, “wow, Molitor is finally getting out of his comfort zone with preassigned inning roles for relievers!” I also don’t judge any of Molitor’s decisions to bring Rodney in because of how fun that walk-up song is at Target F
As much of a disaster as 2018 has been for the Minnesota Twins, it's hard to look back and call it anything but expected. The reality is that injuries, suspensions, and ineffectiveness destroyed any possibility of a return trip to the postseason. Going forward however, the future is bright (I wrote about that here). The same foundation that was going to be relied upon this season remains key for the years ahead. That begs the question of who is there, and who are we waiting on? While Paul Moli
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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