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Over nearly four months, the Twins have approached the 2017-18 offseason with a keen eye on the 2018 regular season, as with 29 other major league teams (well, more or less, I suppose) to hit the ground running for another playoff push and potential run at the World Series. After all, winning the last game of the season should be the target for every team, right? In reality, we as informed fans know these things come in stages. The landscape of baseball, especially at the onset of the season,
For the first time since the Byung-Ho Park experiment the Twins front office has made a concerted effort to fill the DH position with a capable every day bat. In 2017 the likes of Robbie Grossman and Kenny Vargas filled the DH role in a not so exciting fashion. While Grossman was serviceable due to his high OBP (.361), the ugly three strikeout game in last years playoffs and the lack of home run power left a more than a little to be desired. Next in line was Vargas, whose perpetually declining
Of all the things that I love about the MLB, the farm systems are near the top. Following baseball is so much fun because even in the lowest years there is that optimism that comes with building up a minor league program. Honestly, I would rather be at that bottom than treading water in the middle. Now, it goes without saying but I’ll say it anyways, a World Series every now and then would be nice. However, for much of the last decade Twins fans have been watching the pipeline grow. Specula
In echoing the thoughts of others throughout the winter, it’s extremely difficult to be disappointed as a Twins fan this off-season. The team has added six pitchers, including a necessary starting pitching addition in Jake Odorizzi. Minnesota has added established bullpen arms (Reed) and others with either upside (Rodney), or bounce back potential (Duke). While we can bemoan the Twins inability to land a marquee arm like Yu Darvish, the Twins have established themselves a platform for being comp
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ----- This is the next segment in the 2018 Twins top 60 prospect list. You can find the introductory segment that discusses qualifications to be on this list and presents the players who were on the 2017 list but are not in this list here. You can find the list of the previous rankings here: 56-60, 55-51, 46-50 , 41-45, 36-40, 31-35, 26-30, 21-25, 16-20, 11-15, 6-10. You can find all segments in this series here. Here are players 6-10 in reverse o
With the arrival of spring comes a lot of things people have been working on all winter long. Teams have worked on building rosters, the earth has worked on getting warmer and writers have worked on prospect lists to unveil to the masses. Prospect coverage has grown immensely in the last decade-plus — perhaps in lockstep with the Moneyball era — as fans have gone from shrugging at the idea of a minor leaguer coming up to the big leagues or being in a trade to the point where it’s almost become
Joe Mauer has been with us a long time and it shows – he is currently number 9 all time right behind Hrbek (16 games difference). Joe has 1731 and if he plays 125 games this year 74 games will tie him with Mickey Vernon for sixth place on the Franchise list and he needs 136 to tie Ozzie Bluege for 5th. In case you wonder – Harmon Killebrew is number one with 2329 ahead of Sam Rice. And if you wonder who is next on the list – Brian Dozier 851. Mauer has the most hits of any current Twin wit
After coming up short in their quest to sign Yu Darvish, the Twins were forced to turn their focus towards other pitchers on the free agent and trade markets in order to fill out their rotation. They have since added two starting pitchers, by taking a flyer on Anibal Sanchez, and making a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays for Jake Odorizzi. Theses moves added just under $9M to the Twins 2018 payroll, bringing the total to roughly $118M. However, it would be reasonable to assume that if the Twins w
According to Mlbtraderumors J.D. Chargios has been placed on waivers. Guess on the site was that they were trying to sneek him through while he is injuried. This comes from an update from the Pioneer Press.
Max Kepler, being a German, seemed like quite an exception in baseball history, so I had to do some research. Bleacher Reports was so fascinated by his story that they published http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2568511-max-kepler-the-german-baseball-player-who-spurned-soccer-for-mlb-dreams. The article included this Max Kepler quote – "Soccer is the No. 1 sport in Germany," Kepler said. "Baseball was barely poking its head out the window at the time. Being one of the best [soccer players] in m
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- This is the next segment in the 2018 Twins top 60 prospect list. You can find the introductory segment that discusses qualifications to be on this list and presents the players who were on the 2017 list but are not in this list here. You can find the list of the previous rankings here: 56-60, 55-51, 46-50 , 41-45, 36-40, 31-35, 26-30, 21-25, 16-20, 11-15. You can find all segments in this series here. Here are players 6-10 in reverse orde
The Minnesota Twins are set to kick of spring training action with their first exhibition against the University of Minnesota on Thursday February 22. Following Stephen Gonsalves' first pitch in that tilt, the club will then play a full month's slate of games before embarking on Target Field. There's some certainties in the rotation, but there's some serious question marks too. Before digging into some of the more uncertain options, it makes some semblance of sense to start with what we know.
A Closer Look At this point, with the Twins busy Presidents Day weekend now officially come to a close, it can be said that most people (and those who frequent Twins Daily, especially) are aware that the hometown club completed a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays for Jake Odorizzi. The trade, first reported on Saturday night, had the Twins receiving Jake Odorizzi from the Rays in exchange for mid-level shortstop prospect Jermaine Palacios. Many were waiting for the other shoe to drop, certain
With free agency being a bit slower moving (to put it nicely) this offseason, this piece comes out a few weeks later than in previous years. At this point, there's still a handful of quality major league talent unemployed. For the most part, I think the AL Central is looking towards the year ahead as opposed to who else can join them in competing during 2018. Projection systems have started to run win totals for the upcoming season, and major sportsbook Bovada has also posted over/under win to
I am a baseball purist. I truly like sitting at a game or watching the game on TV and it doesn't really bother me in any way shape or form that the game takes 2 hours or 6 hours. For me I like the strategy, I like watching each pitch, trying to figure out how they may pitch to a particular person. I like the late inning pitching matchups, the lineup options, and if they are going to bunt (Stop Bunting Paul) or steal. All of these things are fantastic. In the grand scheme of baseball fans I
The first few seasons of Kennys Vargas’ career have been a bit of a disappointment for the Twins. Vargas came up in 2014 as a player with a lot of potential, and was considered by many to be the inevitable replacement for Joe Mauer at first base. Despite a few bright moments with the bat, Vargas hasn’t quite lived up to his expectations. Over his 859 career plate appearances, Vargas has a slash line of .253/.314/.444, with 35 home runs and an even 100 wRC+. While these numbers aren’t terrible,
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- This is the next segment in the 2018 Twins top 60 prospect list. You can find the introductory segment that discusses qualifications to be on this list and presents the players who were on the 2017 list but are not in this list here. You can find the list of the previous rankings here: 56-60, 55-51, 46-50 , 41-45, 36-40, 31-35, 26-30, 21-25, 16-20. You can find all segments in this series here. Here are players 11-15 in reverse order with
Over the weekend, Minnesota Twins fans felt the full gambit of emotions. After announcing that Anibal Sanchez had been given a major league deal, frustration was felt in full force. A bounce-back candidate that has ugly numbers of late wasn't going to gain much confidence for a revamped starting rotation. Then, a day later, Jake Odorrizi was acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays and the tide felt like it had turned. Putting a bow on the Minnesota offseason, it's hard not to like where this team is he
With the Twins off-season moves seemingly drawing to a close, fans would be hard pressed not to be enthused by the clubs’ upgrades. At the beginning of the 2017 season, fans were frustrated with a lifeless offseason which involved adding Jason Castro, Matt Belisle, and newly reinvented Craig Breslow. Most cautioned that ‘Falvine’ (there’s my garage band name of the future) were assessing the organization and its infrastructure before making hasty free agent additions. This off-season, the front
We have all seen the discontent from the players union and major league ballplayers about this offseason and a readjustment in front office thinking about player valuation. This has been coupled with 3 major spenders sitting out this offseason to reset the luxery tax committements and several clubs (low spending) going into rebuild mode. This has left a small number of teams as possible destinations for this years free agent crop and a remarkable price drop in the contracts the players have sig
I thought I would wait to post this, but of course my curiosity got the best of me so I had to explore the all time ranks of pitchers and see what milestones lie ahead in 2018. Let’s start with wins, which I know people now discount. It is true that now wins are a combination of more than offense and the starting pitcher. No long do we have the complete game stat meaning anything. Jack Morris completed 175 to rank 176 and Syl Johnson ranks number 500 with 82 complete games and in that 500
Since baseball is such a numbers sport I am always curious where our current players are on the list and what might happen during this next season that we can anticipate and root for. When it comes to all time batting averages I once anticipated that Joe Mauer would get onto the big list, but in the top 50 we have Carew at 30 and Kirby Puckett (318) tied for 48 with two others. No Mauer, he has dropped out of the top 100. I know it’s the concussion, but that is still too bad. Miguel Cabrera i
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch --- This is the next segment in the 2018 Twins top 60 prospect list. You can find the introductory segment that discusses qualifications to be on this list and presents the players who were on the 2017 list but are not in this list here. You can find the list of the previous rankings here: 56-60, 55-51, 46-50 , 41-45, 36-40, 31-35, 26-30, 21-25. You can find all segments in this series here. Here are players 16-20 in reverse order with their 2017
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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