https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/24099-dont-blame-the-pohlads-or-rocco/The majority of Twins fans are treating the ownership as the bogeyman for the team’s demise, I’m here to pass the blame to the person who is most deserving of that title. The Twins signed Carlos Correa to a “pillow” contract in March 2022 for $105,300,00 over 3 years which paid him $35,100,000...24099Mon, 03 Nov 2025 22:17:10 +0000https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/24026-baseball-card-collecting-before-it-was-a-business/Card Collecting in the Early 1900’s Card collecting in the early 1900’s was before my time and my dad’s, but not my grandfather’s. He arrived in Ellis Island in 1907 but did not acquire a taste for baseball or card collecting in his lifetime. If he had it would have been great because the T206...24026Wed, 09 Apr 2025 23:59:09 +0000https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/23995-a-surprising-spring-stat/First let me preface this by saying that I realize that Spring Training results and stats are practically meaningless. But with this in mind here are some raw data from the spring along with a ranking of the 30 organizations.   OPS – Twins 20th with a .739 OBP OBP –...23995Mon, 10 Mar 2025 01:44:52 +0000https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/23970-who-is-mickey-gasper-%E2%80%93-major-league-contributor-or-minor-league-depth/Mickey Gasper is a recent addition to the Twins 40-man roster. He came over from the Red Sox in a trade for Jovani Moran. If you recall, Moran was designated for assignment by the Twins and went unclaimed. He also went unclaimed through the Rule 5 draft at the beginning of December. But on Chr...23970Thu, 30 Jan 2025 15:41:56 +0000https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/23966-a-bad-precedent-is-being-set/Those of us who are baby boomers vividly remember Popeye’s friend and lover of hamburgers, J. Wellington Wimpy, commonly referred to as Wimpy saying “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today”. It has been reported that Wimpy would never come around on Tuesdays. The LA Dodgers, in this...23966Sun, 19 Jan 2025 17:14:22 +0000https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/23964-twins-amateur-drafts-1975-1984-the-griffith-years-part-ii/Twins Amateur Draft Choices – The Griffith Years – Part II (1975 to 1984)   A month ago I posted an article on the results of the first 10 years of the amateur draft which would have been lead by team owner Clark Griffith.   I did an analysis of the first 5 rounds from 1965 to 1...23964Fri, 10 Jan 2025 17:14:32 +0000https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/23954-twins-amateur-drafts-1965-1974-the-griffith-years-part-i/With the implementation of the MLB Amateur Draft in 1965, a team's ability to build a farm system and stock a major league team is largely affected by it success in drafting future talent. In analyzing the results of the Calvin Griffith years of the draft (1965 - 1984), I looked at players dra...23954Sat, 07 Dec 2024 02:49:39 +0000https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/23950-bonus-babies-out-amateur-draft-in/“Bonus Baby” Rule Eliminated, Amateur Draft Implemented in 1965   If you read my recent blog article “Players Who Went Right To The Major Leagues” you will know that from 1947 to 1965 any player who signed with an organization for $4,000 or more was considered a “Bonus Baby” and had to sp...23950Sat, 30 Nov 2024 01:20:17 +0000https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/23946-players-who-went-right-to-the-major-leagues/In baseball there is a chance for something special to happen in every game. One of the rarer events is for a player to make his major league debut and never had spent any time in the minors. Since the advent of the American and National League in the early 1900’s, only 102 players can make th...23946Wed, 20 Nov 2024 01:18:12 +0000https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/23789-is-the-twins-salary-budget-reasonable/Let’s Talk Salaries The Padres traded their “once in a lifetime” superstar to the Yankees for payroll relief. This in spite of drawing over 3.2M fans in 2023 (2nd in NL). The Padres 2023 payroll was $259M (per sportrac.com) and they didn’t make the playoffs. In looking forward, the Padres are...23789Mon, 26 Feb 2024 16:03:12 +0000https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/23784-budgeting-in-baseball/I read today that a lot of fans are annoyed at the Twins ownership because they are unwilling to take on additional salaries in order to increase their chances of winning a World Series. As a retired CFO of a $14M business with 150 employees, I can vouch for the sanctity of an annual budget....23784Wed, 21 Feb 2024 01:59:52 +0000https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/23772-history-101-the-spitball/History 101 - The Spitball The spitball originated at the end of the 19th century. There are a couple of possible origins and a couple of possible inventors, but at this point the title has not been assigned to anyone and may actually have a number of players who may have contributed to the cr...23772Mon, 05 Feb 2024 15:18:38 +0000https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/23767-what-does-it-take-to-be-a-major-league-manager/What Does It Take To Be A Major League Manager? Sitting on my couch in the middle of a New England winter, trying to pick a topic to write about for my weekly blog, my attention turned to X (I’m not going to say formerly Twitter). Staring at me was a posting by Dan Hayes of The Athletic from T...23767Mon, 29 Jan 2024 17:55:33 +0000https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/23763-can-there-be-more-than-one-unicorn/The airwaves have been flooded with all the hysteria of the otherworldly accomplishments of Shohei Ohtani, and rightly so. He is indeed a “unicorn”, a unique baseball player who has taken MLB by storm since coming from Japan to the US. To be able to hit and pitch with such excellence is almost...23763Mon, 22 Jan 2024 16:02:08 +0000https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/23758-a-man-of-many-gloves/One of the most underrated players for the Twins may have been Cesar Tovar. His professional career became reality largely because of his close friend Gus Gil. On New Year’s morning in 1959 Cincinnati Reds General Manager Gabe Paul would sign Gil and at the urging of Gil, Cesar Tovar. Gil rece...23758Mon, 15 Jan 2024 14:54:18 +0000https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/23757-was-zoilo-versalles-a-one-hit-wonder/Was Zoilo Versalles a One-Hit Wonder? When the Washington Senators relocated to Minneapolis/St. Paul for the 1961 season they brought a team that had finished 7th, 8th, 8th, 8th, and 5th the previous 5 years. After the move the team finished 7th in 1961, then 2nd, 3rd and 6th in the 10 team Am...23757Mon, 08 Jan 2024 18:40:43 +0000https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/23755-nicknames-in-baseball-a-very-interesting-project/Of all the professional sports, no sport seems to have as many and as many colorful nicknames as Major League Baseball. This was especially true in the early years of the sports. Some nicknames were so attached to the player that when they were inducted into Baseball’s Hall of Fame, their nicknames...23755Mon, 01 Jan 2024 16:38:33 +0000https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/23751-minneapolisst-paul-was-supposed-to-be-an-expansion-team/The 1961 American League season was unique because for the first time since the turn of the century the league was not made up of 8 teams. Not only did the Senators move from Washington to Minnesota, but the league added 2 expansion teams, the Los Angeles Angels and the “new” Washington Senators. O...23751Sun, 24 Dec 2023 01:26:22 +0000https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/23749-what-it-was-like-growing-up-in-the-1950s1960s/Growing up in the 1950’s was so different for those of us who loved to play baseball. Today you can drive past a ball field during the summer and find it empty. With us we needed to rise early in the morning, have a quick breakfast and ride our bikes to the closest field hoping to be there before a...23749Tue, 19 Dec 2023 00:18:02 +0000