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The Minnesota Twins enter the offseason prior to 2018 with immense expectations. Following a season in which they arrived in the postseason a year early, this club looks ready to take the next step, and the AL Central is begging them to do so. Knowing pitching remains a focus, a free agent starter seems to be a sensible acquisition. The question always revolved around how high the Twins may aim though. According to a report from Fanrag's Jon Heyman, Minnesota is coming out guns blazing. While th
I offer a brief writeup for the final game of my three-game Arizona Fall League visit, which the host Surprise Saguaros lost to the Peoria Javelinas 11-10 in disappointing fashion Saturday night. The headline from the game of course would be Lamont Wade's concussion injury from a collision in right-center field. I posted a few photos in reply to that thread, found here. He was injured in the top of the second inning, before having a turn at bat. I haven't talked too much about the other team
Over the weekend, news broke that the Twins checked in on the availability of Cincinnati Reds closer Raisel Iglesias. While he's undoubtedly not the only player Minnesota has looked at on the trade market, his name has filtered into the media cycle at this point. No matter how much substance there is to the situation moving forward, it's worth looking at Iglesias as a player, and whether or not he fits for the Twins. First and foremost, Minnesota needs to shore up the bullpen heading into 2018
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ----------- My premise this off-season is for the Twins to be competitive deep in the 2018 post-season, they need 2 starters better than Berrios, and at least 3 relievers better than what they have now. A few days ago, I discussed three free agents who can play a vital role in the Twins' 2018 pen. Unfortunately, unless someone believes that the Shohei Otani lottery ticket will land on the Twins' lap (it still could, btw; I just don't like liv
Just a quick summary of Twins-oriented doings, at the AFL game in Peoria Friday evening from which Our Heroes emerged victorious. Because every one of the Twins pitchers appeared in the Thursday game, we did not expect to see any Friday night, and thus were not disappointed on that count. However, perhaps in compensation, all three of the Twins batters were in the starting lineup and played all game. Lamont Wade batted sixth in the order. He achieved sac fly RBI in each of the second and
Not to take away from Steve Lein's excellent AFL summaries, but USAFChief and I (plus special guest ashburydavid) were in attendance at Surprise Stadium this afternoon, and we got to see several of our Twins prospects appear in the 6-2 loss to the Glendale Desert Dogs, so I thought I'd write something up, given all this Twins game action. Chief might chime in with his own perspectives, if he ever gets free of rush-hour traffic to his hotel. Basically, nobody really impressed me, I'm sorry to s
Hey everyone, After doing some research, I have come up with what I think is not only a perfect off-season plan for our Minnesota Twins but also a really possible one too. Feel free to comment below I love to hear new ideas and feedback. 2018 Plan: Free Agency: I think because of our success shown last year at the plate and in the field we should be making a big push through free agency to push ourselves to be real contenders for the first time in a while. So here's some needs followed by my
It’s not often that I allow someone in my mentions to get me so wound up that I devote an entire, stand-alone article to a single person, but here we are. The tweet in question — feel free to click and read the mind-bending thread in all its glory — appears as follows: http://zonecoverage.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Capture-1.jpg NOTE: This person has since blocked me for reasons that don’t entirely make sense. He has also deleted the tweets, so I have saved this screenshot to remember hi
As the Rawlings Gold Glove Award winners were announced of the night of November 7th, Byron Buxton was a lock. Yes, there were surprises among the finalists, but it was a certainty that the Twins centerfielder would win his first. There wasn't going to be a Mauer-esque snub, or a Dozier-like surprise, Byron Buxton is the best centerfielder baseball currently has to offer. With the Gold Glove solidifying that belief as reality, the question now becomes, how many more follow it? To recap a bit,
Hello all, It is a great time of the year to be a baseball rumor junkie and (finally) a Twins fan. In last years blueprint forum I advocated a complete teardown in trading both Dozier and Santana. This year I am advocating for just the opposite. I think the Twins are entering year 1 of a 5-year window to truly contend. I say 5 years because that is one year longer than the Twins have team control over key players such as Buxton, Sano, Kepler, Rosario, and Buddy Boshers (Kidding). I extend this
With Major League Baseball free agency ready to get underway, general managers and organizations will begin pitching to players why they should sign with their respective teams. For the Twins, pitching will once again remain a focus, but for a team looking to take the next step, a nice offensive additional may not be a bad play. There's multiple options out there, but a former divisional foe should be the place they turn first. That guy is Carlos Santana. The former Cleveland Indians slugger i
What a year! 2016 2017 changeActual Wins 59 85 +26 Improving by 26 games is quite a feat. So how did the 2017 Twins get there? 2016 2017 changeActual Wins 59 85 +26Pythag Wins 66 83 +17Luck -7 +2 +9 Okay, so the actual improvement was more like 17 games. The "Luck" here is shorthand for the difference between their wins and the wins we should have expected given their run totals--in other words, the advantage the Twins h
This is an excerpt from a Zone Coverage article which appears in full here. Please click the link. The Minnesota Twins exhibited significant growth in 2017, winning 85 games just one season after crumbling to the depths of 103-loss despair. A lot of it was done with in-house guys, as the only significant additions were a decent reliever (Matt Belisle) and a good catcher (Jason Castro). The rest of the bump came from within. But if we saw anything in October, it was that, while the Twins were
This is an excerpt from a post at Zone Coverage. It appears in full here. It’s not terribly controversial to suggest that the Houston Astros just climbed the summit to reach heights that fans hope are possible in the near future for the Minnesota Twins. Like, winning the World Series is the ultimate goal, and seeing a team that was -- at least for a stretch -- going through their rebuild concurrently with the Twins should give fans at least a semblance of hope for the future. But what it s
How have the Minnesota Twins done in the MLB Draft in the past and recently? The Minnesota Twins has to make the most out of every player they acquire through the draft. You can say that about every team in Major League Baseball but, some of those teams have the ability to make up for a bad draft every now and then. They can stretch the payroll to go get top tier free agents or make a big trade to acquire players who have already established themselves as great players. Those teams are the e
In 2017, one of the greatest deficiencies for the Minnesota Twins was the lack of quality relief pitching. While the starting rotation left plenty to be desired on its own, it was the bullpen that generally provided little in the way of resistance when tasked to come in and back up a start. Minnesota needs to address that this offseason, but what if they don't look anywhere but within? Over the course of the early offseason, I've considered plenty of different ways the Twins could spend their
On Monday June 8, 2015 the Houston Astros franchise changed. Really, every franchise across Major League Baseball changed as they added an influx of new talent through the First-Year player draft. Houston though, selected a shortstop from LSU with the second overall pick, and Alex Bregman set forth on a path that would greatly enhance the Astros future. In this same draft, the Twins would select 6th overall. Following the selections of three collegiate players and two high-schoolers, they chos
It’s the birthday of Twins all-time great Jim Perry, born in Williamston, North Carolina in 1935. Perry came up with the Cleveland ballclub in 1959 at the age of 23, finishing runner-up to Washington’s Bob Allison in American League Rookie of the Year balloting. His sophomore season he tied with Baltimore’s Chuck Estrada for the AL lead with 18 wins. He made his first All-Star team in 1961. The Twins acquired Perry from Cleveland on May 2, 1963 for Jack Kralick, who had pitched the first no-
The Minnesota Twins took the first step to improving their pitching staff on Thursday, as the club announced they’ve hired Garvin Alston as the new pitching coach on the big-league staff. Alston is the 16th pitching coach in Twins history, and fourth since 1985 according to a team release. Alston finished 2017 as the bullpen coach for the Oakland A’s, and began the season as a pitching rehab coordinator for the San Diego Padres. He’s spent 13 years coaching in some capacity in professional bas
The Minnesota Twins, and really baseball as a whole, is just a matter of weeks away from making a flurry of transactions. With the World Series already underway, the rest of the baseball world will again be joined by the Astros and Dodgers in the offseason. For Minnesota, an anticipated break from baseball includes plenty of potential roster moves. First and foremost however, they need to make room. Currently, the Twins have a full 40 man roster, with 45 players occupying some sort of a role.
This is an excerpt of an article that appears in full on Zone Coverage here. Please click through. This is a series of evaluations that will be done this offseason on every player that closed the season on the 40-man roster for the Minnesota Twins throughout the winter until each player has been evaluated. The plan is to start with Mr. Belisle and move all the way through the pitchers, then to the catchers, infielders, outfielders and finally those listed as designated hitters on the club’s of
The Twins might be done for 2017, but the Supershow will never die! With Stubbs out of town, the boys invade New Thompson South. Dantez and Panda break down the 2017 post-season, reminisce about Glen Perkins’ major league career, machinate on what might happen with the 2018 Twins, and what games they’d love to see on a N64 Classic! You can find this show and all previous shows on Spreaker, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, and Pocket Casts. Don’t forget to leave a like, comment, and share this
Continuing in the off-season series, today looking at the free agent market for starting pitching: who's available and which members of the current class the Twins could target in the free agent market. The Twins, as most other teams in the league, are in need of starting pitching. They are one of the few teams that consider themselves legitimate postseason contenders - and need to make significant upgrades to the current rotation if they want to make a serious push towards a World Series birt
I am not a follower of Donald Trump. I have participated in several no kings rallies and am disgusted with what he and his followers have done to our country and the world. I would like to know what most Brazilians feel about the United States now and about the folks our citizens have elected to represent us.
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hello Seth......you'll wanna correct the date in headline of today's minor league report. :-) Brad· 0 replies
I am not a follower of Donald Trump. I have participated in several no kings rallies and am disgusted with what he and his followers have done to our country and the world. I would like to know what most Brazilians feel about the United States now and about the folks our citizens have elected to represent us.· 1 reply
