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9/13 GAME NOTES: Steady Santana and Eddie Eruption Propel Twins to Sweep Over Padres

Has anyone seen Eddie Rosario’s shoes? Because there’s a fair chance he left them at home plate when he won the game with a mighty swing against Padres reliever Phil Maton on Wednesday night at Target Field.   The Twins spent nine innings trying to scratch across more than one run against Padres starter Dinelson Lamet and his cohorts, but a solid effort from the youngster and a puzzling array of bunts left them coming up short. That is, until Rosario stepped up to the plate against Maton with Jo

Brandon Warne

Brandon Warne

Molitor pushes all RIGHT buttons in walk off win

What a brilliantly managed game! Irvin solid, Hildenberger ok, but gives up tying home run. I was surprised Molly went to Buse at that juncture, but Al was up to it and pitched very well. Then Molly brings in Belisle and he pitches well, leaves him for another innning..and voila Rosario!   So criticize all you want but our manager had close to a perfect game this night!

huhguy

huhguy

9/13 PREGAME NOTES: Lamet v. Santana, Sano Update, Rotation Set for Toronto

It’s sunny, hazy and extremely warm as the Minnesota Twins prepare to try take a two-game sweep against the visiting San Diego Padres at Target Field. It’ll be a pair of electric righties doing battle, as the Twins send Ervin Santana to the bump while the Padres will counter with Dinelson Lamet.   Manager Paul Molitor is not expecting any kind of bleed from Tuesday night’s 16-0 win into Wednesday’s game, but he also doesn’t expect that facing a distinctly different pitcher will matter too much,

Brandon Warne

Brandon Warne

Crash Course Towards New York

With just a handful of games left in the 2017 Major League Baseball season, the Minnesota Twins find themselves with a hold on the 2nd Wild Card spot. As of September 13, they have a 2 game lead over the Los Angeles Angels, and this is their race to lose. That means, in the matter of a few short weeks, they're staring at a matchup with the Bronx Bombers. Really though, is it all that scary?   The way each of their schedules sets up, Minnesota finds themselves in a much more enviable position tha

Ted Schwerzler

Ted Schwerzler

9/12 GAME NOTES: Gibson Powered By Historic Offensive Night in 16-0 Win

It didn’t take long for Brian Dozier to set the tone on Tuesday night. It rarely does when you’re the leadoff hitter.   But when Dozier poked the third pitch he saw from Padres starter Travis Wood — a 2-0, two-seam fastball — into the seats in right field, it set off a chain of events that led to yet another historic night at Target Field in a 16-0 win over San Diego.   Dozier’s home run was the only run the Twins scored in the first, but it was far from the last, as the team homered in each of

Brandon Warne

Brandon Warne

9/12 PREGAME NOTES: Gibson v . Wood, Sano Update, Moya Up

It’s sunny and very, very warm as the Twins begin the second part of their home-and-home series with the Padres. The Twins split the first half of the series on Aug. 1-2 with Jhoulys Chacin outdueling Jose Berrios in the first game and Ervin Santana beating Luis Perdomo in the second game.   This time, it’ll be the red-hot Kyle Gibson (5.19 ERA, 4.86 FIP in 135.1 innings) getting ready to take on left-hander Travis Wood (6.00 ERA, 5.29 FIP in 81 innings between Kansas City and San Diego).   More

Brandon Warne

Brandon Warne

Gibson Keeping Hitters Off Balance With Offspeed

Over the course of the 2017 Major League Baseball season, Kyle Gibson has been demoted to Triple-A, and experienced multiple periods of struggle at the big league level. Right now however, in the midst of a playoff race, he's been among the Twins most consistent starters. Diving deeper into the change, it doesn't appear anything more than a minor tweak was made. The results suggest that it may have made all of the difference.   Forever, Gibson has been noted as a ground ball pitcher. Despite own

Ted Schwerzler

Ted Schwerzler

Handing Out The Hardware

As the 2017 Major League Baseball season rushes to a conclusion, ballots have gone out for Postseason awards. As a member of the IBWAA, I have the privilege of casting a vote each season. With the awards being a reflection of a full season of work, my ballot has already been cast and is ready to be unveiled.   Throughout the 2017 season, we've seen a handful of exciting performances from veterans and rookies alike. Both on the mound and at the plate, major leaguers across both the American and N

Ted Schwerzler

Ted Schwerzler

Review

I went back to a January 18, 2017 blog by Brandon Warne in which he predicted the Twins would win 80 games and asked readers to comment and make their own predictions. The blog was eight pages long but by page five, the predictions stopped and the criticisms of the team began. Most of the negative comments were about how horrible the Twins defense would by in 2017, especially at third base with Miguel Sano~. Here is a summary of the predictions that I found:   Brandon Warne: 80 Wsnydes: 70-

terrydactyls

terrydactyls

Gibson great for 4th straight!

What a HUGE game! Have any or our pitchers pitched 4 straight great? Ervin? This was a big, big game for Twins,   How about Polanco? Where would we be without him?   AWESOME!

huhguy

huhguy

Looking Forward -- Who Should Start a Twins Wild Card Game?

Please click through to Zone Coverage here to read this article in its entirety.   A Minnesota Twins win coupled with a Los Angeles Angels loss on Wednesday flipped the script in the Wild Card chase yet again. The Twins halted a skid of losing three straight games and four of their last five, and jumped back ahead of the Angels by a half-game for the final Wild Card spot behind the New York Yankees.   That half-game difference will go away on Thursday, as the Twins head to Kansas City to take on

Brandon Warne

Brandon Warne

Looking Forward -- Who Should Start a Twins Wild Card Game?

Please click through to Zone Coverage here to read this article in its entirety.   A Minnesota Twins win coupled with a Los Angeles Angels loss on Wednesday flipped the script in the Wild Card chase yet again. The Twins halted a skid of losing three straight games and four of their last five, and jumped back ahead of the Angels by a half-game for the final Wild Card spot behind the New York Yankees.   That half-game difference will go away on Thursday, as the Twins head to Kansas City to take on

Brandon Warne

Brandon Warne

Mauer Making Us Reconsider The Hall

10 seasons into his Major League Baseball career, Joe Mauer was a number one overall pick playing for the hometown team, and owned the title of being the best catcher in the sport. Across that span, he had played in 1,178 games slashing .323/.405/.468. With awards piling up, it seemed certain a career was destined to be capped off with a Hall of Fame ceremony, the a traumatic brain injury occurred. Things have been different since, but in 2017, the Twins long tenured star is forcing us to recons

Ted Schwerzler

Ted Schwerzler

WARNE: When Everyone is Healthy, What's the Ideal Twins Lineup?

Please click through to Zone Coverage here to read this article in full.   Robbie Grossman came off the disabled list on Tuesday morning and is in the lineup against the Rays, batting ninth and DH’ing against righty Jake Odorizzi. With that move, the Twins offense is almost completely healthy.   That’s not to say that Miguel Sano is not a significant loss — he is — but rather from a health standpoint, the Twins only have one player on the shelf offensively — as opposed to, say, a handful of pitc

Brandon Warne

Brandon Warne

Terry Ryan-- a baseball lifer

Recently spent 3 days outside of Cleveland watching Midwest League games between Lake County Captains and Lansing Lugnuts. Sitting behind home plate the first evening I glanced to my right and did a double take. There with a stopwatch in his left hand and radar gun in right was Terry Ryan. Watching him work gave me an appreciation of the hard work he puts in when watching a game. He had an 8.5 x 14" sheet for each team and he was evaluating every player. Every pitch he put the gun down and w

Lefty74

Lefty74

Like The Outfield, Buxton Now Owns The Plate

In 2017, the early narrative for the Minnesota Twins was again the offensive struggles for Byron Buxton. The uber prospect had slumped out of the gate, and that's putting things nicely. Through May, he was hitting just .201, and a June slump bottomed him out at .195 as of July 3rd. Then things changed, and they've only gotten better since. While Buxton has grown at the plate, it also appears he's able to command it as well.   Early in the season, Buxton struggled with both pitch recognition, and

Ted Schwerzler

Ted Schwerzler

9/3 GAME NOTES: Swing, Swing, Swing — Twins Drop Game, Series to Royals with 5-4 Loss on Sunday

Swings dictate the outcome of virtually every game. That was no exception when the Kansas City Royals beat the Minnesota Twins 5-4 at Target Field to take a 2-1 series victory and again move onto the brink of .500 for the season at 67-68.   However, in this case, it was two swings in the same plate appearance that sent the Twins to defeat — their 65th of the season — and, at the close of business Sunday, prevented them from expanding their 1.5-game lead on the Los Angeles Angels and Baltimore Or

Brandon Warne

Brandon Warne

9/2 GAME NOTES: Bombs Away! Twins Set Franchise Record in 17-0 Win over Royals

The Minnesota Twins beat the Kansas City Royals 17-0 on Saturday night at Target Field to even the series heading into Sunday’s rubber game, and it wasn’t all Onelki Garcia’s fault.   He didn’t give Nate Karns thoracic outlet syndrome.   He didn’t impinge Danny Duffy’s elbow or pass out while intoxicated in a Burger King parking lot.   He also didn’t purchase his own plane ticket to Minneapolis after posting a 5.04 ERA at Triple-A Omaha, with a 1.55 WHIP and nearly four walks per nine innings.  

Brandon Warne

Brandon Warne

9/1 GAME NOTES: Late Rally Falls Short as Twins Drop Opener to Royals, 7-6

“The Twins just won’t go away. They could lose 10-0, but they just won’t quit,” said Casey Stern on Sirius/XM’s Inside Pitch show on Friday afternoon.   It was almost prophetic, as the Minnesota Twins went from winning in the most improbable way on Thursday afternoon to nearly repeating it against the Kansas City Royals on Friday night in a 7-6 loss at Target Field. The Twins scored two runs and had the bases loaded with two outs in the ninth against Royals closer Kelvin Herrera, but could not c

Brandon Warne

Brandon Warne

The Perfect Crime: A Look Back at the Twins' Trade for Joe Nathan

There was a time, particularly during his first stint as Twins GM, that Terry Ryan was a trading partner to be feared, largely because of his ability to turn throw-in prospects into major league contributors. There are stories -- likely apocryphal -- of opposing GMs deeming a low-level prospect untouchable because Ryan had been inquiring as to his availability. The reputation wasn’t without merit: Dave Hollins became David Ortiz; Chuck Knoblauch turned into Eric Milton, Cristian Guzman, Buck Buc

dwade

dwade

WARNE: All Twins “Fingerprints” Team

Please click through to Zone Coverage here to read this article in full.   A lot of fans lament about how players get better after they leave the Twins, and sometimes it’s fun to draw up a 25-man roster of former players to see just how true that is.   We’ve changed that up a little bit with this exercise, however. Here, we’re looking for players who have Twins fingerprints on them. Did a player get picked in the Rule 5 draft and get sent back? They would count. Did the Twins draft them but not

Brandon Warne

Brandon Warne

8/31 GAME NOTES: Walk-Off Win in Ninth Gives Twins a Three-Game Sweep Over White Sox

Please click through to Zone Coverage here to read this entire story.   Thursday’s win was a strange one for the Minnesota Twins. They came from behind to tie the game in the fifth inning, only to have closer Matt Belisle give up the go-ahead home run in the ninth. They bunted -- oh, they bunted -- to no avail in both the eighth and ninth innings.   And yet despite all that -- they won. They won their 20th game of the month of August, wrapping up a sweep against a torpedoing White Sox club for t

Brandon Warne

Brandon Warne

Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc

Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc.   What, you didn't take Latin in school? That's no excuse for not knowing the English translation of that phrase. After all, it played a pivotal role in an episode of the Aaron Sorkin political drama, "The West Wing," only a couple of decades ago.     http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/LewisWatkins17-600x400.jpg Manager Tommy Watkins and Royce Lewis (photo by SD Buhr)   Fine, since most of you still probably have no clue, I'll provide the tran

Steven Buhr

Steven Buhr

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