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It’s early June, and the Minnesota Twins are not only keeping their proverbial heads above water, but in fact have the second-most wins and the best winning percentage in the entire American League. Yes this Twins team, who was picked by national types to be among the five or so worst teams in baseball, is leading the charge in one of the better divisions in baseball. Baseball is truly a weird game. The Twins are 32-17 since a 1-6 start. They’re 31-16 against teams that aren’t from Detroit.
Like my very own students, I'm slow in posting, but by god, I will always deliver these cliff notes...unless I go crazy grading student papers first. Chapter 2: "May" Plot Summary: Just as Twins fans prepared themselves to see the silver lining at the end of April reform into a thunderhead of injuries, incompetence and ineffectiveness, something happened that had not happened for a long time in Minnesota. The silver lining got brighter. And brighter. And brighter. So bright in fact, t
The big news of the day was obviously the 2015 MLB draft and the Twins selection of Illinois pitcher Tyler Jay (whose pre-draft profile you can read here, and talk about the pick here). Instant and meaningless analysis: I love the pick! But like every other day during the summer, there also was plenty of action in the Minors for the Twins affiliates as well, where Jay will (hopefully) soon be playing. There was one top prospect making his first start in a new league, a rain postponement that p
Once a month we check in on our adopted prospect, JT Chargois, bring him soup, pat him on the back, whisper sweet nothings about his rapidly improving performances to Terry Ryan in the hopes that he becomes a pitcher ready to make meaningful contributions to the Twins in the near future. As today's the draft, and since we first found a fondness for "Spike" Chargois during the 2012 draft, it seems appropriate to update this now. When last we checked in on JT Chargois he was starting the long ro
http://www.tigerrag.com/Images/Interior/baseball/bregman_batting.jpg Arizona Diamondbacks-#1 Dansby Swanson - Shortstop - Vanderbilt I said on Friday that I wouldn’t change this, and I haven’t, but Tyler Stephenson could be in play here. Houston Astros-#2 Alex Bregman - Shortstop - LSU Did not change, but if Swanson falls he would probably be the pick. Colorado Rockies-#3 Brendan Rodgers - Shortstop - Florida High School Once again I’m sticking with my previous pick, but Tyler Jay or
The Minnesota Twins have spent the last week or so jostling for position atop the AL Central. Having somewhat cooled off after their torrid run in may, the offense has been somewhat to blame. Now having brought power hitting designated hitter Kennys Vargas back into the fold, it appears that may be a targeted approach for run support. To help further, the Twins could look at the blueprint laid out by fellow AL surprise team, the Houston Astros, and allow top prospect Byron Buxton to follow in Ca
You have to be excited about Adam Brett Walker's performance in AA. He leads all AA players with an ISO of .312. This isn't new. He had the second best ISO in the Florida State League last year at .190. Where is all of the top prospect love? It is hard to get past his strike out rates. Not only does he lead all AA players in ISO but he also leads in strike out rate at 35.5%. Some look at the strike out rate and dismiss Walker as a prospect. Certainly major league pitchers would take better adv
The Twins didn't score many runs in Boston until they faced a knuckleballer and took advantage of leaky Boston defense. They had one good inning in two games against the Brewers. They still have a good number of runs scored and a positive run differential. They sit in first place by one game with the second-place Royals due in town Monday. In the very successful month of May, the Twins were led by the four guys who usually hit in the first four spots in the order. After a hot first half o
http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/70e192a02b221e84a84e5485d108121a4c0e0c0a/c=0-14-3600-2722&r=x513&c=680x510/local/-/media/Nashville/Nashville/2014/05/17//1400368355000-NAS-SIG-VANDYBASEBALL0518-01.JPG Arizona Diamondbacks-#1 Dansby Swanson - Shortstop - Vanderbilt Same pick as last week, and I’m not going to change this since there are so many rumors, and Swanson is the most reasonable one. Houston Astros-#2 Alex Bregman - Shortstop - LSU Last week I had them take Fulmer, but this
The Minnesota Twins are in the midst of a very impressive run. Easily the most surprising team in Major League Baseball this season, the Twins have positioned themselves atop the AL Central. While it's been a fun run, all of the advanced analytics suggest that regression is coming. While that sentiment may be overblown, the best way to curb the downfall in your favor is to attack it. That's something the Twins haven't necessarily done, and it may start behind the plate. Whether you put stock in
Sometimes you're forced to admit that your best ideas stem from another person's brainchild. It turns out that this is exactly the case when it comes to a Princess Bride parody I wrote up yesterday after giving some thought to why I've been seeing a recurring joke about Paul Molitor being the Man in Black on Twins Daily game threads. I had absolutely no idea why or how the nickname started, but I loved the way it tied right in with my previous plans to someday write something about the Twins sto
Going in to this weekend’s series against the Milwaukee Brewers, our Minnesota Twins are 11 games over .500, sitting atop the American League Central Division (barely) with a 32-21 record. Naturally, after the four year run of futility Twins fans have endured coming in to the current season, the main topic of conversation in the Twins community revolves around, “is this for real or are they going to crash and burn?” http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/MayST15a-600x400.j
I have been taking baseball trips annually since 2003. I started because I hated the Metrodome, but I keep taking them because they're fun and I like to see other stadiums. On Sunday, June 14 my dad, my brother and his 13-year old son and I are heading to Cedar Rapids and St. Louis. Nice thing is, even more than the many games I've seen at home, the baseball vacation games stay vivid in my memory. Here are memories from my first road trip... 2003 Kansas City. To remind you, 2003 was the y
The Minnesota Twins need to let loose. They need to believe that they can’t be held back by expectations, by the culture of losing created by four straight 90-loss seasons, by the numbers that say that they have outperformed their capabilities up until this point. For the most part everyone in the locker room appears unhindered by outside speculation, ignorant or at least cleansed of the team’s previous losing ways. They feel that that they are, as a unit, more talented than people give them c
Ricky Nolasco could not throw 100% in his pre-game bullpen and was placed on the Disabled List, clearing the way for Tommy Milone to start Thursday's game against the Red Sox. The Twins won the game late, thanks in part to a Joe Mauer bunt (of course), and managed to escape Boston with a split. RED WINGS REPORT Pawtucket Paw Sox @ Rochester Box Score Taylor Rogers pitched an eight inning gem on Thursday night in front of a crowd of 4,196 at Frontier Field. Rogers earned his fifth win of
It was the offseason before the 2013 Major League Baseball season was ready to kick off. The Twins were coming off of yet another 90 loss season, and this team appeared to be going nowhere fast. With poor pitching across the board, a reinvention of the organization was in need. That's when the roster shuffle came. First, Denard Span was sent to the Washington Nationals for a top pitching prospect. Not a month later, Ben Revere was dealt to the Philadelphia Phillies for two pitchers in return. It
You can download the new Talk to Contact (<a href="https://twitter.com/talktocontact">@TalkToContact</a>) episode via <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/talk-to-contact-podcast-about/id556784825?mt=2">iTunes</a> or by clicking <a href="http://talk2contact.podomatic.com/entry/2015-06-03T20_34_23-07_00" target="_blank">here</a>, and if you want to add the show to your non-iTunes podcast player, <a href="http://talk2contact.podomatic.com/rss2.xml">
You can download the new Talk to Contact (<a href="https://twitter.com/talktocontact">@TalkToContact</a>) episode via <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/talk-to-contact-podcast-about/id556784825?mt=2">iTunes</a> or by clicking <a href="http://talk2contact.podomatic.com/entry/2015-05-28T17_20_45-07_00" target="_blank">here</a>, and if you want to add the show to your non-iTunes podcast player, <a href="http://talk2contact.podomatic.com/rss2.xml">
You can download the new Talk to Contact (<a href="https://twitter.com/talktocontact">@TalkToContact</a>) episode via <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/talk-to-contact-podcast-about/id556784825?mt=2">iTunes</a> or by clicking <a href="http://talk2contact.podomatic.com/entry/2015-05-21T18_22_33-07_00" target="_blank">here</a>, and if you want to add the show to your non-iTunes podcast player, <a href="http://talk2contact.podomatic.com/rss2.xml">
Mauer was the 4th ranked #1 pick in baseball history. Very interseting, you could make the case for guys like Price, but it goes to show you how good he has been, even if he has tailed off. Puts the complaining in context. http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/12998550/mlb-draft-ranking-best-no-1-overall-draft-picks
Over the course of the past few weeks, I've had a handful of readers asking about the current construction of the Minnesota Twins outfield, and how it will change going forward. I would suppose Oswaldo Arcia's struggles as well as the introduction of the 2015 version of Aaron Hicks is at the root of these discussions. However, Minnesota remains in a place where the outfield could be turned into a relative strength in short order. Going into the 2014 season, the configuration from left to right o
As the 2012 MLB Draft approached, there were plenty of rumors swirling about who the Astros would take with the first overall pick. Byron Buxton was considered by many talent evaluators to be the best available player but the Astros had surprised people before and other names had popped into the discussion. On draft night, the Astros steered in a different direction than Buxton by selecting Puerto Rican shortstop Carlos Correa, who shot up draft boards in the week prior to the draft. Houston w
Start #3 for the 21-year-old went well again. He tossed three scoreless innings with no walks. He gave up one hit and had three strikeouts. In 8 IP through 3 starts, he's given up 0 runs, 1 hit, 3 walks, and 13 strikeouts.
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.