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The second week of the Arizona Fall League season included a tie for the Salt River Rafters as their game on Friday went 11 innings, and the teams ran out of scheduled pitchers. Overall on the week, the Rafters were 3-2-1, and Eddie Rosario continued to rake and run. Let’s see how all of the Twins prospects fared in week two of the Arizona Fall League. Byron Buxton – 4 games, 3-18 (.167), 2B, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 3 K’s. Batting .229 overall. Buxton again played in four games, playing cente
It may mean a bunch of losses in 2015, but the Twins need to use their next season to evaluate what they have. Next off-season, they can look at the trade and free agent market and search for a way to supplement their 25-man roster, but for now, they need to commit to the youth movement. I'll take a look at the players who deserve an extended look in each area of the Twins roster. Starting Rotation: Obviously, Hughes and Nolasco are not going anywhere. I think Gibson is a breakout candidate
This will close out my postseason reviews of position players. Parmelee and Nuñez spent a majority of the season with the Twins. Absent significant injuries, they didn't start many games. Schafer was claimed from the Braves and played regularly. All three players had their moments, but most likely won't seriously compete for a starting spot in 2015. There is a significant possibility that one or more of these players will be cut loose in the offseason. Parmelee: Chris Parmelee had chance
http://assets.podomatic.net/ts/19/ad/da/paulpleiss/1400x1400_10022097.jpgDarren Wolfson returns to Talk to Contact to update us on the Twins' managerial search, and he shares with us some insight on Paul Molitor and more. Just Paul and Eric on the podcast this week, a throwback to the days before Cody and Jay joined the team, and the brothers spent time talking about the Twins payroll, their indifference to the winter free agency period, and of course, beer, baseball, and the news. Thanks fo
Barring injury, Phil Hughes will be the Opening Day starting pitcher for the Twins in 2015. He was the Twins best and most reliable starting pitcher last year by far. Hughes was signed to a three-year $24M contract coming off a 4-14 season with the New York Yankees, a team that won 85 games. Hughes had allowed 24 homers in 145+ innings for the Yanks and the thought was that a new location and less pressure would allow for improvement. Hughes pitched in 2014 as a 28-year old, so he was one of
This is Part 2 of 2, concerning the work to be done this week by the Minnesota Twins staff at their "organizational meetings" in Fort Myers this week. Reports have estimated that as many as 100 members of the Twins staff may participate in the meetings this week. That's a lot of people, but then it's a big job. In Part 1, we covered the manager and coaching staffing issues. In Part 2, we look at roster matters at the Major League and minor league levels. As indicated in Part 1, over the co
The Minnesota Twins are holding their annual “organizational meetings” in Fort Myers this week. As newsworthy baseball stories go, that bit of information ranks quite a bit below the MLB postseason games and their seemingly nightly extra-inning games and walk-off finishes. What exactly are the organizational meetings? Well, in Hollywood’s version of Moneyball, you may remember seeing Brad Pitt as Oakland General Manager Billy Beane gathering a few guys around a table in a room and tossing out
The Arizona Fall League season started last week on Tuesday, and Minnesota Twins Minor Leaguers Byron Buxton, Eddie Rosario, Max Kepler, Taylor Rogers, Jason Adam, Zack Jones, and Jake Reed all helped the Salt River Rafters compile a 4-1 record to open play. So let’s check out what each of those players did in the season’s first week! Byron Buxton – 4 games, 5-17, 4 R’s, 2 RBI, 2 BB’s, 4 K’s, 1 SB, 2 Errors. Buxton batted leadoff and played centerfield in all four games on the week, gett
September complaints about Twins lineups centered on two players--Danny Santana and Josmil Pinto. The fans remaining at Twins Daily wanted Santana to get reps at shortstop (and opportunities for Aaron Hicks) and they wanted to see the state of Josmil Pinto's catching ability. The fans were mostly disappointed. Santana mostly stayed in center field and Pinto only started eight games at catcher and left one of them before he either hit or caught. We will wait for answers (or at least more defi
I saw Danny Santana play in a lot of games in Spring Training of 2014. I was impressed with his swing and his speed, but thought that he was a long way from helping the Twins in 2014. Santana showed the baseball world that he was ready when he was recalled in early May. He hit early and continued to hit throughout the season. Danny finished with a .319 batting average and an OPS of .824, both of which would have led the team easily if he had enough plate appearances. Danny made the All-Rook
Coaches are underrated, underpaid and picking a coaching staff is hard. That’s what I’ve learned since attempting to dig into all the coaching candidates to fill positions on the 2015 Minnesota Twins coaching staff. Choosing a coaching staff is largely the manager’s job, but Terry Ryan will certainly play an active role in who the new manager hires, especially if the new manager is young and influential. Although recently it seems anyone Gardy wanted Terry allowed. Perhaps we’re seeing and feeli
Episode 103: Twins Notes, Seth, Jeremy, and the 40-man Roster A guest-a-palooza episode. 95 minutes of baseball chatter with updates on the Twins managerial search, what to do (and not to do) with Miguel Sano, and how the Twins can salvage the 2015 season before it goes south. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P2TDhE8uVXI/VDfH3ADsR-I/AAAAAAAAJFM/q8wMmF4kKG0/s1600/minnesota-twins-old-logo.gif You can download the new Talk to Contact (@TalkToContact) episode via iTunes or by clicking here, a
"Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on you". Aaron Hicks has been the starting center fielder for the Twins the last two Opening Days. He was a thorough disappointment in 2013, eventually getting demoted to AAA and not being recalled in September. With the bar set considerably lower in 2014, Hicks still fell far short of expectations and offered a lot of content for sports analysts with his supposed lack of preparation and short-lived decision to abandon switch hitting. Hicks spent
Entering 2014, I had Eduardo Escobar pegged as a standard-order utility infielder. He was a switch-hitter with a pretty good glove, okay speed who had demonstrated the ability to capably fill in at short, third and second. There was some chatter that EE shouldn't make the Twins coming out of spring training, but most viewed him as a good fit for the utility infielder role. Some wanted to see "Eddie 400" in 2014--that is at least 400 at-bats to see what the still-young Venezuelan could do with mo
With Dave St. Peter saying the Minnesota Twins’ payroll won’t be “going down significantly” in an interview with Mike Berardino, the time has come to determine how significant the payroll decrease will be. With season ticket sales due to drop without the lure of the MLB All-Star Game and the “honeymoon effect” of shiny, new Target Field wearing off, I argue the Twins’ payroll will go down significantly. This blog was originally published at Go Gonzo Journal. Right now, the Twins have nearly
This is not going to be significantly different than the earlier version mid-season, but here is my hopeful 25-man roster for 2015. This will obviously hint at my offseason blueprint. Position players: Kurt Suzuki, Josmil Pinto, Joe Mauer, Brian Dozier, Danny Santana, Miguel Sano, Eduardo Escobar, Trevor Plouffe, Aaron Hicks, Oswaldo Arcia, Kennys Vargas, Chris Herrmann, Jordan Schafer Pitchers: Phil Hughes, Ervin Santana, Kyle Gibson, Ricky Nolasco, Alex Meyer, Trevor May, Deolis Guerra
It’s that time of the year when everyone offers up their opinions on how they’d improve the Twins if they owned the team. Just like everyone else (including George Steinbrenner in real life), I’m going to ignore that the role of owner is distinct from the roles general manager and manager. Here is goes. If I owned the Twins… If I owned the Twins I would make Target Field the first carbon neutral ballpark in the country. The grounds crew would use push mowers, the concessions would run on w
September 30, 2016: What a year it has been for the Minnesota Twins! The Twins recently won their 93rd game of the season and have at last unseated the Detroit Tigers from their five year perch atop the AL central. It's hard to believe the Twins made it this far despite losing 90 games every year from 2011-2014. We'll take a look at each player that was on the Twins at the end of 2014, what happened to them, and which new players were brought in to change the outlook of this team. Infielders
It's the offseason, so that means we are already deep in thought and discussion concerning 2015 roster construction for the Minnesota Twins. I reserve the right to change my mind, of course, but my preliminary thought on the subject has resulted in a conclusion I wasn't expecting. Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano should both be Minnesota Twins on Opening Day 2015. True, General Manager Terry Ryan has some time before he has to give much thought to such an un-Twins-like idea. (This article wa
Joe Mauer is a former MVP and a three-time batting champion. As a catcher, he has won five Silver Sluggers and three Gold Gloves. These are Hall of Fame credentials for a 31-year-old. Last year, Mauer was shut down after suffering a concussion. The symptoms were present until well into the offseason. Mauer and his advisors decided it was time to give up catching. With the exit of Justin Morneau, a move to first base was an easy call. I was among those that thought that Mauer would be ab
The issue is NOT who can get the most out of the Twins younger players... Its not really about style...either..... I find it interesting that there is emphasis on both Sano abd Buxton basically endorsing Molitor...which may not be the case at all. They might be just saying, and I think they are..that Molitor is knowledgeable and helped them. We can debate all day long the merits of either to manage the twins..but this is going to come down to one thing... Who will put the fans in the
In my book, Brian Dozier was the Twins best position player in 2013. He had a better year in 2014 and again I think he was the best everyday player on the team. Dozier is a study in contrasts--he isn't a big guy, but has led the team in home runs the last two years. He is a converted shortstop who has become totally comfortable as a second baseman. Most guys his size are told to "use the whole field", but he is perhaps the most pronounced pull hitter on the team, certainly among the right ha
Over a week ago, I wrote about what I would do if I owned the Minnesota Twins, including giving my GM instructions to fire his manager. Obviously, Jim Pohlad not only read my article, but took it to heart because less than a week later, Ron Gardenhire was out as manager of the Twins. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/TRyan2014c.jpg GM Terry Ryan In the days since that announcement, speculation has been rampant concerning who the next manager might be. For his part,
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.
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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
