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I want your help with this. The Twins draft Pitcher after Pitcher, and have failure after failure, How does that work? Even their two top prospects, May and Meyer, were traded for. Why can't the Twins develop pitching? Some organization seem to always have pitching, Rays, A's, Yankees (but they purchase theirs don't they? How about Seatte? Where do they get their great young pitchers? Ok, some of you stats guys, will chew me up about these respective teams. Please help with this
I’ve been a bit out of touch with Twinsville for a couple of weeks as I’ve had some business travel and other non-Twins-related matters to occupy most of my time. I did catch up a bit on my Twins reading in the past day or so, however, and – well – let’s just say I’ve been much more interested in the writing about the Twins than I have been with what’s transpired on the field with the Twins. I read the columns by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s baseball writers and columnists recently, in whi
As we near the end of yet another September stretch that's given Twins fans little incentive to tune in, our de facto staff ace Phil Hughes is about to give us one big reason to pop in the headphones at work on Wednesday: a genuine shot at history. As reported by NBC's HardBallTalk on Saturday, Hughes currently sits at the highest single-season K/BB rate in baseball history going into his Wednesday start against the Diamondback. His 11.31 K/BB rate narrowly edges Bret Saberhagen's 1994 rate of
Clayton Kershaw is in the midst of one of the best pitching seasons in baseball history. He looks to be a lock for the National League Cy Young and there's a chance he could win the NL MVP. Even after missing a chunk of games at the beginning of the season, he has rebounded to post one of the best seasons on record. Starting pitching seems to be one of the areas the Twins are struggling to find success. There hasn't been a player of Kershaw's caliber in the Twins rotation since the Johan Santa
http://i.imgur.com/7DNhJ0y.jpg Though he didn't exactly cruise through the first four innings, Nolsasco had put up zeros through 4 innings before getting tagged for 5 and not escaping the 5th. Control was down, swinging strikes hovered right around 9% again, but .588 average on balls in play is never a good sign.
http://i.imgur.com/u6zu9aq.jpg After his best start in the majors earlier this week, May struggled this trip through the rotation. He gave up 8 hits, 2 walks and 7ER through 4.2. As the numbers show, he struggled with his command just scratching over 60% strikes thrown. Swinging strike rates were nothing to write home about, but not bad, particularly on his change up. This is where it gets interesting. Over Trevor May's first 6 starts, his 4 seam fastball velocity averaged 91.7mph, which see
http://i.imgur.com/u6zu9aq.jpg A couple days late, as I was traveling, but here are the numbers on Hughes' start this Friday against the Indians. Cleveland was not fooled, swinging and missing only twice, and putting up 10 hits against Hughes through 7 innings. He didn't walk anyone, so a 1.429 WHIP on a night where Hughes didn't have his best stuff isn't horrible. He kept his team in the game and the Twins were able to get him off the hook and eventually get a win. The command is one th
I know I will be deluged with, way to early to give up on HIcks...Bah Humbug...Hicks has been given many chances and he is up with the club again, even though he didnt earn it. The one thing that intrigues me about Hicks is he can hit for power..but where did it go? I think it went down the Hitting Coach Hole..meaning the Twins are insisting he be a complete hitter... NOTE to Twins...If he can hit 20 HR's I will live with the 220 average, he is good enough in center field... but the thi
What a difference a year makes, not only did the squad reporting to this years 2014 Florida Instructional League look much different than last year but so did the newly renovated facility. When entering the new Player Academy, you're greeted by a large hill that was constructed for new strength exercises and a sign stating "This is Twin Territory" and a 12 ft picture of Kirby Puckett and the quote "And we'll see you tomorrow night!" Around the corner are more signage showing the Twins past succe
I will be traveling this weekend, and it's unlikely I'll be able to post a breakdown until at least Saturday night. I will make sure to get caught up ASAP. Sorry about the inconvenience
http://assets.podomatic.net/ts/19/ad/da/paulpleiss/1400x1400-440x440+176+22_9939660.jpg Welp, we made it to 100 episodes. Thank you to everyone that has listened to us ramble over the past two years. We've come a long way from Episode 1 and we're happy to have you along for the ride. Along the way we picked up a couple of hitch hikers in Cody Christie and Jay Corn, and we have fun every week talking Twins baseball. This week we talk about Trevor May, Phil Hughes and Ricky Nolasco, who all
You've probably heard the news by now that the Twins are out, and the Colorado Rockies are in, as New Britain's class AA affiliate. It's been a strange few months here in Connecticut on the baseball and political fronts, culminating with yesterday's news. Back in June, Rock Cats managing partner Josh Solomon triumphantly (and surprisingly) announced from the steps of Hartford City Hall that the Rock Cats would be moving from their longtime home of New Britain to a brand new stadium in Hartford
"To win the game, you've gotta score more runs than the other team"--- Ricky Henderson, baseball's all-time running scoring leader Baseball can be a very simple game but it always comes back to scoring more runs than the other team. This has always been the case and teams are challenged by how they should go about accomplishing this task. Should a team try and out slug the opposition to win in a high scoring fashion? Should a team use small ball to try and poke their way back into a game?
http://i.imgur.com/ClHrTds.jpg Rough start to the game, followed by a few solid innings and a huge gift from Torii Hunter by not running home on a ground ball with the infield back, leading to a double play to get Gibson out of a jam. Wasn't sharp tonight though, as he only threw 61% of his pitches for strikes. He was particularly bad with his slider command. You could tell that early on, Detroit just wasn't offering at it. He threw the slider 11 times in his 26 pitch first inning. 7 tim
Danny Santana is the Twins best player. Twins will make room for him wherever..problem....Twins have a terrific shortstop....(who can not play cf) The best chance for the Twins to win...is to play both Santana and Escobar...and there aren't many options. Trade Dozier? Now thats a possibility...but Dozier had a very good year...but so did Escobar and Santana. Play Escobar at 3b? Plouffe actually had a good year...(lead the league in Doubles) So Shafer has earned a chance not a 4th outf
Ricky Nolasco, Mike Pelfrey, and Tommy Milone have all had disappointing seasons for the Twins. Glen Perkins is having a rough finish to his season. The four pitchers named have all had injuries disclosed after they struggled. The cynics among us would all be of the opinion that perhaps the pitchers were using injury as an excuse for poor performance. Pelfrey started the season in the Twins rotation. He had a couple outings where he looked sharp, but would lose it and not be able to battle
http://i.imgur.com/QkdrT0E.jpg My write up is going to be very brief. Spent all night in the ER with a child and just don't have the drive to write a lot about this. It was a great outing. 5H and 1BB against a very potent Detroit line up. Again, hovered right around 65% strikes. Swinging strikes were at an expected 9.2% (Detroit's season average is 9.3%). Very little hard contact was made. Had hitters off balance. I particularly love the Curveball/Slider mix.
It has been a year of good and bad performances in Minnesota. Unfortunately, there has probably been more bad than good. On the positive side of things, Phil Hughes has put together the best season of his professional career, Danny Santana has done some good things as a rookie, and the duo of Kennys Vargas and Oswaldo Arcia seem to be able to mash the ball out of any park. There have been some players that haven't lived up to expectations for various parts of the year. Those players are try
http://i.imgur.com/wNmXavJ.jpg If you just looked at the ball and strike totals on this graph, you'd probably think that I had accidentally posted a graph for Phil Hughes in the wrong article. But low and behold, with reports of Phil imparting some words of wisdom to the young hurler, Trevor May came out and put together probably his best outing of his short major league career. With the exception of a four hitter stretch in the 4th, May was very impressive. He gave up 5 hits, walked zero,
The Minnesota Twins' front office is going to be faced with making some difficult decisions this offseason - decisions they are woefully ill-prepared to make. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/GardenhireBrunansky2012.jpg Ron Gardenhire and Tom Brunansky (photo: Knuckleballs) Many professional sports organizations change their on-field management at least as often as they change accounting firms. It's just part of the way they do business. When you lose more games tha
http://i.imgur.com/Bj0y0pZ.jpg Another quality start, but who knows who things may have changed had Mauer not booted the ball early in the game which lead to the two run home run. Hughes' control was working as usual, though he did walk his first batter in 140 innings in the second. Many were surprised that it occurred against a team like the White Sox who walk so rarely (24th of 30 with a 6.9% BB%), but I figure it's a matter of Phil knowing the White Sox are aggressive, so he has to work the
The death march to 90 losses continues today with another doubleheader, this time against the South Side Sox. Sixteen games remain in this frustrating season which produced one, maybe two, rotation pieces and some optimism that the Twins can score enough runs to be competitive. For the record, the Twins need to win 11 of 16 games to avoid 90 losses. Actually, if they did that it would be a bit more than cosmetic, since they are playing playoff contenders in ten of the last 16 games. My tho
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
