You all care about this site. The next step is caring for it. We’re asking you to caretake this site so it can remain the premier Twins community on the internet.
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- The (big) boys were out of town today and this left only the two A-level squads in action at the Lee County Sports Complex fields playing the A and Advanced A level Orioles' squads. One of the things that need to be noted, is that these squads do not see each other in regular season competition. The Twins' Advanced A team, the Fort Myers Miracle, is in the Florida State League, whereas the Orioles' Advance A team, the Frederick Keys,
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch --- Second day of live coverage of the Twins Spring training from Fort Myers. Today there was mainly major league action and some minor league drills before the Miracle and Kernels games, with the Red Wings and Rock Cats squads traveling. As a reminder, you can find all Spring Training coverage here. On the single A Beloit side of things, there was a lot of fielding practice going on, including a lot of serious work with the pitchers.
ESPN's Sweetspot blog posted an interesting entry earlier today looking at the top teams in relation to their "core five" players. They took the top five men from each roster and compiled their Baseball Reference WAR totals to come up with a top ten list. Obviously the better players you have, the more likely you are to be a very good team. Out of their top ten list, eight of the teams qualified for the postseason last year. There's no surprise that Minnesota didn't crack the top ten list. Howev
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- I am on site at Fort Myers and this will be the first in a series of reports regarding the Twins' major and minor leaguers from the Lee County sports complex grounds. As a reminder, you can find all Spring Training coverage here. Miguel Sulbaran came to the Twins from the Dodgers in the Drew Butera trade last season and started four games for the Cedar Rapids Kernels, the Twins single A affiliate. Sulbaran did not make it to my to
For years, the Twins were a money ball team that had a very good track record. Payroll fluctuated in the $50-60M range, yet the team made the playoffs in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009, and 2010. That was about the ceiling, as the team made the second round just once in the six appearances. The villain that kept this team from advancing was always the metrodome. If the Twins had a stadium, payroll could go up and we could compete and make a serious run. Or so the through process went. Target Fie
The Detroit Tigers look to be the best team in the division, and it's not close. They're offense will beat you into submission and their pitching will have you doing all you can to scratch and claw a measly run or two across the plate. They are the team the Twins wish they were. This week on the podcast we are joined by Bryan Craves (@DisplacedTgrFan) to recap what's been happening in Motown since the Tigers were bounced out of the playoffs last season. You can download the new Talk to Contact (
http://assets.podomatic.net/ts/19/ad/da/paulpleiss/1400x1400_9354951.jpg The Detroit Tigers look to be the best team in the division, and it's not close. They're offense will beat you into submission and their pitching will have you doing all you can to scratch and claw a measly run or two across the plate. They are the team the Twins wish they were. This week on the podcast we are joined by Bryan Craves (@DisplacedTgrFan) to recap what's been happening in Motown since the Tigers were bounced ou
Some of the buzz of the Twitter world yesterday was surrounding the Twins and who should be the lead-off hitter when the team heads north from spring training. Ron Gardenhire would like one of the center field candidates to run away with thelead-off job but he had a surprise name as a back-up plan. With the ways things are starting to take shape, the team might have to get crafty with men near the top of the order. Here is a look at some of the candidates for the lead-off spot. Some of the men
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- One of the most contested spots for the Twins, on paper, this Spring Training was going to be that of the 5th starter. The newly signed (or re-signed) Ricky Nolasco, Phil Hughes and Mike Pelfrey, in addition to holdover veteran Kevin Correia, had four spots, while the three out of option guys (Samuel Deduno, Scott Diamond and Vance Worley, in alphabetical order) were to battle for that fifth spot, maybe with the addition of first round d
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- One of the most contested spots for the Twins, on paper, this Spring Training was going to be that of the 5th starter. The newly signed (or re-signed) Ricky Nolasco, Phil Hughes and Mike Pelfrey, in addition to holdover veteran Kevin Correia, had four spots, while the three out of option guys (Samuel Deduno, Scott Diamond and Vance Worley, in alphabetical order) were to battle for that fifth spot, maybe with the addition of first round d
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch --- Here are the latest Twins Spring Training battle dashboards updated for yesterday's game and the Spring Training cuts. The players who were cut are not longer listed. You can find all of the 2014 Spring Training dashboards here) : A reminder of the scoring system: For the pitchers, I quantify using a measurement created by Bill James more than a decade ago called " Game Score". It is calculated as follows: You s
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch --- Yesterday I speculated about the first cuts of the Spring Training for the Minnesota Twins. This morning the Twins announced these cuts and there were only a couple names I have not mentioned yesterday. After these 16 cuts, the Twins now have 48 players in the major league camp. Here is the full list of the cuts: 40-man roster: Optioned to AAA Rochester Red Wings: LHP Logan Darnell LHP Edgar Ibarra LHP Brooks Raley RHP Trevor May
Originally posted at Kevin Slowey was Framed! My wife is a colorful character. Seriously, here is a picture of her: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-noPQ18WsoV4/UxkqHGlBFwI/AAAAAAAABSQ/oyQLjr2n_l4/s1600/dora_the_explorer_31709-200x316.jpg No, wait, that's Dora the Explorer. My wife does have a lot of pizazz and a curious nature though. Why not put her inquisitive nature to good use? I thought, "hey, I can get a blog post out of this." If nothing else, this will be give you wonderful insight in
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- Like most teams the Minnesota Twins will be announcing the first cuts of the major league Spring Training camp very soon. Who will those players be? One group of players who gets cut first are players on the 40-man roster who do not have much likelihood to make the team and were added on the roster for protection's sake. I think that Logan Darnell, Max Kepler, Jorge Polanco and Kennys Vargas will be the four casualties from this cat
Minor leaguers have been in camp for 2+ days and there is no information on the happenings of our minor leaguers: How are practices going? Who looks in shape or out of shape? What interesting drills are guys going through? What guys are practicing new positions and how do they look? Are they with teams or soley position groups at this point of camp? When do games start? Are there schedules available to post? I'm Talking Practice Fellas - Practice. Give me some news
When I first heard that Mauer was moved to 1st, I was thrilled. Then I started to wonder, why first base? We have Arcia and Willingham in the corners. Mauer seems to be a better athlete and certainly has a better arm than both. Sano is at 3B and has been described as a project there. I can't imagine him being a better athlete than Mauer, even at 30. I hear Sano has a good arm, but I am giving Mauer the nod there as well. I can see Mauer playing 1B when he is 35, but he is 30 years old.
Bloggers and sabrmetricians are sometimes portrayed as treating players as tumbling dice. It's rhetoric meant to discredit and vilify, but it's not totally without merit. I know this because I think I'm about to treat Kyle Gibson and Chris Colabello as tumbling dice. Insiders (players, coaches, etc.) and outsiders (sabrmetrician, bloggers) have vastly different perspective on players and their development in two important ways. First, there is the matter of how much we value our projections
The 22-year-old made his first Kernels start on Wednesday afternoon. He threw four scoreless innings and gave up 1 hit, walked none and had five strikeouts. That's 4 starts, 12 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 18 K, 0.00 ERA, 0.42 WHIP, .054 Opp BA.
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.
The Twins Daily Caretaker Fund
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
