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Original post from North Dakota Twins Fan ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ With the All-Star Break at hand, it marks the unofficial midpoint of the 2012 season for the Minnesota Twins. Coming off of one of the worst seasons in franchise history, it was hard to have optimism for the 2012 campaign. There were question marks surrounding players that missed large chunks of last season due to injury, the bullpen had some unproven arms, and the starting rotation needed to prove itself. All of these story lines have pl
There is an awful lot of noise being written about how the Twins should blow up their team for prospects, fire the entire staff or administration for some new direction, or call up everybody with a pulse to see how they perform in the "big show". I don't believe you will see any of that happen. I actually believe the Twins won't make any major moves at all. Here's why: The Twins looked at 2011 and basically chalked it up to a mulligan. With all of the injuries, and poor decision making, th
Aaron and John talk about the endless game of musical pitchers, revisit their preseason over/under predictions, answer Twitter questions from listeners, try to decide who comes off worse owning the same shirt, wonder if Nick Blackburn is worth having in the 2013 plans, review Samuel Deduno's first start, and try to keep Aaron from coughing up a lung. Here are: the podcasts the rss feed if you want to subscribe and the podcast on iTunes.
I used to subscribe to BA's Top Performers email, but after looking at it - seeing batting and pitching lines for hundreds of prospects - and not getting much out of it, I unsubscribed. While browsing their website today, I found a link to "Yesterday's Top Performers". I clicked on it and expected to see the same format I saw with the emails. I was wrong. Instead what I saw where the top 10 daily performers based on Runs Created (for batters) and Game Score (for pitchers). I went through
Liriano pitched a decent game tonight. He was mentally fragile as he usually seems to be, but made it through without incident. It might have made the game 45 minutes longer . (I’m not Bud Selig and game length is of no concern to me.) Liriano is greatly reminding me of Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade – he needs someone to watch over him at all times. Tonight Drew Butera was Liriano’s Charlie Simms. I am fearful of Liriano’s mental shortcomings. He has great stuff, but seemingly without a trip
Summer in Duluth, MN is very short, as a retail worker I don't get many weekends off, and I don't get to spend enough time outside, I try to get as much sun as I possibly can, or clean up my house after horrible flooding in the city and my house. It really sucks trying to get ankle deep water out of your basement, on top of that at 1 a.m. trying to get someone to hire when every house is in the same boat. Thanks to a buddy that answered his phone at 1 am we saved as much as we could without ge
The transactions of the last few days boil down to Blackburn being replaced by Deduno, and Parmelee being replaced by... Fien? So, we're back to a roster of 13 pitchers and 3 catchers. Very little scope for pinch-hitting and pinch-running. I guess this has been hashed to death, but it still seems weird to me. Wasn't so long ago that 11 pitchers were enough for a staff. And I think it detracts from the enjoyment of the tactical game - instead of managers having to anticipate opposing moves a
The Fourth of July holiday means that the All-Star Break is quickly approaching and the Twins are near a break that might be good for a team that is struggling to find pitchers for their starting staff. There has been a well-worn road from Rochester to Minneapolis as the Twins try to find players to record outs for the big league club. Casey Fien and Sam Deduno will be the latest Red Wings to get called up to play with the Twins. After putting together five consecutive wins, the Twins lost bac
So far this season Justin Morneau has seemed as comfortable facing lefties as Mitt Romney would as the opening act for a Phish concert. In spite of performing quite well against right-handed pitchers (hitting .310/.386/.561 and smacking 8 of his 10 home runs), among qualified hitters Morneau’s .100 average off of left-handed pitching (8-for-80 as of Wednesday) is the lowest in baseball. This is not simply a fluky situation; the Twins first baseman is completely lost mechanically at the plate a
If the Twins want to sign Francisco Liriano to an extension, it will need to be in the parameters of what Liriano will make on the free agent market this winter. But its hard to know even roughly how much he’ll command. Partly that’s because of his mercurial performance. But that problem is compounded by a free agent class that is unprecedented in pitching depth. It starts with two 28-year-olds, right-hander Zach Greinke and left-hander Cole Hamels that are both better than anyone in last year
Here are a bunch of players who could see a promotion in the second half. I certainly do not think all of them will and there are likely a few others who will be promoted, but it is my intention to point out some strong performances, even in limited time in some cases. A few of them are likely very soon (Rhodes, Roberts, Atherton, Bromberg) and many others are most likely early August moves if they happen at all. DSL to GCL: Adonis Pacheco, OF Ernesto Ciprian, OF Junior Subero, SP Javier Va
Here's some mindless fun with stats. The Twins are 29-29 since starting the season 6-16 and they are 19-12 in their last 31 games including tonights game against Detroit. (question here is can 1 or 2 more starting pitchers push us to the next level as our hitting, defense, and bullpen seem good enough to contend) Gray has a 4.08 era and most bloggers can't wait to get rid of him, but take out his worst appearance and he has a 2.80 era and 5 vulture wins. Waldrop tied Butera in K's this ev
A rain delay in Detroit held up the start of the Twins game for an hour and a half. When the game got underway, it turned into a back and forth contest between the Tigers and the Twins. The Twins bash brothers of Josh Willingham and Trevor Plouffe each added another home run to their totals for the season as they continue to try and match each other for the team lead. Even Joe Mauer was able to hit his second home run in the past week with an opposite field home run in the later innings of the g
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch --- This is the third version of the 'who is hot in the Twins' minors' series for 2012. The Rookie leagues are in full swing, promotions and cuts have happened and a lot of things have changed from the last "who is hot" list. Lots of new blood, and I have been intentionally delaying this to include the Rookie league players. I am using 25 PA and 9 IP as a cut-off. Again, this is not a particular "fragment in time", but year-to-date cumulative pe
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.