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Miguel Sano is one of the Minnesota Twins most prolific hitters, and right now, he's also one of their worst. Through 17 games in the 2018 season, he's had 75 plate appearances and owns a .191/.253/.426 slash line. What's positive is that there's a very clear path to righting the ship. The downside is that the path is one that doesn't come easily for players toting power bats. Thus far, Sano has struck out 32 times while drawing just eight walks. Extrapolating those numbers over a full 162 gam
What a difference a year makes. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Rortvedt0413a-600x400.jpg Ben Rortvedt (Photo: SD Buhr) A year ago, Ben Rortvedt was getting his first taste of full-season minor league baseball after having been drafted out of high school in the second round of the 2016 amateur draft by the Minnesota Twins. Things did not go well for the young catcher from Verona, Wisconsin. Through April, he was hitting only .096 with an OPS of just .229. This s
With all the technological advancements made in baseball, its easy to get lost in the mess. There's new stats that make zero sense to some people, but the issue is just understanding what they tell us. Batting average and ERA are easy to grasp. What percentage of this batter's at-bats have resulted in hits? How many earned-runs does this pitcher give up on average in 9 innings? These are how we read stats, because they answer our questions. So what question does launch angle and exit velocity an
After a drubbing to the New York Yankees in their first matchup since the Wild Card loss last season, the Minnesota Twins had some questions to be answered. Jake Odorizzi struggled, and the bullpen provided little in the form of relief. With position player Ryan LaMarre finishing out the game, Paul Molitor needed some reinforcements, but the question now is; where do they come from? Leaving spring training, the Twins found themselves needing to juggle a bullpen to include Rule 5 pick Tyler Kin
Brian Dozier was on MLB Network yesterday and the Twins' second baseman -- in the midst of a 25-game hitting streak, by the way -- and demonstrating the changes he made in order to go from a puncher of a middle infielder to a a second base capable of bopping 40 home runs. If you are a player, coach, instructor or just a fan curious to know the thought process behind Dozier's development, you have to watch this.
The overall segment could have gone smoother (or shorter) if Mark DeRos
Putting a runner on base in extra innings, limiting the amount of trips to the mound, and different clocks have been implemented by MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred over the last few seasons in an effort to speed up the game of baseball. While we here at Twins And Losses didn’t mind the pace of play before Manfred’s time-saving chang… What’s that? The average length of a MLB game hasn't really gotten shorter? Huh, that’s odd. Actually it isn’t in my humble (and slightly ill-informed) opinion. Acco
Today I wanted to break down how the Twins pitchers can beat the Yankees top hitters. I will talk about where to get swings and misses, outs, and where to simply avoid placing the ball (danger zones). Brett Gardner Gardner is a pest at the plate. Very tough to strikeout and always battles. Swings and misses don't happen often, (lowest on Yankees at 4.62%) but he is patient (10.46% called first strike) and he struggles with pitches on the outer half or down and out of the zone. Getting him into
The Twins offense has been right around average so far in 2018, ranking 7th in the AL in runs scored per game and 9th in wRC+. It’s early, but if we assume that Logan Morrison, Robbie Grossman and Byron Buxton (once healthy) improve as the season progresses, and even if Max Kepler can’t maintain a 1.000 OPS and Ryan LaMarre isn’t the greatest hitter of our (or any) generation, the Twins offense should eventually settle closer to the top-5 offense they displayed in 2017. But in order to do so,
This is an excerpt of a story that originates on Zone Coverage here. Please click through to read it in full. Mother Nature has a cruel and ironic sense of humor. While the Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox had three-quarters of a four-game set turned into a winter wonderland last weekend, it’s going to be a balmy 67 degrees on Monday — just in time for the Twins to open a four-game series with the New York Yankees. In the Bronx, as luck would have it. Postponements mean make-up game
Something that I though would be fun, making a 2018 Twins roster with only similar players. For example, Mike Trout who is a career .305/.409/.566 and plays CF would be similar to Mickey Mantle .298/.421/.557. Enjoy! CATCHERS Wellington Castillo .259/.319/.430 { Jason Castro .233/.312/.388 } John Hicks .232/.289/.395 { Mitch Garver .193/.281/.368 } FIRST BASE Keith Hernandez .296/.384/.436 { Joe Mauer .309/.392/.443 } Kevin Maas .230/.329/.422 { Logan Morrison .242/.328
Lavalle article claims Hughes will be recalled to start Sunday, and the rest of the starters will pitch the 4 game series in NY. I wonder if Hildenburger gets optioned out or Twins cut their Rule 5 draft pick(which would have made this a very bad winter on FO moves for relief pitchers). I guess the big contract means they will have to look and see if Hughes has enough stuff to survive in the majors any more. Still given the Twins margin of error this year, hate to see games lost if Hughes ca
They say you should write your dreams down right when you wake up in order to remember them clearly. After returning from a dreamlike day and a half in San Juan, I’m feeling like the exercise will be helpful for me as well. Luckily, I don’t have the deadline many local writers had after the 16 inning marathon of game two. The seed for the idea was planted months ago, when I mentioned to my Dad that it would be fun to meet up for the Puerto Rico series. Fast forward a few months, and with ticke
Today, Sam Miller at ESPN wrote that the Strikeout rate in baseball is going up for the 14th year in a row. Last year pitchers struck out 8.2 batters per nine and this year it is 8.6 so far. The first question is why don't batters care? Second question is - how do we compare strikeout rates now with past pitching performances and careers - although Nolan Ryan is not only secure, his record means more because of when he set it. A side note is the fact that starting pitcher strikeout rates is
Don't look now, but Tyler Duffey is pitching very well in Rochester. He's pitched eight innings so far, all in relief, in three games, and he's done something that's a bit odd: He has a 2-1 record with NO EARNED RUNS allowed. (He's allowed two unearned runs.) He's struck out 10 in 8 innings, and has issued no walks and only 2 hits (That's a 0.25 WHIP rate). At this rate, He might get called up, especially if Hildenberger continues to falter.
Why can't Target Field have a yeti? Even a dedicated master of the art of SUPERNATURAL BASEBALL has trouble cobbling together enough words to delve into the spirit of this wonderful sport. It's difficult enough to put on a face to open your door in these days of late, late winter. No baseball cap upon your head but instead a STOCKING CAP where the pom pom is made of the SHREDDED PLANS OF YOUR SNOWBOUND LIFE! Twins fans spent a whole weekend indoors without a BIT of baseball to ease the pain.
Thus far the Minnesota Twins have played just 12 games during the 2018 Major League Baseball season. When they have played, they've been met with suboptimal weather conditions more often than not. Playing in 80 degree heat against the Cleveland Indians down in Puerto Rico, Jake Odorizzi may have unintentionally displayed just how much of an effect the weather has on certain aspects of the game. Over the course of his career, Odorizzi has hardly been the definition of an efficient pitcher. He's n
Being a Twins fan, and a statistics major, there are always connections to be made between on the field performance and statistics for a player. This has never been more available as statcast has allowed for measuring exit velocities, launch angles, and many other statistics for both pitchers and hitters. I wanted to look into which of these statistics has the greatest influence on Weighted Runs Created Plus. This is an offensive statistic which tries to credit each hit and situation for its tru
The Minnesota Twins have played fewer games than anyone in Major League Baseball thus far in the 2018 season. With weather cancellations and scheduled off days, Paul Molitor's club has almost been off the field for as long as they've been on it. Of the 11 games they have played however, Jose Berrios has pitched in three of them. While it's too early to draw any substantial conclusions, if the immediate returns are any indication, the bar as to just how good the Puerto Rican can be has been raise
The Cedar Rapids Kernels hit the frozen ground running this season, jumping off to a 6-0 record before finally suffering their first loss of the year on Friday night against Clinton. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Sammons0413e-600x400.jpg Bryan Sammons delivers a pitch Friday, April 13, against Clinton (Photo: SD Buhr) Don’t say the start surprised their manager, Toby Gardenhire, though. With a lineup as full of highly regarded prospects as this Kernels roster is,
The other guy is always better than what you have – right? Well that is the thought that dominates the off-season and so we are sad that we did not sign Yu Darvish (actually if you saw my posts you know I did not want him). Since we had an article looking at the first ten days and projecting the season I thought it might be good to see what we missed. Yu Darvish just had a memorable melt down over a balk, but even more exciting are his statistics during a stretch that was supposed to be the
My last blog chronicled the movement of black baseball players into major league baseball from Jackie Robinson in 1947 to the Red Sox finally adding a black player in 1958. As I said then, if we question the impact of steroids on our baseball records we should also look at how the exclusion of the black ballplayer impacted the records between 1989 and 1958. If one deserves an asterisk, the other requires a new said of record standards. I understand that baseball evolves – we had the hitless er
After struggling his previous two seasons in the Minnesota Twins organization, Rortvedt is on fire to start 2018. He is finally coming into his own and becoming the catcher many thought he would become when drafted in the second round out of high school in 2016. After two subpar years, the great Tom Froemming and I were still high really high on Rortvedt. Still only 20, he has plenty of room for growth, and has the opportunity to be an All-Star catcher in the big leagues. Rortvedt was more kno
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
