Article: Twins Weekly for Jan. 12-18: Reed All About It

[Tom Froemming]

Welcome to Twins Weekly. This feature intends to help readers discover anything they may have missed, encourage prospective writers to get active and provide readers an opportunity to offer up requests for content. We finally had another move to talk about this week, as the Twins signed reliever Addison Reed.Let’s take a quick look back at all the articles from the front page in the order they were published. This edition of Twins Weekly covers Friday, Jan. 12-Thursday, Jan. 18.

 

The Time For A Buxton Extension Is Now - Nick Nelson

Looking Back: Twins Draft Kirby Puckett - Seth Stohs

Twins Arbitration Notes - Seth Stohs

Rosenthal: Twins Agree to Deal With Addison Reed - Tom Froemming

Exploring The Back-End Of The 40-Man Roster - Cody Christie

The Twins Almanac for January 14–20 - Matt Johnson

Still A Few Dozen Tickets Left To See Joe Nathan At The Winter Meltdown! - John Bonnes

Gleeman & The Geek: Ep 351: Addison Reed! - John Bonnes

Joe Nathan, Fernando Rodney, And History - Nick Nelson

SethSpeaks Podcast (Episode 2) Features 1st-Rounders Lewis, Rooker, Kirilloff - Seth Stohs

Twelve's A Crowd: Twins Are Rolling In Relief - Nick Nelson

Each Minnesota Team’s Greatest Finish - Cody Christie

Not So Fast: Is Eddie Rosario Already Losing a Step? - Tom Froemming

Get To Know Twins Third Base Prospect Andrew Bechtold - Seth Stohs

Three Twins Breakout Candidates For 2018 - Cody Christie

 

Twins Daily Blogs

Below are some additional items of note from the blog area. I've pulled excerpts from each piece in an attempt to hook you in.

 

Why Yu Darvish Will Be Cheaper Than Everyone Thinks

By Andrew Thares

In years past, the available marquee free agents were almost exclusively signed by the richest teams in baseball. In fact, 9 of the 20 richest contracts in MLB history were signed by either the Yankees, Dodgers or Red Sox. However, as MLB front offices are starting to get smarter, they are starting to learn that these big time free agent contracts are almost never worth it in the long run. As a result, teams are starting to shift their focus toward lower tier free agents they can sign to short term, and more reasonably priced contracts, like relievers.

 

New Approach on Signing Yu Darvish

By jharaldson

My idea is for the Twins to offer Darvish a massively over-market contract for 1 year. Here are the details:

-1 year/$40 million

-Vesting team option for a second year at $15 million if Darvish does not pitch at least 100 innings.

-Majority of the $40 million is in the form of a signing bonus so as to allow a tax favorable payment to Darvish with his current residency being in Texas, a state with no income tax.

 

The Reed Option

By Jamie Cameron

Reed joins a Twins bullpen shaping up to be vastly different, and potentially much improved over its 2017 iteration. In addition to returning standout Trevor Hildenberger, the Twins have added Fernando Rodney, presumably filling the vacant ninth inning role, and Zach Duke, returning from an injury-plagued 2017 season. In the former trio, the Twins seem to have established a model for the traits they are pursuing in improving their bullpen; inducing ground balls and a lot of strikeouts, hardly a pioneering recipe for success. In Reed however, they have added a pitcher who generates more fly balls, so what about Reed has made him such a consistent a reliable late inning reliever?

 

Mitch Garver & Zack Granite back in CR for Winter Caravan

By SD Buhr

Garver played in 120 games for the 2014 version of the Kernels and hit for a .298 average. His career has steadily progressed each year since.

 

Granite's time in Cedar Rapids was cut short by injury in 2014, but he returned in 2015 and immediately hit so well that he earned a quick promotion to Class A Advanced Fort Myers.

 

Wanting to make the most of what time I had with each player, I asked them both the same question to kick off the interviews.

 

If you could go back in time, knowing what you know now, and give the Cedar Rapids Kernels version of yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?

 

2018 Breakout Candidate: Stephen Gonsalves

By Lenzy2108

Gonsalves' batted ball data in minors suggests that he is a flyball pitcher, which isn't a huge deal as Target Field is a pitchers park and...well...you know...Buxton/Rosario/Kepler. But what impressed me even a little more is that hitters don't hit him well. At levels where he made 15+ starts his LD% are as follows: 17.2% (2015 High A), 13% (2016 High A), 18.1% (2016 AA), and 19.2% (2016 AA) which are all below the MLB average of 21%. Admittedly, I know this is a little bit of apples and oranges using a MLB average to analyze minor league numbers, but I do think it gives you a gauge for where he's at. Again, Target Field tends to treat fly ball pitchers well especially with our defense...another positive sign that this could be his year.

 

Prospects for 2018

By Physics Guy

The 2018 Twins have significantly fewer holes than the 2013 squad. It was a challenge to come up with ten players who have a chance to debut and rank them according to their potential to help this year's team. All players on this list would be making their big league debut.

 

Video of the Week

Check out this sweet, sweet tater mashed by Twins pitcher Mudcat Grant in Game 6 of the 1965 World Series. Here's the Baseball-Reference box score for that game.

 

eBay Item of the Week

Speaking of the 1965 World Series, take a look at this beaut. This is a Red Wing Pottery commemorative ashtray. The current bid at the time of posting was $51, but that's sure to rise now that it's "as seen on on Twins Weekly." Quite the way to remember a great season ... I guess.

Download attachment: TwinsAshtray.png

Additional Links

 

Prospect Retrospective: The Career Of Justin Morneau

By John Sickels of Minor League Ball

I also had a very enthusiastic report from a scout who called Morneau “a young Larry Walker.” I made sure to put him in the book, writing that “Morneau probably won’t stay at catcher because his mobility is limited, but he definitely has enough power to handle first base. He’s a long-term prospect and his grade (C+) reflects that, but I have a good gut feeling about him.”

 

Twins front office brings in the brainpower

By Patrick Reusse of the Star Tribune

The Twins have added 40-plus positions to the baseball department since Falvey took over and “several million dollars’’ to the staff payroll. They will be adding more jobs over the course of 2018.

 

Should the Twins be worried about Fernando Rodney?

By Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press

Wednesday marked Rodney’s fourth outing for Escogido in the round-robin playoffs. Just one of those appearances has been scoreless, leaving Rodney with a 15.00 earned run average, six walks and four hits allowed through three innings.

 

Highlights from the 2018 TwinsFest schedule

By Maija Varda of Twinkie Town

Twins top prospect Royce Lewis will kick off his first TwinsFest experience by being paired with Joe Mauer at an autograph table on Friday from 4:15 pm to 5:15 pm. Will Joe carry on Harmon Killebrew’s legacy by directly chastising Royce for illegible autographs, or will he just passively aggressively comment on how fast Royce signs his name? We all know it will be the latter.

 

Minnesota Twins: 5 best middle infield duos in team history

By Nate Palmer of Puckett’s Pond

Unfortunately for the past decade or so of Twins baseball, we have often observed some less than stellar middle infields. Several of those middle infields we have experienced have been downright frustrating. A lot of the reason for that frustration begins and ends with the revolving door at shortstop. In fact, 2018 may mark the second time since 2005 that the Twins will have the same Opening Day shortstop as they did the previous year. (Please, please baseball gods don’t turn this into a jinx!)

 

More Podcasts

 

Baseball is Good Episode #31 Ryan Turnquist

By Cory Englehardt

Ryan is a huge MN sports fan and we will talk baseball, sports, growing up a sports fan and anything else that comes our way. Please give it a listen!

 

MWS: Mike Berardino Reveals His Hall of Fame Ballot

By Brandon Warne of Zone Coverage

In this episode of Midwest Swing, Brandon catches up with Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) of the St. Paul Pioneer Press to reveal his Hall of Fame ballot.

 

T&L Supershow ep. 53

By Twins and Losses

This week Dan and Panda cover all of the recent MLB free agency moves, along with what the Twins have been up to.

 

Then they take a trip to the local retirement home and break out #OldFriend Barry Campbell to talk about the Minnesota Wild, and answer a thousand fan questions that you sent in!

 

Calling All Bloggers!!!

One of the biggest obstacles to overcome when writing is figuring out just what the heck to write about. Well, here’s a topic to consider …

 

What was your favorite Twins team? Not necessarily who you think was the best team ever, but which year do you have the fondest memories of or the strongest bond to?

 

Just to be clear, this simply an idea I'm throwing out there to consider. Reminder: Anyone can start a blog at Twins Daily. If you're interested in being a regular writer for the site, the blog section is how you get your foot in the door. The only reason you're reading my words right now is because I started my own blog at Twins Daily.

 

Calling All Readers!!!

I don’t want to leave you out, either. If there's anything you'd love to read about next week, please let us know in the comments.

 

OK, that does it. Enjoy TwinsFest and the Winter Meltdown if you're attending. Twins Weekly will continue to be posted every Friday morning at the site. Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

 

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[nclahammer]

I live in Red Wing and love the Minnesota Twins Red Wing Pottery pieces.  At the Red Wing Pottery Museum, one of the workers was telling us a story about how at one time they used to have shopping carts full of the 65' World Series ash trays selling for $2 - $3 each.  Oh' to know then what I know now.  LOL.

[Tom Froemming]

 

I live in Red Wing and love the Minnesota Twins Red Wing Pottery pieces.  At the Red Wing Pottery Museum, one of the workers was telling us a story about how at one time they used to have shopping carts full of the 65' World Series ash trays selling for $2 - $3 each.  Oh' to know then what I know now.  LOL.

Sorry to poor salt on your wound, but I just saw another one at the "Buy It Now" price of $200.

[Matt Johnson]

Cool video of Mudcat. Particularly pertinent as he got the shaft again this week, not being elected to the team Hall of Fame.

 

The guy who caught that home run, by the way, is a customer of ours at the hardware store up here in Zimmerman. 

[Nine of twelve]

That was one of the coolest home runs ever hit by a Twin, and certainly by far the coolest one ever hit by a Twins pitcher.