https://twinsdaily.com/news-rumors/minnesota-twins/page/1158/?d=1enhttps://twinsdaily.com/news-rumors/minnesota-twins/building-a-bench-r144/A year ago, the Twins went into the regular season with a bench consisting of Drew Butera, Jason Repko, Matt Tolbert and Jim Thome. In other words: three guys who possessed only defensive value, and one who possessed only offensive value. It was a pretty limiting group, and the lack of flexibility c...144Wed, 29 Feb 2012 03:57:00 +0000https://twinsdaily.com/news-rumors/minnesota-twins/my-journey-to-the-minnesota-twins-r143/Blog Post #1 By: Aaron Bates Follow my daily Spring Training journey on twitter at: @A33bates Hey Guys! I'm very excited that Seth Stohs asked me to do a regular blog throughout spring training. It's truly one of my favorite times of year as I love getting back on the field and seeing my teammates a...143Wed, 29 Feb 2012 00:51:00 +0000https://twinsdaily.com/news-rumors/minnesota-twins/position-battles-the-hitters-r140/Here we are, less than a week into full Twins spring training workouts. Games don’t even start for a couple of days. It’s time to start talking position battles, right? It appears to me that there are actually very few positions that are up for grabs at this stage of camp. Of course, as injuries mou...140Tue, 28 Feb 2012 18:53:00 +0000https://twinsdaily.com/news-rumors/minnesota-twins/gleeman-ampamp-the-geek-episode-30-morneau-ampamp-mailbag-r138/Aaron and John talk about pitchers and catchers reporting for spring training, Justin Morneau's discouraging quotes about his health status, Sean Burroughs' odds of making the roster, Aaron's ongoing car saga, John's marriage, and a bunch of mailbag questions. Here are: the podcasts the rss feed...138Tue, 28 Feb 2012 05:09:00 +0000https://twinsdaily.com/news-rumors/minnesota-twins/twins-minor-league-weekly-22712-r137/Tonight at 9, Seth Stohs was joined by Travis Aune for the first episode of the season of Twins Minor League Weekly. Granted, there aren't a lot of minor league topics to discuss, so they talked Twins most of the 45-minute show. As you would guess, topics included the comments of Justin Morneau and...137Tue, 28 Feb 2012 03:57:00 +0000https://twinsdaily.com/news-rumors/minnesota-twins/ryan-must-react-r136/In his efforts to augment a bullpen that last year ranked last in the league in ERA, FIP and WHIP, Terry Ryan's moves essentially amounted to re-signing Matt Capps and adding Joel Zumaya to replace the departed Joe Nathan. That was hardly a recipe for guaranteed substantial improvement, and now wit...136Mon, 27 Feb 2012 17:25:00 +0000https://twinsdaily.com/news-rumors/minnesota-twins/behind-joel-zumayas-elbow-blowout-r135/On Saturday, Joel Zumaya, the Twins key bullpen addition of the offseason, prepared to throw live batting practice for the first time in the spring. After 13 pitches, he was headed off the mound and into an MRI machine. News broke on Sunday that the injury, a snapped UCL, would require Tommy John...135Mon, 27 Feb 2012 00:17:00 +0000https://twinsdaily.com/news-rumors/minnesota-twins/terry-ryans-foolish-gamble-r134/The TwinsCentric GM Offseason Handbook listed 23 right-handed relievers, sorted in descending order by what we thought they would receive on the open market. The 23rd was Joel Zumaya. He was listed last because of the obvious injury risk he represented. But Zumaya wasn't the 23rd one signed. Twins...134Sun, 26 Feb 2012 23:23:00 +0000https://twinsdaily.com/news-rumors/minnesota-twins/fantasy-perspectives-minnesota-twins-r133/One of my fantasy leagues started its draft this past week, so I thought it might be a good time to start writing a little about fantasy baseball. I will likely participate in three or four leagues this year, and each is a little bit different. One of my leagues is a keeper league with major and min...133Sun, 26 Feb 2012 22:19:00 +0000https://twinsdaily.com/news-rumors/minnesota-twins/baseline-how-bad-are-the-2012-twins-r131/It's easy to be down on the Twins' prospects for this year. 2011 was in many ways their worst season ever, and the offseason moves by Terry Ryan didn't do much more than maintain the talent level they started with last April. So we must be headed for another dreadful season, right? Not so fast. [PRB...131Sun, 26 Feb 2012 05:43:00 +0000https://twinsdaily.com/news-rumors/minnesota-twins/how-the-integration-barrier-broke-for-the-twins-franchise-r130/This was first published at The Tenth Inning Stretch earlier this month. I know it is kind of old, but I think that the topic might be interesting for the Twins Daily readers, so I am republishing it here... February is African American/Black History Month, so I wanted to contribute by looking at th...130Sun, 26 Feb 2012 00:51:00 +0000https://twinsdaily.com/news-rumors/minnesota-twins/zumaya-injured-r129/Joel Zumaya impressed local media throwing in the bullpen, but abruptly ended his session, walking off the mound with trainer Rick McWane. Zumaya said he was OK but later GM Terry Ryan acknowledged that Zumaya had felt discomfort on the inside of his elbow. He will undergo an MRI on Sunday. Zumaya...129Sat, 25 Feb 2012 16:35:00 +0000