Seth Stohs

According to ESPN's Jeff Passan, the Miami Marlins are set to hire Twins hitting coach James Rowson. According to the Passan tweet, Rowson will be named the Marlins bench coach and offensive coordinator.Twins hitting coach James Rowson has earned a lot of praise for his work as the Twins hitting coach over the past few seasons. In particular, he led the 2019 Twins offense which set the all-time single-season home run record. The assumption as the season went on is that the Twins organization, specifically Rocco's Baldelli's coaching staff, could lose several key members during the offseson, and Rowson's name was often mentioned. Early on Thursday evening, Jeff Passan tweeted the news: He followed with a tweet to attempt to explain the role of "Offense Coordinator." So while the title is different, it is a role that he is quite familiar with. It certainly is a promotion for Rowson, but he was hired by the Twins in large part due to his work as a hitting coordinator with the Yankees and Cubs organizations. It is certainly a big loss for the Twins organization. He will not be easy to replace, but this front office has found lesser known names (like Rowson when he was hired) for several jobs already. One option may be assistant hitting coach Rudy Hernandez who has been in the organization nearly two decades and has a great working rapport with many of the Spanish-speaking hitters in the organization . Earlier this week, it was announced that Twins minor league hitting coordinator Peter Fatse had been named the assistant hitting coach of the Boston Red Sox. Fatse joined the Twins organization last offseason. He had replaced Rick Eckstein who became the hitting coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Please share your thoughts in the comments below. Not registered? Click here to create an account. To stay up to date, follow Twins Daily on Twitter and Facebook. Related Content: Will Minnesota Get Raided This Offseason? The Making of Max Power Let's Talk About Byron Buxton's Swing Click here to view the article

Talked to a lot of people in late April who had pushed Raley well ahead of Rooker in their eyes, people closer to it than me... on a number of levels. Now, Raley played alright in April. Rooker was off to a very bad start. Raley got hurt, and by mid-May Rooker was crushing the ball until his injury. So, I don't think from a prospect status they are too far apart, at least in the eyes of many... So, I think he's a 40-man add, but I don't think it's 100%

Twins Hall of Famer Michael Cuddyer has been doing a periodic video for USA Baseball. http://sportdev.org/USAB/Blog/The_Opportunity_to_Put_On_a_Uniform.aspx He played for Team USA back before being drafted.

https://theathletic.com/1315487/2019/10/23/twins-top-15-most-valuable-players-long-term-ranking-polanco-kepler-lewis-kirilloff-buxton/ (subscription required) Today, Aaron Gleeman posted his Top 15 most valuable Twins players for the long-term. I love discussions like this because it's not just about now but about the future. It's not a 2019 MVP vote. It's not a prospect list. Here's a quick excerpt. I'm not going to post the list since it is behind the paywall of The Athletic. But I think the topic is worth discussion. Based on years of team control, contract status, talent, position in more, how would you rank players?

I think I would tender him a contract because it won't be too much (even if it is $7.7 million). He can provide power, and even if Kirilloff is deemed ready, there can be playing time split as Cron struggled some against right-handers. Also, Kirilloff and Rooker could play in the outfield to make sure they're getting enough playing time to justify being up.

Maybe I'm weird, but I love these kinds of stories, what became of players after their careers.

It's definitely been mentioned a bit:

Then the Twins would have drafted Correa, the guy that they had #1 on their board too.

Oh, I'm sure some people would have chosen to overreact to it here... for sure.

The Twins have hired a minor league infield coach.

Alright, this is just for fun, but I think this could be a fun conversation... The Twins drafted OF George Springer in the 48th round of the 2008 draft out of high school in Connecticut. Having a scholarship to U Conn, he obviously did not sign. He went on to be a first-round pick of the Astros... and he's been an All Star and World Series MVP. On Tuesday night, he became to first player in MLB history to hit a homer in 5 straight World Series games. Anyway, what is the Twins would have signed Springer in 2008? How might that have played out? The Twins had taken outfielders Aaron Hicks and Ben Revere in the first rounds of the 2007 and 2008 draft, and they had taken Chris Parmelee and Joe Benson with their first two picks of the 2006 draft. What kind of priority, if any, would a 48th round pick been given? How many opportunities. Presumably he would have spent that 2008 season in the GCL, and probably would have been in Elizabethton in 2009. It's likely he may have spent 2010 in E-Town too, though Beloit is possible. In 2011, he would likely have spent most of that season in Beloit, possibly getting to Ft. Myers. After being the 11th overall pick of the 2011 draft, he played 8 games in the NYPL. Had Springer developed the same was as he did in college, he would likely have debuted with the Twins late in 2014. Aaron Hicks, Oswaldo Arcia, Josh Willingham and Danny Santana got time in the Twins outfield that year, so Springer could have had a chance. Rosario and Buxton didn't debut until 2015, and Kepler did late in September that year. Springer could have made an impression... Or, he may not have developed by playing differently in pro ball than college ball. Could Spring have helped the Twins down the stretch in 2015, with Torii Hunter around - the guy he often played catch with while the Twins All Star played for the New Britain Rock Cats? Could Springer have helped them in the Wild Card game in 2017? And where would he be now if he had signed with the Twins way back in 2008? How do you think that may have played out? (And please be respectful!)

I was researching John Castino for my Twins Birthdays twitter account. Found this article from 6-7 years ago from Patch, a newspaper in Illinois. https://patch.com/illinois/winnetka/part-one-new-trier-alumni-in-the-same-game-again Interesting look back at Castino's post-career and getting into the financial world, and it appears he is doing quite well.

It shouldn't change people's minds. He was nearly an all-star caliber guy pretty much right up until the injury and then he faltered. He had the 2 IL stints and the power was sapped and we knew that it was almost completely thumb related. So, whatever decision they should have made in late June is probably what they should do now... unless something else has changed in your mind... (like moving Sano to 1B or deciding kirilloff or rooker is ready for Opening Day, etc.

Per his Instagram (via Doogie Wolfson), CJ Cron had successful thumb surgery... Now on to rehab. Certainly wish him well.

Yes, and also the Twins are happy to get him ABs at 3B and CF... No intent to play him at SS, but when he gets to spring training, he'll be at SS.

Brandon reported this news this morning... Fatse was hired last offseason to be the new Twins minor league hitting coordinator. He took over for Rick Eckstein who went to the Pirates as their hitting coach.

I don't know that for sure... my assumption would be that it is like spring training and they don't get paid for spring training. I'd certainly think that their flights and other expenses would be paid... I'd hope!

My ballot: 1) Polanco 2) Kepler 3) Cruz 4) Garver 5) Rogers 6) Sano

That was definitely something I considered. But I chose to "judge" each player by the role in which he pitched. So basically it was (for me) was Berrios a better starter, or was Rogers a better late-inning reliever, and because of that, I went with Rogers.

They've spent a ton of money on the player development side, extra coaches, extra coordinators, etc. They were already doing some technology things, but they've spent a ton more on that stuff too.

This is really good... I really enjoyed reading this. Thank you!

For most of the past decade, the Minnesota Twins have had one of the worst pitching staffs in baseball. Pick a meaningful statistic for pitchers and you would find the Twins usually at or very near the bottom of the rankings. That changed in 2019 when the Twins had one of the top five or six pitching staffs in the American League. The Twins' 4.18 ERA ranked eighth in MLB and fifth in the American League. Their 1.30 WHIP ranked 12th in the big leagues and sixth in the AL. Their 9.0 K/9 ranked 12th in MLB and fifth in the AL, and they did so while walking just 2.8/9 innings, second best in baseball. Baseball Reference’s Wins Above for All Pitchers ranks the Twins sixth in MLB, fourth in the league. The Twins had two All-Star starting pitchers (Berrios and Odorizzi), and a third starter (Pineda) who was arguably their best starting pitcher option when he was suspended. The team’s bullpen came on strong over the season’s final two month.Frankly, it was nice to see this year’s Twins Daily Pitcher of the Year ballots listing several viable candidates. The vote was close, but the 2019 Twins Pitcher of the Year is closer Taylor Rogers.Over the past couple of days, we have handed out the Twins Daily Awards for Twins Rookie of the Year (Luis Arraez) and Twins Most Improved Player (Mitch Garver). While there were solid candidate in each category, today’s Pitcher of the Year vote was much closer with votes cast for multiple pitchers. Taylor Rogers doesn’t have the typical background story for a Pitcher of the Year candidate. He was the Twins 11th-round draft pick back in 2012 out of Kentucky. The lanky lefty began his career as a starting pitcher and in 2013 was the Twins Daily Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Year. He moved up one level, as a starter, each season. In the first week of the 2016 season, Twins closer Glen Perkins got hurt. Taylor Rogers was recalled and worked out of the bullpen. Gradually he seemed to get more comfortable with the role, both on the mound and in his preparation for the job each day. He began getting more high-leverage opportunities in 2017. And frankly, over the last two seasons, he has been one of the top four left-handed relief pitchers in baseball. The names that you can put with or even ahead of Rogers might be Josh Hader, Aroldis Chapman and Felipe Vasquez. That’s it. Heading into the 2019 season, Rogers knew that he had a role as a late-inning reliever for the Twins. He had earned that. But early in the season, it was Blake Parker often getting save opportunities. Trevor May and Trevor Hildenberger also recorded a save or two in the season’s first month. Rogers was used anytime from the seventh inning on. Sometimes he would get a couple of outs, and sometimes he would work a couple of innings. Over the course of the summer, Rogers became the team’s most reliable reliever. At some points in the season, he was their only reliable reliever. He was often tasked with getting more than three outs to record saves, something we just haven’t seen much of in the last two decades of Twins baseball. Sure, he had a couple of hiccups throughout the long season, as all great relievers do. However, after the trade deadline, the rest of the bullpen really took off and allowed Rogers to get more regular rest. In the season’s final weekend, Rogers notched his milestone 30th save of the season. WHAT CHANGED? In researching Taylor Rogers’ 2019 stats and comparing them to his 2018 stats, one thing is clear… I think we may have overlooked just how good Taylor Rogers was in 2018, and 2017 too, for that matter. His ERA dropped from 2.63 to 2.61. His WAR increased from 1.9 to 2.1 over the past two seasons. However, fans who watched most Twins games noticed that he had become much more dominant, more aggressive (increased his first-pitch strikes percentage to 68%). He was able to get ahead and quickly dispatch of batters, either by strikeout or weak contact.There may be some numbers that illustrate that as well. First, Rogers increased his strikeout rate while reducing his walk. Both improvements were significant. His strikeout rate increased from 9.9 K/9 in 2018 to 11.7 K/9 in 2019. That speaks to his dominance, but to me, his ability to get those additional strikeouts while decreasing his walks from 2.1 BB/9 to just 1.4 BB/9 speaks to the sharpness of his stuff. Taylor Rogers really changed his approach on the mound in 2019.He threw a few fewer fastballs (53% to 50%), but his average fastball velocity jumped from 93.4 mph to 94.8 mph. In 2018, he threw 33.4% curveballs and just 12.4% sliders. In 2019, he went almost exclusively to the slider. He threw 45.5% sliders and just 4.1% curveballs. And that slider was a dominant pitch to both left-handers and right-handers. While his swinging strike rates stayed about the same, his Line Drive Percentage decreased which led to a big increase in Ground Ball Percentage. Rogers didn’t just come in to start clean innings. He was often called in to tough situations where his stuff really played well. In 2019, his Left On Base Percentage was an incredible 86.2%, up from 74.8% in 2018. All told, Taylor Rogers’ 2019 season was about as dominant as anyone could have hoped. LOOKING FORWARD Rogers will turn 29-years-old in December. He earned $1.53 million in his Super-2 arbitration season. He will have three more seasons of arbitration. He should get quite a raise in 2020. I would think a four-year contract could be discussed during the offseason. OTHER CANDIDATES As noted above, Jose Berrios and Jake Odorizzi were both All-Stars in 2019. Odorizzi went 15-7 with a 3.51 ERA in 30 starts and 159 innings. Berrios was 14-8 with a 3.68 ERA in 32 starts and 200 1/3 innings. Michael Pineda went 11-8 with a 4.01 ERA in 26 starts in 146 innings. When he was suspended in early September, it could have been argued that he was the Twins top starting pitcher. Tyler Duffey began the 2019 season in Rochester. He worked 57 2/3 innings over 58 games and struck out 82 batters (12.8 K/9). He posted a 2.50 ERA with a 1.01 ERA and ended the season with 21 scoreless innings. Trevor May struck out 79 batters over 62 1/3 innings with a 2.94 ERA. THE BALLOTS Here’s a look at the ballots from our 18 voters. Seth Stohs: 1) Taylor Rogers, 2) Jose Berrios, 3) Jake Odorizzi, 4) Michael Pineda Nick Nelson: 1) Jose Berrios, 2) Jake Odorizzi, 3) Taylor Rogers, 4) Tyler Duffey John Bonnes: 1) Taylor Rogers, 2) Jose Berrios, 3) Jake Odorizzi, 4) Tyler Duffey Tom Froemming: 1) Jose Berrios, 2) Jake Odorizzi, 3) Michael Pineda, 4) Taylor Rogers Cody Christie: 1) Jose Berrios, 2) Jake Odorizzi, 3) Taylor Rogers, 4) Michael Pineda Ted Schwerzler: 1) Taylor Rogers, 2) Tyler Duffey, 3) Jake Odorizzi, 4) Jose Berrios Steve Lein: 1) Jose Berrios, 2) Taylor Rogers, 3) Jake Odorizzi, 4) Michael Pineda S.D. Buhr: 1) Jake Odorizzi, 2) Taylor Rogers, 3) Jose Berrios, 4) Tyler Duffey Matt Braun: 1) Jose Berrios, 2) Taylor Rogers, 3) Michael Pineda, 4) Jake Odorizzi Cooper Carlson: 1) Taylor Rogers 2) Tyler Duffey, 3) Jose Berrios, 4) Jake Odorizzi Andrew Thares: 1) Taylor Rogers, 2) Jose Berrios, 3) Jake Odorizzi, 4) Tyler Duffey JD Cameron: 1) Jose Berrios, 2) Taylor Rogers, 3) Jake Odorizzi, 4) Tyler Duffey Matt Lenz: 1) Taylor Rogers, 2) Tyler Duffey, 3) Trevor May, 4) Michael Pineda Nash Walker: 1) Taylor Rogers, 2) Jake Odorizzi, 3) Jose Berrios, 4) Tyler Duffey Patrick Wozniak: 1) Jose Berrios, 2) Jake Odorizzi, 3) Taylor Rogers, 4) Michael Pineda Thieres Rabelo: 1) Taylor Rogers, 2) Jose Berrios, 3) Tyler Duffey, 4) Jake Odorizzi Sabir Aden: 1) Taylor Rogers, 2) Jake Odorizzi, 3) Jose Berrios, 4) Tyler Duffey AJ Condon: 1) Taylor Rogers, 2) Tyler Duffey, 3) Jose Berrios, 4.) Jake Odorizzi POINTS Taylor Rogers 59 Jose Berrios 51 Jake Odorizzi 38 Tyler Duffey 21 Michael Pineda 9 Trevor May 2 PREVIOUS PITCHER OF THE YEAR WINNERS 2015: Kyle Gibson 2016: Ervin Santana 2017: Ervin Santana 2018: Jose Berrios OTHER 2019 AWARD WINNERS Rookie of the Year: Luis Arraez Most Improved: Mitch Garver Pitcher of the Year: Taylor Rogers Most Valuable Player: Coming tomorrow Click here to view the article

The Twins are again not participating in the Instructional League (2nd year). They are just continuing with camps with more purposeful instruction.