John Bonnes

Aaron and John talk about the Twins ending the first half on a low note, the need for pitching help before the trade deadline, Ryan Jeffers' thumb surgery, Miguel Sano's ticking clock, and why Brooks Lee and Connor Prielipp were a best-case scenario on draft day. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click this link. View full article

Considering that Cleveland and the White Sox are playing each other while the Twins face the Brewers, it would be real nice if the Twins could take advantage of the pitching matchups in this series.

Aaron and John discuss the Twins' growing divisional lead, the latest bullpen implosions, and how soon fans can expect some relief. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click this link. View full article

Aaron and John talk about the Twins' bullpen meltdowns in Cleveland, the shocking departure of pitching coach Wes Johnson for LSU, and why the need for more relief talent is a bigger issue than anything else. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click this link. View full article

In a surprise move, Twins pitching coach Wes Johnson will be leaving the Minnesota Twins to become LSU's pitching coach. D1 Baseball's Kendall Rogers broke news today that LSU has hired Twins pitching coach Wes Johnson as their new pitching coach, resulting in a midseason change of one of the Twins' most important coaches. Johnson was hired prior to the 2019 season from Arkansas, where he was the pitching coach, a trailblazing move for a MLB team. Now he will return to that same conference as a rival team's pitching coach. Losing Johnson during the offseason would be a story in and of itself. The Twins pitching staff ranked 22nd in ERA (4.50) in 2018, the year before Johnson replace Garvin Alston. In 2019, they improved to 8th in the league with a 4.18 ERA. This year, the team ERA is 3.79, ranking 11th in the majors, despite pitching being perceived as the team's Achilles heal heading into the season. At the very least, he's been seen as a cornerstone in the organization's renewed focus on pitching over the last several years. Having the move happen in the middle of the baseball season, especially when the team is in first place in the AL Central, makes it a major story. Per Dan Hayes, the Twins just found out about his talks with LSU on Saturday. He also reports that his talks with the Twins did not include a request for more money. With the news being so unexpected, it is not clear what factors played into this sudden decision. Hayes does add that LSU was very aggressive, so it may be that he is just interested in LSU. They just completed their first season with new coach Jay Johnson, who guided them to a 40-22 record in the SEC, good for third place in the West. Aaron Gleeman reports that Johnson's tenure will end after this week's 5-game series versus the Cleveland Guardians. At that time his role will be filled by bullpen coach Pete Maki, although fully replacing him will be a group effort. Maki has been with the coaching staff since 2020, and been in the organization since 2017 when he joined them as their minor league pitching coordinator. More to come. Feel free to comment as additional news breaks. View full article

Aaron and John discuss how the Twins can "Find a Reliever", Byron Buxton's knee injury, and more about the "drunken bar fight" series versus Cleveland. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click this link. View full article

Aaron and John talk about the Twins' eight upcoming games vs. the Guardians, Royce Lewis' torn ACL and the future at shortstop, when Alex Kirilloff will return from crushing Triple-A, the domino effect of the rotation getting healthier, and how ready the world is to see more of John Bonnes dancing. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click this link. View full article

Aaron and John talk about the Twins-Yankees series, Byron Buxton breaking out of his slump in a huge way, the state of the bullpen, how close the rotation is to getting healthy, why the lineup is showing good signs against high-end pitchers, and Josh Donaldson's return to Minnesota. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click this link. View full article

Aaron and John talk about the Twins' ugly series in Detroit, the unvaccinated players skipping the series in Toronto, Royce Lewis avoiding another worst-case scenario, and Jhoan Duran's role in the bullpen. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click this link. View full article

You’ve got plans this Sunday afternoon. The Twins are playing the Tigers, and Twins Daily’s writers are swarming around the Gray Duck Deck at Target Field, because John Bonnes is a guest bartender. We would love for you join us. What more is there to say exactly? Just get a ticket to the game on 5/29 and show up at the Gray Duck Deck near the left field foul pole. John will be guest bartending with Lindsay Guentzel. Anyone from Twins Daily’s writing crew will be hanging out to talk Twins and life, watch the game, and share a pint (or a Bomba Juice). The game starts at 1:10, and hopefully you have the Memorial Day off of work. We hope to see you there! View full article

Aaron and John talk about Carlos Correa returning, Royce Lewis being sent back to Triple-A, Byron Buxton getting days off, Alex Kirilloff trying to get right in St. Paul, and Chris Paddack having elbow surgery. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click this link. View full article

Byron Buxton revealed that the Twins and he are working a plan to keep him healthy for at least 100 games, a mark he has only reached one time in his career. This has raised the question whether can he be worth his 7-year, $100M+ contract if he only plays that much? The answer is yes, but before we dive into why, let’s look at Buxton through a stat that traditionalists love: RBI. 204 RBI. That’s the number of RBI Byron Buxton has had in his seven-year career. But this isn’t going to be a screed on what a stupid stat RBI is, nor is it going to be a tirade against modern players. Instead, it’s about how a guy who averages less than 30 RBI per year is worth $100M, or how to reconcile traditional counting stats with modern player evaluation First, since talking about RBI is like waving a red flag in front of a sabrmetrically inclined bull, let’s point out that it isn’t just RBI. Buxton’s injury history means that almost all of his “counting” stats are far lower than one would expect. Buxton has averaged 10 home runs over those seven years. He’s averaged 15 doubles. 11 stolen bases. Even defensively, where everyone admits he shines, he’s only saved, on average, about 5 runs per season. Counting stats aren’t great for predicting the future, but they are usually valuable for talking about past production. And Buxton’s inability to stay healthy means that he hasn’t been able to demonstrate much productivity using traditional counting stats. If you do a comparison between him and other MLB players, he looks more like a utility player than potential superstar. Check out the list of 10 players to whom he is most similar on Baseball Reference. It’s not exactly stocked with Hall of Famers. Domingo Santana? Wily Mo Pena? Pena didn’t make $7M over his entire career. So why is Buxton worth so much more? Baseball nerds will talk about Buxton’s WAR or Wins Above Replacement, which is not at all similar to that of Wily Mo Pena and Domingo Santana. But that statistic just moves the disconnect to another arena. Why is WAR so much different than traditional (and far more intuitive) counting stats? There are two fundamental differences between a player that puts up middling counting stats over 70 games (which is what Buxton has averaged over the last seven years) and a player that puts up middling counting stats over 162 games. The first is 92 games. The second is the last initial in WAR: Replacement. In those other 92 games, a replacement player is in center field, and the stats that player puts up also help out the team. So when Buxton is not available, the team gets slightly below-average productivity. But when he is available, he performs like a superstar. Average those out and you get a very good center fielder, even if Buxton continues to require frequent trips to the 10-day IL. How much is that worth? Figuring out the value of a single MLB Win Above Replacement is fairly simple math: just take the total amount paid to the last free-agent class and divide it by the total WAR they had. The answer lately has been around $8M. Buxton is making $9M this year and is guaranteed $15M over the next six years. So he needs to be post a WAR of 1 this year and a WAR around 2 for the next six years. He’s already at 1.6, and that’s through just 24 games played. Yeah, he’s worth it. This naturally leads to the question about how he and the Twins can keep him in the lineup even more. That’s the same question the Twins are attempting to answer by working a plan to keep him healthy for at least 100 games, a mark he has only reached one time in his career. It may not be the right plan, but you can see value in trying something, anything. He’s certainly worth the effort. View full article

I was SO GLAD to see you writing on TD again! Great post.