John Bonnes

Aaron and John talk about the odds of 2020 featuring zero games vs. games with no crowds vs. games with crowds, plus the search for toilet paper, how paychecks and service time will work, and whether the Twins are helped or hurt by a sprint instead of a marathon.You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click this link. Listen Here! Click here to view the article

On Thursday afternoon, Twins CEO Dave St. Peter and President of Baseball Operations addressed the media on a conference call to answer questions about MLB's suspended operations and provide specifics to the Twins' situation. If you follow @TwinsDaily on Twitter, you saw immediate updates following the call. If you don't, you can find them below. But if you follow the Twins daily, why aren't you following @TwinsDaily? In summary, the Twins are looking for answers like most of us. They're paying a lot of attention to how the virus reacts during the shutdown, like most of us. And they're doing what they can during the stoppage to move forward and provide news, like most of us. Again, if you would like news like this as soon as it breaks, as well as links to stories on Twins Daily and other Twins news we can find, you would do well to follow @TwinsDaily on Twitter. Just click through and hit the "Follow" button. Click here to view the article

Aaron and John discuss the MLB shutdown and what is next. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click this link. http://traffic.libsy...3?dest-id=74590 Click here to view the article

One of Twins Daily’s core values is community. We are a community-driven site, supported by writers, moderators, commenters, and readers who challenge but also support each other. With that as a cornerstone, we fully support MLB’s efforts to slow the Coronavirus by suspending the MLB season for at least two weeks. But yeah, we’re disappointed, too.Like everyone, we’re not sure of the absolute best way to respond to this worldwide event. However, for this site, it feels like an attempt at normalcy is a step in the right direction. So we are trying to shake off the same disappointment you feel and continue our daily coverage of America’s pastime. After all, who better? Since this story detailing the end of the Twins season last October, Twins Daily has published 585 stories (and counting) without a meaningful game being played. Those stories have looked at last year’s performances, broken down players’ mechanics, poked fun at our obsession, analyzed the payroll, dissected the upcoming schedule (including the promotion schedule), examined the development of promising minor leaguers …. the list goes on and on and on. Look again at that last sentence. All of those topics can continue through a suspended season. Plus, we have some brand new, never-before-covered events to explore. We’re cursed and blessed to be living in interesting times, my friends. So why am I telling you all this? Because you can help. The difference between being an audience and a community is the level of participation. Register and comment on stories. Start topics or respond in the forums. Start a blog. Follow all the action on Twitter, Facebook or our emails. But most of all, take care of yourselves, your loved ones and your community. The last week has reminded us that we’re all in this together. Twins Daily will continue to embrace that value, and will be there for this community. We encourage you to be present for each other, too. Click here to view the article

Agree that this is the correct thing to do. I'll list a couple of pros and cons from the Twins perspective: Every game missed is a couple of days in which Byron Buxton and Rich Hill get closer to healthy.On the other hand, Pineda gets pushed back - there is no way these missed games impact his suspension.There's a good chance the Twins miss all seven games they would have played against the Athletics, who are an awfully good squad. On the other hand, the only other non-division team they would play in the first four weeks are the Blue Jays (3 games) and Mariners (3 games), both of whom should be pretty beatable. Second homestand starts April 17th. I wonder if the suspension lasts that long. I also wonder, when the suspension ends, if MLB has another abbreviated spring training or turns some of the regular season games into exhibition games until the players are at full speed. This is pretty new territory. The only thing I can think to compare it to is some of the labor disruptions that delayed seasons in the past.

Aaron and John talk about the Twins' many team MVP candidates, Byron Buxton's comeback status, Eddie Rosario's self-aware future in Minnesota, Miguel Sano's work at first base, and Aaron's terrifying dental history. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click this link. http://traffic.libsy...3?dest-id=74590 Click here to view the article

Aaron and John talk about the Twins' fifth-starter battle, staying healthy (knock on wood) in spring training, 13th pitcher and 13th hitter competitions, Uber with Al Newman, and dressing for the job you want. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click this link. http://traffic.libsy...3?dest-id=74590 Click here to view the article

Aaron and John talk about the Twins' least-replaceable players, Jose Berrios' spring debut, DMV trips, Fernando Romero's visa problems, analytics flowing freely, Josh Donaldson's over/under, and KFAN returns. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click this link. Click here to view the article

FORT MYERS - Baseball is back, baby. Ok, it was back two days ago when the Twins faced the Gophers, but that was kind of a buzzkill. And it was back yesterday, but it was a road game two hours away, and not even the players wanted to travel that far. But today it was at – as the Hammond Stadium announcer belted out – “the southern tip of Twins Territory.” It was a home game, in Fort Myers, and the crowded concourses a full hour before first pitch validates the urge you feel right now: to hear everything about it.It also means I’m breaking a vow. A couple of years ago, I swore I would forever go through an entire spring training visit without reporting individual results of games. Why? Because by reporting on them, it lends credence to them meaning something, and they don’t. None of them. And especially not early spring training games. But I also get it: we’re hungry for baseball. So here are a few notes about the Twins 5-5 tie with the Blue Jays. Berrios looked awfully good. He gave up a lead-off hit and the next batter hit a line drive, but it went right to second baseman Travis Blankenhorn, who caught it and turned an easy double-play. After that, he got his last four outs on strikeouts, and there is plenty of excitement about Berrios’ age-25 season. If Berrios can maintain his early season success over the whole season, the sky’s the limit. Miguel Sano spent the second inning taking the extra bases available to him. He got on base with a sawed off blooper. Advanced to second base on a ground ball to left field. Tagged up and took third on a fly ball to center field. Then tagged up again on a medium fly ball to left field. He didn’t look especially fast in any of those events, but he was easily safe on all of them. I don’t think it means anything, but it’s sure fun to see. Sergio Romo looked like he got a strikeout on a changeup to a right-handed batter in his third-inning appearance. It also looked like he got a called strike on a changeup to a right-handed batter two batters later. Romo threw a changeup 16% of the time last year – the highest rates in his career – but usually that pitch would be used against opposite-sided hitters as changeups tend to move toward the pitcher’s arm side. He could be experimenting with that pitch early in camp – or I could be wrong about the pitch. Either I or someone else from Twins Daily will ask him about it later this week. Lineup Stuff My theory on getting some idea of Twins manager Rocco Baldlli’s initial thoughts regarding batting order for this game looks … um … stupid, despite what we saw last year. The Twins only started three expected regulars for their home opener and they all hit right-handed, and so they batted second, third and fourth in the lineup. There’s not a lot we can glean from that. However, that meant we got to see Josh Donaldson hitting second, which could end up being his spot during the regular season. That’s the spot Donaldson has hit most often in his career, though he spent most of last year hitting cleanup for the Braves. The Twins leadoff hitter is likely Max Kepler or Luis Arraez, both of whom hit left-handed, so batting the right-handed hitting Donaldson in that spot would protect against a manager bringing in a left-handed reliever (or an opener) to attempt to neutralize the top two spots in the order. Last year’s #2 hitter, Jorge Polanco, is a switch-hitter, but he profiles as a left-hander with the bat: he posted a .891 OPS versus right-handers last year, and just a 728 OPS versus southpaws. It’s worth noting that the Twins may not see things the same way. Twins Daily followers on Twitter didn’t. They voted Polanco over Donaldson in the second spot, 46% to 41% in our poll on Friday. (Donaldson won the third spot in the lineup on Saturday.) You can add your two cents the rest of the week by following TwinsDaily on Twitter. For what it’s worth, the other two regulars in today’s lineup were Mitch Garver hitting third and Miguel Sano hitting fourth. One could make a pretty good case that Garver could hit third for a few MLB teams, but I expect him to be much further down the lineup for the Twins – perhaps as low as seventh or eighth. That shows just how deep this lineup is, especially with right-handed hitters. Prospects Getting Featured The Twins have been showcasing their prospects in these early games. Six of their top prospects started against the Gophers on Friday night’s game. Yesterday, top prospect Royce Lewis started at shortstop and number three prospect Trevor Larnach hit cleanup versus the Pirates. Today the Twins had Ryan Jeffers leading off in front of Donaldson, Garver and Sano. No pressure, kid. There’s a lot of buzz around Jeffers at camp this year. He’s a second-round pick of the Twins in 2018. He profiled as a bat-first player who had played catcher a bit in college but wasn’t expected to stick there. But Jeffers has worked hard to improve his defense while continuing to hit, including posting an .856 OPS in a limited stint (24 games) in AA last year. Twins Daily ranked the 22-year-old as our seventh best Twins prospect this month, and with Brusdar Graterol being traded to the Dodgers, he’s currently at number six. The Twins also started another top-20 prospect, 23-year-old second baseman Travis Blankenhorn, in today’s lineup, batting seventh. We ranked Blankenhorn as the Twins’ 18th best prospect this year, but he’s been bouncing around our prospect lists for four years. Last year he showed additional power, also at AA, and though he missed a good chunk of the season with an injury, the Twins added him to the 40-man roster this fall to protect him from the Rule 5 draft. Repeating his early success last year could go a long way toward re-establishing him as a top 10 prospect or even late season contributor for the Twins. He’s certainly being treated like a potential contributor with some early preseason playing time. He went 0-2 today, but drove in two runs with his efforts. MORE FROM TWINS DAILY — Latest Twins coverage from our writers — Recent Twins discussion in our forums — Follow Twins Daily via Twitter, Facebook or email Click here to view the article

FORT MYERS - Sunday afternoon’s game is the Twins’ Grapefruit League home opener and is also televised on Fox Sports North. Under managers Ron Gardenhire and Paul Molitor, that often meant a starting lineup loaded with Twins regulars for at least a couple of at-bats. That also gives the manager his first chance to start experimenting with a potential batting order. Will the same be true for Twins manager Rocco Baldelli?They were last year, or at least the top few spots were pretty close. This was a little surprising given that it was also a split squad day. In fact, you might remember that there was some concern about whether Baldelli would arrive in time for the home opener, as he also attended the afternoon road game in Sarasota, about 1.5 hours from Hammond Stadium. But the challenge of fielding two teams on the same day didn’t stop the top of the lineup from looking similar to what we saw in the regular season. Last year, the Twins top five spots in the lineup were pretty consistent for the first couple months: Max Kepler leading off, Jorge Polanco hitting second, Nelson Cruz in the 3-spot, Eddie Rosario hitting cleanup and CJ Cron batting fifth. That February day, Kepler didn’t play (not even in Sarasota). Instead Jorge Polanco lead off. But Cruz, Rosario and Cron all batted in the third, fourth, and fifth spots. The second spot, which belonged to Polanco in the 2019 season was occupied by Jonathan Schoop. (He only batted second spot four times in the entire 2019 season.) Also, guess who subbed in for Polanco at the leadoff spot? Luis Arraez, who was barely a blip on the prospect radar at that time. This year he is seemingly one of the top two options to lead off games, and it’ll be interesting to see who Baldelli has in that spot on Sunday afternoon. One reason it might not be Arraez? He might be playing on Saturday. Saturday's lineup hasn’t been announced yet, but the Twins open the Grapefruit League on the road, two hours away. Often, veterans don’t make that bus trip. However the Twins are required to have at least four players who are expected to be on the roster in their lineup. With Arraez being lowest on the seniority list, he will likely make the traveling team. The topic about who will bat leadoff spot in the lineup has been broached several times in the first week with Baldellii, but so far he has refused to hint at what he would like to see happen. Whether or not he tips his hand on Sunday, there are a myriad of other decisions to make up and down the order. If you’re interested in exploring these, I recommend you check out (and follow) Twins Daily on Twitter, as we’re crowdsourcing the Twins lineup with fans. But most of all, I suggest you stay tuned and check out Sunday’s game. It will be one of the few times early in the preseason that we’ll see a mostly full roster of projected starters. Even if it doesn’t give us any hints on what Rocco has in mind, it sure will be fun to see that loaded lineup. MORE FROM TWINS DAILY — Latest Twins coverage from our writers — Recent Twins discussion in our forums — Follow Twins Daily via Twitter, Facebook or email Click here to view the article

FORT MYERS - It seemed like such a great idea. Then came the first pitch. The Twins opened their 2020 preseason last night by defeating the Gophers 16-0 in a shortened seven-inning game. The idea around the event was exciting, and led to several fun developments. But the weather, conflicting schedules and the reality of the competition made the event land with a thud.The best moments for everyone seemed to be the pregame discussions. Several Twins or Twins alumni took time to speak with the Gophers players, including Sergio Romo and Tony Oliva. Derek Falvey, Thad Levine, Rocco Baldelli and John Anderson had their own gathering along a baseline to catch up, too. If nothing else, it’s nice to see visuals connecting the University’s historic baseball program to the Twins. Excitement for the game was high, if for no other reason than baseball was back. A home opener on a Friday night works for everyone, and the Twins cut ticket prices in half for the event, using it as a soft open to Hammond Stadium’s season. Finally, the Twins also used the event to highlight their deep farm system. The first six batters in the Twins lineup represented six of our recently announced top 20 Twins prospects. The Twins top prospect, Royce Lewis, led off. He was followed by top catching prospect (and seventh overall) Ryan Jeffers. Batting third was Twins Daily’s #3 prospect, Trevor Larnach. Our ninth prospect, Brent Rooker, hit cleanup. Finally, the top six were rounded out by Travis Blankenhorn and Gilberto Celestino, our eighteenth and twelfth best prospects. That’s an exciting lineup to roll out prior to Grapefruit League play. Several of those guys are likely to have big league careers, and will be depended on to help extend this Twins’ team’s competitive window. Those links above are worth clicking over to - you're going to excited about some of these guys. So this lineup was a must see if you follow the Twins farm system. Unfortunately, a few factors, some controllable and some not, but a damper on the festivities. Those lucky enough to be in Florida in February will get little sympathy from Minnesotans, but it was cold, and it got cold fast. The high for the day was 70 degrees, but that was about 7 AM. All day the temperature dropped and the wind picked up. By game time it was 59 degrees, cloudy and dark, with a cold wind gusting in from left field to pummel the often underdressed crowd. There was no way to avoid it. You can’t control the weather, but the Twins and Gophers will likely look at what they can do with the Gophers’ schedule if this event is to be repeated. The Gophers had to treat this as an exhibition game; they left their three best starting pitchers at home since a three-game set versus TCU started today. You can’t blame them; they had an overnight flight back to Minnesota to play in today’s game. As a result of all of the above, shivering fans watched an undermanned collegiate team face the Twins minor league All-Star team. The results were predictable: there were four runs scored in each of the first three innings of the game. It didn’t help that in the second inning, Rooker got hit by a pitch squarely in the helmet and had to leave the game. Per MLB Twins beat reporter Do-Hyoung Park, he cleared concussion protocol and is fine. Both teams decided in the sixth inning that the game would be stopped after the seventh inning, the length of a college game, rather than play through the ninth. The crowd was not disappointed with the decision. The larger realities around the event still made it worth attempting, and perhaps some tweaks and better weather will help if the event is deemed to be worth repeating. The game is an unwelcome but probably necessary reminder to both Twins/Gophers players, management and fans about the reality of baseball: it doesn’t always go the way you hope. MORE FROM TWINS DAILY — Latest Twins coverage from our writers — Recent Twins discussion in our forums — Follow Twins Daily via Twitter, Facebook or email Click here to view the article

FORT MYERS - Aaron and John talk about their first week together covering Twins spring training in Fort Myers, including news about Josh Donaldson, Kenta Maeda, Byron Buxton, Marwin Gonzalez, Miguel Sano, and serial killers in Houston. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click this link. http://traffic.libsy...3?dest-id=74590 Click here to view the article

FORT MYERS - Spring has a number of defined milestones that build towards the Twins Home Opener. Twins Fest . "Pitchers and Catchers Report." The first spring training game of the season. MLB Opening Day. And there was also today, when position players take the field and the Twins hold an open house at Hammond Stadium. Needless to say, Twins Daily was there.One of the draws are obvious: the players are back and on a stadium field. The other you have to visit to really appreciate: the concessions and beer in the stadium are all 50% off. We took it all in and you could have followed along in real time: just follow @TwinsDaily on twitter. Click here to view the article