John Bonnes

Carol, to address some of your concerns, I clarified in the story what we know about the Twins investigation into this matter. I think it's worth pointing out though, that there is nothing in Neal's story that suggests the Twins are moving on. Maybe they are. But all that is being reported is that they have investigated and not found anything yet.

Please note that I have added an update to the end of this story and detailed the changes to a specific paragraph that was not explicitly state in La Velle E. Neal's report. It might be a distinction without a difference, but it's important in situations like this to be as accurate as possible.

Aaron and John talk about the state of the Twins' bullpen (good!) and rotation (bad!) heading into the playoffs, Ron Gardenhire playing a weird part in all of this, Nelson Cruz and Miguel Sano crushing in tandem, and what an ideal playoff lineup might look like. 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

Twins Daily is excited to announce we have partnered with FanHQ to get a lucky reader tickets to meet Twins rookie Luis Arraez. Just sign up here for your chance to win. Arraez will be appearing at the Ridgedale Fan HQ store this Saturday, September 21 at 10 AM. This will be his first public autograph event as a big leaguer. If you would like to learn more or purchase your tickets, you can do so here, but you can also enter to win them courtesy of Twins Daily and FanHQ. Winner will be announced Friday morning. Good luck! ENTER HERE ENTER HERE Click here to view the article

Aaron and John talk about the Twins' big series win in Cleveland, losing Michael Pineda and Byron Buxton for the season, Brusdar Graterol getting loose, Miguel Sano's knockout blow, and the latest on the Twins' many injured hitters. 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

The Twins lineup for Monday’s 5-3 win over the White Sox looked like a potential starting nine for the postseason, with the exception of Lamonte Wade Jr playing center field for a recuperating Max Kepler. But that substitution changes everything as far as batting order. Here was the lineup:Facing a right-handed starter, which dominate both the Astros’ and Yankees’ rotations, Marwin Gonzalez and Jake Cave are better fits than CJ Cron (684 OPS vs RHP) and Jonathan Schoop (737 OPS vs RHP). Both started Monday night. Garver has also seen more time at catcher lately, even versus right-handers. The rest of the lineup are the everyday players But if Kepler is in the lineup, he is likely to lead off. Kepler has been the leadoff hitter for the Twins 105 times this season, versus just eight times for Arraez. So what does the batting order look like if one adds Kepler? Turns out, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli has written that combination of nine names – last night’s 1-8 hitters plus Kepler - into the starting lineup just one time all year. Like last night, it was against the White Sox at Target Field. And like last night, it was against Reynoldo Lopez. Last month on Tuesday, August 20th, the Twins scored 14 runs and beat up the White Sox. (Here's the box score.) The starting lineup looked like this: (L) Max Kepler-CF (S) Jorge Polanco-SS ® Nelson Cruz-DH (L) Eddie Rosario-LF ® Miguel Sano-3B (L) Luis Arraez-2B ® Mitch Garver-C (S) Marwin Gonzalez-1B (L) Jake Cave-RF Does Kepler’s health change things? Does Cave need to show he can hit like he did before the injury? If he does, does he switch places with Gonzalez? Do Sano’s back problems mean he switches places with Garver? These are additional questions for us to explore and the Twins to work out over the next two weeks. But you’re welcome to share your ideal postseason lineup in the comments. Click here to view the article

Maybe you got carried away with Tsuyoshi Nishioka. Maybe you (okay, me) were a little too excited about Jeff Cirillo. Maybe you bought a Buddy Boshers jersey in a Rumplemintz-fueled haze. Whatever. It’s time to embrace that crazy. Last night on Twitter an obscure Twins fan (ok, me again) proposed that next year Target Field have an Obscure Jersey Night. Twins fans wear the jerseys they have relegated to the back of their closets, giving those players one last moment in the bright lights of Target Field. The comments are a gold mine. Byung-Ho Park. Kurt Suzuki. Joe Crede. Jose Offerman. Brendan Harris. Clete Thomas. That third baseman who hit .400 for part of a season so Ron Gardenhire wouldn’t sit him. Was that Luke Hughes? Who knows? I’m blocking it out. Rich Becker. Kirby Puckett was bumped out of center field by Rich Becker!?! I don’t even have a problem with that; I just find it amazing we don’t talk more about Rich Becker. Who was replaced by Otis Nixon. Who I vaguely remember losing two fly balls in the Metrodome’s teflon roof in his first home game with the Twins. Yet someone out there has a Nixon Twins jersey. I’m sure of it. Jeff Reboulet. Orlando Hudson. Livan Hernandez. Vance Worley. Ryan Doumit. Bombo Rivera. (Ok,that’s me again. I have a Bombo Rivera jersey. It was custom made. No regerts.) Rondell White. Chris Colabello. Jon Rauch. These are major leaguers who are not going to get a number retired or a Hall of Fame ceremony. Some of them will be lucky if they’re invited back to TwinsFest. They deserve a night like this. So do the people who bought their jerseys. In fact, obscure jerseys don’t just deserve a night; they deserve every night. They deserve a mini-series. If the Twins make this event happen, I vow Twins Daily will do a series about the players about whom we all lost our collective heads. (This site was made for that series. Forget the majors – we could do one on the minors. We could do one on each level of the minors. I mean, I was Ride or Die on Micheal Nakamura in 2002. We could probably do a story just on players with a surname of Mike. Nakamura. Restovich. Lamb. Pelfrey.) So let’s make this happen. The Twins can work on the event for next year, but we have one homestand left. Let’s quit denying our past and acknowledge it. Wear your obscure Twins jerseys to the games this week and declare, loud and proud “It’s OK to love and lose!” (But it’s also OK to love and win, too.) Click here to view the article

It's like the baseball gods knew this story was coming and said to themselves,"LOL, wait until he sees how we get Ian Miller to bat cleanup! ROFL."

That video is saved on my PC as "MyRetirementFund.mp4"

It's important when building a community, it's important to check in and reshare what it is we're all trying to do. Twins Daily mission is to provide a place for people to share their passion for the Twins. That passion was at an all-time high in July as the trade deadline approached.July 31st we crushed the previous daily record with 34,723 visitors, which is more fans than attended the infamous 14-12 Yankees duel. It was the most trafficked day in Twins Daily’s history, and July was the most trafficked month, breaking last month’s record. Then came August, which was our third highest traffic month of all time. That means the last three months rank first through third as our most trafficked months ever. Here are the numbers for July and August: Overall Traffic July Readers – 175,039 (up 92% from 2018Sessions – 508,558 (up 56% from 2018)Page Views – 1,436,192 (up 37% from 2018)AugustReaders – 183,374 (up 159% from 2018Sessions – 484,290 (up 78% from 2018)Page Views – 1,232,680 (up 48% from 2018)I just looked it up: on the first day that we launched Twins Daily, Seth, Nick, Parker and I were doing cartwheels behind the scenes when three thousand people stopped by. And it wasn't just us. It drew hostile attention from people who suddenly feared the power of blogs. It felt like Christmas, like the end of a very long hard road that we had tread as bloggers. Instead, it was the beginning. On an average day in season, 15,000 people will stop by to read unique content by independent writers. It still feels like Christmas. We are forever humbled by and grateful for your attention. Thank you so much. Click here to view the article

I’ll get to the raw numbers in a little bit, but let me take a second to reflect upon what it means to be part of a community and in particular a sports community. Better yet, let me refer to David HK, who nailed it with the most liked comment over the last two months. Miguel Sano's walk-off bomb versus the Braves was a welcome distraction for David who, as you can see from these last few paragraphs of his comment, has bigger worries on his mind:I look at this place as one refuge where fans can bitch and moan and celebrate together-without resorting to personal beefs, and keyboard warriors are not something we have to deal with. (That's what twitter's for). My kudos to the admin's, and to the people on this board itself. I gotta say, these past few days-- my country is grieving and tearing itself apart, and Hong Kong where I live, is literally tearing itself apart. It's incredibly scary here right now; yesterday and last night were some of the worst hours of my life. I needed this couple hours of respite for my very soul today. I'm happy for the Twins win. And I'm happy to share it with folks like you. Thanks. No, thank you David. For reminding us why we all invest so much in this place. Now here are the numbers: Registrations – 266 (up 380% from 2018) !!!!!!!!Topics –670 (up 40% from 2018)Posts – 35,829 (up 47% from 2018)It looks like more than ever, more of you are investing in this place. When I saw that registrations number, I assumed I had messed up my report. That’s cray-cray. But I didn’t, and I’m so excited that so many of you are willing to share your thoughts and voice to our forums. If you haven’t yet, we would love to have you join us and talk Twins. AS David points out, sports is better when you can share it. This sure seems like a great year to get involved. Just register and tell us your thoughts.The top posters in June (not including moderators or writers) were: 1061 Aggies7 925 yarnivek1972 721 spycake 717 mrtwinsfan 668 MNT1996 615 operation mindcrime 604 Blake 565 bighat 546 Mike Sixel 536 sampleSizeOfOne Thanks for all your activity and passion folks. But we want to recognize quality, too, which is why you can choose to give a comment a “like”. The five most liked posts were: David HK’s comment above.Jiminy was unimpressed with how the umpiring crew handled (or failed to handle) the Rangers retaliating against Max Kepler when Jake Cave broke one of baseball’s unwritten rules.USAChief gave a little pep talk to the Twins front office to get some some bullpen help at the trade deadline.Twinsbythebay also took issue with the Kepler retaliation, and didn’t think Cave needed to apologize to anyone.SwainZag weighed in on Luis Arraez’s chances for winning AL Rookie of the Year, with a comparison to Houston’s Yordan Alvarez, who is an absolute monster.As for the members with the most likes in July or August, we will start with our excellent moderators, who always deserve our thanks. The top five were all moderators: ashbury, USAFChief, Riverbrian, Brock Beauchamp and SQUIRREL. Among non-moderators, Aggies7 and Blake took the top two spots and both cleared 1000 likes. Many of these folks are heavy contributors to our active game threads and indeed they dominate the top spots for most commented topics for the two months. If you would like to join them, they’re always pinned to the top of the Minnesota Twins Talk forum. But the trade deadline also drove a lot of discussion, such as Seth’s story asking what happens if the Twins do nothing (473 comments) and a topic about getting Noah Syndergaard (425 comments). Thank you to everyone for sharing your thoughts and keeping the Twins Daily forums a civil, entertaining and informative place. And if you're not yet sharing, check them out yourself here. Click here to view the article

The Yankees have played two more games than the Twins. If you take away the Yankees two games (because the Twins have not played those two games yet) the Yankees would be eight home runs back, because that's where they sat two games ago. But a more accurate way (in my mind) of thinking about it is that with two games in hand, it means the Twins are "up" as many home runs as you think they'll hit in those two games. For the season, that's about four home runs up. But for the last week-plus, that's just two home runs, which Rick Anderson's pitching staff should have no trouble making up.

Can the Twins keep the home run record? Let's break it down. Last night in the middle of the Twins 5-0 win over the Washington Nationals, the news broke: the New York Yankees had tied – and then PASSED – the Twins in home run totals. A clutch two-run home run by Mitch Garver put the Twins back into a tie before the night was over, but is the Bomba Counter a sham? Can the Twins stay ahead of the Yankees in the home run race?The bad news first: the Yankees are on a tear. They caught the Twins last night because they hit SIX home runs versus Ron Gardenhire’s toothless Tigers. Hooray pitch to contact!. Even worse is that was just their first game against them this week. They have two more. And it's not just one game. New York has averaged 2.5 per game over their last 35 games, which doesn’t sound like that big a deal (because who really pays attention to numbers after decimal points, amirite?) except that’s a 400+ home runs per year pace. The good news? The Twins have two games more to play than the Yankees. So on a game-to-game basis, the Twins are technically eight home runs ahead. But with all the nagging injuries in the Twins lineup, their home run pace has slowed considerably. Since September first, the Twins have eight home runs in nine games. If that trend continues, those two games mean only two home runs, and the Yankees have already passed that by six home runs. A longer term view shows just how consistent each team has been, and how the Twins curve has flattened out over the last couple of weeks while the Yankees’ has trended up. To help you out, I’ve highlighted the part that is not good. Download attachment: Home_run_notgood_JB_900.jpg Does the schedule help? A little. The Twins will face some pretty good pitching over the next five games versus the Nationals and the Indians, but then they get to face the bottom three in the AL Central again. They’ve hit 71 home runs versus the White Sox and Tigers this year in 36 games, or about two per game. Unfortunately, the Yankees finish their season at Texas, a ballpark notorious for giving up home runs. I’m not going to sugar-coat this: it’s not looking good. The Twins’ home run pace has slowed, they are banged up and need to focus on winning a division. The Yankees are hot, getting healthier and can coast. It’s been a heck of a fun year, but it looks like the Twins will (again) have their lunch money stolen again by those Damn Yankees. Click here to view the article

The Twins have announced that Byron Buxton is being put on the 60-day injured list, and his season is over. Earlier today on MLB Network Radio, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said the Twins are “bracing for the realization this this could be [Twins centerfielder Byron Buxton’s] season ending right now.” Shoulder surgery is being considered, which would make Buxton unavailable for the rest of the regular season or the postseason. Update: This story is being updated as new announcements are made. We feel the same way Byron. Buxton has been a linchpin for the Twins defense this year when healthy. Fangraphs.com’ Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR/150) shows him as being about 15 runs better than an average centerfielder over 150 games played. There is also an additional negative cascading affect, as his presence in center allows Max Kepler to play right field, where he is also six runs better in UZR/150 than his most likely replacement, Jake Cave. Twenty-one runs, at a high level, represents two games over a full season, but the perception of the loss is magnified by the concern about the Twins defense around the diamond. Of the Twins seven infielders and outfielders who have played the most at their positions, only Buxton and Kepler are deemed above average by UZR. Plus, Kepler was also pulled out of Sunday’s game with an injury, although an MRI on Monday for an injured scapula came back negative. Buxton’s shoulder injury, along with two other injuries, also have short-circuited a breakthrough season for the 25-year-old. He had posted the highest batting average (.262), on-base percentage (.314) and slugging percentage (.513) of his career. He was also showing a better eye at the plate (19 walks versus 68 strikeouts) and of course was a weapon on the base paths with 19 stolen bases. However, injuries have remained an issue. Last year was torpedoed due to a broken toe suffered from a foul ball in AAA-Rochester. This year he missed 13 games in June with a wrist injury after he was hit by a pitch. He then missed 10 games in July with a concussion after making a diving catch in the outfield. He returned but ran into a wall on August 1st, suffering a left (non-throwing) shoulder subluxation. He has not batted in the majors since. UPDATE: Click here to view the article

If I had to summarize Twins Daily's July and August in four words, they would be: Growth. Growth. Everywhere growth. That presents its own challenges, but I assure you, they're better than blogging for a dozen people. I know. As a result, our monthly update to give our own community a health check is also growing, into a four-part series this week. (It's also covering two months, because growth kept us busy in August, too.)You may think the most exciting recent development around Twins Daily would be the traffic. That’s exciting too, and we’ll get to the traffic numbers later, but they’re a result of an explosion of great writing at Twins Daily. Some of that is from veterans like Cody Christie and Ted Schwerzler, both of whom ranked in the top five our most read writers the last two months. Andrew Thares, who anchored our draft coverage also qualifies for that category, and his reader numbers have tripled over the last year. But I’m not talking about that, either. Just look at the front page for the last couple of weeks. You’ll find stories from Matt Braun, Cooper Carlson, Thieres Rabelo, Patrick Wozniak, AJ Condon, Sabir Aden and Andrew Gebo. None of them were writing last year. All of them had at least 10,000 people stop by to read their stories over the last two months. Editor Tom Froemming deserves the lion’s share of the credit for this. Tom has recruited, managed and organized all of this great content, while recording some great Twins videos and being a husband, dad, and provider. I’d sure appreciate it if you would express any gratitude you feel to him in the comments section below. As a result, you’re hearing a little less from Seth, Nick, Parker and I. And I speak for all of us when I say that is fan-freaking-tastic. Twins Daily's mission is not to provide the four of us a bigger megaphone. It is to provide independent, non-corporate Twins writers a platform that rivals those of legacy media writers. This is something Seth, Nick, Parker and I feel pretty strongly about, having blogged for years with a portion of the attention that corporate media can enjoy. And with all that content comes a lot of attention. A LOT. We'll get to that in Part 2 tomorrow. Click here to view the article