John Bonnes

The young core that previous owner Calvin Griffith had put together had experienced its share of growing pains, including a painful end to the 1984 season and the disheartening struggles of closer Ron Davis. But Davis had been traded and a bubbly kid by the name of Kirby Puckett had arrived. There were changes off the field, too. Part 5 of a 12-part series that breaks Twins history into fun-sized chunks.You can find more here: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 The Pohlads hired 32-year-old Andy MacPhail in August of 1985 to be the vice-president of player personnel, eventually promoting him to general manager. Two years later, MacPhail pushed for 37-year-old Tom Kelly, who had been the interim manager in 1986, to take over full time for 1987. During the offseason, the team added a new closer, Jeff Reardon, and outfielder Dan Gladden. MacPhail also brought in utility infielder Al Newman and reliever Juan Berenguer, both of whom would prove useful additions. Bert Blyleven and Roy Smalley had also returned to the team in 1985. As they battled for their first postseason appearance in 17 years, the Twins were seemingly assisted by some magic in the reviled Metrodome. During the regular season, the team finished 56-25 at home and just 29-52 on the road. They went on a 16-6 tear starting August 29th to move from a first-place tie to leading the AL West by six games. During that critical stretch, Puckett carried the team, hitting .402 with 10 home runs, 21 RBIs and 18 runs. In the American League Championship Series the Twins faced the AL East’s 98-win Detroit Tigers, one of four AL East teams with more than the Twins 85 wins. But the Twins were a more formidable playoff team than regular season team due to the one-two pitching punch of Frank “Sweet Music” Viola (2.67 ERA in 251.2 innings pitched) and Bert Blyleven (4.01 ERA in 267 IP). The Twins won their two at home and two more in Detroit, returning home to an impromptu gathering at a packed Metrodome, an emotional homecoming that many players still point to as the pinnacle of their Minnesota career. In the World Series, the Metrodome and its “Homer Hankies” held serve once again, as the Twins won all four games played there, winning their first world championship. Throughout the playoff run, the noise that championship-starved Minnesotans generated under the Teflon-coated roof was a major story. That noise overflowed outside for a raucous celebration and into a parade a few days later. The sounds coming out of the Metrodome the next couple of years were not as harmonious. Click here to view the article

Aaron and John break down the Twins introductory press conference of Derek Falvey and Thad Levine, discuss the benefits of Casper Mattresses and then argue about retaining Rob Antony. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click the link/play button below.http://traffic.libsy...3?dest-id=74590 Click here to view the article

Aaron and John meet at the Iron Door Pub and talk about Derek Falvey choosing Thad Levine to be the Twins' new GM, compare the Indians and the Cubs to the Twins, and answer a bunch of mailbag questions from listeners. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click the Play button below. http://traffic.libsyn.com/gleemangeek/Ep_282_Thad_Levine_Right-Handed_Man.mp3?dest-id=74590%C2%A0%5Bhr%5D' class='bbc_url' title='External link' rel='external'>http://traffic.libsy...bc_hr'>

Aaron and John discuss the last time the Twins went outside of the organization to hire a GM and then frame up the payroll, roster and arbitration decisions that Derek Falvey will face as GM, while they munch on sausages and mini corn dogs at New Bohemia Roseville. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click the Play button below. Click here to view the article

Thanks for all the kind words in the post (that I erased in the quote out of modesty). The registration isn't as seamless as we would like it to be between the sites, but it's the best we can do for now. It's just technically very tricky to make two separate site use the same security IDs and such and keep them in sync. In fact, if you remember, the original Twins Daily platform that we had until two years ago, the whole reason we switched was because there was just no way to do it with that platform. We had to build this one from the ground up just to have the IDs be able to be used across the platforms. So I appreciate your patience. We will work on that along with some other changes when we have a little more bandwidth.

Thanks for letting me know. I'll try to watch that closer in future episodes.

Aaron and John talk at New Bohemia Eagan about the joys of writing on (or not on) deadline and then give each other a hard time, using their preseason Vegas picks as a crutch by which to review the MLB season. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click here. http://gleemangeek.l...r-under-results Click here to view the article

If you're one of the winners and have not heard from me yet, please let me know. I'll be sending the information to Harry's on Friday, so if I don't have your info yet, I need it. John

We spend the offseason analyzing the players, the team, the rumors, and the offseason moves. Surely, after all that, picking something as simple as whether or not a team is going to be any good should not be so hard, right? For some, yes. And those folks are getting free Harry's Razor Sets.At the beginning of the 2016 season, we asked Twins Daily members to give us their thoughts on each of the American League teams, but we asked that they do so by comparing their expectations to Vegas' over/under numbers. Below are the results, and the person from each thread who was picked at random from those with the correct answer. Download attachment: Beating Vegas Winners.JPG If you won, you should have a message from me in your Twins Daily inbox with a link so you can send me your address for your free razor kit. And if you didn't, thank you for playing and feel free to click around on the stories and threads below so you can mock those that got it just as wrong.... AL EAST Baltimore Orioles Tampa Bay Rays New York Yankees Boston Red Sox Toronto Blue Jays AL WEST The Oakland A's Los Angeles Angels Houston Astros Seattle Mariners Texas Rangers AL CENTRAL Chicago White Sox Kansas City Royals Detroit Tigers Cleveland Indians Minnesota Twins Click here to view the article

Can you give me a screen print of it? I'll work on getting it fixed.

Aaron and John talk about the Twins hiring Indians assistant general manager Derek Falvey to replace Terry Ryan, Byron Buxton's monster September, drinking beer and talking Red Sox at Fair State Brewing, guest Brandi Brown on stand-up comedy and being anti-baseball, and the worst season in Twins history mercifully coming to an end. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click on the Play button below. Click here to view the article

From the outside and at a high level, there's a lot to like about this hire: 1) The Twins biggest obvious concern is pitching, and Cleveland has one of the best reputations for developing pitching in MLB. 2) Cleveland also has a reputation as an analytical and even adventurous culture, running counter to the Twins more traditional and non-analytical reputation. 3) CLE also has a newer model than the Twins in terms of how the organization is structured, which I'm assuming (maybe incorrectly) is an expanded model that the Twins could learn from. Those are very high-level views and mostly about the organization he comes from. None of them are worth anything if he can't manage the position, but that's what the search process and firm are for, and we do know that he's young, hungry and smart. He certainly rocketed up their organizational ranks, which shows something all by itself. and he was also clearly respected by the Korn-Ferry search firm, to tag him in the first place. There's a lot to like here. I'll be very interested in seeing what happens next.

Aaron and John, recovering from the Touch 'Em All Pub Crawl, discuss the Twins impending choice of a leader of baseball operations with Twins Daily's Parker Hageman and Robers Kasak of 612 Brew. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click the Play button below. Click here to view the article

Aaron and John talk about the Twins' ongoing front office search and break down the reported candidates, wonder about the value of Jim Pohlad's vote of confidence for Paul Molitor, dig into Jose Berrios tipping his pitches, reminisce about running into each other at the Iron Door Pub, look ahead to a top-two pick in the draft, wonder about a possible Joe Mauer-Kennys Vargas platoon, and try (and mostly fail) not to get overly excited about Byron Buxton's hot streak. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click the Play button below. Click here to view the article

I actually feel a little stupid about how militant I am about this at these events. Everyone must wear nametags and the include your real name and your TD handle/Twitter name. I'm not kidding. I demand it of people.

Aaron is at Wesslemania, so John is joined by Nick Nelson and Parker Hageman of TwinsDaily.com at the Summit Backyard Bash. They ask each other questions to frame the Twins offseason, including: 5:00 – What should the priority be for finding a catcher? 16 – How can the Twins improve the starting rotation this offseason? 36 – Why do the Twins Daily guys need to use Harry’s Razors? 39 – Should the new GM concentrate on patching the roster or starting over? 47 – Who are the best possible trade partners for Brian Dozier? 73 – What plans does John have for a local music podcast? 76 – Should Miguel Sano be at third base next year? 79 – Who closes games next year? 82 – What is the Twins rotation next year? And a whole lot more.... You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click the Play button below the picture. Click here to view the article