Tom Froemming

MONDAY 10:45 a.m. CT The Twins have finally revealed the roster. Here it is: https://twitter.com/morsecode/status/1277628983178387457 Here is another view of the team's summer camp roster: SUNDAY UPDATES 4:15 p.m. CT MLB.com's Do-Hyoung Park reports that the Twins aren't expected to reveal their roster until tomorrow. What a buzzkill. https://twitter.com/dohyoungpark/status/1277350025488748548 3:45 p.m. CT Darren Wolfson reported that reliever Danny Coulombe, who was a non-roster invitee in spring training, will be on the 60-man roster. Coulombe, a left-hander, struck out seven batters and gave up one run over four innings of work prior to spring training being suspended. He has 153 MLB games under his belt, most of which came with Oakland. 3:15 p.m. CT https://twitter.com/SethTweets/status/1277333822946906119 3:00 p.m. CT Ope, deadline passed. Guess we're back to no Twins baseball this year. 2:35 p.m. CT The Cincinnati Reds have also now announced the players going to what they're calling Summer Camp. Sounds wholesome. An item of note is they've elected to leave three open spots on their roster, at least for now. 1:45 p.m. CT The Tampa Bay Rays have become the first team to reveal its full 60-man roster. An interesting item to note is that they have split the to pool into 37 players who will be training at Tropicana Field and 23 who will be based in Port Charlotte, which is Tampa Bay's spring training site. The Twins are expected to use CHS Field, which normally hosts the St. Paul Saints, as the home of their "taxi squad." 1:10 p.m. CT Seth has confirmed down in the comments that catching prospect Ryan Jeffers will be a member of this 60-man roster. That means four of Twins Daily's current top-six prospects have made the cut. Will Jordan Balazovic and/or Jhoan Duran join Lewis, Kirilloff, Larnach and Jeffers? It would be a surprise if Duran was left off, given that he's on the 40-man roster, but that doesn't guarantee he'll make the cut. Remember, teams can make changes to this 60-player pool. Earlier Updates Dan Hayes of The Athletic reported that the top prospects in the Twins system are likely to be among those headed to the Twin Cities for camp. https://twitter.com/DanHayesMLB/status/1276342442833391616 In addition to Royce Lewis, Alex Kirilloff and Trevor Larnach, Darren Wolfson of KSTP added Brent Rooker’s name to the list. https://twitter.com/DWolfsonKSTP/status/1277027470051545095 As seen above, Wolfson also reported that Northfield native and former Twins and St. Paul Saints pitcher Caleb Thielbar will also be among the players in camp. Expect there to be a mix of both prospects and minor league veterans among the pool of players included. It’s worth pointing on that not everyone currently on the team’s 40-man roster is guaranteed to be participating in camp. No player outside of this pool of 60 players will be allowed to participate in training camp. There can be changes made to the 60-man roster, but once someone has been removed from a team's pool, they cannot be re-added to that same team's pool. Further Reading Which Twins Will Make the 60-Man Roster? | Matthew Trueblood Projecting the Twins 30-Man Opening Day Roster | Ted Schwerzler Explaining The 2020 MLB Roster Rules | MLB Trade Rumors FAQ: Roster and transaction rules for 2020 | MLB.com I also recently run through some information on the new roster rules for 2020 in the video below. MORE FROM TWINS DAILY — Latest Twins coverage from our writers — Recent Twins discussion in our forums — Follow Twins Daily via Twitter, Facebook or email

In case you’ve missed any of the super fun baseball negotiating action over the past three months, Rena recently provided a comprehensive rundown. Today, the MLBPA voted against the MLB’s most recent proposal, which was a 60-game season. It wasn’t even close. https://twitter.com/JesseRogersESPN/status/1275186342092255237 A big sticking point appeared to be that as part of that proposal the players would have had to waive their right to seek additional compensation through a grievance. It’s hard to argue against that decision now that it appears MLB will implement a … 60-game season. https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/1275226112663130115 That Tweet above from The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal includes the full details of the league’s statement. The MLBPA has a deadline of 5 p.m. ET tomorrow to respond to a few more items. Not to rain on the parade, but there are still some obstacles to navigate. These two items seem simple at their face value, but this is the MLB and MLBPA we’re talking about here. The league has requested players to report to camp by July 1, with Opening Day expected to be July 24. Players living abroad may have some trouble meeting that request, given current travel restrictions. There’s also the question of what the heck “camp” means right now. All MLB spring training camps were recently closed after coronavirus cases were confirmed in both Florida and Arizona spring training facilities. Speaking of which, the other roadblock is the Players Association will need to formally agree on the health and safety protocols outlined in the “Operating Manual” MLB produced. That outline has been floating around since May 20, so you’d hope any concerns would have been addressed by now. But, again, these two sides appear to revel in finding details to disagree on. Oh, and there’s that whole pesky pandemic thing. While it’s exciting to see that we appear to have reached the end of this negotiation period between the owners and players, coronavirus has now finally entered the chat. Getting the wheels rolling on baseball’s return should have always been the easy part, because trying to figure everything else out is a logistical nightmare. Beyond simply getting the players where they need to be, there are all sorts of other items to address that baseball has never had to contemplate. Things as simple as where the hell are these teams going to play? Like everything else, I expect the league is going to have to play some things by ear. These first steps had to be made before attempting to pole vault over any bigger issues that arise down the road. It’s not really an agreement, and nothing is set in stone yet, but it’s progress. For the first time in 88 days, we have real progress. MORE FROM TWINS DAILY — Latest Twins coverage from our writers — Recent Twins discussion in our forums — Follow Twins Daily via Twitter, Facebook or email

Before we start ... I wrote an LG Twins/KBO primer article last week, but one item I was unable to track down was how the team got its nickname. I found the answer. Per an article at The Athletic by C. Trent Rosecrans, the team name references twin towers in Seoul that are owned by the LG company. Mystery solved. TUE: Twins 9, Hanwha 5 | Box score | Highlights The Twins sure made things interesting in this one. They entered the ninth up 9-3, but ended up allowing the tying run to reach the plate. Ace reliever Jung Woo-young had to be called upon to record the final out. Right fielder Chea Eun-sung hit his fifth home run of the season and was 3-for-4 with a walk. He’s emerging as one of my favorite players on the team. https://twitter.com/TFTwins/status/1272979591817236488 In his age-30 season, Jung Chan-heon transitioned from the bullpen to the rotation. So, this is essentially if the Minnesota Twins had Taylor Rogers start games this season. The move has gone extremely well, though Jung has been given plenty of extra days rest between starts. After a solid outing in this game, Jung has a 3.34 ERA, 1.18 WHIP and 8.8 K/9. For more background on the role change, check out this article. Second baseman Jung Ju-hyeon was an unlikely hero, hitting both a bases clearing triple and a home run in this one. He tallied just two triples and two homers in 129 games all of last season. WED: Twins 7, Hanwha 1 | Box score | Highlights Lim Chan-gyu turned in a quality start after surviving a stressful second inning. He threw 115 pitches over six innings, racking up eight strikeouts while holding the Eagles to just one run. https://twitter.com/TFTwins/status/1273339591769165826 The first two hitters in the Twins lineup — Lee Chun-woong and Hong Chang-gi — combined to get on base in seven of their eight plate appearances. THU: Twins 9, Hanwha 7 | Box score | Highlights After cruising to victory in the second game of this series, this was another one that got too close for comfort. The Twins led 4-3 heading into the eighth inning, and it’s a good thing they kept tacking on runs. The big news in this one was that slugger Roberto Ramos returned to action, but it was former Baltimore Orioles outfielder Kim Hyun-soo who carried the Twins lineup. He was 3-for-4 with a homer and a walk. Former Cubs prospect Son Ho-young came off the bench and recorded his first career KBO hit, RBI and stolen base. https://twitter.com/TFTwins/status/1273753889259622401 The 25-year-old rookie has had quite a unique journey to the KBO, which was detailed in this article. Son quit college in Korea, signed as an international free agent with the Cubs, was released after three seasons in their system and completed mandatory military service upon his return to Korea prior to being drafted by the Twins. FRI: Doosan 18, Twins 10 | Box score | Highlights The Doosan Bears, defending KBO champs, built a 13-1 lead by the time the top of the second inning was over. The weird fact about this game is the 28 runs were scored without the benefit of a single home run. Pretty incredible. When's the last time something like that's happened in the big leagues? https://twitter.com/canonpod/status/1274017810302357504 Here’s the box score from that September 1970 14-13 Twins loss at the hands of the Royals in which 27 runs were scored without a home run being hit. That game went 12 innings. SAT: Doosan 8, Twins 2 | Box score | Highlights Casey Kelly turned in a quality start, holding the Bears to three runs over seven innings while also racking up seven strikeouts, but the Twins lineup was shut out until the final frame. https://twitter.com/TFTwins/status/1274323001467711488 SUN: Doosan 3, Twins 1 | Box score | Highlights The Twins turned to 18-year-old starter Lee Min-ho in the final game of the series. He held Doosan to two runs over his five innings, but needed 110 pitches to make it that far due to struggles with command. Lee walked four batters, hit two more and threw a wild pitch. https://twitter.com/TFTwins/status/1274699493498388481 Current KBO standings 1. NC Dinos 28-12 2(t). Doosan Bears 25-16 (-3.5) 2(t). LG Twins 25-16 (-3.5) 4. Kiwoom Heroes 25-17 (-4) 5. Kia Tigers 23-18 (-5.5) 6. Lotte Giants 20-21 (-8.5) 7. Samsung Lions 20-22 (-9) 8. KT Wiz 18-23 (-10.5) 9. SK Wyverns (-16.5) 10. Hanwha Eagles (-19) This week Tue/Wed/Thu: vs. Kiwoom Heroes Fri/Sat/Sun: at SK Wyverns

Why the KBO? Well, they’re actually playing. The KBO season has been up and running for about a month already thanks to a proactive approach by the country, which Time magazine recently acknowledged in an article on the best global responses to COVID-19. It’s been interesting to get a look at baseball played in empty stadiums. Kinda reminds me of the lean years during the Metrodome era. Ha! Another thing the KBO has going for it is broadcasts and highlights are relatively easy to find compared to other leagues that operate overseas. Some KBO games are even available on ESPN, but all of their games are available on Twitch with the Korean broadcast teams. Japan’s NPB, which starts Friday, is a step above the KBO in terms of talent, but it appears it’s more difficult to watch games here in the states. Taiwan’s CPBL is more accessible, with many games available in english on Twitter, but the talent is a few steps below the KBO and there’s only five teams. KBO compared to MLB The brand of baseball played in the KBO represents something closer to what some American baseball fans long for. There’s fewer plate appearances that end in one of the “three true outcomes” — a strikeout, walk or home run. Last season, 35.1% of MLB plate appearances ended in one of those three outcomes. The KBO is at 29.0% so far in 2020, a mark the MLB hasn’t been below since 2008. Narrowing things down further, the most significant difference comes in K%. MLB’s K% in 2019 was 23.0%, while it’s at just 17.6% in the KBO so far this year. One thing that’s noticeable between the leagues is KBO defenders generally lack the range and arm strength of their MLB counterparts. As a result, the league average BABIP in the KBO this year is .312, while MLB’s BABIP was .298 last year. This all results in the mean KBO batting average coming out to .273. MLB was at .252 in 2019, and the last time it surpassed that KBO mark was 1939. So there’s a lot more traffic on the bases than you’re used to seeing from the MLB. Why are they the Twins? Uh … if you find out, please let me know. This was one of the KBO’s original franchises, so its roots go back to 1982. Up until 1990, however, they were known as the MBC Chungryong, or Blue Dragons. The LG Corporation purchased the club and renamed them the Twins. Again, not sure how they landed on that name. How are the LG Twins similar to the Minnesota Twins? One connection between the KBO Twins and the MLB Twins is that their most recent glory days are more than 25 years in the past. The KBO Twins won the Korean Series Championship in 1990 and again in 1994. After a decade-long stretch of futility, they’ve been to the playoffs in four of the past seven seasons, but are still chasing another championship. In an excellent KBO preview, Pitcher List had the New York Mets as the most similar MLB team to the LG Twins. The logic was the Twins play second fiddle to the Doosan Bears, a dominant KBO team who they share a stadium with in Seoul. The Mets comp is natural, but I think most Minnesota Twins fans can also identify with that concept of being constantly overshadowed by a Yankees-adjacent team. On Twitter, Baseball Brit compared the LG Twins to the Los Angeles Dodgers, another team that hasn’t tasted championship glory in quite some time. The fact that Joey is an LG fan is as much of an endorsement as I need. If you’re not familiar with him, here’s a good interview Sports Illustrated did on his quest to attend 162 baseball games last year. About the 2020 LG Twins The good news is the Twins are off to a strong start this season, boasting a 21-13 record, putting them third in the 10-team league. The bad news is slugger Roberto Ramos, a former Rockies prospect, was recently placed on the Injured List with back and ankle pain. Ramos is coming off back-to-back 30-home run seasons in the minors, and was leading the KBO in home runs at the time of his injury. https://twitter.com/AlexFast8/status/1268892869206716416 Among the other current LG Twins who previously played in the states include former Baltimore Orioles outfielder Hyun Soo Kim. When Kim returned to South Korea, O’s teammate Tyler Wilson followed. The right-hander is in his third year in the LG Twins’ rotation. Former big leaguer Casey Kelly, another starting pitcher for the Twins, is in his second year with the team. A standout hitter who's never played in the states is right fielder Weun-Sung Chae. The pitching staff features some exciting prospects, the youngest of which is Min-ho Lee, an 18-year-old who’s off to a great start. The Twins also have 20-year-old Jung Woo-young, who was the 2019 KBO Rookie of the Year, in the bullpen. https://twitter.com/TFTwins/status/1271927197100630016 Watching the KBO without its fans feels like missing out on the best part of the entire experience, but that’s what we’ll have to settle for at the moment. Here’s a look at what a KBO game looks like under normal circumstances: MORE FROM TWINS DAILY — Latest Twins coverage from our writers — Recent Twins discussion in our forums — Follow Twins Daily via Twitter, Facebook or email