Thiéres Rabelo

For plenty of developed countries, the worst of the Coronavirus pandemic is behind them. This has allowed a lot of sports leagues around the world to resume playing, even if they are still following safety protocols. Here’s a look at some of them, to imagine how sports in America might look like when (if?) they return this year.European soccer is already being played for almost a month now. Germany’s Bundesliga returned to play on May 16, when Borussia Dortmund destroyed archrival Schalke 04 in their personal “Revierderby”, winning 4-0. The weird thing about that match was the lack of usual 80.000-plus fans who every game pack the stands of Westfalenstadion – Borussia Dortmund has the highest attendance of any soccer team on the planet. Empty stadiums are the rule of thumb for German soccer, much like any sports league returning right now. Here’s part of a report from CNN, detailing the safety measures players must follow during Bundesliga’s matches: “Teams spent a week in quarantine before games, shuttled players -- who are regularly tested -- to stadiums in multiple buses rather than one, and more than one dressing room was used per team, too. Even then, social distancing rules had to be followed. There were staggered warmups and teams entered the pitch at different times with no mascots, in another change. Substitutes donned masks and sat not in the dugout but between the dugout and stands at Borussia Dortmund's Signal Iduna Park, well apart from teammates. The match ball was disinfected prior to kickoff, presumably resulting in the referee appearing to enter the field last.” Now, after four weeks of regular playing, the most important aspect to observe is that the return of professional sports has done absolutely nothing to cause a spike of new cases. According to Worldometer, a website tracking the numbers of the Coronavirus spread world wide, after the date Bundesliga resumed playing, Germany’s number of new cases dropped considerably. On May 31, the number of new cases (200) was the lowest since March 9 (184). That’s evidence to support that professional outdoor sports being played behind closed doors might not be as harmful as it seems. Other European soccer leagues are taking a page out of Bundesliga and are set to follow the same guidelines. Italy, one of the hardest hit countries during this pandemic, has officially announced that its two main competitions, the Serie A and the Coppa Italia, as of June 17. Players and staff are expected to follow strict rules, including social distancing of at least one-and-a-half metre (4’9’’) from the referee and not shaking hands before the match. England’s Premier League and Spain’s La Liga are also set to return next weekend. Meanwhile, other sports have varied plans as to when to resume play. In rugby, for example, while USA’s Major League Rugby decided to cancel its 2020 season in mid-March, England’s Premiership Rugby is targeting the resumption of the 2019-20 season in mid-August. Down under, New Zealand and Australia rugby are set to return as early as next week, but with a modified format. Major clubs from the southern hemisphere compete in the a five-country competition, the Super Rugby. However, due to travel restrictions, New Zealand will officially have a “New Zealand only” version of the league, with its five clubs competing among themselves for ten weeks. Australia is expected to do the same rather soon. Cycling, one of the most global sports out there, has also suffered major changes to its season. All races were suspended in early March and in early May the sports governing body, the UCI, announced a complete revision of its season, that would still comprise races in eight different countries. Every single remaining World Tour competition is going to happen between August and November, including the three three-week Grand Tours (Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España). However, UCI hasn’t been quite clear about what approach they plan on taking regarding fans at races. Will they normally be allowed to attend? Bear in mind that cycling can attract as many as half-million or more fans to a single day of racing. Coming back to baseball, here’s a lesson MLB can take out of all these examples: It’s absolutely feasible to imagine that baseball in the U.S. can still be played in 2020. At this point, it’s hard to believe that the return of professional sports represents a major health threat, like the aforementioned examples indicate. If you're looking for a baseball example, South Korea’s KBO has been showing this since early May. The only obstacle for American baseball right now may only be the issues regarding payment, which sounds like a pretty bad reason for not having a season. 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

The Twins had a lot of great teams over the years and managed to bring home a couple of World Series titles. We all know very well the world champions Twins, but which were the best teams in Minnesota not to win it all? Here I shortlisted five and tried to rank them. We encourage you to tell us your own ranking in the comment section.Fifth place — 2009 The 2000’s Twins had a great deal of talent, managing to stack five 90-plus wins seasons in the first eight years with Ron Gardenhire at the helm. 2009 wasn’t one of those seasons, as they “only” reached 87 wins, but a number of players had their career year that season. Most noticeably, Joe Mauer was probably the best player in the world, taking home all possible honors, including the MVP award. But he wasn’t the only one. Take Jason Kubel, for example. He finished his career in 2014, with a total of 4.1 Wins Above Replacement (WAR) and 3.5 of those were earned in 2009, while slashing .300/.369/.539 (.907) and hitting 28 home runs. With Kubel and Mauer, Minnesota had the highest WAA average in the majors by both, catcher (3.1) and designated hitter (1.6). Three other position players had extremely good years: Justin Morneau (126 wRC+), Michael Cuddyer (124) and Denard Span (118) helped the Twins have its best offensive performance since 2001, with a 104 team wRC+. Four players hit at least 28 dingers, which took the team total to 172, then the second highest since 1987. Per Baseball Reference, Minnesota also had the highest WAA average by relief pitchers that year (4.0), with great individual performances from Joe Nathan (210 ERA+), José Mijares (188) and Matt Guerrier (186), who each pitched at least 70 games and kept their ERA’s below 2.37. Overall, the bullpen provided the team with 5.07 WPA, ranking sixth in the majors. The Achilles' heel of that team was its rotation, which by the end of the regular season had -3.17 WPA. Ironically, during the ALDS against the Yankees the offense and the bullpen underperformed, while Nick Blackburn and Carl Pavano delivered a couple of decent starts, but the Twins couldn’t avoid the sweep. Fourth place — 1988 If the 2009 Twins didn’t need to reach 90 wins to win their division, the 1988 Twins had the misfortune of becoming the fourth team in club history to win at least 90 games and not make it to the playoffs. The 91-71 record was the fourth best in the majors, even better than AL East champions Boston Red Sox (89-73). Thank God for wild card, right? The late 80’s Twins were incredible. That year they were coming off their first ever World Series title and the appreciation for that group of players was through the roof. Also, plenty of Twins had their career years that very season. The team’s best player was definitely Frank Viola, who logged 255 1/3 innings, with a 2.64 ERA, good for 6.3 fWAR and the Cy Young award, the only one in his career. Another starter who had a great year was Allan Anderson, who had the best ERA in the AL (2.45) and the highest ERA+ in the majors (166). He never had a single season that was nearly as good in his six years in MLB. Closer Jeff Reardon also played some of his best baseball that year, going back to the All-Star Game and tabbing a career-high in saves, with 42. Going in the opposite direction, though, was Twins great Bert Blyleven, who had the worst season of his career, which included a career worst 17 losses. Those probably proved costly later in the season. A lot of position players also reached their peaks that season. Kirby Puckett led the majors in hits, with 234, while slashing .356/.375/.545 (.920) all career-highs except for OBP. He was worth 7.1 fWAR and finished third in the MVP vote for a second consecutive year. Same thing happened with Gary Gaetti, Kent Hrbek and Dan Gladden, who had career-highs in several stats. Minnesota’s offense produced the fifth highest combined fWAR (26.4) and runs scored (759). Sadly, an incredibly bad start to the season (4-11 in the first 15 games) and a poor month of July ended up costing them better chances later on. After the first week of August, they were already seven games behind Oakland, who clinched the division in mid-September after beating the Twins in California. The A’s would finish the season with the best record in the majors (104-58), the second best in club history, but would end up losing to the Dodgers in five games in the World Series. Third place — 2019 The deeds of the “Bomba Squad” are very fresh in our memories, so we might not need to make a big effort to remember that campaign. However, maybe we’re too close to it to realize how historically good it actually was. Maybe five years from now we will be looking back at this team and consider ourselves one of the luckiest generations of Twins fans, just because we’ve witnessed all that. Rocco Baldelli’s Twins had one of the most impressive lineups of all time. Not only did they set a new single-season home run record, with 307, but they also ranked top 10 in nearly every single offensive metric. From standard stats to very advanced ones. They also broke many club single-season records, including total runs, runs batted in, extra-base hits and slugging percentage. Although the 2019 Twins will be primarily remembered because of what they accomplished offensively, you should never overlook what was done from the mound. Minnesota’s pitching staff ranked third in the majors in fWAR (24.0), including the third most by any bullpen in the league (7.4). Even though they couldn’t put together a good postseason, they managed to provide Twins fans with an amazingly fun regular season, which resulted in their first division title in almost ten years and the milestone of reaching at least 100 wins for the second time in franchise history. And luckily for us, this group of players is far from having finished writing their stories yet. Second place — 2006 Regarded by many as one of the most talented teams in Twins history, the 2006 squad managed to put together an astonishing 96-66 record, then the most by the club since 1970. They ended up two wins shy of the best record in the majors. A lot of the players who would shine offensively three years later were already with the team and playing very well. Morneau would end up winning the MVP award ahead of Derek Jeter and former Twin David Ortiz (who hit 54 homers, by the way). Mauer was already on his way to becoming the legend he is, leading the team in fWAR (5.8) and wRC+ (141), while slashing .347/.429/.507 (.936). Torii Hunter was also an important piece of that offense, contributing 31 homers. But the offense was definitely not the most attractive aspect of that team. Led by historical performances from starter Johan Santana and closer Joe Nathan, the Twins had one of the best pitching staffs in the majors, gathering 20.6 fWAR and 11.40 WPA (both ranked second). Santana and rookie Francisco Liriano had amazing years, with Johan easily winning the second Cy Young award of his career and Liriano finishing third in the Rookie of the Year award, earning more fWAR (3.6) than the actual winner Justin Verlander (2.8). Santana led the team with 6.7 fWAR. Led by another fantastic season from Nathan (3.1 fWAR), the Twins bullpen had the most fWAR in the majors, with 8.1. Relievers like Dennys Reyes, Juan Rincon, Matt Guerrier and Jesse Crain also had great years. Also ironically, the superb regular season bullpen struggled during the postseason, but shouldn’t be blamed. Minnesota’s bats were completely dominated during the series and couldn’t provide the proper run support against Oakland, which got its revenge from the 2002 postseason. First place — 1965 In an era when making it to the World Series was a much less complicated task, one might take for granted the ‘65 Twins, assuming they had it easy. No wild card, no division series, no championship series. But there’s no way you could overlook the majestic season the Twins put together that year, if you really look into it. Six Twins players were named to the All-Star Game that year and that tells you a lot. A very well balanced team, with great offense and pitching, which had the best run differential in the majors, scoring 1.1 run more than they allowed. The bats scored the second most runs in the majors and ranked at least top four in each, AVG, OBP, SLG and OPS. Shortstop Zoilo Versalles had himself a fluky season, in which he was worth 7.0 fWAR, stole a team best 27 bases, led the majors in doubles, with 45, and took home the MVP award. On the mound, the Twins rotation had the fourth best ERA in the league, at 3.08. All-Star Mudcat Grant and Twins great Jim Kaat had outstanding seasons once again and made up for the time Camilo Pascual spent sidelined by injuries. Jim Perry didn’t have the same level of workload as Grant and Kaat, but he did manage to finish the season with the eighth best ERA+, at 136. Al Worthington started to increase his responsibilities as a closer and finished the season with a career-high 21 saves. With all of those pieces put together, Minnesota went on to have the best record in the majors and still the best in franchise history: 102-60. In the World Series, although they were off to a 2-0 start of the series, they saw the Dodgers win the next three in LA, before coming back to Bloomington. At home, they took game 6 with a convincing 5-1 win, but were absolutely dominated by Sandy Koufax and his complete-game shutout in game 7. That Twins generation went on to win at least 90 games in three of the following five seasons. — Latest Twins coverage from our writers — Recent Twins discussion in our forums — Follow Twins Daily via Twitter, Facebook or email — Follow Cody Pirkl on Twitter here Click here to view the article

After ranking the five best hitters and starting pitchers, it’s time to discuss who were the best relievers to ever pitch for the Twins. Here’s my personal ranking and we encourage you to name yours in the comment section.For this analysis, I wanted to go beyond plain stats, although they’re still the core here. I’m not looking to define only who are the most talented relievers to take the mound for Minnesota, but also take into consideration their loyalty and impact on the club and their playoff contribution (if there has been one). Without further ado, here are the five relievers I believe contributed the most to the Twins and my reasons for their placements. 5. Al Worthington Maybe I’m wrong, but I think Worthington is overlooked in most discussions about the best Twins relievers and I think that’s because of his unimpressive number of saves in Minnesota. But that doesn’t affect how important he was for the club in its first decade in the Twin Cities. The Reds gave up on him after an awful sequence of six games to start the 1964 season and the Twins picked him up in late June and had no regrets. He left the Reds with a 10.29 ERA in those six games, but went on to pitch 41 games for Minnesota, 36 of which were scoreless appearances, posting an outstanding 1.27 ERA and earning 14 saves at the end of the year. He was worth 2.5 WAR in only three months. After such great first impression, Worthington rose to the occasion and became one of the best relievers in the league. He finished in the top ten of saves in the majors in all but one of the five following seasons (1969, his retirement year) and he led the AL with 18 in 1968. He was also an important part of the club’s first playoff run, in 1965. He couldn’t put out the fire set by starter Mudcat Grant in game 4 of the World Series, but he kept the team alive with two scoreless innings in relief of Jim Kaat in game 7. He would end his career with Minnesota, holding, by then, the club record for innings pitched as a reliever, with 473 1/3, and strikeouts, with 399. He was the first great reliever in Twins history. 4. Eddie Guardado The “Everyday Eddie” history with Minnesota is definitely special. Until this day, no reliever has pitched more games (623) or innings (579) in a Twin uniform. But his first stint with the club should be divided into two moments. Drafted by the team in 1990, he first came to the majors in 1993 as a starting pitcher, but found no success in that role. He started the transition to full-time reliever in 1996 and didn’t find success right away, but he found his mojo in 1997 and started his seven-season career peak. From 1997 to 2003 he had a very decent 3.70 ERA, 128 ERA+ and 8.7 K/9. He led the AL in saves in 2002 and earned MVP votes that year. He was named an All-Star in 2002 and 2003, before being granted free agency. In two postseason appearances for the Twins, he wasn’t nearly as brilliant, but Minnesota did win four of the five games he finished in October and he earned three saves. 3. Jeff Reardon One of the most important acquisitions for the 1987 Twins, Reardon only stayed in Minnesota for three seasons, but they are among the greatest ones from a reliever in club history. He didn’t have the best start of the regular season in his first year in Minnesota (5.32 ERA in the first half), but it was on the playoffs that he proved his worth. He pitched in eight of the twelve postseason games that year. He earned three saves in the playoffs, including the game 7 victory, in which he had a 1-2-3 ninth inning against the Cardinals’ batters 3-4-5. He didn’t allow a single run or walk in the World Series. He went back to the All-Star Game in 1988, notching 42 saves and earning MVP votes. He became a free agent after the 1989 season, leaving Minnesota then with the second most saves in club history, with 104. 2. Joe Nathan One of the best relievers the game has ever seen, Nathan had the most amazing run any Twins reliever has ever had. For six years, he kept a ridiculous 237 ERA+, to go with a 1.87 ERA and 2.40 FIP. He made four All-Star appearances and finished in the top five of the Cy Young voting twice. He leads all Twins relievers in almost every metric, including saves (260), ERA (2.16), FIP (2.58), strikeouts (561), fWAR (14.1), WPA (24.55). The one and only stain in Nathan’s career as a Twin and, thus, the reason he’s not at the top of my personal ranking, were his unsuccessful playoff appearances. Not that he was the only one to blame or even among the guiltiest players, but in three postseason runs, Nathan had a 4.70 ERA and a -0.562 WPA, which indicates how much the Twins missed him in October. In my personal experience, his blown save in game 2 of the 2009 ALDS was absolutely soul-crushing. 1. Rick Aguilera Aguilera takes the top of my rankings for checking all the boxes. He pitched for 11 years in a Twins uniform, which included some of the worst years in recent history. He even chose to come back as a free agent, after being traded to the Red Sox in 1996. He became the Twins’ saves leader in 1992 and more than doubled Ron Davis' previous record (108), ending his career in the Twin Cities with 254. He’s also the second in games played (460) and innings pitched in relief (507), through which he kept a 3.50 ERA, a 3.58 FIP and 130 ERA+. Granted, he wasn’t as talented as Nathan, but he has the upper hand when we’re talking about October. Aguilera’s performance during the 1991 playoffs was extraordinary. He pitched a total of seven games, with the Twins winning six of them. He had a 1.08 ERA in those playoffs, earning five saves and a WPA of 0.571. He was the winning pitcher of game 7, coming into the game in the 10th inning and pitching a couple of scoreless innings. Honorable mentions and future candidates Picking just five is an difficult task and it’s almost impossible to be completely fair. For example, it was painful not to include Glen Perkins here, especially because of his relationship with Minnesota, his home state. He was also the bright spot for five years of a very bad team, being named for three consecutive All-Star Games and having three 30+ saves seasons in that span. Other relievers that had impressive moments with the Twins were Doug Corbett, who had the second highest WPA for a reliever in major leagues history in 1980 (7.58) and was named for an All-Star Game in 1981; Tom Hall, who in 1970 was worth 4.1 fWAR and is one of the 13 relievers in MLB history to have 4.0+ fWAR in a season, the only Twin to ever do so. Matt Guerrier didn’t have closing duties, but he definitely deserves a mention, as he logged 488 relief innings in eight years in Minnesota (third most), maintaining a decent 3.40 ERA. A couple of current Twins have a great chance to make history in the club’s bullpen. Taylor Rogers has become one of the key pieces of Minnesota’s pitching staff, especially after Rocco Baldelli assigned him closing duties during last season. He got 30 saves last year, at age 28. Nathan didn’t get his first save as a Twin until he was 29, so there’s a large chance Rogers surpasses him, depending on how long he stays in Minnesota and pitches well. Also, Trevor May currently holds the highest K/9 (11.67) and K% (31%) of all relievers in Twins history (min. 150 IP). It will be very interesting to see how his career will develop after he had a career year as a reliever in 2019. The “Goose Eggs” perspective Modern bullpens have been centered around closers and saves, for good or for bad. But statistician Nate Silver, from FiveThirtyEight, came up with an interesting point of view to evaluate relievers beyond just saves. He proposes a statistic called “Goose Egg”, which is “a scoreless inning when it’s the seventh inning or later and the game is tied or his team leads by no more than two runs”. According to him, he designed the metric after Baseball Prospectus’ Russell Carleton brought up the problems with saves. Although “Goose Eggs” didn’t become popular, it’s still an fun alternative to say how good relievers actually are. I looked into their database and found the ten relievers with most Goose Eggs in Twins history. Draw your conclusions about it. All-time Twins total “Goose Eggs” leaders Joe Nathan — 230 Rick Aguilera — 224 Al Worthington — 195 Eddie Guardado — 174 Ron Davis — 142 Glen Perkins — 130 Jeff Reardon — 116 Doug Corbett — 115 Juan Rincón — 108 Matt Guerrier — 104 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

Thanks for your kind words, guys! Sorry about the ones I didn't remember (man, how could I have forgetten Kubel?!). I too had a lot of fun writing this.

If we were to say who is the best player born in each of the states to ever play for the Twins, who would they be? I decided to do a quick research about this and came up with a rank, based on players’ birthplaces.I tried to choose the most relevant players born in each state to play for the Twins, rather than every single one of them. Because of that, several states will not appear on this list. Also, since these rankings are based only on players’ birthplaces, one very noticeable absence will be Twins great Bert Blyleven, who was born in the Netherlands, to Dutch parents who shortly thereafter moved to the U.S. and raised him in California. Then, I ranked the players of each state by their career bWAR (Wins Above Replacement from Baseball Reference) while with the Twins. The reason for using WAR is solely to simplify things a bit, since it is supposed to be a global metric. I also included some current Twins that I believe have a shot at climbing up their state ranks once their careers are finished. If I perhaps forgot anyone that you consider relevant enough to make one of the lists, please feel encouraged to mention them in the comments section. Also, weigh in on the bigger states discussions, saying who you think is the best. I separated the top five states in number of players, to be discussed. California Roy Smalley - 20.8 WAR Tom Brunansky - 16.1 WAR Rick Aguilera - 15.5 WAR Jacque Jones - 11.9 WAR Jim Merritt - 11.3 WAR Gary Ward - 10.6 WAR Nick Punto - 10.3 WAR Eddie Guardado - 9.5 WAR Trevor Plouffe - 8.0 WAR Dan Gladden - 5.7 WAR Phil Hughes - 5.7 WAR Cali is, by far, the state that has produced the most MLB talent in history. A total of 2,311 Californian ball players made it to the big leagues. Here I found 11 who wore the Twins uniform for a significant amount of time and one thing in particular called my attention the most. How low Gladden’s WAR with the Twins was. Maybe it’s because I didn’t actually see him play on a daily basis, but I always had the impression that this number would be higher. That doesn’t change, at all, his importance in the history of the club. I would give the edge as the best from this list to Aguilera. His first stint with Minnesota was incredibly dominant, resulting in three All-Star Game selections and even MVP votes in 1991. That same year, he was one of the key-factors during the postseason, allowing only one earned run, getting five saves and a crucial game 6 win. Overall, he logged over 500 innings of relief for Minnesota (second most, behind the 579 from fellow Californian Guardado), maintaining a 3.12 ERA. Smalley, Burnansky and Gladden were also invaluable pieces for that 80’s team, but I have the impression that Aguilera’s performance were a bit more impressive. Florida Denard Span - 17.2 bWAR Doug Corbett - 8.3 bWAR Mudcat Grant - 5.9 bWAR Josh Donaldson - has yet to play I believe it’s a given to say that Span was the most relevant player from the Florida list. He was drafted and developed by the Twins, being a part of the organization for nearly ten years. During that time, he lived the final years of the victorious 2000’s team and transitioned into the beginning of the dark years. He was one of the few bright spots of the club in 2011 (cut short due to a concussion) and 2012, relying on his speed and aggressiveness running the bases, combined with a slightly above average hitting (104 wRC+ in Minnesota) and very decent on-base percentage (.357). I added Donaldson to the list because I believe he’s bound to reach at least Corbett, an early 80’s rookie sensation relief pitcher, who made the All-Star Game in his second year, before being involved in a trade with the Angels that would bring Brunansky to Minnesota. Looking back at Donaldson’s past three seasons, he was worth 11.2 WAR. If you include a fourth one to the mix, it goes up to 18.5. And that includes his terrible, injury-plagued 2018. So, expect the Bringer of Rain to climb the ladder. Illinois Kirby Puckett - 51.1 WAR Gary Gaetti - 27.2 WAR John Castino - 15.2 WAR Jake Odorizzi - 4.7 WAR Jim Thome - 4.5 WAR Absolutely nothing to argue about who’s the best here. But my question to you is where can Odorizzi get on that list? Assuming, of course, he signs a longer contract with the Twins, could he surpass Castino? Texas Chuck Knoblauch - 38.0 WAR Joe Nathan - 18.4 WAR Kevin Slowey - 4.4 WAR Ryan Pressly - 3.6 WAR Nathan is a no-brainer here, because of how badly Knoblauch ended his tenure in Minnesota. But, looking at both his performances on the field, I think it’s closer than you might think. Before demanding a trade in 1997 and then , Knoblauch was the ray of sunshine in a very bad team. He was elected Rookie of the Year in 1991 and selected to four All-Star Games through the 90’s. But, yeah, the prize here goes to the best reliever in team history. Minnesota Joe Mauer - 55.3 WAR Kent Hrbek - 38.6 WAR Dave Goltz - 24.5 WAR Jerry Koosman - 11.0 WAR Glen Perkins - 8.9 WAR Paul Molitor - 5.2 WAR Jack Morris - 4.3 WAR I saved the best for last. Just like Illinois, I don’t think there’s much to argue about the top seed. But, boy, can we have fan arguing about the rest! OK, I’ll go out on a limb here and place Morris on second and… Hrbek at third. Morris’s World Series show in 1991, as well as his fantastic regular season, are gold for me. I love Hrbek, obviously, and his career was amazing. But I’ve got to go with Morris’ historical 1991 season. It hurts to not include Perkins in the podium, though. But in my personal ranking, he’s a close fourth. Any surprises so far? Which would be your picks? Have I forgotten anyone important for you? Comment and let us know. Also, here are the other states lists. Alabama Al Worthington - 10.0 WAR Josh Willingham - 4.8 WAR Delmon Young - 1.0 WAR Arizona J.J. Hardy - 1.3 WAR Arkansas Torii Hunter - 26.4 WAR Colorado Taylor Rogers - 6.4 WAR Connecticut Carl Pavano - 5.8 WAR Delaware Randy Bush - 1.4 WAR Georgia Byron Buxton - 9.8 WAR Ben Revere - 3.2 WAR Hawaii Kurt Suzuki - 3.3 WAR Idaho Harmon Killebrew - 60.5 WAR Indiana Kyle Gibson - 9.4 WAR LaTroy Hawkins - 8.1 WAR Iowa Kevin Tapani - 19.1 WAR Kentucky Tyler Clippard - has yet to play Louisiana Scott Baker - 15.8 WAR Massachusetts Greg Gagne - 17.9 WAR Jeff Reardon - 4.2 WAR Steve Lombardozzi - 4.0 WAR Michigan Jim Kaat - 30.6 WAR Joe Mays - 10.7 WAR Mississippi Brian Dozier - 22.7 WAR Missouri Bob Allison - 30.6 WAR Al Newman - 2.1 WAR Nevada Brandon Kintzler - 2.3 WAR New Mexico Mitch Garver - 5.1 WAR New York Frank Viola - 27.0 WAR A.J. Pierzynski - 9.5 WAR North Carolina Jim Perry - 26.3 WAR Tom Hall - 6.7 WAR Zack Littell - 0.4 WAR Ohio Larry Hisle - 17.2 WAR Dean Chance - 13.1 WAR Doug Mientkiewicz - 6.4 WAR Pennsylvania Butch Wynegar - 15.3 WAR Virginia Michael Cuddyer - 12.8 WAR Jake Cave - 2.6 WAR Washington Trevor May - 2.1 WAR Wisconsin Brad Radke - 45.6 WAR 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

On their way to what would’ve been their second playoff run in Minnesota, the Twins visited for the first time the Seattle Pilots. Down by one to start the ninth inning, Carew and Oliva boosted the late comeback, to give Minnesota its third consecutive win, 6-4.Twins 6, Seattle 4 Box Score Chance: 5 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 5 BB, 2 K Home Runs: none Multi-hit games: Carew (4-for-5, two 2B), Oliva (3-for-4, RBI, BB), Cardenas (2-for-4, RBI, BB) Top 3 WPA: Reese .344, Oliva .266, Carew .175 The Twins opened the 1969 season with a seven road game sequence, five of which were played in the west coast. They lost the first four, before beating the Angels in Anaheim, to avoid a three-game series sweep. They beat the Athletics two days later, before heading north to face the Seattle Pilots, playing its debut season, to conclude the road series. The Pilots played only the one season in Seattle, before being relocated to Milwaukee the following year and becoming the Brewers. Pilots’ starter, veteran Gary Bell, was coming off an All-Star season for Boston in ‘68 and a complete game shutout over the White Sox to start the ‘69 season. But the top of the Twins order was not impressed. After leadoff hitter Ted Uhlaender grounded out, Rod Carew, Tony Oliva and Harmon Killebrew each hit a single and loaded them up. Graig Nettles hit a Twin fourth consecutive single to put the first run on the board and Leo Cardenas, two at bats later, also singled and made it 2-0 Minnesota. Righty Dean Chance, starting the game for Minnesota, delivered three clean innings, but gave up a couple of runs in the two following innings. He gave up a walk to lead off the sixth and manager Billy Martin took him off the game, bringing in reliever Joe Grzenda. He couldn’t take care of the inherited runner, allowing the Pilots to tie the game a couple of at bats later. In the eighth, a solo home run from center fielder Jim Gosger gave Seattle the first lead of the game. Down 4-3 to start the ninth, the Twins had yet again the top of its order lined up, awaiting to face former reliever of the year Jack Aker (he was the AL Fireman of the Year award winner in 1966). The story here was almost identical to that of the first inning. Uhlaender grounded out, but Carew followed him up by smacking a double to left. Oliva stepped up to the plate and singled, bringing home Carew to tie the game. Aker intentionally walked Killebrew in the following at bat and retired Nettles in the sequence, but first baseman Rich Reese, 0-for-4 at the time, came up and doubled, scoring two runs and finishing the Twins three-run comeback. That was Minnesota’s third consecutive win, in an effort that saw them go 13-3 to follow the 0-4 start and finish April with a 13-7 record. The Twins went on the have an amazing season, in which they were crowned the first ever AL West champions, with a 97-65 record. They were swept by the Baltimore Orioles (109-53) in the ALCS. Here are some highlights from that season: Harmon Killebrew won his first and only AL MVP award, leading the majors in home runs (49) and RBI (140), while playing all 162 games;Rod Carew won the first of his seven AL Batting Title, hittin .332. He also stole home seven times that year, leading the majors;Four Twins were named AL All-Stars: Killebrew, Carew, Oliva and catcher John Roseboro;Lefty Ron Perranoski, who earned a save and the win in this game, led all the majors with 31 saves;Jim Kaat was earned his eighth consecutive Gold Glove award;Starter Jim Perry finished third in the AL Cy Young voting and ninth in the AL MVP voting, after logging 261 2/3 innings and 2.82 ERA. He and Dave Boswell became the first and only Twins starters to earn 20 wins each in a season;On May 18, Carew and Cesar Tovar combined for ;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

Throughout the week, rumors of a possible start of the MLB season got some fans excited. Though very unusual, the potential formats would allow players to come back to action and get their paychecks. Some of the players would benefit more than others from coming out of the hiatus and one of them could be Twins starter Michael Pineda.ESPN’s Jeff Passan broke the news of a plan to have all teams play only in Arizona (here are the details). Not a lot of people loved the idea, like Baseball Prospectus’ Craig Goldstein, who really disliked the idea. But that was just one of the ideas being proposed. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported today another one, which would eliminate the traditional leagues and rearrange the clubs in new divisions, playing in Arizona and Florida. Whether we like them or not, those plans indicate that MLB and the players are very open to having even an unorthodox season, just so baseball can be back. One of the players who could benefit the most from the return of baseball is Twins’ starter Michael Pineda. After so many rough patches in his career, being able to come back and continue playing the way he did in the second portion of 2019 could be huge for him and Minnesota. A brief look back at his issues Pineda was a rookie sensation for the Mariners in 2011, being named to an All-Star Game that very year. However, since the conclusion of that season, things have not been easy. To begin with, after being acquired by the Yankees in early 2012, he started dealing with multiple shoulder injuries, which ended up sidelining him for the entire seasons that year and in 2013. Back at the majors in 2014, injuries did not give him a break and another shoulder injury cut his season short, allowing him to deliver only 76 1/3 innings. That was also the year of his infamous pine tar incident, which earned him a 10-game suspension. In the following two seasons, injuries weren’t as much of a problem for him, but he started to slowly decrease his productivity. Despite reaching at least 160 2/3 innings in both years, his ERA was never lower than 4.37 and he posted a career worst FIP for the time being, of 3.79. Some of his peripherals did improve in that span, like xFIP and K%, but, overall, hitters had figured him out. Then, after a not so promising start of the 2017, he was diagnosed with a partial tear of his ulnar collateral ligament, which forced him to undergo Tommy John surgery. His rebirth with the Twins We all know the story of how the Twins smartly bet on Pineda in late 2017 and patiently waited for him to be ready for action in 2019 after rehab in the previous year. Nobody knew what to expect, as Pineda was a much, much different player from the one he was with the Yankees and the Mariners. For starters, he was no longer the flamethrower he once was. His velocity dropped to 92.8 mph on his four- seamer, the first time ever it was below 94.1 mph. He relied much more on his command, which had always been decent. Still, it was hard to predict the outcome in the beginning of the season. Knee issues which started in late 2018 and persisted until the beginning of last year caused Pineda to really struggle in the first months as a Twin. From March to May, he posted a 5.34 ERA in 11 starts, allowing hitters a .803 OPS. He also posted a 5.26 FIP and 4.94 xFIP, while striking out batters only 20.3% of the time. So, yeah, the first impression wasn’t the best. But when he came back from the IL, he turned things around. In his last 15 starts, from June to September, he posted a 3.10 ERA, 3.18 FIP and 3.87 xFIP. He was incredibly solid and the aforementioned velocity decrease was not at all a problem, because he managed to increase value of most of his go-to pitches. His four-seam had a 9.3 wFA (Four-seam Fastball runs above average), the first time since his rookie year that it was positive. Also, he turned his changeup into one of the best in the game, with a 5.4 wCH (career best) and a .253 wOBA, the 27th-lowest in the league. He was also one of the best pitchers in MLB at pitch tunneling, according to Fangraphs’ Michael Augstine. ESPN defined Pineda as “one of the most underappreciated improvements made by the Twins” in 2019. The suspension for PED’s. What will happen? Hopes were really high for what Pineda could bring to the table in the postseason. Unfortunately, he tested positive for hydrochlorothiazide, a banned substance he consumed by taking a medication to help him manage his weight. He was given an 80-game suspension, that was reduced to 60 games after appeal. He started serving his suspension in the final 21 games of the season, with the remaining 39 supposed to be served this year. But now that the season, if it’s played at all, is much likely going to be shortened, isn’t it feasible to wonder if MLB could alter his suspension? At least for me, it is. In a 162-game season, Pineda’s suspension would represent roughly 24% of the games. Maybe I’m crazy here, but I don’t think it’s absurd to consider this. If the major leagues actually happen this year, Pineda is certainly one of the players I’m most looking forward to seeing. If his second half of the season last year wasn’t a fluke, he can definitely be one of the great contributors for the Twins to try to win the division and maybe go further in October. He needs this. We need this too. 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

Over 53,000 fans packed Metrodome on a Friday night to welcome, for the first time in Minnesota’s history, their very own World Series champions. Left fielder Dan Gladden put on a career game, helping the Twins to get their first win of the season, beating the Blue Jays 6-3.Twins 6, Toronto 3 Box Score Blyleven: 6 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K Home Runs: Gladden (2), Gaetti (1) Multi-hit games: Gladden (4-for-5, 2 HR, 2B), Brunansky (2-for-4), Lombardozzi (2-for-3, 2B, 3B) Top 3 WPA: Gladden .295, Gaetti .169, Lombardozzi .129 Fans were still going through ‘Twins Fever’ on that Friday night, as never before had they had world champs to cheer on. It was the home opener of the ring-ceremony series against the Blue Jays and no one wanted to miss that. Not even a frustrating 0-2 start of the season after a series in New York against the Yankees could ruin the party at Metrodome for Twins fans. The previous year, Dan Gladden didn’t have the most impressive debut regular season in a Twins uniform, but he was one of the great contributors to the Twins’ World Series run. He , putting the game out of the Cardinals’ reach. So, he was definitely on his way to becoming a fan favorite. Also, on the previous game, he had his third career four-hit game, in the 5-3 loss against the Yankees, showing early signs of what would become his career year. After a quick 1-2-3 top of the first from Bert Blyleven, Gladden wasted no time and hit a leadoff home run deep to left on the third pitch he saw, making it 1-0 Twins. Blue Jays starter Dave Stieb couldn’t find his stuff and after allowing two runners to reach base in the bottom of the second, it was time to face Gladden again and things didn’t go his way. The Twins outfielder hit a ground ball to the gap and scored Tom Brunansky, doubling the Twins lead. Toronto went on to tie the game in the sixth, only to see Gary Gaetti break the tie in the same inning with a leadoff home run in the bottom. Minnesota put on a couple more runs in the seventh. Stieb was taken off the game after giving up a leadoff triple to Steve Lombardozzi. Reliever Mark Eichhorn's first batter faced was no one but Gladden himself, who doubled to bring in another run. Toronto made another pitching change after two quick outs, which, however, didn’t stop Gladden from advancing to third on a bunt. With reliever David Wells on the mound and Kent Hrbek batting, Gladden did the unthinkable: before Wells’ third pitch, he moved up and stole home for the very first time in his career, making it 5-2 Twins. "We worked on it in spring training, and it was the perfect situation," Gladden told Star Tribune staff writer Dennis Brackin after the game. "Two outs, left-handed hitter, left-handed pitcher." To top it all off, there was still time for Gladden to come back and homer off the same Wells in the eighth, scoring the Twins’ final run of the night. That was only the first time in his career that he had a multi-HR game, including postseasons. It was also the only game of his career in which he had at least four hits, four runs batted in and multiple homers. You can check highlights of that game, as well as a detailed overview of the 1988 season, on this video: Minnesota was off to a bad start, going 4-11 in their first 15 games, but eventually things picked up and they went on to have their best record in 18 years, finishing the year with a 91-71 record, the third best in the majors. They didn’t make the playoffs, as Oakland won the AL West with a 104-58 record, on their way to a World Series appearance. 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

It’s the year 2018. The Twins are coming off a great, exciting season, reaching the playoffs for the first time in seven years. They increased the hype by making great signings during the offseason and spring training. Things didn’t work out, though. If anything is not going to work all that well this year, would the Twins be prepared to handle it?First of all, I think it’s important to state that I don’t think things are going to head the wrong way. This already good team only became stronger and is, in theory, bound to have another positive year. But maybe it’s important to imagine what alternative routes a team can take when facing unexpected adversities. Injuries are almost one-hundred percent impossible to foresee. So, there’s nothing a club and a player can do to completely avoid them. But, yeah, they’re the biggest risk for any team (ask the Yankees right now). Even last year, such a successful one for Minnesota, a number of key-players spent time sidelined, like Byron Buxton, Nelson Cruz, Mitch Garver, Eddie Rosario and Miguel Sanó, to name a few. But due to the impossibility of predicting injuries, let’s talk about things that could go wrong productivity-wise – like in 2018. The Twins rotation looks stable, with the returns of Jose Berrios, Jake Odorizzi and Michael Pineda, as well as with the signings of Rich Hill and Homer Bailey and the trade for Kenta Maeda. At the same time, most people logically consider it the potential Achilles heel of this group. That’s why we chose to focus on it in this article. Here are some things that could get in the way of starting pitching success for the Twins: José Berríos is definitely the Twins best starter. But last year he did show some signs for concern. Patrick Wozniak wrote about the problems he’s encountered as of late, including the decrease in his velocity and late-season struggles.Although Hill represents a potentially huge upside, especially for October baseball, there’s very little evidence that his health will not be an obstacle for that. By the time of his signing, a lot of people even wondered if he would be able to pitch at all, given his age and injury track record.Bailey has had a really rough last five and a half years in the majors. He’s dealt with several health issues, which ended up leading to to surgeries, including a Tommy John Surgery in 2015. Ever since, he’s never been the same good pitcher he was before 2013. In the four seasons before last year he had pitched 231 2/3 innings, with a 6.25 ERA and a 5.13 FIP. How he could represent an improvement over what the Twins got from Martín Pérez or Kyle Gibson last year is still uncertain.Maeda’s career splits between home and away games is considerable. His ERA as a starter goes from 3.16 pitching at Dodger Stadium to 4.70 away from it. He also displayed increases in his FIP (3.46 to 4.06) and OPS (.634 to .718) splits. Moving from the seventh most pitcher-friendly ballpark in baseball to the thirteenth in the same category (not to mention the colder weather) may cause him some trouble.I can’t stress this enough: I do not think most of these are happening. This is just a hypothetical worst-case scenario, just so people won’t be blindsided because of all the optimism generated by the good offseason, like I was in the beginning of 2018. Speaking of which, I ask the most important question: what is the difference between now and then? Is there an effective way the Twins could avoid that same outcome this year? In my opinion, yes. Should elements of this very unlikely catastrophe take place, the Twins this year have a much greater rotation depth than two years ago. Randy Dobnak is a prime candidate to have a good year, especially because of the early absences of both Pineda and Hill. Besides him, Devin Smeltzer, Lewis Thorpe and Sean Poppen are also in pursuit of their big break and have shown good signs last year. 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

This week, national media showed Mitch Garver some love. Despite some projections indicating that the Twins catcher is bound to disappoint us this year, Mike Petriello, from MLB.com, wrote this fine piece going the other way. But even in such a positive article, there were still some question marks about what he can really bring to the table in 2020. Are they right to be suspicious?Petriello put together very reasonable sources of doubt about Garver, three of which caught my attention: his lack of track record to earn him confidence, the fact that his 2019 numbers were well above what had come before, and his struggles against non-fastballs. So I raised some counterarguments for those points, to try to inject some optimism in favor of The Sauce. Does he really have no track record? If you consider Garver’s time as a major leaguer alone, that’s a fair point. Because he chose to attend college, his MLB debut came only at age 26. But that doesn’t mean that what he did the previous eight years is not relevant. A while back, I looked back at some Twins collegiate careers. In four years playing for the Lobos, Garver had outstanding numbers. He maintained a slash line of .351/.421/.527 (.948 OPS) in the four years he played for NCAA Division-I. He revolutionized the program, leading it to its best seasons in history and earned national recognition, being named a Johnny Bench Award finalist (a prize now known as the Buster Posey Award) two times. That’s why his breakout 2019 didn’t come as a surprise for his college coach Ray Birmingham, as he told Twins Daily last year. As Petriello points out, he also earned some recognition for his minor league career, being named the Twins Minor League Player of the Year in 2017. In 110 games at Triple-A, good for 456 plate appearances, he slashed .298/.386/.520 (.906 OPS). Even though he was never considered a top prospect during his years in the minors, he did have a very solid time there. So 2019 shouldn’t have come as much as a surprise. Did his breakout really start only in 2019? In his article, Petriello chose to separate Garver’s MLB career into 2019 and 2017-18. But did his rise really only start in 2019? Actually, in spite of his overall 2018 stats showing a rather average performance, his breakout started in the middle of that season. From June 1, 2018 until the end of the 2019 season, he played 156 games (592 PA), hitting .278/.359/.555 (.914 OPS), with a 139 wRC+ and .380 wOBA. Oh, and he also hit 36 bombas. Those are some much more reliable numbers to back up his breakout. During that time, he shared a lot of his PA’s with two or three other catchers, so it will be fun to see him finally being the Alpha of the Twins’ catching position. How did other hitters perform at the same point of their careers? Maybe the greatest mystery for Garver in 2020 is whether his struggles against non-fastballs are going to hurt him or not. So, I tried to investigate other hitters that had similar problems after three seasons in the majors and if that affected their following seasons or not. Mitch Garver Download attachment: GARVER.png Bryce Harper Download attachment: HARPER.png Aaron Judge Download attachment: JUDGE.png J.T. Realmuto Download attachment: REALMUTO.png Two proven power hitters, who had very similar gaps between their fastball numbers and at least one other type of pitch. Such difficulties didn’t stop them from becoming two of the most feared bats in baseball. Both of them still display this difference nowadays, so I think it isn’t a big reason to worry. Considered by many the best catcher in baseball, Realmuto also showed an even larger lack of balance in his first two years in the majors, but he managed to even things out in his third year. Given the amount of hard work Garver put into becoming a better catcher defensively, I don’t think it’s impossible that he becomes a better non-fastball hitter, like Realmuto did. But the bottom line is: he’s still going to see more fastballs than offspeed or breaking stuff. My guess is that he’s going to be fine either way. 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

Byron Buxton had one of his most productive seasons in 2019, but once again it was shortened by injuries. For this year, he needs to tackle two big question marks about himself: Can he sustain his offensive improvement? Can he stay healthy? Let’s discuss.This year’s main projections do not show Buxton much love. PECOTA projects him for a batting line of .230/.288/.436 (.724 OPS), 19 home runs, 63 RBI, 33 BB, 135 strikeouts. Fangraphs and Baseball Reference aren’t expecting much of an improvement this year either. But last season, though cut short by injuries, provided us with a lot of optimism. Buxton had, by far, his best offensive performance in 2019. He slashed .262/.314/.513 (.827 OPS), with a career high 34 extra-base hits in only 87 games. Even though he didn’t play a full season, he was still worth a decent amount of Wins Above Replacement, according to the three main websites that measure it: 2.7 fWAR, 2.9 WARP and 3.1 bWAR. But his offensive improvement is not superficial. He’s also improved his power, plate discipline and quality of hit balls. According to Baseball Prospectus metrics, he swung the bat more than in any other year of his career, with a 53.3% swing rate, but that increase came with quality too. He had career bests at contact rate (71%) and zone contact rate (81.5%). Per Baseball Savant, he also had his best year in a number of offensive metrics, such as wOBA (.340), exit velocity (89.3 mph), launch angle (19.5º), hard hit rate (38.7%) and barrel rate (8.3%). All of this resulted in much better hit balls, dropping his ground ball rate almost 15% in 2019 (29.6%), in comparison to his previous career average (44.1%). Along with the increased power, he’s also become more aggressive, as he’s had a career high 37.6% first-pitch swing rate. Contrary to what one might think, that didn’t do any damage to his plate discipline, as he had the lowest swinging strike rate (28.9%) and strikeout rate (23.1%) of his career. All of those numbers point to a significant improvement in comparison to 2017, his best year in the majors to date. Thus far, because of his superstar defense, considered by many the best in the majors among outfielders, and his clear offensive improvement since 2017, the greatest obstacle between Buxton and all-star status is his health. So, we must ask: can he remain healthy all year? I asked Twins Daily contributor Dr. Lucas Seehafer to talk a little bit about Buxton’s health and here’s what he has to say: NOTE: I’d like to thank Twins Daily’s contributors Dr. Seehafer and Matthew Trueblood for assisting me with this article. Your help has been invaluable. 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

The White Sox had a very strong offseason, ranking third in free agent spending and improving immensely an already tough team to play against. But do the Twins really have a lot to worry about when facing the South Siders this year?Last week, Matt Braun showed us how good the Indians still are. Alongside Cleveland, Chicago was the only other AL Central team to win a series against Minnesota (they won two) in 2019, on their way to a 72-89 record. Have they become somewhat of a threat for the Twins and the Indians in the race for the division crown? Some of their fans sure think so. To help the rotation, Chicago signed veteran lefties Gio González and Dallas Keuchel. In part, this was likely done to help mentor their rising star Lucas Giolito and probably to also mentor their other young starting pitchers, Reynaldo López, Dylan Cease and Michael Kopech. While González and Keuchel are still good pitchers and might very well push them closer to a wild card spot, they might not have been the best choice to help dethrone the Twins. Minnesota punished left-handed pitching all year long, ranking first in AVG (.285), SLG (.521) and OPS (.872) and second in wOBA (.361) and wRC+ (126). Also, no team hit more home runs (95) nor had a lower ground ball rate (39.4%) against them. It’s hard to imagine that a nearly unchanged lineup will suddenly have a different outcome. Gonzalez turns 35 in September and last year he spent a considerable amount of time dealing with injuries, which cut his season short. He logged only 87 1/3 innings in 17 starts and while his ERA and most of his peripherals improved in comparison to 2018, they were still worse than his career averages (except for his ERA). He started two games against Minnesota last year and he couldn’t pitch past the fifth inning in either. He combined for 8 1/3 innings, allowing four home runs and nine earned runs, leading to a 9.72 ERA. Keuchel just turned 32 and seems to be in better shape, but his track record against current Twins hitters isn’t brilliant. His slash line against them, according to ESPN, is .287/.357/.485 (.842). That includes the earlier years of the careers of Mitch Garver, Jorge Polanco, Byron Buxton and Eddie Rosario, who matured considerably since last facing him. But that’s not even the worst part. As Twins Daily’s own Ted Schwerzler pointed out on his Twitter account, the White Sox infield defense may cause Keuchel and his 60.1% ground ball rate a lot of problems. With the departure of their Gold Glove-winning second baseman Yolmer Sánchez to the Giants, things look even worse on that front. He was, by far, their best infield defender, being worth 11 DRS in 2019. Newly acquired designated hitter Edwin Encarnación, who can play first base when needed, also has a below average defense at first, being worth -1 DRS in 2019. Their outfield was the fourth worst in the majors in DRS (defensive runs saved), with -39. Their only addition there was Nomar Mazara, who came to Chicago in a trade with the Rangers. But he doesn’t represent a great improvement on defense, as he was worth -4 DRS in the outfield last year. So Keuchel and his 4.72 FIP in 2019 might encounter troubles along the way, especially against the Twins. Offensively, the White Sox surely improved their lineup considerably. They solved their DH issue by bringing Encarnación and also did a great job by replacing Ryan Cordell with Nomar Mazara in the right field. All-Star catcher Yasmani Grandal will not only be an enormous help to the pitching staff, but also a great fit for their lineup. The already good core of Yoan Moncada, Tim Anderson, Eloy Jimenez and veteran Jose Abreu now looks stronger. However, I believe this lineup still doesn’t have what it takes to top the Twins’ pitching staff on a regular basis. Besides, even if they do, there’s a great chance Minnesota’s lineup will out-slug their pitching staff even more often. The White Sox are in great position to have their first winning season in ten years. Perhaps even reach the playoffs for the first time in 12 years. But it doesn’t look like 2020 is the year they’re going to outperform both Minnesota and Cleveland for the AL Central throne. 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

Last year, one of the few things the Twins were pretty bad at was their defense, especially on the infield. While signing Josh Donaldson may have been a huge step toward improving that, there are still some question marks. Here are five questions I thought are worth being asked.Is Garver’s improvement sustainable? Jason Castro’s tenure with the Twins is over, but more important than his contributions on the field were his two years as Mitch Garver’s defensive mentor. While he is still not an elite defensive catcher, his improvement was as clear as crystal, more specifically at the catcher-framing front. Per Baseball Prospectus, he was worth -8.2 framing runs in 2018, ranking 110th among 117 qualified catchers. In 2019, he improved that number to 4.2 framing runs, good for 28th among 113 catchers. Another angle is to look at Savant’s Runs From Extra Strike. Here’s how he improved in that metric, as well as in total strike rate. Download attachment: pasted image 0.png It seems as if he loves catching and he has put a lot of effort into becoming a better catcher. The big question for this year is whether he can permanently sustain that improvement he learned. If he does, put that together with new Twin Alex Avila’s good defense (+5 Runs From Extra Strike in 2019) and Minnesota will have a nice backstop combo. How is Sanó going to handle first base? Miguel Sanó has a very small sample playing at first base. Including his minor league career, he has a combined 223 innings playing there. But it’s safe to say that he’s had much more success at first then he’s had at third. While he was worth -5 DRS and -6.7 UZR in the hot corner in 2019, those numbers improve to -1 DRS and -0.1 UZR in nine games at first base. His fielding percentage at first (.956) was also much higher than at third (.926). It’s going to be very interesting to know how that works over a full season and also how he will develop through the years in his new role. Can Donaldson have another good year defensively? In 2019, Josh Donaldson was worth 15 DRS, the second most among all third basemen in the majors. Using Statcast’s new Outs Above Average (OAA) for infielders, we can also notice that he’s been the third best in the position at that metric, with 8, behind only Gold Glove Winners Nolan Arenado (17) and Matt Chapman (14). However, in the previous three seasons, probably because of a series of injuries, those numbers were considerably worse. Nonetheless, not once in that that span did his DRS go below 1, which is far better than anything Sanó has managed to do there defensively (his career DRS at third is -19). So, either way, he is much likely going to represent a considerable improvement. Will Rosario bounce back? Now here’s a tricky one. While Eddie Rosario had his worst season defensively in 2019, we can also see an unusual pattern for his career. His defensive performances over the years have been going up and down. Per Statcast’s OAA, he was MLB worst outfielder, with -17. But at the same time, before last year, his worst OAA result was -3 in 2017, which was still better than those of Mike Trout, George Springer and Bryce Harper, to name a few. In 2016, he was worth 4 OAA. He’s also been on a roller coaster when it comes to DRS in the outfield, as his career numbers stand thus: 2015: 11 2016: 2 2017: -10 2018: 5 2019: -8 So, which Rosario will be out on the field this year? Can Buxton stay healthy all year? Here we have the most important question. Byron Buxton became the Twins’ everyday center fielder in 2017 and he had an outstanding season, which earned him MVP votes. He led all outfielders in the majors with 26 OAA and was worth 24 DRS, ranking third-highest in the league. But since then, he simply couldn’t catch a break when it came to his health. After being on the field for 1,143 innings in 2017, he played for only 924 innings in the following two seasons combined. While it seems like he’s finally found his touch offensively (111 wRC+ and .827 OPS last year, both career best), he was missed even more in the field. In 2019, the Twins outfield was worth 12 DRS and Buxton was responsible for 10 of those, even though he was out on the field for only 692 innings. He can single-handedly raise the bar for Minnesota’s outfield. 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