Thiéres Rabelo

Édouard Julien, José Miranda and Harrison Bader power the Twins late rally in Chicago to secure Minnesota's first win of the season! View full video

Max Kepler is a free agent after 15 years in the organization. Let's celebrate his time with the Minnesota Twins by remembering his most important home runs. For this list, we used Win Probability Added (WPA). View full video

At some point, a large portion of Twins fans should be asking themselves if they really like this baseball club or if they call themselves “fans” only because it’s their home state team. Image courtesy of Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports The first piece of context this article needs is the fact that yours truly is not Minnesotan. Heck, I’m not even from the United States. But I’m not a character here. I’m stating this because said context is important. Whoever is reading this needs to understand that this is an article by an outsider who’s been following Minnesota sports and observing Minnesota sports fans' behaviors for years. The headline of this article is an honest question. Do you love the Twins? From what I’ve been observing for years, I think the general answer to this question would be “yes” on the surface. But, for many, that answer is not accompanied by loving actions. In other words, I think many Minnesotans say they’re Twins fans and “love” the team, but, in practice, they don’t. Here are two reasons why I feel that way: Poor attendance The Twins were terrible for almost a decade. It’s understandable that after that many bad seasons – including a record 103-loss campaign in 2016 – Twins fandom may have lost its excitement about this ballclub. However, they’ve also been a pretty good team since 2017. Yet, fans have still been reluctant to pack Target Field regularly for an entire season. In the Target Field era, the Twins have made the playoffs five times, including four American League Central titles. Their overall winning percentage is .485 despite having four consecutive seasons (2011-2014) with a winning percentage of .432 or worse. Most of their success in the Target Field era started in 2017, with three of those four division titles and a winning record of .528 since then. Yet, the Twins have a worse average attendance in that span than the Colorado Rockies. The Twins’ average attendance from the opening of Target Field until the end of the 2023 season is 29,046 fans per game, while the Rockies, one of the most terribly-managed sporting organizations on the planet, average 34,225 fans per game in the same period. The Rockies haven’t had a single season in that span with less than 31,334 attendance average. The Twins haven’t had a single season over 28,322 since 2013. The Rockies comparison is just one example. The Twins have seen worse teams have better attendance than them for years now. After some early success during the first three years of Target Field’s existence, Minnesota has ranked in the bottom half of attendance numbers in all but one of the nine seasons with normal attendance (2020 and 2021 not considered). The only time they didn’t was in the 2019 season and they ranked only 15th. They ranked in the bottom third of the league in five of those nine seasons. This season, they probably will be ranked 23rd. There is a list of excuses Twins fans come up with for poor attendance. Some are completely understandable, but some just sound far-fetched. The top two are “It’s too cold when the season starts” and “Fans will show up when kids are not in school.” Sometimes, there are excuses based on previous seasons' performance: “They’ve been bad for almost a decade,” “They lost 103 games last year”, “They didn’t make the playoffs last year.” Your team being bad one season kind of justifies attendance drops (except for the Colorado Rockies, apparently). But only if the opposite is true as well: if your team does well one season, there should be an attendance rise the following year. That hasn’t been the case for the Twins. Minnesota saw its attendance drop the following year in each season, and they've had a winning record since the opening of Target Field (2010, 2015, 2017, and 2023). Maybe this wouldn't have happened in 2020 after the fantastic 2019 season, but COVID-19 hit, and now we'll never know. The 2024 season felt doomed before it even started when the team announced the payroll slashing late last year. The lack of big offseason moves made it even worse. As a result, fans averaged less than 22,000 a game in the season’s first three months. Some might say that the aforementioned circumstances justified it, but I don’t think that’s fair to a team that just months before ended the club’s playoff curse by snapping the 0-for-18 losing streak and winning the franchise’s first playoff series in over two decades. Another reason why this year’s attendance drop isn’t fair (and the timing couldn’t be worse to mention this) is that the 2024 Minnesota Twins are not a bad team. They collapsed at the end of the season, yes, but they were also in the fight for the American League’s best record until mid-August. They might not make the playoffs after having over 92% odds of making it, but they can still mathematically finish the season with 86 wins. We believe a lot could’ve been done better by the owners and front office both in the offseason and the trade deadline. However, none of that changes the fact that the 2024 Twins are a good team. Considering only full 162-game seasons, the Twins are about to have back-to-back winning records for the first time since 2010. General social media behavior and perception of the team The whole point of this article can’t be made simply with poor attendance. Even though I don’t think this year’s poor attendance is fair to the players, I absolutely understand why one would simply choose not to attend games as a form of protest against the team’s ownership. But there’s more. As I said, I get to observe fans’ behaviors on social media. And here’s something that blows my mind: there’s a scary number of so-called “Twins fans” online who straight-up seem to hate this team. If you take a moment to scroll down through Twins Daily’s Facebook feed, you’ll see that almost every post has reactions with a laughing emoji. The most shocking example for me are the game recaps of losses. Call me crazy, but if your first reaction to your team losing a game is laugh, you should consider asking yourself if you really like that team or not. Basically, anything positive that is posted about the Twins or their players all across the internet can be met with a negative spin. The Byron Buxton hate is terrifying, especially when he’s having a great (and, most importantly, healthy) season. You already have the “Royce Lewis is made of glass” crowd. You have the Fire Rocco Club, which will always find a way to blame Rocco Baldelli for every single loss. And don’t get me wrong. Fans can criticize whatever and whoever they want. But it’s easy to see when that’s done with absolute loathing and despise. A lot of those people I’m referring to seem to be absolutely disgusted by the Minnesota Twins. That’s not the same with Timberwolves and Vikings fans. They obviously criticize the teams and the players, but you generally don’t feel they have any hate when you read most of their social media comments. I certainly think you won’t see as many Timberwolves fans reacting to their losses with laughing emojis as Twins “fans.” Timberwolves and Vikings fans demonstrate sincere joy when their teams win. When the Twins win, it feels like most their fan base doesn’t feel happy about it. The feeling seems to be that the team did nothing but their obligation. And they better not lose the next one. It’s not my place to tell anyone how to be a fan or to judge if you’re a “real” fan or not. But you can tell a lot about people's actions and you are always entitled to have an opinion about about those actions. This article is just something to think about. And I have a series of questions and comparisons to wrap this up and make you think: Do you really love the Twins? If you’re a Minnesota sports fan, are you harsher on the Twins when they have bad moments than you are on the Timberwolves and the Vikings? Or I can go even further in these comparisons: when a family member that you love screws up, do you point and laugh at them? Do you completely turn your back on them? Feel free to only think about those questions or to use the comment section below to express your thoughts about them. View full article

The whole idea of this blog is to be a platform for Twins fans from different countries who don't have English as their native language.

This was fantastic! Thank you for writing it, Lou!

It feels like Twins fans would burn Target Field to the ground if the team trades Édouard Julien this offseason — roughly a year after they traded fan favorite Luis Arráez. I myself would never do it, but I don’t think it’s such a crazy possibility. Let me start by saying my opinion right away: I don't think the Twins should trade Édouard Julien. However, one thing intrigues me: how can we be so sure Julien is the real deal? When I remember the kind of rookie season José Miranda had in 2022 and then how his bat disappeared in 2023, I can't help but feel a bit apprehensive. What are the chances the same won't happen to Julien? Many might say, "There's no evidence that Julien will slump". Well, was there for Miranda? When you compare some of Miranda’s expected numbers with the actual ones during 2022, you find out that the gap between them wasn’t large. I’m not at all an advanced stats specialist, but I assume such a small gap didn’t point out the kind of regression he had in 2023. Expected stats aren’t meant to be predictive, but if there's a significant gap between a player's expected stats and their traditional stats, regression to the mean should be considered. Since Miranda’s gap wasn’t significant — nor his sample size —, his regression in 2023 is hard to understand. Was his 2022, both at the majors and Triple-A, a mere fluke? Miranda’s case is perplexing, and we might get some more definitive answers in 2024. But with his case in mind, I come back to Julien. Say you’re Derek Falvey, and you could go 12 months back in time from today, knowing everything that would happen this year. Would you have considered trading Miranda in December of 2022? If you answer yes, given how you know he’ll regress in the following season, then considering a trade involving Julien right now isn’t the craziest of ideas. I must remind you about what I wrote in the first paragraph and repeat it: I would not trade Julien right now. Just like I wouldn’t trade Miranda — I still hope he can bounce back. To be fair, Julien’s rookie season was better than Miranda’s, as you can you on the charts below. But even though I wouldn’t personally do it, I must admit: it’s tempting. His trade value is at its peak right now. Provided the Twins would get a haul in exchange for him, I’d be okay with it. And a potential Miranda bounceback is actually a big part of why trading Julien wouldn’t be the end of the world. If Miranda can figure it out and handle third base on a daily basis, you can simply move Royce Lewis to second. Sign, say, Mitch Garver to be your everyday first baseman, and use Julien and Jorge Polanco as trade pieces to bring in more pitching help. There you have it. Not knowing if Miranda is, in fact, going to bounce back next year shouldn’t stop you from trading Julien in this scenario. After all, you do have Lewis at third at this moment and wouldn’t need Miranda to step in over there right away. But that would make trading Polanco a considerable risk. Anyway, I, personally, wouldn’t trade Julien, but I understand why anyone would, and I don’t judge. If Julien’s rookie season wasn’t a fluke, the Twins might have in him a tremendous bat for a decade. And if Miranda can figure things out, this Twins lineup can become a serious threat. What do you think? Would you trade Julien right now? If so, what kind of return would you expect?

Lovely story!

Apparently, the Minnesota Twins clubhouse has a lasting impact on a lot of people. Is there anything special about it? Image courtesy of Sportsnet (screenshot) The American League Wild Card series victory over the Toronto Blue Jays was the pinnacle of the Minnesota Twins season and perhaps the happiest moment in Minnesota sports in nearly two decades. The snapping of the losing streak in Game 1 lifted a huge burden off the backs of every Twins fan. The win in Game 2 put us in nirvana and gave us hope we thought impossible. There was nothing that could spoil that. Not even a little bit. Or was there? Well, kind of. While the players and all fans at Target Field celebrated the Twins’ first postseason series win since 2002, a heartbreaking image went somewhat viral on Twins Twitter. A screenshot taken of the Sportsnet broadcast showed former Twins starter José Berríos watching from Toronto’s dugout as his old Minnesota teammates celebrated: After the game, Berríos was interviewed live from the clubhouse. Some said that he seemed to have been crying. That wouldn’t be surprising at all. He was Toronto’s starter for that game, and he was throwing a great game. He took care of the Twins lineup for three innings on only 39 pitches, allowing only one hit, but striking out five. No walks. But the Blue Jays’ manager, John Schneider, had a plan. When Royce Lewis drew a leadoff walk against Berríos in the fourth, Yusei Kikuchi got the call, and “La Mákina” departed the game at only 47 pitches. The Twins took advantage and managed to score two runs against Kikuchi, which ended up being enough to win the game. Perhaps that was the main reason Berríos looked devastated in the dugout as the Twins celebrated. Maybe he was just gazing at nothing, not actually paying too much attention to all the smiling, jumping, and yelling. Unsurprisingly, his early departure from the game was the main topic of the questions asked to Berríos in the clubhouse. But that gaze from the dugout also came up – as great journalism would require. During the interview, only two questions focused on that last part, but those answers really say something about how Berríos feels about the Twins and Minnesota. He first referenced his old home when he was asked how he felt watching the remainder of the game from the dugout. In listing the reasons why he didn't feel so bad, he mentioned how much he enjoyed being in Minnesota and the atmosphere at Target Field. Then, after quickly answering another question about why he was removed from the game–"Honestly, I don't know," he said–those two aforementioned questions about his old teammates had him reminiscing. Why did you stick around to watch the Twins celebrate afterward? – Because I still have brothers over there. Like I've been saying, besides baseball, I respect people. I take care of people. I've got a few brothers over there. I wanted to say congratulations. The next question made him smile awkwardly, and you could tell he was caught off guard. He didn't have a remotely prepared answer. How hard was that moment to watch? – It was a weird feeling because right now, I'm on this side of the dugout, playing for the Blue Jays. I'm very proud of that, and I give my hundred percent. But at the same time, I used to be in Minnesota. The city watched me grow and reach the big leagues, so it was a weird feeling. Finally, the last question kind of went the other way in the sense that it mentioned something that happened after the game that could've been perceived as... not very nice. But Berríos still managed to pay compliments to his old brothers. In talking to a member of the Minnesota Twins, they said they were pretty happy to see you leave the game. How does that make you feel? – That guy was my first pitching coach in the minor leagues when I signed in 2012, Luis Ramírez. He came to me, said 'congratulations,' and gave me a hug. Then I saw [Jorge] Polanco, one of my teammates from 2012, too. They have good people over there. I have to respect that. I’m not a beat reporter. I’m not at the clubhouse daily – Alanna Rizzo would probably hate me – but doesn’t it feel like the Twins clubhouse is, indeed, special? It’s a big sports cliché to say something like this, but it really feels like it’s true for the Twins. Of course, we’re not talking about something supernatural. It’s all about the people who are there every day. For God’s sake, even when Josh Donaldson was in Minnesota, this clubhouse didn’t seem to have any evident issues. Granted, the Twins have been lucky when encountering legit nice guys to bless the clubhouse environment. Eduardo Escobar was perhaps the greatest. Willians Astudillo seemed to be loved by everyone around him. And talk about Brian Dozier, who seemed never to stop smiling. But maybe that’s just a great positive effect you get when you have so many homegrown players in a big league team. It’s very hard not to create a deep bond with people you’ve lived with since your teenage years and into your late twenties or early thirties. Max Kepler and Jorge Polanco shared a wholesome moment last week to prove that: Luis Arráez is another excellent example. Remember how he used to have inside jokes with Twins beat reporter Dan Hayes? That was so cool. And maybe this is just a personal impression, but didn’t he look a bit gloomy in his first days/weeks with the Marlins? Similar to a kid who’s been forced by their parents to change schools and leave behind his crew? Well, seeing Arráez sad should make every Twins fan sad, too, so thank God he was up and smiling again with his new teammates later in the season. Speaking of Arráez, team photographer Brace Hemmelgarn blessed us when the Twins visited the Marlins earlier this year by capturing this lovely interaction between Arráez and Byron Buxton. To me, that moment screamed, “I miss being with you guys so much!” I have no idea if the Twins clubhouse is more special than any other clubhouse. But the fact is that a lot of people seem to feel really happy there. Some fans may dislike certain front office or coaching staff members for baseball reasons, but it seems unfair to dislike them for any other reason. They seem to have built a great clubhouse culture for the Twins. View full article

In an incredibly well-pitched game, the Twins had hopes until the very last pitch of the game, but they couldn’t spark a rally rally. The 2023 Minnesota Twins season is officially over. Image courtesy of Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports Box Score Starting Pitcher: Joe Ryan, 2.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K (26 pitches, 18 strikes, 69.2%) Home Runs: Royce Lewis (4), Edouard Julien (1) Bottom 3 WPA: Jorge Polanco (-.240), Caleb Thielbar (-.202), Max Kepler (-.117) Win Probability Chart (via FanGraphs) Teams exchange solo shots, Ryan gets pulled early The Twins were doomed on Tuesday afternoon after a poor first inning that saw Sonny Gray give up four runs, and Minnesota was unable to bounce back. This time, though, things looked completely different in the early going as Joe Ryan breezed through the top of the first on only ten pitches. Most fans and pundits wanted the Twins not to throw a pitch to Yordan Álvarez in this series anymore, but Ryan had no trouble getting him to fly out to end the inning. The offense was also in business early. Édouard Julien led off the home first with a long double to center. It was of no use, though, as Jorge Polanco hit a very soft liner directly at Jeremy Peña, who was able to tag out Julien quickly for a double play. Despite such a deflating play, the Twins didn’t come out empty-handed. In the following at-bat, Royce Lewis took José Urquidy deep for a line-drive home run to left to make it 1-0 Twins. That was Lewis’ fourth home run this postseason, and he’s now tied with Kirby Puckett for most home runs in a single postseason in franchise history (1991). At four home runs, Lewis is also tied with Greg Gagne for second-most homers all-time in franchise postseason history, behind only Puckett, with five. Ryan looked sharp again in the top of the second, recording two quick outs on only seven pitches. He got a first-pitch strike against Michael Brantley next, but on the very next pitch, Brantley tied the game with a solo home run to deep center. Chas McCormick singled next, but Ryan took care of Peña to end the inning. That’s when things took an unexpected turn. In a surprising move, Rocco Baldelli pulled Ryan from the game after two innings and only 26 pitches. Houston takes the lead with another home run Brock Stewart came in relief of Ryan in the third and took care of business with a 1-2-3 inning on 12 pitches. With the offense going 0-for-7 with a walk after the Lewis home run, the Twins brought lefty Caleb Thielbar in the fourth to face the southpaw trio within the heart of the Astros lineup. He managed to limit Álvarez to a single and struck out Kyle Tucker next. But when righty José Abreu stepped up to the plate, he clobbered an opposite-field two-run shot for his third home run in two days, making it 3-1 Astros. Chris Paddack took over to get the final out of the fourth, and he went on to toss a flawless 1-2-3 fifth with ease, with a pair of punch outs. While Urquidy continued to make Twins hitters look silly by retiring seven in a row, Paddack looked just as brilliant in the sixth with another 1-2-3 effort, this time against hitters three to five. That included a strikeout against Álvarez. Fans might allow themselves to feel very excited about Paddack’s presence in the Twins rotation next year. Twins get one back, get Urquidy out of the game Urquidy made it eight consecutive batters retired when he got Michael A. Taylor to ground out to open the sixth. But his night was about to be over. Julien got his second hit of the night, a solo home run to left, snapping a collective 0-for-14 for the Twins offense since the first inning and cutting Houston’s lead to only one run. Jorge Polanco flied out next, but not before fighting for seven pitches and hitting a bullet (100.7 mph) to deep center. Dusty Baker brought in Hector Neris to try to get the inning’s final out, but Lewis worked a six-pitch walk to keep the Twins rally going. Max Kepler came to the plate representing the go-ahead run, and he got ahead of Neris in the count, 2-0. But the Astros reliever settled down and, with a big help from home plate umpire Jansen Visconti, got Kepler to “strike out”, ending the inning. It’s all about the bullpens, and the Astros hold on Griffin Jax came in to pitch the seventh, and he retired the side, making it ten consecutive Houston batters retired in a row. Had the offense been able to make some noise in the home half, the Twins could get some momentum going. But Neris did a tremendous job tossing a 1-2-3 inning. Then, Jhoan Durán was brought in for the eighth, and he also kept the Twins’ chances alive with a scoreless frame, making it 13 consecutive Astros retired. Target Field got loud in the bottom of the eighth when Byron Buxton walked up to the on-deck circle. Donovan Solano struck out to open the inning, and Buxton had the chance to tie the game next. His at-bat, however, was short-lived. He took the first two pitches for an even count but swung on the third one to pop out to shallow right. Julien struck out next to end the inning, making it seven consecutive Twins batters retired. With the Twins season on the line, Durán needed to put up another zero in the top of the ninth. He handed Álvarez his second strikeout of the night on three pitches, then got Tucker to ground out, taking it to the bag himself. After an Abreu single, Brantley jumped on the first pitch for an easy lineout to center. It was up to Polanco, Lewis, and Kepler against former Twin Ryan Pressly to save Minnesota’s season in the bottom of the ninth. Each of them worked full counts against Pressly, but he didn’t crack, and all three ended up being struck out. Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet SAT SUN MON TUE WED TOT Maeda 43 0 0 25 0 68 Paddack 19 0 0 0 29 48 Ober 0 0 0 38 0 38 Thielbar 18 0 0 0 17 35 Stewart 0 22 0 0 12 34 Durán 0 7 0 0 23 30 Pagán 14 0 0 14 0 28 Jax 0 0 0 9 18 27 Varland 0 0 0 0 0 0 View full article