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Don't look now but it looks like Francisco Liriano might have remembered how to pitch. His last two starts have looked much better than the horrendous pitcher that was on the mound at the beginning of the year. This might be jumping the gun a little since his last two outings came against two poor offenses, the Oakland A's and the Kansas City Royals. The Twins offense couldn't back the strong outing by Liriano because Bruce Chen shut them down at the plate. Jonathan Broxton made the ninth inn
Hitter of the Day: Rene Rivera - C - ROC - AAA: 3-3 HR (3), 2 RBI, 1 R, 1 BB Pitcher of the Day: Francisco Liriano: 6 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 SO. Back-to-back impressive outings. They were against Oakland and Kansas City. Give me 2-3 more starts like this and I'll start to believe. He's always shown the flash, it's the consistency that needs to be there. Good 2 games though! Recap: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AiRVhKu18uIhdDBSYUc5UGtSMkluOEFSWFdnTVdvQVE&output=html
The Twins added another right-handed pitcher from Rice in the 5th round - Tyler Duffey. Duffey currently shares the closer distinction with 2nd round pick J.T. Chargois. While Chargois was the higher-rated prospect, Duffey had the better numbers. Duffey, however, is not the power-pitcher that Chargois is, but will probably be given a chance to start given his ability to throw a low-90s fastball, a slider and a change-up. If the change-up doesn't come around, he'll be shifted back to the bull
The Twins turned Billy Bullock into Scott Diamond, so that was not a bad move. Granted, the Twins could have kept Diamond on the 25 man roster and not given up Bullock, but Diamond was not pitching well enough to stay. I think the Twins did all right with the trade for Diamond. The Twins drafted a bunch of starters last year, and they are doing fairly well. Boer had a good start his last time out after bad starts in his first season at high A ball. If he can string together several more good s
The second round opened with the Twins selecting LHRP Mason Melotakis out of Northwestern State. Unlike Bard before him, who will get a chance to be a starter, Melotakis will most likely start in the bullpen. He sold himself with an excellent performance in the Cape Cod League. Melotakis is a mid-90s power arm that will probably pitch some rookie-ball innings and then join the Beloit bullpen this summer. Nine picks later (and with Mitchell Brown still available!), the Twins took another col
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch --- Here is this week's installment; and it is going to be slight, because of the Draft today and tomorrow: The Twins selected Byron Buxton (OF, HS), Jose Berrios (RHP, HS) and Luke Bard (RHB, College) in the 1st and supplemental rounds of the 2012 Rule 4 Draft. Today will be the second day of live-blogging the Twins Draft. You can find all coverage, including mini-profiles of the draftees here The Twins are now 13-7 in their last 20 games.
Original post from North Dakota Twins Fan ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lDXQDNRTNeE/T81-89L7ggI/AAAAAAAABzs/csxp8S1LVDU/s1600/buxton_draft.jpg When the Houston Astros made a surprise selection of Carlos Correa with the first pick of the 2012 MLB Draft, the Twins were left with a decision of picking between high school outfielder Byron Buxton and college pitcher Mark Appel. Before the draft started on Monday night, it seemed that Appel was going to be a sure bet for the number one s
[TABLE=class: tr-caption-container] http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2VP0rHEdKqw/T83661ORGDI/AAAAAAAAAYY/0qZSkBTfdnI/s320/Jose.bmp [TD=class: tr-caption]Jose Mijares doesn't look much thinner in 2012, but he has been much more effective. [/TD] [/TABLE] [Originally published at Twins Fan From Afar] I was somewhat surprised last winter when the Twins declined to offer portly lefty reliever Jose Mijares a contract for 2012. Joe Christensen of the Star Tribune guessed that the Twins would have e
With all the draft stuff going on, I missed yesterday's getting ready for it. Just doing a recap today, but couple pieces of note. - Madison Boer wins his first game for Ft. Myers on Sunday going 5 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 SO. Lowered his ERA to 9.39 so you can see how bad of a start he'd been on. With the draft today, important to look back to 2011 and Boer was a 2nd round pick with pretty high ceiling. Hopefully this is a start of a better run, better than his first 6 starts! - Oswaldo Arci
Of the drafts the have had the last decade or so, I think it’s safe to say that the two first round picks for which the Twins took the most hear were 2001 and 2007. It might be worth noting just how ridiculous both of those look right now. In 2001, the Twins took Joe Mauer as the #1 pick and were lambasted for being too damn cheap and possibly blinded by a local kid. In 2007, the fiscal-based criticism was similar when they drafted Ben Revere and it was compounded by a perception that the Twins
Last year we posted our most popular blog post ever...more popular than the blog about Delmon being gone, more popular than the blog about our love, more popular even than that time we published a new JD Salinger short story under our own names. It was a draft-analysis in 5 words or less--sometimes it was logical, far more often it was totally inane (what else can you do for "Nick Burdi"--other than say it reminds you of "watch the birdie!"). Now, moments after the Twins made Byr
How many Twins starting pitchers do you have confidence in? For me, the list begins and ends with Scott Diamond. How sad is that? Check this out: Through Sunday's games, the average AL starter gives his team just under 6 IP/GS with a 4.33 ERA. The Twins have gotten just 5 1/3 IP/GS with a 6.18 ERA. With league average starting pitching, the Twins would have allowed 41 fewer ER in 34.1 more IP. That reduced workload on the bullpen (3.58 ERA) saves another 14 ER, for a total of 55 fewer RA. The
Tonight at 6:00 central time, the MLB Draft will commence. We have heard now that the Astros will select Stanford right-hander and Houston native Mark Appel. That means that the Minnesota Twins will have their pick of every other eligible player. I have freely said that I will not be at all disappointed if the Twins take a college pitcher like Kyle Zimmer or Kevin Gausman, the college catcher Mike Zunino or high school bats like OF Byron Buxton or IF Carlos Correa. In fact, although there is
[TABLE=class: tr-caption-container] http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LNxZoVqMnpg/T8uwq_-e_SI/AAAAAAAAAYM/dlqtJMBfYWk/s400/Herrmann.jpg [TD=class: tr-caption]Chris Herrmann (courtesy of Tia Ann Chapman, Hartford Courant) [/TD] [/TABLE] [Originally published at Twins Fan From Afar] The Minnesota Twins used their sixth round selection in 2009 to draft Chris Herrmann, a native of Tomball, Texas. Herrmann transferred from Alvin Community College to the University of Miami. He had been drafted i
Original post from North Dakota Twins Fan http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3ftP6wghsQ4/T8wu4YaZSzI/AAAAAAAAByA/4U98fG4JcrQ/s320/2012MLBDraftPrimer.jpg A little after 6 p.m. CT on Monday night, the Minnesota Twins will be making a franchise altering pick when the scouting staff and the front office will decide on the number two pick in the 2012 MLB Draft. On the heels of a disappointing 2011 season, the Twins earned the second pick in the first round based on the fact that the team finished with the s
Jose Rodriguez was the Twins Daily short-season minor-league hitter of the year. He is at the Dominican facilities for spring training now but will likely join Extended Spring Training in Fort Myers.
I really hold back what I would like to say about then payroll arguments here. The fact that people don't accept the amount taken in dictates the amount going out requires one of two things. Extreme financial ignorance or fanatical bias that prevents the acceptance of something some basic. I did not change the argument. It's the same idiocy over and over. Do you really want to be on the side that suggests revenues does not determine spending capacity?
The Twins Daily Caretaker Fund
I really hold back what I would like to say about then payroll arguments here. The fact that people don't accept the amount taken in dictates the amount going out requires one of two things. Extreme financial ignorance or fanatical bias that prevents the acceptance of something some basic. I did not change the argument. It's the same idiocy over and over. Do you really want to be on the side that suggests revenues does not determine spending capacity?· 0 replies
