In one of the most surprising pieces of Twins from the off-season, word has slowly trickled out that the Twins will be sporting a new look when it comes to their home uniforms. The first major change to their home uniforms since the 1987 season, the first World Championship year. According to multiple sources, the team is shedding their pinstripes from their home whites for 2015. The letting will stay the same on the front of the uniforms but the club will add gold as a drop shadow behind the
Baseball is in the in-between time before players head to spring training and after most of the off-season moves have been made. This gives me some time to jump back into one of the more popular off-season series here at NoDak Twins Fan. Lots of people can debate who was the best player in an organization's history. For Minnesota, the argument can be made in favor of Harmon Killebrew, Kirby Puckett, Rod Carew, and a few others. It's fun to look at the other side of the coin and examine who som
In the doldrums of the off-season there can be some points where there isn't a lot happening in Twins Territory. It seems as if the front office it done making any major moves. Some of the players headed out on the Twins Caravan at the beginning of the week and Twins Fest is slowly approaching. Two off-seasons ago I ventured out into a series on the "Worst Twins of All-Time." This can be an entertaining look into some of the worst players to ever suit up in a Twins uniform. Here is a rundown
Welcome back to one of the most popular off-season series here at NoDak Twins Fan, the Worst Twins of All-Time. There have already been eight profiles of some players that played their worst while wearing a Twins uniform. Luckily most of the players went on to have careers beyond their time in Minnesota. Today's edition to the series pitch less than 52 innings for the team but he was bad enough in that time to make the list. Welcome to the dubious club, John Pacella. Pacella was drafted in th
Bud Selig is set to retire this off-season after 22 years at the helm of Major League Baseball. Rob Manfred has already been voted in as his successor, a position he has been groomed for over since starting to work for MLB in 1998. The 55-year old Manfred will have a variety of issues on his plate as he takes over from the 80-year old Selig. During Selig's tenure as commissioner, baseball has been marked by a variety of ups and downs. A large growth in attendance has increased revenue across t
Well the wait is finally over. It took the Twins over a month and multiple interviews to finally settle on the man many believed would be the guy for the job from the beginning. Paul Molitor will be named the 13th manager in Twins history at the beginning of this week. He will also be only the third manager in nearly the last three decades following in the line of Tom Kelly (1986-2001) and Ron Gardenhire (2002-2014). Molitor takes over a Twins team that has lost 92 or more games in each of the
Clayton Kershaw is in the midst of one of the best pitching seasons in baseball history. He looks to be a lock for the National League Cy Young and there's a chance he could win the NL MVP. Even after missing a chunk of games at the beginning of the season, he has rebounded to post one of the best seasons on record. Starting pitching seems to be one of the areas the Twins are struggling to find success. There hasn't been a player of Kershaw's caliber in the Twins rotation since the Johan Santa
His name is Walker, Adam Brett Walker. Last season Kris Bryant and Joey Gallo were hitting home runs out of minor league parks at an alarming rate. Now each of these minor league home run leaders is making their mark at the big league level. With Bryant and Gallo graduated to baseball's highest level, there will almost certainly be a new minor league home run champion this season. Twins prospect Adam Brett Walker is in the running for this title after a quick start to his season. He's hittin
For baseball fans across the Upper Midwest, Tony Oliva has become one of the most well known personalities. His infectious smile and broken English endeared him to any smiling face with a hand to shake and a baseball to sign. Tony O has become a legend but it's amazing to think of how close he was to never having a baseball career. These trials and tribulations form the backdrop of the recent book release, Tony Oliva: The Life and Times of a Minnesota Twins Legend by Thom Henninger. Oliva, a C
One of the highlights of the off-season for a core of Twins fans is the release of the Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook. Seth Stohs has worked to put together this fantastic book for the last seven years. In 2012, he gave me my first taste of helping with the book. By 2013, I was writing an article for the annual and for the last three years I have been among a trio of writers that includes Jeremy Nygaard, Stohs, and myself. I already released the first part of my top 30 list and there are so
As the finishing touches are being put on the 2015 Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook (CLICK HERE to order last year's version for 30% off), my mind has been focused on many of the young players that are making up one of the strongest farm systems in baseball. There are a lot of big names like Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano in the system and the hope is that those players turn out to be All-Star caliber players for years to come. There are also players that might not end up being in contention fo
It has been a year of good and bad performances in Minnesota. Unfortunately, there has probably been more bad than good. On the positive side of things, Phil Hughes has put together the best season of his professional career, Danny Santana has done some good things as a rookie, and the duo of Kennys Vargas and Oswaldo Arcia seem to be able to mash the ball out of any park. There have been some players that haven't lived up to expectations for various parts of the year. Those players are try
There are plenty of ways to go about trying to fix the Twins team but some patience might be required as the club waits for some younger pieces to work their way through the minor leagues. The Twins Daily crew put out some solid information in the 2015 Offseason Handbook. One of the best parts to read about this document is the blueprint plans put together by the writers. There are plenty of options for the Twins but here is how I would go about trying to fix the team. Some of these ideas will
One of the highlights of the off-season for a core of Twins fans is the release of the Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook. Seth Stohs has worked to put together this fantastic book for the last seven years. In 2012, he gave me my first taste of helping with the book. By 2013, I was writing an article for the annual and for the last three years I have been among a trio of writers that includes Jeremy Nygaard, Stohs, and myself. In the first part of my top 30 list there are a core of young pitche
This is the first in a series of posts looking at different parts of the Twins roster as the season starts to wind down. There have been some rough moments at the end of the last few seasons. The moto of the last few seasons might have been "Wake Me Up When September Ends" but this season might be a little different as there seems to be a little hope on the horizon. That hope might mean you won't want to sleep through this September. August is slowly winding down and this points towards anothe
This is the second in a series of posts looking at different parts of the Twins roster as the season winds down. Clearly, there have been some rough moments at the end of the last few seasons. The moto of those years might have been "Wake Me Up When September Ends" but the hope is that this year will be a little different. Overall, there seems to be a little hope on the horizon. That hope might mean you won't want to sleep through this September. Earlier in the week, I looked at how this year'
Max Kepler has been featured up and down Twins prospect lists since the Twins signed him as a teenager out of Europe. The list of successful major league players born in Europe is small but there's always been a little something extra with Kepler. His parents were both professional dancers so he's got a strong athletic background. Minnesota took it slow with Kepler allowing him to play three years in the rookie leagues. Over the last two seasons, he has worked through both Low-A and High-A and
"To win the game, you've gotta score more runs than the other team"--- Ricky Henderson, baseball's all-time running scoring leader Baseball can be a very simple game but it always comes back to scoring more runs than the other team. This has always been the case and teams are challenged by how they should go about accomplishing this task. Should a team try and out slug the opposition to win in a high scoring fashion? Should a team use small ball to try and poke their way back into a game?
For fans of the Twins minor league system, there were three of the organizations best pitching prospects all on the mound in one night. This is about as exciting as it gets, folks. Rochester starter Alex Meyer had pitched five straight starts of six innings by allowing two earned runs or less. New Britain starter Jose Berrios was making his fourth start at Double-A and he combined to pitch 13 innings of two-run ball in his last two starts. Lewis Thorpe has been showing signs of improvement eve
Defense wins championships. In the baseball world, this cliche might not be completely true. Otherwise, there would be teams full of Andrelton Simmons-type players. There are a lot of other factors that go into the overall equation. Teams need offense, they need pitching, and sometimes a little luck goes a long way. Baseball line-ups aren't usually built with a defensive as the first priority. Rosters usually need to have the right combination of defense and offense. You can hide a Josh Will
On August 12, 1994 baseball went away. This week marked the 20th anniversary of the end of that season, a season that could have included many historical events. ESPN wrote earlier this week about Tony Gwynn's chase for .400, Matt Williams hunting down Roger Maris' home run record, and the Montreal Expos possible trip to the World Series. All of these events didn't take place because of the 1994 strike. The 1994 Twins also missed out on what could have been some important moments. Minnesota
2015 was supposed to be his season, his moment. After working his way through two different minor league systems over three years, Alex Meyer was on the cusp of making his major league debut. In fact, Baseball Prospectus had him ranked as the 14th best prospect in baseball, his highest ranking on any national list during his professional career. As Meyer entered his age-25 season at last year's TwinsFest, he compared his age to that of another late bloomer, Randy Johnson. Meyer said, "Randy
Late last week word came out that the Atlanta Braves would not tender contracts to right-handed pitchers Kris Medlen and Brandon Beachy. At one point in the not so distant past both of these players figured into Atlanta's long-term starting rotation plans but now both are recovering from their second Tommy John surgeries. Medlen has shown more promise than Beachy at the big league level. He won a combined 25 games in 2012 and 2013. He excelled as a reliever and starter in 2012, when he was 10-
The 2014 season was a breakout year for Brian Dozier. He seemed to be maturing as a hitter right before the eyes of Twins fans. He combined power and speed to be the first Twins player in a decade to record a 20 HR-20 steal season. However, there was more behind his season than the numbers that will appear on the back of next year's trading card. Dozier finished third in all of baseball in the amount of pitches seen in 2014. The only American League player to finish ahead of him was the presum
This is the first time in Ron Gardenhire's life that he hasn't been actively involved in baseball since his youth. However, it doesn't mean he wouldn't like to be back in the action. Fox Sports is reporting Gardenhire hired an agent for the first time in decades to "monitor possible managerial openings." Since there are currently no openings, he isn't actively pursuing a position but he's open to considering all possibilities. There's also no reason to hurry since he had a year remaining on h
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?
At this point in the pre-season, I’m just so happy to be seeing games again, I don’t care about the Twins record in 2023. I think they’ll win it all, unrealistically speaking 🙂
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
