Looking back at the Twins fourth straight 90-loss season doesn't have to be full of glum recollections of another horrible year. There were plenty of bright spots throughout the Twins roster. Brian Dozier did something only a handful of Twins players have ever done. Phil Hughes set an all-time MLB record. Plus young players like Danny Santana were sure fun to watch. Every year at the end of the season, I look back at the Twins year and try and handout some end of the season awards. Many of the
On Wednesday, Phil Hughes made his final start of the season for the Twins. It capped a memorable first year in Minnesota for the former Yankees pitcher. He signed with the club as the lesser of two big off-season upgrades to the rotation but he turned out to be the staff ace. One of the most amazing parts of this season for Hughes has been his ability to completely eliminate walks while still being a very effective pitcher. For the entire season, Hughes had 16 walks charged to him over the co
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
"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?
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
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
This is the third post in a series looking at different story lines in relation to the Twins as the season comes to a close (Part 1: Starting Rotation, Part 2: Prospect Promotions) September has been a rough month over the last three seasons and this year is continuing to follow that trend. The moto of the month might be "Wake Me Up When September Ends" but there seems to be a small glimmer of hope on the horizon. This could give you a reason to still pay attention over the final weeks. At the
Things are starting to wind down in the minor league season and this means plenty of very important games for Twins' affiliates. The Kernels entered Sunday with a chance to clinch and the Red Wings are right in the middle of the wild card hunt. This means every at-bat and every pitch are very important. The same can't be said for the MLB version of the Twins. They are out of the playoff chase but they can still upset a few teams along the way. After pounding the Detroit Tigers in the first two
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'
The big story of the night was star pitching prospect Kohl Stewart being pulled very early in his start by the Cedar Rapids training staff. His fastball usually sits in the mid-90s but he was topping out anywhere from 88-90 mph. The Twins have come out and said they removed him for precautionary reasons. With not many games left in the minor league season, it would be surprising to see Stewart on the mound again in 2014. With Stewart out of the game early, would the Kernels be able to continue
The big story of the night was star pitching prospect Kohl Stewart being pulled very early in his start by the Cedar Rapids training staff. His fastball usually sits in the mid-90s but he was topping out anywhere from 88-90 mph. The Twins have come out and said they removed him for precautionary reasons. With not many games left in the minor league season, it would be surprising to see Stewart on the mound again in 2014. With Stewart out of the game early, would the Kernels be able to continue
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
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
A day after being part of a no-hitter that he started three weeks ago, Trevor May did something else that was a little strange; he pitched in relief for the Twins game. This was something he hadn't done since 2010 at the High-A level. After a rough big league debut, it was probably nice for May to get back on the mound and prove he belongs at the big league level. It was a strange day in the minor leagues. Two Twins' affiliates had weather interfere with their game and one team had to finish a
The biggest Twins story of the weekend was the call-up and debut on right-handed pitching prospect Trevor May. Fans have been clamoring for months to see May or his Rochester counterpart Alex Meyer. This new version of the M&M boys is supposed to provide some stability to a lack-lust Twins rotation but only time will tell. One of the stories lost in the hype of May's debut was the demotion of Chris Colabello. The 30-year old former independent league standout is heading back to Triple-A fo
Besides swapping Sam Fuld for Tommy Milone, the Twins didn't make a major trade at the non-waiver trade deadline. There were rumors about Kurt Suzuki or Josh Willingham ending up in a new uniform but those rumors never came to fruition. Even though the team has been in the midst of a rough three year stretch, the club hasn't been very active around July 31st trade deadline. One clear move made by the front office signals a lot for the future make-up of the franchise. Kurt Suzuki signed a two-y
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
When a team could be heading for its fourth consecutive 90-loss season, the trade deadline can be a bit of a bummer. The Twins have had the opportunity to deal veteran players over the last couple of seasons but nothing has happened. Minnesota sticks with the players on their roster while not getting anything back for some of their expiring contracts. Earlier in the week, I took a look at some of the possible trade candidates on the current Twins roster. These players are all veterans and ther
The Florida State League announced that Byron Buxton was that league's player of the week. In games played from July 14-20 and he went 10-for-20 at the plate with one triple, two home runs, four runs batted in and scored six runs. Buxton is currently listed as day-to-day after being hit on the wrist by a pitch. He is expected to be back in the line-up by the end of this week. There were a few different roster moves made throughout the system on Tuesday. Yohan Pino was recalled by the Twins to
Welcome to the unofficial midpoint of the 2014 Twins season. After teasing fans for different portions of the first half, the Twins find themselves in a familiar position at the break, last place in the AL Central. The Twins enter the break six games under .500 and 10.5 games behind the Detroit Tigers for the top spot in the division. Even though the team's record might not show it, there have been some positive things happening for the Twins this year. Kurt Suzuki and Phil Hughes are looking li
The festivities are underway in the Twin Cities as Minnesota plays host to the MLB All-Star Game. The major league players still had games to play on Sunday but the some of the best and brightest minor league players were on hand to strut their stuff. Twins pitching prospect Jose Berrios got the start for the World squad and Kennys Vargas was in the middle of the batting order to back him up. Berrios struck out the first batter he faced on a high fastball and both of the other batters flied out
Welcome to July! Minnesota's offense busted out the fireworks a couple days early with a big performance against the Royals. The biggest news of the night might have been Joe Mauer being pulled from the game with what is being called an oblique strain. Mauer told reporters after the game that he has been dealing with a sore oblique for about a week and it doesn't feel good. This is bad news especially since Mauer's bat had seemed to be warming up in recent weeks. The Twins offense wasn't th
Minnesota will host the All-Star Game in a little more than a couple weeks and this is the time of year where pundits start debating who should and who shouldn't be on the All-Star Game roster. One of the most exciting events in almost 30 years since Minnesota last hosted the game is the Home Run Derby. In 1985,the last year the Twins were the host, the first HR Derby was held and this event has exploded to a full-day prime-time event. It's always nice for the home team to have a participant
On Tuesday afternoon, the rosters for the MLB Future's game were announced and it included two Twins players, Jose Berrios and Kennys Vargas. Word came out on Wednesday that Rochester Red Wings starter Trevor May would be added to US roster to replace Cardinals LHP Marco Gonzalez who made his big league debut. May is in the middle of a breakout season at Triple-A. Since the beginning of May, he's gone 7-3 with a 2.35 ERA over 10 starts. This could set up a situation similar to last year when t
If not for injuries to top prospects Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton, it's likely that both players would be heading to their second straight Futures Game. With both players on the shelf, the Twins will have the opportunity to showcase some of their other top talent on Sunday of All-Star week. The rosters were announced for the MLB Future's Game on Tuesday and the Twins will be represented by first baseman Kennys Vargas and right-handed pitcher Jose Berrios. Vargas is near the top of the Twins mi
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
