This off-season has been a lucrative one for back end of the bullpen pitchers. Former Twins closer Joe Nathan signed with the Detroit Tigers for 2-years and around $20 million. That's good money for a man closing in on age 40 that had Tommy John surgery not that long ago. The Braves also locked up their ninth inning man, Craig Kimbrel, to a 4-year, $42 million contact that will see him be one of the highest paid closers by the end of the deal. It's safe to say it's a decent time to be a closer.
ESPN's Sweetspot blog posted an interesting entry earlier today looking at the top teams in relation to their "core five" players. They took the top five men from each roster and compiled their Baseball Reference WAR totals to come up with a top ten list. Obviously the better players you have, the more likely you are to be a very good team. Out of their top ten list, eight of the teams qualified for the postseason last year. There's no surprise that Minnesota didn't crack the top ten list. Howev
Some of the buzz of the Twitter world yesterday was surrounding the Twins and who should be the lead-off hitter when the team heads north from spring training. Ron Gardenhire would like one of the center field candidates to run away with thelead-off job but he had a surprise name as a back-up plan. With the ways things are starting to take shape, the team might have to get crafty with men near the top of the order. Here is a look at some of the candidates for the lead-off spot. Some of the men
The Arizona Diamondbacks will be dealing with a problem this spring that many other organizations would love to have to deal with. There are two shortstops on their roster who look to be ready to be everyday players at the big league level. Incumbent Didi Gregorius will be battling with top prospect Chris Owings for the starting spot over the next few weeks. Owings, a 21-year, won the Pacific Coast League MVP last season by hitting .330/.359/.482 with 51 extra-base hits. He is-clearly a better
Members of the Minnesota Twins struck out 1,430 times last season. In the history of the Twins organization, no team had struck out more than 1,121 times (1997 team). That was the only year since the team moved to Minnesota that the club recorded more than 1,100 times. Over the last three seasons, Minnesota strikeout totals have increased every year. It has been a rough couple of seasons and there have been some inexperienced players trying to make their mark at the big league level. Players l
Earlier this week, the Sporting News released their list of the most iconic moment for each MLB team. Some teams are tied to some of the best moments in the history of the sport while other teams top moments aren't too memorable outside of their home market. That's the nature of these kinds of lists. For Twins fans, it is pretty easy to put Kirby Puckett's walk-off home run in Game 6 of the 1991 World Series at the top of the list. The '91 World Series might be the best Fall Classic of all time
A lot of the buzz coming out of Target Field this weekend surrounded top prospects Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano. The lines for autographs from these two players was very extensive and neither of them has an at-bat at higher than the Double-A level. This is a lot of hype surrounding two men who are a few months removed from being teenagers. If Minnesota is going to get out of the rut of the last three seasons, top prospects like Buxton and Sano will have to come up and perform at a high level.
Minnesota is widely considered to have one of the game's best farm systems. It helps to have two of the best prospects in all of baseball, Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano. The Twins have also done well to acquire some top notch pitching talent over the last couple of years in the form of Alex Meyer, Kohl Stewart, and Lewis Thorpe. MLB.com will be unveiling their list of the top 100 prospects in baseball on Thursday, which should include a number of players from the Twins organization. Buxton and
Ron Gardenhire slowly walked out to the mound at Kauffman Stadium for a move that he didn't really want to make. Andrew Albers pitched into the ninth inning without allowing a run and it was his big league debut.Unfortunately, his pitch count had run up to 109 and it was time to get the bullpen involved. It was a tremendous debut and it was hard to imagine things getting better from there... but they would. In his next outing, Albers was even more impressive. In front of the Target Field fai
February 17, 2014 is the reporting day for pitchers and catchers in the Twins organization. Some players will head to Florida knowing their roster spot is locked-in while others will toil with wondering what the future might bring. Glen Perkins, the Twins All-Star closer, was the last man I profiled and he is basically guaranteed a spot on the 25-man roster. This reporting date will also mark a new era for the franchise as the team spent a significant amount of money on free agent pitching for
Every offseason fans can sit back and reflect on the year that was for the Minnesota Twins. There are usually some high points and some low points for any team no matter what their place in the standings. Unfortunately for the Twins, there have been more low points than high points over the last three seasons. Last year's roster featured a few players in the midst of a breakout season. Brian Dozier set the franchise record for home runs by a second baseman and he backed that up with terrific u
As the Twins get closer to heading to Fort Myers, there will be plenty of decisions to make in relation to the 25-man roster. Some positions are likely set in stone while others are still questionable. In this series called "25-Man Roster Dissection," I have selected the men I believe will spend the most time on the 25-man roster next season and I try to predict each player's 2014 performance. Besides Joe Mauer, who was the first profile, Glen Perkins was the only other 2014 Twins All-Star. Th
As the Twins get closer to heading to Fort Myers, there will be plenty of decisions to make in relation to the 25-man roster. Some positions are likely set in stone while others are still questionable. In this series called "25-Man Roster Dissection." I have selected the men I believe will spend the most time on the 25-man roster next season and I try to predict each player's 2014 performance. There seems to be one logical place to start with the roster and that's with the club's 23-million do
It could be easy for Twins uber prospect Byron Buxton to approach this offseason with a big head. He is coming off of one of the best minor league seasons in Twins history. Baseball America recently honored him with their top award as the best minor league player for 2013. Buxton is being compared to super-star players like Mike Trout and that can make it tough to motivate yourself. When a player is considered head and shoulders above his peers, an attitude of complacency can emerge. Buxton de
Josmil Pinto is one of the top prospects in the Twins organization. Make sure to order the 2014 Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook to learn more about the Twins minor league system. Click here to see more of what's in the book. After the Twins and Joe Mauer announced the All-Star Catcher wouldn't be playing catcher moving forward, Minnesota's name was rumored to be involved with many of the top catchers on the free agent market. AJ Pierzynski and Jarrod Saltalamacchia were two of the most talk
Over the weekend, word came out that the Twins would sign Mike Pelfrey to a two-year $11 million deal. This is the third free agent starter the Twins have added this season as the team already agreed to terms with Ricky Nolasco and Phil Hughes. With Kevin Corriea under contract for another year, Minnesota's starting rotation is filling up rather quickly but there are still some questions to about the final rotation spot. The Twins had one of the worst starting rotations in all of baseball last
There are some benefits to Minnesota's finish near the bottom of the AL for the third straight year. Later this week, the Twins will have a top five pick in this year's Rule 5 Draft. For those not familiar, the Rule 5 Draft allows MLB teams to claim players not protected by their parent club on the team's 40-man roster. There obviously some rules to this process. Players first signed at age 18 must be added to 40-man rosters within five seasons or they become eligible to be drafted by other or
One of the benefits of being a bad team for multiple seasons is the fact the Twins have been able to replenish some of their farm system with high draft picks the last two years. Add these players into a group that already included some top-notch talent and the future of the Twins organization continues to look bright. Throughout the offseason there will be plenty of prospect lists released by a variety of media outlets. There are always differences between how people view the particular talen
The Twins were doing their own shopping over the busy Thanksgiving weekend. According to multiple reports, starting pitcher Ricky Nolasco will sign a four-year, $49 million contract. When this deal is finalized, it will be the largest free agent contract in the organization's history. Minnesota had been rumored to be pushing hard for Nolasco and they were able to land their man. The Twins didn't stop there as reports surfaced on Sunday night of the Twins agreeing to terms with Phil Hughes.
One of the benefits of being a bad team for multiple seasons is the fact the Twins have been able to replenish some of their farm system with high draft picks the last two years. Add these players into a group that already included some top-notch talent, and the future of the Twins organization continues to look bright. Throughout the offseason there will be plenty of prospect lists released by a variety of media outlets. There are always differences between how people view the particular tale
Word is slowly starting to trickle out about a 50-game suspension that will be handed down to Twins second base prospect Eddie Rosario. He apparently told the manager of his winter league squad that he wouldn't be able to play because of his pending suspension. The official suspension won't be announced until the league can resolve an issue on their end. Rosario is a converted outfield who by most accounts is top ten prospect in the organization. His quick wrists have helped him to become one
There are plenty of questions for the Twins to find answers to in the coming months. One of the biggest conundrums swirling around the team is trying to figure out who will make up the starting rotation. Kevin Correia seems like the only lock for a starting job but the Twins don't really want him as the staff ace. So what direction should the team go? If the season started today, the Twins would likely enter the year with a rotation composed of Kevin Correia, Kyle Gibson, Scott Diamond, Vance
Last offseason, the Minnesota Twins traded two of their most important outfield pieces, Denard Span and Ben Revere. There were plenty of reasons for doing this but the main reason was the team needed to add some pitching prospects to their minor league system. The club also felt Aaron Hicks was close to being ready to take over the everyday center field job. It's nearly a year later and things might already be falling apart for both of these players in their new organizations. Reports have beg
The Twins made it official on Monday... Joe Mauer's days behind the plate are over. After consulting with doctors at Mayo Clinic, it was felt that Mauer needed to avoid the chance of re-injuring himself at the roughest position on the baseball field. Even though Mauer is now symptom free and able to go about his regular offseason routine, the club felt this was in the best interest of the team and their star player. The move away from catcher has been something Mauer has tried to avoid in
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 2014 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
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
