Something isn't right with Scott Diamond. The man who was supposed to be a calming force in the Twins starting rotation has become a punching bag for opponents. He hasn't won a game since June 20th and he gave up four runs in a little over five innings in that start. A sophomore slump has hit Diamond hard and it's tough to know what the Twins can do about it. Since June 9th, Diamond has struggled mightily on mound. In his eight starts during that stretch, he has failed to make it into the fi
At the beginning of the season, I devoted an entire week to make predictions about the upcoming MLB season. These predictions can be fun especially with all of the surprises that surround the game of baseball. I had the Toronto Blue Jays winning the AL East... oops. There are going to be a few swings and misses. With the All-Star Game over and done with, let's take a look back at the first half of the season and see who's in line for each of NoDak Twins Fan's end of the season awards. There ar
Much like the Major League squads, the best players at the Triple-A level gathered for their All-Star Game on Wednesday evening. The Rochester Red Wings had two representatives, Chris Colabello and Andrew Albers, and they both played roles in different parts of the game. Colabello was the starting first baseman for the International League team and he batted in the third spot in the order. After not hitting any home runs in the Triple-A Home Run Derby, Colabello looked to make some noise with
The Twins needed to make some kind of change during the All-Star break because the team scuffled in the week's leading up to the Mid-Summer Classic. There was going to be some players sent packing to Rochester and some fresh faces on the Twins roster. It had to happen and there were going to be some surprising names that would come up in the discussion for demotion. There is pressure on multiple people in the Twins organization to find a way to be respectable in 2013. Ron Gardenhire is in the
Sporting News had an interesting article up in the middle of last week, which looked at 20 memorable one-time All-Stars. There are going to be guys every season who make the All-Star team and won't be back for the rest of their careers. Especially with the new rules allowing the managers to add extra pitchers to the team if starters on the roster pitch on the Sunday before the break. It sure seems like a lot of players end up on the roster and that might not necessarily be a good thing. But th
The New Britain Rock Cats didn't have a game on Wednesday evening but multiple players from their team were taking part in the Eastern League All-Star Game. New Britain was also the host city for the event and there were plenty of ESPN personalities at the event since it is so close to the headquarters of the four letter network. Danny Santana started the game at shortstop and was the lead-off hitter for the Eastern Divison. He went 0-for-2 with a strikeout. Josmil Pinto was the only player on
The Twins announced on Tuesday that Michael Tonkin would be called up to make his MLB debut. The 23-year old right-handed relief pitcher has been in the Twins organization since 2008. He was drafted in the 30th round that year out of high school and he spent the last six seasons working his way through the minor leagues. Tonkin was used as a starter in the lower level of the minors and he got mixed results. In 2009, he started nine games for the GCL Twins and posted a 3.62 ERA with 60 strikeo
After an injury plagued 2011 season, the Twins had to take an alternative approach with Joe Mauer and his time on the defensive side of the ball. He started 72 games at catcher, 42 games at DH, and 30 games at first base. It was the first time in Mauer's career when he started played over 100 games and didn't play at least 90 games behind the plate. In spring training, Mauer made it be known that he wanted to play more time at catcher. Ron Gardenhire and the Twins front office have allowed Ma
The Minnesota Twins will host the 2014 All-Star Game at Target Field but a plethora of their former players will gather a year early for the Mid-Summer Classic. Seven former members of the organization will join current Twins players Joe Mauer and Glen Perkins. It would have been great to see all of these nine men on the field in Minneapolis so maybe they can all continue playing well for the next calendar year. Many Twins fans are familiar with the year's being put together by Perkins and Mau
Many of the Twins minor league affiliates celebrated Independence Day early with offensive explosions. The Red Wings and the Miracle had men up and down their line-ups knock in runs to help their clubs to come out victorious. There were a few minor league news and notes that took place on Wednesday afternoon. Catcher Danny Lehmann was released by the club after spending time on the disable list this season. He had only played 18 games this season and he was a career .229/.317/.301 hitter.
Down the stretch they come! Well, at least as far as voting goes for the 2013 MLB All-Star Game in New York City. There can be some debate over who should make the club. Some voters like to pick out the players that have had the best first half of a season in 2013. Others look at the last calendar year and try and pick out the rosters based on those performances. Today I break down the American League roster. There are some tough decisions at a couple positions but there are some ways to bre
The Twins had a back and forth game on a beautiful afternoon at Target Field. Unfortunately, the club came out on the losing side of their match-up with the Royals. There were home runs from Justin Morneau, Trevor Plouffe, and Clete Thomas but it still wasn't enough. The bullpen gave up four runs in the last four frames for a tough loss. In minor league news, RHP AJ Achter was transferred to Rochester from New Britain. It will be his first trip to Triple-A. Achter had appeared in 24 games as a
Another week of baseball's regular season has come and gone. For the Twins there was plenty of news this week. The Marlins turned out to be pesky but they have been surprising more than one team in the National League so far this season. Kyle Gibson will be making his big league debut on Saturday and this is a moment to get a little bit excited about. Twins fans have heard his name for multiple seasons. Ryan Doumit had a cool slide, Byron Buxton is good at baseball, and the trade deadline is
The 2009 MLB Draft has to feel like eons ago to Mr. Kyle Gibson. He was supposed to be a high first round pick but some injury concerns caused him to drop to the Twins with the 22nd pick. In 2010, he went on a tear through the Twins farm system as he started in High-A and finished the year at Triple-A. The club named him the minor league pitcher of the year and he looked to be one step away from the big leagues. Tommy John surgery would halt his progress in 2011 and he has been slowly working
MLB made it official on Wednesday afternoon. Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton are the "future" and they will both be participants in this year's MLB Futures Game. This game features some of the best talent in the minor leagues from each organization. The teams are broken up into a World Team and a US Team so Sano and Buxton will be on opposite squads. Because of some rainouts on Tuesday, there were a ton of games in the Twins system on Wednesday. Let's see who else is part of the Twins future.
The end of June is quickly approaching and this means it is a little over a month away from the July 31st trade deadline. Things have started to look a little better for the Twins but the club is still in the bottom half of the AL Central. This should mean the club will be sellers at this year's trade deadline. As I have stated previously, the Twins focus should be on contending again by 2015. Joe Mauer will be the veteran bat in the middle of the line-up surrounded by other young players like
The Twins put together a solid series against the White Sox to earn a three-game sweep. The rival Sox are plummeting in the AL Central but it is still nice to beat a hated foe. Powerful offensive performances and some decent pitching helped to club in the series. Now it will be time to see what the team can do when they head out on the road for a couple of series. Some of the other Twins headlines from this week included: Justin Morneau finally ended the longest home run drought of his career,
The Cedar Rapids Kernels are in the midst of their All-Star break so they were out of action on Wednesday night. This didn't stop the Twins from announcing that one of their top prospects, Max Kepler, would be joining that club. He had been at extended spring training as he worked to recover from an elbow injury. The power hitting outfielder will take over a corner outfield spot since Byron Buxton is manning center field in Cedar Rapids. Liam Hendriks was also reinstated from the disabled list
Love 'em or hate 'em, the Yankees are headed to town in early July. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the first of four Twins postseason defeats at the hands of the Bronx Bombers, so we thought we'd take the opportunity to look back at what has been a lopsided -- but always entertaining and memorable -- rivalry between the two franchises. Over the next couple weeks leading up to the Yankees series at Target Field, various writers here at Twins Daily will look back at some of the Yankee mom
The middle of June has come and gone and there is no sign of Kyle Gibson in the Twin Cities. Teams like the Rays and the Mets are calling up top prospects like Wil Myers and Zack Wheeler because the deadline has passed for players to qualify for Super Two status. This means the Rays and Mets can control these high level players for a big chunk of the next decade. Gibson has a different story than some other players. The former first round pick entered the Twins system with three years of c
Plouffe reentered the Twins line-up this weekend with a bang. This was great to see from the former first round pick but one has to look at the future of Twins baseball and wonder what his place will be with this organization. It seems as if the Twins are still a couple years away from contending and that could mean some changes for the 27-year old Plouffe. Twins fans will best remember Plouffe for his Ruthian like hot streak during the middle of last season. In a stretch of 14 games, he hit .
After a rough road trip over the last week, the Twins returned home to face a Phillies team with it's own share of struggles. Minnesota won the first two games of the series but both games were close. The Tigers come to town for Father's Day weekend and this marks the start of nine straight games against AL Central opponents. This can become a crucial part of the schedule if the Twins want to stay in the hunt for a division crown. The club has a winning record so far in June and that is a good
With two rainouts on Tuesday, there was a duo of double headers on Wednesday night. Miguel Sano, Eddie Rosario, and Angel Morales all made their Double-A debuts. Jason Wheeler helped the Miracle to win even with a new core of players in their everyday line-up. The Kernels had a chance to clinch a playoff birth. Earlier today I released an updated list of the top 10 prospects in the Twins organization. There was a new name at the top of the list and two other players sneaking into the top 5. N
At the beginning of the spring, there was a question about what the Twins would do with the men behind the plate. Joe Mauer and Ryan Doumit were locks to make the roster. Minnesota carried three catchers for most of 2012 so one would assume that a third catcher would be on the roster in 2013. The year started with Mauer and Doumit being the only members of the Twins catching core. Drew Butera and Chris Herrmann were in the running for the third catcher role but both players ended up in Rochest
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
