Episode 37 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact (@TalkToContact), is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here. http://assets.podomatic.net/mymedia/thumb/2324540/285%3E_8237541.jpg On Episode 37, Cody and Eric are joined by Baseball Prospectus‘ Jason Parks to talk about the Twins Minor League system. Jason Parks has plenty to say about Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano, as well as some of the pitching prospects. Before Jason Parks comes on to the show, Cody and Eric go
The Twins keep finding ways to surprise as the team still sits around the .500 mark and it is close to a month and a half into the season. Minnesota's bats finally woke up in Boston with some big numbers put up in the four game series by Oswaldo Arcia and Joe Mauer. The club took three out of the four games to close out their recent road trip. This weekend the Baltimore Orioles are coming to Target Field for a three game set. Baltimore is off to another good start after last year's trip back
On Tuesday over at ESPN's Sweetspot, an article was penned about the golden age of leadoff hitters. Major League Baseball could be in the middle of one of the best year's ever for the leadoff hitter. 1965, 1975, 1987, and 2004 were some other great years for men at the top of the order but this year could be historic. Players like Shin-Soo Choo, Austin Jackson, Alex Gordon, Ian Kinsler, and Carl Crawford are leading a pack of leadoff hitters that are among some of the best in all of baseball.
CAUTION: This exercise is meant to be a fun. There is obviously a lot that goes into finding a starting pitcher for the top of the rotation. In the past, the Twins have had the opportunity to draft some of the top pitchers in the game. The Twins have struggled to accumulate starting pitching. This stems from a variety of factors. Their drafting strategy, their ability to sign international players, and their willingness to spend big money on the free agent market are all factors that have gon
The Twins continue their longest road trip of the year so far with games in Cleveland over the weekend. A four game series with the Boston Red Sox is looming at the beginning of next week but Minnesota needs to concentrate on beating opponents from the AL Central. To the surprise of many experts and fans, the Twins are still sitting around the .500 mark. The team recorded their 12th win on the first day of May. Last year, the Twins didn't record win number 12 until May 17 so it is easy to see
Joe Mauer sat out his first Twins game of the season on Wednesday. It might have been a good day for Mauer to rest since the team has another off day tomorrow. He has also been in a major slump at the plate. The Twins All-Star catcher has only hit .091/.211/.091 over the last nine games. This includes one hit over his last six games. Even with Mauer out of the line-up, the Twins were still able to come away with a win and avoid being swept by the Detroit Tigers. Scott Diamond pitched six stron
At the end of last season, things must have been a little tense around the Ron Gardenhire household. The Twins were coming off of back-to-back 90-loss seasons and Gardenhire only had one season left on his current contract. It was inevitable for some changes to take place and almost all of Gardy's coaching staff would not be hired back or would be reassigned. The sporting world can be cruel when a team isn't performing well on the field. Twins fans weren't used to this kind of shake-up since t
When the Twins traded Francisco Liriano to the Chicago White Sox last July, it seemed like the club was getting a bag of balls and some chewing gum in return. There wasn't much to get excited about with names like Pedro Hernadez and Eduardo Escobar. Flashforward a couple of months later and it is starting to look more and more like the Twins got some servicable players. Escobar has built himself a nice little niche in the Twins clubhouse. Manager Ron Gardenhire uses him as a late inning defens
The Twins actually got to get all of their games in so far this week. Monday's game with the Marlins had to be moved to Tuesday as part of a doubleheader but this was a step in the right direction after multiple cancellations last week. Texas is in town for the weekend and it sounds like the weather is actually going to start feeling like spring. Highs will continue to rise and hopefully the Twins can continue to play baseball around the .500 mark. The weekend is almost here so make sure to
There can be plenty of surprises at the beginning of a season. The Twins find themselves around the .500 mark and most fans would likely be happy if the club was able to keep up this pace for the remainder of the season. It might not be likely but stranger things have happened in the world of baseball. One of the most intriguing players so far this year has been Kevin Correia. He has surprised most Twins fans with his performances on the mound. Of the members in the Twins starting rotation,
It wasn't that long ago that Oswaldo Arcia was a member of the Twins minor leagues. Today he made his biggest mark at the big league level by cracking his first home run and knocking in three runs. His long ball turned out to be the difference in the team winning the first game of their double header 4-3. He would be moved up to the third spot in the batting order for the second game of the double header so it was an exciting day for the budding star. There were some other exciting moments
"Strike two, you're out," seems to be the current mantra for most of baseball. One of the biggest challenges for batters in recent years has been their ability to come back in an at-bat after falling into a two-strike count. Since 2006, there has been a steady decrease in player’s ability to hit with two strikes. Last year, two-strike hitting dropped to a new low, as batters were only able to muster a .178 batting average. How do pitchers have so much of an advantage when it comes to throwin
Tragedy struck Boston on Monday with the horrific bombings at the Boston Marathon. A very visible sporting event was attacked and this story hit home with a lot of us. It can be frightening to think about attacks happening at big events but people are resilient. There were numerous positive stories coming out of the tragedy. A former New England Patriots lineman carried a woman to safety and there were plenty of other stories like this. Many teams around the world of baseball paid tribute to
The Twins weren't the only team impacted by the weather on Wednesday evening. Minnesota's affiliate's game in Cedar Rapids was also postponed due to inclement weather. The Upper Midwest is still waiting for spring to show up and there will probably be more weather issues before spring is finally sprung. Three other affiliates took the field for Wednesday action. The Miracle were going for lucky win 13 to start their season. Rochester has been struggling and the call-up of Oswaldo Arcia is goi
With the Twins up and down start to the year, it is hard to know if the team will be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline. Most likely the team will be selling. There will be plenty of talk about Justin Morneau being dealt in the coming months since his contract is up at the end of the year. Another important name to watch out for in the hot stove reports is Josh Willingham. Willingham is coming off his best season and there might be more than one team looking to add a powerful corner bat f
With the Twins struggling to find offense in the club's games this weekend, there have been a few boo birds roosting in the stands at Target Field. Some of these might be angry fans sitting out at a cold baseball game with nothing better to do. For others, it could be the frustration of the last couple of seasons coming to a head. Aaron Hicks has found himself in a bit of a rough patch to start his MLB career. According to FanGraphs version of WAR, Hicks has been the worst player in all of bas
Everything was nice and fuzzy last Friday when the Twins had pulled off some nice wins and they had themselves near the top of the American League. Things have changed in the last week as the club got swept by the Kansas City Royals and the Twins are near the bottom of the AL Central. It is still early in the year so there is plenty of things that could change. Joe Mauer wasn't hitting the ball very good for the first few games of the year but he has started to come around. Josh Willingham pow
With last night's loss, the Twins failed to win a series for the first time in 2013. Things didn't go much better tonight for Minnesota as the club fell to the Kansas City Royals. It was the first time the team had been swept in 2013 and the Twins only scored five runs in the series. Miguel Sano hit his first home run of the year on Tuesday evening. He has only been held hitless in one game so far this year and he was hitting .421 entering play today. The Miracle had a 5-0 record entering play
Twins fans have been spoiled in the last two seasons. Ben Revere made base stealing look easy. Even Denard Span could swipe a base or two if the club needed it. Both of these men are in different uniforms to start the 2013 season. In fact, three of the top four base stealers from the 2012 Twins are no longer with the organization. Last year the Twins stole 135 bases, which ranked first in the American League. In 2011, the club finished in 10 place in the AL with 92 stolen bases. The team onl
When word came out following TwinsFest about the injury suffered by Anthony Swarzak, it had to be embarrassing. He suffered a fractured rib after wrestling with some teammates during the Twins annual fan festival. Swarzak would open the season on the DL and it was tough for him to watch the Twins fight the Tigers and the Orioles before he could get on the field. Swarzak returned to the mound on Sunday and got four big outs for the Twins on their way to a second series win in a row to start the
There have been two series so far for the Twins and each one has produced the same result, a Twins win. Minnesota is tied with the Chicago White Sox for first place in the Central Division. It is very early in the season but the Twins are finding ways to keep games close and to come out victorious. Aaron Hicks isn't in the minor leagues any more and there were some struggles in his first week in the majors. He did knock in the go-ahead run for the Twins in Sunday's game. It was a big hit for t
The Rangers sure like to get within one out of accomplishing something big. A couple of years ago, Texas was an out away in more than one game from the club's first World Series title. On Tuesday night, Yu Darvish did his best to fit in with the Rangers by getting within one out of a perfect game. He too would fall short of making history. Since the Twins moved to Minnesota in 1961, there have five times when a Twins pitcher has taken a no-hitter into the ninth inning. Many fans might remember
There were a few surprises on Opening Day at Target Field but for the most part, the game went according to plan. Justin Verlander pitched well. Joe Mauer got his hits. Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder know how to get RBI. The inexperienced Minnesota bats didn't know how to get an RBI. This all led to the Tigers coming out on top. One interesting move made was actually a player left on the bench. In the bottom of the sixth inning, Ron Gardenhire turned to his bench and tabbed Wilkin Ramirez
The last two Aprils have been rough for Twins Territory. Slow starts out of the gate meant the club would only accumulate single digit wins in 2011 and 2012. As fans know, the team never recovered from those slow starts and Minnesota finished at the bottom of the American League for two consecutive years. It's a new year and the Twins are hoping not to repeat the slow starts of the last two season. For some people, there is plenty riding on the start by the Twins. Ron Gardenhire is in the last
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
