Here I am On the road again There I am Up on the stage Here I go Playin' star(s) again There I go Turn the page http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Molitor2011-429x600.jpg It has got to be lonely being Paul Molitor these days. About the only thing separating him from the tortured Bob Seger that penned “Turn the Page” back in 1972 is that he isn’t subjected to riding a bus somewhere east of Omaha with locals at truck stops making snide remarks about his long hair. (T
Fifty games? In a Major League Baseball season? It's some kind of joke, right? We wish it was, but in 2020, the year a pandemic threatened to scratch entire professional and college sports seasons, it's starting to feel like baseball fans will be lucky to get even a 50-game season. I know. "Lucky" isn't how I really feel, either. But when you consider that we're almost certainly going to see zero minor league games in 2020, a 50-game MLB regular season, followed by an expanded post-season, i
Heading into their four-game series with Midwest League Western Division leaders Kane County on Thursday, the Cedar Rapids Kernels were one game under .500, trailed the Cougars by two games in the standings and were tied for second place in their division. (This article was originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com) After trouncing Kane County 11-2 in the series finale on Sunday to earn a split of the four-game series, Cedar Rapids was one game over .500 (at 9-8), trail the Cougars by two ga
It has been over a month since we checked in on the MLB “Futures” at the William Hill and Elite sportsbooks and with spring training now well underway, it seems like a good time to see how the betting odds for the Twins (and others) are looking. Of course, even if I see something really interesting, it won’t do me any good right now since I’m in Florida at least through the end of the month and the Sunshine State has not legalized sports betting, yet. So, while I can look up odds at the two bo
Whew! We made it! I know I can’t be the only person who wouldn’t have bet much money a couple of months ago on the chances of MLB even having a Postseason in 2020. It looked pretty bleak when the Marlins and Cardinals started things off with a bunch of postponed games. But here we are. The American League starts their first round on Tuesday and the National League gets going on Wednesday. And, yes, the Minnesota Twins will be participating in this rather strange endeavor, having squeaked t
There’s much about the game of baseball that never changes. Three strikes and you’re out. Bases are 90 feet apart. Then again, some aspects of the game are constantly adjusting to the times. Witness the amount of defensive shifting going on in Major League Baseball this season. You could say that one thing that never changes is that pitchers try to throw fastballs by opposing hitters. But the arsenal of pitches the pitchers use beyond the fastball seems to differ from one era to another.
The Salt River Rafters made the trip across to the west side of the Phoenix area to Surprise, Arizona, on Wednesday to take on the Surprise Saguaros and, prior to the game, Twins prospects Max Kepler and Tyler Rogers took the time to answer a few questions. Kepler takes a .289/.385/.422 slash line in to Thursday night's game in Salt River, which is respectable for any hitter in the Arizona Fall League, but is perhaps even more impressive for a 21-year-old with no experience above the Class A l
The Minnesota Twins held a press conference Wednesday morning to introduce their newest addition to the family, Korean slugger Byung Ho Park. The hope is that Park can approach the level of production he showed in Korea and, if so, join potential stars Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton as cornerstones in a Twins everyday lineup being built to contend for the postseason for years to come. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Park-press-conference.jpg By now, everyone knows h
I haven't published a "Twins Top 15 Prospects List" this offseason, yet. There are plenty of other writers who do and many of them probably have better insight into who the top names should be than I do. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/BuxtonStage3-600x400.jpg This should be the last year that Byron Buxton's name shows up on any "Top Prospect" list. I didn't really make a conscious decision not to do a list this year. I just didn't get around to it, until now. (T
It’s pretty hard to imagine this baseball season getting off to a better start, isn’t it? I mean, even the most optimistic of us probably wouldn’t have predicted a .789 winning percentage through the first week of games! This looks like it could be a fun summer of baseball! What’s that? You say the Twins are languishing with a 1-6 record? Who cares? I’m talking about their full-season minor league affiliates! That’s where the action (and literally ALL of the fun) is! The AAA Rochester Red Wi
As the Cedar Rapids Kernels begin a stretch of seven consecutive "commuter" games (those where they bus to the away game and back home again after the game each day/night) this week, they are off to a 7-4 start to their Midwest League Season, good enough for second place in the MWL's West Division, a half-game behind Kane County. (This article was originally posted at knuckleballsblog.com) Early on, the Kernels' offense was riding on the shoulders of LaMonte Wade and Chris Paul. Paul was pro
It was a minor story this week. Minnesota Twins (and former Cedar Rapids Kernels) pitcher Tyler Duffey was one of a handful of Major League ballplayers that have come to agreements with a firm by the name of Fantex to “sell” a share of their future earnings in return for an immediate sum of money. You can read the AP story here and, for a description of how the investments in the players actually works, you can click this link to a year-old Fortune article. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-
I’ve been a bit out of touch with Twinsville for a couple of weeks as I’ve had some business travel and other non-Twins-related matters to occupy most of my time. I did catch up a bit on my Twins reading in the past day or so, however, and – well – let’s just say I’ve been much more interested in the writing about the Twins than I have been with what’s transpired on the field with the Twins. I read the columns by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s baseball writers and columnists recently, in whi
For your viewing pleasure: First, 4 spearate videos of Kohl Stewart's 4 innings of work this week vs Beloit in his first start coming off the DL, followed by a video of Mat Batts' 6th inning in Beloit the following night. (Looks like a couple of these successfully imbedded, the others you'll have to just click the link to view)
The Midwest League’s Eastern Division All-Stars took two hours and forty-four minutes to top their Western Division counterparts 5-0 in Peoria Tuesday night, but any Cedar Rapids fans who made the trip hoping to watch the Kernels’ representatives had to be careful with the timing of any trips to the concession stand. Pitchers Felix Jorge, Jared Wilson, Trevor Hildenberg and Cam Booser spent less than a combined 15 minutes on the mound while throwing a total of two and one-third innings for the
There really isn't a "category" here at Twins Daily for a post of this type (and maybe it's not appropriate here at all), but I posted this over at Knuckleballsblog.com this morning and thought I would share it here, as well. Just a few reflections on this, the 15th anniversary of 9/11. It's incredible to think that there is now almost a complete generation of Americans who have little or no direct recollection of the day the United States was attacked and thousands of people lost their lives
When you ask ballplayers about their outside interests, it’s not unusual for them to express an interest in hunting. In that regard, Kernels’ pitcher Randy LeBlanc fits in with the crowd. It’s when you ask what he hunts that LeBlanc begins to vary from the norm. He’ll tell you he spent most of his offseason fishing and duck hunting, with a little deer hunting thrown in. Although, “my dad does more deer hunting than I do,” he says. After a pause though, he adds the kicker. “I’ve been gato
Wednesday night, the Cedar Rapids Kernels and their Major League partner, the Minnesota Twins, combined to put on a terrific program for eastern Iowa baseball fans as the Twins once again included a stop in Cedar Rapids for their annual Winter Caravan in conjunction with the Kernels' annual Hot Stove Banquet. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Caravan2018Panel-600x229.jpg Kris Atteberry (far left) tosses questions to Winter Caravan panelists (seated L to R) Brian Dinkelm
Last week, Minnesota Twins General Manager Terry Ryan went back-to-back-to-back making three deals in three days in an effort to improve his club, winning the bidding for the right to negotiate with Korean slugging first baseman/DH Byung-ho Park, trading backup catcher Chris Herrmann for a prospect, which cleared the way for catcher John Ryan Murphy to be added via trade. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Ryan2015-600x399.jpg After one or two more roster adjustments, T
Almost exactly 11 months ago, Mitch Garver arrived in Cedar Rapids to get started on his first full season of professional baseball in the Minnesota Twins organization. This spring, he’s a big league catcher – for now, anyway. Garver, the Twins’ ninth round draft choice in 2013 out of New Mexico, spent all of last season with the Cedar Rapids Kernels, not only playing a leadership role behind the plate but at the plate, as well. He hit .298, led Cedar Rapids with 79 RBI and was voted the Midwe
Here we are in the final week of the 2015 MLB season and the Twins are still in contention for a playoff spot. All things considered, that’s pretty incredible. Virtually none of us expected this when the season began. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/what-if-600x304.jpg Hoped for it? Sure. We all hope for it. We’ve hoped for it for the past four years, too, but show me someone who went on record in April that the Twins would have a .500 record locked down and still be
Since it was so late when I got home after last night's Midwest League All-Star Game, I was too tired to get all of the photos included in my ASG post that I would have liked to. (Sure, the margarita or 5 that I had at the game MIGHT have had something to do with my drowsiness, but there's no hard evidence of that, so I'm going with 'I was just tired.') Anyway, I decided to post several more pictures from the ASG festivities over the past couple of days in Cedar Rapids. Now, here's the thing
I did something recently that I hadn’t done in probably 15 years. It used to be a habit. In fact, in retrospect, it may have actually become my very first true habit – something I came to feel I needed. Whether it was a good habit or a bad habit is probably open to debate, depending on one’s perspective. (This article was originally published at Knuckleballsblog.com) http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/carlinquote-2-600x400.jpg The habit had its roots in my youth.
What is baseball going to do about teams tanking? That question, framed in one manner or another, is being posed incessantly by baseball media’s talking heads as Major League Baseball prepares to kick off the 2016 season. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/tanking2-600x355.jpg There’s no question that teams like the Washington Nationals, Houston Astros and Chicago Cubs have emerged from prolonged periods of ineptitude to become not only competitive, but, in the case
Happy birthday, Moneyball! http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Moneyball-book-600x295.jpg Yes, as Yahoo’s Jeff Passan alerted us via Twitter over breakfast this morning, Michael Lewis’ seminal baseball book, Moneyball, was released 15 years ago today. I have to admit, I was picturing the entire SABR community simultaneously Skyping and toasting Lewis and his book, each member raising a glass of their favorite obscure local craft beer. It made me chuckle. Moneyball
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 🙂
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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
