Today, I want to revisit something I wrote in a prior post. The subject (as so many things written by so many people has been) was centered around what the Twins should do with regard to Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton. Maybe you take them aside and say, “Guys, if you’re healthy in April, you’re going to be Minnesota Twins. You may perform like Kennys Vargas or you may look more like Aaron Hicks, but you’re going to stay in Minnesota. You will not be sent back to the minors. From this point forw
Imagine for a moment that you grew up in an area where high temperatures each day run between 80 and 85 degrees, year-round. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Colina2018b-600x400.jpg Edwar Colina (Photo by SD Buhr) You enjoy sports, especially baseball, and you can literally play ball every day, all year, if you want. You realize your dream of signing a professional baseball contract and then, one day, you’re pitching for the Cedar Rapids Kernels, a mere 2,600 miles
The Minnesota Twins lost this afternoon. Ordinarily, I’d say things have reached the point where another Twins loss falls into the “dog bites man” category. It’s not exactly news. But this loss had a couple of things going for it that gave me cause to put pen to paper (figuratively, of course). (This article was originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com.) First of all, I actually watched the game on television. Between attending Kernels games and being blacked out by MLB’s “local market”
Brett Doe didn’t make the trip north to Cedar Rapids out of spring training with his friends and teammates when they broke camp to start the 2015 season, a fact that was, “pretty disheartening,” Doe said in an interview over the past weekend. "When I first heard it, it was pretty tough," Doe admitted. "I played with most of these guys down in E’town and they’re definitely the guys that I wanted to spend the year playing with." Doe didn't allow himself to dwell long on that disheartened feeli
Every minor leaguer's goal entering the season is to develop his game to the point where he earns a promotion to the next higher level in the system. Sometimes, that call comes when a player has dominated play within their league. Other times, circumstances align to create an opportunity for players to move up the organizational ladder, at least temporarily. Such circumstances allowed Cedar Rapids Kernels third baseman TJ White and catcher/first baseman Brett Doe to spend a few weeks each in
Like a lot of Twins fans, I think, I’ve been coasting a bit with my fandom. The results on the field have been disappointing. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Buxton16STa9x6600-600x401.jpg Byron Buxton (photo by SD Buhr) Ervin Santana, Miguel Sano, Byron Buxton and Jorge Polanco hadn’t even been on the field much, if at all, during most of the first half of the season. The expected two-team competition for the American League Central Division title quickly became
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
Wednesday, May 8, was supposed to be a big night for fans that follow the top minor league prospects in professional baseball. Quad Cities shortstop Carlos Correa, selected with the No. 1 pick overall by the Astros in last June’s amateur draft, was set to go head-to-head against Kernels’ center fielder Byron Buxton, chosen as the No. 2 pick overall in the same draft by the Twins. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Buxton1.jpg Byron Buxton (Photo: SD Buhr) Accor
A number of this year's Cedar Rapids Kernels have had to make an adjustment to wearing a Kernels uniform this summer after playing last season for the Beloit Snappers, who were the Minnesota Twins Midwest League affiliate during the eight prior years. It no doubt felt a little odd to some of them. But to Tyler Grimes, who was the Snappers primary shortstop much of last season, the change in geographic location was far from the most drastic of the adjustments he's had to make. http://kn
It's the offseason, so that means we are already deep in thought and discussion concerning 2015 roster construction for the Minnesota Twins. I reserve the right to change my mind, of course, but my preliminary thought on the subject has resulted in a conclusion I wasn't expecting. Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano should both be Minnesota Twins on Opening Day 2015. True, General Manager Terry Ryan has some time before he has to give much thought to such an un-Twins-like idea. (This article wa
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
With Opening Day of the 2020 Major League Baseball season now upon us, I thought I would take a quick peek at what, if any, adjustments the sportsbooks I subscribe to have made compared to those I posted in Part 4 of this "Bet On It!" series earlier in July, as teams were making their way back into their abbreviated summer camps. It turns out, however, that my fellow betting subscribers have given the oddsmakers at William Hill and Elite Sportsbook very little reason to make adjustments to the
When I posted Part 3 of this "Bet On It!" series back on March 8, it's unlikely any of us could have foreseen that four months later we still wouldn't have seen Major League Baseball's Opening Day. Within just a couple of weeks from the time that article was posted, pretty much all MLB bets had been taken off the board at the sportsbooks. Now, as we try to celebrate our nation's birthday, the two books that I'm a member of have begun to post some MLB baseball action, though neither William H
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
A couple of weeks ago, in the aftermath of the Minnesota Twins signing free agent third baseman Josh Donaldson, I checked in with sportsbooks at William Hill and Elite to see what effect the addition of the Bringer of Rain was having on the oddsmakers' views of the Twins' chances of winning their Division, the American League Pennant and the World Series in 2020. As it turned out, the bookies weren't exactly joining in Twins' fans euphoria. The odds had shifted very little or not at all. As
Jose Berrios has shot up the national "top prospect" rankings based on his performance the past couple of years in the Minnesota Twins organization and on Wednesday night, Berrios joined his former manager with the Cedar Rapids Kernels, Jake Mauer, and Twins farm director Brad Steil to participate in a “roundtable” discussion at the Kernels’ annual Hot Stove Banquet. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/MauerSteilBerrios-600x400.jpg Jake Mauer, Brad Steil and Jose Berrios
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-
The big All-Star bash in Minneapolis is behind us now and by most accounts, it was somewhere between very successful and close to perfect. I saw the Futures Game/Celebrity Softball Game in person on Sunday and watched the Home Run Derby and ASG on the tube. My conclusion is that, while I wouldn't say it was all perfectly staged and performed, the Twin Cities and those from MLB and the Twins who were involved all did themselves proud. It was the kind of event that could make us feel pr
I shot several videos during my trip to Arizona to watch a few AFL games so I thought I would share a few in this post. I saw Eddie Rosario, Max Kepler, Jake Reed and Zach Jones in action during the 3 Salt River games I attended. Enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdIeM0Q4few https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz2buQsUhg0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKtwmBDr3Ho https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR1nywxVE38 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L9AUc8AivA https://www.youtube.com/wat
A couple days ago, I posted several videos I shot at the Arizona Fall League games I attended last week. Today, you get still pictures. I wish I had had an opportunity to get more pictures of Jones, Adam and Rogers, but I only saw Jones pitch once and chose to shoot a video rather than try to get pictures through the netting, Adam didn't pitch at all in the games I saw and Rogers, of course, is injured and did not pitch. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Salt-River-Fie
The Minnesota Twins and their full season minor league affiliates announced those affiliates’ initial rosters on Sunday and Monday this week and the one thing that stood out about almost every roster was the number of players returning to the same level where they finished their respective 2015 campaigns. The Cedar Rapids Kernels initial roster, for example, includes 16 players that also wore Kernels uniforms last season and many of them performed quite well in the Class A Midwest League – wel
Immediately after the Minnesota Twins’ 2014 season ended, General Manager Terry Ryan announced that longtime manager Ron Gardenhire would not be returning to his job in 2015. That was three and a half weeks ago and we still don’t know who will be guiding the Twins on the field next season. But we’re getting closer. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Lovullo-600x420.jpg Torey Lovullo (AP Photo) (This article was originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com) After co
The Cedar Rapids Kernels dropped an ugly 5-2 game to the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers back on July 9 and Kernels manager Jake Mauer clearly was not a happy man afterward. His line up had left eight runners stranded in scoring position on the night and played some shoddy defense in a loss on a night when Kernels pitching combined to strike out 13 opposing hitters. “We’re going to have some changes,” Mauer promised that night, in a post-game interview. (This article originally was posted at
After standing in a line of about 20 people for a few minutes, a couple of guys finally got the autograph they wanted during the Cedar Rapids Kernels regular Sunday post-game autograph session. They had secured the autograph of Royce Lewis, the Minnesota Twins first round pick in the 2017 MLB amateur draft and the first pick overall. They stood for a moment and looked out at the area of right field where Lewis' team mates were spread out, some standing by themselves and some in groups of two o
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
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
