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Twins Daily

#16 — Theo Epstein

This post is part of a series in which Mark Armour and I count down the 25 best GMs in history, crossposting from our blog. For an explanation, please see this post.   [This one is from Mark]   There is an ongoing debate in Boston as to how to divvy up credit between Theo Epstein and Dan Duquette for the 2004 World Series title. Duquette ran the team through 2001, so of course many of the better players on the 2004 club joined the team on his watch. This is all true, but undersells the difficu

30 and 30 Prospects Part 2: The Players

Here is the second half of the new--and I think improved--version of my prospect list. I am listing 25 players plus five honorable mentions. A brief about how the system has really improved: I have been ranking the prospects in the system since 2011 and always paid careful attention to inadequacies at certain positions and even handedness. It is finally the year to announce that the Twins are deep in absolutely everything. But, without further ado:   1. Byron Buxton: CF, 12-18-93 2015 start: Cha

Episode 117 - TwinsFest Preview

<img src="http://assets.podomatic.net/ts/19/ad/da/paulpleiss/1400x1400_10285155.jpg" alt="itunes pic" /><br />This week the guys talk about TwinsFest, the TwinsDaily.com Winter Meltdown, what it means that Trevor Plouffe is the highest paid third basemen in franchise history, and about one Twins minor league pitcher subtweeting another. We also review the 40 man roster a bit more with JR Graham, Ervin Santana, and Brian Dozier. Plus beer, baseball, and the news!   <a href="htt

#17 — Dan Duquette

This post is part of a series in which Mark Armour and I count down the 25 best GMs in history, crossposting from our blog. For an explanation, please see this post.   [This one is from Mark]   Not many GMs have had a career arc like Dan Duquette. Despite undeniable success in Montreal and Boston, he spent what would ordinarily be the prime of his career (ages 43-53) unemployed, or at least not employed by a Major League team. The Orioles gave him another shot after at least one other candidat

#18 — Joe L. Brown

This post is part of a series in which Mark Armour and I count down the 25 best GMs in history, crossposting from our blog. For an explanation, please see this post. The Pittsburgh Pirates have won three World Series in the past 89 years, and all three of them were substantially built by the same man. Joe L. Brown replaced a legend, but carved out a great legacy in Pittsburgh for 21 seasons.   Today, hundreds of bright young men (and a few women) without any playing experience descend on base

#19 — Lee MacPhail

This post is part of a series in which Mark Armour and I count down the 25 best GMs in history, crossposting from our blog. For an explanation, please see this post.   [This one is from Mark] Lee MacPhail ran two baseball teams — the Orioles (1958-1965) and Yankees (1966-1973) — and did not win a pennant at either stop. That said, the evidence suggests that he did a great job at both places, dramatically improving organizations that had been in disarray and won championships soon after he had

30 and 30 Prospects Part 1: Pitchers

I am doing something brand new with my prospect list for 2015. I am splitting the list into two parts, one for pitching and one for position players, with each list having 25 prospects and 5 honorable mentions named. These honorable mentions end up being 10 guys in the system to really watch this year for potential breakout seasons.   I am providing only bare bones info for each of them because one really ought to check out the Prospect Handbook.   The first part will focus in on the pitchers in

What if Torii had stayed all along?

Originally posted at Kevin Slowey was Framed!   Back in 2007, the Twins were faced with a dilly of a difficult dilemma. Fan-favorite, team-leader, Morneau-puncher Torii Hunter was a free agent and he was going to be pricey. Ultimately, Hunter chose a larger offer from The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim or the Anaheim Angels or whatever they were called back then. Hunter returned to the team that drafted him about a month and a half ago. What if he had stayed the whole time? How would things

#20 — Cedric Tallis

This post is part of a series in which Mark Armour and I count down the 25 best GMs in history, crossposting from our blog. For an explanation, please see this post.   Cedric Tallis had a fairly short career as a general manager, certainly so when making his case as one of the best 25 GMs in history. But his role in turning an expansion team into one of the model franchises in baseball should be recognized. Relatively quickly Tallis assembled the Royals teams that would dominate the AL West th

Worst Twins of All-Time Series: Houston Jimenez

Baseball is in the in-between time before players head to spring training and after most of the off-season moves have been made. This gives me some time to jump back into one of the more popular off-season series here at NoDak Twins Fan.   Lots of people can debate who was the best player in an organization's history. For Minnesota, the argument can be made in favor of Harmon Killebrew, Kirby Puckett, Rod Carew, and a few others. It's fun to look at the other side of the coin and examine who som

The All-time All-Minnesotan Team

I've recently been reading The New Bill James Historical Abstract, and at one point he offhandedly mentioned who would be on an all-time Oklahoma team. Naturally like most Minnesotans, this made me wonder who would be on an all-time Minnesota team. But unlike most Minnesotans, I actually sat down and tried to figure it out.   First I went to baseball-reference.com's bio search for all players who were born in Minnesota. I'm sure this presents a few problems, like players who were born out of sta
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#21 — Brian Cashman

This post is part of a series in which Mark Armour and I count down the 25 best GMs in history, crossposting from our blog. For an explanation, please see this post.   [This one is from Mark]   Of all the successful general managers in history, few are more of challenge to access than Brian Cashman. We could see an argument that he should rate much higher — after all, the Yankees have won six pennants and four championships in his 17 years as general manager, a record very few can match. On th

We're world famous, and other lies. Episode 116

<img src="http://assets.podomatic.net/ts/19/ad/da/paulpleiss/1400x1400_10265491.jpg" alt="itunes pic" /><br />This week on the show our friend from North Dakota, Cody, is taking the week off to focus on the youth of the greater Fargo area. What a noble man he is. The rest of us forge ahead without him to discuss the news that needs discussing.   E. Rolf openly laments everything and anything that the Twins can, have, or will do to make 2015 a success, all the while remaining overly

#22 — Jim Campbell

This post is part of a series in which Mark Armour and I count down the 25 best GMs in history, crossposting from our blog. For an explanation, please see this post.   Jim Campbell was decidedly old school. He believed in building teams through scouting and development. He displayed loyalty to his players and staff, who he expected to work hard and show appreciation for their opportunity. To those he respected he would be generous and loyal. On those principles his Detroit Tigers won the 1968

Ricky Nolasco: Back to the Future

January 1st has a much different tenor in 2015 than it did in 2014 for Ricky Nolasco. A year ago, Ricky had recently signed the largest free agent contract in Twins history (though that's not saying much) with the expectation of being a veteran presence to help stabilize a rotation that was in shambles. After a disastrous 2014 campaign, suddenly the idea that he doesn't deserve a spot in the opening day rotation has been tossed around by more than a few fans. As time has passed, it's clear that

#23 — John Hart

This post is part of a series in which Mark Armour and I count down the 25 best GMs in history, crossposting from our blog. For an explanation, please see this post.   For the 32 seasons before John Hart was promoted to general manager in September 1991, the Cleveland Indians never finished closer than 11 games from first in a full season. And they certainly didn’t appear to be making progress; in 1991 the team lost 105 games, finished last in the league in runs and ninth in runs allowed, and d

John Quinn

#24 — John Quinn   This post is part of a series in which Mark Armour and I count down the 25 best GMs in history, crossposting from our blog. For an explanation, please see this post.   [This one is by Mark]   Theo Epstein recently said that “everybody thinks they can be a GM or president of baseball operations. It comes with the territory.” But it was not that long ago that most baseball fans did not know who their team’s general manager was. The GM was considered to be part of ownership — and

Worst Twins of All-Time Series: Alex Ochoa

In the doldrums of the off-season there can be some points where there isn't a lot happening in Twins Territory. It seems as if the front office it done making any major moves. Some of the players headed out on the Twins Caravan at the beginning of the week and Twins Fest is slowly approaching.   Two off-seasons ago I ventured out into a series on the "Worst Twins of All-Time." This can be an entertaining look into some of the worst players to ever suit up in a Twins uniform.   Here is a rundown

Andy MacPhail

#25 — Andy MacPhail   This post is part of a series in which Mark Armour and I count down the 25 best GMs in history, crossposting from our blog. For an explanation, please see this post.   Andy MacPhail had big shoes to fill. Both his father Lee and his grandfather Larry are in the Hall of Fame as baseball executives. When the Minnesota Twins promoted the 33-year-old MacPhail to run the club, they surely took his pedigree into account. He lived up to his surname, and his surprisingly quick suc

Intro: The Best 25 GMs in Baseball History

This is the first entry in a blog associated with the publication of In Pursuit of Pennants: Baseball Operations from Deadball to Moneyball, coming out this spring and coautored by Mark Armour and me (Dan Levitt). We are crossposting this from our blog at the book's website. Thanks to the Twins Daily team for hosting.   Over the next several weeks we will be counting down the top 25 general managers in baseball history—as we see them anyway—some will signed by Mark and some by me. Because of the

A new metric for evaluating shortstop fielding

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch --- (this is an edit to clarify a few points that were confusing previously)   Recently when I was looking for an objective way to numerically describe how good Engelb Vielma's glove for my Minnesota Twins' top 40 prospect list, which is fairly easily understood as a concept, I came up with a simple metric: The percentage of putouts that resulted in a double play. I did a bit of research to see whether it will pass the stink test, and looked at

2015 offseason Minnesota Twins top 40 prospects: summary; all 1-40

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ----   I have been counting down the Twins top 40 prospects with descriptions and scouting reports of the players, their potential, their likely destinations for 2015, and in some cases the reasons why they were ranked where they were. You can find all installments here in reverse chronological order. Here are the detailed rankings: 36-40, 31-35 , 26-30 , 21-25 , 16-20 , 11-15 , 6-10 and 1-5. You can find the 2014 off-season summary list here

No Rolf, No Problem: 2015 New Years Resolutions

<img src="http://assets.podomatic.net/ts/19/ad/da/paulpleiss/1400x1400-1796x1796+0+26_10245481.jpg" alt="itunes pic" /><br />After a week off celebrating 2014 and welcoming in 2015, the podcast crew was back together (minus a Rolf) to begin a new year of Talk to Contact radio gold. This week we make some New Year's resolutions on behalf of the Twins, to include Joe Mauer, Aaron Hicks and prayers for something (ANYTHING!) resembling a starting pitcher not named Phil Hughes.   In thi

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