Minnesota Twins Talk

Buxton leads the league in infield fly ball percentage (26.7%). Not very good thing to lead in especially with his speed. Looking back on his minor league stats, he always had a high number of infield fly balls as well. Maybe this was a warning sign of things to come. I also looked up Sano's infield fly ball rate and its very low (4.8%).But in the minors he had a high infield fly ball rate. So out of curiosity, I looked up Mike Trout's and his was in single digits but in the minors it was high like Buxton's. Is this a correctable thing or is the data off in the minors?

Would it make sense for Zach to be the call up when the twins go back to 12 pitchers? He would give the Twins a real base stealing threat off the bench Could compete with Rosario for playing time as Rosario still shows no patience at the plate. Would be more of a true 4th outfielder over Grossman(who I love as a DH/PH). The already great outfield defense would cover even more ground with Buxton Granite and Kepler. Do you think Granite make sense for this roster?

Can we just get this out of the way? I know...you know...we ALL know the Twins need pitching help. Were it possible to drain internet ink wells dry and call out "Boy...more ink!" we'd all have soar throats, or at least tired fingers. This is about the state, status, and possibilities of the Twins in regard to position players. Though I do understand overlap as it pertains to potential trade moves, immediately, or, down the road. But after two quality wins against the hated dirty-sox, (note no capital letters there), and the disappointing series against the Tribe, I've been doing some reflecting on the other side of the roster coin, so to speak. Maybe looking for positiv…

After seeing Saturday's game, I'm as convinced as ever that Kyle Gibson has the stuff to be a dominant ace in the major leagues. What's missing is Jack Morris's attitude. Sometimes he'll pitch inside, but sometimes he gets passive, too nice. Sometimes he'll throw his change up for strike one, but not enough. You see that beautiful downward plane, that's got to produce tons of ground outs, but he doesn't throw enough strikes to make batters swing. On the other hand, we all wish our pitchers got calls on strike three that were four to six inches outside the zone, as Kluber was getting. What an embarrassing day for that umpire. Does the league make them review their games…

I really like LaTroy on the Twins telecasts. He seems to stumble a bit on the prepared pre-game material, but his in-game comments and observations are insightful and entertaining. After having played for about every major-league team, don't be surprised if the MLB Network doesn't snatch him up in the future.

Before I start I should mention my bias. I believe In taking care of the future, if you take care of the future the future will take care of you. Anywho, The twins are in an interesting position. At the start of the year no one predicted them into being in the position they are in, as a fringe contender. On the buy sell front I hope they do not sell any of their top prospects, as it is likely a mistake for a borderline team. That being said after so much losing, winning is such a strong craving. We all want the Twins to make the playoffs. So here's how I would manage the situation. Use position players who have a viable backup not named Buxton Kepler and Sano to acq…

Why on earth is he starting multiple games for a team that is currently in a playoff spot of the season ended today?

Read the article here in the Star Tribune. I mean, yes, Kintzler has effectively done the closer job in April and gotten guys out, not blown a save, etc. But let's not fool ourselves into thinking he's really all that good. Any closer can go a month and get a little lucky like Kintzler has (.188 BABIP against vs career mark of .300, 0.79 ERA vs 4.41 FIP). And I'm really not trying to knock Kintzler, he's fine. He's just perfectly ordinary. This stretch shouldn't be used to balance the ledger when bats start to make louder contact, balls find holes, etc. Because they will, inevitably. Instead, we can view it as buying some time, getting the more exciting arms ready to …

Fairly amusing. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2017/06/trevor-may-tommy-john-right-arm-leg.html

In case you don't see these on Twitter and Facebook, I'm going to share my pre and postgame stuff from Zone Coverage in this thread. Here's the Opening Day pregame blog: http://zonecoverage.com/2017/twins/43-twins-seek-opening-day-win-for-first-time-since-2008/ As always, chatter is greatly appreciated!

Personally, IMHO, part of the overall success and quality play of our beloved Twins this season has been the addition of Castro and Giminez at catcher. Of course, it goes way beyond just these two additions. The improved pitching results are still pitchers throwing better. Neither Castro nor Giminez have anything to do with vastly improved defense, except for their positions directly. Credit simply must be given to the coaching staff, including Molitor, better use of metrics (FINALLY), and the talent and development of the young players themselves. But unless you are living or viewing in a vacuum, there is no doubt the Twins are enjoying the best overall catching, def…

Prior to the Texas series near the end of April Buxton worked with Torii Hunter after a month of struggle. At the time he had strike outs in 27 of his 58 plate appearance. A rate of 47%. http://www.startribune.com/twins-hope-extra-swings-torii-hunter-help-byron-buxton-break-slump/420382233/ Since that work with Torii, Buxton has struck out 43 times in his next 164 plate appearances for a rate of 26%. A significant drop from his career rate of 35% prior to working with Torii. Strike out rate becomes stable reasonably quickly and 164 plate appearances is enough to support the possibility of a skill change. Of all of the off season additions, Torii may prove to be the…

As I was thinking about the awesome season Ervin Santana is having I decided to spend some time exploring his Baseball Reference and Fangraphs pages, and found some results I thought were very interesting. Perhaps those more experienced with these stats could help me interpret them. I was surprised to see that there has been nothing interesting about his K/9, BB/9 and HR/9 (as well as K%, BB%, and HR%). All of these are the same or worse than career averages. In fact, his K/BB rate of 2.00 is the lowest of his career. What did jump though out is his H/9, which at 5.3 is the best in the majors this year, 3.3 hits lower than his career average and 2.8 lower than his previ…

I hope that we all have seen how competent Falvey and the new FO are. Fantastic draft according to many top level baseball minds. Many on this board were ready to run him out of town after day 1 of the draft. Maybe we aren't used to people who think outside the box. Is the pitching staff and bullpen a mess? Most definitely. However could Falvey have forseen all of the injuries to our young pitchers? As rumours start to heat up for more pitching such as Gorden, Polanco and more for Archer let's not get to excited. Our Twins are in great hands and we should feel lucky to have Falvey and Co.

The Twins have set up their rotation to send out Turley, Wilk, Mejia and Gibson against their biggest challenger in the central. They risk having four consecutive blow up from the starters. With those blow outs, they risk overworking their pen. Looking forward, they play another series against the Indians next weekend. I don't think Berrios will pitch in it either and Santana should get the Sunday game. If they can get through those seven games 3-4, I would be relieved. Given the pitchers, I would put the over under at 2.5 wins for those 7 games. I would also set the over/under on the number of reliever roster moves over the next 3 series at 2.5 moves. A few weeks ago, …

Only 27 PAs so SSSS abounds but this guy looks like the exact same hitter the Twins picked up last season. Decent average, great discipline, decent power. Robbie Grossman, pre Twins: 764 PA, .240 .327 .341 .668 Robbie Grossman, Twins: 416 PAs, .280 .389 .448 .837 I'm still skeptical of the guy: going into the season, I was hoping for a .750 OPS with good numbers against LHP, which is useful on a team full of LHB that can't hit LHP. But it's possible he's more than that. Much more than that.

Ryan Pressly returns. Wimmers optioned to Rochester.

Is Escobar worthy of more starts at SS? With offense above league average thus far and defense for his career right at league average (by UZR), does he give the Twins a better chance to win? We have seen solid offense and league average defense from him before. There is a reason to believe he can keep it going.

The Twins are only the following away from being a legit World Series contender: 1. Solid, reliable, healthy number 3 SP 2. A good 8th inning guy. 3. Another average RP or two.

Per Berardino https://mobile.twitter.com/MikeBerardino/status/875837192089763841 Wilk to start Saturday. I'm baffled why he's not the 26th man.

Can someone tell me if I was imagining things? I was at the game yesterday. After Dozier advanced to third on the wild pitch it looked like he and Seager were getting heated with each other. The umpire stepped in between them a couple times while both were yelling at each other(with gloves covering their mouths of course). Then to start the top of the second Dozier got plunked. Everything I have read was assuming that was a continuation of stuff from Wednesday night. But 1)did anyone else see the exchange at third base in the first(or did I imagine it) and 2)does anyone know what it was about. I think that exchange(combined with Wednesday of course) contrib…

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/asking-brian-dozier-about-his-missing-home-runs/ Fun article on fangraphs about why Dozier thinks he has fewer HRs this year.

Hey there Twins fans. I'm looking for guest hosts to appear on a live, uncensored broadcast during select Minnesota Twins games. The name of the show is **** Dick and Bert, as it's meant to be a fun, helpful alternative to the Fox Sports North audio broadcast. I broadcast the show using Awdio, and it's available at FoulPlaybyPlay.com. Here's the channel: https://www.awdio.com/fdickandbert I think the last game I did, a 1-0 win over Cleveland, was the best so far when it comes to play-by-play and the best so far regarding listeners, but having another voice for even a few segments would be helpful, as I'm currently the producer and host of the show. The idea behind thi…

Quick question for you guys... I heard that its possible to purchase a 'Single Team Subscription' on their website? I then went on their website to look for more details but I cant see this option...Obviously I would like to watch many of the Twins game...also I'm based in the UK. Would that matter? Thanks for your help AND GO TWINS!!!!!

MLB.com just updated the AL All-Star Voting Results and Sano has taken over the lead at third base. Here are the update vote totals: THIRD BASE 1. Miguel Sano, Twins: 638,952 2. Jose Ramirez, Indians: 541,040 3. Manny Machado, Orioles: 520,116 4. Josh Donaldson, Blue Jays: 332,287 5. Alex Bregman, Astros: 305,348 Fans may cast votes for starters at MLB.com. Vote up to five times in any 24-hour period for a maximum of 35 ballots cast. You can also use multiple email addresses to get more votes.

In his post game media gathering, Paul Molitor announced that Nik Turley will start on Sunday. Corresponding 25 and 40 man roster moves likely after Saturday's game or before Sunday's.

I see that Byron Buxton hasn't taken a walk since May 31. Me, I get kind of antsy if I don't get my exercise. He might want to consider a walking regimen again, one he seems to have given up during his 23 PA in the month of June.

After narrowly losing out on pitcher of the month in April, Ervin Santana has been a substantially different pitcher in May. No one expected him to finish the season with a sub 1 ERA. However, for his entire career, he's been just under 3 BB per 9 IP. In April, Ervin walked 10 over 5 starts in 35 innings, which would be slightly lower than his career BB per 9 IP. In May, he has already walked 15 over 4 starts in just 26 innings, a disturbing 5.2 BB per 9 IP - almost double his career rate. I'm not ready to stick a fork in him just yet. After all, in two of those starts, he was able to pitch around those walks and not allow any runs. In two, he was not and allowed …

The Twins are campaigning hard for Sanó to be the starting third baseman in the All/Star game and rightly so. While there is no vote for starting pitcher, I think that role should go to the Twins' Ervin Santana. Erv is among the leaders in many pitching categories and has three complete game shutouts, two more than anyone else. His ace mound work the first two months plus of this season is as big a factor as any in the Twins holding first place. I believe the veteran should get his due at this point in his career.

As a new fan I'm going to probably going to get this completely wrong in the eyes of most people but based on the games I've seen recently and some research here goes lol. The more opinions the better. Any extra details regarding your selections...even better....also feel free to take into account any injured players 1. Ervin Santana 2. Phil Hughes 3. Jose Barrios