Minnesota Twins Talk

Instead of worrying about 3 games in a foreign country for post after post I am much more concerned about the final 2 against the Tigers today and tomorrow and 8 games in 10 days against the Cleveland Indians (excuse me Guardians) to end the month. What happens in between hopefully will be a don't get swept and move on. Rocco juggles lineups so much anyway that what happens from series to series really doesn't make much difference. If everyone was healthy and available it wouldn't change Baldellilitics.

To all of the Twins (and baseball) memorabilia collectors, show me your favorite piece, big or small, even if it's value is only sentimental!!

From June 3rd to June 12th, the Twins will be playing 9 games against the Blue Jays, Rays, and Yankees with only one off day. The Twins haven’t had the toughest of schedules, so these 9 games will be a true test to this team. How many of these games do you think the Twins will win? Vote and share your opinion below!

All I can say is I hope immediately after the second game that Kitty ran down to the locker room and spoke to Wes Johnson about Sands. He was clearly itching to talk to someone about Sands delivery and a glitch that was easily correctable. I just hope that Johnson and Sands were informed after the game so it can be corrected ASAP and worked on with the Saints.

OK, so I’m late to the party on this topic. I’ll admit to that right off the bat. Byron Buxton is a human highlight reel. There is a high chance of another highlight reel play every time he’s on the field defensively, at bat or running the bases. Exciting is my one word description for his play. He accepted a lower contract offer to continue to play for the team that drafted him. After 10 years with the Twins organization, by all accounts, he appears to be and I truly believe, he is a good human being. He is one of my favorite all-time Twins. I am very happy he remains on the team with a long term contract. During this century alone it was hard to see Torii H…

January 14th, 2020. What a day that was. The previous day we were all saddened by the Twins lack of activity in the FA market. They were in on Donaldson for while, but they were out on Donaldson by that point. Until they signed him. Since then, we all have had our opinions on this signing, and those opinions have changed (some drastically) over time. Was the Donaldson signing worth it?

We know what is needed. (bullpen and starters0.. I do not understand why they wait to add what is needed now. You can not make up games that are already lost or those you are about to lose because of an over worked bullpen. Make the moves now

Royce Lewis debuted in centerfield today. The bad news is that he left the game with a right knee injury after colliding with the wall.

The Twins will need some replacements before heading north to take on the Blue Jays next weekend. According to Phil Miller, a "handful" of unvaxxed Twins players won't be able to make the trip. DISCLAIMER: I apologize to the Moderators, as I imagine this topic has the potential to get a lot of forum participants some points, but I do think it is something that affects the roster and how the Twins go to Toronto to compete with the Blue Jays. However, be respectful. Moderators will be watching.

I was curious as to when some of the players could come off the DL and looked at the ESPN list of those currently on the DL for the Twins. Note that a few of these players are Day to day vs. formally on the DL: Josh Winder Royce Lewis Tim Beckham (AAA) Sonny Gray (so far, day to day) Max Kepler (ditto) Gary Sanches (more ditto) Danny Coulombe Gilberto Celestino Jorge Alcala Joe Ryan Edouard Julien (AAA, day to day) Cody Stashak Chris Paddack Miguel Sano Jhon Romero Blayne Enlow (minors, day to day) Kent Maeda Randy Dobnak Plus 3 other minor leaguers day to day. That seems …

This was announced on the radio postgame show. Sure would be nice to plug Lewis in there.

For me, it is the strike call appeal (which you can see in the most recent Twins System recap below; you can skip to the 5:56 mark). Player taps his head to appeal a call, the ump turns to find out whether the auto call system confirms/overturns the game call, and you move on in 5 seconds. Imagine if Duran had been able to appeal the atrocious no-strike calls the other night against KC. I would love to just go with auto-call (since some umps are TERRIBLE at this), but the appeal would be a great half-step there.

What’s with all the empty seats at Target Field??? I get it A LITTLE: the Wild and Wolves were in the playoffs, the weather was lousy, kids are still in school, inflation is starting to limit discretionary spending, some are still stricken with 2020-style COVID-fear, fear of crime downtown, Minnesotans were too busy fishing, farming …. BUT and this is a big huge BUT - The Twins are in First Place, they are playing exciting baseball with a team that looks like it can carry its current success through the season. They signed the top free agent on the market, Carlos Correa. Buxton bashing homers, great defense, solid pitching, depth at AAA except at catcher (m…

What has been the biggest surprise at this point of the 2022 season?

Could he be a bullpen solution?

What do you think the likelihood of someone from the FO sitting down with Carlos and his agent sometime between now and the trade deadline to see if they can determine the chances that Carlos stays for at least year 2 of his deal. If he says he's "90% likely to opt out", I think we should consider trading him regardless of where we are in the standings. What do you think? Here is why: 1- The potential return haul of prospects is something that could be overwhelming for a player of Correa's status to a playoff contender looking to get over the top. 2 - While we may win our division - are we really a World Series contender at this point? 3 - While Lewi…

https://sportsnaut.com/twins-reinstate-lhp-danny-coulombe-from-injured-list/ I guess that gives us one more pitcher, but at the expense of the guy who has been one of our best overall players so far.

This was a topic that came up in the game thread today that I wanted to dive a bit deeper into. Where do the Twins rank among AL teams? They begin the season 27-17 (23-9 in their last 32) 1st in the AL Central. Their pitching staff has (surprisingly) been the strength of the team and their offense has (also surprisingly) been their weakness. The Twins haven't played many games against high-level competition. They won 2 of 3 in Tampa Bay, and they also went 0-5 in 5 games at home against Houston and Los Angeles. The AL Central is not the strongest of divisions. Some of these factors might suggest the Twins aren't as good as their record. Where do y'all stand…

My answer is 'yes', the Twins should just bite the bullet, and put Byron on the IL. Maybe it was seeing Byron ‘live’ for the first time Wednesday, but the Twins’ plan to load manage Buxton is NOT working. As someone with a sometime gimpy knee on my back hitting leg, things looked sadly familiar. General loss of speed showing in Byron being an easy out on a roller to third (out sure; but by that many steps?). Loss of pop/hitting due to unstable foundation showing as barreled balls come down on the track instead of the second deck (and more weak grounders than barrels). A few days ago, a gap ball sailed right past him. Healthy Byron catches that 100 times out…

Our Minnesota Twins begin the 2022 MLB Season with a 24-16 record. However, they haven’t had the toughest of schedules. They’ve been hit with the injury bug early on. Is this team for real?

2019 Smeltzer came up and helped bail out the Twins of a very dificult situation. I'm not a big fan of Smeltzer, he's not flashy but he gets the job done.Last year Smeltzer had been hurt but now he's 100%. He had a very effective ST and has continued to prove himself in AAA and a cameo appearance up in the majors. He deserves to stay up here and we need him up here to spot start and in long relief. It seems to me that Baldelli has favorites and to those he give numerous chances to try to prove themselves while underdogs he doesn't give a single chance unless he absolutely needs them. Smeltzer is a under dog and as I suspect it is starting to effect Smeltzer personal…

For the past several years, I have missed the baseball of my youth where batting .300 meant something to players and rallies consisted of a string of hits & walks. Back when we lauded Kirby for hitting bad balls hard. The modern homerun/strikeout version of baseball surely produced some exciting moments, but for me it often felt like a game other than baseball. The great contact hitters seemed to be minimized/marginalized and that skillset became more and more rare. Players seemed happy to trade out 40 line-drive hits for 10 more home runs on the season. This year is very different. The 2022 environment is now rewarding the great contact hitters. Multi-hit r…

Third day in a row. Did I miss an injury??

This is a continuation of a hit series of threads about the Twins. I kid, I believe only two or three people replied to the last one, but I digress. I would put these thoughts in a blog, but there seems to be even less attention paid to takes made in that area. 1) Buxton is in the throes of a horrible slump. He did show that his wheels are okay when he ranged far into the gap last night and made a diving catch. Slowing down seems to be the bigger problem just watching when he tries to leg out a grounder. We all know that he isn't 100% and we know that the Twins have opted to give him frequent days off to keep him performing (hopefully) throughout the entire season. I…

Yuck, hate to see Ryan go down but in the long run, getting some rest might be good for him.

We are about halfway to the All-Star break from the start of the season and the Twins currently have a 5.5 game lead in the AL Central. It occurred to me last week that despite a really good start, that there aren’t any sure-fire All-Stars on the team. Buxton started red hot, but he has missed a bunch of games and his batting average and OPS have slipped. Correa had a miserable start and missed almost two weeks on the IL with injured fingers. Polanco has slumped recently and his hitting is barely above average. Ryan has been very good, but a bad outing or two might make his numbers look pedestrian. Sonny Gray has been great his last three starts, but he missed a…

Just want everyone's thought on this. I've coached baseball for over 15 years and have always taught my kids how to look at the defense and hit what they give you. It really doesn't take that much to either wait on the pitch or react quickly. It drives me crazy watching the professional players look out in the field and see a defense that is shifted to one side or the other depending on your tendency. Tell me how a professional ball player has no idea how to use the entire field. I really don't care even if you have to bunt but there again your a professional player you should be able to at least make them question were the ball is going. I know MLB pitching is different …

Let’s time travel back to December of 2016. Terry Ryan is well past his expiration date and finally gets the axe. Long overdue. The Twins proceeded to hire Derek Falvey away from the Cleveland Guardians and Thad Levine away from the Texas Rangers, with the objective of building a “pitching pipeline” just like the one Falvey was a big part of building in Cleveland. Since then, this team has a 399-351 record (0.532), winning two division titles and making the postseason three times. And just recently, that “pitching pipeline” started pumping. Some of those minor league arms have looked damn good. All of a sudden they are in first place. Would you consider ext…

I know that winning is a powerful deodorant, but it's fun to have a fun team! Ski-U-Mah! Skol! 1-877-Kars4Kids! Gong Show

According to Aaron Gleeman on Twitter the Royce Lewis position dance has begun in AAA. Lewis is leading off for the Saints and playing 3B tonight. Let's see where things go from here I guess.