Minnesota Twins Talk

I have been playing a game on Facebook called "Dream Nine". I am playing as the Twins. Every team has one ace. For the Yankees it is Sabathia, for the Dodgers it is Kershaw and so on. It takes some work to get your ace, and when I finally qualified for my ace, I got Nick Blackburn. I guess the game company had as much trouble as we do finding an ace on the Twins' roster. If you play as the Twins, then Blackburn will be your ace. Once you get a player, you can train the player to increase his skills. I have been focusing on training my ace -- Blackburn. I have trained him till he ached. After all the training, Blackburn has now won more than 10 games in a row, …

Any chance we could have results posted? Or did I miss it.

Ranking the Top 10 Prospects in the Minnesota Twins' Farm System | Bleacher Report Nothing groundbreaking here, but a nice reference point for those of us not too familiar with all of the prospects.

I consider myself a pretty optimistic fan. I always approach opening day with the view that "this is the year". Every team starts out equal and has a shot at a world championship. Even in 2011 and 2012, I had hope that the pitching would come around and that Gardy would guide the boys to another division championship. I am having a hard time ramping up my excitement this off-season. Granted it is only early January and we still have 3 weeks before we even hit Twinsfest, but with our current off-season roster moves and faint hope of any additional meaningful acquisitions, I don't see much reason for optimism this time around. In fact the exact opposite view is startin…

I guess $1.5M for Jason Frasor was too much for the Twins. Must be nice to be the Rangers who can just a RP like it's no big thing. Lucky for the Twins we have Duensing, Swarzak, and Burnett. Case closed bullpen is solid.

"But Twins general manager Terry Ryan said he expects to fill the position from within, with Darin Mastroianni and prospects Aaron Hicks and Joe Benson competing for the spot." Twins leaning toward in-house solution for center field | twinsbaseball.com: News

Who is everyone hoping for to fill out the rotation to start the season? Assume everyone is healthy and not knowing ST results. worley diamond gibson hendriks pelfrey deduno correria harden devries (marcum) (saunders)

Last year, I emailed Mr. Ryan. In retrospect, that was probably a very silly thing to do. I'm sure it annoyed him greatly. I emailed to beg Mr. Ryan to sign the likes of Josh Willingham and Yoenis Cespedes, INSTEAD of Michael Cuddyer. Now, for various reasons, I pulled Willingham from my points, because I had much better thoughts on Cespedes. Point being, Cespedes and Willingham were going to be bargains compared to the likes of Cuddyer (and perform just as well or better). It ended up being better. Part of my argument was asking that Denard Span be traded amidst these moves (Got my wish a year later, on that one). Now, here we find ourselves staring at opportunit…

I really wished the Twins would have signed Brett Myers over Kevin Correia. It would have given the Twins a backup for Perkins if he falters as closer next season. Terry Ryan could have offered $7M to Myers instead of wasting $10M on 2 years for Correia.

According to Twins PR Director Dustin Morse (via twitter):

First look: new MLB batting practice caps Twins road batting practice hat Twins home batting practice hat

A post in another thread (thanks, beckmt) got me thinking about this real hard... if by chance things do "go right" for the Twins next year, where could we expect them to end up? We can have a little fun with the Pythagorean Theorum to get a back-of-the-napkin idea. This formula factors runs scored and allowed to come up with the number of wins a team could expect on average. Last year, the Twins scored 701 runs and gave up 832 for a pythag-projection of 68 wins (compared to our actual 66 wins). So, if we run through a series of potential and desireable fates, we can take a stab at adjusting the number of runs scored (or allowed) from last year and see where we stand…

Anyone know when they go on sale? I can't find anything on the Twins site.

Game 7 (obviously) talk. It looks like they are going inning by inning.

Saw this early picture of Steinbach and am trying to remember the name of that band that he played in before going on to his baseball career...

wasn't he the pitcher that we traded to Atlanta for Scott Diamond???

In the Star Tribune's recent piece on Hennepin County's debt repayment schedule for the Target Field construction costs, Twins president Dave St. Peter told the paper that in addition to the current upgrades at the ballpark (which include the creation of patio seating in the obstructed-seating right field bleacher seats - see image below), the Twins have intentions of adding more to the facility. Most make sense, although I'm not quite sure what constitutes a "stronger connection" to the neighboring Target Center. The plaza pretty much accomplishes that.

While it would be nice if our newly acquired pitching prospects could contribute in 2014, it remains likely that we'll need to bring in some outside help. Am I premature in thinking about potential free agents pitchers next offseason? The answer, of course, is yes. The Twins never seem to risk it all on massive contracts for pitchers, but will Tim Lincecum's nightmarish 2012 knock him down into our realm? Is he done as an ace pitcher? Who else is entering free agency after the 2013 season? Will draft pick compensation affect who we sign?

Just look at the Vikings, nobody expected them to even sniff the playoffs, yet a couple key acquisitions and improved play has brought them into the playoffs. Now I am not saying the Twins will do the same thing, and I am FAR from happy with this current roster, but at the end of the day you never know. (Though it would be nice to get a Marcum type as well)

I know it seems preposterous, but at this point, which I would be in big favor of, but know would never happen, but my vote would be Mauer. Mauer Hicks Willingham Morneau Parmalee Doumit Plouffe Florimon Carroll . If your chances of scoring a run w/ no outs and someone on first is.5, I think I like Mayer here more than anyone on the roster right now. It would b fun to see a manager go outside the safe zone once

Will Terry pretend that Cuban players cant help the Twins or will we have someone in Mexocali Mexico on january 5th ,to watch the 2 kids from Cuba work out? Alvarez is a 24 year old outfielder and Diaz is a 22 year old shortstop. With Minnesota thin in both areas this year ,will we send someone down to watch and see if they are mlb players or have tools that could lead to a big leaque career? Or once again will Mr. Ryan bury his head in the sand like he did on Cespedes last year?

Twins might not be done looking at pitchers, plus plenty of other notes | StarTribune.com Lots of good notes in La Velle's latest entry, but this bit really stuck in my craw: "Indications are that they are not going to hand out the two-year deal for $14-15 million that has become the rage this offseason (see Brandon McCarthy, Joe Blanton and Francisco Liriano). They will let Joe Saunders walk if that is the case. Same for Brett Myers and Shawn Marcum (there are health issues with Marcum too). But if the offseason continues and the those pitchers remain unsigned, the Twins will take a harder look at them if they lower their demands. Despite having money to spend (they …

I was listening to Jim Bowden on SiriusXM's "Inside Pitch" and he had some interesting things to say about signing Michael Bourn & Kyle Lohse. Ok both are Scott Boras clients that can't find a job because of Boras (which is my guess). If the Twins signed either player they would give up their #2 round pick or you if signed both #2 & #3 round pick. His idea would be to sign them and basically deal them either at the trade deadline or June 15th. June 15th would be the earliest day you could trade a free agent you just signed. So why not offer 3YR $45M for a rental for a few months and then trade for prospects. You would get a great return from a contending team…

Q&A with Twins GM Terry Ryan: Kevin Correia 'left money on the table' | 1500 ESPN Twin Cities ? Minnesota Sports News & Opinion (Twins, Vikings, Wolves, Wild, Gophers) | Sportswire: Minnesota Twins Excellent interview from Doogie (I'm sure there was already a post linking this article, but I'm trying to get specific with a question): From the article: Why two years and $10 million? Couldn't you have gotten him for one year? We weren't going to get him. So, you need to overpay free agents to get them here? No. He left money on the table. That surprises me. He left money on the table. It is as simple as that. The market has gone up. Correct. Anibal Sanchez's c…

Indians To Sign Nick Swisher: MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com 4yr deal with a 5th year vesting option that could be worth as much as 70m over all five years. This could be good news for the Twins if it leads a team like the Rangers to panic and trade for Willingham and/or Morneau.

2/14. I guess it's a high risk/reward thing. Maybe he does better in the NL.

I see a few decent RP's still out there, any chance on the Twins showing any interest in the following RP. Before I throw names out I would like to see them signed possibly to minor league deals. Kyle Farnsworth Jason Frasor Matt Lindstrom Brandon Lyon Mike Gonzalez J.P. Howell In other words, a bunch of former closers as insurance if Perkins falters as closer.

I was hopping for 3 new starting pitchers, but what did I find? One starter I'm happy with in Vance Worely, although Santa made me trade in one of my favorite toys in order to get my new pitcher. It really doesn't really seem fair. Another new starter in Kevin Corriea. Not really excited about this one, kind of like wanting a PS3 and getting a Nitendo64 instead. It may allow me to play some video games for a couple of weeks but won't keep interested for another season. Finally Mike Pelfrey, again, it seems that Santa is just replacing a broken toy (Baker), with something maybe a littler newer and shinier, but not something I was going to use as an everyday option a…

Some of the things on this list are just complete BS. Talk about Eastern Sports Promotional Network.. Killebrew at #64? Blyleven at #72? Carew at #53!? Kirby Puckett doesn't even receive honorable mentions..? My view might be biased, but seriously Killebrew should be a top 30 atleast. ESPN's Hall of 100 -- Ranking the all-time greatest MLB players - ESPN

First off, Im 100% a nonpayroll guy but who it's used on......dont spend JUST to spend. That said......The team currently has its current 25 man roster @ 71.5m approx Im 100% positive Ryan will never offer a FA pitcher more than a year. Its his cheap old schooled approach. Twins have 3/5 of rotation set with Diamond, Worley & Hendriks all making the minimum. They will go dumpster diving on 1 yr offers for Lannan, Liriano, Corrieia, etc on low money deal to fill out the rotation......OR will they? His mention of Duensing & Blackburn during his MLB TV interview has me thinking Nick's 5.5m will be given EVERY opportunity to get a spot. Duensing will allow the te…