Minnesota Twins Talk

I will name my first born child, BYTO after you

I'm a fan of the ESPN Baseball Today podcast, so I was thrilled to hear Mark Simon mention Twins Daily by name on Friday's episode. He was digging in to his previous, and turns out wrongly-held, notion that Trevor Plouffe was the worst player in baseball. He referenced an article by Parker that broke down Plouffe's swing from the beginning of the season and now. Here is a link to the ESPN Podcast Archive page: http://espn.go.com/espnradio/podcast/archive?id=2386164 The episode is from Friday, June 22, and the segment starts about 25 minutes in. I thought it was cool that Simon just kind said "Twins Daily site" as if everybody should know about it. Congrats Twins …

He has 682 career plate apperances. He has zero home runs. The all time record for most plate apperances without a home run is by Bill Holbert with 2,396. Holbert played between 1876-1888. In the modern era, the record is Tom Oliver with 2,072 plate apperances. He played from 1930-1933. At the rate that Revere is gathering plate apperances and assuming he stays in the everyday lineup from now on, he will likely surpass Holbert around the 2015 season, when he'll be just 27 years old. Of course, he could always manage an inside the park home run. Hell, he almost did it with a simple gapper in Detroit, and it only takes one outfielder with Torii Hunter-like…

On the baseball standings page of ESPN, they include each team's chances of making the playoffs this year. You can look at this here if you want -- http://espn.go.com/mlb/standings/_/sort/playoffPercent/order/true ESPN puts the Twins chances at 0.9% (slightly less than one percent). But I wonder if they take into account the potential magic that could happen, such as the ascension of Babe Plouffe and the possibility that Mauer, Morneau etc. could start playing at their prior levels, and the possibility that Diamond, Liriano and at least two other starters can provide solid second halves. What do you think? What are the Twins' chances of making the playoffs THIS ye…

ESPN 1500 reports that Capps shoulder is "not good" http://www.1500espn.com/sportswire/Matt_Capps_shoulder_not_good_after_lowvelocity_outing_against_Reds062412 When will the Twins learn to use the DL? If the rest is more than a few days give them two weeks. It looks like Perkins is the closer for a while. Capps may go to DL. Gardenhire also implied on his show that Duensing will get more starts. Will the Twins need to bring up a lefty for the pen. Matt Maloney, Luke French, Tyler Robertson and Caleb Thielbar are in Rochester. I'd like to see Robertson get some time. Thielbar doesn't have very many AA/AAA innings.

With all of the news of Kevin Youkilis and an impending trade, I have been wondering if the market for Youklis will be the same as the market for Morneau.Both have large contracts. Youkilis is 12 and 13 million. Morneau is 14/14.Both are performing below expectations.Both are health risks.Both can help at 1B.I think Youkilis has a little more value. His contract has a $1 million dollar buyout for 2013. He can play 3B. As a Twin fan, I may be a little more optimistic about Morneau performing better than Youklis over the remainder of the season. I am not sure if teams would agree. Based on sample size and looking at 2010, I think there bats are statistically similar in of…

So, I was wandering the Plaza yesterday after work and was checking out the placards with all the old team rosters, and I noticed Billy Beane on a few teams. I had no idea Mr. Moneyball used to play for the Twins. It got me thinking, how many former Twins players have gone on to become Managers and GM's? Anybody else besides Ron Washington, Ron Gardenhire, Billy Beane, and Tom Kelly?

Nishioka was a career .293 hitter in Japan and won a batting title there in his final season. He was reputed to be one of the top fielding shortstops there. Wouldn't he still have value there? Even now? The Twins would have to eat a large portion of his salary but why wouldn't a team in Japan take him off the Twins' hands and absorb a portion of that salary? Top players there make up to $5 million per year. Perhaps someone would take him for $1 million? Does this ever happen? You would think Nishioka, himself, would find value in getting back to Japan where he could continue his career. In the US, it is hard to imagine him having a major league career. Anyone h…

Twin are promoting Tyler Robertson from Rochester in anticipation of placing Matt Capps on the DL. Robertson is LH and will supplement Perkins as a lefty in the pen with Duensing in the rotation for a while.

The 30 Man Roster Might it be time for MLB to rethink roster size? How would this change MLB, for better or worse? Your comments please.

With several teams going with two hitting coaches these days, Hatcher seems like a good fit for a few reasons a) Twins roots in his past by all accounts a solid instructor that learned future managerial skills from Scioscia and c) would bring a new voice to this team on the coaching ranks. Not saying that gardy needs to be fired, although no one keeps a job forever, but maybe bringing in a guy like Hatcher would inspire Gardy a bit as well?

Morneau is undoubtedly in a bit of a funk, but even when he's been going pretty well, it seems that he is swinging at EVERYTHING. I don't think his current line gives any value to a contender and I think he's relatively healthy, so.......is this all we are going to get for the life of his contract?Plouffe is getting some hits and playing all right in the field, but the home run swing seems to be gone for the moment. The last two night he has gotten pitches in his "happy zone" and hasn't done anything with them.The starting pitching is a true failure. Diamond competes and is acceptable at the back end of a rotation, Liriano (a free agent to-be) has been good lately, but ap…

OK, so we have a day-night doubleheader scheduled for Saturday 6/30 (because of a previous postponement). MLB roster rules have been changed this year to allow a team to have a 26th person on the active roster for the day of those games (presumably to allow them to bring up a spot starter without completely upsetting their rotation). So do the Twins take advantage of this? Who do they bring up - DeVries? Or do they bring up a bench player or another reliever (on the assumption that the bullpen will be needed heavily that day)? Thoughts?

Is anybody else taking the trip to see the Twins in Pit and Cin this week? In about 45 min I'll be departing Minneapolis heading to Beloit for tonights game. Saturday in Detroit to see the Rockies. Sunday go north of the border for Jays and Phils. Monday in Rochester to see the 2011 left side of the Twins infield. Tuesday the hometown 9 at PNC, Wednesday the hated Indians take on the Reds in Cleveland, Thursday no baseball (gasp), and Friday see the hometown 9 again at GABP. Finally a quick stop in Cedar Rapids on Saturday to see the Snappers fight the Kernals, then driving home Saturday night. It'd be a pretty big coincidence if anybody else had the exact same i…

Rob Deer. Very low average with very good power. Massive L/R splits. Pretty soon the "play every day" thing should probably be replaced with a platoon situation . . . if the Twins can find a lefty to do so . . .

I enjoy watching this team more that last year's team for a few different reason. First, Dozier and Plouffe playing everyday on the left side of the INF has me optimistic that they can actually be regulars for the Twins. Dozier as a potential number 2 hitter and Plouffe as a 5 or 6. On a related note, the INF defense has been much much better. Span and Morneau are playing. Span is playing at a higher level than Morneau right now, but seeing both of them playing again is great. Plus, Span is fun to watch because he does everything so well. Butera is not playing everyday. Thank you JR for picking up Doumit. The entire team isn't underachieving. Mostly because…

Rhett Bollinger just tweeted: Thoughts? Other options include Anthony Swarzak and Jeff Manship. Cole De Vries just started for Rochester last night.

With their starting pitching in shambles, the Rockies have made the decision to switch to a four-man rotation, implementing a 75-pitch limit on all of their starters with the goal of letting their bullpen (which has been much better) have a larger impact on games. What do you think? Good idea or bad? And if this approach shows results, is it something the Twins – who are in a very similar situation – should consider?

just threw this up at Twinkietown. http://www.twinkietown.com/2012/6/22/3110845/bad-teams-or-good-liriano

From the postgame report, it seems like Mauer was not pleased with the way that Rickie Weeks slid into home on Sunday afternoon. I didn't think it was a dirty play at the time but I was wondering what others thought about the play.

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I have pretty much retired from blogging and leaving negative messages on Twitter that irritates everyone. I really am just enjoying watching the Twins play this season and seeing some of the young talent (Revere, Dozier, Parmelee, & Hendriks) come up from the minors. However, I have to ask all of Twins Daily just one honest question about the starting rotation in 2013. How does GM Terry Ryan plan on fixing it? The Twins minor league farm system is completely depleted when it comes to power arms and capable starting pitchers. The 2011 minor league pitcher of the year was Liam Hendriks and he has looked lost so far in a handful of starts this year. Hendriks has good st…

Does anyone know if the Twins have an app available? I can't seem to find one in the iTunes store. Am I missing something or are the Twins missing the boat big time?

With all these acrobatic catches today, it got me to thinking. Is there a chance that Revere wins a gold glove in RF with all of these great catches that he has been making?

There is a ballpark battle over on ESPN.com. We are in the final 8 but are currently getting beaten by Camden Yards. We need to get over there and vote! http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/8074116/battle-ballparks-elite-8-vote-mlb-best

Since the Twins are facing the Pirates this week, let's talk a little about them as potential trade partners for the Twins. The Pirates are desperate for offense. Their first base situation is an absolute disaster, which is why I talked about Morneau as a possible fit for them. Looking at the MLBTradeRumors thread about the Twins "needing pitching" there are several Pirates fans openly pining for Willingham. The Pirates also have a couple of highly rated pitching prospects. Gerrit Cole was a top 20 overall prospect, a 21-year-old right hander. He just got promoted to AA. Jameson Taillon is a notch below him in status, but still very highly rated, 20 years old, hav…

I figured it would be a no-brainer that Trevor Plouffe would earn this past week's AL Player of the Week honor, but instead it went to Oakland's Brandon Moss who hit 6 HR and drove in 11 runs. Maybe Plouffe has a better chance at AL Player of the Month as his HRs have been a little more equally spread over the entire month. http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120618&content_id=33510076&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb

Ripped from the front pages of Duh Magazine, Twins GM Terry Ryan tells ESPN.com's Buster Olney (Insider), that the organization is looking for more starting pitching. The Twins rotation is carrying a hefty 6.06 ERA, highest in the AL, while allowing 1.69 home runs per nine innings pitched, the highest rate in all of baseball (extra disappointing since they play in a pitcher-friendly ballpark). What's more, they seem to be losing 1.3 starters per week. After losing PJ Walters and Carl Pavano, the Twins are in need of promoting for the minors once again or reaching into the bullpen for a spot start. That, however, does not address the long term needs for the rotation a…

Here is a link to a slideshow at bleacher report about every team's all-time worst draft pick, and who they could have picked if they had been smarter and/or luckier. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1206829-2012-mlb-draft-every-mlb-teams-worst-draft-bust-of-all-time It's amazing how some seemingly "sure things" turned out to be terrible busts. I hope that Buxton does not fall into this category.

Based on the other thread ... Dodgers could be a partner for Span (or Willingham). Currently they are using Bobby Abreau in left but could move him to first (which is also a problem for them). Worse, for them, their main lead-off hitter, Gordon, has an OBP around .285. The Dodgers are going to be printing money with their new ownership and TV deals and will be among the likely bidders on Hamels next year (Hamels, Billingsly and Kershaw, yikes). They won't be as dependent on their farm system as they used to be so could trade some of their surplus pitching. Span makes sense for them - lead off hitter, able to spell Kemp in center when needed, already used to hittin…