Minnesota Twins Talk

All the seamheads foaming at the mouth at the notion of Capps blowing the save last night will have to put their angst on hold, at least temporarily. Hopefully it won't be long until the debate fires up again of how useless the closer role is and how Perkins should pitch the 8th and 9th innings of every game the Twins have a chance of winning.

This was written before the win yesterday. Give it a look: http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7804990/where-minnesota-twins-headed

Great one-pitch-per-game pitcher, or Greatest one-pitch-per-game pitcher? Correct me if I'm wrong, but he's gotten both the Twins wins, and in both games throw only one pitch.

is there a website that lists all the food available along with prices at Target Field?

He hasn't hit well so far, he's not our best defender at RF, C or 1b, and Gardy is resistant to pulling him out of the game late in case Mauer has to leave the game. So why doesn't he just stay on the bench on the days Mauer starts?

Haven't seen a lot of chatter about Capps this spring and how abysmal he's been performing. I know it's spring but I thought the twins signed this guy because they believed that last year was a fluke. It's looking like he's just continuing the same performance. Guy has a near 6 era over 11 innings (a fair Sample for a closer IMO) 14 h 4 hr and a 307 opponent avg. are we really gonna trust this guy for the whole season. I really hope they don't just keep him in there because of his contract if he doesn't improve.

Feel free to discuss!! Nice win!!

I'm running a pick the stick competition at work. I can't seem to find where the lineup cards can be found. Does anyone have a site that has those posted everyday as soon as they're submitted? Any help would be appreciated!

Well the injury bug struck and he went hard. Bad news for the Twins and Scotty. Hopefully Marquis gets back soon and Hendriks looks good when he finally pitches. It would sure be nice to have Kyle Gibson right about now. Really tough for Baker though. Obviously Twins fan wish him a healthy recovery but he really got the tough end of this one. The Twins obviously won't be picking up an almost 10 million dollar option next year. I wouldn't mind seeing him back with the squad on a small incentive based contract next year though. Get well soon Scott!

Because several people asked, I posted the answer to the question of what a Flexor Pronotor Tendon is and what it looks like and how it is related to the UCL. I was going to repost the whole thing here, but I decided to just link to it, because the picture on my post is graphic (i.e. open human elbow showing those things) and might not be suitable for dinner or weaker stomachs. So if you care and can stand anatomy, the post is here

There's a lot of moaning about the Twins having cut the payroll for 2012. If you're one of the complainers, assuming you had $115M to $120M in payroll to spend, exactly where would you have spent it? Be realistic. The Twins were not going to get Pujols, Jose Reyes, C.J. Wilson, etc. Here's a free agent tracker to help you out. http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-passan_ultimate_free_agent_tracker_baseball_110211 Please show how you would have spent $115M. I'll help you out a bit These guys were already under contract: Mauer $23M Morneau $14M Pavano 8.5M Baker $6.5M Blackburn $4.75M T-Nish $3M Span $3M Perkins $1.5M That's $64.25M These guys were arbitr…

If you were in Gardy's shoes, what would your lineup be for tomorrow? What would you do to try and get this team going? And don't say bring up Dozier, that's not happening in the next 24 hours. Personally, my lineup would be: 1. Span, RF 2. Revere, CF 3. Mauer, C 4. Morneau, DH 5. Willingham, LF 6. Parmalee, 1B 7. Hughes, 2b 8. Plouffe, SS 9. Burroughs, 3b Shake things up a little. Remind Valencia, Doumit, Carroll, and Casilla that if they don't perform, there are other guys waiting to take their spot. Remind Span that we have other guys that can man CF if he can't keep Pujols from going first to third. If we had a third catcher, I'd sit Mauer …

has gotten the ball out of the infield 3 times in 4 games. He has yet to get a ball past an outfielder.

Forget the Twins being the last MLB team to win a game. I was just browsing MILB.com and noticed that of every current minor league season in progress, every team that has played has won a game, from AAA down to A, from the Pacific Coast League to the Texas League. True, the minor leagues started up a day or two ahead of the majors this year so they have played about 1-2 games more. Regardless, that leaves the Twins as the only professional American baseball team without a win in this young season. That is all.

It's early. I know. I do think the offense will start to normalize but... Last year, Ben Revere and Drew Butera had near-record poor offensive stats. Thinking along those lines... I think the most outstanding (outrageous) offensive statistic for the Twins this year is that, through the first four games, they have only one hit during the first trip through the batting order. That is 36 plate appearances. I might be wrong, I don't keep a scorecard. If anyone can verify or prove this wrong, I would like to know. I tried to find some way to look this up but I didn't find any. Is there any way to see this kind of split or look back to a specific game for this kind of data?

Does Gardenhire go on the proverbial hot seat? Before I explain, I should probably make it clear I'm not trying to be one of those fans that overreacts over 2 games, but with his playoff failures, and now the fact that the wheels are starting to come off (based on last year), at what point do you think the team would think about making a change? I like Gardy, but it almost seems like his act is starting to wear thin, and sometimes change is a good thing. Just curious to get your thoughts. I think, and hope, he lasts the whole year. Midseason firings normally don't benefit anybody, really.

One interesting thing I noticed about the start of the new Twins season was the new light pole banners that are featured in the downtown area around Target Field. In the past, these banners have shown many of the current members of the team in action shots from games. This year's edition of the light pole banners only have Twins logos on them. With all of the new faces on the Twins for the 2012 season, it might have been appropriate to have players from the current roster on the banners. What do you think? Were the Twins right to leave players off of the banners or was it time for something new?

Since the A's designated 1B Brandon Allen for assignment the other day, and we have the worst record in the AL at the moment, don't we get first crack at him if he's exposed to waivers? What are the chances he becomes a Twin? He had some nice spring numbers. And as this is my first post on here, thanks to the Twinscentric folks for creating this cozy place to talk and inevitably complain about Twins baseball.

Pavano on the mound yesterday sparked some debate about this, but it's worth it's own thread. The common criticism is that the Twins don't care enough about strikeouts and power, opting instead for control and low walk rates. This runs counter to sabrmetric studies that suggest the one of the most effective way to keep runners off base is to keep them from putting the ball in play. I might counter with this: it's not like one can go out and buy flamethrowers off the shelves at Cub (especially not at a discount). There is nothing revolutionary about saying "Guys who strike guys out are very good." Every team wants those guys. They want them in free agency, and they …

Since someone asked on another thread, here's a few things that I've appreciated about Ben Revere. Blazing speed in a lineup full of slow chuggers. We know Target Field isn't going to be a Home Run park, so it's silly to put all our hopes on power hitters. Highlight reel catches. It's nice to see the twins on the top 10 BEST plays, instead of the worst A willingness to throw himself fully into every play. Remember when he hit the ground on a sliding catch so hard he broke his belt? A toughness and drive to play everyday. This is a kid who BROKE HIS FACE and was back playing in a manner of weeks. So many people whine and complain about how the Twins are all w…

In addition to the Twins needing a win today to bring up morale (for the fans mostly!) it would be really nice to beat that punk C.J. Wilson. Question: Is there anyone more annoying (non Ryan Braun bracket) in all of baseball then this know it all, "straight edge" d-bag?

How long until Jamey Carrol gets replaced by Brian Dozier. Carrol is hitless and Dozier is just killing it down in triple A. Hitting over .450 with three doubles and a homer tonight. We are not looking good in the bigs. We need this guy.

'Someone get Willingham in here and explain to him the Twins way. 1. Pitch to contact. 2. Superlative defense. 3. Power singles stretched into doubles. Tell him we will Ortiz him straight to Boston if he insists on swinging for the fences!'

I would love to drop my cable but Twins broadcasts keep me tethered. I looked at mlb.tv and it looks like Twins games would be blacked out here in Minnesota. Can that be? Any locals using mlb.tv? It seems absurd to pay $125 per year if I won't get the Twins games.

If the Orioles played the Twins 162 times in a year... ...Jake Arrieta would make Justin Verlander look like a broken Rick Reed. ...they would rename Camden Yards to Markakis Goes Yards after he hit 108 home runs in a year. ...the Yankees, Red Sox, Rays, & Blue Jays would commit group suicide by filling their sunflower seeds with mini hand grenades.

I've been arguing in various posts that the Twins need better defenders in the outfield corners if they want to support their pitching staff. In today's season opener, we instead got a catcher put in right field and the result was a Nick Markakis drive at the fence getting misplayed into a into a run-scoring triple. Jim Palmer, doing color for the Orioles broadcast, said, "Cuddyer probably would have caught it, but he's in Colorado." I think most actual right fielders would have made the play, too. Yes, it had a fair degree of difficulty as it was a midday start and there was a bright sun, but that's why you play full-time outfielders in the outfield in games wit…

Seen no less then 2 threads and about a dozen posters who are already calling for major changes, firings etc. The Yankees are 0-3 The Phillies are 1-2 The Mets are 3-0 The Braves are 0-3 The Red Sox are about to be 0-3 Worrying to much about such a small sample size of games is a pointless endeavor. The hitting will come around, always does.

Let's see: The Twins are 0-2. Manhandled by one of the 2 teams that was projected to finish below them in 2012There were about 3 attributed Errors in these 2 games and about 3-4 more unattributedI think that the team is hitting a collective Butera for 2012One of the most promising pitchers (or the most promising) will probably miss the season because of another mis-diagnosis and mis-treatmentHis replacement is out with "food poisoning"So, are you panicing? Is the sky falling (yet?) As far as my feelings go about our 2012 Minnesota Twins, it is something like this: - I am totally disappointed by the season 2 games in, but they are just 2 games in. (I can deal with 16…

I was impressed the majority of the balls dribbled past the pitcher, though I'll admit it was close.

I started a day-by-day spreadsheet for the Twins organization. A file that has a tab for each level and some basics about each day's games across all levels. I have listed: date, opponent, score, record, games behind, winning pitcher, losing pitcher, save and "MVP" of that game. I saved it to a google docs, and currently I only have access to it, but if people like the idea and are willing to help, I could give them access. This would be a nice way to keep tabs on all teams in the organization and their current status. I thought about possibly doing team stats for each organization as well. This is all obviously available online, but thought would be nice to have this …