Minnesota Twins Talk

An interesting tidbit. We all know that walks aren't entirely indicative of plate discipline, but Rosario's new approach is startling when you extrapolate numbers... Over the past three seasons, Rosario has averaged: 581 PAs, 29 BB per season. He currently has 67 PAs, 8 BB. Extrapolate those numbers to his three season average and it's: 581 PAs, 69 BB. If Eddie is able to maintain that rate, there's a good chance he becomes a well above average corner outfielder and could see a nice payday as a result.

After yesterday's crucial win over Chicago, I thought about how big the game tonight (Wednesday) is going to be. It will really be important in terms of catching the Sox and Cleveland in the final 3.5 weeks of the season. Then I looked at the coming schedule. With most everyone (except Garver) looking like they should be on the field within a week, I noted that the Twins have two doubleheaders in a five day stretch. They are not alone in this crazy partial season, but there will be a lot of innings to cover within those five days. I think there is a good shot that the Twins will have six different starters available for the seven games. Odorizzi looks like he will b…

I generally hate blaming poor performance on coaches(and I'm not doing it in this case). But I can't help but wonder if some(certainly not all) of the poor offensive performances this year are in any part due to losing James Rowson to Miami and replacing him with Edgar Varela. Have any of you stat heads/video analysts out there noticed anything or is this simply a case of everyone not named Cruz having an offensive slump at the same time? At the very least you would have thought by now you would see more signs of improvement.

Each Monday on WCCO Radio's facebook and twitter pages, Cory Hepola has been hosting The Bomba Show. He's been joined by Twins writers from Twins Daily and Zone Coverage, for a half-hour video show to talk about the week-that-was and look ahead to the coming week... I was on this week's show... (I'll see if I can find past shows and post the links here too) 8/24/20 Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/wccoradio Twitter - https://twitter.com/wccoradio/status/1297949398161190912

Is now the time to go after Hader? How much would he cost? Our bullpen has obviously been fantastic, but wouldn't it be nice to have another dominant lefty who can come in at any time? Pitching wins in playoffs. Period. He is under contract for age 26-29 seasons, so he will be very expensive. Worth it? Mil just had Cain opt out. Braun is old and hurt. Yelich is 1-27. Maybe they would kick the tires on trading him?

Yes, I believe there will be baseball! Further, the Twins would be a popular pick this year to advance to the playoffs and maybe, just maybe, make some noise. Twins Daily will have Game Threads for each regular season game. As we did last year, I will make a Google Doc with game thread intro assignments. I'll do a Google Doc for each month including the abbreviated schedule of July. Sign up now! The season is coming fast. You can sign up either by sending a message to me or by commenting in this thread, which will be pinned. I'd prefer messages, because I see them on my phone without going to the TD site. I will probably post the Google Doc early next week and at the s…

Umps making it hard to argue against electronic strike zone. There was mystifying Kepler at bat last week and Royal pitcher threw one right down middle of plate thigh high and called a ball. Maybe there is a compromise out there , like only the ump getting notification of ball/strike. Presently too inconsistent and just head scratching calls at times.

Boy, is he struggling at the plate! Man, can he crush it! That’s eight strike outs in his past 10 at-bats. These are often some of the sentences I see when I scour the Twitterverse world we love in. The question is: What is wrong with Miguel Sano, the struggling slugging first baseman of the Minnesota Twins? My simple solution? Switch bats. Ok. Who am I and what the heck do I know? In order for me to answer this, I have to give you my background. Here I am - 57-years-old. 5’9” and a body frame that would make Bartolo Colon blush. Ok, not THAT bad, but still! I will preface that I played JV baseball at Winona State University for three years. Why only junior …

https://www.minnesotasportsfan.com/kenta-maeda-tells-fans-not-to-be-mad-at-taylor-rogers-unveils-apology-letter-and-more/ Through translation, Minnesota Sports Fan explains Kenta Maeda's most recent You Tube post, which apparently is very popular. In it, Maeda talked about the no-hit attempt, losing it and then seeing the lead lost. He said he's seen some of the online comments directed at Rogers and said that needs to stop, blown saves are part of the game. He went on to explain how Rogers apologized and offered him gifts. Pretty cool story.

Coming into the year I was very scared of the Twins infield defense, even more so when Donaldson dropped out. However, Polanco has looked decent with his throws, unlike most of last year. I do not think range has been great from what I have seen with any of the defenders but do not feel it has really hurt them. Sano has been a big surprise for me. He has looked lost a couple of times on balls off of the base and what to do, which is to be expected, but he has dug out balls in the dirt much better than I thought he would and yet to lose a pop up. He is no gold glove guy, but coming into year I was dreading what he would like like. So far so good with the defense from…

It’s not just the Pirates’ announcers who think it’s awful. It’s awful. They need to stop it. I’m mostly ok with the MLB The Show crowd noises being used the background of empty stadiums (to an extent), but the seven seconds of blared music in between visiting pitches seriously detracts from the game. It makes it seem like they aren’t playing a major league baseball game. Is there any hope of getting them to knock it off?

Here are my top 10 Twins highlights from this past week:

I finally figured out where Miguel Sano's home run from last night landed. Moon bomba!!!

This is being live streamed right now (Thursday evening), but will also be available to watch on demand. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cDu_pZrMCE

https://www.startribune.com/no-in-game-video-means-trouble-for-twins-hitters/572093282/ I wonder if this affecting guys like Garver, Sano, etc....

Yesterday I saw a guy with an OB filter mask (blue mask with an Ocean Beach seagull stenciled on it). Made me wonder, what if the Minnesota Twins started selling masks with their logo? Might get more fans to wear masks if they could show their craziness in a more socially acceptable way.

I figured the star of the show last night deserved some special attention.

We missed out on our big money aces. A big impact 3B will either cost age/money (Donaldson) or top prospects and money (Arenado/Bryant). So why not spend money and invest in a completely different direction? Nicolas Castellanos has played over 500 games in his career at 3B. He is one of the best hitters in all of MLB. He is also 28. Does anyone ever want him to step foot at the hot corner again? Doubtful! But in an era valuing flexibility, Castellanos might be undervalued. My question is, could he transition to 1B? With so much experience at 3B, I would guess yes (he has to have decent hands, right?). He is also 6'4". He could also play RF for us in a pinch. He could ev…

I know it is only 2 games, but Maeda looks awesome. Is it too early to get excited? FO made some great moves this offseason, wish we had a full season to see resulys.

I was watching the Twins game with my father and talking about this Twins team compared to previous Twins teams. Two teams that we zeroed in on were the 2006 and 2010 Twins compared to this Twins team. The question that he asked me was would you take a 3/4/5 (or 2/3/4) of 2010 Mauer/Morneau/Thome or Donaldson/Cruz/Insert Player X from the 2020 Twins? My immediate reaction was to say that Donaldson/Cruz/Kepler or whomever were more talented than that 2010 group, but I think I forgot how good Morneau & Thome were that year. Morneau, in those 81 games prior to his injury, had 25 doubles, 15 home runs, 56 RBIs with a .345 average/.437 OBP/1.055 OPS. His OPS+ was 187 I…

Two things are already obvious about this patchwork simulation of a MLB season. The regular season is already a fiasco with numerous virus (not weather) postponements, players sitting out the season and schedules determined by a disease, not actual competition. The other thing already obvious is that the Twins and Yankees will both be in the reconstructed playoffs unless the disease ends the season in the same way that it started the season. So one constant will remain from Twins of recent years, even decades. The New York Yankees are lurking and until that meeting happens, nothing else matters.

Anyone know if the Twins are selling the Summer Camp T-Shirt officially anywhere? I see a few random T-shirt sites selling this shirt, but I'm wondering if there is an official vendor. Apologize in advance for the slightly off topic thread.

I found this amusing in a Power Ranking article The best part of the team in the early season, though, might be the bullpen. The late-inning boy band of Taylor, Tyler, Tyler and Trevor* have combined for 17 strong innings so far, with Romo and Cody Stashak also contributing. It’s a potent combination of not allowing runs, and hitting baseballs where fielders aren’t allowed to catch them. * Rogers, Clippard, Duffey and May, who record under the name “High Leverage.”

Do you get the Athletic? If you do go take a look at Eno Sarris’ early season quality of stuff report. Here are some notable Twins. Homer Bailey was ranked third behind Scherzer and Gray. Bailey was also among the biggest improvers from last year so it could stabilize or maybe Wes Johnson has a hand in the improvement. Sarris also listed his top 25 command+ for the season. One pitcher made both top 25 in quality of stuff and command+. Randy Dobnak. They are both likely to drop some but this is an encouraging start from the Twins 5th and 6th starters.

Cool to see him contribute. Is he a recent call up? I don't remember him from last year. Anyway, it's cool to see the twins give a long shot a chance. I'll take my question off-air.

With two Aussies on the current roster I was curious how many players from there have made the majors. Turns out only 32 have made it, and 9 have actually played for the Twins at least one game. Grant Balfour has been the most successful with the Twins, but they've also had Liam Hendriks, Glenn Williams, Luke Hughes, James Beresford, Justin Huber, and Brad Thomas. In addition Michael Nakamura was really from Australia, but born in Japan so doesn't quite fit this list. Trent Oeltjen was signed by the Twins and made it to AAA before leaving and making it elsewhere. And Ryan Rowland-Smith was the Twins' Rule V pick in 2004, but was returned to the Mariners and even…

I wonder if this guy could rebound, he's only 28???

The Bomba Squad is going to have one of the best lineups in baseball no matter how they're ordered, but I wonder if putting Arraez at the top may put an unnecessary amount of pressure on him. Where would you put Luis Arraez in the lineup?