Minnesota Twins Talk

The season is still very early, but what has been of note to me during these initial 5 games is how good the Twins infield defense and bullpen has been. Last season, Sano/Polanco/Schoop/Cron we’re inconsistent on defense and prone to giving back 1 or 2 plays a game with mental mistakes or throwing errors. This season, the addition of Josh Donaldson (and subsequent move of Sano to first base) seems to have stabilized the infield defense by a huge margin. It appears that having two negative defenders on the left side had a cumulative effect. That is, Sano & Polanco’s combined lack of range and inconsistencies throwing the ball to first to some degree made both pla…

I may be alone on this one, but man, is it tough to listen to Roy Smalley stutter his way through a game. He makes me want to listen to Monotone Justin Morneau.

Just wondering if I need to bother watching or not.

I listen to several really smart podcasts and I haven't heard anyone really explore this topic in-depth. Unlike previous years, the AL and NL are going to square off in 33% of their games. That's a lot. Except the AL has a monstrous advantage this year, or at least part of the AL has this advantage... a dedicated hitter who rakes well above standard league production with the bat. Over 20 games, how are NL teams going to compete against the teams (like the Twins) that have a 1.000+ OPS hitter already established in the DH position? NL teams didn't have the time or ability to really compensate for this problem (inexplicably, Puig remains unsigned...) and they're go…

Rodney Carew is still with us. So who is RC?

Rocco Baldelli announced after the Wednesday night exhibition game in Chicago that Jake Odorizzi will begin the season on the Injured List with a stiff upper back. Disappointing, I'm sure, but with the Twins early-season off days, he could miss his first start and be ready for his second start. Allows them to carry an extra bullpen arm.

My dad was huge Twins fan, and he suffered with dementia for the last 8 years, and he passed away last Christmas. I put down some of what I have been thinking about. And I hope baseball romantics like me can find some joy in it. Opening Day by Spencer Legred The warm sun comforts you On this very first day And you pause to remember Maybe it’s family Maybe it’s friends And if you’re like me Maybe it’s Dad Yes, on this day of rebirth On this day of new life Your mind cannot shake Those in the great by and by Yes, today is a ball game Not bound by space and by time As we gather on this same beautiful day We do so much more than just play a game We have gathered f…

Who had Aaron Whitefield on their opening day roster last spring or even last week?

I had fun with the "Ex-Twins in the Box Scores" post last year. I know, it's too early for any games at this point in the year, but I have noticed some activity in the way of signings during the off-season. This past week I read about the Texas Rangers signing Danny Santana to a minor league contract. Frankly, I had almost forgotten he was still around! I think he was with Atlanta for part of last season. Here's the link to ESPN's summary of Rangers transactions: http://www.espn.com/mlb/team/transactions/_/name/tex Any other ex-Twins changing teams so far this winter?

How to watch the Twins in 2020 (Besides being 6 feet away from anyone and wearing a mask. ) This post is about streaming video. There are a lot of options now for cord-cutters (those without cable/satellite TV service). I will limit this post and its discussion to legal methods, though -- feel free to private message me otherwise. First and foremost, you should know if you are in the Twins TV market or not. This will determine MLB.TV blackout policy. Enter your zip code at this link to check: https://www.mlb.com/live-stream-games/subscribe#blackout-restrictions The Twins local blackout areas are all of Minnesota, Iowa, and both Dakotas, plus parts of east-cent…

https://www.mlb.com/news/jhoulys-chacin-released-from-twins The Twins have granted Chacin his release. Good luck Jhoulys

Here ya go:

LaTroy Hawkins on Jorge Alcala: "He's defintely close. I don't know if he's going to break with us, I don't get to make those decisions, but ... He's definitely having a very good showing."

With the season fast approaching, what is the best way to watch Twins Baseball as a cord cutter? For the past several years, I've been using YoutubeTV to hit Fox Sports North, but now that channel has been dropped. So I'm just wondering what other people are doing? I don't really want to pay for a Hulu TV subscription on top of the Youtube, and I have no interest in going back to cable. Is there any way to access Fox Sports North just as a singular channel? Unfortunately I think MLB network is a no-go because I live in a neighboring state to MN and fall under the blackout.

Here are some highlight's from this afternoon's scrimmage. Luis Arraez exited early due to right knee soreness, but it's being considered as a minor issue and is day-to-day.

I know this was discussed previously before MLB and most of the world stopped spinning in a normal fashion. But after baseball for 2020 actually became a reality...however it ends up playing out...and we suddenly started talking about rosters and taxi squads, and odds of winning, etc, I was suddenly reminded again about Pineda's situation when I read and responded to comments in other posts. Let me yet again state my personal opinion that I don't like cheating in any way! There is a funny line, that we all know, that is: "if you aren't cheating, you aren't trying". And we all laugh. Various edges gained in any competition are part of the competition and not cheating. I …

I don't know how many of us are streaming this tonight, but for those who are, how about a little game thread? You can stream the game, and the Twins are apparently going all out on the production value for this one as their own "spring training."

No matter what kind of patch work 2020 season MLB comes up with, if anything at this point, it will amount to no more than a glorified pre spring training for the 2021 season and will be totally irrelevant in the scheme of things. I just hope that by late Feb. 2021 they can pick up where they left off in March 2020. If the pandemic madness is not over by then, just forget organized sports at all levels for the foreseeable future. Roman Coliseums are now scattered all over the country.

With the real Twins around the corner, I have elected to sim to the playoffs to try and tease how the real club will do this fall, and as it so happens, they will face a familiar foe in the ALDS. American League Division Series Game One: Minnesota Twins @ New York Yankees 7:10pmCT Catch-Up Well, it's time. I could go through all the miserable stats we have against New York like a national broadcast would at a time like this but we all know what this is. Rocco Baldelli said last year that this is a new Twins team and they don't believe in the curse from New York and he didn't even acknowledge there was one, but yet the Twins were swept by New York in the ALDS last year…

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned in another thread an upcoming talk, as part of SABR's 2020 virtual convention, concerning the old Senators' scout Joe Cambria. The presenter is Paul Scimonelli, a retired schoolteacher in Bethesda, Maryland; he's working on a full length book about Cambria. The talk was given last Thursday (a recording of it is on YouTube) and here is my summary. The title, "Saint or Scoundrel?" focused more on his sketchy business practices (for the scoundrel part). He sounded typical of a small time operator trying to skirt the limits of the rules, although maybe a little moreso than most, as regarded contract signings for the minor league teams he ow…

If you missed the live stream of Thursday's scrimmage, here's a quick roundup of highlights:

Just curious what the plan is for 2020 Game Threads. Since stadium experience is out this could be a fun outlet for TD. I think the participation rate could be larger than usual. Can't wait to start watching some baseball and having some snappy/witty conversations with my TD friends.

Tim Flattery had a conversation with Dwight Siebler, who was the 5th start on the 1965 Twins World Series team (the Sandy Koufax series). Old guys tell the best stories- "Harmon Killebrew was one of the nicest men I ever met. We got to be good friends... we didn't just go chasing skirts every night!" https://www.moonlightgrahamshow.com/podcast/2020/7/7/dwight-siebler-and-the-1965-minnesota-twins

What does this mean, any guesses? Going to see a simulated live game? Twins going to go 9-on-9 tonight?

Dan Hayes of The Athletic wrote an article about and included some pictures of how the Twins are trying to take advantage of Target Field's empty spaces. Here's a link to his article. There are some photos of very familiar spaces that are being used, as turf has been rolled out onto parts of the concourses to create additional training spaces.

Didn't see this posted elswhere. From The Athletic

because TEAR EVERYTHING DOWN!

Moving forward this will house every game-thread in the comments below until real baseball hopefully comes back. I should have done this sooner and apologize for flooding the forums with posts daily.

https://www.startribune.com/twins-coaches-bob-mcclure-68-and-bill-evers-66-sidelined-for-season/571529672/ LaVelle Neal also wrote that the Twins radio broadcast crew (including Cory Provus and Dan Gladden) will not travel on the road during the 2020 season. They will, however, call all 60 games. They will view the road games on a monitor and call them from the Twin Cities. The decision is clearly due to the goal of keeping the traveling party as minimal as possible.

William Aish, sports editor for El Nuevo Diario, Tweeted last night about a complicated situation involving Miguel Sano. Here's Hector Gomez, another Spanish-language sports reporter, providing a translation: This is a developing story. Per Aish's original report, there will be a press conference later today.