Minnesota Twins Talk

There's a Boston sports fan, Giana Manzi, who apparently has Rocco Baldelli's old phone number. Baldelli apparently didn't broadcast his number switch. And, as you can imagine, her phone is blowing up right now. It's an amusing sub-story on the day the Twins announce their 14th manager in club history.

On Wednesday afternoon, Rocco Baldelli had his introductory press conference. If you didn't have a chance to see if, I''ll include a link below to watch it back... What are your initial impressions on Baldelli from the press conference? What did you like, or not like? https://www.facebook.com/Twins/videos/289643001878054/

KSTP news is reporting that former, long-time Twins international scout Howie Norsetter is suing the team saying that he was terminated because of age discrimination. Here is a tweet from KSTP's Doogie Wolfson: https://twitter.com/DWolfsonKSTP/status/1055208710820257793 I would think it would be difficult for Norsetter to win, but it certainly could get interesting.

Rawlings announced its finalists for the Gold Glove Awards, unveiling three players at each position. The Twins ended up with ... nobody. Joe Mauer will probably viewed across Twins Territory as a snub, but while he was great again at first, he only made 85 starts there this season. I think the guys with the strongest cases were actually Kyle Gibson, Jose Berrios, Max Kepler and Eddie Rosario. Here's a link to the full list of finalists.

Still speculation, but rumors from multiple sites

I've been messing around with a few Web-Scraping tricks and will be posting "You Be the GM" tools for anyone who wants to use them The first out is the 40-man Toolkit Your best bet is to make a copy of the whole document so you can play around with it as you'd like If you want to share your wisdom with everyone who uses the 40-man Toolkit, DUPLICATE the tab at the bottom named DUPLICATE THIS SHEET TO MAKE YOUR PROJECTION and name it the same as your TD name...I have one TVAGLE Any text in the First Name column for each position will Count towards the 40 man To DROP/DFA/Release/Das Boot a player off the 40-man you can delete their name, or as I did in my examp…

Very damning article for the (now former) coaching/analytics staff. Pressly is used an example of how the Astros use analytics & coaching to get more out of their pitchers: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2018/10/15/magic-dust-spin-rates-buy-in-how-astros-make-good-pitchers-even-better/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.f70052d2bf60 A key quote from Pressly: ""Every team has an analytics department, and this is no knock on the Twins, but seeing the time [the Astros] put in and the scouting reports you're given, it's like, 'Whoa.' It's a different level," Pressly said. "You kind of see, 'Wow, if I just pitch a little more to this percentage instead of that perc…

WINNERS SELECTED BY TWIN CITIES BASEBALL WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA 14th Annual Diamond Awards Event Set For January 24, 2019 Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN — The Minnesota Twins announced today the recipients of the Diamond Awards, their annual awards for the 2018 season based on voting conducted by the Twin Cities Chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America. In addition, the Twins and the BBWAA announced plans for the 14th annual Diamond Awards, which will be held Thursday, January 24, 2019 at The Depot Minneapolis and will benefit research, education and care in brain, nerve and muscle disorders at the University of Minnesota. …

Long-time strength and conditioning coach Perry Castellanos and his assistant Erik Beiser did not have their contracts renewed. Several other minor league strength and conditioning coaches also let go:

From mlbtrade rumors, They project the Twins to spend 38.3m on arb for 10 players. It that is accurate, that would put the teams total payroll at just shy of 70m.* Assuming ownership keeps payroll roughly even, they'd have about 55-60m to spend in FA this offseason. Jake Odorizzi – $9.4MM Kyle Gibson – $7.9MM Eddie Rosario – $5.0MM Robbie Grossman – $4.0MM Max Kepler – $3.2MM Miguel Sano – $3.1MM Ehire Adrianza – $1.8MM Taylor Rogers – $1.6MM Byron Buxton – $1.2MM Trevor May – $1.1MM Grossman (4m) and Adrianaza (1.8m) seem the most likely to be released out of the list although Odorizzi is making a lot of money, too. * Assuming Morrison's contract is not picked …

I'm ready to go hog wild on free agent relievers, there seem to be nearly two dozen that could be back-end guys but I don't know that I have anyone specific that I really want. I want strikeouts and I'd like walks limited. I used to say I wanted velocity but really that's only for the strikeouts, however I think we saw with Reed this year that it's a really thin line. Who else are people looking for? There's only a handful of bats and starters that interest me so I think I'd prefer to try to swing some trades for those spots but I know others will have different opinions. I'm guessing Patrick Corbin will be a popular name. I just looked at him a bit closer and didn't re…

"The Brewers went into last winter as an 86-win team with a perfectly respectable young outfield and then went ahead and acquired a new and even better one. They signed Lorenzo Cain at a price that was only made possible by a plurality of teams opting to more or less sit the offseason out or pursue bespoke ownership-directed courses of idiocy; they dealt a bunch of promising prospects to a Marlins team once again selling off everything it could and received Christian Yelich in return. These were gambles—Cain’s game is built around speed, a tool that is not at all age-resistant, and Yelich was a good big leaguer who hadn’t developed into the sort of star that scouts had lo…

- Ron Washington, Braves coach, former Rangers manager - Brad Mills, Indians Bench coach, former Astros manager - John McDonald, former player - Mark DeRosa, MLB Network analyst, former player - Jayce Tingler, Rangers coach - Ryan Garko, independent league manager, former player - Gene Glynn, Twins 3B coach - Derek Shelton, Twins bench coach -Tommy Watkins, Twins AA manager, former player - Jim Thome, Hall of Famer - Jake Mauer, former Twins minor league manager - Joel Skinner, Twins AAA manager - Jeff Pickler, Twins coach - Mike Redmond, former Marlins manager and former Twins catcher Any other potential, realistic candidates?

Maybe I'm burned out on the horrible season the Twins had this year or maybe its apathy, but this is the first time in many years I'm not really excited about the upcoming 2019 Twins season. Last night a buddy of mine who knows I'm a big Twins fan asked me what excites me about the Twins next year. It was a great question but one that left me somewhat stumped. The more I thought about it I've only come up with a few things...Hopefully Berrios continues to take steps forward. Hopefully Buxton turns the corner. Hopefully Sano turns the corner too. Beyond that and one or two great prospects moving up from the minors I'm somewhat "meh". I know it's the end of a terrible …

https://www.magazineconisabel.com/index.php/2018/10/07/miguel-sano-involucrado-en-accidente-en-que-salio-herido-un-policia/ According to the above article, Miguel Sano was in a traffic incident early this morning in the Dominican Republic. The police officer is in the hospital. The article notes that he was arrested, but he has been released... Though he'll have to be in court on Monday. I'm sure there will be more news coming. https://twitter.com/hgomez27/status/1049013440545804288 Adding some more:

I've updated my list to include all 2018 stats. 3 new members this year, who am I underating/overating? https://wgom.org/2018/10/05/minnesota-twins-top-300-twins-of-all-time-one-mans-opinion-through-2018-season/

With the season ending, Mauer's possible/probable ride in to the sunset against the reflections of the metro and Target Field skyline, and the firing of Molitor, I absolutely have chosen the wrong time to post this idea. Not to mention I will probably receive tremendous backlash for the idea all together. But it is my hope thjs thread will be well received and debated for what it is; part of looking forward to 2019! Note, I am neither a fan nor hater of Grossman. And my opinion here has nothing to do with the hit streak Grossman showed the second half of the season, particularly the last few weeks. Rather, it is an honest evaluation of the player, his performance, and a…

I know Falvine are never going to bring in another old-school manager. But how fun it would be to have Ozzie and Gardie go at it again - Or Dougie bursting a gasket. Until the interviews start, and the boring reality sets in, we can dream.

The Twins have many more questions than answers as to who should man the IF in 2019. Two July-traded IF Twins mainstays will be FAs this offseason. Are either likely to be pursued by the Twins FO with oodles of soon-available room on the payroll? Consider: 1) Escobar turns 30 in 2019, while Dozier turns 32. 2) The Twins are turning over the roster and have a huge hole in leadership types. 3) There is no one currently in the farm system that is ready to assume any IF position in 2019. 4) As bad as Brian Dozier's 2018 season was with the Twins, his performance level has utterly collapsed in La La Land. In the midst of an intense pennant race, Dozier's reps have bee…

https://www.si.com/mlb/2018/09/25/joe-mauer-minnesota-twins I lifted this link from a Michael Rand column. I haven't saw it posted here yet so I thought I would toss it out there. Some guy named Gleeman is quoted extensively, as well as others who can't seem to see past Mauers contract. My personal opinion is that Mauers contract is so far down the list of things that have caused the Twins their dismal decade, it doesn't even make the top ten. Nor have I ever tossed and turned at 3 am wondering whether the Pohlads would be able to scrape by until Joe retired and his contract was off their P&L.

I think this can be done, but I just don't remember how to do it. I was having a discussion last night with some friends and one was arguing that Joe was the best 1B in the AL. Can I sort batting stats for 1B (AL only)? If so, can somebody explain how?

16 years ago one of the epic Twins threads of all-time began.

For three years now I've put together a video montage of the "highlights" of the Twins' season. Regardless of the outcome, it was (at times) a fun season. Enjoy. https://twitter.com/ParkerHageman/status/1046564029278429184

I created a post regarding the 2019 rotation a few days back and we got some great responses and thoughts! Honestly, I was hoping for a little more run between all of us here at TD. Too much late season, disappointment hangover syndrome? Perhaps. But it's time to look at the 2109 bullpen! But this should be easy, right? I mean, all you have to do is trade for one proven arm, (think Reardon back in the day), or convert a talented SP arm that doesn't quite get it done, (Aguillera), or just trade for a set up guy ready for his opportunity, (Nathan). There's your closer! After that, it's even easier. You get a decent but lesser guy to set up, some LOOGY for a hitter or two,…

More HR than K.

One of the better beat reporters for the Twins. Gonna miss him.

There are currently a number of posts...as we near the end of the 2018 season...from the FO (positive and negative), to Buxton, to rookies, to overall needs to various areas of disappointment. We all know, in the world of MLB, there is no true off season, just games and times before games. And I have been rolling thought after thought in my limited brain, complete with holes and blank spaces there within that I'm not sure i want a light to shine, about what lies ahead for our favorite team. And we will have months of the "off season" to post and debate so many topics! And we will each have opportunities to play post and play GM about all of these various topics. But I …

Designate one of the remaining games as "Cesar Tovar day" and allow Astudillo to play all 9 positions. https://www.johnpielli.com/bases-empty-blog/the-day-cesar-tovar-played-all-9-positions I always loved Tovar and am growing to love Astudillo. This has been a bad season that could end on an amazing note if the Twins would do this.

Kepler was a popular trade piece in our hypothetical offers to acquire better talent over the last year or so. People in the industry like KLaw are still bullish about his potential to grow. He's maintained his value from a WAR perspective every season so far 2-2.5 bWAR. Overall, a solid player. However, from an offensive standpoint he's been stagnant. No real improvements in BA, OBP or SLG from his first full season until now. With Kiriloff on the way, is Kepler worth keeping? Would the Twins be better off trading him for help at other positions of need?