Twins

It appears the Phil Hughes 2014 season is complete. He ends the year with 186 strikeouts and just 16 walks. The 11.6 K/BB rate is the best in MLB history.

Of course, if he is done, he also finished with 209.2 innings. If the rain had not fallen and he recorded one out in the ninth inning today, he would have received a $500,000 bonus. 16 wins, 16 walks, 16 HR allowed. Pretty incredible season!

This post is part of a series in which Mark Armour and I count down the 25 best GMs in history, cross-posting from our blog. For an explanation, please see this post.

Harry Dalton was the GM for three teams over a 25 year period, winning five pennants and contending for several others. His claim to fame was his work in Baltimore, where he made a series of moves to turn a very good team into one of the greatest ever assembled.

Today, we continue to look at the organization’s depth at all of the positions by learning about the middle infielders. Previously, we have reviewed the Catchers and First Basemen in the situation.

If anything goes off of plan, who are some of the options to fill in at first base in the coming years, and are there any prospects with the potential to be impact players down the line? Read on and see what you think, and then let’s discuss below in the comments.

World Series teams are not constructed during the off season. It's a process that continues as the season goes along. Baseball teams are always under construction and the Twins are already making repairs. Don't expect to drive around without detours and orange cones for awhile.

For example... repairs to Sano in RF were already baked into the process.

And the Twins should not have introduced those red jerseys. The new ones should have been yellow with reflective material.

Here are some things to think about:

One more series and Eduardo Nunez is off to the All-Star Game and everybody else on the team is not. Congrats to Nunez… his 1st half was certainly All-Star worthy. Yeah… someone from the Twins has to be on the All-Star team according to federal law; and yeah… maybe Carlos Correa is not going to the All-Star game because Nunez was the chosen token Twins All-Star. But when you look at the production… you gotta say that Nunez has All-Star type numbers and deserves the recognition for that. This ain’t a Ron Coomer circa 1999 Selection.

Let’s do some thinking about stars… All Stars… Yes… all of them

Here are some things to think about:

Aaron and John talk at New Bohemia Eagan about the joys of writing on (or not on) deadline and then give each other a hard time, using their preseason Vegas picks as a crutch by which to review the MLB season. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click here.

The Minnesota Twins won just one of seven games against the Toronto Blue Jays in 2016. Spring training results are meaningless overall but a convincing 6-2 win over the Blue Jays travel squad at Hammond Stadium might just inspire the organization to do better during the regular season, right? Maybe? No? Probably not.

Miguel Sano highlighted the day with a two-run blast in the third. Max Kepler finally came alive and tagged two doubles. Outfielder Drew Stubbs pushed the total to six with a two-run double in the eighth. Ervin Santana scattered five hits but didn’t allow a run to score and the bullpen assortment limited the Blue Jays to just three hits over six innings.

Hector Santiago will make his second start for the Twins on Sunday against the Washington Nationals in West Palm Beach. Tyler Duffey will also get some innings, hoping to improve upon his last outing where he allowed six runs in the 19-0 debacle against Tampa Bay.

More notes from Saturday in camp…

It’s off to California for a 4-game series with the Angels. The next 3 nights the Twins will be playing past my usual bedtime so they will need to perform well enough to justify me slapping my face and duct taping my eyelids open to stay awake and watch them. The Sunday game is an afternoon game and because of Pacific Time, it will also be close to past my bedtime.

It’s also a brand new month kicking off tonight, and all the Twins have to do is keep winning each month. Their record was 12-11 in April and 14-12 in May, so far so good. June is the big month, June is the month that separates the buyers from the sellers. June is Super Tuesday; June is Moving Day; June is the one who raised Wally and the Beaver.

Here are some things to think about: