Twins

Where has summer gone? Here we are in the August heat with some playoff races heating up. Rochester is 19 games out of first place and nine games back in the wild card race. Chattanooga is in last place in the Southern League North Division but trail the leader by only 5.5 games.

Fort Myers is only percentage points behind Charlotte for first place in the Florida State League South Division. Cedar Rapids is in a virtual tie for first in the Midwest League Western Division. The top two teams in the division make the playoffs. Elizabethton is three games up in the Apply League West Division.

Let’s dive in and see how Sunday’s action played out.

Whenever the 2020 season starts, center field will take center stage: A position that could provide the Twins with their most decisive advantage, but also could devolve into a revolving door.

Can Byron Buxton stay healthy? And if not, who will be ready to take the mantle at Minnesota's most critical defensive position?

Whenever Joe Mauer decides to hang up his cleats, he will go down as one of the best players in Twins history. That part is undeniable, but his larger legacy is still in question. As recently as 2013, Mauer seemed destined for the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Concussions and a forced position switch have put his Hall of Fame resume into question.

Mauer is coming off his best season at first base and he’s been on a hot streak to start 2018. Will Mauer get the call? Let’s examine his Cooperstown Case…

When Zack Littell returned to Rochester at the start of the month of June, he was told that he should work out of the bullpen. Did he sulk? No. Did he make some alterations? Yes. Over the weekend, we caught up with the Twins right-hander about the changes he has made and why he has shown so much success of late.

When you're the DH, all you need to do is hit. Which is good news for Nelson Cruz because that's all he does. In the past six years, he's been an All-Star five times, and the one year he missed out, he hit 43 home runs.

Only once in my lifetime have the Twins signed a more accomplished hitter as a free agent, and it worked out supremely well. Can Cruz follow in the footsteps of Jim Thome with a legendary late-career pitstop?

When you're coming off a 100-loss season, the foremost concern is, flatly, finding ways to get more victories, as opposed to identifying someone who can close them out.

Still, the Twins need to figure out what they're going to do about the ninth inning in 2017.

When you spoke with Trevor May about pitching in spring training, you were bound to hear the word “consistency.” It was more than just a focus, it was an obsession. It was damn near a zen mantra. “Consistencyyyyyy-ooooooommmmmmm”.

Two months later consistency has turned into a koan, those conflicting riddles that monks pondered to achieve a zen-like state, like the sound of one-hand clapping. That’s because May is attributing his more consistent success this season to…abandoning consistency.

When you sign up for the Women’s Baseball Experience, they only have “Program and Women in Sports Panel *Please check back for panel list” on the description. In 2018 the panel consisted of Lindsey Buxton with Marney as the host. Lindsey was a good sport and answered our questions about Byron and what it’s like to watch him run into walls, but one thing Lindsey isn’t is an employee of a Major League Baseball team.

When you look up and down the Twins' projected starting lineup for 2015, there are a number of potential weak spots.

Neither Danny Santana nor Kennys Vargas is a lock to maintain their stellar rookie performances. Joe Mauer is a giant question mark at this point. We still don't really know who's going to play center field.

But one area that few people are talking about is catcher, where the Twins are counting on Kurt Suzuki to back up one of the best seasons of his career. What happens if he can't?

When you look at this Twins team, hovering around .500 after a month of play in a mediocre division, it's not all that hard to see them hanging in the race throughout the summer. The rotation should remain respectable at least, with legitimate options on hand to replace faltering starters and Big Erv leading the way.

The offense, powered by Miguel Sano, also can sustain as above-average – maybe better if Byron Buxton keeps coming on and Joe Mauer gets it going.

The one unit that fails to inspire much confidence at this point is, ironically enough, one that has experienced few misfires thus far. Despite its sufficiency up to this point, the back end of Minnesota's bullpen is quite suspect.

When you look at him, you wouldn’t realize that Max Kepler was a cold-blooded killer. Behind the laid-back, polite, innocent-looking demeanor is a 23 year old who is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of murdering Southern League pitching.

By now, most are familiar with Kepler’s intriguing backstory – a player signed as a teenager from the baseball boondocks of Berlin. His makeup and athleticism wowed Twins scouts to the point that they were willing to make him the highest paid European amateur signing, in spite of the fact that Kepler had played more soccer than he had baseball.

His lack of experience was apparent upon his introduction to a better pool of competition. “You watched him back in the Gulf Coast League and Cedar Rapids, he didn’t know what he was doing,” said Mike Radcliff, the Twins Vice President of Player Personnel. “He had a great body and a great swing and he had tools. He had no idea.”

That was then. Now, Max Kepler is the reigning Southern League MVP. He essentially forced the Twins into giving him a September call-up. How did the 22-year-old suddenly flip the switch?

When you are an independent baseball team, you have to get creative in order to get fans through the gate, especially if you are like the St. Paul Saints, who have a major league club in the same metropolitan area. Thankfully, the Saints are one of the best independent teams at coming up with promotions to draw fans into CHS Field. Here are my top five all-time promotions the Saints have done over the years.