Twins

It took until September 5th to finally see the Twins outfield of the future in the present. Would that defense alignment be enough for Ervin Santana to beat the Houston Astros?

Updates on all the current minor leaguers and their Saturday games below the jump.

A couple of the Twins top pitching prospects were on the hill Saturday and there were some big offensive outputs as well.

The Twins were playing a late game in Oakland. But all in all it was a pretty quiet day in the Twins world otherwise.

Let's check the farm.

First and foremost, there are literally hundreds of thousands of trade conversations that happen between teams throughout the season and especially as the end of July rolls around. If the Twins weren’t talking to every team about ways to improve their team, that would be extremely disappointing.

The Twins have been having on-and-off conversations with the Padres for the greater part of a week. Various different reports have them linked to a number of different Padres relief pitchers, primarily 38-year-old Joaquin Benoit.

With Wes Johnson's departure for LSU following the Twins series in Cleveland, the Twins have officially announced that Pete Maki will take over as the team's pitching coach and Colby Suggs will be the bullpen coach. 

There is a stand-up bit Jerry Seinfeld had about pilots and their insistence on telling passengers just exactly what they are doing in-flight.

I’m taking the plane up to whatever altitude. We’re going to head south around the Great Lakes. We’re descending to whatever feet. We’re passing over Las Vegas now.

The paraphrased punchline was [seinfeld voice]: Yeah, that’s great. Just get us to where it says on the ticket. I don’t care what you are doing in the cockpit, land at the place we all agreed upon before boarding.

In many respects, this is how a large number of Twins fans react to the offensive struggles of Byron Buxton. Toe tap? Leg kick? Focused on hitting ground balls? Who cares. Replace the strikeouts with hits. Just get him to where he needs to go. While that is fine, there are times when you have to talk about the methods behind the madness. If you are a person that cares about the process as well as results, this post is for you.

Major League Baseball’s Advanced Media arm released a new set of data to the public on Tuesday: the Sprint Speed metric.

Sprint Speed was introduced in April but was limited, showing the speed of outfielders and defense only at that time. After some modifications and additions, the group has added baserunning and has created a leaderboard for consumption at BaseballSavant.com. As Minnesota Twins fans have seen with their eyes, like when he beats out bunts back to the pitcher, and through various other StatCast metrics like Max Speed, Distance Covered and Viscosity*, Byron Buxton is fast. Thanks to the data captured by MLB, we now know just how fast he is and where he stands among the game’s speediest speedsters.

We have made it through the first series of the season after a longer than typical off-season and shortened spring training, but the Minnesota Twins are putting the pedal to the metal and giving the season some serious gas.

If you're having a hard time wrapping your head around this, I can't blame you. But there is mounting evidence that the Minnesota Twins are indeed very serious about trying to sign Yu Darvish.

Yes, the Twins – notoriously risk-averse in free agency – are making a run at the top name on the market. In their first full offseason at the helm, Derek Falvey and Thad Levine seemingly have the go-ahead to make an historical splash.

But landing Darvish will take more than that.

When evaluating things that had gone wrong in 2015, Twins general manager Terry Ryan indicated the play of Danny Santana as a disappointment for the organization.

“Santana was a huge piece, lead-off hitter, speed guy who would play adequate center field,” Ryan said during the Offseason Handbook interview. “All of a sudden we just couldn’t get him going.”

It is easy to forget looking back now that heading into the season, Danny Santana was counted on as being a significant contributor. In addition to being a table-setter atop the lineup, he was called upon to anchor the infield at short. While his time as a lead-off hitter was brief and the title of starting shortstop lasted just over two months, it likely cost the Twins some in terms of the standings. What went wrong with his year and is it too little, too late for the 24-year-old middle infielder?

The Yankees entered the 2002 season in the midst of a dynasty fueled by a record-setting payroll. The Twins entered the 2002 season literally battling for the organization’s life. Contraction had been approved by Major League Baseball's owners and the Twins were one of the two teams reported to be on the chopping block.

The Twins also entered the season with a new manager, Ron Gardenhire, replacing Tom Kelly who had retired following the 2001 season. Gardenhire was viewed as a player’s coach, the opposite of the prickly Kelly, and he knew many of the young players from their time in the majors and minors.

The calendar turns to February this week, which means pitchers and catchers are close to reporting to spring training. TwinsFest allows fans to refocus on the Twins and increases the excitement for the 2023 campaign.