Twins

Tensions filled the 1960s due to the Vietnam War, the space race, and the civil rights movement. During the same time, the Minnesota Twins were making their first run to the top of the AL. All this and more are covered in a newly released book.

Since 2010, the Twins have selected three college players in the first round, right-handed pitcher Alex Wimmers, shortstop Levi Michael and left-handed pitcher Tyler Jay. Wimmers and Michael have failed to transform into MLB regulars. Jay was drafted with the hopes of being a top tier starter. This spring the Twins announced he will be used as a relief pitcher moving forward.

Today's profile looks at one of the players expect to come off the board with a top-three pick. His college experience and skills on both side of the ball make him an intriguing prospect. Will he be the Twins' choice at number one?

Yesterday became a whirlwind as the hours and minutes counted down to the Twins making the first overall selection. No experts or reporters were able to crack the Twins front office and figure out who the club would be taking at the top of the draft. It really did feel like it was coming down to the wire.

Eventually, the Twins decided on prep shortstop Royce Lewis. He wasn't the highest ranked prospect on many draft boards so why did he end up in Minnesota? Did the Twins have a different plan with the first pick?

Happy MLB Draft Day 1, Twins fans!

Since it became clear that the Minnesota Twins had the #1 overall pick in the 2017 draft, which happened fairly early last September, the fandom has been very excited about who the Twins might be able to add at the top of the draft. That day has come.

This purpose of this article is to be a place for several draft-related resources and links, and a place for fans to keep updated of rumors and rumblings throughout the day. We ask that if you see an article online or a tweet with a rumor or nugget, that you post it in the comments below.

At 6:00 central time, the draft will officially start. Moments later, the Twins will make their much-anticipated draft selection. But that won’t be it for the night. The Twins also have the 35th and 37th overall picks as well. Twins Daily will post articles about those draft picks moments after they are made.

Note also that we will have Day 2 and Day 3 articles. In those articles, we will post the Twins picks made those days. Those articles will be updated throughout those two days. Rounds 3 through 10 are on Tuesday, and Rounds 11 through 40 will take place on Wednesday.

They say that you should never draft for need with a high first-round pick, and I suspect that the Twins did believe that Tyler Jay was the best player on the board when they selected him sixth overall on Monday night.

But when you look at the landscape of this organization, it's tough not to notice that the dominating college lefty fills a significant void, whichever role he ends up falling into.

A potential leak from MLB apparel partner New Era might have accidentally given fans a glimpse of the Twins rebrand that has been teased. 

We are now just over a week from Opening Day. As we get closer to Opening Day, I somehow feel much less certain about my predictions for the roster. The questions that were there at the beginning of the camp, to some degree, remain. In the meantime, a couple more have presented themselves.

This morning, the Twins optioned Max Kepler to Rochester, and Ryan Sweeney was given his release from the organization. There are now 35 players remaining at big league spring training. That’s nearly half of the number that began big league camp, but within a week, the Twins will have their final roster by dropping nine or ten more players (depending upon DL needs).

So, I thought it would be a good time for one final Roster Projection before Opening Day to discuss some of the remaining questions. Share yours below.

As a former media critic, I’m used to playing the *******. So each year, when the local media waddles to Target Field to stuff their faces with free food and regurgitate PR, I take to Twitter to razz them.

The journalism ethics of tonguing the hand that literally feeds you aside, these goobers never get to the important things fans want to know: how much more are things gonna cost, and did my favorite thing get dropped?

Because these lickspittles won’t, I track prices and dropped items each year using the Twins’ concessions page. It always gets a lot of Twitter chatter, so at least my ego gets fed. Here are the 2017 headlines:

The Twins new bullpen addition, Jorge Lopez, has experienced a breakout season in 2022. He had a 6.04 career ERA with 7.6 K/9 innings entering 2022. But a full-time move to the bullpen in 2022 has seen his ERA drop to 1.68 with over 10 K/9 innings. The underlying numbers tell the story.

The Twins tried to address Alex Kirilloff's wrist woes by letting him bash Triple-A pitching for more than a month. After almost two weeks back with the Twins, has the plan worked?

After going 30-21 through April and May, the Twins have stalled in the standings in June despite a surging lineup. Which hitters have driven the increased production and which have taken a step back?

Simeon Woods Richardson, Josh Winder, Louie Varland, and Cole Sands all made their first starts in the big leagues in 2022 with a wide range of results. But do first starts predict future success at all? Let's take a look at recent Twins history.