Let’s take a quick look back at all the articles from the front page in the order they were published. This edition of Twins Weekly covers Friday, Jan. 19 to Thursday, Jan. 25.
Diamond Awards A Big Success | John Bonnes
Players’ Union Rejects Pace Of Play Proposals | Cody Christie
Johan Santana Elected To Twins Hall of Fame | Seth Stohs
The Twins Almanac for January 21–27 | Matt Johnson
Gleeman & The Geek, Ep 352: Winter Meltdown 2018 | John Bonnes
Can Addison Reed Become Minnesota's Bullpen Ace? | Nick Nelson
Twins On Deck With Seth Podcast (Episode 3) | Seth Stohs
Top Ten Twins Players Under 25 (6-10) | Cody Christie
Overheard at TwinsFest: Granite Wants to Kick Yankee @!# | Tom Froemming
Fernando Romero Is Healthy, Ready To Compete | Seth Stohs
Glen Perkins: Tribute To A Twins Daily Hall Of Famer | Nick Nelson
Would You Rather: Darvish or a Cobb/Lynn Combo? | Tom Froemming
5 Challenges The Twins Should Be Prepared To Face In 2018 | Nick Nelson
Report: Darvish Decision Expected This Week, Twins In Consideration | Cody Christie
Video: Slowing Things Down To See Jason Castro’s Silent Skill | Tom Froemming
Get To Know Rule 5 Pick Tyler Kinley | Seth Stohs
The Minnesota Twins Said No To Jim Thome | Parker Hageman
Dollars Make Sense for 2018 Twins | Ted Schwerzler
Twins Daily Blogs
Below are some additional items of note from the blog area. I've pulled excerpts from each piece in an attempt to hook you in.
The Sport of Immigrants
By mikelink45
From the start the Minnesota Twins had an international connection. In the 1960’s before the recent surge in Foreign born players, the Twins had a Cuban connection that brought us Camilo Pascual, Tony Oliva, Zoilo Versalles, Sandy Valdespino, and Luis Tiant. And from Venezuela – Cesar Tovar who took us to the 1965 World Series. In their first years, when I was an usher, I always tried to get near the first base bag as the game moved on and the seats were full so I could watch my favorite player – Vic Power from Puerto Rico. I loved Pedro Ramos who complimented Pascual on the mound and does anyone remember Elmer Valo from Slovakia? Or Reno Bertoia from Italy who lived in Canada and is in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame? There were 9 foreign born players on our first Minnesota Twins team.
Twins Analytics Infrastructure
By jharaldson
This Twins have had a bit of a tortured history with analytics. In 2010 Rob Antony did an interview with TwinsDaily’s own Parker Hageman and revealed some interesting facts about the Twins and Sabermetrics. Antony stated this about their analytics department, “we're probably one of the last, if not the last, team to address it with a person dedicated solely to that.”. He went on further to fail to understand some fairly basic concepts about Sabermetrics. He thought FIP was “first strike in inning pitched” and was unable to guess about BABIP. He then revealed they had just hired their analytics guy and stated he would be “Gathering information and creating databases. This will be his first year. The guy that we brought in will start creating systems to build a foundation of our own that we can look at.” This is what I primarily want to get into as I have a background in IT.
WAR on Twins Hall of Fame
By sethmoko
The announcement of Johan Santana's well-deserved selection to the Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame as well as the round-and-round Twitter and blog conversation about MLB Hall of Fame selections got me thinking: Who is in the Twins Hall of Fame that might surprise and who are other deserving candidates.
Twins Showing Interest in Wade Miley
By Andrew Thares
Wade Miley isn’t the sexiest name out there on the starting pitcher market, but he could be a value grab for the Twins as they look to add depth to their rotation. One thing the Twins will be able to count on in Miley is his durability, as he has averaged 186 innings per season over the last six years. Miley has a respectable 4.38 ERA, and 3.95 xFIP, over his career, though he has been suspect of late with a 5.48 ERA over the past two seasons. This will make Miley a cheap signing, that the Twins could take a flyer on.
Bullish - The Upside of the 2018 Bullpen
By Jamie Cameron
Looking at the most effective bullpens of 2017, an even more integral stat is K/9. This makes a ton of sense, not much can go wrong if you’re striking hitters out on a consistent basis. In 2017, there were 9 teams with a bullpen K/9 of at least 9.5. Between them, these clubs averaged a WAR of 6.5 for their bullpen. The Twins bullpen WAR in 2017 was 2.2, not a disaster, good for 22nd in MLB. By K/9, the Twins ranked 29th, with just 7.66 strikeouts per nine innings. Hardly surprising, when you are cycling through nearly 30 relievers over the course of the season. So how do the Twins new additions stack up in generating more strikeouts?
What does one of the newest predictive measurements tell about the Twins' bats in 2018?
By Thrylos
As indicated only Joe Mauer, and in a lesser degree, Jason Castro are projected to improve, as far as the 2018 startling 9 of the Twins go. Pretty much everyone else is projected to decline.
If one looks at several projections about what the 2018 will do, which are based on xwOBA, expect them to show an overall decline in wins.
Video of the Week
New Hall of Famer Jim Thome was only with the Twins for two seasons, but he sure gave us some tall tales during his time here.
eBay Item of the Week
It’s too bad Glen Perkins’ prime coincided with a down period for the Twins, but Perk closing out the All-Star Game at Target Field was one of the highlights of that period. Check out this sweet program from that game with the hometown boy on the cover:
This isn’t on eBay, but if you’re looking to score some other sweet Twins memorabilia and support a good cause, check out the listings at the Darrell and Merry’s Cancer Fund charity auction. There are 14 items up for grabs from Twins legends like Tony Oliva to prospects like Royce Lewis and everybody in between.
Additional Links
Baseball: Twins' Curtiss saves the day in relief
By the Duluth News Tribune
John Curtiss took the call on Monday in Dallas asking if he could fill in for fellow Minnesota Twins pitcher Jose Berrios on the team's annual Winter Caravan after Berrios returned home to Puerto Rico to attend to a family matter.
Curtiss sprang into action, but his flight to Minneapolis on Monday was delayed due to the blizzard that hit the Twin Cities. He even offered to fly to Omaha, Neb., and then drive the rest of the way, but he instead ended up flying out Tuesday morning, where he joined the Winter Caravan later that day.
Target Field renovations for 2018 unveiled
By Maija Varda of Twinkie Town
The biggest change happening is that the Metropolitan Club — the big glass area in right field reserved exclusively for season ticket holders — will be no more. Instead, it will be replaced by a new club called Bat & Barrel, and will be open to all ticket holders. It’ll have bar, table, and lounge seating, a bunch of TVs, alcohol, new food, and all the other things you’d expect the Twins to put in there. More unexpectedly, the club will also be the home for various team awards, including both World Series Championship trophies! Woo! Unfortunately, the team didn’t say whether these would be the real World Series trophies, or replicas like the ones they already display in the Champions Club behind home plate (the real trophies are kept in the team offices).
Torres, Tatis Jr. lead Top 10 SS Prospects list (includes Royce Lewis and Nick Gordon)
By Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com
Keep an eye on - Wander Javier, Twins
By the end of the year, it's possible that Javier will be getting more of the attention among Twins shortstops. Signed for $4 million in 2015, he had a strong United States debut in the Rookie-level Appalachian League in 2017 and could really break out with a move to the Midwest League this season.
Minnesota Twins Spring Training Countdown: 22, Brad Radke
By Benjamin Chase of Puckett’s Pond
The Minnesota Twins are preparing for a 2018 season with expectations after making the playoffs in 2017 as a Wild Card. We will have bring out numbers from team history that represent the number of days until spring training from now until pitchers and catchers report on February 13th.
Some pitchers put up incredible ERA numbers, some pitchers put up incredible strikeout numbers, and some pitchers simply put up consistent numbers year-after-year to create their value over time. One of the best examples of that model is Twins Hall of Fame starter Brad Radke, who wore #22.
Baseball is Good
By Cory Engelhardt
I had my 32nd episode last night. I was my own guest. It was really interesting/unusual doing a show all on my own, and I felt at times like I was rambling on a bit. Outside of that, I enjoyed doing the show and asking myself some of the questions that I have asked other people in previous podcast. I touched on how I grew to love the sport, why I enjoy still talking about baseball, what I see as the future of Baseball is Good, and lastly I ended the show going over some memories I had from TwinsFest this past weekend. Please give it a listen!
Calling All Bloggers!!!
Reminder: Anyone can start a blog at Twins Daily. If you're interested in being a regular writer for the site, the blog section is how you get your foot in the door. The only reason you're reading my words right now is because I started my own blog at Twins Daily.
Calling All Readers!!!
I don’t want to leave you out, either. If there's anything you'd love to read about next week, please let us know in the comments.
That does it for this edition of Twins Weekly, have a great weekend everyone.
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