Twins Weekly for Jan. 5-11: Seth Speaks!

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. 5-Thursday, Jan. 11.

The Twins Almanac for January 7–13 - Matt Johnson

Projecting The 2021 Twins Line-Up - Cody Christie

Gleeman & The Geek: Ep 350 Mega Mailbag - John Bonnes

Why I Believe The Twins Are Going To Sign Yu Darvish - Nick Nelson

Justin Morneau To Retire, Join Twins Front Office - Cody Christie

Winter Meltdown And Diamond Award Tickets Available Now! - John Bonnes

Projecting the 2021 Twins Pitching Staff - Tom Froemming

Hey Joe, What's Next? - Ted Schwerzler

2018 Minnesota Twins Roster Projections - The Catchers - Seth Stohs

Minnesota’s Base Running Resurgence - Cody Christie

Did Nick Gordon’s Second Half Turn Him From Prospect to Suspect? - Tom Froemming

Hard Work Jorge Pays Off - Ted Schwerzler

Twins Daily Blogs

Below are some additional items of note from both the blog area. I've pulled excerpts from each piece in attempt to hook you in.

On acquiring Yu Darvish or Gerrit Cole

By Hosken Bombo Disco

“Now compare Cole to Darvish. Fangraphs projects Cole for 3.8 fWAR in 2018, while Darvish is projected only for 3.6 fWAR in 2018. Consider that Darvish’s contract will fetch more than $20 million per season for each of the next five or six seasons; Cole will not earn $20 million over the next two seasons together. Moreover, Cole might be motivated to pitch his best in order to increase his value in free agency following 2019.”

HildenWho?

By Jamie Cameron

“Hildenberger had good MiLB numbers, but I had no idea how dominant he was. In any MiLB stint in which Hildenberger pitched at least 20 innings, he never had a K/9 of under 9.6, and never had a GB% lower than 53%. He topped out at 11.8 K/9 at low A. His GB% peaked at 67%. To put that into some major league perspective, only 4 guys who threw at least 40 innings in 2017 had a GB% higher than 67% (one of whom, Scott Alexander, the Dodgers saw fit to trade for as a replacement for Tony Watson in their bullpen). Granted, Hildenberger was at high A, but the signs were promising. Hildenberger had consistently shown an ability to do two things which in combination can make a reliever elite; get lots of strikeouts and induce a ton of ground balls.”

Minnesota Jumeaux – Eh!

By mikelink45

“With Justin Morneau returning to Minnesota it just seems to fulfill destiny. The Canadians have only two teams – Toronto (officially) and that offshoot of Ontario called Minnesota with the Twins (Jumeaux). Canada should celebrate both and we should take pride in straddling the border with both temperature and hockey to welcome our northern kin.

Morneau was a natural and Colorado was just a blip on his resume. Now he is coming back home. Welcome Justin – you can let your o’s get longer and slip in an Eh! Or two.”

Understanding the "Quality of Pitch" (QOP/QOPA/QOPV) Statistics

By Lenzy2108

“I've spent a lot of time over the last few days reading about a relatively new statistic called "quality of pitch" (QOP), which assigns a numerical value to each pitch a pitcher throws. The values can then averaged together to come up with a pitchers average quality of pitch (QOPA) or you can look at a quality of pitch set of values (QOPV) as another tool to measure the performance of a pitcher. The purpose of this post is to provide a simple overview of this data as it may be referenced in future articles.”

Additional Links

Minnesota Twins: Paul Molitor’s New Year’s Resolutions

By Benjamin Chase of Puckett’s Pond

“The most obvious example of this was lefty Taylor Rogers. He made 69 appearances on the season, 19 of them on back-to-back days. However, early in the season, Molitor drastically overused his left arm, using him for three days in a row 3 times and five days in a row once all before the All-Star break.

Predictably, Rogers had a rough time coming out of the All Star break, making 6 appearances between July 22nd and August 5th, throwing 4 innings, with a 22.50 ERA, 3.00 WHIP, and allowing 3 home runs (he allowed only 6 on the ENTIRE season).”

Twins had planned to call up ByungHo Park in 2017

By Maija Varda of Twinkie Town

“Though news came out awhile ago that ByungHo Park would be returning to South Korea to play baseball in 2018, he actually only arrived back in his home country yesterday. Since it was his first time back, Park held a press conference about his return with his new/old team, the Nexen Heroes. He didn’t really say that much new about the Twins or his time in the US, but one small comment stuck out to me: apparently, at the end of spring training in 2017, the Twins told Park they wanted him to start the season in the minors, but that they planned to call him up later that April.”

Podcasts

Minnesota Sports Weekly Episode 52

By Travis Aune/Chad Smith

I had the pleasure of chatting with the guys from Minnesota Sports Weekly. We talked about everything from the prospect handbook/rankings to Yu Darvish. I believe I'm welcomed on to the show at around the hour mark. They led off the show with Josh Whetzel, who is the radio guy for Triple-A Rochester.

Baseball is Good Episode 30

By Cory Engelhardt

“Shea McGinnity is a big time baseball fan who lives in Kansas City, MO. We will talk baseball, Minnesota Twins, and anything else that comes our way.”

The Show About the Show Episode 2 (airs Friday night at 7 pm)

By Devlin Clark

Before we close out the podcast segment, I just wanted to give a heads up that Devlin will be recording his first full-length episode with special guest and former Twins pitcher Cole De Vries later this evening.

Calling All Bloggers!!!

One of the biggest obstacles to overcome when writing is figuring out just what the heck to write about. Well, here’s a topic to consider …

TwinsFest stories and tips.

This idea was offered up in the comments last week by TD member IndianaTwin. Anybody have good stories to tell about TwinsFest? What’s your most memorable moment or favorite person you’ve met at the event? Do you have any pro tips to pass along for first-time TwinsFesters?

Just to be clear, this simply an idea I'm throwing out there to consider. Just a 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.

Twins Weekly will continue to be posted every Friday morning at the site. Have a wonderful weekend everyone.