Tom Schreier

I wanted to stay in a Twins uniform, and I want to win. And we’re definitely headed in the right direction. — Joe Mauer after signing an eight-year, $184 million contract in 2010 All of the vitriol aimed at Joe Mauer right now would have been directed, ten-fold, at Twins management if they had not retained him in 2010. Minnesota had just opened a new publicly-subsidized park, they were coming off a year in which they had won the AL Central and Mauer was named MVP. He was an anomaly: a defensively-sound catcher and a batting champ.It would have been hypocritical for an organization to say that they need a new ballpark to retain the players that they developed, while on the other hand letting their best prospect in years, a St. Paul native, sign with an East Coast team, just as Chuck Knoblauch, Johan Santana and David Ortiz had before him. It’s worth putting all this into perspective five years later when Mauer, now a first baseman, is the most important topic heading into this year’s offseason. The hometown hero became the local scapegoat after suffering bilateral leg weakness in 2011, presumably from years of catching behind the plate, and a career-altering concussion in late 2013. He was an All-Star catcher then, hitting .324/.404/.476 at the time of the injury. Now he’s a light-hitting first baseman. Lost in the howling about Mauer is that the Twins essentially wasted his prime years, at least the part of them in which he was under the mammoth contract, by putting a Triple-A caliber roster around him. Following the 94-win season in the first year at Target Field, which resulted in yet another sweep at the hand of the New York Yankees in the ALDS, there was a mass exodus of talent: Michael Cuddyer, Denard Span, Francisco Liriano and even Mauer’s best buddy, Justin Morneau, all left during the bleak years. Poor management contributed greatly to the team’s streak of four 90-loss seasons. Wilson Ramos, a young catcher who the team could use right now, was famously dealt for inept closer Matt Capps. J.J. Hardy was offloaded for two minor league pitchers who never surfaced, leaving a gaping hole at shortstop. There was the failed Tsuyoshi Nishioka experiment, and the jury is still out on the Denard Span trade, as one-time blue-chip starting prospect Alex Meyer struggled this season and was moved to the bullpen. Mauer was criticized in his catching days for not hitting for enough power, but in an age where on-base percentage is properly coveted, having a catcher that reached base 40 percent of the time was worth every penny: he sold jerseys, he didn’t have off-the-field issues and the worst anyone could say about him is that he was boring. In many ways, in 2012 and 2013, he was one of the only reasons to come to Target Field. Things changed for the better, of course, last season, and suddenly Mauer has gotten lost in the mix. In fact, if it were not for his $23 million salary, he probably wouldn’t even be part of the conversation when it comes to the Twins. He isn’t a vocal member of the locker room, at least not when it comes to the media. His .265/.338/.380 line is rather pedestrian for a first baseman. He isn’t young and full of potential like Miguel Sano, Eddie Rosario or Byron Buxton. He didn’t fill a major team need in the second half of the season like Eduardo Escobar. And he doesn’t have the personality and charm of Torii Hunter or Brian Dozier. He also isn’t as detrimental to the team as he’s made out to be. While he was greatly overpaid for his production over the past two seasons, the Twins are getting players like Sano, Buxton and Rosario on the cheap — just like they did with Mauer before his big contract. And that’s the point of retaining homegrown talent. It’s not like the Ervin Santana or Ricky Nolasco deals where they spent their young and cheap years with other teams. The Twins got value for Mauer at one point. The question is if, over the course of his time in Minnesota, it will all even out. The draft-and-development system works, in theory, as long as a team doesn’t do what the Twins did in the Metrodome years: develop players for bigger-market clubs. Some contracts will pan out, others will not. Context is always lost in these situations, and it’s important to remember that Mauer’s contract is not unique in Major League Baseball. In fact, in order to build a championship team, clubs must take measured risk with players in their prime. In August of this year, ESPN created a list of the ten worst contracts in baseball (Insider required). Mauer was listed at No. 9 behind the likes of CC Sabathia, Robinson Cano, Matt Kemp and Albert Pujols. Two teams had two players ahead of him: the Detroit Tigers (Justin Verlander, Miguel Cabrera) and the Texas Rangers (Prince Fielder, Shin-Soo Choo). Mauer is in no way preventing the Twins from spending. Phil Hughes is on a five-year, $58 million deal (with the extension). Santana was signed for four years, $55 million in the offseason. Nolasco is halfway through a four-year, $49 million pact. Glen Perkins and Brian Dozier, the team’s two All-Stars this year, are homegrown players who were retained. And even with all those contracts, Minnesota opened the year with a $108.95 million payroll, 18th in the league behind teams like the Baltimore Orioles, Kansas City Royals and Cincinnati Reds. Twins GM Terry Ryan insists that payroll will not be an issue in the offseason, and is quick to point out that the Pittsburgh Pirates, who won 98 games this year, opened the year with a $88.28 million payroll — the sixth-lowest in major league baseball. Granted, Pittsburgh will have to spend more if they want to retain their best players, but it also is worth noting that three of the five teams with the highest payrolls — the Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers and San Francisco Giants — didn’t make the playoffs this season, and the Yankees, No. 2 in spending behind the Los Angeles Dodgers, were eliminated in a one-game playoff by the Houston Astros (No. 29, $70.91 million). Payroll isn’t everything, but it is an important component of the Mauer conversation. First of all, while signing him was a no-brainer in 2010, it goes without saying that they would not offer him a three-year, $69 million extension if his contract would have expired this year. But that is neither here nor there: Players are signed for what they are worth at the time that they hit free agency and the same logic applies to their up-and-coming players right now. Sano will eventually have to get signed, as will Buxton, Rosario, Aaron Hicks, Kyle Gibson and Trevor May. Sano could become a $300 million player. Buxton could command nine figures. Rosario, Hicks, Gibson and May probably won’t be as expensive, but they will ask for much more than what they are making on their roughly $500,000 contracts right now. And that’s not including other young players like Meyer, Kennys Vargas or Danny Santana if they can get their careers turned around. Some of these contracts will work out; some won’t. Still, it’s a risk worth taking to keep the best homegrown talent on the roster, and most of them will be signed when Mauer is off the books. It is better that the Twins have a few overpaid players, in addition to the young stars they have, than it is for Minnesota to operate under the old model where they developed players for other teams. Keeping talent in-house is key, especially when things tend to even out over the course of a player’s career. The methodology behind the Mauer contract was right, but the bottom line is he suffered a concussion, a major brain injury, and it altered the trajectory of his career. Ryan stopped short of saying that Mauer could become a batting champion again, but claimed that he is capable of hitting .300 next season. Given that batters tend to have a longer shelf life than pitchers, and knowing the effort that Mauer puts into his craft on a daily basis, counting out a resurgence in the coming years would be foolish even with his recent struggles. In the same breath, Mauer has to offer more than he is right now. He may never become a power hitter, but advanced metrics have revealed that a player who can get on base 40 percent of the time, as Mauer once did, is immensely valuable to the success of a baseball team — especially one with players like Buxton and Hicks setting the table for him, and Sano and Rosario hitting behind him. Players who, like Mauer, will become very expensive one day. Cold Omaha can now be found on 92KQRS.com, 93X.com and 105TheVibe.com. Follow us @ColdOmahaMN. Click here to view the article

I wanted to stay in a Twins uniform, and I want to win. And we’re definitely headed in the right direction. — Joe Mauer after signing an eight-year, $184 million contract in 2010 All of the vitriol aimed at Joe Mauer right now would have been directed, ten-fold, at Twins management if they had not retained him in 2010. Minnesota had just opened a new publicly-subsidized park, they were coming off a year in which they had won the AL Central and Mauer was named MVP. He was an anomaly: a defensively-sound catcher and a batting champ. It would have been hypocritical for an organization to say that they need a new ballpark to retain the players that they developed, while on the other hand letting their best prospect in years, a St. Paul native, sign with an East Coast team, just as Chuck Knoblauch, Johan Santana and David Ortiz had before him. It’s worth putting all this into perspective five years later when Mauer, now a first baseman, is the most important topic heading into this year’s offseason. The hometown hero became the local scapegoat after suffering bilateral leg weakness in 2011, presumably from years of catching behind the plate, and a career-altering concussion in late 2013. He was an All-Star catcher then, hitting .324/.404/.476 at the time of the injury. Now he’s a light-hitting first baseman. Lost in the howling about Mauer is that the Twins essentially wasted his prime years, at least the part of it in which he was under the mammoth contract, by putting a Triple-A caliber roster around him. Following the 94-win season in the first year at Target Field, which resulted in yet another sweep at the hand of the New York Yankees in the ALDS, there was a mass exodus of talent: Michael Cuddyer, Denard Span, Francisco Liriano and even Mauer’s best buddy, Justin Morneau, all left during the bleak years. Poor management contributed greatly to the team’s streak of four 90-loss seasons. Wilson Ramos, a young catcher that the team could use right now, was famously dealt for inept closer Matt Capps. J.J. Hardy was offloaded for two minor league pitchers that never surfaced, leaving a gaping hole at shortstop. There was the failed Tsuyoshi Nishioka experiment, and the jury is still out on the Denard Span trade, as one-time blue-chip starting prospect Alex Meyer struggled this season and was moved to the bullpen. Mauer was criticized in his catching days for not hitting for enough power, but in an age where on-base percentage is properly coveted, having a catcher that reached base 40 percent of the time was worth every penny: he sold jerseys, he didn’t have off-the-field issues and the worst anyone could say about him is that he was boring. In many ways, in 2012 and 2013, he was one of the only reasons to come to Target Field. Things changed for the better, of course, last season, and suddenly Mauer has gotten lost in the mix. In fact, if it were not for his $23 million salary, he probably wouldn’t even be part of the conversation when it came to the Twins. He isn’t a vocal member of the locker room, at least when it comes to the media. His .265/.338/.380 line is rather pedestrian for a first baseman. He isn’t young and full of potential like Miguel Sano, Eddie Rosario or Byron Buxton. He didn’t fill a major team need in the second half of the season like Eduardo Escobar. And he doesn’t have the personality and charm of Torii Hunter or Brian Dozier. He also isn’t as detrimental to the team as he’s made out to be. While he was greatly overpaid for his production over the past two seasons, the Twins are getting players like Sano, Buxton and Rosario on the cheap — just like they did with Mauer before his big contract. And that’s the point of retaining homegrown talent. It’s not like the Ervin Santana or Ricky Nolasco deal where they spent their young and cheap years with other teams. The Twins got value for Mauer at one point. The question is if, over the course of his time in Minnesota, it will all even out. The draft-and-development system works, in theory, as long as a team doesn’t do what the Twins did in the Metrodome years: develop players for bigger-market clubs. Some contracts will pan out, and others will not. Context is always lost in these situations, and it’s important to remember that Mauer’s contract is not unique in Major League Baseball. In fact, in order to build a championship team, clubs must take measured risk with players in their prime. In August of this year, ESPN created a list of the ten worst contracts in baseball (Insider required). Mauer was listed at No. 9 behind the likes of CC Sabathia, Robinson Cano, Matt Kemp and Albert Pujols. Two teams had two players ahead of him: the Detroit Tigers (Justin Verlander, Miguel Cabrera) and the Texas Rangers (Prince Fielder, Shin-Soo Choo). Mauer is in no way preventing the Twins from spending. Phil Hughes is on a five-year, $58 million deal (with extension). Santana was signed for four years, $55 million in the offseason. Nolasco is halfway through a four-year, $49 million pact. Glen Perkins and Brian Dozier, the team’s two All Stars this year, are homegrown players that were retained. And even with all those contracts, Minnesota opened the year with a $108.95 million payroll, 18th in the league behind teams like the Baltimore Orioles, Kansas City Royals and Cincinnati Reds. Twins GM Terry Ryan insists that payroll will not be an issue in the offseason, and is quick to point out that the Pittsburgh Pirates, who won 98 games this year, opened the year with a $88.28 million payroll — the sixth-lowest in major league baseball. Granted, Pittsburgh will have to spend more if they want to retain their best players, but it also is worth noting that three of the five teams with the highest payrolls — the Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers and San Francisco Giants — didn’t make the playoffs this season, and the Yankees, No. 2 in spending behind the Los Angeles Dodgers, were eliminated in a one-game playoff by the Houston Astros (No. 29, $70.91 million). Payroll isn’t everything, but it is an important component of the Mauer conversation. First of all, while signing him was a no-brainer in 2010, it goes without saying that they would not offer him a three-year, $69 million extension if his contract would have expired this year. But that is neither here nor there: Players are signed for what they are worth at the time that they hit free agency, and the same logic applies to their up-and-coming players right now. Sano will eventually have to get signed, as will Buxton, Rosario, Aaron Hicks, Kyle Gibson and Trevor May. Sano could become a $300 million player. Buxton could command nine figures. Rosario, Hicks, Gibson and May probably won’t be as expensive, but they will ask for much more than what they are making on their roughly $500,000 contracts right now. And that’s not including other young players like Meyer, Kennys Vargas or Danny Santana if they can get their careers turned around. Some of these contracts will work out; some won’t. Still, it’s a risk worth taking to keep the best homegrown talent on the roster, and most of them will be signed when Mauer is off the books. It is better that the Twins have a few overpaid players, in addition to the young stars they have, than it is for Minnesota to operate under the old model where they developed players for other teams. Keeping talent in-house is key, especially when things tend to even out over the course of a player’s career. The methodology behind the Mauer contract was right, but the bottom line is he suffered a concussion, a major brain injury, and it altered the trajectory of his career. Ryan stopped short of saying that Mauer could become a batting champion again, but claimed that he is capable of hitting .300 next season. Given that batters tend to have a larger shelf life than pitchers, and knowing the effort that Mauer puts into his craft on a daily basis, counting out a resurgence in the upcoming years would be foolish even with his recent struggles. In the same breath, Mauer has to offer more than he is right now. He may never become a power hitter, but advanced metrics have revealed that a player that can get on base 40 percent of the time, as Mauer once did, is immensely valuable to the success of a baseball team — especially one with players like Buxton and Hicks setting the table for him, and Sano and Rosario hitting behind him. Players that, like Mauer, will become very expensive one day. Cold Omaha can now be found on 92KQRS.com, 93X.com and 105TheVibe.com. Follow us @ColdOmahaMN.

"I’m coming here to win. I think that it’s very important to lay that out there, right from the start. Things can change in this game very dramatically at this level." — Paul Molitor at the press conference in November, announcing his hiring as Twins manager "It might have sounded corny last winter when I talked about 70-92 and the fine line of being able to at least cut that in half by winning 10 more games or whatever it is. There was enough signs there for me to think that it could happen." — Molitor the morning before the Twins were officially eliminated from the playoffs The Minnesota Twins just finished their first winning season since 2010, and in doing so have accelerated their rebuilding project after four years of 90-loss seasons. Second-year manager Paul Molitor will be expected to juggle a roster full of players who are either young and volatile in their production or are experienced and, at times, inconsistent while understanding that the expectation, inside and outside the organization, is that his team will make the playoffs next year.Looking back at the 2015 season, it was certainly an improvement, but as Brandon Warne pointed out in his eulogy for this year’s team, take away the 20-7 May, and the Twins would have finished with around 76 wins. That would be on the high end of external expectations, but would not have put the team anywhere near Wild Card consideration. “I had some expectations that we were gonna be very good and be in this thing and battle in September and all that stuff,” Ryan said after the season had concluded, “and it came true. And that was rewarding.” It is amazing, in some ways, that this team got as far as they did. Danny Santana and Kennys Vargas, two rookie darlings from 2014, regressed this year. Oswaldo Arcia, owner of 36 big-league home runs, played 19 major league games this year. All-Stars Brian Dozier and Glen Perkins regressed in the second half, as did pitchers Mike Pelfrey and Kyle Gibson. Phil Hughes had a rough encore to his ace-like 2014 season, and Joe Mauer hit .265/.338/.380 with a career-high 112 strikeouts and limited power. It’s a testament to team leadership and the young talent that surfaced from the farm system that the Twins got as far as they did. Torii Hunter went through his fair share of slumps this season but was a massive clubhouse presence. He started the dance party phenomenon, worked with Aaron Hicks — who had a breakout year — and Byron Buxton on a daily basis, and became the voice of the franchise once again. Dozier and Trevor Plouffe also have become vocal leaders on the team and offered an equal dose of power and defense in the infield. Eduardo Escobar established himself at shortstop at the end of the season, and Eddie Rosario and Miguel Sano lived up to the billing as two of the game’s top prospects. In the field, at least, things seemed to balance themselves out. On the pitcher’s mound, Minnesota got by with a makeshift rotation and bullpen. Ervin Santana was suspended for half the season. Ricky Nolasco was injured for most of it. Hughes wasn’t himself. Gibson and Pelfrey struggled in the second half. Trevor May showed promise as a starter but was moved to the bullpen to help stabilize the relief corps, which was held together by Blaine Boyer, a 34-year-old journeyman, and Aaron Thompson, who was demoted after two-and-a-half months of solid relief. An under the radar trade for Kevin Jepsen paid dividends when he took over as closer after Perkins’ second-half struggles and injury. But a promising trio of young relievers — Nick Burdi, Zach Jones and Jake Reed — never surfaced, and top prospect Alex Meyer took a step back this season. Looking ahead to next year, there’s going to be another roster overhaul like there was this season, but the image of what this team will look like in the long run isn’t hard to envision. An outfield of Hicks in left, Buxton in center and Rosario in right: Hicks can leadoff and rob hitters at the lower left field wall; Buxton is unnaturally fast and has plenty of range; and Rosario has a cannon arm, which is an asset in right. Hunter, if he returns, could start as either the right fielder — Rosario is expected to regress and might need a minor league stint or two — or as a fourth outfielder, if he’s willing to accept that role. Max Kepler, who had a strong minor league season, would have the opportunity to challenge for a roster spot knowing the aging Hunter will need time off. As far as the infield goes, there will be a competition at third base, assuming Minnesota doesn’t trade Plouffe in the offseason. The Twins want Sano to play in the field next year, and while his strikeout count was high, he looks to be a bona fide major league player at this point — meaning that he’ll either be a third or first baseman, and Minnesota is committed to Mauer at first. Escobar has staked a claim at short after a season-long battle with Eduardo Nunez and, to a lesser extent, Jorge Polanco, for a position that has long been in flux. Catcher will need to be addressed in the offseason. Ryan has offered his support for Kurt Suzuki, but the veteran catcher did not have a great year at the plate (.240/.296/.314) and only threw out 15 percent of baserunners, allowing 80 stolen bases while only throwing out 14 players. Eric Fryer and Chris Herrmann didn’t fare much better, with Fryer hitting .227/.370/.318 and Herrmann .146/.214/.272 in their age 29 and 27 seasons, respectively. “If there is a catcher available that can help this club,” says Ryan, “we’ll look at it.” He also says he expects Hughes to have a bounce-back season, and if he does, he becomes the de facto ace of the staff. Santana showed No. 2-, or at least No. 3-, caliber stuff this year, and should be inked into the rotation next year. Gibson should get another shot, given his strong first half, if he is not dealt in the offseason. That leaves two slots for a slew of candidates: May, who was told to return stretched out next season; Jose Berrios, a top prospect that was on the verge of a call up this year; Nolasco, who has struggled with injury during his two years as a Twin; Tommy Milone, who was inconsistent but finished strong; and Tyler Duffey, a surprise call-up who did everything he could to earn a starting spot next year. The Twins started to look like themselves again this year after a long period of drought, but it doesn’t get any easier going forward. The youth of this team has to continue to progress. Players like Perkins, Gibson and Dozier have to have strong second halves. The bullpen could use an influx of hard-throwing youth. Hughes has to be an ace. Mauer has to return to his former self at the plate. Having said that, the Twins managed to win 83 games with an unstable rotation, a slew of veterans regressing in the second half and the mercurial production of young players. Baseball, in general, can be analyzed to death. Much of that information is good, but sometimes it comes down to team chemistry and a pinch of luck. “Some people might call it not successful now,” said Hunter at the end of the year, “but for us, everybody said — all the critics, all the analysis, all the sabermetrics, everything you can name — said the Twins were gonna be in last place. They were wrong. We did a great job. Give it a B-plus. You can always do better.” Cold Omaha can now be found on 92KQRS.com, 93X.com and 105TheVibe.com. Follow us @ColdOmahaMN. Click here to view the article

I’m coming here to win. I think that it’s very important to lay that out there, right from the start. Things can change in this game very dramatically at this level. — Paul Molitor at the press conference in November, announcing his hiring as Twins manager It might have sounded corny last winter when I talked about 70-92 and the fine line of being able to at least cut that in half by winning 10 more games or whatever it is. There was enough signs there for me to think that it could happen. — Molitor the morning before the Twins were officially eliminated from the playoffs The Minnesota Twins just finished their first winning season since 2010, and in doing so have accelerated their rebuilding project after four years of 90-loss seasons. Second-year manager Paul Molitor will be expected to juggle a roster full of players who are either young and volatile in their production or are experienced and, at times, inconsistent while understanding that the expectation, inside and outside the organization, is that his team will make the playoffs next year. Looking back at the 2015 season, it was certainly an improvement, but as Brandon Warne pointed out in his eulogy for this year’s team, take away the 20-7 May, and the Twins would have finished with around 76 wins. That would be on the high end of external expectations, but would not have put the team anywhere near Wild Card consideration. “I had some expectations that we were gonna be very good and be in this thing and battle in September and all that stuff,” Ryan said after the season had concluded, “and it came true. And that was rewarding.” It is amazing, in some ways, that this team got as far as they did. Danny Santana and Kennys Vargas, two rookie darlings from two seasons ago, regressed this year. Oswaldo Arcia, owner of 36 big-league home runs, played 19 major league games this year. All-Stars Brian Dozier and Glen Perkins regressed in the second half, as did pitchers Mike Pelfrey and Kyle Gibson. Phil Hughes had a rough encore to his ace-like 2014 season, and Joe Mauer hit .265/.338/.380 with a career-high 112 strikeouts and limited power. It’s a testament to team leadership and the young talent that surfaced from the farm system that the Twins got as far as they did. Torii Hunter went through his fair share of slumps this season but was a massive clubhouse presence. He started the dance party phenomenon, worked with Aaron Hicks — who had a breakout year — and Byron Buxton on a daily basis, and became the voice of the franchise once again. Dozier and Trevor Plouffe also have become vocal leaders on the team and offered an equal dose of power and defense in the infield. Eduardo Escobar established himself at shortstop at the end of the season, and Eddie Rosario and Miguel Sano lived up to the billing as two of the game’s top prospects. In the field, at least, things seemed to balance themselves out. On the pitcher’s mound, Minnesota got by with a makeshift rotation and bullpen. Ervin Santana was suspended for half the season. Ricky Nolasco was injured for most of it. Hughes wasn’t himself. Gibson and Pelfrey struggled in the second half. Trevor May showed promise as a starter but was moved to the bullpen to help stabilize the relief corps, which was held together by Blaine Boyer, a 34-year-old journeyman, and Aaron Thompson, who was demoted after two-and-a-half months of solid relief. An under the radar trade for Kevin Jepsen paid dividends when he took over as closer after Perkins’ second-half struggles and injury. But a promising trio of young relievers — Nick Burdi, Zach Jones and Jake Reed — never surfaced, and top prospect Alex Meyer took a step back this season. Looking ahead to next year, there’s going to be another roster overhaul like there was this season, but the image of what this team will look like in the long run isn’t hard to envision. An outfield of Hicks in left, Buxton in center and Rosario in right: Hicks can leadoff and rob hitters at the lower left field wall; Buxton is unnaturally fast and has plenty of range; and Rosario has a cannon arm, which is an asset in right. Hunter, if he returns, could start as either the right fielder — Rosario is expected to regress and might need a minor league stint or two — or as a fourth outfielder, if he’s willing to accept that role. Max Kepler, who had a strong minor league season, would have the opportunity to challenge for a roster spot knowing the aging Hunter will need time off. As far as the infield goes, there will be a competition at third base, assuming Minnesota doesn’t trade Plouffe in the offseason. The Twins want Sano to play in the field next year, and while his strikeout count was high, he looks to be a bona fide major league player at this point — meaning that he’ll either be a third or first baseman, and Minnesota is committed to Mauer at first. Escobar has staked a claim at short after a season-long battle with Eduardo Nunez and, to a lesser extent, Jorge Polanco for a position that has long been in flux. Catcher will need to be addressed in the offseason. Ryan has offered his support for Kurt Suzuki, but the veteran catcher did not have a great year at the plate (.240/.296/.314) and only threw out 15 percent of baserunners, allowing 80 stolen bases while only throwing out 14 players. Eric Fryer and Chris Herrmann didn’t fare much better, with Fryer hitting .227/.370/.318 and Herrmann .146/.214/.272 in their age 29 and 27 seasons, respectively. “If there is a catcher available that can help this club,” says Ryan, “we’ll look at it.” He also says he expects Hughes to have a bounce-back season, and if he does, he becomes the de facto ace of the staff. Santana showed No. 2-, or at least No. 3-, caliber stuff this year, and should be inked into the rotation next year. Gibson should get another shot, given his strong first half, if he is not dealt in the offseason. That leaves two slots for a slew of candidates: May, who was told to return stretched out next season; Jose Berrios, a top prospect that was on the verge of a call up this year; Nolasco, who has struggled with injury during his two years as a Twin; Tommy Milone, who was inconsistent but finished strong; and Tyler Duffey, a surprise call-up who did everything he could to earn a starting spot next year. The Twins started to look like themselves again this year after a long period of drought, but it doesn’t get any easier going forward. The youth of this team has to continue to progress. Players like Perkins, Gibson and Dozier have to have strong second halves. The bullpen could use an influx of hard-throwing youth. Hughes has to be an ace. Mauer has to return to his former self at the plate. Having said that, the Twins managed to win 83 games with an unstable rotation, a slew of veterans regressing in the second half and the mercurial production of young players. Baseball, in general, can be analyzed to death. Much of that information is good, but sometimes it comes down to team chemistry and a pinch of luck. “Some people might call it not successful now,” said Hunter at the end of the year, “but for us, everybody said — all the critics, all the analysis, all the sabermetrics, everything you can name — said the Twins were gonna be in last place. They were wrong. We did a great job. Give it a B-plus. You can always do better.” Cold Omaha can now be found on 92KQRS.com, 93X.com and 105TheVibe.com. Follow us @ColdOmahaMN.

Platoon: The only blueprint I see is they bring up position players quickly and pitchers at a slower pace. I think it's natural for position players to bounce between Triple-A and the majors for a bit before they get it -- that's just player development. All you want to do is make sure they don't really bite it like Hicks did when he first came up. whydidnt: I'd like to see Pelfrey in the bullpen, but I don't think that would happen. Otherwise the rotation is full of good players or ones with potential: Hughes, Gibson, May (when he goes back), Santana. Milone might be the marginal veteran, but I think they just want to have a lefty in there. Pelf is gone after this year. With guys like Santana and Nolasco, you have to use them because they're being paid so much. Hopefully Nolasco is better when healthy, but Santana is a wild card because his durability might have come as a result of PED use.

I understand the frustration, and the patience that needs to be shown, but it's the way [it works]. -- Twins GM Terry Ryan on being patient with prospects, 8/14/15 All Minnesota Twins fans wanted on Friday night was for Jose Orlando Berrios to make his first major league start. The 21-year-old pitcher was rated the 36th best prospect in all of baseball by Baseball America before this season. He is almost six years younger than his competition in Triple-A, owns a sub-3.5 ERA and his 1.105 WHIP all have statheads in a tizzy.For six innings the vox populi was right: Berrios was cruising through the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders like a stapler through reams of paper. But in the seventh inning he got stuck, giving up six hits and four earned runs without recording an out. “We're trying to win games,” Ryan stated on Wednesday why Duffey got the call over Berrios, “and Berrios is certainly on a good track here, and doing a nice job, but the other kid is probably a little bit more prepared for this arena right now than Berrios.” He and his scouts were right -- it’s as simple as that. At least for that night. The Twins took a calculated risk by not bringing up Berrios, who was scheduled to start on a night where Trevor May, an erstwhile starter converted to a bullpen arm, made an emergency start and could only throw 50 pitches that night. J.R. Graham, the expected reliever to come in after May, was not at his best against the Cleveland Indians, and the rest of the bullpen had to be used to finish up the game in the final series before an important road trip to New York, Baltimore and Tampa Bay that might determine whether or not Minnesota makes the playoffs this season. Tyler Duffey was throwing the next night, his second career start, and had just been shelled by a mighty Toronto Blue Jays team that supplemented their roster at the trade deadline by bringing in the likes of Troy Tulowitzki and David Price. If Duffey faltered against an Indians team that was projected to win the World Series this year -- but admittedly has fallen short of that prognostication -- Shane Robinson might be called upon again to break out that trusty knuckleball of his. Instead, things went rather well for the plucky Twins. Duffey took a no-hitter into the sixth inning on short rest and earned another start in Baltimore. Twins management looked smart, and the cries for Berrios were silenced for the night. “I try to be greedy,” said Molitor after the homestand, admitting that there was a different feeling in the clubhouse after a rough start to the second half of the season. “The Texas game we had a chance, but overall you take 4-2.” It’s easy to get frustrated with the Twins: They are probably the most conservative organization in the league, and yet when they have taken risks, it hasn’t worked out. Some of the results were in their control, and some of it wasn’t. Aaron Hicks wasn’t ready for major league pitching when he was called up. Byron Buxton got hurt. Kyle Gibson was inconsistent. Trevor Plouffe took a while to find a place on the field. Brian Dozier couldn’t cut it as a shortstop. And Glen Perkins struggled as a starter. And yet Hicks is beginning to establish himself as a leadoff hitter a year after he dropped switch-hitting on a whim. Buxton didn’t choose to get injured, obviously. Gibson got off to a strong start in the first half of the season, and at the very least is a good major league pitcher. Plouffe has made drastic improvements defensively at third base and can hit for power. Dozier made the All-Star team as a second baseman this year. Perkins is a closer. Only Eddie Rosario and Miguel Sano have come into the league and looked like bona fide stars right away, although the same thing can be said of Kennys Vargas, Danny Santana and Oswaldo Arcia, and all three of them are in the minors right now. Player development takes time, and fans don’t want to wait around -- especially after four years of losing. Hicks appears to have made the biggest turnaround. He was batting .040 as a leadoff hitter when he was first called up and ended his rookie season below the Mendoza Line. A year ago he gave up hitting on the left side; now he’s batting around .300 with power while getting on base, allowing Dozier, Mauer and the core of the Twins lineup to drive him in. He’s the player he was supposed to be when he was selected in the first round of the 2008 draft. “I wouldn't call it exceeding expectations,” Molitor said recently. “There's not a lot of people in the organization that gave up hope on him despite the fact that he came up here and had a couple opportunities and didn't take advantage [of them].” But Hicks is far from the only Twins player to have a massive turnaround as he entered his mid-20’s. Dozier’s rookie season was considered “disastrous.” Perkins filed a grievance against the team in 2009 after he was demoted to Triple-A coming off an injury; now he has a corner locker in the clubhouse. Plouffe looked like a he was in no-man’s land after it was determined that he would not be a major league shortstop. “This is a difficult game to play, that's the one thing,” says Ryan, speaking of Berrios in particular, but arguably he could be speaking of any young prospect. “When you're 20 or 21 trying to compete against these guys that have been around for five or six years up here and have done well.” While he would like players to make the team and stick in the majors at age 22 or 23, he knows that 25 or 26 is more realistic, as most of the league’s stars are at their best from 25 to 32. Many fans want to give up on them before that, and to be fair, most organizations do, too. A lot of teams would have given up on Hicks, Dozier or Perkins, and the Twins are better off because they didn’t. If the Twins have one edge over either the savvier (Rays, A’s) or spendier (Yankees, Dodgers) clubs, it is their patience. They are not going to have a massive payroll because they don’t have a massive TV deal like the Yankees, Dodgers or even the Cardinals, and they get pilloried for spending anyway. Ricky Nolasco got hurt and likely won’t return this year. Ervin Santana was suspended for using performance-enhancing drugs. Joe Mauer suffered a concussion, removing him from behind the plate, and now doesn’t possess much power for a first baseman and has become a sub-.300 hitter as teams have begun to shift on him and pitch him more effectively. Money doesn’t solve problems; good management does, and the Twins know this. By erecting Target Field, largely with taxpayer money, they have essentially become a draft-and-develop team that will keep its prospects -- or at least should. They did that with Mauer, and unfortunately injuries are always a risk, especially with a catcher. Hopefully his move to first base and loss of offensive production does not deter the Twins from locking up the likes of Hicks, Sano and Rosario when the time comes. Torii Hunter never should have been allowed to leave, that much is obvious now. The same mistake can’t be made with the next generation of stars -- not in the Target Field era. A draft-and-develop team that doesn’t retain its prospects is a glorified farm team, and St. Paul didn’t build CHS Field with the Twins in mind. If you look at the 2015 Minnesota Twins, almost every player on the field is homegrown. The pitching staff is a different story, and the team’s inability to produce quality starters over the years has hurt them: It led to over $100 million being spent on outside help, something Ryan said “isn’t exactly the blueprint that we had in mind,” when he signed Ervin Santana in the offseason. But look at the outfield: Rosario, Hicks and Hunter all came up through the system, and Buxton is expected to take over at center in the near future. The three mainstays in the infield are also Twins draft picks: Plouffe at third, Dozier at second and Mauer at first, and Sano could eventually take over for Plouffe at the hot corner. The two missing positions are shortstop and catcher, of course, which could have been J.J. Hardy (raised in the Brewers farm system) and Wilson Ramos (another homegrown product). Then again, at the time he was traded it looked like Hardy was injury prone, and there didn’t seem to be much need for Ramos with Mauer behind the plate and Minnesota in win-now mode. On the flip side, patience would have yielded better results in both cases. Regardless whether the Twins make the postseason this year, they have, in short order, turned from a team focused on developing players to one that has the playoffs in mind. That doesn’t mean they won’t have prospects in their system, but they can’t wait around for them to develop anymore, lest they risk wasting the primes of their star players. Prospects will soon be traded for holes on the major league roster, but let us not forget, had the Twins not been patient up until this point, they would have far more needs than they have right now. In some ways, it’s a luxury that they didn’t have to call up Berrios before he was ready. One luxury that, if they are doing things right, they should have for years to come. Cold Omaha is moving to the KQ92 and 93X websites this week because 105 The Ticket has changed formats. Follow me (@tschreier3) or the Cold Omaha group (@ColdOmahaMN) for more updates. Click here to view the article

I understand the frustration, and the patience that needs to be shown, but it's the way [it works]. -- Twins GM Terry Ryan on being patient with prospects, 8/14/15 All Minnesota Twins fans wanted on Friday night was Jose Orlando Berrios to make his first major league start. The 21-year-old pitcher was rated the 36th best prospect in all of baseball by Baseball America before this season. He is almost six years younger than his competition in Triple-A, owns a sub-3.5 ERA and his 1.105 WHIP have statheads in a tizzy. For six innings the vox populi was right: Berrios was cruising through the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders like a stapler through reams of paper. But in the seventh inning he got stuck, giving up six hits and four earned runs without recording an out. “We're trying to win games,” Ryan stated on Wednesday why Duffey got the call over Berrios, “and Berrios is certainly on a good track here, and doing a nice job, but the other kid is probably a little bit more prepared for this arena right now than Berrios.” He and his scouts were right -- it’s as simple as that. At least for that night. The Twins took a calculated risk by not bringing up Berrios, who was scheduled to start on a night where Trevor May, an erstwhile starter converted to a bullpen arm, made an emergency start and could only throw 50 pitches that night. J.R. Graham, the expected reliever to come in after May, was not at his best against the Cleveland Indians, and the rest of the bullpen had to be used to finish up the game in the final series before an important road trip to New York, Baltimore and Tampa Bay that might determine whether or not Minnesota makes the playoffs this season. Tyler Duffey was throwing the next night, his second career start, and had just been shelled by a mighty Toronto Blue Jays team that supplemented their roster at the trade deadline by bringing in the likes of Troy Tulowitzki and David Price. If Duffey faltered against an Indians team that was projected to win the World Series this year -- but admittedly have fallen short of that prognostication -- Shane Robinson might be called upon again to break out that trusty knuckleball of his. Instead, things went rather well for the plucky Twins. Duffey took a no-hitter into the sixth inning on short rest and earned another start in Baltimore. Twins management looked smart, and the cries for Berrios were silenced for the night. “I try to be greedy,” said Molitor after the homestand, admitting that there was a different feeling in the clubhouse after a rough start to the second half of the season. “The Texas game we had a chance, but overall you take 4-2.” It’s easy to get frustrated with the Twins: They are probably the most conservative organization in the league, and yet when they have taken risks, it hasn’t worked out. Some of it was in their control, and some of it wasn’t. Aaron Hicks wasn’t ready for major league pitching when he was called up. Byron Buxton got hurt. Kyle Gibson was inconsistent. Trevor Plouffe took a while to find a place on the field. Brian Dozier couldn’t cut it as a shortstop. And Glen Perkins struggled as a starter. And yet Hicks is beginning to establish himself as a leadoff hitter a year after he dropped switch-hitting on a whim. Buxton didn’t choose to get injured, obviously. Gibson got off to a strong start in the first half of the season, and at the very least is a good major league pitcher. Plouffe has made drastic improvements defensively at third base and can hit for power. Dozier made the All-Star team as a second baseman this year; Perkins as a closer. Only Eddie Rosario and Miguel Sano have come into the league and looked like bona fide stars right away, although the same thing can be said of Kennys Vargas, Danny Santana and Oswaldo Arcia, and all three of them are in the minors right now. Player development takes time, and fans don’t want to wait around -- especially after four years of losing. Hicks appears to have made the biggest turnaround. He was batting .040 as a leadoff hitter when he was first called up and ended his rookie season below the Mendoza Line. A year ago he gave up hitting on the left side; now he’s batting around .300 with power while getting on base, allowing Dozier, Mauer and the core of the Twins lineup to drive him in. He’s the player he was supposed to be when he was selected in the first round of the 2008 draft. “I wouldn't call it exceeding expectations,” Molitor said recently. “There's not a lot of people in the organization that gave up hope on him despite the fact that he came up here and had a couple opportunities and didn't take advantage [of them].” But Hicks is far from the only Twins player to have a massive turnaround as he entered his mid-20’s. Dozier’s rookie season was considered “disastrous.” Perkins filed a grievance against the team in 2009 after he was demoted to Triple-A coming off an injury; now he has a corner locker in the clubhouse. Plouffe looked like a he was in no-man’s land after it was determined that he would not be a major league shortstop. “This is a difficult game to play, that's the one thing,” says Ryan, speaking of Berrios in particular, but arguably he could be speaking of any young prospect. “When you're 20 or 21 trying to compete against these guys that have been around for five or six years up here and have done well.” While he would like players to make the team and stick in the majors at age 22 or 23, he knows that 25 or 26 is more realistic, as most of the league’s stars are at their best from 25 to 32. Many fans want to give up on them before that, and to be fair, most organizations do, too. A lot of teams would have given up on Hicks, Dozier or Perkins, and the Twins are better off because they didn’t. If the Twins have one edge over either the savvier (Rays, A’s) or spendier (Yankees, Dodgers) clubs it is their patience. They are not going to have a massive payroll because they don’t have a massive TV deal like the Yankees, Dodgers or even the Cardinals, and they get pilloried for spending anyways. Ricky Nolasco got hurt and likely won’t return this year. Ervin Santana was suspended for using performance-enhancing drugs. Joe Mauer suffered a concussion, removing him from behind the plate, and now doesn’t possess much power for a first baseman and has become a sub-.300 hitter as teams have begun to shift on him and pitch him more effectively. Money doesn’t solve problems; good management does, and the Twins know this. By erecting Target Field, largely with taxpayer money, they have essentially became a draft-and-develop team that will keep its prospects -- or at least should. They did that with Mauer, and unfortunately injuries are always a risk, especially with a catcher. Hopefully his move to first base and loss of offensive production does not deter the Twins from locking up the likes of Hicks, Sano and Rosario when the time comes. Torii Hunter never should have been allowed to leave, that much is obvious now. The same mistake can’t be with the next generation of stars -- not in the Target Field era. A draft-and-develop team that doesn’t retain its prospects is a glorified farm team, and St. Paul didn’t build CHS Field with the Twins in mind. If you look at the 2015 Minnesota Twins, almost every player in the field is homegrown. The pitching staff is a different story, and the team’s inability to produce quality starters over the years has hurt them: It led to over $100 million being spent on outside help, something Ryan said “isn’t exactly the blueprint that we had in mind,” when he signed Ervin Santana in the offseason. But look at the outfield: Rosario, Hicks and Hunter all came up through the system, and Buxton is expected to take over at center in the near future. The three mainstays in the infield are also Twins draft picks: Plouffe at third, Dozier at second and Mauer at first, and Sano could eventually take over for Plouffe at the hot corner. The two missing positions are shortstop and catcher, of course, which could have been J.J. Hardy (raised in the Brewers farm system) and Wilson Ramos (another homegrown product). Then again, at the time he was traded it looked like Hardy was injury prone, and there didn’t seem to be much need for Ramos with Mauer behind the plate and Minnesota in win-now mode. On the flip side, patience would have yielded better results in both cases. Regardless of if the Twins make the postseason this year, they have, in short order, turned from a team focused on developing players to one that has playoffs on their mind. That doesn’t mean they won’t have prospects in their system, but they can’t wait around for them to develop anymore, lest they risk wasting the primes of their star players. Prospects will soon be traded for holes on the major league roster, but let us not forget, had the Twins not been patient up until this point, they would have far more needs than they have right now. In some ways, it’s a luxury that they didn’t have to call up Berrios before he was ready. One that, if they are doing things right, they should have for years to come. Cold Omaha is moving to the KQ92 and 93X websites this week because 105 The Ticket has changed formats. Follow me (@tschreier3) or the Cold Omaha group (@ColdOmahaMN) for more updates.

I’m trying to be realistic. Our expectations in that clubhouse should be to make the postseason. — Twins GM Terry Ryan, 11/4/14 The Minnesota Twins set the tone shortly after hiring Paul Molitor as Ron Gardenhire’s successor. Molitor came out and said that he wanted to win immediately, general manager Terry Ryan said that he expected the team to make the postseason.This after four-straight 90-loss seasons, but before the signing of Ervin Santana and Torii Hunter. “I’m coming here to win,” said Molitor back in November. “I think that it’s very important to lay that out there, right from the start.”Halfway through the season it looked like the postseason was a distinct possibility. The Twins entered the All-Star break at 49-40, sending Glen Perkins and Brian Dozier to represent the team in Cincinnati. Perkins, a converted starter who was perfect in save situations up until that point, and Dozier, a converted shortstop who has been immaculate in the field and productive as the team’s leadoff man, were two shining examples of the Twins’ patience in developing prospects and adjusting on the fly. Additionally, Trevor Plouffe was mashing at the plate and handling the hot corner with ease, Aaron Hicks, Eddie Rosario and Torii Hunter had shored up the outfield, and the pitching staff — led by, ahem, Mike Pelfrey — was holding its own. The fact that Joe Mauer’s slow start was overshadowed by the team’s overall success told you everything you needed to know about the Twins up until that point. It was obvious at the trade deadline that Minnesota had to shore up a bullpen that was relying on Aaron Thompson, who had been sent down after two strong months, and a slew of other pitchers on the wrong side of 30 — Brian Duensing, Blaine Boyer and Casey Fien — to get by up until that point. Kurt Suzuki had regressed from his All-Star status last year, hitting .230 and having trouble throwing out runners and blocking stray pitches. The shortstop position was held together by a rotating cast of characters — Eduardo Escobar, Eduardo Nunez and Danny Santana. Still, the Twins had built a buffer between themselves and the rest of the AL, and if they got off to a good start to the second half, they might have even been able to challenge the Kansas City Royals for the division lead. Instead of vying for the AL Central title, the Twins now are in serious jeopardy of missing the playoffs, losing six series (and splitting one) since the All-Star break. Meanwhile, the Toronto Blue Jays revamped their roster by adding David Price and Troy Tulowitzki at the deadline and are now chasing the New York Yankees for the AL East crown. The Houston Astros are driving Twins fans mad, as they were similarly awful along the same timeline as Minnesota, but were declared future World Series champs by Sports Illustrated. They appear to be unfazed by the magazine’s hex, however, adding Scott Kazmir and Carlos Gomez at the deadline in an attempt to stave off Mike Trout, Albert Pujols and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the AL West. Even the Texas Rangers made a splash, acquiring Cole Hamels from the Philadelphia Phillies. With the Baltimore Orioles also in the mix for a wild card spot following a strong start to the second half, the Twins suddenly are on the outside looking in when it comes to the playoff picture. They relinquished their wild card spot during their series in Toronto, which was infuriating to fans who watched the Blue Jays beef up their roster while the Twins made a relatively minor deal to get Kevin Jepsen, a decent reliever. But it wasn’t just the Jays who have turned Minnesota into a .500 team: The A’s beat them 14-1, the Angles 7-0, the Yankees 7-2, the Pirates 10-4, the Mariners 6-1, the Jays 9-3, the Indians 17-4 — essentially a route per series. And that’s not including New York coming from behind to win after being down 5-0 in game 2 of that series — a possible turning point in the season — or Minnesota losing 8-1 in Cleveland on Sunday. After that 17-4 loss, in which the Twins resorted to using Shane Robinson as a reliever despite a nine-man bullpen, many fans and pundits pronounced the team dead (including Cold Omaha’s Sam Ekstrom on The Wake Up Call). Depending on who you ask, Minnesota is either wasting money or not spending enough of it. In truth, the Twins were smart not to sell the farm at the deadline, allowing the team to keep its window of success open longer by not acting shortsightedly. Jose Berrios and Byron Buxton still have something to offer to this club, even if neither is a shortstop or catcher. And, really, Alex Meyer could provide a valuable arm in the pen next year even if at one point he was projected to be a top-of-the-rotation starter. When it comes to the bullpen, player development is holding back the Twins. Everyone knew that Duensing and Fien were aging last year, and Blaine Boyer, 34, was not a long-term solution. Hope resided in prospects like Nick Burdi, Zach Jones and, to a lesser extent, Tyler Jay. All three are in their 20s, all three have stuff, but none are close to surfacing as a major leaguer. Lester Oliveros, the player to be named later in the Delmon Young trade, is 27 but hasn’t pitched in the majors this year, and Michael Tonkin, a 30th round pick in 2008, has been given opportunity, but never stuck. At the major league level, Ryan Pressly and J.R. Graham will likely factor into the bullpen equation in the future, given that they have stuff and are in the prime of their careers, but both need to prove they can be reliable in high-leverage situations. Ryan O’Rourke is a lefty-killer who could become a value pick (13th round, 2010), as could A.J. Achter (46th round, 2010) if they can stick in the majors. All four players are in their mid-20’s. Perkins, 32, likely will be the exception to the rule in that he should pitch well into his 30’s, and appears to be getting out the rut he was in following the All-Star break. While the bullpen should be able to be fixed internally, the Twins will likely have to go outside the organization to fill their need at catcher. Josmil Pinto is battling concussion symptoms and wasn’t a great defensive player to begin with. Chris Herrmann has shown flashes, but hasn’t been consistent enough to challenge for the starting job, and Suzuki has regressed — likely due, at least in part, to the heavy beating he’s taken at that position over the years. Minnesota could build support in the offseason by acquiring Matt Wieters, the Orioles catcher who likely will be available in free agency, but offering a large contract to a 6-foot-5, 29-year-old catcher runs the same risk they had with Mauer — he gets hurt or wears down and ends up at first base for the last half of the deal. The Twins may have to take that risk, however, given that the second-best catching prospect in the organization, outside of Pinto, is Mitch Garver: a 24 year old in High-A. Whether or not the shortstop solution comes from within the organization is up for debate. Minnesota appears to be grooming Jorge Polanco for the position, but whether or not he will stick at shortstop is up for debate. “That will be up to him,” says Ryan. “A done deal? Well, we thought Plouffe was a done deal once, and we thought Cuddyer was a done deal once. You know it’s up to the player: Can you handle it or can you not?” If Polanco doesn’t end up being a major league shortstop — a la Dozier and Plouffe — in the near future, Minnesota will end up having to go outside for that position, too. There’s always an outside chance that Nunez, Escobar or Santana make a second-half surge, but given the amount of playing time they’ve had and the fact that none of them has taken over a spot that’s clearly up for grabs, that seems unlikely. The pitching staff has struggled lately, but Minnesota can’t afford to use more resources there. Pelfrey will likely be off the books next year, and the team must hold out hope that Nolasco will be better when healthy. Trevor May should be back in the rotation, and Berrios hopefully will challenge for a spot — creating a culture of competition that should be good for the rest of the players on the staff. As far as whether or not this season will be deemed a success, playoff berth or not, that’s probably best judged in the years to come. As much as Twins fans have become impatient after four 90-loss seasons — and reasonably so — there’s reason to believe that the best has yet to come. The pitching staff isn’t this bad. The outfield is suddenly stacked. There’re young arms to replenish the bullpen. The Twins constantly claim that money is not an issue, which should mean they’ll invest in a catcher, at the very least, in the offseason. Mauer’s inability to catch will be overlooked if the team is winning, he’s productive with the bat, and there’s a premier free agent to help out behind the plate. Keep in mind, most people that follow the Twins thought this would be a 75-win season. It was a logical conclusion, one that would show the team was moving in the right direction. Instead they’ve increased expectations — not a bad thing by any means — and must live up to them. Because, even though 75 wins is an improvement from where the Twins were, the goal, as always, should be to play meaningful games throughout the year. “As everybody in this game should be pointing towards the playoffs, we are too,” Ryan said back in November. “I expect to get into the playoffs every year. Why [else] should we take the diamond?” This article was originally published on the Cold Omaha section of 105TheTicket.com. Follow Tom on Twitter @tschreier3. Click here to view the article

I’m trying to be realistic. Our expectations in that clubhouse should be to make the postseason. — Twins GM Terry Ryan, 11/4/14 The Minnesota Twins set the tone shortly after hiring Paul Molitor as Ron Gardenhire’s successor. Molitor came out and said that he wanted to win immediately, general manager Terry Ryan said that he expected the team to make the postseason: This after four-straight 90-loss seasons, but before the signing of Ervin Santana and Torii Hunter. “I’m coming here to win,” said Molitor back in November. “I think that it’s very important to lay that out there, right from the start.” Halfway through the season it looked like the postseason was a distinct possibility. The Twins entered the All-Star Break at 49-40, sending Glen Perkins and Brian Dozier to represent the team in Cincinnati. Perkins, a converted starter who was perfect in save situations up until that point, and Dozier, a converted shortstop who has been immaculate in the field and productive as the team’s leadoff man, were two shining examples of the Twins’ patience in developing prospects and adjusting on the fly. Additionally, Trevor Plouffe was mashing at the plate and handling the hot corner with ease, Aaron Hicks, Eddie Rosario and Torii Hunter had shored up the outfield, and the pitching staff — led by, ahem, Mike Pelfrey — was holding their own. The fact that Joe Mauer’s slow start was overshadowed by the team’s overall success told you everything you needed to know about the Twins up until that point. It was obvious at the trade deadline that Minnesota had to shore up a bullpen that was relying on Aaron Thompson, who had been sent down after two strong months, and a slew of other pitchers on the wrong side of 30 — Brian Duensing, Blaine Boyer and Casey Fien — to get by up until that point. Kurt Suzuki had regressed from his All-Star status last year, hitting .230 and having trouble throwing out runners and blocking stray pitches, and the shortstop position was held together by a rotating cast of characters — Eduardo Escobar, Eduardo Nunez and Danny Santana. Still, the Twins had built a buffer between themselves and the rest of the AL, and if they got off to a good start to the second half, they might have even been able to challenge the Kansas City Royals for the division lead. Instead of potentially vying for the AL Central title, the Twins now are in serious jeopardy of missing the playoffs, losing six series (and splitting one) since the All-Star Break. Meanwhile, the Toronto Blue Jays revamped their roster by adding David Price and Troy Tulowitzki at the deadline and are now chasing the New York Yankees for the AL East crown. The Houston Astros are driving Twins fans mad, as they were similarly awful along the same timeline as Minnesota, but were declared future World Series champs by Sports Illustrated. They appear to be unfazed by the magazine’s hex, however, adding Scott Kazmir and Carlos Gomez at the deadline in an attempt to stave off Mike Trout, Albert Pujols and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the AL West. Even the Texas Rangers made a splash, acquiring Cole Hamels from the Philadelphia Phillies. With the Baltimore Orioles also in the mix for a Wild Card spot following a strong start to the second half, the Twins suddenly are on the outside looking in when it comes to the playoff picture. They relinquished their Wild Card spot during their series in Toronto, which was infuriating to fans who watched the Blue Jays beef up their roster while the Twins made a relatively minor deal to get Kevin Jepsen, a decent reliever. But it wasn’t just the Jays who have turned Minnesota into a .500 team: The A’s beat them 14-1, the Angles 7-0, the Yankees 7-2, the Pirates 10-4, the Mariners 6-1, the Jays 9-3, the Indians 17-4 — essentially a route per series. And that’s not including New York coming from behind to win after being down 5-0 in Game 2 of that series — a possible turning point in the season — or Minnesota losing 8-1 in Cleveland on Sunday. After that 17-4 loss, in which the Twins resorted to using Shane Robinson as a reliever despite a nine-man bullpen, many fans and pundits pronounced the team dead (including Cold Omaha’s Sam Ekstrom on The Wake Up Call). Depending on who you ask, Minnesota is either wasting money or not spending enough of it. In truth, the Twins were smart not to sell the farm at the deadline, allowing the team to keep its window of success open longer by not acting shortsightedly. Jose Berrios and Byron Buxton still have something to offer to this club, even if they are not a shortstop or catcher. And, really, Alex Meyer could provide a valuable arm in the pen next year even if at one point he was projected to be a top-of-the-rotation starter. When it comes to the bullpen, player development is holding back the Twins. Everyone knew that Duensing and Fien were aging last year, and Blaine Boyer, 34, was not a long-term solution. Hope resided in prospects like Nick Burdi, Zach Jones and, to a lesser extent, Tyler Jay. All three are in their 20s, all three have stuff, but none are close to surfacing as a major leaguer. Lester Oliveros, the player to be named later in the Delmon Young trade, is 27 but hasn’t pitched in the majors this year, and Michael Tonkin, a 30th round pick in 2008, has been given opportunity, but never stuck. At the major league level, Ryan Pressly and J.R. Graham will likely factor into the bullpen equation in the future, given that they have stuff and are in the prime of their careers, but both need to prove they can be reliable in high-leverage situations. Ryan O’Rourke is a lefty-killer who could become a value pick (13th round, 2010), as could A.J. Achter (46th round, 2010) if they can stick in the majors. All four players are in their mid-20’s. Perkins, 32, likely will be the exception to the rule in that he should pitch well into his 30’s, and appears to be getting out the rut he was in following the All-Star Break. While the bullpen should be able to be fixed internally, the Twins will likely have to go outside the organization to fill their need at catcher. Josmil Pinto is battling concussion symptoms and wasn’t a great defensive player to begin with. Chris Herrmann has shown flashes, but hasn’t been consistent enough to challenge for the starting job, and Suzuki has regressed — likely due, at least in part, to the heavy beating he’s taken at that position over the years. Minnesota could build support in the offseason by acquiring Matt Wieters, the Orioles catcher who likely will be available in free agency, but offering a large contract to a 6-foot-5, 29-year-old catcher runs the same risk they had with Mauer — he gets hurt or wears down and ends up at first base for the last half of the deal. The Twins may have to take that risk, however, given that the second-best catching prospect in the organization, outside of Pinto, is Mitch Garver: a 24 year old in High-A. Whether or not the shortstop solution comes from within the organization is up for debate. Minnesota appears to be grooming Jorge Polanco for the position, but whether or not he will stick at shortstop is up for debate. “That will be up to him,” says Ryan. “A done deal? Well, we thought Plouffe was a done deal once, and we thought Cuddyer was a done deal once. You know it’s up to the player: Can you handle it or can you not?” If Polanco doesn’t end up being a major league shortstop — a la Dozier and Plouffe — in the near future, Minnesota will end up having to go to the outside for that position, too. There’s always an outside chance that Nunez, Escobar or Santana make a second-half surge, but given the amount of playing time they’ve had and the fact that none of them has taken over a spot that’s clearly up for grabs, that seems unlikely. The pitching staff has struggled lately, but Minnesota can’t afford to use more resources there. Pelfrey will likely be off the books next year, and the team must hold out hope that Nolasco will be better when healthy. Trevor May should be back in the rotation, and Berrios hopefully will challenge for a spot — creating a culture of competition that should be good for the rest of the players on the staff. As far as whether or not this season will be deemed a success, playoff berth or not, that’s probably best judged in the years to come. As much as Twins fans have become impatient after four 90-loss seasons — and reasonably so — there’s reason to believe that the best has yet to come. The pitching staff isn’t this bad. The outfield is suddenly stacked. There’s young arms to replenish the bullpen. The Twins constantly claim that money is not an issue, which should mean they’ll invest in a catcher, at the very least, in the offseason. Mauer’s inability to catch will become overlooked if the team is winning, he’s productive with the bat, and there’s a premier free agent to help out behind the plate. Keep in mind, most people that follow the Twins thought this would be a 75-win season. It was a logical conclusion, one that would show the team was moving in the right direction. Instead they’ve increased expectations — not a bad thing by any means — and must live up to them. Because even though 75 wins is an improvement from where the Twins were, the goal, as always, should be to play meaningful games throughout the year. “As everybody in this game should be pointing towards the playoffs, we are too,” Ryan said back in November. “I expect to get into the playoffs every year. Why [else] should we take the diamond?” This article was originally published on the Cold Omaha section of 105TheTicket.com. Follow Tom on Twitter @tschreier3.

Aaron Hicks is only 25. Entering the All-Star break he has yet to have his 700th plate appearance and he’s played in just over 180 games. And yet, he’s already dropped switch-hitting for a brief time period, has been called out by former manager Ron Gardenhire and assistant general manager Rob Antony for showing up to the ballpark and not knowing who the starting pitcher was that day, and after not making the team out of spring training this year the Star Tribune reported that he might not get another shot.“We probably haven’t seen the last of Aaron Hicks,” wrote LaVelle E. Neal, who has covered the Twins since 1998, “but the Twins’ expectations have fallen so far for the 14th overall pick from 2008 that his future could end up as a fourth outfielder.” Hicks ended up resurfacing with the Twins, getting a call-up in mid-May that lasted until he went on the disabled list in mid-June. Since returning from injury on July 7, he’s hitting .323 with two doubles, one triple, two home runs and seven RBIs in 10 games. With Byron Buxton on the DL, he is the team’s starting center fielder, already has a Willie Mays-esque catch and is starting to show everyone why he was a first-round selection in 2008. “I feel good at the plate,” he says, simply. “I’m just trying to make solid contact and drive some balls into the gap.” He struggles to articulate exactly what is behind the turnaround. It is not as though he got traded or changed positions. Hicks added a leg kick, which has improved his timing and power, but it’s not all mechanical when it comes to big league production. “Up until this level, it’s physical,” Double-A manager Doug Mientkiewicz told the Star Tribune in June. “Past this level, it’s mental.” “Our whole ordeal here is you have to prepare today as if you’re gonna be in Minnesota tomorrow, so you don’t want to have to all of a sudden change your routine and change your preparation,” says Triple-A hitting coach Tim Doherty, a person Hicks credits with turning his career around. “He learned how to do that. He learned how to study film, and he learned how to get his routine in, his work in, prior to learning how to take care of his body day-in and day-out. “As far as his talents go, at some point in time the word ‘raw’ is gonna have to come off. You can’t have raw ability your entire career,” he continues. “You go up to the big leagues, and the first time you don’t know what to expect, you don’t know what they’re doing, so you gotta learn. … Seek out the veteran players: They’ll talk to you, they’re gonna help you, and they’re there and they’re a veteran because they listen and they learn. When players do that, like Hicksy’s been doing now, that’s huge.” Torii Hunter has been a major influence on him in the Twins clubhouse. The nearly 40-year-old outfielder has helped Hicks with everything from workouts to diet to routine. “He’s always picking my brain,” says Hunter, who came up with the Twins as a center fielder at the turn of the century and had his fair share of call-ups and demotions before establishing himself as a major leaguer. “He reminds me of myself, that’s what I did with Kirby and Paul Molitor when I was younger and they were older.” Hicks has always had talent: It’s why he was drafted in the first round, it’s why the Twins felt comfortable trading away Denard Span and Ben Revere in the same summer, and it’s why he was able to reach the majors at age 23. “Hicks is one of the most athletic outfielders in the high school ranks and perhaps in the (2008) draft class,” read one scouting report on him. “He’s got a ton of tools, but will he learn how to use them? Someone is sure to take that chance.” “I definitely think that this guy, if he puts it together and gets his mind right, it’s gonna be special,” echoes Hunter. “[it’s] knowing when you step on the field you have the most athletic ability on the field. It’s like an inner-cockiness: You don’t speak it, you just go out and do it and try to prove it and tell yourself, ‘Hey, you’re better than everybody on this field.’” The Twins ultimately took a chance on Hicks, of course, and they’ve given him ample opportunity to make the most of his ability since calling him up two years ago. Looking back on it, Twins general manager Terry Ryan admits that his promotion was premature, because while he made his fair share of spectacular plays in the outfield, he finished his rookie year with a .192/.259/.338 line in 81 games and wasn’t much better at the plate in his sophomore season (.215/.341/.274). “If somebody’s concerned about Hicks not getting a chance, I’ve got to talk to them,” says Ryan, elevating his voice. “If you’re talking about Hicks, you’re talking about the wrong guy. He’s had a lot of chances and he’s doing something with it here recently, but we’ve been criticized to the extreme about [his] chances.” Throughout the process the Twins had to strike a delicate balance, allowing Hicks — or any prospect — enough leeway to fight through his struggles without giving him a sense of entitlement. “We try to make sure they get every opportunity,” says Ryan of his young players. “Aaron’s had a lot of chances. It’s his turn. It’s time to step up, and he’s done a nice job here.” Twins hitting coach Tom Brunansky says the biggest difference between now and a year ago, when Hicks was muddled and briefly dropped switch-hitting, is his maturity level. “He feels confident, you can tell,” Brunansky says. “He doesn’t get frustrated, to where if it’s a bad at-bat … he can put that aside a little bit, we can get good conversations about what the next at-bat’s gonna do, and he’s moved on. “We can call it growth, we can call it maturity — whatever it is, whatever terminology you want to use for it, it’s nice to see, because the talent and skill set of that kid is good.” “I think it all came down to being able to do what I needed to do to become the player that I want to be, and it’s kind of just — I tried something new. I tried leg-kicking, and it’s been working out good for my timing and hitting in the big leagues,” says Hicks, who worked on the technique with Brunansky in spring training. “A lot of it just came with time: Being up here and having to deal with the grind and having to deal with failure so much. I mean, it’s all about just going out there and trying to have fun and learn, and learn as fast as possible to be able to have success.” “All of that, and all of the curves that these guys go through with the ups and downs from the injuries and that type of thing, that all builds on all their mentalities,” says Doherty. “It makes them stronger, it makes them understand that when you take that away from them, they realize how hungry they need to be to get back with their teammates and start competing and try to win their division, and then try to win the pennant, and then try to win the World Series.” Doherty says that Hicks told him, “I should be in center field. I should be helping those guys win,” when he was in Triple-A during his rehab stint, which brings up another aspect of Hicks’ development: He’s on a winning team for the first time in his major league career. So while he wasn’t traded, he did experience a change of scenery this season. “Does it matter? It makes it a whole lot easier. Absolutely,” says Doherty. “You’re going to a team that’s competing and trying to catch the Royals and right in the playoff hunt. Yeah, that makes it easier. But it doesn’t make it easier as a player: You still have to compete, regardless of if you’re in first place or last place.” “He has that winning spirit, we’re winning, and he’s a part of winning right now,” says Hunter. “This last week, this last week or so, he’s shown all the ability that the Twins thought he had drafting him in the first round. This is what he’s capable of doing, and if he can do this consistently — you’re gonna have your rough times, that’s the way it goes — if he can bounce back every time, and make adjustments like he’s doing, he’s gonna be playing major league baseball for a long time. “He’s only 25.” This article was originally posted on the Cold Omaha section of 105 The Ticket. Tom Schreier writes for 105 The Ticket’s Cold Omaha. Tune in to The Wake Up Call every Sunday at 8:00 am to hear the crew break down the week in Minnesota sports. Click here to view the article

Aaron Hicks is only 25. Entering the All-Star Break he has yet to have his 700th plate appearance, and he’s played in just over 180 games. And yet, he’s already dropped switch-hitting for a brief time period, has been called out by former manager Ron Gardenhire and assistant general manager Rob Antony for showing up to the ballpark and not knowing who the starting pitcher was that day, and after not making the team out of spring training this year the Star Tribune reported that he might not get another shot. “We probably haven’t seen the last of Aaron Hicks,” wrote LaVelle E. Neal, who has covered the Twins since 1998, “but the Twins’ expectations have fallen so far for the 14th overall pick from 2008 that his future could end up as a fourth outfielder.” Hicks ended up resurfacing with the Twins, getting a call up in mid-May that lasted until he went on the disabled list in mid-June. Since returning from injury on July 7, he’s hitting .323 with two doubles, one triple, two home runs and seven RBI in 10 games. With Byron Buxton on the DL, he is the team’s starting center fielder, already has a Willie Mays-esque catch and is starting to show everyone why he was a first round selection in 2008. “I feel good at the plate,” he says, simply. “I’m just trying to make solid contact and drive some balls into the gap.” He struggles to articulate exactly what is behind the turnaround. It is not as though he got traded or changed positions. Hicks added a leg kick, which has improved his timing and power, but it’s not all mechanical when it comes to big league production. “Up until this level, it’s physical,” Double-A manager Doug Mientkiewicz told the Star Tribune in June. “Past this level, it’s mental.” “Our whole ordeal here is you have to prepare today as if you’re gonna be in Minnesota tomorrow, so you don’t want to have to all of a sudden change your routine and change your preparation,” says Triple-A hitting coach Tim Doherty, a person Hicks credits with turning his career around. “He learned how to do that. He learned how to study film, and he learned how to get his routine in, his work in, prior to learning how to take care of his body day-in and day-out. “As far as his talents go, at some point in time the word ‘raw’ is gonna have to come off. You can’t have raw ability your entire career,” he continues. “You go up to the big leagues, and the first time you don’t know what to expect, you don’t know what they’re doing, so you gotta learn. … Seek out the veteran players: They’ll talk to you, they’re gonna help you, and they’re there and they’re a veteran because they listen and they learn. When players do that, like Hicksy’s been doing now, that’s huge.” Torii Hunter has been a major influence on him in the Twins clubhouse. The nearly 40-year-old outfielder has helped Hicks with everything from workouts to diet to routine. “He’s always picking my brain,” says Hunter, who came up with the Twins as a center fielder at the turn of the century and had his fair share of call-ups and demotions before establishing himself as a major leaguer. “He reminds me of myself, that’s what I did with Kirby and Paul Molitor when I was younger and they were older.” Hicks has always had talent: It’s why he was drafted in the first round, it’s why the Twins felt comfortable trading away Denard Span and Ben Revere in the same summer, and it’s why he was able to reach the majors at age 23. “Hicks is one of the most athletic outfielders in the high school ranks and perhaps in the (2008) draft class,” read one scouting report on him. “He’s got a ton of tools, but will he learn how to use them? Someone is sure to take that chance.” “I definitely think that this guy, if he puts it together and gets his mind right, it’s gonna be special,” echoes Hunter. “[it’s] knowing when you step on the field you have the most athletic ability on the field. It’s like an inner-cockiness: You don’t speak it, you just go out and do it and try to prove it and tell yourself, ‘Hey, you’re better than everybody on this field.’” The Twins ultimately took a chance on Hicks, of course, and they’ve given him ample opportunity to make the most of his ability since calling him up two years ago. Looking back on it, Twins general manager Terry Ryan admits that his promotion was premature, because while he made his fair share of spectacular plays in the outfield, he finished his rookie year with a .192/.259/.338 line in 81 games and wasn’t much better at the plate in his sophomore season (.215/.341/.274). “If somebody’s concerned about Hicks not getting a chance, I’ve got to talk to them,” says Ryan, elevating his voice. “If you’re talking about Hicks, you’re talking about the wrong guy. He’s had a lot of chances and he’s doing something with it here recently, but we’ve been criticized to the extreme about [his] chances.” Throughout the process the Twins had to strike a delicate balance, allowing Hicks — or any prospect — enough leeway to fight through his struggles without giving him a sense of entitlement. “We try to make sure they get every opportunity,” says Ryan of his young players. “Aaron’s had a lot of chances. It’s his turn. It’s time to step up, and he’s done a nice job here.” Twins hitting coach Tom Brunansky says the biggest difference between now and a year ago, when Hicks was muddled and briefly dropped switch-hitting, is his maturity level. “He feels confident, you can tell,” Brunansky says. “He doesn’t get frustrated, to where if it’s a bad at-bat … he can put that aside a little bit, we can get good conversations about what the next at-bat’s gonna do, and he’s moved on. “We can call it growth, we can call it maturity — whatever it is, whatever terminology you want to use for it, it’s nice to see, because the talent and skillset of that kid is good.” “I think it all came down to being able to do what I needed to do to become the player that I want to be, and it’s kind of just — I tried something new. I tried leg-kicking, and it’s been working out good for my timing and hitting in the big leagues,” says Hicks, who worked on the technique with Brunansky in spring training. “A lot of it just came with time: Being up here and having to deal with the grind and having to deal with failure so much. I mean, it’s all about just going out there and trying to have fun and learn, and learn as fast as possible to be able to have success.” “All of that, and all of the curves that these guys go through with the ups and downs from the injuries and that type of thing, that all builds on all their mentalities,” says Doherty. “It makes them stronger, it makes them understand that when you take that away from them, they realize how hungry they need to be to get back with their teammates and start competing and try to win their division, and then try to win the pennant, and then try to win the World Series.” Doherty says that Hicks told him, “I should be in center field. I should be helping those guys win,” when he was in Triple-A during his rehab stint, which brings up another aspect of Hicks’ development: He’s on a winning team for the first time in his major league career. So while he wasn’t traded, he did experience a change of scenery this season. “Does it matter? It makes it a whole lot easier. Absolutely,” says Doherty. “You’re going to a team that’s competing and trying to catch the Royals and right in the playoff hunt. Yeah, that makes it easier. But it doesn’t make it easier as a player: You still have to compete, regardless of if you’re in first place or last place.” “He has that winning spirit, we’re winning, and he’s a part of winning right now,” says Hunter. “This last week, this last week or so, he’s shown all the ability that the Twins thought he had drafting him in the first round. This is what he’s capable of doing, and if he can do this consistently — you’re gonna have your rough times, that’s the way it goes — if he can bounce back every time, and make adjustments like he’s doing, he’s gonna be playing major league baseball for a long time. “He’s only 25.” This article was originally posted on the Cold Omaha section of 105 The Ticket. Tom Schreier writes for 105 The Ticket’s Cold Omaha. Tune in to The Wake Up Call every Sunday at 8:00 am to hear the crew break down the week in Minnesota sports. Follow Tom on Twitter @tschreier3.

While the Minnesota Twins are a homegrown team that relies heavily on players from their farm system to sustain success in the major leagues, reclamation projects are an important part of their team construction. Once highly touted prospects or players who have had some big league success and saw a dip in production with their former team for various reasons are often of interest to a team in a mid-sized city looking to get the most value out of their signings.These players are relatively low-risk and high-reward based upon their perceived potential and low cost to sign. If they pan out, the organization looks smart for turning around the career of a player who was once considered a top prospect. If they don’t, they can be released for relatively little cost to the team other than the cost of giving playing time to a struggling player. For a team like the Twins, who play in a mid-sized market and have relatively parsimonious ownership, this is a way to get potentially high-end talent without high cost or long term commitment. Pelfrey, a high draft pick who had two strong years as a member of the New York Mets, signed to a one-year, $4 million deal in 2013 following Tommy John surgery. Then, in a much scrutinized move, was re-signed for two years, $11 million following a tough first year. Fifteen million dollars is nothing to sneeze at, but it is relatively cheap for a former first-round pick who had two strong seasons as a member of the Mets in 2008 and 2010 — so long as he pitches like the player he can be. Pelfrey was awful in his first year with the Twins. He came back from Tommy John surgery faster than expected, pushing himself to get back on the mound against doctor’s orders, and felt the effects of accelerating his return timetable. He was 5-13 with a 5.19 ERA (79 ERA+), pitching 152.3 innings in 29 starts, making the $11 million extension he received the year after that much more perplexing. “He’s coming off Tommy John, he came back quickly, and we thought, ‘Okay, that’s a good starting point, but there’s more to come.’ That’s the reason,” Twins general manager Terry Ryan said when asked why the team re-signed Pelfrey. “And he showed some flashes, and he certainly showed the velocity and stuff like that, so we thought, ‘All right, he’s over the hump on the Tommy John response,’ and now all of a sudden we’re gonna get more. Well, unfortunately that didn’t happen.” He only made five starts in the first year of his second contract, finishing last season with a 0-0 record, 7.99 ERA (50 ERA+) and only 23.2 innings pitched. “Last year was awful,” says Pelfrey, who has always been accountable, even during his most trying times with the Twins, “so this offseason I came in and worked my tail off to … honor that two-year deal and be the best I could, and I thought I put myself in a pretty good situation.” Pelfrey has been the best pitcher in the starting rotation this year, going 5-3 with a 2.97 ERA (136 ERA+) in 13 starts. His play merits All-Star consideration and will likely garner a large contract for him in the offseason. A player playing out of his mind in a contract year is not unheard of — Joe Mauer hit .365/.444/.587 with 28 home runs the year before he signed his $184 million extension, and Kurt Suzuki made his first All-Star team on a one-year deal last season — and Pelfrey was certainly upset when he was assigned to the bullpen out of spring training, perhaps providing an incentive for him to pitch well in the rotation. Pelfrey, however, attributes his success to three things: He’s in good health, his split-finger has given him the “pitch that he’s lacked for 30 years,” and his sinker is much better. “First time in a couple years, maybe since Tommy John, I don’t have to make my sinker move,” he says. “I can just throw it, and it has that natural sink, which it always had before.” Pelfrey has had a split-finger since 2010, a year in which he went 15-9 with a 3.66 ERA (107 ERA+), but he had it revamped by bullpen coach Eddie Guardado in spring training this year. “To be honest with you, during spring training we’re watching these guys throw in the spring, and he’s throwing his splitty, and I looked at him and, jokingly, I go, ‘What is that pitch?’” says Guardado, chuckling. “He goes, ‘It’s my split finger, dawg.’ And I go, ‘That ain’t gonna work.” Guardado says sometimes he has trouble working with veteran pitchers, given that they have had a track record of success and are often stuck in their ways, but Pelfrey didn’t take much time to get the split-finger down. By the end of spring training he was throwing it with ease, giving him a pitch that falls out of the strike zone, which complements his mid-90s fastball, curve ball and sinker. “It’s like a new toy,” says Guardado, “He worked with it every day, and I just showed him the grip. Did we talk about it a little bit? Yeah, absolutely. But he did it all on his own. I’d like to take the credit, but he’s a hard-worker, man, so it’s all good.” The split-finger, complemented by a naturally moving sinker, has given Pelfrey more confidence on the mound. His usually plodding pace has been improved upon. In many ways, the Twins have the pitcher they’ve always wanted right now. Health is always a concern for players, especially pitchers, but it’s rare for a veteran player like Pelfrey to all of a sudden have another weapon in his arsenal. It’s easy to look back and say it was a good signing now, but it took some fortitude and, frankly, stubbornness for the team to retain him after a tough first year. It wasn’t just his potential, though, that enticed the Twins; they also liked his leadership. “It doesn’t hurt,” says Ryan. “It’s always nice to have a little bit of that veteran presence in any part of your club, especially when you’re talking about the rest of that starting staff, they’re relatively young.” He was given a corner locker in the team clubhouse, and according to his teammates, he’s very approachable and has a way about him of offering constructive criticism without making a struggling teammate feel the need to get defensive. “He’s easy to talk to, he’ll come up to talk to you about certain things he sees, and he’s definitely a leader,” says Kyle Gibson, 27, who is in his third year with the team. “I think he approaches every situation like that very well. He’s not gonna come up to you and say, ‘Hey, you were really bad today, and this is what I saw.’ He’s gonna ask you questions, he’s gonna try to approach it in the most mature way possible, because that’s the kind of guy he is.” Gibson, like Pelfrey, is a sinker-ball pitcher who has undergone Tommy John surgery. He says that the two were able to speak freely about the difficulty of coming back, as well as the mental hurdles every player has to go through during the ups and downs of a season. “He’s been a guy who I’ve talked to about learning how to attack with my fastball a little bit better at certain times,” says Gibson. “I’m always trying to talk to him about something just because I feel like going through the surgery, whether it’s how we were feeling last year or the year before, I’m always a guy who’s looking to learn something, and that’s a great guy to learn from.” In some ways it’s unfortunate that Pelfrey is coming into his own in a contract year at age 31. He’s a Scott Boras client, so he’s unlikely to come back on a discount, and the Twins suddenly have plenty of depth in the starting rotation. Still, for the time being he’s one of the best pitchers in the league, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. The team is finally competitive again, Phil Hughes is off to a slow start, so the team is in need of an ace, and Pelfrey has no doubt left a meaningful mark on the younger pitchers, especially Gibson. “So far I’m glad that it’s working out,” says Pelfrey, “but there’s a lot of baseball left, so we’ll just keep it going.” This article was originally published on the Cold Omaha section of 105TheTicket.com. Tune in to The Wake Up Call every Sunday at 8:00 am to hear the crew break down the week in Minnesota sports. Follow Tom on Twitter @tschreier3. Click here to view the article

While the Minnesota Twins are a homegrown team that relies heavily on players from their farm system to sustain success in the major leagues, reclamation projects are an important part of their team construction. Once-highly-touted prospects or players that have had some big league success and saw a dip in production with their former team for various reasons are often of interest to a team in a mid-sized city looking to get the most value out of their signings. These players are relatively low-risk and high-reward based upon their perceived potential and low cost to sign. If they pan out, the organization looks smart for turning around the career of a player that was once considered a top prospect. If they don’t, they can be released for relatively little cost to the team other than the cost of giving playing time to a struggling player. For a team like the Twins, who play in a mid-sized market and have relatively parsimonious ownership, this is a way to get potentially high-end talent without high cost or long term commitment. Pelfrey, a high draft pick who had two strong years as a member of the New York Mets, signed to a one-year, $4 million deal in 2013 following Tommy John surgery. Then, in a much scrutinized move, was re-signed for two years, $11 million following a tough first year. Fifteen million dollars is nothing to sneeze at, but it is relatively cheap for a former first round pick who had two strong seasons as a member of the Mets in 2008 and 2010 — so long as he pitches like the player he can be. Pelfrey was awful in his first year with the Twins. He came back from Tommy John surgery faster than expected, pushing himself to get back on the mound against doctor’s orders, and felt the effects of accelerating his return timetable. He was 5-13 with a 5.19 ERA (79 ERA+), pitching 152.3 innings in 29 starts, making the $11 million extension he received the year after that much more perplexing. “He’s coming off Tommy John, he came back quickly, and we thought, ‘Okay, that’s a good starting point, but there’s more to come.’ That’s the reason,” Twins general manager Terry Ryan said when asked why the team re-signed Pelfrey. “And he showed some flashes, and he certainly showed the velocity and stuff like that, so we thought, ‘All right, he’s over the hump on the Tommy John response,’ and now all of a sudden we’re gonna get more. Well, unfortunately that didn’t happen.” He only made five starts in the first year of his second contract, finishing last season with a 0-0 record, 7.99 ERA (50 ERA+) and only 23.2 innings pitched. “Last year was awful,” says Pelfrey, who has always been accountable, even during his most trying times with the Twins, “so this offseason I came in and worked my tail off to … honor that two-year deal and be the best I could, and I thought I put myself in a pretty good situation.” Pelfrey has been the best pitcher in the starting rotation this year, going 5-3 with a 2.97 ERA (136 ERA+) in 13 starts. His play merits All-Star consideration and will likely garner a large contract for him in the offseason. A player playing out of his mind in a contract year is not unheard of — Joe Mauer hit .365/.444/.587 with 28 home runs the year before he signed his $184 million extension, and Kurt Suzuki made his first All-Star team on a one-year deal last season — and Pelfrey was certainly upset when he was assigned to the bullpen out of Spring Training, perhaps providing an incentive for him to pitch well in the rotation. Pelfrey, however, attributes his success to three things: He’s in good health, his split-finger has given him the “pitch that he’s lacked for 30 years,” and his sinker is much better. “First time in a couple years, maybe since Tommy John, I don’t have to make my sinker move,” he says. “I can just throw it, and it has that natural sink, which it always had before.” Pelfrey has had a split-finger since 2010, a year in which he went 15-9 with a 3.66 ERA (107 ERA+), but he had it revamped by bullpen coach Eddie Guardado in Spring Training this year. “To be honest with you, during Spring Training we’re watching these guys throw in the spring, and he’s throwing his splitty, and I looked at him and, jokingly, I go, ‘What is that pitch?’” says Guardado, chuckling. “He goes, ‘It’s my split finger, dawg.’ And I go, ‘That ain’t gonna work.” Guardado says sometimes he has trouble working with veteran pitchers, given that they have had a track record of success and are often stuck in their ways, but Pelfrey didn’t take much time to get the split-finger down. By the end of Spring Training he was throwing it with ease, giving him a pitch that falls out of the strike zone, which complements his mid-90s fastball, curveball and sinker. “It’s like a new toy,” says Guardado, “He worked with it every day, and I just showed him the grip. Did we talk about it a little bit? Yeah, absolutely. But he did it all on his own. I’d like to take the credit, but he’s a hard-worker, man, so it’s all good.” The split-finger, complemented by a naturally moving sinker, has given Pelfrey more confidence on the mound. His usually plodding pace has been improved upon. In many ways, the Twins have the pitcher they’ve always wanted right now. Health is always a concern for players, especially pitchers, but it’s rare for a veteran player like Pelfrey to all of a sudden have another weapon in his arsenal. It’s easy to look back and say it was a good signing now, but it took some fortitude and, frankly, stubbornness for the team to retain him after a tough first year. It wasn’t just his potential, though, that enticed the Twins; they also liked his leadership. “It doesn’t hurt,” says Ryan. “It’s always nice to have a little bit of that veteran presence in any part of your club, especially when you’re talking about the rest of that starting staff, they’re relatively young.” He was given a corner locker in the team clubhouse, and according to his teammates, he’s very approachable and has a way about him of offering constructive criticism without making a struggling teammate feel the need to get defensive. “He’s easy to talk to, he’ll come up to talk to you about certain things he sees, and he’s definitely a leader,” says Kyle Gibson, 27, who is in his third year with the team. “I think he approaches every situation like that very well. He’s not gonna come up to you and say, ‘Hey, you were really bad today, and this is what I saw.’ He’s gonna ask you questions, he’s gonna try to approach it in the most mature way possible, because that’s the kind of guy he is.” Gibson, like Pelfrey, is a sinkerball pitcher who has undergone Tommy John surgery. He says that the two were able to speak freely about the difficulty of coming back, as well as the mental hurdles every player has to go through during the ups and downs of a season. “He’s been a guy who I’ve talked to about learning how to attack with my fastball a little bit better at certain times,” says Gibson. “I’m always trying to talk to him about something just because I feel like going through the surgery, whether it’s how we were feeling last year or the year before, I’m always a guy who’s looking to learn something, and that’s a great guy to learn from.” In some ways it’s unfortunate that Pelfrey is coming into his own in a contract year at age 31. He’s a Scott Boras client, so he’s unlikely to come back on a discount, and the Twins suddenly have plenty of depth in the starting rotation. Still, for the time being he’s one of the best pitchers in the league, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. The team is finally competitive again, Phil Hughes is off to a slow start, so the team is in need of an ace, and Pelfrey has no doubt left a meaningful mark on the younger pitchers, especially Gibson. “So far I’m glad that it’s working out,” says Pelfrey, “but there’s a lot of baseball left, so we’ll just keep it going.” This article was originally published on the Cold Omaha section of 105TheTicket.com. Tune in to The Wake Up Call every Sunday at 8:00 am to hear the crew break down the week in Minnesota sports. Follow Tom on Twitter @tschreier3.

The Minnesota Twins are regressing, make no doubt about it. After splitting a series with the Boston Red Sox, Minnesota lost two out of three to the Milwaukee Brewers and were swept by the Kansas City Royals at Target Field, allowing Kansas City to pass them in the standings for first place in the division.The team downplayed the importance of the Royals series, saying that it was June and nobody is securing anything right now. “I’ve had that approach where I need a World Series ring on April 1,” said Torii Hunter on June 7, “and that never happens.” “You gotta be a little careful. You’re in June, and you’ve put yourself in a position to play meaningful games in June,” echoed manager Paul Molitor, “but that’s not nearly what it means to play meaningful games in August and September, so you’ve gotta keep your perspective.” It’s not necessarily a bad thing that people are focusing on the Twins in June — after all, in the past few seasons the team was collapsing by this point and fans were losing interest. Instead, the Twins played in front of a sellout crowd in the second game the Brewers were in town and 100,000 people showed up for the entire three-game series. Granted, that number is bolstered by the number of Wisconsinites who crossed the border, but that was the first sellout since the team’s miserable performance on Opening Day, and it's first 100,000-fan series since August 2013. People are taking notice, even if they think the team’s hot start will fade over time. And fade it has. Kyle Gibson, owner of a sub-3.00 ERA to begin the season, came back to earth in his latest start against Kansas City. Joe Mauer wasn’t going to hit .400 with runners in scoring position all season long. Trevor Plouffe started the year with a massive slump, caught fire and then slumped again. Kurt Suzuki played well in a contract year last season, but has returned to the .230 hitter he was with the Washington Nationals and Oakland Athletics the past few years. Sometimes it’s not individual performance that evens out, but rather the sum of the parts that cancel each other out. Mike Pelfrey has maintained his status as an ace, bucking the recent trend of regression, but as the No. 9 overall selection in 2005, he was supposed to be a top of the rotation guy. Phil Hughes was a top prospect in the Yankees organization, but was pilloried once he got to New York because he didn’t live up to expectations. A higher right field fence and more forgiving fan base provided a better environment for him last year, but he’s off to a slow start and isn’t pitching nearly as well as he was last season. Similarly, Aaron Thompson and Blaine Boyer have been revelations in the bullpen and have carried much of the load when it comes to relief pitching because Brian Duensing and Tim Stauffer were struggling. Stauffer was ultimately designated for assignment, meaning, of the two offseason bullpen acquisitions, one has panned out so far and the other hasn’t. Nobody is shocked that the Twins are taking a step back. The team’s 20-win May was historically good, but nobody who showed up for Opening Day and saw the team dismantled 12-3 has forgotten about that, nor have they forgotten that Minnesota started 1-6 and hasn’t had success against the Detroit Tigers yet. All good teams go through rough patches, and the Twins have plenty of holes that indicated they could not maintain an AL Central-leading pace all year long. Plouffe and Suzuki are No. 6 and 7 hitters being forced into the middle of the lineup because the middle of the order talent — Miguel Sano, Oswaldo Arcia and Kennys Vargas — have spent most or all of the year in the minors. Sano is at Double-A and won’t be rushed up; Arcia just came off the disabled list and was immediately placed in Triple-A; Vargas just got a call from Rochester and isn’t ready to hit in the middle of the lineup. That’s the nature of player development and progression. Because the team’s prospects aren’t major league ready yet, Molitor is forced to go with a makeshift lineup for the time being. This team goes as the youth does, plain and simple. An ideal lineup of players currently on the team or in the system would be Brian Dozier — a revelation himself — hitting leadoff, Hunter in the 2-hole, Mauer hitting third, a combination of Sano, Vargas and Arcia in the middle, Plouffe and Suzuki hitting sixth and seventh, and then defensively-savvy Eddie Rosario and Aaron Hicks constituting the bottom of the order. That doesn’t even include Byron Buxton, who probably will take the aging, yet productive, Hunter’s spot at the appropriate time. It’s not hard to envision the Twins putting it together. Hunter is having a great season, but he may just want to end on a high note when it’s over or finish his career as a fourth outfielder, riding what is hopefully a wave of success in Minnesota. He has not only been a great locker room presence this year, but his seemingly ageless production hasn’t forced the Twins’ hand with Buxton — he’ll get the call when he’s ready rather than out of necessity to fill a glaring need. Sano is a player the Twins may have to rush to the major leagues. Plouffe’s defense has taken the pressure off of the Dominican prospect in that aspect — there’s no guarantee Sano will be a major league third baseman, although he should get ample tries to make it work given that he has more value there than at first base or DH — but he’s still inconsistent at the plate and more of a No. 6 hitter than a cleanup guy anyway. Sano also is further away from the big leagues than Buxton, and is likely to surface later in the season. Arcia possesses 30 home run power but is undisciplined at the plate, and prone to temper tantrums away from it. Last season he went Bo Jackson on his bat after striking out, splitting it in half over his leg — a testament to his strength as a human being, but also justifying his label as a head case. If the Twins can get him straightened out, they have a bona fide power hitter on their hands. If they cannot, he may join Chris Parmelee as a man who could hit the ball out of the park, but was never able to make contact with it on a regular basis. Of course if Arcia doesn’t pan out and Sano and Vargas do, Minnesota still has it’s beef in the middle of the order. And for the time being, as long as the rotation holds its own, the Twins can steal a couple wins here and there knowing the starter won’t be out by the fourth inning. Trevor May and Kyle Gibson have proven that they can go deep into games even when they don’t have their best stuff. Hughes has had slow starts in the past and overcome them. Ricky Nolasco showed some promise early in the season and should be better after returning from injury. And, even if he cools off a bit, Pelfrey is supposed to be a top of the rotation pitcher, so he just shouldn't go stone cold and he’ll likely be fine. The point of all this is that there are a lot of moving parts for the Twins. Not only are personnel changes sure to come as prospects develop, but on any given team players get hurt, others slump and some catch fire. At the beginning of the season, both local and national media saw another losing season on the horizon. Molitor emphasized immediate success at his introductory press conference, but didn’t appear to have the personnel to back his ambition. Sports Illustrated had the team at 67 wins, ESPN had 68, and Grantland and Yahoo and everyone under the sun had them in last place. After the team’s success in May, the tune changed to “well, the team has wins banked now, so they’re gonna be around .500.” What does that mean, “banked”? What is preventing this team from a 10-game losing streak at some point? The team has lost five of the last six games they’ve played. On the other hand, if their prospects develop and the rotation stays healthy and the bullpen is supplemented by players like Michael Tonkin, Lester Oliveros, Zach Jones and Nick Burdi, why can’t they be more than a .500 team this year? What is the mean? Is it the 60-70 wins projected at the beginning of the season? Is it 80-82? Twins GM Terry Ryan asserts that the Twins are just winning more close games simply because the defense is better and the bullpen is closing out games, especially closer Glen Perkins, who has been perfect so far. He also says that defensive metrics are rudimentary at this point, and to some extent he’s right. In baseball, a game where everything seems so certain, especially in the Moneyball era, there’s a lot about this team we don’t know. One certainty, however, is that before the season began, management felt they had a winner on their hands. “Things can change in this game very dramatically at this level, very quickly,” Molitor said back in November. “I’ll want it to be something that’s supportive amongst itself, leadership from players, accountability, certainly but creating a vision that they believe that they can win now because things can change very, very rapidly, and I hope that we can set that tone in motion.” In many ways it already has. This story was originally published on the Cold Omaha section of 105TheTicket.com. Tom Schreier writes for 105 The Ticket’s Cold Omaha. Tune into the Wake Up Call every Sunday at 8:00 am to hear the crew break down this week in Minnesota sports. Follow Tom Schreier @tschreier3 Click here to view the article

The Minnesota Twins are regressing, make no doubt about it. After splitting a series with the Boston Red Sox, Minnesota lost two out of three to the Milwaukee Brewers and were swept by the Kansas City Royals at Target Field, allowing Kansas City to pass them in the standings for first place in the division. The team downplayed the importance of the Royals series, saying that it was June and nobody is securing anything right now. “I’ve had that approach where I need a World Series ring on April 1,” said Torii Hunter on June 7, “and that never happens.” “You gotta be a little careful. You’re in June, and you’ve put yourself in a position to play meaningful games in June,” echoed manager Paul Molitor, “but that’s not nearly what it means to play meaningful games in August and September, so you’ve gotta keep your perspective.” It’s not necessarily a bad thing that people are focusing on the Twins in June — after all, in the past few seasons the team was collapsing by this point and fans were losing interest. Instead, the Twins played in front of a sellout crowd in the second game the Brewers were in town and 100,000 people showed up for the entire three-game series. Granted, that number is bolstered by the amount of Wisconsinites that crossed the border, but that was the first sellout since the team’s miserable performance on Opening Day, and first 100,000-fan series since August 2013. People are taking notice, even if the think the team’s hot start will fade over time. And fade it has. Kyle Gibson, owner of a sub-3.00 ERA to begin the season, came back to earth in his latest start against Kansas City. Joe Mauer wasn’t going to hit .400 with runners in scoring position all season long. Trevor Plouffe started the year with a massive slump, caught fire and then slumped again. Kurt Suzuki played well in a contract year last season, but has returned to the .230 hitter he was with the Washington Nationals and Oakland Athletics the past few years. Sometimes it’s not individual performance that evens out, but rather the sum of the parts that cancel each other out. Mike Pelfrey has maintained his status as an ace, bucking the recent trend of regression, but as the No. 9 overall selection in 2005, he was supposed to be a top of the rotation guy. Phil Hughes was a top prospect in the Yankees organization, but was pilloried once he got to New York because he didn’t live up to expectations. A higher right field fence and more forgiving fan base provided a better environment for him last year, but he’s off to a slow start and isn’t pitching nearly as well as he was last season. Similarly, Aaron Thompson and Blaine Boyer have been revelations in the bullpen and have carried much of the load when it comes to relief pitching because Brian Duensing and Tim Stauffer were struggling. Stauffer was ultimately designated for assignment, meaning of the two offseason bullpen acquisitions, one has panned out so far and the other hasn’t. Nobody is shocked that the Twins are taking a step back. The team’s 20-win May was historically good, but nobody who showed up for Opening Day and saw the team dismantled 12-3 has forgotten about that, nor have they forgotten that Minnesota started 1-6 and hasn’t had success against the Detroit Tigers yet. All good teams go through rough patches, and the Twins have plenty of holes that indicate they could not maintain an AL Central-leading pace all year long. Plouffe and Suzuki are No. 6 and 7 hitters being forced into the middle of the lineup because the middle of the order talent — Miguel Sano, Oswaldo Arcia and Kennys Vargas — have spent most or all of the year in the minors. Sano is at Double-A and won’t be rushed up;Arcia just came off the disabled list and was immediately placed in Triple-A; Vargas just got a call from Rochester and isn’t ready to hit in the middle of the lineup. That’s the nature player development and progression. Because the team’s prospects aren’t major league ready yet, Molitor is forced to go with a makeshift lineup for the time being. This team goes as the youth does, plain and simple. An ideal lineup of players currently on the team or in the system would be Brian Dozier — a revelation himself — hitting leadoff, Hunter in the 2-hole, Mauer hitting third, a combination of Sano, Vargas and Arcia in the middle, Plouffe and Suzuki hitting sixth and seventh, and then defensively-savvy Eddie Rosario and Aaron Hicks constituting the bottom of the order. That doesn’t even include Byron Buxton, who probably will take the aging, yet productive, Hunter’s spot at the appropriate time. It’s not hard to envision the Twins putting it together. Hunter is having a great season, but he may just want to end on a high note when it’s over or finish his career as a fourth outfielder, riding what is hopefully a wave of success in Minnesota. He has not only been a great locker room presence this year, but his seemingly ageless production hasn’t forced the Twins’ hand with Buxton — he’ll get the call when he’s ready rather than out of necessity to fill a glaring need. The same can’t be said for Sano. Plouffe’s defense has taken the pressure off of the Dominican prospect in that aspect — there’s no guarantee Sano will be a major league third baseman, although he should get ample tries to make it work given that he has more value there than at first base or DH — but he’s still inconsistent at the plate and more of a No. 6 hitter than a cleanup guy anyway. Sano also is further away from the big leagues than Buxton, and is likely to surface later in the season. Arcia possesses 30 home run power but is undisciplined at the plate, and prone to temper tantrums away from it. Last season he went Bo Jackson on his bat after striking out, splitting it in half over his leg — a testament to his strength as a human being, but also justifying his label as a head case. If the Twins can get him straightened out, they have a bona fide power hitter on their hands. If they cannot, he may join Chris Parmelee as a man who could hit the ball out of the park, but was never able to make contact with it on a regular basis. Of course if Arcia doesn’t pan out and Sano and Vargas do, Minnesota still has it’s beef in the middle of the order. And for the time being, as long as the rotation holds its own, the Twins can steal a couple wins here and there knowing the starter won’t be out by the fourth inning. Trevor May and Kyle Gibson have proven that they can go deep into games, even when they don’t have their best stuff. Hughes has had slow starts in the past and overcome them. Ricky Nolasco showed some promise early in the season and should be better after returning from injury. And, even if he cools off a bit, Pelfrey is supposed to be a top of the rotation pitcher, so he just can’t go stone cold and he’ll be fine. The point of all this is that there are a lot of moving parts for the Twins. Not only are personnel changes sure to come as prospects develop, but on any given team players get hurt, others slump and some catch fire. At the beginning of the season, both local and national media saw another losing season on the horizon. Molitor emphasied immediate success at his introductory press conference, but didn’t appear to have the personnel to back his ambition. Sports Illustrated had the team at 67 wins, ESPN had 68, and Grantland and Yahoo and everyone under the sun had them in last place. After the team’s success in May, the tune changed to “well, the team has wins banked now, so they’re gonna be around .500.” What does that mean, “banked”? What is preventing this team from a 10-game losing streak at some point? The team has lost five of the last six games they’ve played. On the other hand, if their prospects develop and the rotation stays healthy and the bullpen is supplemented by players like Michael Tonkin, Lester Oliveros, Zach Jones and Nick Burdi, why can’t they be more than a .500 team this year? What is the mean? Is it the 60-70 wins projected at the beginning of the season? Is it 80-82? Ryan asserts that the Twins are just winning more close games simply because the defense is better and the bullpen is closing out games, especially closer Glen Perkins, who has been perfect so far. He also says that defensive metrics are rudimentary at this point, and to some extent he’s right. In baseball, a game where everything seems so certain, especially in the Moneyball era, there’s a lot about this team we don’t know. One certainty, however, is that before the season began, management felt they had a winner on their hands. “Things can change in this game very dramatically at this level, very quickly,” Molitor said back in November. “I’ll want it to be something that’s supportive amongst itself, leadership from players, accountability, certainly but creating a vision that they believe that they can win now because things can change very, very rapidly, and I hope that we can set that tone in motion.” In many ways it already has. This story was originally published on the Cold Omaha section of 105TheTicket.com. Tom Schreier writes for 105 The Ticket’s Cold Omaha. Tune into the Wake Up Call every Sunday at 8:00 am to hear the crew break down this week in Minnesota sports. Follow Tom Schreier @tschreier3

The Minnesota Twins need to let loose. They need to believe that they can’t be held back by expectations, by the culture of losing created by four straight 90-loss seasons, by the numbers that say that they have outperformed their capabilities up until this point.For the most part everyone in the locker room appears unhindered by outside speculation, ignorant or at least cleansed of the team’s previous losing ways. They feel that that they are, as a unit, more talented than people give them credit for after a 20-win May — the first time the Twins have reached that number in a month since 1991 — given that they have played everyone in the AL Central, as well as teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates, Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox, and taken a series from everyone except the Detroit Tigers. This is why the dance party was so vital for this team. Veteran presence and leadership get thrown around any time a team brings in an older player, but Torii Hunter’s influence on this team is tangible. It’s hard not to notice something different when the clubhouse is so full of smoke that Mike Pelfrey and Glen Perkins, who occupy the corner lockers next to the entrance, can’t see Joe Mauer and Hunter, who have the lockers by the players-only section of the room, when they are getting changed after games. Entering the Twins clubhouse is like entering the high heavens, and it’s hard not to laugh when Hunter is running around saying, “It’s all medicinal. I have a card,” or at the notion of Pelfrey, all 6-foot-7, 230 pounds of him, dancing in the middle of a group of his teammates as a laser show takes place in the background. “I actually danced [and got] a lot of cheers, but I think they probably cheer for everything,” says the maligned starter, who is having his best season as a Twin. “I can’t imagine a 6-7 white guy being that good.” “He doesn’t dance too much,” says Plouffe, beaming. Why it works is that everyone on the team, except for Hunter of course, is a bad dancer. “It’s a ton of fun,” said Nolasco, another free agent signing who’s had his fair share of struggles, after picking up his 100th win. “Dance moves are all right,” said Aaron Hicks, smirking. “What I learned in high school.” “He took his shirt off and waved it in the air,” said Hunter, making fun of Hicks. “We got a lot of guys dancing, and we figured out a lot of guys cannot dance.” While the post-game celebrations are unlikely to turn anyone into a contestant on Dancing with the Stars, it has allowed everyone to let their guard down. Plouffe, who came up as a shortstop in 2010, was converted to a third baseman who struggled at the hot corner before this season, has been able to joke around with the pitchers about his defense even though it is much improved. “I think I started at about an aluminum glove and then plastic and then I’ve moved my way up,” he says. “I still got a ways to go, but I’m improving, which is good.” “He’s been unbelievable,” says Pelfrey. “I made a little joke, he might have started off with a plastic glove and every game he keeps moving up — he might even be at bronze right now. We’re working towards that gold glove.” Plouffe admittedly has had his ups and downs in his major league career, and at times has become upset with criticism he got from fans, media and presumably his fellow players. “I mean, you hear it, but it’s not something I dwell on, because if baseball teaches you anything, it’s that if you fail, don’t give up,” he says. “Did I hear it? Sure. Did it deter me from working hard and believing in myself and being confident? No.” Players have been outspoken about both their teammate’s strengths and weaknesses this season, something that has been taboo in year’s past. Things have always been congenial in the Twins locker room, but never this loose — at least not when the media are around. In the past, players deflected questions about one another if asked about a shortcoming, resorting to a select few stock answers. Now they are more honest than ever. That’s the magic of a veteran like Hunter: After all, if a player is able to make a fool of himself in front of all his teammates with music blasting, lasers firing and smoke filling the room (and flowing into the manager’s office and the corridors of Target Field), why should he be embarrassed when he makes a mistake on the field? So what if the fans see it? The players know that they have each other’s backs, and that’s what counts. It should be noted that Hunter did this on his own, and that new manager Paul Molitor could care less that he didn’t ask permission. “It was a nice surprise, kind of a little something different. I didn’t know that it would pick up steam, if you will,” he said (get it?). “It turned into a ritual as far as winning here was concerned, but I didn’t then, and I don’t have issues with it. It’s kind of them being able to establish their own thing that they do.” Molitor could have been insecure as a first-year manager and cracked down on the practice, either because he was upset about all the smoke in his office, or because he thought Hunter was trying to undermine him in a power struggle. But Molitor and Hunter played together with the Twins and formed mutual trust. What Hunter is doing is good for the team, and therefore it’s not going to be questioned. The whole ethos of the Twins is predicated on everyone doing their thing, and it comes from the top. General manager Terry Ryan says he won’t look at the player he’s going to draft with the No. 6 overall pick — he’ll just rely on his scouting reports. “I hate to break your heart. Who do you want me to go look at?” he asked the media. “You gotta pick and choose what you’re gonna see. If I go in there and don’t like him, am I going to go to the 12 scouts that have seen him and say, ‘We’re not taking him’?” It’s not an uncommon practice for him — he only saw Tommy Milone pitch a few times before trading for him, for example — and it’s something that can easily be criticized: The Twins aren’t winning because their manager doesn’t know who the team is acquiring. But what it means is that he has faith in his scouts and in the protocol that they follow. Even with decisions regarding the 40-man roster, he’ll allow Molitor to have his say before the final decision is made. “I’m not that hard to work with,” he says. “There’s no unilateral moves in this organization, everybody’s gonna have a say. Ultimately it’s gonna land in my chair — somebody’s gotta make a decision.” That is why he gets upset when national media covers his team. “I don’t particularly like a guy dictating our future that has never seen us play,” he said when informed that Grantland writer Michael Baumann questioned whether the Twins were for real this year. “You base your opinion on visual, plus statistics — that’s fair.” I reached out to Baumann — whose article not only represents popular sentiment at a national level, but in the Twin Cities as well — to get his take. Baumann is very active on Twitter, and responded right away by saying he relied mostly on statistics, many of which aren’t very complicated, as well as his general knowledge of baseball. He also said Ryan probably wouldn’t say that the team’s start was all luck, while acknowledging that it is a small sample size and difficult to predict a team’s future at this point in the season. “Well, if he was sitting here, we could talk to him and see what he thinks,” says Ryan, who meets with the media every day, of Baumann, who is quoted above, “but he’s not here and he wrote that, and he hasn’t seen us play, right? That would be like me taking an evaluation that’s never saw a guy play, he just read the stat page. I would call that invalid.” The bottom line is that the Twins have to keep winning, and perception will change. Plouffe, who came up as a rookie in 2010 who was looking to please everyone around him, has now taken a leadership role with this team and remembers what it was like before the team collapsed, says that he gets the same feeling in this locker room as he had before. “This year we’re a little bit more of a dark horse, I guess you’d call it, which is fine for us,” he says. “But it is similar in that we show up to the field expecting to win every day.” Tom Schreier can be heard at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays with Ben Holsen and Mike Morris and co-hosts a morning show 8-10 a.m. on Sundays on 105.1 FM. This post was originally published on the Cold Omaha section of 105TheTicket.com. Click here to view the article

The Minnesota Twins need to let loose. They need to believe that they can’t be held back by expectations, by the culture of losing created by four straight 90-loss seasons, by the numbers that say that they have outperformed their capabilities up until this point. For the most part everyone in the locker room appears unhindered by outside speculation, ignorant or at least cleansed of the team’s previous losing ways. They feel that that they are, as a unit, more talented than people give them credit for after a 20-win May — the first time the Twins have reached that number in a month since 1991 — given that they have played everyone in the AL Central, as well as teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates, Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox, and taken a series from everyone except the Detroit Tigers. This is why the dance party was so vital for this team. Veteran presence and leadership get thrown around any time a team brings in an older player, but Torii Hunter’s influence on this team is tangible. It’s hard not to notice something different when the clubhouse is so full of smoke that Mike Pelfrey and Glen Perkins, who occupy the corner lockers next to the entrance, can’t see Joe Mauer and Hunter, who have the lockers by the players-only section of the room, when they are getting changed after games. Entering the Twins clubhouse is like entering the high heavens, and it’s hard not to laugh when Hunter is running around saying, “It’s all medicinal. I have a card,” or at the notion of Pelfrey, all 6-foot-7, 230 pounds of him, dancing in the middle of a group of his teammates as a laser show takes place in the background. “I actually danced [and got] a lot of cheers, but I think they probably cheer for everything,” says the maligned starter, who is having his best season as a Twin. “I can’t imagine a 6-7 white guy being that good.” “He doesn’t dance too much,” says Plouffe, beaming. Why it works is that everyone on the team, except for Hunter of course, is a bad dancer. “It’s a ton of fun,” said Nolasco, another free agent signing who’s had his fair share of struggles, after picking up his 100th win. “Dance moves are all right,” said Aaron Hicks, smirking. “What I learned in high school.” “He took his shirt off and waved it in the air,” said Hunter, making fun of Hicks. “We got a lot of guys dancing, and we figured out a lot of guys cannot dance.” While the post-game celebrations are unlikely to turn anyone into a contestant on Dancing with the Stars, it has allowed everyone to let their guard down. Plouffe, who came up as a shortstop in 2010, was converted to a third baseman that struggled at the hot corner before this season, has been able to joke around with the pitchers about his defense even though it is much improved. “I think I started at about an aluminum glove and then plastic and then I’ve moved my way up,” he says. “I still got a ways to go, but I’m improving, which is good.” “He’s been unbelievable,” says Pelfrey. “I made a little joke, he might have started off with a plastic glove and every game he keeps moving up — he might even be at bronze right now. We’re working towards that gold glove.” Plouffe admittedly has had his ups and downs in his major league career, and at times has become upset with criticism he got from fans, media and presumably his fellow players. “I mean, you hear it, but it’s not something I dwell on, because if baseball teaches you anything, it’s that if you fail, don’t give up,” he says. “Did I hear it? Sure. Did it deter me from working hard and believing in myself and being confident? No.” Players have been outspoken about both their teammate’s strengths and weaknesses this season, something that has been taboo in year’s past. Things have always been congenial in the Twins locker room, but never this loose — at least not when the media are around. In the past, players deflected questions about one another if asked about a shortcoming, resorting to a select few stock answers. Now they are more honest than ever. That’s the magic of a veteran like Hunter: After all, if a player is able to make a fool of himself in front of all his teammates with music blasting, lasers firing and smoke filling the room (and flowing into the manager’s office and the corridors of Target Field), why should he be embarrassed when he makes a mistake on the field? So what if the fans see it? The players know that they have each other’s backs, and that’s what counts. It should be noted that Hunter did this on his own, and that new manager Paul Molitor could care less that he didn’t ask permission. “It was a nice surprise, kind of a little something different. I didn’t know that it would pick up steam, if you will,” he said (get it?). “It turned into a ritual as far as winning here was concerned, but I didn’t then, and I don’t have issues with it. It’s kind of them being able to establish their own thing that they do.” Molitor could have been insecure as a first-year manager and cracked down on the practice, either because he was upset about all the smoke in his office, or because he thought Hunter was trying to undermine him in a power struggle. But Molitor and Hunter played together with the Twins and formed mutual trust. What Hunter is doing is good for the team, and therefore it’s not going to be questioned. The whole ethos of the Twins is predicated on everyone doing their thing, and it comes from the top. General manager Terry Ryan says he won’t look at the player he’s going to draft with the No. 6 overall pick — he’ll just rely on his scouting reports. “I hate to break your heart. Who do you want me to go look at?” he asked the media. “You gotta pick and choose what you’re gonna see. If I go in there and don’t like him, am I going to go to the 12 scouts that have seen him and say, ‘We’re not taking him’?” It’s not an uncommon practice for him — he only saw Tommy Milone pitch a few times before trading for him, for example — and it’s something that can easily be criticized: The Twins aren’t winning because their manager doesn’t know who the team is acquiring. But what it means is that he has faith in his scouts and in the protocol that they follow. Even with decisions regarding the 40-man roster, he’ll allow Molitor to have his say before the final decision is made. “I’m not that hard to work with,” he says. “There’s no unilateral moves in this organization, everybody’s gonna have a say. Ultimately it’s gonna land in my chair — somebody’s gotta make a decision.” That is why he gets upset when national media covers his team. “I don’t particularly like a guy dictating our future that has never seen us play,” he said when informed that Grantland writer Michael Baumann questioned whether the Twins were for real this year. “You base your opinion on visual, plus statistics — that’s fair.” I reached out to Baumann — whose article not only represents popular sentiment at a national level, but in the Twin Cities as well — to get his take. Baumann is very active on Twitter, and responded right away by saying he relied mostly on statistics, many of which aren’t very complicated, as well as his general knowledge of baseball. He also said Ryan probably wouldn’t say that the team’s start was all luck, while acknowledging that it is a small sample size and difficult to predict a team’s future at this point in the season. “Well, if he was sitting here, we could talk to him and see what he thinks,” says Ryan, who meets with the media every day, of Baumann, who is quoted above, “but he’s not here and he wrote that, and he hasn’t seen us play, right? That would be like me taking an evaluation that’s never saw a guy play, he just read the stat page. I would call that invalid.” The bottom line is that the Twins have to keep winning, and perception will change. Plouffe, who came up as a rookie in 2010 that was looking to please everyone around him, has now taken a leadership role with this team and remembers what it was like before the team collapsed, says that he gets the same feeling in this locker room as he had before. “This year we’re a little bit more of a dark horse, I guess you’d call it, which is fine for us,” he says. “But it is similar in that we show up to the field expecting to win every day.” This post was originally published on the Cold Omaha section of 105TheTicket.com. Tom Schreier can be heard at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays with Ben Holsen and Mike Morris and co-hosts a morning show 8-10 a.m. on Sundays. @https://twitter.com/tschreier3