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Since May 18th, a span of six starts, no opposing team had scored more than three earned runs off Kyle Gibson, and five of those games were of the quality start variety. That changed on the south side of Chicago on Wednesday as the White Sox racked up eleven hits and a 5-0 lead when his night was done.Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Kyle Gibson: 44 Game Score, 7 IP, 5 ER, 7 K, 1 BB, 63.7% strikes Bullpen: 1 IP, ER, 2 K Lineup: 2-for-6 w/RISP, 8 LOB Bottom three per WPA: Gibson -.170, Wilson -.140, Kepler/Mauer -.070 Download attachment: chart (1).jpg Gibson did end up finishing seven innings and struck out seven, but whenever Chicago needed a big hit, they seemed to get it. Among the twelve baserunners he surrendered, only five were left on base and the White Sox were 3-for-8 with runners in scoring position against him. On the mound opposite him for the Sox was James Shields, and he looked like the younger version of himself against a hapless Twins lineup. He got thirteen outs on ground balls, struck out five, and had three one-two-three innings among his seven frames. In the sixth inning, it was a “what the heck just happened?!” moment when it comes to umpires, and the Twins were on the wrong side of it. Third base coach Gene Glynn was mysteriously ejected (nice video, by the way, MLB…) after a Brian Dozier single put Eddie Rosario 90 feet away from home. A balk was then called that should have given Minnesota a run, but the White Sox protested and somehow that call was reversed. Paul Molitor then came out to object to that decision and also got tossed… The weirdest part in all of that, is just like strikes, arguing a balk is not supposed to be allowed: Not that it mattered much other than it would have kept the Twins from being shut out to that point, but I can’t wait to hear any explanations from Major League Baseball. Download attachment: shrug emoji.png Out of the bullpen, Ryan Pressly gave up a home run to Avisail Garcia in the eighth inning and his ERA on the season has now increased by two full runs in the month of June to 4.14. The only star of the game on offense for Minnesota was Ehire Adrianza, who went 4-for-4 with his 14th double, and finally got the Twins on the board officially in the top of ninth with an RBI single. Go back at ‘em tomorrow, fellas…? Postgame With Molitor Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: bullpen chart.png AL Central Standings CLE 43-35 MIN 34-42 (-8) DET 36-45 (-8.5) CWS 28-51 (-15.5) KC 25-55 (-19) Next Three Games Thu @ CWS, 1:10PM CST – RHP Jake Odorizzi (3-5, 4.97 ERA) Fri @ CHC, 4:05PM CST – RHP Jose Berrios (8-5, 3.15 ERA) Sat @ CHC, 1:20PM CST – LHP Adalberto Mejia (0-0, -.--ERA) Last Three Games CWS 8, MIN 4: South Side Slip MIN 2, TEX 0: La MaKKKKKKKKKKKKina TEX 9, MIN 6: Odorizzi Lays an Egg More From Twins Daily The Rise and Fall of Miguel Sano Twins Daily Roundtable: Sell, Sell, Sell? Twins Minor League Report (6/27): Moves Making Waves on the Farm Click here to view the article

Thursday morning, RHP Alex Meyer joined 3B Miguel Sano, OF Eddie Rosario and LHP Jason Wheeler as the Minnesota Twins newest members of their 40-man roster. On Thursday night, he joined the Twins Hangouts podcast to talk about the honor, his 2014 season, subbing in the classroom for Jeremy, and much more. (Download on iTunes)We found out on Thursday morning that the quartet was added to the 40-man roster, but he actually got a call from Terry Ryan about a week earlier. His mom answered the phone at his home in Indiana, and screamed excitedly to Alex, “Hey, Terry Ryan’s on the phone. Get over here. He’s asking for you!” Alex understands that when Mr. Ryan calls, you go to the phone! Ryan told him he was going to be added to the roster. “I was hoping that’s what he was going to tell me. I didn’t know what else it was going to be.” Despite the fact that he was a “given” to be added to the roster, it is a big deal for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, being on the 40-man roster makes it much easier for a player to be promoted to the big leagues. Secondly, even if he were to return to the minor leagues to start the 2015 season, his pay will jump noticeably, though not as much as it will jump when he does get to the big leagues. Although he wasn’t called up in 2014, he was very happy with his season. Meyer said, “It was a good year this year. I had a blast. I was with a great group of guys. Some really good pitchers came through here that I was able to watch. For me, it was a great experience.” He highlighted one of the new Twins coaches as part of the reason he enjoyed his season so much. “Being able to be around Gene Glynn, who obviously was recently promoted to the big league club, was awesome. He’s a guy who, I think we’ll reap benefits from just… I’ve never played for somebody as knowledgeable as he is. He just sees things in a different way than other guys. He’s one of the most intelligent people in life that I’ve been around. I learned a lot from him. I was really fortunate to be able to play for Gene for a full year, and for Marty Mason.” There’s no question where Meyer wants to play in 2015, but he also has a strong grasp on what his situation was in 2014. He did miss two months in 2013 with a shoulder injury. “My goal was like anybody else’s in minor league baseball. You want to get to the big leagues. Obviously that didn’t happen this year which is OK because the Twins were pretty adamant on my making sure I finished the season whole and stayed healthy.” He left his final start after just one inning which concerned a lot of people. However, Meyer isn’t at all concerned about his shoulder. “Yeah, I went out my last start. It was unfortunate, I had a little shoulder tightness and couldn’t get loose that night. That stinks because we were in the middle of a really good playoff push too. You know what, I’ve been able to do everything I wanted to do in the offseason in regards to weightlifting, trying to prepare my body to get ready for next year. Really, that’s the only thing I can judge off of right now. I’m pretty confident. Everything feels good. My strength feels good. I have a peace of mind knowing that I’m going into camp, I’m going to be 100% and ready to go, trying to earn a spot in the rotation.” Some have suggested, including the Twins Daily Offseason Handbook’s blueprint, that maybe Meyer start the season in the Twins bullpen. It is a career path that the Twins chose for the likes of Johan Santana and Francisco Liriano. So what does Meyer think of that possibility? “If I can have half the career that Liriano or Johan Santana had, I don’t think I’ll be too upset about that. In all seriousness, I trust our coaching staff and our front office and what their decisions are. If they want me to go to the bullpen, and they think it would benefit the big league club, then absolutely, I’d be all for it. Like anybody else, my dream is to play in the major league level. They’re better at evaluating that than I am. That’s why they do it. If they think I’d be most successful out of the bullpen, well, there’s a lot of guys who make great careers out of it, I’d have no problem with that at all.” He continued, “We have some good starters coming in, and you never know what the front office is going to do this offseason in regard to that also. So, I’m up for whatever. I just want to do whatever I can to help that team win.” Meyer is fully aware of the Twins history, and he enjoyed watching the team in the last decade. He wants to be part of the group that turns around this stretch of four straight losing seasons. “There’s a lot of guys who have had a lot of success here before, going back to the early 2000s and the mid-2000s. I remember watching them. I’ve never played at the major league level, but I can imagine when you’re on the field with guys like Joe Mauer, who you’ve seen do it all, you can’t help but want to help those guys out, even if that’s coming out of the bullpen. I’d absolutely be all for that.” When asked what traits he would look for in a pitching coach, Meyer provided an interesting insight. Sure, it’s about mechanical and physical things, but it’s much more too. “For me, personally, I think it’s really good to have a guy who’s there for me mentally because not every guy is going to be Clayton Kershaw. Eventually you’re going to go through a streak of three or four or five games where things aren’t going to go well. I had a couple of times like that this year. I went through a stretch there in the season when I couldn’t get through the third inning for three straight games. I was really, really struggling. Marty Mason was there for me, almost laughing, saying ‘This isn’t a big deal. You’re going to get through this. You’re just going through a funk.’” Meyer was asked about several other topics. He talked a bit about what it’s like, from a player’s perspective, to be represented by Scott Boras. He talked more about what he’s doing in the offseason. There were a lot of topics, and Jeremy even asked if he would want to come up to Wisconsin and sub at his school. Asked about his goals for the 2015 season, Meyer said he’s going to just see what happens. “Every year I’ve set goals, and this year I won’t. I want to let them come to me. I don’t want to set any expectations because you never know what can happen. I’m just going to go out there, wherever they send me whether it’s Minnesota, Rochester, or in Cedar Rapids. I just want to go out there and pitch as well as I can, continue to get better as a pitcher, and whenever the big league calls, you want to make sure you’re ready. I just want to go out there and throws as well as I can. I just hope I can help the team sometime during the year whether it’s from Game 1 in April or whenever that time would be. ” Having covered the Twins via blog for the last twelve seasons, I feel safe in saying that Alex Meyer will NOT start the 2015 season in Cedar Rapids. Click here to view the article

When Doug Mientkiewicz emerged as an early contender for the Twins' managerial job, his lack of experience served both as a point against him and a point in his favor. On the one hand, Mientkiewicz hadn't managed above Single-A, and had only been there for two years. That's not a lot of track record for a big-league skipper. On the other hand, he had the advantage of being fresh, and not set in his ways. It is difficult for any long-timer to match the fire and ambition that burn within a guy who's just getting started.The Twins are looking to return to contention with a young roster, and there's an appeal to the dynamic where both players and manager are exploring new frontiers together. Growing together. Ultimately the team decided to opt for more experience in choosing Paul Molitor who has been coaching for almost two decades, albeit never in the role he will now be filling. Because Molitor is new to this particular gig, some expected that the front office would surround him with coaches who have been around for a while, but that's hardly been the case. Quite to the contrary, in fact. The Twins wasted little time in announcing that they would retain Tom Brunansky as hitting coach. His experience is modest; he's been Minnesota's hitting coach for the last two years, after serving in the same role for a couple of seasons in the minors. Prior to that, he was coaching a high school baseball team. Rudy Hernandez, tabbed as Bruno's assistant hitting coach, has only coached in the minors, and was promoted directly from rookie ball. Neil Allen, who has reportedly been hired as pitching coach, was brought in from Tampa Bay's system. He has worked almost exclusively in the minors, with the exception of a year spent as the Yankees bullpen coach. Eddie Guardado, who appears to be the choice for Twins bullpen coach, was playing up until 2009 and hasn't served in any official coaching capacity, though he has been an instructor in spring training. Newly appointed third base coach Gene Glynn is the antithesis of this trend, as he has a considerable amount of experience coaching in the majors. He's logged more than a decade on big-league staffs, including stints as third base coach for the Rockies, Cubs and Giants. Yet, Glynn hasn't been on an MLB coaching staff for nearly a decade. Following his departure from San Francisco, he spent six years as a scout for the Rays and has spent the last three managing in Rochester. I like this mix that the Twins have found with their new coaching alignment. You've got several rising guys who are are getting their first real chance and will certainly be driven to excel. You've got a manager who is in some respects very experienced but is essentially a novice. And then there's Glynn, who has put in almost 30 years as a coach, coordinator and scout, with a resume that lists six different organizations. He was a candidate for the Twins manager job and could become a hot name around the league if he takes part in a turnaround for the club. Everyone tries to do well at their job, but there's inherently an extra level of motivation at play when trying to further one's own career and livelihood. I think it's harsh to suggest that Ron Gardenhire and his coaches were "mailing it in" in recent years, but did they grow too comfortable? Was the same drive there as in Gardy's early years, when he led youthful rosters to several postseason appearances as a fresh big-league manager? That is apparently what the Twins are trying to recapture with this restructured group -- a hunger that starts at the top and is infectious toward young incoming players -- and all the appointees thus far seem to fit in that regard. Click here to view the article

Aaron and John breakdown the free agent outfielders available to the Minnesota Twins, walk through arbitration abitration decisions, introduce you to Starflyer 59’s latest album, discuss the latest additions to Paul Molitor’s coaching staff, encourage you to donate to Aaron Purmont’s family and review Fritos on a pizza. Don't forget, you can subscribe to GATG using iTunes or Stitcher. Or listen by clicking on "Play" below. Click here to view the article

The Minnesota Twins are holding their annual “organizational meetings” in Fort Myers this week. As newsworthy baseball stories go, that bit of information ranks quite a bit below the MLB postseason games and their seemingly nightly extra-inning games and walk-off finishes. What exactly are the organizational meetings?Well, in Hollywood’s version of Moneyball, you may remember seeing Brad Pitt as Oakland General Manager Billy Beane gathering a few guys around a table in a room and tossing out names of players they might want to pursue acquiring for the following season. That may have fit screenwriter Aaron Sorkin’s needs, but it doesn’t come close to meeting the needs of a real life professional baseball organization. Reports have estimated that as many as 100 members of the Twins staff may participate in the meetings this week. That may seem like a lot of people, but the Twins have a lot of work to do. The Twins hold these meetings every October, but this year’s gathering could be the most critical such gathering in years. Over the coming days, weeks and months, the Twins need to Hire a new manager for the first time in over a decade.Work with said new manager to assemble a seven-person big league level coaching staff.Assign manager and coaching duties to every level of minor league affiliates.Determine which, if any, of their minor league free agents to attempt to retain.Determine at which minor league level to place a significant number of their top young prospects to start 2015.Determine whether to offer arbitration to a few members of their current big league roster.Identify potential MLB level free agents and/or trade targets to pursue once the World Series is completed.Some of the items on that to-do list are not common tasks for this organization, but even for some of those that are on the list every postseason, the stakes this year have risen significantly. First order of business: Identify and hire a new manager When it comes to deciding who should manage the Twins in 2015 and beyond, a seeming significant majority of fans agreed on one thing – it shouldn’t be Ron Gardenhire. OK, that group (which included me) got their wish. Gardenhire will not manage the Twins going forward. There is far less of a consensus concerning who SHOULD manage the Twins and, obviously, that’s a far more important question than simply coming to an agreement on who should not. A fair number of fans seem to feel that anyone the Twins could pick would be better than Gardy. I beg to differ. Say what you will about the man who managed the Twins for the past 13 years, but every year there were MLB managers who were worse at their job than was Ron Gardenhire. Some of those managers were newly hired by their organization. Some were getting their first opportunity to manage at the big league level. Of all of the confirmed candidates, both internal and external to the Twins organization that have been identified by the media, exactly one of them would not be making his MLB managing debut on Opening Day 2015 if he is hired by the Twins. The Twins have had just two managers since Ronald Reagan's second term as the US President wrapped up. That can lead fans to feel a certain level of complacency, as if it’s unlikely or even impossible for the Twins to make a bad hire. But they can and they have. Ray Miller, who preceded Tom Kelly in the job, managed just 239 games for the Twins before being axed. As was the case when Miller was hired back in 1985, the Twins are widely viewed as being on the cusp of a new era of competitiveness, with a number of highly touted young prospects nearing completion of their minor league apprenticeships. Making a bad hire could dangerously impede the club’s re-emergence to relevance in the American League Central Division. I agree with Terry Ryan. It’s not important if the new manager comes from within the organization or from the outside; whether he has prior experience or not; whether he is multi-lingual or struggles just to speak coherent English. What matters is that the choice is the right choice. Unfortunately, there’s no way to know with certainty whether that’s the case immediately, though I think we can pretty much be certain that a significant – and vocal - segment of the fan base will think it is not the right choice, regardless of the final decision. Assembling a big league coaching staff While not as highly visible as their selection of a manager, the final make-up of the Twins MLB coaching staff is arguably as important. The manager has to run the clubhouse and make out the lineup card and deal with the media and be the public face of the team. But it’s his coaching staff that will spend far more time working directly with the next generation of Twins players. When you look at the names of the players likely to wear Twins uniforms for the next several years, it’s not hard to project that as many as one-third of them in any given year will be Latin American. Some of them speak passable English. Many do not. It’s easy to say, “they should be learning English,” and – over time – they will. But even above the obvious need for coaches who can communicate with these players in their own language, it’s as important to have coaches familiar with the culture from which those players have come. I hope the next Twins manager is more open to using advanced metrics in his game-day decisions, or at the very least is far less openly dismissive of the idea than the recent field leader. But let’s be honest, no manager has the time to pour over all the information that’s going to be available to him and determine which is helpful and how to apply it every day. That makes it just as critical to have coaches who have experience doing exactly that and, where they don’t have such experience, they have minds open to learning and applying new things. Finally, Tom Brunansky certainly appears to have done a good job as hitting coach and if the Twins don’t move quickly to retain him, I think they risk losing him to another organization. I would hate to see that happen. Minor league assignments For the past few years, the Twins have pretty much nibbled at the edges when it comes to making adjustments to their staff of minor league managers and coaches. They’ve moved a couple guys around every year, but largely there has been a fair amount of consistency at every level, from non-Fort Meyers complex rookie ball at Elizabethton through AAA in Rochester. That’s normal when you have stability among the big league staff and, given the highly acclaimed status of the Twins minor league organization, you would perhaps like to see such stability continue. But since there are eight spots at the big league level open, it’s hard to imagine we won’t see some of those openings filled from within the current minor league managing/coaching ranks. Ray Smith has been managing at rookie level Elizabethton for 13 consecutive years (21 years overall) and is likely to continue there, but it would not be hard to imagine Gene Glynn (AAA), Jeff Smith (AA), Doug Mientkiewicz (High-A) or Jake Mauer (A) in the Twins dugout next season. Two of them, Glynn and Mientkiewicz, have interviewed for the manager vacancy, an indication of how highly the Twins think of both men, while Smith and Mauer have each been managing in the Twins organization for longer than Glynn and Mientkiewicz, respectively. If the Twins hire a manager from outside the organization, that manager is likely to bring in a few additional outsiders with him. If the Twins hire from within, one might hope that they similarly insist that the new manager include some outside blood among his staff. But in any event, given the Twins’ history of rewarding loyalty, it is almost impossible to imagine a Twins big league coaching staff without the presence of some number of coaches from within. That may well include one or more current minor league manager or coach, especially considering that they all will be familiar faces and voices to most of the Twins prospects due to arrive in the big leagues over the next couple years. By and large, most of the field managers and coaches in the minor league organization look to advance up the organizational ladder, just like the players do. When there are wholesale coaching changes at the big league level, it would be at least mildly surprising if there were not similar adjustments to the minor league assignments. Just as is the case with players, some of the staff may move up, some may look at the new landscape and decide their paths to the big leagues might be more open in another organization and, unfortunately, some will not be retained by the Twins, as minor league hitting coordinator Bill Springman and Fort Myers pitching coach Gary Lucas have already found out. Some fans have become so disgruntled with the Twins' lack of success at the big league level that they will be satisfied with nothing less than a clean sweep of every manager and coach in the Twins' system. That's not going to happen, nor should it. The Twins may indeed have become too insular and every organization benefits from adding quality people from the outside. Organizations also benefit from identifying and promoting quality people from within. The Twins are in a unique situation this offseason in that they have room in the organization to do both. Click here to view the article

It's been less than a week since the Twins announced Ron Gardenhire's dismissal, but already there has been a dizzying whirlwind of reports and rumors regarding who might replace him as manager. Struggling to keep up? No worries. Read on and we'll get you up to speed on all the latest substantive whisperings about the team's search for a skipper successor.* Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweeted on Friday that "Doug Mientkiewicz has emerged as the favorite, ever so slightly over Paul Molitor." Earlier in the week, Nightengale had named Mientkiewicz and Molitor as finalists for the job. Although he's a national reporter, Nightengale has been the first to break Twins news multiple times in the past, leading me to believe he has a pretty good source within the organization. I first brought up Mientkiewicz as a managerial candidate in mid-September and reiterated my support for him last week, so I'd be pleased if they're indeed leaning in his direction. I'd also be extremely surprised, because he'd be a pretty unconventional choice. * Then again, La Velle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune tweeted later on Friday that Molitor "has had multiple interviews with the Twins." If that's true, it's hard not to view the Hall of Famer as clear front-runner. Multiple meetings within a week -- especially when they've only publicly interviewed one other candidate -- suggests aggressive interest. Of course, I believe that Molitor's real interview to be the next manager was the entire 2014 season. Some believe that was implied when he was added to Gardenhire's staff as a seventh coach. He's been in the dugout and in the clubhouse all year, so I think Twins execs have a decent idea of what to expect from him at this point. * Just because Molitor and Mientkiewicz are drawing the early press, we shouldn't assume this is a two-horse race. Jim Mandelaro, who covers the Rochester Red Wings for the Democrat & Chronicle, wrote the following last week: Glynn, like Mientkiewicz, has done an impressive job of turning around a struggling minor-league affiliate, and he worked as a scout for the exemplary Rays in the six years prior to taking over in Rochester. For those reasons, and others, I think he's one of the more intriguing names to be considered, but I wonder if the Twins would view him as a tough sell. He doesn't offer fans the familiarity of a Molitor or Mientkiewicz, nor does he offer the novelty of a name hired from outside the organization. Obviously I don't think the potential for a subdued public reaction should rule out a qualified candidate, but I do wonder how heavily that's being weighed given the waning fan interest. * What about external candidates? Terry Ryan gave his assurance that the team would be casting a wide net in its search for Gardy's replacement, and explicitly stated that they'd look outside the organization as well as within. But we've heard little buzz so far about outside names. Well, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review did report on Sunday that John Russell is expected to interview for the position. Russell (pictured above with former Twin J.J. Hardy) has served as bench coach for the Orioles since 2011, and was manager of the Pirates from 2008 through 2010. He compiled an ugly 186-299 record in his three seasons there, including a 105-loss campaign that led to his removal. Working with catchers is considered to be a speciality for Russell. That could appeal to the Twins, who will be working to determine Joe Mauer's long-term successor behind the plate. The Twins would need to wait for Baltimore's postseason run to end before they can interview Russell. That run will continue for now, after the O's completed a first-round sweep of the Tigers on Sunday. * Stay tuned to Twins Daily all week for the latest news on the Twins' manager search. We'll be on top of each new rumor as it develops. Click here to view the article