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Aaron and John talk about the ongoing Carlos Correa saga, the Twins possibly adding a veteran right-handed bat, what to make of interest in starting pitchers, why the trade market is suddenly very important, and how more bullpen help is warranted as options dwindle. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click this link. View full article

Twins Daily has done a great job covering all of the action that happened over the last week as the Twins were very active at the trade deadline. In addition to that, the beginning of a new month also brings all sorts of Player of the Month recaps. And there's always the main staples of Twins Daily: the daily minor league reports and Twins game recaps.I'd like to introduce Twins Daily readers to something new. You may have noticed - or maybe not - that my writing and commenting has been much more sporadic this season. There are plenty of reasons for that... mostly growing kids and more responsibilities at work. But my interest in the Twins and their affiliates has never waned. I don't follow any less and I'm still certainly not short of opinions. What became of that is that I'd have a lot of Twins conversations with my neighbor. I'd be out with my dog or getting the mail or rolling the garbage to the end of the driveway and sometimes my neighbor, John Miller, would be outside. Our conversations would typically be about the Twins. We'd have these conversations across the road that splits our property, Meadow Lane. (Which is where we came up with our somewhat cheesy name.) He's been a long time reader of Twins Daily. (But never attended Winter Meltdown or a Touch Em All Pub Crawl. We'll have to fix that.) We'd talk about different things that have been written or commented on these very pages and he's said a number of times that he was thinking about starting a blog. And he should! At some point in time - probably after attending Gleeman and the Geek's first Taproom Tuesday of the year - we started talking about doing a podcast together. And last week, leading up to the trade deadline, that finally happened. If you're into podcasts, give it a shot. Give us feedback. We've jumped through the hoops to get our podcast on iTunes. You can listen to the Trade Deadline Preview (Episode 1) or the Trade Deadline Review (Episode 2). It's also available on our Across the Meadow website. We'd love for you to listen and let us know what you think. John also mans our Twitter account and will definitely engage with you. Click here to view the article

With Panda out of commission, Stubby J and #FacebooklessDan put together an amazing show filled with just about everything but baseball (it's the Stubbs effect, just trust me). Get your fill of pop culture, food, and a teensy bit of sprotsball on this week's episode of the Twins And Losses Supershow on Spreaker, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, and Pocket Casts; only on the The 4D Podcast Network! http://www.spreaker.com/user/the4dpodcastnetwork/twins-and-losses-supershow-episode-45-wh

Hey all, John and Seth suggested that I bring my latest venture to your attention here at Twins Daily, especially because, eventually, it's bound to be Twins-related.Although the Twins' forays into Asia have both been busts, that doesn't diminish the importance of Japan, Korea, and Taiwan as hotbeds of talent and enthusiasm for the game. And long before there was ByungHo Park or Tsuyoshi Nishioka, there was Masanori Murakami, the first Japanese player to make it to the Major Leagues. Murakami's success as a member of the San Francisco Giants in 1964 and 1965 are the subject of the latest episode of This Week In Baseball History, a new podcast produced by Mike Bates (hey, that's me!) and Bill Parker. His story is a great one that touches on the difficulties of the immigrant experience, from culture shock to prejudice to triumph, and reaches (spoiler alert) a pretty bittersweet conclusion. Our special guest in this episode, Rob Fitts, literally wrote the book on Mashi, and has great insight on how his time in America and his return to Japan affected the rest of his life, and why, after Murakami left the Giants, there wasn't another Japanese MLBer for another 30 years. Bill and I are back each week with a new topic. So far, we've covered the trial of the Chicago Black Sox, the deaths of Thurman Munson and Ed Delahanty, Mark McGwire's record-setting rookie season in 1987 (ooh, that's kind of Twins-related; we talk about Bert Blyleven), and more. You can find all the episodes of the podcast at This Week In Baseball History. Click here to view the article

Happy 4th of July! To celebrate we brought a show filled with lots of Twins talk, and we dive into some Star Wars news with the fury of a thousand Roman candles. As a special treat, we got #OldFriend (emphasis on old) Barry Campbell, with Hockey Wilderness, back to break down all the Wild news since the NHL Expansion Draft! Find our show on Spreaker, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, and Pocket Casts; search "Twins and Losses Supershow." Part of The 4D Podcast Network. http://www.spreaker.com/show/twins-and-losses-supershow * This podcast was originally posted on Spreaker.com

In a miserable season destined for 100 losses, Twins fans can be sure that their team is a mess. But as the Sept. 18 episode of Gleeman and the Geek points out, most of that mess is as a result of just one side of the ball: pitching and defense. Aaron and John noted that the Twins are actually fairly decent when it comes to hitting, and raised an interesting question. How does the Twins run production stack up against the American League, if we ignore the games the league has played against the Twins? The Twins, despite their dreadful record, are almost exactly league average when it comes to offensive production. Collectively, Minnesota owns an OPS+ of 101, meaning they sport an OPS that is 1% better than average. They rank eighth in OPS (.745), ninth in home runs (186), third in doubles (272), and lead the league in triples (33). Perhaps most importantly, the Twins are tied for seventh in the American League in runs scored. Runs per game of AL teams through 9/19/16 So the Twins offense is decidedly middle-of-the-road. In fact, if their pitching and defense were simply bad, and not horrendous, the Twins would likely be hovering near .500. Instead, the Twins have allowed 827 runs this season, a full 114 more than the next worst team (Oakland). To put that into perspective, the gap between all other AL teams is 113 runs. If run prevention were a marathon, the other 14 teams would be bunched near the finish line, and the Twins would be at mile 15. The Twins pitching and defense is so bad, that it puts into question the team’s offensive rankings. Every other team on that list has had the opportunity to play against the Twins. They’ve all gotten fat by racking up runs against an outlier of a team. It's time to correct for that outlier. Using Baseball Reference’s Head-to-Head feature, it was fairly easy to look up runs scored and games played, then to subtract the totals from games played against the Twins. To further balance the playing field, I decided to also remove interleague games (which I also did for the Twins). Runs per game for AL teams and R/G adjusted to remove Twins games and interleague play. Good through 9/19/16. The Twins move up a slot, and claim sixth place, narrowly edging out the Blue Jays. While the Twins’ score went down slightly (the Twins scored slightly more often against National League teams), most teams saw their score drop by more. Only three teams actually improved their scores, most notably the Rangers, who never got going against the Twins, and who jump into second place offensively. The Red Sox are still in their own realm, but the gap has narrowed. Interesting to note that the three division leaders still retain the top three spots, and the last five teams are still the bottom five, just in a different order. The biggest loser was Toronto, which fell from fourth to seventh, due to a gaudy 50 runs scored against the Twins in just seven games. All-in-all, Twins fans can take solace in the fact that, by this crude measure, the Twins offense is solidly above average. But we can dig deeper. This approach still doesn’t take into account the wildly unbalanced schedule even within the same league. Some teams play each other just six times, while others play 19 times. And the Twins aren’t the only ones with particularly bad (or particularly good) pitching staffs. I decided to do the same exercise, only to average the R/G in each individual match-up to simulate a league in which every team played every other team the same number of games. Because the point of reference was the Twins, and the Twins can’t play themselves, I still decided to exclude the games against the Twins for all other teams. By also ignoring interleague games, the result was a league in which the other 14 teams each had 13 opponents, with their R/G of each match-up worth 1/13th of their over all score. The Twins had 14 opponents, so each match-up counts for 1/14th of their overall score. Remember, the goal here is to compare the Twins’ run production against the rest of the league, both by eliminating games played against the Twins, and by averaging out the the scores from all the teams to reflect their schedules. Let’s see how the Twins stack up: Runs per game, adjusted to remove Twins and inter-league games, and weighted for a balanced schedule. Good through 9/19/16. Top five! The Twins’ score stays the same (just a coincidence), but Seattle drops from fifth to seventh, making room for the Twins in the top five. Also note that the Indians fall down to fourth, with their lowest score yet. I’d be interested to see this same exercise done excluding games against Cleveland. After all, the Indians are the only team in the league that doesn’t have to face the stellar Cleveland pitching staff. Now I know this was a silly exercise, but it underscores three things: The Twins have been reasonably proficient at scoring runs. If offense was all that mattered, it’s conceivable that the Twins are a wildcard team. The Twins are really bad at preventing runs, and most teams have taken advantage of that. Scoring lots of runs isn’t enough, unless you can also find a way to prevent your opponent from doing the same. Because while the Twins are sitting in fifth place in these standings, they’re dead last in the ones that count.

On this week's NO JUICE PODCAST, Dan Anderson and Parker Hageman talk about how the Minnesota Twins are still in playoff contention. They fawn over Miguel Sano's incredible power, Byron Buxton's struggles at the plate, discuss the decision to not bringing up Jose Berrios and more. LISTEN UP.Other topics include: Minnesota Gophers football previewTop 5 Minnesota sporting events you should have been atTop 5 places in the Metro Area not in Minneapolis or St. Paul to have beersCurt Schilling's use of TwitterAnd more...Listen below, on iTunes or on Stitcher: NO JUICE PODCAST, EPISODE #68: THEY'RE STILL IN THIS THING Click here to view the article

On this week's NO JUICE PODCAST, Dan Anderson and Parker Hageman visit CHS Field in St. Paul to talk stadium building with the Saints' assistant GM Scott Bush and they also try to catch home run balls fired out of a pitching machine (video below). Meanwhile, on the other side of the river, the Twins are hanging in contention for a playoff spot. LISTEN UP.Twins topics include the Cotts trade, Glen Perkins' injury and recovery, Phil Hughes' good days and bad days, Wild Card hopes and more. Listen below, on iTunes or on Stitcher: NO JUICE PODCAST, EPISODE #67: THE FALL GUYS Click here to view the article

On this week's No Juice Podcast Dan Anderson and Parker Hageman review the happenings from around the baseball world. Glen Perkins lobbying for jobs. The Minnesota catcher struggle is real. Weird spring training injuries. Overzealous updates from the media. It is all here. Listen up.Other topics include the ruling on Adrian Peterson and Kevin Garnett's return to Minnesota. Oh, and Dan had a baby. Listen below, on iTunes or on Stitcher: NO JUICE PODCAST, EPISODE #45: SPRING TRAINING UPDATES Check out this special No Juice presentation of the current state of Minnesota professional sports mashed up with the latest promo from Mad Men: Click here to view the article

On this week's No Juice Podcast, Dan Anderson and Parker Hageman review, rehash and piece together what happened at the Twins Daily Winter Meltdown. Positive grades all around. But don't take it from us, check out these attendees thoughts below. Other topics include signing Brian Duensing, analytics in the NFL, Johnny Manziel ruining football and Dan being a terrible high school quarterback. Listen below, on iTunes or on Stitcher: NO JUICE PODCAST, EPISODE #40: WINTER MELTDOWN REVIEW Click here to view the article

On this week's No Juice Podcast, without much in the way of baseball activity, Dan Anderson and Parker Hageman remember the career of cult fan favorite Boof Bonser, who reportedly retired this week, and everything he and the AJ Pierzynski trade meant for the Minnesota Twins. Click to listen below.The guys also realize that their show is the opposite of the Bill Swarzki's Superfans. But if they did model their show after the SNL bit, they chose a Minnesota sports power animal equivalent to Hurricane Ditka. Download attachment: Mauer.jpg Other topics include the Gophers bowl game, how to party on New Years and more. Listen below, on iTunes or on Stitcher: NO JUICE PODCAST, EPISODE #37: TORNADO MAUER Click here to view the article

On this week's No Juice Podcast, Dan Anderson and Parker Hageman wrap up their first year by discussing the Phil Hughes extension and the Tim Stauffer addition. Click to listen below.Other topics include #SugarDaddysParkingLotUpdate, holiday festivities, and the best and worst in local sports in 2014. Have a Happy New Year everyone! Listen below, on iTunes or on Stitcher: NO JUICE PODCAST, EPISODE #36: 2014 YEAR IN REVIEW Click here to view the article

On this week's No Juice Podcast, Dan Anderson and Parker Hageman kicked off their first ever holiday episode by discussing the Twins center field situation, Jose Berrios playing in the winter league, and then they had the Airing of the Grievances. Click to listen below.Topics also include worst MLB uniforms ever. Was this one your favorite? Download attachment: B5eCMInCAAAhDlt.jpg Or this? Download attachment: B5LJMP2CAAAD5nE.jpg Then you probably should listen and find out what was the worst uniform ever. Listen below, on iTunes or on Stitcher: NO JUICE PODCAST, EPISODE #35: THE FESTIVUS BASEBALL EPISODE Click here to view the article