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In what is hopefully the final Lockout Lookup, we discuss just one of the many 2014 Twins outfielders. This is the story of Sam Fuld. Subject: Sam Fuld Why You Remember Him: The 2014 Minnesota Twins outfield. You remember it, don’t you? The banged-up Josh Willingham. The inconsistent Oswaldo Arcia. The more inconsistent Danny Santana. The raw Aaron Hicks. The soon-to-retire Jason Kubel. The *squints at Baseball Reference, because I do not remember this guy playing in one game, much less 41* real person Jordan Schafer. And the subject of this profile, Sam Fuld. Fuld was snagged off waivers from Oakland in April 2014 after previous Lockout Lookup subject Darin Mastroianni struggled out of the gate and was DFA’ed. His remarkably thorough* Wikipedia page notes that he led the Twins in on-base percentage in his 53 games with the dreadful 2014 squad and you know what, I believe it. *Fuld’s Wikipedia page is long enough to qualify as a canonical addition to Tolkein’s Rings saga. Although hobbits and orcs aren’t mentioned, they’re implied. Fuld would get traded back to Oakland at the deadline for Tommy Milone, who will be throwing 86 mph fastballs in three starts for the Diamondbacks before being sent to Triple A for the rest of our natural lives. The Stanford product’s most notable seasons came with the Rays, who acquired him from the Cubs in the Matt Garza trade. Is Sam Fuld the most 2011 Tampa Bay Devil Ray? Discuss amongst yourselves. (John Jaso is the strongest contender.) What You Don’t Remember: He was the leadoff hitter for Team Israel in the 2017 World Baseball Classic. What You Might Remember: His frequent Buxton-esque wall collisions in Tampa led to a #LegendOfSamFuld hashtag on the bird site. What’s He Up To: Fuld is the general manager for your Philadelphia Phillies. Which means that one of his special assistants last year was…Terry Ryan, the man who claimed him off waivers in 2014. View full article

On Wednesday, Phil Hughes made his final start of the season for the Twins. It capped a memorable first year in Minnesota for the former Yankees pitcher. He signed with the club as the lesser of two big off-season upgrades to the rotation but he turned out to be the staff ace. One of the most amazing parts of this season for Hughes has been his ability to virtually eliminate walks while still being a very effective pitcher.For the entire season, Hughes had 16 walks charged to him over the course of close to 210 innings. If he doesn't pitch again this season, he will have set the record for best strikeout to walk rate in the history of the game. There were only two games this season where Hughes allowed multiple walks, one in April and one in June. In the month of April, he had six walks over five starts. Other than that, he went through long stretches of the season with almost no walks on his record. The Worst Walk Game of the Year April 9th| 1st Inning: Sam Fuld (4 pitches), Jed Lowrie (6 pitches) 2nd Inning: Eric Sogard (5 pitches) Hughes must have been a little excited for his first start at Target Field. He started off the first inning with back-to-back walks including a four-pitch walk to lead-off hitter Sam Fuld. Both runners came around to score and Hughes found himself in a 4-0 hole. The second inning didn't start off much better as Hughes walked Eric Sogard on five pitches. However, he was stranded at second base. The Walk King June 1st| 2nd Inning| Brian McCann (7 pitches) 4th Inning: Brian McCann (4 pitches) McCann was the lone batter to draw more than one walk from Hughes this year and he did it in Hughes' return to the Bronx. McCann's first walk led off the second inning but he was erased on a double play to end the frame. It ended a streak of 178 batters without issuing a walk. The fourth inning walk was a little more costly as McCann walked with two runners already on base. A sacrifice fly two batters later cost Hughes his second earned run of the day but that was all he allowed and the Twins went on to win the game. Walks Will Haunt June 22nd| 3rd Inning| Tyler Flowers (7 pitches) This might have been the most costly walk for Hughes this season. His walk to Flowers loaded the bases after he allowed two singles to start the frame. The floodgates opened from that point and he surrendered five runs on six hits. The Twins had been up 3-0 at the beginning of the inning but the club came back to score three in the fourth. Hughes picked up his eighth win even with the bad inning. April Showers April 3rd| 1st Inning | Adam Eaton (7 pitches) April 15th| 4th Inning| Adam Lind (5 pitches) April 20th| 2nd Inning| Alcides Escobar (7 pitches) The first batter Hughes faced while in a Twins uniform, Adam Eaton, was able to earn the first walk of the year from the right-handed pitcher. In a game that would see a lot of scoring, he was left on base. Later in the month, Adam Lind drew a walk with first base open after a Jose Bautista double started the inning. Neither man would score. Alcides Escobar's walk came with two outs in the inning and runners on second and third. Hughes got a flyball from the next batter and escaped the frame. One Intentional Pass June 28th| 8th Inning| Adrian Beltre (4 pitches) In the middle of a tight pitcher's duel with Yu Darvish, Hughes had to try to escape the eighth inning. With Texas already up 2-0, the walk loaded the bases. Three runs scored off the bats of the next two batters as Hughes suffered his fourth loss of the season. July Losses July 3rd| 7th Inning| Ichiro Suzuki (6 pitches) July 19th| 7th Inning| Logan Forsythe (5 pitches) July 30th| 3rd Inning| Omar Infante (6 pitches) July saw Hughes lose more games than any other month. Ichiro's seventh inning walk against Hughes set up a rough inning for the starter. The Yankees held a slim one-run lead but two consecutive hits following the walk pushed Hughes from the game. Late in a game with the Rays, a walk to Logan Forsythe resulted in a loss for Hughes. Forsythe led off the inning with a walk and the Rays added a couple runs to their 3-0 lead. Omar Infante's walk didn't cost Hughes any runs but he still ended up losing the game to end his worst month of the year. Season Winding Down August 5th| 3rd Inning| Everth Cabrera (6 pitches) August 10th| 4th Inning| Josh Reddick (6 pitches) September 13th| 2nd Inning| John Danks (6 pitches) Over the season's last couple months, the walks were few and far between. Everth Cabrera worked a one-out walk in the early innings but he never left first base. One start later Josh Reddick coaxed a two-out walk but he too would be left at first. It would be over a month before the next walk from Hughes. Jordan Danks earned the free pass but Hughes would still strike out the side in the frame. Hughes outperformed many of the expectations for him this year. Leave a COMMENT and discuss what you will remember most about his season. For more from Cody Christie make sure to follow him on Twitter @NoDakTwinsFan and to read his other work athttp://www.NoDakTwinsFan.com Click here to view the article

(Originally posted on www.twinsandlosses.com) The Twins know when to Fuld them. They know when to walk away, know when to run. The Twins made moves after they convinced themselves that they were much better off than they actually were. Colabello was red hot to start the season. Gibson was putting up impressive stats for his first month. And Joe Mauer was non-existent. Well Bello cooled off, Gibson isn't the fireballer we thought, and Mauer is still M.I.A. That's not to say the Twins don't have some good pieces in the mix. Perkins has become a fine closer, with a few bouts where he does his best Eddie Guardado impression. Brian Dozier was almost an All Star. An average June, that's continued into July hasn't done much to prove the doubters wrong. Dozier is still one of the better players on the 25 man roster, and it's not even close. Aaron Hicks and Josmil Pinto have been sent to the minors, and haven't been seen or heard from since June. Sam Fuld closed the door on the Aaron Hicks experiment for the time being, and Kurt Suzuki's red hot season has allowed the Twins to let Pinto develop at AAA. Pinto has battled injuries, and his stats have been anything but impressive. Eric Fryer is hardly a threat in the line-up, but Gardy and Co. are more content to roll with Zuke and Fry Guy for this season. Speaking of Gardy, he might be fired this season. His entire staff might go too. And hopefully Terry Ryan is out the door shortly after they've been escorted from the premises. If there's a failure at the major, minor, and managerial levels (4 seasons of 90+ losses would be one example), then the general manager is equally to blame. Bill Smith got his grubby little fingers into the cookie jar and left crumbs for TR during his short tenure as GM. Ryan has done a good job stocking the minors, but some of his major league moves have been questionable at best. I think the fan base is pointing a lot of blame at the manager and pitching coach, and not enough at the GM. One downfall of writing an article all day is that things happen. Things like Sam Fuld being traded to the Oakland Athletics (who also landed Lester and Gomes for Cespedes) for Tommy Milone. Milone was pretty much bumped from the A's rotation with the addition of Jason Hammel, and Jeff Shamallamadingdong (Samardzija). A lefty with a career 3.84 ERA (automatically the lowest on the Twins starting staff FYI), Milone has been sent to AAA. Maybe for a test and tune, but it'd be a shame to keep Milone in the minors for the remainder of the season. It's not like the Twins have done that with any other minor league pitcher this seas... Kendrys Morales, another low cost waiver signing, turned into Stephen Pryor. Between Scott Boras, and personal greed, Morales ended up back in Seattle, playing for a lot less money, on a team that ended up having a good shot at the post-season. Pryor owns a career 2.81 ERA in 34 games pitched. He's been out since 2013, dealing with multiple surgeries. He's the kind of player the Twins can develop into a middle/long reliever, and possibly a set up man. His velocity is down from the high 90's to the low 90's. Hopefully that will come up a few MPH after he's healthy. The Twins also signed undrafted rookie Brandon Poulson earlier this week. The kid's touched 99 and 100 on the radar. He's improved his control since just last fall. Did I mention he ran a 6.60 60 yard dash in his socks? Oh, he's also 6'4". He's been sent to Elizabethton to play rookie ball, and get acclimated with the pros but should see time in Fort Myers in the not-too-distant future. Poulson's legend may grow to Paul Bunyan-esque levels if he continues to improve and impress with each stop on his way to the majors. Kennys Vargas is set to make his major league roster debut, days after Terry Ryan said he'd probably have to make a stop at AAA - Rochester before getting called up. Vargas is a great prospect possessing both power and speed. He'll hopefully be one of the many rookies who help turn this franchise around sooner rather than later. I hope he doesn't struggle like Aaron Hicks did when he jumped from AA - New Britain to the majors. Time will tell, and I personally think Vargas is a better ball player than Hicks could ever hope to be. The tradeline looms like a dark cloud over Twins Territory. Maybe the Twins will get lucky and someone will take Ricky Nolasco off our hands for free. Maybe we could even package JJ Barea in and free up some cap space for the Wolves too. Hell, why not try to find an All Star goalie for the Wild. I'm sure the LA Kings would take Mike Pelfrey for Johnathan Quick. amitire??

Aaron and John talk about swapping Sam Fuld for Tommy Milone, extending Kurt Suzuki, calling up Kennys Vargas, being a curmudgeon, looking for Alex Meyer and Trevor May, learning new things that sound dirty, overvaluing prospects, claiming Jordan Schafer off waivers, checking in on Aaron Hicks, Oswaldo Arcia struggling versus lefties, and moving into the penthouse. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click on the "play" button below. Click here to view the article

In a wild MLB Trade Deadline Day that saw David Price to Detroit, Jon Lester and Jonny Gomes to Oakland for Yoenis Cespedes, John Lackey to St. Louis for Joe Kelly, and even Stephen Drew from Boston to the Yankees, Terry Ryan and the Minnesota Twins' front office can hold their heads relatively high. They locked up All-Star catcher Kurt Suzuki for two more years at $12 million with a slick vesting option for a third year based on plate appearances, as Mike Berardino tweets. The Twins played it smart and basically have full control of that vesting year. However, with Kennys Vargas being called up to fill the designated hitter spot in light of Kendrys Morales being traded back to Seattle and the "triumphant" return of Joe Mauer to first base and not catcher, it doesn't look good for Josmil Pinto, who now has plenty of time to progress defensively in Rochester. It certainly wouldn't be a surprise if Suzuki gets 485 plate appearances in 2016, but it would mean Pinto still can't catch and Mauer still won't catch. With his improved approach at the plate that Parker Hageman recognized in video reconnaissance, maybe three years of Kurt Suzuki won't be so bad. Let's just hope Pinto learns to frame pitches at least as well as Suzuki in a hurry so Ryan can move Suzuki sooner rather than later. He did make another slick move in giving waiver claim Sam Fuld back to Oakland for starting pitcher Tommy Milone. I like Milone, whose given name is Tomaso Anthony Milone. Milone has put up impressive numbers in nearly 500 MLB innings pitched, but his strikeout numbers have steadily fallen. If he gives up even fewer homers and walks, which would be expected given Target Field and Rick Anderson, Milone will be an effective starter until 2018 when he becomes a free agent. And he will be better and cheaper in the role Kevin Correia has been failing to fill. Correia will be waived, and I wouldn't be shocked if he ends up the fifth starter or long reliever of a National League Wild Card contender...say, the Pirates. Any return on Correia is good return. Hell, maybe if we throw in a reliever they'll give Vance Worley back. Of course, we must also consider Ryan's move to send Morales back to Seattle, which brought relief pitcher Stephen Pryor in what looks to me like a salary dump of sorts. Pryor's only 22, but I don't see Ryan's interest except that Pryor's biggest problem is walks, and if there's anything the Twins organization preaches it's, "Don't give free passes." I didn't understand the move with so many young pitchers to throw out there as relievers: Thielbar, Fien, Pressly, Tonkin, even AJ Achter; and I still don't understand it after none of our relievers were traded: Burton, Duensing, Deduno, or even Perkins (although that would have been heartbreaking). So the Sam Fuld trade was outstanding, the Kenndrys Morales trade was pretty terrible, and perhaps the best move Terry Ryan made was to extend Kurt Suzuki at reasonable dollars and years. The Twins will most certainly be active at the waiver deadline, with Correia, Willingham, Burton, and maybe even Deduno to be considered. It's the most wonderful time of the year. For original story visit http://gogonzojournal.com/sports

The Twins had a busy day, but not as busy as some fans had hoped. They moved Sam Fuld back to Oakland in return for the soft-tossing lefty Tommy Milone. Milone will report to AAA for now, but should be up with the Twins before the end of next week. The Twins tried hard to find a buyer for Kurt Suzuki, but finding no suitors, the Twins bought high on Suzuki themselves, signing him to a two-year $12 million dollar extension, with a vesting option for a third year. To replace Sam Fuld on the 25-man roster, the Twins have promoted monstrous switch hitter Kennys Vargas from Double-A. Red Wings Report Rochester 2, Lehigh Valley 5 Box Sean Gilmartin did not have his best stuff, surrendering five runs on five hits over six innings. He walked three and struck out four. His ERA in AAA is still just 3.98. Deolis Guerra pitched the final two innings and gave up one hit, walked one, and struck out one. The Red Wings had plenty of base runners, the collected nine hits and a walk, but could not string things together to score more than a pair of runs. Six of the Wings' nine hits came from Pedro Florimon, Eric Farris, and Chris Rahl, each of them was 2-4, hitting in the seven-eight-nine spots. Josmil Pinto, who probably wasn't having a great evening after hearing about the Suzuki extension, was 1-4, but hey, no strike outs! Rock Cats Review Erie 4, New Britain 5 Box Tyler Duffey pitched eight innings, but didn't have the lead while he was on the mound, as the Rock Cats rallied for three runs in the bottom of the eighth to give Duffey the win. Duffey gave up seven hits, four earned runs, a walk and two strike outs. Alex Wimmers, recently promoted to AA, picked up his first save with he Rock Cats, pitching a scoreless ninth inning. Aaron Hicks had a big day at the plate for New Britain, he was 3-4 with two runs scored, a double, a home run, and an RBI. Hicks is now hitting .301/.392/.439 over 40 games in New Britain. Stephen Wickens was 2-4 with a double and an RBI, and Mike Kvasnicka was 1-4 with a three run homer that gave the Rock Cats the win in the eighth. Miracle Matters Clearwater 9, Fort Myers 3 Box Matt Tomshaw was bad on Thursday night. He faced 20 batters in three innings. He gave up 11 hits, nine runs (all earned), walked one, and struck out four. Two of the 11 hits he gave up were home runs. The bullpen pieced together six scoreless innings, but the damage was already done. Brandon Peterson pitched 2.2 and struck out three and walked one, Todd Van Steensel went 2.1 and also struck out three, he walked two. And D.J. Johnson ended things pitching in the ninth, he struck out one and walked one. Nothing much doing for the Miracle with the bats, they collected just six hits, but worked their way into five walks. They also struck out 11 times. No Miracle batter had more than one hit. Levi Michael, who is back on the field after dealing with a foot injury, was 1-3 with a walk, a run scored, and a strike out. Byron Buxton was 1-3 with two runs scored, a triple and a walk. Kernels Nuggets Burlington 1, Cedar Rapids 4 Box Chih-Wei Hu picked up his fourth win for the Kernels and is now 4-0 with a 1.50 ERA at Low-A. He went six innings, gave up just one run, struck out four and walked one. Brandon Bixler pitched the seventh and the eighth without allowing any runs, and Jared Wilson pitched a scoreless ninth. Max Murphy was 2-3 with a home run and two RBIs, and Mitch Garver had a home run of his own, a two run dinger on a 1-3 night. Logan Wade had two hits of his own, and a run scored, going 2-4 on the evening. E-Town E-Notes Elizabethton @ Kingsport - Postponed (rain) GCL Twins Takes GCL Twins 4, GCL Rays 5 Box Onesimo Hernandez went five innings, walked five, struck out three, and gave up two earned runs on four hits, including a home run. Seth Wagner earned a hold with 1.2 scoreless innings, even though he walked three batters. Trevor Hildenberger was tagged with a blown save and the loss (0-3) with two innings of three run ball that included four strike outs and no walks. The GCL Twins used 12 position players, and collected twelve hits and two walks. Corey Wimberly was 2-4 with a run scored and a double, Nelson Molina was also 2-4 with a run scored and Jack Barrie was 2-4, without a run scored. Jarrard Poteete had a double on a 1-4 night, and Manul Guzman had a triple, accounting for the Twins' remaining extra base hit. Twins Daily Minor League Hitter/Pitcher of the Day Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day - Aaron Hicks, New Britain Rock Cats Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day - Matt Tomshaw, Fort Myers Miracle Friday's Probables Rochester @ Lehigh Valley (6:05 CST) – Kris Johnson Erie @ New Britain (6:05 CST) – Virgil Vasquez Ft. Myers @ Lakeland (6:11 CST) – Ethan Mildren Cedar Rapids @ Beloit (7:00 CST) – TBD Elizabethton @ Kingsport (4:00 CST), Double header – TBD DSL Twins @ DSL White Sox (10:30AM CST) - TBD GCL Twins @ GCL Red Sox (11:00AM CST) – TBD