Greatest Minnesota Twins: The Twinkie Town Definitive List (Final Musings)
Photo by: Otto Greule Jr/ The slick-fielding SS rounds it all out Rounds 1-20 Results: Harmon Killebrew Kirby Puckett Rod Carew Tony Oliva Joe Mauer Bert Blyleven Kent Hrbek Jim Kaat Johan Santana Torii Hunter Justin Morneau Frank Viola Joe Nathan Brad Radke Gary Gaetti Bob Allison Jim Perry Chuck Knoblauch Rick Aguilera Greg Gagne Shortstop has not exactly been a position of power for the Minnesota Twins organization. Short of a Zoilo Versalles MVP season here and a bushel of Cristian Guzman triples there, the “leader of the infield” has been anything but in...
Duran, Thielbar, DeSclafaini all injured; Buxton sore but OK
This man performed the first Tommy John surgery. If you see him, something is wrong with you. | Photo by Bob Riha, Jr./ The two relievers are expected to be out for a little while, and DeSclafani possibly much longer. Per Steve Adams at MLB Trade Rumors, Jhoan Duran has been diagnosed with a “moderate” oblique strain, and Caleb Thielbar with a strained hamstring. The Twins hope these injuries won’t last much longer than the first few weeks to the first month of the regular season. Anthony DeSclafani, however, hasn’t pitched once in a Spring Training game, and...
Monday Morning Minnesota: The “Are We There Yet?” Edition
Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/ I just need you all to stay health for two more weeks The Past Week on Twinkie Town: While the polling is closed - take a look at all 20 rounds of the Greatest Minnesota Twins list, thanks to Zach Koenig. Brian McCann tells us what’s at stake for Trevor Larnach this season. New year, new rules! Zach Koenig gives us the rundown on the new things fans need to know for the 2024 season. Elsewhere in Twins Territory: Tyler Kepner at The Athletic gives us an inside look at the Twins’ stars and their mindset going into...
Everything you need to know about today’s “Spring Breakout” game
Brooks Lee, being asked if milk is delicious. | Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/ It’ll be the Twins’ top prospects vs. the Rays’, and they always have pretty good ones! Today is the Twins’ “Spring Breakout” game. It’s something new for 2024 that every team will be doing this weekend, where each team plays its top prospects against the other team’s top prospects. Should be fun! Let’s get to the info. What time is the game? About 3:05 Central. The first game will feature Twins’ veterans against Rays’ veterans, and the Spring Breakout game...
Mar 15, 2024
These new 2024 MLB rules are not made to be broken
Photo by Jamie Squire/ Seconds shaved and baserunners saved In 2023, Major League Baseball unveiled the pitch clock and it was, by almost all accounts, an enormous success—curtailing the length of games well below the three hour mark and revitalizing fan interest across the board. For this coming ‘24 campaign, MLB is building upon those seconds-shaving successes as well as adding a bit more space for activities around first base. Here’s a look at exactly how the new additions to the 2024 Official MLB Rule Book shake out... Rule Change #1: Five mound visits (down...
Now or Never for Trevor
Nathan Ray Seebeck- USA Today Sports Former first round pick Trevor Larnach tries to find his way with the Twins As the Twins roll into 2024, they will open the season with a former first-round pick in leftfield, but unfortunately for Trevor Larnach, that man’s name is Matt Wallner. Injuries and inconsistency have largely stunted Larnach’s career, as he appears to be on the outside looking in going into 2024. While the 27-year-old Larnach has flashed the tools that made him the 20th pick of the 2018 MLB Draft, he will need some health and on-field success in order...
Mar 10, 2024
Is baseball becoming a Road Warriors sport?
Home is where the heart is—but not always where the wins are The other day, I read in Sports Illustrated (smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em) that road teams in Major League Baseball are having an easier go of it than almost ever before. In 2023, home team winning percentage was down to .521—the lowest number since 1971. Whereas NFL stadium noise is a tangible factor in team performance, no such direct fan outcome is seen on the diamond. With stadium dimensions becoming more standardized, playing surfaces impeccably manicured, and visiting quarters more posh than podunk, it stands...
Mar 9, 2024
Rival Roundup, Vol. 53: The Grinds of March
Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports Spring has splooted. In that strange milieu of action and inaction, the Central has settled into the spring training routine and mostly quieted down — at the same time, the free agent landscape is still ripe, and Opening Day is only about three weeks away. It’s the calm before the storm around the league, as the novelty of February box scores wears off, and the smell of a pennant chase wafts into the room. As such, this weekend’s updates aren’t so much tentpole headlines, and are more-so needles-in-information-haystacks, such as...
Baseball (and more) links, dinosaurs and aliens edition
Is it the past... or the FUTURE? | Photo by Frank R. Paul/Buyenlarge/ Once more, the Hosken Powell Memorial Link Dump lives on... The Athletic profiled Ryan Jeffers. They like him. And we like him. TwinsDaily profiled Cory Lewis, the Twins system’s own knuckleballer. They like him. And we like knuckleballers. MLB is featuring a promotion called “Spring Breakout,” which sounds like a 1990s MTV series, but it’s not. Each team will have a doubleheader with all-veterans in one game and all-top prospects in the other. This sounds very cool! The Twins one (against...
Bailey Ober Upgraded His Arsenal (Again)
Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/ Last year’s changeup tweaks are another example of Big Bailey raising his ceiling All Bailey Ober has done when he’s pitched as a professional is get people out. A former 12th-round draft choice, Ober pitched in 47 minor-league games. In those, he worked 237 innings with a cumulative 2.47 ERA, an average strikeout rate just shy of 11 per nine innings pitched, and an outstanding 8.23-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. With the Twins in the major leagues the last three seasons, he’s worked 57 times, covered 292.2 innings with a...
Greatest Minnesota Twins: The Twinkie Town Definitive List (Round 19)
Photo by Mitchell Layton/ A chip off the old Blauch Rounds 1-18 Results: Harmon Killebrew Kirby Puckett Rod Carew Tony Oliva Joe Mauer Bert Blyleven Kent Hrbek Jim Kaat Johan Santana Torii Hunter Justin Morneau Frank Viola Joe Nathan Brad Radke Gary Gaetti Bob Allison Jim Perry Chuck Knoblauch In terms of overall talent, Chuck Knoblauch is likely a top-ten player in Minnesota Twins history. From 1991 (a championship debut!) to 1997, he hit for average (.304), pop (.807 OPS), and was elite on the bases (276 stolen bases). Knobby was without a doubt the greatest Twins...
An Important Spring Training PSA
Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/ Bookmark this one and read it again next year. Baseball, in general, tends to be a sport about process over results. Due to the sheer length of the season and quantity of games, things will almost always balance out in the long run. If you take good at-bats and hit the ball hard, you’ll end up with a lot of hits. You’ll go through stretches where those hard-hit balls are landing in more gloves, but keep doing the right things and the right results will eventually follow. Which leads me to the thesis of this blog post:...
Mar 2, 2024
Rival Roundup, Vol. 52: Creepin’ Closer
Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports There’s still plenty of free-agency activity to come, but the first week of spring is settling in. The Detroit Tigers will deploy Tarik Skubal to start their season, as we enter the era of official Opening Day starter statements from teams who don’t employ Pablo Lopez. Tarik Skubal is the Opening Day starter, A.J. Hinch announces. #Tigers— Evan Petzold (@EvanPetzold) March 1, 2024 Among the deluge of other off-season organizational changes, the Chicago White Sox are employing a dietician for the first time, at the direction of...
Two trades that defined 2004
Photo by BRUCE BISPING/Star Tribune via Terry Ryan dives deep into his bag of tricks With back-to-back AL Central banners hoisted, it would have been easy for Minnesota Twins GM Terry Ryan to rest on laurels in 2004. In two calendar years, he brought the team back from the brink of contraction and turned it from laughingstock to legitimate contender. But with a generational talent ready to hit The Show and a few broader boxes to be checked, Ryan pulled off two of the greatest—at very least most substantial—trades in franchise history in hopes of a three-peat. ...
Feb 29, 2024
The 2012 documentary you may have missed: Knuckleball!
Maybe you can throw harder than they did... but it won’t work for you. | Photo by Michael Stewart/WireImage 99% spoiler-free. (Hint: throwing a knuckler successfully is a really, really difficult thing to do.) On August 17, 2008, Mariners afterthought pitcher R.A. Dickey entered the game with Seattle down 6-0 in the fourth inning. He wasn’t good, allowing three hits and three walks in 1.1 IP, and tying the major-league-record of four wild pitches in an inning. (A record held by the legend Walter Johnson and by Dickey’s childhood favorite, Phil Niekro). Dickey was...