Category Archives: minnesota twins

2015 MLB Team Preview: Minnesota Twins

Minnesota Twins 2015 MLB team preview funny shirtles weird baseball cardThe Minnesota Twins have one of the best farm systems in baseball. It took a blow with Miguel Sano needing Tommy John surgery last season, but he’s already impressing everyone at Spring Training.

The Twins are only expected to win around 70 games this season, but if a few of their young players catch fire, they could make some noise.

The AL Central is top-heavy with Detroit looking like a lock to win the division. Chicago and Kansas City made a lot of moves this offseason and Cleveland brings back their entire core group of players. Can Minnesota squeeze their way into that group in the standings?

Here is the 2015 MLB season preview for the Minnesota Twins.

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Baseball America’s 2015 Top 100 Prospects

Chicago Cubs Kris Bryant Baseball America top 100 MLB Prospects fantasy baseballBaseball America just released their yearly list of Major League Baseball’s top 100 prospects.

I’m a huge baseball fan and I love reading about prospects. I look forward to Baseball America’s list. I always buy Baseball America’s Prospect Handbook as well as the annual book by Baseball Prospectus.

If you play fantasy baseball, reading about baseball’s next generation is essential in both yearly draft leagues and keeper leagues.

Many of the top prospects will see time in the Majors at some point this season. General managers have fallen in love with draft picks since they implemented a luxury tax and revenue sharing.

He is Baseball America’s 2015 list of Top 100 Prospects.

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2014 MLB Team Preview: Minnesota Twins

The Minnesota Twins have one of the best farm systems in baseball. It took a blow with Miguel Sano needing Tommy John surgery, but Byron Buxton and Alex Meyer should see some time in the Majors this season. Their future is very bright.

The Twins are only expected to win 70 games this season, but I’m more optimistic than that. The AL Central is down as a whole and could squeak out some victories against the bottom half of the division.

The Twins spent some money this offseason by signing Ricky Nolasco and Phil Hughes. Should they have spent significant money on those pitchers when they are at least two seasons away from contending?

Here is the 2014 MLB season preview for the Minnesota Twins.

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2013 MLB Team Preview: Minnesota Twins

Joe+Mauer+Hairy+Back+Minnesota+Twins+MLBThe Minnesota Twins are in pretty bad shape…in the short-term. Joe Mauer and Trevor Plouffe had great years last season,

Denard Span and Ben Revere are no longer on the team and their outfield replacements don’t replace their speed and the defensive outputs. Aaron Hicks could proven me wrong, but the jump from Double-A to the Majors is a lot to ask of him this season.

Here is the 2013 MLB season preview for the Minnesota Twins. Continue reading

George ‘The Animal’ Steele Throws Out First Pitch, Eats Ball

George ‘The Animal’ Steele is a former professional wrestler whose career lasted from 1967-1989. He is best known as the wrestler with a blue tongue who ate the stuffing out of the turnbuckle.

Steele was in Rochester, New York for the Collectorfest monthly card show. He had the opportunity to throw out the first pitch at a Rochester Red Wings game. The Triple-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins didn’t realize that he would make an epic first pitch.

Steele was handed the ball and he proceeded to eat away at the cover and started eating the inside of the baseball. After he was done eating, he threw the remaining piece as the game’s ceremonial first pitch.

I’m done describing it, you have to check it out for yourself. The video is after the jump… Continue reading

Bert Blyleven Deserves To Be Hall Of Famer

Blyleven deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, if not only because of that awesome shirt, but he was a very good pitcher. Let’s face it, baseball’s Hall of Fame has turned into “the hall of very good,” and Blyleven deserves in. He fell 5 votes shy today for being an inductee, but he is a sure money bet of making it next year. Andre Dawson is the lone candidate and the entire ceremony will be dedicated to the former great of the Montreal Expos and Chicago Cubs. In the following article, I try to make my case for Bert Blyleven to be inducted in baseball’s Hall of Fame.

Blyleven played during a time, when multi-channel ESPNs and regional Fox Sports Net channels did not exist and MLB Extra Innings packages on DirecTV wasn’t even invented, you may not have caught Bert Blyleven’s best work. Unless you caught the highlights on Sportscenter where Chris Berman used a nickname of Burt “Be Home” Blyleven, you would just think that he was an average pitcher. His career ERA was 3.90, but his early career was his peak, but he kept a roster spot on small-market teams. His record was 287-250, just 37 games over .500, but from 1982 until the end of his career in ’92, his ERA was over 4.00. If a pitcher wins nearly 300 games, it nearly negates this feat once a pitcher reaches his 250th loss, like Blyleven.

An argument that Blyleven has for his induction is that his numbers are measurable to Nolan Ryan’s. Blyleven does not have Ryan’s no-hitters or his dominance of one-hit games either. Blyleven’s win-loss record has a lot to do with Blyleven’s teams not scoring many runs, thus having him lose many one-run games. He pitched in a different era than what today’s pitchers will be held up to. Middle-relief pitching was approached as need-based, rather than a necessity, Blyleven pitched in almost 300 career complete games.

Let’s crunch some numbers, in his 22-year career, Blyleven pitched a complete game in over 40% of the games in which he has started. He has never ranked higher than third in the Cy Young voting and has only played in two All-Star games in his 22-year career.

Bert Blyleven will be immortalized into the Hall of Fame. Sometimes players start racking up statistics just cause longevity and not exactly superb play. Blyleven’s 3701 strikeouts are amazing, but his K/9 statistic of 7.4 per 9 innings isn’t super spectacular, but nothing about Blyleven really is. It’s a solid number and Blyleven was a solid pitcher and long-term performance needs to be rewarded with an induction in Cooperstown.

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Brewers Trade J.J. Hardy To Twins

The Alcides Escobar era has officially begun. The Brewers clear the way for their young phenom by trading J.J. Hardy to the Minnesota Twins for speedy center-fielder Carlos Gomez. Does this trade mean that Mike Cameron’s option won’t be picked up by the Brewers?

J.J. Hardy had to be traded to make room for Alcides Escobar, but was Carlos Gomez enough in return? Hardy has some power in his bat, he has hit a total of 75 homers in just over 500 career games. His average hit a career low last season, he was hovering around the Mendoza line all year, but Gomez doesn’t give you much of anything offensively. He is only a career .246 hitter and 12 career home-runs in over 1000 at-bats. Gomez is a nice defensive center-fielder, but with the pitching problems that the Brewers have had, maybe a player with more offensive abilities would be a better match in center-field. Mike Cameron has a $10-million dollar option that they can pick up, I think that they should still pick that up to give Gomez another year of maturing before giving him the job permanently.

I have owned both J.J. Hardy and Carlos Gomez in fantasy baseball leagues over the last two seasons. Hardy is a much better player, but he had a bad year last season. Gomez hasn’t showed that he has the ability to hit for average in the Majors. He has speed, but if he can’t get on base, it doesn’t help the team much.

Who won in this trade? An instant judgment would be that the Twins were the winners in this deal. They can let Orlando Cabrera walk and Nick Punto will be a nice platoon player for them. With all the hitters on the Twins, Hardy will be protected and he should have a very nice season for Minnesota.

Carlos Gomez has the tools to be a lead-off hitter, but with his low batting average and his horrible strikeout-to-walk ratio, he is more likely to be projected as a #9 hitter or pinch-runner.

Time will tell who is the winner, but the Twins have a way to get the most out of their players. J.J. Hardy landed in the perfect place, but I’m not sure if Carlos Gomez can do much to help out the Brewers.

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The Tigers’ Season Rests On A 20-Year Old

The Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins are going to play in a one-game playoff to see who wins the AL Central on Tuesday. The Twins are going to send out Scott Baker (15-9) who could be considered their ace and the Tigers are sending out 20-year old, Rick Porcello (14-9). The Twins are smart to send out Baker, but the Tigers are stuck in a tough situation with Porcello coming in next in their rotation. They have no other options but to start him, do the Tigers have a chance?

Rick Porcello started out the season very nicely for a 20-year old. He was a darkhorse to even make the team coming into spring training, but he pitched himself into the rotation. The Tigers have rested him quite a bit in the 2nd-half and he has already pitched more innings than he did in the minors last season. He has pitched against the Twins three times this season and has an ERA around three against the Twins. This is the biggest game that he has pitched in his career, but with Jarod Washburn going down with a knee injury, the Tigers have to use the young man in this position. He could be their best option, since Edwin Jackson has been inconsistent and Nate Robertson has had a horrible season.

Scott Baker started the season on the disabled-list and had a bad April/May this season. His best month game in August, when he had a 3.18 ERA, but he had an average September. Baker has been groomed to be the Twins ace, since he has dominated at every level that he has pitched. It was only a matter of time before he would start pitching up to his ability in the Majors. He has set personal records this season in games started (32), strikeouts(160), and wins(15). Baker has had trouble against Detroit this season, he has pitched in four games against the Tigers, pitching 20 innings and giving up 15 runs. He did do well last week against the Tigers by pitching five innings and giving up no earned runs.

The games will be played in Minnesota on Tuesday and I give the Twins an edge in this contest. They have been playing for their lives the last two months and the Tigers have been sliding during that time. The Jarod Washburn trade was supposed to send them to the next level, but it has had the opposite effect on the team. The way Edwin Jackson has been pitching lately, they would probably like a mulligan on that trade too and get Matt Joyce back in return. The Twins have been swinging the bat very well and it’s nice to see Delmon Young playing up to his potential.

The winner of this game goes on to play the New York Yankees in the ALDS and if the Twins win, Carl Pavano will be a scheduled starter against his old club. Can you imagine the backlash that would happen if he would win the clinching game? I’m just saying….

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