Minnesota Twins

Star Tribune reporter LaVelle E. Neal reports from TwinsFest that the club is fired up for the new season.

Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire says he's optimistic that a new deal will get done with American League MVP Joe Mauer. Mauer and the Twins ...

By Associated Press Minnesota Twins backup catcher Jose Morales will be out until mid-March following surgery on his injured right wrist. Starting second baseman Nick Punto won't need as much time for his recovery.

By By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Minnesota Twins backup catcher Jose Morales will be out until mid-March following surgery on his injured right wrist. Starting second baseman Nick Punto won't need as much time for his recovery.

By Aaron(noreply@blogger.com) Twins Notes: Liriano, Neshek, Winfree, and McLemoreEarlier this month Ron Gardenhire passed along a report he received from the Dominican Republic saying that Francisco Liriano was "throwing the living fire out of the ball" with his fastball around 92-94 miles per hour and a "filthy"...

By Nick N.(noreply@blogger.com) So, might Crain or another reliever be moved? Will the Twins seek to trade Casilla or Tolbert so one of them isn't lost for nothing this spring? And what about Perkins? Is the team still looking to deal him, as they reported were earlier this offseason?

By ESPN.com news services Jim Thome agree to a one-year deal with the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday.

By Aaron(noreply@blogger.com) Bill Smith, Ron Gardenhire, and company really like the notion of having Thome available off the bench as pinch-hitter in the late innings. And they ought to, because the guy topped an .840 OPS last year for the 16th time in 17 seasons. Of course, as long as they're shifting players into unnece...

By Aaron(noreply@blogger.com) He'd certainly beef up the bench and provide Ron Gardenhire with an interesting late-inning option, but then again so would Joe Mauer if for some odd reason the Twins ceased starting him. In other words, Thome hits right-handed pitching too well not to start against them, particularly wh...

By Aaron(noreply@blogger.com) Because this is Harris' first season of arbitration eligibility I'm unclear why the Twins would bother with a two-year deal. He was already under team control through 2012 anyway, so like Crain now that his three-year contract has expired Harris will still be arbitration eligible when t...

The team signed all of its arbitration-eligible players and now can focus on the Joe Mauer negotiations.

By Aaron(noreply@blogger.com) Twins Bullpen Nearly Set After Condrey SigningThey haven't done much so far this offseason, but last week the Twins made a pair of corresponding bullpen moves by releasing Bobby Keppel and signing Clay Condrey to a one-year contract. Condrey made $650,000 in 2009 and was arbitration eli...

By Tim Kurkjian Free-agent pitcher Jarrod Washburn has turned down a one-year contract worth $5 million from the Minnesota Twins, two sources confirmed Monday.

By Aaron(noreply@blogger.com) After committing an AL-worst 26 errors in 1986, Gagne had a team record 47-game errorless streak in 1987. He also hit .265/.310/.430 with 10 homers in 137 games as the Twins defeated the Tigers in the ALCS and beat the Cardinals in the World Series. Gagne hit just .229 in 12 postseason games, but ha...

By Nick N.(noreply@blogger.com) Right now it seems most likely that the Twins will enter spring training with an open competition for that fifth spot. Liriano and Duensing are shaping up as the main contenders, but if Perkins is still around he'd certainly be in the mix and if the Twins decide they don't care about having a s...

The Twins had high hopes heading into the 2009 season, the club's final year at the Metrodome. Minnesota was preparing to say ... Gophers, Vikings, and Twins News: Jay Med's Twin Cities Sports 12/27/09Bleacher Report St. Cloud Times -West Central Tribune

The Minnesota Twins may have the best player in the major leagues on their team in 26-year-old catcher Joe Mauer.

By Aaron(noreply@blogger.com) I'll marry and dump Official Fantasy Girl of AG.com Keeley Hazell before the Twins out-bid 29 teams for a 21-year-old Cuban defector who throws in the mid-90s, but at least it gives Joe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star Tribune something to write about.

Metrodome Bathroom Swallows Another Victim blog) The Metrodome will not let the Twins escape easily, even if it has to trap former Rookies of the Year inside its porcelain bowels for all eternity. ...

By Aaron(noreply@blogger.com) Twins Notes: DeRosa, Kouzmanoff, Bonser, and HawkinsLaVelle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that the Twins haven't been in contact with Orlando Hudson's agent, which rules out one of my favorite potential targets, and they've also not really been linked to Felipe Lo...

You can't throw a rock in St. Paul or Minneapolis without hitting somebody who claims to have some connection to the Mauer family, whether it's true or not. ... and more »

I applaud the Twins for having a garage so the fans have a chance to purchase a little bit of Metrodome memories, but the problem is that certain people ... Metrodome Memories Are A Little PatheticDeadspin (blog) all 31 news articles »

By Nick N.(noreply@blogger.com) The Twins are getting a solid defensive shortstop in Hardy, but his potential contribution as an offensive player is unknown at best. After having two above average seasons in 2007 and 2008, including an All Star appearance in 2007, Hardy's stat line at the plate declined dramatically in...

By Aaron(noreply@blogger.com) In other words the money paid to Sano may be massive in the context of prospect signing bonuses, but $3.15 million is still less than Nick Punto made this season (and will make next year). If one of Sano, Gibson, Kepler, or Polanco turns into a starting-caliber MLB player the $12 million inves...

By Aaron(noreply@blogger.com) Twins Add Rauch, Mahay To BullpenIt took 15 months in the wake of Pat Neshek's elbow injury last May, but the Twins finally addressed the bullpen by adding a veteran setup man over the weekend. In fact, they added two within the same hour Friday afternoon. Left-hander Ron Mahay, who'd been de...

By Aaron(noreply@blogger.com) Chris Jaffe of The Hardball Times found that every team but the Rays, Reds, and Brewers have had at least one player produce a 200-hit season since the Twins last got one from Paul Molitor in 1996. In fact, Mauer and Morneau are the only Twins to have even 180 hits since then. Interestingly, the...

By Aaron(noreply@blogger.com) Bringing in Cabrera at shortstop and moving Punto to second base while using Harris primarily at third base and sending Alexi Casilla back to Rochester would probably make the Twins slightly better and would definitely make Gardenhire think that the Twins were significantly better. Ho...

By Aaron(noreply@blogger.com) Grudzielanek hit .299/.345/.399 in 86 games with the Royals last year, giving him a .300/.339/.412 line in 336 games since signing with Kansas City in 2006. For comparison, during that same stretch Nick Punto has batted .252/.326/.324 and Brendan Harris is at .275/.331/.408 while Alexi Casilla and M...

By Aaron(noreply@blogger.com) Gibson has been on the path to a top-10 pick for several years now, but a potentially short-term injury dropped him into the Twins' laps and they uncharacteristically decided to roll the dice. Time may show that the other teams were smart to pass on Gibson because of his uncertain health sta...

By Aaron(noreply@blogger.com) However, he showed improved control in the minors after returning from the broken elbow and faced 34 major-league hitters without handing out a single free pass with the Twins. As a fly-ball pitcher he'll always be susceptible to the long ball, but a low-90s fastball and high-70s slider c...

Related articles from Twins Killings and more.

By Scot On the field, two of the Twins’ highest paid players appeared to be righting the ship after poor starts. The first game in a long home stand provided some signs that both Kent Hrbek and Jack Morris might be the impact players in 1991 that the Twins had originally expected.

By Aaron(noreply@blogger.com) If you ignore the matching opponents and the three-game series against each other at the Metrodome during the final week of the season, the schedules essentially boil down to this: The Twins play three games against the Royals, three games against the Orioles, and four games against the...

By Aaron(noreply@blogger.com) Joe Mauer 2008 .328Over the 15 seasons from 1964 to 1978, Rod Carew and Tony Oliva combined to win 10 batting titles, including six in seven years from Carew. Not surprisingly Carew is the Twins' all-time leader in batting average at .334, followed by Kirby Puckett (.318) and Mauer (.317). No. 4 on...

By notsellingjeans D. Span rf0000000.308N. Punto ss0000000.293J. Mauer c0000000.317J. Morneau 1b0000000.308J. Kubel dh0000000.273D. Young lf0000000.282B. Harris 3b0000000.260A. Casilla 2b0000000.296C. Gomez cf0000000.253 Totals0000000   Oakland ABRHRBIBBKLOBSeason Avg R. Davis cf0000000.276B. Crosby ss0...

The world is upside down in Major League Baseball this week, starting with the debut of instant replay for big league umpires and the AL East’s top team (the Rays) drawing 13,000 in their home ballpark in August. The Pitch tears apart both issues, as well as the Pirates’ second-overall MLB d...

Hosts Joe Aiello and Brandon Rosage also assess Steve Bartman’s decision to turn down $25,000 for an autograph session, Vicente Padilla’s value on the shallow pitching market, whether Cesar Izturis should quit hitting for good, Francisco Liriano’s long-shot grievance with the Twin...

By Jim McLennan Of course, some of this is second-guessing with the benefit of hindsight: we didn't know that CoJack was going to lose a fly-ball against the Metrodome roof. But that's exactly the kind of thing we've been dreading since Jackson bravely went into left. The American League rules should have...

By Jim McLennan Dammit, can someone in the National League West hurry up and go on a run, so that we no longer sit atop the stinking cesspool which is this division? The second-placed Dodgers and the third-placed Giants both lost again today, and today means we set a new franchise record for most consecuti...

After the loss of Johan Santana to trade with the Mets and the departure of the team’s leading batter from 2007, Torii Hunter, Minnesota has a lot of questions for 2008. The Pitch welcomes Twins Nation’s Kris Richardson to to take a stab at answering those questions in the Minnesota Twins ed...

By Aaron Jack Wilson .851Some of the names surrounding him shift around, but Everett's place remains the same. His Revised Zone Rating led MLB in both 2006 and 2004, ranked second to Vizquel in 2007, and ranked third behind Neifi Perez and Jack Wilson in 2005. Beginning in 2004, Everett has posted yea...

By Matthew Whipps Yesterday I posted a link to a column of a fellow Twins writer who I read daily. He had an excellent article about his Twins off season wish list. There was a great comment on my post from ScottyB who also laid out his ideas. Both made excellent suggestions. Since I essentially blew all my ideas res...

By Ian Casselberry I feel like I may have jinxed the Tigers last Sunday when using the "s" word.  Instead, the Mariners hung a 14-7 loss on the Tigers and Jeremy Bonderman's elbow inflamed with pain, making us weep.  So there will be no "s" word used today.  I will just point out that Detroit has a chance to win a thir...

By Matthew Whipps Now I know this is a subject that Twins fans everywhere cringe at the thought of, but the sad reality of it is we need to start preparing for the inevitable: Johan Santana will no longer be a Minnesota Twin after his contract expires. I mean sure, theres always a chance the Twins could fork over...

By Matthew Whipps Over the past few weeks, there have been a lot of questions swirling around Twins Territory. Why didnt we make any moves at the trade deadline? Why did we trade Luis Castillo for a couple of never-will-bes? Why cant this offense put up even the smallest amount of fight? And most recently, Why...

By Mike Pindelski Barring any ridiculously strong second half's from the Twins, White Sox or Royals it appears the race for the American League Central division will be a two team dogfight between the Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers. The edge goes to Cleveland.

The Twins Justin Morneau left Saturdays game against Detroit in the eighth inning after breaking his nose.

Torii Hunter was so happy last fall when Kansas Citys seasonending victory against Detroit gave Minnesota the division title that he vowed to buy a bottle of champagne for each of the Royals.

By jeff.zrebiec@baltsun.com (baltimoresun.com) Sun reporter Jeff Zrebiec breaks down the Orioles' Opening Day loss to the Twins.

By Leitch A'S 5, TWINS 2 A's 5, Twins 2 A's 4, Twins 2 A's 4, Twins 2 A's 4, Twins 2 A's 4, Twins 2 Twins 2, A's 2 A's 2, Twins 0 A's 2, Twins 0 A's 2, Twins 0 Twins 0, A's 0 Twins 0, A's 0 Twins 0, A's 0 Twins 0, A's 0 From a Twins fan about Mauer: Twins 0, A's 0 Twins 0, A's 0 Twins 0, A's 0 Twins 0, A's 0

By podcasts@sfgate.com (Benny Evangelista) The Chronicle's Susan Slusser podcasts from Minneapolis after watching Frank Thomas power the Oakland A's to a key win over the Twins in Game One of the American League Division Series...