Minnesota Twins

By Aaron(noreply@blogger.com) One of the bonuses of trading for Hardy was seemingly that it would keep the Twins from re-signing Orlando Cabrera, but we may not be out of those woods quite yet. Sid Hartman's latest column quotes Gardenhire as saying that he'd still like to bring Cabrera back to play second base, with Nick...

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) 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...

AP By DAVE CAMPBELL AP Sports Writer MINNEAPOLIS (AP) The Minnesota Twins have selected pitcher Kyle Gibson of the University of Missouri with the 22nd pick in the first round. Gibson has a stress fracture in his throwing arm and might not be able to ...

By Aaron(noreply@blogger.com) While considered one of the draft's elite pitchers Gibson doesn't project as an ace, but everyone from Baseball America and MLB.com to ESPN and Baseball Prospectus seems to agree that he's capable of becoming a solid No. 2 or No. 3 starter and will be on the fast track to the big leagues once he g...

By Aaron(noreply@blogger.com) 2. Joe Mauer .436 AVG .519 OBP .845 SLG 3. Justin Morneau .348 AVG .426 OBP .657 SLG 4. Jason Kubel .322 AVG .374 OBP .532 SLGHere's hoping that Ron Gardenhire can resist the urge to fix what isn't broken by jamming Alexi Casilla or Matt Tolbert in there.

By noreply@blogger.com (Nick N.) It feels a bit strange referring to the current point in time as "spring" considering we just had several inches of snow dumped on us up here in Minnesota, but down in Florida spring training is definitely underway and the Twins have gotten their Grapefruit League schedule off to a good sta...

By noreply@blogger.com (Nick N.) Crede's negatives have been discussed exhaustively in this space: he's a major injury risk, he generally has not been a great hitter over the course of his career, his power numbers have been propped up by a hitter-friendly ballpark, etc. Moreover, it seems that members of the team have a r...

By Aaron(noreply@blogger.com) Plus, 66 innings of a 1.23 ERA, 72-to-11 strikeout-to-walk ratio, and .189 opponent's batting average is plenty sick and earned Delaney the award for Minor League Reliever of the Year from MiLB.com. Slama was a 39th-round pick, but Delaney actually went undrafted following a modest career...

By Scot Box Team Name G W L T PCT GB RS RA Oakland Athletics 50 30 20 0 .600 - 257 244 Texas Rangers 44 26 18 0 .591 1.0 237 206 California Angels 49 28 21 0 .571 1.5 231 188 Seattle Mariners 49 26 23 0 .531 3.5 211 203 Minnesota Twins 51 26 25 0 .510 4.5 211 209 Chicago White Sox 47 22 25 0 .468 6.5 188 228 Kansas City Royals 48 21 2...

By noreply@blogger.com (Nick N.) NL Cy Young Nelson: Johan Santana Mosvick: Johan Santana Comments: You can make a case that Santana deserved it, but Tim Lincecum was a fine choice. AL Rookie of the Year Nelson: Evan Longoria Mosvick: Clay Buchholz Comments: Here I pick up another point. 2-0... this is turning into a landslide.

By Nick N.(noreply@blogger.com) lt;div>I've spent the last two days discussing the pros and cons relating to a couple of potential offseason free agent targets for the Twins. Today I will discuss one more, and it's a name that most fans around here should be familiar with: Casey Blake. He's spent the majority of his care...

By noreply@blogger.com (Nick N.) Clint (Grand Island NE): With one year of additional experience under there belts, where do you see the Twins finishing next year? AL pennant? Mary (Okoboji, IA): Ron Gardenhire for Manager of the year? If he doesnt win, he definitely should get top 3, right?

The Twins' lone run off Davies (9-7) came in the sixth inning. Denard Span led off with a triple to center field. He then scored on Alexi Casilla's ... Butler powers Royals past Twins Kansas City Royals Game 161 Open Thread - Royals (74-86) at Twins (87-73) Royals Review

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 noreply@blogger.com (Nick N.) Say what you will about Hernandez and Monroe, they did serve a purpose for this team. Hernandez ate a lot of innings and gave the team several Quality Starts, while Monroe delivered some huge home runs. When it became clear that the players had worn out their usefulness (well, maybe a little w...

Denard Span hit solo home runs and Francisco Liriano picked up his first win of the season as the Minnesota Twins defeated the Cleveland Indians, 6-2, ... Yankees accept Angels' gift Boston Globe Nady's four hits, six RBI lead Yankees Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Washington Post  MN - The Twins know why Guillen should be confident. The White Sox, though overshadowed by the Cubs' pennant drive a short CTA ride away, remain one of the most ... Sox end up 2-for-3 Chicago Sun-Times Chicago White Sox Week in Review: And the Sock Flies On Bleacher Report

By noreply@blogger.com (Nick N.) It will be interesting whether the Twins try to package Michael Cuddyer and Livan Hernandez in a trade for a slugging third baseman before the July 31 deadline, saving $20 million in guaranteed money to Cuddyer and $2.5 million to Hernandez. Denard Span ($390,000) would replace Cuddyer in...

By noreply@blogger.com (Nick N.) The Twins rotation took some major hits in the offseason with the losses of Johan Santana, Matt Garza and Carlos Silva. Yet, with solid youngsters available to fill the gaps left behind by these valuable starters along with a bullpen that remained almost totally intact, the Twins still we...

By noreply@blogger.com (Nick N.) It's been a roller-coaster of a week for the Twins. During the weekend, they pulled off an impressive sweep over the high-powered Tigers at the Metrodome, extending a win streak to five games and launching themselves into first place in the division. Then, on Tuesday, they played their wor...

By Nick N. The Twins offense has been just miserable through 27 games. They've scored fewer runs than any American League team other than the Royals. (The Twins are at 102, the Royals are at 101. The lowest-scoring AL team outside of those two is Toronto, with 116.) The Twins rank last in the AL in on-base p...

By Nick N. Of course, the other big performer last night was starting pitcher Livan Hernandez. Like many, I was skeptical when Ron Gardenhire announced that Hernandez would be the team's Opening Day starter, but the veteran delivered seven innings of two-run ball against a fairly potent Angels li...

By Dan Carey Another plus about the Twins “rebuilding” is the new stadium. I probably have you scratching your heads right now but if you look at it, IF the Twins play mediocre ball for the next two season while they’re in this “rebuilding stage,” when the Twins come back ready to compete in 2010 wouldn’t...

By Nick N. Trading for Monroe was not a bad idea in and of itself. He's a decent player with some pop and the ability to hit lefties. The problem is that the Twins will end up paying Monroe $3.82 million this season, which is way too much for a guy who hit .219/.268/.370 last year. Granted, payroll is far from an is...

By Nick N. Speaking of Hernandez, Christensen had an entry in his blog yesterday outlining the details of the newly acquired pitcher's contract, which includes an incentive whereby Hernandez will receive $100,000 if he wins a Cy Young Award this year. Apparently that's pretty standard, but it st...

By Nick N. The Cuban-born Hernandez, who will (allegedly) turn 33 a week from today, is an 11-year major-league veteran who has spent his entire career in the National League, spending time with four different organizations. He is the definition of a workhorse, having thrown 200-plus innings in n...

By Nick N. Don't get me wrong. Throughout the minor leagues, the Twins are still far deeper in quality pitchers than hitters. There are very few impact bats on the horizon, which remains troubling. Yet, looking at the Twins' major league roster, you find enough young, controllable, talented hitters...

Yesterday, within an hour of when the news broke on the Mets-Twins agreement for the trade involving Johan Santana, I wrote: To me, this would be as if the Yankees traded Ian Kennedy, Jose Tabata, Alan Horne, and Dellin Betances for Johan Santana.

By Nick N. Joe Christensen had an article in the Star Tribune yesterday reporting that the Mets may be the most likely eventual destination for Johan Santana, noting that they have reportedly offered the Twins a package that includes outfielder Carlos Gomez along with pitchers Deolis Guerra, Ke...

Pridie gives Minnesota Twins hope he can replace Hunter  MN - Smith's search for a center fielder, primarily in a trade involving Johan Santana, continues. But a strong 2007 season, in which Pridie (pronounced PRY-dee) ... Twins 2007 In Review Twinkie Town all 2 news articles

By Nick N. The only real story that continues to get ink regarding the Twins is the Johan Santana saga. It doesn't seem like a deal is particularly near, but rumors continue to float around regularly. Murray Chass of the New York Times wrote yesterday about the implications of baseball's luxury tax, r...

By Aaron Of course, like many of the truly great defensive players in baseball history Everett is also a horrible hitter. Despite calling a hitter-friendly ballpark home, playing in a weaker league, and getting 10 percent of his career walks thanks to batting in front of the pitcher, Everett has h...

By RJ Anderson Last year the A's plucked Jay Marshall in the Rule 5, this year Fernando Hernandez will likely be more successful. Described as "Matt Guerrier with attitude," Hernandez couldn't land a shot with one of the worst pens in the league up in Chicago for whatever reasons.

By Nick N. ESPN's Buster Olney reported yesterday that the Twins have had talks with the Cardinals regarding third baseman Scott Rolen, which is intriguing to say the least. Rolen was a superstar player throughout the first nine years or so of his career, but in the recent past he has struggled with i...

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 Adam J. Morris Yesterday, Rob Neyer had a blog entry about the Twins' need to trade Johan Santana.  He starts off looking at it thusly: But this got me to wondering...was the return for Teixeira and Ron Mahay really any less of a package than what the Indians got for Colon and Drew?

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.

Santana hits triple as Twins top Marlins Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, PA - By STEVEN WINE AP Sports Writer AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez AP Interview with Hank Aaron MIAMI (AP) -- Johan Santana allowed one earned run in six innings and ...

Santana, Twins cruise past Mets 9-0 Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, PA - By MIKE FITZPATRICK AP Baseball Writer AP Photo/Kathy Willens AP Interview with Hank Aaron NEW YORK (AP) -- Johan Santana rarely has it this easy. ...

The Twins didn't have one of the strongest seasons, but despite their road record of 29-52 (the team had the lowest winning percentage ever for a World Series champ), the Twins managed to work their way into the playoffs, first beating the Tigers (who had the best record going into the play...