Opinion:

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"...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Mike Redmond made it clear that he planned to keep playing at age 39 despite the Twins making no effort to re-sign their longtime backup catcher and sure enough he found a new home with the Indians. After trading Victor Martinez and Kelly Shoppach the Indians are slated to go with Lou Marson a...

Tom Kelly Full Seasons: Minnesota 1987-2001 Minority of: Minnesota 1986 Least Interest in Beane Count Tom Kelly 4.907 Year Team HR Dif. Manager 1996 MIN -115 HR Tom Kelly 1999 MIN -103 HR Tom Kelly 2000 MIN -96 HR Tom Kelly 1995 MIN -90 HR Tom Kelly Tom Kelly -278 double plays

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...

771 3150 .277 .379 .428 107 23.3 87Drafted in the 13th round out of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College just four months before the Twins' run to the World Series in 1991, Matt Lawton advanced slowly but surely up the minor-league ladder. After posting .400 on-base percentages in back-to-...

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.

Hawkins schmoozes his way to $7.5 million McCann is the last "Baby Brave" standing Are the Red Sox gearing up for Gonzalez? Forget the veterans: Pittsburgh should hand first base to Clement Tigers may give Coke chance to join rotation Do Yankees really think Miranda can be the DH?

He was a key contributor on two pennant winners, including the 1982 World Series champs, but retired two seasons before the Cardinals met up with the Twins in the 1987 World Series. Braun has stayed in baseball after retiring, serving as a minor-league hitting coach with the Cardinals, Ya...

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...

Plus, by calling his bluff and refraining from a multi-season commitment the Twins avoided most of the risk that comes with Pavano specifically and pitchers as an oft-injured group. Short of simply signing a terrible player it's fairly tough to screw things up too badly with a one-year de...

Orioles interested in Japanese lefty Takahashi Schneider jumps from Mets to hometown Phillies Cardinals offer arbitration to Holliday, Pineiro, and DeRosa Teams pursuing Washburn are making a mistake Wagner shows Red Sox are smarter than Mets

Orlando Cabrera is the only other Twins free agent to qualify for draft-pick compensation, but under the terms of his contract he can't be offered arbitration. Cabrera smartly negotiated that into his deal so that potential suitors wouldn't have to forfeit a first-round pick to sign him...

Next time Minneapolis Star Tribune writer and KSTP radio host Patrick Reusse offers his opinion on something baseball related, remember that he wrote this in his "Turkey of the Year" column last week:Joe Christensen. Gentleman Joe is a Star Tribune baseball writer and also the Twin Citi...

In my opinion Morneau is among the more undeserving MVP winners in recent memory, but whether or not you agree with that admittedly unpopular stance among Twins fans it seems obvious that there's a difference between what he did in 2006 and what Mauer did this year. A unanimous vote would ha...

I'm very pleased to note that former Twins beat reporter Phil Miller has landed a new job helping to cover the Timberwolves for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Miller did a fantastic job covering the Twins at the St. Paul Pioneer Press before the newspaper fired him in the middle of the season a...

Does Alexi Casilla have a future with the Twins? If Joe Nathan were to be traded, what kind of value could the Twins expect? If Liriano doesn't return to 2006 form, what is his role with the Twins? Same question, but with Jarrod Washburn or Carl Pavano?

Twins Notes: Washburn, Buscher, Huber, Crede, NeshekJoe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star Tribune notes that the Twins "are expected to pursue" free agent Jarrod Washburn, which certainly isn't surprising. At various points over the past two years the Twins have been linked to Wash...

Hudson passes physical, extension with Braves all but official Chamberlain's mother pleads "no contest" to drug charges Angels re-sign Abreu to two-year deal Dodgers decline Garland's $10 million option Girardi wins World Series, helps crash victim on way home

In fact, UZR pegged Cabrera as 15 runs below average this season. He's rated well defensively in the past, but Cabrera is 35 years old and looked bad enough following the trade that Ron Gardenhire even admitted his range was lacking. Average offensively and well below average defensively i...

Realistic Free Agent Options: Second BaseProjecting which free agents the Twins will go after is difficult because their pursuit of low-cost options depends upon how the market shakes out and who drops into their price range. In the past five years they've also wasted money on a lengthy l...

David Brown of Yahoo! Sports conducted a highly amusing interview with Denard Span (and special guest Brendan Harris). Sunday is the 65th anniversary of Sid Hartman starting at what was then the Minneapolis Tribune. Here's a new Twins blog to check out: The Blog That Boredom Built.

Redmond signed a two-year, $1.8 million contract with the Twins as a free agent in November of 2005 after spending the first seven seasons of his career with the Marlins and then agreed to a three-year, $2.85 million extension in mid-2006. He's been a near-perfect fit in Minnesota, serving a...

Should The Twins Trade Nathan?Joe Nathan and Justin Morneau underwent similar surgeries last week, with Nathan getting two bone chips removed from his right elbow and Morneau getting one bone spur removed from his right wrist. Morneau was already recovering from a stress fracture in hi...

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...

Boswell stepped up in the playoffs as the Twins faced a 109-win Baltimore team that led the AL in runs allowed and ranked second to the Twins in runs scored. He somehow managed to keep a lineup led by Frank Robinson and Boog Powell (who finished second and third to Harmon Killebrew in the MVP ba...

At the end of the day the Twins simply need to improve, not because they lost a best-of-five series, but because they won 87 games in baseball's worst division after going 88-75 in 2008 and 79-83 in 2007. They need to surround Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Jason Kubel, Denard Span, and Michael C...

An absolutely brutal blown call by umpire Phil Cuzzi probably cost the Twins an 11th-inning lead and he deserves an avalanche of criticism, but Carlos Gomez's base-running blunder, Joe Nathan's blown save, and the failure to do any damage with the bases loaded and no outs in extra inning...

With the Yankees up 4-2 manager Ron Gardenhire gave Duensing a quick hook, pulling the southpaw with two outs despite left-hander Hideki Matsui coming to the plate. Duensing held left-handed batters to just .244/.311/.268 this season, but Gardenhire chose to bring in fellow southpaw Fran...

Without question one of the greatest, most pressure-filled games in Twins history, made all the more surreal by the fact that C.C. Sabathia will deliver his first pitch to Denard Span tonight, in New York, at 5:07 p.m. Unfortunately there isn't much time to dwell on the amazing one-game playo...

Not only did the Twins erase the Tigers' three-game lead in four days to force Game 163 for the second straight year, they've won 16 of 20 games since Justin Morneau was shut down with a back injury and are 30-14 since falling a season-worst six games below .500 at 56-62 in mid-August. I'm not su...

The EndThey needed to take three of four games in Detroit to give themselves a reasonable shot at the playoffs going into the final weekend, but instead two poor pitching performances, a ton of small ball-obsessed over-managing from Ron Gardenhire, and an injury-depleted, scrub-fill...

There's certainly a lot more room for analysis, but at this point we're essentially talking about a series of four coin flips, with each one weighted somewhere in the range of 50-50, 55-45, or 60-40. A split is the most likely scenario and would leave the Twins needing to sweep the Royals whi...

Mariners fans are now free to go strip-clubbing around Safeco Field. Much safer than reading. Whatever you think of the Metrodome it might beat watching games in "a spaceship that just landed." Minnesota Public Radio is collecting Metrodome memories, so if you have a good one click here.

DATE TWINS TIGERS 9/24 at Indians 9/25 at Royals at White Sox 9/26 at Royals at White Sox 9/27 at Royals at White Sox 9/28 at Tigers vs Twins 9/29 at Tigers vs Twins 9/30 at Tigers vs Twins 10/1 at Tigers vs Twins 10/2 vs Royals vs White Sox 10/3 vs Royals vs White Sox

Blackburn's Deja VuNick Blackburn returned to the scene of last season's Game 163 and tossed another gem in Chicago, blanking the White Sox for seven innings as the Twins cut the idle Tigers' division lead to 2.5 games. FSN announcers Dick Bremer and Bert Blyleven spent much of the game disc...

Despite the up-and-down nature of his performance Morneau has been hugely productive offensively in each of the past four years, ranking 8th, 27th, 8th, and 12th among American League batters in Runs Created (although this season's ranking will drop steadily over the next three weeks...

Opinion:

Wherever he ends up defensively the Twins are incredibly lucky to have Span atop the lineup, because his high batting average, patient approach, and fantastic on-base percentage make him a near-perfect fit there and if not for his presence Gardenhire would no doubt be tempted to put two...

In large part thanks to Hall's excellent third season, the Twins went 102-60 in 1965 to win the American League pennant by seven games over the White Sox and then matched up against the Dodgers in one of the best World Series in baseball history. Because the Dodgers' three-man rotation incl...

Spencer Fordin of MLB.com wrote a good piece on Matt Wieters struggling to live up to the massive hype as a rookie. Some people referred to him as "Joe Mauer with power" when the Orioles called him up in late May, but a) Wieters is hitting just .264/.310/.368 through 71 games, and b) Joe Mauer is now...

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...

Lidge keeps job after blowing MLB-high ninth save Cookie Monster, Wily Mo Pena, and J.D. Drew Defensive metrics, the Mariners, and Kevin Kouzmanoff Remaking the Halladay-Lee comparison, a month later Wagner changes mind, agrees to join Red Sox Twins getting what they paid for with Crede

166 165 987 57 51 4.76 101 16.5 55Selected by the Yankees with the 20th overall pick in the 1996 draft via the University of Maryland, Eric Milton was named New York's minor league pitcher of the year after going 14-6 with a 3.10 ERA in 171 innings between Single-A and Double-A in 1997. That turned...

For his sophomore campaign Erickson helped lead the Twins into the postseason by going 20-8 with a 3.18 ERA in 204 innings, including a 12-game winning streak that lasted from April 21 to June 24 and a 30.1-inning scoreless streak that tied Frank Viola's team record. He led the AL in wins and fi...

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...

Kelly Brook, doing whatever it is that she does. Great pitching has Giants looking very scary Carlos Marmol, poor control, and unhittable relievers Rangers bring back Ivan Rodriguez Tigers get Huff from Orioles Smoltz hooks on with Cardinals Randy Wolf's one-man show

Not only is Mauer the best hitter in the league, he's the best hitter in the league and a good defender at the least-offensive position on the diamond. Catchers just don't hit like this, which is why Mauer is on track for his third batting title in five seasons after no catcher in the history of...

1219 3480 .251 .334 .413 102 19.2 76Selected by the Twins in the second round of the 1979 draft out of the University of New Orleans, Randy Bush struggled in his first two minor-league seasons before hitting .290 with 22 homers and 94 RBIs in 136 games at Double-A in 1981. After hitting well at Tripl...

David Eckstein apparently turned down a potential July 31 trade to the Twins, telling Padres general manager Kevin Towers that he'd prefer to stay in San Diego for the rest of the season. You may recall that Ron Gardenhire campaigned for the Twins to sign Eckstein two years ago, so it's not s...

Prior to the Cabrera trade shortstop was split evenly between Punto (54 starts) and Harris (49 starts). In theory Cabrera's arrival allowed the Twins to shift Harris to second base and make Punto a backup, but because Ron Gardenhire is uncomfortable with Harris' defense there what we get...

Instead of having Slowey in the rotation, Swarzak waiting in the wings at Triple-A, and enough capable options to possibly include one starter in a trade, the Twins now have Kevin Mulvey, Brian Duensing, R.A. Dickey, and Bobby Keppel next in line if another starter is needed. None of those gu...

Opinion:

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...

Joe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star Tribune wrote a well-done article about the mutual respect between Mauer and Ichiro Suzuki as they battle to see who can capture their third career batting title. Jim Caple, who worked for the St. Paul Pioneer Press before landing at ESPN, wrote a nic...

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...

Roster Shuffling: Casilla for Tolbert, Mulvey for MoralesAfter finishing the first half four games behind the Tigers in the AL Central and one game above .500 at 45-44 the Twins did some roster shuffling during the All-Star break, shipping Matt Tolbert and Jose Morales back to Triple-A w...

Twins Notes: All-Stars, Injuries, and InternationalsAs expected, Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, and Joe Nathan were picked as All-Stars yesterday, with Mauer voted in as the AL's starting catcher. Mauer, who also started last year, will be playing in his third All-Star game in five full se...

I've toyed with the notion of creating a Bert Blyleven drinking game, but feared that too many AG.com readers would die of alcohol poisoning if/when he said "left the ball up" a couple hundred times during one of Scott Baker's starts. All of which is why Seth Stohs creating the "Bert Blyleven...

Opinion:

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...

Opinion:

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.

amp;lt;h3>Twins Through Two Months (Part 2: Pitchers)</h3><FONT FACE="ARIAL"><div align="justify">Starting pitching was supposed to be the Twins' strength this season after <span style="font-weight:bold;"&...

Last week on the FSN pregame show Jim Souhan said that he'd take Morneau over Mauer, which is a stance that he's misguidedly held for the past three years. This week Souhan wrote that Mauer is the best player in baseball, which is a stance that he'll hold until Mauer stops homering every eight...

At the same time, it does signal that the odds are against his thriving in the big leagues right now and indicates that he's currently on track to develop into a mid-rotation starter rather than an ace, which will be something to consider when all anyone wants to talk about is his ERA. Along wi...

Unfortunately his strong play was halted by a late-July thumb injury that required a month-long stay on the DL and Casilla has been a mess ever since. Since coming off the shelf on August 21 of last year Casilla has hit just .204/.276/.257 in 60 games, including .167/.231/.202 with increasingly b...

Prior to being claimed off waivers by the Twins this weekend Morillo had thrown 135 fastballs in the big leagues, all as a member of the Rockies, and they averaged 96.5 mph. Morillo made his Twins debut Saturday night, working the final inning of a 9-2 victory over the Angels, and threw 13 pitc...

Last year Livan Hernandez got a one-year deal worth $5 million plus incentives from the Twins. This year Hernandez managed only a minor-league deal from the Mets. Here's an amusing excerpt from the New York Post story about Hernandez signing:Hernandez slipped badly last season, with sco...

Twins Insider - Two springs ago the Minneapolis Star Tribune decided to jump into the blogosphere with a trio of journalist-run blogs, including this one from LaVelle E. Neal III. Known in this space as the Official Twins Beat Writer of AG.com or LEN3, he's been covering the Twins for the Star...

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...

Meanwhile, the Twins missed the chance to legitimately elevate their late-inning situation by signing a slightly more expensive free agent and the money saved by instead bringing in a middle-relief caliber arm in Ayala does little for a team that is still at least $10 million under budg...

Opinion:

Top 40 Twins Prospects of 2009: 20, 19, 18, 17, 16Previous Top 40 Twins Prospects of 2009: 21-25, 26-30, 31-35, 36-4020. Steven Tolleson | Shortstop | DOB: 11/83 | Bats: Right | Draft: 2005-5 YEAR LV PA AVG OBP SLG HR XBH BB SO 2006 A- 204 .287 .390 .392 2 12 27 34 A+ 186 .268 .353 .408 4 13 22 24

However, once you wipe away perceptions, reputations, and name recognition there simply isn't that much difference in performance between Atkins and Buscher-Harris. Over the next two years Atkins will cost about $15 million more than Buscher and Harris combined, and acquiring him wo...

After making the various adjustments, the Twins had a total of 30 pitchers who were above average in 2008, whereas 25 position players were above par. In terms of performances from MLB-ready pitchers, Liriano was 34 percent above average and will obviously be in the Twins' rotation next s...

Opinion:

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...

Opinion:

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...

Opinion:

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...