Tag: Miguel Sano

Royce Lewis named 2019 Arizona Fall League MVP

Royce Lewis #9 of the Salt River Rafters bats against the Mesa Solar Sox during the game at Salt River Fields. (Photo by Buck Davidson/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

After leading the 2019 Arizona Fall League with 30 hits and slashing .353/.411/.565 with three homers and 20 RBIs over 22 games, Royce Lewis the Minnesota Twins top prospect according to MLB Pipeline was chosen as the league’s most valuable player. MLB Pipeline has Lewis as the ninth best prospect in all of baseball and the second highest rated prospect playing in the AFL this season.

Lewis had a great AFL season as he also won the Fall Stars Game MVP Award with a two-run homer in the East’s 4-2 win over the West and was named the Championship Chains Hitter of the Week after going 6-for-10 in the fourth week of the AFL season. 

You may have heard of the previous three winners of the AFL MVP award. They are Brewers 2B Keston Hiura in 2018 and debuted with the Brewers this past season, Braves OF Ronald Acuna Jr. in 2017 who debuted in Atlanta in 2018 and Yankees 2B/SS Gleyber Torres in 2016 who debuted in 2018. Some pretty nice players. I think I here Royce Lewis knocking at the Target Field door.

The strong AFL performance was huge for Lewis, who hit just .236/.290/.371 over 127 games with Class A Advanced Fort Myers and Double-A Pensacola during the regular season after suffering some injuries. The Twins claim they are still committed to keeping Lewis at shortstop but in the AFL this fall Lewis spent most of his time playing third base but did spend some time in centerfield and second base. I can’t help but wonder if the Twins see a time in the not too distant future when they can make Royce Lewis their third baseman and move Miguel Sano to first base full time.

How can you not like Luis Arraez

Luis Arraez – Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Since being recalled back to Minnesota on June 18, Luis Arraez is hitting .389 (28-for-72) with four doubles, one home run, four RBI, 10 runs scored, seven walks, a .443 on-base percentage and a .929 OPS. Among all rookies with a minimum of 70 plate appearances since that date, he ranks first in batting average, second in on-base percentage and tied for third in hits. Arraez has 37 hits through his first 30 career games, tied for fourth most in Twins history through 30: Kirby Puckett (42 in 1984), Kennys Vargas (40 in 2014), Chuck Knoblauch (38 in 1991), Danny Santana (37 in 2014).

His AB this past Tuesday was certainly one of the best ever seen by Twins fans. The Twins were down 3-2 to the New York Mets going into the bottom of the ninth against Mets closer Edwin Diaz. Diaz struck out Miguel Sano swinging for out one and then had to face Jonathan Schoop and on his second pitch Schoop grabbed his ribs and was removed from the game. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli brought in Luis Arraez to face the hard-throwing Diaz with an inherited 0-2 count. Arraez fouled off four pitches while working the count full before taking a walk bringing the Target Field crown to its feet. Mitch Garver singled but Jorge Polanco struck out for the second out of the inning. Marwin Gonzalez reached first base loading the bases on an infield single and Nelson Cruz stepped to the plate with the bases loaded but on a full count he popped up to the Mets third baseman in foul territory retiring the Twins and giving the Mets a 3-2 victory. The Arraez AB is an AB that will go down in Twins lore as one of the best ever.

Looks like second base is all his (Arraez) but he may have to wait until next season. Jonathan Schoop is a streaky hitter but I think he deserves to keep his job at second through this year and having a player like Arraez on the bench is a real luxury.

This is what baseball has come down to? Oh My!

Credit to Stew Thornley

This is the Twins shift in the game against the Texas Rangers Joey Gallo yesterday. A catcher (Mitch Garver) and pitcher (Devin Smeltzer) and first baseman (Miguel Sano) in their normal positions but no one else is on the dirt. Five outfielders and yet Gallo hits a double off the right field wall, he also had a bunt single. My friend Wayne Hattaway would tell you “this isn’t real baseball”. Everytime you go to a baseball game you have a chance to see something you have never seen before.

 

What will it take to get Minnesota Twins fans to believe in this team

Before the 2019 season began for the Minnesota Twins pretty much everyone agreed that the Twins fate this season hinged on how well Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano performed. Both were coming off a 2018 season in which they underperformed and/or were injured or both. 

Buxton played in just 28 games hitting .156 for Minnesota and finished the 2018 season in AAA and didn’t even get called up in September, he was miffed to say the least. Sano didn’t do much better appearing in just 71 games and hit .199 with 13 home runs, a career low for him. He played so poorly he was sent all the way back to High A ball in Fort Myers to lose weight and regain his batting form.

The Twins signed free agent Martin Perez on January 30th and expected him to fight for a starting spot. Twins fans were not happy with the signing since the soon to be 28-year old lefty was 2-7 with a 6.22 ERA in 15 starts for the Rangers in 2018. Twins fans wanted the front office to sign a legitimate Ace starting pitcher and some bullpen help and when that did not happen, fans were upset and just didn’t buy tickets for the 2019 season.

Continue reading What will it take to get Minnesota Twins fans to believe in this team

How will the Minnesota Twins fare in 2019

The Minnesota Twins are an IF team. IF Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano play up to their abilities than Twins fans might be in for a lot of fun and exciting baseball. IF those two important cogs don’t show more than they did last season the Twins will once again struggle to get to the .500 mark.

The Derek Falvey regime has three off-seasons in the books and begins their third season on the playing field. When the year is done we should have a good feel for where this team is. We know the organization has gone head over heels for technology with expensive toys all over and more nerds in the front office than they probably have room for. Owner Jim Pohlad must feel like he gave Falvey an unlimited budget and he has already exceeded it with his organization rebuild.

I can’t help but feel that the Twins organization is so busy trying to help their players with technology that they forget what baseball is really all about. I am no spring chicken and I am not from Missouri but you have to show me that the new ways work better than the old. In spite of my concerns about the organization I am cautiously optimistic that Sano and Buxton will start to shine and help the team achieve the success we all hope for.

The post Joe Mauer era is here, there will be no Twins number 7 on the playing field. With Cleveland dumping some players and seemingly not trying to improve I think that the Minnesota Twins can over take the Indians this season and win the division by two games. I see the Chicago White Sox getting better and finishing in third place followed by the Detroit Tigers and the Kansas City Royals occupying the AL Central cellar with a 100+ loss season.

I can’t wait for the season to start and for the Twins to show me what they got! What about the rest of you, how do you think the Twins will do? Leave a comment with your prediction.

And he goes down swinging!

Harmon Killebrew

We all know that strikeout rates are up all across baseball for the last few years but today we will look at Minnesota Twins batters and their strikeout rates going back to 1961. We used B-R’s amazing Play Index to find what we were looking for.

The top two all time Twins leader in strikeouts are Harmon Killebrew with 1,314 and Joe Mauer with 1,034. Mauer? What the heck? Longevity can do strange things to numbers and the devil is in the details.

Continue reading And he goes down swinging!

2018 Twins Turkey of the Year is:

The 2018 baseball season is in the books, free agents everywhere are sitting back and waiting for the offers to pour in, a number of teams (including our Twins) have hired new managers. The temperature is 31 degrees outside and there is a slight coating of snow on the ground here in Plymouth so we know it is time to start sorting our candidates for the 2018 Twins Turkey of the Year.

The Twins finished in second place again this season behind the Cleveland  Indians. This past season the Twins were 78-84 as compared to 85-77 in 2017 and this year they were just 13 games back as compared to 17 games behind the year previous. Yet the 2018 Twins were looked on as failures as compared to the 2017 team that was a Wild Card participant albeit for just the one game against the New York Yankees. Manager Paul Molitor was the American League Manager of the Year in 2017 and after the 2018 season ended he found himself unemployed along with most of his coaching staff after signing a new three-year contract just a year earlier. Twins fans were unhappy and attendance dropped to its lowest point since 2004 at the Metrodome. Meanwhile the Twins Front Office added to staff and continued the “new ways of fielding a winning team” such as increasing the number of shifts, playing four outfielders here and there and jumping on the new “opener” strategy employed by teams such as Tampa Bay and Oakland.  

Continue reading 2018 Twins Turkey of the Year is:

Molitor no longer the Minnesota Twins manager

 

Derek Falvey Executive Vice President, Chief Baseball Officer of the Minnesota Twins, speaks to reporters during a news conference announcing the firing of Twins manger Paul Molitor at Target Field in Minneapolis Oct 2, 2018. (Photo/Craig Lassig)

A lot of writers have written that they are surprised by the Minnesota Twins move yesterday to fire Paul Molitor as manager and offer him another position in the organization. To me this seemed obvious and surely would have happened at the end of the 2017 season had the Twins not been handed a wild card spot.

Paul Molitor

I am not a fan of Paul Molitor the manager but am a fan of Paul Molitor the player, two completely different things. This move was inevitable, you knew it was coming, just like you know the Sun will rise in the East every day. The only question was when and we got our answer yesterday.

No Head of Baseball Operations wants an inherited manager under his watch, his job depends on that manager. Baseball is like any other business, if the people under you fail then you will fail too. Derek Falvey like most everyone else in his position has a large ego and they want to be surrounded by people who agree with their style and their way of thinking. Falvey seems to have a very hands on managing style and working with a Hall of Famer probably made that more difficult and uncomfortable. Having a coaching staff that was split between loyalty to Molitor and himself compounded the problem. If you can solve that problem for a little over $3 million why not jump on it? Falvey can now feel comfortable being in the position knowing that if he fails now, he has only himself to blame.

I think Falvey and the new manager whomever they select will be in a good place with a young team that will bounce back next season and have a legitimate shot at contention in the weak AL Central Division. They desperately need Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton to succeed if they want to get better quicker. Having said that, remember that neither one of these players was brought into the organization by Falvey. He finds himself in a good spot with these two players because he can reap the rewards if they turn out to be the players that they are expected to be and if things don’t turn out well, he can always say I had no part in bringing them in. Life isn’t fair, get used to it.

It is going to be an interesting next few months for Twins fans. From here on in the ball is in Derek Falvey and Thad Levine’s court, I can’t wait to see if they are up to the challenge. The Twins have built a huge front-office under the Falvey regime and they have more analysts and bean-counters than they can count but in baseball when all is said and done all that really counts is wins, and you need good players on the field to get wins. It is not a game played on the computer with the team with the best analysts winning.

The Twins also let the following people go:

Perry Casstellano – Strength and Conditioning Coordinator
Erik Beiser – Strength and Conditioning Assistant
Alan Rail – Chattanooga Trainer
Chad Allen – AAA hitting coach
Ivan Arteaga – AA pitching coach
Henry Bonilla – Low A pitching coach
Asdrubal Estrada – Dominican Republic hitting coach

Twins on trading spree like none seen in many a year

In the last five days of July the Falvey/Levine regime traded five experienced players off their big league roster and acquired 12 players that includes five pitchers, 4 outfielders and 4 infielders. The departed players have appeared in 2,674 games and the pitchers have notched 160 wins. The acquired players have no wins by the pitchers in the big leagues and have played in a total of 899 big league games of which Logan Forsythe has 807.

I grant you that Brian Dozier and Eduardo Escobar were both going to be free agents at the end of the season. Lance Lynn has not performed up to expectations, Zach Duke performed pretty much as expected and Ryan Pressly was probably over-worked but was a decent relief pitcher. The team itself has under-performed dramatically but to be fair I think the same can be said of the Twins “on the field” management staff. 

Continue reading Twins on trading spree like none seen in many a year

The Twins seem lost and no one seems to care

The Minnesota Twins play this season has been pitiful, I really don’t know any other way to describe it without using language not fit for this site. The Twins record in April was 8-14 and the team scored 90 runs (4.09) but gave up 129 (5.86) runs. Playing .364 baseball is totally unacceptable for a team that made the playoffs in 2017 and was expected to be even better this season with the additions the Twins made this past off-season. If you look back over all the April baseball that the Minnesota Twins have played since 1961 through 2017 you will find that the team has won 565 games and lost 610 and tied 2 games for a winning percentage of .480, but this years team isn’t even play up to that low bar.

Those of you that have watched the Twins play this season know the team is playing hideous baseball. In the 16 losses this season the team has lost by five or more runs seven times, to get blown out in 44% of your games is a bad sign. 

Yes, the team has had its shares of injuries, but who hasn’t? From what we have seen of Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton in their relatively short careers we can be pretty confident that neither one will have long consecutive game played streaks on the back of their baseball card. We can only wait and hope that Sano and Buxton aren’t a would of, could of, should of, type of player’s. 

Paul Molitor

So what is causing this team to play so bad? Everything, the pitching is bad, the hitters aren’t hitting, the fielding leaves a lot to be desired. When nothing seems to work you can’t fire the players, it comes down to leadership. The people in charge are responsible, for the Twins won-lost record and it starts with the manager Paul Molitor. I know the man just signed a new three-year deal but……. How about the pitching coach Garvin Alston? I haven’t heard his name mentioned in weeks, is he still on the coaching staff? Derek Falvey and Thad Levine have such a low profile that you wonder if they still work here. The only time these two guys show their faces is when something good happens.

Sure, this team will improve their play, but when? Is this going to be another wasted season when when the Twins organization tells us we have to be patient and give the young players a chance to mature? Winning is contagious, but so is losing.

The worst scenario is that the Twins play bad all season and management decides to “blow it up” and start over. That would be the final straw!

If you have a need to see some interesting facts about Minnesota Twins history on May 2nd  just click on our new This Day in Twins History.