TWINS TRIVIA is hopefully a fun and informative site that will help you to better enjoy the Minnesota Twins and their wonderful history. “History never looks like history when you are living through it” – John Gardner, former Secretary of Health
Once again it is that time of the year, time to name the 2022 Twins Turkey of the Year, but first, I would like to wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving. We all have a lot to be thankful for even if the Minnesota Twins play in 2022 is not one of them. As you might imagine, there were plenty of candidates for this years honor after the team crashed and burned playing .357 baseball in September and finished the second half with a 28-40 record. Hopes were sky high when the Twins spent over $35 million to sign shortstop Carlos Correa but as the season wore on, the Twins wore down even if manager Rocco Baldelli rested his players for the big Fall push.
The Twins announced four new coaches to manager Rocco Baldelli‘s staff yesterday, as they hired Wes Johnson (pitching coach), Jeremy Hefner (bullpen coach), Tony Diaz (third-base coach) and Tommy Watkins (first-base coach). The Twins had retained hitting coach James Rowson, assistant hitting coach Rudy Hernandez and bench coach Derek Shelton.
2018 Arizona Fall League rosters were announced August 30th and the Minnesota Twins players will make-up part of the Salt River Rafters along with players from the Diamondbacks, Rockies, Marlins and Nationals. The club’s manager will be Tommy Watkins and strength and conditioning will be handled by Jacob Dean.
Entering its 27th year, the AFL features six teams that are composed of players from all 30 Major League organizations. It offers the unique opportunity to gauge young talent against competition that usually is superior to what they experienced during the Minor League season. The rosters for this year’s AFL, are loaded with future stars. The group features 18 players ranked on MLB Pipeline’s list of the Top 100 Prospects.
Although I have not been to any AFL games the last few seasons I have attended a number of them in the past and it is a special treat to watch these young up and coming stars play ball. The price is right and often you will see more scouts than you will see paying fans. It is indeed a unique experience that I would recommend you partake in, if the opportunity presents itself.
These guys had their big league debuts as Twins on August 10.
Tommy Watkins (3B) – August 10, 2007 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 38th round of the 1998 MLB June Amateur Draft. Debuted in Anaheim as a PH for Jason Kubel and grounded out to second base in a Twins 10-1 loss to the Angels.
Damian Miller (C) – August 10, 1997 – Drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 20th round of the 1990 amateur draft. Debuted in a Twins 9-6 loss to the Yankees at the Dome as a PH off Yankee closer Mariano Rivera and hit a flyball to right for an out.
I went through the history of the Minnesota Twins June Amateur draft choices to see who the best players were that the club drafted, signed and the player debuted with Minnesota across his chest. The player may or may not have played his entire career with the Twins but the WAR numbers are for their entire careers. Why are they ranked by WAR you may ask? Simple, I know of no other way to rank them, so right or wrong, I have chosen B-R WAR.
Twenty five of the 61 rounds shown have no players that qualified meaning that no one ever drafted in that round has made it to the majors with Minnesota. So if the Twins draft you in one of those rounds in the future, the odds are very much against you. Unless you have followed the Twins since day one, you might not recognize or remember some of these players.
The weather was great again yesterday albeit a little windy when I stopped out at Hammond Stadium yesterday to see what was going on with the Twins. The Twins semi with all the baseball supplies arrived yesterday and there was no time being wasted getting it unloaded. The pitchers and catchers are due to report this coming week-end and the first workout I believe is scheduled for Monday so the 2014 season preparation is just days away.
The early camp arrivals continue to work on several of the fields. With more arrivals each day, they now take hitting on two fields and there is infield going on at another. Joe Lepel and Tommy Watkins busy throwing batting practice and providing some tips along the way.
Miguel Sano
Miguel Sano continues to work both on his hitting and on his fielding. The man is not afraid to work hard and that is a plus. Sano gets bigger every time I see him. The word at the ballpark is that he is about 255 but he could be heavier than that. But that weight does not look bad on him, there is a lot of muscle there. Sano is not like a lot of players that are always moving 100 MPH from here to there, he moves slowly, almost in a plodding fashion as he goes from field to field. At third base he is no Brooks Robinson but he seems to make the normal plays he should and his throws have not been as bad as I have heard. His throws to second base and first base are not always chest high but his throwing is better than I expected. Sano has also been working hard on his English language skills and he is willing to step up and answer questions from the press and he looks fairly comfortable, you have to give him credit for that. Sano did a short interview with Chris Parks from ABC-7 and I also captured it here so that you could all get a chance to hear it. The Sano sound bite can be found here. Sano sound bite can be found here – 140211_001.
Brian Dozier
I also captured a sound bite with Brian Dozier that was also done by Chris Parks and with the wind conditions it is a bit rough but you still get the gist of it – 140211_002. I don’t think that there is a microphone or recorder that Dozier will pass up, he is always willing to talk to anyone that is willing to listen. If you need a comment or sound bite then Dozier is your guy, I think he is quickly becoming the new Twins spokesman and I think he will become one of the leaders on this Twins team. I like Eddie Rosario as a hitter but I don’t think he will be taking Dozier’s job anytime soon.
Jason Bartlett
Shortstop Jason Bartlett is out there everyday and working hard, I know that spring training has not started and not a single pitch has been thrown yet but I will tell you this, I think that the 34-year-old Bartlett who was out of baseball in 2013 is going to give Pedro Florimon a run for his money this spring. Bartlett looks to be a in great shape and is already helping other players with their skills.
By the way, one of my favorite Twins-to-be, Max Kepler turned 21 on February 10th, hard to believe, it seems like he has been around longer than that. Happy Birthday Max and welcome back to Ft. Myers.
As is normal during my visits to the ballpark, I took a few more pictures that you can find in the 2014 Spring Training link on the right hand side of the page.
Twins rookie catcher Josmil Pinto went 3 for 4 on Monday, with all three hits being doubles, leaving him with 13 hits in 23 at-bats, a .565 batting average, in seven games in the major leagues. Since 1980, only one player has had at least 20 at-bats and a higher batting average than Pinto in his first seven games in the big leagues; Jay Bruce was 15 for 26 (.577) at that point of his career.
Hot starts with minimum of 20 at-bats for the Twins rookies
I took another trip out to the Twins spring training home this morning, It was a beautiful sunny day with temps in the high 70’s. When I arrived at the Twins minor league complex and prepared to park my car I noticed that the gate was locked with a padlock but yet I could still see some players wandering around the fields. One of the fans told me that the asphalt parking area was going to be sealcoated today so the team was trying to keep the area free of vehicles and fans.
19 year old Max Kepler
Still not a lot of players around, I was lucky enough to get a couple of pictures of the German born Max Kepler and talk to him for a few minutes. He seems like a very nice kid and we even have something in common, we were both born in Germany. I didn’t know it until I started writing this post, but today is Max’s 19th birthday, I missed my opportunity to wish him a Happy Birthday. Ge’ez, 19 years old, what was I doing on my 19th birthday? Oh yes, I remember now, I was in the Navy on board the USS Shangri-La (CVA-38) in the ECM (Electronic Countermeasures) room over in the Mediterranean on one of my two Med cruises. But that is a whole different story. I introduced myself to former Reds pitchers Matt Maloney and Jared Burton and they were nice enough to pose for a picture on their way out to the practice field. I saw former GM Bill Smith leaving the Twins minor league offices and head out for his car. Not much else was going on today so I left after about 90 minutes. It is fun out there when there are only about a half-dozen fans out there. I did get a couple of pictures that I posted with the rest of my 2012 spring training photo’s that you can find in the right hand column of my home page.
