Category: General Blogging

This is a general blogging category.

Former Twins outfielder Riccardo Ingram passes away

Riccardo Ingram
Riccardo Ingram

Former Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers outfielder Riccardo Ingram passed away after a lengthy battle with brain cancer at the age of 48 on March 31. Ingram was born in Douglas, Georgia on September 10, 1966.

Riccardo Ingram was a fourth round selection by the Detroit Tigers in the 1987 June amateur draft and made his major league debut with the Tigers on June 26, 1994 in Oakland-Alameda County Stadium as a pinch-runner for Cecil Fielder as the Oakland A’s beat the Tigers 10-5. Ingram appeared in a dozen games for the Tigers that season and then left the Tigers organization as a free agent after the 1994 season and signed with the Minnesota Twins. Ingram’s time with the Minnesota Twins in July of 1995 was brief and he appeared in just four games and had one hit and one RBI in eight at bats. Ingram left Minnesota after the 1995 season and spent 1996 with the San Diego Padres AAA Las Vegas Stars team before retiring after the season ended.

Ingram was offered and accepted a minor league coaching position with the Twins organization after retiring as an active player and spent the next 18 seasons coaching and managing in the Twins system. Ingram managed the GCL Twins, Fort Myers Miracle, and the New Britain Rock Cats and was well liked by his players and members of the Twins organization. alike Ingram was apparently a great story-teller and fun to be around. In 2009 Ingram suffered from severe headaches and was diagnosed with a brain tumor, the prognosis was grim as doctors gave him just a year to live. Ingram battled the brain tumor for a year before returning to coaching in the Twins system. Ingram was a coach for the Fort Myers Miracle in 2014 but as the year progressed he learned that his cancer had returned.

“Every year, he used to meet with our pitchers,” said Eric Rasmussen, who was Ingram’s pitching coach with the Miracle in 2005 and is now the Twins minor league pitching coordinator. “He’d gather them all together, and he’d say: “You have got one job to do. Throw the ball over the plate.” “And then he’d leave.”

Before becoming a professional baseball player, Ingram was a star football and baseball player at Georgia Tech and is a member of the Georgia Tech’s Sports Hall of Fame. He was the first Georgia Tech player to be named the Atlantic Coast Conference’s male athlete of the year. He was an All-Atlantic Coast Conference defensive back in 1986 before leading the Yellow Jackets to the 1987 ACC baseball championship.

Riccardo Benay Ingram is survived by his wife, Allison, and their two children – Kacey and Kristen. RIP Riccardo Ingram, you will be missed.

The Twins shortstop dilemma

Eduardo Escobar
Eduardo Escobar

In 2014 Eduardo Escobar took over as the Twins regular shortstop in spite of team’s attempts to give the job to a number of other players. Escobar responded by playing well in the field and better than expected at the plate by hitting .275 with 35 doubles and six home runs in 433 at bats. Escobar does not steal many bases, not sure why that is, and his OBP was only .315. Escobar is a fun player to watch and when he plays he seems to make the team around him play better.

This spring the 26 year-old Escobar has the second most at bats of anyone on the team and he is hitting .319 with three home runs and a team leading 14 RBI but his OBP is only .313. What you see is what you get with the popular Escobar, he will never be an on base machine but he plays well in the field and he has some pop in his bat. Although Escobar prefers shortstop, he has also played 3B, 2B, and he can play some outfield in a pinch.

Danny Santana
Danny Santana

The Twins however; seem to have their heart set on Danny Santana becoming the teams regular shortstop. The 24 year-old Santana is also a natural shortstop but the Twins threw him out in to center field last year and he responded well by playing good defense for someone with so little outfield experience and with the stick he was even better with a .319 average and seven home runs, 40 RBI and 20 stolen bases in just 405 at bats at the big league level. When you add in his .353 OBP, primarily from the lead-off spot you are looking at a pretty nice rookie season for the young switch-hitter. I know manager Paul Molitor would like to see his lead-off hitter with a .370 or so OBP but Santana is still very young and he probably will raise his OBP as he matures.

Meanwhile, back in the black hole the Twins call center field no one has stepped up and taken the reins to win the job since the Twins traded both Denard Span and Ben Revere after the 2012 season. The team has tried to give the job to Aaron Hicks for the last several seasons and this year he was expected to at least play center in a platoon role but just the other day the team sent him packing to look for a home in AAA Rochester. Everyone knows that center field will be the new home of Byron Buxton in the very near future so the Twins are only looking for s place holder for that role until Buxton shows up to claim his spot. By sending Hicks down the Twins seem to be saying that Jordan Schafer and Shane Robinson will share the center field job. Personally, I think that by All-Star time Buxton will be patrolling center field at Target Field.

The Twins claim they want to be a better team, but who doesn’t. I am not sure I understand the Twins logic in playing Schafer/Robinson in center, Santana at short, and Escobar in a utility role.  To me it makes more sense to play Santana in center five days a week and two days a week at short and play Escobar at short when Santana is in the outfield. It seems to me that I would prefer Escobar in the line-up most of the time over a Schafer or Robinson. I understand that Santana needs to continue playing some shortstop if that is going to be his long-term position. I love Santana in my line-up but has he proven he can play short in the big leagues? Not on a long-term basis. Assuming that Buxton really is the knight in shining armor and will coming riding in to Target Field on his white horse before September of 2015 why not get the best sticks in the line-up.

Both Danny Santana and Eduardo Escobar deserve and have earned more playing time than Jordan Schafer and Shane Robinson and it’s time for the Twins to man up and put their best players on the field. It will be best for the team and for us fans that pay good money to buy the tickets to watch this team play ball.

One things that really bugs me is when Twins management and Twins fans complain that this player can’t do this and he can’t do that. Everyone is always looking for a player with all five tools. What the hell are they thinking? How many five tool guys are there in the big leagues playing ball today? They are rare as hen’s teeth, they are perennial all-star’s and future Hall of Famers, they don’t grow on trees. If you find one each decade you are doing great. Most big league players have flaws, canker sores, warts and other issues. We all have to quit thinking that every player the Twins bring up has to be the next Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew, Jim Kaat, Johan Santana, or Kirby Puckett.

There is nothing wrong with good baseball players that have some warts. Twins management needs to realize that it is OK for some of these young players to come up to Minnesota with shortcomings in their game that they can improve on and learn from while they earn big league dollars. Not everyone can do it all, so don’t keep waiting on perfection.

Twins Hodgepodge

The blog C70 at the Bat has an annual event where they check in with bloggers from other teams to talk about the past off-season and the up-coming season which they call Playing Pepper. This has been going on for a number of years and I have participated for the last few year. Here is what a number of Twins bloggers had to say in Playing Pepper 2015 – Minnesota Twins.

I know that spring training stats don’t mean squat but if you go by the numbers they have put up so far this spring the Twins bullpen is in for a long season and pitching coach Neil Allen and manager Paul Molitor will wear a path from the dugout to the pitching mound. Hopefully they are not nearly as bad as they have shown us so far this spring.

Chris Herrmann
Chris Herrmann

The Twins keep playing the 27-year-old Chris Herrmann this spring and the way I see it they are showcasing him and trying to do him a favor and move him. I have talked with Herrmann a number of time over the last few years and you could not meet a nicer guy. The Twins are using Herrmann in the outfield, first base, DH and at catcher. It is good to be able to play a variety of roles but it is the catchers gear that will prolong Herrmann’s career in the big leagues and he wants to be considered a catcher because he understands that ordinary utility players are a dime a dozen. I believe the Twins feel that Herrmann has no future with the Twins but they want to reward him for his loyalty but showcasing him and moving him this spring to a team that is looking for a back-up catcher that can also play several other positions. Herrmann is what he is and his skills are not going to change at this point in his career, he just needs to find a team looking for his skills. I wish Chris the best but baseball can be cruel.

I am disappointed in how little the Twins have run this spring under their new skipper. The team stolen base leaders so far are Aaron Hicks and Eduardo Nunez with two and the team has stolen a total of seven bases in 11 attempts. Oddly enough speedster Jordan Schafer has been caught three times in four attempts.

Tim Stauffer
Tim Stauffer

My biggest disappointment so far this spring? That would be reliever Tim Stauffer, I expected a lot more but it is still early.

I still have hope that the Twins will some how find a way to take a serious look at Eddie Rosario as the Twins center fielder in 2015.

One of Twins top prospects shut down

Max Kepler
Max Kepler

This past Wednesday I heard that one of the Twins top prospects, Max Kepler had injured his arm during a morning workout. The early diagnosis was a Flexor Pronator Strain and a MRI the following day confirmed the diagnosis. The good news is that there is no tear but the bad news is that Max had a similar arm injury last season. Kepler works very hard to stay in shape year round but has had some bad injury luck the last couple of years that have limited him to 61 games in 2013 and 102 games last season. When I asked Twins management about the injury to Kepler their comment was “just a tight forearm”.

Kepler, who turned 22 recently was signed by Minnesota in 2009 and can play all three outfield positions as well as first base has been in the Twins minor league system since 2010. Kepler was hoping to start this season with Chattanooga and is very disappointed with his latest injury. A lot of people including myself were expecting a breakout season from Max in 2015 and he may still have that but it will start later than he would have wanted. I understand that Kepler has been shut down and will start rehabbing his injury this coming week but expectations are that he could be out 3-4 weeks. A very tough break for one of my favorite players in the Minnesota Twins system.

Checking in with the Twins

When you visit the CenturyLink Sports complex when there are no games going on it can be kind of boring. I know, I know, I have nothing to complain about as I watch the Twins prepare for a new season in the 80 degree sunshine that SW Florida provides. When I got to the ballpark I ran into Seth Stohs from Twins Daily who had just arrived a day earlier and we chatted for a while. The Twins were playing the Pirates up in Bradenton so the remaining crew of Twins players back in Fort Myers was made up primarily of starting pitchers and a few position players that didn’t make the trip like Joe Mauer, Torii Hunter and Eduardo Nunez.

The minor league players hadn’t reported yet although I believe they are scheduled to report today. With the minor league group reporting it would mean that it is time for the Twins to announce their first group of cuts which I believe will be announced later today.

Ton Kelly
Ton Kelly

As I was leaving the minor league fields I happened to see former Twins skipper Tom Kelly sauntering back from the minor league complex to Hammond Stadium bat in hand. I said hello and asked about his health as we walked back. TK told me he was not 100% as yet but was getting stronger everyday. He told me about how his doctor had literally “gotten in his face” and told him to rest and do nothing after he was released from the hospital. Of course TK being who he is couldn’t sit still for long but he found out quickly that the doctor knew what he was talking about and since then TK has listened to the doctor and abided by his wishes. The doctor told him it would probably take about 6 months to get back to where he was before the stroke and the 6 month mark is coming up soon. As we got closer to the stadium more fans recognized TK and soon a group had gathered for pictures and autographs with the Twins legend. I continue to be amazed at how Tom Kelly has mellowed over the years. Good for you TK, stay healthy because the Twins and their fans need you.

As always I managed to get some pictures of the action for you down here and you can check them out on the right hand side of the page under the 2015 Spring Training link.

The most interesting man in baseball?

Daniel Norris
Daniel Norris

Is Toronto Blue Jays prospect Daniel Norris the most interesting man in baseball? Every now and then you run across a story that gets your attention and makes you wonder about a lot of things. This morning I ran across such a story on ESPN and it makes me wonder what if the Minnesota Twins had signed Norris. If the Twins drafted and signed Norris would they be OK with his life style? I really liked this story and wish Daniel Norris the best and I hope I get a chance to talk to him some day. You can read the story here. Maybe there still are “characters” in baseball after all.

Twins first exhibition game on deck

The Minnesota Twins open their 2015 exhibition season by playing the Minnesota Gophers on March 4 and they will play their final spring training game on Saturday April 4th at Hammond Stadium against the Boston Red Sox. When early April rolls around we will all have a pretty good idea who will make this years opening day roster. Having said that, I don’t think that Twins fans should get too attached to the players on the opening day roster because I have a feeling that the “roster will be a-changing” and I can’t wait to see some of that new blood when  it heads north to Minnesota and Target field.

Tinker Field 6The Minnesota Twins played their first ever exhibition game on March 11, 1961 at Tinker Field in Orlando. Cookie Lavagetto and his boys took on the Detroit Tigers and their first game turned out to be a 4-1 loss. Paul Giel started the game for Minnesota and took the loss and Bob Bruce who started for the Tigers was credited with the victory. You will notice in the box score that although this was the first game of spring training and players were not in the shape that they are in today that a number of the pitchers that pitched in this game logged three innings not the one inning that you will probably see tomorrow.

Paul Giel (courtesy of the Minnesota Twins)
Paul Giel (courtesy of the Minnesota Twins)

The box score below was provided courtesy of Stew Thornley, Thanks Stew, we appreciate it!

Twins first ST game boxscore 3-11-1961

Hammond Stadium Extreme Makeover

There was a special Hammond Stadium Commemorative Section in the Ft. Myers News-Press Sunday paper today and the headline was “Extreme Makeover”. David Dorsey did a number of the articles in the special section and he did a superb job. Maybe his best piece in the section has the following headline – “Ancient Rome inspires entrance.” It talks about the “grand vomitory” and how Dave St. Peter and the Twins had to be convinced to give up some of their best seats behind home plate that brought in about $5,400 in revenue per spring training game. Dorsey also discusses the “Witches Hat” towers with the Populous architect. I am not going to spoil the article for you by telling you what “grand vomitory” means and what “Witches Hat” towers have to do with the extreme makeover.

You can read it for yourself here –

New Twins grand entrance will spew forth fans

Improvements abound at Twins spring training home

Fields of Dreams for the Minnesota Twins

Q&A: Hammond Stadium architect discusses the details

There is a very nice panoramic view video of the stadium and the grand entrance in the article that you also want to see.

Looking at the best seat in the house spring training prices

2015 Grapefruit LeagueWhen I was out at the CenturyLink Sports Complex I picked a Minnesota Twins spring training schedule and I was also handed a brochure called “Spring Training Florida,” put out by the Florida Sports Foundation. Their web site can be found at www.floridagrapefruitleague.com and it is worth your time to check this site out before you head on down here to Florida to catch some spring baseball.

There are 15 teams that train in Florida (eight AL and seven NL) at this time and I thought that it would be fun to see how spring training ticket prices compare when you look at the best seat (most expensive) ticket in the house. Spring training tickets are priced all over the board and a number of teams break down their spring training games into various tiers like they do their regular season tickets. The Twins for example have two tiers and divide their games into “value” and “premium” pricing and this year they even have a lower price for their game against the Minnesota Gophers on  March 4th.

It is difficult to try to use logic to explain baseball spring training ticket prices here in the Grapefruit League. Some of the teams that you might say are going to be or have been less competitive have some of the highest ticket prices. I am not sure how things work out in Arizona where the spring training sites are closer together but here in Florida visiting teams seldom send very many, sometimes you wonder if they sent any of their regulars to away games. Not counting the game against the Gophers and any “B” games, the Twins will play 32 exhibition games, 16 at home and 16 on the road but five of those road games are at JetBlue Park just a couple of miles away so you really can’t count those as real away games.

So if you wanted to really splurge and buy a ticket for the best seat in the stadium, what will it cost you this year if you come down here to warm and sunny Florida.

TEAM LOCATION COST
1 Astros Kissimmee $58
2 Braves Lake Buena Vista $54
3 Red Sox Ft. Myers $48
4 Twins Ft. Myers $44
5 Marlins Jupiter $40
5 Cardinals Jupiter $40
7 Phillies Clearwater $39
8 Orioles Sarasota $35
8 Rays Port Charlotte $35
10 Yankees Tampa $33
11 Blue Jays Dunedin $32
12 Tigers Lakeland $30
12 Mets Port St. Lucie $30
12 Nationals Viera $30
15 Pirates Bradenton $27

Interactive Whiteboards by PolyVision

Average price for the best seat in the house is $38.33

I can’t really speak for the other teams but one of the benefits of coming to a Twins game at the CenturyLink Sports Complex around mid-March or later is that you can go to the back fields and catch a couple of minor league games going on. I believe that the minor league players are scheduled to report on March 10 so a few days after that you should be able to start to see them playing some games. Sometimes these games are against each other but most of the time they will play a team from the same level from another organization. Watching these future stars doesn’t cost you a dime and if you get to the park early enough you might not have to pay for parking. I believe the Twins charge about $10 for parking on days when the Twins play at Hammond Stadium and I think they start collecting money sometime between 9:30 AM and 10 AM. So if you are an early bird you can save a ten spot but don’t tell the Twins I told you to do that.

If can swing a trip to Florida to enjoy the sun and the wonderful weather you should try to take in a Grapefruit League game, it is a great way to enjoy an afternoon or evening.

No red carpet but the uniforms were red

IMGP8441cI missed the Minnesota Twins open house this past Sunday because I was feeling under the weather but I was feeling fine again on Monday so I headed out to the CenturyLink Sports Complex to check out the Twins pitchers and catchers on their first day at training camp under new manager Paul Molitor.

I don’t know why but I was surprised to see the Twins wearing their red jerseys during their first 2015 workout. The workout was already underway when I arrived. I believe that the Twins workouts normally start about 08:30 AM and finish up around 11:30 AM.

The Twins pitchers were broken into several different groups as they went through a variety of drills and took their turn in the bullpen to get some throwing in under the watchful eye of their brand new pitching coach Neil Allen. The catchers in camp this year are Kurt Suzuki, Josmil Pinto, Chris Herrmann, Eric Fryer, Mitch Garver, Tyler Grimes, Dan Rohlfing, and Stuart Turner.

It is great to see the Twins out on the field again and getting ready for their first season under the tutelage of Hall of Famer Paul Molitor but all in all it was a pretty quiet day. There were a number of fans but not as many as I might have expected checking out the action getting pictures and a few autographs when the players work for the day was over. The one observation I would make after watching the first day is that it seemed much quieter and more business-like then what I remember from previous sessions under the Gardenhire regime. I didn’t see any horsing around or players standing around laughing and telling tall tales from their off-season exploits. Maybe it was just day one jitters and everyone getting acclimated but it seemed different.

Molitor was kind of what I expected him to be, standing around and observing the action and now and then taking a player aside and talking with him one on one. Maybe I missed it but I didn’t see Molitor smile once during the morning work outs. It might be just his personality or maybe it struck him exactly what he had stepped into during his first venture in managing. It will be interesting to see how the Twins players react to a manager that I think is much more of a distant old school Tom Kelly type than a players manager like Ron Gardenhire who seemed to be more interested in being part of the gang. Time will tell.

I haven’t seen TK down here yet so I am not sure if he will report when the position players show up or if his health concerns will prevent him from taking part in spring training this season. It was kind of odd not seeing the long time Twins coaching staff and instead seeing Eddie Guardado out on the field helping with pitchers fielding practice.

Your fun fact for the day, Twins pitchers are “a tall glass of water”, at least ten of them are 6’4″ or taller.

I did get a few pictures that you can check out on the right hand side of the page under “2015 Spring Training”.