It wasn’t just the bad pitching in 2012

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The Twins finished the 2012 season in last place in the AL Central division with a 66-96 record and the Twins pitching staff took the brunt of the blame for the Twins poor showing. The pitching staff was kind of a house divided with the relievers doing a pretty decent job taking into account that they threw the second most innings (558.2) in the league trailing only the Royals that pitched 561.1 innings. The Twins bullpen put up a respectable 3.77 ERA ranking 9th out of 14 teams. Opposing batters hit .246 off the Twins relief staff making them the fourth worst in the league. Then there were the starters….. The starting staff was dismal pitching only 880 innings for an average of 5.43 innings per game and only 61.19% of the innings pitched. The Seattle Mariners starters threw a league leading  1002.1 inning for an average of 6.19 innings per start, a difference of .76 innings per game. The Twins also had a league worst 5.40 ERA and opposing hitters played like all-stars hitting the starters at a .291 clip. Twins starters posted a 39-75 record and the Royals were next worse and they had 47 wins. Nothing really new here right?

But how does the 2012 Twins staff with Twins staff’s in the past, after all, only three Twins teams in their history have lost more games in a single season, the 1982 team lost 102, the 2011 boys lost 99 and the 1999 team walked off the field with their heads hanging down 97 times.

The 2012 Twins pitching staff allowed 5.14 runs per game, seven other Twins staff’s allowed more including the 1995 Twins who allowed 6.17 runs per game.

Thirteen Twins pitching staff’s gave up more hits than the 2012 staff did including the division winning 2009 crew.

The 2012 Twins staff allowed 198 long balls ranking 8th worst in their history. Did you know the 1987 World Series champion Twins gave up 210 home runs?

Last years Twins pitchers struck out 943 batters, the 1965 World Series team struck out 934 and the 1991 World Series champion Twins pitchers struck out just 876 opposing hitters.

At least 20 Twins staff’s over the years had a worse WHIP then the 1.39 that the 2012 staff had.

So when you read this you have to wonder why the Twins were so bad last season. Let’s take a look at run differential, the Twins scored 4.33 runs per game last season and gave up 5.14 runs per game, a differential of a minus .81 runs per game, seventh worse in team history. No Twins team that has had a negative run differential of a minus .50 or higher has ever won more that 71 games in any season. Everyone was all over the Twins pitching staff in 2012 and deservedly so but no one complained about the Twins runs scored issue. In the Twins 52 year history only 16 teams have had a lower runs per game total than last years Twins.

In order for the Twins to even think about playing .500 baseball, they need to drop their runs allowed and improve their runs scored to about 4.52 runs per game. The poor starting pitching also put the Twins in a deep hole, last season the Twins were out-scored 236 to 162 after the first two innings were played. That put the Twins run differential after 2 innings at a -74 and when you compare that the division winning Tigers +32 you come up with a difference of 106 runs in just the first two innings. When the Twins were trailing after two innings, they won 23% of those games. The Twins have work to do on both sides of the ball.

How the AL Central is reacting to the Tigers

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Today we have a guest post written by FanDuel.com.

After a somewhat slow start a season ago, the Detroit Tigers really hit their stride and put away the Chicago White Sox in a two-team race in the AL Central. The Royals, Indians and Twins all finished well below .500 and the due to that the division continues to be labeled as one of the weakest in baseball. With Detroit looking like the clear-cut favorites again in 2013, how have the other four teams tried to improve?

Both Cleveland and Kansas City have both made some moves to improve their 2013 squads, making some key free agent signings as well as some trades they felt confident about. The biggest names are James Shields and Wade Davis, who should both help the Royals pitching staff quite a bit this upcoming season. Most of their offensive firepower has been homegrown, but their luck with starting pitching has not worked out too well. Some criticized them for giving up Wil Meyers to get these guys, but it’s an interesting move by the Royals.

Cleveland has been busy as well, but most of their noise comes from the free agent market. Signing fantasy baseball favorites Michael Bourn and Nick Swisher will give them two guys to hit near the top of their lineup. They are also great veteran leaders who will fit in nicely with new manager Terry Francona. The Indians have also taken low risk, high reward flyers out on the likes of Jason Giambi, Mark Reynolds, and Daisuke Matsuzaka. They were able to pull all this off without sacrificing any of their top prospects. In fact, they picked up a good one along the way, getting Trevor Bauer to bolster their pitching staff.

Minnesota might not be making the type of noise fans were hoping for, but their more long-term approach could pay off in the upcoming seasons. The Twins have farm system rich with talent, headlined by the likes of Miguel Sano, Byron Buxton, Kyle Gibson and Aaron Hicks. All of those guys project to be above-average MLB players, but for right now, the Twins might still be a year away from truly competing for the playoffs again. The health of Mauer and Morneau is always going to play a major role for them, but the talent they have in their farm system is reason enough to be optimistic about the future.

Finally, the White Sox were the only legitimate contenders with the Tigers a season ago, and they figure to be their biggest threat this year as well. The problem is, a lot of people feel as though they haven’t done enough to make their team better in the offseason. A few under the radar moves like signing Matt Lindstrom for the bullpen and Jeff Keppinger to play third base might be the little tweaks they need. If Alex Rios, Jake Peavy and Adam Dunn can all provide the same type of value as they did a year ago, the Tigers will not simply coast to the title. In fact, all four teams, albeit by different methods, are going after the current top team in the division.

Twins tickets today and yesterday

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Twins ticketsTarget Field still has a layer of snow and the temperature will reach only 17 degrees today here in Minnesota but in Ft. Myers the Twins pitchers and catchers have already started daily workouts and the position players will be reporting soon. On Saturday, February 16th the Twins will begin selling single-game tickets. The last couple of years when the Twins opened single-game ticket sales the phone lines and web site got over-run and there were sometimes long delays in getting your tickets purchased. Based on the Twins poor showing the last two seasons and low expectations for 2013 I would not expect long waits to purchase your tickets this year.

To me, the question is should you buy your single-game tickets when they go on sale on Saturday or do you wait? The current quoted price for single-game tickets is only good from February 16 through February 22 because on February 23 demand-based pricing kicks in. Haven’t heard about demand-based pricing?  The Twins actually started that policy in 2012 and here is how it plays out in 2013. Beginning February 23, single game ticket prices in all seating sections will be determined on a daily basis according to current market demand. Prices may fluctuate upward or downward based on real-time market conditions. So the question is, will I get better value by purchasing my tickets now or will I be able to get a better price once the season begins. I guess it all depends on how well the Twins play and what the weather is like. Personally; I just find it irritating that the published single-game ticket price is only good for 1 week before the first spring training game is even played. I guess I am old school.

On the other side of the coin you can certainly argue that it is better to sell more tickets even if you have to sell them at a discount than to not sell them at all at full price. The customer benefits because he gets to see the baseball game and the team benefits because they get the fan in the ballpark where it is likely he will spend additional dollars on food and possibly merchandise. Where the rub comes in is that going to a baseball game is getting to be like buying an airline ticket, each person on that flight is going to go to the same destination on that particular flight but each of them may have paid a different fare to get there. I have a problem with that.

The other issue I see is that in order to keep the season ticket holder base happy the team has to sell the demand-based tickets at a higher price than what the season ticket holders pay or that becomes a huge issue in itself. Thus the demand-based tickets can only be lowered to a certain price base level but on the other side if all is going great, the team can jack up the price of the ticket to whatever the market will pay. I see little risk and high reward for the team with demand-base pricing and to me it is another gimmick that costs the fans.

The Minnesota Twins have been here since 1961 and over 81 million fans (through 2012)have come through the turnstiles at the Met, the Metrodome and now Target Field to watch the Twins play ball and most of them have bought tickets. I thought it would be fun to take a look at Twins ticket prices going back to 1961 when the ballclub played their first game at Metropolitan Stadium. I did a lot of research on Twins ticket prices and here are some interesting nuggets that I found.

In 1961 the Twins had 3 price categories, a box seat went for $3, reserved grandstand went for $2.50 and general admission was $1.50. In spite of owner Calvin Griffith’s miserly reputation he did not raise ticket prices until 1968, his eighth season here and he only increased box seats by 50 cents and reserved grandstand by a quarter. Keep in mind that the Twins played in the 1965 World Series during this period and still did not raise ticket prices. Think that would happen in todays world? Not a chance.

By the time the Twins were getting ready to move into the brand new Metrodome in 1982 they had completed 21 years at Met Stadium and the team had implemented ticket price increases just 8 times with the cheapest ticket going from $1.50 to $3.00 and the highest priced ticket jumped from $3 to $7.

In the 23 full seasons that Griffith owned the Twins from 1961 to 1983 (1984 does not count as the team was sold mid-season) he raised ticket prices 9 times (39%) and kept ticket prices at the previous rate on 14 (61%) occasions. During Griffith’s reign the average ticket price went from $2.33 to $6.00, an increase of 157.51%.

The Twins were sold to the Pohlad family in mid-season in 1984. Pohlad’s first full year as team owner was 1985 and his teams played in the Metrodome for 25 years from 1985 through 2009. During the Pohlad era in the Metrodome the Twins raised ticket prices 18 times or 72% of the time. They made no change to the ticket price 4 times, 16% of the time and they lowered ticket prices on 3 occasions or 12% of the time. The first drop took place in 1987 when the ticket price dropped 4% as the average ticket price went from $6.25 to $6.00 based on a $1.00 drop in lower left field seats. The second average ticket price drop occurred as the team entered the 1996 season when the average ticket went from $10.86 to $8.67 but this is kind of deceiving because the Twins added one new ticket category and dropped two high-priced categories and sold them as season tickets only and these category changes dropped the average ticket price when the ticket prices never actually changed. The third drop in average ticket price occurred as the Twins went into the 2002 season fresh off the “contraction” fiasco. The contraction business may have played a role in the ticket price reduction but what about the outrageous 53.58% average ticket price increase that took place prior to the 2001 season? Maybe the Twins realized that they over did it the year before, who knows? Bottom line, from 1985 through the 2009 season in the Metrodome under the Pohlad umbrella the average Twins ticket price went from $5.50 in 1985 to $30.25 which is an increase of 450%.

Between 1961 and 2005 the Twins had anywhere from 2 to 7 different pricing categories each season. Dynamic/variable pricing showed up in 2006 and the price categories jumped to 16, in 2009 it jumped to 24, in 2010 with the move to Target Field it more than doubled to 57 , in 2011 it crept up to 60 and in 2013 it jumps to 95.

I set up a new page called Twins Ticket Price History so if you want to see a year by year look at Twins ticket prices, some charts and tables showing ticketing information, and some ticket images including some interesting “phantom” tickets, check it out.

This and That

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Max Kepler in WBC in 2012There was a nice piece written about Twins outfield prospect Max Kepler the other day by MiLB.com and if you get a chance, check it out here. The article talks about Kepler’s childhood, the choices he has made and the road that he has taken to try to become a major league player with the Minnesota Twins. The path to the majors for a ballplayer from Germany is a long and difficult one and not just for Max but for his family as well. I have watched Max work hard to improve his skills and I will tell you this, don’t bet against this young man, he is dedicated to be the best he can be and one day he will be a major league ball player, mark my words.

Football season has ended and baseball is just around the corner but March Madness will be starting soon and everyone will fill out one or more “brackets” hoping to cash in either financially or in term of bragging rights. Some fans may even want to wager a few dollars in support of their favorite teams. For all types of sports betting including NCAA College Basketball Betting just follow the link.

The MLB Fan Cave is back for its third season in 2013 and the 50 finalists have been named. The Twins representative is 25-year old St. Paul native, Michael McGivern, an ardent Minnesota Twins fan with broadcasting, social media, and marketing experience. The first round of voting ends on February 13th so take a minute to support your Twins  representative by voting for Michael at http://mlbfancave.mlb.com/fancave/vote.jsp?fliqzid=75d1a1fb9d2844bfba9497e98bde25c8

Tony Oliva with Rod Carew
Tony Oliva with Rod Carew

When I was at TwinsFest recently I ran across a young lady that was part of a campaign to get Tony Oliva elected to the MLB Hall of Fame in 2014. The group has set up a web site at www.votetonyo.com in hopes of accomplishing their goal. I truly believe that Tony deserves to be in the Hall of Fame and I will do whatever I can to help. I would urge all the Twins fans out there to do whatever they can to make this happen. I would love to see all the Twins blog sites out there post a link to the votetonyo.com site to help drive traffic to the site. Stop by the site and see what you can do to help make Tony Oliva a Hall of Famer! I recently did an interview with Eddie Bane who played with Tony and has been around the big leagues since 1973 and this is what Eddie had to say about Tony: “By the way, one additional thought on some of the old-time baseball guys from the 60’s and 70’s. I have asked a lot of former major league pitchers who the best hitter they ever faced was. Of the more than 20 pitchers I asked at least half of them said Tony Oliva. Tony never gets his due as far as the Hall of Fame goes, but those pitchers all remember that swing that I can still picture in my mind. Without those lousy knees that he had Tony O would certainly be a Hall of Fame player”. Thanks Eddie, another reason to vote Tony to the Hall!

This Day in Twins History – February 5

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Freddie Toliver1988 – The Twins trade for pitcher Freddie Toliver and send catcher Chris Calvert to Philly. The right-handed Toliver spent parts of 1988 and 1989 pitching for the Twins mostly as a starter and he had a 8-9 record with a 1.55 WHIP and a 4.95 ERA in 143.2 innings. The string bean Toliver (6’1″ and 165 lbs) always had control issues and in mid-1989 the Twins traded him to the Padres for Greg Booker. Calvert never advanced past AA ball. Booker a big 6’6″ right-handed pitcher appeared in 6 games in a Minnesota uniform in 1989 and had no record and the Twins let him go after the season ended.

2002 – MLB owners postpone contraction until the 2003 season; a day after the Minnesota Supreme Court refuses to hear their appeal of the injunction that forces the Twins to honor their Metrodome lease for the 2002 season.

The Minnesota Twins and litigation have not exactly been strangers over the years and this April 2010 article on mnbenchbar.com by Marshall Tanick highlights some of the brushes that the Minnesota Twins and their players have had with the courts over the years. There are several other cases of Twins players or ex-Twins players that have run afoul of the law that are not mentioned in this story.

Guardado and Mee to join Twins Hall of Fame

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Eddie "Every Day" Guardado
Eddie “Everyday Eddie” Guardado (courtesy of the Minnesota Twins)

 

 

The Twins announced that pitcher Eddie Guardado and former executive Tom Mee have been selected to be inducted into the Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame at Target Field on June 16 prior to the Twins vs Detroit Tigers game. Guardado and Mee will become
the 25th and 26th members of the Twins Hall of Fame.

The January 25th Minnesota Twins press release stated that “Guardado was elected by a 56-member committee consisting of local and national media, club officials, fans and past elected members, using rules similar to those necessary for election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. The 56-member committee annually considers “player” personnel for induction into the Twins Hall of Fame. Guardado was the top vote getter, followed by Chuck Knoblauch, Cesar Tovar and Dan Gladden. Mee was elected through the Veterans Committee ballot, which consists of 18 voters; voting participants include all living Twins Hall of Famers, current Twins President and General Manger and two Minnesota Baseball historians. The 18-member committee votes every other year on “non-player” personnel for induction into the Twins Hall of Fame”.

The 42-year old Guardado was born in Stockton, California and was the Twins 21st round selection in the 1990 June amateur draft but he did not sign with the team until May 23, 1991. Guardado started his pro career with Elizabethton and pitched in Kenosha (A), Visalia (A+), and Nashville (AA) before the Twins called and said they needed his help in the big leagues.

On June 13, 1993 Eddie made his major league debut at the Metrodome as the Twins starter against the Oakland A’s but it was not a propitious beginning as Eddie gave up a home run to Terry Steinbach who was batting second in the A’s batting order in the top of the first inning. The Twins came back with four of their own in the bottom of the inning and led 4-1 after one inning. Guardado left with a 4-3 lead after pitching 3.1 innings and giving up 5 hits, 3 walks while striking out 3 but the Twins relievers could not hold the lead and the Twins lost 7-6. Guardado pitched in 19 games starting 16 of them in 1993 but as time went along it became apparent that Eddie’s true calling would be in the bullpen. “Everyday Eddie” soon became a bullpen fixture and pitched for the Twins from 1993-2003 and returned for 9 games in 2008. Guardado became the Twins closer in 2001 and saved a league leading 45 games in 2002 and had 41 saves in 2003 and was selected to the All-Star team both years. Guardado became a free agent after the 2003 season and signed with the Seattle Mariners. The Mariners traded Guardado to the Cincinnati Reds in June of 2006 and “Every Day” Eddie pitched there for two season before playing for the Texas Rangers and the Twins again in 2008 and then finishing his active big league career as a Ranger once again in 2009. During his stay in Minnesota Guardado had a 37-48 record with 116 saves and is the Twins all-time pitching leader in games appeared with 648 throughout his career, recording at least 60 appearances in eight different seasons. Additionally, he is the Twins all-time leader in innings pitched (579.0) as a reliever and stands third on the Twins all-time saves list with 116.

Tom Mee (courtesy of the Minnesota Twins)
Tom Mee (courtesy of the Minnesota Twins)

St. Paul native Tom Mee is widely regarded as the Minnesota Twins first employee and he served in a variety of roles in the Twins organization including radio/TV broadcaster, public address announcer but was best known for serving as Director of Media Relations for 30 years. After retiring in 1991, Mee went on to be the teams official scorer and he performed those duties until he left that post in 2007.

Mee received the Robert O. Fischel award for Public Relations excellence in 1988 and in 2007 he became the second ever recipient of the Herb Carneal Lifetime Achievement Award. The Tom Mee Library, which is located in the Baseball Communications office at Target Field, is named in his honor

A number of fans seemed surprised and disappointed at Eddie Guardado’s selection to the Twins Hall of Fame stating that the bar has been lowered but if they took the time to look at what he accomplished in a Twins uniform they would see that he is fully deserving of the honor that the Twins will bestow on him this summer. Although Guardado was not blessed with the greatest physical abilities he proved over the years that he was one of the Twins best.

  • Third on the franchise all-time saves list behind Joe Nathan and Rick Aguilera with 116.
  • Third on the franchise strikeouts per 9 innings ranking behind only Johan Santana and Francisco Liriano.
  • Second in franchise history in games appeared by a pitcher behind only Hall of Famer Walter Johnson.
  • Only “Iron Mike” Marshall appeared in more games in a season than Guardado did.
  • Only Nathan and Aguilera finished more games than Eddie did in franchise history.
 

Twins crossword puzzle

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crossword imageI have thought for some time that it would be fun to create a Minnesota Twins crossword puzzle and so the last few days I have worked to put one together and here are the results. This is my first attempt at doing this and this one may actually be too big but I will put it out here and see what you think.

Twins Puzzle 1

Once you have brough the puzzle up and are ready to print the puzzle, do a right-click with your mouse and you might want to do a print preview first to get the puzzle the right size to fit on a single page. The clues for the puzzle will print on page 2.

I would be very interested in your thoughts about the puzzle, just put them in the comments below, good, bad or indifferent. Of course if you go off the deep end your comments might not make it. Thanks for your time.

Answers? You want answers? Probably just to double-check your work because if you are checking out this site you are probably a big Twins fan and will not need any research to complete the puzzle. If you need help answering some, the answer might be found else where on this site. If you must see the answers, you can find them on the link below but only do so as a last resort.

Twins puzzle 1 answers

Earl Weaver dead at 82 of a heart attack

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Earl Weaver discussing the play with the umpire.
Earl Weaver discussing the play with the umpire.

Legendary Hall of Fame Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver passed away earlier today at the age of 82. Weaver was traveling on an Orioles fantasy cruise in the Caribbean when he collapsed in his room with wife, Maryanne, at his side on the cruise’s ship at about 2 a.m. Saturday, the New York Daily News reported.

Weaver was never associated with the Minnesota Twins other than when he managed against them as the Orioles skipper but he was always one of my favorite managers. His “discussions” with the umpires were often the highlite of the game. I will always consider Weaver to be one of baseball’s greatest managers.

Thank you for all the wonderful memories Earl Weaver, yoou were one of the best. We at Twins Trivia would like to extend our condolences to Earl Weaver’s family and friends, you are in our thoughts and prayers.

ESPN has a nice video and story you can read here.

Florida spring training ticket prices

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money in walletDo you have plans to get away from the cold and snow and feel the sand between your toes, the sun on your back and hopefully catch some Twins spring training baseball in Florida? What better way to forget your problems and get away from it all. For the first time in many years I will not be attending spring training in Ft. Myers but that is a whole different story. Well, if you are going, you might want to raise your credit card limit and keep a tight grip on your wallet or purse because MLB and the Twins are looking to help themselves to your money.

The Detroit Tigers apparently have found a new way to gouge a few additional dollars from their fans. The Tigers normally open the gates to Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, Florida 2 hours prior to home games but by that time the Tigers have already completed their batting practice. Baseball fans enjoy watching the home team take batting practice so the Tigers have decided to allow fans to get in early for home batting practice but the fans will be limited to the left-field berm and will need to scratch up an extra $5 for the privilege. Tigers management take on it is that the fans requested it since they could not watch batting practice and now they will be able to do so, if they come up with the bucks. Way to push it on the fans Detroit Tigers management, if the Tigers were really just doing a good deed they would not charge for the privilege or if they did, any money they collect should go to charity or to the old-time baseball players with little or no pensions that baseball has neglected so badly. But it is not just the Tigers, other teams are also looking to take more money from the wallets of their fans. It seems to me that a fan should not be punished if he/she decides to go to a baseball on short notice but that is not the case if you want to take in an Atlanta Braves game in Lake Buena Vista as their web site states that “A $5 Walk-Up fee will apply to Day-Of-Game purchases”, what idiot came up with that idea? Punish walk-up ticket sales? Calvin Griffith is rolling over in his grave this very moment. Other teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates (who have not played .500 ball for 20 years) for example have come up with this plan “Prior to the individual ticket on-sale, fans will have the opportunity to take part in an “Early Bird” online only pre-sale from January 23-25. “Early Bird” pricing is different than regular single game pricing and is an alternative purchase opportunity for fans who want to be guaranteed seats to high-demand games.” This means that for 3 days the Pirates allow you to pay more for a spring training ticket that you normally would. Where the heck do these idiots come up with these ideas and why is the general public falling for these shenanigans?

I see this as just another way that baseball is looking at additional fees to take in more money from their fans. I sure hope this is not something that spreads like wildfire through out baseball as spring training is one of the few places where fans get a chance to get close to their team and now it just seems like baseball is going to make them pay. Fans that attend spring training are the true fan base of any team, they spend their hard earned money to travel to a destination to observe their favorite teams and they should be rewarded by their teams and not punished with extra fees.

The Minnesota Twins have made it tougher to get close to some of the fields in spring training themselves and that is a trend that I see getting worse over the years. Probably won’t be long before they start charging fans for watching the minor leaguers play their games on the back fields. Baseball should be looking for ways to encourage fans to go to spring training by making it affordable but that apparently is not the case.

Look at the Twins spring training ticket prices for example, this is year 2 of “Value” and “Premium” pricing and the tickets range from $13 for a “value” lawn ticket to $43 for a “premium” Dugout Box seat. Last year 3 of the 16 (18.8%) home games were designated as “premium”, this year 6 of the 18 (33.3%) of the home games are classified as “premium” games.  2013 is the first time in a number of years that the Twins have not raised their spring training ticket prices at Hammond Stadium from the previous season but they doubled the number of their “premium” games so yes, they will make more money off ticket sales. YES, $43. How in the world can the Twins who are coming off of back-to-back 90+ loss seasons, dropping payroll, charge $43 to watch a team that will not even have big leaguers playing most of the time? The Twins average spring trainng attendance in 2012 was 7,344 which was a drop of a little over 9% from 8,091 in 2011.

If you are going to have variable pricing why not come up with a plan that is more fair to the fans, charge less for these early spring training exhibition games than you do for games played later in March because for most of March it is mostly minor league players playing most of the game with major league players making cameo appearances. Let’s take a look at the Twins spring training ticket prices since 2008.

Ticket type 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012* 2013**
Dugout Box $38 n/a $39 $39 $40/$43 $40/$43
Box $22 $23 $24 $25 $26/$29 $26/$29
Reserved $20 $21 $22 $23 $24/$27 $24/$27
Drink Rail $20 $21 $22 $25 $26/$29 $26/$29
Lawn $12 $12 $12 $13 $13/$16 $13/$16
* – 3 premium games
** – 6 premium games

And so it begins

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Nick Blackburn
Nick Blackburn

Spring Training is still a month away and the Twins already lost a possible starting pitcher when the team announced that Nick Blackburn will undergo surgery on Wednesday at Mayo Clinic to repair a ligament in his wrist and it is expected that he will miss the beginning of the season. Blackburn will wear a cast for 6 weeks before even starting rehab. This isn’t a real serious blow to the team since it was unlikely that Blackburn would have been in the rotation anyway but it still hurts the Twins to lose one of their most experienced starting pitchers and a possible fallback option. Blackburn is currently not on the Twins 40 man roster but will still pocket $5.5 million this season regardless where he might be pitching. He had bone spurs removed from his elbow following the 2010 season, had the nerve surgery in 2011 and had a bone chip removed from his elbow following the 2012 season before this latest development.

Blackburn who will turn 31 in February had a miserable season in 2012 and was sent down in mid-August after putting up a 4-9 record with a 7.39 ERA and a 1.71 WHIP. In 98.2 innings Blackie allowed 143 hits and 26 walks while striking out just 42. I know a lot of people will say “no loss” but you should never close the door on an experienced starter that has shown a good sinkerball in the past. Who knows, stranger things have happened.