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
Cedar Rapids Kernels (Single-A) outfielder Adam Walker is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week. In five games, Walker, 21, batted .455 (10-for-22) with one double, one triple, four home runs and 13 RBI’s. In 2013, Walker, a Milwaukee, Wisconsin native who is playing for his first full season team is hitting .310 with 14 runs scored, six home runs and 25 RBI’s in 19 games.
After he was drafted by the Twins in the third round of the 2012 Draft from Jacksonville University, the 6’4″, 225 pound right-handed hitting outfielder shared the Appalachian League lead with 15 homers for Rookie-level Elizabethton. He hit three more in the postseason, none more important than a game-tying three-run blast in the bottom of the ninth inning of the decisive Game 3 of the Championship Series against Burlington, a contest the Twins won on Dalton Hicks‘ walk-off grand slam. Previous winners this season include right-handed pitcher Tyler Duffey in week 1 and infielder Miguel Sano in week 2.
By the way – Each of the Twins four minor league affiliates have won their last three games.
Aaron Hicks
According to Elias – Aaron Hicks finally stroked his first major-league extra-base hit, a two-run double in the eighth inning of the Twins’ 7-2 home win over the Rangers yesterday. Hicks thus ended a streak of 64 straight at-bats without an XBH to start his career, the second-longest by any Twins position-player since the team relocated from Washington in 1961. Catcher Tom Tischinski didn’t record more than a single in any of his first 90 big-league at-bats in 1969 and 1970.
Starting tomorrow, the Twins will begin their longest road trip of 2013, playing 10 games in 11 days with stops in Detroit (April 29-May 1), Cleveland (May 3-5) and Boston (May 6-9). So far in 2013 the Twins are 6-6 at home and 4-4 on the road.
Max Kepler update – Star prospect Max Kepler remains on the shelf in Ft. Myers with a left elbow strain and remains shutdown for another month. Kepler, who has never suffered any serious injuries in his short career is reported to be chomping at the bit to start playing some baseball but the Twins are not going to put a young prospect like Kepler at risk of long-term injury. Having said that, there is discussion about sending Kepler to Cedar Rapids and have him DH even if he can’t play in the field.
In baseball, a switch-hitter is a batter that bats either from the right side or the left side depending on if the pitcher is right or left-handed. Most curveballs break away from batters hitting from the same side as the opposing pitcher making such pitches often harder to hit than those from the other side. History tells us that most right-handed batters hit better against lefty pitchers and left-handed batters hit better against right-handers. This so-called platoon benefit is why managers use pinch hitters and LOOGY’s and why some players want to become switch-hitters.
Switch-hitting at its best
Switch-hitters have been around for ever it seems and yet according to sources that I have researched, only about 6% of baseball batters have been switch-hitters. You have to wonder if switch-hitting is such an advantage, why haven’t more of baseball best hitters been switch-hitters? The best career batting average for a switch-hitter is .316 by Frankie Frisch and he currently ranks 71st all-time. Some of the best switch-hitters in our era have been Chipper Jones at .306 and Pete Rose at .303. Detroit Tigers DH Victor Martinez has a career average of .302 making him the highest currently active switch-hitter. Switch-hitters have been around for a long time and there have been some pretty good ones over the years, in addition to the players I just mentioned, you have to add players like Mickey Mantle, Eddie Murray, Roberto Alomar, Bernie Williams, George Davis, Lance Berkman, Tim Raines and Chili Davis to the list of switch-hitting greats.
Switch-hitting and the rules
A question often asked is can a batter switch for right to left or left to right during an at bat. The only rule that I can find that seemingly applies is 6.06(b) which states that “A batter is out for illegal action when he steps from one batter’s box to the other while the pitcher is in position ready to pitch.” Based on that, it appears you can switch from one batters box to the other as often as you want as long as you do it before the pitcher gets in his pitching position.
In the Twins 53 years of existence the team has had 62 players that were switch-hitters but not all of them actually batted and we will touch more on that later. The Twins very first switch-hitter was actually a pitcher, Pedro Ramos. Ramos pitched and batted (1 for 4 with 2 RBI) in the Twins very first game when Ramos and the Twins shut out the New York Yankees 6-0 on April 11, 1961 at Yankee Stadium. The first Twins switch-hitting position player to appear in a game was SS Marty Martinez when he had an at bat against the Yankees at Met Stadium on May 30, 1962 in game 2 of a doubleheader. Martinez actually appeared in 3 earlier games as a Twins but was used strictly as a pinch-runner by manager Sam Mele. It wasn’t until 1976 however; that the Twins actually had a regular position player switch-hitting and that year they had two, rookie catcher Butch Wynegar and SS Roy Smalley. The Twins are playing their 53rd season and there has only been one year, 1973 that they have not had a switch-hitter step into the batters box wearing a Twins uniform. On the other hand, they had nine switch-hitters (Cristian Guzman was the only starter) at one time or another on their 1999 team that finished 63-97.
Twins switch-hitting pitchers
Looking at the Twins 62 switch-hitters, eleven of them were pitchers and claimed to be switch-hitters but only Pedro Ramos, Jim Perry, Dan Serafini, JC Romero, and Joe Mays actually set foot in the batters box. The other six, Stan Perzanowski, Darrell Jackson, Pete Filson, Jason Ryan, Pat Neshek, and Eric Hacker were switch-hitters only on the back of their baseball cards because they never batted in a Twins game. Jim Perry actually hit five home runs as a Twin.
Home runs from each side of the plate club
The Twins switch-hitter with the most home runs is Roy Smalley and he hit 163 career home runs and 110 of them were when he was a Minnesota Twin. The “home runs from each side of the plate” club is relatively exclusive but three of the members were Twins. Roy Smalley accomplished that rare feat twice, once against the Boston Red Sox at the Metrodome on May 30, 1986 and once earlier in his career as a New York Yankee in 1982. Chili Davis became the second Twin to join the club when he did it against the Royals on October 2, 1992. Ryan Doumit became the third Twin to do so when too joined the exclusive fraternity against the Royals on July 22, 2012. Chili Davis hit a home run from each side of the plate 11 times in his illustrious 19 year career. Just for comparisons sake, Mickey Mantle did it on 10 occasions.
One oddity that seems to stand out to me is how few of the switch-hitters employed by the Twins over the years actually threw left-handed. If you exclude the 11 switch-hitting pitchers from the list you are left with 51 switch-hitters and only one of the 51 threw left-handed, the other fifty were right-handed. Kind of strange. The lone left-handed position player was John Moses. But keep in mind that John Moses an outfielder by trade, actually pitched in 3 games for the Twins and it gets even stranger.
Twins best switch-hitters
So let’s take a look at the Twins top switch-hitters, there is no good way to rank them so I will list here all the Twins switch-hitters that have 1,000 or more plate appearances in a Twins uniform. The chart also shows positions played, games played, home runs and batting average. All the numbers on this chart are their Twins career numbers. Many of these players played for other teams but those numbers are not included here, I am only interested in their numbers as Minnesota Twins for this story.
Some interesting numbers and players on this chart, about half the players were starters and half were utility players. No surprise that Smalley is the leader in home runs or that Chili Davis is second on that list but finding that Cristian Guzman is number 3 in the Twins switch-hitter home run list really surprised me.
A bonus question for you, this Twins switch-hitter had a career .425 batting average albeit in just 43 plate appearances, do you know who he is?
With Twins outfielder Wilkin Ramirez out on paternity leave for several days the ballclub needed to make a move and the move they made was to bring up one of their top prospects, outfielder Oswaldo Arcia. Arcia played in New Britain last season and has just 9 games of AAA experience under his belt but so far he is pounding AAA pitching to the tune of a .414 batting average in 34 plate appearances with 8 runs scored, 3 home runs and 8 RBI’s. Hopefully the Twins did not bring Arcia up to warm the bench for a couple of days so I think it will be fun to watch this young man get his first shot at the big leagues. Arcia is more of a corner outfielder but he has played centerfield in the minors so I would not be shocked if Gardy had him playing in center for at least one game. He can’t play Arcia in center much more than that because you can’t have Hicks sitting on the bench either, they both need to play. I heard Gardy on his Sunday morning radio show state that it might be time to move Hicks out of the leadoff spot and I couldn’t agree more. It is not good to see your lead-off hitter strike out as much as Hicks does but what bothers me about Hicks striking out is that he takes so many called third strikes. At least take a hack at the ball, who knows, you might hit it. It is easy to be down on Hicks now with him hitting .047 and leading the league in whiffs and he may have to be sent down for a while to regain his confidence but the man is going to be a solid big league player, just give him a little time.
The poor start by Hicks has taken the spotlight off 2B Brian Dozier to a large degree but Dozier needs to turn it around and turn it around soon. Dozier is playing a decent 2B but hitting .161 will not cut it, particularly when you have young Eduardo Escobar scratching at Gardy’s door for more playing time. I think you are going to start seeing Gardy start to make some changes in his line-up and batting order soon, he can’t afford to sit back and watch this team flail away and say that good pitching stops good hitting, not every pitcher the Twins faced this year is an all-star. It would be nice to see what the Twins might look like playing in some decent weather for a change but if you look at the Twins schedule it might not happen for some time.
It is too early to tell what kind of team the Twins have for 2013 but from what I have seen in the nine games they have played so far, it is a team that is playing better than what it has the last two seasons. I am not saying they are playoff bound but the team is at least entertaining to watch and I hope they can start to gel as a team over time. Yes, the Twins are 4-5 but you could argue that two of those wins were gifts when outfielders from the Tigers and Orioles let a ball drop between them and gave the Twins gift runs. Everybody was worried about the starting pitching going in to 2013 but it is the hitting so far that has been missing. Hicks has been terrible with the bat but he is not the total reason this team is not hitting well. So far this year the 3-5 hitters have scored 11 runs, hit 2 home runs, and have 9 RBI’s. That is just plain terrible, Gardy needs to do something to shake-up this line-up. What scares me is that they are not playing all that well in the field either and they keep making mistakes on the base paths that are just plain embarrassing. The Twins have played just 9 games so the sample size is very small but here are some stats comparing the Twins to the rest of the league in various categories.
The Twins are 4-5 and in fourth place in the AL Central 2 games behind the division leading Kansas City Royals. The Twins have lost 3 games in a row.
The team is hitting .232 (13th place) and have scored 33 runs. Only the White Sox with 31 and the Rays with 32 have scored less.
The Twins and the Oakland A’s hitters lead the league in walks with 35.
Only the Houston Astros with 101 have struck out more frequently than the Twins 79 strikeouts.
Twins pitchers have a 4.09 ERA, good for 6th best and have given up only 4 home runs, the fewest in the league. Who would have thought that could happen, even after just 9 games?
Twins pitchers have the fewest strikeouts in the league and opponents are hitting .284 off Twins and Blue Jays pitchers, only the Yankees pitchers who are getting hit at a .306 clip are worse.
Twins relievers have a 2.73 ERA (3rd best) and are holding opposing hitters to a .231 average.
The Twins and the Indians each have 7 errors and only the Angels, Blue Jays, and White Sox with 8 have committed more miscues.
Everyone knows that Aaron Hicks is striking out at a frightening pace of 16 KO’s in 35 at bats in the leadoff position. But have you noticed that Josh Willingham has struck out 13 times in 29 at bats and that Joe Mauer has struck out 10 times in 40 at bats. In Willingham’s defense he also has 9 walks but Mauer and Hicks have 2 walks apiece. You have to wonder what might be bothering Mauer, his catching seems sub par this year too. Mauer has let a number of balls get by him and his throws to second base shouldn’t scare any opposing baserunners.
We will get a better feel for how good or bad the Twins really are very soon as they will play at home over the next 2 weeks or so as 12 of their next 15 games will be played at Target Field. We should also know by the time April is over if Aaron Hicks can catch his breath and turn things around before he finds himself in Gardy’s doghouse and on his way to Rochester. I sure hope so because the Twins don’t currently have a good plan B for center field unless Joe Benson catches fire. Hicks not running out his pop-up on Wednesday was obvious to anyone who watched the game but I didn’t like Gardy being so public about how upset he was about the rookie’s mistake. The Twins veterans like Morneau, Mauer, or Willingham should be taking care of issues like this, Gardy should have not gone public with his thoughts.
The Twins starting pitching is still a huge question mark and it will be interesting to see what Scott Diamond looks like in 2013. Mike Pelfrey has shown less than what most people expected, Hendriks has pitched like………Hendriks, I think you need to keep sending him out there every five days for a while and see what you get. I have liked Kevin Correia since they signed him but I know he can’t keep pitching like he has. Hopefully Cole De Vries can get healthy and fight for a spot again. The biggest disappointment to me so far has been Vance Worley but it is still way too early to determine anything.
The Twins drew the short straw from MLB this year from a schedule perspective with all those April home games and Mother Nature has not been as kind to the Twins as it has in the past but it is what it is. Now Dave St. Peter and the Twins find themselves having to make a hard decision in a no win situation today trying to determine if they should play the New York Mets tonight when temperatures are expected to be in the low 30’s with snow flurries predicted. It sounds like the Twins had all the 6 inches or so of snow removed from the ballpark yesterday and last night. It is a tough call because the Mets will only make one trip to Minnesota this year and the weather prediction for the rest of the week-end is bad with possible rain on Sunday too. As a matter of fact the temps are not scheduled to get out of the 40’s for the next week. So it makes sense to try to get the game in tonight but what about the fans comfort? Heaters or not, it will be miserable at Target Field and today’s game is scheduled to be a night game. The Twins are having trouble drawing fans as it is and when you add in cold and or snowy and wet weather you have a perfect scenario for Twins fans staying home and watching the game on TV. No matter what choice the Twins make, lots of Twins fans will be unhappy. It is kind of perfect storm and the Twins seemed doomed to come out on the losing end. As I stated earlier, predicted temperatures for the next week are in the 40’s and this entire Twins home stand will not see a temperature above 50 and all three games against the Angels after the Mets leave town are night games. OUCH!
You add in the little dust-up the other day about the Twins charging $15 for a group of 60 fans to watch Twins take batting practice and then withdrawing the offer later in the day and you have a rough start to the 2013 season for the Minnesota Twins and their fans.
The Twins announced after yesterdays win in Baltimore that Tyler Robertson was optioned to AAA Rochester and that Anthony Swarzak was on his way off the 15 day DL to join the Twins. A lot of people like Robertson but I am not a huge fan, Robertson’s job is to get that tough lefty out and he has not done that on a consistent basis. What really bothers me about Robertson is that he just gives up too many home runs and he walks too many hitters. In 42 appearances between 2012-2013 Robertson has pitched 26 innings and he has given 5 home runs and 14 walks, both unacceptable numbers. Swarzak is not the answer either but until someone in the minors distinguishes himself, Swarzak will be pitching for the Twins.
The Twins also officially placed Cole De Vries on the 15 day DL and called up Pedro Hernandez who was acquired in the Francisco Liriano deal last year with the White Sox to start against the Baltimore Orioles. The 23-year-old left-handed Hernandez has one big league game on his resume and it is a start for the Mighty Whities that he would like to forget. Hernandez lasted just 4 innings against the Red Sox on July 18 when he gave up 8 earned runs and 12 hits (3 home runs) while walking one and striking out two. Hopefully today will be a better day for Pedro.
I have to wonder how long the Twins are going to let Aaron Hicks struggle like he has been? In 24 plate appearances Hicks has walked twice and gotten one hit and has a .045 batting average. Yesterday he got thrown out trying to steal second and it wasn’t even close. Hicks looks nothing like he did in spring training and he looks scared at the plate and seems to have no idea what he is doing. I know it is still very early but you have to be concerned what this might be doing to his confidence, hopefully it will not set Hicks back. I think Gardy has no choice but to drop him down to the bottom of the order soon and hopefully that can kick start Hicks career. Hicks too has a huge part to play, he has to show he has the guts and confidence to work through this horrendous start. I hope he can do it or the Twins season is going to take a big down turn quickly. It would be nice to rest Hicks for a day or two and give him a chance to regroup but the Twins have no one healthy enough right now to play center with Mastroianni ailing.
How are things in the minor leagues? Here is a brief run down on hos things stand. The AAA Rochester Red Wings find themselves tied for last place in their 6 team division with an 0-3 record. The AA New Britain Rock Cats also find themselves tied for the cellar in their 6 team division with a 1-2 record. The High-A Ft. Myers Miracle are 3-0 and as one of two undefeated teams in their division sit in first place. The Low-A Cedar Rapids Kernels have put up a 2-1 record which is good enough to tie for second in their division just one game out of the lead. After just a dozen games played, the Twins minor league system stands at 6-6 (.500).
I did not attend the Twins season opener at Target Field yesterday but I did watch it from the comfort of my home where it was nice and warm and the game came in crystal clear on Fox Sports North in HD via Comcast. The folks at the ballpark had to endure a windy 35 degrees with a wind chill in the 20’s at game time (3:10 PM) as they watched the Detroit Tigers beat the Twins 4-2. I thought I would take a few minutes and share my observations of the game.
Vance Worley
Twins starter Vance Worley was out there in short sleeves while many players wore ski masks and winter hats to keep warm. Worley gave up 8 hits and a walk while striking out three in 6 innings. I have not seen Worley pitch very much prior to this game but I was impressed with his effort today. Yes, he gave up more hits than I would like but what I took away from this game was that Worley is fighter. He had a lot of guys on base early on but he kept pitching and kept his team in the game, which is more that most Twins starters have done in the last year or so. Take Francisco Liriano for example, as soon as he had a runner or two on base you could count on him folding like a $2 umbrella. The man could not pitch with runners on base. The weather was miserable and the Tigers are a top-notch team and it was the season opener with a lot of hype, I though Worley acquitted himself very well.
I felt bad for Aaron Hicks, a rookie that skipped AAA and in his major league debut he gets to face Jason Verlander on a 35 degree day at home. A tough task and those three strikeouts will hopefully just be a small speed bump in what promises to be a long and succesful career for Hicks. Hang in there Aaron.
The Twins lost but they had their chances multiple times but they let the Tigers off the hook by being over-anxious. The Tigers bullpen stinks and the Twins were just not patient enough and didn’t wait for good pitches. When you leave 12 on base you don’t deserve to win and the Twins didn’t. The Twins took 6 walks and they could have had several more in key situations but they swung at “balls” to often.
Although it is a game in the loss column we have to remember it is only one game, I am anxious to see the Twins next game.
Elias says: Justin Verlander improved his record to 7-0 with a 1.22 earned-run average over his last seven starts against the Twins. The last pitcher to win seven consecutive starts against the Twins was David Wells, who won nine in a row against them from 1996 to 2000.
The long cold winter still has a hold on the area as most of the grassy areas are still covered with snow, you can still walk across most of the lakes in Minnesota because ice still covers the shimmering blue waters, there is still snow and ice on the roof of our home and the wind blowing from Canada can still take your breath away but according to the calendar, spring arrived a week or so ago. We heard a robin the other day and until the recent cold spell the snow was starting to give way to the grass that is showing signs of turning green while puddles were forming in the yard and I had hopes of the ice actually leaving our backyard pond later in the week. All signs of spring but there is no better sign of spring than baseball.
The Minnesota Twins arrived at Target field yesterday and an umpire will officially announce that spring has arrived when he yells out “Play Ball” this afternoon about 3:10 P.M. at Target Field with Joe Mauer behind the plate and Vance Worley on the mound. Everyone is off to a fresh start, the memories of lost games and bad seasons have faded in our minds as we all look forward to the promises a new season of baseball can bring. You don’t believe that? You better check todays sports page and the baseball box scores because even the Houston Astros won last night. We are all excited to see players like Aaron Hicks begin what we all hope are All-Star careers in a Twins uniform and a sparkling new starting pitching staff that hopefully leads the Twins to more wins than they were able to muster last year or the year before for that matter. Some Minnesota Twins may be participating in their last Twins opening day while others that missed making the team look forward to having the opportunity to participate in a Target Field opening day. I won’t be at today’s opening day but I have attended a number of opening days over the years and no matter how many times you have witnessed it, it is always something special.
Even though I don’t expect the Twins to make the playoffs, heck, I don’t even think they can play .500 ball, but I am hoping that the team is competitive, fun to watch and keeps improving as the season progresses. Twins fans are a hardy bunch and they have supported the team when it good and when it was bad and so it begins one more time. Enjoy the good days and file the bad days away as learning experiences and cheer for your Minnesota Twins. April 1st has arrived and the cold weather is a cruel April Fool’s joke with the game time temperature expected to be about 33 degrees and the cold beer may be replaced with a hot cup of chocolate or coffee but it is time for the Minnesota Twins to play ball.
I will finish with a quote from one of my favorite movies of all time, the Field of Dreams.
“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh… people will come Ray. People will most definitely come. “
As I sit here looking out the window over-looking the back yard I see nothing but white. We have received about 9″ of snow in the last day or so and it is still snowing. Hard to fathom that the Twins will be playing baseball at Target Field which is just about 10 miles away in less than a month.
Time go by so quickly, you don’t realize how quickly until you get up in age and look back on things. When you are young, a week can seem like an eternity, when you get longer in the tooth you understand how quickly time passes. It has already been six years since Kirby Puckett suffered that massive strike on March 5, 2006 and passed away a day later. Boy, it doesn’t seem like it can be seven years that Kirby has been gone.
The minor leaguers have reported and will soon start to play games in Ft. Myers so the Twins will be in position to start cutting players and sending them to the back fields at the Hammond complex. Disappointment? Yes, but most of these guys can continue to play and hone their skills for a shot at the big money in the big leagues. On the other hand it also presents opportunities for some up-and-comers to get the call to come over to the big league side and strut their stuff for a game or two here and there, a rare opportunity to show the Twins management that they belong with the big boys. On the down side there are some players in the minor league complex today that will be cut before camp ends and their baseball careers may be over, a lifetime of dreams will come to and end for some and the reality of getting a real job will be staring them in the face. But that is the reality of baseball and life. As sure as the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, these things take place year after year in spring training camps all over Florida and Arizona.
Jim Thome
After two seasons they would like to forget, the Twins have lots to prove and many decisions to make. I think it is too early to waste a lot of time speculating on who is winning what position battles as yet but there are a number of good battles going on. What the player does on the field doesn’t even take into account how “service time” plays into things and how long the Twins have a player under their control. The Twins aren’t even a .500 team this year so do the Twins bring say an Aaron Hicks north in to start the season or do they wait for a month or two and control him a year longer? There are plusses and minuses on both sides but my opinion is that if the Twins are really serious about putting the best team on the field now and for the future they will not allow this to come in to play. If Hicks earns the job with his play and beats out everyone the Twins throw out there, give him the job. If you lose a year of control over Hicks so be it. You play the game of baseball to win, not to see how you can avoid arbitration and or free agency with your players. When the season ends the only valid measure of how any baseball team did is your wins and losses and if you won your final game. The bottom line is winning and you win with your best players. If you are more worried about the money then winning then you are in the wrong business. I am not advocating spending money foolishly, but how can you say that letting a young guy play if he earns it spending money foolishly. To me spending money foolishly is signing someone like Jim Thome to pinch hit for a team that will be lucky to win 75 games. If this is really what Gardy wants then I say fire Gardy because he is not thinking straight and I really like Grady as the Twins manager, but bringing Thome back would be the final straw. I know that Thome is a great guy, a future hall of famer and all that but it comes down to this, how many games will he add to the Twins win column? Everything has an opportunity cost, I think Thome’s opportunity cost is too high. It is not about the money, it is about the player that deserves to be on the roster more than Thome does at this stage of his career.
Anthony Swarzak
A player that I think does not deserve a roster spot on the Twins 25 man roster is long man Anthony Swarzak. I know you need a long man but Swarzak has done a less than stellar job in that role. Let’s look at what Swarzak has done in his 3 years with the Twins. He record is 10-20 with 5.03 ERA with a 1.44 WHIP. Opponents hit .287 off him (righties hit .302 and lefties hit .272) and he has a 1.96 ratio for SO/BB. I am not a huge fan of Cole DeVries as a starter but I would like to see him in the long man role for the Twins. In his one season in Minnesota, DeVries went 5-5 with a 4.11 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP. Opponents only hit him at a .252 clip and his SO/BB ratio was 3.22. If DeVries is not in the starting rotation, he deserves to be the long man more than Swarzak does.
Have you been watching the Twins attendance numbers at their spring training games? I have and if I were the Twins I would be very concerned. The Twins have played 6 exhibition games at Hammond Stadium and they are averaging 5,553 per game and their high is 6,591 with their seating capacity at about 8,000. In 2012 their average attendance in Ft. Myers was 7,344 so the drop from last year is about 24.39%. If you compare attendance drops in spring training games to regular season attendance drop in attendance in 2012 you could expect the Twins attendance to drop 25%-30% this season in Target Field meaning that the club will be lucky to have 2 million fans pass through the Target Field turnstiles. That is assuming the Twins don’t play worse than or better than is expected by the fan base. Hopefully the Twins can get off to a good start both on the field and with their attendance but with the number of home games the Twins have in April and the weather being what it is so far, there is reason for concern.
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.
Happy New Year! The temperature here in Minneapolis got down to a minus 8 degrees early this morning but as the calendar turns to a new month and a new year I know that spring training is not that far away. I wish I could be more optimistic about the upcoming Minnesota Twins 2013 season but I find it very hard to do so with the moves or the lack of moves the club has made so far.
The starting pitching is not much to crow about even after the Twins have traded for starters Vance Worley and signed free agent starters Kevin Correia, Mike Pelfrey, and Rich Harden. I don’t think Harden will start more than a handful of games and will pitch primarily out of the bullpen when he happens to be healthy, which his history indicates will be rare. I have very little faith in Pelfrey being much of an improvement over what Nick Blackburn has shown us the last few years plus I am not sure he will even be ready when the season opens. I actually like Correia in the back-end of the rotation and he won’t always be pretty to watch but he has shown that he can win some games having won 10 or more games each of the last 4 years pitching for the San Diego Padres and Pittsburgh Pirates. Worley is an unknown to me but he could turn into the best pitcher on the staff if he is healthy. I was disappointed to hear that Scott Diamond has under gone clean-up elbow surgery and I was really frustrated that the Twins did not resign Scott Baker.
I expect Justin Morneau who is still only 31 to have a very good year, not a MVP type season but back to the numbers that he is capable of putting up and showing a lot of Twins fans that he belongs in Minnesota. The rest of the infield is shaky at best, I am hoping that Brian Dozier can take over and play second base day in and day out. At third base Trevor Plouffe is not the answer either as he has shown he can neither field the position nor can he hit on a consistent basis although he does have some pop in his bat. Todate Plouffe has a career minor league batting average of .257 and with the Twins he is hitting .231 so there is not too much hope there. At shortstop I know that Pedro Florimon has not shown much with his bat but he has a good glove and I think the Twins can live with his stick if they are going to play Plouffe and Dozier in the same infield. The outfield is interesting with no center fielder and I would be surprised if Joe Benson himself coming off a very forgettable 2012 season is not the Twins center fielder when the season opens. Willingham is dismal in left field but the Twins need his power and will be forced to keep him in the line-up. I sure wish they could have traded Willingham coming off his career year but that did not happen. Chris Parmelee will take over right and he is young with a good bat and I think he can become at least an average right fielder. Aaron Hicks and Oswaldo Arcia are hopefully going to be pounding on the outfield door as the season moves along to keep everyone on their toes and that gives me some hope. Doumit is perfect for the DH role although I know that makes Gardy nervous when he has his back-up catcher at DH but realistically, how often will that really be an issue? The Twins might carry a third catcher anyway. You have Joe Mauer catching and your main utility guys are Jamey Carroll, Darin Mastroianni and probably Eduardo Escobar. I am big on experience and when you look at the Twins you don’t see a lot here, only Mauer catching, Morneau at 1B, Willingham in left and Doumit at DH and that usually makes for bad baseball.
I guess that the core of the 2013 Twins is in place and spring training will have a few battles for the open positions but I just find it hard to get really enthused about this bunch of players. To me it seems like the Twins are afraid to pick a side, either go young or get some better experienced players and try to field a competitive team. I feel bad that Ron Gardenhire finds himself in the position he does but life is not always fair and this team could easily end Gardy’s reign as a Twins manager and I think that will be a bad thing for both the team and the fans. There has been speculation that Paul Molitor is waiting in the wings to take over as the Twins new skipper but I for one hope that does not happen. Molitor has no managerial experience and does not seem to be the least bit interested in earning a manager’s job by working his way up the minor league chain but instead appears to send a message that his hall of fame playing career qualifies him to be the Twins next manager. I don’t see Molitor as a great communicator or even a great teacher for that matter. What has Molitor done over the years to qualify for the job? Nothing and I think hiring Molitor to manage the Twins would set this franchise back for years to come.
In spite of their new ballpark and the 2014 All-Star game on the horizon the Twins are dropping like a rock in the eyes of many Minnesota fans with the basketball Timbewolves moving up, the Vikings making the playoffs, and maybe even the NHL players and owners will agree to a new deal soon and the Wild will once again be relevant. There are only so many entertainment dollars to go around and if the Minnesota Twins don’t put a decent product on the field they will be left in the dust. Todays Twins fans are not the Twins fans of the past and will not tolerate the bad play of past Twins teams, they will simply find another place to spend their money and it will not be fun to watch the Twins play to a meager fan base with a lot of empty seats in Target Field. Twins management seems to have forgotten the old business axiom that it is easier to keep your existing customers than it is to get new customers.
Even their August 2012 announced move to the Pohlad owned FM station KTWN 96.3 station in 2013 seems like a slap in the face to Twins fans. Many baseball fans listen to Twins games on the radio and now even that access may be harder to find. In July of 2012 KTWN did not even make the Twins Cities top 20 radio stations with a measly 1.4% share of the listening public. Both of the previous stations that carried the Twins games since the team moved to Minnesota back in 1961 WCCO from 1961-2007 and KSTP from 2007-2012 had an AM transmitter power rating of 50,ooo watts and while the Twins new home at KTWN is an FM signal, its transmitter power is a paltry 19,000 watts. The WCCO signal was rated to extend about 90 miles, the KSTP signal was rated for 60 miles during the day and 30 miles at night and the Twins new home at KTWN is rated for 20 miles.
I know all this sounds depressing but that is the sad and sorry state of the Twins as they prepare for the 2013 season. The team has done nothing that I can see to get the fan base excited about the up-coming baseball season and that disappoints me. I will follow the Twins in 2013 but sadly, many former Twins fans will not. Hard as I try, I don’t see the Twins finishing anywhere except in the AL Central division basement once again this coming season.
