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
Byron Buxton has good reason to smile. Credit to Brace Hemmelgarn – MN Twins
Yesterday afternoon as I was watching the Minnesota Vikings vs the San Francisco 49ers football game the news broke that the Minnesota Twins and Byron Buxton had reached agreement on a seven year extension worth about $100 million. I have to say that I was very surprised, I fully expected that this would not happen and that the Twins would be trading him to a team with deeper pockets that could afford to take such a gamble and not be hurt if Buxton got the big bucks but couldn’t stay healthy.
I like Buxton as a player but I have always been bothered by the fact that he could not stay healthy and for me a player sitting on the bench because he is not healthy enough play is worthless. It makes no difference if it is bad luck, bad karma, or whatever, if you can’t play you bring no value. There have always been players across all sports that spent more time in the training rooms than they did on the playing fields. It is what it is.
Time seems to have gotten away from me and it was only in the last few days that I realized it was that time again, time to pick another Twins Turkey of the Year. This years winner will be number 13. So far we have only had one repeat winner and that was President and CEO Dave St. Peter who took the honors in 2013 and again in 2019.
With the 2021 Minnesota Twins expected to do well and go deep in the playoffs by their fans and the so called baseball experts and then to see the team finish 73-89 and in last place in the American League Central Division you would have to think that there were more turkeys then you could shake a stick at. You would be right.
Minnesota Twins fans and the team itself had such high expectations going into 2021 and yet as we approach the midway point in the season we find the team floundering badly at 31-42. The season opened on April 1 and the team reached their high-water mark for the season on April 8 when they were three games over .500 with a 5-2 record. Since then it has been one step forward and two steps back.
Derek Falvey
So how do you explain this? How does a team that everyone expected to be a serious contender and pretty much a playoff lock in 2021 play such terrible baseball that it is basically unwatchable? Where do you start? Like in most businesses you have to start at the top.
It seems like everyday the Minnesota Twins find a new way to lose a baseball game. Sure this team has some injuries but what team doesn’t once the marathon baseball season begins. If you have watched this team since April 1 you can see that this team has gotten worse and not better as the season has gone on. The Twins are spiraling out of control and are in a free-fall and the Twins FO is just sitting by watching and waiting. I am not exactly sure what they are waiting for but more action needs to be taken other than shuffling pitchers between Target Field and the CHS Field.
Baseball is a strange and funny game and I have seen teams over the years that have over-performed and I have seen teams that have under-performed. The same goes for players, tell me you haven’t seen a good player have a bad season and bounce back the following year. It happens, we all get into these ruts sometimes when we feel that everyone and everything is against us and no matter what we do it just doesn’t seems to get any better.
The 2019 Minnesota Twins had an amazing season, everyone hit home runs, and as time goes by we will look back at that team and say that most of the players on that team had career years. So why is the reverse not possible and when we look back at 2021 and say that most of the players on this team all had their worst seasons at the same time.
I went out to the CenturyLink Sports complex yesterday to check out the pitchers and catchers and to see new Twins acquisition Kenta Maeda in his Twins spring training workout debut. I didn’t see anything extraordinary out there but no question there were more Japanese photographers out there then I have seen since Tsuyoshi Nishioka made his grand appearance back in 2011. I am expecting better results from Maeda then we got from Nishioka.
Chief Baseball Officer Derek Falvey, Josh Donaldson and manager Rocco Baldelli of the Minnesota Twins pose for a photo as the Twins introduce Josh Donaldson at Target Field on January 22, 2020 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)
According to mlbtraderummors.com – The Minnesota Twins for signing Josh Donaldson: Minnesota also received revenue-sharing and didn’t exceed the luxury tax threshold, so signing Donaldson put the Twins in position to give up their third-highest draft selection. However, the Twins are actually giving up their fourth-highest pick in the 2020 draft, which is their third-round selection. The Twins’ actual third selection is their pick in Competitive Balance Round B, but those picks aren’t eligible to be forfeited as compensation for QO free agent signings.
Some time ago I saw that Derek Falvey was quoted as saying and I translate loosely here that-
At the trade deadline you are required to make some moves. If you are out of the race you should make some trades to improve your team by acquiring young talent. If you are in the race you need to make some moves to make your team better for the push to the play-offs and beyond. Standing-pat is not an option.
To me that makes perfect sense and I don’t know why every team does not do this. Now in the next handful of days we will see if Falvey and his partner-in-crime Thad Levine will walk their talk. The Twins are surely in the race and since no team is perfect, there is always room for improvement. Pitching is always in demand and the Twins bullpen has been purged lately of relievers Adalberto Mejia, Mike Morin, Matt Magill and Blake Parker. The starting rotation is starting to wobble as of late and the Twins could use an ace to lead their rotation and take some pressure off Jose Berrios.
Luis Arraez
But as the old saying goes, you have to give up something to get something and that is always tough. Personally I have no issue with trading prospects for a proven commodity that will stay in your organization. I am not a fan of trading for a short-term rental player. Having said that, I would not consider trading a number one overall pick like Royce Lewis. Keep in mind though that there are always new and better prospects. Prospects don’t always come to fruition and players you did not see as a prospect develop over-night and become big leaguers.
There are also certain players like Luis Arraez that I wouldn’t trade unless the deal was a real steal. Arraez is the kind of player that the Twins need in the long run, a young guy that can get on base, the Twins don’t have many of these kinds of players and they don’t come around often.
The next week or so will be interesting for sure, bring it on Mr. Falvey and Mr. Levine.
The Minnesota Twins are an IF team. IF Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano play up to their abilities than Twins fans might be in for a lot of fun and exciting baseball. IF those two important cogs don’t show more than they did last season the Twins will once again struggle to get to the .500 mark.
The Derek Falvey regime has three off-seasons in the books and begins their third season on the playing field. When the year is done we should have a good feel for where this team is. We know the organization has gone head over heels for technology with expensive toys all over and more nerds in the front office than they probably have room for. Owner Jim Pohlad must feel like he gave Falvey an unlimited budget and he has already exceeded it with his organization rebuild.
I can’t help but feel that the Twins organization is so busy trying to help their players with technology that they forget what baseball is really all about. I am no spring chicken and I am not from Missouri but you have to show me that the new ways work better than the old. In spite of my concerns about the organization I am cautiously optimistic that Sano and Buxton will start to shine and help the team achieve the success we all hope for.
The post Joe Mauer era is here, there will be no Twins number 7 on the playing field. With Cleveland dumping some players and seemingly not trying to improve I think that the Minnesota Twins can over take the Indians this season and win the division by two games. I see the Chicago White Sox getting better and finishing in third place followed by the Detroit Tigers and the Kansas City Royals occupying the AL Central cellar with a 100+ loss season.
I can’t wait for the season to start and for the Twins to show me what they got! What about the rest of you, how do you think the Twins will do? Leave a comment with your prediction.
A lot of Minnesota Twins fans are frustrated that the Twins front office isn’t doing more to improve the Twins team. With Joe Mauer retired and his $23 million salary no longer on the books many fans figured the Twins would spend some money, and they have, but not much of it. If the 2019 season started tomorrow, the Twins payroll would sit at about $98 million after spending around $131 million in 2018.
But Derek Falvey and Thad Levine have told us they are busy laying ground work for rebuilding the Minnesota Twins organization from the ground up and it will take some time.
It wasn’t until I stopped by the CenturyLink Sports Complex this afternoon that I fully understood what they meant. At the rate it is going it will take some time, here is what I found when I got there.
I didn’t get close enough to tell for sure but I think that is Falvey in the red shirt and Levine with the green shirt.
Here I think we have Mr. Pohlad himself on the Bobcat leveling the playing field.
The 2018 baseball season is in the books, free agents everywhere are sitting back and waiting for the offers to pour in, a number of teams (including our Twins) have hired new managers. The temperature is 31 degrees outside and there is a slight coating of snow on the ground here in Plymouth so we know it is time to start sorting our candidates for the 2018 Twins Turkey of the Year.
The Twins finished in second place again this season behind the Cleveland Indians. This past season the Twins were 78-84 as compared to 85-77 in 2017 and this year they were just 13 games back as compared to 17 games behind the year previous. Yet the 2018 Twins were looked on as failures as compared to the 2017 team that was a Wild Card participant albeit for just the one game against the New York Yankees. Manager Paul Molitor was the American League Manager of the Year in 2017 and after the 2018 season ended he found himself unemployed along with most of his coaching staff after signing a new three-year contract just a year earlier. Twins fans were unhappy and attendance dropped to its lowest point since 2004 at the Metrodome. Meanwhile the Twins Front Office added to staff and continued the “new ways of fielding a winning team” such as increasing the number of shifts, playing four outfielders here and there and jumping on the new “opener” strategy employed by teams such as Tampa Bay and Oakland.
