Tag: J.A. Happ

Twins keep transaction wires busy

Michael A. Taylor

The Minnesota Twins are keeping the transaction wires busy. Yesterday, their latest move had them acquiring outfielder Michael A. Taylor who will turn 32 years of age in late March from the Kansas City Royals. Taylor has spent the past two seasons in Kansas City. The rangy right-handed hitting center fielder earned his first career Gold Glove in 2021 and signed a $9MM extension covering the 2022-23 campaigns late in that season. Taylor is known for his glove but his bat isn’t too shabby and he should make a nice back-up for Byron Buxton when he needs time off. Taylor had a 2.5 and 3.2 WAR in his last two KC seasons. Right-hander pitcher A.J. Alexy was designated for assignment to clear a spot for Taylor on the 40-man roster.

Evan Sisk
Steven Cruz

In return the Twins part ways with two minor league relief pitchers, LHP Evan Sisk and RHP Steven Cruz. The Twins had acquired Sisk from the Cardinals in the J.A. Happ trade in July of 2021. Steven Cruz was signed as a Dominican free agent in March 2017. Both are relatively young and have strike-em-out ability but have control issues. If one or both can lower their walks then the Royals have got something.

2021 Twins Turkey of the Year

Happy Thanksgiving everyone

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.

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So where do the Twins go from here?

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.

Continue reading So where do the Twins go from here?

According to ELIAS

Milone doesn’t need strikeouts to win

Tommy Milone 2016Tommy Milone defeated the Tigers last night in the Motor City giving him wins in each of his last three starts, and he hasn’t struck out as many as five batters in any of those games. Three other pitchers have won three straight starts without a 5-K game this season: Martin Perez (a four-game streak), Jeff Locke (a pair of three-game streaks) and J.A. Happ.

This Day in Twins History – April 17

Jason Kubel
Jason Kubel

4/17/2009 – Jason Kubel hit for the cycle at the Metrodome against the Angels. Kubel became the ninth Twins player to hit for the cycle when he doubled in the first, singled in the third, and tripled n the sixth before clobbering a grand slam homerun in the 8th inning as the Twins rallied for an 11-9 win. It was only the third time in MLB history a player had completed hitting for the cycle with a grand slam home run. It was done previously by two shortstops, Tony Lazzeri in 1932 and Miguel Tejada in 2001. Box Score

4/17/2014 – What a day! Yesterday’s Twins/Blue Jays game was snowed out so the Twins scheduled a doubleheader for today in spite of 4″ of snow that fell at the ballpark last night. The weird snow storm dumped 20″ in North Branch but only .03″ at the airport. When Kyle Gibson throw the first pitch in the first game at Target Field it was just 31degrees, an all-time record cold temperature for a Twins home game. The Twins won game 1 by a score of 7-0 in front of 20,507 shivering fans. The second game of the DH which was the make-up game started about 6PM and the Twins won 9-5 but it was how they won that game that was unusual as 20,698 fans looked on but there were far less when the eighth inning hubbub started. The Twins scored six runs on only one hit in the bottom of the eighth inning as they came from behind to beat the Blue Jays, 9-5, in the second half of their split doubleheader at Target Field. Minnesota’s six-run “rally” benefited from the almost total inability of Toronto pitchers to throw strikes in that inning, as Steve Delabar, Sergio Santos and J.A. Happ combined to walk eight Twins batters. (Santos also threw three run-scoring wild pitches in that inning.). According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Minnesota was the first big-league team to draw eight walks in one inning since April 19, 1996. The eight walks in one inning set a Twins club record, their previous record was six, done twice – April 16, 1961 at Baltimore (first inning) and July 15, 1965 vs. Kansas City (fourth inning). Both of the attendance totals were “paid attendance” and not a real count of fans in the stands and the estimate for fans in attendance was less than 12,000 for game one and even less for game two. Box Score Game 1, Box Score Game 2

According to Elias

Three Wins In Three Games For Kyle Gibson

Kyle Gibson
Kyle Gibson

Kyle Gibson pitched eight innings and did not allow a run in his victory against the Blue Jays on Thursday afternoon. Gibson has won all three of his games for the Twins this season and he’s sporting a 0.93 earned-run average, having given up only two earned runs in 19¿ innings. Since the original Washington Senators relocated to Minnesota in 1961, the only other Twins pitchers to win their first three starts of a season while posting an ERA below 1.00 were Bill Krueger in 1992 (0.75 ERA) and Francisco Liriano in 2006 (0.56 ERA).

By the way, the temperature for the first pitch at Target Field in game 1 of the day/night doubleheader was 31 degrees, the coldest start ever for a Twins home game.

 

Twins Draw Eight Walks In One Inning

The Twins scored six runs on only one hit in the bottom of the eighth inning as they came from behind to beat the Blue Jays, 9-5, in the second half of their split doubleheader at Target Field on Thursday. Minnesota’s six-run “rally” benefited from the almost total inability of Toronto pitchers to throw strikes in that inning, as Steve Delabar, Sergio Santos and J.A. Happ combined to walk eight Twins batters. (Santos threw gasoline on the fire by uncorking three run-scoring wild pitches in that inning.) Minnesota was the first big-league team to draw eight walks in one inning since April 19, 1996, when the Texas Rangers did that as they scored 16 runs in the eighth inning of a 26-7 win against the Orioles. The eight walks by Baltimore pitchers in that inning were issued by Armando Benitez, Jesse Orosco and infielder Manny Alexander.