Tag: Jason Castro

Looking at Minnesota Twins drafts this century

With the June Amateur Free Agent draft just a month or so away maybe it is time to look back and see who the Twins have drafted this century that has made an impact on the Minnesota Twins major league team. We all know that very few prospects make it to the big leagues and even fewer are stars, here is how the Twins have fared. Keep this in mind before you get overly excited about the Twins picks in this years drafts.

 

Twins draft choices since 2000

 

2000 draft – 52 drafted, 30 signed and 5 put on a Minnesota Twins uniform

Best Twins player – Jason Kubel (OF) was a 2nd round selection picked out of high school and debuted on August 31, 2004 and had a career WAR of 4.1. RETIRED

Wore a Twins uniform briefly – Josh Rabe (OF), J.D. Durbin (RHP), Adam Johnson RHP was 1st rounder and second pick overall) and Jason Miller (LHP)

2001 draft – 50 drafted, 33 signed, 3 put on a Minnesota Twins uniform and 1 played in big leagues for another team

Joe Mauer

Best Twins players – Joe Mauer (C) a Minnesota native was the number one overall pick out of Cretin High School and he debuted on April 5, 2004 and played with Minnesota throughout his career that ended after the 2018 season. Won an MVP, six time All-Star, five time Silver Slugger, three time Batting Champion and three time Gold Glove winner. Career WAR of 55.0. RETIRED

Best Twins players – Nick Blackburn was a collegiate right-handed pitcher drafted in round 29 and debuted on September 7, 2007. Blackburn pitched his entire career for the Twins from 2007-2012. RETIRED with a 3.1 career WAR.

Wore a Twins uniform briefly –  Jose Morales (drafted as a shortstop but switched to catcher).

Played in big leagues for another team – Kevin Cameron (RHP).

Continue reading Looking at Minnesota Twins drafts this century

2018 Twins Turkey of the Year is:

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.  

Continue reading 2018 Twins Turkey of the Year is:

Twins on trading spree like none seen in many a year

In the last five days of July the Falvey/Levine regime traded five experienced players off their big league roster and acquired 12 players that includes five pitchers, 4 outfielders and 4 infielders. The departed players have appeared in 2,674 games and the pitchers have notched 160 wins. The acquired players have no wins by the pitchers in the big leagues and have played in a total of 899 big league games of which Logan Forsythe has 807.

I grant you that Brian Dozier and Eduardo Escobar were both going to be free agents at the end of the season. Lance Lynn has not performed up to expectations, Zach Duke performed pretty much as expected and Ryan Pressly was probably over-worked but was a decent relief pitcher. The team itself has under-performed dramatically but to be fair I think the same can be said of the Twins “on the field” management staff. 

Continue reading Twins on trading spree like none seen in many a year

The 2017 Twins Turkey of the Year

It was a good year for the Minnesota Twins, an amazing 26 game improvement from their 103 loss season in 2016 and they even made an abbreviated one game trek to the playoffs, their first taste of postseason action since 2010. The much improved play of the players on the field made the team fun to watch again and the attendance increased from the previous season for the first time since the team started calling Target Field home in 2010.

All those good things happening over in Twins Territory makes it difficult to come up with a Twins Turkey of the Year but the job must get done. Just as sure as there is snow and cold in Minnesota we need to have a Twins Turkey of the Year.

The number of possible candidates for the 2017 award are few, sure we have some of the usual suspects like starter Kyle Gibson who first debuted as a Twin back in 2013 but found himself pitching in AAA Rochester after a horrible start. He finished the season with a 12-10 record but his 5.07 ERA for the second year in a row is more than disappointing.

Pitcher Phil Hughes earned $13.2 million this year and pitched less than 54 innings and had a 6.37 ERA. However; Hughes spent most of his time on the DL in 2017 visiting that list twice for a total of 105 days.

Pitcher Glen Perkins spent 117 days on the Twins DL in 2017 while recovering from shoulder surgery back in 2016. Perkins has pitched 7.2 innings in two years and banked $12.8 million.

Utility player Danny Santana appeared in just 13 games and hit .200 before the Twins traded him to the Atlanta Braves for a minor league pitcher named Kevin Chapman. Santana has appeared in 69 games and hit .203 for the Braves. 

When I have to list Danny Santana on my Twins Turkey of the Year candidate list I am really scraping the bottom of the barrel. Heck, even Joe Mauer bounced back in 2017 and had a decent year at the plate, certainly not a $23 million a year player but what is done is done. One of my favorite TTOY candidates the last few years, hitting coach Tom Brunansky was fired after 2016.

So you can see it has been a lean year for turkeys in Twins territory this season, but, since the role has to be filled I have selected not one but two Twins organization members for the award this year, for the first time ever we have a two-headed Twins Turkey of the year. 

Both of these gentlemen have been on the job for just over one year and their team made the playoffs in their first season at the helm after the team had finished with 103 losses in 2016, the worst record in baseball. It seems like we should be giving them Executive of the Year awards and not the TTOY award. Yes, they did sign Jason Castro, Chris Gimenez, Bartolo Colon (seems strange to put him on the plus side of the ledger), but they also signed a bunch of pitching stiffs and thought they could construct a bullpen while bottom-feeding. 

With the Twins in need of starting help these two guys went out on July 24 and they made a deal with Atlanta and acquired Jaime Garcia and Anthony Recker for Huascar Ynoa. Garcia started and beat the Oakland A’s on July 28 and Twins fans were delighted, that is until these two guys turned around and flipped the 31 year-old Jaime Garcia to the Yankees for pitchers Zack Littell and Dietrich Enns just two days later. Then on July 31 they traded their closer Brandon Kintzler to the Washington Nationals for pitcher Tyler Watson and cash. 

On July 31 the Twins had a 50-53 record and seven teams in the AL had better records than the Twins did. It was obvious that the Twins organization felt that the Twins had run out of steam so they started trading off pieces in hopes of landing some young pitching prospects. But who was to know that the Twins would go 35-20 during the rest of the season and score 346 runs in that stretch, more than any team in MLB while out-scoring their opposition by almost 100 runs. Only the Indians had a better record (45-13) and they had that crazy 22 game winning streak from mid-August to mid-September. When the season ended the Twins were one of the AL wild card playoff participants, who would have guessed that would happen? 

No one in their right mind, right? After all, no MLB team has ever lost 103 one season and taken part in post-season action the next. I didn’t see it coming, but I am not making a ton of money leading the Twins baseball operation either. These guys are supposed to be experts in their field and yet at the end of July they raised the white flag and not only didn’t improve the team for the stretch run but they made it weaker by trading Jaime Garcia and Brandon Kintzler. The way I see it, these two committed the cardinal sin, they gave up on their team. 

That is why the winners of the Twins Trivia 2017 Turkey of the Year award are Twins Head of Baseball Operations Derek Falvey and General Manager Thad Levine. I wish I had a picture of these two sitting in the backyard with their wine glasses in their hand pondering “what just happened?” Let’s hope that Falvey and Levine show their worth this off-season, maybe they are just slow starters. 

Previous Twins Turkey of Year award winners

2016 – The entire 2016 Minnesota Twins team

2015 – Pitcher Ricky Nolasco

2014 – Outfielder Aaron Hicks

2013 – President Dave St. Peter

2012 – Owner Jim Pohlad

2011 – Catcher Joe Mauer

2010 – 3B Brendan Harris

2009 – Pitcher Glen Perkins

 

It was a bad beat, maybe one of the worst ever

Justin Upton flung the ball into the air and the bat out of his hands as his second walk-off homer of the year lifted the Detroit Tigers to a 12-11 win over Minnesota at Comerica Park last night. The home run was part of a six-run comeback Detroit compiled over the final three innings to stun the hot-hitting Twins and snap their season-high six-game winning streak.

Matt Belisle

The Tigers jumped on Jose Berrios and the Twins for a 5-0 lead after just one inning of play but then Paul Molitor‘s boys came back with all their bats blazing and put up 11 of the next 12 runs between the third and sixth innings to take a commanding 11-6 lead. Matt Belisle gave up the walk-off blast by Upton but the relievers before him, Trevor Hildenberger gave up 1 run and Dillon Gee gave up 4 runs of which 3 were earned. Only Ryan Pressly went unscathed in his 2/3 of an inning.

The hitters had a night to remember, 11 runs on 19 hits and a walk, a HBP and an error thrown in for good measure. Eddie Rosario, Max Kepler and Joe Mauer all hit home runs. Everyone that stepped to the plate for Minnesota had at least one hit and Brian Dozier and Jason Castro had 3 apiece.

It is tough to lose a nine inning game when you get 19 hits and score 11 runs, how tough is it? Not counting tie games the Twins have played 9,048 games since they started play in 1061. In those 9,048 the Twins have played 66 nine inning games when they have had at least 11 hits and scored 19 or more runs, their record in those kinds of games is now 64-2.

Willie Banks

Prior to last night the only time the Twins lost a game like this was on August 4, 1992 at Comiskey Park II. The Twins must like hitting against the pitchers from Chicago’s south side as the Twins have had 12 games like this against the White Sox and won 11 of them. The one loss was that game in 1992 when the White Sox blew out the Twins 19-11. This is a game that Willie Banks will never forget, Banks pitched 1.2 inning of relief and gave up 10 earned runs after relieving Twins starter Bill Krueger who lasted just 2 innings giving up 7 earned runs. This game was a blow out from the get-go and last night game was a back and forth affair that was won with a walk-off home run. Either way you have to put a game like this in the “bad beat” category.

According to ELIAS – Jason Castro and Miguel Sano

Twins spoil it in the ninth

Jason Castro

In the top of the ninth inning last night in La La land, Jason Castro delivered a two-run single that turned a Twins’ 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead; Minnesota went on to defeat the Angels, 4-2. Entering Thursday, Los Angeles was 28-0 when leading in the ninth inning or later and 13-0 at home when leading after eight innings this season. Since the start of the 2016 season, Minnesota had won only one other game in which the team trailed in the ninth inning or later and that was just last month (May 19 vs. Kansas City).

Miguel Sano

BONUS: Before Thursday’s game against the Angels, Twins third baseman Miguel Sano worked on his defense with third-base coach Gene Glynn with an emphasis on fielding grounders while positioned near the third-base bag.

Sano gleefully predicted to all that would listen that he would turn a triple play later in the night. And sure enough, just a few hours later, the Twins turned their first triple play in over a decade, as rookie left-hander Adalberto Mejia got the Angels’ Jefry Marte to ground into a 5-4-3 triple play that was started by Sano in a 4-2 win at Angel Stadium. Sano also hit a home run.

According to ELIAS

Twins sweep Royals

Jason
Jason Castro

Jason Castro hit a game-winning double and scored two runs as the Twins completed a three-game sweep of the Royals at Target Field. Minnesota allowed just five runs over the seasons (since 2011), the only other series sweep of at least three games in which the Twins allowed five-or-fewer runs was from April 11 to 13, 2014 at Target Field. Their opponent in that series was also the Royals (allowed five runs, with the same sequence of one run allowed in each in the first two games and three in the third).

Did you know that the Minnesota Twins longest winning streak to start a new season is just six games? Back in 1968 the Twins started on the road beating the Senators (2-0, 5-4) and Yankees (6-0, 4-3) twice, beat the Orioles 6-3 and then came come and beat the Senators again 13-1 before losing game seven to the Senators 7-6.

 

59 wins and yet no starting position player battles for jobs

What is going on here? L-R – Jim Pohlad, Michael Cuddyer, Derek Falvey, and ?

The Minnesota Twins find themselves in a strange position this spring. The team is coming off a record-setting 59-103 season and yet there are really no position battles waging in Ft. Myers this spring. All the starting position players are pretty much the same as last season except for the catcher Kurt Suzuki who left via free agency and the Twins signed free agent Jason Castro to replace him and handed him the starting job.

How often does that happen? Usually you lose 103 games and everyone is fighting for a job but that is not the case in the spring of 2017 at the CenturyLink Sports complex where the Twins are preparing for the 2017 season. As I watch the team go through its spring routines there doesn’t seem to be much urgency and the players are acting as if they are all veterans just waiting for the bell to ring in a new season. I can see the players going through the drills but I just don’t see that they are working hard to get better. This team is young, and talented but have they had enough sand kicked in their face yet to really want to win? I hope so.

I am still convinced that Joe Mauer playing first base limits the Twins from taking that next step. Mauer is the grey-beard among the position players at 33 and then Brian Dozier and Jason Castro follow at 29 and the rest of the starting line-up is 25 or under. 

If you look at the spring training stats and I know they don’t mean a hill of beans when the season starts BUT this team appears to be a team that can score some runs but will hit for a lower average than what fans might expect. Mauer’s .300 plus days are in his rear view mirror and I am not expecting Jason Castro, Byron Buxton, Max Kepler, Miguel Sano, Jorge Polanco, or Brian Dozier to hit .260 or above. I expect a higher average from Eddie Rosario this year but he too is still unproven.

In spite of what I have written this team should be fun to watch but you must be prepared for those “what the hell just happened” moments. This team will continue to improve as the season progresses and but so much will depend on the teams pitching staff both from the starters and the relievers. 

I was used to seeing GM Terry Ryan out next to the fields checking out the action but this year I have not seen Thad Levine at all and Derek Falvey just once and that was this morning. A different style I guess, particularly since all I heard early on about Falvey was how closely he worked with his manager. But you are right, it is still early.

After horrible starts to the season the last two years, how will the Twins leave the starting gate in 2017? Another bad start could would be a serious problem for Paul Molitor and his boys. 

I wonder why the Twins are doing nothing

Christmas 2016 has come and gone and Minnesota Twins fans found nothing under the Christmas tree but a Jason Castro and a wheelbarrow full of coal. 

As I sit here in the Plymouth, Minnesota with the ground covered with snow in spite of all the recent rain on Christmas Day I wonder why the team with the worst record in baseball in 2016 is doing nothing. It would be fun to write something positive about the home town ball club that I have followed for 56 years but how can you do that with a straight face?

Since the World Series ended when the Chicago Cubs finally won it all, the Twins organization has hired Derek Falvey to be there Chief of Baseball Operations and he in turn hired Thad Levine to be the team’s new GM. The team did sign free agent catcher Jason Castro on November 30 but other than that signing they have done nothing but sign minor league free agents that will not and should not play at Target Field in 2017. Oh yes, they did hire three new coaches to replace two that they fired.

I wonder what strategy the team is trying to employ to sell season tickets? Maybe the strategy is to keep mum and hope the fans forget about 2016 and have their season tickets on auto-renewal?  There seem to be no promotions, no marketing, no nothing. Every now and then a rumor pops up that the team “is in” on some free agent but that player signs somewhere else and nothing changes.

It makes me think that the Twins haven’t changed a bit, they remain bottom feeders waiting to scoop up what ever drops down to the bottom that no one else wants. It’s not like the team doesn’t have holes to fill, make some deals, sign a free agent even if you have to over pay the guy to have him come to play at Target Field. Show some sign of life over there at 1 Twins Way. I don’t buy that Falvey and Levine are still in learning mode, those gentlemen aren’t stupid, they have watched the Twins for years.

It makes me wonder if the Twins approach is to try to not upset the fans even more than they already are. The hottest rumor surrounding the Twins is trading second baseman Brian Dozier. Dozier is the face of the Twins and the team leader and Dozier might not ever again hit 42 home runs like he did last year and he might be at the peak of his value but do you trade him for more prospects? Let’s be honest here, the Twins have sucked since 2011, we shouldn’t have to start the rebuild process again and wait until the 20’s to field a competitive team. If you trade Dozier you had better get some players in return that can play in the major leagues now, not in a few years. If you trade him for prospects you might as well put up a sign at Target Field like this:

Twins ownership and the organization need to realize they have a serious issue here, the Twins are not the lovable losing Chicago Cubs. That game won’t play here, we need to see some positive changes coming out of 1 Twins Way. If you think I’m getting inpatient then you are correct, times have changed, teams can show dramatic improvement from year to year just like they can tank from year to year. Patience isn’t a virtue if you own and or run a baseball team, you either put a winning team on the field or you better start to hire more workers to dust off those empty seats at Target Field.

Here are some reminders for you, the Minnesota Twins last appeared in the World Series over 26 years ago, they haven’t even won a playoff game in 13 years, enough already.

Show us something, at least throw us a bone!

Jason Castro coming to Minnesota

Jason Castro
Jason Castro

The Minnesota Twins and catcher Jason Castro have apparently reached agreement on a 3-year $24.5 deal. The 29-year-old catcher was a first round selection (10th) overall of the Houston Astros in 2008. That same year the Twins selected outfielder Aaron Hicks as the 14th pick and the San Francisco Giants selected catcher Buster Posey with the fifth pick in round one. After being selected in 2008 Castro made his major league debut on June 22, 2010 and he has been in the big leagues ever since. Castro missed the entire 2011 season due to knee surgery and showed up on the Astros’s DL in 2012, 2013, and 2015. Castro was an All-Star in 2013, the first year Houston was in the American league and he has some playoff experience on his resume.

Castro is not known for his hitting skills but is deemed to be very good behind the plate in calling games and framing pitches. Castro has thrown out 26% of base thieves while with Houston and his mark in 2016 was 24%. His best season throwing out runners was in 2015 when he threw out 36%.

Castro has some pop with his bat having hit 62 career home runs over six seasons but you have to remember that Houston is not exactly Yellowstone Park so I would expect his home run count to drop slightly at Target Field. Prone to strike out (between 115-151 times the last four seasons), Castro, a left-handed hitter has career average of .232 but he has hit .210 and .211 the last two years. Castro had a .307 OBP in 2016, the first time it has been north of .300 in the last three years.

I like the addition of Jason Castro and I think he and John Ryan Murphy will make a nice platoon catching tandem for the 2017 Minnesota Twins.