Tag: Jim Pohlad

2022 Twins Turkey of the Year

Once again it is that time of the year, time to name the 2022 Twins Turkey of the Year, but first, I would like to wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving. We all have a lot to be thankful for even if the Minnesota Twins play in 2022 is not one of them. As you might imagine, there were plenty of candidates for this years honor after the team crashed and burned playing .357 baseball in September and finished the second half with a 28-40 record. Hopes were sky high when the Twins spent over $35 million to sign shortstop Carlos Correa but as the season wore on, the Twins wore down even if manager Rocco Baldelli rested his players for the big Fall push.

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Byron Buxton and Twins agree to an extension

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.

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How will the Minnesota Twins fare in 2019

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.

Twins laying the groundwork for what’s to come

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. 

 

This decade has been tough for Twins fans

Target Field on March 23, 2010 and baseball is just around the corner

The Minnesota Twins opened the decade in a new ballpark over at Target Field in 2010 and everyone was excited about Twins baseball. Why not? The Twins had won 87 games in 2009, drawn 2.4 million fans in their last season calling the Metrodome as home and advanced to the playoffs and now the team would finally play outside for the first time since the 1981 season at Met Stadium allowing fans to get to enjoy the sunshine and oh yes, the rain, snow and cold too.

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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.  

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Twins Filling Coaching Ranks

The Twins announced four new coaches to manager Rocco Baldelli‘s staff yesterday, as they hired Wes Johnson (pitching coach), Jeremy Hefner (bullpen coach), Tony Diaz (third-base coach) and Tommy Watkins (first-base coach). The Twins had retained hitting coach James Rowson, assistant hitting coach Rudy Hernandez and bench coach Derek Shelton. 

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This is How We Baseball

REALLY?

I just wanted to climb up on my soapbox and take a few minutes to express my thoughts on the 2018 Minnesota Twins advertising gimmick line of “This is how we baseball”. I tried to think back of a worse Twins advertising idea over the years but none really comes to mind as being as bad as this one. 

You never know when a gimmick line will catch on and get hot but I don’t think this one ever stood a chance of that. Who wants to wear a t-shirt that says “this is how we baseball” when your team plays as badly as the 2018 Twins have. 

What was it intended to really tell us? “This is how we baseball” seems stupid to me but of course I am only one fan and I am sure there must be some fans out there that think this is a great catch phrase. If so, please leave a comment and tell me why you like it because I would really like to know.

If I remember correctly the Twins changed advertising firms going into this season and if so, they got took big time IMHO. Who approved this idea? Jim Pohlad should have that person fired. I do however; remain a Minnesota Twins fan in spite of this ridiculous advertising campaign.

 

Chilly Ball in 2018 and Frozen Balls in 1965

The Minnesota Twins opened the 2018 season on the road in Baltimore where first pitch temperatures were 65, 55 and 61, nothing to really complain about in late March. The Twins then moved on to Pittsburgh to play the Pirates and the weather there was a bit cooler with first pitch temps were 40 and 37 and it snowed almost the entire game when the Pirates had their home opener on April 2 At times the snow was coming down so hard it was difficult to see the ball.

The Twins then went home to host their own opening day against the Seattle Mariners on April 5th, the weather predictions were dire, temps for the first pitch could be in the low 30’s. After all, the Twins Cities had seen a freakish snowstorm on April 2-3 that dumped about 9 inches of snow on the Twins Cities and Target Field. Fans and players alike were grumbling about the opener being so cold. Logan Morrison a new Twins player in 2018 said that games shouldn’t be played when it is that cold and Minnesota’s stadium should have had a roof. Twins President Dave St.Peter said something to the effect that we live in the “Bold North” meaning that everyone should just suck it up and watch some baseball. Then again it is easy for him to say that because he is the team president and that is what we expect him to say, besides, he sits behind glass when he watches the games anyway. We need Mr. St. Peter and owner Jim Pohlad to lead by example and sit down with the fans and watch the game like Calvin Griffith used to do. Turns out the Twins Target Field Opening Day temperature at first pitch was 38 degrees, the home team won and everyone went home happy.

But enough about that, we are here to tell you about a time back in August, yes I said August, of 1965 when the Detroit Tigers complained about ice-cold frozen baseballs that the Chicago White Sox were supposedly providing when these two teams met in a double-header on August 1 at White Sox Park. Who knows, maybe it was pay back for a week earlier when The White Sox complained that the balls used in Detroit were all dried out and hitting them was like hitting a lively golf ball. American League President Joe Cronin ordered an investigation but I have no clue as to how things turned out. The article below seems to state that back then there were no rules for storing baseballs other than they had to be delivered one hour prior to the game. I’m sure that has changed since then….

Here I though that only the NFL had issues with it balls.

Back when baseball was just a game

Calvin Griffith

Baseball and baseball owners have changed over the years. When Calvin Griffith was the owner of the Minnesota Twins he truly ran his own team. Griffith was the owner, President, and General Manager. Today we have an owner, we have a President, a Head of Baseball Operation and a General Manager and too many other executives to count. The business of baseball in current times is truly a business with layer upon layer of management.

This off-season the free agent players got their butts kicked by the owners who have refused to pay longer term contracts and the big money deals of years gone by. The owners in essence have instituted a salary cap with their luxury tax and the players union stood by and said “what just happened”.

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