Tag: Max Kepler

According to ELIAS

Twins top three hitters produce in win over the Indians

Dozier
Dozier
Mauer
Mauer
Kepler
Kepler

Twins leadoff hitter Brian Dozier had three RBIs and three runs scored, second-place hitter Joe Mauer had four RBIs and two runs scored and third-place hitter Max Kepler scored twice and drove in two in Minnesota’s 13-5 victory over Cleveland on Wednesday. It’s only the second time since RBIs became an official statistic in 1920 that each of the top three hitters in the Senators/Twins starting lineup produced multiple RBIs and runs scored in the same game. The only other time that happened was on July 1, 1964, when Zoilo Versalles, Rich Rollins and Tony Oliva each did it in a 14-3 win against the Red Sox at Fenway Park.

According to ELIAS

Kepler’s power surge continues

Max Kepler
Max Kepler

One day after becoming the first Twins rookie in franchise history to homer three times in a game, Max Kepler cleared the fence one more time in Minnesota’s victory over the Indians last night. Kepler became the first Twins player since Kirby Puckett in August 1987 to hit four home runs within a two-game span. Only four other players this season have homered four or more times over a two-game span – Mookie Betts (five homers), Khris Davis (four), Michael Saunders (four), and Giancarlo Stanton (four).

Max Kepler maximizing his power potential for Twins

According to ELIAS

Kepler does something a certain 40-year-old has never done

Credit: Minnesota Twins
Credit: Minnesota Twins

Max Kepler slugged three home runs last night, which may make another active player who began his career with the Twins a little jealous. David Ortiz has hit 528 home runs in the majors and he has never had a three-homer game. Big Papi is one of three members of the 500-home-run club who never hit three in one game, along with Rafael Palmeiro and Gary Sheffield.

Corey Seager went deep three times in a game against the Braves in June. Kepler and Seager are the fourth pair of rookies to each have a three-homer game in the same season. The other tandems to do that were Mark McGwire and Mickey Brantley in 1987, Nick Markakis and Cody Ross in 2006, and Evan Longoria and Joey Votto in 2008.

Update: According to Elias, Max Kepler became the first European-born player in baseball history to homer three times in a game.

 

Kepler hits three homers in Twins’ victory

Box score

Congratulations Max!

According to ELIAS

First month in MLB history with three rookies with eight or more home runs

Max Kepler
Max Kepler

Max Kepler hit a score-tying home run for the Twins in the sixth inning and singled in a run in the seventh inning of Minnesota’s 6-2 win over the Orioles. Kepler’s home run was his eighth this month, which ties Trevor Story for the second-most homers by a rookie in July, one behind the Padres’ Ryan Schimpf with nine. This is the first calendar month in major-league history in which three different rookies each hit at least eight home runs.

According to ELIAS

Kepler 10 homers in last 33 games

Max Kepler
Max Kepler

Max Kepler‘s home run off Francisco Rodriguez in the ninth inning gave the Twins a 2-1 lead in their eventual 4-1 win over the Tigers yesterday. Kepler has hit 10 home runs over his last 33 games. Kepler is the fourth Twins rookie over the last 40 years to hit 10 or more homers over 1 33-game span. The other Twins rookies to do over the last 40 years are Kent Hrbek and Tom Brunansky, both in 1982, and Miguel Sano in 2015.

Twins open for business

open for businessTwins GM Terry Ryan has stated several times now that the Twins are open for business and will consider any and all offers. But it does take two to tango as they say and Mr. Ryan hasn’t exactly been “Trader Jack”.

If I am Terry Ryan I make it clear to all comers that I am all ears and will listen to all  offers and my team and I are ready to deal if the price is right and the deal helps the Twins. If the trade helps the other team than fine but my only obligation is to make the Twins a better team now. This does not mean however; that this is a fire sale, the Twins are not looking to dump players, they are looking to improve their team, there is a big difference. The team has a group of young core players that they are building around, I am not interested in trading for prospects unless they are major league ready.

Who would I look to trade? I would NOT trade Miguel Sano, Max Kepler, Byron Buxton or Jose Berrios. There are several young pitchers in the farm system that could be had in the right deal but the price would be very steep. Having said that, everyone else on the Twins 25 man roster would be available in the right trade. I would even trade manager Paul Molitor if I could help my team. There are some prospects in the Twins system that they may have to part ways with in order to get better.

You have to remember that the team has the worst record in baseball as we approach the All-Star break so don’t over value the players you have. You have to listen to your brain and look at the stats versus listening to your heart. Loyalty is great but winning is even better.

The Twins are not going to jump from the outhouse to the penthouse in this trading season but they could take some big steps forward with some good moves over the next few weeks. In my book the next three weeks will make or break the Twins season and will decide the future of the Twins organizations make-up for the forseeable future. Terry Ryan and his team have to be open to all offers and suggestions and be willing to travel roads they have never visited before. The road may be unfamiliar and you will hit some bumps but if you do nothing you will surely continue to fail. Personally I have always hated change but sometimes you have to accept it and embrace it, this is one of those times.

Oh yes, there will be those fork in the road decisions that might be difficult but keep in mind that this whole season has been difficult for us Twins fans and if you are not willing to take some chances then you need to step aside and put someone there that is willing to do so.

Good luck Mr. Ryan, lots of Minnesota Twins fans are watching and waiting!

According to ELIAS

Kepler and Sano go deep and combine for 10 RBIs

Max Kepler
Max Kepler

Max Kepler homered twice in a seven-RBI performance, while Miguel Sano contributed a home run and three RBIs to the Twins’ rout of the Rangers. Kepler and Sano are the first pair of teammates–each age 23 or younger–to combine for 10 RBIs in a game in which they each homered since Chipper Jones and Ryan Klesko did that for the Braves in 1995. Before the Atlanta duo, you have to go back to Andre Dawson and Ellis Valentine of the 1977 Expos, and then Lou Gehrig and Tony Lazzeri with the 1927 Yankees to find pairs of that kind.

Max Kepler’s seven RBI yesterday afternoon set a Twins single-game rookie record for RBI. The previous three to have a share of the record of six were Tony Oliva May 7, 1964 against Los Angeles-AL; Oswaldo Arcia September 22, 2013 against Oakland; and Miguel Sano August 12, 2015 against Texas.

According to ELIAS

Kepler, Max walkoff 061216Max Kepler‘s first career home run–a 10th-inning three-run blast over the centerfield wall and off the batters-eye at Target Field gave the Twins a dramatic 7-4 win over the Boston Red Sox yesterday afternoon. Among the 138 players in major-league history to hit 300 career home runs, only two had their first one come as a walkoff shot in extra innings: Miguel Cabrera (in his major-league debut) and Alfonso Soriano.

Congratulations Max!

Miguel Sano too big to fail

Miguel Sano
Miguel Sano

I have told you all before that my glass is half empty and it is leaking. You can say that it is a negative attitude or what ever you want but this type of thinking has served me well during my life time and it helped me immensely in my 38 year career in IT.

I hope like hell that Miguel Sano has finally found a position he can call home but I can’t help but wonder what would happen if for some reason it does not pan out. It is unlikely that a decision like that would be made quickly because the Twins want and need Miguel Sano to play right field, if Sano isn’t an outfielder all kinds of poop hits the fan.

Let’s look at worst case here for a moment and see what you do with Sano if that should happen. He was signed as a shortstop and the Twins said for several years that he might have to be moved to third base and eventually they did move him to the hot corner. Now with Trevor Plouffe finally playing well at 3B and hitting in the middle of the line-up the Twins aren’t excited about moving him to another position or trading him. Sano has shown (albeit in the minor leagues) he is far from a gold glover at 3B anyway so why take Plouffe off 3B? Last year Sano played a little 3B and DH but you really don’t want to waste an athletic young player like Sano at DH. If he is so athletic why can’t he play outfield or anywhere else for that matter? I think the answer is simply his size, the man is a brute, I didn’t say fat, he is huge for a baseball player. Maybe he eventually settles in at 1B but not for the time being, we have Joe Mauer there, Byung-ho Park was signed as a first baseman, and Kennys Vargas wants to play there too.

Norwood, WillieI have actually spent a lot of time thinking about this situation with Sano so that shows you how my mind works these days. With the way the Twins team is structured there is no way that Sano is not the right fielder for the Twins in 2016 short of a serious injury. Think about it, the Twins have used Harmon Killebrew as an outfielder and even Willie Norwood played outfield for the Twins and he couldn’t catch a cold at your local urgent care center filled with kindergartners.

I can live with Eddie Rosario and Byron Buxton covering left and center and Sano camping out in right field because I am not buying a ticket to watch Sano play in the outfield, I am there to watch Miguel Sano hit. Sano has more power that Harmon Killebrew and people will indeed stop whatever they are doing to watch Sano hit, just like they did for Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew. Say what you want, but Miguel Sano is indeed too big to fail no matter how you slice and dice it.

So now what do we do with Max Kepler and Adam Walker? An embarrassment of riches? OH BOY! This going to be fun.

 

Twins roster make-up from 2006-2015

We are on the cusp of a new baseball season and that means that Spring Training is underway and players from all over the world including peach-fuzz faced rookies and grizzly old veterans are beginning their fight for a MLB roster spot, they want to be one of the 750 players on a 25-man roster participating in “The Show“. Some players are already guaranteed spots, others will win a job, and still others will get a job because someone else had the misfortune to get injured.

Baseball fans all over have been watching free agency, hot stove league action as well as play in the winter leagues and everyone has their own idea what each of the 30 GM’s should have done and what they can still do to improve the home team. One of the fun aspects of spring training is pretending to be the GM and manager and decide who gets to make the 25 man roster for the big trip up north when April rolls around.

Choosing who makes up the 25-man is no easy task because there is so much that goes into deciding who gets to wear a MLB uniform when the season-opener finally arrives. You obviously want to put your 25 best players on the roster but it is not that simple, sometimes money, politics, injuries, legal issues, MLB rules and options and just plain luck come into play. Say you have three players for a single position, one is a better hitter, one is better in the field and the third player isn’t the best hitter or fielder but can do an adequate job of both and is good in the club house, who gets the job?

Choosing a 25 man roster is important but not as big a deal as you may think. GM’s and managers have quite a bit of flexibility in changing the roster over the span of the 162 game schedule and the playoffs. If you want to be the team that wins the final baseball game of the season you need depth and 25 players doesn’t cut it. Having depth is more important than ever, the 1965 World Series team used 35 players, the 1987 team used 36 players and the 1991 Twins used 35 players. The 2015 champion Kansas City Royals needed 45 players to win it all. The number of players the Twins have used for the last 10 years has ranged from 39 to 48 players, last season the Twins used 44 players.

Today I am not going to try to guess at the 2016 Minnesota Twins 25-man roster but we are going to take a look at the number of players that the Twins have used each season for the last 10 years and determine where those players came from. Are the Twins players predominately home-grown via the draft and amateur free agent signings or did they become Minnesota Twins through the waiver wire, a trade, free agency or some other means. Every team, be it the Twins or anyone else is obviously a mix of home-grown and acquired players but some clubs like the Yankees or the Red Sox have reputations of trading their prospects for experienced players other teams can no longer afford and teams like the Twins, A’s and others believe the way to go is through growth from within. There is no right or wrong way to go, it all depends on your circumstances and your pocket-book.

The PDF shows that the Twins used 433 players during this time frame but not 433 unique players as many players were on the roster year after year. It shows the number of roster spots the Twins needed in each of those 10 seasons and how many pitchers and position players made up the roster and how the Twins got their rights.

The PDF covers the Twins rosters from 2006-2015. Keep in mind that the chart tracks where players originally came from, for example, if you look at the pitchers side of 2015 you see a two in the Rule 5 column. That doesn’t mean that they had two Rule 5 pick-ups in 2015, it means that two roster spots in 2015 were occupied by players that the Twins had picked up as Rule 5 selections over the years and they were on the 2015 roster at one time or another, in this case we are talking about J.R. Graham and Ryan Pressly.

"<strongAMA or amateur free agents are players that were not draft eligible and most of these players were signed by Minnesota out of Australia, Europe, or Caribbean countries. We are talking about players like Miguel Sano, Oswaldo Arcia, Danny Santana, Max Kepler and many others.

The bottom  line is that over this 10 year span, 44.80% of the roster spots were occupied by players either drafted by Minnesota or signed by Minnesota as AFA, the remaining 55.20% were acquired from other organizations in one way or another. Does this make the Twins a home grown team? I don’t know, you tell me.

Roster make-up

Fun Twins fact: Based on the Twins 40 man roster who is the oldest player that will be in camp this year? Turns out that the two grey beards in camp are Ervin Santana and Ricky Nolasco who were born just a day apart in December 1982.