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
What is going on with our Minnesota Twins? They are only 22 games into the 2025 season and it is already no fun to watch this team play ball. A 7-15 record after 22 games? This team is better than that, I am not saying they are one of the upper echelon teams but they are better than 7-15.
So what ails this team? This past off-season they were bragging about having one of the best bullpens in baseball and so far they look like they have one of the worst bullpens. Hopefully that will will straighten itself out soon but it had better happen soon. What about the hitting? I would rate it between dismal and pathetic, they don’t seem to have anyone that can consistently knock in runs, but then again they have not had one of those players in years. Both of these things could be blamed on the Twins front office and ownership but with the Twins for sale I don’t see the Pohlad’s jettisoning Derek Falvey at his point. So the obvious move is to fire the manager and show the remaining Twins fans that the Twins are still trying to win. Perception is reality after all.
With the extraordinarily warm weather we are having in Minnesota where the grass is still green, the water in the lakes is still liquid and Thanksgiving is just around the corner it is hard to believe we are well into the fall/winter sports season. The Minnesota Vikings, Minnesota Wild and Minnesota Timberwolves all doing better than expected, pushing the Minnesota Twins off sports fans radar screens.
That is in spite of the fact that the Twins have announced that MLB will produce and distribute Twins games in 2025 but no specifics pertaining to cost were provided, the Pohlad family announced their intent to explore a sale of the Minnesota Twins, the team fired all three hitting coaches as well as its assistant bench coach, GM Thad Levine decided to pursue other interests and was replaced by Jeremy Zoll, Alex Kirilloff announced he was retiring at the age of 26, the team announced an executive leadership succession plan, to be implemented in the first quarter of 2025 whereas club President & CEO Dave St. Peter will transition to the role of Strategic Advisor; and President, Baseball Operations Derek Falvey will be elevated to President, Baseball & Business Operations. My favorite announcement so far though is the Twins also announcing in a very low-key manner a new (and I think complicated) ticket plan that includes the sale of MYTWINS Memberships and Reward Plans ranging from $600 to $7500. Just another method of of reaching into Twins fans pockets.
All of this with the Twins season ending less than a month ago and the MLB Winter Meetings (December 8-12) in Dallas still two weeks off. We have been very busy here at the home of Twinstrivia.com as we sold our home in Plymouth, MN in mid-October and are preparing to move to Corcoran, MN around Thanksgiving. When you live some place for 38+ years you tend to accumulate way too much stuff including in my case Twins memorabilia and other stuff. I first thought about skipping a Twins Turkey of the Year award this year but that just wouldn’t fair when the Minnesota Twins had an epic collapse that saw them drop from second place all the way to fourth. A 9-18 September had the Twins players calling their travel agents and making new travel plans that included more golf and no baseball. A season like the Twins just had in 2024 requires that a Twins Turkey of the Year winner be named yet again.
Just for fun I asked AI Microsoft Copilot powered by GPT-4 to tell me how the Minnesota Twins will do in 2024. Here is what it had to say:
The Minnesota Twins are gearing up for the 2024 MLB season, and there are several intriguing story-lines to watch. Let’s dive into some predictions:
Royce Lewis Makes All-Star Team, Earns MVP Consideration:
Royce Lewis, a popular breakout candidate, has been impressive in his 70 career big league games. With a slash line of .307/.364/.548/.921 and 17 home runs, his power potential is evident.
I have followed the Minnesota Twins since 1961 (with the exception of my Navy years 1965-1968) but very few Twins teams have frustrated me as much as this season has. I have never been one to sugar-coat the Twins performance and I think I have done my share of ripping the Twins organization over the years. My site, Twinstrivia.com is intended to be a Minnesota Twins historical website so I try to not spend a lot of time writing about my personal feeling regarding the Twins although I do not hide the fact I am a huge Twins fan and watch them when ever I can, more so on TV now days than in person. But this 2023 Twins team is getting to me.
The Minnesota Twins coming off a three-game series in which they went 0 for 23 with RISP and were outscored 13 to 3 and swept by the high flying Atlanta Braves. After the series-sweeping 3-0 loss manager Rocco Baldelli had another closed-door meeting with his team in which he told them that they were playing was unsatisfactory baseball. I would have paid good money to sit in on that meeting.
The Twins have been in first place for the majority of the 2023 season but have played uninspiring baseball for most of the year. The starting pitching has been good but the bullpen has been less than stellar and the hitting has been abysmal, particularly situational hitting.
It has been a number of years since I have been this excited about the beginning of a new baseball season. I can’t wait for it to begin and it starts tomorrow. There are a number of rules changes that I think will make baseball more fun to watch. There are so many changes in the game this year from bigger bases, shift limits, the pitch timer, limits on throws to first base, and more. The extra-inning rule with the so called “Ghost Runner” was made permanent and I really don’t like that rule at all but you have to take the bad with the good.
One of the other changes that MLB made that I think is fantastic is the schedule change, the number of games still stays at 162 but every team will face every other team at least six times during the regular season so fans will get to see the best players in the game in their home ballpark for a minimum of three games, unless of course they are injured.
Then there are our home town Minnesota Twins who I think are set to earn back the AL Central Division title in 2023 that has eluded them since 2020 and that was only in a 60-game season. The Twins were swamped with injuries last season and finished 78-84 and in 2021 they finished with a 73-89 record. Can they win 15 more games in 2023 than they won lost year? I think they can.
SPRING FLING: Today the Twins will play the 28th and 29th of 32 scheduled Grapefruit League games as the Twins and Braves will play a pair of split squad at Hammond Stadium and CoolToday Park in North Port. After today, one more game will be played at Hammond Stadium and two more games will be played on the road. The Twins will complete the exhibition season with a 1:05 pm (ET) game in Bradenton against the Pirates on Tuesday, March 28. After the game, they will fly to Kansas City, hold an optional team workout on March 29 then begin a three-game, four-day series at Kauffman Stadium from March 30-April 2. Rocco Baldelli announced to the media how the starting five will open the season: for the Kansas City series – RHP Pablo López on Thursday, March 30 , RHP Sonny Gray on Saturday, April 1, RHP Joe Ryan on Sunday, April 2. For the Miami series – RHP Tyler Mahle on Monday, April 3, RHP Kenta Maeda on Tuesday, April 4.
Below is a look at MLB’s top ten Twins prospects entering the 2023 season: 1. Brooks Lee, 2 Royce Lewis, 3. Emmanuel Rodriguez, 4. Connor Prelipp, 5 Matt Wallner, 6 Simeon Woods Richardson, 7 Marco Raya, 8 Misael Urbina, 9 Matt Canterino, 10 Louie Varland.
PROSPECT SHOWCASE IN TAMPA: The Twins beat the Yankees yesterday afternoon at George M. Steinbrenner Field by a score of 6-4. Pablo López was the starter in his final tuneup of the spring, allowing two runs on two hits in 3 innings pitched. Kenta Maeda made his final official spring appearance in relief, allowing two runs on three hits in 5 innings pitched, with five strikeouts. Twins prospects Edouard Julien and Emmanuel Rodriguez both went 2-for-4 with a home run, as Rodriguez’s three-run jimmy jack gave the Twins a ninth inning lead and eventual victory.
Since the Twins are publishing their Twins Notes for each Spring Training game I thought that I would pick out one item from each days notes and pass it along here. Today’s note is from March 2.
This season marks Rocco Baldelli’s fifth as the Twins’ manager, he will enter the regular season with a career managerial record of 288-258 and two division titles (2019 and ’20). Baldelli is one of eight managers in team history (since 1961) with 250 victories. Rocco’s coaching staff for 2023 includes: first base/catching coach Hank Conger, quality control coach Nate Dammann, assistant bench coach Tony Diaz, hitting coach Rudy Hernandez, pitching coach Pete Maki, bullpen coach Colby Suggs, hitting coach David Popkins, assistant pitching coach Luis Ramirez, assistant hitting coach Derek Shomon, bench coach Jayce Tingler and third base/outfield coach Tommy Watkins.
According to WikipediA, in baseball a quality start is a statistic for a starting pitcher defined as a game in which the pitcher completes at least six innings and permits no more than three earned runs. The quality start has effectively replaced the ‘complete game’ as a meaningful measure of a starting pitcher’s performance.
The quality start was developed by sportswriter John Lowe in 1985 while writing for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Nolan Ryan has used the term “High Quality Start” for games where the pitcher goes seven innings or more and allows three earned runs or fewer, which baseball columnist and formber BBWAA president Derrick Goold referred to as “Quality Start Plus.”
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.
Manager Rocco Baldelli and head athletic trainer Michael Salazar
Somebody’s head had to be on the chopping block after the 2022 Minnesota Twins dismal season and it looks like head athletic trainer Michael Salazar is that unlucky soul. The way the Twins front office makes it sound he will be the only casualty but we will have to wait and see what happens down the line. That certainly does not sit well with me or many other Twins fans.
Twins interim pitching coach Pete Maki has been named as the pitching coach and interim bullpen coach Colby Suggs will also drop the interim label from his poisition on the coaching staff. One of these days I need to find out what a bullpen coach does besides answer the phone. I read somewhere where Derek Falvey stated that an assistant pitching coach may be added to help Maki with his duties. It seems like it will only be a matter of time before there will be as many coaches as there are players on the team. I wouldn’t be surprised if maybe some coaches get reassigned, third base coach Tommy Watkins comes to mind but we will just have to wait and see.
Once the World Series comes to an end we will see what the Minnesota Twins off-season looks like. There are many questions and issues to be addressed, it will be interesting to see how things shake out.
