TwinsTakes – Balking at controversy? Talk the Balk!

Posted on April 23, 2015 by Robb
Balk the Balk? Talk the Balk!

Click the pic to see video of the play! Balking the controversy! Talk the Balk!

Stealing Home – can you balk the balk?

Last night during the Minnesota Twins game against the Kansas City Royals, there was a controversial play in the top of the 2nd inning. With the Twins up 3-0, the bases loaded and 2 outs, Kennys Vargas was at the plate, Torii Hunter was on 3rd, Joe Mauer was on 2nd and Brian Dozier was on 1st. The count was 0 and 1 after Vargas fouled off the 1st pitch of the at-bat.

 

As Royals starting pitcher Jeremy Guthrie started his wind up for the pitch, Torii broke for home to try to steal a run. Guthrie sped up his delivery, throwing a perfectly placed ball to get Hunter a few feet before he slides into home.

 

Minnesota Twins manager Paul Molitor came out to get an explanation on the call as you can’t argue or review a balk. The umpires huddled together for a minute or so and explained the call, Hunter was out. End of the top of the 2nd inning.

 

The balk rule seems to always cause controversy and in this case, it involves a few things that are out of the ordinary for a pitcher’s motion to home plate. Guthrie starts his windup and isn’t paying attention to Torii at 3rd base. He’s actually looking down as he starts his windup. As soon as he notices Torii breaking for home, he speeds up his delivery and actually throws the ball before his front foot touches the ground.

 

This, of course, sparks a discussion about the balk rule and how to interpret it. Feel free to go to TwinsDaily.com‘s article “Was this a Balk?” to get in on the conversation. I commented quite a bit for a balk as the “alteration” of Jeremy Guthrie’s delivery is the reason the play was made. So, I’m either interpreting the rule wrong, just plain wrong or they need a better explanation of some of the rule. There’s plenty of players, managers and umpires in baseball that disagree with what a balk is so I’m not discouraged that I have yet to figure it out.

 

What about the actual play?

We can argue until we run out of oxygen about how to interpret the balk rule but we may be missing the bigger picture of the play that was attempted. Torii Hunter, with the bases loaded, 2 outs and powerful Kennys Vargas at the plate, ended the inning by getting caught stealing. That’s pretty much always frowned upon and a bad play. I know I reacted negatively about it think what was he thinking?

 

After the game, Paul Molitor did say he gave a nod to Torii so it wasn’t just Torii trying to steal home by himself. After having some time to think about it and hearing Paul Molitor’s thoughts on the play, I changed my thinking about it. Bear with me!

 

Obviously, it’s a negative play because we don’t know how Kennys Vargas’ at-bat ends up. He could get a hit that should score two runs. A double probably clears the bases and, of course, a Grand Slam would be the ultimate result. There could be a wild pitch, a walk a balk (sorry!) or a hit by a pitch as well. Of course, those are the positives that result in some type of score happening but it could go negative too. He could strikeout, ground out, fly out or pop out too.

 

Kennys Vargas was 3-for-27 hitting from the left side against right-handed pitchers before that at-bat and the 3rd hit happened in the 1st inning. So, Paul Molitor knows the situation with his hitter struggling against righties and has the awareness of the situation to look for the opportunity to steal home there. More importantly, he has put that awareness in his player’s minds too. No, it didn’t turn out the way they wanted but it’d good to know the Twins are looking for the opportunities to score in any way possible.

 

That makes two nights in a row that Paul Molitor has made a managerial decision that means this will be a different kind of season for the Minnesota Twins. Last night, he brought in closer Glen Perkins in the 8th inning of a tie game to try to get the Twins out of the inning. That means he used his best pitcher in a tough situation.

 

That’s my Take on the Twins for today. Let us know what your ‘Takes are in the comments, on Twitter, Facebook and/or Google+! After all out slogan is….


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2015 Minnesota Twins – Done Deal For Brian Dozier

Posted on April 5, 2015 by Robb

Dozier Dollars 2

It’s a Done Deal for the Minnesota Twins and 2nd Baseman Brian Dozier.

Minnesota Twins fans who are up on major league baseball’s rules on team and player control probably wonder why this deal was ever negotiated. As a player with only 3 years of major league service, Brian Dozier was under team control through 2018 anyways so why give him more money when it wasn’t necessary?

Drafted in 2009 after his senior season at the University of Southern Mississippi, Mr. Dozier would start his professional career in the Rookie Gulf Coast League and, being from college, he’d old for that level and every level he’d play in until he reached AA New Britain in 2011. As an older player, he would advance quickly and be called up by the Twins in May of 2012 only to be sent back to AAA in the middle of August after struggling offensively and defensively while playing shortstop.

The Twins may have been desperate calling Brian Dozier up so early but Pedro Florimon consistently showed he wasn’t going to hit so it’s hard to blame them for giving Dozier a look. It was disappointing he struggled as he was thought of as a player that could be a quality starting middle infielder for the Minnesota Twins and hold on to one of those spots for awhile, something they have lacked for a long time.

Calling up and throwing a prospect into the fire too early can sometimes ruin them. It looked like that may have been the case with Brian Dozier because he continued to struggle at AAA Rochester and wasn’t even part of the call-ups in September when the rosters increase to 40.

It can take time for any player to adapt to a new league, especially if it’s the Major Leagues but failure can be a good thing because it can humble a person and you then get to see what kind of makeup they have. Are they going to pout and wonder why they aren’t doing well or are they going to get to work with the people that can help them improve so when they get a second chance, they’re ready for it. This is what kind of player the Twins have:

“…the experience stung Dozier enough that he went right to work when the season ended. He played winter ball in Venezuela to get experience at second base, spent time with left fielder Josh Willingham at his ranch in Alabama and worked with Paul Molitor on second-base fundamentals at the University of Minnesota.”

He would end up beating out an aging Jamey Carroll in Spring Training to earn the starting second base job in 2013 and even though he wasn’t putting up great numbers for a leadoff hitter, he was starting to show the reason why he moved up the system quickly, getting on base more, playing good defense and showing more power than he showed in the minors, becoming the Twins franchise leader in Home Runs in a single season by a second baseman.

Then Mr. Dozier took that up another notch in 2014 raising his OBP (on-base percentage), scoring the 2nd most runs in the league* and becoming a better base stealer.
*The one and only Mike Trout lead the league in runs scored in 2014.

Brian Dozier has solidified himself as the Minnesota Twins 2nd Baseman with solid play for two seasons and room for more improvement. Doesn’t that deserve a raise?

The Twins could’ve saved money by just paying Dozier the most he could get as a player under team control before being an arbitration eligible player or they could do what they did and reward a player for a great season who is peaking at the right time in his career.

Of course, even if they tried to just keep paying Brian Dozier the league minimum for a player under team control, eventually he would be eligible for arbitration and then you never know how much a player could receive if it goes to a hearing.

Now, they’ve signed him to a 4-year deal worth $20 million total, $2 million in 2015, $3 million in 2016, $6 million in 2017 and $9 million in 2018. Fangraphs.com has a great feature on their site that shows the value of a player’s season and they show Brian Dozier’s 2014 season having a value of $26.2 million. So you could look at it like the Twins just paid him for what he did last season and the next four are just a bonus.

Another thing about this contract is that it doesn’t buy out any of Brian Dozier’s free agent years. He’ll be 31 years old at the time the contract ends and that’s right about where a player’s career starts to trend downward. It’s four years too. By the time 2018 comes around, who knows who the Twins will have to put at second base. It’ll be interesting but it’s good to know the Twins have a player at second base that they should be able to count on for awhile.

THANKS for reading my Takes on the Twins! I’d love to hear your TwinsTakes on this or any other Twins or baseball related story because that’s what this site is all about:

My Takes, Your Takes, TwinsTakes.com!

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Paul Molitor Hired as new Manager of the Minnesota Twins

Posted on November 4, 2014 by Robb

Can “The Ignitor” light a fire under this franchise and turn it into a winner?

Paul Molitor was named the new Manager of the Minnesota Twins yesterday. He signed a 3-year deal and will be introduced at a press conference today at 10am that will air live on MLB.com and TwinsBaseball.com.

It took Terry Ryan and the front office about a month to hire the man thought to be the top candidate for the job even before Ron Gardenhire was fired. The Twins did their due diligence in looking inside and outside the organization for candidates to fill the job making sure there wasn’t a better man for the job. In the end, Paul Molitor was the man they wanted to take control of this team for the next three seasons.

The naysayers will ask many questions about this hiring. Is Paul Molitor the best person for the job? Should they have hired someone from outside the organization? Should he have some prior managerial experience? Is being a part of the so-called “Twins Way” a bad thing? Can he change Twins baseball back to a winning culture?

Is Paul Molitor the best/right person for the job?
Paul Molitor is a Hall of Famer who played for 21 seasons and has been around baseball for more than 40 years so I can’t imagine anything will come up that he won’t have already seen or dealt with. He’s already been an instructor with a lot of the players in the Twins system and on the current roster yet he will still be a new voice in the locker room. As a HOFer, he will have instant respect from every player that is currently in and/or comes into the Twins system and to the major league roster.

Should the Twins have hired someone from outside the organization, with prior managerial experience who isn’t part of “the Twins Way?”
Some think it’s wrong for the Twins to keep hiring from inside the organization. They interviewed many candidates from outside the organization and in the end, felt like Paul Molitor was the right person for the job. It’s about finding the right person not finding the right person from outside the organization.

On prior managerial experience, I give you this from an article posted yesterday on TwinsBaseball.com:

Molitor will join the Cardinals’ Mike Matheny, the Dodgers’ Don Mattingly, the White Sox Robin Ventura, the Rockies’ Walt Weiss and John Farrell — with the Blue Jays before winning the World Series as Red Sox skipper — as recent MLB hires with no prior managerial experience.

Matheny, Mattingly and Farrell have taken their teams to the postseason and Farrell won the 2013 World Series with the Red Sox. Weiss and Ventura haven’t done as well as they didn’t come into as good of a situation as the other three but it does show that prior managerial experience isn’t a prerequisite to being a major league manager.

“The Twins Way” takes on different meanings to different people. To me, the Twins Way means drafting well and developing those draft picks into major league players while now, because of Target Field, being able to supplement the roster with free agents when needed. I believe they got away from that for awhile and that’s a big part of the reason the Twins have struggled the last 4 seasons. They had no talent to bring up in those seasons and because they were losing, free agents decided to go somewhere else.

Can Paul Molitor change Twins baseball back to a winning culture?
Paul Molitor is a natural leader who may be a perfect fit for the Twins. He played every position as a major league player other than catcher and pitcher and his awareness and instincts are a big part of what made him a great player who got better as he got older. He will instill that awareness into his players and turn this team into a contender.

Even though the Twins just had their 4th consecutive season of 92 or more losses, there are a lot of positives in Dozier, Santana, Hughes, Gibson, prospects coming, etc…. They aren’t that far away from being a .500 ball club that could be on the cusp of contending for the division, playing in the postseason and, ultimately, winning a World Championship.

THANKS for reading my Takes on the Twins! Please leave a comment on your Takes because that’s what this site is all about:

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Ron Gardenhire Fired as Manager of the Minnesota Twins

Posted on September 30, 2014 by Robb

Twins Fire Gardenhire

Ron Gardenhire managed the Minnesota Twins for 13 seasons, winning 6 Division Titles and Manager of the Year in 2010.

On Monday afternoon, the Minnesota Twins decided to part ways with their manager for the past 13 seasons, Ron Gardenhire. Gardy won 6 Division Titles in those 13 seasons and won Manager of the Year in 2010 but the last 4 seasons of over 90 losses did him in. He knows that and now the Minnesota Twins will work to find the next man to manage this team that should be back on the way to contending for division championships, playoffs and more World Championships.

There’s going to be people who agree and disagree with this firing. Some people say he, and his whole staff, should’ve been fired 2 seasons ago. Some will ask how he was supposed to win with the players he had to work with. A manager usually takes too much blame for a team losing and gets too much credit for a team winning. At what point is the manager the reason a team is losing games?

The manager makes decisions on who’s in the lineup, the order of the lineup, when to put plays on like hit and runs, sacrifices and stealing, when to give a player the green light at the plate and when to make pitching changes. They don’t acquire players, draft players or sign free agents. They may have some say in the roster but probably not much. Hopefully a general manager works with the manager on the roster but ultimately, it’s up to the general manager to put together the 40-man roster.

Ron Gardenhire is known for being a player’s coach. He’ll stick up for his players and his players play hard for him (or Battle Their Tails Off like Little Nicky Punto.) It is a big part of a manager’s job to get the players to play the right way or, at least, the way the manager wants them to play and to put them in a position to succeed. Rarely is the manager the reason a team wins or loses though.

The front office decisions affect wins and losses a lot more than the manager does and the Twins front office had a pretty bad run for a long time that put the Twins in this situation. Bad trades, bad drafting and not being able to sign better free agents are three of the main reasons the Twins had to make Ron Gardenhire the scapegoat for the last 4 seasons.

Consider that between 1994 and 2008, the only two worthy starting pitchers the Twins drafted are Scott Baker and Matt Garza. Scott Baker was a decent pitcher and pitched for the Twins for a long time but left via free agency after missing the majority of his last season with the Twins due to Tommy John surgery. Matt Garza looked like a nice piece but he was traded with Jason Bartlett for Delmon Young. That’s a long time to get no pitching from the draft and what has been the Twins biggest problem the last 4 seasons…..that’s right, pitching.

In closing, I understand this move by the Twins but it was not Ron Gardenhire’s fault the Twins lost over 360 games combined in the last 4 seasons.

Hey, I still have my Gardy Gnome if I want to see Gardy in a Twins uniform…

Gardy Gnome 2

Other articles on the Twins firing Ron Gardenhire:

An old article from 2010 on Ron Gardenhire:

  • My Annual Gardy Rant – Joe Posnanski – from September 17th, 2010

I would love to know your takes on the Twins firing of Ron Gardenhire. Do you like the move? Who will be the next manager?

THANKS for reading!

You can find TwinsTakes.com on facebook, twitter and Google+! Hit us up. We love talking baseball! Enjoy the postseason!

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A TwinsTakes Preview of the 2014 Minnesota Twins – Back to Won, Twins Way

Posted on March 31, 2014 by Robb

Minnesota Twins Season Preview from TwinsTakes.com

The Minnesota Twins come into 2014 off a third straight season of over 90 losses. The last time the Twins went through a rough stretch like this was at the end of the 90’s when they had 4 straight seasons of over 90 losses and that was actually part of 8 consecutive seasons of finishing under .500 from 1993 to 2000 for our Minnesota Twins.

When a franchise goes through bad stretches like that, they better have good scouting to take advantage of picking higher in the draft. From those drafts the Twins drafted players like Todd Walker (1st round in ‘94), A.J. Pierzynski (3rd round in ‘94), Corey Koskie (26th round in ‘94), Doug Mientkiewicz (5th round in ‘95), Jacque Jones (2nd round in ‘96),  Michael Cuddyer (1st round in ‘97) Justin Morneau (3rd round in ‘99), Jason Kubel (12th round pick in 2000) and Joe Mauer (1st overall pick in 2001).

Those players played key roles in getting the Twins back to winning after those 8 consecutive losing seasons. Six of the next ten American League Central Division titles were won by Minnesota from 2001 to 2010. But, as you see from above, there was a severe lack of pitching from the drafts from 1994 to 2000 which has been a big reason why the Twins are now struggling to win games. Score as many runs as you want, you’ll never win consistently if you can’t keep the other team from scoring runs and the Twins aren’t scoring that many runs either.

Pitching Rotation

Knowing they need some starting pitching, they went out and spent some of that salary cap room to improve in that area. Right-handed pitcher Ricky Nolasco was signed to the biggest free agent contract in Minnesota Twins history for 4 years/$49 million on December 3rd followed by RHP Phil Hughes signing 2 days later on December 5th for 3 years/$24 million. Then they re-signed RHP Mike Pelfrey for 2 years/$11 million around Christmas time* and with Kevin Correia, the Twins had 4 starters penciled in for the 2014 starting rotation.

*Merry Christmas!!! So when relatives see your salary, do their Xmas lists get longer or do they just have better gifts listed? “Hmmm…I could really use a nicer car and Mikey just got a raise!”

In 2013, the Minnesota Twins used 11 different starting pitchers throughout the season. Only 3 pitchers made over 20 starts, Kevin Correia (31), Mike Pelfrey (29) and Scott Diamond (24), and Samuel Deduno made 18 starts before going on the disabled list at the end of August with a shoulder injury. The other 60 starts went to Vance Worley, Andrew Albers, Pedro Hernandez, Kyle Gibson, PJ Walters, Liam Hendricks and Cole De Vries.

The 891.2 innings pitched by starters added up to a single season WAR* (Wins Above Replacement) of negative 3.0 and a record of 39 wins & 74 losses. OUCH! Correia (1.6), Pelfrey (-0.3), Diamond (-1.0) and Deduno (1.5) combined had a WAR of 1.8 while the rest of the starts combined for a WAR of -4.8.

*Wins Above Replacement is a stat that basically shows how much better a player is than a replacement player that would be considered a AAA or “AAAA” player. So the American League Cy Young winner, Max Scherzer’s WAR for last season was 6.7 & the National League winner, Clayton Kershaw’s was 7.8, meaning they were worth approximately 7 & 8 wins, respectively, for their teams in the 2013 season. Also, there’s two different WAR stats, one from Baseball-Reference.com (bWAR) and one from Fangraphs.com (fWAR). I’m using bWAR unless otherwise noted.

Improve the starting rotation by taking out the replacement level pitching, right? What do the Twins get when they do that?

  • Ricky Nolasco has six consecutive seasons winning over 10 games, averaging just under 13 wins & a WAR of 1.8.
  • Phil Hughes, before struggling last season with a record of 4-14, averaged about 12 wins & a WAR of 1.6 from 2010 to 2012 when he was a full-time starter for the Yankees .
  • Kevin Correia had 16 quality starts out of his 31 starts and 3 of his bad outings changed his ERA from 3.50 to 4.18. With more run support, those 9 wins could easily become double digits. We’ll get to that later.
  • Mike Pelfrey had a rough year coming back from Tommy John surgery maybe a little sooner than he should have but he did pitch pretty well in the summer months. We should get a better Pelf this season now that he’s 1-year removed from that surgery and he seems to alternate good years and bad years.
  • Kyle Gibson*, who won the 5th spot in the rotation, has pitched very well in the minors, and has been a highly rated prospect for the Twins since they drafted him back in 2009. He did struggle in 2011 at one point but that was mostly due to the elbow problems that brought on his Tommy John surgery. He struggled a little in his first taste of the Majors last season but he pitched very well in AAA. The Twins showed faith in him by waiving Vance Worley and Scott Diamond and moving Deduno to the bullpen. It’s his spot to lose now.
    • *Did you know that Kyle Gibson was born on October 23rd, 1987? That means on his first two full days as a baby, the Twins won Game 6 & Game 7 to win their 1st World Series in 1987! That’s a pretty cool fact and almost makes it sound like destiny that he would play for the Minnesota Twins.

The Bullpen

Speaking of the bullpen, there’s not that much to say. The Minnesota Twins had one of the best bullpens in the league last season and they were overused because of the poor starting pitching. In 582.2 innings, the bullpen combined for a 4.4 WAR. The mainstays of Glen Perkins, Jared Burton, Casey Fien, Anthony Swarzak and Brian Duensing are still there. They also added Deduno to the bullpen mix, who might thrive there with his stuff, should get a full season from Caleb Thielbar and Ryan Pressly could improve from a solid first season.

So the Minnesota Twins improved the starting pitching and have a good bullpen that could get better but it won’t matter how good your pitching is if you can’t hit the ball or catch the ball. How’d they improve at the plate and in the field? Will they score more runs than they did in 2013?

The Bats & The Gloves

The Minnesota Twins traded Justin Morneau at the trade deadline last season and traded Ryan Doumit in December after signing former Twin Jason Kubel a week earlier. Roughly a month before that the Twins signed another former Twin in Jason Bartlett. Then, on the same day the Twins signed Mike Pelfrey, they signed catcher Kurt Suzuki to a 1 year, $2.75 million contract to add depth to the catching position. Is that enough to make up for what they lost in Morneau and Doumit? We’ll find out.

The Twins are counting on young guys stepping up and other guys coming back from down seasons a year ago but they signed some veterans for depth to have just in case of injury or unproductive play. They are staying with Pedro Florimon, Trevor Plouffe and Brian Dozier. Those guys deserve time to be full time players after solid seasons last year. They are also showing confidence in younger players Aaron Hicks and Oswaldo Arcia.

The Catcher in the…Sigh…

At least they have the catcher position set for a long time in Joe Mauer, right? Oops, that’s right. Joe Mauer is no longer putting on the “tools of ignorance” because of the concussion that stopped his season short in 2013. I know what you’re thinking. Another injury with Joe Mauer? Well…this might help Joe and the Twins in the long run. Not the concussion but the fact that Joe decided to never play catcher again. It’s not necessarily a bad thing for the “Baby Jesus” to get out from behind the plate and out into the field.

People have been talking about Joe moving out from behind the plate for quite a while now. The catcher position wears on a player’s knees making it difficult to stay in the lineup. The Twins have slowly been trimming down how many games Joe was behind the plate trying to get him into more games to keep his bat in the lineup and eventually move him to another position permanently, or so it seems. Unfortunately, a concussion, which, of course, is never a good thing, has accelerated that permanent move from behind the plate. At least we know that Joe is a great enough athlete to learn the 1st base position quickly and he may even win a gold glove there eventually. We’ve seen plenty of great plays from Joe at first that make him look like a natural over there. Who knows what kind of production he’ll have when playing in the field won’t be so hard on his knees? Will he hit for more power because of it?

Who’s On First?

Kind of crazy that long tenured 1st baseman Justin Morneau was traded to Pittsburgh (then signed with Colorado to play with his buddy Cuddy) and Ryan Doumit was traded to Atlanta in the offseason because the Twins didn’t have many options for who to put over at position number 3. Some, not many, but some. They have Chris Parmelee (who was sent to the minors) and…uhh…well, there’s Chris Colabello. He’s played 623 games at 1st base in his minor league career including 124 in 2012 for New Britain and 67 last season for Rochester before being called up to the Twins and playing 26 games at 1st base for them.

So, like I said, kind of crazy that the Minnesota Twins have a player like Joe Mauer to move to first and Chris Colabello ready in case they need him to play over there for an extended amount of time. He ripped up the International League last season with the bat, winning MVP & Rookie Of The Year while playing for the Rochester Red Wings, and hit .352/.427/.639 with 25 doubles, 24 HRs, 74 RBIs, 89 strikeouts and 43 walks in 89 games. If he can produce those kinds of numbers with the Twins, he’ll be in the lineup one way or another.

2nd Thoughts?

A couple of years ago, the Twins were wondering who would be their 2nd baseman of the now and of the future. They thought Brian Dozier was that guy but he didn’t exactly inspire much confidence when he came up in 2012, hitting .234 with an on-base % of .271 and slugging .332 in 84 games before being sent back down to Rochester and not faring much better there. Those games were all at shortstop where he struggled in the field as well. Amazing how a move to 2nd base seemed to make Brian Dozier comfortable with the bat and with the glove. He probably put in a lot of work in the offseason too so he may be fine at shortstop as well. He solidified that spot for the time being, especially from a defensive point of view. He showed the range and defensive ability in the field and actually did respectable in the leadoff spot. At 27 years old, he should be able to hold that 2nd base position for a while now and make it so the Twins don’t have to rush any prospects.

Short StopGap?

Pedro Florimon showed he will make the routine plays and some amazing plays from the shortstop position last season. He still needs some work on the offensive side of the ball but he was a force with the glove finishing 6th in all of the American League with a 2.1 Defensive WAR. Also, he led the American League in Putouts by a ShortStop (245), finished 3rd in assists (401) and 2nd in Double Plays turned (101).

The Hot Seat at the Hot Corner

Trevor Plouffe as the Twins starting 3rd baseman might be a disappointment to some fans since top prospect Miguel Sano appeared very close to being ready to make the jump to the majors but he ended up needing Tommy John surgery and will miss the 2014 season. Trevor Plouffe is still a capable player that can be a strength with the bat in his hands and average in the field at 3rd. Throwing him out there everyday and keeping his bat in the lineup isn’t a bad thing. He needs to cut down the strikeouts though.

Outfield – Ready to Play, Today?

As of now, the Twins outfield is Josh “The Hammer” Willingham in left, Aaron Hicks in center and Oswaldo Arcia in right. The only other player who’s played in the outfield on some regular basis is Jason Kubel. Chris Colabello that has played in the outfield and, rumor has it, the Twins could use Jason Bartlett as some sort of super utility player and put him out there if they get in a bind. He’s never played in the outfield in his major league career. This doesn’t look like the best of plans but things could change before or during the season if problems arise.

Josh Willingham, or The ‘Ham as I refer to him, had a career year in 2012 when the Twins signed him to a franchise record 3-year, $21 million deal hitting .260 with 30 doubles, 5 HRs, 110 RBIs with 141 strikeouts and 76 walks and winning a Silver Slugger Award. A knee injury messed with his 2013 season however and he only played 111 games and struggled to a .208 average with 20 doubles, 14 HRs and 48 RBIs with 128 strikeouts and 66 walks. Expect a rebound year as The ‘Ham enters the last year of his contract. I’m sure he’ll start to get a lot more at-bats at Designated Hitter as his defense hasn’t always been a positive.

After winning the center field job with a great spring training in 2013 (.370/.407./.644 (AVG/OBP/SLG)), Aaron Hicks struggled out of the gate in his 1st season in the majors, hitting .113 in the 1st month of the season (starting 2-for-49) and a below the Mendoza Line .192 overall. The Twins had Hicks open the season as the leadoff hitter and he only lasted the first 11 games before being moved down to the 8th spot for the majority of the rest of the season. He never looked comfortable at the plate. Well, he had a another great spring training and won the center field job for the second year in a row and his competition, Alex Presley, was actually waived on March 27th and claimed by the Houston Astros. If you look at Aaron Hicks minor league stats, you’ll see that if he struggled one season, he learned from it and progressed the following season. The Twins need that from him this season if they hope to  have some success this season. They definitely need him to get back to better plate discipline, working the count and getting on base. If he does that, he may even return to that leadoff role.

Oswaldo Arcia signed with the Twins as a 16-year old back in 2007 and he’s been hitting the ball and hitting the ball with power ever since. Once Oswaldo began playing in the full season leagues in 2011, he advanced 2 levels a season until he made his major league debut last season on April 15th, Tax Day. We file taxes. Oswaldo gets his Hacks in! (Haxes? Stretch on that one? Eh, they can’t all be gems!) When Oswaldo sees a pitch he likes, he swings and he swings hard. He might destroy baseballs in his spare time just for fun. Oswaldo struggled some in his first season in the majors. He was sent down and recalled 4 times during the 2013 season, most of them due to injury but this season he’s being given a chance to be the everyday right fielder or mostly everyday right fielder. Let’s hope he can get back to destroying baseballs, a lot of baseballs, this season.

Back to Won, Twins Way

If you didn’t know, Target Field is located on 1 Twins Way in downtown Minneapolis. That’s a clever way of referring to how the Minnesota Twins find, draft and develop players. That is how they won games and championships in the past. That “One Twins Way” got away from them for a while when Target Field changed how much payroll the Twins had available to them and is part of the reason they have three consecutive seasons of over 90 losses.

Because of those seasons, the Twins have gotten back to “the Way” they did things in the past but they also have the option of going out and getting free agents if they need to. I believe we will start to see the Twins break out of the over 90 loss season streak and get back to being a contender for the division and, ultimately, back to the playoffs and chances at winning it all. We should start to see some of those high-ranking prospects get to the Twins this season and for sure next season. Obviously by saying we will see the beginning of it this season, that means I think the Minnesota Twins will probably be right around .500 this season.

That is why I called this preview,

Back to Won, Twins Way!

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