Tagged: Minnesota Twins

Twins Fire Ron Gardenhire

The Minnesota Twins have fired long time manager Ron Gardenhire today. Gardenhire spent the last 13 seasons at the helm of the Twins. Ron was the second longest tenured manager after the Angels’ Mike Sciosia. He lead the Twins 6 Division titles and won the 2010 Manager of the Year award during his tenure. Gardenhire joined Tom Kelly and Bucky Harris to amass 1,000 or more wins with the Twins/Senators franchise. From 2002-2010, the Twins never finished below third place in the division, but have failed to place above fourth place in the last 4 years under Gardy.

Minnesota has a bright future ahead of itself. The team is chalked full of young talent at both the big league and minor league levels. Any manager would kill to have this level of young talent in their system. Some of the young talent includes: Brian Dozier, Trevor Plouffe, Danny Santana, Kennys Vargas, Oswaldo Arcia, Eduardo Escobar Phil Hughes, Kyle Gibson and Trevor May. All of these players have made a large contributions to the Twins roster this season and are all under the age of 29-years-old. The Twins also have top young prospects Byron Buxton, Alex Meyer and Miguel Sano waiting in the wings.

The Twins will probably look at internal candidates to become the new manager. Minnesota has had only two managers since 1986. The last two managers Tom Kelly and Ron Gardenhire spent years in the Twins’ organization before each was hired as manager. Paul Molitor and Terry Steinbach appear to be the strongest internal candidates.

Molitor is a former Twins player and Minnesota sports legend. He served as the infield/bunting coach for the Twins this season. Molitor was in the running to become manager of the Twins after Tom Kelly stepped down following 2001 season. He ultimately lost the job to Ron Gardenhire. Paul doesn’t have a lot of coaching or managerial experience at either the big or minor league levels. He served as the bench coach for the Twins from 1999-2001 and was the hitting coach for the Mariners in 2004. Baseball is trending toward giving first time managers a chance, so Molitor has a good shot of winning the job.

Steinbach is another former Twins player. He served as bench coach for the Twins for the last two seasons and assisted the Twins spring training from 2000-12. After helping out with spring training over the last decade and coaching at the big league, Steinbach should a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the all players in the Twins’ organization. He was a former big league catchers and they have had a lot of success in managerial positions. Terry doesn’t have any managerial experience, but has a just as good a shot to win the job as Molitor based on how baseball is trending.

Mariners Reacquire Kendrys Morales

The Mariners have reacquired 1B/DH Kendrys Morales from the Twins for reliever Stephen Pryor. Morales played in 156 games for the Mariners in 2013 after being acquired from the Angels for starting pitcher Jason Vargas before the season started. Morales put up stat lines of .277/23/80/.336/.449/.785 for the M’s last season. 

He decided against re-signing with the M’s this off-season and waited until a couple months of the season to sign a new contract. The Mariners would have received a draft pick as compensation for Morales if another team signed him before the draft. The Twins signed Morales to a 1-year prorated deal of 7.5 million shortly after the draft. Morales struggled with the Twins this season. He posted stat lines of .234/1/18/.259/.325/.584 in 162 plate appearances.

The Mariners have been looking for a bat all season long. As of this moment, the Mariners are in position to make the playoffs for the 1st time in 13 years and need more from their offense to stay in this position. Over the last 16 games,the Mariners have only scored 3 runs or more in 6 of those games. Yesterday, the Mariners were perfect gamed for 6 innings against 41-year-old pitcher Bartolo Colon. Almost getting perfect gamed by Colon is a definite sign that the offense needs help. 

Morales has the potential to fix the M’s offensive woes. He has put up great numbers at Safeco Field as an opponent and member of the Mariners. In his career, Morales has posted stat lines .287/19/69/.340/.498/.838 at the Safe. Morales bat has also been heating up in July. He is batting .254 with 6 doubles and 9 RBIs. Only 1 player on the M’s has more RBIs this month than Morales (Kyle Seager).

Kendrys needs to get over the issues that kept him from re-signing with the club and produce over the next 2 months of the season. If he can replicate his 2nd half averages over the last 3 season (14 home runs and 42 RBIs), the M’s will stay in contention in the playoff hunt. Morales also needs to put up impressive numbers over the last 2 months to improve his free agent stock.

The M’s really didn’t have to give up a whole lot to acquire Morales. Stephen Pryor was once a promising arm in the M’s system, but injuries have derailed him over the last 2 seasons. The M’s lucked out on not giving up any of their big league bullpen arms to acquire a much needed bat for the offense.

 

The Twins signed veteran 1B/DH Kendrys Morales to a 1-year deal on Saturday. His contract is worth 12 million dollars for the rest of the season. Morales had stat lines of .277/23/80/.336/.449/.785 in 657 plate appearances with the Mariners last season. MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger tweets that the contract is prorated at 7.5 million. At the most, Morales will appear in a maximum of 100 games this season. On a prorated deal at 7.5 million, Morales will make 75,000 dollars per game. Morales went 1-3 with a walk in his Twins’ debut last night.

Minnesota has looked for power in the middle of the lineup all season long.  The team’s middle-of-the-order hitters have under achieved this season. Morales provides a legitimate power bat to the middle of the Twins’ lineup. He has averaged  a .280 batting average with 27 home runs and 90 RBIs a season since his debut in 2006. Morales has posted stat lines of .271/35/131/.320/439/.759 as the 4th hitter in the lineup, .301/33/98/.356/.538/.894 in the 5th hitter in the lineup and .296/20/64/.352/.543/.895 as the 6th hitter in the lineup in his career. The Twins’ hitters batting in the 4th spot in the lineup posted stat lines of .222/8/47/.283/.381/.664, .235/8/31/.340/.383/.722 from the 5th spot in the lineup and .234/7/28/.324/.368/.692 from the 6th spot in the lineup this season. Morales is a better option at each of those spots in the order than the current spot holder.

Morales gives the Twins a better offensive option at first base or DH. Twins’ DHs have batted .275 with 11 home runs and 40 RBIs this season. Those are pretty good stats for the position, but the team had used Danny Santana at DH for the last three games before signing Morales. Santana is a nice player, but is not the power bat that usually occupies the DH position. Joe Mauer has been the primary first base option this season. Mauer is a great contact hitter and gets on-base a lot, but does not have much power anymore. Morales can spell Mauer at first from time-to-time and give power at the position.

The Twins hope that adding Morales to the roster will improve their chances of making the playoffs. Minnesota is 5 games out of 1st place in the AL Central and 4.5 games out of Wild Card spots. A lineup featuring: Santana, Dozier, Mauer, Willingham, Morales, Arcia, Plouffe, K. Suzuki and E Escobar  should improve the team’s chances of winning. The signing of Morales will improve the offense and gave Twins’ fans hope of making it to the playoffs this year.

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Non-Roster Invitees With Big League Experience

  • Baltimore Orioles- Alexi Casilla and Quintin Berry
  • Los Angeles Angels- Wade LeBlanc, Mark Mulder,Clay Rapada, Justin Thomas, Yorvit Torrealba, John McDonald, Carlos Pena, Ian Stewart, Chad Tracy, Brennan Boesch and Brandon Lyon
  • Houston Astros- Peter Moylan, Rhiner Cruz, Cesar Izturis, J.D. Martinez, Adron Chambers, Gregorio Petit
  • Oakland A’s- Philip Humber, Fernando Nieve, Dusty Brown, Luke Montz and Sam Fuld
  • Toronto Blue Jays- Tomo Ohka, Juan Perez, Chris Getz, Dan Johnson, Munenori Kawasaki, Andy LaRoche, Mike Nickeas, Steve Tolleson
  • Atlanta Braves- Yunesky Maya, Mat Gamel and Tyler Greene
  • Milwaukee Brewers- Zach Duke, Robinzon Diaz, Matt Pagnozzi, Irving Falu, Hector Gomez, Taylor Green, Lyle Overbay, Mark Reynolds and Eugenio Velez
  • St. Louis Cardinals- Pat Neshek and Scott Moore
  • Chicago Cubs- Tom Hottovy, Jonathan Sanchez, Brian Schlitter, John Baker, Eli Whiteside, Chris Valaika, Ryan Roberts, Chris Coghlan, Aaron Cunningham, Ryan Kalish, Mitch Maier, Darnell McDonald and Casper Wells
  • Arizona Diamondbacks- Daniel Hudson, Ryan Rowland-Smith, Adam Russell, Henry Blanco, Bobby Wilson, Mike Jacobs and Andy Marte
  • Los Angeles Dodgers- Sam Demel, Daniel Moskos, Miguel Olivo, Chone Figgins, Brendan Harris, Justin Turner, Clint Robinson and J.C. Boscan
  • San Francisco Giants- Jason Berken, Rafael Dolis, Juan Gutierrez, Kameron Loe, Sandy Rosario, Dan Runzler, Mason Tobin, Guillermo Quiroz and Brandon Hicks
  • Cleveland Indians- David Aardsma, Scott Atchison, Matt Capps, Tyler Cloyd, Shaun Marcum, J.C. Ramirez, Mike Zagurski, Luke Carlin, Matt Treanor, Elliot Johnson, Brian LaHair, Matt Carson, Ryan Rohlinger, Jeff Francoeur, Nyjer Morgan and Jason Giambi
  • Seattle Mariners- Scott Baker, Joe Beimel, Logan Kensing, Matt Palmer, Ramon Ramirez, Mark Rogers, Chance Ruffin, Manuel Pina, Humberto Quintero, Endy Chavez, Cole Gillespie, Randy Wolf and Zach Miner
  • Miami Marlins- Henry Rodriguez, Chaz Roe, Kevin Slowey, Josh Spence, Reed Johnson, Ty Wiggington, Kyle Skipworth, Juan Diaz, Matt Angle and Joe Benson
  • New York Mets- Daisuke Matsuzaka, Kyle Farnsworth, Taylor Teagarden
  • Washington Nationals- Manny Delcarmen, Clay Hensley, Tyler Robertson, Daniel Strange, Koyie Hill, Chris Synder, Jamey Carroll, Mike Fontenot, Brock Peterson and Will Rhymes
  • San Diego Padres- Blaine Boyer, Alberto Gonzalez and Xavier Nady
  • Philadelphia Phillies- Shawn Camp, Chad Gaudin, Cesar Jimenez, Jeff Manship, Sean O’Sullivan, Lou Marson, Andres Blanco, Reid Brignac, Ronny Cedeno, Bobby Abreu, Tony Gwynn Jr. and Clete Thomas
  • Pittsburgh Pirates- Cody Eppley, Josh Kinney, Kyle McPherson, Daniel Schlereth, Adam Wilk, Omir Santos, Robert Andino, Matt Hague, Travis Ishikawa, Michael Martinez and Chris Dickerson
  • Texas Rangers- Nate Adcock, Daniel Bard, Jose Contreras, Ryan Feierabend, Justin Germano, Colby Lewis, Rafael Perez, Aaron Poreda, Kevin Kouzmanoff, Brent Lillibridge, Josh Wilson, Bryan Peterson, Brad Snyder and Kensuke Tanaka
  • Tampa Bay Rays- Steve Geltz, Mark Lowe, Eddy Rodriguez, Roman Ali Solis, Wilson Betemit, Jayson Nix, Ray Olmedo, Justin Christian, James Darnell, Jeremy Moore and Jerry Sands
  • Boston Red Sox- John Ely, Rich Hill, Jose Mijares, Tommy Layne, Brayan Villarreal, Mike Mccoy and Brandon Snyder
  • Cincinnati Reds- Trevor Bell, Jeff Francis, Chien-Ming Wang, Corky Miller, Max Ramirez, Argenis Diaz, Kristopher Negron, Chris Nelson, Roman Santiago, Roger Bernadina and Jason Bourgeois
  • Colorado Rockies- Greg Burke, Manny Corpas, Pedro Hernandez, Nick Masset, Matt McBride, Michael McKenry, Paul Janish, Jason Pridie
  • Kansas City Royals- Guillermo Mota, Brad Penny, Jon Rauch, Everett Teaford, Corey Wade, P.J. Walters, Ramon Hernandez, Adam Moore, Jason Donald, Brandon Laird, Gorkys Hernandez, Melky Mesa
  • Detroit Tigers- Duane Below, Jhan Marinez, Luis Marte, Eduardo Sanchez, Luis Exposito, Danny Worth, Ezequiel Carrera and Trevor Crowe
  • Minnesota Twins- Matt Guerrier, Lester Oliveros, Aaron Thompson, Jason Bartlett, Doug Bernier, Jason Kubel, Darin Mastroianni and Wilkin Ramirez
  • Chicago White Sox- Dylan Axelrod, Deunte Heath, Brian Omogrosso, David Purcey, Zach Putnam, Mauricio Robles, Hector Gimenez, Miguel Gonzalez, Alex Liddi, Dennis Phipps, Blake Tekotte
  • New York Yankees- Bruce Billings, Robert Coello, Matt Daley, Brian Gordon, David Herndon, Chris Leroux, Jim Miller, Yoshinori Tateyama, Russ Canzler, Corbin Joseph, Scott Sizemore and Antoan Richardson

GM Meetings:News And Notes

  • Phillies sign outfielder Marlon Byrd to two-year deal  worth 16 million dollars
  • Free agent catcher Carlos Ruiz is looking  for a two-year deal worth 20 million dollars tweets Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports
  • The Twins are looking into a reunion with former catcher A.J. Pierzynski after moving Joe Mauer to first base tweets Jon Heyman of CBSSports
  • Heyman tweets that the A’s could trade Brett Anderson,especially if they lock up Bartolo Colon
  • Rosenthal tweets that free agent outfielder Nelson Cruz among hitters the Mariners are considering
  • The Mariners have also checked in with outfielder Carlos Beltran tweets Jerry Crasnick  of ESPN
  • Brian Cashman said he’s looking to add “400 innings” to add to the Yankees rotation tweets Jon Morosi of FoxSports
  • The Rangers have announced Bengie Molina as the team’s new first base coach
  • Infielder Mark DeRosa has informed the Blue Jays that he is retiring after 16 seasons in the MLB
  • Morosi tweets that the Tigers want to move Drew Smyly to the rotation.
  • Morosi tweets that Joe Torre says owners vote on replay is “possible” this week, but approval of player and umpire unions still required

Manager News

The Twins are bringing back manager Ron Gardenhire for two more seasons. Gardenhire has received a two year deal after finishing the 2013 season with a record of 66-96. The Twins have not had a winning season since winning 93 games during the 2010 season. Gardenhire has a record of 998-947 and appeared in six playoff series with six Division titles in 12 seasons as  manager of the club.  He won Manager of the Year honors in 2010. Management decided that they wanted to keep Gardenhire around as  new young talent comes up the pipeline in the coming seasons.

The Cubs have fired Dale Sveum as manager after two seasons. Sveum had a record of 127-197 in his two seasons with the Cubs. Management needed to find a new voice to mold young stars Anthony Rizzo and Starlin Castro into consistent players. The new manager will become the 53rd manager of the team since 1900.

Playoff Berths and Manager News

The Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds clinched playoff berths last night. Both teams needed some late inning magic to win their respective games. Outfielder Starling Marte hit a pinch hit solo home run to propel the Pirates to a 2-1 victory over the Cubs. Shin-Soo hit a walk-off single in the 10th to ensure a 5-4 win over the Mets in the 10th inning.

This is the first time the Pirates have clinched a playoff berth since 1992. Cincinnati have clinched a playoff berth in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 1975-76 seasons. These two division rivals are slated to play each other in a one game playoff to advance further in the postseason to face a division winner.

Twins’ manager Ron Gardenhire is two wins away from 1000 career wins. He will become the third manager in Twins/Senators history to win 1000 games with the club. Hall of Fame manager Bucky Harris accomplished this feat in 30 seasons with the Senators and Tom Kelly accomplished this feat in 16 seasons with the Twins. Current Twins’ players really want to get the 1000th win for Gardenhire this season. Third baseman Trevor Plouffe tweeted loved that come back and how we have kept playing hard! We need to get Gardy that 1000th win. 2 more. The Twins’ fans should tune into the final games of the season to see if the players can win the 1000th game for Gardenhire.

Great Pitching Performances From Last Night

Several pitchers around the MLB had great performances on the mound last night. Most of the pitchers play for well known teams and have had great pitching performances in their respective careers, while one pitcher is just starting out his MLB journey. Below is a list of all the pitchers that shined on Monday night.

Yu Darvish- 8 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 15 K and a win. This was the second time during season that Darvish has one hit the Astros. In the second game of the season, Darvish carried a no-hitter into the 9th until Marwin Gonzalez hit a single up the middle to end it. Darvish had a no-hitter going with one out in the 8th until Carlos Corporan hit a solo home run to right. This was Darvish’s 5th time striking out 15 batters in one game during 2013 season.

Andrew Albers- 9 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 K and a win. Albers has pitched very well in his first two MLB starts for the Twins. He pitched 8 1/3 innings of scoreless ball in his first start against the Royals and followed that start with a 2-hit gem against the Indians last night. Albers has amassed 17 1/3 scoreless innings to start out his big league career.

Hiroki Kuroda- 8 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 7 K and a win. This was Kuroda’s 9th scoreless start of the season. He lowered his home ERA from 1.74 to 1.54 after last night’s outing. Kuroda has been the most consistent starter in the Yankees’ rotation and deserves some consideration for the Cy Young award this season.

Cole Hamels- 9 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 9 K and a win. Hamels has been struggling for most of the season, but he returned to his old form in last night’s start against the Braves. He also hit a triple in last night’s game. 

Mat Latos- 8 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 9 K and a win. Latos had a pretty dominating start against the Cubs last night, but he wasn’t the only pitcher that shined in the game. Cubs’ starter Travis Wood went 8 innings as well. Latos has had strong outings in his last three starts each of them lasted 6 innings or more and he has only given up two earned runs in those three starts.

Travis Wood- 8 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 5 K and a loss. Wood had another solid outing last night. He went toe-to-toe with Latos, but gave up a home run to Brandon Phillips that was the difference in the game. This was Wood’s 8th start of going 7 innings or more of the season.

Chris Sale- 9 IP, 9 H, 2 ER, 6 K and a win. This was Sale’s 3rd complete game of the season. He kept the powerful Tigers’ lineup in check,except for a solo home run by Miguel Cabrera and an RBI single by Bryan Pena. Sale has gone 8 innings or more in 7 starts this season. 

Jhoulys Chacin- 8 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 6 K and a win. This is the second time Chacin has had an 8 inning start in his last three starts. Chacin is turning into the Rockies’ staff ace. He needs to win one more game to establish a new career high in wins.

Garrett Richards- 8 IP, 7 H , 2 ER, 3 K and a loss. Richards has been used both as a reliever and starter this season. He has gone back to the rotation and has quality starts in his last three starts. Richards kept the Yankees’ lineup in check until giving up a solo home run to Curtis Granderson that turns out to be the difference in the game.

Top 5 catchers in baseball

1. Buster Posey- In two full seasons in the majors, he has helped the Giants win a World Series title in each of them. Last season, he won  the NL MVP award, the Hank Aaron award and batting title. He calls a great game for his pitchers and the team has finished in the top 5 ERA in 2010 and 2012.

2. Joe Mauer- Mauer is the only catcher to win three batting titles in his career. He is another MVP award winners and is off to a good start this season with a .302 batting average. Mauer is a good game caller, but will must likely move over to first base in the coming years to prevent injury.

3. Yadier Molina- Molina is the first catcher on this list to not win an MVP award. His offensive numbers have improved as he put up career high numbers in: batting average, hits, runs, home runs, RBI, .OBP, .SLG, OPS and WAR last season. He is the best game caller and defensive catcher in the game going today.

4. Matt Wieters- Wieters is coming into his zone. He is the youngest player on this list and his not reached his full potential yet. That being said he possess very good power at the plate and is one of the catalysts on one of the best young offenses in the game. Last season, the Orioles had 12 different pitchers start a game and finished the year off with a 3.90 ERA. Wieters showed that he can call a good game even with rotation changes going on over the year.

5. Russell Martin- This pick is probably going to surprise a lot of people. Martin helped the Yankees staff finish the season with a 3.85 ERA last year. New York had a number of pitchers go on the DL during the year and Martin was the glue that kept the staff together. He is a great game caller and has pretty decent defensive ability. The only knock on his game is his offensive skills. Last season, he did hit 21 home runs, but only batted .211 for the season. Russell is now in the process of helping the Pirates make it to the Postseason for the first time since the early 90s.

Boxscore notes from around the Majors

Reds’ pitcher Tony Cingrani becomes the 6th active pitcher to have an 11 strikeout and 0 run start in the first 6 starts of his career according to ESPN stats and info. The other pitchers to record this feat are: Mariano Rivera, Oliver Perez, Matt Harvey and Matt Moore according to ESPN stats and info.

Mariners’ third baseman Kyle Seager had his 16-game hit streak snapped today with an 0-4 performance,while second baseman Dustin Ackley (9) and Endy Chavez (8) extended hit streaks today.

Orioles’ OF/1B Chris Davis hit his AL leading 9th home run and 28th RBI today in a loss against the Oakland A’s.

Phillies’ 1B Ryan Howard hit a pinch hit 2 RBI double to help the team beat the Mets 5-1.

Four teams were shutout today (Rangers, Indians, Cardinals and Brewers).

Dodgers’ outfielder Carl Crawford, Pirates’ catcher Russell Martin and Marlins’ outfielder Giancarlo Stanton hit 2 home runs today.

Both Phillies’ utility player Freddy Galvis and Mariners’ outfielder Jason Bay hit the 2nd home run of the season today. They each have as many home run as prized free agent acquisition Josh Hamilton.

Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw and Twins’ Kevin Correia pitched 8 scoreless innings today.

R.A. Dickey recorded his 4th loss of the season against the Yankees. Last season, Dickey didn’t record his 4th loss until his 18th start.