All Things 2023 Minnesota Twins In-Season Thread

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The annual "Buxton is feeling good" article:

Byron Buxton ‘getting back into the groove’ at Twins camp​


And his right knee, the one that plagued him for the entirety of the 2022 season and required a season-ending surgery, has been progressing according to plan.

“I’m just getting back into the groove of things,” Buxton said. “ … I feel good and that’s all that matters to me.”

Buxton, who spent hours in the trainer’s room getting ready to play, had an arthroscopic surgery in September to clean up his knee. Through the knee pain, he still put together the first All-Star season of his career.

In the early days of camp, the Twins are keeping a close eye on the star center fielder, who posted a 135 OPS+ (100 is league average) with 38 home runs in his 92 games played.

“We have reason to be optimistic,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “They were able to go in there and fix the things that needed to be fixed up, and we know that that needed to be done. And I’m glad we got it done.”

www.twincities.com

Byron Buxton ‘getting back into the groove’ at Twins camp

The star center fielder is feeling good and has set a lofty goal for Minnesota: winning a ring.
www.twincities.com www.twincities.com

Win Twins!!
 

Twins super-utility player Nick Gordon adds weight, power, value to team​

Nick Gordon's development into a valuable super-utility player became one of the highlights of the Twins' 2022 season. To reward him, they traded for two players to reduce his role.

Michael A. Taylor, who has won a Gold Glove, will be Byron Buxton's backup in center. Kyle Farmer, who has gotten 1,112 at-bats over the past two seasons, will back up Carlos Correa at short. Both can play elsewhere, but might not need to, because Gordon covers more ground than Kentucky bluegrass.

You've heard of "glue guys''? Gordon is a grout guy, filling in wherever needed. Last year, he played second base, third base, pitcher, shortstop, left field, center field and DH. He also pinch hit and pinch ran. The previous season, he also played right field.

In 2022, having gotten control of the gastritis that had cost him pounds and status, he added muscle and hit nine home runs in 405 at-bats. He had hit as many as nine homers only once before as a pro, when he reached that total in 519 at-bats in Class AA in 2017.

"I expanded my horizons," Gordon said.

Which required an expansion of his shoulders.

In one season, the former first-round draft pick increased his weight, usage, value and power. With Taylor and Farmer, he will give the Twins a deep, versatile bench, as long as he keeps feasting on steak, potatoes and fastballs.

www.startribune.com

Twins super-utility player Nick Gordon adds weight, power, value to team

Gordon in many ways embodies his Twins team: Talented enough that to be a first-round draft pick, troubled enough by health issues that his career was almost ruined.
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com

Win Twins!!
 

BleedGopher said:

Twins super-utility player Nick Gordon adds weight, power, value to team​

Nick Gordon's development into a valuable super-utility player became one of the highlights of the Twins' 2022 season. To reward him, they traded for two players to reduce his role.

Michael A. Taylor, who has won a Gold Glove, will be Byron Buxton's backup in center. Kyle Farmer, who has gotten 1,112 at-bats over the past two seasons, will back up Carlos Correa at short. Both can play elsewhere, but might not need to, because Gordon covers more ground than Kentucky bluegrass.

You've heard of "glue guys''? Gordon is a grout guy, filling in wherever needed. Last year, he played second base, third base, pitcher, shortstop, left field, center field and DH. He also pinch hit and pinch ran. The previous season, he also played right field.

In 2022, having gotten control of the gastritis that had cost him pounds and status, he added muscle and hit nine home runs in 405 at-bats. He had hit as many as nine homers only once before as a pro, when he reached that total in 519 at-bats in Class AA in 2017.

"I expanded my horizons," Gordon said.

Which required an expansion of his shoulders.

In one season, the former first-round draft pick increased his weight, usage, value and power. With Taylor and Farmer, he will give the Twins a deep, versatile bench, as long as he keeps feasting on steak, potatoes and fastballs.

www.startribune.com

Twins super-utility player Nick Gordon adds weight, power, value to team

Gordon in many ways embodies his Twins team: Talented enough that to be a first-round draft pick, troubled enough by health issues that his career was almost ruined.
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com

Win Twins!!
Click to expand...
Twins will have some interesting decisions to make for their active roster
 

BleedGopher said:
The annual "Buxton is feeling good" article:

Byron Buxton ‘getting back into the groove’ at Twins camp​


And his right knee, the one that plagued him for the entirety of the 2022 season and required a season-ending surgery, has been progressing according to plan.

“I’m just getting back into the groove of things,” Buxton said. “ … I feel good and that’s all that matters to me.”

Buxton, who spent hours in the trainer’s room getting ready to play, had an arthroscopic surgery in September to clean up his knee. Through the knee pain, he still put together the first All-Star season of his career.

In the early days of camp, the Twins are keeping a close eye on the star center fielder, who posted a 135 OPS+ (100 is league average) with 38 home runs in his 92 games played.

“We have reason to be optimistic,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “They were able to go in there and fix the things that needed to be fixed up, and we know that that needed to be done. And I’m glad we got it done.”

www.twincities.com

Byron Buxton ‘getting back into the groove’ at Twins camp

The star center fielder is feeling good and has set a lofty goal for Minnesota: winning a ring.
www.twincities.com www.twincities.com

Win Twins!!
Click to expand...
I would not be surprised if half his at-bats this year came as a DH.
 

as a matter of fact, Souhan has a column in the Strib today talking to Buxton about the DH. Buxton quoted as saying "I'm a CF."

Rocco also quoted as saying that almost anyone on the roster will get a turn at DH during the season.
 


The Twins new athletic trainer is Dr. Nick. Dr. Nick Paparesta. You can't make it up.

www.mlb.com

Twins hire Nick Paparesta as head athletic trainer

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL, MN – The Minnesota Twins announced today that they have hired Nick Paparesta as the club’s head athletic trainer. Paparesta spent the last 12 seasons as Head Athletic Trainer for the Oakland Athletics. Prior to his tenure with Oakland, he served three seasons as the...
www.mlb.com www.mlb.com
 

howeda7 said:
The Twins new athletic trainer is Dr. Nick. Dr. Nick Paparesta. You can't make it up.

www.mlb.com

Twins hire Nick Paparesta as head athletic trainer

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL, MN – The Minnesota Twins announced today that they have hired Nick Paparesta as the club’s head athletic trainer. Paparesta spent the last 12 seasons as Head Athletic Trainer for the Oakland Athletics. Prior to his tenure with Oakland, he served three seasons as the...
www.mlb.com www.mlb.com
Click to expand...

Haha! He'll fit right in with our franchise mindset as far as resting players.

Win Twins!!
 







If you know who John Bonnes is - the "Twins Geek" - he was speculating that Solano is basically injury insurance. If any of the players who were hurt last year have recurring issues, Solano can step in and provide a solid right-handed bat.

don't want to read too much into it, but maybe the Twins want to let Larnach or Kirilloff play some games at AAA to make sure they're healthy and get them some at-bats.

I guess you can never have too much quality depth.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
on stolen bases - the number of attempts and successful steals were way up in minor league baseball last year. found this stat on rate of SB's pre game in the minors.

Stolen base rates improved from 1.68 in 2017 to 2.36 in 2022, with partial credit attributed to rule changes, which increased base sizes and limited pick-off attempts, that will make their way to the Majors in 2023.
Click to expand...
Love the swiped 💼
 





howeda7 said:
Click to expand...
Donnie “Barrels”
Epic nickname is 35 and won a Silver Slugger in 2020, so he can hit and is a good insurance policy - sorry Jake & Howie

www.baseball-reference.com

Donovan Solano Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More | Baseball-Reference.com

Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Donovan Solano. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com
www.baseball-reference.com www.baseball-reference.com
 


Gopher_In_NYC said:
Donnie “Barrels”
Epic nickname is 35 and won a Silver Slugger in 2020, so he can hit and is a good insurance policy - sorry Jake & Howie

www.baseball-reference.com

Donovan Solano Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More | Baseball-Reference.com

Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Donovan Solano. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com
www.baseball-reference.com www.baseball-reference.com
Click to expand...
Why are we sorry?
 




Gopher_In_NYC said:
Jack Cave.

Did you forget you were the Prez of his fan club? The pics of the diorama you emailed me?
Click to expand...
Never count him out. He's Rocco's Nick Punto. When he's released at the end of spring training, he'll be Saint in no time.
 

Gophers1992 said:
The revenue sharing structure of MLB really disincentivizes teams to spend.
Click to expand...
Don’t worry the MLB is starting a blue ribbon panel to investigate the padres and Yankees spending too much money. Don’t worry about the teams that are not even trying to be competitive.

The last blue ribbon panel was put together in 2012 to help Oakland get a new stadium. That worked very well.
 



The players have only themselves to blame. They decided they had to walk a marathon, play with themselves, spit, redo their batting gloves, take 4-5 practice swings in between every at bat. If they had simply kept one foot in the box and looked at the base coach in between every pitch we would not have this rule.
 

From the Parkinglot said:

The players have only themselves to blame. They decided they had to walk a marathon, play with themselves, spit, redo their batting gloves, take 4-5 practice swings in between every at bat. If they had simply kept one foot in the box and looked at the base coach in between every pitch we would not have this rule.
Click to expand...
It’ll take some time but eventually it won’t be a big deal. It’s not easy to change a routine you’ve done for years.
 



the thing is - there were already rules in the book that said the pitcher was supposed to throw the ball within a certain time. and they were never enforced.

found this in a 2019 article - note the date - 2019

Rule 8.04: “When the bases are unoccupied, the pitcher shall deliver the ball to the batter within 12 seconds after he receives the ball. Each time the pitcher delays the game by violating this rule, the umpire shall call ‘Ball.'”

but in the same article,

The starting pitchers with the longest time between pitches in 2018 were:
  • Sonny Gray: 28.3 seconds
  • Alex Cobb: 27.3 seconds
  • Yu Darvish: 27.1 seconds
  • Justin Verlander/Jason Hammel/Jeremy Hellickson: 26.9 seconds
Here are the relief pitchers with the longest times:
  • Pedro Baez: 31.1 seconds
  • Bud Norris: 30.6
  • Joaquin Benoit: 30 seconds
  • Cory Gearrin: 29.9 seconds
  • Tyler Clippard/Chris Beck: 29.8 seconds
if the umpires would have enforced the rule that was already in the rulebook, the new rules would have been unnecessary.
 

Watching some of the Twins game today and will say I really like the flow of the game. Players will adjust.
 

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