All Things 2025 Minnesota Twins In-Season Thread

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Slim Tubby said:
As a toddler in the 70's, an overabundance of plaid outfits left me medically cross-eyed until I was 12.

Eff you, Penny's and Montgomery Wards.
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Imagine the forests that could have been spared by those two companies!
 


coolhandgopher said:
Growing up in a staunchly conservative Catholic home, the lingerie section of the Penny’s catalog got young Coolhand through those long Minnesota winters. Damn the forests!
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Your school library didn’t carry National Geographic?

There were some missing pages in a few issues IIRC 🤷‍♂️
 


Newz from camp, courtesy of Matthew Leach’s article from MLB (Looks like they don’t see Larnach as an everyday OF option moving forward and sounds like Varland’s is destined for the 🖊️ -Yipee!!
As I noted before via Bader’s Baseball Savant’s stats, a GG winner in 2021 w/St. Louie, is an incredible defender -the only question is can he stick enough?)

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I’m not in camp just yet. Those duties are being admirably handled by Bill Ladson. Here’s Bill’s first newsletter dispatch from Fort Myers.

Harrison Bader brings energy, athleticism and can play all three outfield positions. But according to Baldelli, most of his time with the Twins will be in left field, a position he has not played since 2018, when he was with the Cardinals.

Baldelli believes Bader is athletic enough to handle the spacious left field at Target Field in Minnesota. Bader will also see some time in center field, spelling Byron Buxton.

“[Left field] is a much bigger playing surface than right field,” Baldelli said. “So I think putting one of the best outfielders in the game in left field as opposed to right makes some sense. And there will be times this year where he's going to play some center field, too. But Buxton is going to remain our primary center fielder, and Harrison is going to fill that role [in left field].”

Baldelli indicated that right-hander Louis Varland will most likely come out of the bullpen. In 2024, Varland started the season as the Twins' No. 4 starter, but he was hit hard, allowing 19 runs (17 earned) in 16 2/3 innings before he was sent down to Triple-A St. Paul.

“Varland is just preparing for the season,” Baldelli said. “He's not preparing for one role in particular. He's a guy that can adapt very quickly if we need him to. I think it's very possible that we see a good amount of him out of the bullpen this year. We've seen the way he looks when he pitches out of the bullpen, but I'm not ready to say 100 percent locked in that [Varland] will pitch there.”
 
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Happy 46th birthday to former Twins outfielder Josh Willingham.

The Twins signed Willingham to a three-year, $21 million contract prior to the 2012 season, which was the richest free-agent deal in team history at the time. He responded with the best season of his career, becoming just the third player in Twins history to hit 35 home runs and winning a Silver Slugger alongside fellow AL outfielders Mike Trout and Josh Hamilton.

He began the season with a 15-game hitting streak—the longest streak to begin a Twins career, and tied with Kirby Puckett's 1994 streak for the longest to begin a season in team history.

Willingham had actually played for a Minnesota team over a decade earlier, playing third base for Austin's Southern Minny Stars in 1998 and '99—the team's final two seasons in the Northwoods summer collegiate league. (He played mostly shortstop in college). On a related note, did you know Kirby Puckett was an All-American third baseman in high school?

One last Willingham fun fact: He hit grand slams in back-to-back innings with the Nationals in 2009.

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A little Alfred E. -

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Rule #1: Never Make Pedro Wait.

#mlb #baseball #sports #shorts #viralshort #viralshorts #viralvideoShop now at PitchingNinja.com !Follow on social media!Twitter: @pitchingninjaInstagram: @p...
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GopherWeatherGuy said:
Despite the brutal cold this week, we are only 45 days from the home opener.
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And still I don't know how or if I will be able to watch any of the games on my current media provider.
 

The Twins acquired Al Newman from the Montreal Expos on this date in 1987.

Did you know that Newmie made two starts as the Twins' designated hitter in 1987? He hit one career home run, that coming in '86 in the same game in which Bob Horner hit four!
 


Team Trivia - Prompted by the 200 Hits in a Season Category on the Baseball Grid there have only been 14 in Senators/Twins history to accomplish the feat.

5 have done it in a Minnesota uniform.

Anyone care to name them?
 



Ope3 said:
Team Trivia - Prompted by the 200 Hits in a Season Category on the Baseball Grid there have only been 14 in Senators/Twins history to accomplish the feat.

5 have done it in a Minnesota uniform.

Anyone care to name them?
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Carew, Puckett, Mauer, Molitor, Knoblauch?
 

howeda7 said:
Carew, Puckett, Mauer, Molitor, Knoblauch?
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EDIT - No on Mauer & Knoblauch. You hit 3 of 5

Hint, one was inducted into the Twins HoF this decade. The other also recently received an even higher honor.
 
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coolhandgopher said:
Lynan Bostock was one hit away in 1977, Knoblauch three hits away in 1996, and Mauer was nine hits away in 2009.
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With Bostock I wonder if there were any marginal "reached base on Error" decisions that they could have put some heat on the Official Scorer to scratch out a 200th Hit?

With Mauer, I guess I was surprised he got that close. For a catcher, usually too many rest days and he also drew a lot of walks. Mauer played in 138 games in that stellar 2009 season.
 




Team was never actually for sale. Sure, they'd have taken a whopping amount over asking price, but this was nothing more than a diversion to draw attention away from them being a bottom spender in free agency. Now everyone fork over 100 bucks to watch a team who has refused to try and improve personnel in 24+ months.
 

gophersfan said:

Billionaire Justin Ishbia abandons bid for Twins to boost his stake in White Sox: Sources​

www.nytimes.com

Billionaire Justin Ishbia abandons bid for Twins to boost his stake in White Sox: Sources

Ishbia has dropped his pursuit of the Twins, The Athletic has learned, and will instead increase his minority stake in the White Sox.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com
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howeda7 said:
Well that sucks...
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Based on what the Ishbias are doing with the Phoenix Suns, I'm not sure that it does suck.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
Team was never actually for sale. Sure, they'd have taken a whopping amount over asking price, but this was nothing more than a diversion to draw attention away from them being a bottom spender in free agency. Now everyone fork over 100 bucks to watch a team who has refused to try and improve personnel in 24+ months.
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Lol. Stop. They are still for sale and likely will be sold. But certainly this delays things.
 

Ope3 said:
Based on what the Ishbias are doing with the Phoenix Suns, I'm not sure that it does suck.
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They were willing to spend and did good things with ticket/concessions etc. Sure the moves with the Suns haven't worked and maybe they're too hands on. But it could be worse.
 

howeda7 said:
Lol. Stop. They are still for sale and likely will be sold. But certainly this delays things.
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We'll see. They're for sale the same way my 2010 Hyundai Elantra is for sale. I'm asking $125,000, but the offers are all coming in a little light.
 

Happy 42nd birthday to former Twins pitcher Brian Duensing. He is the only pitcher in Minnesota Twins history to win two games in one day—at least on paper. Duensing came out of the bullpen in both games of a doubleheader in Chicago on August 9, 2013, retiring all four White Sox he faced. What doesn't show up in the record book, however, is that back in 1969 Jim Perry earned two wins for the Twins on the same day when he pitched two hitless innings, doubled, and scored the winning run in a game resumed from the night before, and then pitched a complete-game shutout in the day’s regularly scheduled game. Officially, however, the first win shows up as the day before—when the game began. (Going back to Washington Senators days, Walter Johnson also once won two games in one day.)

Duensing pitched a three-hit shutout as the first-place Twins beat the Oakland A’s 2-0 on August 14, 2010. He gave up one hit in each of the first three innings before completely shutting down the Oakland offense for the final six innings. Reigning AL MVP Joe Mauer went 3-for-4 in the game. The Twins went on to win the Central for the sixth time in nine years that season, with a remarkable SIX pitchers notching at least 10 wins each: Carl Pavano (17), Francisco Liriano (14), Kevin Slowey (13), Scott Baker (12), Nick Blackburn (10), and Brian Duensing (10).

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TRF Guy said:
Happy 42nd birthday to former Twins pitcher Brian Duensing. He is the only pitcher in Minnesota Twins history to win two games in one day—at least on paper. Duensing came out of the bullpen in both games of a doubleheader in Chicago on August 9, 2013, retiring all four White Sox he faced. What doesn't show up in the record book, however, is that back in 1969 Jim Perry earned two wins for the Twins on the same day when he pitched two hitless innings, doubled, and scored the winning run in a game resumed from the night before, and then pitched a complete-game shutout in the day’s regularly scheduled game. Officially, however, the first win shows up as the day before—when the game began. (Going back to Washington Senators days, Walter Johnson also once won two games in one day.)

Duensing pitched a three-hit shutout as the first-place Twins beat the Oakland A’s 2-0 on August 14, 2010. He gave up one hit in each of the first three innings before completely shutting down the Oakland offense for the final six innings. Reigning AL MVP Joe Mauer went 3-for-4 in the game. The Twins went on to win the Central for the sixth time in nine years that season, with a remarkable SIX pitchers notching at least 10 wins each: Carl Pavano (17), Francisco Liriano (14), Kevin Slowey (13), Scott Baker (12), Nick Blackburn (10), and Brian Duensing (10).

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If only God would have me a lefty 🤬

I still wouldn’t have been able to consistently hit the strike zone🤠
 

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