Archive for February, 2011

Well crap. According to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, the Twins are keeping an eye on Yankees prospects and could be trading Francisco Liriano. While my message for Bill Smith is a simple “don’t effing trade him,” it couldn’t hurt to take a look at his trade value should Bill Smith pull the plug on the 2011 season. Per usual, these values come from Sky Kalkman at Beyond the Boxscore. First off, salary: Liriano is in his second to last year of team control, and is slated to make 4.3 million this season. He should make roughly 6 million next year, [...]

Tonight as the Twins are wrapping up their first spring training game of the year, it’s time to address the 5th and final question from my esteemed colleague and Southside Showdown lead writer, Travis Miller. Question #5: To the bullpen, Nathan looks healthy, but should he go down again, who can bridge to Matt Capps without Jon Rauch around? I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again: when it comes to consistency, there are very few relievers you can count on from year to year. If I was forced to rebuild a part of a major league roster and I [...]

The Minnesota Twins open their 2011 spring training schedule tonight against the Boston Red Sox at 6:05 pm CST. I know it’s just a ST game and I know it really doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of the 2011 season, but I’m excited anyway. Tonight’s game is just another sign that winter will mercifully soon be coming to an end. Minnesota’s lineup will be a shell of what Ron Gardenhire figures to write down April 1st in Toronto. Missing will be lineup mainstays Justin Morneau (concussion), Joe Mauer (knee), Delmon Young (toe) and Michael Cuddyer (foot), but that [...]

As my Saturday night is drawing to a close, I wanted to briefly touch on three different topics. Included here you will find some notes on Joe Nathan’s Twins career, some prospect rankings and a recent article from Ken Rosenthal that brings up the “C” word for some unknown reason. Reliever #s: Phil Mackey shared this tidbit yesterday afternoon: 1.87: Joe Nathan‘s ERA in 418 2/3 innings with the Twins since 2004. Only two other relievers had ERAs under 2.00 over that stretch — Jonathan Papelbon (1.82) and Mariano Rivera (1.90). While he just missed the 2.00 ERA cutoff, I think [...]

Butch Wynegar had the best season of any 20-year old position player in franchise history. Adding to the significance of his achievement is that he did it while playing catcher. As we turn our attention to the best seasons turned in by 22-year olds for the Twins and Senators respectively, we come across another catcher who just so happens to be the “cover boy” for MLB 11 The Show. Joining Joe Mauer is Buddy Lewis who we last saw gracing our 20-year old edition of Two for the Ages along with … Butch Wynegar.

It wasn’t all that long ago that I got all worked up into a semi-frothing lather because the Royals named Gil Meche and not Zack Greinke the Opening Day starter prior to the 2009 season. That decision still bothers me, not only because I felt Greinke deserved to start the first game of the season but there were also schedule based reasons. What really put me over the edge however were some of Trey Hillman’s quotes on the subject. When it comes to Ron Gardenhire’s recent decision to name Carl Pavano, and not Francisco Liriano, as the Opening Day starter [...]

Puckett’s Pond isn’t the only Minnesota team site on the FanSided.com Sports Network and most people I know are at least casual fans of one – or more sports – beyond baseball. While I obviously eat, sleep and breathe baseball I keep tabs on the NFL as well as college basketball. I also enjoy watching college football, at least during the regular season. Once the bowls and Bunch of Crap System get underway I tune it out completely and wait for next year. I will freely admit that I have never been a big fan of hockey, in large part [...]

I’m back as I promised this morning to tackle question #3. As an added bonus I’m going to cover question #4 since the former leads into the latter. If you missed the background and my responses to the first two questions you can catch up by clicking here and here. Here in Kansas City is it still snowing and schools have started closing. I fear my Friday will become another snow day with my kids. If that happens it will be 6 days in the last 4 or 5 weeks. Opening Day can’t get here fast enough. Question #3: Will [...]

This morning as a disgustingly depressing mix of snow and sleet falls on the Kansas City metro area, we take a look at the second of five question posed to me by Southside Showdown Lead Writer Travis Miller. My original plan was to get this published last night, but a nasty headache and two uncooperative children forced me to spend the bulk of my night on the couch playing Dragon Quest IX on my Nintendo DS. By 10:15 pm I was in bed which is a very rare occurrence for me since I usually make it well past midnight. So today I [...]

Today the Minnesota Twins signed Darfi Ortiz, a 19-year old middle infielder, for $30,000. Ortiz was an All-Star in the Dominican Prospect League. Clipped from: www.dplbaseball.com (share this clip)