Archive for November, 2011

The Houston Astros are heading to the American League in 2013 and will compete in the West Division.  The people in Oakland, Anaheim (Los Angeles), Seattle and Texas won’t be blamed if they’re overjoyed at picking up an automatic 10-12 wins every year against an Astros team that probably won’t contend for a division crown for at least the next five years. While he’s at it, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig should take this opportunity to realign all six divisions and allow National League teams to use the DH (allowing for traditionalists, at a competitive disadvantage, to continue allowing pitchers to [...]

I’ve been trying to be more positive about the 2012 Twins.  It is not always easy, especially after a 2011 season in which the Twins lost 99 games and then announced they were cutting payroll back to only $100 millions dollars.  But I’m trying.  Yesterday I posted the first five reasons to be excited about the 2012 Twins, and here are the rest. 5. A healthy pitching staff.  In 2011 Kevin Slowey, Jose Mijares, Joe Nathan, Francisco Liriano (twice), Scott Baker, and Nick Blackburn all spent time on the disabled list.  That is a pretty large portion of the Twins’ pitching [...]

Former Cubs third baseman Ron Santo waited his whole life to get into the Hall of Fame. Sadly, he died last year without ever getting that chance. But the writers of the Fansided MLB network have done our part to give Santo his due. We conducted a shadow Veterans Committee vote in anticipation of the real vote next week. You can read the full results at Call to the Pen. Twins players Jim Kaat and Tony Oliva didn’t get enough love. Of the 22 ballots submitted, each Minnesota player received 7 votes, well short of the 17 needed to win. [...]

Remember how excited we all were when Wilson Ramos came up to the big leagues? Ramos banged out seven hits in his first two games, and he immediately won thousands of fans around Twins Territory. Even the guy whose job he was competing for, Drew Butera, became a Ramos supporter (at least I think he is… Butera always wears Ramos’ first name on his chest protector). Around that time, some online writers started floating the idea that Ramos and Joe Mauer should share time behind the plate. The idea was that Mauer would catch 100 or so games and Ramos [...]

Apparently this baseball blogger has been pretty negative on Twitter lately, as Adam Krueger of The Bat Shatters pointed out to me yesterday morning. In an effort to turn this frown upside down, here are 10 reasons to look forward to the 2012 version of the Minnesota Twins (in reverse countdown order, of course). 10. Tsuyoshi Nishioka is not going to be the opening day starter at shortstop.  Hopefully he will not be the opening day at second base or anywhere else either.  In Nishioka’s inaugural MLB season he hitt just .226 and slugged just slightly better than that at .249.  This after a [...]

Baseball is about to get interesting again, and you can rest assured that Puckett’s Pond will be here to comment, clarify, and complain about all the offseason news that’s guaranteed to happen… any day now! November started with a bang, and the Twins kept making moves for the the first two weeks of the month. But we have had nothing but slow news days since. Thanksgiving temporarily unplugged the Hot Stove, and nothing interesting has happened to the Twins since then. You know it’s getting bad when your team hires a new AAA manager, and you find yourself reading the [...]

I know you have opinions about baseball and the Minnesota Twins, and you’re just dying to express them. Puckett’s Pond is the perfect place for you to express those opinions to thousands of other fans, and you’ll be entertaining and informing them in the process. You don’t have to be an experienced writer. All we ask is that you follow and know about baseball and the Twins, that you can spell, and that you are willing to write one article per week. It’s a very small time commitment, and the rewards of having people read what you write are well [...]

Looking for something to read? Puckett’s Pond is here to help. Today we’ll continue the Offseason Book Review series with a quick summary of Scorecasting: The Hidden Influences Behind How Sports Are Played and Games are Won. There are two types of sports fans in the modern world: those who watch because they appreciate the beauty and athleticism of the game, and those who are more interested in analyzing numbers and data to try to explain things (for example, Sabermetricians). This book was definitely written with the second group in mind. I sympathize with both types, but like 90% of [...]

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are rested and ready for another exciting weekend of NFL football.  This week, however, instead of running out that rag tag group that led the Vikings to their current 2-8 record they should run out the Minnesota Twins, dressed in pads.  These guys are more than capable of the “Suck for Luck” style of play currently being taught over at Winter Park. And here they are, your 2011 Minnesota Vikewins: Quarterback: The current version of the Minnesota Vikings is deploying a rookie QB from Florida State.  Since we’re already living in an [...]

The Twins are strongly considering bringing Matt Capps back. Capps went 4-7 with a 4.25 ERA and 15 saves for the Twins last year. With the departure of Joe Nathan, there is no other experienced closer in the organization. In recent years, the Twins have (wrongly) put an emphasis on bringing in players with closing experience rather than simply installing talented pitchers in the role. Thus, Capps is a logical target, despite the well-documented struggles he had in 2010. The Twins are not the only team for whom that experience is a selling point. The Angels and Red Sox have [...]