Archive for December, 2011

Happy New Year! Are you wondering what’s going to happen to the Twins in 2012? Wonder no more, because I have 12 bold predictions about the year ahead. All 12 are guaranteed to be 100% accurate… unless they turn out to be wrong. How credible are my predictions? Well, last year I predicted that two AL Central pitchers would throw no-hitters. A big thank you to Francisco Liriano and Justin Verlander for proving me right. I also predicted that the Tigers would make it to the ALCS, and I was right about that, too. Of course, I also predicted they’d [...]

Hard to believe that there are still 48 long winter days until Twins pitchers and catchers report to sunny Ft. Meyers for Spring Training on February 18, 2012.  The only other team reporting that early is the World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals, so the Twins are in pretty good company. If Terry Ryan and the Twins do not make any additional moves leading up to Spring Training, the starting roster should look something like this: C – Joe Mauer 1B – Justin Morneau 2B – Alexi Casilla SS – Jamey Carroll 3B – Danny Valencia LF – Ben Revere [...]

I hate to toot our own horn, but Puckett’s Pond wrote a lot of great content in 2011. I’m sure you religiously read and re-read every single word we published. But just in case you didn’t, we’ve compiled a list of our favorite posts from the year past. If you still haven’t picked a New Year’s resolution, maybe you should consider resolving to read our site every day. It’s good for your health! You can start with these gems of internet-sports-journalism. Since April I have been writing for the Pond, and I took over as Editor back in September. Of [...]

Sometimes the most exciting players to watch are minor league prospects. When you watch your team’s Big Leaguers, you usually know what to expect. But minor leaguers are blank slates. They could become superstars, or they could become nobodies. It’s a very thin line. The Twins have quite a few players in their system who are straddling that line. For the five very talented minor leaguers listed below, 2012 is a make-or-break year. If they make some progress, they could shoot up the prospect rankings. If they regress, they might never make it to the Majors. I’m hoping for the [...]

If nothing else, this offseason has been busy for the Minnesota Twins.  Well, busy up until this past week.  With Twins executives and other front office types taking time off for holidays any and all baseball news has pretty much ground to a halt.  Luckily for you, the Twins blogosphere marches on.  Here are the best links from the past week: We will start off with what might be the oddest link of the week.  Apparently not everyone is busy this offseason, especially not Baseball Nation’s Rob Neyer, who built some excitement into the offseason by Live-Blogging ‘For Love of [...]

With 2011 drawing to a close, Terry Ryan has had about seven weeks back on the job as the Twins GM. So, how’s he doing? Below you’ll find a list of his major personnel moves graded and ranked from best to worst. The grades are completely subjective and based entirely on my opinions. If you disagree, please feel free to tell me what you disagree about and why in the comment field below. Signed Ryan Doumit to a one year, $3M contract: A Great move all around. For a minimal price, the Twins acquired a switch-hitter with some power who [...]

For the second time this month, a former Twin has been called out as one of the biggest “Bums” in another team’s history. A couple weeks ago, Lasorda’s Lair named Dave Goltz the 8th worst Dodger bust. Now Jacque Jones is taking his lumps as Tigers bum #9, according to Motor City Bengals, Fansided’s excellent Detroit Tiger site. (By the way, the trend of Top 10 Bum lists seems to be sweeping Fansided’s MLB network like wildfire. Does this mean we can look forward to a Top 10 Twins Bums list in the future? Perhaps.) Jones was a big part [...]

Today Twitter told me (via ESPN 1500’s @DarrenWolfson) that relief pitcher Dan Wheeler’s agent contacted the Twins. Nothing actually happened with this, because Minnesota’s execs are enjoying a week off for the Christmas/New Year holidays, but it could make an intriguing story once the calendar turns. Wheeler made $3 million last year with the Red Sox, and he’s 34 years old, so he probably won’t command a very high salary on the market. The Twins would probably like him because he is a “Proven Closer,” albeit in limited duty, having racked up 11 saves with the Astros in 2007 and [...]

A new year is almost upon us, and if you live in the United States, you probably already know that it’s an election year (if you don’t already know that, then you REALLY need to brush up on your high school Political Science classes). I generally don’t approve of mixing politics and baseball; it is my firm belief that Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Communists, and people who completely hate politics should all be allowed to root for the Twins without letting political arguments interfere. But I’m also kind of a history buff and a stat nerd, and I like researching meaningless [...]

Last week, the Padres traded Mat Latos to the Reds. A couple days ago, Gio Gonzalez went to the Nationals. In both cases, teams were willing to part with four talented players for a pitcher who is very good, but certainly not elite. I couldn’t help but think that in a market like this, the Twins might want to shop Scott Baker (By the way, if you hate bad puns, you owe me one for not trying to cram the words “Baker” and “Hot Stove” into the title of this article). If you haven’t been following the news, Latos was [...]