Puckett's Pond » Steve Holm

Minor League Signings: Burroughs, Walters, Rivera. Also, Punto News.

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 02:03:28 +0000

The Twins made a few minor league signings today: Sean Burroughs, P.J. Walters, and Rene Rivera.

Burroughs is the most interesting of the three. He was drafted 9th overall by the Padres in 1998 (just three picks after the Twins took Ryan Mills, who is a six time Cy Young winner in an alternative universe). He got to the Majors relatively quickly and enjoyed a solid season in 2003 at the age of 22, hitting .286/.352/.402 for the Friars. But he never became the superstar his draft position would indicate. After a trade to Tampa, Burroughs quit baseball to spend more time with his cocaine, and eventually ended up homeless in Las Vegas. That’s the sad part of the story. The happy part is that he got clean and made a Major League comeback last year with Arizona. Now he’s a Twin.

I don’t think Burroughs has a legitimate shot to challenge Danny Valencia for the starting 3B job, but he’ll be an interesting story to follow in Spring Training. And he inspired me to ask a Twins trivia question:

What does Burroughs have in common with former Twins Jon Rauch, Pat Borders, Doug Mientkiewicz, and Adam Everett? The answer is at the end of this post. (more…)

Minnesota Twins 2011 Midterm Report Card

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 01:00:48 +0000

The Twins have reached the All Star Break, baseball’s traditional midpoint. I’d like to take this opportunity to keep up another tradition: the tradition of writers with too much time on their hands assigning grades to their favorite teams. Be sure to check out the First Half Awards as well.

The Twins have had a roller-coaster first half of the season, and much of it wasn’t pretty. As a result, their midterm report card has some bad marks. The starting rotation can give itself a pat on the back for a job (mostly) well done. But the bullpen had better rush home and get to the mailbox as fast as they can, because if their parents see this report card, they might be grounded for a long time.

Catcher: D

It’s tough to give the Twins a passing grade here. Superstar Joe Mauer has just a .243 batting average, and he missed more than two months of the season with a very confusing injury. His backups, Drew Butera, Rene Rivera, and Steve Holm, combined to hit .176 with just two home runs in 221 at bats. But the backups were adequate calling games and fielding the position in Mauer’s absence, and there is some sign that Mauer is waking up at the plate. he has a .304 average so far in July.

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT: Get Mauer healthy.

EXTRA CREDIT: Shop the trade market for a backup capable of hitting above the Mendoza Line. (more…)

Pond Reflections: April 2011 – A Month to Forget

Wally Fish — Fri, 06 May 2011 04:19:28 +0000

We’re 5 days into May, the Twins are 2-1 and Francisco Liriano has tossed a no hitter this month. With that backdrop it’s awfully easy to forget what happened in April. Considering how things went in the first month of the season, that’s not a bad thing.

The saying goes that to know where you are going, you have to know where you’ve been. I like to think of it in a slightly altered way. To appreciate where you are you have to always remember what you’ve been through. April may have been a month to forget for Twins fans, but to enjoy the rest of the 2011 journey we have to remember.

It’s hard to pick one place to start with this team as there were a slew of factors that contributed to their 9-17 record in the season’s first month. If I were to pick just two phrases that summed up April for me it would be “bilateral leg weakness” and “pitch to contact.” But when it comes down to it, I believe the primary reason for the teams struggles starts with the injuries and transactions the team has been forced to make. (more…)