Minnesota Twins Daily Morning Dip: Unlikely Heroes

Minnesota Twins Daily Dip, October 27th, 2017

Welcome to the October 27th edition of the Daily Dip, your daily piece of news and notes here on Puckett’s Pond, offseason edition. You’ll find the most recent news of the Minnesota Twins organization, stories from around the game, and links to any information you may want to know about the Minnesota Twins or baseball as we work our way through the hot stove season!

Minnesota Twins Scores, News and Notes

Arizona Fall League Update

Surprise took a beating on Thursday, losing to Glendale 10-5. LaMonte Wade got the start at right field, going 1-5 and scoring a run. Sean Miller had a big day, going 3-3 with a run, RBI, and a walk.

Surprise will play Scottsdale at 2:30PM CT on Friday.

Twins players totals in the AFL:
Chris Paul, 8 games, 33 AB, .273/.314/.394, 2B, HR, 1/7 BB/K
Sean Miller, 7 games, 26 AB, .346/.393/.385, 2B, SB, 2/5 BB/K
LaMonte Wade, 10 games, 37 AB, .243/.349/.378, 2 2B, HR, SB, 5/3 BB/K
Andrew Vasquez, 5 games, 5 2/3 IP, 1.59 ERA, 0.71 WHIP, 1/6 BB/K
Thomas Hackimer, 4 games, 5 IP, 1.80 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 1/4 BB/K
Tyler Jay, 5 games, 4 2/3 IP, 3.86 ERA, 1.93 WHIP, 1/7 BB/K
Ryan Eades, 5 games, 5 1/3 IP, 0.00 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 1/5 BB/K

Twins hire Alston as new pitching coach

Alston was bullpen coach with the Oakland Athletics in 2017 and previously served in the same role with the Arizona Diamondbacks. His longest-tenured job in baseball, however, was as the minor league rehab coordinator in the Athletics organization.

Dozier and Buxton up for Gold Gloves

Finalists for the Gold Glove awards came out on Thursday, and two Twins found themselves mentioned, but not really the two that many Twins fans were expecting as Byron Buxton was a finalist as expected, but not Joe Mauer. Instead, second baseman Brian Dozier was a finalist, which is an honor for him, but frankly, a surprise as he’s typically not considered among the top 2B in the game. Congrats to both!

Next World Series game

Los Angeles Dodgers at Houston Astros, 7:00PM CT
Starting Pitchers: Yu Darvish vs. Lance McCullers, Jr.
Television: Fox
Series Standing: Series tied 1-1

Notes from around baseball

Next: Possible Twins HUGE pitching move

One Last Thing

In the greatest World Series played in my lifetime, and among the greatest of all time, if not the greatest, it makes sense that game 7 of that World Series would be one of the best games that was played. The game was led by two unlikely starters.

John Smoltz was a young starter who had worked throughout the season to find his way to an elite starter, and the 1991 postseason was his breakout before he moved into the elite starter realm in 1992, making 4 starts in the postseason, throwing 29 2/3 innings, with a 1.52 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, and a 4/26 BB/K ratio.

Jack Morris was a workaholic starter for many years, not really a guy who put up elite numbers, but who would throw every 5th day and only missed a streak of 13 straight seasons with double-digit complete games due to 2 seasons with 9 such games (in spite of two of those seasons having less than 30 starts!). His first postseason experience was incredible with the Tigers. and he pitched tremendously well in 1991, but in 2 other trips to the postseason, Morris struggled mightily.

The end result was a 1-0 victory over the Braves for the Twins and their second World Series championship!

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