Minnesota Twins Daily Morning Dip: Happy birthday, A.J.
Minnesota Twins Daily Dip, December 30th, 2017
Welcome to the December 30th 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 Organizational Scores
Australian Baseball League Update
The ABL is back underway, but Aaron Whitefield did not play for Brisbane on Friday.
Dominican Winter League Update
Aguilas Cibaenas lost in the playoffs on Friday night. Kennys Vargas got the start at DH, going 2-5 with a double and a strikeout.
Venezuelan Winter League Update
Caribes de Anzoategui won their playoff game in the VWL Friday night 7-4. Willians Astudillo played left field, going 1-4 with a double and 2 RBI.
Minnesota Twins news and notes
Statcast’s fastest running plays in 2017
Byron Buxton ended up with three of Statcast’s fastest plays in 2017, including his brilliant inside the park home run on August 18th.
Javier ready to breakout
Twins shortstop prospect Wander Javier is identified as one of the prospects likely to break out in the Pipeline article highlighting a number of such prospects around minor league baseball.
More from Puckett's Pond
- Minnesota Twins: 2 Possible Free Agent Reunions for 2023
- Minnesota Twins: Holiday Wish List for the rest of the Offseason
- Minnesota Twins: After signing with the Mets, Correa spurns Twins again
- Minnesota Twins: You Spin Me Right Round, Right Round
- Minnesota Twins: What happens next at Shortstop?
Notes from around baseball
- Rockies sign Davis to anchor bullpen
- Orioles/Red Sox talk Machado
- National League’s best games of 2017
- Yankees now looking at Darvish?
- Who baseball lost in 2017
- Padres meeting with Ross, Young
- Bregman getting pumped for 2018
- Ryu and his fiance have baseball engagement photos
- Best tweets from baseball in 2017
- Best starters still available
- Cardinals looking for a 3B
- Melancon had a wooly pic in New Zealand
- Things that happened just once in 2017
Next: Should the Twins continue pursuing relievers?
One Last Thing
Former Minnesota Twins catcher A.J. Pierzynski turns 41 years old today. Originally a 3rd round draft pick by the Twins out of high school in Florida in 1994, Pierzynski made his major league debut with the Twins in 1998 at age 21. He spent most of 1999 and 2000 in the minors, but in 2001, A.J. took over as the Twins’ starter, hitting .289/.322/.441 with 33 doubles in his first full season.
Pierzynski was selected to the All-Star game in 2002 as he hit .300 for the first time. He would follow up with a .312/.360/.464 season in 2003 for the Twins, with 35 doubles and 11 home runs. With Joe Mauer ready for the major leagues and A.J. entering arbitration, the Twins made a trade that ended up setting the franchise in a positive direction for many years to come when they sent A.J. to San Francisco for Joe Nathan, Boof Bonser, and Francisco Liriano.
Pierzynski retired after 2016 with 19 major league seasons under his belt, putting up a .280/.319/.420 career line. In 6 seasons with the Twins, Pierzynski put up a .301/.341/.447 line.