Minnesota Twins Daily Morning Dip: Mr. Versatile breaks out

Minnesota Twins Daily Dip, January 5th, 2018

Welcome to the January 5th 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 played on Thursday, but no active Twins minor leaguers played on Thursday. Notably, though, former Twin Mark Hamburger threw a complete game, allowing 4 hits and no walks, giving up 2 runs and setting an ABL record with 16 strikeouts in the game…and he LOST the game! His counterpart, Brian Grening, also hurled a complete game, but he tossed a shutout, allowing 3 hits and no walks, striking out 5.

Dominican Winter League Update
The DWL playoffs took a day off on Thursday night.

Venezuelan Winter League Update
Fernando Rodney got tagged in the playoff game for Leones del Escogido on Thursday night, not recording an out and giving up 3 runs on a hit and 4 walks.

Minnesota Twins news and notes

Where Twins stand on Darvish
With articles coming out that chastise the Minnesota Twins front office for not having met with Yu Darvish or made him an offer yet, MLB.com Twins beat writer Rhett Bollinger answered questions, including about Darvish in his mailbox.

ZiPS Projections
The Minnesota Twins’ projections through Dan Szymborski’s ZiPS system were released on Wednesday. They are quite conservative for the Twins, most likely due to the youth of the Twins roster, which does sway the projections as there is a lack of data to be used.

More from Puckett's Pond

• Minnesota Twins: 2022 Year in Review for Twins Baseball
• Minnesota Twins: Making the Case for the Current 2023 Rotation
• Minnesota Twins: Does the MLB or the Twins have a Spending Problem?
• Minnesota Twins: 2 Possible Free Agent Reunions for 2023
• Minnesota Twins: Holiday Wish List for the rest of the Offseason

Notes from around baseball

• Trout very intrigued by winter storm
• Rangers, Brewers looking at Cain
• Ohtani tops execs’ prospect list
• Dodgers, White Sox, Royals complete 3-team deal
• Time in Asia proves valuable for these players
• Starters who work consistently late
• Gonzalez has 3 offers
• Correa makes charity shot at Rockets game
• Best fit for Hosmer
• The fate of Cozart’s donkey
• Ottavino discusses Lincecum pic
• ChiSox should pursue Yelich
• Steals from past five drafts

Next: Should the Twins continue pursuing relievers?

One Last Thing

Eduardo Escobar celebrates his 29th birthday today. The Venezuela native has had a fairly nondescript career thus far as a utility man until 2017, when he hit 21 home runs in less than 500 plate appearances while slashing .254/.309/.449 with a 100 OPS+.

Escobar was originally acquired by the Twins in 2012 at the trade deadline when the team traded Francisco Liriano to the White Sox. He’s played over 100 games with the Twins in all but one season since that year, and he’s shown his value playing all over the field.

In fact, after playing his first inning at catcher in 2017, Escobar has now played every position on the field except for first base.