Don't think this is going to be a regular occurrence, but....

 Link Dump! I know I dropped one of these a couple of weeks ago, but this is just a much easier way to touch on all of the news that is happening in the sports world. Such as.....

The NCAA Transfer Portal is alive and well, even as the tournament is ongoing. Who are the top players? Glad you asked.  - SB Nation

The Timberwolves have finally been sold, freeing up Glen Taylor to buy the Twins (That last part was my speculation, not the PiPress) - Pioneer Press

Speaking of the Timberwolves, heck of a game last night - CBS Sports

The crazy thing about NFL Mock Drafts this year is how consistent they have been in putting Tyler Warren to the Colts at 14 and Nick Emmanwori to the Vikings at 24. Those are late picks to be that consistent. - Sporting News 

The Women's NCAA Final Four is going to be just as good as the Men's and just as good as last year's. - USA Today

The Loons look good this season! - MLS

The only torpedo bat story I care about is how the Twins bats are torpedoing their season so far. - Star Tribune

And you have now all been linked. Congrats! 

It's good to be a Commanders fan

Not only is it the most cost effective way to build a team, but it is also, undoubtedly, the most fun. If you are making a winning football team, a good way to save money is to have an excellent rookie-contract quarterback. It's also a lot of fun to use the extra resources to build around him.

Is there anyone having more fun than the Washington Commanders? Jayden Daniels followed CJ Stroud's lead and as the second QB drafted, emerged as better than the top pick in their rookie season. Houston had an excellent defense that needed preservation, but the Commanders are just adding, even from the Texans.

Daniels led the resurgent Commanders to the NFC Championship Game as a rookie, which is a promising floor, and the offseason has been all gas and no brakes. How great would it be to the team that is aggressively seeking talent, and knowing they are adding to a good roster, and not just patching holes? They could burn draft capital on Deebo Samuel and Laremy Tunsil, while signing Javon Kinlaw and having the resources to retain the free agents they wanted to.

Eventually, Daniels is going to be very expensive, and more or less, Washington is going to know what they have as a core. They will be good for as long as Daniels is effective, but the era of unbound potential, an unabashedly fun time will be behind them. In the meantime, fans are going to be a little more forgiving. If things go sideways in 2025, they know that the future remains bright. If they go well, all the better.

The Commanders have shown with their moves thus far that they won't let the moment pass them by. It's one thing to catch lightning in a bottle, and another to allow that lightning to properly electrify the team. After so long in the NFL wilderness, how fun is it for Washington fans to be on the brink of greatness?

The Wild are the Twins on ice

Have you heard about the team in Minnesota that hasn't made it to their league's championship series since the early 2000s? Well, maybe you have heard that they had a very good start to the season this year, but, owing in large part to injuries (but perhaps also to a less than active trade deadline), they are cratering as the season winds to a close.

No, not that team.

The team who is having some payroll constraints as they try to build around a young core? You know the team with the electric young talent who was injured, along with the career long player at center in a Minnesota uniform that also keeps getting injured?

No, no, not that team.

I'm talking about the team with the home town kid that wears #7, and will probably wear too much of the burden if things don't go Minnesota's way while he is in town, even though the real problem is the organization and the fact that the town has been cursed since 1991? 

The Wild and the Twins share so much in common. Even as the season draws near a close for the Wild, and it is soon to begin for the Twins, it appears as though their paths may diverge. The cap in the NHL will go up, coinciding with Ryan Suter and Zach Parise's deals coming off the books. In theory, the Wild will be bigger spenders, and their core will get the support it deserves from the free agent market. 

That said, we also heard about the Twins TV rights being out for bid, and look how that turned out. And that the team was on the verge of being sold, and look how that turned out. Hopefully this is where the Wild diverge course from the Twins, but I'll believe it when I see it. 

Have some Links

 It's hard to believe that I used to not only have a post a day, but also posted links and scores. I miss that kind of free time, but man, I'm sure glad I'm not wading into the depths of the internet for good posts any longer. Gross. But let's see what we've got today.

It's the opener of NFL free agency, and wouldn't you know it, the Vikings are in the mix for a former Packer/Jet QB. - Fox Sports

Bubble tracking sounds like it should be very relaxing. It isn't! - USA Today

Hockey hair! - BringMN

We all love things being graded so we can argue about it later. - Yahoo!

The Gophers were knocked out of the Big Ten tournament before it was on real TV - Star Tribune

I did not know that this was something that could effect aerodynamics. - SB Nation        

OK, that's enough. Good night!

No deal!

 

Over the years, I have grown accustomed to the Twins not being able to seal deals. Trades, free agents, anything. If there are reports, there is an initial buzz of anticipation, followed by a long trickle of disappointment as it becomes clear that the rumored move is definitely not happening any longer. So why should it be any different when the team itself is on the block?

News broke over the weekend that the Ishbias, the only known interested parties in the Twins, have instead increased an investment in the Chicago White Sox, and are no longer pursuing the Twins. There is a wailing and gnashing of teeth in Twins Territory, and some are speculating that the Pohlads may pull the team off the market. 

I see that as a bit of an overreach, based on previous reporting, that there was a significant level of interest, more than anticipated, when the team was first announced to be on the market. I have to believe also that the typically coy Pohlads wouldn't have made such an announcement if they didn't know they already had suitors. I can't imagine that the Ishbias were or are the only ones in play, nor that they backed off because the Pohlads were having a change of heart.

There was a rumor early in the process that Glen Taylor might be interested in the team if he ended up losing the Timberwolves in arbitration. And he did! But that is just one of the scenarios related to the potential ownership of the team, and we don't know how many suitors remain, or if more step up with the announcement that the Ishbias are out. 

Even if the Pohlads are planning on keeping the team, they still went along with the plan for payroll to climb, if incrementally this winter. Regardless of whatever happens in the next couple of months, if the Twins are still in the Pohlads hands or not, it's not as dark a time in Twins Territory as this time last year.

The story isn't done being told quite yet, and the ending still has a good chance of being happy

Got their number

 

We all know the players that we love to hate. It's because they always seem to have an extra bit of success when they face the Twins. I'm looking at you, Salvador Perez. We don't recognize it, but other teams have Twins that are their bugaboo as well. I thought, as we get ready to kick off spring training, we should look at the Twins projected opening day roster and see whose number our players have. These will be based on teams they have at least 10 games against, though I will make some notes if there are worthwhile exceptions. 

UTIL, Willi Castro - Milwaukee Brewers. Willi's OPS against our next door neighbors is 85% higher than his career OPS (this is called his tOPS, and will be our measure for all players). His average against the Brewers is a whopping .390. If I didn't qualify teams, though, Castro would show that 7 of his top 8 victims are NL teams. Get him in those inter-league games! The exception is the Angels, who Willi has a habit of hitting home runs against.

C, Ryan Jeffers - Texas Rangers. Do you remember when Jeffers got into a dust up with the Rangers in 2023? It turns out he might be more in their head than originally thought. A 213 tOPS based off of a 1.176 OPS in 14 games will do that.

1b, Ty France - Kansas City Royals. New first baseman Ty France may have been signed specifically because of the way he has feasted on the Royals. His tOPS is 202, which is because he's hitting .406 with 5 home runs. Other victims of the new Twin are the Astros and Rangers. Could have used that a couple years ago.

2b, Brooks Lee - Houston Astros. Lee doesn't have more than a handful of games against anyone, but against the Astros, he hit .462 with a double and a homerun.

SS, Carlos Correa - Colorado Rockies. It's wild that Correa has played enough games against the Rockies for this to be a consideration, but rightfully, he has always battered them, with a .412 average. His favorite AL victim? The Twins. 

3b, Royce Lewis - The Athletics. Lewis has hit 4 home runs against the A's, second only to the 5 he hit against the Guardians. He did it in half as many games, though, to the tune of a 170 tOPS

LF, Trevor Larnach - Kansas City Royals. Larnach is not only good against the Royals, but he's also played against them more than other team, save the White Sox. His tOPS is 151 against Kansas City, boosted by a keen eye at the plate and a .419 OBP.

CF, Byron Buxton - Chicago White Sox. Buxton has a pretty level numbers for his opponents, so the top tOPS is a 141 against the Sox. Reliable, though, against a division rival, and driven by the fact that he has hit 16% of his career home runs against the Southsiders.

RF, Matt Wallner - Chicago White Sox. Wallner, like Lee doesn't have many opponents he has faced a lot, but his 146 tOPS against Chicago is buoyed by an uncharacteristic .339 average. Also, unlike every other guy so far, his numbers are actually better against teams with winning records.

IF, Edouard Julien - Seattle Mariners. Julien's numbers against the Mariners feature a 195 tOPS, but the real story is that if you don't qualify his opponents, 6 of his top 7 are out west. Maybe likes being up late?

IF, Jose Miranda - Toronto Blue Jays. Miranda's 1.034 OPS against the Blue Jays is driven by a high proportion of extra base hits to hits (6/14). Also noteworthy is that Miranda is one of few players that level up against the Tigers.

OF, Harrison Bader - Texas Rangers. Bader played 11 games against the Rangers, which cumulated to a .343 average with 5 doubles. His most difficult times were against several other AL teams... including the Twins.

C, Christian Vazquez - Philadelphia Phillies. Honestly, there was no reason that Vazquez was listed last, just that he is a bench player, but his performances against the Phillies have been otherworldly.  OBP of .508 means that in his 19 games, he got on base more than half the time. 19 games is quite a few! His tOPS against Philadelphia is 266! He also plays better against the AL Central across the board, except the Royals, against whom he is abysmal.

The Twins look well primed to face their divisional foes, interleague play and for west coast swings this season. They've got their number.

Coaching when it counts

There has been a through line on the Derek Falvey tenure, and it has been an investment in their pitching staff. Not necessarily in the players, of course, but to an environment engineered to get the most out of the arms they have. They have made a point to roster excellent receivers. They jumped on Jason Castro right away during Falvey's first offseason in charge. More recently, to outsiders Christian Vasquez looked like an obvious trade candidate, but the Twins held on to him, in no small part because the front office still values him as a benefit to the pitching staff, as a compliment to Ryan Jeffers.

The other lift has been via excellent coaching hires. It started with pitching coach Wes Johnson, and has been reflected through Pete Maki, as the major league rotation and bullpen have rounded back into form. Johnson's contribution was felt acutely in his departure. The Twins staff fell apart when he left abruptly in 2022 to take the same role at LSU (he is now the manager at Georgia), but have reconstituted under Maki.

The Falvey era was supposed to emphasize the pitching pipeline, and through scouting, analytics and importantly, minor league coaching, that emphasis has born fruit. Bailey Ober, Griffin Jax, Cole Sands and many with less time in the organization have blossomed thanks to the environment in the Twins organization. The Twins have developed an incubator for pitchers, and the coaches have played a big role in that, both in development and maintenance. 

Back when Johnson was hired, the Twins seemed like they just had a knack for coaching hires. Former hitting coach James Rowson steered the offense to an historic output before taking a new job in Miami. Since Rowson left, the Twins offense is best described as inconsistent. David Popkins couldn't elevate the offense in the same way Rowson got the most out of his players, or Maki is still getting results from the pitchers. 

Popkins was let go at the end of the year, and replaced him with Matt Borgschulte, who comes in with more experience than Popkins. The Twins hope that translates to the same kind of magic that Johnson, Rowson and Maki have manufactured. Since taking the reins, Falvey has shown a sharp eye for impactful coaching hires—so perhaps Borgschulte should be considered the team’s most significant addition of the offseason.