Twins Fest, no Young?

Twins Fest was last weekend and there seemed to be quite a few fans in attendance. The paper reported that there were 4,000 fewer than 2007 which I thought was strange since this year they had more star power on the roster for autographs.

I found it interesting that Delmon Young was absent from most of the planned activities. I read in the paper that he had the stomach flu. Hmmm, “Sick” – huh? I am betting the Twins are sick of him. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Twins work out a deal to trade him.

Twins Players Moving Around – Adam Everett a new Tiger

Bodies will be moving all about in the next few months as the Twins and other MLB teams try to secure their roster before spring training. Twins free-agent shortstop Adam Everett is going to be a Detroit Tiger after agreeing to a one-year contract worth $1 million and the Philadelphia Phillies are seriously looking at adding Delmon Young to their roster.

One of the best parts of all the player movement is that there is plenty to blog about! Major League Baseball definitely does a good job of being a year round sport – long regular season, long playoffs, long spring training, winter meetings – is there an off-season?

Delmon Young Future Unknown

I read this in Charley Walters column – not that ground-breaking, but just a reminder that the Delmon Young Minnesota Twins issue is still at the forefront on the Minnesota Sports Scene.


“It remains unclear whether the Twins will be able to move outfielder Delmon Young, but they are intent on trading for bullpen help.”


See ya Delmon - be sure to take your greasy entourage with you.

Delmon Young Retraction

OK, I need to retract my statement from October 22nd when I said that Delmon Young was here to stay. Here’s why: I happened to take a call from a local sports caster at work on Monday and I asked him if he would give me some good dirt on the Minnesota Twins for my blog. The only way he would talk is if I promised not to use his name, I said sure (thinking that a good journalist never reveals her sources.)

Since I was just some stranger answering the phone, I think he was leery to give me anything too juicy, but he said that Delmon Young will NOT be with the Minnesota Twins next year. Why? Young is not a good fit personally for the team. I guess Delmon Young spends more time in the strip club than he does in the batting cages and that has the Minnesota managers unhappy (well that and the fact he can’t seem to see a ball coming at him.)

Young also has issues playing day games after night games thanks to his afterhours activities. My source was implying that Delmon Young is still drunk at those day games or at least extremely hung over. My conclusion is that Delmon Young does not fit in with the “Minnesota Nice” image of the Minnesota Twins and he is not enough of an asset to look over the strip club and alcohol addiction. I remember the days when Justin Morneau liked to hit the bottle, good thing he came around to the bright side and look how well he has been doing. Too bad Delmon Young couldn’t change, I think he has potential, but potential is often wasted on evil addictions.

Twins Trading Delmon Young

Oh yeah, by the way the Twins are not going to trade Delmon Young – because they don’t want to admit they blew a deal.

Twins Ranger Series

The first Twins baseball series back from the All-Star Break was the Twins Rangers Series. Yes, I know this news is from July (18th, 19th and 20th to be exact), but it was a solid series and I often stress that teams won’t have the same zing when they come back from the All-Star break, but the Twins have remained steady and winning two games out of the three against the Texas Rangers on the first series back was a real momentum booster.

Twins Rangers Series Facts:

...Fridays 6-0 shutout was the Texas Rangers first shut out of the season and in fact was their first shut-out since an August 19, 2007 game at the Metrodome vs. our very own Minnesota Twins. Man, I love it when the Rangers come to town!

...Rangers pitcher Kevin Millwood has never beaten the Twins, he is 0-6. I wish we could play the Rangers every day.

...Delmon Young had his 12th game with 3-or-more hits. Delmon Young wishes we could play the Rangers every day!

...The 14-2 win also inked some season highs for the Twins as the team set single game-highs as a team in total bases, extra-base hits, rbi’s and season high home-runs with four. Who says we aren’t swinging for the fence every time? Oh yeah, me. We aren’t, but wouldn’t it be nice if we could play the Texas Rangers every day?

...The Twins lost the Sunday Rangers game 1-0 with a measly 3 hits. This was the fourth time the Twins have lost a 1-0 game. This was the second time this season that the Twins have scored 12-or-more runs in their previous game only to be shutout in the next game. Ick.

That’s all folks. Check back soon for more fun Twins facts!

Minnesota Twins Gossip

My boss has a friend that gets insider information from the Minnesota Twins organization and the last time he went to lunch with his buddy I asked him to try and get me some juicy Twins gossip for my Minnesota Twins blog. Well, here is what he got me…it’s not all that juicy, but the source is truly an insider and my guess is he is careful about what he says.

Number 1: Carlos Gomez has got to start hitting better, Gardy is not happy with Gomez speed alone. He told Gomez very sternly to step it up last week.

Number 2: Twins expected Francisco Liriano to suck. Sure the media said he was throwing well and he said he was feeling great, but Joe Vavra and Twins coaching team knew Liriano was going to have a terrible year and they are not sure if he will ever be a star MLB pitcher.

Number 3: Denard Span doesn’t know how to play baseball. Twins coaches are irked because he misses signs and screws up the basics of baseball.

Number 4: Delmon Young has a posse wherever he goes and it irritates Ron Gardenhire and several other star Minnesota Twins players. Young thinks he’s more or a rap star than an outfielder.

Who will be Center Field for the Minnesota Twins

I think every major league baseball team needs an off season cover story and the Minnesota Twins have several. First of all, will Johan Santana stay or go and second who will fill the spot at center field now that Torii Hunter moved to the west coast.

The Twins have a couple of options at center field . . .Michael Cuddyer just signed a pricey contract and Gardy may slide him over to center field and try to get as much out of him as we can or Craig Monroe would like to point out that he has 77 big-league games at the position as well or perhaps the Twins will fill the hole with youngster Delmon Young – heck, let’s just put Joe Mauer out there for fun. It will be an interesting Twins Spring Training year with so many round players and square holes that need to be filled.

Put me in coach, I’m ready to play!

Big Move by Twins

Twins general manager Bill Smith made his first big move (of many I am sure) on Wednesday. The Twins dealt the Tampa Bay Devil Rays right-handed pitcher Matt Garza, shortstop Jason Bartlett and minor league pitcher Eduardo Morlan in exchange for outfielder Delmon Young, shortstop Brendan Harris and minor league outfielder Jason Pridie.

"Coming into the offseason it was critical that we improve our offense. We certainly lost a piece last week with Torii (Hunter) going to Anaheim," Smith said. "For the last month we've been discussing this deal, and (Young) was the bat out there that we felt was the best for this club.

This Twins fan hopes Young turns out to better than Torii so all of the whining Twins fans that thought Torii hung the moon will shut up and move on. Young finished second in the American League rookie of the year voting after appearing in all 162 games. He batted .288 with 13 home runs, 38 doubles, 93 runs batted in, a .316 on-base percentage. Young will be under the Twins' contractual control through 2012.