Cole DeVries, Amateur Mall Historian and Other Twins Fast Facts
by RandBall's Stu on May 25, 2012 8:00 AM EDT
There was a fair amount of turnover on the Twins roster in the off-season. Six weeks into the season, the upheaval just keeps on upheaving (not a word). Even those who obsessively follow the Twins and their minor-league affiliates could be forgiven for tuning into a game and going, "What? Who?" Twinkie Town, as always, is here to help, with these interesting bits of info on the new members of your favorite baseball team.
DID YOU KNOW? Walters is the first adult to go by P.J. since the actress P.J. Soles (Stripes, Rock 'n Roll High School).
DID YOU KNOW? DeVries, an Eden Prairie native, wrote what is considered the definitive history of Eden Prairie Center ("The Baskin-Robbins Only Had 22 Flavors, and Three of Them Were Vanilla") as his college thesis, and knows the secret handshake that will get you a free pair of khakis at the Gap.
DID YOU KNOW? You may know that Komatsu's Twitter handle, @Komobeatz, refers to his side project of crafting hip-hop/electronic instrumentals. But you probably didn't know that his other Twitter handle, @Komocheez, is all about his true love: taking Instagram pictures of Cheez Whiz cheese product.
DID YOU KNOW? Diamond doesn't consider the Laff-A-Lympics to be a part of the Scooby Doo canon. Don't even ask him about the Scrappy Doo episodes. He'll just get up and walk away.
DID YOU KNOW? He's not real. You can't prove it, and neither can I. He's probably Anthony Slama, and this is how he was finally able to get another shot in the bigs.
DID YOU KNOW? His error on Wednesday night was deemed an 8 on the 1-10 Scale of Absolute Delmons, with 1 being only barely Delmon-esque, and 10 being an error that results in a game-winning RBI, mascot-on-mascot violence, and post-game anti-Semitic slurs.
DID YOU KNOW? His beard's debut album, Skyline Chili, was called "a harrowing journey into the depths of a human soul, and a nice discussion of facing National League vs. American League hitters" by Rolling Stone. The single, "Pine Tar Brown (Song for Joey Votto)," reached #37 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart.
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White Sox 11, Twins 8: Everybody Hits, Nobody Pitches, Chicago Does Slightly Better In Both
by Jesse on May 25, 2012 1:31 AM EDT
in Game Recaps
Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau combined for three home runs, but Cole DeVries allowed three. The Twins tagged White Sox starter Philip Humber for five runs, but Chicago tagged DeVries for six. Minnesta added three more runs against the Chicago 'pen, but the Twins' pen was touched for five.
Cole DeVries, in spite of allowing six runs in five plus innings, actually did a few things right. He only allowed a single walk, and in spite of all those home runs he only gave up six hits. Two of those six hits were the back-to-back homers that led off the sixth which resulted in him getting pulled. Of course Brian Duensing then proceeded to load the bases and allow a grand slam, putting to bed any realistic chance at a win the Twins may have had.
Forgetting the errors, forgetting DeVries being unable to make a few pitches when he needed to, forgetting the disappointing performance from the bullpen, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out a few of the good things about today's game.
- Joe Mauer homered, you guys. In the last six games he's raised his average from .265 to .301, his OBP from .379 to .409, and his slugging from .360 to .408. This month alone, Mauer has walked 17 times and struck out just 8.
- Justin Morneau's two homers today were impressive, particularly the first one: straight away center field. I'm convinced that if center field was 450 feet away, Morneau still would have cleared it by 10 feet. Of course I haven't seen the distance on that home run. It was just awesome, that's what I'm trying to tell you.
- All three of Justin's hits went for extra bases today, as he also added a double to his season resume.
- Jeff Gray didn't allow a run? That's good, right?
Defense
Game 44: Twins @ White Sox
by Jesse on May 24, 2012 6:05 PM EDT
in Game Threads
In spite of his perfect game in his second start of the season, Humber's had a pretty mediocre year. Outside of that start he's allowed 24 runs in 31.2 innings, which is simply terrible. He's not as good as he was on that perfect day, nor anywhere near it, but he's probably not as bad as he's been the rest of the year, either. Although maybe he is which is why he's bounced around so much. Let's hope he has another terrible game tonight.
Cole DeVries is so new he doesn't even have a picture yet. Here's hoping for more magic from our triple-A starters.
Twins
Span, CF
Revere, RF
Mauer, DH
Willingham, LF
Morneau, 1B
Dozier, SS
Casilla, 2B
Butera, C
Carroll, 3B
De Aza, CF
Beckham, 2B
Dunn, DH
Konerko, 1B
Rios, RF
Pierzynski, C
Viciedo, LF
Ramirez, SS
Hudson, 3B
Trevor Plouffe's BABIP
.153 for the year.
(via Fan Graphs)
Reviewing Mock Drafts: Who Will the Twins Take 2nd overall?
The overwhelming majority is predicting Byron Buxton. I'd rather go with Gausman or Zunino, but that's just me.
How Much Do the Twins Have to Spend On the 2012 Draft?
by Jesse on May 24, 2012 9:01 AM EDT
in Draft Coverage
Last Friday, Baseball America posted an interesting article which outlined baseball's new "draft budget" system. For the uninitiated, the system essentially sets a limit on how much each team should be spending on each pick they have through the first ten rounds of the draft. Each team can divvy up their allowed budget however they choose through the first ten rounds provided they stay under their allotted total, but being unable to sign a pick loses a team the allocation for that slot and, this is where it will get interesting, going over the total budget will lose the organization draft picks in the future.
The Twins have the most money to spend on their draft picks in the first ten rounds than any other team in baseball. In part this is because of the number of selections they have, but it's also because they own the second overall pick. That second pick is huge. Coming in at 14th on the overall allotted budget list is St. Louis, who have just as many Top 100 picks as the Twins but have $3.2 million less to spend because their first selection is at 19. Every other slot they have in the Top 100 is higher than Minnesota's (their second pick is higher than our second pick, their third is higher than our third, etc).
Coming in last in budget allowed is the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. They don't pick until 114 and have roughly $1.65 million to spend through their first ten rounds. I hope those free agents were worth it.
Here's what the Twins are allocated to spend through their first ten rounds.
| Pick | Budget |
| 2 | $6,200,000 |
| 32 | $1,550,000 |
| 43 | $1,227,000 |
| 63 | $818,500 |
| 72 | $712,600 |
| 97 | $490,400 |
| 130 | $356,700 |
| 160 | $267,100 |
| 190 | $200,000 |
| 220 | $150,000 |
| 250 | $140,100 |
| 280 | $130,800 |
| 310 | $125,000 |
White Sox 6, Twins 0: Chris Sale Stymies Minnesota's Offense
by fischean on May 24, 2012 3:24 AM EDT
in Game Recaps
The Minnesota Twins certainly won't be sweeping this series with the Chicago White Sox, as they dropped game two of the series 6-0. Chris Sale, the young lefty, managed to keep the Twins bats pretty much silent as they only managed 2 hits in Sale's 7 innings pitched. He also only walked 2 and was able to strike 6 batters out, and only threw 97 pitches in his outing. That is sadly most of the Twins offense for the night, though they did manage two hits off former teammate Jesse Crain, but would wind up scoring no runs.
As far as pitching went for Minnesota tonight, Scott Diamond made his fourth start, and didn't manage to have as good of a game as he'd had in his previous starts. He only went 6 innings, giving up 9 hits, 5 runs (although, only two of them were earned), and one walk. He did manage to strike out four batters as well. Alex Burnett came on in relief of Diamond and gave up one hit and the other run of the evening. Francisco Liriano came in in the 9th to finish the game and managed to keep his streak of scoreless relief innings intact. After giving up no hits, but walking one, he's now at 3 2/3 scoreless relief innings (though they have not come without a little drama at times).
The rest of the recap after the jump...
Game 43: Minnesota Twins @ Chicago White Sox
by fischean on May 23, 2012 7:00 PM EDT
in Game Threads
Lineups and notes after the jump.
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