Twinkie Town, a Minnesota Twins community

The Fort Myers Miracle fall in season opener as Scott Baker rehab start goes only 11 pitches.

First time coming across Twinkie Town surprisingly, but a huge passion of mine is photographing Twins games. I've attended 135 out of the 166 total Twins games played at Target Field and I've photographed probably nearly 100 of them in one way or another. You can either click the link above to go to my Flickr sets or use this link below to go to my website: http://benckphotos.com/ Photos are not for sale. They are simply for viewing. I hope to photograph many more games again this season. Thanks for looking.

I thought a lot about the 2011 Minnesota Twins this week, and I just can’t consider them a failure. Maybe I’m a "stadium half-full" kind of guy. One thing I did learn about the Twins last year is that when they aren’t in playoff contention they can disappear off the face of the earth. I think Casey Anthony was more popular in Minnesota last summer. They posted the worst record in the American League (63-99), and second worst in the majors. Thirty-two games out of first, just one year after winning the central division by six games. So why wasn’t this a failure? Injuries to the middle of their lineup led to Justin Morneau (69 games), and Joe Mauer (82 games) each playing about half a season. In fact, only three players appeared in more than 100 games, Danny Valencia, Michael Cuddyer, and Ben Revere.

This would spell certain doom for the Twins franchise if Morneau indeed decides that the ailment is too much for him to keep playing. Obviously, you hopes for the best of health for him, but on the business side they would be losing a ton of production for a team that doesn’t produce a ton of offense. Over the course of his nine-year career, Morneau has hit .281/.353/.499 and was the AL MVP in 2006 when he hit .321 with 34 home runs and 130 RBI.

Seriously though, this is a silly question because we all know that Scott Boras is a agent. But, here are two names linked to the Twins as far as Backup Catcher is concerned. They could go cheaply and Scott knows it. They are Jason Varitek, and Ivan Rodriguez. Jesse might have something on this development later today, for now here is the original source.

According to SBNation's own Baseball Nation, Wilson Ramos is still alive. There is no word on if there is a ransom though. Personally, I think this might be a case of terror against the United States and Ramos is a good target because he plays for a team based in our nation's capital. Hopefully there is much less to this story, this is that speculation on my part, and he remains in good condition.

Ok, this might be crazy given that Less Cowbell accused me of taking drugs in a recent fanshot comments section. However it might make sense to go after Lineceum for two years plus it makes Gardy's life a lot easier. Imagine the following pitching rotation for the Twins: 1. Tim Lineceum 2. Carl Pavano 3. Scott Baker 4. Francisco Liriano 5. Nick Blackburn This deal works for the Twins because Liam Hendriks can spend 2012 in Triple A and he and Kyle Gibson can replace both Liriano and Pavano in the 2013 rotation. Since the Giants will want a power bat, I would send them Aaron Hicks and Danny Valencia.

Rays exercise his option. Translation, I don't think he will be traded. But I could be wrong.

No discussion of the 1991 World Series should exclude Game six. With that in mind, meet Joe Reis. All he did 20 years ago is catch Kirby Puckett's game winning home run. Granted the ball is missing, but Joe got what he wanted which was a picture with Puckett and his kids.

At least that is the question posed to Royals fans at SB Nation site Royals Review. The premise goes something like this: Both North and South Dakota unite to form their own nation and take Minnesota with them. As a result the new nation of Dakotasota loses the Twins, and all current contracts are guaranteed meaning that someone would be on the hook for $23 million owed to Mauer through the 2018 season.