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2012 MLB Team Preview: Minnesota Twins

Posted by on 26 March 2012, 9:11 pm

Minnesota Twins logo.

The Minnesota Twins plunged to the bottom of the AL Central in 2011 finishing with a 63-99 record, which was the second worst in baseball.

In 2010, the Twins won 94 games and captured their second-straight American League Central title, which is why last season’s fall, came unexpectedly.

It just seemed like everything in Minnesota went wrong at the right times last season, as hampering injuries were ramped.

So, now the 2012 million-dollar question is whether the Twins can get back to being a contender in the AL Central again.

Let’s check it out…

THE POSITIVES:

The Twins seemed to have hit rock bottom, and as the saying goes the only place to go is up, as I don’t see the Twins losing 99 games again in 2012. This team won six divisional title in the past ten years, and all under skipper Ron Gardenhire. And if anyone knows what worked, or what is not working it should be Gardenhire but it seems like the Twins were ok with chalking things up to injuries last season.

Justin Morneau is an all-around great baseball player and with him playing any team would improve. The 2006 MVP and four-time All-Star can rake, as over his career he averages 29 homers and 113 RBIs a season, which includes the last two seasons where he spent more time on the DL than at the plate. Morneau has suffered his three concussions, but the big blow happened in 2010 and he missed half the season. Morneau admittedly is still suffering from symptoms but as of now have been better but the 2010 blow came back to haunt him last season, as he was on the DL for over 90 games. Morneau could be used as a permanent DH, as his bat is one of the best in the Majors and the Twins need all the help they can get. I have a feeling that Morneau will still see time at first-base, which I think is reckless because the odds of him winding up back on the DL become that much higher. I like Morneau and he is a superstar when healthy, as he blows Mauer out of the water. Still, the Canadian-born Morneau was a hockey fanatic growing up so he probably took hits on the ice well before his baseball playing days, which might be why he can’t shake the the symptoms.

THE NEGATIVES:  Continue reading ‘2012 MLB Team Preview: Minnesota Twins’ »

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2010 Baseball Bloggers Alliance Announces Connie Mack Award Winners

Posted by on 17 October 2010, 1:39 am

Ron Washington of the Texas Rangers and Bud Black of the San Diego Padres were named winners of the Connie Mack Award by the Baseball Bloggers Alliance, noting them as the best managers in their respective leagues for 2010.

Washington, who weathered a drug controversy in spring training, led Texas to their fifth divisional title since 1994 and their first since 1999. While the voting was based on his regular season accomplishments, Washington also guided his team to their first ever postseason series victory when they eliminated the Tampa Bay Rays in five games in the American League Divisional Series.

Washington received ten first place votes in route to accumulating 74 total points. He edged out Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire, who received 67 points.

In the National League, Black’s guidance of a Padres team almost universally expected to finish last to first place most of the summer helped him edge Dusty Baker of the Cincinnati Reds by the slimmest of margins. The fact that the Padres fell just short of the playoffs while the Reds won the NL Central helped lead to the tight race. Black garnered nine first place selections and 53 total points to Baker’s seven first place nods and 51 total points.

The complete voting results are as follows (first place votes in parenthesis):

American League

Ron Washington, Texas (10) 74
Ron Gardenhire, Minnesota (7) 67
Joe Maddon, Tampa Bay (4) 35
Terry Francona, Boston (3) 20
Cito Gaston, Toronto 9
Buck Showalter, Baltimore 9
Joe Girardi, New York 2

National League

Bud Black, San Diego (9) 53
Dusty Baker, Cincinnati (7) 51
Bobby Cox, Atlanta (2) 33
Bruce Bochy, San Francisco (3) 29
Charlie Manuel, Philadelphia (1) 27
Brad Mills, Houston 3
Mike Quade, Chicago 2

The Baseball Bloggers Alliance was formed in the fall of 2009 to encourage cooperation and collaboration between baseball bloggers of all major league teams as well as those that follow baseball more generally. As of this writing, the organization consists of 224 blogs spanning all 30 major league squads as well as general baseball writing.

The BBA is organized under a similar structure as the Baseball Writers of America, where blogs that follow the same team are combined into “chapters” and only two votes from the chapter on an award are counted. The blog chapters that are focused on general baseball were allowed two votes as well, which they could use both on the same league or split between the two leagues.

Chapters generally followed one of two methods when casting their ballot. Either representatives of the chapter were given the ballots for voting or a “group ballot” was posted, accounting for both of their votes.  Ballots are posted on the respective blogs and tabulated on a 5-3-1 point scale for first, second and third.

This is an official press release from the Baseball Bloggers Alliance.

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Baseball Bloggers Alliance Predicts World Series Rematch

Posted by on 7 April 2010, 3:35 pm

Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 8 AM EDT, April 7, 2010


Baseball Bloggers Alliance Predicts World Series Rematch

The World Series will have a familiar look in October, according to the Baseball Bloggers Alliance.

For the first time, the membership of the BBA was polled for their preseason predictions, with the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies being the most common selections for World Series participants.  The Yankees received 36 votes to easily outpace Boston’s 18, while the Phillies’ 31 votes edged out St. Louis’s 24.  The rematch ends the same as last year, with New York being the choice of 20 of the 75 that cast ballots. Continue reading ‘Baseball Bloggers Alliance Predicts World Series Rematch’ »

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