The Twins front office showed off some excellent negotiating skills to retain and extend outfielder Byron Buxton, keeping the brilliant but often injured Buxton in Minnesota on a seven-year, $100 million deal. Frankly, it’s a steal of a deal for the Twins who agreed to a number of incentives on paper that could pay Buxton... Continue Reading »

A week ago there was optimism. The Twins had taken two of three games from the Cleveland Indians, improved to 10 games under .500, moved as high as third place in the division, and facing a new month of games against division rivals, it appeared that maybe, just maybe, the Twins were ready to turn... Continue Reading »

Forty years ago celebrated journalist, David Halberstam, put pen to paper (type to paper?) and produced a seminal work on the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers called “The Breaks of the Game,” a book that focused on a season with the Blazers after they won the championship in 1977. I can still see it: A strong... Continue Reading »

Houston Astros pitcher, Framber Valdez, the left-handed pitcher who tossed five scoreless innings against the Twins in last year’s postsason, was back on the mound to face them on Sunday. What’s his secret? I’m not exactly sure. He’s certainly not a power pitcher, but whatever he’s throwing, he sure knows how to keep the Twins... Continue Reading »

There was a lot of talk about “momentum” after the Twins’ thrilling, come from behind win over Aroldis Chapman and the New York Yankees Thursday night. Losing 5-3 going into the bottom of the ninth, the Twins hit back-to-back two-run home runs to first tie the game and then won it in walk-off fashion, 7-5.... Continue Reading »

After Matt Shoemaker made the worst start in Twins history on Friday — ultimately resulting in a 14-5 loss — Jose Berrios got the Twins back on track Saturday with a 5-4 win, then the Twins edged the Royals again Sunday, 2-1, to split the four-game series. Sunday’s win wasn’t the most productive affair —... Continue Reading »

The four-game winning streak and the sweep of the Baltimore Orioles got me fired up, thinking that the Twins were beginning to work their way out of a deep hole and were on to better times. And then they went and dropped two of three games (at home no less) to the Kansas City Royals,... Continue Reading »

There was a lot of talk about momentum after the Twins’ 8-3 win over the Baltimore Orioles on Monday, and that just might mean this team — a team largely unchanged from winning seasons in 2019 and 2020 — is about to put two months of terrible baseball behind it and go on a little... Continue Reading »

I was all prepared to write that the Twins are starting to turn things around, and then they went and lost in extra innings again to the Cleveland Indians on Saturday. The Tribe gave Shane Bieber a 3-0 lead, but the Twins came back against one of baseball’s best pitchers to tie the game. But... Continue Reading »