BYRON BUXTON – Page 9 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Twins President Sees Bests Yet to Come

Posted on May 2, 2023 by David Shama

Twins president Dave St. Peter thinks the best is yet to come for his team and star DH Byron Buxton.

The Twins are in first place in the American League Central Division with a 17-12 record. They are three games ahead of the second place and defending division champion Guardians. They are already nine games in front of the fourth place White Sox who host the Twins for a series starting tonight in Chicago.

St. Peter was hoping for a fast start to the season and got one. “But I think we have our best baseball ahead of us. I am really excited about the makeup of this team and…the way it was constructed. I think it’s set up for a lot of not just regular season success but post season success. The best is yet to come.

“…We’re into May here now. You normally want to get to about 40-50 games (into the season) and then you’ll have a better sense of what type of team you have. So we got a little ways to go to get there but I like how we’re tracking.”

Byron Buxton has produced timely hitting, including Sunday when his three-run home run started a seven run third inning for the Twins in a win against the Royals. “I think his best is still yet to come,” St. Peter said. “I think he’s just scratching the surface. He’s such a talented athlete and I think he’s really turning into being a pretty gifted hitter.”

Buxton is 29 and in his ninth season with the club but he’s only been able to tease his potential because of so many injuries. Only once has “Buck” been able to play in more than 92 games. Caution surrounds the Twins’ management of him. Held back for only designated hitting so far, warmer weather and surer footing could prompt occasionally using his fielding gifts in center field.

Buxton’s athleticism on the bases has helped the Twins, too, but health concerns seem likely to limit his stolen base attempts. “…I am not sure stolen bases are ever going to be a big part of Byron’s game, in my opinion,” St. Peter said.

The Twins’ team batting average of .237 ranks seventh in the 15-team American League. The club is in a fourth place tie for home runs with 38 and is eighth in runs scored at 134. Minnesota is a plus 26 in runs over their opponents. Injuries have at time caused some of the team’s better hitters to miss games and the statistics may indicate the Twins can produce better offensively as the season progresses.

The Twins’ pitching depth will be tested in the coming weeks with injuries sidelining starters Tyler Mahle and Kenta Maeda. Mahle will be out about four weeks with expectations Maeda will return sooner.

Mahle has a a posterior impingement and a flexor pronator strain in his right arm. Maeda has a right triceps strain.

Mahle is 1-2 with a 3:16 ERA and his regular spot in the rotation will be taken tomorrow night in Chicago by Louie Varland. Bailey Ober started in place of Maeda on Saturday and gave up four hits in 5.1 innings in a game the Twins went on to lose. Maeda, who missed all of last season following Tommy John surgery, has struggled in 2023 with a 0-4 record and 9.00 ERA. Mahle knows past frustration, too, after missing a number of starts last season because of a shoulder injury.

The Twins’ ERA of .348 is fourth best in the American League. Nobody has been better for Minnesota than Sonny Gray, 4-0 with a 0.77 ERA. “His baseball acumen is through the charts,” St. Peter said. “He understands the hitters. He is obviously executing his pitches. So I don’t think anybody inside the Twins is surprised that Sonny Gray is having success. He has obviously been unbelievably dominant. …”

St. Peter said the Twins don’t think in terms of one pitcher being the staff ace or stopper. He believes Joe Ryan and Pablo Lopez, along with Gray, are capable of being the starter in the opening game of a playoff series.

Good news for the Twins regarding injuries is that utility player Kyle Farmer could return to the team later this week, or for sure when the Twins start their next homestand May 9. Farmer was hit in the face by a pitch April 12 and sidelined until recently but is rehabbing at AAA St. Paul.

Unusually cool weather this spring has hurt Twins home attendance. Minnesota ranks No. 22 of 30 teams averaging 18,492, per ESPN.com. “It’s been a tough April,” St. Peter said.

Dave St. Peter photo courtesy of Minnesota Twins.

Because Target Field is located on a small site, the likelihood is about zero a roof would ever be added. But St. Peter points out Target Field is considered one of the best ballpark experiences in the country. He contrasted the ballpark and Minneapolis weather with iconic Wrigley Field and Chicago. “Nobody talks about putting a roof on Wrigley Field. They’ve dealt with all the same weather issues we’ve dealt with this April.”

Feedback has been positive among Twins fans regarding MLB’s rule changes that include a pitch timer. Shorter games and more action are positive trends for the Twins and other teams.

Fans are also approving of the club’s new uniform offerings. “The new brand look is doing very well at retail,” St. Peter said. “Very pleased and I agree…they do look fantastic. The most popular jersey is the Twin Cities jersey.”

Lou Nanne on the Minnesota Wild

Lou Nanne, the revered hockey authority who played for the North Stars and also served as GM and president during a long run with Minnesota’s first NHL franchise, believes the Wild is better than the Stars team that won last week’s Stanley Cup opening playoff series in six games. Stars goalie Jake Oettinger and teammates limited the Wild’s scoring including flagship performer Kirill Kaprizov who often had two or three defenders around him. It didn’t help, either, that Minnesota’s experienced center Joel Eriksson Ek played in only one game because of a lower body injury.

Why does Nanne consider the Wild better than Dallas? “I think they got a deeper team. I think they have more intensity, more grit. They have players that can play it (style) anyway you want. Unfortunately, for them their best players didn’t get on the scoreboard. Coming into the playoffs like Kaprizov had been out 14 games. Erickson-Ek was missing. …(Face) a hot goal tender in those playoff series, that team could win.”

Nanne praised rookie shutdown defenseman Brock Faber who in the month of April played for the Golden Gophers in the Frozen Four and then in two regular season and five playoff games for the Wild. Faber was traded to Minnesota by the Kings last year after Los Angeles had drafted him in 2020. Not only does it look like Faber will produce for the Wild for a long time, but he has leadership qualities that could one day result in being a captain of the team.

Nanne won’t make suggestions as to what GM Bill Guerin should do to improve the Wild during the offseason. “I have no idea. I am not going to be saying what changes they have to make. That’s up to Guerin and his staff. I did that for long enough. Everybody can second guess, have their opinions, but it’s going to be up to the brass to decide.”

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Buxton Flashes Early Season MVP Skill

Posted on April 2, 2023April 2, 2023 by David Shama

The Twins are 2-0 this season because of superb pitching, timely defense and (no surprise) Byron Buxton playing like the team (and perhaps American League) MVP.

The team has won two American League Central Division games in Kansas City against the Royals by identical scores of 2-0. Buxton, the Twins’ designated hitter, has scored three of the team’s four runs and “pushed the envelope” with his base running, per manager Rocco Baldelli.

In Minnesota’s opening series win Thursday he stretched an outfield drive into a triple and scored the team’s first run. Yesterday he scored both runs.

Buxton set up Minnesota’s second run in the sixth inning Saturday by doing what few others can. First he advanced from second to third base on a ground ball hit by Jose Miranda to the shortstop. Then he scored on a short outfield fly ball off the bat of Kyle Farmer, running 30.1 feet per second, according to Twins TV analyst Glen Perkins. No wonder after the game, Baldelli said approvingly that Buxton “pushed the envelope” on the bases.

Buxton has a single, double and triple in his first two games. He is two home runs short of hitting 100 in his career.

In Buxton’s early seasons with the Twins he didn’t show a lot of power but that’s changed. In 92 games and 340 at bats last season he hit 28 homers. At 29 years old he has the potential this season to become the fourth hitter in franchise history to join the 40 home run club (the others are Brian Dozier, Harmon Killebrew and Roy Sievers). If Buxton could send 50 over the fence, he would break Killebrew’s single season club record of 49.

Potential is practically Buxton’s middle name. His career has been one characterized by do-everything talent in fielding, throwing, hitting and base running but also being sidelined by more injuries and missed time than any Twins star ever. Only once in his nine-year career has he played in over 100 games.

For now, the Twins are trying to protect Buxton’s health by not playing him in the outfield where diving for fly balls or crashing into walls to save potential home runs can be hazardous to the uber-talented center fielder. The first two games of the season have shown Buxton doesn’t need a glove to be the team MVP.

Worth Noting

Sports Illustrated’s baseball issue has the Twins finishing second in the division with a 87-75 record, a game behind the Guardians. However, the magazine predicts Minnesota defeats Cleveland in the postseason before losing to the Astros. The World Series forecast has the Yankees beating the Padres.

Weather allowing, the Twins will face an early season test against the Astros in a three-game series in Minneapolis starting Thursday. Minnesota is starting the season against two of baseball’s weakest teams in the Royals and Marlins (Monday-Wednesday in Miami).

Sports Illustrated said the Twins “spent more money on big league free agents this winter ($241 million) than the rest of the division combined ($176.75 million).”

This is Dick Bremer’s 40^th season of Twins broadcasts. The team’s TV play-by-play man will work games with a rotation of four analysts, all Twins alumni: Justin Morneau, Roy Smalley, LaTroy Hawkins and Glen Perkins.

New Timberwolves owner Marc Lore spoke about entrepreneurship at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management Friday.

Legendary former college football coach Lou Holtz, who coached the Gophers in 1984 and 1985, was just inducted into the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, the nonprofit educational organization that honors the achievements of outstanding individuals and encourages youth to pursue their ambitions through higher education.

For over 75 years the Horatio Alger Award has been awarded “to esteemed individuals who have succeeded despite facing adversities, and who have remained committed to education and charitable efforts in their communities.” Holtz, the son of a bus driver during the Great Depression, got his first job at nine-years-old as a paper boy and went to become one of college football’s most famous coaches including at Notre Dame where he won a national championship.

Two days after the football Golden Gophers open at home on August 31 against Nebraska, the North Dakota State Bison will take on Eastern Washington in the first college football game ever at U.S. Bank Stadium. Tickets for the September 2 game went on sale Friday.

NDSU has nearly 15,000 alumni in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and 26,000 across the state of Minnesota. The Bison drew 34,544 fans to their 2019 season opener against Butler at Target Field. North Dakota State claims about 26,000 alums in Minnesota, including 15 in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

St. Thomas, with the nation’s longest home game winning streak at 26, opens its season September 2 against Black Hills State. The Pioneer league champion Tommies also have nonconference games September 9 at South Dakota and September 16 at Harvard.

A college basketball source told Sports Headliners coveted point guard Andrew Rohde, transferring from St. Thomas, may enroll at Gonzaga.

The Twin Cities and state of Minnesota have long ranked at or near the top for most interest per capita in fantasy football. That obsession in speculating how players and teams preform will carry over if legalized sports wagering is enacted in the state. With about six weeks to the close of the current state legislative session, a bill approving sports betting could pass.

Minnesota native Bill Herzog was a basketball official for 63 years including Big Ten games from 1976 until 1988. Herzog, a Florida resident for 30 years now, worked high school games in that state until 2019. Sports Headliners asked his opinion awhile ago of college basketball officiating this year.

“In general, I think the officiating I have seen this year has been very good,” Herzog said via email. “As an ex official, I look to see if they are using proper floor mechanics and very seldom do I see them out of position. This is important because if you are not in proper position, you don’t have a very good chance to make the right call.

“There are still those marginal calls that can always be questioned. That’s basketball and those calls were there 40 years ago and will always be a part of the game. But in general, I think the officiating that I have seen would grade out at A-. …

“One thing has been very evident this year is that I have not seen many, if not any, overweight officials. That’s a good thing and in general the total staff seems to be young and vibrant, which was not the case when I was working where officials just seemed to hang on forever.”

College officials can make their livelihoods from officiating over a five- month period, working several games per week. Herzog’s understanding is the Big Ten pays $4,000 per game. “Seems like a lot but they have to pay their own travel, hotel and meals with that fee,” Herzog wrote. “I am assuming that the other major conferences pay the same.”

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Twins Boss Talks Shortstops & More

Posted on December 18, 2022December 18, 2022 by David Shama

The Twins have a TBD situation at shortstop after free agent Carlos Correa said no to a future in Minnesota and accepted a reported 13-year, $350 million deal with the Giants. In an interview with Sports Headliners after the Correa bid fell through, Derek Falvey talked what’s next at the position and a lot more including his view about the team’s outlook for 2023.

The offseason started with Correa, Trea Turner, Xander Bogaerts and Dansby Swanson being the most coveted free agent shortstops in MLB. Now all four are gone, with the latest news that Swanson is headed to the Cubs on a reported seven-year, $177 million deal.

The Twins were interested in Swanson who had a proven resume in the field and at bat with the Braves. ”…We’ve maintained contact with his representatives and a number of other free agents, and we have to, and we should,” said Falvey, the Twins’ chief baseball officer. “So, I expect we’ll continue to have those conversations over the next few weeks as well.”

Sports Headliners can confirm the Twins offered Correa $285 million, reportedly for 10 years. Would the Twins use at least a portion of what was targeted for Correa on other talent outside the organization?

“It’s definitely something that we’re open to,” Falvey said. “…I think the baseline here is that the Pohlads (ownership group) have continued to support investment in this team, and if we find the right path and the right avenue to acquire a free agent at those dollars…we have the ability to do so. There are paths, though, where we aren’t spending all of that money. We’re not just going to spend it to spend it. …”

One path, at least for the short-term, is making Kyle Farmer the opening day shortstop. Farmer, 32, was acquired in a November trade as “insurance” for the club. He played in 145 games for the Reds last season, hitting .255 with 78 RBI and he is a versatile player in the field who has even been a catcher.

Falvey describes Farmer as “a really good stabilizing force at the position” while knowing the team has other options including within the organization where the shadow of Royce Lewis looms large. The former No. 1 draft choice got hurt last season while playing center field and is rehabbing from ACL surgery.

Falvey said Lewis’ recovery is going fine and all are hopeful he can be on a baseball field next summer. And at shortstop. “That’s what he views himself to be,” Falvey said. “(However,) he will play anywhere. He’s said that. He said, ‘Listen, you just give me a location on the field, and I’ll play.’

“He’s such a good athlete. He was an outfielder, some in high school. He played second and third base in high school as well. This guy has the type of athleticism that’s going to translate to any position. We need him to play but we do believe that he can play shortstop.”

Regarding Correa’s final decision, Falvey said the Twins made their best offer based on what was comfortable for them. Correa’s deal with the Giants takes him through age 41, a time when his skills might not even allow him to play. “I think for us, it wasn’t something we were in the conversation to do,” Falvey said about the length of contract.

Did Minnesota finish second in the sweepstakes for the team’s 2022 MVP? “That’s a good question,” Falvey said. “I’ll never know. You know, I’m guessing we did but I can’t say I know that for sure. No way to know.”

Going into the offseason the Twins’ highest priorities were shortstop and catcher. Now they have signed catcher Christian Vazquez to a three-year contract worth $30 million. Vazquez, 32, split last season between the Red Sox and Astros, hitting .274 while finishing tied for first in the American League among catchers in throwing out base runners (16). He tied for fourth among big league catchers with 11 defensive runs saved (per FanGraphs).

Falvey, GM Thad Levine, manager Rocco Baldelli and catching coach Hank Conger interviewed Vazquez via zoom before signing him. They were impressed as he talked baseball and what a catcher does including how to work with young pitchers. “We had heard good things, but it’s nothing like actually hearing it from the player himself,” Falvey said. “What he was talking about (included)…how to navigate a game, how to control the running game, how to kind of pace some young pitchers all the way through whether we have a veteran guy or guys that just showed up in the big leagues looking. …I think he’s going to be a huge value-add for us.”

Falvey believes Vazquez will catch about 60 percent of the time, with Ryan Jeffers handling the other 40 percent of the 2023 season. The Twins’ boss said the catchers will work with a pitching staff he is optimistic about, pointing out it’s been some time since the club will begin a season with as many proven starting pitchers as they have in Sonny Gray, Kenta Maeda, Tyler Mahle, Bailey Ober and Joe Ryan.

Falvey likes the bullpen, too, referring to Jhoan Duran “as one of the best relievers in the game.” Jorge Lopez can be a closer, too. Relievers Falvey likes earlier in games include Griffin Jax and Caleb Thielbar. “…I would tell you that from a backend bullpen standpoint, I think we actually have one of the better, better groups that we’ve had in a long time,” Falvey said.

The Twins signed free agent slugging outfielder Joey Gallo after last week’s interview with Falvey. Able to play all three outfield positions, Gallo fits in with a versatile roster the Twins value. Players like AL batting champ Luis Arraez, Nick Gordon and Jose Miranda can play in multiple spots.

The Twins were in first place in the Central Division much of last season until fading in September when injuries did them in. Falvey has respect for division rivals including the Guardians who were champions last season and the White Sox who could be favored in 2023. “But we feel this is a division that we can compete in, no matter what the current construct of our roster looks like. Because of the depth we have, because of the young players we have. Guys are going to need to step up in order to do so but I feel like we’re really in a good place for that.”

Players like center fielder Byron Buxton, first baseman-outfielder Alex Kirilloff and others who were injured last year are recovering in the offseason. The collective health of the team will determine a lot about whether, and how much, the Twins can improve on last season’s 78-84 record.

Falvey said tell him on April 1 what kind of injury run the team will have, and he can make an accurate prediction. “I can probably tell you where we’re gonna land.”

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