Preps – Page 81 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Don’t Buy Into Twins Exhibition Record

Posted on March 31, 2017March 31, 2017 by David Shama

A notes column, with emphasis on the Twins who open their 2017 regular season at home on Monday against the Royals.

The Twins lost 103 games last year but have a 2017 winning record of 16-13 in spring training as the club prepares to head north. Does a team’s exhibition record mean anything?

“Zip, zero.”

Those are the words of former Twins catcher Tim Laudner who now works as an analyst on Fox Sports North. Laudner, who will work Twins pregame and postgame programs, told Sports Headliners spring training wins and losses are misleading because MLB teams split their rosters for same day games, schedule more home games than away and often use marginal big leaguers instead of regulars.

Before the Twins compiled a regular season record of 59 wins and 102 losses last year, the club was 19-11-2 in exhibition games. Two years ago Minnesota’s regular season record was 83-79 after being 13-16-3 in spring training.

Sports Illustrated’s March 27-April 3 issue included an extensive preview of all 30 MLB teams, and the publication predicts the Twins’ record will be 69-93. The forecast is a fourth place finish in the American League Central behind the Indians, Tigers and Royals, but ahead of the White Sox.

An anonymous scout quoted in the magazine is critical of the team’s starting pitching and warns that if injured closer Glen Perkins isn’t available, it’s a big problem for the Twins. “Well, they’re in big trouble anyway,” the scout said.

Max Kepler (photo courtesy of Minnesota Twins).

Looks like the Twins will have four new faces in their opening day lineup and batting order compared with a year ago—and one player, Miguel Sano, at a different position. It’s expected Jason Castro will be the catcher, with Jorge Polanco at shortstop, Max Kepler in right field and a yet to be determined player filling the Designated Hitter role when the Twins open the regular season. Sano is expected to play third base instead of right field.

The lineup for the opener last year was: Ervin Santana, pitcher; Kurt Suzuki, catcher; Joe Mauer, first base; Brian Dozier, second base; Eduardo Escobar, shortstop; Trevor Plouffe, third base; Eddie Rosario, left field; Byron Buxton, center fielder; Sano in right; and ByungHo Park at DH.

Many Twins players need to have better performances than last year for the club to make a major step forward, and near the top of any needs list is Mauer. He turns 34 next month and is coming off his lowest batting average in 13 years with the Twins. After hitting .261 in 2016 and .265 two years ago, the career .300 hitter is no longer assured of being No. 3 in batting order this season.

“There might be days against some left-handers that we might not see Joe in the lineup at all,” Laudner said. “Joe is getting a little long in the tooth. I am not going to say that Joe is a platoon player. Joe in the past has shown that he has done a really nice job of hitting left-handers. There’s going to be some tough decisions for (manager) Paul Molitor to make as to why he’s going to fit. Sometimes it might come down to the analytics, (and) sometimes it might come down to the gut instincts of…Molitor as to where he is going to bat in the order, or if he is going to be in the lineup at all.”

Laudner said Mauer still has “batting skills” and is capable of a much higher average this season than in the recent past. Whether he stages a comeback, Laundner said, is predicated on staying healthy. The last few years Mauer’s health chart has sometimes been as interesting as his hitting stats.

The Twins surprised yesterday by giving Park a minor league reassignment and opening up the DH role to what looks like a platoon plan with perhaps Robbie Grossman, Kennys Vargas and others. In spring training this year Park came to camp as a non-roster player but led the club in home runs with six and RBI with 13. The Twins decision makers reportedly want to have a roster of 13 pitchers, not 12, and that doomed Park for now, although he could be recalled later this spring.

Park, who will be 31 in May, had a difficult adjustment last year coming from his home in South Korea and trying to break into the big leagues with the Twins. Faced with a new culture, injuries and big league fast balls, Park hit just .191—although he did have nine home runs in his first 29 games.

Laudner predicted last year it would be a difficult adjustment. “I’ve played in Japan and that’s different than playing in the United States,” Laudner said referring to his owner international experience. …

Gary Trent Jr., the former Apple Valley star who played his 2016-2017 senior season for a school in northern California, scored seven points on 3 of 11 shooting Wednesday night in the McDonald’s All-American Game in Chicago. Trent, who will be a freshman at Duke in the fall, played 21 minutes for the West team that defeated the East, 109-107.

The website Casualhoya.com has been speculating about candidates for the Georgetown head basketball coaching vacancy. Minnesota’s Richard Pitino was included in a poll where 81 percent of voters said they didn’t want him as the Hoyas coach, while 19 percent did. …

ESPN will be televising 21 spring college football games. No, the Gophers game on April 15 at TCF Bank Stadium isn’t on the list. …

CollegeAD.com reported Monday the Gophers athletic department will be receiving more than $1 million as part of the NCAA’s one-time $200 million distribution to Division I schools in mid-April. Distributions are being made based on the number of athletic scholarships in place during the 2013-2014 school year. Schools with the largest athletic programs reportedly receive the largest amounts. The Gophers have a 23-teams program for men and women. …

The Wild’s Eric Staal played in his 1,000th NHL game on March 19 and will be honored in a pregame ceremony next Tuesday before Minnesota’s game against the Hurricanes at Xcel Energy Center.

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Gibson, Hughes to Hold Twins Fate

Posted on March 27, 2017March 27, 2017 by David Shama

Twins authority Roy Smalley believes his former team can win a dozen more games in 2017 than last season, and also be a fun club to watch, but he said it won’t happen without better pitching from starters Kyle Gibson and Phil Hughes.

Smalley played shortstop for the Twins for 10 seasons and now does analysis of the team on TV. He singled out veteran pitchers Gibson and Hughes when asked about the upcoming season and the likelihood for improvement. Minnesota was 59-103 in 2016. Gibson’s record last season was 6-11 with a 5.07 ERA. Injuries forced Hughes to miss much of the year and his record was 1-7 with a 5.95 ERA.

The Twins five-man rotation will be led by Ervin Santana, 7-11 with a 3.38 ERA a year ago. Santana is considered a No. 2 or No. 3 level starter but on the pitching-poor Twins, he is the stopper. Other starting pitchers for the rotation will be Gibson, Hughes and Hector Santiago, acquired in a trade with the Angels last season for Ricky Nolasco. He had a 3-6 record and 5.58 ERA record with Minnesota. The fifth starter is to be determined.

“Every team plays the way they pitch,” Smalley said. “The starting pitching is the most important thing on any team, so having not made any changes other than Hughes coming back (he didn’t pitch after June 9), the starting staff is virtually the same.

“You’re looking for Ervin Santana to be Santana. You’re looking for Phil Hughes to be better. You’re looking for Kyle Gibson to be better. If Hughes isn’t better and Gibson isn’t better…then it almost doesn’t matter what the other keys (for a good season) are.”

Gibson, who is 29 years old, was 11-11 with a 3.84 ERA in 2015. Hughes, 30, was 11-9 with a 3.40 ERA that year. Gibson’s best victories total with the Twins was 13-12 with a 4.47 ERA in 2014. The best Hughes has done was the same year, when he was 16-10 and had a 3.52 ERA.

“Gibson has got to be no longer a .500 pitcher,” Smalley said. “He can’t be 12 and 12 any more. His M.O. has been he will win 10 or 12 games, and in those games that he wins, his ERA is like 1.80 or something. And in the 10 or 12 games he loses, his ERA is 6. It’s been a Jekyll or Hyde kind of deal. He’s either really good or he’s out in the third inning.”

Smalley believes this season Gibson can “flip” several games that have been losses in prior years. “(A record of) 15-10 is not only doable but necessary for Kyle Gibson. I think he has to win 15 games, and Hughes has got to be a 14, 15 game winner for them (the Twins) to take a really big step.”

Smalley’s expectation is that the three leading winners in the rotation must win “between 40 and 45 games” for the Twins to make that improvement of winning a dozen or more games this season than last. Good relief pitching, defense and hitting will be important, but Smalley emphasized the starting pitching in his interview with Sports Headliners.

Miguel Sano (photo courtesy of Minnesota Twins).

If the starting pitching is at least average, then it makes the club’s potential offensive power much more relevant, Smalley believes. Second baseman Brian Dozier looks like a solid bet to produce a lot of home runs after hitting 42 last season, and this could be the year much-hyped prospects Miguel Sano (third base) and Byron Buxton (center field) emerge as major run producers.

“Then you’re going to have a really fun team to watch,” Smalley said. “…Because those guys can supply enough offense along with other guys that are around them. Guys like (right fielder Max) Kepler and (shortstop Jorge) Polanco who I think are terrific hitters, or are going to be. I mean you got a chance to have some really fun offensive production.”

Worth Noting

Minnesota Wild season ticket holders receive priority on purchasing playoff tickets, so the club is encouraging other fans to join the GameDay Tickets text notification list at wild.com/gamedaytix. Fans on the list receive a SMS text message on playoff game days if tickets are available. The Wild’s first round playoff details will be announced after the NHL regular season ends April 9.

Defensive back Antoine Winfield Jr. recently rejoined the Gophers and impressed coach P.J. Fleck on Saturday after a two-hour practice. “He’s been leading our secondary,” Fleck said. “He hasn’t been out here that long obviously—but, man, did he take over our defense today. Very proud of him. I love his how, I love his effort. He shows incredible leadership out there. You can tell that young man loves to play the game. …”

Fleck has several candidates for the starting quarterback position. He is looking for a starter who is going to “command the team on offense,” and make decisive and exceptional decisions.

The Minnesota Football Coaches Association is expecting record attendance this year for its annual clinic March 30-April 1, but is still accepting reservations. This year’s speakers at the DoubleTree Hotel in St. Louis Park will include Fleck, Duke’s David Cutcliffe and North Dakota State’s Chris Klieman.

There will also be a Youth Coaches Clinic March 30 and April 1 at the DoubleTree Hotel. Sessions will include ideas for building a youth football program, practice planning, and much more.

For more information about the clinics and other details regarding the MFCA, click on the advertisement on this page.

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Number of State Hoopsters Surprises

Posted on March 24, 2017March 24, 2017 by David Shama

A Creative Charters fan bus had taken Gene Lindahl and others to Milwaukee for the Gophers opening NCAA Tournament game against Middle Tennessee State earlier this month. On the ride home a passenger near Lindahl wondered out loud what states all the basketball players from the NCAA Tournament teams come from.

“…Nobody took him seriously that anybody would actually be dumb enough to sit and do that (calculate the answer),” Lindahl said with amusement. “I got home and started thinking about it.”

“Hell, I can do that,” Lindahl told himself. “You just go to all the teams’ websites, and copy and paste (names and hometowns).”

Lindahl lives near Faribault and is a retired high school basketball coach. It required eight to 10 hours to come up with the origins of players from not only the 68 teams in the NCAA Tournament, but also the 32 NIT teams. He researched 1,319 players.

Any surprises? “I was surprised that (the state of) Minnesota had as many (players) as they did,” Lindahl said.

There were 31 Minnesotans on various teams, and Minnesota’s total ranked behind only 12 other states. Minnesota finished ahead of neighboring Wisconsin (No. 29 with 14 players) and Iowa (No. 30, 13 players). Minnesota also had more players than more populous states like No. 15 New Jersey (30 players), No. 16 Pennsylvania (29 players) and No. 27 Washington (16 players). At No. 13, Minnesota trailed these states and their totals of players:

1. California, 119

2. Texas, 111

3. Illinois, 86

4. Florida, 75

5. North Carolina, 70

6. Ohio, 69

7. Georgia, 68

8. Indiana, 60

9. New York, 53

10. Virginia, 52

11. Maryland, 46

12. Michigan, 38

The Gophers’ roster has six Minnesotans, including starters Amir Coffey and Reggie Lynch. Jarvis Johnson is a scholarship player from the state who didn’t play last season, but could be counted as a seventh Minnesotan.

North Dakota’s roster has five Minnesotans including starting guards Geno Crandall and Quinton Hooker. They played prominent roles for their team as did some other Minnesotans including guard/forward Sanjay Lumpkin at Northwestern and guard J.P. Macura with Xavier.

After searching over 150 team websites, Lindahl also compiled a breakdown of countries. In addition to the United States, 56 other nations were represented by 178 players on the 100 teams. Only four of those countries had double-digit totals of players—Canada, 29; Australia, 23; Nigeria, 13; and Senegal, 10.

Lindahl shared his findings with Creative Charters who distributed the information via email to those who made the trip to watch the Gophers. The research and email came as a surprise but was appreciated.

“Nobody would expect somebody to be as stupid as I am,” Lindahl repeated.

Worth Noting

Collegead.com reported on Monday the current “NCAA Tournament is the most-watched in 24 years through the first Sunday (March 19), with an average of 9,325,000 million viewers, up 10% from 2016 (8,513,000).”

Horse racing enthusiast Steve Erban emailed that Malagacy, a top 10 contender for this year’s Kentucky Derby, has a sister who is a Minnesota bred racehorse. Classy Shackles sold for $26,500 in a Minnesota thoroughbred yearling sale last year, Erban wrote.

Erban’s Creative Charters, based in Stillwater, annually offers a trip to the Kentucky Derby. He said this year’s trip to the May 6 Derby in Louisville is sold out.

The Star Tribune named its All-Metro boys basketball teams this week and the first team included Maple Grove guard Brad Davison and Lakeville North forward Nathan Reuvers. Both will play for Wisconsin next season and are high potential college players. The Gophers could be second-guessed about their recruiting if the next few seasons are successful for Davison, Reuvers and the Badgers. Wisconsin, a program that hasn’t finished below fourth in the Big Ten standings since 2001, has a history of using Minnesota-raised talent in its starting lineup.

Jerry Krause, the legendary general manager who shaped the rosters of the Chicago Bulls NBA title teams in the 1990s, died this week at age 77. I met Krause at Met Center when he brought the Bulls to Minnesota for an exhibition game I helped arrange. He was all business and demanded the Bulls’ fee before tipoff—or the team wasn’t taking the court.

Jacob Isaia, a highly regarded offensive lineman from Bishop Gorman High School in Nevada, has offers from the Gophers and many other colleges including Michigan State, UCLA and Utah, according to a Tuesday online story from the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Isaia is originally from Hawaii and is the grandson of Bob Apisa, the starting fullback on the 1966 national champion Michigan State team. A senior in high school next fall, Isaia has 13 college offers and is being nationally recruited, according to the Review-Journal story.

Cordarrelle Patterson (photo courtesy of Minnesota Vikings)

With Cordarrelle Patterson leaving the Vikings via free agency to the Raiders, Laquon Treadwell has more opportunity to figure in Minnesota’s plans for its wide receivers. Treadwell, the team’s first round draft choice in 2016, wasn’t ready to play last season and caught only one pass for 15 yards. Former Vikings wide receivers coach George Stewart told Sports Headliners this week that Treadwell can become a “fine player.” Treadwell doesn’t turn 22 until June 14.

The Gopher hockey team will try to win the Northeast Regional this weekend, and advance to the Frozen Four and compete for the NCAA title. Minnesota has a NCAA-best 37 national tournament appearances, but what frustrates many fans is the Gophers have won just two national championships since 1980. The Gophers were NCAA champions in 1974, 1976, 1979, 2002 and 2003.

Jason Shaver, the Apple Valley High School alum and son of Gophers radio play-by-play man Wally Shaver, is the TV voice of the American Hockey League’s Chicago Wolves. Jason’s grandfather is the legendary radio voice of the North Stars, 89-year-old Al Shaver who is retired and living on Vancouver Island.

White Bear Lake’s Phil Bonin, a well-known hockey name, passed away from cancer on Monday. Phil was a youth hockey supporter and father of Brian Bonin, the former Gopher hockey player and 1996 Hobey Baker Award winner. Condolences to family and friends.

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