Twins – Page 140 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Rivalry Games Already on U Radar

Posted on August 5, 2016August 5, 2016 by David Shama

The Gophers begin training camp today, and yesterday it was evident players want to end past frustrations, and surprise sportswriters who are predicting a fifth place finish in the Big Ten’s seven-team West Division.

Senior corner Jalen Myrick didn’t hold back expressing his feels about Minnesota border rivals Iowa and Wisconsin. “I hate Iowa. … I hate Wisconsin. I want to beat them at least one time. I didn’t get a chance (because of injury) to play against each one of them last year. I got a big statement to prove in each of those games.”

The Hawkeyes won the division last season, the Badgers the year before. Minnesota’s record against Iowa since 2000 is 5-11. Dating back to 1990, the Gophers are a dismal 5-21 against Wisconsin including 12 consecutive losses beginning in 2004.

Senior quarterback Mitch Leidner joined Myrick and several other teammates yesterday to talk with the media prior to practice opening. Leidner predicted the Gophers will play with an edge this season and added he wants a Big Ten title before his college career ends.

Leidner knows the Gophers need to end the drought against the Badgers, and Minnesota head coach Tracy Claeys talked about that during an interview with Sports Headliners in June. “It bothers the hell out of me,” Claeys said. “We’re on our way to try to get that back to where it’s a rivalry. We gotta win sooner or later for it even to be considered a rivalry anymore.”

Worth Noting

Myrick also returns kickoffs for the Gophers and is considered the team’s fastest player. A recent NFL.com story identified him as the Big Ten’s fastest player. Myrick said he’s faster than last year. How much? “We’ll see,” he replied.

Myrick intentionally lost a couple of pounds to bring his weight to about 200, and he has speed on his mind. “Anytime I can build my speed, that’s what I am trying to do,” he said.

Leidner said he’s healthy after playing injured the last couple of years. He even acknowledged that in a 2014 game ligaments attached to a big toe were so torn the toe was “floating around” in his shoe.

Leidner predicted yesterday that senior offensive tackle Jonah Pirsig might be named an All-American this fall. The 6-9, 325-pound Pirsig has played much of his career with injuries. “This is the healthiest I’ve felt since I’ve been here,” Pirsig said.

Both Leidner and Pirsig praised new offensive line coach Bart Miller and the impact he’s had on that unit. “He’s completely changed the mindset around,” Leidner said.

Coaching staff decisions about starters will be made after 18 practices. Claeys said starters need 10 days of practices to prepare for the first game.

Prior to their September 1 opener against Oregon State, the Gophers have five practices open to the public. Practices August 6, 9 and 12 begin at 10 a.m. at the Gibson-Nagurski Football Complex. Two practices August 13 are also open to the public—starting at 9:10 a.m. at Gibson-Nagurski and 4:45 p.m. at TCF Bank Stadium.

Retired Twins executive Jim Rantz has talked recently with Terry Ryan who owner Jim Pohlad let go as the club’s general manager last month. Rantz and Ryan worked with each other for decades. Rantz said the 62-year-old Ryan is “doing fine,” still has passion for baseball and watches the Twins on TV.

Rantz’s guess is his friend will eventually get back into baseball. “I don’t think he’s going to call it a career,” Rantz said. “I think he’s going to hang in there, and we’ll see what happens here. I am sure he’ll hang out until the end of the year and then go from there.”

The Thursday morning Go 96.3 radio show offered a few critical comments about U.S. Bank Stadium’s debut sports event Wednesday night between soccer teams AC Milan and Chelsea. Comments included too much congestion inside the stadium, “spotty Wi-Fi” and at least one or two concessionaires running out of menu items. A sausage for $7 that cost $2 more for peppers and onions also prompted comment.

General manager Rick Spielman said the Vikings’ new practice facility and team headquarters in Eagan (opening in 2018) will be the best in the NFL and can contribute to attracting free agents. “Just like the new stadium (downtown), I think was a big factor this year,” he said. “(But) it’s always going to come down to your football team, and it will come down to the financial commitment you’re willing to make to the player. I think a lot of it has to do (also) with your coaching staff and our head coach. …”

It will be interesting to watch the development of high-potential Vikings second-season defensive lineman Danielle Hunter. Could Hunter, who doesn’t turn 22 until October, replace 10-year veteran Brian Robison this season? Robison, 33, might one day finish his career as a situational pass rusher.

At 6-5 and over 250 pounds the Vikings 2015 third round draft choice is an intriguing prospect. He had 33 tackles and six sacks last year. Hunter’s NFL.com draft analysis in 2015 described him as having a “freakish combination of size, athleticism and explosiveness.”

The Minnesota Wild will offer single game regular season tickets starting at $35. Tickets go on sale September 24. Pricing for single game regular season tickets is based on demand factors like rivalries, day-of-week, marquee teams or superstar players.

Former Gophers, Olympics and North Stars coaching legend Herb Brooks, who was killed in a 2003 August car accident, would have been 79 today.

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Kepler Top Rookie of Year Candidate

Posted on August 3, 2016August 3, 2016 by David Shama

With a three home run game on Monday night, and another last evening, the Twins Max Kepler is now a favorite to win the American League Rookie of the Year Award.

Despite joining the Twins after the season started and for awhile not being a regular, Kepler has hit 15 home runs this year, including seven in his last 15 games. His home run total leads all American League rookies, and a baseball authority predicted yesterday he could finish the season with 25 homers.

Kepler is averaging a home run every 13.6 at bats. When former Senators and Twins great Harmon Killebrew played his first full season in the majors in 1959 he homered every 13 at bats.

Kepler’s home run totals have probably surprised everyone. In six minor league seasons through 2015 he homered every 46.8 times at the plate. His minor league batting average was .281.

Max Kepler (photo courtesy of Minnesota Twins).

“He’s got that kind of bat that he’s going to hit for average and show a little power,” former Twins executive Jim Rantz told Sports Headliners back in April.

Turns out Kepler is showing more than a “little power” with his line drives that are going over the fence and positioning him to possibly become the sixth Twins player to win the American League Rookie of the Year Award. The 6-4, 207-pound Twins right fielder is impressive at bat with a leveraged swing and exceptional plate discipline. He is hitting .259 with 46 RBI in 205 at bats with the Twins.

“We all thought that he was probably going to be a line drive type hitter that was going to put a lot of doubles up,” Rantz told Sports Headliners yesterday. “It’s a beautiful swing that he puts on the ball…(and) if he gets elevation, it’s going to go because when he hits a ball it carries.”

The German-born Kepler comes from an athletic family. His parents were ballet dancers. As a youngster Kepler played not only baseball but other sports including soccer, swimming, skiing and tennis. Mark Rozycki and Mary Kepler may also have raised the next AL Rookie of the Year.

“No telling how this is going to finish if he keeps going like he’s going,” Rantz said.“He’s liable to hit 25 before it’s over (the season).”

Worth Noting

Vikings owners and brothers Mark and Zygi Wilf didn’t attend yesterday’s groundbreaking event for a new privately funded practice facility and team headquarters in Eagan because their father is ill, a source told Sports Headliners. Leonard Wilf, Mark and Zygi’s cousin and another Vikings owner, represented the Wilf family.

General manager Rick Spielman, speaking at the event, predicted the new complex will be the most “unique and best” of its kind in the NFL. The 40-acre Vikings campus will have offices, a 100-yard indoor practice building and four outdoor fields including a 6,000 seat stadium that is likely to host premiere high school games.

While there’s been no announcement, it seems likely the Vikings eventually will move their preseason training camp from Mankato to Eagan. The new complex will be known as the Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center and TCO Stadium. It is scheduled to open in March of 2018.

Steve Poppen, the Vikings chief financial officer, said Eagan was “clearly” the best of three sites considered. Eagan mayor Mike Maguire said before the Vikings’ headquarters was built in Eden Prairie, the Eagan site had been promoted by a St. Paul developer in the 1970s.

Twins’ right-hander Tommy Milone, who this week was assigned to the bullpen, pitched five-plus innings in four of his last five starts after not achieving that in any of his first six starts this season. Milone hasn’t walked a batter in his last two starts.

Rob Antony, the Twins assistant general manager who could be a finalist to succeed Terry Ryan as the franchise’s baseball boss, started out in the media relations department. So, too, did Twins president Dave St. Peter and director of travel Mike Herman. The organization has long been known for its loyalty to employees and for promoting from within.

The Gophers open preseason football practice Friday. Saturday’s 10 a.m. practice at the Gibson Nagurski Football Complex is open to the public.

Former Gophers coach Glen Mason compared Minnesota senior quarterback Mitch Leidner to a 10-handicap golfer last week while doing analysis on the Big Ten Network. Mason said a 10-handicapper is inconsistent and Leidner needs to more like a five-handicapper.

Gophers coach Tracy Claeys told reporters at last week’s Big Ten media days in Chicago it will be important for he and new offensive coordinator Jay Johnston to give Leidner assignments that he is comfortable with during August practices.

A lot of college football programs, including the Gophers, are discounting tickets to boost sales. Big Ten rival Purdue has single game tickets starting at $5.

The U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team, with four Lynx players and Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve on the staff, has its first game in Rio de Janeiro Sunday. The U.S. team, favored to win gold, plays its opening game against Senegal starting at 10 a.m. CDT.

Vashti Cunningham, the 18-year-old daughter of former Vikings quarterback Randall Cunningham, isn’t expected to win the high jump in Rio but could surprise, and the Nevada native has already put Olympic coaches on notice she is a special talent.

Hamline has hired ex-Gophers women’s tennis star Julia Courter as its new head men’s and women’s tennis coach. The Pipers now have four former Gophers as head coaches with the others being Becky Bauer Egan (volleyball), Natalie Darwitz (women’s hockey) and Cory Laylin (men’s hockey).

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Twins Prez Not Settling for .500%

Posted on July 18, 2016July 18, 2016 by David Shama

Before baseball’s All-Star break last week the Twins’ record was 32-56, a winning percentage of .363. Since their schedule resumed last Friday the Twins earned one victory in a three-game series at home against the Central Division leading Indians.

But even though the club has an awful record, Twins president Dave St. Peter has ambitious expectations for wins and losses before the season ends on October 2. Asked about a hypothetical guarantee by the baseball gods that the Twins will win half their remaining games, St. Peter didn’t buy in. “No, I would never take .500,” he told Sports Headliners last week. “I think we’re capable of being better than that. I am not ready to settle for .500 baseball.”

At least .500 was what the Twins were expected to do with their 2016 schedule after last season’s 83-79 record. What happened? St. Peter listed multiple reasons including lack of offense at the beginning of the season, injuries to key players like All-Star closer Glen Perkins, and also inconsistent bullpen and starting pitching.

St. Peter said the club “dug ourselves a mighty hole” but he is encouraged by the “high quality young players in our system.” Although he didn’t list names, those players surely include the likes of outfield prospects Byron Buxton and Max Kepler, both already with the Twins, and pitcher Jose Berrios at AAA Rochester.

For the Twins to perform a lot better the rest of this season—and beyond—the organization will need to focus on improving the pitching. Not only is the roster of pitchers and position players being scrutinized, but St. Peter also said the organization’s decision makers will soon be reviewed.

The baseball department is led by Terry Ryan, a longtime favorite of management and ownership. He has been working for the Twins identifying and developing personnel since 1986. He is in his second assignment as general manager after coming back as personnel boss in 2011.

Ryan has fought off cancer in the past and baseball insiders may wonder how much longer he wants the demanding job of rebuilding the Twins who had four consecutive years of 90-plus loss seasons from 2011-2014. St. Peter said a mutual evaluation of Ryan’s future will be made near season’s end.

In talking to St. Peter the message is that everything and everyone will be analyzed. “It’s an ongoing evaluation. I can assure you that,” he said.

No final decision for 2017 has been made about manager Paul Molitor. The Minnesota native and Hall of Fame player managed for the first time last season. His efforts were applauded but with such an awful record this season Molitor and his coaches are on the spot like others in the organization.

St. Peter said he’s “very pleased” with Molitor’s overall work as Twins manager but that’s “not to say he and his coaches don’t accept some responsibility” for the club’s record this season. “There is no doubt in our minds we continue to be big believers in Paul Molitor,” St. Peter said.

The manager and coaches have helped lead the team through a difficult start but the club has won eight of its last 12 games. The Twins also made some progress in June, going 5-5 in the last 10 games.

Molitor didn’t panic when the season nosedived. Molitor is known for his high baseball I.Q. and St. Peter said his manager is also a leader with “tremendous poise every single day.”

One change that for sure won’t happen in the organization in 2017, according to St. Peter, is the return of Joe Mauer to catching. Because of concussion symptoms, the former All-Star catcher moved to first base starting with the 2014 season. Mauer admitted last winter to at times having difficulty seeing the baseball while batting and the results at the plate of the last few seasons substantiate that.

Mauer, a three-time batting champion, hit .277 and .265 during the 2014 and 2015 season. A career .313 hitter going into this season, Mauer is batting .268 this year.

With a contract that pays him $23 million per season, Mauer is giving the Twins a poor return on the club’s investment. First basemen are expected to offer better numbers than seven home runs and 28 RBI if their batting average is .268—particularly if they are among the best paid players in baseball.

Mauer, now 33, would be more valuable to the Twins if he could play part-time behind the plate. The team needs catching help this season and beyond. With Mauer’s present offensive limitations, an ideal assignment might have him catching 50 games, playing 50 at first base, and being the designated hitter at other times.

“Joe Mauer will not catch,” St. Peter said.

Why? “His health and his ability to continue at a high level as a dad, as a husband, trumps everything else in our minds. I think we’ve covered this ground many, many times. Joe Mauer is not going to return to the position of catcher based on his history there with his concussions.”

St. Peter said he isn’t aware of Mauer having vision problems now. Mauer is hitting .333 in his last seven games and that provides encouragement that the St. Paul native can continue to raise his average.

Can he become a .300 hitter again? “I am not putting numbers on things, you are, but we just think he can be a more effective hitter than what his average shows at this point,” St. Peter said.

Twins Notes

After yesterday’s loss to the Indians, the Twins are 7-27 against Central Division rivals. The Twins start a three-game series in Detroit against the Tigers tonight.

In yesterday’s game Kepler hit his ninth home run. The rookie right fielder has hit nine homers and driven in 32 runs since June 12.

First baseman and designated hitter Kennys Vargas has hit safely in seven of nine games since being recalled from Rochester on July 4. He is batting .379 with the Twins.

Announced attendance at yesterday’s game was 25,692. If the Twins were contending for a division title the game could have been a sellout. When football is dominating local sports interest in August and September, attendance will be a challenge for the Twins who are headed toward their lowest customer total in Target Field history.

St. Peter said former Twins great Rod Carew has been cleared to be on a list for a heart transplant. Carew almost lost his life last year after a heart attack.

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