Category: Twins

Fans fret about what the Twins record will be at month’s end but not general manager Terry Ryan. The Twins opened the regular season on April 6 and after last night’s loss to the Yankees have a 4-9 record.  Ten more games remain in April.

“I’d be more worried about where we’re at September 1^st,” Ryan told Sports Headliners last week.  “We play a demanding schedule.  We might have all we can handle, but regardless it matters more about September 1^st, and that’s usually a measuring stick.  Nobody worries about anybody on May 1^st.  For me that’s a tad early.

“But we have some of the requisites to have a decent club here.  No one is counting us in, I can tell you that.  On paper nobody is talking about us at all, except for us, and that’s all that counts.”

The Twins’ April schedule includes 17 games against some of the American League’s best teams.  On the list are the Rangers, Yankees, Rays and Red Sox, ranked No. 1, 4, 8 and 15 in ESPN.com’s power ratings of major league teams.  Also on the April schedule are the Angels, off to a slow start but projected to win the World Series by Sports Illustrated.

The Twins so far have one win in each of their meetings with the Angels and Rangers, and two against the Yankees.  Ryan was asked if playing baseball’s best can have a positive aspect.

“Sometimes you can get them (best teams) early,” he said.  “Sometimes clubs take awhile to settle in, and hopefully we’ll settle in sooner than later than some of these demanding teams that we’re facing.  …”

If not, the Twins could set or tie a record for fewest club wins in April.  The poorest record was 4-6 in 1966 but a fairer comparison is to start with 1977 when the Twins have played 18 games or more in April.  The low mark in that period is 6-12 in 1981. The Twins were 9-17 during April last year.

Mention names of the Twins best prospects in the lower minor leagues and Miguel Sano could be the first player discussed. Sano hit 20 home runs last season for Elizabethon, the second best total in the Appalachian League.  This spring, playing for Beloit, he leads the Midwest League with five home runs and is tied for the lead in runs batted at 14.

Twins general manager Terry Ryan told Sports Headliners that the right-handed teenage slugger is so strong he can hit balls to the opposite field over the fence, but more interesting was Ryan’s praise for Sano’s defensive potential.  “Defensively he should be a Gold Glove type third baseman,” Ryan said.  “It’s gonna be awhile before he develops into that type of a polished fielder.  He makes careless errors.

“But he’s a big, strong kid.  He’s 6-3, 235, 240, and he can put a (hitting) display on a particular night but there’s not enough consistency quite yet.  There’s no doubt in our minds that he’s going to be a major league player.”

How soon?

“He’s 19.  You’d probably say three years—hope that would be the case—but he’s only in low (Class) A,” Ryan said.  “So he’s still gotta struggle through a little bit of those things at Beloit, Wisconsin.  Getting used to playing in the cold weather is going to be a good thing for him because he’s never really played above Elizabethon, Tennessee and that was in the summer. …”

Ryan said the Dominican Republic native also needs to learn how to be a leader and improve his English.  “There are a lot of things he needs to grasp before we can start counting him as a major league all-star guy.”

Ryan said Sano’s athleticism is impressive including in the field.  “He’s got enough agility to play short.  He’s got a rifle for an arm but the size that he carries is a little bit much for shortstop.”