Vikings – Page 107 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Several Twins Deserve All-Star Look

Posted on May 28, 2019May 28, 2019 by David Shama

Enjoy a Tuesday notes column leading off with the Minnesota Twins, a club that seems certain to have multiple representatives in July’s MLB All-Star Game in Cleveland.

Twins starters Jose Berrios, Jake Odorizzi and Martin Perez have all won seven games, a total exceeded by only two pitchers in the American League, per stats from Baseball-reference.com. Odorizzi leads the AL in ERA at 2.16 ERA. Berrios was the team’s lone All-Star a year ago and that won’t hurt his chances of being on the AL team in 2019. Perez won only two games last season pitching for the Texas Rangers and is a Comeback Player of the Year candidate.

Minnesota shortstop Jorge Polanco and outfielder Eddie Rosario have compiled All-Star credentials this spring, too. Polanco’s .332 batting average is second best in the American League. He is tied for third in Wins About Replacement. Rosario leads the league in RBI with 45 and his 16 home runs are tied for second.

The Twins haven’t had more than three players in the All-Star Game since 1991 when Rick Aguilera, Scott Erickson, Jack Morris and Kirby Puckett represented Minnesota.

The Twins announced this morning that pitcher Michael Pineda is on the 10-day Injured List with right knee tendinitis. Pineda has started 11 games, with a 4-3 record and 5.34 ERA. To replace Pineda on the roster, the Twins selected the contract of left-handed pitcher Devin Smeltzer from Triple-A Rochester. Smeltzer made four starts for the Red Wings, going 0-1 with a 1.82 ERA. He was acquired last season as part of a trade with the Dodgers.

The Twins have three more games remaining in May and have won 19 games this month. The club record for wins in May is 21. The most Minnesota has won in any month since 2017 is 20 in August of that year.

Minnesota’s 36-17 record remains the best in MLB after last night’s 5-4 loss to Milwaukee.

As the Minnesota Vikings go through Organized Team Activities this spring it appears No. 1 draft choice Garrett Bradbury will be the center, although he is learning the guard positions, too. The presence of Bradbury is prompting the move of last year’s starting center, Pat Elflein, to left guard.

What was Elflein’s reaction on draft night to the Vikings selecting the talented Bradbury who played at North Carolina State? Excited, he said, to add another “great lineman” to the roster.

Elflein is taking a team first approach about moving to guard, a position he played in college at Ohio State. “I think we have really athletic offensive linemen all across the board, so however we can utilize that best is what we want to do,” he said.

Elflein likes what he has seen so far of Bradbury. “He’s smart. He’s learning the offense very quickly.”

Rookie tight end and No. 2 draft choice Irv Smith Jr. is impressed with the Vikings’ offense. “It’s going to be a scary (good) offense,” he said.

Vikings wide receiver Adam Thielen is a two-handicapper in golf. After his pro football career might he consider a run at pro golf? Probably not, he told Sports Headliners. “I wish I was good enough,” he said. “I love the game of golf and it would be really cool to be able to do something like that, but I am not even thinking about that right now.”

Football fans in Minnesota will like the 2019 Division II and III preseason national rankings by Street & Smith’s College Football magazine on newsstands now. Minnesota State is No. 3 and Minnesota-Duluth No. 11 in the D-II rankings. Three MIAC teams are in the D-III top 10 with No. 3 Saint John’s, No. 6 St. Thomas and No. 10 Bethel.

St. Thomas games will again be broadcast on WCCO Radio. Sources believe the school will continue to buy the air time for the broadcasts.

Deepest condolences to the family and friends of Mignette Najarian who passed away last week. The Najarians, including Mignette’s husband Dr. John Najarian of the University of Minnesota, have for decades been one of the great families in Minneapolis and Minnesota. They have inspired people through medicine, business and philanthropy.

The “Cinderella” Golden Gophers softball team, in the program’s first ever Women’s College World Series, are seeded No. 7 among eight teams and play No. 2 UCLA starting at 1:30 p.m. Thursday in a game to be televised by ESPN. Names to watch on the Bruins include pitcher Rachel Garcia with a 1.01 ERA, third lowest in the country, and Kelli Goodwin hitting .446, ninth best.

No. 1 seeded Oklahoma should be the crowd favorite with the May 30-June 5 tournament being played in Oklahoma City, located about 20 miles from the OU campus in Norman. The talented Sooners lead the nation’s D-I teams in batting average at .355 and also ERA at 1:06. The Gophers rank No. 7 in ERA at 1.63 but aren’t in the top 10 for batting average.

Season tickets are sold out for Gopher softball 2020 home games and the athletic department has started a waitlist.

The Gophers baseball team finished the year with a 29-27 overall record, the 36th time in 38 years that head coach John Anderson has led Minnesota to a winning record. Anderson’s 64th birthday was earlier this month and he has one year remaining on his contract. He should be given a contract extension to continue leading the program indefinitely.

Earlier this month on CBS an estimated 10,000 TV households in the Minneapolis-St. Paul market watched golf’s Nick Faldo, along with Minneapolis philanthropist Wayne Kostroski, announce the first-ever Taste Fore The Tour. The Tour’s first stop will be July 1 at Interlachen Country Club in Edina, and is part of a national charity culinary series created to raise awareness and donations for hunger relief causes. The Minnesota culinary event will precede the PGA’s 3M Open that starts July 4 in Blaine.

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National Football Magazine: U ‘Dangerous’

Posted on May 23, 2019May 23, 2019 by David Shama

When it comes to offseason college football predictions, some things never seem to change like forecasts Alabama and Clemson will play for the national championship, or Ohio State will again wear the Big Ten crown. But there is variable and contrary chatter during the winter and spring including about the Golden Gophers program.

In early January Sporting News placed Minnesota No. 25 in a (how could you be earlier?) rankings of America’s best college teams for 2019. This week a few web searches of more recent top 25 national rankings produced no such good news for Gophers fans.

Sporting News’ post-spring practice listing of April 29 had Nebraska No. 25, Northwestern 24th and Wisconsin 21st but didn’t include the Gophers in the rankings. Pro Football Focus and Athlon came out with top 25 rankings Tuesday, but again Goldy was absent.

My research did discover a “nugget” that will please Gopher optimists. Athlon’s college football magazine, now on newsstands, includes an article by algorithm specialist Bill Connelly. He includes Minnesota among six national “Teams on the Rise” after deciphering data such as efficiency, explosiveness, field position, finishing drives and turnovers. He references the Gophers’ lack of consistency last season (Minnesota played in only two of 13 games decided by a touchdown or less) but concludes his write-up with these words: “This team will be dangerous.”

Read most anybody who offers a detailed preview on the Gophers, including Connelly, and be prepared to hear about inconsistency, including at the quarterback position last season. The Gophers played two freshmen there last year, Zack Annexstad and Tanner Morgan. Athlon includes Minnesota in a two-page spread titled “QB Battles” and predicts Annexstad will win the job because he is “the better pure passer.”

Both Athlon and Street & Smith’s college football magazines forecast the Gophers will finish fifth in the Big Ten’s seven-team West Division—perhaps the most unpredictable division in the country. The two publications say Nebraska will win what is expected to be a close race to play for the Big Ten championship against Ohio State from the East Division.

Street & Smith’s predicts Purdue will finish second in the West, while Athlon has the Boilermakers sixth behind Minnesota. S&M sees Iowa finishing sixth, while Athlon projects the Hawkeyes placing second in the Big Ten. (More evidence of how crystal balling varies and changes during the offseason.)

The Gophers, after an awful early season Big Ten performance, closed fast in 2018 by impressively winning two of their final three league games. Then they soundly defeated (34-10) a capable Georgia Tech team in the Quick Lane Bowl to finish 7-6 overall, 3-6 in conference games.

Among the most inexperienced teams in the country last year, the Gophers are loaded with key returnees on both offense and defense. There is also more talent to work with than Minnesota coaches have been accustomed to having. The quality of the finish last season is countered, though, by the poor performance earlier in the season, and the contrasting results have forced college football authorities to be a bit inconsistent and cautious in their outlooks about the Gophers.

Both magazines have Minnesota senior wide receiver Tyler Johnson on their regionally produced covers. S&M tabs JD Spielman, the Eden Prairie alum, former lacrosse player, and speedy receiver and returner for Nebraska, as the Big Ten’s best athlete. Athlon includes the Gophers’ Carter Coughlin, another Eden Prairie alum, on the line of its third-team All-American defense.

Worth Noting

Golden Gophers coach P.J. Fleck likes to recruit players with ties to the program like Coughlin whose dad and grandfather played for Minnesota. Maybe he will take a look at Gracen Bell, a tight end at Lee’s Summit North in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. He is the grandson of legendary Gophers lineman Bobby Bell, a two-time All-American and perhaps the greatest player in University of Minnesota history.

Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins and Texans defensive end J.J. Watt are drawing praise this month for commencement speeches at their alma maters, Michigan State and Wisconsin respectively.

If new Timberwolves president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas wants the inside word on Ricky Rubio, he can probably get it from Jazz boss Dennis Lindsey. Rosas and Lindsey worked together with the Rockets before being hired to work for the Wolves and Jazz respectively.

Rubio is a free agent who the Wolves traded to the Jazz in 2017 and it seems possible he could end up back in Minneapolis. His name is being conjectured with multiple NBA destinations, and the Wolves might like to replace the point guard he was traded for, Jeff Teague.

It doesn’t hurt the fan popularity of the successful Gophers softball team that 10 of the 14 players on the roster are Minnesota natives. Among the Minnesotans is pitcher Sydney Smith, who joined the Gophers after transferring from LSU, Minnesota’s opponent starting Friday at 4 p.m. in Minneapolis for a NCAA Super Regional matchup. Smith, who while pitching at Maple Grove High School was 54-1, figures to offer some insights to her coaches about the Tigers who will be in a town for the best of three series.

All-session chair backs for the Super Regional at Sage Cowles Stadium are priced at $40, with bench seating at $35 and $30. Standing room is also $30. ESPN2 televises Friday’s game.

Ex-Pioneer Press sportswriter Gregg Wong and former Washburn High School three-sports star Gerry Clark play in the Tzatskees band Saturday night June 1 at the Eagles Club in southeast Minneapolis.

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GM Levine Says Twins Can Play Better

Posted on May 19, 2019May 19, 2019 by David Shama

The Minnesota Twins finished last season with a disappointing record of 78-84 after playing in the postseason in 2017. During the past offseason, front office decision makers Derek Falvey and Thad Levine reshaped the club’s roster, and shook up the managerial and coaching leadership.

The performance so far of the hometown team has been stunning.

The Twins have key personnel who were on the roster last season, but three quarters of the usual infield lineup and multiple pitchers, particularly in the bullpen, are newcomers. Collectively, along with manager Rocco Baldelli and his staff, they have made the Twins’ performance one of the success stories in big league baseball this spring. As of this morning the Twins had compiled the second best record in MLB at 30-15 and a .667 winning percentage, just behind the 31-15 Astros.

Minnesota is 5.5 games ahead of second place Cleveland in the Central Division. The Twins have been in first place since April 21. In March-April their record was 17-10 versus 9-15 in 2018. So far in May the Twins are 13-5 (compared with 13-15 for that entire month a year ago), and the club is on a five-game winning streak including an 18-4 win over the Mariners last night in Seattle when Minnesota led 10-0 after three innings behind five home runs.

Consistency? The team is 15-8 at home and 15-7 on the road. The Twins have a winning record against opponents from the AL Central, East and West divisions.

Before the season started there were plenty of predictors who thought the Twins were a division contender, with the most optimistic hinting Minnesota might play something like 18 games over .500 and finish with a 90-72 record. However, that was an extreme outlook, and now the team is already 15 games over .500 with slightly more than 25 percent of the schedule having been played.

No one should crown the Twins the best club in the majors yet, but this does look like a coming out party where Minnesota just might be among baseball’s royalty by season’s end. Everyone likes what they have seen including Levine, the club’s impressive and intellectual general manager. He admits to the team exceeding expectations.

“I think when you look at the record we have, it’s hard not to say that this is a little bit further along than what we expected,” Levine told Sports Headliners Wednesday. “But when you look at the performance of the team, I think there is another level this team can reach. So in saying that, I don’t think this is necessarily that far exceeding expectations.

“I think (before the season) we thought very highly of this group of individuals and certainly what they could do collectively. I think the best baseball this team has is ahead of them, not behind them. … I think the future is very bright for the Minnesota Twins.”

Levine clearly likes the potential of his team, but dreams can get derailed by injuries and last week the Twins put two of their more productive offensive players on the 10-day disabled list. Catcher Mitch Garver is off to the best start of his MLB career with nine home runs but now is on the DL. DH Nelson Cruz, who joined the Twins last offseason, went on the DL having hit more home runs than anyone in the big leagues since 2014. His bat and leadership have helped fuel a long ball trend that seems likely to result in a franchise season record of more than 225 home runs this season.

Miguel Sano (photo courtesy of Minnesota Twins).

The Twins are also counting on their stingy pitching—four starters have won four games or more and five core relievers have ERA’s at 2.00 or less— and depth of positional players to keep them winning. Miguel Sano, as recently as two years ago viewed as the slugging centerpiece of the team, just rejoined the Twins after missing the first 40 games. Sano can play third base, first base and DH. He is part of a versatile and mostly under age 30 roster that includes players who can man multiple infield and outfield positions. They have performed well at bat and also with team defense. The club’s fielding percentage is among the better ones in baseball at .985.

Worth Noting

Twins home attendance will be surging between Memorial Day and Labor Day, with club president Dave St. Peter telling Sports Headliners: “…I think you’re going to see huge crowds here at the ballpark night after night.”

It looks like Vikings first round draft choice Garrett Bradbury will take over as the team’s starting center. Pat Elflein will move to guard. “He (Elflein) is a much better guard than center,” former Viking Pete Bercich told the CORES lunch group earlier this month.

Bercich, a radio gameday analyst for the Vikings, also said veteran tight end Kyle Rudolph is “not a very good blocker.” Rudolph could see his starting position go to rookie Irv Smith Jr. if he is traded or cut from the roster because of salary cap challenges.

Bercich played at Notre Dame for legendary (and flamboyant) coach Lou Holtz. Bercich said Holtz needed a strawberry shake at halftime of Notre Dame games “so he could get his sugar.”

Word is when Holtz coached the Golden Gophers he also ordered milkshakes during games.

CORES emcee and well-known public address announcer Dick Jonckowski ordered the printing of another 500 copies of his 2018 book It’s All About Me, Dick Jonckowski: A Minnesota Treasure.

Former Gophers football coach Jerry Kill, now athletic director at Southern Illinois, has landed the largest corporate naming rights agreement in school history. The 10-year deal will offer up to $10 million in the renaming of SIU Arena to the Banterra Center (Banterra Bank).

The Golden Gophers softball team can win the Minneapolis Regional today and continue to impress in the NCAA Tournament. So far this weekend Amber Fiser has pitched 15 innings, allowing five hits and one earned run, while striking out 20 and walking three batters.

WCCO Radio Sports Huddle co-host Dave Mona, along with his wife Linda Mona, are promoting their 10th and final Camden’s Concert. Popular country western singer and song writer Suzy Bogguss will entertain. Tickets are on sale now for the July 16th event at the Hopkins Center for the Arts. More at Hopkinsartscenter.com. Money raised from the concert helps research to find a cure for Cystic Fibrosis.

The annual Karl-Anthony Towns ProCamp will be July 18 and 19 at Providence Academy in Plymouth. The camp is open to boys and girls of all skill levels in grades 1-12. Participants will learn fundamentals and interact with the Minnesota Timberwolves star center, according to a team news release.

Former Gophers golfer and New York Times best selling author Harvey Mackay quotes this Arabic proverb in his syndicated newspaper column last week: “Write the wrongs that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble. Let go of all emotions such as resentment and retaliation, which diminish you, and hold onto the emotions, such as gratitude and joy, which increase you.”

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