Kuzul

Justin Morneau is the Minnesota Twins' first baseman. The problem is over the past two seasons he only played 133 games at first—that's only 10 more games than he played at the position in all of 2009.Between 2006 and 2008, Morneau was an iron man for the Twins. Over those three seasons he averaged 149.7 games at first, and in 2008 he appeared in all 163 games the team played.Then came that fateful day in Toronto—July 7th, 2010.The play was a routine slide into second base to break up a double play when Morneau took a knee to the head. He came out of the game and Michael Cuddyer would replace him at first base. He did not play again that season and has been struggling since to return to the form that had his name in consideration for a second American League MVP. At the time he was leading the ...

A quick look at the Twins' projected starting lineup for 2012 poses one serious question: where will the runs come from?So far this spring that question remains unanswered.With only eight spring games played so far, there is plenty of time for things to fall into place. However, the results so far are not creating a lot of excitement for the upcoming season at Target Field, and it looks like the three-year-old ballpark will once again be the biggest draw for Minnesotans this season.In their eight games the Twins have only scored 22 runs. At a time when supposedly the hitters are  ahead of the pitchers, Minnesota is averaging less than three runs a game. At the same time they have been yielding 4.5 runs per game. So far the 34 players the Twins have used this spring have a total of  only 19 RBI. The projected starting lineup, with Ryan Doumit ...

Since being renamed the Minnesota Twins general manager, Terry Ryan, according to Baseball-Reference.com, has signed more free agents than any other team in baseball.On paper, at best it looks like the Twins are no better than they were in 2011, and perhaps a little worse. His approach appears to be to replace what has been lost, and hope what remains returns to the form that delivered 94 wins in 2010, instead of the result in 2011.With 20 signings, Ryan and the Twins have signed as many free agents as the Tigers, White Sox and Indians combined.The problem is Ryan appears to be rebuilding the Twins farm system that is not as strong as it was when he stepped down in 2007, with 75 percent of the free agents signed to minor league contracts.Perhaps one can take some solace in that all 15 of the players signed to minor-league contracts have ...

It's obvious after the Minnesota Twins finished the 2011 season with the second-worst record since the franchise moved to the Twin Cities, the team has plenty of needs.The team needs a couple of solid starting pitchers, an effective reliever, a power-hitting corner outfielder and an effective middle infield combination.For general manager Terry Ryan, it appears that the wheeling and dealing is done, and from the looks of things, with no blockbuster deals, the team will be taking a long, slow ride to respectability.Ryan, taking no big swings to improve the Twins, is relying for the most part, on the current roster of players to improve over last season. The hopes on the 2012 season is that many of these players will return to form that had the Twins winning six division titles over nine seasons.The only changes to the lineup appear to be Ben Revere taking over one of the corner outfield positions, Josh Willingham ...

This was not how the Twins' 2011 season was supposed to go.Coming off consecutive AL Central Division titles, and on the 20th anniversary of their last World Series championship, this season was supposed to be the year they stepped up and finally made it past the divisional round of the playoffs. Currently tied with the Kansas City Royals at 23 games behind the division-leading Detroit Tigers, the Twins are poised to accomplish the exact opposite in 2011—going from winning 94 games and finishing first in the AL Central in 2010 to finishing last. Since Ron Gardenhire took over as manager in 2002, the lowest the Twins have finished in the division is third—in 2005 and 2007. On Sept. 10, 1991 the Twins were 85-54 with an eight-and-a-half game lead on the rest of the American League West. They would finish with the best record in the AL, at 95-67—second only to the Pittsburgh Pirates. This was ...

This year everything has gone wrong for the Twins and it was inevitable that Jim Thome would be traded. It makes sense that he should return to where it all started 20 seasons ago when he made his major league debut on September 4th, 1991. Thome has hit 335 of his 602 home runs while wearing a Cleveland uniform. In less than two seasons with Minnesota, Thome hit 37 home runs, more than any other player on the Twins roster over that time. In 2010 he led the team with 25 home runs, averaging a home run every 11.04 at bats when the Twins won 94 games and their sixth AL Central division title since 2002 when Ron Gardenhire took over as manager.  I started thinking about some of the players the Twins had signed in the twilight of their career. Many of them were brought in because they were a low-cost ...

For years under the direction of Tom Kelly, we constantly heard that the baseball season was a marathon and not a sprint. "Take it one game at a time" was the mantra constantly repeated to the players, media and fans during Kelly's tenure as manager from 1986 to 2001. In 1991, Ron Gardenhire became the Twins third base coach, a position he held until Kelly retired following the 2001 season. While Gardenhire has a little more fire to his managerial style than Kelly, he espouses the same philosophy. While Kelly is the Minnesota Twins all-time leader with 1,140 wins as manager, over 16 years he only had five seasons with a record better than .500, and only two division titles. Kelly made the most of those two post-season appearances, winning the World Series in 1987 and 1991. Gardenhire has been able to run the marathon with a little more success than Kelly, ...

The New York Yankees have the highest payroll in baseball. Not surprisingly they have the highest-paid player in baseball in Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod will be paid $32 million for the 2011 season. That's only $4.1 less than the entire Kansas City Royals team will be paid.Does the production at the plate justify the investment?I rated the performance so far this season for the highest-paid fielder from each major league team. The resulting ranking was based on offensive production—hits, runs, RBI and games played. The data was normalized for the salary of each player and then scored. Some readers may find the ranking unfair because the data was not averaged on a per-game basis and would lower the ranking of any player that has been on the disabled list. While injuries are a part of the game, the salary is still being paid and the player is not producing.Here's a look at ...

There's no doubt that 2010-2011 has been extremely disappointing for Minnesota sports fans. The Timberwolves again failed to hit 20 wins, the Wild missed the playoffs yet again, and the Vikings look to be in a free fall after being within one 14-men in the huddle penalty from the Super Bowl only 18 months ago.It would seem that things couldn't get any worse.But hope springs eternal and the time is right for baseball, the one constant within the Minnesota sports landscape. With the new stadium smell still hovering over Target Field the expectations have been the greatest for the local nine. What was supposed to be a season full of hope appears to be falling in line with all of the other professional teams as the Twins are in the midst of the single greatest turnaround in franchise history—the problem is this turnaround is in the negative direction.Taking a look as what ...

There's the old adage "you get what you pay for." Another one may be "past performance does not guarantee future results"—a disclaimer that anyone who has ever invested in any kind of annuity has heard.   Professional sports teams often sign players to ridiculous contracts based on past performance in hopes of significant future results. Across Major League Baseball, there are currently 76 players who will be paid at least $10 million in 2011. This represents 10.1 percent of all roster spots available across the 30 major-league clubs. There are currently seven teams in Major League Baseball without at least one player making $10 million in 2011. Their combined record as of May 13 was 128-137—a .483 winning percentage. In 2011, the most surprising of these teams has been the Tampa Bay Rays, who are currently leading the AL East. Certainly, if you get what you pay for, the record of ...