Category Archives: General

Knuckleballs Fantasy Baseball League!

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yahoo fantasy baseball imageHey kids!

We have ONE SPOT to offer to join the Knuckleballs crew and friends. It’s a FREE small league on Yahoo and we like it that way.

We will be “auto-drafting” (the computer does it for everyone based on pre-programmed rankings) so you can be a complete beginner and still have a great environment to learn and have a little fun with other fans all over the country.

The draft is set for Saturday night so I want to fill the spot quickly – first come, first served! Send me your email and I will send you an invite to the group!

Happily, that didn’t take long at all! We have a full complement of teams now! Let’s hope we all have a good season!

 

Sunday Morning Comic Relief

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Oh goodness, this made me laugh – thanks to JC for supplying the resource and yeah, there are days I really miss having the workhorse in the pen that Matty G was..

Looks like he’s having a pretty darn good time with the Dodgers and if I remember correctly, when he’s not drinking beer, he prefers Jagermeister. 😉

 

Twins Prospect Rankings

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As far as I can tell, thanks to Baseball Prospectus and FantasyRundown.com, these are the Twins prospects that appeared SOMEWHERE on a prospect ranking list. *

FIRST LAST POS
Oswaldo Arcia OF
Luke Bard RHP
Joe Benson OF
J.O. Berrios RHP
Byron Buxton OF
J.T. Chargois RHP
Kyle Gibson RHP
Deolis Guerra RHP
Carlos Gutierrez RHP
Chris Herrmann C
Aaron Hicks OF
Max Kepler-Rozycki OF
Trevor May RHP
Mason Melotakis LHP
Alex Meyer RHP
Levi Michael 2B
Angel Morales OF
Jeremias Pineda OF
Tyler Robertson LHP
Eddie Rosario OF
Miguel Sano 3B
Daniel Santana SS
Alex Wimmers RHP

That is a list of 23 players, I would feel comfortable considering these the 23 best Twins prospects in the Twins system.  Of these 23 players, six appear more frequently on lists, and higher up on lists, than any of the others: Oswaldo Arcia, Byron Buxton, Kyle Gibson, Aaron Hicks, Alex Meyer, and Miguel Sano.  No real surprise there, these are the six players that both Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus included in their recent Top 100 (101 for BP) lists.  Paul and I talked about those players at some length in the recent episode of Talk to Contact, and compared where each of those two sites had the players listed.  If you have a copy of Seth Stoh’s Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook 2013 you can find several additional prospect lists in there.  Again, the same six names generally top those prospect lists in some order, with Buxton and Sano at the top, and the other four usually clumped together.

The other names on the list, I think, then are much more interesting, as they are less likely to have drool all over them from prospect hungry Twins fans looking toward the not-to-distant future when the Twins might not be terrible again.  Of the 17 other players included on FantasyRundown.com’s list, the most recognizable names are probably Trevor May, Eddie Rosario, J.O. Berios, and Max Kepler.  Those four players will usually round out the Top 10 lists for most Twins prospects, and in fact, in the Top 15 Twins Prospect list that Fangraphs released yesterday, three of those four appeared in their top 10.  Trevor May was the one on the outside (12), and in his place in the top 10 was middle infielder Jorge Polanco, who is not even listed above, and has yet to play full-season baseball for the Twins.  Eventually the list over at BP will be updated and the Fangraphs rankings will be included and not only will Jorge Polanco be added, but Travis Harrison, a promising third basemen who also has yet to play full-season ball will be on the list as well.

Get to know some of the names on this list, they’ll be a big part of the Twins future, and when you get tired of watching the Twins lose in 2013, you can follow these players through the Minor Leagues.

*The following prospect lists were used in compiling the list of Twins prospects listed above: 

Baseball America – Long-term Rankings
SeedlingstoStars.com – Long-term Rankings
Scout.com – Long-term Rankings
TopProspectAlert.com – Long-term Rankings
BaseballProspectus.com – Long-term Rankings
FanGraphs.com – Long-term Rankings
ScoutingBook.com – Long-term Rankings updated as of 02/06/13
ProjectProspect.com – Long-term Rankings
BaseballInstinct.com – Long-term Rankings
ESPN.com’s Keith Law – Long-term Rankings
Prospect361.com – Long-term Rankings
TheBaseballHaven.MLBlogs.com – Long-term Rankings
BullpenBanter.com – Long-term Rankings
MLB.com – Long-term Rankings
DeepLeagues.com – Long-term Rankings
ThroughtheFenceBaseball.com – Long-term Rankings
TheDynastyGuru.com – Top 150 Dynasty Lge Fantasy Prospects
Prospect361.com – Top 100 Longterm Fantasy Prospects
CBSSports.com – Top 100 Longterm Fantasy Prospects
ProjectProspect.com – Longterm Fantasy Rankings
Rotoprofessor.com – 2013 Fantasy Prospects
Razzball.com – 2013 Fantasy Prospects

 

Our 3rd Knuckle-versary!

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I’m as well aware as anyone that once you reach a certain age, you prefer to stop counting your birthdays. I tried to stop a couple of decades ago. But anniversaries are always worth celebrating, right?

Our humble little blog here at Knuckleballs turns just three years old this week and we’re still counting!

KnuckleballsBlueLogo1.jpgIn fact, not only are we still counting, but we’re still growing and we have all of you, our readers, to thank for that!

A year ago, as we were looking back at our first two years in the Twins blogging community and at the upcoming year, we were thrilled that our readership had grown from about 30,000 visitors the first year to more than 50,000 in the second year. At the same time, we questioned whether we might see our readership plateau a bit or maybe even drop off. The super-bloggers over at TwinsDaily were just kicking off their fantasic site and we recognized that, while it was a brilliant idea, it could have a dampening effect on readership for smaller “independent” blogs like ours.

Apparently, we needn’t have worried about that. In the past 12 months, we’ve had over 92,000 visitors stop by Knuckleballs. (Some of you even stay long enough to read something.) I’m not sure what to attribute the continued increase to, but I’m sure it didn’t hurt to add Eric and his contributions to our group!

We don’t have any significant changes planned for the coming season, though we may tweak a few things here and there. We’ll continue to open up GameChat windows for almost every Twins game and, of course, we’ll continue our usual not-so-serious approach to being Twins fans. I’m personally also really looking forward to including more posts focused on my home town Cedar Rapids Kernels this summer, now that they’re affiliated with the Twins.

We never really got in to this project with the expectation of huge readership numbers, but it is gratifying that so many people find the work we do to be worth the time to check in from time to time.

Thank you!

Babs, Eric, KL and JC

 

News Alert: Is the Universe Really That Obliging??

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You may have heard the announcement already – it came out last night.

Our hometown boy, THE Minnesota Twin – yeah, you know who I mean, the newlywed Joe Mauer, announced that he and his new wife, Maddie, are expecting. Congratulations are in order, of course. But here’s the kicker: they are having TWINS.

No, seriously. That girl has some major league talent of her own to get this going – practically a storybook setup. (one that you would find ridiculous, unbelievable and too much of a stretch to make it good writing.) Good for them! (of course, it’s good for them but not exactly something on my wish list – twins are twice the work of one, I hear 🙂 )

1soquery0627.JPG

Of course, this kind of makes me wonder what this team puts in the water… I can’t list all the twin births that have occurred in families of this team but my impression is that it’s far above the actual average. Could this be a symptom of having Twins on the mind too much?? [starts thinking very hard: singles, singles, singles..]

Now, back to your regularly scheduled Knuckleballs Keychain Contest!

The Key to Being a Knuckleballer

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Thanks to the nice people working at WholesaleKeychain.com, Knuckleballs has four brand spankin’ new Minnesota Twins keychains to give away to our lovely readers.

Here they are:

TWINS KEYCHAINS!
TWINS KEYCHAINS!

These keychains not only hold your keys, but they send a message to the world that says, “I have keys AND a passion for Minnesota Twins baseball, and I don’t care who knows it!”  How could anything be better than that?  Rumor even has it that Josh Willingham and Trevor Plouffe use these EXACT same keychains!*  You can be just like your favorite Big League ballplayer.

*Maybe.  Probably not.  We have no idea what kind of keychain anyone uses.  We’re not even sure where our own keys are.

If you want one of the keychains, leave us a message below, or send us a tweet on twitter (@knuckleballs).  We’ll select four winners at random on Monday morning (meaning you’ll have all weekend to convince all of your friends to enter for a chance to win YOU a keychain) and drop these keychains in the mail so you’ll have your new Twins keychain just in plenty of time for Opening Day.

Thanks again to the folks at WholesaleKeychain.com for sending the Keychains our way.

-ERolfPleiss

Eddie Rosario turning Heads

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Twenty one year old Eddie Rosario is with the Minnesota Twins in Big League camp this spring so he can get some extra work in before playing in the World Baseball Classic with his native Puerto Rico.  Rosario, who has not played above Low-A baseball, has made appearances in both of the Twins Spring Training games and he played in an intra-squad game prior to Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays.

In Saturday’s Spring Training opener, Rosario was 1 for 3 with single and on Sunday he was 2 for 2 with an RBI and a walk.  Offensively, things seem to going well for the youngster, despite his lack of experience against high-profile talent.

Eddie Rosario (Photo credit Pioneer Press: John Autey)
Eddie Rosario (Photo credit Pioneer Press: John Autey)

Defensively, things have been a little rockier for Rosario.  A converted outfielder, Rosario has only one full season of play at second base, and this winter played outfield for his club in the Puerto Rican Winter League.  Jumping back into the infield Rosario likely has a few cobwebs to knock out.  In Saturday’s game Rosario missed an opportunity to throw out the lead runner at the plate when he was unsure where to go with the ball immediately after fielding it in the fifth.  On Sunday, Rosario misplayed a ground ball and was charged with an error on what should have been the first out in an inning where the Twins eventually gave up 3 runs.  When asked about the poor defensive play of the Twins in Sunday’s game, Ron Gardenhire said, “We’re seeing a lot of stuff you can talk about and hopefully make them better at the end.”

When Puerto Rico begins pool play in the WBC on March 8, Rosario will be back in the outfield, so he will have to transition back to second base when he rejoins the Twins.  Rosario’s future with the Twins will be largely based on his ability to play passable defense at second base, as the Twins outfield is packed fill of high end prospects and Rosario’s bat plays much better at second base because he does not have the requisite power to compete with a typical corner outfielder.

At the conclusion of the World Baseball Classic Rosario will likely return to Minor League camp, but for now he certainly seems like he is enjoying his time with the Big Leaguers and while he is not listed in the starting line up for Monday’s game against the Pirates he will likely be making an appearance after the first few innings.

-ERolfPleiss