Torii Hunter's Hall of Fame case; Fun with comps for current Twins players [Twins Hyperlinks]

Derek Wetmore

Dec 27, 2021

Hi all,

I hope you’re having a relaxing end of the year, whatever you’re up to these days. I’ve started working more while we all collectively wait for baseball and spring to return. And I have one more big Twins column planned for 2021 before we clean the house and ring in the new year by falling asleep at 9:30pm and waking up to a fresh page on the calendar. (My Spurs are scheduled to play a game New Years morning, so give me a break!)

It so happens that a links column like this apparently is not good for those interested in spammy marketing. I have an idea to improve that for 2022, and in the meantime I could use your help. If you like my columns, help me to avoid spam folders by adding me to your Safe Senders address book. Or, with Gmail’s inbox, click and drag my email until it’s over the “Primary” tab, and release it there. That helps the system to know I’m not sending you unwanted advertising-filled emails.

Thanks to you all for another interesting year!

Now, today’s Twins Hyperlinks

Here’s Pat Reusse on the 1970 Twins, the most underappreciated club in team history. Now complete with 5 Hall of Famers.

Jeopardy champ Amy Schneider with some kind words for our friend Do-Hyoung Park of MLB dot com.

Do-Hyoung Park @dohyoungpark

Thanks so much to you, Amy, for all of your kind words and for an unforgettable experience! It’s been so fun to read your perspective and, as I said that day, to have shared the stage with you and become a small part of your amazing Jeopardy! story. I’ll always cherish it. https://t.co/U26pmnFh5h

Amy Schneider @Jeopardamy

I told Do after the game that he was the toughest challenger I'd faced; upon rewatch it's probably more like a toss-up between him and Pam, but the fact that he got stronger towards the end really had me sweating. Thanks to him and Erin for a super fun game!

The Twins’ 2022 ZiPS projections are out!

This is a post that I look forward to every year. This year, I will force a smile through gritted teeth as ZiPS creator Dan Szymborski refers to the current pitching staff as the “Meh-nnesota Twins.” Uff da.

From that post, the most interesting No. 1 player comps:

Byron Buxton to Joe Carter
Max Kepler to Randy Bush
Jose Miranda to Mike Lowell
Austin Martin to Milton Bradley
Willians Astudillo to Terry Tiffee

Taylor Rogers to Goose Gossage
Michael Pineda to Brad Radke
Jhoan Duran to Dallas Braden

Here’s a good post on Torii Hunter’s Hall of Fame case, according to Jay Jaffe.

I still vividly remember being surprised when a former Twins coach asked me during spring training in 2015 whether or not I thought Torii would get in. Jaffe lays out a good read and an interesting article, no matter what your opinion on such matters.

One nugget worth sharing here: From Hunter’s 1993 MLB draft class, which included big leaguers Chris Carpenter, Derrek Lee, Trot Nixon, and Billy Wagner, “only number one overall pick Alex Rodriguez produced more value in the majors.”

Mike Axisa put the Twins on his list of “10 MLB teams with the most work to do after lockout ends”

Personally I thought his writeup, while hitting on the important topic, was a bit harsh. If the Twins don’t do anything further to address starting pitching before the season begins, we can re-assess.

The Twins-Tigers game from July 28 – a 17-14 loss at Target Field – made it into Jayson Stark’s 10 Strangest Games of the Year for The Athletic.

In part because it was objectively weird, and in part because Detroit’s lineup pulled off a unique feat for the first time since before the Great Depression. That game turned out to be J.A. Happ’s last in a Twins uniform: 3+ innings, 9 earned runs.

Former Twins pitcher Charlie Barnes is signing with the KBO’s Lotte Giants (Busan), according to Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News.

Jeeho Yoo @Jeeho_1

#KBO signings: Lotte Giants have acquired pitchers Charlie Barnes ($610,000) and Glenn Sparkman ($800,000). They will replace Dan Straily and Enderson Franco in the Giants' rotation. With the earlier signing of DJ Peters, the Giants have filled their foreign player quota for '22

Thank you to James S, who signed up this week to become a Subscribing Member. You still have a few more days to get the 50% December 2021 Discount on a full season.

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