Tag: Minnesota Twins

The Twins became the third team to agree to a contract with Carlos Correa and MLB fans had jokes

The wildest free agency ever.

Carlos Correa certainly had a free-agency experience to remember this offseason, but the saga *finally* appears to be reaching its end.

After seeing massive deals with the Giants and Mets fall through due to his physical, Correa agreed to terms on a six-year, $200-million deal with the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday. Correa played this past season in Minnesota before opting out of his contract to test the open market. That was when concerns about his ankle stalled separate 13-year and 12-year agreements.

The six-year contract with the Twins seemingly gave the club protection should Correa’s ankle issues worsen while also giving Correa a lucrative deal ($33.3 million per year on average).

Of course, the “pending physical” part of the agreement has proven to be a huge hurdle for Correa, but this time, the expectation is for Correa to finalize the deal with the Twins.

That didn’t stop MLB fans from making jokes about Correa’s wild three-team free agency.

The Twins changed their logo and MLB fans joked about how it’s basically the same

It’s … very similar.

The Minnsota Twins are getting an offseason makeover.

Well, at least their uniforms and logo are.

The franchise dropped new threads on Friday, which include bringing back the stripes we saw from the team in the late 20th century. There’s an actual “Twin Cities” jersey too, which is neat.

And the logo? It was a T intertwined with a C for the “Twin Cities,” which has now been replaced by … a slightly different T and C. The colors have changed, the “TM” is gone, and the little touches on the ends of the T have been streamlined.

Of course, MLB fans had jokes:

Twins’ Gilberto Celestino nearly clobbered Gary Sanchez in the face in the on-deck circle

This was SCARY.

Gary Sanchez nearly lost his head while walking near the on-deck circle.

On Sunday, the Minnesota Twins were visiting the Chicago White Sox when disaster almost struck. With Gilberto Celestino in the on-deck circle warming up, Sanchez was walking back to the dugout after his at bat. Unaware that his teammate was there, Celestino took a large swing with his bat to finish warming up, one which came mere centimeters from clocking Sanchez square in the face.

Thankfully for everyone involved, Celestino’s errant swing went above Sanchez’s head, but this was way too close for comfort for any of the parties involved.

Yeah, that could have been real bad had it connected. Definitely a lesson learned for Celestino here.

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Twins reliever Jhoan Duran threw the filthiest 100 MPH ‘splinker’ with movement and everyone was in awe

This was a historically fast offspeed pitch!

Jhoan Duran has lit the MLB world on fire.

The Minnesota Twins reliever has had an unbelievable rookie year with 73 strikeouts in 56.2 innings and a 1.91 ERA. He throws absurdly hard, too.

That now includes a 100 MPH pitch that’s supposed to be an offspeed throw, but was, in fact, very much on speed (sorry, not sorry).

It was an offering from Monday night known as a “splinker” — a split-fingered sinker that darted past the bat of Boston Red Sox outfielder Alex Verdugo. Per MLB.com, that’s the first offspeed pitch ever tracked in the Statcast era at triple digits.

You’ve got to see this thing:

MLB umps lost their minds Tuesday night in Houston

Come on, umps. Be better than this!

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MLB umps have been brutal all season and I’ve been hoping that things would get better as the season moved along but it feels like it is only getting worse.

In the past week we’ve seen a player demanding an apology from MLB for a really bad call and we’ve seen maybe the worst missed call by a home plate ump.

Things took another bad turn Tuesday night in Houston when Twins manager Rocco Baldelli was ejected for rightfully calling the umps out on their nonsense.

Here’s what happened: The Twins and Astros had a bench-clearing dustup in the fifth inning after Aaron Sanchez hit Jose Altuve with a pitch and at the end of it Baldelli stepped on the mound for a second and asked Sanchez “are you fine?” Baldelli then continued to the dugout and the game went on.

Moments later the Twins had their pitching coach make a mound visit and the umps ruled it was the second visit of the inning because of Baldelli’s brief conversation after the dustup and forced the Twins to make a pitching change.

Baldelli, who didn’t have a pitcher warming up, then lost it and was ejected:

The umps said after the game that they motioned to the press box after Baldelli’s brief conversation with Sanchez to record that a mound visit had taken place but they didn’t bother to tell the Twins that, which rightfully angered Baldelli:

“There’s people walking all over the place, getting settled back in after some type of altercation, and in the middle of it all I’m given a mound visit, and not being communicated with,” Baldelli said. “If someone walks over and says, ‘Hey, you might not agree with it, but we got together and decided to give you a mound visit because you stopped on the mound and looked like you talked to your pitcher.’ They didn’t know what I was talking about because there weren’t out there with me. Could they have been? Maybe, but they weren’t. We didn’t get any of that.”

This was another screw up by the umps, who failed to communicate with the Twins and definitely overreacted to a mound visit that wasn’t really a mound visit. Baldelli should be allowed a brief second to check in to see if his pitcher is OK after Altuve overreacted to being hit by a pitch. It’s not a big deal and it’s not really a mound visit. The umps should give some leeway there.

These guys need to get their stuff together and get it together pretty darn quickly.

Quick hits: Detroit slide absolutely destroying people… Little Leaguer’s awesome bat flip… Pujols’ sweet swing… And more. 

Theme park employees stand near a giant metal slide

– Here are the five best videos of people getting absolutely wrecked by this insane slide in Detroit.

– Nicaragua’s Luis Garcia had an epic bat flip after a 3-run bomb at the Little League World Series.

– This slo-mo video of Albert Pujols’ latest home run is so good.

– Did Justin Herbert throw some shade at Derek Carr here?

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MLB umpires have some explaining to do after bizarrely tossing Twins manager for visiting the mound

Rocco Baldelli was absolutely LIVID here.

Rocco Baldelli had every right to be angry at the umpires after this colossal screw up.

During the bottom of the fifth between the Minnesota Twins and Houston Astros, a bizarre situation unfolded between Baldelli and the umpires. When the Twins pitching coach went to talk to Aaron Sanchez on the mound, the umpires ruled that Baldelli had already used a mound visit earlier in the inning… during a benches clearing dust up.

One batter earlier, the benches cleared between the Twins and Astros when Jose Altuve was hit by a pitch from Sanchez. Then after, when Baldelli used a mound visit, the umpires forced the Twins to remove Sanchez from the game for having two visits in the inning. The ruling took Baldelli and the Twins by surprise too, as Minnesota didn’t even have a pitcher warming up in the bullpen.

Suffice it to say, Baldelli was irate at the umpire’s ruling.

It’s no wonder Baldelli went off on the umpires here. This was a bad call, plain and simple, and yet another in a long list of awful rulings by MLB officials.

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Former Tiger throws no-hitter

Former Tiger Daniel Gossett made history by throwing the first no-hitter in Wichita Wind Surge history Friday night. The Surge is the Double-A affiliate for the Minnesota Twins. BALLGAME OVER!!! DANIEL GOSSETT THROWS THE FIRST NO-HITTER IN WIND …

Former Tiger Daniel Gossett made history by throwing the first no-hitter in Wichita Wind Surge history Friday night.

The Surge is the Double-A affiliate for the Minnesota Twins.

 

Twins’ Rocco Baldelli goes off on seething tirade after umps overturn pivotal review at the plate

Rocco Baldelli was absolutely LIVID after this key review in the Twins’ loss.

Minnesota Twins manager Rocco Baldelli did not mince words with the umpires here after a crucial review at the plate ended up becoming the winning run for the Toronto Blue Jays.

On Sunday, with the score between the Twins and Blue Jays tied 2-2 in the top of the 10th inning, Whit Merrifield attempted to go home on a tag from third off a shallow fly ball to left field. Merrifield was called out after a tag from Gary Sanchez caught him at home plate in the hip, initially ending the half inning for the visitors.

That was until the play went under review, in which the call was then reversed, as the umpires deemed Sanchez in violation of blocking the plate, allowing the run to stand as the Blue Jays took a 3-2 lead. Here’s how the initial play went down at home plate.

After the call was overturned, to the displeasure of the Minnesota home crowd, Baldelli absolutely went off on the umpires for the controversial call that eventually became the game-winner for the Blue Jays.

And Baldelli’s vexations didn’t just extend to the field either, as he continued his tirade in his postgame press conference, calling the whole affair “beyond embarrassing” and “pathetic”.

While I get where Baldelli’s coming from here, Sanchez had the ball in his possession when his leg kicked out and blocked Merrifield from the plate, putting him in violation of the controversial ruling. Them’s the breaks sometimes in sports!

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Suni Lee threw in an effortless flip on her first pitch for the Twins because she can

Of COURSE, an Olympian would do that on the mound.

Before the Twins and Blue Jays played a little game of baseball on Friday night, Minnesota welcomed a special guest to the stadium — Tokyo 2020 gold medalist Suni Lee.

With the 19-year-old world-class gymnast in a relative break before any major competitions, the Twins had the St. Paul native Lee come and throw out the first pitch. And you might think otherwise, Dearest Readers, but this was no ordinary first pitch.

Lee is, you know, one of the most athletic people on the planet. So instead of just throwing the ball across home plate, she did a complete front flip on her pitch windup. Why? Because she could!

Oh, wait, this was the plan the whole time? And this was the equivalent of a warmup???

Oh sweet heavens, look at that angle. Why don’t more MLB teams invite Olympians to throw out first pitches? If cool things like this happen when they’re on the mound, they have no excuse.

For what it’s worth, the Twins went on to win 6-5 with a thrilling walk-off play at the plate:

Huh. Maybe Minnesota should bring Lee and her effortless front flips in more often if these are the results.

WATCH: Suni Lee delivers epic first pitch at Minnesota Twins game

Lee returned to her home state to add some gymnastics flair to the traditional first pitch.

Very rarely does a student-athlete have a distinguished career BEFORE stepping on campus. The one exception for Auburn athletics is gymnastics superstar [autotag]Sunisa Lee[/autotag].

Just months before taking her first college class, Lee won a gold medal with Team USA in the All-Around event, as well a bronze medal in the uneven bars during the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

Friday, Lee returned to her home state in Minneapolis, Minnesota to throw out the first pitch at the Minnesota Twins’ game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Target Field. In true Suni Lee fashion, she delivered the first pitch with incredible style.

Lee will return to Auburn for her sophomore season in 2023. As a freshman in 2022, Lee reached a perfect 10.000 score five times in two different events. She reached the perfect score three times on beam against Kentucky on February 25, against Florida on March 4, and finally at the NCAA Regionals on April 2.

On the bars, she reached 10.000 twice, once at LSU on February 2, and again at the SEC Championships on March 19.

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