My Love Affair With Fast Fastballs and Strikeouts...and the Twins

The Twins have changed their philosophy regarding pitching and it seems that they are now targeting power arms.  In this blog I’ll be comparing the fastball velocity of pitchers who started games for the Twins last season (and remain on the team) and the pitchers they acquired in the 2013 offseason.  Like I said, I’m a velocity whore.

The average velocity of the pitchers from last year come courtesy of Brooks Baseball pitch f/x and stats come from Baseball Reference.

Arizona Diamondbacks' Offseason

The Arizona Diamondbacks have had a busy offseason and it has come with some scrutiny from the baseball media.  Here is a rundown of some of the more significant moves made that impact the 25-man roster:

-Traded CF Chris Young to Oakland and received SS Cliff Pennington and RHP Heath Bell

-Traded 3B Ryan Wheeler to Colorado for LHP Matt Reynolds

-Signed FA OF Eric Hinske

-Signed FA 3B Eric Chavez

-Signed FA RHP Brandon McCarthy

-Traded RHP Trevor Bauer, RHP Bryan Shaw and RHP Matt Albers to Cleveland for 1B Lars Anderson, SS Didi Gregorious and LHP Tony Sipp.

-Signed FA OF Cody Ross

-Traded OF Justin Upton and 3B Chris Johnson to Atlanta for 3B Martin Prado, RHP Randall Delgado, RHP Zeke Spruill, SS Nick Ahmed and 3B Brandon Drury

Thoughts on Game 7 of '91 World Series

I texted my dad and asked what I was doing when the Twins won Game 7 of the 1991 World Series.  He said I was soundly asleep in his arms as I was only six months old.  To date, that is the only World Series the Twins have won during my lifetime.  

The People's Republic of Minnesota

Earlier this week Jason Wojciechowski wrote on Baseball Prospectus about the prospect of several states including California and Ohio forming their own teams for this years World Baseball Classic. Something that bewildered me was that he left out the baseball powerhouse that is Minnesota. I mean we have Joe Mauer and...

Well anyway, it's basically a forgone conclusion that the great state of many lakes will be seceding from the Union. The petition has like 4,000 signatures. So I think it's a good idea to blatantly steal Jason's wonderful idea and try to form the WBC roster of the People's Republic of Minnesota.