http://www.twinslocker.com Minnesota Twins Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:36:26 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The Minnesota Twins like to have their pitchers throw a lot of strikes. The problem with that last year was that batters were digging in and swinging hard early in counts, and the Twins' pitchers got hit pretty hard for the most part. The Twins are hoping for ... http://www.twinslocker.com/2012/01/30/the-minnesota-twins-are-hoping-for-improvement-from-the-starting-rotation-in-2012/ The Twins have signed 26-year old lefty starting pitcher Luke French to a minor league deal. French pitched in 26 games (all starts) in AAA-ball last year and he was 9-9 with a 6.27 ERA and a 1.76 WHIP. French last pitched in the majors in 2010 with ... http://www.twinslocker.com/2012/01/27/the-minnesota-twins-sign-luke-french/ The Twins have signed 29-year old righty reliever Brad Thompson to a minor league deal. He didn't pitch last season, by choice. He last pitched in the majors in 2010 with the Royals. Thompson has now pitched in 201 games (32 starts) in his first six years ... http://www.twinslocker.com/2012/01/24/the-minnesota-twins-sign-brad-thompson/ The Twins wanted to spread their free agent dollars around and net as many good players as they could get. They seem to achieved their goal. Here is a look at the new guys for 2012 so far: In the field: The Twins went out and signed three ... http://www.twinslocker.com/2012/01/16/the-minnesota-twins-have-made-some-decent-moves-this-winter/ The Vikings have signed 27-year old righty reliever Joel Zumaya to a minor league deal. Zumaya did not pitch at all last season due to injury. The Twins liked what they saw in his recent workouts, so they are giving him a chance to revive his promising major ... http://www.twinslocker.com/2012/01/15/the-minnesota-vikings-sign-joel-zumaya/ The Twins have signed 28-year old righty reliever Casey Fien. Fien pitched in 23 games (0 starts) in rookie+AAA-ball last year and he was 3-2 with 3 saves, a 4.44 ERA and a 1.41 WHIP. He last pitched in the majors back in 2010 for the Tigers. ... http://www.twinslocker.com/2012/01/04/the-minnesota-twins-sign-casey-fien/ The Twins have signed 27-year old righty swinging 1B/OF Aaron Bates to a minor league contract. Bates played in 106 games in AAA-ball last year and he was 113 of 358 (.316 avg, .847 OPS) with 57 runs scored, 7 homers, 37 RBIs and 1 stolen base. He ... http://www.twinslocker.com/2012/01/04/the-minnesota-twins-sign-1bof-aaron-bates/ The Twins have signed 33-year old righty starting pitcher Jason Marquis to a 1-year, $3 million dollar deal. Marquis pitched in 23 games (all starts) for the Nationals & Diamondbacks last year and he was 8-6 with a 4.43 ERA and a 1.49 WHIP. He has now pitched ... http://www.twinslocker.com/2011/12/22/the-minnesota-twins-sign-jason-marquis/ The Twins have signed 24-year old lefty reliever/starter Aaron Thompson to a minor league deal. Thompson pitched in 4 games (1 start) for the Pirates in his first taste of the majors last year, and he was 0-0 with a 7.04 ERA and a 2.48 WHIP. He also ... http://www.twinslocker.com/2011/12/15/the-minnesota-twins-sign-aaron-thompson/ The Twins have signed 27-year old righty swinging catcher J.R. Towles to a minor league deal. Towles played in 54 games for the Astros last year and he was 27 for 147 (.184 avg, .549 OPS) with 11 runs scored, 3 homers and 11 RBIs. He has now ... http://www.twinslocker.com/2011/12/15/the-minnesota-twins-sign-jr-towles/