Catcher Drew Butera and third baseman Danny Valencia will represent the Minnesota Twins as members of the MLB All-Star team in the 2011 Taiwan All-Star Series. The team will travel to Taiwan to play the Chinese Taipei national team in November.

The entire roster will be reveled in the coming weeks, but joining Butera and Valencia on the MLB All-Star roster will be Curtis Granderson and Robinson Cano from the New York Yankees, Pablo Sandoval from the San Francisco Giants and Logan Morrison from the Florida Marlins. Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers was also named to the roster. Cabrera’s participation will be determined based on if the Tigers make it to the World Series.

The coaching staff will be lead by San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy. Bochy’s coaching staff will include his current Giants bench coach Ron Wotus, Giants bullpen catcher Billy Hayes, Los Angeles Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt and Tampa Bay Rays hitting coach Derek Shelton.

The Taiwan All-Star Series will consist of five games played between November 1st-6th in three different cities – New Taipei City (XinZhuang Stadium) on November 1st, Taichung (Intercontinental Stadium) on November 3rd and 4th and Kaohsiung (Chengcing Lake Stadium) on November 5th and 6th.

Ahh, July. Summer’s here. The baseball season is heating up. Teams are distinguishing themselves within their divisions. And the trade deadline looms.

It’s still unclear whether the Twins will be buyers or sellers, or if they’ll stand pat, at the trade deadline.  The Twins are currently eight games back in the division, which is not at all insurmountable, but they also have to leapfrog over the White Sox, Tigers, and Indians, which might be tough.

As it is, other teams are looking for help and are calling the Twins to see who’s available. The most common names I’ve seen thrown out there are: Kevin Slowey, Michael Cuddyer, and Matt Capps. » Continue reading “Rumor Report: Thoughts On Slowey, Cuddyer, Capps”

The number eight played a big part in the Twins’ 9-2 victory over the reigning World Series Champion, San Francisco Giants last night. The victory also stretched the Twins’ winning streak to eight games.

Twins hitters essentially took batting practice off of left handed starter Madison Bumgarner in the first inning. Line drives, bouncers in the gap, drives to the outfield added up to give the Twins eight runs on eight hits.

Bumgarner surrendered doubles to Alexi Casilla, Michael Cuddyer, Danny Valencia and Ben Revere. Tsuyoshi Nishioka blasted his hit over the center fielder’s head.

Twins players circled the bases like a merry-go-round. Twins’ fans in attendance cheered on the hit parade, while Giants’ fans booed.

According to Elias Sports Bureau, the Twins tied a major league mark with eight hits to start the game. The Cubs were the last team to do it, Sept. 8, 2009, against Pittsburgh.

After Carl Pavano struck out for the first out of the inning. Revere followed with a double to left which drove in Luke Hughes and Nishioka for the seventh and eighth runs of the inning.

It has been almost 21 years since a team opened a game with eight consecutive hits and all eight hitters scoring since the Yankees did it to the Orioles on Sept. 25, 1990.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Twins last had nine hits in an inning on July 21, 2004, against Tampa Bay. And it was their first eight-run inning since Aug. 23, 2009, at Kansas City.

The Twins have won eight consecutive games and 15 of their past 17. With Cleveland’s loss to Colorado, the Twins are 6 1/2 games behind the AL Central-leading Indians. On June 1, the Twins were 16 1/2 games out of first.

The Twins didn’t play yesterday and still managed to climb up the AL Central standings. Thanks to loses by the Indians, Tigers and White Sox the Twins are now 7.5 games out of first place.

Twins at Giants Preview:

The Twins arrive in San Francisco with the hope of keeping their seven game winning streak alive. The Giants have tied their season worst, by losing their last four games.  This will be the teams’ first meeting since 2005, when the Giants took two of three in Minnesota. The Twins were last in San Francisco in 2003 and took two of three. 

The Giants (39-33) have scored a total of seven runs while batting .180 during their skid – going 0 for 26 with runners in scoring position. They fell 2-1 at Oakland on Sunday, but kept a half-game lead over Arizona in the NL West because the Diamondbacks also lost.

Twins’ pitchers have dominated in the month of June. The Twins’ 2.01 ERA in June is the best in the majors by a wide margin. During the month of June, the starting pitchers have gone 7 innings or more.

Carl Pavano (4-5, 4.20 ERA) has thrown two complete games this month, going 2-0 with a 1.44 ERA in three starts. He could be fresh for Tuesday’s start after needing only 96 pitches to go the distance in a 4-1 win over the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday.

Pavano’s last two interleague starts in 2010 were complete games – including a three-hit shutout against the New York Mets on June 26.

Michael Cuddyer came up big for the Twins’ in their last homestand, going 14 for 30 (.467) with three homers and 10 RBIs in nine games.

The Giants were hoping Pablo Sandoval could bolster their offense after returning from a broken hand last week, but he’s 3 for 17 (.176) with no RBIs and five strikeouts during the losing streak.

Tonight’s starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner (3-8, 3.21) has felt the strain of San Francisco’s struggling bats all season, getting a team-low 2.8 runs of support per nine innings.

The left-hander hasn’t needed much offense lately, though. He’s allowed three or fewer runs while pitching at least six innings in each of his last 10 starts, posting a 2.03 ERA in that stretch.