It has been well over a month since my last post in this series, simply because of the amount of work it takes to churn one of these out. I've been busy getting my butt handed to me by Accounting classes this summer, and haven't had a lot of time for long-form posts. I somehow got through some of the harder classes in the sequence, and can hopefully get through to graduation without a lot of anxiety. At the moment I am doing tax returns for fictional people. It's a lot of fun, believe me.
Anyway, on with the cards. The 9th team in the set is the Minnesota Twins. They get 12 cards in their team set, which is slightly under the overall average of 13 per team afforded by the checklist. The Twins also get their Star Power out of the way pretty fast, with Joe Mauer leading off in the Catcher slot. He gets a decent photo, showing him in his catching gear.
Anyway, on with the cards. The 9th team in the set is the Minnesota Twins. They get 12 cards in their team set, which is slightly under the overall average of 13 per team afforded by the checklist. The Twins also get their Star Power out of the way pretty fast, with Joe Mauer leading off in the Catcher slot. He gets a decent photo, showing him in his catching gear.
Justin Morneau gets in at the first base spot, with a 7-star rating. His numbers are pretty even all across, matching his description as a 'dependable run producer.' He was traded to the Pirates partway through 2013, released by them, and has had a resurgent year with Colorado in 2014.
I know you weren't expecting this from the Twins, but things get pretty sparse in the team set from here on out. Carroll was around long enough that he actually spent some time on the defunct Expos. I haven't done any research on it, but I would imagine there weren't a whole lot of former Expos featured on 2013 baseball cards. Carroll spent the last part of 2013 with Kansas City and hasn't played in 2014, although the Nationals signed and released him prior to Opening Day.
Trevor Plouffe has had a decent year for the Twins, even co-winning the most recent AL Player of the Week Award, sharing the honor with teammate Danny Santana.
So far 2014 has been a pretty god year for Brian Dozier. Baseball-Reference.com tells me he is currently leading the AL in runs scored with 94 so far. It looks like he's got some hair going on in the back there, but I don't think he is fully committed to the mullet.
This card came along at a good time for Josh Willingham, as his previous year (2012) was probably his career peak, with 35 home runs and 110 RBI. The Twins traded him to the Kansas City Royals a couple of weeks ago for some minor league dude.
Rounding out the batters in the Twins team set is Ryan Doumit, the Catcher/Outfield utility guy. It seems more common these days, but it seems like a few years ago it was cool to pick up Doumit in fantasy baseball because you could plug him in at catcher and get outfielder production out of him. It never really seemed to work out all that well, though. The theory of it is pretty exciting. He got traded to Atlanta for a minor-leaguer in the off-season.
Scott Diamond had a pretty good 2012, a not-good 2013, and was released by the Twins this year after not doing so well in the minors. He is currently pitching poorly for a Cincinnati Reds minor league affiliate. Actually, right now he is probably asleep. But he is a member of the team, and when he pitches it appears that hitters are doing a good job of hitting the ball.
Worley was bought from the Twins by the Pirates this year. I am trying not to do a whole butt-load of research on this stuff, but it appears that he was probably injured for the first part of the season. I guess he could have been in the minors. He started out pretty well, winning quite a few games. He has lost his last three starts, though, and has a 5-4 record so far on the year. He's got a low 3.14 ERA and seems to be pitching into the 7th inning or so with regularity, so he's probably not getting a lot of run support.
Alex Burnett didn't actually play for the Twins in 2013. He spent the pre-season and early part of the season being waived and picked up by various teams, and then the Cubs released him for good. He managed to get 2.1 innings of work for the 2013 season, though, racking up an 11.57 ERA.
Roenicke had a passable 2013 with the Twins, but they released him after the season. He was picked up by the Nationals before the 2014 season, pitched poorly in their minor league system, dropped in early August, and picked up by the Rockies on a minor league deal. He has struggled there as well.
Perkins has been pretty solid as the Twins' closer the last couple of years, making the All-Star game in 2013 and 2014. I have him on quite a few fantasy baseball rosters this year. He strikes out a good number of guys, has nice ratios, and racks up saves. You can't complain about any of that.
And that's it for the Twins. I am not sure when I will get around to posting the next team, as this was the last team I had all the scans done for.
2013 SEGA Card-Gen Directory
These are pretty cool! Had no idea they existed. Cool post.
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