Minnesota Twins Daily Clips Thursday, January 26, 2017 Hartman: Twins' St. Peter says, 'We have a lot of work to do'. Star Tribune (Hartman) p. 1 Sano swats three of Twins' hardest-hit HRs. MLB (Bollinger) p. 2 MLB: Forgotten Stars of the 1990s. FOX Sports (Tabakin) p. 3 Nick Gordon Makes Law’s Top 60 Prospects. ESPN (Law) p. 4 Bullpen Rumors: Badenhop, Lefties, Indians, Breslow, Colome, Twins. MLB Trade Rumors (Adams) p. 4 Byron Buxton returns to Cedar Rapids, confident about establishing himself in 2017 for Minnesota Twins. Cedar Rapids Gazette (Johnson) p. 4 Baseball: Buxton, May see better days ahead for Twins. Cedar Falls Courier (Nelson) p. 5 Jack Morris bows out of Detroit Tigers' TV booth. Detroit Free Press (Crawford) p. 6 Twins Caravan visits Highland Elementary. Crookston Times (Dunshee) p. 6 Breakout might be coming for Buxton. Rochester Post Bulletin (Limbeck) p. 6 May hopes to join the rotation. Rochester Post Bulletin (Limbeck) p. 7 Minnesota Twins Winter Caravan will stop in Wadena Thursday. Wadena Pioneer Journal (Staff) p. 9 Twins caravan to visit PioneerCare Thursday. Fergus Falls Daily Journal (Staff) p. 9 Twins Caravan stops at St. Marys to visit young patients. KTTC (McKee) p. 9 Hartman: Twins' St. Peter says, 'We have a lot of work to do' Sid Hartman | Star Tribune | January 26, 2017 Twins President Dave St. Peter says that at this point in the offseason the team is falling behind last year’s season ticket numbers, but he and the team’s front office personnel understand fans taking a wait-and-see approach. “We have a lot of work to do,” St. Peter said. “We’re coming off 100-plus losses. We knew going into the offseason [it] was going to be challenging from a renewal perspective. I am really excited with the number of people who have renewed their season tickets. We’ll go into Opening Day with a season-ticket base of anywhere between 11,000, 12,000, and I’m excited about that. “We have work to do to sell group tickets over the next several months. Our single-game on-sale for the home opener is Friday, but the balance of the season isn’t until February 25. We have a goal, of course, to sell upward of 2 million-plus tickets and, longer term, we need to be back to 2.5 million to be back to where we ultimately should be within this marketplace.” St. Peter broke down the difference between early sales last season, when the team was coming off a second-place finish in the AL Central, and this season after posting a club-record 103 losses. “We’re off a little bit,” he said. “Not as much as I think I would have expected, but we’re off probably a couple hundred thousand tickets year over year. We’re going to need to make that up as it relates to single-game sales as well as the balance of season tickets. We understand. We are where we are for a reason. We’re going to need to earn our way back and rebuild our season-ticket base. “I’m optimistic we’ll be able to do that based on what I think will happen in terms of our on-field product, the Target Field experience — which remains one of the best in sports — and this fan base, which I think wants to see the Twins succeed and will be behind this club as they have been during every other juncture when our baseball team is relevant on the field.” Front office changes St. Peter has been with the Twins since 1990 and president of the club since 2002. Newly hired Derek Falvey will be the first chief baseball officer and Thad Levine the fourth general manager he has worked with, not including Rob Antony’s interim run as GM last season. Is St. Peter happy with what he’s seen from the new front office? “Admittedly it’s early, but Derek Falvey and Thad Lavine have been everything we thought they would be in terms of their devotion to making the Twins better,” St. Peter said. “They have spent a lot of time on culture and getting to know people internally within our organization. I think they have worked really well with [manager] Paul Molitor in reshaping our major league coaching staff. “I think the changes we’ve made with our scouting crew in naming Deron Johnson into more of a senior role while naming Sean Johnson the head of our scouting department, I think that will pay dividends.” Still, St. Peter recognizes a lot of those moves are restructuring staff more than the roster, but he thinks the team will continue to improve there, too. “It has been probably more of an inside-out approach,” St. Peter said. “We have added [catcher] Jason Castro, and we think he’s going to be a significant addition. Some of the other things they have tried to do with the major league club haven’t panned out. The offseason is still ongoing, and I think there’s still some work to be done. … It surely wouldn’t surprise me to see us add a couple players before we report to spring training in Fort Myers.” Does St. Peter see the team making any big moves? “I know Derek and Thad and the rest of our player development group and professional scouts are working hard to try to add to this team,” he said, adding that he’ll leave whether it’s a “big” move or not up to other analysts. St. Peter said about 15,000 people are expected at Target Field for TwinsFest this weekend. He said the team has been in discussions with U.S. Bank Stadium officials to potentially hold the event there. “A great player lineup, and we certainly would expect a lot of questions about where our club is going, but it’s a great opportunity for us to showcase our young talent and make an introduction of our new baseball leadership in terms of Derek Falvey and Thad Levine,” St. Peter said. “Virtually everybody on our 40-man roster [will be there]. I think we’ll have upward of 60 current and former players, top prospects, and obviously it’s a great chance for those players to interact with our fans and raise money for the Twins Community Fund. We do a lot of our medical work for the coming season over the course of the TwinsFest weekend, so there’s a lot of positives that come out of this event on a practical basis.” Sano swats three of Twins' hardest-hit HRs Rhett Bollinger | MLB| January 25, 2017 MINNEAPOLIS -- Power wasn't the Twins' issue in 2016, as they smacked 200 homers, reaching that mark for just the third time in franchise history and for the first time since 1964. Their 200 homers ranked as the 12th-most in the Majors, but with the power of Statcast™, it's possible to dig even deeper and analyze just how hard each of those 200 home runs were hit. Their homers averaged leaving the bat at 102.8 mph, which ranked as the 23rd-best mark in baseball, with the average exit velocity in the Majors at 103.4 mph. Brian Dozier, who led the team with 42 homers to account for exactly 21 percent of the club's total, wasn't one for crushing homers, as his average exit velocity was 102.4 mph with his hardest coming in at 107.4 mph. Instead, it was the big boppers such as Miguel Sano and Byungho Park who hit the ball hardest for the Twins in 2016. Of Minnesota's 11 hardest-hit homers in 2016, Sano (six) and Park (three) accounted for nine of those with Oswaldo Arcia and Max Kepler accounting for the other two. Sano is obviously ahead of Park as a Major League hitter, but both need to cut down on their strikeouts and continue to make adjustments at the plate. But when they connect on homers, it's often no-doubters. Here's a look at the five-hardest hit homers by the Twins by exit velocity 2 last season with Sano and Park accounting for all five: 5. 111.5 mph, Sano vs. Seattle, May 27 This one is impressive considering who it came against, as Sano absolutely crushed a hanging 2-1 slider from Mariners ace Felix Hernandez deep into left-center field for a solo shot at Safeco Field. It had a projected distance of 414 feet, as it was hurt by a high launch angle of 32 degrees. For context, the average launch angle on homers last year was 28.1 degrees. 4. 111.6 mph, Park vs. Detroit, April 30 Park started to get into a groove in late April and early May before inconsistencies and a hand injury that ultimately required surgery derailed his season. His sixth and final homer of April was a laser to left-center on a hanging 1-2 slider from Tigers right-hander Jordan Zimmermann. It went a projected 435 feet, which was Park's fourth-longest of the year. 3. 111.9 mph, Sano vs. Kansas City, May 25 Sano blasted a 1-0 cutter from Royals right-hander Dillon Gee for an upper-deck homer that nearly reached the third level at Target Field. It went a projected 439 feet, which was his second-farthest of the season. 2. 112.1 mph, Park vs. Cleveland, May 13 Park's best game with the Twins came against the Indians on May 13, when he homered twice off right-hander Josh Tomlin after previously taking him deep on April 27.