First-year Twins manager Paul Molitor held his first official full-squad meeting on Friday setting the tone for what he hopes can be a turnaround season for the organization.
It was during that talk where Molitor laid the groundwork for a few new rules in the clubhouse before a game.
According to Twins MLB.com blogger Rhett Bollinger, one of the biggest changes Molitor made was to ban hand-held electronics and card games 30 minutes before game time.
“I think everything went pretty well this morning,” Molitor told reporters. “Just tried to set a tone a little bit. Had to clean up some things as far as procedural and logistics. Talk about the type of energy we expect, coming in here and keeping our priorities straight and those kind of things.”
Molitor isn’t the only Minnesota manager or coach trying to break his guys away from electronics. Gophers basketball fans will remember Richard Pitino banned his players from Twitter earlier this year, when they were struggling.
No word on what might happen if a player violates Molitor’s ban, but newly acquired Timberwolves forward Kevin Garnett may have a few ideas (KG is rumored to have thrown a former teammate’s cell phone into a toilet, before a game).
Twins pitchers and catchers get to know each other
#MNTwins pitchers & catchers try 'speed dating' to build rapport. @MillerStrib explains: http://t.co/zfHcshYltz pic.twitter.com/Gu2QLrESMt
— Star Tribune Sports (@StribSports) February 27, 2015
Twins pitchers and catchers had been working together all week, but they waited until Friday to have a formal get-to-know you session.
“It was like speed dating,” Molitor said. “He [pitching coach Neil Allen] wanted the pitchers to kind of communicate with the catchers, what they’d like to do and how they do it.”
According to the Star Tribune, there were no bullpen sessions scheduled on Friday, so for about a half-hour 29 pitchers and eight catchers traded ideas and discussed pitching preferences.
“It seemed like it went pretty well, and the guys had fun doing it,” said Molitor.
