Brock Beauchamp

Here's the problem: nobody is "happy" with a minor league job when a major league job is available. This offseason, there are going to be some hitting coach positions available in the majors and I gotta imagine they'll want to interview Bruno. Agreed. But is Bruno better enough to bump Vavra, who is probably the one Twins coach whose job hasn't been a spectacular failure over the past few years? Either way, I wouldn't be too upset about it but I think Vavra has done a fine job as the hitting coach.

Gardy's word is good enough for me... I always suspected that it was something like that or it would have been done already. All in All... It's too bad... I was really hoping for some Mastro at 2b... And Hoping for it to work out. I like him as a player and he's about to get overrun by Arcia, Hicks and the like. Easy answers are tough to find. I'll keep trying. Given Mastro's play, I don't think Hicks & Co. will hurt him much. They are all everyday players while Mastro has fourth outfielder written all over him. If he can learn to play second in a pinch, he's an excellent OF/2B/PR option for the team and definitely has a place on this roster.

It was on the DL. Somebody had to say it.

More Sally, less Nishi! Though I could only imagine the fights over the buffet table. Ten bucks says either Sally or Capps would be on the DL within a week.

A completely sane and reasonable expectation. I was surprised that it took this long to get Pavano outside of the organization for review. After Baker, you'd think that's something they would have done in June. A failing on the part of the front office? Possibly, maybe even likely.

As an outsider looking in (one who has virtually no knowledge of medicine), my biggest problem boils down to "learning from mistakes". We make jokes about TJ surgery based on past results and two months later, boom, the player is getting TJ surgery. Is this normal? I have no idea but it sure seems like they should be learning from previous incidents and jumping on these injuries more quickly at this point. But, again, like almost every other poster on this board, I'm not in the position to make a truly qualified statement on the subject.

I see that being the course of action as well. You put in a new lead and let that person decide what adjustments to make. The trick is finding out whether the old lead is the problem in the first place and finding a competent replacement who won't make the same mistakes. The way people on this forum talk about hiring and firing people leads me to believe they've never had to do it in their own profession. It's not as if you can just flip open the phone book and find "your guy" in a couple of minutes. Finding good employees is hard.

Honestly, I don't have many issues with Vavra. Since coming on board, few Twins hitters have underperformed. He's a radical departure from Scotty Swing Like A Man Ullger, who was an awful hitting coach. Is Bruno better? I have no idea but if he's happy in Rochester, I don't see any rush to bump Vavra out of the position in Minnesota.

I've only come across them once week or so. I didn't think they were that frequent. How often are you seeing them, Dave?

One of the best nicknames I've seen in awhile. Hilarious.

As I've said earlier, I'd rather see them slowly phase Diamond out of the rotation than to add a sixth man. But if they feel the need to keep Scott in the rotation, I'm definitely not against a sixth man in an audition role.

ding ding ding My point has little to do with negativity. It's about negativity and post content. Some people are negative and deliver their thoughts in a clear, well-articulated manner. We encourage those posters to keep doing what they do. To put it bluntly, this team sucks. Changes need to be made. We want posters to talk about what should be done in-depth, even (especially) if their views on the organization aren't pie-in-the-sky rosy. But if your schtick is to deliver a one-liner that could be cut and paste into 90% of your posts and nobody would notice the difference, that's not adding anything of substance to the board while it does irritate other posters who are attempting to have a rational discussion of the topic at hand. In short, those people are "net loss" posters. They add nothing while detracting significantly.

If you have an issue with how I do things, feel free to PM me about it. As for "getting over myself", this has little to do with my personal feelings and everything to do with the quality of the forum posts.

It's not hard to find a medical expert to look through an entire organization, review medical documents thoroughly, evaluate the problem, recommend a solution, and find qualified candidates to replace the current staff? Really? That doesn't take long? The point is that you don't make these moves quickly or you'll end up exactly where you began (or worse). It takes time to solve problems and going with a knee-jerk reaction rarely delivers the desired result.

Their track record on Asian players has been stellar to this point. I say they go for it.

I don't think I've ever seen an indication that the GM has a committee of medical experts available to give him feedback on the status of the ballclub. Oh, wait, he does... It's called the "Twins Medical Staff", the very people so many want to see fired. If you want someone to fire their consultants, do you honestly expect them to have a second team of consultants to consult on the consultants' performance already on hand?

I'd be surprised if it hasn't been done already and would consider it a failure on the part of JR and the front office. At the very least, they should have a guy "looking over the books", so to speak, to see where this franchise has gone wrong (assuming they've gone wrong at all).

He was busy running a Major League Baseball franchise. I doubt he has a ton of time to interview medical staff and determine their worth while preparing for the draft, making roster moves, trying to move guys at the deadline, and doing any number of other things required by a general manager, especially one of an awful team that is ping-ponging players up and down the system.

Heh, welcome back, you surly bastard.

There are open stand up MRI'S Google it. They are pretty rare, and I'm sure Span didn't think it would be an issue going into the MRI. Since they are so rare (the stand up) it wouldn't be shocking if they weren't able to get him to one the same day. Except that the phobia issue likely came up during his first MRI on Monday. Which is probably why he had the Valium on hand. Given his concussion problems, this isn't Span's first go-round in the MRI machine. When it comes to a phobia, some days are probably better than others (and the meds work better). This was probably just one of the bad days. I'm not going to blame a guy for having a crippling phobia of an MRI machine. While I've never had an MRI, I've heard plenty of horror stories from people who don't like enclosed spaces. From what I know of the situation, it's not terribly uncommon.

Given the stress put on the arm during pitching, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if most vets "needed" TJ surgery.

Your schtick is tired. You repeat the same point over and over and over again. We get it. You don't like the front office. Stop repeating the same "argument" (for lack of a better term) to the point of nausea. You're bringing absolutely nothing to the forum with these posts. We're instituting new rules on chronic negativity and you will put yourself at risk of a temporary ban if you keep it up.

No argument here.

I've long believed that the medical staff needed an overhaul. The problem is that Ryan wasn't GM during that time... I'd love to see the medical staff get the boot. But when you're new to the GM spot and have about 5,000 other things to worry about (like assembling a roster and determining strengthes/weaknesses of the org) before the season starts, it's impossible to do everything right off the bat. If I was in JR's spot, I'd also want some time to analyze what is wrong and where changes need to be made. All of that takes time and it's not as if Ryan has the time to sit down in the middle of the season, figure out who needs to go, interview capable candidates, and make a change. He's busy running a team, getting ready for the draft, making roster changes, etc. Now that the season is near an end, he might want to keep the current staff on just so he isn't rushed finding a new hire to replace them. After all, players still need these doctors on a daily basis. If you fire a guy, you better have a new guy on staff the next day. After this disaster, do you really want a decision like that to be rushed? None of us know what is happening behind the scenes and while it may have filled an emotional need to see the entire staff fired last January, it wouldn't have been the intelligent thing to do. Like most here, I'm all for sweeping changes to be made. The only difference is that I have a reasonable timeline in mind to do it. I'd love for it to have been done immediately but that probably wouldn't have been a good idea. These things take time. If big changes aren't made before Spring Training starts next season, I'll be the first in line complaining.

There are open stand up MRI'S Google it. And what does that have to do with my statement again?