Brock Beauchamp

Meh.

Yikes, the ump is squeezing the rookie. Capps has been throwing some pretty good pitches that could have easily been called for strikes.

And that's fine. I don't think anyone here was entirely happy with the result. All I'm arguing is that Joe Mauer became a .325 hitter with a .400 OBP by playing the game a certain way. I am entirely happy with the result. Not making an out is a great at bat. Any thoughts to the contrary is goofy. I should have been more clear: I was not happy with the result of the game. I was totally fine with Mauer's AB.

The Twins should see if the Mariners are open to a Capps for Capps trade.

The guy is entertaining, I'll say that much.

Home/road splits, no idea. Probably SSS. RISP splits, definitely SSS. (small sample size) Arcia barely has 200 ABs in New Britain. That's well under half a season and stats can easily skew with that few ABs. I wouldn't put much stock into any of it.

Past a diving Flor... Wait, he actually caught that ball. Nice.

Dick and Coomer are busting Casilla's balls a bit over that but he did the right thing. What was he supposed to do, try to instigate the famous "three man collision, out at second"?

I expect to see Arcia start the season in AAA and if all goes well, he'll be in Minnesota in May or June. The guy is mashing but he's still young and still Ks too often. And right now, it's not as if the Twins have much space in the OF. If anyone deserves September playing time, it's Parmelee.

And that's fine. I don't think anyone here was entirely happy with the result. All I'm arguing is that Joe Mauer became a .325 hitter with a .400 OBP by playing the game a certain way. If he saw the pitch he wanted to hit, I'm positive he would have swung at it. Did he get fooled on one or more of those called strikes? It's possible. The guy certainly isn't perfect. I think people make too much of one AB. There are other times where Joe has come up big late in games and helped the team win. Sometimes, his strategy works. Sometimes, it doesn't. More often than not, it's going to be a more successful strategy than what most other hitters bring to the box. This time it didn't pan out. Against Aroldis Chapman a month or two ago, it did. That's just the game of baseball.

Don't you think that a good hitter's approach changes with the circumstances of the game? Wanting you best hitter to swing and hit at least one of the two strikes he watches -- to hit to score one run with two outs in the ninth is not the same as wanting him to change his overall approach to hitting. Willingham's general approach is to put a power swing on any pitch over the plate... swinging for a home run/power every chance he can. I really hope his approach in his final at bat was not that, but to get on base, get that one run home. See the difference? Kind feel like I have to say that Mauer is the best Twins since Kirby Puckett now -- get the bona fides out there -- to head off silly responses that I hate, am overly critical or just can't say something nice about Joe. It's my opinion that when you have a talent like Joe Mauer, you let him decide which pitches to hit. If he had weakly grounded out to second, the board would have been up in arms, yet that's essentially what some were advocating he try to do. If he had been given "his pitch", I really doubt that bat would have stayed on his shoulder. A guy doesn't rack up a career BA of ~.320 by hoping to take a walk in every AB. It's not as if the guy is a wilting flower who buckles at the first sign of pressure. He has come through in plenty of spots for the team and sometimes, "coming up with the big play" means taking a walk if you don't get the right pitch and giving your masher a favorable situation in which to hit.

I was away from the TV but if you can get two outs early in the game, you take 'em, run be damned. Tie or close game in late innings, different situation but this early in the game, you try to get out of the inning as quickly as possible.

And therein lies my problem with Joe Mauer. Logically, I can appreciate his performance. Emotionally, his performance leaves me stone cold. I don't anticipate his plate appearances. I could care less whether he wins another batting title. He comes up to bat and I say "meh". I know that he will probably take the first pitch. I know that he will work the count. There is simply no element of surprise or emotion. That's the way he plays -- emotionlessly. And that's the way it leaves me -- emotionless. I don't dislike him. I don't like him either. I really just don't care about him. And that is a sad thing to say about your favorite team's "star". Mauer is a pretty emotionless guy. I don't think he's a terribly exciting player to watch either. He never gets upset, never throws anything, just kind of goes about his day at and behind the plate. On the other hand, while he's not the most exciting guy to watch, he's one of the best players in all of baseball. I'll take the guy who just "goes about his day" and piles up walks and hits compared to the guy who screams, yells, and breaks his bat on the way to a 200 strikeout season. Joe Mauer is a very good baseball player and might be the greatest hit-for-average catcher in all of MLB history. He's an incredible talent. And yet people around here want to change the guy and how he approaches hitting. How is that considered smart?

It's been bad, there's no denying that. But to say "there's no reason to have confidence in the FO" is just dumb. I don't know how else to respond to that kind of thinking. The front office made a bunch of mistakes from 2006-2010 and that led to some of the mess we're dealing with today but they also had a healthy dose of bad luck and a general manager who made moves to the ML roster seemingly at random. That GM is now gone and the guy who built the first two waves of successful Twins prospects is back at the helm. Will he succeed? Dunno. But I'm going to give the guy the benefit of the doubt. He hasn't been back on the job for even 12 months yet.

I can see your point but I'm just not sure it's a smart thing to do. In case of emergency, Blackburn isn't the worst guy to have around and some time in the pen might make him a better pitcher (probably not but there's a remote chance of it happening). Either way, I just don't care that much. All I ask is that Blackburn be removed from the rotation. If he's the 12th guy out of the pen, it doesn't matter. The 12th guy out of the pen almost never matters on a major league ballclub.

Tampa was awful until the ninth year of the decade. Oakland didn't do much after the third year of the decade (2006 was their lone postseason run after 2002). Minnesota, on the other hand, didn't have as many flashy teams but they were competitive almost every year and made the playoffs more often than any other small market team. Either way, we're splitting hairs. The Twins were a very competitive team for an entire decade, something no other small market team achieved. Ignoring that because they've had two truly awful seasons is ridiculous, especially when their farm system is coming on as strong as it has over the past 12 months. The organization still needs pitching (and lots of it) but this team has a lot of bats on the way and few of them are fading as they reach the high minors (Arcia has turned into a monster, Hicks has started to turn into the guy we all hoped he'd become).

I didn't know the front office received profit-sharing. You obviously hate the Twins; well over 90% of your posts are overwhelmingly negative and I never see you contribute anything substantive to the conversation. Why are you even here?

I am so bloody sick and tired of reading this line or something like it on the forums. The Minnesota Twins were the most consistently successful small market team of the 2000s. They made the playoffs more often than not and while they struggled in the postseason, overall they posted one of the better records in all of baseball for the decade. So why shouldn't we have a little faith in the front office? Because the team had two awful seasons? Because of that, we should ignore the entire decade the preceded it? Jesus... People around here need to step off the ledge and take in a little perspective. Yes, the Twins are bad right now but their farm system is on the rebound and help is on the way. They have a solid core of young-ish players. They have money to spend. Stop cherry-picking the past two years of horrible baseball and ignoring the ten years that came before it.

A a 12th man/mop-up guy, Blackburn is as good as anything else you'd throw out there, I guess. And since you're paying him anyway, that's $400k you don't have to pay some other schlub. If they keep him as a long relief guy, I won't cry too much about it just so long as the team still has room on the 40 man while not exposing a prospect (and I think they do). But there's no reason for him to be starting games right now. He has been given more than enough opportunities and has failed for two consecutive seasons.

Mauer takes 4.31 pitches per plate appearance, good for 3rd in the AL. Pierzynski takes 3.48 pitches per plate apperance, good for 72nd in the AL. But hey, we shouldn't allow facts to get in the way of a point.

Yeah....that simply isn't true, the majority of NASCAR fans follow other series as well, Indy Car, Sprint Car, Midgets etc. I know the "hip" thing to say is "oh Nascar fans, bunch of stupid white overweight poor rednecks" when in reality if you check out the demographics the majority have pretty stellar incomes, education, etc. Are there poor, fat, idiot drunk rednecks who goto or watch the races? Sure, but you can find them for any sport. Just go down to your local wal mart and count the number of Dallas Cowboys XXXL jerseys you see. F-1 sucks, whichever team has the most money ends up winning a race that is usually not even contested. In NASCAR the races are always close and exciting, it's not so much about the car as it is the skill of the driver and the drivers entire team, you can't say that for your F-1 crap. Also I have been to a NASCAR race and an INDY car race, along with several world of outlaws etc, and I can tell you that the atmosphere at a NASCAR race is 10x greater then any other racing series. F-1 is more interesting simply because of the bleeding-edge tech used in the series. You want good, exciting racing? Go find a motorcycle race. Doesn't really matter what kind, pretty much all of it is more interesting than NASCAR. Plus, most of them do more than turn left. None of my NASCAR "friends" (really, more people I know that happen to follow the circuit) follow Indy. Some follow local races (midgets, sprints, and the such) but few follow anything outside of NASCAR and generally, their attention to NASCAR is 100x any other form of racing they might watch. I look at NASCAR like a one-legged bicycle race. Does the "skill" of the driver factor in to the equation? Sure, but if you let the driver use the other &*^%ing leg (say, turn right or drive a car that weighs less than a Sherman tank), it would be a hell of a lot more interesting. I spent most of my formative years watching almost every form of racing live. I've seen motocross, supercross, grand prix, midgets, dirt track, drag racing, rally, motogp, superbike, NASCAR, sprints, ice racing, off-road truck, Baja, blah blah blah... And I'd rank NASCAR at or near the bottom. It just isn't very interesting to watch cars go in a giant oval for 500 miles. Not when you've seen other kinds of racing that is more exciting in almost any way (it's hard to beat a good off-road truck race like the TORC or Lucas Oils series if the drivers can avoid wrecking half the field in the first few laps). If you want the excitement of pure, unbridled danger, you can't beat a dirt track motorcycle race. I actually dislike the "dangerous" side of racing (hate seeing guys get hurt and I've seen guys actually die from their on-track injuries) but damn, mile dirt track is some crazy-ass &^%$.

You ask a guy to go to the plate and play his game, not the pitcher's game. If he's dealt a walk, you take the walk. And then you shut up about it because the guy who just walked has the highest OBP in the league. That's who he is. I wish people would appreciate Joe Mauer for what he is instead of trying to make him into the type of streaky player who makes dumb mistakes and is frustrating to watch day in and day out.

Twins: Ben Revere CF Alexi Casilla 2B Joe Mauer DH Josh Willingham LF Justin Morneau 1B Ryan Doumit C Trevor Plouffe 3B Matt Carson RF Pedro Florimon SS (Sam Deduno P) Mariners: Dustin Ackley 2B Michael Saunders CF Kyle Seager 3B John Jaso C Jesus Montero DH Justin Smoak 1B Eric Thames RF Trayvon Robinson LF Munenori Kawasaki SS (Blake Beavan P)

Twins: Jamey Carroll 2B Darin Mastroianni CF Joe Mauer C Josh Willingham DH Justin Morneau 1B Ryan Doumit LF Trevor Plouffe 3B Matt Carson RF Pedro Florimon SS (Scott Diamond P) Mariners: Dustin Ackley 2B Trayvon Robinson LF Jesus Montero C Miguel Olivo DH Kyle Seager 3B Justin Smoak 1B Casper Wells RF Michael Saunders CF Brendan Ryan SS (Jason Vargas P)

Can someone post a lineup for me?