Brock Beauchamp

Yes and yes. Two individuals declining to interview don't concern me much at this point, though if more candidates decline, it becomes a real problem. From day one, McLeod was probably my personal favorite. I simply hope the Pohlads don't screw it up and force nonsensical things upon him that make him decide to stay put in Chicago for at least one more season. The Twins have a lot going for them: young roster, pretty good farm system (with a top pick next June), middling payroll capabilities, a beautiful stadium... If they can't attract top talent, that means ownership is probably getting in the way.

I guess I don't disagree with that, though I'm not sure Dozier will revert back to a .750 OPS, either. Is he a .775 OPS player now or an .850 OPS player? I guess that's the real argument.

I entirely agree with the first paragraph. Same goes for the second. I'm not suggesting Dozier will maintain this level of performance - I think it's highly unlikely - but dismissing it off as an aberration is a mistake as well. It's the broad stroke used that bothers me. Words that state certainty should rarely be used for future projections. There's an underlying arrogance with some analysis that gets under my skin, that current stats automatically guarantee future performance. Six months ago, no one in their right mind would have projected a 40 HR season for Dozier, yet it happened.

He's probably right but stuff like this irritates me about analysts. Is it likely this is going to be Dozier's career year? Yes. Absolutely. Is it clear this is going to be Dozier's career year? Jose Bautista says hi.

I don't really view this as a bad thing. Hopefully the front office realizes he should have been starting earlier this season and uses this injury as a reason to get him stretched out and starting next season.

Yeah we do. I watch far fewer movies than I have at any time in the past.

I watch a fair amount of television but mostly I keep my viewing to short seasons that I can watch in a week or so. It's why I seem to watch so many different shows but my actual time spent "watching" television is moderate. (not including the mindless TV I have playing in the background while working/drawing but that barely qualifies as "watching") There are maybe (2?) long-season shows I watch (20+ episodes per season). Most of the stuff I watch is 13 episodes or fewer (Marvel Netflix, You're the Worst, HBO stuff, etc). By the way, You're the Worst is so fuggin' good.

There's a display bug in the top ad that I'll get around to investigating soon. It'll open a 250px height container when it only needs 90px.

I skipped Vinyl entirely. Given that it was cancelled, so did everyone else.

Luke Cage and Westworld top my list. And if you're not watching The Get Down right now, you're missing out.

Late last week, we moved to a managed ad service. We finally gave up and put the handling of ads and slots to professionals who know what they're doing. Have ads been better for most of you over the past 3-4 days? I know they've loaded more quickly and shown more relevant information for me but I want to get a feel for what all of you are seeing.

Not really bitter, just exhausted from this season. I actually watch specific innings and several ABs of games the next day but I can't subject myself to a full nine innings. It's too depressing.

There will be prize giveaways and a free t-shirt (along with a game ticket if you'd like to attend the game).

Well, I haven't written one of these in awhile. But that shouldn't matter, as I haven't watched a full Twins game in awhile, either, and that's more of a pressing concern to me right this minute. Tonight, the Twins and Tigers face off in yet another baseball game where runs will be scored, most of them by someone other than the Twins. Kyle "Double Digit Hits" Gibson goes against Matt "I throw with the correct hand" Boyd. This game looks to be a real barn-burner, provided you're a Twins fan and own a barn you really, really hate. Kyle Gibson would be the most disappointing baseball player on most teams but this ain't most teams; it's the 2016 Minnesota Twins. In the past 28 days, Kyle has started five baseball games. His OPS against is .948. Last night, Brian Dozier hit his 40th home run - an AL record for second basemen - and raised his OPS to .922. The good news: 1. The Pub Crawl is coming. That means we'll have the unsavory task of watching the Twins play baseball but we'll probably be so blinding drunk that we'll convince ourselves they won afterward. Get your tickets here. 2. Brian Dozier is still dreamy and now hits home runs seemingly at will. 3. Byron Buxton is really fun to watch when he manages to get the brown part of the stick on the white part of the ball. 4. There is no number four because, my god, have you watched this team? I haven't. 5. The Tigers. Ick. 6. The Tigers in the Wild Card hunt. *shudders* Lineups: Twins: 2B - Brian Dozier - R SS - Jorge Polanco - S LF - Robbie Grossman - S 1B - Kennys Vargas - S DH - Kurt Suzuki - R 3B - Eduardo Escobar - S C - J. Murphy - R RF - Logan Schafer - L CF - Byron Buxton - R Tigers: 2B - Ian Kinsler - R CF - Cameron Maybin - R 1B - Miguel Cabrera - R DH - Victor Martinez - S RF - J.D. Martinez - R LF - Tyler Collins - L 3B - Erick Aybar - S C - J. Saltalamacchia - S SS - Jose Iglesias - R

McLeod: "Well, first you... Wait, are you guys ****ing with me right now?" Pohlad: *looking up from notepad, pen in hand* "No, this wasn't covered in your media guide. Go on." McLeod: "Sigh. I really hope you validate parking."

*thumbs up* http://mlb.com/r/article?ymd=20160912&content_id=200979582&vkey=news_min&c_id=min

That's fair. We mostly agree.

Eh, I don't believe the decision is binary. There are options between "I fold" and "I push all my chips into the middle". I thought Ryan did an okay job of keeping the Twins in contention without selling valuable prospects but what I find irksome is that Ryan didn't do a damned thing before July 31st. That mid-July collapse basically cost the team the Wild Card and it was entirely preventable. I'm not picking on you but I see too many people advocate a fire sale or trading all the prospects. There's nothing wrong with seeing a team with future potential, enjoying a bit of luck today, and giving that team a few more assets to see if they can turn a single season into something interesting while not mortgaging the future. There are also times to fire sale. There are also times to go all in, which the Twins have been loathe to do. I'm not making excuses for those past mistakes but 2015 was a different animal. The Twins were pretty decent, making a surprise run, and either shutting it down or trading Berrios/Kepler aren't the best options in that situation most of the time. Sometimes, it's okay to aim for the middle if you have loftier goals in the near future.

Last midseason pissed me off but not because they didn't go all-in. I didn't think they were good enough to go all-in but had they picked up some bullpen help in June, maybe they squeak into the Wild Card. We all knew the bullpen was a hand grenade with a pulled pin; why couldn't Ryan see it? Picking up Jepsen was fine. Picking up Cotts was fine. I didn't want much more than that but it needed to happen at least one month earlier than it did (or the Twins should have aggressively pulled from the minors earlier in the season). I didn't love this offseason and questioned many of the moves (and non-moves) but ultimately felt that this was it for Ryan and the front office. If they succeeded, then good on them. If they failed and the team took a step back, then they need to be replaced. Well, we know how that went. I'm a pretty patient guy and I don't advocate firing a person based on what I predict the future will be but I do believe in firing people if a modest expectation is not met after 4+ years of work.

In most reasonable cases, it stopped around the time the Twins opened the season 20-45ish.

Yeah, we're not dissing the team. I mean, think about it for a moment. This is a 100 loss team when most of us expected some kind of pretender status with exciting young players. Despite all that, we're gathering 100+ people to get together and watch what has turned into a largely unwatchable team. If we can't roll our eyes a bit and laugh it off, why are we even fans? Apathy is a lot worse than tongue-in-cheek pokes at our own fandom.

I was in California and received a call from a friend just before 6am. I ignored the call. He called again. I picked up the phone and said something along the lines of "Somebody better be dead, what the **** do you want at six in the morning?" He told me to turn on the TV. I flipped on the TV, found a local news station, and about 20 seconds later the second plane hit the tower. It's still surreal even 15 years later.

Yeah, this article is a bit like looking at the sky and proclaiming "BLUE!"

I agree but I think the third year of Span keeps it relatively close. It was an option year to boot so the risk was almost nil.

Organized? Maybe. Maybe not. But 5300 people don't do something without a BUNCH of people knowing about it, looking the other direction, and keeping their mouth shut. Usually management.