Brock Beauchamp

The Lions would have scored fewer points than the Jays did that day.

Oh wow. Did the Twins just get considerably better through injury? I love Phil Hughes and all but he's been so volatile lately that it's hard to watch him pitch a game. Gibson, May, Milone, Pelfrey, Santana isn't my favorite rotation but outside of Berrios being called up, it's the best one Minnesota can field in the short term.

I never thought I'd say this, but... Thank God.

Wait, what?

No, you're thinking of that guy from Office Space.

You don't want to know the answer to that question.

Sano, because Ryan is counting the zeroes for the sixteenth time, completely unable to respond.

Santana, bringin' his 11.17 home ERA back to Target Field! http://keithlanecreativegroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/al-davis-blog-new.jpg

That's fair. I personally believe the two players have similar ceilings, though Rosario has begun to reach that ceiling in MLB games so he gets some credit for that. Max doesn't need to have Rosario's power to be a similarly valuable player. If can carry over most of that MiLB isoD (.080) to MLB games, that's worth its weight in gold. By comparison, Rosario had a MiLB isoD of around .050.

Rosario is absolutely more than hustle and grit. He's a nice young player. I simply prefer Hicks and Kepler for their plate discipline.

Look at what the party did to Huntsman, the only guy in the 2012 primaries who I would have even considered giving a vote. Extremely intelligent, the one guy on the stage with foreign relation experience (China, to boot!), former governor, pro-science, mostly moderate... and basically run out on rails. The GOP didn't even invite the guy to the RNC, for crying out loud. Ridiculous. The GOP needs an enema. A two party system only works if both parties are legitimate options run on legitimate platforms.

I swear to god, if this happens, I'm going to completely lose my mind. Okay, so you don't want Berrios to start. Fine, whatever. But Michael Bowden? No, man. NO NO NO NO NO NO NO.

I think you're putting too much stock in Kepler's recent breakout. It's possible he's turning the corner and becoming a bit of a power threat but Rosario was always a power threat, at least relative to Max. Rosario MiLB: 1974 PAs, 60 HR, 107 2B, 27 3B. Kepler MiLB: 1714 PAs, 32 HR, 94 2B, 30 3B. And while Max is a fringy centerfielder, Rosario is a legit CF. Not a particularly good one at the MLB level but certainly enough to play there a few seasons. It's questionable whether Max has the range to ever play MLB CF. Rosario is the better defender, though the difference between the players may not be large.

I haven't done this in awhile because the Twins were so painful to watch. Win 57. Game #: 2015: 113 2014: 127 2013: 127 2012: 139 (holy crap, this team was awful) 2011: 136

I don't know if Rosario's ceiling is lower than Kepler but I'll take Kepler's plate discipline any day of the week. It's a close call. I can see the Twins trading any of Kepler, Hicks, or Rosario and I'm not sure it'd be the wrong decision. Arguments can be made for or against any of them. In the end, my personal decision would come down to "which player gets the most in return?"

Ah, nice. I forgot about Ortiz. I know Meche just straight-up retired and thought of him while typing that... but I couldn't come up with an example of a renegotiated contract.

I'd trade an outfielder. My personal preference is Rosario but I doubt the Twins feel the same because they seem to love Eddie's grustle and hit. Or hustle and grit. Whatever. I don't ****ing care, it's a dumb reason to keep a player, IMO.

Whoa, whoa, whoa... I'm sorry but you're 100% wrong about rebuilds. 1. First things first, this isn't the fifth year of the rebuild. Ryan returned to the Twins as GM before the 2012 season. This makes it the fourth year of the rebuild and the Twins continue to toy with .500 this season. 2011 forced the Twins to rebuild, it wasn't a rebuild season. 2. Had the Twins not been on the unfortunate side of the luck donkey in 2014, they'd probably be a few games better in 2015. Buxton, Sano, Meyer, Rosario all had unfortunate setbacks last season. Four of your top five prospects. No team makes it through a season like that without setting back their time table. 3. Rebuilds typically take 4-5 years to complete. How long do you think it takes a high ceiling prep player to reach the majors? If he debuts as a 22 year old after being drafted as an 18 year old, well... I'm pretty sure you can do the math on that one. And that's only applicable to prep players who were drafted in the first season of the rebuild. Expecting a team to debut solid prospects at every position after four seasons of a rebuild is sheer lunacy and completely unreasonable. Friedman was hired by the Rays before the 2004 season and started implementing his new player development strategy. He took over the GM role before the 2006 season. The Rays had a contender in 2008. Five seasons... and this was building a team that had drafted in the top five of baseball for its entire existence. The Astros pushed the big red "EXPLODE" button before the 2011 season. Their first competitive season since that rebuild started? 2015. Five seasons. Epstein took over the Cubs roughly the same time Ryan returned to the Twins. The Cubs' first competitive season? 2015. Four seasons. Before the 2008 season, Neal Huntington took over a Pirates team that hadn't seen a winning season since Teddy Roosevelt created the National Parks system. The Pirates returned to contention in 2013. Six seasons. I do not understand where people get the idea that a rebuild is a failure if it's not successful within 36 months of its implementation. Baseball moves at a glacial pace, folks. You better learn patience with this sport or it's going to drive you to an early grave.

Berrios needs to be added to the 40 man early next season anyway because he needs to be in Minnesota. That may cause a small issue but I think the Twins can figure out a way to make it work. For example, deal Milone or just release Nolasco. Pelfrey is gone as well.

The MLBPA would throw a ****fit if Joe ever tried to do such a thing. Again, let's all remember there are powerful forces at work here that are not Joe Mauer or the Minnesota Twins.

The idea of Berrios getting the call with Meyer taking his spot in the Rochester rotation makes me so damned giddy I just can't even.

Hah, fair enough. The concept of the theoretical Replacement Player is a murky one when you're attempting to apply real-world wins and losses to a player. For example, the Twins would be a few more games over .500 had they a mystical "replacement player" at shortstop for the entire season. (we're ignoring the fact the Twins had this player and refused to play him)

Cabrera got a multi-year deal and Rasmus held out until late January, hoping for a multi-year deal. Hunter signed in early December. I understand why Ryan pulled the trigger. I'm not against waiting out the market at times but given the specific qualities the Twins wanted in a player - veteran, decent floor, one year contract - it made sense to go with the sure thing and guarantee your team is improved going into the season. And given the results, it's pretty hard to argue Ryan was wrong to go that route. The Twins are a pleasant surprise and Hunter has been an acceptable stop-gap player.

As I said last week in another thread, I think it's a mistake to platoon a guy who is raking like Aaron Hicks has been over the past month of play... But then I started realizing it's possible, maybe even likely, Aaron Hicks is good enough against RHP to not be a platoon candidate at all. Aaron Hicks in first callup: .594 OPS, .5?? RHP OPS, 93 PAs. While I'm too lazy to find the login for a site that will give me his RHP splits over that period of time, I think it's safe to say he probably had an OPS against RHP somewhere around .500, almost certainly under .550. Aaron Hicks, today: .786 OPS, .678 RHP OPS, 237 PAs. In roughly 145 PAs, Aaron Hicks has raised his RHP OPS around 150-200 points. Back of the napkin math tells me he has an RHP OPS somewhere around league average since the callup. I don't know if the new Aaron Hicks is around to stay but if he is, he may be the most complete player on the team not named Brian Dozier.

Not entirely. They'll only prove they can contend by not getting embarrassed on that brutal NYY, BAL, TAM road trip that starts in 4-5 days.