Brock Beauchamp

Oy. I wasn't attacking you or your views but those views exist in 2015 America and my statement was that they exist, not that you hold them. I've seen the emails. I've seen reports of other emails. Our very own politicians have sent those emails. FTR, I don't think Obama is a particularly good President but that's irrelevant to the conversation at hand. You're the one who brought up evidence that America having a black President is indicative of something, not me. As for Mike Brown, again, you are looking at specific instances instead of the bigger picture. I lived in Long Beach for a decade and saw black people get roughed up by the police while white people (myself included) walked by without incident. This is a nationwide problem and focusing on specific instances where that didn't happen is missing the point entirely. People aren't rioting because of Mike Brown, they're rioting because Mike Brown was the straw that broke the camel's back. This is a real thing that happens far more regularly than anyone reasonable would like. Sure, maybe specific incidents aren't the best instances over which to riot but if you're a black person who has been harassed and demeaned by authority for your entire life, chances are you're not going to pick the *perfect* time to completely lose your **** and riot over a life of unfair treatment. Instead of picking apart why people are rioting over a specific incident, I think you should spend a little more time examining why entire communities around America are boiling over at the same time. They're not doing it because it's fun. They're angry and they've been angry for a long time. Let's work toward figuring out why they're so angry and fixing the disease instead of saying "even though you're really angry, you shouldn't burn down buildings". Obviously, no one wants to burn down buildings as a first step but when a group continues to be marginalized and ignored, drastic measures will be taken at some point and this is that point. Again.

I know his splits are better but over 56 ABs, that doesn't necessarily mean the problem is fixed. It's encouraging but not incontrovertible evidence.

This. If Hicks has actually revised his swing and is getting results from it, then it might be time to starting considering a call-up. I wouldn't do it yet but maybe in a couple of weeks if he keeps it up. If he still has hitches in his swing against RHP, he has no business being in Minnesota yet. I don't care if his OPS in Rochester is 1.200. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me six times...

I understand the battle an alcoholic wages over booze - I've fought a few demons here myself - but the thinking here doesn't hold up. We may as well ban alcohol at that point. And maybe cars because hey, DUIs. A small percentage of the population's bad behavior should not control the majority's reasonable behavior. It's a legal substance that can be purchased by adults. Therefore, adults should be able to buy it when they want to buy it. Most of the rest of the country is way ahead of Minnesota in this regard. There's simply no reason to force business owners to close on a day when a lot of people are off work and want a beer.

#NotAllMen It's the same asinine argument. Yeah, obviously not all black people are upstanding citizens and not all police officers are degenerates. It's a simplistic, stupid way to look at the problem. As you said, this is systemic. All parties involved have contributed to this mess. At the core of the problem, we need to find ways to break through the nihilism and hopelessness of the inner city communities, particularly the black community (but let's not pretend that black people are the only ones having this problem, they're just the easiest to point out). As Levi said, you can only go so far with a community if they don't care about education. But they don't care about education because it hasn't worked for so many that tried to escape through education. They don't end up with better jobs or at least not enough better to matter. They've been beaten down for generations. They don't feel there's any possible chance of a better life because they have **** jobs, **** housing, and they get arrested and beaten for jay-walking on a regular basis. It's a horrible, convoluted situation and there's no easy way out of it. I wish I had even an inkling of an idea how to fix it but it's well beyond my scope of understanding. I feel hopeless just thinking about how to solve the problem. I can't imagine how it must feel to be on the other side of the coin.

They already have. Several Baltimore police officers are being tried for the death of a young black man. That probably wouldn't have happened without the pent up outrage that has boiled over in the past several years, most notably Ferguson. You're looking at these events as isolated and a symptom of singular events. They're not. They're the result of anger and mistreatment that has been going on since the inception of this country. People have been protesting this kind of police mistreatment for decades but you've never noticed... You want to know why? Because the media ignores peaceful protest and sheltered white society continues to back-slap itself and say "I no longer use the N-word and we have a black President (even if I hate him with a passion and secretly pass around photos of his face on a chimpanzee body). Mission accomplished, everybody! Racism is OVER!" All of this is long overdue. I wish it didn't have to go down this way (and Levi is right, if real permanent change is going to come from this, charismatic leaders will need to emerge from the chaos to organize the movement) but these riots (and Ferguson) have everybody's attention. We're listening now. It's up to the black community to keep us listening and it's up to us to make sure we don't forget.

MLK wasn't the only influential black man during the 1960s and not all of them advocated peaceful protest.

This is what happens when a team rebuilds. Young players sometime play bad baseball. The Twins have to play Santana at short because he's the kid with the most upside.

Really, that's kinda amazing.

To be perfectly frank, my first response to the Baltimore violence was "Good, it's about time and I hope it spreads to other cities". Mainstream society doesn't respond to peaceful protest. Bad things need to happen before it gets better. I wish that wasn't the case but history has shown us that's the most direct way to enact change.

My goal for this season would be for Sano, Buxton, and Meyer to get extended looks before September. Hopefully they play well enough to warrant those promotions. Past that, I can't say. It depends on how they play, specifically Sano at third.

Thank you or researching what I was too lazy to research. Most players gain rust during time off. That's why Spring Training exists, after all. Healthy players need to get back into the flow of the game. Injured players even more so.

No, I pretty much nailed it with that analogy.

Which is the equivalent of winning silver in the Special Olympics.

Not having Aaron Hicks on the roster while he sorts out his issues in Rochester. Really, that's the best thing Schafer can or will do in a Twins uniform.

Recently, I've watched Twins games until the starter is pulled and then I turn off the game. It has served me very well thus far and this move isn't going to change that approach to watching Twins baseball.

Meyer is far and away the biggest disappointment to me thus far. I expected him to dominate out of the gate and force his way onto the roster.

The two best players in the system are shaking off rust from missing a lot of baseball last year. That's not terribly interesting, it's kinda expected. Disappointing, yes, but not surprising or interesting.

You're being difficult. I've explained why timelines are hard to gauge because prospects face setbacks. Where would the Twins be right now if Meyer, Sano, and Buxton didn't suffer injuries and were playing baseball in Minnesota? They're basically this year's version of the 2014 Astros if that happens. Unfortunately, none of those things happened and it's no one's fault. Which makes any set timeline essentially moot. Terry Ryan didn't do anything wrong with those prospects - though you can make an argument that Meyer should maybe be here today - and things just played out unfavorably for the Twins. If a timeline was set up to gauge his performance, he would have missed goals... And failing someone for missing a goal that was largely outside their control is a bad way to run a business.

I wouldn't put a timeline on it because things like Buxton, Meyer, and Sano getting hurt really set back the team. Instead, I'd focus on progress. Whether you think the Twins are progressing quickly enough is entirely dependent on perspective.

4-5 years if you're building internally. The Twins have done some things right, some things middling, and some things very badly. Drafting: they could have rebuilt slightly faster by targeting college players but instead, they opted for a lot of prep players in the first round. I don't think any of us can complain about the results, as it has netted them guys like Buxton, Berrios, Stewart, and Gordon but it adds time to the rebuild. Thankfully, the Twins appear to always go after who they feel is the BPA in the first round, which is a sound strategy. It'll pay off in time. International Signings: this is middling. They do a decent job with most IFAs but again, IFAs are mostly a 6-7 year incubation period. The big weakness thus far with the Twins here is that they haven't paid the big money to any Cuban or Asian players. They could have done a better job there. Trades: the Twins were a bad team. Bad teams don't have many valuable assets to trade away and the "successful" trades Ryan made restocked the farm, which was probably the right move. Maybe Ryan could have gotten more for Willingham but holding on to him was a roll of the dice, one that didn't pay off. An argument could have been made for either case and both viewpoints were valid. Free Agents: hoo boy, this is what has killed them when you get right down to it. Nolasco has been a spectacular failure. Santana has yet to throw a pitch for the team. Morales was laughably bad. Hunter is an old man (but in all fairness, who cares about one year deals?). I'll give them a pass on Santana because you just can't predict that sort of thing but Nolasco was a pretty big blunder.

Ah, good catch. I thought Perkins said that right before Pinto was demoted.

Building a structure and counting on human beings to develop at the "expected pace" are not really the same thing...

For sure. I'm not giving them a pass, just stating the timelines are a good way to set yourself up for failure.

I don't really buy into timelines because, as we saw last season with Buxton and Sano, weirdness tends to happen that disrupts said timeline. If not for injury to Buxton and Sano last season, we'd be a lot more excited about the Twins right now because one or both of them would be on the roster, playing every day. Injuries suck, particularly when they ravage the top prospects in a very good farm system.