Brock Beauchamp

I have a better idea... Go see the Rock Cats play. New Britain, CT is way closer to NYC than Rochester and you'll get to see Miguel Sano take some hacks at AA pitching.

Yeah, pretty much all of this. Will it be hard to find a pitcher as good as Perkins? Probably. Given the ridiculous constraints put on closers by managers, do you need a pitcher as good as Perkins? Absolutely not.

Yeah, same here. The US is roughly the same size as western Europe with about half the population. Lots of open space over here, which makes trains incredibly expensive to maintain and keep the cost per capita reasonable.

Welcome to America. Our train system is an embarrassment.

Meh, if I started getting too riled up about that, I'd have to boycott every car company for making false claims. I'd have to boycott every tech company for using ridiculous comparison benchmarks to basically lie about their latest product. Lying and double-speak is a reality of the public relations world. It's a distasteful element of it but considering how nearly everybody partakes in the practice, it's pretty hard to put your foot down and get too upset or you'll spend your entire life being outraged about stuff that really doesn't matter. It's easier to just ignore everything said by a company and instead look at what they're actually doing and base judgment on that.

It's nothing more than PR double-speak. Say two different things, actually do a third. It's not a practice I'm fond of but it's a reality of almost any job that has a public face.

I worked in a gun shop for nearly two years. In the case of the police departments I dealt with on a regular basis, they were required to shoot their firearms on a fairly regular basis and there was a constant flow of police officers through our range. On top of that, the average schmuck has no training in how to handle a crisis situation and has very little idea of when they are within the bounds of the law to shoot at someone else. There is a reason why a good percentage of police officers dislike conceal and/or carry laws. It makes their job more difficult when they have to worry about "Weekend Dirty Harrys" wandering the streets without a lick of training or know-how in dealing with a crisis situation. Police officers are not infallible but when a cop approaches you, at least you're confident that at some point, he/she had training in crisis management and had to pass a somewhat rigorous shooting proficiency test. If a Weekend Dirty Harry approaches you with a gun, you have no such confidence in that being the case. After working in that gun shop for a couple of years, I saw all types come through the door and some of them were downright frightening. Some of the conceal/carry folks were ex-military. I have no problems with those people carrying firearms (most of the time). It was the other folks who scared the hell out of me. The people who wanted a conceal/carry permit because they were scared of something... in some cases, everything. Or maybe they had a chip on their shoulder and were itching for a fight. Those were the folks that can cause real damage and get people hurt. Those are the people who shouldn't be carrying guns in public and I don't think it's unreasonable to ask that a person have a reason for carrying a gun before letting them walk around with one on their hip. I'm not against carry laws. All I want to see is a bit of screening into "why do you feel it necessary to walk around with a gun all day?"

Agreed. While I discard most of what he says publicly in favor of judging his actions, those comments kinda got under my skin. All I can do is hope that he knows he was feeding a line of BS to the media because we all knew that he (mostly) collected nothing but junk this offseason.

I thought Steinbach was on the 96 team. My bad, that was 97.

This. It always surprises me how many people take his statements as gospel. He has to say certain things to appease the general public while his actions tell a very different story.

Sure, Perkins should be available. For a top 50 prospect and a high upside guy, maybe borderline top 100 talent. Anything less than that and you tell the opposing GM to hit the bricks and come back with a real offer. The Twins don't need to trade Glen. Also, that top 50 prospect should be a starting pitcher or a middle infielder. Set the bar high and tell the other GM to piss off if they don't like it.

Ryan was at the helm in 96 when the Twins went free agent crazy, though they were old free agents. He didn't start the rebuild in earnest until the following season, before which he was kind of half-assing a proper rebuild (and boy, did he bungle some of those early moves). In short, there is no need to fear a seven year rebuild. Ryan re-entered the GM position in 2011 with a shaky but full-of-potential farm system. Less than two years later, it's the best farm system in baseball. If we don't see the fruits of this system by 2015, I'd be very disappointed.

Interesting, Levi. I didn't know she was behind the ridiculous overcharging of the woman who fired rounds into her ceiling to deter her husband from beating the crap out of her. This woman is starting to sound like a menace. I wish more judges had the moxie to publicly berate these kinds of lawyers and shame them out of the system (or, at the very least, raise public awareness of them). They absolutely have the right to do it and generally, face no repercussion for doing so. After dating a lawyer for several years, I'm starting to realize the awesome power held by judges. It's both frightening and reassuring, depending on the judge.

Okay, just wanted to be sure. In case you didn't know, there is a Rochester, MN not far from the cities that is pretty well-known for its hospital. It causes a fair amount of confusion re: the Red Wings.

You realize the Red Wings play in Rochester, New York... Right? It's an easy mistake to make. As for tickets, you can visit one of our sponsors, Ticketking - Ticketking Minnesota - Ticket King - Ticket King Minnesota - Minnesota Ticketbroker or you can buy directly from the Twins website. Given the Twins' play this season, it's... *ahem* not very difficult to get tickets.

I LOLed.

Thielbar has allowed two runs, two walks, and two hits in his last three appearances (2 IP in total). He also struck out four batters in those two innings. A trend? Possibly. Regression? Waaaaaaaaaaaaayyy too early to say that.

More people die from tripping on a sidewalk than accidental and misguided shootings? You're joking, right? Also, it is FAR from conclusive that Zimmerman was defending himself. Failure to convict does not equal exoneration.

Which is why I said that OPS needs to continue creeping toward .700. Over his last 80 PAs, he's been hitting around .275. Basically, he needs to keep doing that all season before he gets any consideration.

I really hope this is a "play the vets because they're all gone in two weeks" thing because otherwise, it makes no sense.

Oh, so now it's first place votes. Have you looked at the AL rookie class this season? It's underwhelming and Hicks will have counting stats in his favor. He'll get votes if he keeps hitting. I seriously doubt he'll win it but he'll garner some votes.

In less than half a season, he has hit 8 HRs and his OPS has climbed to .633 while playing an up-the-middle position. If he stays healthy and inches that OPS toward .700, he WILL get votes.

That'd be nice. Give it to the Cuban. I'm down with that.

I don't think anyone here believes that money is carried over from season to season. But committing money long term today is money that can't be committed to anything else tomorrow.

That's the catch. Is he so miserly that he refuses to spend money on free agents at all or is this a long term strategy of timing the entry into free agency?