Bark's Lounge

I did not hold out any hope that Maddon would be our next manager and I will sleep okay at night... it is what it is. But, it is a quote like this from Terry Ryan via Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press that is very irritating: “It caught my eye, there’s no doubt about that,” Ryan said Friday evening. “This is a pretty big opt-out. When I saw it, I was surprised, but it’s certainly caught my eye.” Are the Twins interested in pursuing the 60-year-old Renaissance man who led the Rays to 90-plus wins five times in the past seven seasons? “I certainly will do my due diligence on anybody that’s available,” Ryan said. “Everybody was hoping I would hurry up and get a manager: ‘What’s taking so long.’ Now everybody sees this.” I don't like being lied to and that last line in bold seems like a smoke and mirrors lie and the worst part of it is that Ryan spins it to cover his own ass for taking too long to hire a manager. Are the majority of Twins fans even upset about the time that has elapsed since Gardenhire's dismissal? If they are, I guess I was not aware of it. Pure poppycock I's tells ya!

Just awful. The kid might have had an up and down season this year, but his future was quite bright. Baseball is a game and a good one at that, but I really feel in the dumps about Taveras and his girlfriend losing their lives in a human sense. 22 and gone. Way too young. Dreams that are now dust in the lives of his loved ones. future good memories, bad memories down the drain... the essence of life. What sad news, what a shame, and lastly a big loss for MLB.

Yep.

I am pretty damn excited about this movie. When I was seven going on eight I seen Return of the Jedi in the Theater around 8 -10 times in 1983. I never read the books or comics that came out after the original trilogy and I can say the same for that after the episodes I-III. I don’t know too much about the expanded universe, but I have read a good amount on the internet, and it is interesting to say the least with some good and bad points. I am excited to have a closure situation with Luke, Leia, Han, Chewbacca, etc. – I never thought that this would happen, but what the heck – it did. I want it to be great and I think it can be. Much respect and appreciation to George Lucas, but with his I-III Trilogy he seemed to lose his edge, whether it was his age or the fact that he became a full time single dad, I do not know. Those movies were lacking, not to say there were not some good parts, but overall, I think that is a given they were lacking of certain elements and too CGI dominated. Certainly, I must think most Star Wars fans cringed when Disney bought LucasFilm from George Lucas, but after some time has elapsed, I think there is a chance they will do it right and bring back the old feel as much as they can. Disney bought Marvel Comics and have let them sort of do it there way. It should be the same with Star Wars hopefully. Really, I am putting this thread out there to be a Star Wars info thread until Episode VII is released. Episode VII may be 14 months away, but I think it is time to get started. There is already a lot of info on this movie floating around and some maybe spoilers too. I know there are some Star Wars fans on this site and let’s have some fun with it. Updates, Ideas, opinions are great! Let’s do it!

Silverman should have probably kept his mouth shut. I hope your appointment with the surgeon goes well. It sounds like it was an extremely awful injury.

Agreed - but the Cubs do seem like the likely destination. All of their nice new action figures that are about to hit the toy stores, the money to play around with and the combo of Epstein, Hoyer and Maddon probably give a warm and fuzzy feeling to all of the aforementioned individuals. No offense to Renteria, I am sure he is an excellent baseball guy, but he seems like a guy you could toss away to bring in Joe. Sure, the Dodgers could be a nice fit, but I believe Friedman when he says Mattingly is their guy.

Yeah, I read that also. If he indeed ends up in Wrigleyville it will be interesting to see how it plays out. It's weird that kind of tampering mumbo jumbo would be thrown out there so soon after his departure. GM Matt Silverman seemed pretty bummed out about the whole Maddon exodus. I guess you can't blame the guy. The Rays lost a whole lot this past week. On another note: how is your broken bone healing?

It has to suck to be Rick Renteria right now. Poor fella.

As much as I think it would be great for KC to win the big kahuna, my gut tells me that San Fran is going to win their third WSC in 4 years. They are looking to be the most unlikely and quiet baseball dynasty in the history of the game. SF over KC in 5.

Glunn, I could see that a lot of people got weirded out when you brought up the genetic engineering topic, but I knew where you were coming from. Although horrifying beyond words, it is a probable end outcome that will not have pleasant results. I believe in science, but there has to be a natural approach to certain things humans do. And by chance if it is successful, it takes the chaos and experimentation out of the decision to procreate out of the equation. What fun is that? I still would like to think that uniqueness is valued human trait, I think it has helped our world more than it has hurt us. The only tampering we should do with reproduction is being tested for genetic deficiencies and making a choice to have or not have children.

On another note. I see that Jim Kaat won an award. What the hell is wrong with the writers who elect HOFers, get his ass in the HOF! To the Twins: Retire his number no matter the outcome. No offense to Bert, but Kaat is the best pitcher in the history of the MN Twins. Note: Not franchise history.

I am glad that Hughes took the team MVP Award. He was the most enjoyable player too watch this year, and this is coming from a guy who focuses more on the offense. It is nice to have a pitcher where you don't have to turn the channel because you don't have the guts to watch the impending doom unfolding. No offense to Gibson, he was okay for the most part, the inconsistency was painful. Congrats Phil - let's do one better next season!

I really hope he is able to catch acceptably in 2015, but if not, would it be fair to say if he starts out poorly, but is able to make a breakthrough with his catching ability in MN or Rochester sometime during the season and gives the "evaluators" reasons to be optimistic about him handling it semi-full time in 2016, that would be okay? Personally, I hope he can be our back-up catcher next season and get 250PA (a few at DH) because his bat can help the 2015 team, but if he is relegated to mostly AAA time and he can show that he can rise to the challenge of being a passable backstop, I can wait until 2016 for him to be the primary catcher at the age of 27.

I've said something similar to this on other threads in the recent past. Jorge Posada did not become a starter until his age 26-27 season in 1998. That year he had 409PA, almost double his total from his first 2 seasons leading up to that point. Posada if my memory serves me correctly was not a good defensive catcher and never really was more than average at best. I'm not saying that Pinto will become Jorge Posada, but his hit tool is pretty damn good. I can see him being a 20HR, .800+ OPS type of hitter. Right now is not the time to throw in the towel on this still youngish player. I think is safe to say that when we were all 25 going on 26 we still had youthful vigor and a spring in our step. If Pinto doesn't work out, oh well, but if he does get better behind the dish and hits like I think he can, that would be astounding! I would be patient and give him 2 more years before I abandon ship. I'll take a poor man's Posada on my team any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

I wish I could Glunn, but I don't want be exiled from my hometown of St. Paul or even worse being banned from Shamrocks or the Nook (St. Paul Burger Joints with close ties to Cretin-Derham Hall). There is only so much I will do for the right cause.

4 long years and still this fan is pained by that trade. Poor guy/gal. At least Ramos hasn't started the world on fire with his play. Too much time on the DL. Now that I have said that I bet he has an OPS of .900 with 550PA next year.

Chief = Wordsmith.

Only if HGTV or BRAVO does a reality television program based upon this "platoon".

Thanks Doc. Well, if Steinbach heads to the D-Backs. Franco certainly can be my 1B coach - Mientkiewicz heads to bench coach.

I'm with Willihammer on this one as I have been a steadfast Mauer supporter. But if 2015 roles around and he has another season like the one he just had. I would have no justification to argue any point defending Mauer against his critics. I really, really hope he gets after it this offseason and silences his critics next season (not to say that is even possible). I'm still pulling for you Joe!

I admit, I embellished a bit on the Hunter playing average defense. Even though I do not follow defensive metrics very much, I have read many, many threads or articles just on this site that indicates that Hunter is a lousy outfielder defensively - I have no reason or evidence to suggest that isn't true. It was a wild card idea and more so than not, those kind of ideas are fool hardy, but I bet Hunter would have a lot to offer to our young outfielders as a teammate or coach. He might not be too efficient in the field anymore, but he was one of the best defensive players in the game not too terribly long ago and the experience/knowledge he has gained over the last 20 years I believe would play big with the young guys. That is why I put him on my list. He was my OP hand grenade of controversy. Honestly, I do not think Hunter would sign here because of his Playoff/World Series aspirations. It is not beyond the scope of reality that playoff contending teams might have no interest in him because of his defensive deficiencies moving forward into the 2015 season. If he somehow became a serious option for the Twins to sign this off season, he would need to play the field or it's not worth it. Assuming Vargas starts the year with the big club in 2015 - Vargas, Mauer and maybe Pinto will be plugging up the DH position on a daily basis. Other than Hunter, I don't think my proposed 2015 coaching staff was too awful.

I felt inspired and wanted to throw something out there. It may be fool hardy or not. I admit I am not an expert on what certain coaches talents are or their playability to MLB, or their metric philosophies regarding the game, but after a bit of thought, I thought I’d throw this lot at you all. My evaluation will not be too in-depth, but I believe I have put together an exciting and interesting group of coaches. MANAGER Paul Molitor: I like Molitor because he is very intelligent baseball man. He was the best base runner of his era and he appears to be very focused on the game when it is in session. In mu opinion he made the 2014 club a lot better and it showed. I remember when he was Kelly’s bench coach from 1999-2001. He was intensely involved in the game, at that time, it looked like he wanted to be a manager. There were many moments where I had seen the fire in this man. On the other side of things, I strongly believe he has always been a student of the game and evolves with the game. I do not believe Twins fans should worry about if he is an old school Twins guy. He’s progressive and the metric side of the game will strongly play into his managerial style. Adapt or die… right? PITCHING COACH Eddie Perez: I am assuming that Perez coaches his pitchers with Atlanta, in the Bullpen - and probably the starting rotation to some extent. I realize Roger McDowell is one of the most respected Pitching coaches in the game, but I’d have to think that Perez has brought his own insights and has learned some things from McDowell. He has looked over some great bullpens for the last 4 seasons and has been in this position since 2007. I would certainly like to see him give it a shot, knowing that Atlanta has been known for developing good pitching for the last 20+ years. Being that Eddie is from Venezuela, he would definitely close the gap in the Twins inability to communicate with and develop their growing contingent of Latin American Baseball Players. HITTING COACH Tom Brunansky: I have seen enough this year to know that Bruno made some very good headway with the players under his tutelage. Our offense had some rough times, but was more or less impressive. He is working with a lot of young guys and his mission is incomplete. I’d like for him to see it through. 1B COACH Doug Mientkiewicz: He has been great as a manager at Fort Myers. Maybe it would be better, if he remained in the minors and managed, but the selfish part of me wants him up with the big club. As a Gen-X player and now a coach, I think he will be a great motivator and influence on our younger players. In my heart of hearts I would like him to be our next manager, but this might be a good assignment for him as I do not want to see Molitor depart. In my proposed scenario, Molitor is named manager, Molitor is 58 years old, and I am not too sure how long he would want to do it for (my thinking is 4-5years)? If Mientkiewicz gets some managerial offers after a year or so. Over pay him and promise him the Managerial role once it has opened. The experience over that handful of years will be very valuable. 3B COACH Joey Cora: Cora is a good baseball man and had a pretty good career as a MLB 2B. He was Ozzie Guillen’s bench coach for a good number of years, whether that makes people cringe or excited. He would be a great choice and between him, Mientkiewicz and Molitor, our Infield will be set with excellent instructors. He also will be another Latin American voice in our clubhouse (Puerto Rico). BENCH COACH: Terry Steinbach: Terry is only 2 years into his stint as the Twins Bench Coach. I would hate to see him cast off as I believe he has great value. Playing under LaRussa and to a much lesser degree Kelly. One would have to imagine this man has some baseball smarts. He was the catcher for some fantastic Oakland A’s teams and was an instrumental part in 3 World Series appearances and one World Series Championship. When I look upon the 2 seasons for the Twins, I certainly do not see him as a problem in the coaching department. I have to believe he learned a good amount under the tutelage of LaRussa and Duncan. BULLPEN: Bobby Cuellar: I admit I do not know much about Cuellar, but he had some very good success in the minors as a pitching coach, and although our bullpen the last few years has been overrated in my opinion, as they obviously were done in by our mediocre starting staff, he has gotten a lot out of guys you would think are AAAA players. Casey Fien being the best example. Cuellar has paid his dues, keep him on. He has done a decent job with the talent thrown his way. This is my Wild Card (and it most probably will not happen): OF COACH/PLAYER: Torii Hunter: I know that Hunter is a 50/50 split on this site. Some see him as self consumed prima donna and some see him as a guts and glory baseball player and leader we desperately lack. I think it is a mix of the two. Hunter could definitely fill the hole in LF next year, if he is willing to play it and he doesn’t get overpaid again. Hunter would probably play average defense if LF and give us decent to good offense from that position, but I think he would be invaluable working with our current Outfielders and it would be nice for him to end his career in a Twins uniform. He is a Twin, not an Angel or Tiger. All that aside, I think he would be great in that role. (2 years 14 Million?)

Great song, great video, just kidding. What more is there to say?

Eddie Perez (Brave BP Coach) and Mark Gardener (Giants BP Coach) might be good candidates.

My favorite was "Top 10 Reasons my Bike is Better than a Boyfriend".