CDog

With no radio feed option (XM?), seems like Mute Button + Music Playing is about your best bet.

When do we get to see your "con" list?

Except for all of his...ummm...actual statistics.

I haven't been logged in for a few days, but wanted to reply to this... In the post of mine you quoted, I intended no such subtext whatsoever. Ashburyjohn had asked a question (although possibly rhetorically) about everyone rooting for "our guys," and I was answering that question rather directly. There has even been a case in this very thread since then. My "favorite," though, was probably the poetically absurd logic of a position I once read (I don't recall if it was on this site or not) where the writer suggested he wanted the entire team to fail because if they won the World Series, then the Pohlads would think Gardenhire capable of winning the World Series and then they'd never get rid of him.

If you'd like to set the over/under for the number of times Mauer is asked to sacrifice this year at 1--regardless of his spot in the order--I'll take the under.

Interesting that the incessant use of SF bunts has landed the Twins in the bottom third for Sacrifice Hits since Gardenhire became manager, only being above the bottom third twice for a season (and never in the top half) and this despite being in the top third for OBP and 2nd in Singles over this stretch. I think instead of "incessant" you meant "rare." I also wonder why so many people can find the one thing they're looking for in a quote ("OMG, he said 'bunt'!!!") and ignore the multiple times it's come up in the media where Gardenhire has had to explain to a newer player that sac-bunting early in the game wasn't what "we" do here (almost certain it was written about Orlando Hudson and Nishioka very shortly after their respective arrivals...I'll go out on a limb there have been plenty of other times that weren't reported). Carry on.

Two items that are decent and only mildly overpriced (making them a great bargain in the world of ballpark items) are the Walk-a-Taco (I forget the location) and the Asian stir fry stand (down near the left-field foul pole). Neither is really "ballparky," but otherwise... For more of a snack, I've found the gelato stands pretty good.

I was glad to find out this thread was about his contract.

Wouldn't this just be to make room for Ramirez?

I don't comment a lot on signings or non-signings, but I'll go on record that I liked the Pelfrey signing at the time, now, and therefore will continue to like it regardless of what happens in the future (because that shouldn't cloud the decision in the moment it was made).

Giddyup again.

Giddyup.

For whatever reason, I'm holding my breath on Burton in much the same way as Diamond. As a side note, I thought his extension was a strange move of the offseason that didn't get a lot attention. Hoping to be wrong, of course. I'm getting more comfortable that Perkins can continue to be at least close to as good as the last couple of years. Duensing feels like a pretty known quantity. I feel OK that Fien will be OK. The rest may as well be giant question marks to me. Bottom line, I'm hopeful than can be OK to good, but there's a little nagging feeling that they might collectively be "an issue" all year long.

Some folks have been and continue to be quite up front and open about their hope for failure for certain people to "prove their point." Others you can find it in nuance and subtext. But there are certainly a fair amount of instances where their honest answer to your question could only be a resounding "No."

In another thread, a side conversation started about Omar Vizquel and whether he's a "surefire HoF'er" or something less than that. Brock called him a sure bet as a first-ballot guy in the vein of Ozzie Smith. Some others seemed a little less enthusiastic. I had originally weighed in with the thought that my memory didn't have him as a sure-thing and more of a guy who was just steady, albeit for a long, long time. So...what did some quick and incomplete fact-checking find? I don't think Vizquel can touch Ozzie. By both BR and Fangraphs, Ozzie has TEN seasons of WAR better than Vizquel's SECOND best season. For their careers, bWAR and fWAR go to Smith by wide margins of 73 to 40.5 and 70.1 to 47.4, respectively. Looking at just their ten best seasons, Ozzie goes 55.3 and 52.6 against Vizquel's 32.3 and 34.8. For the more subjective stuff, Ozzie out Gold-Gloved him 13 to 11, and out-All-Starred him 15 to 3 (I should note that the last three AS nods for Ozzie were fairly ridiculous). Smith got MVP votes 6 times, finishing second once (and in the teens and twenties the other five). Vizquel only got votes once, finishing 16th. On the counting stats, Vizquel does a little better (although he's played five more seasons). He has more hits (2877 to 2460) and HR's (although neither has many...80 to 28...on a side note, I was surprised Ozzie had that many). The first comparison that came to my mind was maybe someone like Craig Biggio. But he also has a much better portfolio on the limited look I took. By WAR he has eight or nine seasons better than Vizquel's second best (depending on BR or Fangraphs). His total WAR are 62.1 and 70.5 against the 40.5 or 47.4 for Vizquel. And his ten best years total 51.9 or 53.2 against 32.3 or 34.8. Biggio also had 4 Gold Gloves (where he falls short of both Vizquel and Smith by quite a bit), 7 All-Star games, and five times got MVP votes including 4th, 5th, and 10th, 12th, and 16th place finishes. And he wins against both on the main counting stats with 3060 hits and 291 home runs. So does Vizquel get in...ever? First ballot? Never? What other measures should be looked at? Brock mentioned Vizquel being an anti-steroid example, which I think will definitely matter to some voters. Other angles?

I'm going to start a new thread on this in the More Baseball forum so we can leave this thread to Twins MI...

Sounds like the worst part of it, though, from a timing perspective is the lost opportunity to ramp up arm strength/pitch count at this late-spring juncture. Can he pitch in a minor league game like you mention while still on the big-league 25-man roster once the MLB season has started? I feel like he couldn't, but I don't know how that works for sure.

Injured. (I think coming off yet another surgery...)

Is that true? Am I mis-remembering how good he was? I don't want to de-rail the thread with a tangent, but I guess I don't think of him that way. My impression is he's a steady-Eddie that played forever.

But how/why were there tie games in the first place? Also...so if they got one of these tie games and then replayed it only for individual statistics purposes...did the original game still count also (it must have for the Games Played stat, at least)? Or did the original game stats get wiped away? Or...? And how is this something I missed for so long?

During a particularly rough patch last year, USAFChief wrote a fairly long post about something close to what you're saying there. It made me sad that I felt myself agreeing with it. I think I replied at the time, and will state again now, that I don't think it would be my choice to let him go (at that time or this time), but I could understand if it happened and wouldn't really be able to make a really strong argument against it. If it does happen, I would hope for it to be early in an off-season, though. And also just to be clear, I think having a team that isn't playing well, or even having that ugly mentality creep in is pretty different than having anyone quit on the team or the manager.

You seemed to imply that in an earlier post saying the decision was made before having anything to do with Revere. I apologize if I misinterpreted that. But yes, it did have to do with Revere (according to what everyone said at the time...maybe it was just saving face or something duplicitous). Sequence of events... 1) Pre-spring training, expected outfield is Revere, Span, Hammer with Revere in left I think because of his weaker arm. 2) Spring training starts and they play games with that alignment. 3) Revere has trouble in left (I thought I remembered his quote being about routes and getting to balls...I was wrong, and it was about throws, but the point stands...I'm almost certain other people made comment about him actually getting to them, even if he himself did not). 4) THEN, since Hammer had been moved to make room for Revere over there and Revere was no longer going to be playing there...he was moved back. That's what was said at the time. Again...I suppose it's possible they were saving face for Willingham not feeling OK in right. But that would be just inventing story, I think. AND...going back to the very original quote that got me down this weary path...even if that WAS the case, then Gardenhire did try to get the veteran to try something out of his comfort zone. It didn't work out.

Back when? I grabbed a few random years... '88 2 played them all and three more played 160+. '83 2 and 8. '74 4 and 6. '67 4 and 4. '61 4 and 2. Before that they only played 154 game schedules and it obviously was more common, but certainly not as large as the number of teams times two. Anyone know why several guys played more than one game more than the full schedule? For instance, Cesar Tovar played 164 in '67 and Wiki says the Twins had two ties that year? What? (Not to hijack the thread even further...)

Four players played 162 games in 2012. Ten more played 160+. Only one in 2011 and 2009, but six and eleven, respectively, played 160+. Two in 2010 played them all with another ten playing 160+. And our own Justin Morneau played 163 (!) in 2008 along with four others who played 162 and six more who played 160+. Prince Fielder has missed one game in the last four seasons combined.

Revere started THREE games before being sent to the minors. The other two April games came after being recalled. Not sure what that has to do with anything. The quote I included was a tiny part of a very long list of articles. I don't think we're supposed to quote too much from copyrighted stuff, and I certainly wasn't going to link to the entire list of many. They're out there. The plan coming in to spring training was Revere in left, Willingham in right (I assume because they worried about Revere's arm in right initially). That was even how they started out playing games in the spring. Many quotes, not just the part I included (which was to specify the one I had alluded to in a previous post), and all of the articles discuss this. Parmelee looking like a viable option, Morneau moving to DH so Doumit needed to play...these were all part of the puzzle where Revere got edged out of the picture. It's all there if you want to read about it if your memory doesn't still hold it.