wavedog

I have a suggestion for the next player/team boycott over police actions and this can apply to all leagues. I work for a company that has a significant sales force. Often the corporate folks will disparage the sales people out in the field - why can't they sell while the sales people would say why can't the corporate folks support us better. We have a ride with the rep option so that both sides can get a better understanding what the other does. My suggestion would be for the next boycott shut down all all games for a day and the players, managers, owners take a shift with a police officer in their area. This way each side will get a better understanding of what the other goes through. It is called building bridges as opposed to lobbing grenades. We have seen enough tweets and speeches on this topic to know it is an issue how about some action.

A couple of meandering points: I am glad the team took the statue down before they were taken down by protesters possibly causing injury and further damage to the stadium. The team put the statue up they can take it down. Statues are put up to honor folks that made significant contributions. The Griffiths owned the Senators/Twins for over 70 years - Calvin brought the team to Minnesota and owned the team for approximately 30 years so on that side that is of some certain significance. Personally I grew up following the team under his ownership and did not like him - he was cheap, in the Free Agency era all the good players left the team, and he made countless foolish comments, one being Waseca. I was glad when he sold the team. He has been labeled as a racist - he kept the players segregated back in the early 60's until he was called on it. The Waseca comment - Carew's comment in 1979 about not being a slave on his plantation and then an offset in Carew's latest statement saying that he did not believe Griffith was a racist from his personal experience which somewhat distorts the clear picture of the first 3 items or at least the 3rd one. I read the SI article on Mike Tucker who was the loudest voice in wanting to bring down Calvin's statue for racism. In the article there was this interesting quote from Mike " Tucker says. “The minority and people of color players the Twins have had, I’ve always been the biggest fans of them.” Would you consider that comment racist or different side of the coin? If Calvin Griffith had said "The White players the Twins had - they have always been my favorites" might that have been a pretty big deal - worse than Waseca? I have seen comments that the removal of the statues is not about erasing history. In the comment from the Twins it states "We cannot remove Calvin Griffith from the history of the Minnesota Twins" so there it is stated in writing - however that comment sure makes it sound like if they would if they could. As I said I have meandered on enough - I did not celebrate his statue going up or coming down. I did not know Calvin personally, walk in his shoes or know his mind and heart. The issue of how big a racist he was may be a little more complex, clouded by his cheapness, countless stupid comments over time and unless we get a little more explanation on Carew's latest comments that contradict his comments from the late 70's.

Not very impressed with Manfred as well in terms of this negotiation, marketing the game, and contracting the minor leagues as other examples. He should be able to get both sides to move to a compromise. The owners haven't really budged in their offers - but on the other-hand the players have not come off of getting paid 100% of their prorated salaries for any games they play. From their point that was agreed to in March but there is some question about if that was including games with no fans or not. That part is on the owners for agreeing to that without stipulating caveats. I put the majority of the blame on the owners but I am not letting the players totally off the hook. This is bargaining and in bargaining both sides have to give up something. Play 50 games or play none - either is fine with me. I really feel for the minor league players and minor league local ownership groups.

Posting my baseball update during this quiet time as I am home-officing: Former Twin Danny Santana just ran up and down our street with his wife. Yesterday he ran shirtless with his kids and mother-in-law while doing bicep curls. They are renting the house across the street from us. That's all I got....

Maybe better to go with Buxton and Kepler in the outfield and 5 infielders. Hopefully we focus on defensive improvement in Spring training to at least try to make it to average.

Since we can't fill our rotation its for the protection of our fans when the other team is batting - the netting will extend to the outfield seats.

For the right price and contract length - sure I would bring him back. I think he will have a solid bounce-back season next year. I am guessing his agent put out that note about the interest - if there that much interest in him then the price and length may fall out of a reasonable range for us if we want to bring Odorizzi back and sign a top grade starter.

Berrios kind of pitched like he has the last 2 months - so I thought he did OK - he battled and the wheels didn't fall off for him. With better defense it would have been pretty good. Personally I would have started him at home in game 3 though. I was surprised as Stashak in the 6th 0ne run behind. I was expecting May for the 6th, Romo for the 7th and then Rogers for the 8th and 9th. When Gibson came in for the 7th all I had hope for was a miracle - but unfortunately he looked just like he has looked the past few outings and turned the game into an unwatchable experience. Also Rosario and Cron have not been good the past couple of weeks either so they are continuing their trends. Best that can be said is today is a new day - start at 0-0 . However the batting and hitting approach has to get better if we want different results.

Let's go win this! Selections make sense - my only slight surprises were Adrianza over Astudillo was Adrianza going to be well enough to play and Smeltzer over Perez but no complaints there.

I think I would lean to Odorizzi in Game 1, Dobnak in game 2 and then Berrios at Home. I don't know this as fact but I am guessing Odorizzi would handle the pressure of the first start better and he has pitched better down the stretch. Dobnak I want for Yankee stadium since he is more prone to throw grounders. Not sure what to do for Game #4 if necessary. Since the series is play 2 games then a day rest, play 2 games then a day rest I think our best relievers can go back-to-back games if we want to have game #4 be a reliever game. All hands on deck for game #5

I cut the cord with AT&T 3 months ago and switched to YouTubeTV so I have lucked out in this case and can catch all the games. As other comments have mentioned - you can watch YouTubeTV at home on your TV or anywhere on your tablet or phone as well. Saved a significant amount of money and I upgraded my internet service to make sure the bandwidth supported it. I have had no issues so far unless you are tied to surfing by Channel numbers. I also bought MLB.tv this year - so another case of real good fortune in timing - I live out of market so not sure how the playoffs will be handled in market. I thought I read where if you have MLB.tv the games on MLB Network will be available as well, but I couldn't watch any of the local Texas or Houston games this year on MLB.tv

This has been a wonderful season - congrats to the Twins on a Great Year. Cleveland kept the pressure on but the Twins sure responded well. On a side note - this is the first season I have purchased MLB.TV and I could not have had any better timing - getting to watch most of the games in this Division Championship year! Been a long time but sure is sweet.

Kelley is a bit of a red-ass - I remember when he was pitching for Washington last year the manager came to take him out and he pitched a fit and threw his glove down. Washington released him after that episode. Also about a month ago he was called in to pitch and hurt his arm warming-up and had to come out before throwing a pitch - he also reacted angrily then coming into the dugout and throwing his glove (with his good arm - lol ). So I am pretty sure this was on purpose.

I commented on the game thread so won;t repeat. I will say I think it should have ended when Cave acknowledged his mistake at first base - he was either unaware of the rule or didn't realize the count? CJ Nitkowski on a radio show here in Dallas mentioned today, the Rangers were still shifting on Cave - so he has no problem with Cave swinging on the 3-0 pitch. If they are still playing full force why can't both teams? I mean otherwise just have a slaughter rule and call the game. No one is backing that Kepler should have been hit except Kelley. Hope he pitches again in the series and Kepler takes him deep.

I was watching the Rangers broadcast and they did not mention anything so I totally missed this but did think Kepler getting hit was a little strange. I wasn't aware swinging on a 3-0 pitch was an offense - some of these unwritten rules seem like they were made up by 8 year olds. I wonder what the combination of runs your behind and inning violates the "rule" . Maybe like the no pitch intentional walk - baseball can come up with a "you violated an unwritten rule and offended our team" indication or sign so the batter can just take first base without taking one in the ribs or shoulder.

Well, after reading this and seeing how Berrios has fared so far this 2nd half I am! Nice analysis and write-up. As much as we need him wondering if a 10 day break would be of help to let him reset.

Nice article on Jake - at this point he is certainly worth calling up for a shot especially while he is on a hot streak.

At least we don't have to worry where Gonzalez is going to fit in the opening day lineup. Probably gives Astudillo a spot on the roster as well. I can't speak for certain on the reason this injury is prolonged but I can look at Sano's injury history and be very concerned on his staying ability going forward. Tommy John for the throwing arm, a stress reaction in his leg that took a very long time to heal in 2017 and needed a metal rod inserted in his shin and now this spike injury that won't heal properly all happening at age 25 and younger. I can throw in a few hamstring tweaks in there as well - one thing we know is he is not a quick healer.

I like the move! Particular the flexibility Marwin provides both in terms of positions he can play and being a switch-hitter.

Welcome the fresh material - love it! Let's hope the Twins don't have a joke of a season and this will be the only type of laughs we need.

Living down here in Texas Ranger country - I have seen Perez pitch for a few years now. He will look good for a few innings and then pick around the plate walk a few hitters and melt down and give up a big inning. The Rangers I am sure got frustrated not seeing any improvement. Maybe he could fit as a multi-inning reliever or maybe a change of scenery is what he needs to change - as a Twins fan I can hope but I am not counting on much.

Looks like with his career home/road splits we should only pitch him in home games. That is another variation to add in with the Opener/Primary concept. If we go on a long road trip put him on the DL with home sickness.

If we can add talent to the team I am all for it - I think we need to mix some things up because I am real worried we have too many one-dimensional players. Ranked in order of preference: Soria - we need a couple of bullpen arms - Soria qualifies as a quality add on a 2 year deal Cruz > Austin in my worthless opinion. Cruz has power and gets on base even for an old guy. Austin has power - can either play a position well? Cahill looks like a nice arm to add - what are the odds our current 4 starting pitchers pitchers make it through the year healthy? Caveat - not sure what they are doing with the opener/primary role this year but that would be a good way to get some of our younger pitchers some innings this upcoming year like Romero, Mejia, Gonsalves and Stewart in the 5th spot. Ramos - if they have concerns about Garver's concussion history and him being able to catch regularly then Ramos would be a nice signing. Not sure where that would leave Garver though as we have ample folks at 1B/DH but honestly Garver may be the best hitter out of the bunch of them. The other thing it looks like is Sano has to get in good shape and has to play 3B. We don't have a dependable contingency plan and we are full of 1B/DH types.

I like the hitting tools that Santana would bring and also the fact that in addition to 1B he could play some 3B as a backup plan for Sano. I would also say if the $ would prevent us from upgrading the 2B/SS position and Relief Pitching then not on board. The other issue is we already have Cron and Austin and to a lesser extent possibly Garver/Sano splitting the 1B/DH position. There would have to be several moves to make all this work.

Excellent article and a bit depressing about the OBP currently on the team. Hopefully the new regime will help lift it up. I would sign Lowrie and Bour with Austin being traded.