LaBombo

Suzuki still hobbled by the spill he took off of his Huffy BMX.

I wish I had a dollar for every three run rally that started with a bunt for a base hit. I could buy a bag of Doritos, but only the small bag, and not real Doritos, just the Old Dutch knockoffs that cost 99 cents. Mmmm. Doriiiitoooos.

Agree. http://i.imgur.com/4U6uKIl.jpg

The Twins are the Brooks Hatlen of Major League Baseball, finding out that pitching has 'went and got itself in a big damn hurry'. http://66.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6u9aauf021qem3j8o2_250.gif

He looked better in the Sano Globe promo spot than in real life tonight.

http://www.gorillatough.com/sites/all/themes/gorilla/img/facebook/GG_FB_GorillaGlue_Original_R2.jpg

It's been a long season already, with more than two more months of this remaining, if that's possible. So I'm trying to refrain from singling out plays or players when there's so much blame to go around. But yes, his name rhymes with 'Manny Fantana'.

Knocked around by Twins http://www.prepressure.com/images/glyph_not_equal_to_2260_143.pngresume builder.

I should hope not. I'd hate to see them have to perform real jobs this way. http://cdn.wp.sunmotors.co.uk/get/2014/08/6.28.620x413.jpg

Pretty sure that's pronounced 'Beckman'.

At least once every other game, the Twins make a play in the field at a level that suggests they grew up in a baseball-less culture and learned to play the game by reading the baseball wikipedia page.

Three years ago Joe Mauer was an .880 OPS catcher and arguably still one of the 10 best position players in baseball. Two years ago Joe Mauer was recovering from his brain injury and playing his first ever full season at first base, where he proved much less valuable than he had been at catcher. One year ago, Joe Mauer played a full, mostly healthy season at first in which he consumed over 20 million dollars of payroll and played at the level of a replacement player at age 32. This year he appears to be establishing that last year was very likely his true level of value as a player, meaning we know now for the first time that the Twins will almost certainly play the next two seasons with roughly twenty percent of their projected payroll committed to a player who will do almost nothing to help them win. While I can certainly see not wanting to talk about that, it seems at least somewhat relevant to me when discussing how one of the worst teams in baseball is going to go about attempting to turn things around.

It's not that I missed your point. It's that your point is a flawed, straw man argument and that you failed to back it up with relevant examples. And now you've done so again, but at least you switched to bad baseball examples, so that's something. You found two examples of relatively unsuccessful outside hire GMs. And? Given that just based on odds alone, GMs in general are not successful in MLB, what does that prove, especially when I can effortlessly name two recent outside hire GMs that are currently among the more successful in MLB? So my previous question remains unanswered. How many MLB teams have hired a GM from within who was a part of a run of futility like the ones the Twins have seen since 2010? And if it is in fact a rarity to promote an assistant GM or the like from within an endemic culture of failure, why is Antony the man to break out of that pattern and set a new precedent? The only reason I can imagine would be his ability to bring something new to the table, like... oh, maybe the rigorous application of new analytical tools to player evaluation. Antony's most notable difference from his peers, by contrast, is probably his apparent disinterest in analytics.

Oh, c'mon, Mike, don't not hire Antony for that when there are so many even better reasons not to hire him! That's like filling up on salad and dinner rolls at OCB!

So that's... one example of an organization, one that's not even a major league baseball team, that hired an 'outsider' and failed. And it's interesting that you chose an executive whose most noteworthy and defining trait was not that he came from outside the organization that hired him, but rather that he came from outside the ranks of executives with player personnel experience, and with predictable results. Maybe it would be more compelling, or at least relevant, to list the major league baseball teams that have achieved noteworthy success with a GM who was promoted from an executive spot that he held through over half a decade of averaging more than 90 losses per season. Finding those names may take a good long while, but my guess is that typing them all probably won't.

How awesome is Fenway Park? It's such a cool place to see a ballgame that it was fun to watch the 1997 Twins there. No, really. For those who don't remember, the 1997 Twins were the 2013 Twins of the 1990's. Remember the 2013 Twins? Me neither, except that, like the 1997 Twins, they utilized a crafty combination of overmatched youngsters and burned out veterans to almost effortlessly produce well over 90 losses. But in the spring of 1997, enroute to my first ballgame at Fenway, I didn't even know how disappointing the 1997 Twins would turn out, let alone the 2013 Twins. All I knew was that it had the makings of an extraordinary day: driving with my girlfriend to the Boston burbs, MBTA to downtown Boston for a morning walking tour of fabulous historical sites, followed by another subway ride to Fenway to watch the Twins take on the Red Sox. It was a gorgeous spring day, and we boarded the subway just as the weekday morning commuter rush was ending. The ride was uneventful until we reached one of the Red Line college stops, which may or may not have been Hahvahd Station. Just before our train pulled out, a breathless, 20-ish young man lunged to beat the closing subway doors by a margin so small it would have done Indiana Jones proud. It wasn't especially noteworthy to the jaded everyday MBTA riders, though, and neither was what he did next. The young man flopped down on the floor, seated himself cross-legged, unzipped his hoodie down halfway, and began pulling from it what seemed like a shopping cart worth of stolen CDs he'd concealed inside. At least I think they were stolen, since they still wore their plastic "anti-theft" frames. He then produced a pocket knife and began prying the frames loose, scattering them as he went while stuffing the 'liberated' CDs back into his capacious hoodie. My girlfriend exchanged looks with me but ignored him otherwise. Being a country rube, I, on the other hand, couldn't help but watch the spectacle. Like any good thief, he looked up from his work to see if he was escaping notice. Our eyes met, and he paused his work to unpolitely ask if I "had a problem". I just smiled and shook my head no, amused at the idea that he was apparently ready to defend his enterprise whilst seated with his legs crossed. When we reached the next stop, he'd finished his work and stowed his ill-gotten gains, leaving a pile of disgraced anti-theft frames and cellophane. As the doors opened, he shot a menacing glare at me with all the menace his 5-9, 130 pound frame could muster, and stalked off the train. I looked at my girlfriend, who knew what I was thinking as she often did, and said "Should I?". She smiled and nodded. I picked up a half-dozen CD frames, stood in the door of the subway, and in my loudest Minnesota Nice voice, yelled "Sir! You dropped these!", and held them out for everyone on the platform to see. He froze in his tracks, whirled to face me, gave me a look that out-menaced his previous glare, and raised his hand in a single finger salute. But then he noticed that I wasn't looking at him, but rather at the MBTA transit cop nearby, who had taken an interest in our little exchange. The CD Kid was apparently a faster runner than he was a thinker, since he probably could've talked his way out of it. Instead he looked at the cop, instantly ran out of ideas, and turned and ran for the exit, losing Rage Against The Machine and Offspring CDs as he went, with the MBTA cop yelling into his shoulder mic as he rumbled after The Kid in hot pursuit. The rest of the day was almost perfect, except that the 1997 Twins lost the game, as was their way. A beautiful day spent with a lovely young lady in an incredible town, followed by baseball in a gorgeous ballpark. But whenever I think of baseball at Fenway, I'll always remember The CD Kid and his attempted steal.

Duuuude! Putting a fantasy hitter on the bench vs. the Twins is like storing fireworks in a bucket of water.

Wanted to laugh at this, but not sure if... http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/12089630/images/1284526412078.jpg ... anti-sexism sting operation or not.

Dick: "The Twins' bullpen has undergone a major facelift since the start of the season". True, but with the trade deadline and roster expansion, we probably haven't seen the final version yet... http://heavyeditorial.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/02-botch-plastic-surgeries-donatella-versace-lifestyle-1.jpg?quality=65&strip=all&w=780

Doing the job, just not in the "classical sense of the word 'job' ".

I knew I had seen that Vargas 'run' from third to home before, and I finally tracked it down on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFufoOgCMW8 Below: An opposing catcher having a quick bite as he holds the ball and waits for Vargas and a play at the plate. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-veSEU_UNGGQ/VcaTCGShDRI/AAAAAAAAlc4/caMmCdokL1I/s1600/MontyPythonHolyGrail_181Pyxurz.jpg

Huge break for the Twins as Dancing Bear knocks the ball out of Wright's glove, but out of view of the ump. Whatever works.

Chase? Is that you? http://a.fssta.com/content/dam/fsdigital/fscom/mlb/images/2015/08/21/082115-MLB-Philadelphia-Phillies-Chase-Utley-PI-SW.vresize.1200.675.high.95.jpg

When the Twins are playing well I don't mind Smalley so much, which is to say that I can't stand him any more. Sometimes he almost seems like he's teaching a class that shows the wrong way to talk about yourself.