LaBombo

It's still attached to Shane Robinson, making it a replacement-level elbow...

Bremer's perfection of overreaction could have rendered Armstrong's first foot on the moon anti-climactic.

Is it just me, or does Slidin' Billy Hamilton look, play, and most of all sound like a deranged Oompa Loompa under the influence of a near-fatal dose of illegal stimulants? http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01750/Oompa_Loompas__1750522a.jpg http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/Ac6a5bprQd.X41BGwItt7A--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7aWw9cGxhbmU7cT03NTt3PTYwMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en/person/Ysports/billy-hamilton-baseball-headshot-photo.jpg Ok, so it's just me. Except for the sound part. Listen to some post-game Billy on youtube if you don't believe me.

Had to look it up myself. Knew one was righty and one was the crazy flailing spin like your grandma batting in the family reunion softball game, but couldn't remember which was which. They were both terrified. And yes, if Stairs never actually took an at bat like either of theirs against Johnson, you know he probably thought about it. The Wonder Hamster is on my top ten list of non-Twin MLB players I'd like to have a beer with.

He's also working on a faster-than-light no seam fastball that can go back in time and strike you out three games ago.

Spin-o-rama, or retire? There's also the Larry Walker option... http://enquirer.com/editions/1997/07/09/walker_450x407.jpg

Not quite true. May can hit 98 as long as the catcher knows which hemisphere to set up in.

My guess is that the Reds would still overtake them down in Juarez Mexico... or in Mauer's case, just outside the employee entrance to the stadium.

Pelfrey's sounds like a good guy from what we've heard, and we're pulling for him because Twin. But when he was openly grumpy about being assigned to the pen in spring training, my mental image was of Terry Ryan being played by Maverick's gruff, foul-mouthed CO in Top Gun, helpfully explaining to Pelf that "You're just lucky to be here, @$$h*!e!" http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FfXkHFSe-m0/SkKS78_3AUI/AAAAAAAAA9w/hf3pVy2Nc3Q/s400/jim.gif

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g240/lizcoolmompicks/Mom101%2008/UniversalFrankenstein-angrymob.jpg Do whatever you were doing in the 6th inning for the rest of the game and we'll call it even...

Good thing it's not a home game. It's raining hard enough in my neighborhood that my dream of owning a houseboat may be about to come true. Re: Pelfrey, has there been any mention by D&B tonight about how his start might affect the "Third prize is you're fired" musical chairs rotation shakeup when Ervin returns?

http://images.popmatters.com/news_art/d/don_cornelius1.jpg Post-game victory celebration MC?

My lack of complaint about the Hunter signing was more out of general laziness than any sort of confidence that it was a good move. That being said, as you said he's certainly fulfilled his end of the bargain so far by, at age 39, posting a first half slash line that is virtually indistinguishable from his previous four seasons despite a ten-year low in babip. And as a personal bonus, his outburst vs. KC offended the delicate sensibilities of a person attending the game who is my friend when she's not busy being a Royals fan.

Season ain't over yet... http://www.ntca.org/new-edge/wp-content/uploads/6a0120a85dcdae970b0128776ffd8b970c-pi.jpg

Yup. No use Carping about it. And if they can't Land a Bass from the Lake, there's always the Trout Pond. Well, that's it for me. Time out for an internal Battle with the Grillied Salmon and three Beane salad I just got Dunn Eaton. PS You can Check with BBref if you don't believe Mee.

Hunter's case is interesting because of how much it relies on defense, career longevity, and intangibles/personality. His defense is not competitive with some of the all time best glove-only savants elected by the veterans committee, but it doesn't need to be, since he was a very good hitter. It only needs to be among the best of his era. Nine Gold Gloves is an impressive accomplishment that can't be explained away entirely by reputation, and few would argue that Hunter was an excellent center fielder. However, the numbers tell a different story. The standard caveats about defensive metrics apply, but the bottom line is that they don't appear to support the notion of Hunter as a HOF candidate. Older stats like RF/9 confirm Hunter as a standout in CF early in his career, placing him first in the AL in 2000 and 2001. But RF9 pegs him as good but not great for the rest of his CF days, consistently placing him 5th or so in the AL. Total Zone is even more discouraging, grading his CF range as neutral or negative in all but his brilliant 2001 and anomalous 2011 seasons, and totaling a dismal -32 for his career. That leaves longevity and personality/intangibles. Hunter has had a long career and has managed to age gracefully while also finding his way into the postseason on occasion. But he hasn't been a cornerstone of a championship team, and counting stats enhanced by longevity don't carry the same weight with younger, more sabre-oriented HOF voters that they do with the old timers. That leaves personality. As a sort of silly effort to "quantify" personality, here's a half- (or perhaps even quarter-) arsed comparable for Hunter (JAWS and WAR career totals vs. /average HOF career totals at their primary position). Hunter: Gray Ink - 29 HoF Monitor - 58 HoF Standards - 33 WAR- 50.8 /70.4 JAWS- 41.0/57.2 "Player B" Gray Ink - 67 HoF Monitor - 68 HoF Standards - 33 WAR - 44.6/69.3 JAWS - 41.5/56.9 All in all, Player B's HoF scores represent an aggregate very similar to Hunter's. Player B did not win multiple GG's like Hunter but was widely regarded as an excellent up-the-middle defender in his prime. He was a starter for a championship team, but his career ended several seasons short of what Hunter has amassed so far. What does all this tell us about the role of personality in the HoF chances of a player with borderline numbers? It depends almost entirely on how you feel about electing Chuck Knoblauch to the Hall of Fame.

Quantifying the skill of staying healthy is even earlier in its infancy than applying metrics to defense. And it will probably lag behind most other forms of empirical sports analysis even when it's been studied more. In the mean time, we'll just have to go mostly by what we see on the field. And in that regard, one reassuring thing about Buxton is that it's extremely unlikely that his injuries are the product of his body carrying twice its natural muscle mass like Jose Canseco. It appears almost equally as improbable that Buxton's injuries are arising from his playing the game with the supple grace of a donkey basketball power forward like David Justice. That leaves the potential of being both blessed and cursed with an athletically gifted body composed mainly of soap bubbles, like perennially frustrating All Star talent J.D. Drew. But so far Buxton at least subjectively does not seem to be that sort of player either. Instead, it looks like the injuries are more likely just the product of bad luck and a lack of polish with his self defensive skills, as several posters have mentioned. The head-first slide is the most obvious and easily correctible, but situational awareness near the wall and his teammates, along with some other improvements to his game, should go a long way toward keeping him healthy. In any case, it's awfully early to make any judgments about BB yet, let alone one as subjective as whether he'll be able to avoid injuries. At this point the concern seems to be much more a product of what he potentially means to the future of the franchise than being due to an alarming trend. Put another way, Trevor Plouffe has quietly become a fairly valuable yet somewhat fragile ballplayer, but how much handwringing has there been about his ability to stay healthy?

If Meyer's best shot to contribute is in the pen, so be it. Just please, please nothing from FSN or any other cheerleaders about the starting pitching depth of the Twins organization having anything to do with the decision. Please. Pretty please. With sugar on it.

I get that!

Haven't said richard about Mauer's season-long funk myself so far this season, but would still be willing to eat at least one bite of crow-kabob if it would help him start hitting. Speaking of which, Mauer is more up to his neck in funk than George Clinton in his Parliament days. His sub-.700 OPS ranks ahead of only Napoli, Trumbo, and the porcelain Zimmerman among qualifiers. And both Napoli and Trumbo will surpass him the moment either of their babips exceed their weights. And that's before getting into the even more depressing picture of Mauer's per-dollar contribution to the offense, which is visible at this point only by squinting into an electron microscope. Mauer has been my favorite Twin of the past decade and one my all-time favorites too, dating back to my hazy childhood memories of Calvin Griffith's baseball serf squad. And on top of that, he's by pretty much all accounts a good guy and a good teammate. None of that, however, has much to do with admitting to myself that he is, at this moment, a replacement-level player who is consuming a fifth of the Twins' payroll. It's almost enough to make some fans hope, for his sake alone, that the Twins continue to spend below their supposed revenue/payroll ratio limit just to prevent Mauer from being viewed mostly as a salary cap penalty.

The Twins have quite a few potential job openings for hitters, and nobody who's hitting like they're particularly excited about applying for one.

People who are cold. People who are hungry for smores. People who like setting things on fire. http://www.gonecountryantiques.com/pictures/1977-20000-Pyramid-4th-Edition-No-4404(1).JPG

Santana down, Vargas up. If all you have is guys who can barely hit their weight, put in the heaviest guy. Duh.

This season's post-game dances have nothing like the very dark and disturbing quality of the 2011-2014 post-game dances... http://i.imgur.com/LgDVyzq.gif http://i.imgur.com/vDQWek0.gif http://i.imgur.com/cokqip8.gif

Yes, I foolishly forgot the universal code that 'B'+ ')' = Smiley Face. Dang. These kids and their intertubes. Get off my condo association landscaping.