LaBombo

And failure was not an option.

A viola, not The Viola. But now that you mention it, if I could pick any Twin to listen to as he answers what he's doing riding on the trunk of an Accord or the roof of a Caravan, it's hard to think of anyone more fun than the guy with the New Yawk accent. Al Newman gets honorable mention.

Amazing what re-purposed season ticket dollars can buy you from the other side of the world. Guy a couple doors down told me this winter he decided not to renew, and a few weeks later I signed for a big Fedex box for him marked "Caution. This side up. Contains bride".

Whenever I ask myself how a pro sports franchise like the Tigers can address a glaring deficiency year in and year out and yet manage not only not fix it, but often make it worse, I usually end up chuckling as I think "Vikings defensive backfield".

Scherzer might not make it out of the fifth if he keeps on giving up sharp contact like this...

Favorite 2014 Twins memories... 1. Finally having a starter in the rotation again who's good enough to have his starts be games worth going out of your way to see, listen to, or gamecast. 2. Briefly crashing the TD server with excessive .giffing. 3. Making it all the way to the final series of the year before confessing that I've been pretending to still like the Twins this whole season just so I could hang out in the game threads. http://media.giphy.com/media/NHfks0jpRJwkw/giphy.gif

Why is it that the likelihood of a pitchtrax location being shown on a pitch is inversely proportional to how controversial it is? Wow. May with the stewardess curveball to deep left Flint.

Hughesie banked more good will and marketability with that interview. It almost comes as a shock now when an athlete exceeds your expectation for being a good guy, rather than falling short as has happened so often, especially recently.

No apology necessary, though it's always good to see you posting here. Sorry for losses and tough time you're having. But you've endured four years of really bad baseball, so you owe it to yourself to stick around and enjoy the many good ones to come. Welcome back!

The suspense of what brian's going to say with his 10,000th post is almost unbearable...

You're not even going to ask whether it was in the case or not?

Some artistic license is necessary when you're trying to sell a team whose rotation can barely break glass year in and year out. May looking better in the second.

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs24/i/2008/024/7/7/Pistols_at_Dawn_by_ChrisRawlins.jpg

Always look when I hear that near my car. Usually means some random item like running shoes, pliers or a viola has been left on the roof or trunk, depending on which vehicle.

Good for him, and to a lesser extent, good for the Twins. Still seems like a missed opportunity for some favorable media coverage for the Twins. What changed since Gardenhire's ruling it out right after the game yesterday? Had he already talked to Hughes and been told no? Seems like the kind of thing you'd mention up front instead of having it come out after 24 hours of national media coverage.

Then maybe when repeatedly asked about it they should have simply said 'We have no idea what you're talking about' instead of saying 'We're tired of talking about it, so we're sticking with the same philosophy but not calling it "pitch to contact" any more, according to a Tom Powers interview, which contains this paragraph: But in truth, the Twins organization got carried away with the term, too. They noted that they drafted fellows who pitched to contact, traded for guys who pitched to contact and described prospects as youngsters able to pitch to contact. To the rest of us, that sounded like an awful lot of contact. So no, it's not the imaginations of a few crazy TD posters... They've used it a ton, and it is a widely despised phrase.

An organization that repeatedly finishes last in strikeouts in MLB by a wide margin and talks up "pitch to contact" inspires about as much credibility and respect as Pee Wee Herman saying "I meant to do that".

What's more potentially disruptive? Giving a new manager an entire offseason to prepare for 2015, or the historically unprecedented act of retaining Gardenhire that may result in a slow start and an in-season switch with potentially fewer options available as replacements? There are probably a number of good reasons why no other organization in the history of baseball has brought back a manager after a four year skid like Gardenhire's. Something tells me the Twins are determined to demonstrate those reasons.

Agreed, to an extent. But in my book that's just another reason why the franchise is in disarray. This was a rain delay. It wasn't a shocking decision by Gardy to bring in a struggling closer substitute to sit an ace pitcher who gave up a leadoff single with a double digit pitch count three outs away from a CG1ER and one out from a massive payday for said ace. This was a franchise well aware (one would hope) that Hughes needed 8.1 outs to get his bonus, rooting for him to reach it in such spectacular fashion (one would hope), that said threshold was in danger due to weather despite his brilliant game. The fact that Gardenhire already shot down the notion of a relief appearance for Hughes tells me one of three things about the Twins. 1) Front office weighed all the variables, decided there was no advantage to doing something with the bonus situation to recognize or, better yet, capitalize on Hughesie's incredibly tough break, and quashed the notion of Phil reaching his bonus or receiving it anyway, communicating that decision to Gardy. 2) In a brief conversation with the FO before the post-game, Gardenhire autonomously rejected the notion of using a starting pitcher as a relief pitcher with three or four days of advance notice despite using position players (as most managers end up doing) to finish up blowouts. And he gets the last say because he has recorded one of the worst four-year won/loss records in MLB managerial history. 3) Nobody knows what the flunk they're doing. There are other variations, but basically if the Twins can't either benefit from or at least diffuse today, they've got bigger problems than the seasons of Mauer, Nolasco, Sano, Buxton, May, and the Twins in general combined.

Your point is valid. But if the slope is made slippery by rain that deprives the Twins' record-setting best player from a big payday because he was lights-out again but got 629 outs instead of 630, then my reaction is to go reverse Bull Durham on the situation. Turn off the sprinklers, run hard, and slide head first. In other words, What Would Punto Do?

Gardenhire has said he will not do so, and while I don't want to see Hughes lose a half million dollars because of rain, it's hard for me to disagree. Or at least if Hughes doesn't get the bonus, I will blame the front office and ownership much more than Gardy. As some have suggested, a donation to the Phil Hughes Foundation might be a compromise between the franchise shrugging its collective shoulders by doing nothing, or paying him the bonus one out short of the innings threshold and incurring the supposed wrath of other owners and the league FO by doing what a ton of apathetic fans would see as either doing the right thing, or at least doing something nice. How many teams in MLB are more in need of good PR at the moment?

The idea that his record and reputation mean that being hired elsewhere is far from a certainty is another pretty good indication that the historically, literally unprecedented act of bringing him back is devoid of special circumstances that would warrant such a non-move.

And for leaving the seat up....

If MLB Unfortunately for the Twins, Scherzer and Lester are hitting free agency at 30 this fall, the same age Hughes will be when his current deal expires. They're both more established as top starters, but for perspective on just what an incredible year Hughes had, his WAR prior to his tremendous start today was just a tenth lower than Lester's and two tenths higher than Scherzer. And both those guys are probably going to get significantly north of a tenth of a billion dollars. Don't know much about Hughes' personality, but it seems to me it would be unusual for an athlete in general to take 25 or 30 million for two years when close to 100 (including an inflation adjustment) for five after two more very good (but not even necessarily as great as this year) seasons seems at least possible. Would love to see him remain a Twin and be a veteran anchor in a rotation something like Meyer, Stewart, Berrios and May or Gibson. But it will probably take at least what Dave suggested, if not more. After the disastrous season Nolasco and Mauer had, and the organization's general avoidance of high-dollar long term contracts for pitchers past age 30, it seems unlikely.

The problem with TR stepping down is the tendency for the Twins to fill such positions only with internal options. And it's difficult for me to picture myself watching Gardenhire lead the team to another 90-loss season next year knowing that Rob Antony is the man in charge of righting the ship. With respect to Gardenhire, it seems likely he'll be back, because, Twins. As AG noted. only twice in the nearly 150 year history of MLB has a manager returned after four consecutive 90 loss seasons. One was Connie Mack, who was born during the Civil War and was co-owner of his team. The Athletics went on to lose an average of 95 game the next three seasons. The other time it happened was Kelly. He lost 93 before going out with a nice 85 win season. But TK had banked a decade of good will with not just two World Series wins, but the only two championships of the state's major sports. Gardenhire is associated only with some good seasons, some bad seasons , and playoff disasters. So if the Twins bring Gardenhire back, it seems like a pretty clear admission that the organization is the most change-resistant and risk-averse franchises in baseball. Historically so, in fact.