LaBombo

... As long as there's no homophonia in the posts...

For a fraction of a second, I thought the thread was about which Twins starter gets shot first. If it comes to that I hope they have the decency to take him out behind the barn first.

tahwrettamontidaerdluownafsniwTlaera.

Other than the Yankees and Red Sox, zero teams earned $80 million more in revenue than the Twins. And only four of them out-earned the Twins by more than $25 million. That means that unless they're investing in the on-field product way out of proportion to the Twins, only a handful of teams can afford to put an extra $12 million per year free agent on the field. It's also worth noting that those are 2012 revenue figures. That's a year when another terrible team drove attendance down about 6,000 per game or so, while league average attendance rose by about 2,000 per game. So it stands to reason that if the Twins bring fans back by putting a competitive team on the field and see an additional $20 million in revenue, they have no excuse to not spend with all but the top five or six biggest of the big boys in MLB.

Thirteen bazillions internet bits, 57 tanker cars of mostly East Coast print ink, and three container ships of undead ESPN anchor Linda Cohn's makeup kits will be expended on summaries of his career when it's over, and my bet is that they'll all fall short of this one.

Gotta love that he stays in character with the glare even though he's thinking about awesome it is to make piles of money on fa... well, wrestling of some sort, anyway.

Really good stuff, even agree with most of it(!). Interesting to hear an 'insider's' perspective on Jerry Kill. That had been my thought as well, but it's a tough call. Oh, and a small addition. 'Tanaka' is the Japanese species of buffalo, while 'Tatanka' is the American Bison, pictured below displaying his WWE championship belt. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sd26Lb88j8s/Tam-YKYLXEI/AAAAAAAAAKw/6JOk3nXjXCo/s400/Tatanka.jpg

For the most part, any other franchise in modern history has fired their manager after 3 consecutive 90 loss seasons, whatever the many circumstances that played into the outcome, and it wouldn't occur to me to label their front offices "uninformed" or "reactionary". Some were no doubt fired because they were bad managers, but many were probably competent to very good managers who were stuck with very little talent to manage. And yet they were all let go, regardless of where they ranked on their franchise's problem list. Rather than dismiss calls for the removal of a generally well-regarded manager, maybe an article about accountability without management changes would be better served by explaining how the Twins' situation is so unique that they should perform a nearly unprecedented act of faith by letting Gardy return.

Foreign computer with Chrome browser = incomplete post. My guess was Elvis, and my next question was who's the backup, and my last was please, please, please, can it not be Hicks until he's ready. None of that posted, but hey, looks like we are in agreement about Mastro at least warranting a shot at the 4th OF spot in a placeholder/insurance plan role.

Who's the opening day center fielder in that scenario?

Easily? Are you implying a lack of effort? Anyway, I'm going contrarian. 2004. Yes, they won 92 games, but Mauer's knee injury and the playoff Hindenburg act ruined it for me anyway.

http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2010/0616/nfl_g_jmckay_400.jpg

Will just add that this has been quantified pretty precisely with the eery 'Rule of 17's'. Starter BABIP is 17 points higher than relief, starter home run rate is 17% higher, and starter K rate is 17% lower.

One of the precious few advantages of being regarded as sort of a dink is that it allows you to disagree with one of the most virally popular posts in recent memory without really losing any standing. So here goes. Maybe you don't need an ace to reach the postseason, but it must be an awfully big help. Pretty much every team in the playoffs either has at least one pitcher that fits what most people would loosely define as an ace, or one who pitched like one (Bartolo Colon). Liriano was one of the 10 best starters in all of MLB by virtually any measure other than wins, btw. And I will eat a whole theater-sized box of Black Crows, my least favorite candy in the world, if the Twins make the playoffs with even two of those four names in the rotation. Ignoring strikeouts and worshipping the lack of walks is exactly how the Twins ended up wasting time and money on Mays, Blackburn, Silva, Marquis, Ramon Ortiz, Sidney Ponson, and a bunch of other names that nobody wants to hear any more. Totally agree, and a really good history you put together. It certainly can't hurt, and the Twins could definitely stand to improve theirs, but it really doesn't correlate to winning very strongly. Defensive metrics are certainly not as accurate as the offensive and pitching kind, but they're good enough that they give at least some idea of a team's overall defensive abilty. And at least for this year, they show that a few good defensive teams, a few average ones, and a few bad ones made the playoffs. We hear that alot, but there's not much evidence to support it. Much, much more important to the Twins is the incredibly expensive non-secret of Joe Mauer getting on base. The Twins' ability to score runs in the future will be mostly based on how successful they are at building an affordable supporting cast around him that can do likewise. Also, the run expectancy tables you refer to, along with other stuff, shows that bunting doesn't do much to help runs score. Smart baserunning in general is good, but again, there doesn't seem to be much correlation between good baserunning and winning. This part surprised me. It seemed to me that most postseason teams tend to have at least one 30 HR guy, but at least at a glance, that's not the case. It's pretty routine for a team to make the playoffs without one. With any luck Sano will make it a non-issue anyway. As for the piranhas, they can soil their uniforms (from the outside, hopefully), dive for grounders hit right at them, slide head first into the dugout after scoring a run, and get into lots of battles where their tails come off, just as long as, like you said, they get on base. So from my minority perspective, you have some good thoughts there, mixed in with some stuff that not only doesn't seem innovative, it seems kind of like telling Ryan that if he runs harder and keeps his head lower, he'll crash through the brick wall eventually.

Sphinx? Is that you? You were great in Mystery Men! http://www.adherents.com/lit/comics/image_film/MysteryMen_24.jpg

http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070623213803/indianajones/images/8/80/Hitler_Indiana_Jones.jpg Supreme Chancellor of Composition has signed your pardon. Please continue posting.

"Grandpa...bought a rubber!" http://www.jessesmusic.biz/images/stevemartin.jpg Context?

Can't 'like' this because it might imply that we don't want you around for more fun discussing the Twins' future... http://oyster.ignimgs.com/wordpress/stg.ign.com/2013/02/misery-kathy-bates-1.jpg

Yup, but for an organizational soldier like Gardy, they'll make room with a BS promotion. I'm thinking Vice President of the Franchise Impact and Momentum Research Department. http://www.stockpodium.com/stock-photo-8787332/metal-pendulum-balls-balancing-strings-image.jpg Window office included.

Check out the big brain on ash! http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd256/AmerigoVespucci/PDVD_012b.jpg

http://www.dca.org.uk/uploads/lg_Platoon.jpg

Mini Me Twins! http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8ghh6386G1rcj5h0o1_400.gif ...advance? In the post season? Hmmm. Fan base pa/ma-ternity test probably needed...

Can't think of a sickening sound expert I trust more...

He's not as good at letting opposing infielders, outfielders, and outfield fans make plays as you'd like, but if he could limit his home runs and strike out a bit more, the Twins might let him compete for CF in the spring...

Probably comes down to who slides harder into first...