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I hope that Valencia does exceptionally well while he is up. That way the Twins might actually get something for him when they trade him this offseason.

"NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH... WHAT A RUSH!!!!!!!!

What's your take on Bremer and Gladden? Bremer is a company man, but does fairly well. I would give him a B-. Gladden is the worst thing on the radio I have heard. I would even rate him lower than Bill Walton for the NBA. Gladden rarely lets you now the situation, does a very poor job of explaining the action, and gives little to no technical details on what is going on. He is the worst announcer I have heard on thde radio or television, hands down. Grade = F-. He needs to go now.

Be careful. Articles defending Joe Mauer may get you blackballed around here...

Anybody else think that Boras may have trouble getting draft signees in his stable if Appel doesn't sign?

The Twins have a long and splendid history of having 4/5's be the foundation of their starting pitching staff. Even when they had "good" pitching, it was Radke and everybody else, or Santana and everybody else. While I agree that they should look outside the organization for pitching help, I do not believe you will see any major upgrades there. Unless something falls in their lap, or there is another major injury, here is your starting rotation for 2013: 1) $5 mil FA 2) Diamond 3) Gibson 4) Blackburn 5) Hendricks I never said it was pretty, just that this is what you will see.

I guess we could be the Royals or Pirates. Frankly I will take being a playoff team 70% of the time vs. being a powerhouse one year and floundering for five. It depends if you are in it for the Glory or the Ride (I wrote about this earlier in the year). The methodical/conservative approach allowed the Twins to be competitive for a decade. Bill Smith destroyed that in a matter of a few years. Ryan will build it back up again. No reason to believe otherwise. BTW - The Bryce Harper (or Mike Trout for that matter) comparison is not entirely fair. For one, his type of skill set does not come around very often. Second, for all of his brovado, he has been the model player since coming to the bigs. Many articles have been written about his turnaround. Third, the Twins but up with Delmon Young's BS, the would work with the right player.

There is an awful lot of noise being written about how the Twins should blow up their team for prospects, fire the entire staff or administration for some new direction, or call up everybody with a pulse to see how they perform in the "big show". I don't believe you will see any of that happen. I actually believe the Twins won't make any major moves at all. Here's why: The Twins looked at 2011 and basically chalked it up to a mulligan. With all of the injuries, and poor decision making, they thought the ship could be stabilized basically by letting everybody come back. So, they more or less stood pat and waited to see what happened. Let's look at the three main components: position players, the bullpen, and the starting rotation. Position Players - During the off-season the Twins lost primarily 2 players: Michael Cuddyer and Jason Kubel. They went out and replaced them with Willingham and Doumit. They brought in a cheap Carroll to provide some stability to the infield, otherwise they just sat back and let everybody get healthy. This has essentially worked. Span and Mauer are back to their old form. Morneau's average is down, but is still showing power and playing almost every day. The Revere is showing improvement. Third base has also shown improvement, though we were expecting Valencia, not Plouffe. It is hard to argue against the philosophy here. Other than replacing what they lost, they let everything work itself out and it has. The offense has improved. Bullpen - Again, they basically stood pat. To replace Nathan and Mijares, the essentially held open tryouts in spring training. Gray and Burton have both pitched well. Otherwise the bullpen looks surprisingly similar to last years team. Considering the accolades the bullpen has received all year, it's hard to argue that the philosophy didn't work here either. Starting Pitching - Here things have fallen apart at essentially every level. Right off the bat you lose Baker for the season and Waldrop for the first half due to injuries. Blackburn failed to show improvement and has probably pitched himself off the team. Pavano has regressed, not held form. Liriano has been fairly poor overall, though has recently shown improvement. Factor in the Marquis disaster,and you have accounted for the entirety of the starting pitching staff. Not one of these decisions went the Twins way. Predictably, as a result, the Twins starters are making a run at having the worst starters ERA in baseball history. Standing pat did not work here. The standing past theory worked in two of the three areas. If it had worked with the starters, where would the Twins be now? Hypothetically, say Baker didn't get hurt; Liriano, Blackburn, Pavano, Marquis give you something resembling league average pitching, with Waldrop waiting in the wings, how many more wins would the Twins have? 5? 8? As they are currently 11 games back, an 8 game gain in the current standings puts them right in the thick of the weak AL Central. Here is why they won't make any drastic roster changes in the near future: 1) All 9 starters (including DH) are under contract for 2013. Their are currently no offensive holes to fill. 2) The bullpen is also under team control for next year as well. Capps has the team option, they hold the cards with him. 3) Doing nothing else, the starting pitching will improve with time. Gibson and Waldrop will be pitching at full strength by next spring. Diamond will fill one of the starter roles. The only realistic move the team will make is to move Liriano before the deadline. They have no intention of resigning him, and his dog and pony show is getting old. They may move Capps or Pavano, but I would not call that drastic, as neither of them are in the team's future anyways. Willingham, Span, Morneau... all of them are staying put. They will be in the opening day lineup next year. Shocked? Disappointed? Don't be. Ryan's methodical nature has worked for this team in the past, and will work again. They are usually fairly inactive at the deadline (minor moves, nothing ever major), and maintain trust in what they have (like it or not). As they won't be trading any offensive players or their prospects (the Capps/Ramos deal reminded them why not to move top prospects) for starting pitching. They will go out and sign a starter or two in the $3-5 mil range, short term, because that is what they do. Also because this has given them some success in the past. Since Mid-May this team has played close to .500 ball. If they are .500 team next year, they may be in the hunt. 2014 puts us in the Sano, Rosario range. Being this close, they will not make any moves that could set them back. In 2007 the Twins traded Luis Castillo at the deadline. At the time the Twins were 54-51, 6 games out. There was considerable clubhouse and PR backlash with that move at that time, with everybody thinking the team had given up on the season. The team never recovered. The Twins finished 79-83, 17 games back, going 25-32 after the trade. They will not move a player like that now, especially if the team is less than 8 games back at the deadline. All of this being said, could the Twins get overwhelmed in a trade for a Span or Willingham? It's possible, just not very likely. Sorry to disappoint everybody, but Terry Ryan's methodical nature will be on full display over the next 12-18 months. I suggest you just sit back and enjoy the ride.

There is an awful lot of noise being written about how the Twins should blow up their team for prospects, fire the entire staff or administration for some new direction, or call up everybody with a pulse to see how they perform in the "big show". I don't believe you will see any of that happen. I actually believe the Twins won't make any major moves at all. Here's why: The Twins looked at 2011 and basically chalked it up to a mulligan. With all of the injuries, and poor decision making, they thought the ship could be stabilized basically by letting everybody come back. So, they more or less stood pat and waited to see what happened. Let's look at the three main components: position players, the bullpen, and the starting rotation. Position Players - During the off-season the Twins lost primarily 2 players: Michael Cuddyer and Jason Kubel. They went out and replaced them with Willingham and Doumit. They brought in a cheap Carroll to provide some stability to the infield, otherwise they just sat back and let everybody get healthy. This has essentially worked. Span and Mauer are back to their old form. Morneau's average is down, but is still showing power and playing almost every day. The Revere is showing improvement. Third base has also shown improvement, though we were expecting Valencia, not Plouffe. It is hard to argue against the philosophy here. Other than replacing what they lost, they let everything work itself out and it has. The offense has improved. Bullpen - Again, they basically stood pat. To replace Nathan and Mijares, the essentially held open tryouts in spring training. Gray and Burton have both pitched well. Otherwise the bullpen looks surprisingly similar to last years team. Considering the accolades the bullpen has received all year, it's hard to argue that the philosophy didn't work here either. Starting Pitching - Here things have fallen apart at essentially every level. Right off the bat you lose Baker for the season and Waldrop for the first half due to injuries. Blackburn failed to show improvement and has probably pitched himself off the team. Pavano has regressed, not held form. Liriano has been fairly poor overall, though has recently shown improvement. Factor in the Marquis disaster,and you have accounted for the entirety of the starting pitching staff. Not one of these decisions went the Twins way. Predictably, as a result, the Twins starters are making a run at having the worst starters ERA in baseball history. Standing pat did not work here. The standing past theory worked in two of the three areas. If it had worked with the starters, where would the Twins be now? Hypothetically, say Baker didn't get hurt; Liriano, Blackburn, Pavano, Marquis give you something resembling league average pitching, with Waldrop waiting in the wings, how many more wins would the Twins have? 5? 8? As they are currently 11 games back, an 8 game gain in the current standings puts them right in the thick of the weak AL Central. Here is why they won't make any drastic roster changes in the near future: 1) All 9 starters (including DH) are under contract for 2013. Their are currently no offensive holes to fill. 2) The bullpen is also under team control for next year as well. Capps has the team option, they hold the cards with him. 3) Doing nothing else, the starting pitching will improve with time. Gibson and Waldrop will be pitching at full strength by next spring. Diamond will fill one of the starter roles. The only realistic move the team will make is to move Liriano before the deadline. They have no intention of resigning him, and his dog and pony show is getting old. They may move Capps or Pavano, but I would not call that drastic, as neither of them are in the team's future anyways. Willingham, Span, Morneau... all of them are staying put. They will be in the opening day lineup next year. Shocked? Disappointed? Don't be. Ryan's methodical nature has worked for this team in the past, and will work again. They are usually fairly inactive at the deadline (minor moves, nothing ever major), and maintain trust in what they have (like it or not). As they won't be trading any offensive players or their prospects (the Capps/Ramos deal reminded them why not to move top prospects) for starting pitching. They will go out and sign a starter or two in the $3-5 mil range, short term, because that is what they do. Also because this has given them some success in the past. Since Mid-May this team has played close to .500 ball. If they are .500 team next year, they may be in the hunt. 2014 puts us in the Sano, Rosario range. Being this close, they will not make any moves that could set them back. In 2007 the Twins traded Luis Castillo at the deadline. At the time the Twins were 54-51, 6 games out. There was considerable clubhouse and PR backlash with that move at that time, with everybody thinking the team had given up on the season. The team never recovered. The Twins finished 79-83, 17 games back, going 25-32 after the trade. They will not move a player like that now, especially if the team is less than 8 games back at the deadline. All of this being said, could the Twins get overwhelmed in a trade for a Span or Willingham? It's possible, just not very likely. Sorry to disappoint everybody, but Terry Ryan's methodical nature will be on full display over the next 12-18 months. I suggest you just sit back and enjoy the ride.

WHY WHY WHY is everybody assuming this was their top priority just because it was done now? You do the deals you can, when you can. Doumit was willing, so were the Twins, it was done very quickly. Does anybody truly think that TR doesn't believe starting pitching is a huge priority? Seriously people, open your eyes!

There are things in this game that are seriously driving me crazy. An example: The Twins are up by three runs in the top of the ninth. Capps (or Perkins or Burton) is warming up in the pen to come in to pitch the bottom of the 9th for the save. The Twins hit a homerun making it a four run game. Capps will sit down and Burnett will start warming up. Why? Because it is no longer a save situation. The only instance in sports where a managers decision is based solely on whether or not a stat will be accumulated (Thank you Tony LaRussa). I could blame Gardy for this, but virtually all managers do this. It is insane. If they changed the save rule to be a 2 run lead or a 1 run lead, I wonder how "closer" management would be changed? Stupidity. While I hate the save with a passion (I am with the argument that you use your best pitcher when they are needed the most, not necessarily the 9th inning), it is not the only thing currently annoying me: -The Twins are pitching. The other team hits a homerun. The Twins hit the next batter and the umpire warns both benches. Why does the ump do this? Now the other team has to sit on this a "even the score" on another day. Stupidity. On top of that, Gardy will insist on coming out, arguing, and getting ejected on the pretext of "protecting" his players. Why? His players know how he feels about this, his ejection serves no purpose. Again, stupidity. -The Twins are up 9-1 in the bottom of the 9th inning. Billy Butler leads off with a single. The Twins do not hold him on. He takes 2nd base without a throw. He does not get credit for a stolen base. Why? He is still taking a risk. If he trips and falls down halfway to second, the Twins would throw down and tag him out. He would get charged with a stolen base attempt and a caught stealing. You can't have it both ways. Stupidity. -The White Sox are up 5-0 in the 8th inning and are pitching a no-hitter. Ben Revere comes up and lays down a bunt attempt. Whether it is successful or not, he will be crucified in the press for breaking an "unwritten rule". The Sox may even disparage the call. Why? Isn't the goal to win the game? To get hits and score runs? Stupidity. Many of the unwritten rules make little sense to me, but this one is really bad. -Virtually all left handers are allowed to balk on pick-off attempts to 1st base (I'm talking to you Mark Buerhle). The 45 degree rule is rarely enforced. When it is, the world comes crashing down around the umpires. Why? Not because of the call, but because they don't call it consistently. Stupidity. Make it easy. Put a 45 degree line from the rubber. Pitcher steps over it when throwing to first? Balk. What's getting under your skin?

There are things in this game that are seriously driving me crazy. An example: The Twins are up by three runs in the top of the ninth. Capps (or Perkins or Burton) is warming up in the pen to come in to pitch the bottom of the 9th for the save. The Twins hit a homerun making it a four run game. Capps will sit down and Burnett will start warming up. Why? Because it is no longer a save situation. The only instance in sports where a managers decision is based solely on whether or not a stat will be accumulated (Thank you Tony LaRussa). I could blame Gardy for this, but virtually all managers do this. It is insane. If they changed the save rule to be a 2 run lead or a 1 run lead, I wonder how "closer" management would be changed? Stupidity. While I hate the save with a passion (I am with the argument that you use your best pitcher when they are needed the most, not necessarily the 9th inning), it is not the only thing currently annoying me: -The Twins are pitching. The other team hits a homerun. The Twins hit the next batter and the umpire warns both benches. Why does the ump do this? Now the other team has to sit on this a "even the score" on another day. Stupidity. On top of that, Gardy will insist on coming out, arguing, and getting ejected on the pretext of "protecting" his players. Why? His players know how he feels about this, his ejection serves no purpose. Again, stupidity. -The Twins are up 9-1 in the bottom of the 9th inning. Billy Butler leads off with a single. The Twins do not hold him on. He takes 2nd base without a throw. He does not get credit for a stolen base. Why? He is still taking a risk. If he trips and falls down halfway to second, the Twins would throw down and tag him out. He would get charged with a stolen base attempt and a caught stealing. You can't have it both ways. Stupidity. -The White Sox are up 5-0 in the 8th inning and are pitching a no-hitter. Ben Revere comes up and lays down a bunt attempt. Whether it is successful or not, he will be crucified in the press for breaking an "unwritten rule". The Sox may even disparage the call. Why? Isn't the goal to win the game? To get hits and score runs? Stupidity. Many of the unwritten rules make little sense to me, but this one is really bad. -Virtually all left handers are allowed to balk on pick-off attempts to 1st base (I'm talking to you Mark Buerhle). The 45 degree rule is rarely enforced. When it is, the world comes crashing down around the umpires. Why? Not because of the call, but because they don't call it consistently. Stupidity. Make it easy. Put a 45 degree line from the rubber. Pitcher steps over it when throwing to first? Balk. What's getting under your skin?

Hey Twins Best Friend: If you spend a large portion of your time at TwinsDaily, then you know that a laerge percentage of the commentors are saying the same thing here: Fire Gardy; Mauer is soft, overpaid, bad, etc.; fire Ryan, Antony, etc. The only thing I can say about that is at least people are emotionally invested enough in the team to care to write. Like you though, I feel the constant ripping gets tiresome.

They would not get any real value for Willingham, or anybody else for that matter. People have such short memories. Look at what we got for Santana, the best pitcher on the planet (at that time) entering his prime years. We didn't get one top tier prospect. Do you really think that we would get any value for a 33 year old outfielder with no defensive skills playing over his career numbers? People need to come back to reality.

Managers can't even let go of the notion that they need to save their best reliever for the ninth inning and not use them when they really need them (ie the save fallacy). God forbid they try something that makes their pitching line look like a preseason game.

Jim Bowden has yet another "wonderful" article over at ESPN discussing 5 players who could be traded before the trade deadline. Of the players he has listed is Justin Morneau. He talks primarily about Morneau being a risk and hurt, but has still slugged .490. Let's review: 1) The Twins were leery enough on Morneau to try to keep him out of the field as much as possible this reason. Only when Chris Parmalee totally stunk did they start moving him back to 1B. 2) Morneau has already spent time on the DL this year. 3) Morneau is owed about $10 mil left for this year and $14 mil for next year. 4) He is one awkward movement away from being out possibly forever. The Twins will not eat any of Morneau's salary for the sake of moving him. Without the Twins eating salary, no team would trade for Justin Morneau, even for a marginal prospect. While I agree that the team is in rebuilding mode and would trade almost anybody on the team for the right price, nobody will make that offer for Mr. Morneau. Please ESPN, give us somebody with something intelligent to say.

Jim Bowden has yet another "wonderful" article over at ESPN discussing 5 players who could be traded before the trade deadline. Of the players he has listed is Justin Morneau. He talks primarily about Morneau being a risk and hurt, but has still slugged .490. Let's review: 1) The Twins were leery enough on Morneau to try to keep him out of the field as much as possible this reason. Only when Chris Parmalee totally stunk did they start moving him back to 1B. 2) Morneau has already spent time on the DL this year. 3) Morneau is owed about $10 mil left for this year and $14 mil for next year. 4) He is one awkward movement away from being out possibly forever. The Twins will not eat any of Morneau's salary for the sake of moving him. Without the Twins eating salary, no team would trade for Justin Morneau, even for a marginal prospect. While I agree that the team is in rebuilding mode and would trade almost anybody on the team for the right price, nobody will make that offer for Mr. Morneau. Please ESPN, give us somebody with something intelligent to say.

There are actually teams worse than us at 1B and 3B! Well, we have that going for us...

For those of you too young to remember the Mick when he played for the Twins, let me take a few minutes to enlighten you: Mickey Hatcher was loved in Minnesota. Not so much because he was a great player (though he was decent enough to be a semi-regular starter), but because he was slightly crazy. Everybody loved him. There are a few stories about him I would like to share. On May 4, 1984, Dave Kingman hit a towering fly ball that went up through one of the drainage holes holes in the ceiling. The ball never came back down. After a few minutes discussion, the umpires decided to give Kingman a double. This is relatively known. What is not quite as known is that the following day, the grounds crew went up into the roof to fetch the ball out. Well, Mick wanted to be a part of this, so they announced that the worker was going to drop the ball and Mick was going to catch it "so it would be an out yesterday". Local news came to cover it and everything. Well the worker couldn't get to the ball, but they did drop a substitute ball. Good ole' Mick, waiting patiently underneath the hole missed the ball. It hit him on the way down, never got a glove on it. Classic. I had the fortune of being at the last game of the season in 1986. It was a home game, and the Twins were coming off a horrible year. Anyways, Viola pitched a shutout and thew Twins went out on a winning note. After the game, many of the Twins players came back on the field and threw used batting gloves, hats, and other items into the stands (I still rock my Kent Hrbek batting glove). Not Mickey Hatcher. Mick actually climbs up into the stands and sits with a large group of fans out by the left field foul pole. He's giving away his hat, jersey, shoes. Everybody's going nuts around him. Hatcher left the Twins after 1986 and went to the Dodgers. Though he missed 1987 here, he got his ring with the 88' Los Angeles team. That is where he hooked up with Mike Scioscia. Scioscia became manager of the Angels, Mickey became his hitting coach. Until today that is. The Angels let him go, needing a scapegoat for their currently bad offense and Albert Pujols' slow start. You can read stories today about how much the fans of Los Angeles like Hatcher because he is still a big kid at heart and still loves the game. He and Mike Redmond are very similar in that vein. If the Twins do decide to bring in a new hitting coach, Mickey Hatcher would be an ideal fit. Here's to hoping we see him back in the game soon.

For those of you too young to remember the Mick when he played for the Twins, let me take a few minutes to enlighten you: Mickey Hatcher was loved in Minnesota. Not so much because he was a great player (though he was decent enough to be a semi-regular starter), but because he was slightly crazy. Everybody loved him. There are a few stories about him I would like to share. On May 4, 1984, Dave Kingman hit a towering fly ball that went up through one of the drainage holes holes in the ceiling. The ball never came back down. After a few minutes discussion, the umpires decided to give Kingman a double. This is relatively known. What is not quite as known is that the following day, the grounds crew went up into the roof to fetch the ball out. Well, Mick wanted to be a part of this, so they announced that the worker was going to drop the ball and Mick was going to catch it "so it would be an out yesterday". Local news came to cover it and everything. Well the worker couldn't get to the ball, but they did drop a substitute ball. Good ole' Mick, waiting patiently underneath the hole missed the ball. It hit him on the way down, never got a glove on it. Classic. I had the fortune of being at the last game of the season in 1986. It was a home game, and the Twins were coming off a horrible year. Anyways, Viola pitched a shutout and thew Twins went out on a winning note. After the game, many of the Twins players came back on the field and threw used batting gloves, hats, and other items into the stands (I still rock my Kent Hrbek batting glove). Not Mickey Hatcher. Mick actually climbs up into the stands and sits with a large group of fans out by the left field foul pole. He's giving away his hat, jersey, shoes. Everybody's going nuts around him. Hatcher left the Twins after 1986 and went to the Dodgers. Though he missed 1987 here, he got his ring with the 88' Los Angeles team. That is where he hooked up with Mike Scioscia. Scioscia became manager of the Angels, Mickey became his hitting coach. Until today that is. The Angels let him go, needing a scapegoat for their currently bad offense and Albert Pujols' slow start. You can read stories today about how much the fans of Los Angeles like Hatcher because he is still a big kid at heart and still loves the game. He and Mike Redmond are very similar in that vein. If the Twins do decide to bring in a new hitting coach, Mickey Hatcher would be an ideal fit. Here's to hoping we see him back in the game soon.

Funny, I would say it is the exact opposite. It's hard sometimes to sift through all of the "fire Gardy, fire all the front office, promote everybody" garbage to find decent articles. I would have to say that Bark and Souhan must be related considering their comments and articles always have the same tone. I guess he needs another tree to "Bark" up...