Twins GFP

After the benches get warned on a HBP, if you can get ejected faster than Gardy, you win a pair of umpire shoes covered in infield dirt.

Yes, because coming in during a tie ballgame is so less stressful than coming in with a three run lead. Must be hard to get psyched up for those situations.

Unfortunately I do remember LaTroy Hawkins. Actually Hawkins may be a good analogy. You never know what you will get on any given day.

While the K rate may be lower than expected, is there really any surprise here? Matt Capps is a league average reliever (on a good day). I want to call him a poor man's Eddie Guardado, but I can't even do that. Everybody knew what they were getting when he resigned, but nobody in the Twins front office seemed wiling to accept it. Whether he stays in the closer role or not, this continues to show to be a bad investment by the Twins.

I was into this article until they said that Randy Johnson (yes, THAT Randy Johnson) caught for a little while. I don't think I will believe that until somebody produces a picture.

Justin Morneau is continuing to show that he is moving past his concussion symptoms. I find it hard to believe that the Twins are completely throwing in the towel on Morneau playing 1B. While Chris Parmelee is off to a decent start (.275/.310/.425), I am sure the Twins would prefer to have Morneau, his defense, and his salary playing in the field. At what point do you start phasing him back to 1B? My opinion is that they should do so as soon as possible. Morneau's trade value is still extrememly low. While he could be considered sunk money, the Twins keeping this much money tied ino a full-time DH would be a mistake, especially if/when Parmelee begins to falter.

Out of our price range. Nice to dream though.

I'm not sure why this discussion is getting any traction: - Span is signed to a very team friendly contract ($3M-12, $4.75M-13, $6.5M-14, $9.0M club option-15) - Teams are incredibly reluctant to trade young, cost controlled, starting pitching - When healthy, Span is a top 5-7 leadoff hitter - He is an average CF, and showed to be a GG caliber LF - There is not a strong replacement for him should he leave (Benson and Revere are not today's answer) Just because he is essentially the only trade chip the Twins have does not mean they have to trade him. If they did move him today, the best they could get would be prospects, unproven commodities. While I agree the farm is depleted, they are not going to give away the big league team to restock it. The fan base would go nuts. He won't get moved until the Twins are sure that they have somebody to replace him. Let's shelve this discussion until 2014.

His days as a starter are definitely numbered. I believe a move to the pen with the hopes of trading him before the deadline have to be on the horizon.

My guess is Phil Humber for the White Sox... HEY!

I believe we are all still living the Mike Redmond dream. For a few years we had arguably the best backup catcher in baseball and we were all spoiled. Perspective is the name of this discussion. Can anybody guess what the numbers were for catchers last year? Let's narrow it down, go with primary backup catchers only. We are talking about the arguably worst offensive position in all of baseball. If the guy coud hit .250 while playing solid defense, he would probably be starting somewhere. If Doumit is going to be a FT position player while seeing some time behind gthe plate, it makes sense to carry a third catcher. Considering Doumit's defensive liability, it makes sense that the 3rd cartcher be a defensive player. The overall concern would be how many at-bats this player gets. The other part of this discussion that confuses me is the heighten passion involved. I would think that with all of the other issues the Twins currently have: - Large number of injuries - Liriano pitching horribly - Starting pitching looking wretched as a whole - Nobody in the minors to come up and adequately backfill, well, any position The last spot on the bench does not seem like the best spot to be focusing our attention

On the whole, have there really been any major surprises this year? The offense looks solid. The starting pitching looks retched. The bullpen has been inconsistent at best. Span, Mauer, Morneau are looking lke they are back on track to being their old selves. Carroll is getting on base with solid defense. Capps looks pretty bad. Other than Willingham outperforming expectations, and the injury bug whacking the pitching staff, this sounds about right. 4-9 does sound pretty good at this point.

Seriously people. Ryan saying "we" is standard managment lingo. He is saying we as in the organization, even though he is the decision maker. He has always spoken in this fashion. As for him speaking to Gardy, any GM making personnel decisions about the major league club without input from the manager is an idiot. Of course Gardy will be providing input to Ryan.

John, The Butera/Gardy lovefest discussion comes from the perception that Gardy overplayed Butera (and his putrid offense) and was unwilling to look at other options. I don't necessarily believe that it was as bad as all that, but this love for certain players is a blind spot that Gardy has shown over the years. Revere won't be back up anytime soon (barring an injury). He was sent down to get at-bats, he won't get that on the Twins bench. Nishi is possible, but unlikely. He hasn't showed enough yet. I would like to think that if Morneau continues to show improvement, Parmalee becomes expendable, with Morneau playing more 1B. I like the idea of a third catcher. I would be okay with Butera if he only played in late defensive switches or emergency situations only. Hopefully they will go outside the organization...

Juan Pierre was extremely productive during his prime. If Revere can produce in the majors even close to what he has done in the minors, there will be no more questions about whether he is productive, weak arm or not.

Well, I feel bad when somebody believes thay have a better handle on the situation than management. As the Twins have shown time and time again, many of their decisions are not solely based on on-the-field potential/performance. We don't know about the intangibles that played into this decision as well. Comparing him to Uggla is reckless. There is no reason to believe he would suddenly blossom after all this time. Have you seen the pitching staff lately? Putting Hughes over a pitching slot also does not compute. Working through replacement level pitchers is more important right now than replacement level players. I wish Hughes the best of luck, but I have zero concern that tis will come back to bite us.

Man, reading these comments you would think the Twins are an east coast team. Everybody panics over 2 losses. Like you expect this team to win 99 games this year? Get a grip people. Understand a few things: - Ryan and Gardenhire will never be fired from the Twins. This is the same organization that let Bill Smith run it into the ground, only to rehire him back. Regardless of the outcome, they will let these two continue to work to right the ship. - Anybody surprised to see Pavano and Liriano give up runs should have their head examined. - THis team could go 6-14 and nobody would be extremely surprised. 0-2? Ha! Looks like everybody drinking the "If everything falls right the Twins could contend" Kool-aid have already dumped out the pitcher.

While I am not a fan of the Big Lebowski movie, Kent Hrbek is a Minnesota icon. What a fabulous commercial. Looks like Herbie is running a little on the heavy side these days...

In response to Nick Nelson's post: http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?391-Access-and-Accountability I'm not a journalist. Journalism was not my college major. Heck, I barely read my high school paper. I am just a Twins fan that reads too many articles and posts trying to learn as much about my team as possible. I will read ESPN and FOX, to the Strib, to blogs, even comments. I am interested to see what the news is on my team and what the general perception is on that news. While the media has typically unfettered access to the teams they cover, they are bound by that access and the responsibilities that come with it. Media writers will temper their responses in order to keep the players talking to them or to stay in the good graces of the team. It's not always a complete sell out, but it does come with the territory. Bloggers, on the other hand, are not usually bound by these constrictions. The write and say exactly what they want, bound by very little. But the truth is that a majority of your more popular sports bloggers are journalists. They have the degrees and most have actual team coverage experience. While they do not have these same constraints as the media, they will typically write using the same ethical standards as your main stream writers. I believe this is a major reason why they do become popular. They can evoke trust in their readers Nick is partially right. Many sports bloggers do write from a fan's point of view. But they are generally not perceived that way. Sports bloggers are half-fan, half-media. I have been reading Gleeman and Strohs for a long time. They both bring insight that your average, every-day fan will not have. They maintain their readership by providing information that is in-depth and accurate, with well formed opinions. They also throw out information that could be considered "inside information" along the way. I also have no problem with this, as I enjoy different points of views and like to see how these items are discussed outside of television, radio, or the newspaper. But to classify them as "just" fans is not entirely accurate. I continue to be amazed at how the mainstream media attempts to knock down the bloggers. An analogy: Do I believe that the best 500+ players in the world play in the NBA? No. I believe I could field a team of non-NBA guys that could easily hold their own in the NBA. Multiple teams actually. Guys make it to the NBA due to skill, politics, and luck. Some in the NBA do not belong there. Many that don't make it to the NBA can be as good or better, but are not in for any number of reasons. Does that mean they stop playing? Heck no. They play 5-6 times per week. Don't believe me, go watch a Summer League game downtown sometime. Can you guess who is who? Mainstream media only has to fear the bloggers if they themselves are not performing their job. If the Strib is worried about losing readership, hire better writers and churn out better content. Same with ESPN. People will follow the stories and personalities that they like. If newspapers and other mainstream outlets are truly doomed, I would advise the Mackey's and Reusse's of world to lay off the bloggers because blogging will be the only only option left to them. Keep up the good work guys.

In response to Nick Nelson's post: http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?391-Access-and-Accountability I'm not a journalist. Journalism was not my college major. Heck, I barely read my high school paper. I am just a Twins fan that reads too many articles and posts trying to learn as much about my team as possible. I will read ESPN and FOX, to the Strib, to blogs, even comments. I am interested to see what the news is on my team and what the general perception is on that news. While the media has typically unfettered access to the teams they cover, they are bound by that access and the responsibilities that come with it. Media writers will temper their responses in order to keep the players talking to them or to stay in the good graces of the team. It's not always a complete sell out, but it does come with the territory. Bloggers, on the other hand, are not usually bound by these constrictions. The write and say exactly what they want, bound by very little. But the truth is that a majority of your more popular sports bloggers are journalists. They have the degrees and most have actual team coverage experience. While they do not have these same constraints as the media, they will typically write using the same ethical standards as your main stream writers. I believe this is a major reason why they do become popular. They can evoke trust in their readers Nick is partially right. Many sports bloggers do write from a fan's point of view. But they are generally not perceived that way. Sports bloggers are half-fan, half-media. I have been reading Gleeman and Strohs for a long time. They both bring insight that your average, every-day fan will not have. They maintain their readership by providing information that is in-depth and accurate, with well formed opinions. They also throw out information that could be considered "inside information" along the way. I also have no problem with this, as I enjoy different points of views and like to see how these items are discussed outside of television, radio, or the newspaper. But to classify them as "just" fans is not entirely accurate. I continue to be amazed at how the mainstream media attempts to knock down the bloggers. An analogy: Do I believe that the best 500+ players in the world play in the NBA? No. I believe I could field a team of non-NBA guys that could easily hold their own in the NBA. Multiple teams actually. Guys make it to the NBA due to skill, politics, and luck. Some in the NBA do not belong there. Many that don't make it to the NBA can be as good or better, but are not in for any number of reasons. Does that mean they stop playing? Heck no. They play 5-6 times per week. Don't believe me, go watch a Summer League game downtown sometime. Can you guess who is who? Mainstream media only has to fear the bloggers if they themselves are not performing their job. If the Strib is worried about losing readership, hire better writers and churn out better content. Same with ESPN. People will follow the stories and personalities that they like. If newspapers and other mainstream outlets are truly doomed, I would advise the Mackey's and Reusse's of world to lay off the bloggers because blogging will be the only only option left to them. Keep up the good work guys.

The difference between this year's bench and previous years is pretty easy to define. In previous years, we had veterans who hit .220 and below, so we knew the bench was terrible. This year we have young guys who, through all the positive double talk, were average to below averagein the minors, were below average in short stints with the majors, but have shown promise. This means we don't know for sure if they are terrible, giving us a reason to be somewhat optimistic. I do believe that the bench will be better offensively than last years bench (kind of hard not to be). But to expect any drastic improvements for any of these guys is wishful thinking.

Twins Fan, I think you got your IP and SO backwards, because that would be virtually identical to his 2010 numbers. No way Liriano throws 215, 210, or even 200 innings in any year. In 2010 he threw 191 innings and it took him 31 starts to do that. 25 to 30 starts is more realistic, which would put him in the 150-170 range. A 3.40 ERA is possible, so is a 9+ SO/9IP ratio. If he does put up numbers close to his 2010 year, I think he would be a prime candidate to get the 1 year qualifying offer. If he signs a longer term deal elsewhere, the Twins get the pick. If he signs the tender and stinks next year, he will go off the books. With all of his inconsistencies, there is no way the Twins invest anything long term into this guy.

You won't get middle of the road here. Justin will either come all the way back with relatively monster numbers or he will be looking to retire. We should know fairly quickly how he handles the daily grind (even though they will be coddling him).

I'm not too worried about the AAA pitching. Pitchers make the jump from AA to the show fairly regularly, especially if they can strike people out. 2014-15 is looking pretty good about now