Twins GFP

Offensively the bench is better, defensively it will be tough going. Gardy tends to overplay his bench, giving away 100's of at-bats every year. At least Sunday games this year won't necessarily be an automatic loss.

Awesome picture of Buck. I'm not sure anybody on the Twins could pull it off.

Just put a -sy at the end of every last name and you probaby have them all

Sorry, already busted.

As much as I would like to say goodbye to Mr. Butera, my guess is that he will be back with the Twins by May 15th.

The context of Hunter's memory would also be in question. Assuming for a minute someone did decline, what were the circumstances? Illness? Injury? Was there another legitimate issue that was part of the discussion? These kind of half-stories crack me up. It's like they want to bash the Twins, but don't want any accountability either from the person giving the quote or the person the quote is about. But of course we are talking about Torii "Mouth Runs Like A River" Hunter...

With all due respect, this is what I am talking about.The select few that do not hate Gladden provide excuses for him: It's my fault for not listening, he is learning the ropes and is getting better, people like Minnesota bumpkinism... I really wouldn't have a problem if he stuck to the color, but when he does PBP I have to turn the radio off. He has not improved in this area in all the time he has been here, yet they give him 3+ innings per game. It's a travesty.

Jim Bowden recently posted an article at ESPN with his bold predictions for 2012. Among them was that he thought the Twins would trade Justin Morneau. I quite frankly do not see any scenerio in which that would happen (if he is healthy and performing, they need him to compete and could not get equal value in return. If he is hurt, nobody would touch him). But it does create an interesting discussion topic. Here are my bold predictions for the year: - Scott Baker will make less than 10 starts for the Twins, but they will pick up his option for 2013. - Matt Capps will save less than 10 games for the Twins. - Joe Mauer will catch over 135 games and bat .330. - In spite of an inconsistent rotation and subpar defense, this team will win at least 81 games. Let's hear what you all think.

It is interesting that many comments point to a platoon of some sort and Gardy has never platooned in the past, even when it was blatantly obvious.

As you can tell from my handle, I do not have a great amount of respect for the radio work of a certain Mr. Dan Gladden. Over the last few years, my circle of friends and I have had countless discussions over what he does/doesn't bring to the broadcasts, and why on Earth the Twins continue to keep him in the booth. Quite frankly, I do not know why he is still there. Anybody who listens to the games hears the same things I do: - Going off on tangents while there is action going on. Somehow it will go from 1-1 count, 0 outs, nobody on, to 0-2 count with a runner on first and one out while he is talking about the chicken he had at the restaurant last night. - Poor descriptions of the plays. Example: Revere hits a fly ball to right field, the centerfielder Smith runs over to make the play, and Revere will end up at third base with a triple. Ugh. - Extended moments.....................................................................of...............................................dead air. I understand that the Twins want a well-known ex-player handling their color commentary. It is a common practice among many teams designed to bring an "insiders" point-of-view to the broadcast that others could not give. The problem is that the also let him handle the play-by-play which he is unquestionably unqualified to do. Some PBP guys are Homers (Paul Allen), obnoxious (Hawk Harrelson) or legends nationally (Vin Scully) or locally (Bob Uecker). Dan Gladden is just not very good. Having Dan Gladden handle play-by-play is a poor representation of the Twins the excellence they work so hard to project on the field. Everyone talks about the "Twins Way" and the focus on the right way to do things: fundamentals, execution, error-free baseball. It's egregious that they can't hold their radio booth to the same standards.

As you can tell from my handle, I do not have a great amount of respect for the radio work of a certain Mr. Dan Gladden. Over the last few years, my circle of friends and I have had countless discussions over what he does/doesn't bring to the broadcasts, and why on Earth the Twins continue to keep him in the booth. Quite frankly, I do not know why he is still there. Anybody who listens to the games hears the same things I do: - Going off on tangents while there is action going on. Somehow it will go from 1-1 count, 0 outs, nobody on, to 0-2 count with a runner on first and one out while he is talking about the chicken he had at the restaurant last night. - Poor descriptions of the plays. Example: Revere hits a fly ball to right field, the centerfielder Smith runs over to make the play, and Revere will end up at third base with a triple. Ugh. - Extended moments.....................................................................of...............................................dead air. I understand that the Twins want a well-known ex-player handling their color commentary. It is a common practice among many teams designed to bring an "insiders" point-of-view to the broadcast that others could not give. The problem is that the also let him handle the play-by-play which he is unquestionably unqualified to do. Some PBP guys are Homers (Paul Allen), obnoxious (Hawk Harrelson) or legends nationally (Vin Scully) or locally (Bob Uecker). Dan Gladden is just not very good. Having Dan Gladden handle play-by-play is a poor representation of the Twins the excellence they work so hard to project on the field. Everyone talks about the "Twins Way" and the focus on the right way to do things: fundamentals, execution, error-free baseball. It's egregious that they can't hold their radio booth to the same standards.

We can only hope that this is the case. Butera's offensive offense did not offset his defensive skills.