Riverbrian

A couple comments in this thread about "not having fun" or "enjoying this". I have no idea why anyone would feel this way. I'm having a blast. I remember last year. This is enjoyable. Bring on September.

Does this only apply to "rubber matches?" I'm only asking because on July 25th. We lit Giolito up for 7 runs in his 5 innings, for what turned out to be a 10-3 Twins Win. I fully admit it was a 3 game series opener though.

I'm too lazy to do the research and I'm not sure where to start. But I am wondering out loud: How many times has a team never lost to a divisional opponent during the course of season? It has probably happened but my guess on how often is going to be extremely rare. You'll just cause yourself unnecessary craziness assuming that good teams are always going to be beat bad teams and wondering why it didn't happen on a given night.

I blame Roy

I can buy what you are selling

I do believe it would have been a long review. The jeopardy theme would have played to conclusion 3 or 4 times

Thanks for the photo. In my opinion. Sano would have been safe if not blocked. That I’m convinced of. If he can’t apply a tag in time. He certainly can’t move his foot in time to block the plate. The only way he is able to block the plate is if it was pre-blocked prior to the ball arriving and that is against the rules. The only question should be. Did he need to block the plate in order to catch the ball? I believe the answer to that is no. He had an unnecessary wide stance, which blocked the plate. It was a great play by the Sox but the Posey rule is in the books and this appears to be the definition of what you can’t do. In the end. Brand new game today.

I've watched it over and over again. I fixate with the best of them. He is safe if the plate is not blocked. The plate was blocked by a foot/leg that is extended away from the catcher's body before the ball arrives. Before the Posey Rule Change... I would have said great play. After the Posey Rule Change... it is a violation. The call should have been challenged. It was a run and a favorable situation for a 2nd run. The call was huge. As it stands... the play was huge... hats off to the White Sox because they made it. It should have been challenged.

I like to use the phrase "finding the light switch". Your articles are always great explaining the different ways that the "light switch" can be found.

Eyes straight ahead sir.

Hunter was in the radio booth last night. He spoke about Buxton and style of play. Hunter said (paraphrasing). It's how he plays and it's what makes him special. Yes there are things you can do but you got to play the game how you play it. He also mentioned his long strides... said that the guys with long strides have a hard time slowing down.

Imposter!!! Rocco asked me to answer for him. Dear Thieres Rabelo, Thank you for the thoughtful letter, I can't express how grateful I am to be part of this organization. We are blessed to have such talented bloggers along with a devout passionate fan base. You raise some great points and rest assured we are constantly working on improvement in all areas. Infield Defense: I agree that infield defense along with defense in general is very important. Any play not made creates an extra out, each extra out creates the potential for big innings against you, along with plays made that take away outs, which make scoring runs that much harder for the other team. Rest assured that we work hard every day to improve our defense but I want to make sure you understand that I have full confidence in the abilities of all of our defenders. However, you must consider that there are always trade-offs. Could we find a better defender than Miguel Sano at 3B, I'm sure we could, but I'm not sure that we could find one that hits the ball as far as he does. Jorge Polanco has come a long way defensively and he can still get better but the combination of his bat and defense makes us a better team. We believe in our team defense, we believe in our offense and you better believe that we believe in the total combination. Bullpen: Wes Johnson and the entire Twins organization has done a nice job working with our pitching staff. The job is without end because of seemingly brand new challenges to address every day. It's kind of a moving target. Ultimately, when it comes to the bullpen (entire pitching staff for that matter), we need to listen to Riverbrian more. We have to find a way to become less reliant on a small core of performers by creating depth on the pitching mound much like we have done with our offense. This is what he terms as getting "bullpen serious". Depth is created by opportunity, we need to stop preventing opportunity of potentially better arms by filling up roster spots with average arms. In hindsight, we feel that we made a mistake using up valuable roster space with arms that were ultimately released in July. They were great teammates, great competitors but we should be further along in the identification process of talent that will help us win games in the upcoming playoffs. Rest assured this organization will continue to work with our pitching staff to meet any future challenge. Injuries: The Twins organization recognizes the importance of keeping our players on the field and in full health. To help us in this regard, we employ consultants, doctors, physical therapists and others, who work directly with our coaching staff, to provide everything humanly possible, in pursuit of an extremely difficult goal of total health at all times. The truth of the matter, it's a long season. Over 162 games, players are going to get hurt, history has taught us that this is something that we must expect and plan for. As an organization we mitigate the injuries that will naturally occur with depth up and down the roster. We use our depth for occasional rest to heal small issues before they become bigger issues. We use our depth to not become overly reliant on a single player. Anytime one of our players goes on the injured list or is unavailable to us due to injury, we will miss the talent that they bring to the table... however, as we have demonstrated this year, we have multiple players that also bring talent to the table in their absence. Thank you for your steadfast, honest and loyal reporting. Keep pushing us onward. GO TWINS!!!

I'm retired. Your kids are safe. Although, I personally, don't consider asking players to keep playing, intense.

Back when I was coaching. I remember being down 10 zip or something ridiculous like that. The other team had a runner on 3B with nobody out and my pitcher uncorked a wild pitch and the opposing coach held up the stop sign, yelling stay stay stay, freezing the runner in his tracks when he would have easily scored. I called time... Walked right past my pitcher and over to the opposing coach in the third base box and said "I appreciate what you are doing but please don't do that. I'm telling my kids to compete regardless of the score, I'm telling them that I want them to try to win the rest of the game and I'd appreciate it if you do the same so it means something if we do, Besides... I consider holding up your runner more embarrassing then the actual wild pitch... or the scoreboard". I think we ended up losing the game 84 to 1 but I'll do that every time. If 15 year-old baseball players can handle it... so can grown men making large amounts of cash. There is never a time to throw at a batter.

I’d throw Thorpe on Tuesday in Milwaukee.

We would have to Milwaukee Brewer this thing together. A couple of innings here and there until the game is over.

He isn't going to publicly admonish Diaz and rightfully so. Privately, he better at least bang the stapler real hard.

Minor Critique: If it was me... Considering that Left-Hander Brad Hand was on the mound. Considering that Jake Cave is faster Adrianza Considering that there was one out Considering that Schoop would hit after Marwin Considering that Schoop has been struggling lately Considering that Adrianza has come up with some clutch contact this year. Considering that Cave can move to RF and Marwin can move to 1B and Adrianza can play 2B afterwards I would have pinch ran Cave instead of Adrianza and pinch hit Adrianza for Schoop in the 9th. This is debatable and my opinion so I consider it a minor critique but still valid. Major Major Major Critique: On the Diaz windmill in the 9th. After you look at the view from behind home plate. There is no doubt that he can see the throw arriving to the cut, there is no doubt that he can see Adrianza rounding the base as he is clearly windmilling his arm to go for it. Everyone knows that a thrown baseball is 3 to 4 times faster than a runner can ever be. He should be fully aware that this is the professional level so a clean transfer and decent throw is good possibility. And there are big scoreboards placed around the stadium that says 1 Out. I've seen a lot of baseball games and I'm sure I've probably seen a worse 3B coach decision... but honestly... I can't recall one. I'm normally forgiving, Oops... Move on and let's do better next time. I can't excuse this one. There was one out... Tito probably walks Schoop to load the bases for a possible double play and we got Kepler against Hand. No guarantee Kepler comes through but I like the odds and Diaz removed that possibility. Stunning Mistake: I'll be thinking about it and shaking my head until Tuesday in Milwaukee. Diaz should be placed on a PIP for HR purposes for that mistake alone. BTW... I'll be in Milwaukee on Tuesday. It's another day... Go Twins!!!

No Assumption So now please instead of later. A hypothesis at best. Plain ole Wishful Thinking is also a strong possibility... but obvious recognition that we need to try something else in both the rotation and bullpen.

I do I also notice the similarity between the call for Graterol, Romero and the call to city officials to fix a pothole.

Long Live Dick Bremer

If you feel this was a huge win. It was However, Wait until the win tomorrow... and the one after that... and the one after that. They only get huge'er from here.

The easy answer is: Buxton is so important defensively that he personally improves our pitching so much that we lose when he isn't in the lineup. The more complicated answer and most likely, the correct answer, is a combination of many different factors. Including, the timing of his injury, to a time when the team is actually struggling. If you choose to believe that Buxton is so important that he is responsible for that 9-15 record during his D.L. time. You also have to choose to believe that the team is much better with Nelson Cruz and Mitch Garver on the IL because the team went 15-3 during that stretch.

Every once in awhile, I like to think about the 2014 A's. July 5th they were 54-33 and holding a 3.5 game lead over the Angels. That's when they traded Addison Russell, Straily and McKinney to the Cubs for Samardzija. Later, of course they acquired Jon Lester. And Sam FULD!!! Samardzija and Lester joined Sonny Gray, Scott Kazmir, Jesse Chavez and Drew Pomeranz who were also doing a real nice job in the starting rotation. And Tommy MILONE!!! On August 1st, 2014 after the trade deadline. The A's were 66-42 They went 22-32 the rest of the way. The game isn't played on paper and clearly they should have hung on to Milone!