Riverbrian

Realmuto would be great. Just worried he would be cost prohibitive because of position scarcity.

Not giving up on. Managing playing time more appropriately. This is why I've always said that I'm not a starting 9 guy. I personally have a problem with shoe-horning a guy into a starting role and taking whatever comes from him. I believe in Buxton but believing in Buxton doesn't mean he gets to show up to the ball park to see his name in the lineup every night with his slash line. I look at this way... We don't have to dump Buxton. Just change your expectation of him until he can provide it. if we simply keep him on the roster (don't completely bench him) and let him dictate how much playing time by how much he contributes. We go from forcing a .383 OPS guy into the lineup every day to having depth. Honest competition for the playing time. Look at the Brewers... They had a great outfield and they still signed Cain and traded for Yelich. Now they have depth coming out of their ears at all positions. If they had Morrison hitting like Morrison they have an option to play instead. They don't have to suffer through a .400 OPS from Keon Braxton while they wait to see if he is gonna be what everyone says he will be. They'll call him up when Yelich or Cain get's a boo-boo. Catchers don't hit that well and they don't play that often. If you are going to pay the price for position scarcity... Pay it for something that really moves the needle.

I agree Realmuto will probably cost more than it costs to get Ozuna but Ozuna will give you more production and be able to play 162 games when Catchers are rare if they eclipse 120 games. If you are going to pay that kind of price for Realmuto... you might as well spend it on something that really moves the needle with 30 plus home run production.

My idea is a little off the wall. Instead of trading Sano and Buxton out of frustration at the low end of their potential value. How about we just keep them on the roster and manage the expectation that they are the pair to lead us to the promised land until they play like they are the pair to lead us to the promised land. They are still cheap... Keep Sano as a 3B/1B and make him compete against a 3B and 1B with talent for playing time. Make him earn it... make them all earn it. Keep Buxton as an OF with Kepler and Rosario but bring in someone better than Grossman to compete with all 3 of them for playing time. Make Buxton earn every day playing time by actual performance instead of what you think or hope his performance should be.

Every team has budget constraints. I'm not really sure why anyone has a problem about recouping 6 Million bucks of dead money especially when teams are not just going to burn 6 million without consequences. This is how teams get dead money off of the books. They have to give up something painful to get someone else to share the pain. San Diego could have waited to pick him up at the minimum. Just finding a team that would invest 6 million in Phil Hughes had to be difficult and it took a draft pick to get it done. Now it's up to Minnesota to draft well with the picks before that and the picks after. Will the money be directly reinvested back into the product. Not directly because it really can't be calculated because the money is going to get mixed together with all the other dollars coming off the books and then spent according to opportunity and need. It's not here's 5 bucks now go buy a 5 buck hamburger. Having 6 million more of it... means you have 6 million more of it and that may open some doors on specific players and it also might... (speculation from me) it might look good to Ownership who just might be heartened that if he signs a big contract like this in the future, there is a possible escape hatch. In the end, they get to draft one less prospect. I think that can be survived.

http://fos.cmb.ac.lk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/pavlovdog.jpg

Actually... this is when I like Rodney... He's used to it. I'd rather he didn't start innings because he tends to fill up the bases.

Yeah... I like effort but I'd like a little more instinct.

Dear Sano, You don't have to dive for that one either. Keep moving your feet.

I'm happy I'm just watching Sano and Buxton real close right now... I'm in coach mode.

At least it wasn't an outside slider.

C'Mon Sano... Two Strikes... Don't chase... Bat on Ball at least.

Yep... It was looking good for awhile. Kinda like stopping on the 17th hole.

And ours

You know what we are trying to accomplish and listed below in bold are your contributions for the night. Do not come back to the game thread. If you do... there will be quick ban for you. Sincerly, the Moderation team. Here are your quotes for the night. Buxton can't get on base. His OBP is .186. That's a joke if you want him hit 6th/7th. Also, Buxton puts a lot of GBs in play. It's a joke if he wants to be an All-star. He is another overhyed player in the world. Terrible defense and contact, no speed. Your turn, Royals. Showing Falvine Lynn is an ugly guy. Hey, Lynn gives us to compete No.1 pick in 2019 draft. He is very good so that we need to sign him another year to compete No.1 pick in 2020 draft. He looks like the same guy in Astros uniform that Luhnow releases him. Because Buxton can't hit.

Cool Name My opponent has Moustakas. I have Sano and I got him on the bench.

Nothing Opposed... Sano... Mauer... Doesn't Matter. We are trying to clean up the game threads. Let the over flowing negative happen on the other threads. I'm hoping you will help us out. I’d like everyone’s attention as I ask for assistance and cooperation from all, in order to achieve an objective together. The Objective: Game threads will be a sanctuary from unmistakable hard-nosed negativity. There is precedence for this objective because the game threads used to be a sanctuary from the overly disappointed and it used to be, against the grain, of some very painful (out of contention by June) seasons, so I believe it can happen again, even with a better baseball team to complain about, but it can’t happen without buy-in from the important contributors… which of course is all of you. The reasoning for this type of sanctuary was that we had enough outlets for the disgruntled in every other forum topic on Twins Daily. If you wanted to express your displeasure with Kevin Correia, you could, there was probably an active thread where it was being discussed and if not, you could always start one and then there would be a brand new topic of discussion created (new content is actually healthy for any website). But… most importantly, it didn’t drag everyone else down when they were just trying to watch the game and didn’t feel like hating the team. By not allowing, the overly doomed and gloomed, it gave us (everyone) ONE thread… just one thread that was “everything sucks” free. We used to have this described environment and it was incredibly fun, but for some reason, we let it slip away through a gradual eroding of what was always a blurry purpose and that blurriness makes it hard to define clear lines and here we are today asking if we can get back to where we were before, with the understanding that it’s a vague request indeed. We used to describe the game thread experience as a bunch of friends in the left field bleachers just having a good time watching the game and talking about anything. If you remember the Randy Quaid character from the movie Major League, you’ll know what not to be. Nobody really wants to sit next to that guy, I believe that Randy Quaid wouldn’t want to sit next to another Randy Quaid because I’m not sure that misery loves company. Have you tried to complain to someone about your financial troubles who is busy complaining about his gushing head wound? Have you ever been the person who didn’t have financial problems or a gushing head wound, stuck in an elevator during that conversation? With that said, for additional clarity, this is very important. Don’t take any of this to extremes. This isn’t a request for blinders or dishonest discussion. I’m not saying that comments can only be “It’s OK Sunshine” after someone boots a ball. I’m not saying you can’t express displeasure when someone strikes out with a runner on third and one out. Just keep in mind that the game is inherently loaded with failure so you shouldn’t have to bang your head into the wall every time it happens. It should be baked into the process by now because its baseball and failure happens every single inning without fail. We just need a collective effort to keep us all self-aware of the content we individually produce. You can criticize but if you want to tear something apart, take it to one of the other threads, pay attention to your heaviness, try to dull the bluntness of it. I don’t know, pretend your kids are watching you lose your composure. Have fun if you can. These walls are going up around the game threads. They might take a little while to construct but they are going up. The Mods have been discussing this, we don’t know how this will work because it is impossible to put in a neat easy to swallow capsule. It was decided that the best place to start was with an appeal to all of you for help, expressly stating it as a common goal for those who would like to be a part of it. With this… It has now been expressed.

Let's get a couple of More for him. See what happens.

I think you are right but unless he's hurt... he's gonna play a lot and we simply can't listen to it every game thread.

3 Posts about the Sano Home Run 4 Posts about Sano not getting to the little snort. I'm gonna start keeping count.

SANO

I think he gets it if he keeps running. He reached prematurely.

Firing is a little extreme but I would like Molitor to not be so willing to ride it out.