Riverbrian

In 2018... Sano and Buxton are the exact same player in my eyes. Both are swinging at Garbage, Both are getting hurt and Both are critical to providing any kind of Right Handed Balance to a majority left handed lineup. If Sano and Buxton don't help this team, our need for a Right Handed Bat is comparable to the way a Grizzly needs Salmon.

He is completely lost up there. It looks like he is trying to get a look at the pitcher so he let's the first strike go by right down the middle, then he swings at something out of the zone and boom... there ya have an 0-2 count. Pitch recognition is what he is struggling with.

Choi's been a good AAAA guy for awhile (their version of Kennys Vargas). They could have called up Keon Broxton (their version of Byron Buxton) or Brett Phillips (their version of Zack Granite) instead. When Healthy: They have: C - Pina, Vogt, Bandy, Nottingham, Bethencourt 1B- Thames Aguilar, Braun, Vogt, Choi 2B- Villar, Perez, Franklin, Saladino(was Sogaard) 3B- Shaw, Perez, Franklin SS- Arcia, Perez, Villar, Franklin LF- Yelich, Santana, Broxton, Phillips CF-Cain, Yelich, Broxton, Phillips RF- Braun, Santana, Broxton, Phillips. When Not Healthy C - Pina, Bandy, Nottingham, Bethencourt 1B- Aguilar, Choi 2B- Villar, Perez, Franklin, Saladino(was Sogaard) 3B- Shaw, Perez, Franklin SS- Arcia, Perez, Villar, Franklin LF- Yelich, Santana, Broxton, Phillips CF-Cain, Yelich, Broxton, Phillips RF- Santana, Broxton, Phillips. Still pretty formidable.

I talk about 25 guys who can play ofteh. The Brewers are an example of what I'm talking about. The Brewers have Braun,Thames and Vogt on the D.L. The Twins have Castro, Sano and Polanco out. Look who the Brewers can fill with and Look who the Twins are filling with. 25 guys who can play is what I dream about.

Subliminal Messages from a Canadian is kinda dangerous.

http://www.eclipse2017.org/2017/graphics/19-20.jpg

Yes but the lines to get in are very manageable.

Turn it off and turn it on again. See if that resets the game.

Don't let him fool you with that Grill talk. He's in Tucson. He just puts the Ribeye on Tin Foil and puts it down on the porch and let's the sun cook it.

Whoever finds him first wins

I really really want Bark back. Nothing made me laugh harder than his brilliant Bark Art.

Mike... You are simultaneously taking me too literally and not literally enough at the same time. I used Judge as an example... I don't believe it is realistic to acquire Judge. I also don't believe it would realistic to acquire Harper or Trout or Yelich so I'm not sure why you chose to focus on Judge. They were all extreme examples to make my point that if I were to trade Royce Lewis, I would want top of the line production for him. Good production for a catcher is not what I would trade Lewis for. My thoughts as nut-shelled as possible. Catchers require more rest so they don't play as much as other position players, Outside of Sanchez and Posey, the best offensive catchers probably produce at the plate as much as average players at other positions. Catchers who can produce are rare so I assume that they are expensive to acquire because of scarcity. So... If I'm going to trade top prospects... I'd rather do it for someone who will produce bigger stats than what catchers produce... that way you get more bang for the buck. As for what position this big bang for the buck guy plays. I don't care... I'm not a starting 9 guy. Just bring people on who can hit.

This isn't going to work with me. I'm not a starting 9 guy. I don't care if we have Trout, Harper and Yelich in the OF... I'll still bring in Judge if given the opportunity. There are way too many injuries, slumps and suspensions in Baseball to put things in neat little boxes of having a guy for each position.

It only matters to me if Gordon is productive and the jury hasn't even taken it's seat to hear those deliberations yet. Dozier may be gone next year. Polanco might come down with a year long case of the Chicken Pox. I'm hoping that Gordon will rise to the majors and shine because we will need him next year and beyond to stay competitive. I will never pretend to know which prospects are going to pan out and which ones are not and I know that a bunch don't. I do know this. Long term success for the Twins will depend on those prospects panning out and that strategy will depend on strength in numbers to work and that's because a bunch don't pan out. My fear is that acquiring a Catcher like Realmuto will be cost prohibitive in terms of prospects. I think he is going to painfully expensive because of his talent and position scarcity. If I'm giving up a Lewis. I wan't better than typical Good Catcher stats in return. I want a banger if I'm giving up a #1 draft pick.

Let's say it cost us Royce Lewis to acquire Realmuto. If you were going to trade Royce Lewis? Wouldn't he be the type of talent that could bring back even bigger offensive production. The type of production that dents the scoreboard... or legitimate pitchers with big K/9's.

I can agree with this thinking. However, Trading for Realmuto or Swihart isn't acquiring a wealth of experience either. At least with Garver... he has probably already worked with these young pitchers.

I see them getting better with the guys that they would have to trade just to get Realmuto.

We struggle to compete with Three Mile Island Tourism.

Yeah... I'd think about that some more.

I've always considered Grand Forks and Fargo to be part of Minnesota. We can call this North Dakota all we want but it's a very Minnesota lifestyle. We know what Lutefisk is and we call it Hot Dish. We all go to the Lake. You gotta be West of Valley City and Devils Lake. That's where North Dakota really is.

The Brewers travel all the way from the National League to the Twin Cities for a 3-game series starting tonight at Target Field. The Twins marketing team has presented this as a “Border Battle” and is giving away “Border Battle” T-Shirts to the first 10,000 fans. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand this low-hanging, marketing fruit. Minnesota and Wisconsin share a common border. Minnesota and Wisconsin are both eyeing each other’s territory for expansion and stockpiling weapons for the inevitable invasion. We don’t have the necessary checkpoints along I-94 on the other side of the St. Croix River from Hudson, but they will have to go up sometime in preparation. There is very little difference between this Minnesota/Wisconsin border battle and the India/Pakistan border skirmishes. Other than… I’m not aware of any commemorative ‘Border Battle’ t-Shirts being sold in Lahore or Jaipur. Here are some things to think about: 1. Top (Non-Trump) News Story of the Day: 24/7 Wall St. released a top-20 list of the “Drunkest Cities in America”. To come up with the rankings they analyzed excessive drinking data of 381 Metro areas across the ENTIRE United States. Now, it is possible that this list was compiled by a bunch of cocaine addled Wall Street execs, but you should all be aware that 17 of the top 20 are concentrated in the Midwest. 1 in Nebraska (Lincoln 17) 2 in North Dakota (Grand Forks 8, Fargo 5) 3 in Iowa (Ames 19, Dubuque 14, Iowa City 13) Only 1 in Minnesota (Mankato 11) and 10 in Wisconsin including the top 4 (Milwaukee 20, Sheboygan 15, Fond Du Lac 12, La Crosse 10, Wausau 9, Oshkosh 6, Madison 4, Appleton 3, Eau Claire 2 and Green Bay 1). Minnesota is gonna roll right through a passed out Wisconsin when the real “Border Battle” takes place. 2. Our Twins: Jason Castro just might be the top story with the Twins at the moment. It has been announced that he is out for the season after undergoing surgery to do a full repair to the meniscus in his right knee. Personally, I know what Jason Castro is going through. I tore my MCL in my right knee about 15 years ago. I didn’t get surgery done because I could still do my job on crutches initially and then limping around without them until I was fine. My injury happened during the office Christmas party limbo contest. I know you are expecting a punchline here, but… it ain’t coming. That is actually how I tore my meniscus. It was a tough pill to swallow. It started with about 10 participants and some on-lookers who were not at the bar. There were just two of us left, and the 25 year old girl I was up against failed to get under the bar; I was under it with just my head left to clear it for victory when my knee gave out. The hardest part of the whole deal wasn’t the pain or discomfort afterwards; it wasn’t the deductible; it wasn’t my crutches sliding off the wall where they were propped up and chipping the new kitchen floor; it wasn’t even the occasional arthritis I feel today in the same spot where the injury occurred. The hardest part was knowing that I was that close to winning. 3. The Brewers: Nobody is required to have a 2nd favorite team but if I had to name mine… it would be the Brewers. I like the uniforms, I have family living in the Milwaukee area, and the team is fun to watch. They are built with an awesome combination of power and speed and I believe teams built that way can McGyver their way to victories that others can’t. However… it should be pointed out that Richard Dean Anderson is Minnesota born. Just another advantage in our “Border Battle”. 4. Today’s Joe M Conversation: Morgan: Thank God! Here he comes. Montana: Where have you been, Mauer? We’ve been worried about you. Mauer: What do ya mean? Maddon: You haven’t responded to my emails. Montana: You didn’t return any of my texts. McCarthy: You have no updates on the Face Thing. Morgan: Facebook McCarthy: Facebook… nothing but crickets. Maddon: We were pretty worried… we were just going to call for a welfare check. Mauer: Did you check Twitter? Morgan: Twitter? Hold on. (Pause) There you are. I’m gonna tweet “Thank God you are OK”. 5. Genes: I was talking with my youngest son about how traits are passed on from the parents to the child. He quickly put together a list and said he wanted these traits from me and these traits from my wife. My wife explained to him that it doesn’t work that way. Although, making that list, he clearly just exhibited a trait that came from me and I made him add that to the list. ____________________ Lineups: BREWERS Lorenzo Cain(R ) CF Christian Yelich(L) LF Jesus Aguilar(R ) 1B Travis Shaw(L) 3B Domingo Santana(R ) RF Ji-Man Choi(L) DH Jonathan Villar(S) 2B Manny Pina(R ) C Orlando Arcia(R ) SS Brent Suter(L) P TWINS Joe Mauer(L) 1B Brian Dozier(R ) 2B Eddie Rosario(L) LF Eduardo Escobar(S) 3B Max Kepler(L) RF Robbie Grossman(S) DH Byron Buxton(R ) CF Ehire Adrianza(S) SS Bobby Wilson(R ) C Kyle Gibson® P Gametime forecast: 80 deg F, partly cloudy, no rain, winds at 13mph from the SSE. Click here to view the article