Riverbrian

I'm looking forward to watching Fernando Romero pitch tonight. I only saw a lunch time inning from him in his last start. I sure hope he pitches well so my looking forward to it bears fruit.

I'll be trying that next trip to McDonalds. I haven't been to McDonalds in quite some time so I'm probably due for a trip.

I agree as far as my tastes go. I watch the MLB Network all the time and I listen to the MLB Network on Satellite Radio almost exclusively in my car. I don't mind the yelling and I appreciate his historical knowledge but all in all... he spends too much time talking about decades ago and not enough time about right now.

I researched it. Turns out that he claims that he gets no special deal. Pays the Menu Price every time.

And we have a leader... This may be hard to top for Post of the Day.

Running an organization is running an organization. I have no idea on how the Twins operate specifically but I am able to imagine that the office politics would be similar to the office politics anywhere else. Players/Employees need advocates. The advocates would be the field people who report to the front office. If Phil Hughes was a jerk, not listening or trying... he wouldn't have advocates and the decision to cut him would be much easier because the information passed upwards wouldn't be good. I assume with no information at all... that everyone is working together to get Phil better and progress is being made... even if it seems like baby steps. As long as someone feels like it can be fixed and Phil is working toward it being fixed... it would be premature to toss the $26M in the garbage. Who knows... but I don't think that the field people would necessarily have to consider opportunity cost. That would be the job of the GM based upon their feedback. The field people jobs would be to assess and maximize return. These are all assumptions made by me... but I don't feel the assumptions are outlandish. When posters were claiming last year around this time that there seemed to be very little difference between Falvey/Lavine and Ryan. I would always point out that the staff was pretty much unchanged and as long as the staff was still the same... the data would as well. The staff are the guys who provide a lot of the information that they use so Falvey/Lavine was getting the same info that Ryan was getting and therefore similar results. I believe roster space pressure or no advocates will be what will force a decision on Hughes. Until then... back to work everybody... Let's get him fixed.

I've heard that he is a Giants Fan first and foremost. Yankees ends up being daily content because they have a larger and more active audience base than everybody else. Just playing the percentages for ratings and revenue.

74!

As you all know... If you keep having conversations with the same people... eventually you end up hearing the same conversations, opinions and stories.

I'm not surprised. Yadier's Injury is going to trump almost anything else in a guy's mind.

It’s just a little, itty-bitty two-game series that begins tonight under the Arch in St. Louis. The Twins probably won’t bother unpacking their bags since they wrap up the series tomorrow at 12Noon. That’ll be two games played in less than 24 hours. They might even sleep in the clubhouse. I’ve heard the Busch Stadium concierge does a great job doing whatever it is that a concierge actually does. His directions to the Arch were nearly accurate. After you pull yourself out of the Mississippi River, dry off a little and look around… you realize how close he was indeed. Here are some things to think about: 1. Top Non-Trump News Story (Or Stories): Don Gorske, 64, from Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin has now consumed his 30,000th Big Mac and he has a goal of getting to 40,000, which he figures will take another 14 years. Since he was 18, Don has eaten two Big Mac’s a day for the past 46 years. He figures that the Big Mac makes up about 90% of his diet. He said that he can’t remember the last time he had an apple or Banana. He recently added Fruit N’ Yogurt Parfaits from McDonalds because his wife was insisting on more fruits and vegetables. Yeah, yeah… nag nag nag. As for his health, he insists that he is healthy as a horse, weighing 190 pounds with cholesterol at 165. Just in case anyone thinks he is making this up, he saved the receipts to prove it; which, in my opinion, is really the strangest thing... the fact that he had the foresight to save all 30,000 receipts. The guy is a genius… when he had that first Big Mac… he knew that one day, 46 years later… he would have to prove it with a receipt. Don Gorske already achieved fame in the Guinness Book of World Records, in 2016 when he consumed his 28,788th Big Mac. Much like nobody remembers who finished 2nd in the Masters Golf tournament, nobody can remember anymore who was the guy who had a mere 28,787 Big Macs and who also… had to, of course, save all those receipts to prove it. 2. Our Twins: Its National league rules so that means no DH. In case you are wondering how our pitchers have done at the plate, Fernando Romero pitches tonight and he has never swung a bat in a minor league game. Jake Odorizzi pitches on Tuesday, he is 2 for 17 over his career. Robbie Grossman is currently 2 for his last 18 so Odorizzi will also be available to pinch hit for Grossman on Monday. 3. The Cards: The Cardinals are currently in 1st place in the NL Central but the Twins timing still might be better than Yadier Molina’s. Yadier is expected to be out a month after getting hit with a foul tip right where you don’t want it. If you like cringing, here ya go... Yadier suffered a traumatic hematoma, which is a solid swelling of clotted blood between the tissues, and it required emergency surgery. Upon hearing the news… Joe Mauer crossed his legs and said… “Yeah… I’m never going back to catching”. 4. Today’s Joe M Conversation: Morgan: OK… here’s an interesting question: How many kissable areas are there on a woman’s body? Mauer: 74! Morgan: What do you think Joe? Maddon: Umm… 3? Mauer: 74! Morgan: How about you? What’s your guess? Montana: I read the correct answer in one of my magazines. The Answer is 11. Mauer: 74! Morgan: Alright, McCarthy… give me the answer. McCarthy: C’mon, now… just one… the lips of course. Mauer: 75! 5. Songwriting: I wonder why nobody in St. Louis has written the “Kolten Wong Song”. Once it is written, I will wonder why it isn’t sung by Paul DeJong. ____________________ Lineups: TWINS 1. Joe Mauer(L) 1B 2. Brian Dozier(R ) 2B 3. Max Kepler(L) CF 4. Eduardo Escobar(S) 3B 5. Eddie Rosario(L) LF 6. Robbie Grossman(S) RF 7. Bobby Wilson(R ) C 8. Ehire Adrianza(S) SS 9. Fernando Romero(R ) P CARDINALS 1. Matt Carpenter (L) 1B 2. Harrison Bader (R ) CF 3. Dexter Fowler (S) RF 4. Marcell Ozuna (R ) LF 5. Jedd Gyorko (R ) 3B 6. Paul DeJong (R ) SS 7. Kolten Wong (L) 2B 8. Carson Kelly (R ) C 9. John Gant (R ) P Gametime forecast: clear sunny skies moving into clear evening skies as the sun sets at 7:59pm. The temp starts at 75 deg F and will drop 10 deg over the course of the game. Winds from the ENE at 5-8mph. Click here to view the article

I like trying to be positive but: They can't chase like that at the plate. Shields is not that crafty.

You must have had some serious car issues.

Agreed It's a tough job being a GM. It ain't like running my Fantasy Baseball Team. They do have to try and produce a winner and they are responsible for that but there are things they can do to Mitigate the Phil Hughes results, such as bury him in the back of the pen and pick your spots for implementation or the D.L.

If I was Falvey or Lavine. This is how I would handle Phil Hughes. I would support him. I'd thank him for all of his efforts to work his way back. I'd tell him that he will continue to have full use of every resource the Twins have in his efforts to work his way back. I'd tell him that the medical staff, pitching coaches and trainers have been instructed to research new ideas and discuss them with you and I'd encourage him to bring any new ideas that he would like to try and have a discussion with the team to decide what is worth trying. I would communicate with him honestly and appeal to his sensibility with the hope that he: A. Improves B. Understands that the organization has done everything it could... it has been a good faith employer so when you need to have the discussion about agreeing to a minor league assignment... he might for the good of the team.

You might be right. I won't speculate on the office politics of 1 Twins Way because I don't know but either way you get the same result. The Twins won't just toss $26M out the window regardless if: 1. The owner won't allow it 2. The GM will be held responsible for that large of a mistake. Also there are varying degrees of bad contracts. I was just making a point that there are players with big numbers attached out there. Players that the teams might be better off without. The only things that I'm reasonably sure of are: 1. No team is going to volunteer to take the responsibility of the contract so the Twins will pay the $26M unless Phil Hughes volunteers to void the contract. 2. There is a very tiny list of players who were thrown away with anything close to $26M attached to them so we really don't have any consistent precedent. 3. Outside of baseball, in any other profession. Employees in charge of budget management, even when you reduce it to the proper scale, will have a hard time surviving a similar mistake. In my opinion... it is unfair to expect Falvey and Lavine to do something that nobody else in any other profession would be allowed to do unless they are absolutely sure that Hughes will not be able to come back to haunt them. When any of us say... "Just cut Hughes right now". They have no responsibility for the comment and they haven't thought about those who do have the responsibility and the consequences that follows an unprecedented mistake of that magnitude... not matter how unlikely.

That is Quite Possible. Either way... the Twins won't be creating $26M in dead money (which is my point)... unless they are able to convince ownership that Hughes will not be able to help the team during the duration of the contract. If they convince Pohlad that Hughes won't be able to help the team and Pohlad authorizes the Dead Money. If Hughes signs with the Royals for the minimum while the Twins pay that 26M and he throws a shut out against the Twins. Pohlad will call both Falvey and Lavine into the office to have a serious, squirming in your seat type discussion. At that point, Falvey and Lavine will have to start throwing scouts, trainers or each other under the bus or take full responsibility for the wrong diagnosis that led to the mistake. Neither of those options will be good for Falvey or Lavine or those under the bus.

I can't tell if you are making my point or responding to a point that I wasn't making. My guess is that we are talking past one another now. I was responding to Mr. Brooks who said that the Twins have no chance of winning a world series if they have to be 100% certain before flushing $26M. That was the context that led me to reference Josh Hamilton and Kung Fu Panda as an acknowledgement of previous flushes. My point was never intended to be budget/revenue/market size related. My point in that response to Brooks is that all GM's have bad money on the books and can still figure out how to compete for a title. My point was always... the Twins will not flush $26M unless they are sure and I believe I am right and every day he remains on the roster... it seems to support my hypothesis. All teams have to absorb a bad contract or two. The Twins are not alone. Hughes isn't the first and he won't be the last. A Majority of teams have dead money on the books... Very Few of them have anything close to $26M with one player. The cases of Sandoval or Hamilton are pretty rare and I imagine those two players angered the organization to the point that they swallowed the pill. White Sox: I have no explanation on why James Shields is still in the Major Leagues. Other than a 4 year $75M contract that the Sox still owe $21M on. Tigers: Jordan Zimmerman has been about as bad as it gets. The Tigers owe him $74M. Zimmerman still gets the ball every 5th day. Royals: Nobody can really explain the necessity of Alex Gordon on the Royals roster right now other than they owe him $40M. Indians: They are probably looking at Jason Kipnis right now and thinking they could find an alternate use for the $28M they owe him. Mariners: They probably have some data that suggests that the final $53M of the deal with King Felix might be really bumpy. Giants: Matt Cain was terrible from 2013 onward. During that time the Giants paid him $100M. They finally walked away when it became a less painful $7M. Dodgers: There was plenty of speculation that Kemp and his $43M would be cut from the Dodgers. He was not cut and Kemp seems to have gotten better which suggests that they sometimes do get better. Rockies: If Ian Desmond doesn't start resembling a baseball player... the Rockies will hang on to him regardless with $60M on the books. D-Backs: They tried to jettison that Tomas money but nobody was going to take on the responsibility. However... They don't have to worry about Yasmany Tomas joining the Padres and hitting 3 home runs in a game against the D-Backs while paying him $42M for the privilege because he doesn't have the service time to refuse minor league assignment without forfeit of the $42M. However... He's still with the D-Backs and could be an addition to the 40 man roster if the need arises. They didn't just ship him back to Cuba. Reds: Something has kept Homer Bailey tethered to their roster. I'm guessing it was the $63M owed and the possibility that he might get better. Yankees: Ellsbury is still hanging around. They owe him $63M. Orioles: I'm guessing that Orioles have had enough of Chris Davis. They still owe him $115M. Jays: They probably don't like the way Martin has declined with $40M still due. They would probably like to get away from the $54M remaining on Tulo's contract. They could use the DH position for a Vlad Jr. call up but Kendrys Morales is about 23 Million reasons why Vlad will just have to continue destroying New Hampshire for the time being. Braves: Now they are interesting... They ate 33 Million this year... They just tossed it in the garbage and they did it on purpose. This is an outlier compared to everybody else. They took all that final year dead money the Dodgers were hanging on to with Adrian Gonzalez and Scott Kazmir and they did it so the Dodgers would take the two years of Kemp. These were a trade of bad 1 year contracts for a bad 2 year contract that would clean up the contract situation for next year when the big FA's hit the scene. The Braves payroll will be loaded with young talent and around 36M on the books. They can put in a competitive bid for Harper or Machado if they want. I'm not saying the Twins won't eventually walk away from Hughes and swallow something but one of four things will probably need to happen first. 1. Desperation for the Roster Spot. This could happen if the Twins are stuffed to the rafters with MLB talent and the team is in contention and thinking about a playoff roster and need the space. 2. When the price is down to a less painful number in 2019. 3. If Hughes were to do something horrible off or on the field. Such as stab someone with a butter knife. 4. The scouts, trainers, coaches in unison say... there is no chance that he is ever going to be productive. BTW... Phil Hughes doesn't "severely" affect the Twins Roster. He merely affects the roster because as you can see every GM will face these situations and have to bake it into the game plan.

There are no crystal balls... and that is probably why he is still on the roster. Which has been my point.

Most teams have situations like this. From Josh Hamilton to Pablo Sandoval. Part of the manager and GM's job is to manage those situations. However... If they cut 26 Million. You can be reasonably certain that the GM is without a doubt convinced that he will not rebound.

He certainly hasn't impressed me for a while and I'm currently not optimistic... but it is a lot easier for you and I to be certain because we have absolutely no consequences for our assessments. They will have to be completely certain. This isn't the remainder of a 5.6 million Matt Harvey contract. This is 26 million remaining on a contract. If a broker spent $100,000 of your money on a stock and then after it crashed sold it. If that stock came back to the near the purchase price. You'd be looking for a new broker.

Well I can't get these 3 hours back.

And it shouldn't be a goal in hockey either.