Riverbrian

Yeah... But he can circle things!!!

First off... I don't have an opinion and I won't have an opinion... Other than hoping that Molly hires a guy who can get the most of our staff. I have no idea who that guy could possibly be. With that said... I wonder if Bert Be Home By Eleven is drawing any consideration. It may seem like an odd choice to some... But... The Dutch pitching staffs performed well in the WBC's under Bert. And... And... Bert would be able to CIRCLE mechanical trouble spots when going over video. Ricky Nolasco... Your release point is too high.. This is causing your pitch to sail up in the zone.... You are hereby circled. Trevor May... Your strike foot is landing inconsistently... This is giving you your control problems... You are hereby circled.

Ok... Molitor is the Manager. Now let's put a team together for Molly to work with.

I'm also under the impression... Based upon how long Gardy held his job and the relationship he seemed to have with Terry Ryan.... It gives me the impression that any managerial candidate would love to work for the stability that Terry Ryan and the Pohlads provide. I agree... I hope Money isn't an issue. This is one of those guys you go get and pay what it takes if you are serious about getting better.

I'm rarely comfortable expressing strong opinions on Manager Candidates because I just don't have enough information on their philosophy. However... I've stated that I'd like a Joe Maddon type. So... When hoping for a Joe Maddon type. Why not hope for Thee Joe Maddon. Joe would rank #1 on my list and so much so that he would also be choice #2 3 4 5 and 6. #7 would be the guy who worked for him Martinez. Joe would be the perfect match for our Roster next year and beyond. Because we will have a roster full of players who can play a little and offer position flexibility just like Joe is the best at managing. Joe will know how to handle Plouffe when Sano arrives. Please Please Please make this happen... Pay him 10 Million a year... It ain't my money... I don't care. Get this one.

In my opinion... If Hicks is on the opening day roster. A viable safety net with talent will be required.

Love the Post!!!

I remember 2011 was in the books. We had just lost 99 games. There was very little talent in the majors and there was very little talent in the minors. Sano was like 12 years old and a few years away. I remember thinking to myself...This is gonna take a little while... I told myself to be patient. I never expected a quick fix so I'm still in patience mode.

LOL... Who knows what is actually in Ozzie's honest to goodness heart. It was just a throw away quote of admiration of Castro that got out of control in Miami. I guess as long as they are coming over in rafts. I think any Pro Castro statement will be seen as Anti-Cuban.

Mike and Kirby... Umm... You may have missed the humor in Nicksaviking post. Ozzie Guillen? Cuban Pipeline? As in... He was ran out of Miami because of his Castro comments.

I have no knowledge of any potential candidates personal philosophy... tact... teaching ability... Etc... Etc. Because I don't... I won't get too excited about the process. But... If I had a vote... Based on one thing and one thing only. I want Martinez... Because that one thing is his long association with Maddon. If he brings any Maddon style with him... That will be a good place to start in my opinion.

My guess... Would be... If a new manager is coming in... He will want to hire his own coaching staff... Therefore the entire staff must go.

First off... Thanks Ron for all the years of service. You were one of us... Same team I belong to... Same Goals... Same Wishes and Hopes... Congrats on all your successes... Thanks for all your efforts... Good luck in the future.. I'm sure you'll get a fresh start somewhere if you want it. 2nd off... It was time... We need a fresh everything.... I'm sad for Ron yet... Still more optimistic now then I am with Ron. 3rd Off... I have no specific names on who I'd like the next manager to be. I just know the type... I want an out of the box guy who will know how to use an entire 25 man roster and know now to rotate Santana and Escobar so we get the most out of everyone... A Joe Maddon type is what I'd like to see. 4th Off... If you can't find that guy... I'll take the job. Contact me day or night... It's OK.

Funny!!! It made me laugh

I hope he's frustrated... I also hope that saying "only Hughes is a lock"... I hope it isn't an example of that frustration. It sounds like the kind of thing you say when you are frustrated but it ends up not being the case when reality shines it light in a much calmer tomorrow. I hope he truly means it and I hope we truly have a flat out competition for rotation spots in 2014. The Pitching has to improve or the arrival of Buxton and Sano will be marginalized.

Good Post String 1. Mauer -- I think Mauer is a fantastic ball player... I think he will produce like typical Mauer in the future. I think he has one of the sweetest swings in the game. I'm a happy he's a Twin. However... I feel terrible saying this: "I'm not counting on him". I think Mauer has reached the point where he has to prove he can stay healthy to be counted on. The development of Vargas has become more of a priority to me. The Twins need a 1B/DH like Vargas because he is almost guaranteed to play a month or two at 1B while Joe hits the DL. 2. Defense -- I've always considered myself a defensive freak. I've always been willing to sacrifice OPS for a guy who can make defensive plays. I see what defensive metrics are saying but... I see a light at the end of the tunnel. With Plouffe's improvement... The Infield is in good shape. The OF was a mess but Hammer is gone... Santana is getting better each day and Hicks has been encouraging offensively in September and that leads me to consider the possibility of Hicks hitting enough to play and if he can play... His D is pretty good... Also Schafer is pretty good out there. 3. Pitching -- This should be #1... In my opinion. Hughes and Nolasco are under big contract so they ain't going anywhere so Hughes needs to keep doing it and Nolasco has to figure it out. Milone and Pelfrey need to pitch like they are interested in staying in the majors. While Gibson and May become what we hope they will be. Eventually Meyer will show up and maybe even Berrios. At some point the Twins may need to take a run at a frontline FA starter like Lester. I just don't think this is the year to do it. What the Twins need is to find someone out of nowhere... Like... Fiers... Carrasco... Petit... Shoemaker... McHugh or Simon. That type of performance from someone. We may have to think outside the box to find someone like Fiers. We may need to replace Rick Anderson. Watching Worley pitch well in Pittsburgh has me ready for a new pitching coach. Not that I know for sure that Anderson is a bad coach. I'm just ready for a new approach in case it's the approach that is causing our pitching woes. 4. Home Record -- To me this comes down to Tude. I want my Twins to be tougher. I don't think they pitch tough or run tough. At least not as tough as they can at times. This has been better this year but the team still needs more Tude. I believe we need a new manager in an attempt to get more Tude. 5. Fundamentals -- Absolutely... However this is one area where I think Gardy is strong. No worries... We have youth making youth mistakes. This improves with time.

My two cents Mauer started out shaky but in my opinion... He has been close to exceptional of late. I have no 1B worries at all. Dozier... In my opinion has been as good a 2B as anyone at the position in baseball. Plouffe has been much improved Escobar is serviceable at SS... All in All though... I'd like to see improvement here. Nunez... Has been great defensively... Especially at 3B... Not so much in the OF... Whatever the Yankee fans were screaming about has not arrived in Minnesota. I'm proud of Santana... The Twins front office choked assessing CF and Santana had to bail them out. With more reps Santana could turn into a wonderful OF. His improvement has been noticeable. Arcia has a great arm... I take that as a positive. Schafer has improved the overall OF situation... Hammer was well below par. Collectively... I think the Twins will be alright defensively. They just gotta sync up with the pitchers... They seem to go bad together. When the defense makes a miscue... The pitchers don't pick them up and vice versa. When the pitchers get into a hole and need that amazing play... They don't get it. The Twins focus needs to be pitching... pitching and more pitching. This D could support improve pitching. I almost forgot about Vargas. He has done a fine job defensively at DH.

Sconnie... Those name tags were too small. I probably walked past you a couple of times and didn't even realize it. I would have certainly stopped... said hello and chatted awhile with you. Bummer... That I didn't get the chance. But Yeah... The Crawl was fun.

You sir... Have Talent!!!

My bad... Fielder is slow and it should have been factored into the bunt coverage plan. It's a point certainly worth mentioning 3 times.

I don't want to give anyone the impression that I'm hung up on one or two solitary moments in what will be a series of moments as the long season marches on. Some moments will go our way and some moments won't. That's baseball in a nutshell. With that said... I would like to revisit the 8th inning of the season opener yesterday to make a broader point. The Twins were in position to win the game. Vance Worley was out dueled by Verlander but the Vanimal did his job, by keeping the Twins within striking distance. Top of the 8th with Detroit leading 3-2. Duensing dug himself a hole, Fielder led off with a single, followed by a walk of Vmart and the Tigers had two runners on with nobody out. With Dirks coming to the plate, it didn't take a crystal ball to predict a sacrifice bunt in this situation. A quick meeting at the mound was held to discuss how to cover the bunt I assume and the bunt was executed down the third base line. It is my contention that the defensive call for the bunt was the wrong one. The Twins opted to charge the corners while the SS covered 2nd and the 2B covered first, leaving 3B uncoverered. This was a mistake and here's why... Fielder on second is the most important base runner in this scenerio and he's slow to boot. Escobar at SS should have come over to cover third or Plouffe could have stayed home. If you had to leave a base unoccupied... It should have been second. Left handed pitchers like Deunsing typically fall off the mound to the third base side and when fielding a bunt they don't have to spin or move their feet to make a short throw to third for a force and did I mention that Fielder is slow. After watching the play... I believe that Fielder was forced if someone was covering the bag. OK let's move on from that... Chances are... A sacrifice would have been successful despite a different bunt coverage plan. Peralta is then intentionally walked which is the correct move and the bases are loaded with one out. Duensing needs a strikeout and he does that with a beautiful pitch that Avila looks at. That was a big moment... The type of moment that can lead to victory. Each member of the Twins should have been doing a mental fist pump when strike three was called. Here is where the wheels fell off. Roenicke comes in to face Infante and his first pitch was awful... It wasn't a 60 foot ball in the dirt. It was a 50 footer. It was as bad a pitch as you will see. On any ball in the dirt and I mean any ball in the dirt. The catcher has to get down to block it. For reasons beyond understanding, Joe stood up, increasing the size of his 5 hole ten fold. Under no circumstances do you stand up with a ball in the dirt. It was a bad pitch no doubt, but blockable by a major league catcher... Blockable by a high school catcher to be honest. If Joe just handles his position fundamentally correct. The ball could have still skipped through but he couldn't have been logically blamed for it because it was a wild pitch. By standing up he gave himself very little chance to knock the ball down and prevent the run. Roenicke was charged with a wild pitch and his teammate failed to save him. This made the game 4-2 instead of 3-2 and any possible momentum from the Big Duensing strikeout was gone and the context of the game was immediately changed. In the bottom of the 8th... Dozier and Escobar were retired before Hicks did a nice job working a two out walk. If the game is still 3-2. You green light Hicks to get him in scoring position. If he is thrown out... You lead off the ninth with your best hitter Joe Mauer. Hopefully still only down one run... If he steals second... They probably walk Joe but that puts another duck on the pond for the Hammer if he catches one but more importantly a runner is in scoring position so all he needs is a single to tie. With a 4-2 deficit... Hicks is frozen at 1st and Mauer has to change his approach in his mind to entertain the thought of trying to tie it with a homer. That passed ball wild pitch was huge. Joe was guilty. Honestly... I'm not hung up on that moment. Joe is an amazing baseball player and I'm pleased as punch that he plays for my ball club. It's game 1 of 162 and we have a long way to go. Joe will save a few games along the way. I just wanted to say that plays like that... Standing up on a ball in a dirt is what losing teams do. If anyone is still searching for a reason why the Baltimore Orioles won the AL east last year despite average to below average pitching and average to below average hitting. You just saw an example of what not to do yesterday with Joe Mauer if you want to win games against the odds. Admittedly... I didn't watch all 162 games that the Orioles played last year but I'm pretty certain that they won the AL east because the catcher didn't stand up when balls were thrown in the dirt.

I don't want to give anyone the impression that I'm hung up on one or two solitary moments in what will be a series of moments as the long season marches on. Some moments will go our way and some moments won't. That's baseball in a nutshell. With that said... I would like to revisit the 8th inning of the season opener yesterday to make a broader point. The Twins were in position to win the game. Vance Worley was out dueled by Verlander but the Vanimal did his job, by keeping the Twins within striking distance. Top of the 8th with Detroit leading 3-2. Duensing dug himself a hole, Fielder led off with a single, followed by a walk of Vmart and the Tigers had two runners on with nobody out. With Dirks coming to the plate, it didn't take a crystal ball to predict a sacrifice bunt in this situation. A quick meeting at the mound was held to discuss how to cover the bunt I assume and the bunt was executed down the third base line. It is my contention that the defensive call for the bunt was the wrong one. The Twins opted to charge the corners while the SS covered 2nd and the 2B covered first, leaving 3B uncoverered. This was a mistake and here's why... Fielder on second is the most important base runner in this scenerio and he's slow to boot. Escobar at SS should have come over to cover third or Plouffe could have stayed home. If you had to leave a base unoccupied... It should have been second. Left handed pitchers like Deunsing typically fall off the mound to the third base side and when fielding a bunt they don't have to spin or move their feet to make a short throw to third for a force and did I mention that Fielder is slow. After watching the play... I believe that Fielder was forced if someone was covering the bag. OK let's move on from that... Chances are... A sacrifice would have been successful despite a different bunt coverage plan. Peralta is then intentionally walked which is the correct move and the bases are loaded with one out. Duensing needs a strikeout and he does that with a beautiful pitch that Avila looks at. That was a big moment... The type of moment that can lead to victory. Each member of the Twins should have been doing a mental fist pump when strike three was called. Here is where the wheels fell off. Roenicke comes in to face Infante and his first pitch was awful... It wasn't a 60 foot ball in the dirt. It was a 50 footer. It was as bad a pitch as you will see. On any ball in the dirt and I mean any ball in the dirt. The catcher has to get down to block it. For reasons beyond understanding, Joe stood up, increasing the size of his 5 hole ten fold. Under no circumstances do you stand up with a ball in the dirt. It was a bad pitch no doubt, but blockable by a major league catcher... Blockable by a high school catcher to be honest. If Joe just handles his position fundamentally correct. The ball could have still skipped through but he couldn't have been logically blamed for it because it was a wild pitch. By standing up he gave himself very little chance to knock the ball down and prevent the run. Roenicke was charged with a wild pitch and his teammate failed to save him. This made the game 4-2 instead of 3-2 and any possible momentum from the Big Duensing strikeout was gone and the context of the game was immediately changed. In the bottom of the 8th... Dozier and Escobar were retired before Hicks did a nice job working a two out walk. If the game is still 3-2. You green light Hicks to get him in scoring position. If he is thrown out... You lead off the ninth with your best hitter Joe Mauer. Hopefully still only down one run... If he steals second... They probably walk Joe but that puts another duck on the pond for the Hammer if he catches one but more importantly a runner is in scoring position so all he needs is a single to tie. With a 4-2 deficit... Hicks is frozen at 1st and Mauer has to change his approach in his mind to entertain the thought of trying to tie it with a homer. That passed ball wild pitch was huge. Joe was guilty. Honestly... I'm not hung up on that moment. Joe is an amazing baseball player and I'm pleased as punch that he plays for my ball club. It's game 1 of 162 and we have a long way to go. Joe will save a few games along the way. I just wanted to say that plays like that... Standing up on a ball in a dirt is what losing teams do. If anyone is still searching for a reason why the Baltimore Orioles won the AL east last year despite average to below average pitching and average to below average hitting. You just saw an example of what not to do yesterday with Joe Mauer if you want to win games against the odds. Admittedly... I didn't watch all 162 games that the Orioles played last year but I'm pretty certain that they won the AL east because the catcher didn't stand up when balls were thrown in the dirt.

Shane... Thanks for the mention of Calabello... I didn't know much about him and just spent some time reading a couple of articles on him. This is a player I can pull for with everything I have. Has anyone seen this guy play 3B... I read that he was fantastic defensively but he played 1B in New Britain... I also saw that he has some 3B experience. It seems that 3B would be the less cluttered path. He's a great story no doubt... I will be checking his box scores.