Riverbrian

I never realized that my material was being judged harshly until the line... "That's good enough to be a keeper". So... The Stuff you have deleted wasn't up to standard. I'm on a mission now to produce only keepers!!!

She Put the Line Ups in the Coconut... She Drank Them Both Up She Put the Line Ups in the Coconut... She Drank Them Both Up She Put the Line Ups in the Coconut... She Drank Them Both Up Ha! She did not, but that's good enough to be a keeper! Game-time forecast: Partly cloudy with a 30-percent chance of rain. Winds blowing out to right field at 10-15 m.p.h. Temperature around 50. Red Sox: SP, Buchholz Pedroia 2B Bogaerts SS Ortiz DH Napoli 1B Gomes RF Carp LF Ross C Middlebrooks 3B Bradley CF Twins: SP, Hughes Dozier 2B Mauer DH Plouffe 3B Colabello 1B Kubel LF Suzuki C Parmelee RF Hicks CF Escobar SS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Things to Think About: 1. David Ortiz -- There are times when he gets silly... But he's really silly right now. C'mon Man... Enough is Enough... You are 38 Years Old... Try acting your age for once. 2. Clay Buchholz -- What is He? I'm really not sure... Right now I can pick him up off the waiver wire in both my fantasy baseball leagues. He's taking the mound today with a 6.44 ERA. Last year... he was hurt for a large portion of the schedule but he threw 108 innings and walked away with a 1.74 ERA. The year before that he threw 189 innings to the tune of a 4.56 ERA. The Year before that he was hurt mostly so who cares and the year before that 173 innings with a 2.33 ERA. So I ask the question again... Clay Buchholz... What is He? He does make me laugh a little... I remember watching him pitch last year and he looked like a butter sculpture melting in the sun. He was greased up from Head to Toe... His Hair was dripping with some sort of substance... His Arms were glistening in the sun. I think he had lard on his teeth. You could of scraped him off and baked a pie crust after adding flour. I laughed when he was pitching against Michael Pineda this year. You could clearly see a substance on Pineda yet with Buchholz on the mound... The Red Sox decided not to say anything about Pineda. The Next time Pineda faced the Red Sox... Buchholz was not on the mound. Then... Of Course... The Red Sox said something about the Pine Tar on his neck and Pineda drew a suspension. No sense in investigating Pineda when Buchholz is throwing for you. No Matter what you think Buchholz is... Watch for a substance somewhere. And yeah... I laughed at Joe Niekro... I also laughed at Reggie Jackson with the Gatorade Cooler... I think it's funny and it's one of the reasons that I love Baseball!!! 3. Phil Hughes -- In all honestly... I wasn't sure about the signing of Phil Hughes. Don't get me wrong... We needed pitching and I was glad we signed him but in all honesty... Phil Hughes wasn't my first choice. It wasn't his numbers that scared me... I don't get scared by numbers... When I watch players... I look for competitiveness or lack of... The times I saw Phil pitch... He seemed to lack it. I saw the good innings but when things went bad... They seemed to go real bad and I questioned his readiness of the battle when times got tough. I'm right often and I'm often wrong. So far... Phil has hung so many zero's when walking off the mound for an inning that I'm giddy with excitement. All the runs he has given up have come in bunches. So I'm kinda right while being awfully wrong at the same time. I'm glad to be wrong and I hope I remain wrong... GO GET EM PHIL. 4. Florimon -- He's gone and in his wake stands... Escobar, Santana and Nunez. TD'ers have complained for years about the lack of production from the SS position at the plate. Suddenly with the departure of Florimon we have an embarrassment of riches of production from the candidates to replace him. There are many who doubt it will last but Escobar remains hot as a pistol and Santana has been slapping the ball around and Nunez looks like he wants to stay. It's kinda odd and I hope it continues. 5. Smart -- According to research... 55% of all Americans think that they are smarter than the Average American. Obviously... There is a percentage of that group who are wrong and not smarter then the average American. The Numbers support that some of them are wrong. Strangely enough... the ones who are wrong... all work for the Government.

When is Fuld back?

Ortiz... I'm speechless

Now Dick and Bert are throwing Hicks under the bus. Couple that with Gardy's quotes. He's going down.

I would imagine

The disclaimer sounds a lot scarier when lawyers read it.

Jamie Hersch: Thanks Dick... I spoke with Twins Manager Ron Gardenhire before the game about Josmil Pinto. Gardy believes he really has a bright future. He just needs to stop assaulting old people and Children. He says he's made great strides when it comes to working with pitchers but his head hasn't complete pulled out of his Dick: Thanks Jamie Bert: Another fine job reporting by Janie Dick: Jamie Bert: Where's my circle thing a ma jig? Dick: I hid it and your getting colder

It sure sounded that way. When Jamie says it... It sounds like a compliment.

Yikes... We are overpaying per double

Has Escobar earned a job yet?

Mound Visit Transcript: Andy: Jeez... They are knocking you around pretty good KC: Yeah... I find this whole concept restricting. Andy: What'd mean? KC: The ump makes me throw strikes or he will call a ball... If I throw a strike... They clobber it. Andy: Try throwing lower in the strike zone KC: Sure... Why Not... Just keep piling on the restrictions.

We gotta wait for the bottom of the order

I was just practicing in case I could get a gig doing that.

I'm Riverbrian and you're watching Fox Sports North

Lulling Doubront into a false sense of security.

If this game was in Boston... We'd be up first and ahead 2-0.

I'm consistently inconsistent.

And people would be talking with disturbing accents.

If this game was in Boston... We'd be 40 minutes in to it.

I have no idea if Rick Anderson is a good pitching coach or not. If I had access to his bullpen sessions and witnessed him teaching something wrong... I'd assume he wasn't very good... Absent of that kind of access... I can't pass judgement. Ultimately... If Anderson isn't good... Gardy should be aware and should recommend finding someone else... and if Gardy isn't aware... The front office should be aware that Gardy isn't aware and should find a different manager. If the Front office isn't aware... Then the Ownership should be aware that the front office isn't aware and they should find different people. I tend not to blame the pitching coach... I blame the guy who hired and decided to keep him. So... I assume since they have kept him... There is no problem at all.

To be clear... I'm not reacting to his nice start. Parm could return to average or below at any time. But... For discussion... Let's say that Parm starts producing numbers like he was in AAA. Let's say it looks like he fixed some things. Let's say the team gets and stays healthy. What happens when Arcia and Hammer are ready? Does Parm stay?

Fastballs away are going to problematic for a guy that teams execute a pronounced shift on. He's gonna have to patient and wait for mistakes. He's a vet... He should be able to do that. Kubel can heat up again but until he foes I'd be playing him less.

Those guys would get killed today.

Thank You Parker!!! Your article helped explain some of the things that was confusing the crap out of me. The quote from Antony explaining the 25th man does answer my question on who the inside advocate was for Bartlett. I suspected it was Gardy and that suspicion is now stronger. I want to be clear... that I don't want to hang anyone over all of this but it's obvious that they missed. Hicks shouldn't have been handed the starting gig in CF after witnessing 2013. I believe in Hicks... He has the potential to be exciting and he has the tools to get it done. But... Let him conquer AAA first. I was shocked that he made the opening day roster after 2013. And I was triple shocked that no safety net was in place. It's the same scenario as 2013 and it failed. Why try the same approach again? I have no idea. Another thing... If you are going to create a utility player... There is only one way to do it. You have to take that player and play him somewhere else. Saying that someone is the backup in CF and waiting for every other possible option to get hurt before playing there does nobody any good. Utility players are created by playing elsewhere. Bonofacio is the Cadillac of utility players. He started as 2B in 2007... Moved to 3B in 2009... Moved to the OF in 2010 and moved to SS in 2011. He got a bunch of playing time at each position. If you want to play your SS in the OF... I'm all for it... But you have to commit to it and create it. Play him... It might be rough for a while but it will get better. If he is only going to play in emergency situations. He will never get better and we will be in a constant state of looking like we have in the OF. The Season is young... Dive in with both feet. However... Creating a utility guy is goofy and time consuming when you could have just signed the best one out there free of charge. The Twins approach to CF is a head scratcher. Your article helped but I still don't totally get it.