Riverbrian

I'd be pissed about Mauer batting for the Royals edit: Chief beat me

Yeah... Mauer... Kinda needs to put the ball in play in that situation. Against Vargas and considering he is paid Approximately $35K per at bat.

I'm a pretty big Florimon supporter based on his D... But I'm thinking he's taken a significant step back with the bat and that's hard to do from where he was. It's Hicks like Circa 2013 and I'm wondering if letting him play through it is wise.

Yeah!!! To quote Gomez Adams... "Capital Idea" Official Scorer Metrics... Eventually the Metric can be folded into OPS plus. Part of ball park metrics.

Plouffe... Made the correct play. Actually on his toes this year... So far!!!

That is correct... Officially. In real life... That is so wrong... Think about the stunning defense in Chicago. We really had about 3 errors an inning if it wasn't for the scorer.

There went the prefect game

If you are the Royals... How patient are you with the Moose?

7 innings... Perfect ball? Do you pull Kevin?

Ummm... OK... Chief... What do you think of the weather in mid June?

Fuld is a baseball player... A face full of dirt guy and he can play on my team. Love his D... Couldn't ask for much better... His bat is Ok from time to time but it don't matter... He wouldn't be a long term plan. He'd fit what we need right now. This organization needs CF bad!!! Depth Chart: Hicks Mastro Escobar? Nunez? Bartlett? or Buxton rushed How can anybody look at that and say "we are good to go"? If Hicks gets hurt or hits .150... What do they do? Fuld ain't the answer but he'd be great depth. I'd sign Fuld... If I couldn't pick up a Campana or a Bernadina or a Gose or a Bonofacio. or a Borbon...

It helped me!!!

I'm gonna have to get a black skirt with a yellow stripe.

I have... Indeed... Umm... Well kinda... Plouffe: My problem with Plouffe has been defense primarily. As long as he's hitting... I won't worry about the D... Last year he was not hitting near enough. This year... I see a changed man... He is showing discipline and not chasing as much crap... He is going the other way and opening up the entire field. If this Plouffe stays... You won't hear a peep out of me about his defense. And speaking of D... Plouffe's D seems to have an extra step to it so far. Florimon: I haven't really 180'ed... I still think he can help us win games. I think he can hit in the nine hole and get the occasional hit and not kill this team... I don't think he will bat .071 forever. I'm still OK with Florimon... I'm just no longer OK with Dozier at leadoff. Hicks isn't ready for the leadoff spot and Florimon certainly shouldn't be in that spot. Mauer should stay #2... So in the context of this team... In order to move Dozier... We need a leadoff guy more than we need Florimon's Glove. Nunez becomes the only option on the current roster. Bonofacio sure would have been nice!!!

Game-time forecast: Cloudy. Winds blowing out to right field at 10-20 m.p.h. Temperature around 45. Royals: SP, Vargas Aoki RF Infante 2B Hosmer 1B Butler DH Gordon LF Perez C Moustaka 3B Cain CF Escobar SS Twins: SP, Correia Dozier 2B Mauer 1B Plouffe 3B Colabello RF Kubel LF Pinto DH Suzuki C Hicks CF Florimon SS (Hmmm, this is starting to look mighty familiar.) –------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Things to Think About: 1. Jackknife Replication -- At a certain point... Numbers will replicate and repeat themselves. It's how a political exit poll sampling can lead to a winner being declared accurately and quickly with many votes to be cast and counted. The Twins are around 1/15th of the way through the season. Using a sampling frame... It's clear the Brewers are the Best team in baseball and the Reds are the worst. The Twins are slightly below mid-pack and should finish with 76 wins and draft anywhere from 10 to 15 in the 2015 draft. Margin of Error +|- 20 Wins/15 Draft Position 2. Brian Dozier -- 4 Home Runs... Tied for the AL lead in Dingers with Jose Bautista, Melky Cabrera and Jose Abreu. I don't think Dozier will be matching Stanton Blow for Blow all year but I think we can assume Dozier is a legit 20 homer power threat. All day yesterday... I was thinking... It's time to stop thinking about Dozier as a little fast glove guy. He's a power source and mis-cast as a leadoff hitter. String beat me to the posting of the thought (great minds think alike) with the thread he posted yesterday. Dozier needs to go down in the order to an RBI spot. We need a legit leadoff guy cuz we are wasting Dozier at that position. 3. Leadoff Guy... With Plouffe, Colabello, Kubel, Dozier, Pinto and Suzuki performing. Wouldn't it be great to have a lead off guy. Someone who works the count and gets on base at a high percentage... Someone like... Mauer... Oops Sorry... No... Mauer is a perfect two hitter. Someone to hit in front of Mauer... We only have the SS position to play with... I'm making the call for Nunez so we can slot Dozier down in the order where all the action is. 4. Colabello -- The dude is doing it. 5. Dreams -- I had a strange dream last night... I was sitting at a picnic table in the middle of a field. There was a perfect round hole in the middle of the picnic table and bugs were crawling out of the hole one after another and crawling all over the picnic table... Thousands of them and more coming. Robin Williams shows up dressed as Popeye and he covers the hole with his hands and this big dude... (I assume Bluto he didn't identify himself) starts spraying this stuff on the bugs. Popeye and Bluto start bumping into each other and a fight breaks out. My question... Was I Olive Oyl?

It is certainly a thing I've been thinking about... Dozier shouldn't be leading off... In my opinion... Dozier should be in an RBI spot. If I was Gardy... This is what I'd do with health. 1. Nunez SS 2. Mauer 1B 3. Plouffe 3B 4. Colabello DH 5. Kubel LF 6. Dozier 2B 7. Arcia RF 8. Pinto/Suzuki C 9. Hicks CF Hammer in a rotation with Colabello and Kubel mainly... occasionally Arcia

Defense... Fuld is jaw dropping good. Mastro ain't in the same room... In my opinion. Offense... Mastro and Fuld... If there is a difference... I'm not aware of it.

Game-time forecast: Mostly cloudy. Winds blowing out to left field at 5-15 m.p.h. Temperature around 60. Royals: SP, Shields Aoki EF Infante 2B Hosmer 1B Butler DH Gordon LF Perez C Moustakas 3B Cain CF Escobar SS Twins: SP, Nolasco Dozier 2B Mauer 1B Plouffe 3B Colabello RF Kubel LF Pinto DH Suzuki C Hicks CF Florimon SS --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Things to Think About: 1. Saving for a Rainy Day -- Most Americans are busy living from check to check. 57% of all working Americans have less than $25K in savings and investments. With statistics like that... Why are the Twins scoring 10 runs in a game on a Friday with Saturday and Sunday left to play. On the other hand after 2013... The Twins should have a ton of savings. 2. Ricky Nolasco -- Start Number 3 for Nolasco... 1st start... 6IP 10H 5R... Two De Aza Home Runs. He actually had 3 decent innings in that game and 3 not so decent. 2nd start... 4IP 7H 5R... Yan Gomes took him deep. The Twins spotted him a good lead which he gave up. I'd say 2 decent innings and 2 not so decent. If I can be Captain Obvious for a moment. Ricky has to stop giving up the big innings... That will help immensely. He matches up against James Shields today and he will have to match up against the top starters for awhile until things get out of kilter rotation wise. 3. Jason Kubel and Trevor Plouffe -- Kubel is Hotter than a pistol!!! I think he must be seeing the baseball real well right now. So what Jason Kubel do we have? The Jason who hit .216 in 2013 or the Jason who hit 30 home runs in 2012? It's too soon to tell but it sure seems like the Jason who had an OPS+ over 100 every year from 2007 to 2012. 2013 just might have been an injury nightmare. I think it's ok to let your guard down and feel good about his homecoming. If he struggles later... we can call the Twins front office terrible things at that time. As for Plouffe... I'm loving the discipline at the plate. I love that he is going the other way and opening up the entire field. A productive Plouffe is huge for the Twins. 4. Chris Colabello -- I'm beginning to think he should just be thought number 4 every game thread. He's a feel good story and it makes me feel good. Another clutch hit yesterday with runners to bring home. 5. Warmer Weather -- I can tell it's getting warmer because a fly has been flying around me and bugging me while I typed thoughts 1 through 3. Haven't seen a fly in awhile so I assume its starting to warm up. I captured the Fly... I tore his wings off and then I told him that he is no longer "A Fly". He is now "A Walk"

I agree... A car splashed water all over my car and I had the Windows closed!

Escobar fields for the cycle... Bad Dive... Bad Throw... Bad Catch

I'm kinda bummed we don't get to face Ventura I'm also kind of bummed that Ventura isn't Governor.

How else do you get a baseball?

Gibson... The Stopper!!!