Dantes929

I think Molitor is the only one that could do it properly but I don't think he is on the active roster.

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc is generally considered a logical fallacy. If B happens after A then A may or may not have caused B. I suspected you were right though so I did more testing. I found out that Romero wasn't with the team after the last snow storm. We did not have a snow storm before yesterday's game. We won. Testing complete. You do the easy work of spinning your fancy theories and leave it me to do the hard work of proving it. Speaking of phallicy you may have been too subtle with your best line about the ladies so let me spell it out for those that scanned past it. Ladies "I was with Riverbrian and now I have condition X. Therefore Riverbrian caused condition X."

At a minimum this needs to be posted for every Fernando win.

I remember 06 pretty well since it was one of my favorite regular seasons of all time. People say it can't be done now but they were definitely saying the same thing then. At one point I remember Mike and Mike both agreeing that you can stick a fork in the Twins because they are done. This was sometime in June when they were a dozen or so games back. I guess on the bright side is that these Twins don't necessarily have to win 96 games which means that from this point they can be 7 to 10 games worse than that 06 team and still have a shot at the playoffs. People say this or that is an absolute must and it is easy to say that we need Buxton, Sano and Santana to come back and play well but really, everyone needs to step up their game. The good news is they appear to have the talent to be able to do so. Capable? yes. Will they? That's why we watch because who knows.

I don't know the tipping point but it is certainly longer than May 1st. This team has been bad. Doesn't mean it has to continue to be bad. That is up to them. Twins as well as scores of other teams in other seasons have overcome bad starts. Sometimes it is trading for Shannon Stewart that provides the spark, sometimes it is calling up Liriano. Hopefully, in this case it is calling up Romero and getting Santana, Buxton and Sano back. Maybe it won't happen at all but May 1st is too early to wave the white flag.

I would occasionally post pace of play. Mostly last year because posters were so certain the Twins would have to win X amount of games to get the 2nd wild card with X meaning the Twins had to win 70% or so of their remaining games when they had the lead and had gotten the lead by winning 53% of their games. This year it was because posters seemed to not appreciate a 5-4 record. This losing streak probably won't change how people feel about .500 record or a little better but maybe it should. Twins now have to win .55 of their games to get to last years record. Doable, but they have to right the ship. Maybe shows how valuable Buxton and especially Santana are to this team.

I didn't watch the whole game but the part I did watch got me to agree with you. I really liked Morneau in the booth. Seemed relaxed. Didn't try too hard. It had been Bert, Smalley, Hawkins, Morris and Hunter in that order. Morneau jumped to the top of the list. Hope he gets more chances. Man, finally seeing Grossman, Morrison and Eddie all get on track only to lose it really bites. The best cure for an 8 game losing streak is a 9 game winnings streak but we gotta get that first one. Hopefully tomorrow and hopefully we get so see Romero or Gonsalves soon.

They have to play better. That's all there is to it. If they don't then all the doomsdayers are correct but the idea that they are out of it just escapes me. A week of good baseball and they are back to .500. Ok, the talent isn't elite but it is enough to go on a nice winning streak. It is on the players.. Aside from the 9th inning this game showed some guts from Gibson and Duke. Win tomorrow and the world will look brighter.

Huh? 3 blown saves and a 6.75 ERA with 2 saves to his credit. Same time last year Kintzler had 5 saves and a 0.00 ERA. If you want to say Sano cost them a run fine. If you want to say Pressley should have been in there, fine, but what's that say about Rodney as our closer? On a plus note, Gibson really stepped up. Lets win the next couple series and put this week behind us.

Yes, but they also don't need to win 104 games and it was just an added stat to Bighat who was wondering if any playoff teams last year had lost 6 in a row. The Twins are bad right now but that doesn't mean they have to be bad the rest of the season. If they are an 88 win team which is about the average of those predicting a few weeks ago then there are a few modest winning streaks in our future. We didn't have any 6 game losing streaks last year but were swept at least 5 times. Like I said, this next stretch is gut check time. We'll see if they bounce back. One week changed the outlook. Another week can change it again.

Dodgers lost 11 straight and 16 of 17 at one point and still won 104 games which is pretty incredible. This is hardly the first time we have been swept by the Yankees and except for the playoffs it has never been fatal to the season. We just need to beat up on somebody as thoroughly as the Yankees beat on us. If it is a division opponent, all the better. Last year this team was very resilient. We'll see what kind of team this one is. A win today would be a good sign.

The Yankees were 11-9 when we started the series. It is a very good team but hardly invincible. I used to play on a basketball team that would always lose to this one team. They were good but we would often beat teams that would often beat this team. Makes no sense. Just one of those things. Just means the Twins have to beat up on someone else to make up for it and hope that the next series against the Yankees is the turning point. Even better would be if we win the next two and that is the turning point. Time for the good Gibson to step up..

Yeah, the thing is, as far as I could see, their guy didn't throw a gem either. I felt like if Tanaka had been pitching against the Yankees he would have been shelled also. Just one of those nights with a slumping team. Maybe Jose can right the ship. Would be nice to win 3 one run games and take the series while being outscored by 10.

I disagree and I hope they bunt half a dozen times against Sabbathia.

You don't even need one. Back in the day I liked Crede, Thome and Konerko. I even liked Ozzie more than Gardy. Still hated the White Sox.

Well yeah.... but if teams that win 100 games lose or get swept by lower division teams through the course of the season isn't it kind of absurd to think the Twins won't go through those stretches as well? I think we have a better team than last year. If they play well I don't know why they shouldn't be in the mix. If they don't play well they won't be but it is a marathon.

Houston got swept by Oakland and by the White Sox last year. Dodgers lost 11 straight. Almost every pennant winner gets swept by a lower division team and loses a couple others. Twins were just a break or two from winning the series. Twins are good enough that they don't have to back off to any team but not good enough to assume wins over anyone. Ok maybe a little more of the latter than the former. They've got to play well to win and I don't think they played well this series. On the other hand Tampa played pretty well with respect to their talent. Many teams that win pennants play .500 for most of the season with a couple stretches of good ball. We need Buxton back and maybe a little reshuffling of the pen.

I am also a little curious why there have been so many of these. I have the same level of anxiety about Mauer getting in as I do of Oliva getting in which is to say none. Its just a minor debate or intellectual exercise. Pick any of the topics on the board and I can make a world not ending comment about it. Is Berrios an ace? Was sending Lamarre down a smart move? Why did Lindor make the comment about not trying to offend the Twins with a home run celebration? None of it matters in the big scheme of things. All of it just falls under hobby and Mauer is just one of the many many sub sets of that hobby.

For his HOF case it probably would have been better if he had retired for 3 years and then come back after the concussion. I think his career average at the time was .319 and his career OBP was .401. The accumulation of hits just helped him get to 2000 hits but hurt him in every other way. If voters took that kind of thing into consideration like with Puckett it might make a difference but I doubt they do. Another batting title would do it.

After being thrown at twice. Archie Graham: Hey, ump, how 'bout a warning? Umpire: Sure, kid. Watch out you don't get killed. Anyone see Gomez almost throw Beltre out at first? Looked like Beltre thought that broke an unwritten rule.

The only thing we had in common was that she was from Chitown and I had once heard of Chitown. What happened to her anyway?

In that situation it is probably only a home run that will score Grossman and who is more likely to hit a home run, Mauer or Sano? Sano is way more likely to and it would be a three run homer vs a less likely two run homer from Mauer in the third inning Even given the 2-0 count it is pretty much a push. Plus the best odds of scoring a run is having Grossman on 2nd because Sano is still way more likely to get a single or double than either is of hitting a home run. The only argument for Mauer swinging away is your belief that somehow Mauer is more likely to hit a home run than Sano is to get a hit of any kind. Its playing the odds because the eye test lies. Do you give a damn about Mauer's clutch OBP when it has contributed to rallies and close wins because those are not isolated instances either. He's Wade Boggs. He's not Mike Schmidt. Do you value him for being like Boggs (HOFer) or do you find him wanting because he's not Mike Schmidt (also HOFer)?

He has always passed the eye test with me. I have always considered him to be a table setter but he was an elite table setter. Leaving it to the next guy wasn't such a bad option when you added a guy on base for Morneau, Thome and Cuddyer. With the bad teams who is going to pitch to Mauer with the game on the line when Doumit and Plouffe are your next batters? Do the clutch stats contemplate intentional and semi intentional walks? We have had this conversation before. In the midst of one of these conversations in years back I kept track of a 3 game set. It was probably serendipity but there were 6 runs scored where he advanced the runner to 2nd or 3rd either through a walk, single or double and that runner scored either from 2nd with a base hit or from third with a sac fly or ground out. 6 runs where Mauer was a major factor in 3 close games but his stat sheet (what was referred to earlier as looking good on paper) had no runs scored and no RBI for Mauer. I am guessing he has always been pretty high in the category of runs produced without getting credit for RBI or run scored. Clutch or otherwise. Batters behind him have always benefited. Is Morneau MVP without Mauer's .347 BA and .429 OBP.? Is he runner up for MVP without Mauer's .328 ave and .413 OBP? As far as approach, several years ago I noted that Mauer and Delmon Young had almost the exact same splits for various counts, meaning the various ways you can be even, behind and ahead in the count. What separated a guy we are sorry we traded for and a guy some think has a strong case for HOF is that by being patient Mauer found himself in the favorable counts way more often than did Young despite the general opinion that Mauer always starts the count 0-2. I wish he would swing at the 1st pitch a little more often just to keep the pitchers honest but his formula works. He is actually not a great hitter when behind in the count. He is at .255 when behind, .316 when even in the count and .360 when ahead in the count in his career and he has been ahead in the count way more often than behind in the count.

How about this. 2006, 2008, and 2009 were three of the tightest races in the history of the sport with a pennant won on the last day in 2006 and games 163 in 08 and 09. In the heat of those races Mauer's final month OPS was .956. .904 and .958.

I kind of agree with this but it really doesn't matter where the wins come from. We used to lose 70% of game against the East hold our own against the West and do really well against the NL and the Central. I get that the head to heads are important but not the end all. If we lose two here, sweep Tampa and Cleveland loses two of their next three its the same net result. Of course sweeping Cleveland and then Tampa would be preferable.