Dantes929

Nathan was great. Maybe two blown playoff saves to the Yankees from being in.

"Working through revisionist history, detractors will often suggest a desire to have let Mauer walk and watch larger markets pay him more." That is a great line. I think I followed the Strib reporting more back in the day but am guessing much of what I saw there played out on the TD pages as well. If you go back in the archive I am guessing at least 95% of posters demanded the Twins sign Mauer to the big deal and I would bet I am low with that 95%. Of course, in the years after, the percentages of those saying they had been against the signing in the first place came in around 95% also.. Of course for that to be accurate, those posting in favor of extending Mauer never posted again after the contract was signed and those posting afterwards claiming they were against the deal never posted their views before the signing. At the time, I and one or maybe two others were dissenters and were really only mildly doing so. I just pointed out that extending after his MVP year was the definition of buying high since he probably wasn't going to win the MVP and batting title each of the next 8 years. I thought it was a bad baseball decision (they could have just paid market the following year for likely the same amount or less if he had an off year) but a good marketing decision so maybe part of his contract should have come out of the advertising budget. I can also say I never criticized the signing in the 8 years after, mainly because as Ted points out, the Twins had already got a huge amount of value out of him before the extension. With Buxton its less logical but more simple. He's by far my favorite player on the team. When the team was down I still watched because of him. With the team down and Buxton out I lost a lot of interest in the current year. He just brings so much excitement to the team, I would hate to see him go. I was more on the fence with Tori Hunter. I liked him, he was good and more reliable but didn't have nearly the wow factor that Buxton has.

Honestly, the idea that we will sign two top free agent pitchers is floated every single year in memory and its just a fantasy. Resign Pineda and sign a guy like Gray and a good bullpen arm and I will be more than satisfied because it is more than what history and probability says we will end up doing.

C- is fair. I don't love pitch limits either but ultimately its players that have to perform. I can't picture any other manager coming in and doing anything drastically different that would have an impact on the season. HIs manager of the year season probably only gets a B from me. Mostly I think managers are overrated.

Leads are blown throughout the season. Its baseball but sometimes its more than just a loss. Same thing happened a few years ago with Perkins. Team has a good stretch early in the year in terms of getting the lead and handing it over to the bullpen and the bullpen just gives it up. Offense starts thinking they have to do more to get bigger leads. Defense starts to play tight. Everyone starts to press because they know they should be close to first place and are instead 6 games back. They might have overcome the Oakland loss if it hadn't been for the 7 close losses out of 16 games that came before it. Hard to overcome blown leads that come in bunches early in the season.

Twins have made the playoffs 9 times in the last 20 years. As far as regular seasons go they are way above the curve.

I believe they have now missed the playoffs 8 times. To put into perspective though, in that time period, the Indians have missed the playoffs 7 times. the White Sox 10 times, the Tigers 8 times and the Royals 10 times. Making the playoffs a third of the time when there are 5 teams trying for it every year isn't really so bad. The last place finishes are more remarkable.

I guess its fair to say those 3 numbers cannot coexist for any sustained period. I agree. I also agree that the babip is just most likely to change. It is absolutely guaranteed to more than double but no one is expecting a career of 7 inning 1 hit games. The 6% soft contact rate is very likely to triple and the hard contract rate is likely to drop. I was never super high on Berrios so I guess that is kind of my hope for comp. Hope is what keeps us coming back.

In hindsight only. I was pretty pumped at the time. Lecroy, Tyner and Ford didn't appeal to me much at DH or the 2rd outfield spot. White was a very good hitter in his career and coming off a .313 avg and .827 OPS year in 2005. There is a difference between bad signings and good signings that didn't work out. White was the latter.

I'm calling that Cruz/Ryan trade a rousing success right now. Cruz to end out the year did not excite me and we could still conceivably sign him for next year but Ryan gives me more hope for next year than I was expecting from a Cruz trade.

You have the right to your opinion I guess. Baseball doesn't really work like that though. There are plenty smart moves that don't work and plenty of dumb moves that do work. My if's are valid. If he didn't try to score and ends up stranded would you be saying it would have been dumb for him to try to score earlier? If he did actually score on that play would you be saying it was a dumb move? If the answer to either of these is no, then your comment is nothing more than hindsight? If yes to either than it is just a difference of opinion.

I don't know. 8th inning. Going into the 9th down by 1 instead of two is a pretty big thing. Duffy made a great catch, a pretty quick turn around and a great throw. If Arraez doesn't tag and the next guy strikes out are you going to criticize Arraez for not being more aggressive by not tagging? If the throw had been off target and Arraez scores are you going to say he shouldn't have gone? If the play had started with no outs I'm right with you. As it stands I give him a pass.

His floor is good, productive hitter. His ceiling is really good, productive hitter. I'm betting on the ceiling. Fans get excited when guys like the Turtle come in hot and its not like he's is a bad hitter but you know he wasn't going to sustain what he started. Arraez has a different feel to him. I'm always happy when he is up there in a clutch situation.

Everyone seems to be down on the Twins and the front office. The team won the Division the last two years and were projected by just about everyone to win this year and were ranked among the top 5 in all of baseball to start this season. They've had a rotten season but the last few series have given us a glimpse as to why they were highly regarded at the start. I will also quibble with your statement that very few prospects make it. Last study I found is that a little over half of position players in the top 20 succeed and a third end up superior. Everyone in the minors is a prospect and few make it but top 20 are more likely to make it than not.

Nothing but plusses. Cruz earned every cent with his performance, attitude and leadership. He helped us to a couple titles and now has got us a couple good prospects. The guy is amazing but no one wins the battle against time. I would be just fine bringing him back on a one year contract next year.

In 2008 he was 0-3 11.32 ERA in the first half and also the first 3 games after a year and a half gone from surgery. His 2nd half was 6-1 with 2.74 ERA. His 2010 season was quite good. IMO, throughout, he was judged against his 2016 season. His 2008 season was essential in getting us to game 163 and conceivably brought up one game too late. . He was arguably our best starter in 2010. I'm not saying he is a direct parallel to Berrios but some of the criticisms remind me of it.

Kind of like Liriano back in the day. He was so awesome in 2016 so that was what people expected of him. When he came back and was simply good fans were mad he wasn't still great..

I think Polanco and Arraez have about equal actual value but Polanco has greater trade value. I like them both but would move Polanco before Arraez. Simmons is on a one year contract. Who is filling his spot? I am ok with Polanco back at short. No one is untouchable but I think Arraez is valuable and I don't think we would get much for him.

He's been my favorite player for a while now and he has definitely played at MVP level when he's been on the field. I've always said, and somewhat believed Ripken was just a badly twisted ankle and a poorly placed hit by pitch from being called injury prone but this Buxton think is getting to be a lot even for an optimist like me. Too expensive to keep and too many injuries to get a lot of return value. Same solution I had for Johan Santana. Play him til the end of his contract and be happy to have a player even for one year at a bargain price. If he happens to stay on the field for 2022 he might get a return if the Twins are out of contention. My hope is that he has his monster year in 2022 and becomes legend. for leading the Twins to a championship.

I read somewhere recently that when Greg Maddux struggled the thought crossed his mind that he could try throwing harder which he knew he could do. He said he usually got out of it by placing it better.

I'm sure it was weighing on the Turtules mind that his pitching was disrespected. I'm sure word will spread around the league that next time someone swings on 3-0 on him in a blowout they can expect a nothing fastball thrown behind their butt the next day.

I don't know why swinging at a 3-0 pitch wouldn't be encouraged in a laugher. Do you want him walking and prolonging the agony? If he is swinging at least he has a chance of making an out and shortening the game. Duffey throwing at him the day after is beyond stupid. If he hits him it gives the Sox an advantage for no reason. He gets on and maybe scores and our great 5-4 comeback maybe becomes a 6-5 loss. Not worth it on any level.

7 games down after 20% of the season. If we are 14 games down after 40% we can have this conversation maybe. https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/the-greatest-second-half-comebacks-in-mlb-history-featuring-a-recent-as-team-and-a-memorable-yankees-rally/

This is how quickly things can change. Polanco is now our hottest batter.

For me, its the journey rather than the destination. I really enjoyed the 2001-2010 decade regardless of the playoff failures. Three of the closest pennant races in the history of baseball (2006, 2008, 2009) including some comebacks from bigger holes than we currently face made that an awesome decade in my book. .