Dantes929

I have read 8 pages of this and have considered all the points as evidenced by the fact that I changed my view several times and have pretty much landed on this. Under NO circumstances do you throw at anyone. Aside from the humanitarian side of not doing intentional violence, even if you throw a nothing ball at his ribs you are putting a guy on base for free. Considering on average about 11 runners get on base per game you have just increased that number by 9% on one stupid pitch. Why would you do that in the biggest game of the year? (From this point they are all the biggest game of the year) While originally I thought it was bush league I read the circumstances and watched the video. In the video you can clearly see he felt disrespected while at the plate. It reminds me of basketball where a poor free throw shooter is intentionally fouled. Upon reflection I think if you are intentionally fouled and make the free throws or if the guy in front of you is walked intentionally and you hit a home run the natural and fair reaction is to look at the other team and say "suck eggs" and as the team that has intentionally fouled or intentionally walked someone you should just take it. This is where the unwritten rules of baseball should be re-unwritten. If you intentionally walk someone and the next guy hits a home run that guy should be able to flip a bat at your dugout and you should just take it. MINOR disrespect meets MINOR disrespect back. End of story.

I don't know why this thought came to me but it had to do with the stressing possibility of a guy with a 4.26 ERA pitching an important game. It made me think of how the stars aligned for the 87 team. They basically got by with 5 pitchers. They had a guy with a 4.37 ERA start two of the games. If they had been forced to go to a 4th starter we would have had to go with a guy with a 5.94 ERA. If we wanted a bullpen start it would have been Buerenguer with a 3.98 ERA, Reardon with a 4.48 ERA and progressively worse guys from there on out. Worst thing about Pelfrey is that he slowed up in his delivery the last half of the season and stopped mixing up pitches making him less effective and harder to watch for a couple reasons.

Not going against the bullpen idea but in his last 19 starts he had 6 quality starts along with some good 5 inning outings the most recent against the best hitting team in baseball just a start ago. Detroit still has a better lineup than good PLAYOFF teams. In that time period he also threw an 8 inning shutout against St. Louis. My point is on average he makes every batter he faces look like Lindor but the truth is some outings he makes every batter look like Ted Williams while there are some outings he makes every batter look like the bad Nick Punto (yes, there was a good LNP). I guess I would be in favor of game 163 going to Santana but not sure how much to push that now that he looks like a really good asset for 2016.

I am guessing someone will look at his 4.26 AL ERA this year and give him a lot of money to start for them. I hope it won't be the Twins but there are plenty of teams that have worse results than that. Quick check of just the AL Central on BR shows every team except Cleveland, who had one, had at least two pitchers among their regular rotation that did worse. Since the rotation was really doing well at the time I wanted Santana to start in the pen and eventually replace whoever was faltering. I still think that was a good plan. I agree that Pelfrey would have been a much better choice than May. May and Gibson were the last guys I wanted moved.

Hmmm... didn't you recently say you didn't want Gibson pitching big games either. Can't imagine you are much higher on Milone or Hughes. Personally, I like the 4 you listed better also but if we get in, the most likely way is at least 1 play in game followed by wild card game followed by playoffs. I don't think they will impose innings limits on Duffey but I don't think they will have him go on three days rest either. For that matter Milone and Hughes health issues make a 4 man rotation unlikely also.

We only scored 1 run anyway and were kind of due for a game like this. Good news is gaining half a game on LA and possibly half on Houston who are behind right now. A lot of grief given to the bullpen but really this is the kind of game where they tended (seemed so to me anyway) to give up most of the runs. The ones they were likely to lose anyway. Of course they lost some games for us but every bull pen does and frankly, it seemed like most of them were by our all star closer. They had a lot of 4 and 5 inning games where they kept us in it by giving up 1 or fewer.

He gave up 1 run to Detroit in 5 innings which we needed pretty badly. Helped get us in contention with his first half. I hope he gets several more starts this year which will mean we have gone pretty far. I read somewhere recently that his performance this year warranted 15 mil. He did have a 4.09 ERA for the year after all which is not that bad.

Help me understand the logic or sequence here. Santana moved to the 1st base side on August 19th. The next 10 innings he pitched he gave up 9 runs. Then the magical ( I noted some sarcasm there) bullpen session and since then he has given up 7 runs in 43 innings but you still credit the move to the 1st base side as the more significant event? I don't know if the vertical release point changed much but if it kept him from falling off to the first base side it makes sense that he is more balanced and throwing from a more solid core base. The fact that it directly followed the bullpen session rather than the move on the rubber tells me the bullpen session was more significant.

Pretty sure we are not guaranteed a winning season yet. We are just guaranteed not have a losing season. Don't jinx us.

Suzuki has played pretty well since the deadline and has had some big hits. For one brief moment we had Perkins, May and Jepsen to handle innings 7-9 and if May and Perkins were right for longer this would have been formidable. As for adding another arm maybe the price for that would have been Duffey, who knows. Also any guy we get is going to give up runs also. Who knows, we might have been a better team but with worse results. On average it probably would have been worth a win depending on who we got and that one win would look pretty huge right now so maybe it would have been worth it. Need an alternative universe to know. I am a big fan of promoting from within and we got Buxton and Duffey and kept with Suzuki and Escobar so I am ok with the B+. Promoting Berrios earlier would have gotten them even higher.

Do you mean to pay someone 12 mil to replace Santana in the first half or to spend 12 mil that we saved on Santana on a rent a guy player in the 2nd half. If it is the former I have no idea who that guy would be and if it is the latter I also have no idea who that would be but I suspect that if there was such a guy and we got him it is quite likely Duffey would not have gotten this chance. Maybe we would have gotten a shortstop that everyone was clamoring for denying Escobar his opportunity. I would agree with the whole May spot start thing except for the fact I didn't object to it at the time which makes it hindsight. I thought pitching 3 innings would stretch him out a bit and he would take a day or two off and be able to go at least 2 innings his next time out or that he was going to work his way back in as a starter which I also didn't mind. Either way I did not foresee the sequence that happened as a result. If we are going by isolated games I would say the most recent Detroit loss hurt. I thought Fien should have been pulled after his long battle with Davis since it was a lefty and Perkins was already warmed up. If we are going by sequence of events I would say it would be the first lead that Perkins blew by pitching with a sore arm because of some misguided notion of being tough and playing through pain. Same problem I had with Morneau back in 08(?). I was never one of those complaining about Mauer when he wouldn't play through injuries because I wanted to see the .320 Mauer, not the .250 Mauer.. Kurt Gibson's one swing notwithstanding baseball is just too difficult when hurt.

One person's pointless blind nationalism and waste of time is another's patriotism and moment of thankfulness and reflection. Its all perspective. A friend of mine thinks golf is the biggest waste of time while I think everything else is just stuff to do in between rounds of golf. So I asked her what she likes to do and she said going shopping or to garage sales which just numbs my mind.

Adjusting batting gloves after each pitch.

My pet peeve is Dick or Bert talking about how a pitcher has given us 6 strong innings when there is still one out to get in the 6th or how the starter has given them a good game when he is still pitching. These two scenarios always seem to precede two out rallies by the other team. Also, Dick raising his voice and inflection while saying "There is a deep fly ball" only to have the outfielder catch it routinely in front of the warning track.

Only if they limit the hiring of managers to the Fox Sports North girls. Not to totally undervalue the role of managers but I imagine every game would still have a winner and a loser determined by the players on the field.

The sunflower seeds were annoying tonight during Santana's interview. A couple handfuls? fine, no problem. Constant pelting with a guy trying to do an interview in his 2nd language just made it stilted and awkward.

2011 was a lost season due to injuries where we promoted so many guys that hadn't earned a spot that for much of the season we literally were a bad AAA team. 2012 was a season to see who could come back from injuries and contribute (not many). From that low point two seasons to turn things around really isn't that lengthy a time period for those in it for the long haul. Before the season I didn't predict records but odds of winning the division. I had the Tigers at 30%, the Twins at 10% and the rest at 20% each. With :Duffy, Berrios and Buxton primed to contribute next year along with a full year of Escobar, Hicks, Sano and May in the rotation, hopefully we won't see a losing season for a while.

I know the Angels have been hot. They have won 8 of 10 which accounts almost entirely for their above .500 record. They have been a .500 team all year and even with their good play lately their most likely results are 4-3. Houston being a poor road team and having played mostly .500 ball also, their most likely record will be 3-3. If this happens the Twins need to go 5-2. This is actually the least likely to happen so again, if asked if I would take my chances with 5-2 right now I would bank it. I will not dismiss the possibility of 4-3 being enough. That would mean Angels going 3-4 and the Astros going 2-4. These are not likelihoods but hardly far fetched.

Fans have given up on Perkins before. I agree that his 2nd half has been horrible but next year is just that, a different year. What is wrong with Jepsen? I am ok with Rosario. I am ok with Escobar. I would also have no problem with Dozier. Dozier has a better OPS and though no fault of Escobar has done it for more games. Dozier, has probably been a little bit better defensively also. Forgetting what Dozier did the first half of the season is pretty short sighted and reactionary. Interesting stat and I am making no point here but just came across it. Suzuki is batting .314 in our wins. Anyone have any conclusions about that? Maybe he was the MVP. JK

Problems lately has been the unreliability of all star closer Perkins and injury to May. Would like to point out that last night's game was 3 scoreless in a tight game against the league's best offense. Perkins blowing 4 games in about a 10 game stretch after the break was the biggest negative. Mostly otherwise it seemed like the pen gave up runs in games that were probably already lost and they contributed to a lot of wins. People just don't notice when they do their job. Relievers give up runs.

I second guess managers almost never particularly about pitching changes. I know all the scenarios and usually call posters out about the hindsight second guessing thing. In this case though, Fien had thrown a lot of pitches particularly to :Davis. I thought he was lucky to get Davis out and really just didn't look like he had much left. I just saw very little downside in having Perkins come in to get the left hitting Gose and just downside to leaving Fien in. I am not big on the righty lefty thing but really didn't like turning Marinez to the right side given his ridiculous splits. I promise that if Molitor had brought in Perkins to face Gose and failed to get him out I would not have posted any criticism. I just had a really bad feeling after Davis flew out and he left Fien in.

You prefer Pelfrey, Milone or Nolasco? Or Hughes just because he had 5 good innings? Duffey would be ideal but who knows what the rotation will be at if and when we get there. Besides which what will you feel about Duffey if he gets rocked the next two starts? Personally I would be thrilled if Gibson were pitching the wild card game because that meant we got into the wild card game. He has been hot and cold his whole career pretty much 50/50 either pitching like a #7 or a #1 with very little in between. In that sense he might be one of our best options. Like I said I would be thrilled to have him pitch the wild card game because you got to be in it to win it. There is your scenario.

I would accept 8-5 and take my chances with where the chips fall. Houston, Angels and Twins are all around 5-6 games above .500 after 150 games. Why do people think they have to go 7 games over .500 in the last 13 to even have a chance? Even with the great series against the Twins the Angels are only 6-4 in their last 10 games and that was a good week. Fact is we don't know how many is needed. Those teams could take a nose dive and 6-7 does the trick or we could go 9-4 and still not get it done. I will stick with 8-5 as a likely record to get us into game 163. As far as the contending part I have the same view of the word competitive. It does not mean coming close and then losing. It means coming close and either winning or losing. I love that they have a chance for a playoff spot even if it is a small one. Its more about the journey than the destination for me and this has been a pretty fun season so far and shapes up to be more fun yet if they can beat Cleveland tonight. Go Twins!

Maybe 2 out of 3 times anyway. He swung at every pitch Kluber threw and not even half of them were strikes.

We just need Dick and Bert to talk about how the Twins don't have a chance against Kluber. Whenever they talk about a game being over or how a starter has had a great outing while still in a game, or make any similar assumptions then all heck breaks loose. I actually like those two but is anyone else ever annoyed by Bremer raising his voice while saying "its a deep fly ball!!" only for the outfielder to gather it in 20 feet in front of the warning track.