ashbury

Gary Pettis, probably. Perennial Gold Glove CF, as you no doubt remember. When I looked up his records I see he only once had an OPS+ above 90, yet routinely racked up 500 PA and played in the majors 11 different seasons. An example of someone with elite defensive skills being able to carve out a career. Sure, he hit .236 lifetime, but it was an empty .236. / nah, he actually walked a lot, giving him a sufficient OBP.

Wide range of possible outcomes for this team. I would be surprised if they didn't win 75. I would be surprised if they did win 90. I guess splitting the difference would put us at about 82. Though there's a corner in my head that keeps telling me 78, that the pieces for the eventual WS winner are just about there but not yet ready.

You can't have too much good pitching.

I looked it up, and the Twins have had a Bud Bloomfield (1964) and a Terry "Bud" Bulling (1977), but never a Buddy. A new era is upon us!

For forecasting purposes, I tend to give any player a pass for one outlier season, in either direction. But two consecutive seasons set a new level of expectation for me. If Joe bounces back merely to his 2014 level of production, amounting to above league-average OPS, it will be difficult to say he's not an everyday player. It just won't be what we had come to expect from the man. There is nothing that says a player at a particular defensive position has to have certain offensive characteristics. It's simply that a team needs a balance of performance, getting guys on base and then driving them in, and power is easiest to obtain from hulking guys who are limited defensively to 1B or a corner outfield position. If somehow an up the middle position, such as our second baseman currently, provides above average power, you can more easily accept elite OBP from first base, if indeed that's what is produced. But Dozier isn't going to hit 40 homers, and such a number will have to come from Sano and maaaaaaybe Park. The concussion is the easiest explanation for the loss of ability at the plate. It's a brain injury, and like any injury, sometimes the patient heals completely, and other times the healing is less than 100% and ability is degraded permanently. It is quite plausible that Mauer's elite hand-eye coordination has been degraded to the level of ordinary folks like you and me, and it's only his experience and ongoing work habits that allow him to still hit as well as he does. But because the brain is harder to diagnose and monitor than a torn ACL or broken bone, the optimist isn't without grounds to hope for some kind of miraculous bounce-back to his former .300-hitting level. Conversely, age and further wear-and-tear will continue to take its toll on any player, and you can't rule out further decline in 2016 and for the rest of his time with the Twins.

My eighth grade teacher was fond of telling our class, "a word to the wise is sufficient". Since a word apparently wasn't enough in this case, please read a lot of words in the TD Comment Policy if you haven't already done so. Among the suggestions in the part about Respect is "But it crosses a line when ... pretending you know how another person’s mind works." If we're qualified to diagnose someone psychologically, then our professional code of ethics prohibits us from doing that upon someone we've never even met. Thus, all such speculation here is done by those inherently unqualified to do so.

Don't be so tough on yourself. I'm sure you were friendless when you were single and without children, too. I hear ya. All parents go through a similar phase.

Your article did not read itself, either, but it was well worth the effort.

It's not particularly productive to speculate on what goes on between another person's ears.

My Beer League softball swing!

A quick followup. With kind permission of the author, I have restored his article's content to the first post in this thread. Any of you who joined this discussion thread and feel in the dark about what it's about, go back to the top of the thread and have a look - it's good reading. And for those of you who don't have a reason to go back to the top, here is commentary I invited from the author: The Joe Sheehan Newsletter is an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, a mix of analysis, commentary and opinion, all linked by a deep love of the game. Subscriptions cost $29.95 for a full year and $16.95 for six months. Subscribe! His Twitter handle is @joe_sheehan

Moderator's note: To reiterate what I wrote at the top of this thread, I have removed the exact text that followed the summary, because it appears to be a full article that is surely under copyright. I could not find it on-line, so as to provide a link - perhaps it is behind a paywall. The discussion is permissible, we just want to respect intellectual property. Short excerpts are usually OK under fair use if properly cited, likewise summaries such as the one I left standing. I've put out an inquiry, and will make an update if anything changes.

The OP was 58 pages ago. I don't think computers had archives back then, otherwise I'd check.

"Eddie Gurardo". My buddy. My brother from another mother. No one worked hard than he did. He led by example. Reminds me of a Yogi Berra quip: "How long have you known me, Jack? And you still don't know how to spell my name." -- Upon receiving a check from Jack Buck made out to "bearer."1 Also: Rick Anderson helped me a lot when I was with the Twins. Hawk better not show up here and troll like that. 1 http://rinkworks.com/said/yogiberra.shtml

Fair points, spycake. It's an eternal balancing act between doing what's best for fans and what's best for the players. Losing the 41st man off your roster isn't the end of the world for fans, but (to me at least) it's a definite irritant. I don't want to punish another team for claiming a player, because it does provide opportunity for some players; it just seems like there's a perverse incentive in play here, when the claiming team changes their mind. I don't see how losing a player the claiming team never had in the first place is a disincentive for them to try to find a spot for the player when they have a genuine opening. The current process leaves me guessing some of the openings aren't genuine.

Mod note: There is a thread about this already in progress, so I suggest directing followups there: http://twinsdaily.com/topic/20969-cuddyers-players-tribune-retirement/

We're just one 9-11 style disaster away from electing whomever the Republicans nominate. So I wouldn't get too overconfident, and I don't root for them to nominate someone "unelectable". Upsets happen.

Yes but I usually wear a hat so people won't know.

Wow, this makes you like, what, 124 years old now? I bet you and USAFChief can swap some stories, eh?

But doesn't the same logic apply to a team thinking about picking him? Even more so, since the Twins only had to put Jones on heir 40-man but the Brewers now have to put him on their 25-man. It's tough making that commitment if he's only had two years of development.

This part of the waiver-claim process needs to change. If you decide to drop the player from your 40-man, within some period of time I'll leave others to define, he should be revert back to the previous team and waivers resume, and the previous team can stash him if he clears this time.

Being a picky person, I noticed that it hadn't been through a professional editor's pass, which somehow makes the piece even more authentic. A nice read.

Within one sentence you state that you do understand the Internet, and then that you do not understand the Internet.

I want balance. I don't want a team that settles for a lot of solo home runs. I don't want to need three singles (combined with walks) to score a measly run. I want crooked numbers, which usually comes from hitting with some power and with runners on. Actually Toronto led the league both in getting guys on base and in slugging percentage, so I guess it's not either/or. I want us to be 2015 Toronto. We don't resemble them now, and I'm not sure we get there in three years either. But there's more of a chance of that than becoming KC.

I believe Park played some third base for his Korean team, in addition to first, so it's not like he's born to DH. I imagine Ryan wants to keep the pressure off him, but given the realities it's an option I would consider too.