ashbury

Neither did the Mariners. He started 34 games at the position.

If I were a managerial candidate, the lack of a viable major league shortstop would look like a red flag to me.

Something as good as the U of M Rouser, specific to the locale, would be ideal. Sweet Caroline was organic to Fenway - it just caught on without anyone visibly trying - so trying to create something like that won't be easy.

Hmm, when I read something labeled as Satire, and I recognize myself in it, usually I keep that information to myself. 😀

Nothing would be an improvement.

From the article: "Those guys [López and Ryan] are part of it, right? So that's my vision, that's my hope. That's my expectation as we sit here. It still requires some ongoing conversations with ownership and what that looks like." He's talking about cashflow, isn't he? Who is he talking to? He switched mid-thought from roster decisions to budget decisions. The public doesn't want to hear this form of Inside Baseball, If he wanted to express his uncertainty, he could have positioned it as "if some team offers us a deal that makes us better, of course we have to listen. But the plan is Lopez and Ryan topping the rotation. We think that's exciting." Cashflow is whatever ownership, with manifestly deep enough pockets to run a big-time business, decides what it is. This isn't some mom-and-pop operation like a restaurant, where they can't perfectly forecast their hiring and personnel decisions a year in advance, and they could literally be out of money to write their payroll checks against. No, if the Twins are running in the red, they have the means to cope. So pull up those big-boy pants and run a big-time business. This was the internal discussion the FO presumably had in July, before the deadline deals. "Where do the numbers look for next year? If we conduct a fire sale, what does that do to revenue for FY 2026?" Why the continuing uncertainty 3 months later? "Expectation" as corporate-speak is nearly as tone-deaf as "right-sizing." Don't cut your marketing department off at the knees. Make a commitment at the top level and stick with it. If it turns out a year from now the forecasts were bad, then cover it, and figure out what made those estimates bad and don't keep repeating it. But don't make it a topic of public discourse. Nobody cares about what the FO "hopes" and "expects" and their "conversations with ownership." That's saying the quiet part out loud. It feels like Dave St Peter never left. (Because apparently he didn't.)

So you have information that the Pohlads have found a buyer, after all? 😄

One run scored by the offense today, and that's your take?

We kept them to a minimum.

I thought Kepler supposedly refused to play CF in his last years as a Twin.

Harrison Bader said the other day that Buxton is the "best position player I've ever played with, hands down." I take this as an indirect confirmation that Buxton is a strong, positive influence as a teammate. I mean, would Bader have volunteered that quote if he thought the man was also a horse's ass? So, fantastic player, good human being. You win by accumulating players like that. It's hard. You keep what you have. I said this a week ago but I'll spell it out more clearly: if the FO has lost the confidence of a player of that caliber, then for anybody who's still on the fence that's by itself sufficient evidence to be done with the Falvey era. (And that comment of mine last week got a response that there's plenty of other reasons, which is not the point.)

He has a couple of remarkable 2025 stats. 0 GIDP. 0 CS. I wouldn't sit him out of a game to protect freakshow stats, but given that he's sitting, I'd hate for a brief appearance to mar either of them.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.fcgi?id=buxtoby01&year=2025&t=b#all_bases He batted .313 with RISP in 2025

He's already the first Twin to get to 30 hr and 24 steals. If our numbering system were base-12 like the ancient Sumerians and Babylonians, maybe these achievements would be more satisfying. 😄

Mentioned elsewhere, but Michael A. Taylor announced he's retiring after today. White Sox have him in the starting lineup, batting ninth naturally. I always sensed a quiet dignity about him. His hitting was usually the weak part of his resume, though "he had a little pop." But he could beat the other team with his glove, no moment was too big for him, and for the right situation that could be enough. He earned a spot in my heart when he bailed out Louis Varland with his catch at the wall in the '23 playoff against Toronto. Michael A Taylor? For me, he'll always be Michael THE Taylor.

Rocco's just giving us a preview of the Opening Day lineup for 2026.

I had forgotten that speech by Rocco. How much does a parade really matter to him? Has he looked into whether the Dodgers have any job openings?

Ninja'd by only a couple of hours. Never mind.

Wikipedia refreshed my memory about the guy. It looks like a series of injuries and unclear diagnoses led to clashes with the front office. That may have factored in, or served as a tie-breaker, to the Jays' decision. It could be a factor in the decisions by other teams in the waiver queue.

I look for the little moments in a friendly interview, when a competent and experienced public speaker starts to let down his guard and then catches himself. "...going through some pains and moments in time." No one speaks like that on purpose. Moments in time, LOL. He shifted gears mid-sentence. I don't know exactly what deeper truth he was about to divulge - probably that 2026 is gonna suck again in terms of wins. But you could practically hear himself mutter, "oops, almost said the quiet part out loud."

We're all old. The poster was just striving to be understood.

To avoid being a 65 win team?

Who on the Marlins do we want for Trevor? Because they might be the only franchise who thinks he's even worth trading for - wait, they fired the GM who traded for Nick Gordon, they might not be a viable trading partner either anymore.