ashbury

I've said before that I think the Opener strategy addresses a real problem. But you need a stronger bullpen than the 2018 Twins had, for the strategy to make very much sense to me. The point isn't to have the top of the opponent's batting order clobber a mediocre guy to begin the game.

Other teams don't wait until a player reaches the majors to start scouting him. I think they know too.

My small report from the other day pales in comparison to Steve's thorough review of the week, and is only a complement to it, but it's found here: http://twinsdaily.com/blog/159/entry-11268-arizona-fall-league-2018-nov-1-2/

Welcome to the site! Feel free to drop in and offer insights anytime.

Oh no! Was the scotch hurt?

Earth Humor.

This is really a nice contribution to Twins fandom.

Nine bucks, with a two dollar discount for youth (3-17) and senior (55+). They were handing out free tickets to tonight's Fall Stars Game - if you have an intention to go, I can give you one.

I feel like posting a little bit on my trip to Phoenix for the Arizona Fall League. I arrived Thursday and was picked up at the airport by ashburydavid. Nice that he could take a day off from work to join his dad for a long weekend of baseball watching. Salt River, the team all the Twins prospects are on, had played earlier in the day, so we contented ourselves watching the evening game in Scottsdale. You can get good seats at the AFL: The game itself between Scottsdale and Peoria was very crisply played. It was a 1-0 pitchers duel through 7 innings, before Peoria scored 3 more, and although the home team notched a couple on a ninth inning homer by first baseman Hall, this 4-2 outcome was completed in slightly more than two hours. Scorpions left fielder Trammell made a pair of very fine catches that might have kept the final score from being more lopsided. We had good luck in being seated near a few very talkative fans who kept us company during the game. Friday we made our way over to Surprise Stadium for a Salt River Rafters game against the host Saguaros. By the luck of the draw I've been there for several AFL games over the years, and I think it's a nice one: Travis Blankenhorn was the only Twins prospect who played today. He went 1 for 4 plus a walk, scoring two runs. Here he is, on deck - he sees his shadow, so six more weeks of AFL? Blankenhorn made a nice defensive play in the sixth inning with an unassisted putout on a grounder before throwing to first to complete a DP. And here is his home run trot - coming around to score after his third-inning walk, when Sam Hilliard hit a homer, but it's still a trot. He also scored in the top of the sixth on a sac fly, after singling and then moving up a base at a time. He caught the pop fly that ended the 8-3 victory in 7 innings (scheduled as such, to avoid tiring the pitching staffs in advance of the Fall Stars Game coming up on Saturday.) This is Salt River manager Tommy Watkins after making a pitching change. After the game, Tommy caught us unawares, by noticing my son and me with Twins or Twins Cities related gear (me with my St Paul Saints shirt, ashburydavid with his Rochester Red Wings shirt and his TC Twins hat), seated down low as we were. He made a point of asking where we were from. Just a 30 second interaction, but it's clear why Tommy gets such favorable reviews from all who meet him - he is an outgoing guy, plain and simple. Tomorrow we go back to Surprise for the aforementioned Fall Stars Game.

Santana was selected in the major league phase.

At the AFL game I attended tonight, Scottsdale's left fielder threw lefty, and the right fielder threw righty. FWIW.

Moderator's note: The bickering has gone to an unacceptably personal level, and needs to stop. Probably best if both parties drop this tangent since agreement isn't on the horizon.

I omitted any editorial comment in my reply.

Yes, and like Atlanta they could take him back off the 40 and try to sneak him through waivers.

The Red Sox won the World Series on the road, so my tentative plan to be a Cheapskate and lurk the Fenway environs in anticipation of a fourth win proved impractical. Next best thing was to pencil in Wednesday the 31st, when a parade in the team's honor was scheduled. Large crowds were anticipated for the 11:00 start, so again I relied on public transportation. And again I was concerned that the commuter train might already be full before it pulled into my station, but again it was easy-peasy. A rare unscheduled train for the event, and plenty of room. (Not so, on the ride home. Wisely, I boarded at Back Bay, one stop before Yawkey/Fenway, where tons of people got on and filled the train up.) I'm not good at guessing crowd sizes, but I'll go with 200,000. If someone in authority tells me it was 50,000, I'll think that was low but go with it. If they tell me it's 1 million, I'll think, wow, I had no idea. Bottom line, though, there was just a huge crowd lining the entire parade route. I figured I'd go all the way into South Station (most everyone on my train skipped Fenway and got off at Back Bay) and then work my way back toward Fenway, and pick a reasonably uncrowded spot to wait for the parade. That didn't work - wall to wall people at the Common and beyond, so I circled back by side streets and met up with the parade at Back Bay, near the train stop I wanted anyway. I bailed out perhaps a few minutes early, to catch the noon train. I can't say I'm thrilled with any of the photos I took, but here are a couple. This is on Tremont Street, near the end of the parade route, probably an hour before the Duck Boat vehicles would arrive: It was kind of luck-of-the-draw which side of the vehicle each given player was waving from, and even with names on the sides I'm still not sure who was who. Is Eduardo Nunez wearing glasses? This one is pretty definitely David Price, unless someone tells me it isn't. I have a picture of confetti but it is wimpy. To get an awesome photo, I guess you had to be up high, so I am stealing this photo from the Boston Globe: Season over. I am ready for the Arizona Fall League.