ashbury

Ringo sure looked young back then.

Pie>>>>>>>>>>angel food cake with cherry pie filling on top>>>>>>>>>>cake Pie>>>>>>>>>>chocolate cake with cherry pie filling between layers>>>>>>>>>>cake Detect a pattern here?

The NFL version is arguably the least successful ASG in pro sports, so moving in their direction is not necessarily to the good...

I think Christy Mathewson or Abner Doubleday or someone like that complained that the young players coming up were only in it for the money.

So nice he said it twice. As for his premise, that people on teh interwebs will find it too hard to argue about the topic, I will argue against that, night and day, until he gives in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Fj2B9z4Dbw

But now the players won't TRY.

National Pie Day in our house was last Thursday, when my wife baked the most delicious apple pie I have had in years. I felt guilty taking the last slice yesterday, but she insisted. Hey, I did my part: I bought her a pumpkin pie at the store, the day before.

Santiago is the only hard choice to tender. If you had a 25-man roster of players getting what Kintzler will get, for instance, your total payroll would be down in Rays/Marlins/A's territory. A team of Kyle Gibsons would still be below $100M in pay. A team full of Santiagos, by contrast, would be up in the Large Market world. Not that that's how to evaluate payrolls, merely a back-of-the-envelope way of looking at it. It depends on whether the front office can find a better use for that $8+ million. My suspicion is that they can, but I don't have a specific recommendation myself. (I'd probably combine it with other savings such as Plouffe, and use it to pay for the salary of a better starting pitcher I'd go after in trade. But maybe the front office bean counters already feel they combined Plouffe and Suzuki money to sign Castro.) I'm probably most bothered that this kind of money gets us a guy who can succeed only when he nibbles. It looked like Neil Allen talked him into throwing strikes after he came over to the Twins, and Hector got pounded. When he went back to walking guys, he did somewhat better. That's not an asset I would pay a lot to have. I'm also not encouraged that Allen's first attempt at tinkering backfired on this pitcher - is there any reason to think Allen will find the key to unlocking hidden riches on his second try? But the team is not strapped for cash, as the payroll limit they seem to have set for themselves is pretty arbitrary. Paying Santiago should not really bar them from any moves they would like to make. So I won't get mad if that's what happens. But, he won't be much of a mid-season trade chip; at that salary he will be overpriced (unless he steps up his game, in which case the Twins won't want to trade him), and his next team will face the same off-season decision, so no one will give much to get him. He's not fungible. If the Twins tender him, they are stuck with him.

The only way I would be enthused about a Napoli signing is if the new brain trust explained how it fits into their strategy. I took the Park signing last year as a signal some roster changes would occur in response, and nothing happened. Right now Napoli would amount to a replacement for Plouffe's spot on the roster, and I don't see how that makes the team any better, but instead the roster would be more jammed up than before.

That's my conclusion too. It's the age-old Peter Principle, where you don't learn you've promoted a talented guy one rung too far until after you do it, and then you have to fire him if you don't want to suffer further consequences.

I had indeed asked you to end the woofing for Walker, whose virtues and vices as a hitter have been explored to the extremes, now that he's no longer in the organization. This latest turn of events constitutes genuine news, and since the ink was barely dry on his DFA/claiming paperwork, I opted (as just another TD member) to mention it here in the present thread. My little aside, concerning the waiver process, has unfortunately taken on a life of its own, but is relevant to the news. If you really feel the need to discuss moderation policy, please continue it in the appropriate forum (Questions About MinnCentric) rather than in a baseball thread. None of the moderators wishes to wear their Moderator Crown of Wisdom all the time when just trying to talk baseball.

You focus on the guy who is removed, and not on the fact that someone else gets added. That part of the waiver rule is likely going to be zero-sum no matter how it might be tweaked.

From a macro view, it seems to me it's a zero-sum game among all the minor leaguers in competition with one another. If one player is DFA'ed, it's to make room for someone else. That other person is elated to gain the 40-man benefits. So I don't see that as an argument for the present arrangement of player-grabbing-and-DFAing. It's possible that the present arrangement contributes toward stability, and that this aspect of the CBA was negotiated with that in mind. I'd be surprised, though. And from a fan's perspective, it contributes toward instability instead.

For the umpteenth time, I am all in favor of the spirit of the waiver rule, so that players can be on someone's 40-man roster. I don't see how Walker is aided by being off Milwaukee's 40-man versus being off Minnesota's instead. He didn't get a penny from being on their 40-man for, what, the 15 minutes of this off-season he was on it, did he?

Again, if a team doesn't have room for an eligible player on the 40-man, and another team wants him, I'm in favor of that team being allowed to grab him. That's the main feature of the waiver system, and I support it. It's good for the players. It's good for competitive balance. Waivers in effect are a team asking all 29 other teams for permission to hang onto the player, absent a spot on their 40-man. It degenerates into petty game playing, when one team or another says no to this request, and then within days asks the same permission of all 29 other teams. Why should the second organization (or the third, or fourth...) get to stash him for later needs, when the first team asked nicely and the request was denied on what turns out to be fairly bogus grounds of 40-man shenanigans? Walker is not going to fare any better as a non-roster Brewer than as a non-roster Twin. Such situations involve being blocked by several players the team thinks more highly of. This part of how waivers operate does not aid the player, nor competitive balance. It's just a quirk.

If you're trolling me to re-post my favorite favorite favorite photo ever of Buxton, on exactly that sort of play, you succeeded. Courtesy of #1 son Ashburydavid that year

Don't look now, but the Brewskis just DFA'ed Walker: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/11/brewers-claim-steve-geltz-designate-adam-walker-for-assignment.html LOL. This waiver system needs changed, along the lines of the rule-5 draft, so that if the team that grabs a player decides to play "whoops, we changed our minds" soon afterward, and a third team doesn't grab him for their own 40-man, then the player reverts to the original team for them to designate as they wish. I don't know what the time limit for this should be - until the next Opening Day or when the next World Series ends, whichever is sooner, maybe? I kind of wish the Twins would DFA someone like Boshers (we have 22 pitchers on the 40 man) and take Walker back, given that the Brewers are now at 40 and couldn't take Boshers themselves (maybe somebody else does though). Not that I love Walker that very very much; I hate the waiver-claim system* that very very much. * Note that I'm very much in favor of some kind of waiver claim process, for the good of players getting a chance when blocked forever in one system. Just not a process that lends itself to annoying penny-ante gamesmanship like this.** ** Teams keep doing this to us year after year. Maybe the new regime cleans up the 40-man, so that a year from now this isn't happening anymore. It's one of my several gripes about Terry Ryan's roster management: the accumulation of "too good to cut, not good enough to attract trade interest" players, mainly from taking a path of least resistance.

Obviously you have to throw in Brian Duensing Buddy Boshers or Pat Light to sweeten the deal.

Specifically, the following thread: http://twinsdaily.com/topic/24325-miller-falvey-levine-speak-to-season-ticket-holders/ I will go ahead and close this one to further posts, to avoid duplication.

Pictured: Homer Simpson demonstrating the truth of his advice, "kids, you tried your best, and you failed miserably.The lesson is, NEVER TRY." / That's how these memes are supposed to be done, right? Well, I tried.

Best thing for Chief about being his age: no peer pressure.

It was after your time.

You're old. / and so am I for knowing the reference