ashbury

Also, when he's not hitting, Buxton can still beat the other team in a few ways. Park on the other hand is merely taking plate appearances away from Mauer or a DH-du-jour.

Unless the cost of getting away from there is also covered, I think I'll pass.

http://media0.giphy.com/media/gTNSX6N7vcKOY/giphy.gif

Spoiler: http://www.inquisitr.com/280061/seinfeld-new-yorker-cartoon-honored-in-magazines-caption-contest/

Not bad, but how about this: “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.” http://www.avclub.com/article/there-are-3-captions-work-every-new-yorker-cartoon-225766

Just like the New Yorker, except droll.

Moderator's note: this thread is intended for newcomers to introduce themselves, and extended discussion of the points they raise ought to be taken up by starting a new thread in an appropriate area of the site. In particular, "meta" discussions about the site, and posters' behavior on it, are probably better handed in the "Questions About MinnCentric" forum, rather than in a baseball thread. As for care in not breaking forum rules, thanks for the lead-in, to remind posters where they are stated: http://twinsdaily.com/topic/8228-twins-daily-comment-policy-latest-revision-september-2013/

My last construction project, I knew when the contractor came in late and over budget on just the demolition phase that we were in for a rough ride...

For the life of me I don't understand the strange looks I get from fellow amateur brewers when I tell them that often I just eat the malted barley, the hops flowers, and the yeast. Of course I wash it down with only the purest mountain spring water.

Just a cheap ripoff of Naked And Afraid, and without the stunning visuals I might add.

People ask me what I do when there's no Twins baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait until there is Twins baseball.

I am neither a good chess player nor a good baseball player, but I believe the concepts of one can guide the other. A young chess player can first be taught some simple combinations that will lead to mate, and then the player practices doing that to opponents to get a feel for exploiting a winning edge when it's there. After that, the player learns to wait until a suitable opportunity presents itself, rather than try to force a winning combination when it's not there. After that, perhaps, the player needs to be taught how to not make mistakes of his own, while playing this waiting game. Then, the player learns to add feints and other tactics to try to provoke error by the opponent. And so on, with varying layers of complexity that I personally never can hope to aspire to. Eventually the player also learns how to play a long tactical game where you build a series of tiny advantages that winds up being decisive. But... and this is the important part... at the heart of chess at even the highest level is the constant threat of unleashing a lethal combination of moves that destroys the opponent seemingly without warning. You never want to lose that spirit of aggressiveness, but conversely you can defeat yourself by trying for a winning combination too soon against a competent opponent. And I think a batter's approach at the plate can benefit from this sequential approach as well, over a period of several seasons in the minors. When all is said and done, the batter needs to know what pitch is the kind he can inflict the most damage with, and wait with varying degrees of patience until it is presented to him. The better the patience, within limits, the less often that patience will need to be exhibited.

I am suddenly unaccountably thirsty. http://cdn.beeradvocate.com/im/beers/116670.jpg

I was mainly poking fun. When you said "in their history", well, my snap reaction was that the Phillies history is not exactly one of unalloyed success. I just double checked and they had a period from 1918 to 1948 where they escaped the second division and achieved (barely) an above-.500 season exactly once, and there were other periods of extended futility as well. On Opening Day the plate umpire would not shout Play Ball, but Better Luck Next Year. This carried over to the playoff era, but usually when they have reached the playoffs it's after a long slow climb to respectability rather than worst-to-first. (Except 1992-93 when they turned around a 92 loss season to reach the World Series, but that's not the 100-loss threshold we're discussing here.)

In the "playoff era", right? Because they sure had some stinkeroo seasons in 1961, 1945, 1942, 1941, 1940, 1939, ... .

As soon as I saw the filibuster the other day, I was all like "are you sure you want to do this? The Republicans will do a quick count and allow as many jeopardized senators to vote Yea as is safe". I was surprised there were only two, but I am sure that Ayotte and Kirk will now position themselves as the moderate ones willing to work across the aisle, in contrast to their nefarious opponents who will vote the straight Democratic line that Wants To Take Away Your Guns. They may even shed some crocodile tears that the bills they "voted" for failed to pass, and would deny with a hand on a Bible that had the vote been closer they would have voted the other way. Tactical mistake by the D's.

I felt like an idiot this spring after last off-season saying "Sano won't see an inning in RF. Book it."

I've witnessed batters taking liberties with Grossman's arm and taking second base on a clean single, so maybe they are counting things like that. I didn't spot anything else about him.

An option rarely mentioned here is to package the veteran with a prospect, to net a better prospect than for the vet alone. Pitching is always what teams want, so how about Dozier plus the other team's choice among prospect starters (except for 3 or 5 that we label off-limits) in exchange for their top-100 caliber prospect starter. Or a second, even lower, prospect of ours to sweeten it (since of course we no longer have Duensing). Maybe a lottery ticket prospect from them, so as to reduce slightly the pressure on the guy we get. They pick someone they happen to like better than we do, perhaps, and in essence it becomes a "challenge trade", a starter for a starter plus Dozier thrown in, which requires some guts because the prospect you give up could always surprise everyone and turn out better than the blue chipper. It comes down to how highly you esteem your own scouts and talent evaluators. Terry's a scouting guy, and I wish he had the confidence in his own team to pull trades like this.

http://quickbase.intuit.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/03/Stop-Using-the-Compliment-Sandwich-and-Give-Better-Feedback.jpg Terry: Now, I'm going to do something I call the 'Compliment Sandwich," where I say something good, talk about where you need improvement, and then end with something good. Brian (NOTICE I DON'T HAVE TO CHANGE THIS NAME!): Whatever you gotta do... Terry (flips notepad): Something good... something good... Your wife had a baby and it makes me smile... where you need improvement... you need to improve at making us want to offer you a contract. Something good, something good...

I'd be delighted if we can get somebody's Tyler Jay.

We don't have a top-100 catcher, but do have a couple of pitchers. So let's play the reverse game - if Dozier and Polanco got hit by twin meteorites, would you trade Tyler Jay to acquire Jason Kipnis from the Indians (plus a lot of money from the Indians to equalize the contracts)? If Kipnis's contract were the same as Dozier's, would it make it more palatable to give up Jay? It's hard to find an exact equivalent to players, but that's one comp to try throwing out there for discussion purposes. I wouldn't much like that trade. So then I wouldn't expect to get that much for Dozier, either. Dozier plus some mid-range prospect, for a top-100 prospect, might be closer to an enticement.

Every team has this. I just took a look at the two Missouri teams, held in pretty high repute these days, and both the Cards and Royals have three or four of their 40-man pitchers on the DL. (OK, if you are on the 60-day DL you aren't on the 40-man, but you get my point). Naming a couple of guys and calling it a trend just means it's a major league team.

I think I'm also in trouble if Chief happens to read this thread.

FTFY.