nathanaakre

Nailed it.

Derek Jeter

http://www.baseballamerica.com/international/power-hitting-yasmani-tomas-leaves-cuba/ Anybody know anything about this guy? I'm guessing it's highly unlikely, but it's always fun to dream of a guy like this defying the odds and signing with the Twins. Might be a good way to use some of that extra money as the young prospects start making their way to the bigs in the next few years?

Sooooooo, which "ace" are you thinking is available? And which prospects are you wanting to give up to get said ace? Known commodity "aces" are still susceptible to injury/decline, so I'd be hesitant to just start throwing away top prospects (Buxton/Sano/Rosario/etc) and thinking that acquiring an ace will win us the World Series.

Ahh, you lost me there...

Love the move - if you can hang around toward the All-Star Break, it probably means Morales is making an impact. If the Twins struggle to get back to .500 or better in the next month or so, he's a veteran that many teams would like to have for a playoff run and we can then turn it into some kind of prospect. I'd say it was a win-win signing for the Twins!

I've always been a baseball fan, but ESPN's (and other outlets really) oversaturation of the NFL and NBA have actually turned me into an NHL fan - despite my novice level knowledge of the sport.

Haven't seen it in a while either, but we get ESPN at work and it seems like no matter what time of day you turn that channel on, it's just retired players bantering about issues. They don't show actual game footage anymore, and everything's mostly centered on the NFL anyway - even in June.

Does anyone know when Hicks STARTED switch hitting? He's getting destroyed for dropping the left side after working at switch hitting "since he was a young child". But, I feel like he didn't even start switch hitting until like high school? Can anyone verify this?

Also, your assessment on the split cards from different teams is spot on. How are you supposed to sort those when the two players are either on different teams, play different positions, etc? Dumb.

We need more chucklehead rants like that. Less chuckleheads, and more chucklehead rants!

Through 7 games last year, Mauer had 7 K's, was hitting .267, and had 0 RBI. I think he'll be ok! Otherwise I'm with you, these guys have given me a little hope of competitiveness still this year so far.

Great stuff Jim! Thank you for your level headedness. I'm actually very interested to see how our mix of young guys and rebounding (hopefully) vets do when real games start.

I'm relatively new to Twins Daily, so maybe this has been discussed in depth previously; but I have two topics I've wondered about this spring. 1. Has there ever been talk about Mauer moving to 3B rather than 1B to better use his athleticism? Plouffe hasn't taken advantage of the chances he's had it seems, and I know Sano is coming up but with his TJ he could easily move over to 1B right? It just seems if Mauer was going to play a new position, 3B seemed like a good fit for his abilities. 2. Obviously there's contract stuff involved, but why was it just assumed that Hughes, Pelfrey, Correia, and Nolasco automatically got 4 spots in the rotation? In my mind Gibson and Deduno are both deserving members of the rotation over at least one of those other 4.

Not saying he's going to be representing the American League at Target Field in July, but give the guy a chance in real games. He's hardly played in two years. I hope the same people that blew off Hicks' hot spring last year as "only spring training" (you were right by the way) aren't the same people destroying Kubel and Bartlett for their springs this year. Maybe they won't come around, but they were both very good hitters before - let's see if they can do it again!

I remember playing catch with my mom when I was probably about 4 or 5 years old - she would play catch with me and my 3 brothers because my dad was usually out in the fields during any sunlight during the summer. Then, summer rec baseball started at kindergarten in the little town in Minnesota where we lived, and I can still remember being sick to my stomach the night before the first day of baseball each summer. It wasn't nervousness, it was anxiousness and excitement because I had been waiting for that day for 9 months each year. My brothers and my cousin would play pitcher/batter/catcher all summer long, and like you Seth, we all had every batting order of the early 90's memorized from reading every boxscore every day all summer long. For some reason we would often play the Twins vs. Reds, and Jack Armstrong would pitch to Joe Oliver against the haunted Twins lineup (who probably always won). I even remember playing imaginary baseball with a league I made up with made-up teams and players. Living on a farm we had all the space in the world, but limited players - we couldn't just gather all our friends at all hours of the day to get a game going. I remember baseball cards, and my parents hiring my uncle to tell me which cards I could play with and which ones I had to put in my book so it wouldn't get destroyed. I remember being crushed one day because my uncle wouldn't let me play with my Roberto Kelly rookie card - just in case he would become the next (insert HOF outfielder here). Baseball consumed my summers growing up, and living in Minnesota I was most consumed as a fan by the home team - and the likes of Hrbek, Puckett, and Knoblauch. I watched every minute of the 91 Series in our basement annoyed by the tomahawk chop. I was forever a Twins fan at that moment. Lastly (this is a minor thing), and this might sound stupid, but I like baseball because it's not the NFL. Not anyone can just be a baseball fan. You have to understand and appreciate the little things about baseball to enjoy watching it. There's nothing better than relaxing, watching a game at the park, eating a hot dog, and chatting with your buddies between pitches about the game - in a unique ballpark that no matter what city you are in, has something different to offer than any other ballpark in baseball.

Anytime a guy intentionally throws a 92 mph fastball at a guy, I would say he's out of line. I don't care if they used to do that back in the day or whatever, or if he's welcoming this kid to the bigs. It actually made me pretty angry, and I don't even care about the Phillies or the Nationals. HOWEVER, if I could think of any better way to retaliate, it would be to have Harper steal home on the veteran pitcher that same inning! How embarrassing for Hamels to watch that happen. I couldn't have been more excited when Harper slid into home. I know people think Harper hasn't "proven himself" and he's "over-hyped", but I love this kid! He runs everything out, he plays full speed, and he makes great plays. He's the kind of guy the Twins could really use right now!