DaveW

Not exactly a ringing endorsement! Nishi/Cuddyer at 2B last season was a reason why our defense was so putrid. I like Mastro, but let's not kid ourselves, he isn't exactly Soriano in his prime with the bat, if the guy was hitting for a .850 OPS with 25 HR then maybe you can live with crappy defense at 2B, but I doubt he will hit enough to justify having such an issue defensively in the MI. With that said, let him get a few games at 2B to see what he has, just don't expect him to be anything better then below average at best.

bigot

That is a huge stretch, he was moved to OF full time 5 years ago when he was still in A ball. If a guy can legitimately play the MI teams won't move them to the OF. I'd like nothing more then for him to be a legit option at 2B, but the fact that they moved him from the position in low A ball tells me all I need to know. Do I think he can fill in at 2B from time to time or if there is a PH situation? Sure, but he isn't an everyday, or even close to everyday option IMO. Also apparently he has played 1 inning at 2B this season for the Twins, anyone remember when that was?

At this point, I don't see why they shouldn't give him a shot at second. If he fails, so be it. If he succeeds, he's the new Denny Hocking. While we loved to lambast Hocking back in the day, that type of player has a lot of value to a team. Denny Hocking was terrible defensively and has the 2nd lowest WAR in the history of the franchise. I was a fan of the Hock, but he isn't someone we should try to replicate moving forward.

I was pleasantly surprised to see DeDuno bounce back from his last rough start, this guy has some serious stuff and I would love to see how he can improve his command a bit over the off-season and next spring while Anderson gets a little more time with him. I still think alot of his success thus far is smoke and mirrors, but you can't deny that he has some impressive raw talent.

fighting the good fight, not letting the white man keep me down. Nice!

I get where you are coming from, but I (and most would prob agree) don't think you should even allow such non-sense to happen on this site. I know you deteled "personal attacks" against the original poster, but wasn't what he did a "personal attack" as well? In fact I consider it quite a bit worse. Sadly enough it's comments/threads like Thrylos that keep "blogs"/forums out of the mainstream media acceptance more or less.

I don't get it either, yes he was a reach in the draft. But you will soon learn that people like Lev and DPJ will root against him every chance they get, just because he was a reach when they drafted him. Don't get me wrong, I am very skeptical with what Ponder can bring to the table, but I at least want to give him a season before I declare him a guy with no future. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But this is a guy with injury problems, a questionable arm, and happy feet. I'm not encouraged. In a league this QB-driven, anything short of a stud is a waste of time. I just don't get the point in actively saying how awful he is all the time. In reality we have no idea how he will preform, the odds are stacked against him no doubt, but he still could become a solid QB, QB's in the NFL honestly are tough to predict. I don't think anyone is claming that Ponder was some great pick, but at this point he is the best drafted QB we have grabbed in quite some time! Might as well give him a shot. The whole "you need an elite QB to win a super bowl" may not be totally correct, its just heavily weighted since Brady and Eli (who considred him elite before the playoffs last year?) have won a ton of those over the past decade.

Good luck Guido ****.

I'm guessing the Blue Jays could say why he was moved in the first place, seeing how he hasn't played 10 games at 2B since low A ball 5 yars ago.

deletd

It doesn't use an option, nor should it (hopefully) be an issue with a guy like Hicks anyways. The real issue is the Super 2 thingy, I'm not sure if the rules have changed, but ideally you wouldn't want him to gain that status since he has the chance to be a special player. Typically I am against holding players back for this, but there are a few guys in the Twins system (Arcia, Hicks, Sano, Gibson??) where it might be warranted.

You say you are overly sensitive to racism...that's not a cop out for letting those crap threads fly as well as defending the author. It's one thing to be against racism etc like most of us are, its a totally different thing to start going on a witch hunt declaring people left and right of being racists, this is no less than the 2nd thread since the start of Twinsdaily.com where a member accoused an employee(s) of the Twins for being racist. Saying you are "against" racism doesn't give you a right to let people go on such a bull**** rant. I am against racism as well as I date someone who's nationality is looked down upon quite a bit in America, that doesn't give me the carte blance ability to go off and call people racists left and right when there is zero proof, espepically against the employees of the club we are talking about. There are plenty of things to blame the Twins org for, as well as the abilitly of Dickbert, but to throw out the thoughts that the Twins or Dickbert are racist? Give me a break... The real kicker is you then go delete people's posts going after the OP but keep his posts around for civil discourse? Even though not one other person besides you agreed with Thrylos postig that post? I like Twinsdaily, and I think Rocketpig was able to bring a lot of good posters/readers to the fold by merging BYTO in, but if crap like that thread is protected and even encouraged I'm not sure I can continue to visit such a site, and I am sure others will follow suit. Feel free to lock this thread/ban/etc. It's your call I guess...

Perhaps this is the 12 pack of Yuengling talking, but sweet merciful crap. This might be the worst (non troll) thread I have ever seen in the history of the internet. I wouldn't normally respond to such dribble but I want to have a post in this historically awful topic/thread. Bonnes, honestly I don't even know why you bothered to edit the message to "encourage civil discourse", you already kept the one thread around of "are the Twins front office racists" which was wrong on all levels, but now to encourage a discussion based on this bull****? I think you are a solid blogger, and a good topic starter, but c'mon man, this is just ridiculous, and frankly a little worrisome that not only would you let this garbage stay on the board, but would somewhat encourage such talk.

this lineup looks so much sexier with Plouffe back in it.

Pavano might not be any better then either of those guys at this point. Of course, that is why I'd prefer a minor league contract.

I agree, with both coming off injuries, they'll be very cautious with both. And when was the last time Baker pitched a full season without going on the DL? I'm going to bet that they resign Pavano. Twins like 'innings eaters', before he got hurt this year, thats what he was. If he comes back in Sept., has 3-4 good six inning starts, they can sign him to a low base salary with incentives for innings pitched. He can pitch early on while Baker and Gibson get up to speed, if he sucks, release him or trade him. If he’s good, it’s a good gamble. I doubt Pavano will be back, he would have to come back and have some nice starts for any team to give him a major league contract heading into next year. However, I would rather the Twins sign a guy like Pavano to be their #5 veteran presence guy instead of Marquis/Hernandez/(insert other ****ty NL pitcher here) Ideally they don't need to do that though.

I don't get it either, yes he was a reach in the draft. But you will soon learn that people like Lev and DPJ will root against him every chance they get, just because he was a reach when they drafted him. Don't get me wrong, I am very skeptical with what Ponder can bring to the table, but I at least want to give him a season before I declare him a guy with no future.

Meh, this would be a story if Ryan was like a cousin, uncle or something of Paul. But even in the aricle it basically says: "oh yeah they are related, probably, somehow, but we don't know how"

Neither should be called up before the super 2 cutoff next season. Both could use a little time at AAA IMO, there is no rush.

K-rates down, velocity is down...NO THANKS!!! http://cdn.brooksbaseball.net/player_cards/card_imgs/435178.mph.L.png He was coming off a pretty major injury. He has been a bit up and down this year, but after a pretty brutal start he has put together a nice last 15 starts or so, with his k/9 approaching 9 again. I think he would be the perfect guy to grab and extend. He may not be an "ace" but he has a good shot to be a very solid #2.

Honestly there isn't some huge rush right now, I imagine he won't be on the 40 man come next season. At this point he's just a warm body at AAA.

http://i49.tinypic.com/1045ceu.png

[video=youtube;Q3b5aOelFL4] Good night sweet prince.

It's truly amazing Nishioka was able to put up a -.5 WAR in just 3 games.