JB_Iowa

And it snowed at least 20 games a year but we still played.

Always fun to have something to smile at. Thanks for posting it. (Now let's just hope it doesn't become prophetic).

I didn't have high expectations for this season so I'm not sure anything would feel like a gut punch but I don't find Hicks and Diamond to be the biggest disappointments of the season. Hicks was making the jump from AA -- we knew that it would be difficult. While Diamond's struggles are disappointing, they are not totally surprising -- there were plenty of people who cautioned over the winter that he might not repeat last year's performance. For me, its much more disheartening to see a coaching staff that doesn't change (and parrots the same old, same old all the time); a front office that doesn't change (and misled the fans last winter about this team's expectations -- and, more scary than that, may have mislead THEMSELVES over the team's expectations); a Josh Willingham who is MIA; a Justin Morneau whose power is MIA; a Ryan Doumit whose performance is in the doldrums; a Trevor Plouffe who hasn't shown any offensive improvement from last year; a starting pitching staff that is generally as bad as we expected, etc., etc., etc. At this point, I feel a kind of resigned acceptance of how bad the Twins are. The problem is that although I see the talent in the minor leagues, I'm not sure that they will be able to make the transition and more than that, I don't have any faith that the Twins will handle them appropriately as they make that transition. And despite the wealth of talent, I still don't see where good to excellent major league pitching will come from. It's not a gut punch, I'm just discouraged.

Can they just send the whole d*mn team down and punt the rest of the season?

It's on mlb.tv but why anyone would pay just to watch this game is beyond me. If you already have a subscription that's one thing but twinsbaseball.com calls it a mlb.tv exclusive. Oh, and if anyone is wondering, it isn't on the KC network either.

Trading Butera reduces the quote of eye candy and dog lovers on the 40-man. Hope he enjoys L.A.

I find this portion very curious. Why would the Twins have an "inability" to eat salary? I would say an UNWILLINGNESS to eat salary not an inability. I guess we don't really know how unwilling they were -- it appears that they were willing to eat some salary, we just don't know how much. I just can't fathom how this team would be unable to eat salary.

I have no idea how much or how soon a hitting coach can influence a group of players but I think there are some interesting tidbits in Berardino's latest Twins Now blog entry: Minnesota Twins: Twinsights on RISP issues, Royals' young offense » Twins Now Note both the Twins RISP problems (something that is not unique to this season although it seems worse this year) and Correia's comments about the improvements in the Royals' hitting.

Then, of course, theres also the entire front office and coaching staff. So many candidates, so little time.

Tim Brown ‏@TBrownYahoo 49s Dodgers acquire catcher Drew Butera from Twins. Well, hallelujah. No more sweet Drew to punch around.

Well, this was obviously a jinx.

That is a little bizarre. They could have put the star in the dip in the M and been a lot closer although still probably a little too far north but at least it would have been on the correct side of the state (and they could have moved "Game" down a little more and to the right to accomodate it).

Basically its just a resigned acceptance for me at this point. Can't even work up anger or angst over this team anymore.

Absolutely unnecessary article. We have been hashing and re-hashing this for days in the Minor League forum. I had hoped that Sano's presence in last night's line-up would put an end to all the speculation and discussion. I'm betting that historically there have been a number of times when the Twins disciplined minor leaguers (even future stars) for a variety of reasons. Prior to the advent of the blogosphere, they were probably minor blips on anyone's radar. It is time to move on and put this subject behind us.

Per LEN3 (citing Rob Antony), Sano will be back in the line-up tonight for NB. Let's hope we can all move on from here.

All I know is that I said they'd be lucky to get 7 or 8 wins in July and they've gotten 9 with a chance for more. I'm surprised and pleased to see them bounce back from the first week of the month.

I've seen that too, NC-Twins but she looks like she was in pretty good shape. Just want to point out a funny thing. So many of us capitalize "Twins" as in: She had Twins. Yep, those little twins are sure to be Twins.

Glad to hear that Lev 'cuz a number of years ago, there were companies that were barely allowing 16 hours (a partial day based upon what time the woman went in). I think there was kind of a realization that they had taken it too far. And yep, C-sections are surgery so they get a bit more time.

Really? Have we gone back 50-60 years cuz I thought most insurance companies were making new moms leave the hospital really fast (like 24 hours). Personally I've always thought that was ridiculous. I'm not criticizing Mauer here. I'm just trying to figure out if there has been a reversal in the length of time in the hospital. (And yes, with premature Twins, you'd need a extra time. Fortunately they were girls -- usually more developed than boys -- and they weighed nearly 5#. Plus she's a nurse so undoubtedly took good care of herself during pregnancy.)

The team is on the west coast. If they were in Minneapolis or even in the Midwest I might be a little more questioning. But why put in that travel time and adjusting to Pacific Time for 2 days of baseball? Is he getting paid for the extra days? I haven't read this morning. Last night it sounded like it would be without pay. If so, I applaud him for putting his wife and new daughters above the $250,000 - $375,000 he would have earned for this extra time. And, given that his replacement makes dirt compared to that, I'd like to see the Twins make a generous donation to a babies/children's charity with the money they save. It would be a nice gesture in the midst of another mess of a season.

I think the concerns about Mauer's leadership -- and I've made no secret that I have them -- is that we just don't know how much of a leader he is. We know that what leadership he does provide is done more through the example of his work ethic and his professionalism. But we don't read anything about him calling team meetings or him speaking out in the clubhouse, etc. In fact, what we have read is that he keeps to himself quite a bit (at least on the road) -- I think Morneau even said that he wasn't sure what Joe was doing most of the time when they are on the road. His routine obviously works for him and, if there were other well-paid leaders in the clubhouse, it wouldn't be necessary to look to him for more. But Morneau has struggled and seems less vocal. Willingham has had a fair amount of injuries and doesn't seem to speak out either. Perk seems to provide some leadership -- at least the bullpen and probably starters as well. Doumit is a possibility but let's face it, none of them are paid, treated or respected by the fans in the same way as Mauer. I don't think Mauer can change his personality but in the long run, I do think that the young guys coming up are going to need some veteran leadership in several areas: someone who is willing to police them a bit (and step down as necessary); someone who has some emotionalism and can inspire them as times get tough; and someone who can alleviate tensions and provide some comic relief and help them just have some fun (a la Mike Redmond). I don't think that one person can encompass all those "someones" but the Twins will need some veterans who are well-respected enough to do that. They should also be more than short-term rentals or one-year contracts. Much of the frustration over Mauer's leadership is just that it is so darn quiet -- and I know, it's just not something he can really change because a real leader also has to stay true to himself or herself.

We have a little "pick the stick" group. Apparently tonight's big winner will be whoever can avoid going in the hole.

Wow, couldn't hard blink and Diamond had that one over.

Carol Gardenhire had a point though about getting more paid paternity leave for twins (especially when you are the icon of the Twins). But since Joe doesn't really need the money, it would be a cool gesture if the Twins took what they would have paid him for the next 2 or 3 days and gave it to a charity that benefits kids. Its not like his replacement is getting big bucks.

2. Think about Joe Mauer... Enough time with the babies already... The Grand Parents have seen them... They are cute and cuddly... You can come back now and hit a home run for each one. Nah, it'll be royal doubles in KC.