jokin

Not singling anyone out, but there were a few on TD, and many elsewhere throughout the social media universe assuming the worst case scenario. I'm not a big fan of drafting relievers as relievers, but Burdi was frequently projected as a mid-first round pick. If he can make some adjustments and then quickly ascend to the majors and find success, it will have been a good, quick return on investment, hopefully right as the Twins return to relevancy.

As was mentioned early in post #22, an established veteran coming off a rehab assignment is a different situation altogether from a young guy attempting the same thing. As was discussed before Santana's injury, the sustainability of his numbers was always problematic, the extended time off exacerbated that reality.

Here's my takeaway: Importantly, while there's no doubt that Buxton is major-league-ready in CF now, and likely will end up the top defensive OF in the game, all agree that Correia doesn't even have the SS position locked-up yet as his ultimate ML destination. Hometown bias, maybe, but it seems like a fully healthy Buxton hands-down should be #1.

I agree, that's all the FSN staff can dredge up right now. It seems like they're going that route these days rather than just turn on the DicknBert excuse machine. Back to the old futility against Maddon and the Rays. Besides the lousy starting pitching, it especially hurts to see such feeble AB after feeble AB, it's as if their strong offensive showing on the road last week never happened. And all of those quotes in the media that they were really going to make a strong showing to force management to be a buyer and not a seller.

To be fair, the hottest team in baseball since June 11? The Tampa Bay Rays. They dug themselves a deep hole with injuries and lackluster play early. But they're playing terrific baseball of late.

Confirmed, any setback at all at this late stage threatens to make this whole thing a lost season:

He's only pitched 6 innings. I'm willing to attribute the wildness to a small sample size anomaly from the 4 walks in his first appearance- seemingly pure adrenaline overkill on Burdi's part- and the conscious coaching adjustments that are being implemented as to his approach and mechanics for professional baseball. The fact that he has finally appeared in two consecutive high leverage situations tells me that management believes he's now on the right track and probably gets moved to a higher level before season-end.

Were you speaking tongue in cheek on an oblique injury? I'm only aware of May's "minor" calf strain. To be fair though, before last night he hadn't pitched in 28 days, four weeks. The whole thing is curious though, what with being named to the Futures Game as a substitute, and supposedly AFTER his calf strain, on June 23. And then scheduled to start last Sunday for Rochester, before it was rained out. And last night, only 3 innings. One can argue that TR was playing it right down the middle and keeping all of his options open for Tuesday. (Out of all of the candidates, I think there is little doubt that Johnson is going to be one of the two starters early next week, he starts most likely on Monday, but no later than Tuesday...Meyer is set up to get Correia's next start if KC is traded).

Sounds like TR is joining in on Jim Pohlad's assessment from earlier in the week:

Good news/bad news: I never like the dreaded "day to day" term in context with recent injury reports concerning Twins players and prospects. Having said that, it seems like it should be interpreted as good news for now. Despite earlier reports, it now appears that it wasn't his left wrist that was HBP, after-all. And I would think getting hit on the inside of your right wrist would pose less potential exposure and damage to all of the small bones in the joint. Still, two chronic wrist injuries to deal with at the same time, would be a pretty bad development.

Actually, his K/9 is 10.10, his K% is 26.2%, both numbers lead the International League, despite the fact that he's the second youngest qualified pitcher in the League. And, one only needs to trace the career of Randy Johnson to see that you are spot on regarding Meyer and the consistency "hurdle". In sum, all of this is not idle speculation, this is reasoned inference of a likely outcome. Meyer really has little left to learn at AAA, save continued work on his change-up. The Twins have been out of the playoff hunt for quite some time, this is the right time once a roster spot opens up for Meyer to continue his learning process with his few remaining innings before shutdown, at the major league level.

Or you could just be abusing in your spare time?

Except when they pitch for the Twins? Or are they purveyors of the modern corollary to the old adage: "there's no such thing as a bad 20-losses in a single season pitcher." Eureka, as it turns out, typical Twins starters over the last 4 years aren't bad, only the worst of the mediocre!

I should say so (19.5 K/9...... .190 BA...... 2.71 FIP), even with the first nightmare outing). To paraphrase a famous sage, "the early reports of his demise were greatly exaggerated."

Berardino follows up his tweet with a little article featuring Gardy's comments concerning the situation Danny Santana’s swing is “out of whack,” Gardy says http://blogs.twincities.com/twins/2014/07/20/twinsights-danny-santanas-swing-is-out-of-whack-gardy-says/:

And Chris Long checks in to enliven the homestand frivolity and good cheer:

OK then.....Thanks, Mr Brooks for the help in naming a likely offseason FA acquisition target.

Good to see the media is also taking notice of this situation, as well, Berardino is one of the best: Mike Berardino @MikeBerardino · 1mDanny Santana, 1 for 20 w/9 Ks over past 5 games (including rehab), sits today. Swing is "out of whack," Gardy said. Extra work w/Bruno.

It's a separate issue, but one which the Twins felt the urgent need to address, in the strongest way possible, nevertheless. I would hope that a better affiliate arrangement is still high on the long-range planning priority list.

Of course, but it is obvious that AAA still serves dual purposes...and that there have not been enough legitimate depth options and legitimate prospects with sufficient options to call upon in AAA over the last few years has left Glynn at a talent-disparity relative to the competition. And in an International League-wide state of AAAA-ness, the mediocre banality of the Wings position-player lineup was so obvious, that not one was named to the IL All Star team, despite having the 2nd best overall record. Similar to the mediocre state of the pitching corps last year, which had the worst ERA in the IL.

1) I'd encourage all to read this article: http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2012/1/20/2720588/creative-destruction-and-scouts First question. The article states that the downsizing of scouting staffs across the league has been fairly universal...how many scouts have the Twins cut in recent years? And how much has the baseball analytics budget increased and how many tech employees have been added? Are they at league average...ahead...or behind? Economist Joseph Schumpeter developed the theory of creative destruction, prophetically anticipating the high tech revolution and the nature of an ultra-competitive, overnight-obsolescence, market-based, informationally-driven economy by about 50 years. Simply put, rapid and repeated innovation and response, both to change, and the acceleration of change, in systems, are the key to survival and success in a competitive and generally free market...." innovation makes certain activities and skills obsolete that previous were highly valued." It is reported that nearly 2/3rds of Apple's revenues come from products that are less than 4 years out of development and rollout. This is obviously the hyper-example from the cutting-edge end of the innovative spectrum, but it's highly likely that internal creative destruction at Apple happens on a near-daily basis at such a wildly successful and innovative company. Don Tapscott argues that a direct by-product of the information revolution means the good ol' boy, promote only from within, the "way we've always done things", command-and-control style of management is quickly going the way of the dinosaur, in favor of "self-organizing networks" that readily seek and find available solutions outside the closed-system organizational model. Too often, I feel like the Twins idea of game-theory within the MLB oligopoly is akin to playing Space Invaders on an Atari- classic old favorites well within the comfort zone of the Twins' culture....meanwhile, the leaders in the industry keep moving upward and onward to bigger and better gadgetry.....which leads to more "outside the box" thinking, resulting in more efficiencies and imaginative solutions. As very successful business operators, I would presume that the Pohlad's employ elements of Schumpeter's philosophy relative to information-age capitalism in other areas of their portfolio, surely new creative lifeblood doesn't solely come from within in their other businesses. 2) Though Steil might be a breath of fresh air, before he was named farm director, he spent 12 years within the Twins organizational culture, working his way up. To me, this would imply that working well within the system is his greatest asset, not innovative thinking. I would have looked hard at someone from within the St Louis, Boston or Tampa Bay organizations. They have historically been drafting from the back of the pack and consistently struck gold through picking the right guys and then developing them at a quick pace.

Maybe just a little? Combined Ft Myers/Twins ABs this week, Santana is now 1-20 with 9 strikeouts (includes one infield hit on Friday), including 0-4 with 4 Ks tonight. He looks like he's really lost his timing and confidence altogether for the time being.

Nope. The Cubs signed him up long-term as part of their future core group. He seems at this point to be very expendable with all of the SS talent in the Cubs system. Seems the most likely candidate that can both afford his high $$$ contract and desperately needs a SS is the Yankees.

Starting Miracle lineup, no Buxton...but no word on why not...let's assume a normal night off for now: Fort Myers Miracle‏@MiracleBaseball LINEUP (7:05) 1. Mejia-4, 2. Polanco-6, 3. Harrison-7, 4. Hicks-3, 5. Walker-9, 6. Gonzales-DH, 7. Turner-2, 8. Kelpler-8, 9. Goodrum-5

Just got an update on Buck's slash since his July 6 return, over 8 games: While his wrist health is still the over-riding concern, I don't think there's any question that he's seeing the ball well and has got his swing and timing down.