jokin

Wood and Winwood doing their part...fitting, melancholy tune...given the weather and what's happening on the field tonight. Are Bautista and Encarnacion lifetime .500 hitters at Target?

All we need now is Chris Wood on the sax.

The percentage of playing is too high priced....when he's living beyond all his means...

Brian Dozier currently has the highest OPS among full-time American League 2nd baseman- higher than Kinsler, Cano and Kipnis. Zobrist is actually higher (and is a fairly good comp to Dozier at the plate), but he'll only end up playing around 120 games at the position. Once his BABIP normalizes, you're going to have one of the top hitting 2nd baseman in the league across the board, statistically speaking. The chances for Florimon to repeat the same at SS, absolutely nil.

What people? Do you mean the MN Twins organization? Even the professional evaluators therein, the ones who are constantly heralded as having mega-dimensional baseball knowledge relative to the average fan, the ones who put the big money on the line, find the current situation intolerable. Is that what you mean by people panicking?

Solarte also went 2-4 in the game and played flawlessly in the field. Whatever it was that caused the Twins to let Solarte walk away, 13 teams negotiated to sign him in the offseason, now he's proving that he'll do whatever it takes to stay for good. On the Yankees of all teams.

Generally true, but there are teams with virtually unlimited payroll and one of the best farm systems, say, like the Red Sox, who have a little more leeway in setting the parameters for what "at any cost" means to them. If Holt stumbles, Middlebrooks and Pedroia remain health question marks along with other ongoing health issues from other personnel, odds are that the Bosox will be much more willing to throw caution, in the form of big bucks for Drew or some of the "nice stuff", to the wind.

Re: MitchG....no one was talking about him, at all. Can he catch enough to jump right through the system? Re: Brooks Raley....At least it won't be too difficult in making a decision on how to fill a roster spot when the time inevitably comes Re: BJ Hermsen....Obviously not healthy. Is it not long before he is released, so many better arms coming online soon. RE: MattyG... How long before he takes Raley's, or someone else's place in Rochester?

If Dozier were a stop gap, then definitely they won't be giving the Twins a prize prospect. But what if they view Dozier as the potential Reverse-Sandberg in Fenway?..... going from 2nd to 3rd instead of 3rd to 2nd, giving them a great glove that they don't have right now at the position, plus a potential OPS+ 130 guy. Red Sox Nation has soured a bit on Middlebrooks' glove , and now his health issues, adding another guy with Pedroia-like grit could play well in Beantown.

All good points. My only quibble is that while the Twins would never admit that 2014 was a punt, their actions (or lack thereof) on upgrading the offense and depth defense speak volumes. (Sizemore, Abreu, Bonifacio should have been easy decisions.....Drew and Morales tougher ones, to be sure, but very doable for a team making a full commitment to putting a winning team on the field, THIS YEAR). Since they plainly haven't gone all-in in that direction, IMO, trades that bolster the team for the bigger picture beyond this year have to be "game-planned" year-round- even in April. Everyone around these parts is pretty much in agreement that SS is THE huge question mark for this team going forward- and the problem is chronic, if not acute. Is there a potential Ryne Sandberg/SS Edition hanging out the Red Sox organization? I don't know. If the D-Backs suddenly sour on Aaron Hill, or he gets hurt again, and come calling with a Dozier for Didi swap in mind, do you turn it down just because it's April?

Did anyone else watch the longest running Sunday TV drama in Cable TV history? I'm referring of course, to ESPN Sunday Night Baseball, AKA, the Yankees vs. the Red Sox. Both teams had multiple DLers and DTDers, with NY starters, Jeter and Roberts unable to play. As the game progressed, the Yanks only backup Catcher, Franklin Cervelli, who had started at 1B (Gardy would have a field day on Girardi for this move, but that's for another post at a later date), pulled his hamstring and had to be removed from the game. Meanwhile, starting Catcher, Brian McCann, took a foul tip to his throwing hand. The Yanks were down to no position players left to put in, and all eyes were focused on the prospect of CC Sabathia having to possibly enter the game in the field. Everything was soon compounded when Yangervis Solarte came up limp with a hamstring pull trying to run out a grounder at 1st. NY Newday led with this account http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/yankees/yangervis-solarte-proving-to-be-key-asset-for-yankees-1.7702254: Solarte also went 2-4 in the game and played flawlessly in the field. Whatever it was that caused the Twins to let Solarte walk away, 13 teams negotiated to sign him in the offseason, now he's proving that he'll do whatever it takes to stay for good. On the Yankees of all teams.

A little apples and oranges. We drafted Gibson and it's very difficult to project injuries. Would there be risk in trading Dozier? Absolutely. Is it worth the risk if you can get an "A" prospect on the verge of major league readiness? Absolutely. Remember this deal: Anyone remember who else was in this deal? http://www.hardballtimes.com/tht-live/30th-anniversary-the-ryne-sandberg-trade/

I don't remember anyone saying we had all that much depth in CF at the time, plus we had NO alternatives at the leadoff spot. Want proof? Erik Komatsu was our AAAA-ish depth option in 2012 and we quickly jettisoned him in-season, and then we had to add FREAKIN Clete Thomas just a couple days after trading Span and Revere, he and Mastro, both the fringiest of 4th OFers were the depth options for a AA player, Hicks, with a proven history of slow adaptation to one level of promotion, let alone two. By comparison, the current Twins organizational depth at 2nd is an embarrassment of riches.

Why would the Red Sox trade Bogaerts for Dozier, makes no sense? We traded Span and Revere for "young, unproven players", I'd hardly call that tail-chasing. And I would argue that this sort of deal is much more responsible, as the Twins have far more potential depth at 2nd than we had in CF.

How about A+, AA and AAA prospects? It has definitely been painful with the vacuum left at the top of the order, but it certainly appears that Meyer is going to work out. If you can get someone who has performed similarly at AA or AAA and "projects" well, isn't it the same kind of "no pain/no gain" type of move, as well, only less of a risk than the Span trade was?

Puerto Rico doesn't vote in the general election but they do have primary votes in both major parties: http://www.fairvote.org/research-and-analysis/blog/puerto-rico-and-other-territories-vote-in-primaries-but-not-in-general-election/ And the debate continues there as it has since annexation from Spain on whether to maintain Commonwealth status, Statehood or Independence: http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/civil-rights/203131-with-gao-report-momentum-builds-for-puerto-rican-statehood As far as MLB is concerned (and perhaps, the legal system and labor law made this decision for the MLB), Puerto Rican prospects are considered subject to the same signing rules as all other American prospects.

If Dozier can truly hack it SS, I'd be all in favor of an extension, unfortunately, there are very few players who fail at the 2nd most difficult field position, only to come back later and end up playing it competently.

Don't let Dave St Peter end up making this decision like he (apparently) made a "good business decision" to jettison Hardy for nothing in return and signing Nishi with the intention of expanding the Twins brand to Japan.

Boston Globe headline: Red Sox fear Dustin Pedroia’s wrist injury could be serious Pedroia left the Sox in New York to get his wrist tested and MRId on Monday. If the worst should happen with Pedroia and he's out for much of the season, the Sox have options to replace him, but clearly Roberts and Herrera are substandard, at best, while Brock Holt is untested and has a suspect glove, as well. Will Middlebrooks, as was the case for much of 2013, is once again on the DL, as well. While Stephen Drew seems like the obvious solution, what about Brian Dozier? Well, consider his spray chart applied to Fenway, where instead of the Target Field left field dimensions of 343/385/408, you'd have a much friendlier set of numbers: 308/334/390. And then consider Dozier's spray chart: http://pitchfx.texasleaguers.com/batter/572821/?pitchers=A&count=AA&pitches=AA&from=4%2F1%2F2013&to=4%2F12%2F2014 30 Home Runs and an OPS+ of 120 seems within reasonably possible reach. The Red Sox have a whole slug of well-documented and near-major league ready arms, along with a decent Catcher in Blake Swithart and a college SS, Deven Marrero. I doubt that the BoSox are paniced enough yet to part with a top 10 prospect for Dozier, but if they do panic, and then study that spray chart of Dozier's, his strong defense at 2nd, plus the fact that they could swing him over to 3rd if/when Pedroia returns to health, the Twins might have a chance to nab top flite talent to fill a hole going forward. Obviously, his departure would leave a huge hole right now in the Twins infield, but the Twins do have Nunez, Beresford and Santana knocking on the door for right now, and it looks more and more like Polanco or maybe Rosario will be knocking on the door to claiming the 2nd base job long-term by June 2015.

FWIW, LEN3 appeared on the Sport Show this evening and hinted that the move to replace Florimon with Nunez is imminent. At this point, it's kind-of like a mercy killing. Both Thrylos (above) and I have proposed sending Florimon back to AA to both improve his approach at the plate and begin the process of his transition to a UTIL player.

Like the ESPN acronym, it's a Floor Wax....and a Dessert Topping.....

"As God as my witness, I could have sworn that it was donkeys that were sterile...."

Which "that guy" do you mean? Bad, Mediocre or Yanked?

I think you meant: "cleanly-played dual pitchers' duel."

For Montgomery it was A Bridge Too Far, for Gardy, it's always a bridge too soon.