jokin

Initial inspiration came from Grand Forks way.

Except that, if you believe what's being tweeted out there, the Twins- despite having the biggest obvious need for a SS in all of MLB, and sooner rather than later- have already bowed out of the Diaz hunt because, nothwithstanding cutting $40M in the last 2 seasons with more $$ likely cut in 2014, they somehow can't afford to play in that game.

I'm with you all the way, but I think 75 is the absolute optimistic ceiling. The margin for success is now as thin as it has been in some time. While they likely won't have the complete physical breakdown of 2011, it only takes one key player going down and another having a subpar season and this could easily be another team threatening 100 losses. I think the 17 scheduled games with the Astros, Mets, Marlins and Brewers are the main thing going to sustain hope for 75 wins and prevent the Twins from 100 losses.

Working from the backend of your post to the beginning: 1) Not a "feeling" at all, just an observation. 2) I'm not sure what is derogatory about placing you with the same sentiments as someone with as distinguished a baseball pedigree as Howard Sinker, and qualifies as singling out in a "customary derogatory tone." No need to attack when we've pretty much reached a general consensus on the offseason. 2) We've all shared and expressed our hope and optimism about the early deals and our disappointment in the overall FAIL that was this offseason. The difference is, with no intent of self-back-slapping, there were many of the realists on TD who predicted it would be a FAIL, based on a simple examination of the evidence in how the Twins ownership and FO operated during past events and their most recent actions and statements. How many kept ranting that "TR won't let this team continue to be a bottom dweller", "trust in Terry to fix the rotation and right the ship", "only an $80-85M payroll in 2013? preposterous! TR would never do that!" ie, in response to the obvious trend that the Twins would continue to cut the payroll and pay lipservice to the concept of "fielding a darn good competitive team"- all this, despite having a future HOFer and a former MVP under contract in a brand new stadium that the paying public was assured meant a new day for the Twins to compete with the big boys? In the meantime, you will continue to attend cocktail parties with the Pohlad's and laugh from on high at the rest of the hoi-polloi who provide(d) the revenue to pay the team and build the stadium. 3) The blame-shifting in the fake-firing-fiasco of Gardy's closest cronies and TR's failure to recognize available talent and value within his own specified paramters for acquisition and his most recent toss under the bus of his ML scouting staff regarding the Correia deal are further evidence that this FO group's time has passed.

Not at all, grammar-minders are a necessary function, you would have to use a "perjorative" for it to actually be taken as one.

Apparently, a poster can't even find even one moment for a little levity. It must be sad to be you. For the record, I have submitted many posts citing actual facts and logic to project optimism when it's warranted- even you would have to admit that the opportunities to post in such a manner have been severely limited the last few years. To further that thought; I believe it was you who had faith that TR was going to take advantage of his experience and favorable payroll situation to make an offseason fix to the SP staff, similar to the fixes he employed to the RPs and field lineup in the 2011 offseason. You have gone on record on more than one occasion, stating that his efforts haven't met up to your expectations.

I heartily endorse (and resemble) these remarks.

That's what the apologists doniti't seem to register. Baseball does have oodles of possible outcomes along the Bell Curve. I'm sure you've watched as much baseball as me, and every single year, there are multiple instances of witnessing events that you've never seen before. Deduno could easily be a one-year wonder who captures lightning in a bottle. RA Dickey was an afterthought to virtually the entire cast of MLB teams back in 2009 and now he's a Cy Young winner in his late 30s. If Deduno or Hendriks or, even Hermsen, for heaven' sake, somehow caught fire, the rankest cynics on TD would love to be completely wrong and they would be pulling just as hard as the apologists for a Worst-to-First run like 90-91.

I'm actually somewhat optimistic about Hermann. His debut did show that he still has a way to go and the Twins appear to want to block him with Butera until SalJr has a fully vested pension. A Hundley or Jaso type as the main C for the next 4-5 years with Hermann as 3rd Catcher in 2014 and Mauer playing C/3B/1B/DH would work for me and have the plate set (sorry for the pun!) for the next wave's arrival.

Pseudo-passive? Meet your cranial neighbor, SABR-agressive.

You missed the part about you originally denying that your opening gambit in debate is always to use the perjorative and the fact that I stated that you use other perjoratives in conjunction with "specious", thus making its intent also perjorative.

The Twins missed on outbidding the As and acquiring Jaso from expendable assets. Right now, the non-multitasking front office only has eyes for Hermann and then later, Josmil Pinto, a mixed bag, to be sure, of same-old-same-old. (The Padres, of all teams, had some catching depth, Nick Hundley would have been a nice pickup on a rebound from surgery before Grandal got suspended, but there are others like Hundley out there if the Twins would try to seek it out)

A cutter disguised as a fastball would be nice, relatively simple to teach and easier on the arm.

St Paul Saints

Age-wise, Lohse and Hendriks are on the same age progression and both would be considered outside of the main stream, culturally. Hendriks minor league numbers are comparatively better, and has a little better control, but not as fast as Lohse. This is one guy that will hold my interest on his progression in a huge year of opportunity for him. I think it's largely mental at this point and learning how to "pitch".

A typical team in a typical year is always due a surprise or break out player. Certainly, in 2012, the Twins had Zero expectations for Diamond and Revere was considered a 4th OF when Spring Training broke North. I would have to nominate Hendriks for the top pick to be on of the break out and surprises list for 2013. Diamond seemingly suddenly "found it" as he clicked out of nowhere in Rochester before getting the callup and sustaining it with the Twins. Hendriks already had his revelation of mastery at Rochester in 2012. I hope Cuellar is the common link to both guys and they give Hendy a realistic shot at making the rotation out of ST, notwithstanding the money invested on the new faces coming in.

Apparently changes mind on first edited response: "I know you are, but what am I"

So says the Richard Petty of rude... And the Ravishing Rick Rude of petty

No, I think it's fair to say that people on the other side from you use the signing of Correia as an extension of the Blackburn-Twins.

I see. In your Universe, your use of "specious" in conjunction with all the other Pseudo-perjoratives-laden attacks through these 7 pages exempts you on the use of "specious". One would think that you are not only at war with Twins Daily dissenters to the contrary to your version of "Truth", but as you failed to demonstrate that the opposing views are, in fact, specious, you appear to also be at war with Reality and the English Language, as well (See below): pejorative (also term of abuse or derogatory term) is a word or grammatical form that connotes negativity and expresses contempt or distaste specious 1. apparently correct or true, but actually wrong or false, erroneous, fallacious, spurious, delusive, unsound, nugatory ...... PseudoSabr-Universe-antonym to specious: genuine

Warning- gratuitous perjorative to follow- but not "specious", 'cause calling one's argument "specious" isn't a perjorative.... This is the Pseudo-Universality-of-Soplipsism-Syndrome, or P.U.S.S. Here's a good read on the situation: Home - Is Reality Real? To summarize his thought process: *Poor you, "You" just don't know you can't use elementary logic to quantify risk, my "universal logic" is all that matters and requires absolutely no facts to put in place. *I ignore facts that don't fit my concept of Truth because my opinion is all that matters, disagree with me and you're a hater. *We can never know what we don't know, that's me figuratively with my hands over my ears, what with all your futile attempts at quantifying risk *Why would anyone ever take an unquantifiable risk on a pitcher with more upside over taking virtually the same unquantifiable risk on one with no upside? See, that's logical! *There are 32 MLB teams in my Universe, so suck on that! *And you're an inflammatory and hateful dum-dum.

If I had a nickel for every time that was thought or stated in response to an ol'nurse post.....

Give it time, you are currently where Howard was just about two months ago...and birdwatcher was just a month ago...and where ol'nurse will be a month from now....

We don't need to pretend anything to know that the Mets medical staff passed him and that the Mets were then willing to risk (up to) $8M. General knowledge about the history of TJS pitchers is pretty well-documented, again not a guessing game, and certainly not specious, paramaters of medical hisotry are established for likely outcomes. We also know that Marcum pitched well after his DL stint, we have a variety of potential outcomes on the predictability scale for Pelfrey. But you're right, Marcum might never pitch again, oh but wait, you haven't looked at the medical records either, right? We also know that Pelfrey hasn't been effective since 2010, Marcum was effective 4 months ago. You're trying way too hard to overthink this one and coming up short, save for the flowery perjoratives, substituting for logic.

That's precisely the answers that I felt it necessary to seek from Twins management, on behalf of all of the loyal paying customers- who would like a coherent clarification of exactly what happened- and on when and how they lost their way towards their self-stated goal of signing "a pretty good pitcher"- in the Opening Post. (Notwithstanding Pseudo's solipsistic rant that such a legitimate concern is dismissively juvenile and inflammatory.) Lest we forget, the last press reports stated that the Twins never made an offer to Marcum. At this point, they owe it to their fans to go into at least some detail as to who did receive offers and justify why offers weren't made to players like Marcum- a guy that actually fit into their stated strategy.