70charger

This.

No, he's not good at this. Read his past posts, and it becomes clear that he despises the Twins. Don't feed the trolls.

A splintered bat and a jar of Lou Piniella's ball sweat, plus the Twins cover 98% of Blackburn's salary?

I chuckled.

Yep. And that point isn't a couple months into Morneau's first season back from a 2 year layoff. It seems that you don't believe that Morneau can ever hit lefties again. Why? I saw one of the best hitters in the game pre-2011 in Justin Morneau. Isn't it a far more reasonable assumption that he can work on his swing against lefties and figure out what he lost during his time off than that he will simply never be good against lefties again? Yes, he just looks confused out there against lefties so far this year, and yes he should be getting more days off, especially timed against certain pitchers. But platooning him? No way.

Nobody else noticed that? By the way, good job on the home run, Damon.

Quick question - I've heard a lot about how Liriano is unlikely to return to the Twins unless the team throws big money at him. Why is that? Is this an assumption being made because the Twins aren't a good team at the moment? But what if you walk and your options end up being the Cubs and Mariners? Unless a winning team has expressed a desire for Liriano, or Liriano has expressed a desire to go to a winning team at a discount, about the only other thing I can think of is that he doesn't want to be a Twin anymore. Do we know this for sure? If so, trade him for sure.

I am doing ...none of that. But I am jealous.

Who's the right-handed masher you replace Willingham with? With such a team-friendly contract, I don't see the Twins moving Willingham, either this year or next. I think they'd give some thought to moving Morneau, but they would be correct in waiting for a very nice package of prospects. That may not be forthcoming with all of the injury question marks surrounding Morneau, in which case the Twins are likely better off keeping him.

And by the way, Denard Span is "de Nard Dog."

It could be a Ron Coomer reference. Imagine listening to his broadcast if you weren't familiar with the players...

In the interest of preliminary disclosures, I am well aware that it's more difficult to get all-star votes if your team is bad, and Joe Mauer plays for an objectively bad team, with a record 11 games below .500 and sitting in last place in a bad division. I also realize that there's probably some lack of knowledge of the fact that Joe Mauer is legitimately back from a poor outing in 2011 - having in played in all but 5 games this year. But is it not insane what is going on with the all-star voting for catcher? Current vote totals (6/14/2012) have Joe Mauer sitting at third, a huge margin behind Mike Napoli in the lead: #1 - Mike Napoli - 1,224,565 #2 - Matt Wieters - 713,469 #3 - Joe Mauer - 637,364 The stats do not seem to bear this out. In my mind, Joe Mauer is clearly an all-star, and I hope the following will show you why. First, batting (note that all league leaders are among eligible all-stars only): The following are the league leaders in batting average, with where they rank (1-5) in the current all-star voting in parentheses: #1 - Joe Mauer - .303 (3rd) #2 - AJ Pierzynski - .293 (5th) #3 - Jarrod Saltalamacchia - .253 (n/a) #4 - Alex Avila - .250 (n/a) #4 - Mike Napoli (tied) - .250 (1st) ... #6 - Matt Wieters - .245 (2nd) The following are the league leaders in on-base percentage, with where they rank (1-5) in the current all-star voting in parentheses: #1 - Joe Mauer - .406 (3rd) #2 - Mike Napoli - .356 (1st) #3 - Carlos Santana - .342 (n/a) #4 - AJ Pierzynski - .338 (5th) #5 - Matt Wieters - .328 (2nd) The following are the league leaders in slugging percentage, with where they rank (1-5) in the current all-star voting in parentheses: #1 - AJ Pierzynski - .520 (5th) #2 - Mike Napoli - .477 (1st) #3 - Matt Wieters - .433 (2nd) #4 - Joe Mauer - .423 (3rd) ... #6 - JP Arencibia - .402 (n/a) The following are the league leaders in on-base plus slugging, with where they rank (1-5) in the current all-star voting in parentheses: #1 - AJ Pierzynski - .858 (5th) #2 - Joe Mauer - .833 (3rd) #3 - Mike Napoli - .830 (1st) #4 - Matt Wieters - .760 (2nd) #5 - Carlos Santana - .699 (n/a) The following are the league leaders in wOBA (weighted on-base average, with where they rank (1-5) in the current all-star voting in parentheses: #1 - Joe Mauer - .364 (3rd) #2 - AJ Pierzynski - .363 (5th) #3 - Mike Napoli - .356 (1st) #4 - Matt Wieters - .331 (2nd) ... #6 - Carlos Santana - .310 (n/a) The following are the league leaders in wRC+ (weighted runs created, plus), with where they rank (1-5) in the current all-star voting in parentheses: #1 - Joe Mauer - 133 (3rd) #2 - AJ Pierzynski - 127 (5th) #3 - Mike Napoli - 121 (1st) #4 - Matt Wieters - 106 (2nd) ... #6 - Carlos Santana - 95 (n/a) When it comes to fielding, the story is a little different. Joe Mauer is very competent behind the plate, but he is perhaps not the force he once was. I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that he could bring these numbers up, though. But I do think that fielding, taken alone, makes Joe Mauer look average - on the other hand, it makes current leader Mike Napoli look downright bad. (Again, these numbers are for all-star eligible players only - I am not counting write-in candidates.) The following are the league leaders in FLD (PO+A)/(PO+A+E), with where they rank (1-5) in the current all-star voting in parentheses: #1 - Matt Wieters - 3.0 (2nd) #2 - Carlos Santana - 2.8 (n/a) #3 - Kurt Suzuki - 2.0 (n/a) #4 - AJ Pierzynski - 1.0 (5th) ... #7 - Joe Mauer - -1.0 (3rd) ... #9 - Mike Napoli - -3.2 (1st) And then of course there is the comprehensive WAR. And when taking into account Joe Mauer's absolutely stellar batting (as compared to catchers - perhaps "well above-average" when compared to everyone on the field), plus his not-gonna-blow-you-away fielding, Joe Mauer comes out looking pretty darn good if you ask me. The following are the league leaders in WAR (wins above replacement), with where they rank (1-5) in the current all-star voting in parentheses: #1 - AJ Pierzynski - 2.0 (5th) #2 - Joe Mauer - 1.9 (3rd) #3 - Matt Wieters - 1.7 (2nd) #4 - Mike Napoli - 1.2 (1st) #5 - Carlos Santana - 1.1 (n/a) So what have we learned? First of all, that Mauer is clearly not back into the public eye to the extent that he was in 2009-2010. This is perfectly understandable. The injuries made him something of a non-factor over the last year and a half, and let's face it, the Twins just aren't a team that the national media is paying attention to. The average fan may give him "recognition" votes, but it seems like the vast majority of those are going to Mike Napoli, whose Rangers have gone to the World Series twice in a row. He's now the household name, even though in my mind, he is clearly the lesser catcher. Secondly, there is a lot of venom directed towards Mauer, but I don't buy it. Yes, he needs a dump truck to cash his paycheck, but part of that is the hometown premium. And speaking of premium, when you're smack in the middle of a below-career-average season and you're still among the league's best hitters, you're doing well. He's also among the very best hitters at catcher, which puts his bat at a premium position, and the guys who are ahead of him, such as Carlos Ruiz, while currently hot, are not going to stay at the top of the heap consistently. So my ultimate point is that the all-star voting isn't making much sense at this point. If I were the "general manager" of the all-star team and got to pick my players, my starting catcher would be Joe Mauer. I would also probably hold my nose and pick AJ Pierzynski to back him up. As for the rest, Matt Wieters is very good, but not at Mauer's level. Mike Napoli is criminally overrated. Russell Martin (4th in the voting) is nowhere to be found on the leaderboard and is maybe worth 100 pity votes, tops. And Carlos Santana may be underrated, but he's still not good enough to be an all-star. Can we get Mauer onto the team with concerted a voting effort over the next week or so? How about we give it a shot?: http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/all_star/y2012/ballot.jsp

Back on topic: I think Liam Hendriks coming up is a no-brainer at this point. He's earned another shot at starting in the bigs based on his outstanding performance over the last month and a half in Rochester. That fills one slot. The 23rd is the slot that's up in the air at this point. Listing Manship is very reasonable, but thinking about disruptions to the major league rosters, you'd have to make some serious moves to bring up a guy like French. Remember that Cole DeVries wasn't DFA'd, he was optioned. He was optioned on the 7th, meaning he'd be eligible to come back on the 17th. So to me, DeVries and Manship are the two most likely, with Manship having the edge. In my mind, those two are comparable.

Dear All, There is absolutely no "c" in Hendriks. I shall expect that everyone spell it right from here on out. That is all. Thank you.

I was in the tenth row at the 8/20/10 walkoff game. Absolutely epic, and I'll never forget it. I don't know what all of you guys say, but that's #1 in my mind for sure.

Seems like people aren't giving Hicks enough credit. Sure, a guy with his talent could have, and maybe should have, been at the majors by now. But how many really good players have just taken a little longer to develop into major leaguers? His development schedule isn't ideal, but let's face it: there is no schedule.

I see both sides of this, but I find the latter more convincing. He's a rookie; he's streaky. It happens. Besides, the Twins' second option at SS isn't as good on two fronts: 1) the guy who replaces him probably wouldn't have any better defense or offense, and that's a short-term (i.e. this-year-only) deal, and 2) the guy who will eventually replace him probably needs the minor league seasoning more than he. I'm fine with this scenario: keep Dozier on the big club now, and let him work out his difficulties. If he turns into an everyday guy, we win. If we replace him with, say, a Florimon later on, and he moves into the everyday second-baseman role, we win. I just don't really see the upside of having him return to AAA. That said, Casilla must be feeling some heat under his seat right about now, eh?

I went out on a limb before the season and said that the Twins would surprise a lot of people. A ceiling of ~85 wins, but I predicted around 80 or so. I got a lot of laughs through April and much of May. That said, I think the "real" Twins are only a piece or two away from respectability (to avoid a virtual shouting match with jokin, please note that all I said was "respectability"). They may yet get to 80 wins, but that would be a pretty impressive run. If the pitching call-ups keep producing, we'll be just fine. The bats have never been a problem - there's enough firepower throughout the lineup to keep opposing defenses honest through spotty injuries and the inevitable streaks. And the bullpen has been an incredible surprise to me. What seemed like a weak link before the season has been lights out. Show me a #1 starter, and I'll show you a team that can win. One thing that I think we can all agree on is that last year's Twins were not the "real" Twins. Not when 7 of 9 positions were a patchwork of injury-replacements.

1) Didn't happen, but: 2) Dusty Baker?

He's dealt with injuries over the course of his career, but he was pretty solid when he was with the major league club. I wish him the best.

Well they said they would rehab him for 2 starts "even if he throws a no-hitter in his first." So how many is it now? Is it too much to ask that they rehab him for the rest of the year?

Not me. (My first post.) Btw. He won't win 10 games. He might win 10 games in the rest of his entire major league career. If he's lucky.