SwainZag

It's not an argument, it's just the truth. When a guy signs a long contract, most of time they aren't worth that kind of money towards the tail end of it. You can attribute that if you want to when they put up big seasons making nothing, ala Mauer in 04 when he put 6.5 WAR and made 400K.

I had about 15 lined up, but when I started getting the limit, I took it down to 4. They just didn't look as good not in the quote bubbles.

Last night I sat down feeling rather satisfied at a local bar with a micro brew in hand next to a few friends. The Twins were leading 7-0 in the 8th, the Vikings were about to start their season. After 3.5 quarters of excruciating bad football from the men in purple, a handful of beers and a few off hand comments that would make a hooker blush, the future for the Vikes seemed bleak.....to say the least in my mind. After sleeping on it, I thought of another team who stumbled......and that's being nice.....out of the gate this season. The Twins as we all know, limped out of the gate one their way to a 1-6 start being outscored 45-16 and 3 of those losses coming from today's opponent. The Detroit Tigers. I went back just to see how the TD community was talking of the team in those days. I took out the author for these comments. Quote: "IS THERE REASON FOR HOPE ANY REASON" Nope. None at all. Quote: Well, there is always next year. I wanted to post more, but apparently there is a quote limit per post. These are all from the first week. The 1-6 start. Hope gone. Let's fast forward 5 months. After losing 8 of the first 10 games against the once mighty Tigers, the Twins have now won 4 in a row, including last night's 7-1 win, where Gibby pitched a gem. The Twins sit 10 games up on the Tigers, who have the worst run differential in the American League. While the Twins were losing 90 games for 4 straight seasons, the Tigers were inning division titles, all 4 of them in fact. My how quickly things can change in sports. I almost found a board of Tigers comments to see the confidence after trouncing our Twins that first week. Times have changed. But things have changed. The Tigers aged, and they aged fast. Miggy missed a big chunk of this season. Price and Soria are gone. Let's talk about tonight's game. 1) The Twins sit one game back of the Texas Rangers. The Rangers are just 1/2 gave behind the Houston Astros for the AL West division lead. The Astros and Rangers play tonight. An Astros win and a Twins win means the Twins will sit tied for the WC lead. If the Rangers and the Twins win, the Twins will sit just 1/2 behind the Astros. Things are tight. 2) Phil Hughes makes his return to the rotation. After being pounded for 7 runs in just 3 innings in his last start over a month ago, Hughes was put on the disable with inflammation in his lower back. While he has had his struggles against the kitties this year (11 earned runs in 16 innings (6.19 ERA) in 3 starts), Hughes has been good at home (8-2 with a 3.91 ERA). He is expected to be held to 75-80 pitches tonight. The bullpen will be important tonight. 3) Wtih 3 hits yesterday, Joe Mauer brought his streak of reaching base safely to 34 games. The last time Mauer didn't reach base, was the finishing pounding the Twins took on the 3 game sweep against the Blue Jays on August 6th. Since that time the Twins are 21-14. 4) Back the Vikings. See Vikings fans, things can turn out OK after the team forgets the season starts. If only they could borrow Bux and Sano........ 5) I really wanted this to be my 1000th post, but I blew my load on the game thread last night. Sigh....but....it brings me to my next topic. 5) Loon Tune's. During last night's game thread I made a comment about a stadium full of Loon Tunes when the Twins load the bases. This needs to become a thing. I want Loon Tunes. For those of you who missed last night's game thread. This is a Loon Tune. It screams Minnesota. http://www.loon.org/assets/products/Loon-Tune.jpg I want every fan young and old tugging on those strings creating the call of the Loon. Surely it would add some excitement to Target Field. It might even bring in the loons! Detroit Tigers (65-78) at Minnesota Twins (75-68) — 7:10 PM CT Forecast: A partly cloudy night with a game time temp of 79 degrees with a 15% chance of rain with a breeze blowing 18 MPH to the SSE. Detroit Lineup: Gose CF Kinsler 2B Cabrera 1B J. Martinez RF V. Martinez DH Castellanos 3B Collins LF McCann C Romine SS Simon P Twins Lineup: Aaron Hicks RF Brian Dozier 2B Joseph Mauer 1B Miguel Sano DH Trevor Plouffe 3B Eduardo Rosario LF Eduardo Escobear SS Kurt Suzuki C Byron Buxton CF Phillip Hughes P GO TWINS!

He is uncuttable because he is an asset to the team.....

Mauer put up those numbers one year in his career and he won the MVP. You can't except any player to put up those type of numbers minimum every season, it's pretty ludicrous and that's where the Mauer hate comes from. Yes, he is getting paid 23 million dollars, yes his production isn't worth that much. But how many times throughout his contract are we going to beat the dead horse into the ground? He isn't the player he once was, we know that and now we have to accept it. If he wasn't making 23 million a season, we would have a player with a 97 OPS+ which is better than both Rosario and Hicks. He has the highest OBP on the team outside of Sano. He is by far the best Twins hitter this season with batters in scoring position as well. I will probably get labeled a Mauer "apologist" but it is what it is. He is healthy, he is on the team, he has a guaranteed contract and a no trade clause. IMO there is no player on the roster that should be hitting in front of Sano, except for Mauer. I have read dozens of times how easily this team could be a lot better without Joe and with a prototypical corner IF bat at 1B. Vargas certainly hasn't taken advantage of that opportunity in his 175 PA. Mauer has a higher SLG% and OPS. Kepler hasn't seen pitching outside of AA. Plouffe, while coming to life lately, has hit .235/.300/.439 in the 2nd half. What's really the difference when you have a 2B who puts up corner IF numbers and a 1B who puts up middle infield numbers? Pretty much all I have to say on the subject.

Joey having himself a nice little start tonight. 3 innings, 3 AB, 3 hits. After Sano parks one here, it will be 3 R as well.

Yeah, screw your vuvuzelas!

I took a stab. I bet 43K Lune Tune's sound similar to 50K

Imagine 50,000 Twins fans in the playoffs getting out their Lune Tune's when the Twins have the bases loaded. That would be something..... Edit: words

I'm certainly glad you asked. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MpUbRmZYR0

http://www.loon.org/assets/products/Loon-Tune.jpg

Let's go EscoBear, let's go.

Houston and Texas tied at 1 after 3. Out of town CBU.

April?

This kid pitching has Twins baseball written all over him. 87 MPH fastball? Hello there.

Can they just pile it on here so I can watch the Vikings play and not be stressed about this one?! Please guys. pls.

Can someone get out there ASAP and tell Duffey that he is striking out WAYYYY too many people for being in a Twins uniform!?

A little bit, it's certainly unique, which I like. I would like to sit in the front row of those seats.

Instead of 2 outs, Plouffe gets 2 bases and the Twins 2 runs! This is a much better trend!

That's 34 straight games reaching for Mauer. Put um on the board now, big man!

People need to quit looking at the salary number. It was signed 5 years ago, it's what he is going to get paid and deal with it. We can talk about his numbers aren't worth the salary until we are all blue in the face, it won't change the salary or the fact he will be in Minnesota until that deal is over.

I'm not sure I believe rest in the early season will lead to better play months later. Realistically if Molitor would have given Dozier 2 games extra off each month from April-July, would he really have that much more...energy months later? I just don't think that's how it works, especially for position players.

I really don't think there is a chance he only gets a 1-2 year deal. If that was the case I would imagine he would just take the qualifying offer and stay in Baltimore one more year. More than likely you are looking at a 4-6 year deal worth at least $7M a year and you lose your 1st round pick. Pretty pricey for a guy coming off injury.

It's probably likely that the O's give him a qualifying offer and he turns it down, so he probably comes with losing the 2nd round pick as well.

I really enjoy Safeco. I have been to 10-15 games there and sat everywhere from 3rd row behind the visiting dugout, the high RF bleachers with a view and the cheap bleachers in CF. I just think the entire place has a great feel to it. I do prefer Target Field though.