Blackjack

Besides the money the one reason every player plays is to win a championship, with the team future trending upward, I see Joe sticking around for at least another year or two, hoping the team gets to the promised land, the World Series.

Leave Buxton down at 8 or 9 until August, keep the pressure off of him.

He's not going to stick around for long if he keeps slamming into the wall like he did last night. “Durability trumps ability,” was a motto emphasized by my former boss, Bud Grant, the legendary Hall of Fame coach for the Minnesota Vikings. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1241443-in-sports-athletes-is-durability-more-important-than-ability Read thru the article about all the very talented players that had mediocre to poor carreers because of injuries. I hope Buxton's name isn't added to the list.

Its a fine line on when to trade a prospect like Santana or even Polanco, do you wait until they have partially failed like Santana, which lowers their value, or do you trade them before they are proven anything like Polanco?? Thats why GM's get grey hair!!!

They -- won't -- be -- moving -- him -- back -- to -- catcher. Take that to the bank.

Mauer is not going anywhere, lets just hope he improves. He won't retire early either, with the Twins improving, he's going to want to stick with it and hopefully win a championship. Time for Morneau to retire, he's made enough money, no sense in living life with a scrambled brain. If there is any doubt in your mind, go read about Jim Mchahon, the former Chicago Bears QB. Dementia in his 50's.... Good for Dozier!!! The front office made the right move at the right time!!!

I like the way they're using the injured list!! In the past they'd wait 3-4 days before putting someone on the injured list and in the meantime Gardy would be complaining about be shorthanded. Too bad so sad. Now they get someone up right away, like they should!!!

Good post Doc!!! This whole being in contention thing kind of muddies the water doesn’t it? I would be nice to just say play the young guys but being only a few games out is a nice problem to have!! What do I think will realistically happen?? The bullpen needs to get cleaned up!! Listening to the Twins this weekend none of the relievers not named Fien or Perkins could get anybody out, a few more bad appearances and Duensing and Thompson are gone. They’ll keep bringing up relievers until they get some reliable help. Meyer will be up in August, working out of the pen, if he keeps doing well – and the Twins are still in contention. Outfield will be Rosario, Buxton, Hunter, with Hicks or Robinson in reserve, unless Buxton falls on his face and gets sent down in July. The whole Plouffe/Sano debate will wait until September, barring an injury to Plouffe. Then Sano will get called up and if plays even ok then Plouffe will get traded in the off season. The DH battle will be between Vargas and Arcia, if Vargas plays well Arcia spends the rest of the year in the minors, if Vargas falters AND Arcia is playing well, he gets called up. Then one of them gets dealt in the off-season. Joe Mauer is not going anywhere, live with it. This team will go as far as the starting pitching will carry them. Hughes, May, Gibson are givens to start the rest of the year. Santana too when he comes back - lets hope he doesn’t have a PEDS, or lack of, letdown!! Nolassco with his contract will pitch when he gets back from injury. I think Milone gets traded or sent down. Pelfrey controls his own destiny, a couple more bad starts and he gets sent to the pen, a couple more good starts and he keeps starting and someone else will get 'hurt'. This post should be revisited at the end of July, with the tough schedule coming up, and the unknown of Santana coming back, I think by the trade deadline things will be clearer.

Party time at TD!!! Glad to see Terry Ryan admit his mistake and eat the salary.

Wasn't there just a 'free Vargas' post not too long ago?? He was supposed to be the savior and really hasn't produced since he came back.

Terry Ryan came on the Twins broadcast last night and said Correa looks like a young Alex Rodriquez - but then said Buxton was faster...

Agreed 100%!!! It didn't hurt Vargas or the Twins to send him down for a few weeks. And if he comes back with a renewed determination to do whatever it takes to stay -- meaning be productive - the short stint in the minors will help the Twins in the long run.

How long before the TD faithful start clamoring for Alex Meyer to be called up to the Twins bullpen??

When Buxton, Sano, and other better hitters show up, Mauer will get moved down in the lineup. Right now Molitor doesn't have any better options. Leave Hicks down at the bottom of the order!!!!! The less pressure the better! If Santana doesn't start hitting SOON he'll get sent to AAA, Escobar will be the regular shortstop, and the uprising here at TD will be over.

I think the Twins have been better this year at making a decision right away about putting a player on the DL and calling up a player. It used to drive me crazy in the Gardy era when they'd wait a few days to see if the player would get better and then Gardy would complain about being shorthanded. I think in this case on Nolassco I don't think they trust him to tell the truth about whether it hurts or not, they'll just make sure by putting him on the sideline for awhile. It also makes the decision easier when you have a guy like Milone tearing it up in AAA.

A surplus at any position is a good problem to have. Can you say 'trade chips'?

This.

Another thing I forgot to mention earlier that Ryan said in reference to the 13 man pitching staff is that "things are going well right now", meaning that they are winning, if its not broke don't fix it. If they lose all four games in Boston you guys will problable get your wish and who's ever hot will get called up. I've also heard more than once that "they're just trying to get Escobar going", get him some at bats, and if that happens to be at DH or LF, so be it. The whole Vargas/Arcia/Pinto argument that they'd be a better DH, even playing poorly, than Escobar is true but I think the Twins are looking at the big, long-range picture, give the young guys in AAA a lesson ala Hicks that it takes more than swinging a big bat in batting practice to play in the big time.

I should have clarified, he was talking about Ervin 'Roid' Santana and his second spring training progress.

Does anybody ever listen to the Terry Ryan show on the radio?? You should, he addressed a lot of the issues talked about here. The show airs on Sunday an hour before the Twins broadcast and right before the Twins pregame. Cory Provus does a good job of asking the questions about the current state of the Twins. Last week they talked about the outfield defense, sabermetrics, and Tori Hunter; the 13 pitchers and how it relates to Pinto, Vargas, and Arcia ("none of them are forcing their way back onto the roster"; Alex Meyer and his move to the bullpen ("I still believe he has the stuff to be a starter"); Gibson; Escobar; Santana’s progress; plus lots of other topics. Definitely worth 1/2 hour of your time if you’re a Twins fan.

In the past I've told myself to stay away from the '_______ sucks, why is he on this team' threads but its like a soap opera, you wonder what kind of stupid 'the sky is falling' comment is going to come next. Especailly when you've seen the earlier comments about players like Boyer fizzle out and you realize that maybe Twins management really does know what they're doing. Go Twins!!! I'll be listening tonight at 5:30!!

The starting pitching has kept them in ball games - go Hughes, Gibson, Pelfrey, Nolassco, and May!!! And we have Santana and Milone in the wings!!! An excess of starting pitching is a great problem to have!!

When the Twins were winning division titles people were still bitching that the Twins weren't doing enough to win a World Series. Those people will never be happy, they consider themselves 'experts', smarter than even long-time baseball people like Ryan and Molitor, and will always be nitpicking about something the Twins aren't doing right. Personally I just want them to be competitive, have a chance to win every series, have a .500 record, play good baseball. It makes it fun to watch and listen to them, makes you want to tune them in, it has you checking the standings to see how the other Central division teams are doing. You don't do that when they're 15 games out. Right now I''m enjoying the ride. I was bummed they got rained out last night, I had some behind the wheel time planned, and was planning on listening to them.

Counting chickens before they hatch comes to mind. It'll be a nice problem to have providing we actually do make the playoffs.