h2oface

Grandal was slumping so bad the second half of last year, that Barnes became the go to, and the hitter, up to and into the post season for most of the games. This year, Barnes can't buy a hit (around .200 all year), and Grandal is back, and hitting (albeit inconsistently... .313 thru April, .181 and .162 in May and June, and .429 in July ... so far). Castro was supposed to be so good defensively, and throwing people out, but man can he create some wild pitches that should have been blocked or caught, and framing rating has tanked. It is all so tenuous.

Utley and Forsythe have been playing like Dozier, or worse. But you gotta pitch that Dozier is automatic and a "crusher" the second half of the season.

Trade to the Dodgers, and get red hot, get a ring, and get a good free agent contract. Bad idea to stay with the Twins anyway, for a number of reasons. I didn't want Dozier to be traded last off season, but now, because of the reality of the teams performance, of which Dozier is a big part, it is time for all to part, and frankly, for Dozier, there are better options than staying here.

Maybe. But these farm teams are losing a lot more than they have been for being so loaded. Sure, it is about development, but real good players and systems win at all levels.

He can't be a supplemental pick?

I remember a couple years ago, at the start of the 2016 season, people talked about a 29 year old Jonathan Lucroy like this. That unraveled quite quickly, as we look at mid season 2018. Realmuto will be 28 at the start of 2019 season. Mauer was going to be the catcher for a lot longer than he was, when at 28 in the middle of 2011, the still mysterious bilateral leg weakness was the beginning of the end, but the rising Wilson Ramos was foolishly traded the year earlier because Mauer would surely be catching for years (and we all know the rest of that saga). Sure, it is a crap shoot, and Realmuto is, right now, the catcher everyone would like to have. I am a fan of trading prospects for MLB stars and players that have proven themselves. It will be real interesting to see what happens, but my bet is the Twins will not be the ones to get Realmuto. I think the best shot is to sign Ramos as a free agent in the off season, and the Twins are going to have plenty of money freed up, and neither Buxton nor Sano are showing the need a huge payoff in the next year or two. They both now have a ton to prove with consistency for that to happen, even if they both shine for the last half of this season. I really don't see the FO going for Realmuto with Buxton, Sano, and Kepler not progressing. If they had this year, yes. But as it is.... it would be an incredible gamble. Can one player make this team a contender? Not if the rest don't pony up as well.

The whole All-Star mentality is a pretty unrepresentative, anyway. An all-star really isn't a player that is just hot the first 3 months of the year. The guys that end of with the best lines on the year, but started slower and ended hot when it counts, down the stretch, but start the next season slower than their average, really are more of an all-star than one 3 month stretch. But people cry snub if a player really hasn't established himself yet. Plus, long term is more important than a flash in the pan 3 months. And then there is the mandatory picks from each team that puts players like Kintzler, Capps, and Cuddyer, and a slew of players on other teams that might be having the best season for that horrible team, but it is still pretty lame considering what one likes to think of an all-star as. Rosario's season, so far, is way better than Cuddyer's was the year he was the mandatory pick. Berrios fits this, too, unfortunately. He is having a very good season, but not an really who one considers an all-star, yet. I hope one day he will really earn it because he has a couple seasons of consistent good pitching, and now a season where he is truly an ace at the top of the league with the other aces. It has got to feel tons better when you know you have really earned it, instead of gotten in because of the technical weird rules. The call to vote for someone that is not really an all-star is something I don't really care about. But I know millions do. That is why we get all-stars that are not really all-stars. That and OCD fans can vote incessantly, instead of just once. It really has become ridiculous.

Twins farm 0-5 on the day. A winning tradition. Hey, Buxton got some hits, and didn't strikeout!

Rosario needed to be the mandatory pick from the Twins. I would have picked him. Berrios should have an 11-4 recrod if it wasn't for the bullpen. Rosario has no chance against the others in the final vote. I would pick Simmons if a gave a crap about how the vote works now.

I'm sure people were again selling out on Gibson after the first inning. Keep the faith. "Cut with the negative waves, man." There really needs to be an additional stat for the FRE and posthumously for the EDEE. Not all saves are saves. If the closer comes in with a clean slate with no one on base, and a 2 or 3 run lead, and they give up a couple hits and a run and get the third out with a runner on second that he is responsible for, that isn't a save, that is an "escape". If he comes in and gets puts them down without having the lead threatened, that is a save. Today, that was another "escape".

Meanwhile, Doug Mientkiewicz got the AAA job in the Detroit system with the Toledo Mudhens, and continues to just win. Players like to play for him. Dozier? He has absolutely no motivation to do anything but have a career year, what with free agency coming up, so I don't buy he is trying to be anything but the best he can be. Unfortunately for him and the Twins, that is not happening.

5 Ks from Buxton and Sano. Things aren't going well for these two.

I hope they promote Rooker to Rochester, soon. He has, through his pro career, always started slow at each level, so if that is going to happen, may as well get it out of the way sooner than later. Let him have a tough month and go out strong for the rest of the year. Or maybe he will just keep hitting, and stay hot. Maybe it is the start of his "seasons" and not the level. I bet he won't object.

Vargas always seems to do better, at least the initial period, after he is added to the MLB roster. He just seems to lack motivation in the minors. Al least in the past. It would be hard to be worse than Morrison, but I guess that could happen.

Sure I do. Just not Rodney and Eddie. And I think I just did about Nathan and Hawkins, no? And Joe, the best reliever the Twins ever had. I think his line will support that. The others you mentioned, Jeff and Rick (I love the first name basis), right up there in the top tier. And even though the Twins only were able to call on Ron Perranoski for 3 2/3 years after his 7 with the Dodgers (and 1971, the last, was really not pretty and the beginning of the end and they flipped him to the Tigers at the deadline, but man, '68-'70 and pitching 87, 119.2, and 111 innings in relief and finishing games! - pretty amazing), I consider him an All-Star Twin for sure. I see that we are the same age. There have been a lot of players to like since the arrival in the Twin Cities in 1961, and we probably agree on a ton of them, if you have been following the team like I have. Stay tuned. There will be more. Rodney and the FRE? No. But Eddie, definitely a Twin, just never one of my favs, though I know many did embrace the EGE (or maybe it should be the EDEE - ha - Every Day Eddie Experience), which was a whole lot, just about every outing, like the FRE. Do I have to like them all? I hope not.

Seems to me he is an Eddy. Always/usually a couple hits and a walk, or a hit and a couple walks, at least, always thinking he can just throw something down the pipe and get away with it. Yup. Definitely an Eddy, who I was also so glad to see go, especially with LaTroy in his prime being foolishly wasted as a setup man to the EGE, and Eddy doesn't seem to be much of a coach, either, when you look at the performance of the bullpen he is responsible for. Not going to be a Nathan, either, who topped all of those referenced.

Geez...... I guess I didn't make myself clear enough.

I'm "Sick of Seeing Molitor IN THE DUGOUT!"

Time for the bag on the head.

Times have sure changed. From what I am reading on this thread...... most would have traded that whole team as they aged. Now how smart would that have been. Personally, it was one of my favorite times, because the team stayed together. That, and I was a teenager from 65-70, and loved baseball.

And I disagree. He is not a Twin. He is a tourist. A visitor. A Rental for a year, or hopefully, half a year. He is bought and sold on the marketplace. And his shtick is tired and trite, and I have never liked the guy. No need for me to like him, much less love him now, just because some GM that never was a Twins fan signed him and made me have to watch him in critical moments of games. 5 blown saves leads the majors. Yes, it is a big deal.

Good and lucky are two different things. Trade value is as high now as it will get. We will see if any other team is fooled.

Thanks again....... Oh.... the Cedar Rapids link is the Fort Myers game again. Here is the link of the game. http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=g_box&gid=2018_07_02_cedafx_wisafx_1

Trade the guy when he has now become what all wanted, and get someone(s) else that takes another 5 years to do the same? If ever? Not the kind of "haul" that I like in my baseball team. Let's just always have strangers and visitors and tourists passing through like this years crop of Morrison, Lynn, Duke, and the likes of LaMarre, Motter and Wilson....... cheer for stangers and/or watch them fail. Even if they win, "who are those guys?" What does this team still do with home growns and prospects anyway? With few exceptions... play in the minors until they are 27-29, and have no value. Maybe I am wrong. I mean, look at Atlanta and Oakland this year. Giving the farm a chance to graduate, and giving the grads consistent time in the show, and something other than what is happening here can have a chance to happen. I still don't like a team full of strangers that are just passing through.

This is why, even up 8-1 and 9-3, you still try to compete and take every advantage you can, and score score score, never taking the foot off the gas. Right, BD? When 6, 9, and 10 runs isn't enough!