h2oface

Three cheers for Gibson......... but an ace? really? Dire straits must really lower ace standards. I won't say it too loud, ...... I don't want to wake you from your special dream during your nap. :s-chainsaw: :s-chainsaw: Perhaps I am misreading what you meant, and without saying it, you meant the ace is someone else....... like Hughes? Maybe, but after the last few starts, we might want to reserve the ace talk for later. It is a long season.

Joe really needs to step up and be a good player where he is. Moving around a .250 hitter just because he has such a high percentage of your payroll has no merit. How about an outfielder that is a true athletic outfielder that can crush and hit for average and steal bases play in the Twins' outfield? Now there is a novel idea. Joc Peterson, anyone? We can spout career stats all day, but that doesn't get the job done. Now is now, and Joe needs to step up. The team needs him to step up. It is getting to be quite sad. He is even making himself untradeable (yes, we all know he has a no trade clause and would have to approve one).

These 2014 stats are just as valid as the "small sample" of the last half of 2013. I think a lot can be told from small samples, especially if you are managing a team. It is important to be able to identify a players streaks and make lineup changes sooner than later to maximize the benefits to the team. Waiting for the average or the mean, will lose games that could be won.

An outing like Trevor May's today for the Twins would be so very welcome. Just putting the "ineffectivenes" in perspective. The rotation could use some of that not the best stuff.

I guess I would reserve the word "great" for greatness, and not goodness. The first three starts still count. Certainly just about all great pitchers will have a few real rotten outings each year. 3 out of 5 and I am not ready to anoint Hughes an All-Star. He has time to become one, I guess, since the All-Star designation, especially with the fans voting as they do, has become quite fickle, and is only usually based on a hot start each year. If the All-Stars were picked and voted on for a whole season's work, the teams would rarely look like the same teams, and especially the pitchers.

Thanks again. I love it!

Exactly. So from this perspective, it appears that if they dedicate half of the TV money to salary, (and of course pocket the other half like they have been doing with the salary money the last two years.....), they are still say 20 million plus 12.5 million (32.5 million!) short of spending money on salary that they should. That is pretty characteristic of what they usually do, and the team is left with 2,3, and 4 years of mediocre starting arms.

Great article! Pythagoras and the Twins. teflon twins and pythagoras. pythagoras and teflon twins. I like how it all projects! Well, kind of, in the sense that it is not a 60 win season. I enjoyed the read a lot. I am increasingly amazed that it is erroneously stated that the twins "uncharacteristically spent a real chunk of money in the off season". The payroll, as it stands right now, is virtually the same as last year. They didn't actually spend a real chunk of money! Have they really fooled so many astute observers? If they would have taken the payroll up to 100 million or more, THEN they would have brought the payroll up to where it should be. If they would have raised the payroll to what is has been before, without additional chunk of MLB TV money, and up to around 110 million........ THEN they would have uncharacteristically spent a real chunk of money in the off season. As it is, Terry Ryan has loaded the pitching staff with high hopes, and dreams with potential. The smoke screen is in effect, and apparently working for the front office. Now it may happen, that is true. And the team may hit. That is true, too. But let it stop, please, let it stop........ this dogma that the Twins have spent a real chunk of money.

K rates are rising across baseball......... except for the Twins pitching staff. A respectable rate for the hurlers would be a welcome change.

Tim Raines, the guy that was outed by Ken Burns in his documentary for admitting he wouldn't slide on his butt, but always head first because he kept his cocaine filled glass vials in his back pocket? Maybe cocaine is less performance enhancing than roids or HGH, and is really not something to keep a guy out of the HOF for. Personally, I could never vote for Bonds or Clemens. I could see the HOF creating a category for the fallen..... which would include those that would have been a lock except for the PED's or gambling.... and make them a part of the history. Shoeless Joe, Bonds, Clemens, Pete Rose, etc. I think it would make for a true representation of the sport and the culture, and the education of the coming generations on how easy it is to go down the path of shame instead of fame.

Kazmir all day. I don't blame him for liking the A's though. And a 4 year for Nolasco is going to be too long. They have Billy Beane, and the Twins have Terry Ryan. That's a no brainer. It would be cool to hear Led Zeppelin's Kashmir on the way to the mound........ if he doesn't use it, he should.

I think Gardenhire would be perfect for the Cubs. Then both managerial and Cubs' trends could continue without pause.

..... and then there was the tanking after the clinch in 2010............ which is really when the culture of losing started.

I don't think so, but I am sure that some will argue about that and the very essence of the change with fervor. Maybe the mound should be raised back to where it was and the DH taken away, and the soft ball returned, and all the other changes that were hard for the non-progressives to take, too? Naaaaaa.

I am with you on the "art" of catching. The fact is, it is impossible for a human to call the strike zone accurately and consistently, and have any two human umpires call the same zone. The pitch crosses the plate were it does (or doesn't), no matter where the catcher catches or frames the ball. We now have the technology to instantly call the pitch correctly game to game, pitch to pitch, no matter where the stadium is, what the weather, where the sun is, or who delivers the ball. The line of site angle created from looking over the inside shoulder of the catcher is particularly severe for the low part of the zone and the outside of the zone. Heaven help us if it is the perfect pitch on the low and outside corner of the zone. The umpire is just guessing. Always. And now they are exposed as quick as they can call it. (They even miss some of the inside pitches at the belt, right in front of them!) The umpire arrogance comes from standing behind horrible calls with pompous displays. Some say that is the human part of the game. I say it is, and always will be, the ANTI-human part of the game. It is the part that was embraced only because there was no other way to do it until this decade. It is the part that takes the game away from the players...... the humans that deserve to be deciding the game, not the umpire. The players are the human part of the game. The umpires are the anti-human part of the game. The whole "framing" issue is a perfect example of making something it is not, and it is a great example of why to make changes the improve the game, and give it back to the players. The batter deserves the perfect take for a ball, and the pitcher deserves the perfect strike that just cut across the front corner of the plate and ended up 8 inches outside by the time it gets to the catcher's glove. When the human eye no longer is doing the guessing, the game will become more human.

The very fact that we talk about pitch framing, and making something that is not a strike a strike, is a travesty for the game now that we have the technology to take the arrogant umpire's bad calls out of the game, and give the fair game to the players.

A lot of predictors, based on a couple years in being cultured in the current Twins' Way, espoused that Carlos Gomez could never be better either. Clete Thomas is not my choice for center field with a healthy Hicks available, but to discount his improvement, is to deny that Hicks can improve. I think all players can improve, and so should they. Colabello has too. I don't care if he is 29. That could be another 7-10 years of heightened performance. Some blossom at different times. The keen eye that sees that, and cultures that, will find a team that wins and wins with spirit. Plus, it would help that Hicks has a great rehab, just as he had a great spring training, just for the hope factor.

Minnesota resident arrested in D.C. for trying to resell baseball tickets to a makeup game that he could not attend. The streets are safe once again. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/welcome-baseball-fan-go-directly-to-jail/2013/06/21/a34b67ee-d911-11e2-a9f2-42ee3912ae0e_story.html?hpid=z1 Perhaps the public servant could have just explained the rules, asked the guy to move 15 feet to the accepted area? Serve and Protect ......or...... Annoy and Bother?

Minnesota resident arrested in D.C. for trying to resell baseball tickets to a makeup game that he could not attend. The streets are safe once again. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/welcome-baseball-fan-go-directly-to-jail/2013/06/21/a34b67ee-d911-11e2-a9f2-42ee3912ae0e_story.html?hpid=z1 Perhaps the public servant could have just explained the rules, asked the guy to move 15 feet to the accepted area? Serve and Protect ......or...... Annoy and Bother?

Why would he pick Gardenhire? Personally, I agree totally. The interesting part, to me, in my dumbest thread ever?, is that fans are constantly reminded how much Leyland says he respects Gardenhire, in print and in video, and the clip about Leyland picking Gardenhire to be on the all-star staff the last time he was in this position was even played again in the last series against Detroit. The "machine" and propaganda promote this to defend the fact that Gardenhire is still the manager of the Twins. The fact that he has had two consecutive 95+ losing seasons has not seemed to bother the Twins front office. This is unprecedented for him to still be at the helm after the last two seasons. Leyland has no criteria to follow in his choices for these positions as his staff for the all-star game. It is totally his choice. Chicago White Sox manager Robin Ventura and Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons were picked. Not Oakland's Bob Melvin, or Texas' Ron Washington, or the Yankees' Joe Girardi, or Baltimore's Buck Showalter. As these were all playoff teams from 2012, one could argue that they are all the deserving ones if it was about the team's records and performance. The White Sox and Blue Jays don't fit in that type of equation last year, nor are they ripping it up this year. Personally, what Melvin has and is accomplishing in Oakland and what Buck Showalter has done for the Orioles, one could argue that they are the ones who deserved the nod. The fact that Leyland's pick has nothing to do with any of that, and that he picked who he "likes", why not Gardenhire? He always says Gardenhire is such an amazing baseball mind. But not this time. So where Leyland acted, the Twins did not. I found that ......... interesting...... and appropriate.

Interesting who Jim Leyland DIDN'T pick to be on his 2013 American League All-Star Team Staff. Actions speak louder than words? After all that verbal love he gives Gardenhire, I guess he knows when to let a guy go that can't get the job done. Bochy, Leyland Announce 2013 All-Star Staffs | MLB.com: News

Interesting who Jim Leyland DIDN'T pick to be on his 2013 American League All-Star Team Staff. Actions speak louder than words? After all that verbal love he gives Gardenhire, I guess he knows when to let a guy go that can't get the job done. Bochy, Leyland Announce 2013 All-Star Staffs | MLB.com: News

Thanks! Perhaps they are saving the great debuts for the Twins!

He is fun to watch as a Twins fan......... not so fun if you are watching three of your team's batters getting hit, and a bunch of other almosts. I guess the Brewers refrained from the cowardly retaliation because they feel that he just can't help it.

Being a teacher now....... you should know that some things are more important than school. Sometimes, the education is not institutional BS, it is the real word....... a higher education. Thanks for this story. You are to be commended for your stealth, cunning, and determination. In 1969, when I was in 9th grade in Lincoln, Nebrasksa, my history teacher brought a radio and the class got to listen to a World Series game of the Amazing Mets beating the vaunted Baltimore Orioles (he also played us Alice's Restaruant on another day). My boys, now 22 and 19, both love baseball, but sucked at playing it. I would take them out of school every 3 or 4 game stand the Twins had in Baltimore (when it wasn't the summer vacation) when I lived in Virginia for 24 years, and we would stay at the Renaissance where the Twins stayed, so they could see them after and before the games. It all started with taking them out of school and picking them up after a half day for a "Dr.'s appointment" to see Johan Santana defeat the Yankees in one of the Gardenhire managed teams rare playoff wins. Teach your children well. Learning is important, and learning how to learn....... school not so much, especially with parents that can give them memories that are way more important than make up work. Opening day has never been that important to me, really, but up close and personal, it is something my boys and I will have forever. We still go to as many baseball games and stadiums as we can, and meet places to to see the Twins play as the visiting team. When the season starts, it is all future and no past. Thanks for your off kilter blogging. It is a real joy.