h2oface

Did you notice if Hughes is throwing more strikes on 0-2 and 1-2 counts? It seems to me like he is, but I didn't really pay attention last year. He seems to be serving up meat on counts that a guy with his stuff shouldn't be in the zone, much less in the middle of it.

It was just a musing, that marriage has not been good for Mauer's baseball, and the concussion is a real thing, too, i agree. Still.......... as anyone that is married knows, marriage takes a lot of work and attention and time and focus. Add to the mix two kids at the same time, and you have an intangible that can be pshawed if inclined, or considered if one attempts to look for answers outside the box. Either way, or neither way, Joe Mauer is not what he once was to this point since the concussion, marriage and children has been added to the compartments of his life, and the move to first has not created the effects desired. Here's to hoping he finds it. Turn on the ball, Big Joe!

I would love to see a trade with Colorado, giving them Stewart, Arcia, and Danny Santana for Tulo. Nothing against Stewart, but Tulo is the best, and Stewart is in high A and a hope and dream.

Mauer hasn't been the same since he got married. Could be coincidence, but it seems his married life has not been good for his baseball compartment.

Now Fien gets a chance to show he is better than he has been so far this season..... not glorious numbers to date, either, eh? Here's to hoping he can pitch like the middle of last season.

Perhaps it is not relevant to you. To me, it is the complete recorded history of his performance in the playoffs, and I am glad someone took the time find the stats, and present them here. To me, and perhaps some others (at least one for sure), that is relevant in a conversation about Santana's availability for the next playoffs. I would also look at how Mauer did in his history, and Sandoval (wow, but just interesting), even though they are small samples. I will agree that eye color is not. I also think Fenway park is nothing like a shoebox.

And so I have. Argh! Posting later than late. Missed the year completely. Thanks for setting me straight.

re: 5.56 ERA, 22.2 IP, 9 BB, 14 K, 1.324 WHIP Santana's career post-season line. It seems to me that it says he certainly didn't get the job done for those 22.2 innings pretty emphatically. Since that is his complete history, that is all that can be reported without making anything up.

This pitching staff needs an outfield that can play the positions. Rosario and Hicks have been the ticket. Please keep Escobar out of the outfield. He looked like Delmon Young the other night in the rain delayed game. Get it back to 7 in the bullpen. There is not room on this team for both Vargas and Arcia. My vote goes for switch-hitting Vargas. Arcia should never play the outfield with this pitching staff that does not miss bats. Try to trade Arcia, Meyer, and Santana to Colorado for Tulo. Or Polanco or Gordon instead of Santana, Colorado's choice. Escobar is a super valuable utility man for the infield for the Twins. I would like to see Stauffer culled for Fien (DFA him and see what happens - he cannot just be "sent down")....... right now. He is not a Twin, anyway, in my head. Arcia can rake in Rochester, and increase his trade value and show he is healthy. Tonkin back down and Vargas back up, and let him switch hit as DH. Buxton's arrival should get rid of both Robinson and Schafer.

The end of the world series activates free agency and other types of contractual things, but it seems a stretch to be able to call it the start of the new season. Maybe so....... but MLB doesn't charge us for the season until later..... (it was at the start of the season, but starting two years ago it was charged around the start of spring training). I still see it as changing the punishment after the incident. I see the offseason as the offseason, too. Or maybe the line of demarcation can be the start of spring training? I think it should be addressed, though.If players are not under contract to be performing and not under team supervision, I can't see how it can be considered the start of the new season.

Young Eddie Rosario needs cut some slack. It always amazes me that alcohol drinkers see themselves different than marijuana users. Sure, in more unevolved states it is still draconianly illegal, but in a few years, we will be looking at the whole thing like a bad prohibition period as silly as alcohol was, and maybe worse because of how it has criminalized peaceful citizens, and has created and filled a very broken prison system that is supplemented by private prisons for hire. Those who drive after drinking (even a couple) are much more dangerous than the weed smokers, and they do it all the time, always telling themselves they are fine to drive, and rarely considering that the car they pilot is now a 65 mph weapon to kill innocent people on the public streets they drive.

The change of the rule on suspensions was announced on Friday, March 28. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/29/sports/baseball/suspended-players-now-ineligible-for-playoffs.html?_r=0 The players association was also behind this change in the ruling. Peralta and Cruz returned from their suspensions in time to participate in the playoffs, which angered some of their colleagues. (new union head Tony) Clark said the union membership wanted to make sure “a player is not coming back and affecting a change in the postseason as a result of the decision that particular player made earlier in the year.” A week later, April 3, the Santana suspension was announced. This was before the current season, which started on Sunday, April 5. Santana tested positive well before the rule changed, not after, and during the offseason. We don't know exactly when he tested positive, but it had to be well before (and hopefully, it was after the signing, as MLB letting him resign knowing he has tested positive would seem to be some kind of wrong, to me). Couldn't Santana's suspension have been announced before the ruling, if in fact MLB knew they were going to suspend him, and already had the results? Should the Twins legal team have contested the punishment being changed after the 'crime', for this particular instance, and propose the punishment be enforced with the previous rule, the rule that was in effect when the event happened? Can they still? Is off season earlier in the current year, or its own special time period that needs clarified? It seems there are several things that can be questioned about how this all went down.

I would hope what he is doing is part of the evaluation. I would hope is Berrios is ready and can do the job, that it would not matter at all who he jumps. Same with any of the other pitchers. Assemble the best team, regardless of age or experience or who may feel they are next in line.

I don't think you can predict the wild card hitter. Puckett was a hitter that could put balls into play and make pitches that others would take for balls become RBI. I think Mauer misses the opportunity of cranking so many "mistake" pitches because he is just working the count. But to be able to put balls in play and for hits is a special talent. If and when it stops working, then adjustments can be made, but there is nothing wrong with a single that can move a baserunner more than one base even it was a ball instead of a strike. Dozier hits many high balls for homeruns. Sure, he misses some, too, and looks a bit foolish at times, especially in close games when he swings and misses at ball four with men on base and the game winding down. Too many good players have looked way better in the Majors than they did in the Minors for me to predict the future of improving performance regressing to their career minor league (or major league) norm.

Perkins. That is all I can see if it is to be an All-Star team, and not fan favorites. Fan voting is horrible. 25 votes? Do people really have time to do that? I quit voting years ago. Picking all-star teams from just a hot start is always ridiculous to me. It should be the second half of the previous season and the first half of this, and also career performance. To have an all-star team composed of the players that were hot for the first two months (maybe the third is in there too, but usually if you don't start hot and stay hot, that is it for you) is not really an all-star team. Also, there should no obligatory picks. This "every team has to have one representative", even if they are not deserving comparatively to the others on the team, is not what an all-star team is all about. Pitchers have the best selection process...... fans should never pick the all star team.

I think these will make it for an extended period. Jose Berrios - Nick Burdi - Zack Jones - Jake Reed - Jorge Polanco - Miguel Sano - Byron Buxton - Max Kepler. Maybe Stuart Turner. And JT Shagwa, who was just promoted and not included here.

Big thanks to Perkins for the 4 out save, tonight. And for shaving off the neck beard. Was that Delmon Young out there in left field? Dozier didn't even look to first after that fine stop of Sandoval's grounder to load the bases. Sandoval is no speedster. I guess if you tried and didn't get the out at first, it was a tie game. Still, I was surprised he didn't even look. No matter though. Molitor seems to pulling all the right strings. Sure is swell to see these boys winning.

"And Alex Meyer, a 25-year-old, 6’8”, hard-throwing pitching prospect who was traded straight-up for Span, has been moved to the bullpen in order to try to straighten him out. Promise resides in youth, and yet most of the team’s best young talent can’t crack the major league roster." Is Meyer shrinking under all this stress? He seems to have lost an inch.

It always amazes me on lightly most GM's take the construction of a bullpen. To have games on the line n the late innings and just use a grab bag method of bullpen constuction never makes sense to me.

Good time to figure pace, eh? I guess figuring pace at 1-6 (23 wins) was a bad time. Fact is, there is no pace. There is just a series of streaks and the final records.

Please don't take offense. I was just funnin' around. By the time i posted that, you weren't even being considered. I was mostly tagging on to twinsnorth49. I will be glad to delete it if you request. I really am not meaning for it to be personal, and I apologize if it truly upsets you. It was just funnin' around with the english language.. sorry for the typo..... not really the same thing... but it was my mistake, the they instead of the. It won't be the first or last one. Hey....... the upside of it all? Now we all really know how to spell Bumgarner's name. Don't even get started on Stauffer, Pressly, Presley, Pressley, Mientkiewicz, Pierzynski, Pooholes.......

Gibson seems to always get pinched by the umpires, especially with his sinkers. He has low strikes that are consistently called balls. Pitch f/x shows us. Perhaps they umpires will get better, or when the machines call balls and strikes it will finally be corrected. 2-1 counts become 1-2 counts, as they should, and the whole at bat changes.

I wonder if Madison Baumgartner watches Wimbleton? I best ax him. Nothing wrong with getting it write. Curious minds want to no.

Well, let's see if these count..... already mentioned, Madison Bumgarner (2014), and Randy Johnson (2001)...... Chris Carpenter (2011), and going back some years now.....Lew Burdette (1957), and Sandy Koufax (1965, remember him? Drysdale didn't hurt as #2, and in 1963), and Bob Gibson (1967 and almost '68) and Mickey Lolich, a #2 (1968 as Bob Gibson beats Detroit's #1 Denny McClain twice but loses to Lolich in game 7 as Lolich goes 3-0), and Jack Morris (1991, 1.17 ERA, 2-0, can't forget that one.... and 1984), Whitey Ford (1961, and almost 1960), - in the 60's it was more like a rule, and with a 4 man rotation - Orel Hershiser (1988), Bret Saberhagen (1985)............ there are more, especially the further you go back in history, and I guess some of the more could be debated..... but I don't know that it ever hurts to have great Ace pitchers going into the playoffs. I don't know that there is really an exception to the whatever rule here. Sure, anything can happen once you get in, and nothing is guaranteed, but it never hurts to have top of the line instead of innings eaters. Someone else mentioned that May can battle Sale just as well in the playoffs as in the regular season. I would not bet on that. The pressure of the playoffs shows you who is really the Ace, and who can step up and into the pressure and shine. Kershaw is yet to even do that (at least in the later innings). It is a different ballgame in the playoffs, and I cannot compare those games to regular season games, at all.

Bumgarner a borderliner? I guess the Twins aren't even close to an Ace then, eh?