Thrylos

you need to put an "IF" there about those discussions and call them "potential" or "hypothetical" or something. Don't want to get anyone in trouble

Can someone please justify the obsession with Redmond other than the fact that we know his name? I think people remember Redmond's personality and hustle with fondness. Also the skills he developed as a catcher should serve him well as a manager and I do think that he will manage in the bigs some day. Personally I think its to soon for Redmond -- not sure it would be a good idea for him to try to manage players with whom he played (and whom he played behind). I think you are right.. Mike Redmond was very highly thought of in the Twins organization. His attitude, toughness, are charmisma would all serve him well as a big league manager. I disagree with the point you make about him not managing players he played behind. How good you are as a player often has little to do with how good of coach and teacher you are. In fact, the best athletes that have ever played in sports have made horrible coaches or front office people...( Michael Jordan, Isiah Thomas, Magic Johnson, Kevin Mchale) On the other hand, some of the best coaches were not that good of players. Our current manager didn't have much of a big league career.. I would say he has been pretty successful. It might be a little too soon for Red to become a big league manager, but I don't think he would have any trouble getting the players respect just because he didn't play every day. Not sure how the Twins-Redmond relationship is these days Fact (and not that much publicized) : Redmond was offered a coaching position in the Twins' organization after his last season with the Twins that would have led to a managerial track in the minors. He declined because he thought he had something left in the tank and wanted another MLB paycheck so he went and signing with a Division rival (and sucked)

I think that the PR hit that the Twins will take if they trade Mauer will be huge. Morneau is a different story. Think of the fans who are still screaming about holding on to Gardenhire and his coaches and everyone at the front office after 2 consecutive 90+ loss seasons... You take the face of the Franchise away from them, they will be marching down Nicolet Mall. I don't know whether anyone else remembers what happened in Minneapolis when Kirby was a free agent, visited Boston and word came out that he was about to sign with Boston... And that was pre-internet days. Multiply that by a huge factor and that will be the Mauer fallout

And Morneau has been a great hitting at Fenway. Their Career numbers at Fenway: Mauer: .283/.386/.500 (70 PA) Morneau: .375/.425/.604 (106 PA)

I just hope that Slama is on his way to the Cities tonight and Gray gets an one way ticket

They will need to add to that. Minor league staff is 3 people: Manager, Pitching Coach, Hitting Coach. In Rochester the manager serves as the 3rd base coach as well. Bruno and Cuellar sit on the bench and usually a player on the DL serves as the first base coach. So, in addition to those 3, you would need 4 more positions at least: - 1B coach - 3B coach - Bench coach - Bullpen coach

Too early to tell. Many of the players you list (including Tosoni and Deibi Romero and Cole DeVries) will be MiLB FAs We all know that the Twins will sign about 20 MiLB FAs between now and the end of February. Will probably try to keep some of the ones they have too (I think Carson and Rivera for sure and maybe Dinkelman and Clete Thomas) Plus a few pitchers. Too early to tell.

I don't get it either. Maybe Slama used to play practical jokes on Toby or something. And about the age old "axiom" that some people can strike out AA and AAA hitters but not MLB hitters, all I have to say is that the MLB hitters were AA and AAA hitters at some point. I don't have much faith on the Twins' player evaluators. They dropped the ball way too many times recently.

Well... Here is the thing (and, yes, I am biased. I wanted Gardy out since after the one game playoff loss against the White Sox) : There has been talk about "no scholarships" to players, and up to a point (unless those players had daddies who were former Twins' players) they did that this season. On the other hand, no scholarships to players and having the manager and his coaches being well tenured and unfirable, is a nasty proposition. This team lost 99 last season. They are on a pace to lose 96 this season. There was a single change made last season: Bill Smith was fired. Guess what? It did not work. Reality check: Deep breath: Depending on how many games the Twins lose this season, 2011 and 2012 will be the worst consecutive seasons in the franchise. Step back: I mean since the Franchise moved to DC from KC in 1901 to be a founding member of the AL. This is Historic Suckage. They got to do something. Major Kudos to Boston for actually doing something. Hope the Twins realize that people care. But I am not sure that Twins' fans really care about winning more than they care about the perceived comfort of what familiarity brings, let that be Span or Morneau or Gardy or Ryan...

For the ones who do not remember (or were not alive then) : Tony LaRussa was the manager of the steroid cheat Oakland A's who stole a few AL West titles from the Twins. As a Twins' fan I used to hate everything about those As, including LaRussa, ever before the cheating became apparent.

That would be interesting... Because it would be the one choice that I think might make me consider not being a Twins fan anymore. Nothing will make me not being a Twins' fan, but if they get Tony LaRussa, I would feel the same way I felt when the Vikings got what's his face to quarterback them.

Lester is a left-handed stud on a ****ty team right now. I would welcome him as a one on one trade with any Twin right now. 28 year old power lefties don't grow on trees. Last I checked, the Twins let one of those go within the division lately...

Would getting those guys make the Twins World Series contenders in 2013? No Then they should pass, sell and try to rebuild for 2014 and beyond, like the Red Sox are (smartly) doing.

Totally disappointed by what Ryan did not do at the trading deadline and in August. Missing trading Morneau is a huge mistake. Very disappointed.

The Twins have been pretty bad about signing a bunch of MiLB FAs to fill up the Rochester roster and keep their players stuck in New Britain (and some stuck at Fort Myers because of the Domino effect.) This season, about 50% of those free agents panned out. Last season was a disaster. I just cannot see a justification of having JR Towles in AAA and Chris Herrmann in AA at this point. (which has the Domino effect of Josmil Pinto to get stuck -until recently- in high A and Matt Koch in Beloit.) This season the Twins did better. I give them that. But, having a 28 year old FA 1B/DH in AA does not make much sense, does it? Or signing 27 year old ex-manager's kid (who is about as good a player as Toby was) and sticking him to AA instead of promoting (let's say Danny Santana). Just these little things. But, again, they are doing better this season.

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch --- This is the fourth instalment in this series. You can find the older ones here (most recent on top.) Promotions and demotions are listed under the team where the player currently plays (this means promotions to the Minnesota Twins will not be listed here) Here are the transactions in all levels in the Twins organization from August 11th until yesterday August 17th: Rochester Redwings (International League, AAA): 8-24 - Minnesota Twins optioned OF Matt Carson to Rochester Red Wings. 8-23 - LHP Pedro Hernandez was placed on the 7-day disabled list. strained lat muscle 8-23 - RHP Kyle Gibson assigned to Rochester Red Wings from Fort Myers Miracle. 8-20 - Minnesota Twins outrighted RHP Nick Blackburn to Rochester Red Wings. 8-20 - Minnesota Twins outrighted IF Tsuyoshi Nishioka to Rochester Red Wings. New Britain Rock Cats (Eastern League, AA): 8-22 - C Josmil Pinto assigned to New Britain Rock Cats from Fort Myers Miracle. Fort Myers Miracle (Florida State League, A+): 8-18 - Fort Myers Miracle activated LHP Pat Dean from the 7-Day disabled list. 8-18 - Fort Myers Miracle placed 1B Michael Gonzales on the 7-Day disabled list. Strained elbow. Beloit Snappers (Midwest League, A): No Transactions this weeklist. Elizabethton Twins (Appalachian League, Rk+): 8-22 - Elizabethton Twins placed RHP Christian Powell on the temporarily inactive list 8-21 - Elizabethton Twins placed RHP Luke Bard on the 7-Day disabled list. GCL Twins (Gulf Coast League, Rk): No Transactions this week DSL Twins (Dominican Summer League, Foreign Rk): No Transactions this week

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch --- This is the fourth instalment in this series. You can find the older ones here (most recent on top.) Promotions and demotions are listed under the team where the player currently plays (this means promotions to the Minnesota Twins will not be listed here) Here are the transactions in all levels in the Twins organization from August 11th until yesterday August 17th: Rochester Redwings (International League, AAA): 8-24 - Minnesota Twins optioned OF Matt Carson to Rochester Red Wings. 8-23 - LHP Pedro Hernandez was placed on the 7-day disabled list. strained lat muscle 8-23 - RHP Kyle Gibson assigned to Rochester Red Wings from Fort Myers Miracle. 8-20 - Minnesota Twins outrighted RHP Nick Blackburn to Rochester Red Wings. 8-20 - Minnesota Twins outrighted IF Tsuyoshi Nishioka to Rochester Red Wings. New Britain Rock Cats (Eastern League, AA): 8-22 - C Josmil Pinto assigned to New Britain Rock Cats from Fort Myers Miracle. Fort Myers Miracle (Florida State League, A+): 8-18 - Fort Myers Miracle activated LHP Pat Dean from the 7-Day disabled list. 8-18 - Fort Myers Miracle placed 1B Michael Gonzales on the 7-Day disabled list. Strained elbow. Beloit Snappers (Midwest League, A): No Transactions this weeklist. Elizabethton Twins (Appalachian League, Rk+): 8-22 - Elizabethton Twins placed RHP Christian Powell on the temporarily inactive list 8-21 - Elizabethton Twins placed RHP Luke Bard on the 7-Day disabled list. GCL Twins (Gulf Coast League, Rk): No Transactions this week DSL Twins (Dominican Summer League, Foreign Rk): No Transactions this week

Nah they are all surfing off La Jolla Shores; only military and tourists go over that Bridge

He would look pretty good in Boston Red One door closes, another opens. Interesting situation in Boston. They are really trying to clean up the clubhouse getting rid of troublemaker players: Beckett from last season (KFC and brewski), Stoppach (gone before) and A Gone from this (text messages) plus Crawford who never amounted to anything for them and Nicky. And Danny will have an MLB job again.

Ding ding ding! http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/07/Naranjeros.jpg

I swear I saw Guerra hit 93-94 in ST. On the side fields with the team gun the off duty guys were charting pitches with. I am pretty sure that those were 4-seamers. His 2-seames is high 80s. He just got to mix them up a bit more. Does not hurt to throw a 4-seamer once a while or to dial it up for a pitch or 2. I dislike the guy, but Oswalt in last night's game (whose FB is "sitting at 90-91") got that speed variation from 88-95 (that was one pitch), changed locations (and not necessarily in the zone) and gave a clinic on how to get by with limited stuff. Just got to ingrain into these kids that it is ok to throw a ball once in a while (matter of fact it is good sometimes) and to change speeds and locations. And a lot of those things are acquired knowledge...

I think the Twins are smart enough to know the answer to that is no without needing to some much of him in the majors. Like they knew the answer with Garrett Jones who was let go, while they were trotting the likes of Tolbert on the bench and on the field in competitive teams?

I was thinking exactly the same in some of those hard Doumit swings after that Mauer PA. Let it go. Hammer throw.

Beg to differ. I'd rather see Carson get some play at the OF with Doumit at C and Willy DH and see Mr Butera's scholarship terminated. Let's see if Carson can be part of the solution for 2013. We all know what Butera cannot do and having a 3rd catcher in this team is a luxury.