The HBP was also on a 3-0 count, which would have made six of his last seven pitches out of the strike zone. What makes anyone think this was done on purpose?
What were the solid deadline deals Ryan made? Stewart- anyone else? Getting Pavano, Cabrera, Rauch, Fuentes, even Capps was Bill Smith. Ryan would more likely ship off major league players like Lawton and Redman and not improve the team at all.
Here's a funny story. I used to tape a lot of games on this thing called a VCR and I watched a bunch of them about ten years ago before my VCR died a tragic death. One of the games was from June or July of 2001 against Detroit and Dick says, "The Tigers will likely try to move Todd Jones at the trade deadline but looking at his numbers I'm not sure they'll find any takers."
Why do we want to be like Tampa Bay? What have they ever won? The goal is not to spend the least amount of dollars per win; the goal is to spend as much as is necessary for the most wins and the FINAL win.
For all the people (not saying your Danny SD) that love FIP as the end all be all stat for pitchers, why the Minor love? I would be very wary of a guy with limited history of success. Then again, I've always been a "Go big or go home" kind of guy.
It's going to be difficult to improve the bullpen, yet a guy capable of throwing together a 5.00 ERA would do it! That is the riddle, known as the Twins bullpen.
What is mind boggling to me is they basically admitted their bullpen was garbage last year when they went out and signed Rodney, Reed, and Duke. Then they turn around and get rid of all three of them AND Pressley and somehow think this year's bullpen is going to be good?
My dream is for his first start to be against the White Sox and give up a home run to Tim Anderson and then let him get three more starts against Chicago.
One of my favorite Ryan quotes (among many), when the Twins were muddling along playing about .550 ball: "How would fans have felt if we had traded Baker and Span for a big name in 2006? They wouldn't be too happy." I would have loved for them to have traded those two (and whoever) for a legitimate star player instead of getting Phil Nevin off the scrap heap and still having him as backup DH to Tyner.
I also have to assume that the dollar hotdogs are just awful on par with the KC dollar hotdogs that a dog wouldn't touch. But that is purely an assumption as I don't typically eat at the ballpark.
I feel like the Metrodome attracted Twins fans and Target Field still brings out people who want to say they went there or want a non-baseball experience. And that really annoys me.