TheLeviathan

None of that has anything to do with FA. Ryan has only three times signed a deal more than three years and all of them were partial arb buyouts. All mike is doing is pointing out a well established pattern backed up by Ryan's own comments on contracts.

I chewed on this a bit more......I HATE this move. Give that 2.5 plus a bit more and sign Stalberg or anyone but this cheap shooting schmuck.

We need us some TROLPO.

The whole time I was thinking how Coomer seemed to relish taking a dig at those cheating homerun hitters by dogpiling the first fundamental he could as if the Twins dont have their own issues.

Maybe not, but it seemed really bitter. I'm not sure if you saw it, but the whole time I'm sitting there thinking that criticizing another team for being three games under .500 for one play's lack of hustle while you cover our 10-game under team with a ducky and bunny style is pretty laughable. Just call Encarnacion out for hustle, don't tie it to the team's record, it's just stupid.

Ugh, I hate that. You have to replace Seto with scoring. Torrey Mitchell already does what Cooke does better and cheaper.

I laughed out loud. That was ridiculous even for a Twins broadcast.

Pseudo...did you really just quote wikipedia rather than looking at the specific state law? Yeesh, here: Second degree murder Manslaughter You're right that premeditated isn't necessary, but "delusional paranoia" wouldn't even come close to cutting it. Nor does one throw away statement account for that. It's an ENORMOUS stretch. By forensic accounts, Zimmerman reached across his body, pulled, and fired. I don't see how that requires aiming. This was a fight, not a gentleman's debate. That isn't excusing him, just the reality of how the human body works. I don't deny that the Florida law, and the law in many states, has developed a threshold too low. But even before "stand your ground" the threshold was low. In court cases the term is "reasonable", which I think the general public thinks is a higher standard than it really is. It's a very low threshold and I don't see how you can argue away a busted nose and a bunch of cuts on the back of your head by a larger person. That more than meets the threshold. And again, here we talking about self-defense. If you want to pick that bone, here are more than your fair share of cases to pick apart. This one should have been about this overzealous vigilante. Instead this case is about self-defense which, again, quite easily clears that bar.

Pseudy...you gotta separate some of your good notions from this case. Your larger points I agree with, but they're leading you astray methinks. Then why note that there was no evidence on the sidewalk? You're saying things out of both sides of your mouth. The re-enactment with the cops was backed by forensic evidence. The lead investigator said so, at that point speculation should end. Beyond that becomes conspiracy theory IMO. Now what you choose to believe about self-defense is irrelevant here. If you're asking me if self-defense laws have become too lenient, I'd agree. But they are lenient. The threshold to meet them is incredibly easy, regardless of who started what. (I think it's clear Zimmerman started the situation, the confrontation is anyone's guess) The problem is, delusional paranoia wouldn't even qualify as second degree murder. And to go back to your earlier point - you were spot on that this case SHOULD be about hold people accountable that go too far as vigilantes. Which makes the political pressure cave-in by the feds all the worse. Think about this: What has most of this case been about? Answer: What happened AFTER the confrontation. Whereas it should be about what happened before it. That's the second most tragic part of this. This was never second degree murder, a proper charge would've had a proper focus.

Let me clear again about what I think the simple truth here is (Occam's Razor and whatnot): The forensics collected by the police department supported Zimmerman's version of events. They also knew this guy made dozens of mistakes along the way (as evidenced by them grilling him about how he could've defused the situation multiple times), but ultimately the situation his stupidity created was not pre-thought, but reactionary. Making it a clear case of manslaughter. The cops know, on that charge and given the facts in the case, they can charge him and get a conviction with a sizable penalty. In come politic pressure and the feds, they trump the charge, bring in a whole lot of specious arguments to try and turn him into a cold blooded killer and try to bring that case to justice. Except the reality wins out. The forensics, the investigations by trained law enforcement, the inconsistencies in their own witnesses, and the enormous leap to take "*****ing punks" and turn it into a premeditated act of murder....and you get the utter mess that has been their case. If they had just charged him with manslaughter, they'd have looked less inept, made Zimmerman look more the jerk he is for making this happen, and got virtually the same sentence.

The wife is getting a lot less debate from me to switch the channel, I know that.

Have you been following it? You're coming at this with a HEAVY bias, and it's very clear. Let me be clear - Zimmerman is the idiot that provoked this. Had he not been so gung-ho to prove himself the defender of the neighborhood against young, probably black, males - this would never have happened. I'm not defending him, I'm just looking at this rationally, which I'm just going to suggest to you that you are not. The standard for self-defense is reasonable fear of being in danger. Having your head slammed around by someone bigger than you is good reason to be in fear for your health. It's very common for people to exaggerate their injuries, especially when there is blood present. If you are expecting someone being beaten up to have some kind of precise, analytic take on their injuries in a fight.....we have to go to square one here about how human beings react under stress. You can read into whatever you want about his indifference, all I know is that the facts of the case don't support your version. It's hard for me to believe that while Martin was on top of Zimmerman (proven by forensics) and delivering a more significant beating than he was getting (none vs. some) that he would be screaming for help. In what scenario does that happen? Are you telling me Zimmerman played possum until he was sufficiently beat up and then shot the kid? Because that's what it sounds like, that's the only way I can make sense of your posts. And the odds off him planning that, orchestrating a scenario to play that out, and have it work out this well....are basically impossible. (And don't forget - have a bunch of cops shrugs their shoulders and say "ok, if you say so even though arm-chair trial watchers will say they know more about this than I do" while at the same time having prosecutors dumb enough to put those same moron cops on the stand) I just can't see how any rational human being could come to the conclusion that this was the grand orchestration of a master of Florida self-defense crime laws so he could kill a teenager. And for what? Clearly this same criminal mastermind would know it'd forever ruin his career as a cop or even a common vigilante....or is he just some kind of self-defense savant who is completely incompetent at all other things? Cmon Psuedo....you're smarter than this, separate the politics of it. I get the desire to crack down on vigilantism...but you can do that without fabricating an insanely unlikely scenario like the one you have laid out and the prosecution is doing as well. Manslaughter of a child carries a SERIOUS sentence in florida. (minimum 9 years with the judge being allowed to impose another 15 years, something common in cases involving children). Nail this moron with that rather than creating something to make us all sleep better at night about what happened.

i remember hearing that prior to 2013 too. I fully expect next year to hear "terry Ryan has never had this much budget room with a contending team". At some point can we all just acknowledge we've seen the extent of Ryan's FA tendencies? I hopehe proves me wrong but this excuse is tired.

I remember hearing much the same about the 2013 lineup.

There are posts here in the last month that suggest this team could contend. And there was valid reason to at least discuss it because the Tigers are spinning their wheels and we were within striking distance. But Souhan points out the relevant facts: This team isn't very good at scoring runs and isn't very good at preventing them. You won't contend with your best quality being an "ok" bullpen.

Really like the Ballard signing. I hope they find a way to keep Cullen....his line was often the best one.

Forgot that was Smith. Those three examples were all while they still had some arby control correct?

I was thinking....the only instance in Ryan's career that I can think of anyone getting more than a three year deal was Morneau. Am I forgetting anyone? I love Ryan's ability to build and sustain an organization (though, as he was exhausted late in his first run that broke down pretty hard) and the man is so, so shrewd at trades. But he's so passive at the deadline and he takes that and the contract thing to such an extreme that I'm worried we'll ever be able to sufficiently go beyond the organization to add talent.

I think it was pretty deliberate. I like Ryan but he isn't infallible. The deadline and his rigidity to FA are two points I wish for better. Nothing more.

It must have taken some effort to so thoroughly miss the point. Yeesh.

I certainly hope the only reason he's called up is A, not B. I don't rule it out, but this seems to be a pretty rosey timeline for at least Rosario and Buxton.

As awesome as it would be...isn't Buxton being up at that point just a bit too soon? Rosario perhaps too, I see them more as opening day 2015 guys.

This is the key: The truth is, not all of what we currently have will be around and productive and some of the prospects aren't going to be all we hoped. So the Twins have to look outside the organization for help. The bad part about that is the more I've thought about it the last few days - we won't utilize the trade deadline. Ryan, much like his "anti-6+ year FA contracts" stance, seems dead set against in-season trades. Or at least, very rarely pulls that trigger. It's going to be hard to make this team into the WS contender we all want if we shut out all these ways of augmenting our team. For that reason - I'd shop Perkins (ACTUALLY shop him....not just field phone calls like I presume they did with players last deadline) but I don't move him unless I'm blown away with guys that will immediately be on the roster or, at the latest, the opening day roster next year.

I make every Sunday a "Bacon Sunday" personally. Along with 6 or so other days each week.....

Which, frankly, I think is ridiculously stupid. Does one need to have intimate knowledge of the law to suggest self-defense? There is no trick to that. The trick, if that was true, would be to create a scenario that worked out this well. Find a person bigger than you, who will attack you for following them, let them pin you to the ground and bust your nose and slam your head on the cement, and then find a way to get your gun out and shoot them while no one comes out to help or video it. I just find that implausible. I'm pretty convinced that this fat dumbass made multiple manslaughter-level mistakes to create a situation in which he started getting his butt kicked enough to justify legit self defense. (Of particular import to me in this case is the idea that the police have concrete evidence to put Zimmerman on the bottom and Martin on top. I highly doubt, while on top putting a beating on Zimmerman, that it was Martin screaming frantically for help) There is no doubt there was some profiling going on here. But there is a big jump from profiling (a long-engrained heuristic that has been beneficial for survival) to wanting to kill people. That connection to me, is people working way too hard to find motivation rather just looking at the simplest solution: this moron got in over his head trying to be a big man and a poor kid paid the price.