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Johnny Ringo

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Everything posted by Johnny Ringo

  1. Kepler cost them the game last night. Taylor steals third in the ninth and Kepler is inexplicably frozen on first. He would have tied on the subsequent single even he had merely walked to second on the back end of the steal. Instead, the Twins only score one run. He should be DFA'd. The only arguments to keep him are bad: the FO should have moved him in the off-season and didn't ; and/or they don't want to eat the remaining $3 or $4 million in compensation due him. Wallner and Larnach are fully capable of stepping in. At 25 and 26, there are expiration dates on them too. Is Falvey really willing to let their pride decide his actions?
  2. I may have to re-think my impressions of Dick Bremer. I didn't know that he could hack a website.
  3. Kepler and Pagan. The FO (my Indiana Jones) seems to have trouble saying goodbye. I wonder if they still have tee shirts from junior high. Perhaps they hold out hope that Brad and Jen get back together. The fact that Kepler has been about averagish isn't the point. In the self imposed salary cap world of the Twins, what could he have brought in a trade or what could his money have garnered? Obviously IDK but the lack of spending, for instance, in the bullpen has reared its ugly head.
  4. As was often the case, Emilio's family had their name changed when they came through Ellis Island back when. Originally it was Paganoverthefence.
  5. I have to admit a certain fondness for the show The Big Bang Theory. In a particularly funny episode, Sheldon compels his new gal pal (Amy) to watch Raiders of the Lost Ark, which is his favorite movie. She studiously watches it and says that she enjoyed it. But then she points out that the outcome for the Ark would have been exactly the same if Indiana Jones had never shown up in the first place. Sheldon in incensed. He objects, stammers, thinks about it, stammers and then goes silent. Amy!!! The FO has become my Indiana Jones. They flail around a lot and make tons of noise but I not sure they are adding any value. For every good decision they make (Cruz for Ryan, trading Donaldson), they make an equally dumb one (Pagan, acquiring Donaldson in the first place). I wonder if they are afraid of snakes too? Ps. I have been up north the past few days and had access only to the SF games through the MLB radio app. I switched off Dan Gasbag and listened instead to Jon Miller of the Giants. That is roughly the equivalent of asking my wife if she would rather hear me or Pavarotti singing in the shower.
  6. He is not a good pitcher going through an (extended) bad streak. He has a career 3.95 ERA , Even that is misleadingly sunny as he hasn't been good since 2019. He is by all accounts, a good guy. However, he has a black cloud that follows him around constantly and he has to weigh on the team psyche given his unbelievable track record for critically timed implosions . He should not be on the roster period. Forget the advance metrics of spin rates, etc. Getting outs is all that matters.
  7. They may win the Central by default. They might not be able to help it in this trainwreck of a division. But what is worse right now? Miranda's approach at the plate (yesterday he swings at ball 2 in a 1-0 count with the bases loaded after the 3 prior batters either walked or got HBP. Naturally, he weakly pops up); Rocco's managing (he is for literally 1 for the season on challenges); the Little League baserunning or something else? Take your pick kids. We have a smorgasbord here!
  8. So the Twins were wrong to sign Jack Morris in 1991? I would avoid that conversation with TK if the opportunity presents itself.
  9. To focus on Solana is misplaced. He was always intended to be a bit role player and likely only on the roster for a year, max. Lewis is a younger, better, cheaper righty option. Rocco is waiting at the train station for him to arrive. But what is abundantly clear and far more important are the problems with Miranda. He was thought to be a cornerstone piece for the franchise. But he isn't hitting and he can't field. The FO flung players around this off-season like confetti. But I said then and I say now, giving Urshela away for nothing (our 4th best WAR player in 2022) makes no sense ever, even if you thought you had a sure-fire alternative. I have never hear Miranda described thusly by anyone. Where does the FO make their money? Who cares if the A's fire their people and hire a banana to replace them? They win 40 rather than 42 games. So what? But for a team like the Twins a few wins represents the difference between the playoffs and another cold October. Urshela wins that game last night. WAR!!!!!!!! What is it good for? Absolutely everything.
  10. Oh boy Melissa. Quoting Common is like being in a Whitesnake tribute band. You are ripping off Coverdale, who ripped off Plant who ripped off everyone. You are like 12th derivative from the source when the dust settles. :)
  11. Or how about the Emilio Pagan cocktail? You have one but you have no idea why and you are pretty sure that only bad things will happen.
  12. I will take any praise I can get, even if it is wholly undeserved.
  13. In celebration of Dick's new (abused and misused) favorite word, you should have the "Sweeper" cocktail. So good that they may be cleaning you off the floor.
  14. The Donaldson saga captures a lot of my frustration with the FO. For every smart thing they do (Nellie for Joe Ryan), they do something that can't be fathomed. Like what? Stay tuned. Signing Donaldson in 2020 was very dumb. He was past his prime, oft-injured, a pain in the, uh, neck and very expensive. Shunned by FA pitching that year, they decided to double down on offense. The Twins woke up metaphorically in Vegas, hung over, with a regrettable tattoo on their lower back. In fairness, to them, they soon tried to scrap it off. Obviously, doing this took a a lot of machinations but they essentially netted Urshela in exchange for Donaldson. Sanchez was just a warm body needed at catcher after dealing Garver. But Gio represented promise. Urshela had an admirable 2022, putting up the 4th highest WAR by a Twins position player last year. Then the FO did the inexplicable. They traded Urshela in the off-season for the fabled bucket of balls despite my trepidation at the time, expressed here, whether Jose Miranda was a viable everyday MLB third baseman. As we sit here today, Miranda has done nothing to quash that concern. So to recap, lets use another Vegas metaphor. They bet big and lost. They scratched back to even but then they wouldn't leave the table. Lint now fills their pockets. They can't even say they got the free buffet.
  15. It was rosin because the Yankees said it was? "No officer, that isn't liquor on my breath. I had some peppermint ice cream!" Officer, "OK. Proceed." Tackiness is tackiness. It's been a long time since I held a rosin bag but its use is to dry your hands. The Yankees' (unverified) explanation makes no sense. I am rarely 100% guy in baseball. But Rocco was 100% right. The umps were 100% wrong. The guy was warned. He didn't comply. Sometimes I think MLB umpires' ignorance is only trumped by their arrogance. Manfred Mann and the Earth Band will back the umps however.
  16. You know I really never picked up on Laud's "young man" references but since you mentioned this, I have paid attention and he does say it about 1,000 a broadcast. You should have it as a drinking game at a party. Make sure everyone has an Uber ride.
  17. I have encountered seemingly a zillion people who say Moneyball is ruining the game. I always politely ask, " Have you read the book?" I don't think I have heard one "yes". Sabermetrics in many respects just quantifies things that those players and managers with super high baseball IQs (certainly not me) know intuitively. Ted Williams penned The Science of Hitting in 1971. If Ted hadn't lost five years of his career to two stints of war service, he might own the record book. Ted wrote about his approach to hitting (he played from 1939-1960) and it really can be thought of as the precursor to modern baseball analytics. He charted pitchers, pitches, pitch sequences etc. and it guided him always at the plate. He was his own quant department. The result? A career 1.1155 OPS. No one cursed him for ruining the sport. I guess it was all in the labeling.
  18. Well, to give a really fulsome answer would take awhile. But to keep it short; sometimes in baseball, as in love, it’s just better to move on.
  19. No one loves Luis more than I do. But I do think this was a trade too good to pass up. Not to get down a saber rabbit hole but Luis at first base has its limitations in respect of value. Number 2 starters simply have more worth than good (look at OPS+ metrics) but not great first basemen. OK, I guess I pointed at the rabbit hole. Salas is a very intriguing bonus. I am not influenced by Kepler's frigid start but why the Twins haven't traded him is inexplicable to me. He has a couple of tools but love of the game does not seem to be one of them. While Correa was in the gym, Max was in Paris. Hot tip, Max: France will still be there when your career is over.
  20. To some of us, a guy in his thirties is a young man. 😝 This is a really well-crafted response but I don’t think I was hypercritical of the FO. I did call Falvey “competent”. I don’t think his track record earns him higher accolades than that. My post was more of a comment on the broadcast teams. Amongst copious other flaws, they never even mildly investigate or report injury realities. I realize they aren’t paid to criticize the FO but their “ The Twins got edged 8-0 tonight but Nick Gordon had a double” stuff has gone way too far.
  21. Impeccable detail and reporting as always Seth. One small knit, to use the slogan that could be used as a drinking game on a Morneau broadcast, Garlick is much more able to "do damage" against lefties. Be smart kids, take an Uber.
  22. The reason that injury statuses are not communicated better is because the FO doesn't care if they are communicated at all. I have to laugh when Falvey makes a rare appearance on television. The sycophantic BSN crew acts likes George and John have been resurrected and The Beatles have surfaced. I think Falvey is perceived by his peers as a competent but unremarkable executive but Dick & crew treat him like the Fab Four. They gush over the magnanimity of his five minutes in the booth. I listen to a lot of baseball radio and television broadcasts and Gladden is hands-down the worst announcer in the game. Honestly, it's not even close. He possesses the Four Horsemen of incompetency: bad grammar, bad timing, lack of knowledge of the modern game and finally, the inability to be at all truthful about what's unfolding in front of him. Vin Scully spinning viciously in his grave may represent a further threat to the San Andreas fault. Why do they keep him around? He has name recognition and he sticks religiously to the party line. The arrogance of this organization is sublime. DSP wonders out loud why attendance stinks and fans are indifferent? The questions themselves show the team's arrogance. Can we start with 31 years of complete and utter playoff irrelevance? Buy cold hot dogs ($7.75 at Spring Training no less!!) and $14 beer and keep the questions to a minimum please. The players will appear when they appear, if they appear.
  23. Polarizing? No, he wasn't. On Pagan, everyone was on the same pole.
  24. Randy seems to be too nice of a guy to make jokes. But if he ever misbehaves, I've got some teed up. Mauer is going into the Twins' HOF this year. Rumor has it that Dobnak's agent is going in in 2024.
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