Kelly Vance

They are still young, and lost a season to injury. Look back and watch those games where Buck was running hard, with a broken toe. I'm still all in on these kids. Loyalty is a door that swings both ways.

Plus, Riv, he has the speed to hit it in the gap to right and end up with a standing up triple. With his speed, he should lead the league in triples.

One of the best ways to increase your contact rate is to stop trying to pull every damn pitch you see.

I know, right? Since when do you pivot from the best defender in baseball and a young bat that made the all star team in 2017 with 28 homers in 2/3 of a season? I don't get all the hate for two guys that played with injuries and had off seasons. They will be back and those who say they should be ditched will be bragging about having watched them to their grand kids

You don't trade guys like Eddie, you try to find other guys like him.. EE.... answer the phone

Bad form to dis a guy when he is taking his victory lap. Thanks Joe, forgive the critics

Mauer was the best hitting catcher EVER. 3, count em, 3 batting championships for a catcher. An MVP. As a first baseman he was superb defensively. His timely hitting and quiet leadership was appreciated by everyone who played the game. I have read many unfair criticisms that defy reality, like "Joe is bad at baseball" or that "Joe is not clutch" This when he led every player in both leagues with batting average with RISP. I think it is safe to say that Joe Mauer's critics must live in a parallel universe. For me, I appreciate Joe. I am grateful he was a Twin and I have a lot of #7 shirts. I hope he goes for 1 more year. Critics and fault finders, I suspect that one day you will brag to your grandkids that you got to see Mauer play in person.

I just don't understand the disrespect for Jake. He just gets better. Guys they promoted don't look nearly as good

Sign Rick Dempsey as a backup catcher. Solves both problems.

I don't know that Hildy is a closer. We need a guy that is money

Happy for Odo. He factors into the plans for 2019, if only as a #4 or #5 starter

The beatings will continue until morale improves.

Funny. I think that is exactly the wrong approach. 180 degrees from what I'd do. And the only two times we won the series, we did it the opposite of what you suggest. Those teams were brothers and won because their chemistry glued them together. Your approach treats these players like cattle. That is the Calvin Griffith way. It inspires nobody. I mean, nobody

Chief, we don't always agree but I agree with you here. There is a way to do things and some FO guys have a knack. I for one, miss what Andy did for us all those years ago. He saw the whole picture. But the one thing this FO and Molly struggle with is finding guys that fit in to a team chemistry. And knowing how to build chemistry. It doesn't happen by itself. You build team chemistry a number of ways, including silly stuff like Kangaroo Court and dumb ass clubhouse hijinks. Torii with his dance, Mike Red Dawg with naked batting practice. Stuff that makes people laugh, and loosen up. And want to be part of the organization. Players know they are going to make their money somewhere, but they would rather be where they are appreciated, and where they have a chance to win a ring. . Nick wrote a good article. He gave considerable thought to the human element, which I personally have commented on a buncha times. II think the human element is more important than technique, launch angles, metrics, and all of that statistical analysis. TRex didn't care about stats, neither did Kirby or Gags or Rat or Bruno. They just liked playing together. THAT is the human element. THAT is team chemistry.Guys liker Lombo and Randy Bush fit in on championship teams because they were great guys, if only fair players. When we added other good chemistry gamers like Gladden and Groove and Jeff Rearden, well, the rest, as they say is history. We need to find those kind of guys. Guys with heart. Guys who are fun to play with and who care more about the team, and each other, than themselves. Then pay them what they want. Instead we seem to be looking for numbers and stat performers. I think we need to look at guys who fit, so that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. But this FO doesn't engender that kind of confidence in players that they care about heart. And I think this organization is turning into a blind alley, where they can be described as a group that knows the price of everything, but the value of nothing.

Nobody is shoving bamboo and saying you appreciate ethics while approving an ethical violation ....? Really? And if you want to be as unethical as every other team,, then you don't get it. What Ted and Me and Hoskem and a couple others have been saying is, if you want to attract stud players, don't act like you are going to treat them like cattle.

Anderson and Reed definitely should be called up and Addison rested. Rather than Fields or Grossman or Petit playing, I'd like to give guys who have done well in AAA a reward..

It doesn't work like that. When the ball is in the air, his job is to go get it. Come hell or high fences

No only the best defensive player in all of major league baseball.

He was hitting .385 since activated in August. It's Buck's job. Cave is at best a corner outfielder. Buck is the best defensive center fielder in all of baseball.

That is what there is to LOVE about him. He plays 100 percent. You see it as a negative? Man.

Quick, who was playing on a broken foot? Not a fair comparison.

Don't know what you are watching but he was hitting like a stud in AAA after being activated in August. Small sample size, but .385 is a Rod Carew number.

Anybody who has seen Belisle pitch knows that if he would have tried to hit Beltre, he woulda missed by a mile.

Ted, I agree 100 percent. Those critics that say Buck can't stay healthy are unfair and to the point of absurdity. Buck had migraines. They are debilitating at times. Heck Kareem Jabbar couldn't play in a 7th game of the NBA Finals because of them. Then Buck fouled a ball off his foot and broke it. What are the critics going to say about that? He should not have hit the foul? This is ridiculous. Buck goes all out on every play. He dives, crashes into walls and MAKES THE DAMN PLAY. He is a star, not a prospect. Last year he hit .300 for a long period after making an adjustment in his leg kick. This year the FO played him when he had a broken foot. Buck tried and I remind everyone, he still ran as hard as he could on a broken foot. He tried to compensate by swinging from his heels and trying to pull everything. But his BA plummeted. He should have never been on the field. Now a lot of people have found nothing good to say about a platinum glove center fielder who played hurt and tries his best on every play. Pitiful. What these ungrateful critics say says more about them than it does Buck. Buck is not a slave on their plantation. The FO blew it. I have posted what I think they should have done. Bring him up, blow off the year of control and offer him an extension to make that year of control a moot point. Instead, they treated him like just another prospect. They think that is going to motivate him? Well, maybe, but in a way we won't like. Buck is gone when he is able to leave. I hope Buck gets traded to a team that will appreciate his rare skills. The Twins will keep being a second rate team as long as they do things like this. And it is no surprise that the only times the Twins have won the series, they had brother man players. Gaetti, Kirby, T Rex, Gags, all made the team better than the sum of its parts. And all those arm chair general managers who are wise in their own eyes because they understand options, team control, stuff like that, don't know players at all. Its not about moving pawns around a chessboard. Players like to be respected. They like to be appreciated. Many of them will play for less if they feel wanted and treated like family. And intangibles like chemistry, loyalty, brotherhood, and espirit de corps help make a championship team. Those guys who have all that will look at the Twins and say "No thanks" when offered a contract. Because loyalty works both ways. That means the Twins will have to settle for stop gap mercenaries like LoMo and Lynn. Nice going front office. You just became Calvin Griffith.

He was hitting like a stud at the end of last year. He broke his toe and hurt his wrist this year. Don't talk about him like he is a lousy AA good field no hit. He hit .300 last year for a decent amount of time.And was the best defender in all of baseball.