Kelly Vance

In other news, Harmon Killebrew Award winner Jake Reed continues to get no love from the FO, despite having better numbers than all other guys called up last month.... and better than everyone not named Rogers on the big staff. What's the deal? Is it a control issue, or do they just not like him?

The report that Sano stepped on the officer's leg and fired a gun in the air sound cartoonishly bizarre. Likely an unverified anonymous source. Media reporting rumors again.

Its not as if OPS is the only stat that matters. Eddie slumped late, but he practically carried the team in the first half. He seems to have improved every year and will have a big 2019.

In the 1970s, judges used to send Juvies to Marine Corps Boot Camp.

Make him run laps until he loses 40 pounds and the entitled attitude. I had a chubby player once, I used playing time, no pitching, batting order, all kinds of things to get him to stop swinging at high pitches. The 20 laps finally did it.

Well, we will see. First reports are often garbled. If he was drunk and disorderly, he should be retroactively named a member of the Cardinals Gas House Gang and suspended for a while on the personal conduct clause.

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

Red Dawg roaming the Rockies dugout. Looks like he could still play. How about a player/coach?

Anibal Sanchez ........ released by the Twins in the spring .....and starting a playoff game for Atlanta tonight.

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.

Carole, its worse than that. The "Opener" is a trend, so people follow it. But don't you think if it were a smart play someone woulda thought of it in the first 120 or so years of pro baseball?

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..