Nick Nelson

Sad as it is to say, the fewer wins they finish with at this point the better.

Butera in a setup role. Enough said.

First of all, I haven't seen anyone saying the Twins should "do anything" to get back to immediate contention next year. But I'd certainly argue that the team should look for young players that can help right away and put some of their freed up payroll into pitchers that can make an impact. The alternative is to have the Pohlads pocket the $20 million rather than spending it in free agency, and trading away all veteran assets for prospects. Maybe a nice theory until you look at the job this organization has done of evaluating young talent in recent years. The Twins aren't in a position like the Pirates and Royals because they have no tradable superstars. They have guys like Span, Willingham and Morneau that they can probably move for B-prospects. That's not a great recipe for rebuilding, especially when the kind of lesser prospects you tend to target are almost always some variation of Pedro Hernandez and Eduardo Escobar.

This is a different point than the first one you made. The Twins had a lot of different things to address this offseason after last year's trainwreck, that's for sure. But to say there weren't people vocally worried about the rotation is demonstrably false.

Many people have claimed that calling Dozier's debut stint a disaster is hyperbole. Maybe they're right. I might be off the mark, but I'm puzzled when I see comments like "Dozier has been OK" because in my mind he's been a complete mess. Among the worst hitters in the major leagues, and his defense to me has been a liability. I guess you can be generous and say he's got decent range, but for a guy whose polish and intangibles were supposed to make up for a lack of exceptional talent, the rate of misplays has been – to me – unacceptable. I'm not passing eternal judgment on him, but given that I've been forced to pin my hopes on him becoming the team's answer at 2B/SS, I can't hide my disappointment over what he showed in a non-tiny 85-game audition.

First of all, I don't think he's looked that bad. He's had some hard-hit liners find gloves in the outfield. Second, what difference does it make whether he's shaking off the rust in Rochester or Minnesota? The alternative is shifting Carroll to third and writing another punchless middle infielder into the lineup.

John McDonald is the player that concussed Morneau in Toronto. Johnson played for the Diamondbacks when the injury occurred. Overall, your point is a good one. Carroll will be overpaid next year, but not by a whole lot when you look at it in this context.

I like the idea of trading Span/Morneau for pitching, adding one relatively high-caliber FA arm and taking a gamble on one or two other risk/reward plays. I will say that I think your particular plan is a little too short-term focused. Colby Lewis is 33 and not a good bet on a multi-year deal, and giving up top prospects for Andrus (who would probably be a two-year rental) isn't something a team in Minnesota's position should be doing.

So KTWN is going to be actively sending listeners to a competing station for Twins programming outside of the games? How does this make sense?

I will say that, personally, starting pitching was definitely my top concern entering this season. I don't think I was alone in my concerns about the unit. Many others echoed the same sentiments.

You can view the page at http://www.twinsdaily.com/content.php?924-Dozier-s-Disastrous-Rookie-Season

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2027[/ATTACH]Late in Sunday's game against the Rays, the Twins reached their breaking point with Brian Dozier. With the game tied and runners on the corners for Tampa in the 10th inning, the rookie shortstop scooped up a ground ball and took the sure out at first rather than throwing home to cut down the go-ahead run or attempting a tough inning-ending double play. After the game, Ron Gardenhire seemed to let Dozier off the hook: And yet, Dozier sat on Monday. He sat again on Tuesday, and after the game it was announced he'd been demoted to Triple-A, with Pedro Florimon (and his .654 OPS in Rochester) coming up to replace him on the roster. It's a perplexing strategy for the Twins. Dozier will almost certainly be back up when rosters expand in September, making this a two-week demotion. How much good can that really do? At the same time, Dozier has been roundly awful for a full three months, so the move is easily justifiable. The only reasons he's lasted this long are because Gardenhire fiercely supports him and because he may be the organization's only hope for an internal solution at shortstop next year. Unfortunately, even those factors couldn't protect him after committing 15 errors (most for any AL shortstop despite the fact that he's only played in 84 games) while hitting .234/.271/.332, including .152/.237/.273 after what appeared to be a breakout three-hit game in Boston on August 2nd. Only one qualifying player in the majors (Justin Smoak) has a worse OPS than Dozier. In addition to his league-leading error total, he's had a number of misplays in the field – including Sunday's questionable and costly decision – that don't show up on the stat sheet. His plate discipline, which was a primary strength in the minors, has been dreadful, as he's drawn only 16 walks against 58 strikeouts in 340 plate appearances. Granted, the 25-year-old showed a few positive signs, namely some home run power and base-stealing proclivity, but this was an overwhelmingly discouraging major-league debut. At this point it's extremely difficult to look at him as a realistic starting option for next year. He just doesn't have any substantial strength to fall back on. Being sent to Triple-A after struggling in a major-league stint has been known to help young players in the past – look no further than Chris Parmelee for a recent example – and we can only hope that will happen here. But when you consider that Dozier was given an incredibly long leash, isn't all that young and was never an exceptional prospect to begin with, it's pretty tough to dismiss his initial struggles as a fluke. More than likely, he'll be another suspect among many others vying for a middle infield spot next year. Just another passenger on Minnesota's never-ending shortstop carousel.

To be clear, I've never said anything remotely resembling "this is a conversation worth having." On the contrary, my first comment on this thread, verbatim: "I'm not sure why this conversation needed to continue." My feelings about the topic are not at issue here, what is at issue is your hypocritical complaining about a pointless, meandering thread that you click into again and again and again to complain about, thus adding to the irrelevant BS. Yes, I'm going to take it personally when you blatantly mischaracterize my position as being supportive of this topic when I've clearly demonstrated the opposite. I know you guys took pride in the "elitist" atmosphere at BYTO where anyone deemed less intelligent or "asinine" was shunned and ridiculed (a great way to encourage new users, BTW), but that's not how the moderators here operate. This thread – a continuation of a discontinued thread – happens to be one of the most viewed on the first page of the forum, so whether it's the train wreck effect, morbid curiosity or who-knows-what, people keep clicking in and commenting. I don't consider it my duty to shut down every topic I find silly; this is a community and therefore it is the duty of the community to ignore such threads and let them drift off into oblivion, rather than having little back-and-forth snarky whine sessions. I can't emphasize enough how easy it is to simply not click on or respond to a topic you find worthless. With that said, you guys have made it painfully clear that there's nothing else to be gained from this thread it's been locked. Next time someone wants to start a conversation about a serious issue like race, please make sure there's a worthwhile starting point.

The original thread popped up on a Saturday night, when we all happened to be busy. Detestable, I know. When John got home he posted a response and locked the thread. The next morning, someone starts a NEW thread continuing the topic, and now there's four pages of discussion on it. It's not our job to dictate what people talk about, only to moderate and keep things relatively clean. Obviously for whatever reason this is something people continually seem to want to discuss. I'm not sure why you're complaining about the site managers when you are the one that willfully made the decision to read through this thread despite knowing full well what you were getting into when you clicked on it.

I remember when Casilla was a rookie back in 2007, me and the family were down in Kansas City for a baseball road trip. One evening after a day game, we were walking a strip of stores and restaurants called The Plaza and we came across Casilla along with Luis Castillo and Carlos Silva. My mom called out and waved – the latter two were gruff and unpleasant but Casilla flashed a big smile and waved back wildly, excited to be recognized. He's always had that sort of exuberance and immaturity – endearing but probably a hindrance as it pertains to his ball-playing.

FYI, DPJ has been temporarily banned for repeatedly making racially insensitive comments after being asked not to do so. I really hate moderating and wish people wouldn't make me do it, but there's no place for words like "honkeys" and the N word (even if it's bleeped) on a baseball message board.

What he said was harmless, free of ill intentions and noticed by almost nobody. Delmon Young directly accosted a man on a public street and spewed racial epithets at him. That you could even compare the two proves that your attempts to take a position as being sensitive to racial issues is a complete joke. I think you should just drop this one. Nothing good is going to come from your futile attempts to demonstrate that a passing, banal remark in a TV broadcast is somehow evidence of Dick Bremer's deep-seeded racism.

I'm not sure why this conversation needed to continue.

Garnett's time here is widely looked back on with disappointment. Best player in franchise history, and only once in 12 years here was he surrounded with enough talent to get past the first round of the playoffs. People blamed it on his huge salary and its impact on the rest of the roster, as they do now with Mauer, but at the end of the day it was McHale's failure to make good moves and identify good complementary pieces that held Garnett back. Mauer is headed down a similar path, but his story isn't done being written yet.

You can view the page at http://www.twinsdaily.com/content.php?918-Twins-Must-Erase-Memories-of-Nishioka

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2010[/ATTACH]Tsuyoshi Nishioka, who was optioned to the minors today to make room for Trevor Plouffe, has probably played his last game in a Twins uniform. His memory will endure, however – probably for longer than the team would like. In a sense, you can't help but feel bad for the guy. He worked hard and tried his best, but in the end he couldn't cut it, and his demotion in the wake of an audition so horrendous it needed to be cut short after three games serves as a reminder of the most misguided decision in a blunder-filled Bill Smith era. The signing of Nishioka and the corresponding roster maneuvering – namely, trading J.J. Hardy for what amounted to nothing – were puzzling at the time and far worse in hindsight. It's not that the moves themselves have set the organization back irreversibly, as Nishioka's $3 million salary is hardly a massive burden and Hardy has come hurdling back to earth in year one of his new contract (though I'd argue he's still a decent value at $7 million). It's more that the thought process behind the decisions – the misplaced priorities, the awful player evaluation, the lack of long-term foresight – represented everything wrong with the front office under Smith. These weaknesses were also on display in moves like the Nick Blackburn extension, the Carl Pavano re-signing and the Matt Capps trade. Mixed in with a good hint of bad luck, this shaky leadership sent a thriving and annually competitive franchise to the very bottom. The Twins lost 99 games last year and they're on pace to lose 92 this year. If it pans out that way, it will be the worst two-year stretch for the club since the early '80s. The middle infield positions, which have been constant problem spots over the past decade, continue to be filled by stopgaps and marginal big-leaguers. And as long as that continues to be the case, people will remember Nishioka. Terry Ryan's job is to make them forget.