Reginald Maudling's Shin

Very detailed in his analysis. For anyone who wonders why prospects need to spend ~3-4 years in the minors, this is the type of article they need to read in order to get educated about the process.

This is what came to mind for me: Rickey (Vince Coleman had literally no power, I think Buxton will be able to do better than VC in that department). If his speed is as advertised he can be that big of a weapon. You have to love players that have a skill set or ability so unique that they can do something that no one else can. It's very exciting to have that type of player in the system.

Prediction? Pain. *Probably for us Viking fans.

2013 MN Viking starting QB Tim Tevow.

No personal insult exists in my post. When my 5 year old boy tells me he can't eat his veggies "because he can't", that's the analogy that came to mind when you insist the Twins can't sign free agents because the Twins aren't good enough to lure free agents. That argument, not you the poster, is juvenile.

The problem is, the weapons identified as assault rifles are not that different than those used for hunting. If by assault rifle you mean a fully automatic rifle then we would all be in agreement (but those are already banned). People seem to want to ban so-called assault rifles because they "look mean". The rifle used by Lanza was about the same caliber as one I used as a teen to hunt squirrels. Are we going to ban .22s now? There is absolutely no nuance in the gun control debate from leftists like Feinstein who want to register every single firearm in the USA. That's why people are pissed off. I don't agree with bans on semiautomatic rifles, nor do I agree with bans on limiting magazine capacities, mainly because they won't do anything. None of these proposed weapons bans will have any effect at all on the next mass murder. You know it and I know it. So let's stop pretending like politicians like Feinstein are trying to help keep people safe here. She and her ilk have a philosophical issue with people owning guns at all.

You are defending the Twins inability to sign free agents "because they can't?" It sounds like a small child is making this argument. This is major league sports, the athletes go where the money is. If you can't accept that fact, I don't know what else to say. You are suggesting the Twins are somehow not responsible for the makeup of their own roster because they aren't any good. They are responsible, in every aspect, of the product they put on the field. Being lousy is no excuse for being cheap in free agency. They do not deserve any sort of free pass or excuse for not getting players to sign here. It is not because they are lousy, it's because they don't want to spend what it takes to sign these players.

They still have a small market mentality. They should have done everything possible to move Cuddyer and Kubel before the 2011 deadline but didn't (I suspect they feared a mini-fan backlash for trading away "fan favorites" in the middle of the season). Last year they tried to patch together a winning team instead of blowing it up and rebuilding. Now they face the inevitability of another losing season and are haggling over 5% of the payroll on a critical part of the team. It appears they are trying to patch another team together that's just good enough to keep people interested. The one thing the last few years should tell us is that you can never have enough pitching. Overpaying for a starting pitcher who actually has value is a much better investment and will make a lot better impact on the bottom line (i.e. ticket sales) than the bargain basement approach they have chosen.

...and ends with a Nikki Sixx-style heroin induced coma.

Good to know I'm not alone in still hating that pick.

Unfortunately they may win. At this point, knowing they have no shot at the postseason (or more importantly doing anything in the postseason) all wins now will do is hurt their draft position and help Frazier and Musgrave keep their jobs. I have zero confidence in these two and very little in Ponder.

FIP is an empirical equation, i.e. "let's put some numbers together until they make sense". I don't like using empirical equations in every circumstance. I have other engineers who give me designs to review based on empirical equations all the time that don't make sense. I wonder how to quantify and prove the idea that sustained low BABIP from non-strikeout pitchers equates to a skill. Here are the pitchers last year with an FIP-ERA>0.5: [TABLE] Name Team W L GS IP K/9 BB/9 HR/9 BABIP ERA FIP xFIP WAR FIP-ERA Jeremy Hellickson Rays 10 11 31 177 6.31 3.00 1.27 0.261 3.10 4.60 4.44 1.0 1.5 Jered Weaver Angels 20 5 30 188.2 6.77 2.15 0.95 0.241 2.81 3.75 4.18 3.0 0.94 Jason Vargas Mariners 14 11 33 217.1 5.84 2.28 1.45 0.254 3.85 4.69 4.45 0.8 0.84 Matt Harrison Rangers 18 11 32 213.1 5.61 2.49 0.93 0.284 3.29 4.03 4.13 3.8 0.74 Kyle Lohse Cardinals 16 3 33 211 6.1 1.62 0.81 0.262 2.86 3.51 3.96 3.6 0.65 Ross Detwiler Nationals 10 8 27 164.1 5.75 2.85 0.82 0.263 3.40 4.04 4.34 1.8 0.64 Clayton Richard Padres 14 14 33 218.2 4.4 1.73 1.28 0.272 3.99 4.62 4.16 0.2 0.63 Matt Cain Giants 16 5 32 219.1 7.92 2.09 0.86 0.259 2.79 3.40 3.82 3.8 0.61 Jordan Zimmermann Nationals 12 8 32 195.2 7.04 1.98 0.83 0.288 2.94 3.51 3.78 3.5 0.57 Hiroki Kuroda Yankees 16 11 33 219.2 6.84 2.09 1.02 0.281 3.32 3.86 3.67 3.9 0.54 R.A. Dickey Mets 20 6 33 233.2 8.86 2.08 0.92 0.275 2.73 3.27 3.27 4.6 0.54 Aaron Harang Dodgers 10 10 31 179.2 6.56 4.26 0.7 0.277 3.61 4.14 4.95 1.5 0.53 [/TABLE] Most of these pitchers are low strikeout guys, which makes sense since FIP is strongly related to K's. But can we say pitchers like Jered Weaver and Dickey (who excepting for this year has had low K-rates) have the skills to cause poorly hit balls?

Did they ever figure out what happened to Benson last year? I'm surprised he's being considered for the starting CF gig. Maybe this is a motivational tool? I guess with the Twins org still having a crowded OF, if he can't help the MLB club in the next year or two he never will.

Alex Smith isn't the answer. There is a reason he's been benched in favor of Kaepernick. He never, ever throws the ball downfield. Ask yourself this:Why would a legit super bowl contending team go to a completely unproven rookie over a 6-year veteran at the most important position on the field?

What's the point? As long as these jerks are around they'll reach for another QB. They need to clean house. This is the only org in sports that ****cans its HC only to hire his top assistant. I nominate David Shaw from Stanford.

Ponder looks like he has no clue what to do in the pocket but the o-line is still terrible. These are not mutually exclusive statements.

I think they need about 3 more o-linemen before they should consider reaching for another "franchise" QB.

That's why New York and California are completely out of play for republicans? The huge nanny states that are going broke? Romney's "point" in this is correct: He will never get the people dependent on government to vote for him. It is sad that so many people have no income tax liability. If they made it 100% that would truly be "fair" not Obama's marxist definition of fair. How anyone can vote for this inept clown of a president is beyond me. For the first time I can remember the republicans are actually nominating someone who has been successful in life but he's being demonized by liberals because he's rich (and worse yet, people are buying into it). No wonder we have ****ty presidents.

What is the urgency here? Mastroianni is a good 4th outfielder, not a guy whose bat needs to be in the lineup every day. Just wait a couple years until Eddie Rosario is ready.

Sports talk radio-Twin Cities style. Knockin' down those strawmen since the 90's.

There is no one better than Blackburn? BJ friggin Hermsen could replicate Blackburn's "production" over the past few years. Blackburn provides nothing a Manshipian AAA/AAAA guy can't give you at this point. This $5 Million is a sunk cost. If Twins want to behave like a small market team and trot him out there every 5 days to save 5% of the payroll then I'll be disappointed. I'd rather give Baker and his bloody stump of an arm a shot as well.

Quite frankly I think the PCL has no other options right now and that's the only reason the Vegas team still exists. Casinos pay for everything else so sure, they could help out. As far as I know Steve Wynn could buy them tomorrow if he wanted to. I think the smartest thing for them to do is have their leadership stop dreaming about an NBA team and try and get private money into a nice AAA facility. They don't need any taxpayer money, the economy is lousy (based entirely on the housing market outside of the casinos) anyway so that wouldn't fly. If the folks there want to eventually get a major league sports franchise they should invest in the AAA team, put a new stadium next to the strip (you know, where the people are with the money to spend) then show that will work. It will, because they draw fairly well at Cashman which is in an area so bad taxis won't go there.

You should be rooting for Ponder to stay healthy and just suck as he more then likely will. If he gets hurt then the fron office is just gonna give him another season and a bunch of excuses. I'm rooting for Ponder to stay healthy, start all 16 and make Tarvaris look like Johnny U. Yeah, they're going to give him 2 more years at least. Injuries would only prolong the evaluation period. I don't know if Ponder will be any good or not, and with this bastard remnant of the kickass offense where they refuse to throw the ball down field nobody else will know until his contract is up. I'm sure he looks awesome in practice against Viking defensive backs though. I have a better scenario: Ponder looks terrible first 5 games, Frazier flips out and goes to Joe Webb, who sucks equally. The rest of the year plays out with musical chairs lousy QBs, the Wilfs clean house and hire someone to hire someone to run the show. BTW why do you fire a coach and keep his top assistant? Who does that? (Sorry that's last years argument but still frustrating.)

I concur with all of this. I lived in Vegas for 6 years, went to one game in late April, it was upper 90's and still miserable. Felt like it was about 6 blocks from the sun. They have the metal bleachers that are designed to melt your pants to your rear end. Vegas really screwed up here. They messed around trying to lure an NBA team with a plans to build a shiny new 20,000 seat arena when they should have taken care of their only existing professional franchise.

I agree with you as well. Ryan speaks to the minority of the electorate. The minority that actually pays taxes. Personally I could give a **** less what they guy down the street is paying, but evidently I'm in the vast minority there. If we don't get a hold on spending, especially (but not only) entitlement spending, tax rates will not matter. I am glad Ryan had the balls to take on the issue. I just hope people don't dismiss Romney out of pure jealousy and envy of his worth, because it looks like that's the direction Obama has chosen to move his campaign. Taxes are essentially a giant game of chicken now anyways. The more you raise them the more people will try to get out of them. The only "fair" tax is a flat rate with no BS deductions, credits, etc. Steve Forbes had this figured out 25 years ago, but my guess is the Democrats and Republicans can't resist taking this issue off the table since they both think they are right, squabbling over the relatively small amounts the majority of us actually end up paying while taxing/borrowing and spending us into oblivion.