nowheresville

TR was right behind the plate, a few rows in front of the press box. He's here again today, same spot.

That was one of the strangest plays I've seen in a long time. I thought it was also quite amusing that after arguing with the umpire, Tommy stopped, while still in fair territory, and had a relatively long conversation with the Snappers 3rd baseman slightly delaying the game. One other interesting note, Terry Ryan was among those in the crowd last night in Beloit.

Torii was a fun player to watch, but can we please shut down any hint of retiring his number. Admittedly, I'm biased towards only retiring the numbers of the best of the best, and think the Twins have already gone overboard with retiring numbers, but Hunter really shouldn't even be in that discussion. The comparison to Blyleven isn't valid, as 28 was only retired because Bert made the HoF, and we can all agree that Torii will never be anything more than a spectator in Cooperstown. If Torii had spent his entire career in Minnesota, and was part of a World Championship team or two, I could see retiring his number, in the same way that Hrbek's number was retired, but a very good player who spent half his career elsewhere shouldn't be considered one of the best of the best in franchise history. If you're going to retire 48, then you have to look at retiring #4 (Allison), #2 (Versalles), #16 (Viola), #22 (Radke), and #33 (Morneau) who all had just as important of contributions to Twins History. Torii should be remembered for his place with the team, but the place to do it is with the Twins Hall of Fame, where I have no doubt he'll be a first ballot addition.

Congrats to the Lookouts: Southern League Champions! Kernels need another comeback, as they are down by 1 in the bottom of the 8th (for the 3rd straight day).

I'm a big fan of the 1 game wild card, for all the reasons others have mentioned. It rewards division winners, and a winner take all game is always going to have extra excitement. That's a whole lot more "fair" and adds more meaning to the regular system than giving a wild card team equal footing as a division winner. If you don't want to being eliminated from the post season after 1 game, then win your division. To me, the biggest problem with the post season right now is there are just too many off days. Teams never play more than 2 days in a row, From the start of the 5 game Division Series to the start of the LCS, a team gets a bare minimum of 3 days off. That's what really creates a completely different dynamic than a 162 game season. I'd start by dumping the second travel day of the DS and LCS. Even if the series goes the full 5/7 games, and you have a rain-out, there is still a travel day built in before the next round that can be used. It only eliminates two days off, but it's an easy place to start in a system where the fixed date World Series isn't going to change.

The Kernels will be playing West Michigan in the MWL finals, after the Whitecaps beat the Lansing Lugnuts tonight. This actually sets up a rematch of sorts of the 2007 MWL final, when the Whitecaps beat the Beloit Snappers in 5 games. This is the first time since that series that either the Twins or the Tigers affiliates have reached the finals. In the 2007 Finals, West Michigan won the first 2 games at home. The Snappers, lead by Joe Benson and Chris Parmalee, fought back to tie up the series, winning games 3 and 4 in Beloit, before falling in game five. The pitcher on the mound, getting the series clinching outs at the end of the game for the Whitecaps was Casey Fien.

I'd love to see Gardy end up in Milwaukee, if only for the humor value. Seeing Gardy paired back up with Gomez, Lohse, and Garza, along with watching him having to deal with National League rules would be comedy gold.

With Pelfrey starting on Saturday, the decision shouldn't be that hard. Do Kane Co. Saturday, then the Cell on Sunday. That's pretty much my plan, although I might do KC Friday Night instead of Saturday.

I'm sorry, I don't know how anyone could call the signing of Santana a "shifting mindset." This is the exact same move that the Twins management has been passing off for years now. The Twins need a top of the rotation arm, but they don't even consider that. Instead, they again go for the bargain bin, grabbing up yet another #3 arm, and expect the fans to celebrate that they've opened up the wallet because they've spent a whopping $55 Million bucks. BTW, While this will be the newest "biggest FA deal in Twins history," does anyone have any list of what each team's biggest FA deal is, because I've got to think that's still at or near the very bottom of all of MLB. It is important for the Twins to start spending money to get some talent back on the roster, but this is another move that seems much less about winning, than another smokescreen for a team that is struggling to keep fan interest and seems to have lost all interest in, or maybe just doesn't have the ability to, putting a winning team on the field.

He missed the bonus by 0.15%. Either you let him throw out of the bullpen, or you just pay him the money. The Twins are already known as a notoriously cheap organization, between that and the just dismal team they've fielded for 4 straight years, they are going to struggle as it is to get any Free Agents to agree to come here. A half million is a very small price to pay to make yourself a more attractive destination, and at the very least, make it a little easier to get Hughes to stick around again when his contract is up. Of course, that makes the assumption that the Twins have any desire to spend any money or even make an effort to improve the teams performance...

As a Beloit season ticket holder, i know exactly how you feel. It's got to be even worse, knowing the Twins are switching leagues, where at least I still get to see the team in town a few times a year and can head out to Iowa a few times a summer. After seeing the loyalty of the Twins, who frankly waited longer than they should have for a new stadium to pan out here, Beloit is now literally the last team standing. The only affiliation decision left, in any level of MiLB, is if Kane County will pick Oakland or Arizona, with Beloit getting the leftovers. I'm also curious about the future of NB's franchise. I don't really think Colorado is "happy" to be with the Rock Cats, rather they're just making the most of a bad situation. They got kicked out of Tulsa, and from what I could tell they were really hoping to get into Chattanooga, but the Lookouts picked the Twins. I suspect that the Rockies will try to get back into the Texas league in 2 years. Of course, the stadium situation will play a big role in how things play out too. If a new Hartford stadium is actually running in 2017, it will likely be much easier for them to lure an eastern team to Connecticut, but if the team is still in Limbo, they could be stuck with the leftovers again. I've only been out to New Britain once, but I enjoyed the trip. The stadium wasn't anything special, but it was still a nice place to catch a game, and I thought the staff did an excellent job. I hope they get things figured out relatively quickly up there.

As a Twins fan and Snappers season ticket holder, I certainly appreciate your work here as well. It certainly seems like the Twins have their foot out the door of Beloit, which is a shame considering that the number of Twins fans that have either visited, and created, since the Twins came in 2007. I now see as much, if not more, Twins gear than Snappers or even Brewers gear at most games now. The staff really has done a lot to promote the affiliation with the Twins, and despite the subpar stadium, it seems like it has been a good relationship for the past 6 years. I would be curious as to where the Twins might go. It doesn't seem like there are a ton of other good options. Cedar Rapids would make the most sense, if its available, but I don't see many other options. QC already kicked them out of town to get the Cardinals, I'm sure Peoria wants to keep the Cubs, the Brewers are happy in Appleton, Kane County and Burlington just swapped 2 years ago, which only leaves Clinton in the MVL West. I really like watching games in Clinton, but I'm not sure their facilities would be big step up from Beloit. That leaves the MWL east, or heading south. I don't see baseball leaving Beloit anytime soon, especially since the team is community owned and has been in the Black the past few years. But, much like 2006, I suspect they will end up getting the team that is without a partner when the music stops. From my understanding, that's pretty much how the Twins ended up in Beloit in the first place during the last big MWL affiliate shakeup. But I will continue to hope that Terry Ryan will decide to step up and keep the Twins in his hometown!