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Old Twins Cap

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  1. Watch him run sometime. It's like a guy who is running in glue and fighting to advance. He is extremely muscle-bound. Not lumbering exactly but way over produced. My prediction is that he will have a hard time staying on the field and in the lineup. Might make a great trade candidate if he looks like a true slugger with bad luck injuries. At 23, life should be about fluidity. He seems like a dancer ossifying into a statue.
  2. Wee bit early to waste electrons on a muscle pull.
  3. Two things the Yankees did not like about Nunez: he makes errors on routine plays, and, he will swing early in the count and not take walks. There is a reason he was dropped from their roster.
  4. Let's not forget: China is a communist country, and a much more tangible threat to the United States. That sure doesn't keep us from "exchange" with China on any level. As in: they are our biggest trade partner. So, what's the problem exactly with Cuba? It's not about communism or consistency or threat. It's about politics. Which is about power and money and influence. The people of Cuba have been pummeled for 50 years. And the people of America have been bamboozled for at least that long. Tear down that wall Mr. Gorbachev. Let's play ball!
  5. Cuba is a pretty small island, and has had an outsized influence on American foreign policy for decades, mainly because of our domestic need to paint communism as a bogey man due to our own insecurities. They certainly aren't a threat in any physical sense, but they have structured their society differently, around education, local food and health care -- not materialism -- and I suppose that's enough for some to advocate dropping the bomb on them. Thank God they love baseball, because, in the end, that will be their greatest ambassadorship. Interesting intersection between baseball, culture and politics. Over time, Americans will realize that our ideology about Cuba was more of the same from the US government: propaganda propped up by people who stood to gain. We couldn't have hated a nicer population if we tried.
  6. I think the change in mindset is this: The Pohlads have a ton of money. Like, billions. Do they want to sit by and watch their major investment (the Twins) languish while they have all their dough locked up in Wall Street? Or, do they take some liquid assets and put them into ballplayers. Now they have a couple hundred million in ballplayer contracts. But, guess what? They can trade these chips for other things. If the Twins stink up Target Field the fifty million in Nolascos and Santanas become something else entirely at the trade deadline. I think the Pohlads finally realize that baseball contracts are not fixed assets but more like commodities or stocks that go up and down, perform well or poorly and can be cashed in, dealt or inflate greatly in value. It's time the Twins get in the pool and play with the big boys. This year or next, if Nolasco is doing well, or Santana, or Hughes, and the Twins have a surplus of hurlers, they can cash one or two of them in and get all their money back in talent, while dumping their millions in liability on the Yanks.
  7. Who doesn't want Mauer to return to being Mauer? The question is: what's holding Joe back? I sure get tired of watching little plunk shots to left field from a number 3 hitter. Bloops, duck snorts and jam shots, sometimes counted as doubles. Joe's defenders have to deal with his increasing K % and his inability to drive the ball. Those two combined are a pretty devastating combination that can't be explained away or corrected. My personal opinion is that Joe was a phenom at a young age, three sports, could have been a college quarterback, never struck out in high school (ok, just once). You don't get that level of excellence by chance. Your mind, your body, it all comes together there at a young age in a kid who is 6' 5". A legitimate number one draft choice. Wins three batting titles in his early MLB career. Great athlete all around. He could easily be someone whose abilities peaked at a young age. Instead of declining on the normal Bell Curve, Joe is winding down at his own pace, a little early, a little more steeply than others of his caliber. Sometimes life goes that way. It's not fair, and it may not be right. But, the star sure burned bright in the early days.
  8. It means their pitchers are lousy.
  9. Kind of odd to worry about the scraps of the Twins roster when it comes to the 40-man and Rule 5 draft. People, relax. We are one of the worst teams in baseball. Our back end is not appreciated, and not going anywhere -- certainly not going to lift a team, especially one better than us, to a World Series or playoffs. Our parking lot is full of cheap Mazdas and untested KIAs. There are no Rumplestiltskins waiting for their moment in MLB. The most important thing now is to purge. Purge often, purge deep. That is what a rebuilding team does.
  10. Give a new manager a chance to be.... a new manager. Anyone beside Gardy is good with me. Molitor is familiar to the clubhouse, knows the players, their skill-sets, where he sees weaknesses -- on the whole, that's probably a good thing. It's his team now, and he will have to live with the good and the bad of it. Obviously, there's been a lot of bad.
  11. I love the posters who claim that the Twins will "never spend more than 2 million on a manager". Well, they are spending 2 million next year to make sure Gardy is not their manager. There is no where else to go but above 2M. And that's the best investment they've made in a long time.
  12. Am I the only one who recalls some lurid revelations about Molitor's off-field life? Haven't seen anything about that in these last months, but at the time it came out, I thought it was pretty damning and pretty much a disqualifier. But, maybe I'm wrong. The more tabloidy stuff all runs together at a certain point.
  13. Jake Reed has pitched 36 innings in his pro career and given up only 1 earned run, and the Twins want to do what? Stash him somewhere in the minor leagues because they have three more years before they have to protect him from the Rule 5. Watch the World Series and see what the Royals do with their 1st Round Pick this year. Man. No words for that kind of thinking.
  14. The trend away from televisions and cable subscriptions is large and unmistakeable. Like a lot of broadcasters and content providers, MLB is skirting the issue, while at the same time, trying to make as much money as possible from the existing system. I have no TV. I will never have one again. I suspect that in the very near future, that will be the norm. I am happy to pay for content, like baseball, and subscribe to MLB.com. But, the kicker is that the one team I would like to watch, I can't. In places like Iowa, subscribers cannot access the Twins, the Brewers and both Chicago teams. The fact is, there is revenue out there to be made if someone can figure out how to allow local subscribers, who will never consume content on broadcast or cable television, to pay to watch play their favorite baseball team.
  15. Molitor not a great candidate because of the "woman thing" in his recent past. Martinez seems to bridge some gaps -- young enough, Latino enough, smart enough, with a good enough pedigree. But, Twins don't really go "outside" the organization very often, as in, not in the last three decades. That's one of the problems of being an overly insular, cautious organization that doesn't have turnover: you end up with pretty much the same thing every time. Who looks, sounds and acts the most like Gardy?
  16. Accountability at last. The buck has to stop somewhere. Go ahead and research: When was the last time a manager had four straight 90-loss seasons and a team brought him back in an effort to make it five? This isn't a charity operation, and there should be no sacred cows. An organization must have some level of accountability or no one will expect things to change or get better.
  17. I had season tickets a couple of years ago, and as this article mentions, selling them on Stub Hub had become impossible for the entire month of September. But, the main thing is, going to a baseball game is supposed to be relaxing, it's a form of entertainment. Invariably, I would leave Target Field in a WORSE MOOD than when I left home seeking entertainment and relaxation. The Twins ARE THAT BAD. At that point, given all the other venues for having a good time in the Twin Cities, going to a Twins game plunges to the bottom of the list. And that's where they sit, sadly incapable of noticing that they are ripping the heart out of their fan base.
  18. Tough to root for your team to lose, but, if it means a quicker route to your team being able to win, well, that's the spot we are in.
  19. Wilson Ramos. Still makes me cry when I watch him play.
  20. Used to be the Twins didn't have any prospects worth bringing up, and, the ones they did bring up were sub-standard and got shelled. Now, apparently, the Twins prospects are too good to bring up, because the Twins will lose the benefit of their service time. And, since the Twins are a lousy team, why bring them up? In the end, it's never quite the right fit between the Twins and their prospects, so no matter how much we relish the prospect of.... prospects, the Twins will find a reason why it just doesn't work. Getting a little tired of all the games without prospects. It's like we don't even have any prospects, Or maybe not an MLB team. I can't decide which.
  21. Funniest, or really, saddest thing about Parmelee and the Twins: he was actually left for other teams to claim after Spring Training so that the Twins could keep.... wait for it.... Jason Bartlett on their roster -- a guy who hit less than .100 in Florida, had been out of the league for two years, and who lasted all of, what, three weeks? It's not just that the Twins are out of options, it's that they have made incredibly poor decisions up and down the roster this year. Alas, the fourth year in a row, and yes, we will forget by the end of the season that they ever had a chance because they never really did.
  22. As a long time teacher, I hope the Twins realize that you don't EVER give up on a young person. There's always a chance, probably a decent chance, that someone like Hicks can turn it around. In this case, between Santana and Buxton, there's a good chance we don't need Hicks. But, his development is still crucial, as a trade chip or a fill-in or a regular. In other words, the Twins should not allow their disappointment in Hicks to distract them from the goal at hand: develop this kid, make him a ball player, whatever it takes.
  23. Brilliant article. Tovar was a very fun player to watch in the early 70s. Billy Martin was right: he could beat you in so many ways, with his glove, his legs, his bat, his "je ne sais quoi" -- you knew he was a competitor and might do anything, at any time, including stealing home. I will always remember his name with great fondness -- that baseball is a sport made up of unique individuals, big, small, fat, skinny -- the works -- with 5' 5" Cesar Tovar being one of the great representatives -- heart, soul and determination.
  24. Prolly the last MLB player that I can say I had as a student in high school. Nice kid, nice family, and, at one time, was a hell of a good pitcher. You go Pat!
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