bird

Good point to bring up. However, I think it might be more accurate to just say fans would be declaring the bust to be their team's fault with no mention of the role of the prospect.

Speaking of Uranus, how many homers do you think they'll get out of Alberts Pujol?

The whole baseball world would be atwitter.

One way? I got this one, Mike.

You've got to ****ting me. This is insanely bad luck.

Apparently your stat sheet of his paltry 89 ABs doesn't have an injury column. The rest of us are accounting for this.

Given the 80% plus bust rate for second round selections, I'd suggest that the Twin's record involving the 13 second round decisions since 2005 isn't that bad if you're judging the quality of the decisions themselves. Nine of them are still putting on a uniform somewhere. Obviously, it's too early to judge Rortvedt, Miranda, and Badoo, but the reports are pretty good, excepting Rortvedt's struggles with the bat. We've been unlucky with Burdi, Melotakis, and Chargois, all of whom were expected to arrive by now and be impactful. Joe Benson eventually petered out, and Tyler Ladendorf fetched us RA Dickey I think, and got a cuppa joe with the A's. Bullock got hurt, Madison Boer I believe had struggles with addiction. Eades and Goodrum probably never make it past AAA, and that leaves good old Danny Rams. But yes, Slowey was an excellent pick back in 2005.

How come I have this nagging suspicion that someone out there has just glossed over your *He was not?

Who can explain to me what this "bunching" stuff is?

I would imagine it comes down to this for the Twins as well.

Au contrere. I'll remember him. Hell, I still remember Bruce Look.

Not necessarily. Any decision about Giminez's expendability will be almost 100% qualitative and based on things we as fans never see. Think about how often we're hearing players, when interviewed, mention all the things that we can't measure. It's a remarkably constant theme. I listened to Rosario and then Buxton in just the last couple of days and their comments have me wondering about just how much better things are around the clubhouse these days in terms of those intangibles like culture, chemistry, leadership, and brotherhood. If their belief is that Giminez is a major contributor to how well his pitchers are absorbing the pre-game reports, and if the pitchers love working with him, and if the clubhouse is more relaxed and positive because of him, why make a change for someone who isn't likely to be a really significant difference-maker? Maybe that's what you already have, statistics aside. Garver's no season savior.

Please elaborate.

A flame-throwing relief pitcher hurt? Huh.

You are (almost) all invited to the Twins Relief Pitcher Pity Party. It will be held in a windowless back room of a Red Lobster, but don't sweat it, the people-watching, were we to actually have windows, would be of those coming and going from a Jo Ann Fabrics across the parking lot here in the city voted Most Depressing City in Minnesota 5 out of the past 6 years. (Do not let the irony escape you). Admittance will require you to at least jury-rig some other jersey with a masking tape name of any of the following 25 relief pitchers whose promise was at one time greater than it is today: Nick Burdi, Jake Reed, JT Chargois, Corey Williams, Alex Wimmers, Madison Boer, DJ Baxendale, Hudson Boyd, Luke Bard, Ben Tootle, Randy Rosario, Billy Bullock, Felix Jorge, Matt Bashore, Mason Melotakis, Shooter Hunt, Tyler Jay, Carlos Gutierrez, Zack Jones, Jay Rainville, Cam Booser, Matthew Fox, Mike Cedaroth, Kyle Waldrop, and Glen Perkins. Potential guests will be hook up to a lie detector and will be required to say that, yes, there has been plenty of of bad luck involved. And duh, you'll need to pass the test. We will not be serving any of the delicious Red Lobster seafood. Refreshments will consist of a small dixie cup of Concord's Grape Juice and a tasteless sugar cookie to help keep the bad vibe of the party going.

It's encouraging that you can find 30+ prospects more promising than this group, especially considering that: 1) Four of them have entered the conversation about possibly being roster additions some time in 2017 (Hildenberger, Melotakis, Slegers, and Rosario); 2) Three of them are LHRP who can bring it in the mid to upper 90's (Melo, Robinson, and Rosario); 3) #35 is a two-time RP of the year (Hildenberger)

There's more than one way to skin a cat, and certainly the strategy is dictated to an extent by what a team has for tradable assets. The CWS appear to be executing to near perfection. To me, the most important lesson to be learned is to get paid handsomely for your current assets.The Whities should be grateful for the generosity they've been shown. An admirable year of transactions for them!

We shouldn't ignore historical context. The team basically was short about 8 needle-movers and had about eleventeen holes to fill. Had Ryan ignored the Josh Willinghams and instead opted for some $51M "difference-maker", that guy would have been high-fiving about eleventeen empty uniforms after every loss and the needle would have moved even further in the wrong direction.

I have a theory about this that I think is borne out by both Terry Ryan's words, his actions, and what we think we know about his nature. I believe the organization, even before Ryan was influential, had determined that as a small market team (which at one time it was), it wasn't in a position to compete in auction-style bids. This is why they were not a factor in Japan. They instead established a beachhead in Australia and dabbled in some other less-travelled areas. I think Ryan extended that mindset to the Cuban market when it opened up, again because of his personal distaste for auction bids, and was able to convince his bosses that the organization could find talent elsewhere and avoid the risks and the costs involved with those high-profile Cuban players. It will be interesting to see if that changes.

You can never have too much....never mind, that's pitching.

Sounds like if they sign Romero they'd best enroll everyone they expect to come into contact with him in anger management classes.

More OF buffoonery yet.

I'm guessing three things have already happened: 1) The coaches, once again, have been making Rosario sit down and go through the video of one AB after another, good and bad. They know his swing % and O%, and so does Rosario. 2) The field staff and FO have discussed their current assessments regarding the readiness and projections for Granite and Palka, probably Wade as well, and have concluded that, for the time being, the team is better off with Rosario and Grossman. 3) Their patience with Rosario's failure to adjust his approach is waning. It certainly wouldn't surprise me if, longer term, they expect Rosario to be a 4th OF on a championship-caliber team, either here or elsewhere.

Perhaps this announcer would know that had he gone to high school?

Not so much work-related, but baseball-related. We were the unlucky ones who had to sit through history lessons taught by a totally incompetent and lazy teacher. Even we knew that she'd pulled out her lesson plan from two decades ago and then dragged it out over several days so she could avoid digging around for the next one. The subject was that ruthless Conquistador Francisco Pizzaro. The guy who cruelly destroyed the Incan Empire to load up on its gold and silver. After testing us, the old bag gave us a writing assignment to do in class so she could waddle off somewhere and do nothing. So, here we are, bored to death, now told to write about this guy after being tested rather thoroughly already on our comprehension of about a days worth of material drizzled on us for over a week. On a dare from my pals, I volunteered to be one of the students to read their report in front of the class. With a serious face, I began to read my report about a relief pitcher named Juan Pizzaro, his illustrious seasons with the Cubs and his subsequent journeys to other cities to conquer new batters. The old bat didn't notice. Sat there, reading something behind her desk. Until I got further into it, describing Juan's violent death in a Cleveland motel room, which did not actually happen, to include aspects of his ancestor Francisco's violent death at the hands of invaders of his castle in Lima. You know, because swords and killing and a final act of drawing the cross across the carpet in Room B103. She bleated something at me, and I said, gee, I guess I got confused about which Pizzaro we were learning about. Amidst the laughter, a red-faced Mrs. G. scribbled a note and sent me to the Principal. After hearing my story, and telling me how well-written my Juan Pizzaro report was and talking a little baseball, Mr. T. the Principal sent me back down with a note saying I had been duly reprimanded, and would Mrs. G. kindly stop by his office on her next break to explain exactly which part of Francisco Pizarro's story was not well-learned by the students in her class. My mom howled about this. We were glad the year was almost over. As was Mrs. G.