bird

Okay. For the curious among you, ....Oh. That's right. Never mind.

Okay. I choose Arvid. No reason in particular.

How much do you want for it?

And I just don't know how I'm going to handle the boundless euphoria from one day followed by the debilitating blues the next day here on May 6th.

avian flu< all else

Great discussion and a comprehensive collective articulation of the problem that's causing this quagmire. In terms of reducing or even solving this quagmire, as a GM, I'd be engaged in this line of thinking: A. ADJUSTING HIS APPROACH. I'm dealing with a $23M annual expense that has a huge impact on the top line sales in a $1B annual business. Therefore, I've already verified that considerable energy has been put into trying to fix this costly problem that even the people over on TD can readily see just by watching games and glancing at a few spray charts. Now, because my coaches can't coach Mauer into making the necessary adjustments (and remember, I fired Bruno), and because Mauer either refuses to adjust or can't adjust, I now accept the problem as unfixable. We have stopped expecting a new approach. Mauer isn't going to change and the problem most likely will get worse. B. ALTERNATIVE ASSETS. Okay, my people tell me they have certain hopes for Vargas, Park, and even Palka for 2017 and 2018. Beyond that, we can't fully foresee, but they keep mentioning a hope that a light bulb goes off for this Lewin Diaz kid. And since all the talk was this hope stuff, I even tried to partially solve the quagmire myself by signing that Napoli guy, who, as an important aside, would have actually been a fun guy for the players and someone who would project some energy out to the fans too. So finally, it looks like this Vargas guy could supplant Mauer. Time to sit Molitor down and get a clear understanding of how he's thinking about these things. I'm very concerned that I'm going to have to do a lot of the talking, because I agree with a bunch of those TD people. At best, we need to give up some of Mauer's superlative defense in favor of an exciting power bat. Or two, even, if Park turns out to be the real deal. This needs to happen now. I've lowered my opinion of my manager at this point. C. LINEUP CONSTRUCTION. Speaking of lower opinions, I'm going to step in and put an end to this nonsense. I mean, does my manager really think the fact that Mauer doesn't strike out as much serves as a deterrent to walking Sano? I'm walking that beast to face a .250 singles hitter who lets my defense play on a half-field almost automatically. If my manager wants Mauer in the lineup against righties and for his defense, then he's damn well going to adjust his lineup construction. So we're going to have a meeting of the minds right now 1) about just how often Mauer sits, 2) about where he and Castro fit best in a lineup and 3) about who, if it's not Vargas, is going to make the opposition think twice about walking Sano. D. 2018 AND BEYOND. I've already concluded that Mauer won't be with us in 2019. The question I'm going to answer during 2017 is whether he makes my roster in 2018, quite frankly, and if so, I've already determined in my own mind that it will be in a drastically reduced role. I've already decided that either Vargas and/or Park and/or Palka get past the hope stuff. If none of them are considered to be a reliable and superior alternative to Mauer as a 1B regular, we're going outside the system for one over the winter. But in any case, Mauer will not be our regular 1B in 2018. In conclusion, I'm reducing the Mauer Quagmire by immediately reducing his role in 2017 in two ways, accelerating that role reduction for certain in 2018, and possibly eliminating the quagmire altogether in 2018. My focus is on top-line sales. That $23M is already sunk.

I wish YOU had been asked the question. Great answer.

To the left fielder, who doesn't have to run to catch it. Or to the shortstop stationed where the second baseman should be.

According to the advanced stats, Rendon just won them four games.

yesh...hic

Because their parents insisted on scheduling toilet time.

Those are good names to suggest, and I think you and I will agree that the merits of advancing them back then would have been worthy of some debate. I'm not picking on you, just see too many right versus wrong comments about these decisions, you know?

Exactly. Looking at it in context, if we recall that Tonkin was drafted in the 40th round, we might think of him as a Twins success story instead of as just another example of draft and development failure.

Who were these healthy options last year that got passed by? I want names. And the list as of April 1, 2017. Who was healthy that would have inarguably been a better choice? And no, stop that, that is NOT an appeal to authority. No one said "so they are right." However, i will suggest that we should acknowledge our own ignorance, yours and mine alike. We so often state opinions in a tone as if it's so obvious we're right and the other guy is a dunderhead. Who are we to say a sound judgment wasn't made that Tonkin was a better bet at season's start (and it is a bet) than, say, Hildenberger? We can lament the results without always finding fault with a decision. Avoiding fault-finding has nothing to do with some sort of appeal to authority. That said, I admit it, I trust the judgment of the Twins field staff a lot more that the opinion about a decision from my pals here on TD, and I can do this without pretending the Twins never screw up..

Well, Mike, I suppose they could have brought Burdi and Melo up last year even though they couldn't pitch due to injury. The Cubs and the Astros have zero relevance to a discussion about Tonkin, or about the readiness of Wimmers, Hildenberger, Melo, Shaggy, Burdi, Reed, Jay, Bard, Tepesch, or any other prospect to be a better alternative. You've been wrong about there being absolutely no reason for Breslow and Tonkin to be here instead of any one of these guys mentioned above. At least according to the Twins field people. The good news? You're probably about to be right.

People tend to either forget or ignore what's been going on with this group of relievers. The operative word in your first sentence is "now", and that word might still be premature for a couple of these prospects who are thankfully beginning to get their sea legs after long absences. It gets a little tiring to read comments that hint that guys like Burdi and Melotakis have been needlessly languishing for a long time and should have been promoted months ago. None of the prospects we're talking about were a better option for this bullpen at the beginning of the year than the players who made the team. None of them, even Shaggy. I'm not sure Hildenberger doesn't surface here and look like an even dumber idea than Tonkin. These prospects will be here soon. They're not still in the minors because the Twins field staff is making a handful of simultaneously stupid decisions about them.

We may need to prepare ourselves for a season-long crescendo of free passes to the man. Be for real, Mr. Vargas. You too, Mr. Park.

This is also my interpretation of the team's past actions. Top 10 guys when their opinion and opportunity meshed (Sano, Javier, Minier, Diaz etc), high bidder at times, usually when the bidding was less crowded (Thorpe, Kepler, Hu, Park), and finding quality among a quantity of signings with decent consistency (Romero, Arcia, Jorge, many others). But always essentially spending their allotment. The bidding for Luis Robert, despite the restrictions placed on a third of the teams, will be aggressive and will be won by some team who has enormous conviction about him and is motivated by the timing of the opportunity more than most, and I'm fearful the Whities are that team.

I'm really surprised that Scott Schebler is struggling.

I don't want to talk about Stewart. So, when my daughter was an 18-year-old freshman at BC, she called me after her first day of classes and said some dumb jock (her words) sat down next to her in a class and started hitting on her. She asked him, "How old are you, 26? And what are you doing here?" The guy proceeded to tell her he made it to AA with the Twins before an injury ended his promising baseball career. It was Shinskie. Thanks to Seth, I was able to give her a few facts about his minor league path, and she had a little fun with him the next day reciting some rather unflattering numbers, which I, as a father, was careful to cherry-pick. Shinskie dated one of her roomies for awhile, and while his QB stint at BC was also short-lived, he did in fact graduate. I think they're still FB friends.

Well I've been a prince and you know I've been a post By a barbed wire fence and a murder of crows ---Amos Lee, El Camino Springsteen. Meh.

Eating lots and lots of crows is murder.

Could be, Jerr. But only if it's a really harsh, toneless, almost metallic buzzing sound. Like Springsteen's music. Kidding. Emmylou Harris's cover of Racing in the Street is nice. Texas Grackles in chorus create more of a rattling sound rather than a buzz, and they build things up to where the sound has been described as that of a flushing toilet. No kidding.

I suppose you're right, Vanimal. The Branch Davidians are a fun group for example. I'll keep an open mind about braised racoon. Do you have a favorite roadside diner to recommend?

Chargois/Burdi/Melo is a good add to a wish list.