bird

No clue as to why you would think any of those numbers are relevant to this team this year.

re: Duffey a. He was lousy for a long while there. Now, when you look at his decent starts, he's giving us what we should expect from a decent start. I see IP's of 6,6,8,6.2, 7,7. I think it's fair to expect better than 6 innings most of the time, in other words. Duffey doesn't present us with a problem of running out of gas. He presented an even bigger problem though, and that was short starts when he was going bad. The point being made in here was that perhaps he's put those inconsistencies behind him.

Looks like Tampa Bay is ruining him too.

I love this!

Very good point.

Just noticed the Chattanooga Lookouts won 1-0. Losing pitcher was Joe Nathan.

Thanks for starting the thread, Chief, and especially for bringing up the Pro Bowling Hall of Fame, an absolute must-see destination trip for all. I'm fondly recalling my favorite athlete, the flamboyant Guppy Troup. I'm sure everyone will agree that it's a total travesty that Guppy has never been inducted into the Hall of Fame in Arlington. The Gene Larkin Cooperstown slight pales in comparison, quite frankly.

If Ryan had acted earlier, I can imagine this conversation: Dave Dombrowski: Hey Terry, tell me what you guys are thinking about that knucklehead Arcia. You gonna dump him like you did Ortiz? Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh.... Terry: Go ahead and laugh, Dumbo. I'll have you know that our Madagascar Area Scout still projects him to become the NEXT David Ortiz. Just crazier, which, um, we don't like here. Dave: Isn't that the scout who pitched you guys Willie Banks and Levi Michael? Heh heh heh heh.... Terry: Yeah, and Michael Tonkin too, smart guy. And maybe you forgot, but Willie had a great career here for us. So, what does YOUR guy say about Arcia? Dave: Glad you asked. My guy calls him Delmon Young Lite With A Slightly Better Disposition. Terry: Yeah, right. What does YOUR young whippersnapper know about scouting anyway? I doubt he'd fit in with our guys, I'll tell you that. Dave: You're right, he's pretty average: Boegarts, Betts...should I go on? Heh heh heh heh...Anyway, we're willing to give you guys the benefit of the doubt and call Ortiz the Second Coming of Dustan Mohr. So, what do you need to get for him, Terry? Hell, you're already in deep doo doo with those influential Twins Daily experts. You need to make a trade they can really get excited about. So, make me an offer. I mean, why does it always have to be the other GM who starts the trade volley, Terry. C'mon, let's see you be a little proactive. Your fans will like that. Ryan: Well, yeah, I should be. Don't say anything, but I'm beginning to think Jim Pohlad is looking past the players and thinking I'm maybe to blame for some of this. Alright, I'm making you an offer, but I'm warning you, I'm going to be pretty firm about it because there's a big swing between that Ortiz fella and Delmon, especially personality-wise. So, give me a list of guys to chose from that are most like Bobby Kielty. And this, my friends, is how Terry might have gotten more for Arcia. The End.

So clear, even I could follow this. Points to the need for a sell discipline, which I see as this club's most damaging weakness.

I disagree.

This is what I find so maddening about the boy. A middle-in 88MPH 4-seamer, and he flies out oppo field.

Chief watched it to celebrate his AARP membership.

Oh yeah, and don't be anonymous when you do it.

I'd have reached certain understandings ahead of time with the Board of Directors of Minnesota Twins Baseball, Inc. I'd tell them that, without resolving the following issues, it doesn't make sense to chitchat about all the easy stuff like roster construction and the like. 1. Show me the money. Let's see proof, and then let's put it in writing, in black and white. We're gonna average out the previous 3 year's revenue, and then set the payroll number for the following year at 50%. 2. If I don't spend it, it goes into a Retained Payroll Account, and is available for spending in addition to the 50% in lean years, or to keep a championship roster intact. 3. I want an agreement that no one not reporting to me, which means everyone NOT on the baseball side of the business, is forbidden to EVER make a comment about the baseball product publicly. They can talk about the "baseball experience" and craft beer offerings, but not about the baseball product, period. 4. We will have a written buy/sell strategy regarding player assets, reviewed and approved by the Board of Directors. This strategy will contain financial disciplines and financial guidelines. One of those guidelines will be regarding what disciplined review steps will be adhered to on an annual basis regarding all player assets costing more than 5% of the current payroll budget. This review will involve a committee of baseball employees chartered to make a recommendation about whether the asset is a sell candidate, and if so, a process will have been undertaken to establish a value range for that player. The goal of such a strategy and discipline would be to sell high on players for an elfin' change, especially those who are not perennial all-stars or future HOF's. You know, like Plouffie. 5. We will ALWAYS be potential sellers at the trade deadline regardless of where we are in the standings. Never fire-sale and salary dump motivations; instead, the motivation is to take advantage of any willingness in the marketplace to overpay with prospects. 6. We will continue to build from our own system. Our scouting and development budget will be among the five largest in baseball. We will rely even less on free agency than we have historically. 7. We will stop caring so much, and fretting all the time, over what those meanies at Twins Daily say about us.

As a hypothetical trade with the Rangers, let's say they want Santana badly enough for 2016 to forever part with either one of two of their better pitching prospects: Luis Ortiz (BA #63) or Matuella, at one time thought to be a contender to be drafted first overall, but plagued by injury. How much of Santana's remaining contract would the Twins have to eat to make a trade for one of these two happen? I don't know, but I'll guess $7.5M. Now, if Texas needed the pot sweetened with a throw-in, would you give up Theofanopoulos? (Just wanted to see if I could get anyone to type this besides Seth).

I get your point but wonder if you missed mine. I'm talking about how the Twin's scouts grade a prospect out, so yes, they'd certainly be looking for "mislabeled" prospects. I don't care about BA's top 100 per se. The Twin's system has significantly more players that grade out as C or better than most systems. And I disagree with you, in that I think there is a massive difference, in general, between, say, the best 250 prospects in the minors and the next 500 who scouts might grade out as C prospects. And since every team knows this, we're talking about throw-in prospects when we get down to these next 500 guys.

As long as they weren't exchanging PED recipes....

The pundits liked Stewart as the pick in this slot too, and the scouts still like him it seems. It sure helps when your HS pitcher is one of the 10 best prospects in the entire draft. Although, I noticed that Gonsalves, a lowly 4th rounder, outdueled Carson Fulmer in AA today. Fulmer is the White Sox' #1 prospect, the 8th overall selection a year ago.

Please, Paulie, let the kids play now. Mauer is a superb bench bat. Robbie is a superb 4th OF.

There is no living organism in the Milky Way that believes Suzuki's 2017 option should be exercised, including our beloved GM, and we all know that.

"The sky is blue." "That darn Terry Ryan."

Kennys from the right side, Max against a lefty....good signs.

Oswaldo Arcia, Wilson Ramos, Yangervis Solarte, Deolis Guerra, Liam Hendriks. More reasons to question an opinion that the Twins are slouches when it comes to international signing and development of foreign-born talent to the big leagues (Liriano, Morneau, even David Ortiz).

Likewise, Mr. Sixel.

Yes, I think so. I know we didn't draft all of them, but I see about ten foreign-born players on the current MLB roster, including Rosario, Kepler, Sano, and Santana. Roughly 40%. Looking down in the minors, it looks like the current roster representation from six clubs is closer to 40% foreign-born. I presume you're attempting to conclude that the Twins are less effective at signing and developing foreign-born players than the average team?