J-Dog Dungan

I think Gardy, who has more influence than any of the broadcasters, thinks of Duensing as a reliever more than a starter.

Totally agree with this. Also agree with Thrylos's point that he has earned a spot more than Blackburn has this year.

I think that if Blackie makes the team out of ST, he will have to be out of the bullpen. Burnett, unfortunately, is really one of the last "scholarship" players left on the team, and since Gardy and Andy seem to be high on him, I think he makes it. Gray, I hope doesn't even get an invite, and Robertson hasn't seemed that much better than Burnett or Gray. I think the plan is to have Duensing be in the bullpen and stay there next year, except acting as the spot-starter when necessary. I am not sure that Manship has earned a look for next year, and Swarzak is kinda on the bubble. These are the guys that I can see making the team as RP next year: Burton; Perkins; Waldrop; Fien; Duensing; (Slama); (Vazquez?); (Swarzak?)

I think with Morneau's resurgence late this season and the extreme lack of even average 1B on the FA market this year, if a team not named the Boston Red Sox comes calling WITH A GOOD DEAL, the Twins should listen and listen hard.

While I will agree that I hate the Yankees more than any other team in the Majors, I don't think I could bring myself to boo guys like Jeter and Rivera, because of their great careers (just so we're clear, those are the only two Yankees that I can tolerate kinda sorta.)

There is no way in hell a sane manager would put this outfield out on the field. The lack of range and of arm strength is especially disconcerting.

Do you know why the Twins should both hang onto and trade Morneau and find a spot for Chris Parmelee? It's because they are both two of the hottest hitters in baseball, Parmelee since his callup (no surprise there with the way he was raking in AAA) and Morneau since the All-Star Break (very pleasant surprise). Here are some current rankings and stats for the two players, with all info coming from Major League Baseball, under the sub-categories of 1B from all teams, not just those who are qualified to have enough AB's, and on Post-All Star Break settings. I also don't think that these stats include the game on 9/12/2012. Morneau: Since the All-Star break, in 53 games, he is 10th in AB's with 198, 8th in Runs Scored, Tied for 3rd in hits with 64, 6th in doubles with 12, Tied for 12th with 8 HR, 6th with 37 RBI's, 5th in BA with a .323 mark (which is actually behind Parmelee), 11th in OBP with a .373 mark, 9th in slugging % with a .515 mark, and 7th in OPS with an .888 mark. This is all a great improvement for Morneau who was near the top in very few categories before the All-Star Break and has had a remarkable improvement overall. Parmelee has been giving the Twins an uber-strong case to bring him north next year this year, and he is doing as well if not better than Morneau recently (because he was only called up recently). Over just 13 games, he is hitting .354 with 3 doubles, 3 HR, 12 RBI's, and OBP of .373, a slugging % of .604 (second in majors), and a .977 OPS which is ranking him 3rd in the Majors. So, yeah, the Twins have two strong candidates to have at first, a happy situation with their current lack of big-name, power pitching and the lack of above-average 1st basemen in the offseason FA lists. So the Twins should use this situation to their advantage, by either trading Span and putting Parms in RF and Revere and center and keeping Morneau or trading Morneau, putting Parms at first, and either keep Span or trade him, depending on whether or not the FO feels that one or more of their precious OF prospects is ready to hit the Bigs.

This is an awesome article. See most of your symptoms recognized in myself, and I am currently plotting about the players that the Twins should go after to get better this offseason, although I have less influence on Terry Ryan than Bill Smith should ever have again on this organization. GO TWINS!

This article is posted on MLBTR and is Fangraph's ranking of the top 10 FA infielders of the upcoming offseason: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/09/top-free-agent-infielders.html Not knowing about this article, I was busy coming up with the players on the MLBTR FA list that I thought were the best. Here is my list; # in parenthesis is age, and 3 #'s are BA, OBP, and OPS. These players are in no specific order of goodness. Catchers-Chris Ianetta (30)-.246 BA, .340 OBP, .773 OPS Gerald Laird (33)-.268 BA, .331 OBP, .704 OPS A.J. Pierzynski (36)-.283 BA, .327 OBP, .850 OPS David Ross (35)-.266 BA, .344 OBP, .805 OPS Carlos Ruiz (33)-.340 BA, .406 OBP, .968 OPS First Basemen- Adam LaRoche (33)-.269 BA, .342 OBP, .847 OPS 2nd Basemen- Robinson Cano (29)-.301 BA, .370 OBP, .907 OPS Adam Kennedy (36) - .262 BA, .345 OBP, .702 OPS Jeff Keppinger (32) - .327 BA, .374 OBP, .811 OPS Shortstop- Ronny Cedeno (29) - .276 BA, .351 OBP, .786 OPS Jhonny Peralta (30) -.252 BA, .313 OBP, .716 OPS Marco Scutaro (36) -.290 BA, .333 OBP, .720 OPS 3rd Basemen- Eric Chavez (34) -.282 BA, .341 OBP, .820 OPS David Wright (29) -.312 BA, .400 OBP, .895 OPS After looking at the stats of the FA 1st basemen's market, if the Twins do put Morneau up for sale, they should be able to get a large, if not HUGE return for him, as I can really only see one kinda-good 1B on the market, and I think Morneau's numbers are outpacing LaRoche's. (In fact, Morneau is doing better than LaRoche (.269 BA, .342 OBP, and .847 OPS) with a .280 average, .339 OBP, and .813 OPS after the anemic, hits worse than Drew Butera on a good day start he had)

Top Pic: Hey, Hey, the gang's all here! Bottom Pic: Toro, Toro, Toro!

Anybody know why the first three runs given up by Diamond, while at first being unearned, became earned like an inning later?

And were somehow beat by the Wolves. Ya know, I think that the WNBA should have been included on this list; if it had been, we'd most likely have a top-20 to top-10 team in the Lynx.

Please let today be the day that I go to a ballgame and the Twins win.

Not all of us. Is it too early for an "I toldja so"? Nope. Not at all.

I love Willingham, but he IS 33, and we have a glut of outfield prospects coming up the ladder and coming up quickly. I would say that they should discuss it after next season if he has anywhere near the same production, although by 2014/2015, I would imagine he would be mostly living in the DH role and shouldn't be in the outfield if we have guys like Arcia, Hicks, Benson, and co. reaching the big leagues.

I am rooting for the Orioles and Rays, the Orioles b/c of Lew Ford who is awesome, and the Rays because they are the complete opposite of the Yankees. Oh, it would be sweet if the Rays and Orioles kept the Yankees from reaching the playoffs this year and the A's made it in too.

Until we have better starting pitching, having starting pitching like Diamond, DeVries, and Deduno who are all capable of going 7 strong and giving up 2 and fewer runs every time are good things to have even when we do have "better" pitching. Out of all the pitchers that the Twins have given chances to this season, these three have taken their chances and done as well and better than we were expecting.

Seems even more likely that they sign him since they will be sharing Texas with eternal runners-up in the World Series Texas Rangers.

If they can manage to stay in front of the Rays, who are making the wild card/division race a three-team race at this point, I think we do see more of LEWWWWWWWEWEWEW.

Looks like the people who wanted a win and the ones that wanted a loss will both be right. I can't tell who is going to win.

Tough. I believe in them, though!

I can really see Berrios shooting up the boards over the next year if he performs like he was in his season at Elizabethton.

I also believe that Arcia had a monster year, and, no offense to the Twins decision-makers, a call-up to the Bigs, while possibly booting him off this list, might have gotten him onto it, or at least this one. Also, I think Kepler did enough this year to rank higher than 18th, and I think Arcia should have been in front of Rosario, but only because Rosario missed time after getting hit in the face with a pitch. Also, I don't think Benson deserves to still be in the Top Ten after the year he had, not that I don't think that he could climb back there next year.

Also in the article, Twins have moved up from the 23rd best system to the 14th, which I would imagine is quite the jump from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. I would like to see a list of the systems' rankings.

Yeah, well, lately the Indians have been acting like what everyone in the movie "Major League" thought those Indians would play like. So I guess it isn't surprising to see that one of the few high-level players on the team is frustrated that the team that owns him isn't willing to go out and spend even a little money on a fairly good contract for a player like Willingham.