Mr. Brooks

My thought is that I can't and never will know what its like to endure what Aaron had to deal with as a) a black man in the south in the 50's and 60's to begin with, and a black man in the south in the 50's and 60's attempting to break Babe Ruth's record. It's easy for us to sit here in 2014, in Minnesota, and pretend we know one way or another whether Aaron's comments were valid or playing the race card. However, considering what Aaron would have had to deal with during his life, I think I'll go ahead and give him the benefit of the doubt as to knowing racism when he sees it. By the way, I think some of the comments that the USA Today received kind of partially validate what Aaron had to say. I'm paraphrasing but basically the response was: "Are you calling me a racist you worthless (racial slur)?" I'd say that type of candid response speaks volumes about the type of racism that still exists.

I believe what you are looking for is strand rate.

I guess I'd have to see an explanation of how our military is being "decimated". Keep in mind this graph represents constant 2013 dollars, so even the post sequester purple levels are higher than anytime in recent history except at the peaks of the Korea, Vietnam, and cold wars. Plus, the impending military cuts are due to the Budget Control Act of 2011, which a Republican bill, so I'm having a hard time seeing why that is being pinned on Obama. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2012/11/Military-spending-sequester.jpg

If we can end up with something out of Wimmers that will be awesome, like found money just because of how long it's been since he's been relevant.

They do not vote for president, if you are talking about the President of the United States.

If you want to gnash your teeth over a meaningless roster maneuver, go right ahead. I don't care about either of them.

I'm quite sure that you determining that my opinion on a thread being not worthy of discussion is specifically against TD policy, as is talking down to me like your opinion is superior to mine. But then again, it's pretty tough to call the cops on the cops, so whatever. Let's see how long it is tolerated if I go around "rolling my eyes" at others opinions.

http://twinsdaily.com/showthread.php/10983-Buxton-out-til-May

Unless you have a crystal ball, you can't possibly know that. Sulbaran doesn't matter, why, because he doesn't profile as a star? Winning teams need good role players too. All it would take for the Twins to lose this trade, is for Sulbaran to get a couple decent years in as a 5th/spot starter or a middle reliever. I don't see how you can say at this point that a 20 year old prospect can never hit that ceiling. And I'm not "gnashing my teeth" about it. Let's not exaggerate. I'm simply saying that I don't like the trade. I'm starting to get a little curious what the point of a Twins message board is, if every time someone bothers stating their opinion everyone is just going to overreact and tell them how dumb or pointless their opinion is.

Because the Twins didn't even try to get anything in return for a 28 year old with a positive career WAR, letting the first team on the waiver wire claim him, yet they don't mind giving up something for a 26 year old with a negative career WAR. You don't need to be an accountant to know that compounding a bunch of transactions like that leads to consecutive, hmmmm I dunno, 95+ loss seasons.

Just because Sulbaran (or any prospect) may never pan out, doesn't mean they don't have value. They are assets. I guess I just don't see any reason to dump them at such a young age unless you are getting something of value in return, which they did not in Nunez. To put it in perspective, a lot of people on here basically said, "good riddance!" when we cut Alex Presley, owner of a career WAR of 1.2. Yet now we actually traded an asset for someone with a career WAR of (negative) -1.9. Furthermore, a lot of people said "great trade, we fleeced them!", when we got one of the Dodgers top 20 organizational prospects for Drew Butera. And even further, while he was here, some of the same people told us over and over again that a player like Butera had value, and the organization loved him. So, to go full circle here is what we were told by a certain crowd here: a) Drew Butera is not as bad as you think, he has value, the Twins know what they are doing playing him. Another example of Terry Ryan's brilliant trading, we actually got a decent spec for Butera! c) The Twins know what they are doing cutting Presley, even though we have no other legit backup OF'ers. He is a nothing player, he sucks, he has no value to us. d) Sulbaran was a nothing prospect, the Twins know what they are doing getting Nunez, he has value to the organization. Perhaps I'm just cynical, but it's hard not to see this line of reasoning as simply blindly defending any and all moves the Twins make. You want to trade Sulbaran? Fine, I'm not saying I'm opposed to that, but get something with value in return, you can find career negative WAR players on the waiver wire, or bagging groceries somewhere, or playing in the beer leagues. You want to take a chance on a guy like Nunez? Fine, maybe there is something there, and his career performance to date is not representative of who he really is. But grab him on waivers. If he doesn't make it to you on waivers, oh well, let another organization trade something for a guy with a negative career WAR. And Nunez is basically Benson. A once heralded prospect who couldn't hack it in real games. So if you are suggesting re hashing that argument, then you are making my point for me.

Who you got stepping up and winning today? I'd love to see the kid do it, I'll be pulling for him. But, as for who I think will do it, Matt Kuchar.

It's not uncommon for some people to have wildly differing opinions of prospects, especially when you get past the top 10 per organization. I liked Sulbaran when they got him, and liked him even more after the year he put up last year. His height means nothing to me. (Plus he's 5'10" not 5'9") If a guy can make it as a major leaguer with one arm, then a guy can make it at 5'10". Showing up overweight also means nothing to me. 1) We don't know how the weight will affect his pitching, if it all. Plenty of fat pitchers have succeeded in baseball. Sabbathia for one, Wells for another. He should have been given a chance to see if it affected his pitching or not, and if i did, address it then. 2) These are young people. The coaches and org should be there to guide them and help them, not ship them out the first time they screw up. I think Sulbaran is a good prospect. Nunez has a career negative WAR. To me it is pretty dysfunctional that you can't even find someone in your own organization that you feel confident can equal or better someone with a negative WAR.

Yep, and that is why you need to be careful using the "eye test"! I should know better. However, that said, there were a LOT of pitches that either touched the black, or missed by a tiny amount. I count 14. A lot of pitchers get some of those calls, Gibson only got 1 of them.

To be fair to Gibson, cmat is right when he says that the umps are squeezing him like (almost) nobody else. According to this WSJ study late last season: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887323342404579080993358926108 Gibson had the 5th least generous strike zone last season (79.2% of pitches in the zone called a strike). And, although I dont have the numbers, I've seen more of the same this year. The strike zone in his 2nd start was a joke. It is hard enough to come up and pitch in the big leagues as it is, without getting jobbed by the ump. When a full 1/5th of your strikes are called balls, I can see how that would pretty significantly affect your k/bb rate.

Get your brooms out!

What was he supposed to do to "earn it"? If a 2.96 ERA and 3.5:1 K/BB ratio (as a 19 year old) were not enough to "earn" a job, then I'm not sure what more he was supposed to do?

Daily MiLB recaps are my favorite part of TD, and it's not close. Good stuff Seth. BTW, your boxscore link for the FTM game is broken.

Yes, there are exceptions, and Halladay certainly fits that. But, there is a reason why Halladay became an exception, he was a ridiculously hard worker. Do a google search on Roy Halladay workout regiment, he was known for his Jerry Rice like insane workout routine. I'm not saying Gibson isnt a hard worker, I don't know.

So would you say he battles his tail off?

I don't think the Twins are bad enough to lose 106 games this year. My prediction was 62-100 coming into the season, but they have looked a little better than I expected them to, so I might have to re think that. Yes, unfortunately Gardy will fall below .500 sometime next year. I predict Gardy loses #1000 on the 4th of July.

It would be nice to have a legit pinch hitting option though, which means we still need Herrmann around, or Gardy won't pinch hit Pinto.

Better than Florimon?

Well Fuld has a career OPS+ of 80 to Mastro's 67, so that is quite a bit of an upgrade. If his defense is as good as you say it is, then this should be a no brainer.

I think you are a little bit optimistic stringer. I don't think he'll ever be an ace, though it depends on how you define it I guess. Certainly he could be our staff ace until/unless Meyer or Stewart take that job. I think his ceiling is a solid #2 on an average ballclub, but most players never hit their ceiling so I'll be happy if he becomes a good #3 type.