Mr. Brooks

I mean, we don't know how much those same billionaires donate to causes than help people, it might collectively be 900M, or 2 billion. It doesn't have to be one or the other.

I'll never forget the last thing my grandpa said before he kicked the bucket. "Hey sonny, how far do you think I can kick this bucket?"

The human error should be from the players and coaches though. What if the person running the scoreboard accidentally gave the wrong team the runs that scored? Would you just accept this as human error, or would you want it corrected?

While I don't necessarily disagree with your overall position, I cringe when people use the "they are young for their league" argument to defend non promotions. Actual prospects are nearly always going to be young for their league, no matter how slowly they are promoted. The milb non prospect (which is the vast majority of players) lifers skew that average age up, as do mid to late round college filler picks.

Yeah, he brought that up on KFAN on Monday, I don't understand how you pass up that deal. Was he trying to play hardball and it backfired? Or does he just actually think that a rebuilding team benefits from keeping him at that price? Another thing to consider is that maybe the owner nixed it. Keep in mind during the GM search he said tweaks only, no major rebuilding would be acceptable. Perhaps the owner considered this move to be a step too far in the rebuilding direction.

I don't know if it was the right call or not. I'm most amazed at how slow Cron was running. Is he always that slow? Does he have some kind of hip displacement or something? I'm not joking, that was amazing just how absurdly slow he was running. Offensive linemen in football rumble faster than that when they are chasing down a pick six.

Baldelli's career wasn't derailed by overuse injuries. It was derailed by a chronic disease. Do you really think that Baldelli is afraid he will give his players Mitochondrial Disease by overusing them?

I'd hope that they intend to try to contend in the theoretical future seasons that the prospects may contribute to as well. Them competing now might seem more important to you than say 2023, but that doesn't make it so. They absolutely can still win this trade. It's not 2019 or bust.

Well it's far too early to even know if they were wrong. The trade clearly was never intended to help us in 2019. I'm willing to see what kind of fruit this trade bears before I declare that we lost the trade.

I don't think anyone is surprised.

I don't follow your logic. Wouldn't it be more obvious by NOT signing him, since it makes that spot even more glaring without a replacement? Doesn't the fact that you figured it out, make it self evident that not signing him made it more obvious?

Jason Castro is one injury lost season removed from a 2.5 bWAR season.

That wasn't the question I asked. Because there are 9 positions to field, and not every player is capable of playing acceptably at every position, your 26th player will rarely be worse than all 25 players on the mlb roster. And, not all players have the option to be sent down without being exposed to the other 29 teams. If, for example, your "worst" player is only 1% worse than your second "worst" player, but can't be optioned, then it doesn't make sense to give away an asset for a 1% upgrade. You have no idea which player will make sense to send down a month from now. Especially considering the tiny mlb sample size we are dealing with in regards to Astudillo, who I like, but is extremely far from proven.

The northern teams would love to play a lot of road games early in the year, when school is still in session. It's the southern teams that would never go for giving up a bunch of their summer home games when bed time isn't an issue.

Maybe, but they also have a budget. We can debate whether they should have one, or if it should be bigger, but that's not productive to this conversation. As long as the FO is given a budget, they have to factor salary into their decisions, as much as you may dislike it.

You are the one taking the stance that it's all or nothing on who is to blame. I said we share in the responsibility. I never said it was our fault. Again, gray area versus black and white, which you seem unwilling to comprehend, both on this issue and the race issue. Having attempted to debate this honestly and intelligently, even though I suspected it wouldn't work out, I will now leave the waters that I shouldn't have bothered entering.

If the Twins have evaluated him as not being very good moving forward, then it doesn't make sense to sign him just because they have to sign someone. I don't know, today, where the rest of their 2020 rotation is going to come from. But I don't think the answer is just to desperately sign someone just because they are available. I have no idea if Kuechel is cooked or if he can still be good. I'm just saying that it's a legitimate possibility that the FO has evaluated him, and determined that he's not much of an upgrade. If they are making independent evaluations and sticking with them, that makes me happy. If they evaluate him as being good, and are just afraid of the money or draft pick, then sure, that's disappointing. But, for now I'm going to consider the possibility that they just don't like him as an upgrade.

How can you know on April 15th if it will make sense or not to send him down in the middle of May?

I disagree with your lumping all of them together under the "illegals" umbrella. I disagree with many of my peers that lean left, in that I do acknowledge that we can't save everyone, and that there needs to be a process that needs to be respected. We are a sovereign nation that has not only a right, but a responsibility to protect our borders. However, I also have compassion and empathy for people who are desperate. Everything has shades of gray, things are rarely black and white. Bernie Madoff stealing everything that a retired working class couple has spent their lives saving, for no other reason than pure greed, is different than a homeless veteran stealing a loaf of bread. Both are crimes, both are wrong, but aside from that, they are in such different realms that they hardly warrant comparison. In the case of the hungry veteran, I ask myself how could we help this person so they don't feel the need to steal to eat? Some of the problems in South and Central America that these people are fleeing from are problems we helped create. Some of the problems in Mexico that people are fleeing from are problems that we helped create. Our insatiable demand for the drugs their cartels supply, as well as our failed drug policies are huge contributing factors for the gangs, cartels, and government corruption that some of these people are fleeing. So when you, or Trump, or people in the GOP, or talking heads ask if we are responsible for taking in these refugees, I say yeah, we do have some responsibility for some of them. Let's crack down on big Pharma and doctors that contribute to our opiate addiction. That's not taking addicts off the hook, we are all responsible for our behavior, it's understanding that it's not as black and white as just saying no. That's not how addiction works. Let's invest heavily into drug treatment. Why are we so eager to spend our tax dollars imprisoning these people, but if they want/need treatment they are on their own when it comes to paying for it? Let's reevaluate how we process refugees, and legal immigration. Most on the right claim they only want immigrants to follow the law, and do it legally, but it's hard for me to believe that when they want to keep it hard and expensive to do so. You keep bringing up how our ancestors immigrated here. I would like you to consider that it might have been much easier and cheaper for them to do it legally than it is now. They were desperate to make a better life for their family, as are many immigrants now. I think if everyone is honest when they say they aren't racist and just want it done legally, then let's address these issues. If we own and address our part in why people are fleeing from these countries. If we make it harder for their cartels to profit off our population. If we make it easier for honest, hardworking, desperate immigrants who just want to come here and contribute, to enter legally. If we do all of those things, then I'll be right there along side of you demanding zero tolerance for entering/staying here illegally. Until such time though, there is just too much gray area for me to lump the Bernie Madoffs in with the homeless bread thieves under one big "illegal' umbrella.

When you are fleeing for your life, you often may not have time to get all of your ducks in a row regarding the proper process for legal asylum. In emergency circumstances, the law does allow people to seek refuge immediately upon crossing the border, which many of these detainees have done. Because the law does allow that, then I'd have to agree that, at best, it's misleading to call them all "illegals". Unless your argument is that they are all lying and aren't truthfully seeking refuge from a hostile situation, in which I disagree far too fundamentally to even continue with a discussion on the topic.

I actually agree with many bits and pieces of what Ewen brings to this thread. Things that are taboo, like the idea that there is a segment of African American street culture that glorifies violence and sexism, and retaliation, and being a "snitch" if you speak out against crime. But too often for me, he surrounds it with rhetoric and ideas that I find too appalling to even wade into a debate with.

Honestly, that would have been my second guess. But, there are plenty of threads here for politics, so I'll just leave it at that and offer my hopes that they can salvage as much of it as is possible. Do we even build iconic structures anymore? Is anyone going to care in 900 years if US Bank Stadium burns down?

Let me guess, Trump said, "I know all the best dames".

Mike, I think the concern that Kuechel would even be an upgrade right now is legitimate. His k rate is falling, he's had injuries, and didn't have a ST. Every team always needs starting pitching, and yet there he sits, even though his people leaked that he's willing to take 1/19m. That's very telling to me. Last year, the general consensus when we signed Lynn was: "He's not Darvish, and he's not as good as he used to be, but he's still a pretty clear upgrade." Nope, he wasn't.

According to Lavelle, it's intentional. He said on the radio this morning that the coaching staff is preaching the hitters to attack strikes early in the count.