mikelink45

It is the seventh inning stretch of the 60 game season and I thought we might have to alter the baseball anthem just a little bit to make it work; Katie Casey was baseball mad Had the fever and had it bad Just to root for the hometown crew EVERY DAY In the baby blue On a Saturday her young beau Called to see if she'd like to go To see a show, but Miss Kate said "No I'll tell you what you can do:" You can’t take me out to the ball game Or take me out with the crowd; But you can buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack And I don't care if they ever come back I will root, root, root for the home team Whoever they are, but we’ll never know - and it's a shame For it's still one, two, three strikes, you're out At the strange new ball game Katie Casey watched all the games Knew the players by their first names Told the umpire he was wrong All along Good and strong When the score was just two to two Katie Casey knew what to do Just to cheer up the boys at her home She made the gang sing this song: I wish you could take me out to the ball game Take me out with the virtual crowd; Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack I don't care if I never get back Let me root, root, root for some home team If they don't win, it's a shame For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out At the old ball game – I think. This 1908 Tin Pan Alley song by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer is the unofficial anthem of MLB. The authors never attended a game, but their hit ranks with Happy Birthday for well known songs in the USA.

Keep Astudillo - give Avila time off for his back. If they had let Dobnak go an extra inning or two the BP chart would look a lot better. Or if they had gone with someone who can start and give them some length instead of a BP game the chart would look better. The BP game by itself is not bad, but the constant depletion of arms for other games is what bothers me most.

So glad for a call up - still hoping for more. As much as I like Arraez, his injury has really disrupted the season and the IL with a call up of Blankenhorn would make sense to me.

THANKS SETH - I missed have a FB in the mix.

A few thoughts came to mind as I read the review and the comments. I love that we won the DH, but we have to remember that we were playing Detroit. Our season has been heavy on Detroit, KC, and Pittsburgh - we have a tough final road so hopefully we can get some bats moving - we will not keep winning with 2 - 3 runs per game. I do not understand why Dobnak was not allowed to pitch another inning or two in game one. Save the BP. If Dob gave up a hit or a walk take him out, but the RP does not have to come in for a clean inning and if Dobnak went a complete game the BP use chart would look a lot better. With only two unused RP on the chart it reminds me of how much I hate BP games. Sano should not be batting above #5 in the lineup. Love the long bombs (although they do not count more than the ones that just clear the fence) but still hate the Ks and when we have players on base on want to keep the inning going. Is Poppen the next to go down? Astudillo needs to replace Avila. We need his energy and flexibility.

Yes statistics lie. Numbers are chosen by the individual to prove a point and that creates a bias. True we cannot look at all the numbers - there are too many and frankly I still like AV, OPS, SLG, R, and RBIs. Churchill said - Churchill’s: “There are lies, there are damned lies, and then there are statistics”. The implication was that statistics and the manipulative way they were presented were the biggest lies of them all. Good article to stir up conversation on a day with no game to analyze. But I will take Duffey.

excellent - I really appreciated your thorough comments

I hate to disagree with bighat, because most of what he says I agree with. My disagreement is on 7 inning games. I am actually growing to love them and with the fact that the games keep pushing into my bedtime I would think that maybe the way to control time is to have seven inning games all the time (or start the games earlier).

Love the win, the fielding and the pitching. It was great to see Arraez step up, but where are the bats? Of course having Adrianza and Vargas in the lineup together was not going to get the hitting started. But we have to start scoring more than 3 runs a game.

Actually it is time for both - Wade and Cave are not moving the bar. We need to kick start this season and Rooker/Kiriloff are the answers. And if Donaldson goes down again it is Blankenship and before there is another BP game it is Duran and Chalmers.

sorry but it is not a marathon this year. Time is running out and the team needs to get its acts together.

I really want a youth infusion - I want Larnach and Rooker and Lewis and Kiriloff - all of them. I want Duran and Chalmers. I do not care who gets cut. Just get some excitement onto the team.

Luis Robert is a reminder to all of us of what we had hoped to see in Buxton.

Don't forget the wonderful bullpen games. Wearing out this oversized bullpen is really bad managing.

No action in the trade market - time to move up the prospects - actually past time. Let's do something.

Well that was boring. At least for the TWINS.

Maybe the batters just stink this year, maybe the ball is not as juiced as last year. contact is not bad, but somehow this does not look like the same team as last year. if Kepler is trying to make more contact is .224 BA is not much of a positive.

The Padres have me in shock - talk about aggressive. Of course Preller went wild a few years ago and nothing good came of it. This time could be more successful for them. At this point Rooker, Larnach, and Kiriloff are probably hoping for a trade since the Twins have left them in St Paul all year.

I do not want to get into a long political discourse here, but perhaps you would like to read this article from the History Channel - https://www.history.com/news/how-the-party-of-lincoln-won-over-the-once-democratic-south This paragraph from the text captures the beginning of the change in 1948. "These defectors, known as the “Dixiecrats,” held a separate convention in Birmingham, Alabama. There, they nominated South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond, a staunch opposer of civil rights, to run for president on their “States’ Rights” ticket. Although Thurmond lost the election to Truman, he still won over a million popular votes."

I am really tired of the who cares we will be in the playoffs posts. Getting in the playoffs and going home immediately is not something I want to see or will celebrate.

the most frustrating part of this season is the FO lack of effort when it comes to utilizing the 60 man. if we have the wrong men on the second 30 - that too is on the FO. Cave, Wade, Adrianza are not the subs we want or need.

The fact we have not moved anyone from the 60 with a bat other than Jeffers is really frustrating to me. Not having a starter to remove the BP game is another frustration. It is time to look at the manager and FO for some change.

I have to make a general comment - Jackie Robinson spoke up and suffered a Court Marshall. He refused to take a back seat on a military bus, https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2008/spring/robinson.html We can never know what he would do today, but I think we can see his resolve and I suspect that this article about the friendship between Martin Luther King and Jackie might indicate that he would step forward again. https://www.mlb.com/cut4/mlk-jr-and-jackie-robinson-were-good-friends-c162102154#:~:text=Robinson%20and%20King%20became%20close,been%20traded%20to%20the%20Giants. As to lifetime republicans/democrats - the parties continue to switch and the resemblance between Lincoln and TR with today's republicans is in name only. The same as the resemblance between democrats and the politics of Buchanan and Wilson. Times change. Parties change. The Republicans became the pre-lincoln democrats when the dixie-crats walked out of the 1948 convention when Humphrey declared there was no room for racists in the democratic party. Do not mistake names for current reality - labels change.

NY Yankees - https://www.espn.com/mlb/team/injuries/_/name/nyy Ten players - including Stanton and Judge. I know we have suffered a lot and it is frustrating, but other teams are also in this situation and some worse than us. We need to make adjustments. The Yankees keep bringing in new players and they keep producing. AZ - 10 injuries AT - 8 (all but one starter) BAlt - 9 Red Sox - 8 Cubs - 10 WS - 7 Reds - 5 Cleve - 2 CO - 10 Det - 9 Hou - 13 KC - 11 Angels - 7 Dodgers - 10 Miami - 23 Mil - 8 MN - 12 Mets - 10 Yankees - 10 Pitts - 16 SD - 12 Seattle - 18 SL - 14 TB - 14 Tex - 18 Tor - 11 Nationals - 10 https://www.espn.com/mlb/injuries Not all injuries are equal, but this year has been hard on almost every team and while MLB has some lessons to learn, it cannot be an excuse for any single team.

If they are watching this year's team we do not have any healthy trade candidates. Thorpe is a candidate for a DFA not a trade.