Jham

I don't know why, but I blame Grossman for this loss... Hopefully his bags are packed.

Sano really has trouble with high fastballs...

Sugardale has to be the least appetizing hot dog I've ever seen, I mean based strictly on appearance...

How late was your swing? Hilariously late, I hope.

I've always wanted to see someone try swinging after the ball kicked away, intentionally striking out, but gaining first on the wild pitch or passed ball.

Wow... nice gun, Kep!

Not to nit pick, but Sano hits the ball with too much top spin. Likely costs him 5 to 10 HR/season... Of course his upper cut swing probably lifts a few out that normally wouldn't have gone which maybe gains him 3 to 12 HR/season.... meaning his swing either costs him or benefits him to the tune of negative 3 to 13 HR/season +/- 7.5.

Furthermore, Chief, having survived the actual Oregon Trail, will be able inform us on the historical accuracies and inaccuracies of the game.

Anyone else see a little Andy Miller in youngin Stephen Gonsalves?

When you're not paying super close attention, "A little Aretha" sounds an awful lot like "A little Urethra". I was wondering where ole Jack was going with that until he started spelling.

See, you have some valid points there, but you undermine them by making some downright puzzling corollaries. Tonkin has burned through all of his option years, and has been rostered the whole year, but somehow he wasn't given a chance to succeed....

Anyone watch games on FoxSportsGo? Downloaded on Roku, saw Twins v. Indians, authenticated my cable subscription, and now local programming is not an option....

I do think one of the biggest problems the organization has is an inability to discern right and wrong decisions. Terry Ryan called this a "total system failure". The more I really look, the more I see a "total pitching staff failure". Focusing on the aspects of the team that actually need improvement gets us better faster than assuming everything's broken and worrying about the things that didn't go wrong. Plouffe, Buxton, Park, Arcia, Vargas didn't hurt the team nearly as much Gibson or Duffey. I mean, Nick is claiming the Twins somehow screwed Michael Tonkin out of his big chance. He arguably shouldn't even have made the team this year. The Twins screwed up by putting him in lower leverage situations? He was lucky to have a job! We're going to what, throw him in there for the 9th? What on earth did he do in his last 3 years of promotions and demotions to earn that? Let's focus on real problems rather than inventing things.

Ummm... cuz he's not a doctor. If you want to believe every excuse given by every ball player as to why this or that went wrong, you can. As I stated, I'm willing to try May out as a starter again. I doubt he'll be any better or healthier, but I'm willing to see. What I have an issue with is people spouting opinion like fact. You say "give the benefit of the doubt" but follow it up immediately with "all the evidence you need." Anecdotal evidence from a biased source may be all the evidence you need. I take more convincing. "He knows his own body better than anyone else" sounds good and perfectly logical, but doesn't stand up to any amount of real scrutiny, scientific or otherwise. Truth is, many many many players play through injuries they should rehab, and use injuries they play through as convenient excuses for poor performance. IE players are poor sources of information regarding their actual health and abilities. I guess Byung Ho should save the doctors some work since he seemed to believe his hand and wrist were fine.

There's a difference between questioning moves and stating opinions as fact. Nick certainly has a right to question some of the moves in light of the results. Statements like "the team did not have a plan" are inflammatory and untrue. The plan did not work, obviously. And there are a number of reasons for that, but don't say there's no plan. In reality, we don't even know whether Terry Ryan was dismissed because he wanted to go young and rebuild, or rebuffed rebuild efforts and wanted to ride things out with vets. Would the team have been any better if Plouffe had been traded, and Sano was given 3rd base to start the season? I'm less than convinced. Would the team have been better if we had moved May into the rotation and cut Ricky Nolasco? I again ask this thread to find 1 piece of evidence that throwing out of the pen is somehow more stressful and more likely to cause injury than starting. I think it's ludicrous. I think May always had limitations. I'd move him to the rotation, but can't say keeping him in the pen was a mistake, per se. Would the team be better if we never signed Park? Extremely doubtful. Power hitters are expensive. We've got him for 3 more years. He's not hurting the team, and could still be a net plus i a year or 2. Anyone suggesting Vargas is a .950 OPS guy and that they knew all along might be lying. He got sent down as he was likely regressing back to his expected level. The biggest issues regarding the team's failures are all pitching related. The team apparently did the right thing not extending Gibson. Santana looks like a legit signing. We traded Nolasco. Millone had a career worst year. May kept getting injured. Berrios is a disaster, Meyer was a disaster, Hughes was a disaster. We have an ability to improve the rotation, but we have to trade Buxton, Sano, Kepler, Gordon, or Dozier. It sucks, but that's the truth. And we've done none of those things. If all 5 of those guys are still in the organization next season, I'll consider that a pretty big failure and a lack of planning. This year was not a disaster on all fronts. It's a disaster involving pitching and defense. All the other stuff is needlessly piling on.

I've seen this before. Gibson had better at least qualify for a win...

Ahh so it's your fault...

I hope. Palka? Walker? Maybe Grossman was hurt too?

Santana presumably dl, responding move... has to be Buxton? Right? No other cf?

Yikes...

Happy b day jimmer. Maybe as a gift, the good Gibson?

I would guess any interested team already kicked the tires and found the asking price too steep.

Here's the regression candidate thread BTW: http://twinsdaily.com/topic/20999-article-regression-candidates-in-2016/

On Rosario, probably. I guess I don't see his OPS as that much of a regression. He's been up and down, but I don't think it's fair to say he regressed this season. He's been alright. Park was listed as a bust candidate and he did bust, but I wouldn't consider him top 5. He showed glimpses. We've debated whether he was a high risk expensive signing or a low-risk high upside signing. Intelligent minds disagree so, yeah, a bust, but not a giant bust yet. Next season I think we should expect more... Nolasco was a pleasant surprise for me. He was not so bad we couldn't put him out there or trade him, which is actually more than I expected. Nolasco, to me was a pleasant surprise by eating innings as a horrible starting pitcher with ok peripherals.

Interesting to read back toward the end of a miserable season. I looked at this and the "Regression Candidates" thread to see just how foreseeable this season's struggles have been. Interestingly, the number 1 regression candidate, Eddie Rosario has slashed almost the same line as last season. .267 .289 .459 to .262 .289 .421. His slugging is down because he doesn't lead the league in triples. Many predicted a regression from Dozier and Perkins because of their 2nd half swoons. Perkins was way right, Dozier way wrong. Willinghammer predicted Jepsen's demise. DaveW listed most of the team, and therefore was the most right. Sano was somewhat debated, depending on expectations. Arcia was mentioned as a bust candidate. Duffey was commonly brought up and regressed badly. Nolasco, Park, Suzuki and Murphy were all considered top candidates to bust, and really only Murphy busted. Looking back, this is my top 5 busts of 2016: Honorable Mentions: Tommy Milone - Was maybe one of our best overall starters last season, but ended up DFA and looking more AAAA than ever. Lack of stuff finally caught up. But he was a 5th starter so expectations are somewhat tempered... 5) Trevor May - He's been ok, but injuries and wildness give pause as to where he belongs and if he'll be good in either role. Was supposed to be part of a solid back end. 4) Kyle Gibson has been bad after posting his best year and appearing to have turned a corner. Incredibly disappointing year from Gibson thus far. 3) Tyler Duffey - Predicted by many, never developed a working change up. Predictably, his superb feel for his breaking ball which allowed him to throw it on the corners at 2 speeds was not sustainable. Recently sent down. 2) Glen Perkins/ Phil Hughes - Tough to put guys on because of injury, but these two were counted on to perform at a high level. Both face very uncertain futures. Both arguably contributed to their own issues with poor fitness and over-tinkering. 1) Byron Buxton - After nearly a full season, Buxton does not look any closer to being a MLB regular than he did at the end of last season. Scary proposition for perhaps the most important player in the entire organization. That's my top 5. I'm sure I'm missing some from this awful season that seemingly won't end. Most interesting thing in my book is that we were mostly wrong on our regression and bust predictions, and we're still a thousand games out of contention.