dougkoebernick

At the end of the day, the focus should be on getting Nolasco's elbow back to normal because it is really years 3 and 4 of the contract that are most important for the future of the Twins. Even though I'm a huge homer, love the Twins, and saw some positive strides earlier this year, they aren't ready to contend and they will need a healthy Nolasco in 2016 and 2017 when they once again contending (and hopefully 2015).

While I understand what you are saying and think there is some merit to exploring what you could get for him, I hope he is the second baseman for the next five years for the Twins.

I hope they make an offer to Suzuki to extend his contract a year or two and keep him before the trade deadline. However, I'm guessing it would take two years to make him sign and I'm not sure the Twins will want to commit two years to him - though if they do they can always trade him in 2016 if necessary.

I would actually like to keep Suzuki and Hughes and extend Suzuki's contract for another year or two. As much as I like Duensing (being a fellow Husker and all) I think that they should look at dealing him if they fall out of contention as well.

Thanks for the insight Seth!

And now we have Kyle Gibson not giving up a run in four of his last five starts - just need to get a little offense cooking and the Twins will be in business.

Here's an excellent article about Nick Burdi who is getting ready to pitch in the College World Series in Omaha - http://www.omaha.com/sports/cws/hard-throwing-closer-burdi-helps-cardinals-take-flight/article_4d0decba-9182-5362-8a21-9b6f8dfb9bb0.html.

Roy Hobbs wasn't a young guy either and he hit the stitches off the ball.

Does anyone think that if they were to sign Garza that they would then trade Correia? It frees up some money and a spot in the rotation. While not the move that most people would see coming we are talking about a GM who traded two center fielders last year to open up a spot there.

Mike Pelfrey is looking better as the season goes on - his ERA in July was 3.25 and his ERA in August was 3.60. I would be okay with the Twins resigning him next year with the thought of him being a #3 or #4 guy who will pitch 200 innings (which will in turn help out the bullpen). I think his past history shows that he is capable of doing that.

At the all-star break the Twins' winning percentage was a measly .423. However, until the current losing streak they had won at a .555 clip since the break which gave us all a little hope. In some ways it is like deja vu though because if you look back at 2011 and 2012 the Twins also came out after the all-star break and played better for a short term than they did before the break (.529 in '11 and .466 in '12). Each time they hit a wall at around the 50 win mark and struggled mightily for any wins after that time. In 2011 they went 13-43 (.232) down the stretch after being 50-56 (.471) before driving their Yugo into the ditch. In 2012 they went 16-31 (.340) down the stretch after being at 50-65 (.434) before their losing ways prevailed. So here we are in 2013. As stated above, the Twins went into the all-star break winning at a .423 clip and then had a nice run where they won 15 of 27 games (.555 clip). They have since lost four straight. The question for everyone out there is, "Will they go in the tank the rest of the season like in 2011 and 2012 or do you think they can pull out of the short tailspin they are in?" The second question is whether or not this is reflective upon Ron Gardenhire's managerial skills. It is one thing to say that he doesn't have good enough players but if a team hits a wall at similar points for three straight years and does a nose dive I would argue this is worthy of further discussion and closer examination. I like Gardenhire and won't ignore his entire body of work but if this happens again I would likely be okay with a managerial change because I think it does say something (though I'm not quite smart enough to say what). Thoughts??