Hosken Bombo Disco

Very abstract but very persuasive.. The injury/age/timing issue just tells me it still feels wrong, though. On the other hand he could be a guy who fits well in the clubhouse?

Love the candor.. I don't know that I'd call speed a PED in the same way a steroid is, but maybe so in other ways. I'm also on board with leaving the 90s era juicers out of the HOF completely if that's how it plays out. But there absolutely needs to be a place in the hall for Morris!

Does the increase in league strikeouts correlate to an increase in home runs or power? I think of control guys like Radke who did give up homers but never seemed to be burned by the homer. How about the Twins fielding these past few years (Revere was fantastic but then there was Delmon, Plouffe, Valencia, Nishioka, etc). Lots to chew on sorry for the questions :-) I'm wondering if baseball is undergoing a structural change like NFL has, from running games to passing games. If so, I hope the Twins are adjusting.

First of all, what is your thinking? Who would you like to see win it? Of the five you list, a. Diamond b. Deduno c. Gibson d. Meyer e. Worley I am going to guess Worley. I would also like to see Swarzak get a chance and/or see Albers recapture some of that early magic. But Swarzak seems to be in Gardy's doghouse and Albers honestly probably doesn't have it. Thus they are off the list. As for Diamond, the stat geek guys on TD will tell you his peripherals are horrible, Deduno is still hurt I hear, and maybe too wild to have another good season anyway, Gibson unless he pitches lights out in spring he will be optioned, Meyer is for 2015, which leaves Worley.

Thanks for the recap so far. Unfortunately even with an offseason F grade (tough grader by the way :-) still finds Detroit the class of the Central.

You mentioned the words 'stuffed in rotation' so any thoughts on what these signings mean for the other guys trying to make the rotation? Do you see two rotation spots up for grabs this spring?

Love it! Maybe Terry Ryan didn't consider that about Nolasco? I meant to say, maybe Ryan didn't consider that about Nolasco!!!

Given the state of the club, Ryan really does need to sign that top-of-rotation guy. Or trade for someone, since its obvious he hates writing those big contracts. All of his clever ideas in the meantime (a Pelfrey signing for example) will just be kicking the can down the road.

Great work. A lot of points that raise even more questions which is good. I'm also curious about your selection of pitchers for evaluating Anderson. At some point everything does get subjective. Pavano adored pitching to Butera so maybe Anderson can't take as much credit? I also think Liriano is a TBD until he repeats 2013 which all Twins fans know he won't. Dickey goes in the "Gardy=fail" column which I won't get into here. Scott Baker was pretty good here (injury confusion and departure aside) so mark one for Anderson. This is what it boils down to to me too. You feel like all Anderson ever says anymore is "attack this guy" or "be careful with this guy." Now that's not being completely fair, but results matter. There's no indication that Anderson really deeply studies his pitchers mechanics, studies subtle tendencies of the opposing lineup, can impart that knowledge during a game, or has any advanced insight on how pitchers really feel about their 2nd best pitches, on the pitcher-catcher relationship, on how a game develops, and so on. Some guys (Duncan, Maddox) seem to intuitively take it all in at a glance. You feel like when Anderson leaves the park after a game he just wants to go home and have a beer and not think about it. Lots of us can empathize with that. It's a hard job. Few of us here could do it. But there are people who know they can do it and haven't had the opportunity yet. Dick Such took a lot of heat but Kelly swore by him. But Kelly and Such also had those two rings. They were together about 15 years and they were done. Kelly had talked of burnout. We burn out at different rates. It's doing nobody any good to leave someone in a job they know they need a break from.

I thought maybe Billy Beane but nope.. Not Randy Bush either.. Al Newman?

Funny you asked, because I was just re-reading some passages from Moneyball yesterday, and according to Michael Lewis...

Very nice :-) I have said "I do" to the Twins ever since I've been old enough to listen to dad's old transistor radio. At the moment the Twins and I are deep into a nasty quarrel. I remember helping him with a big yard project one beautiful summer afternoon -- this was way way back in the day, of course -- and I was motivated mostly because we'd have the Twins game on. I think they might have been playing Oakland. Well they immediately batted around on us and the Twins fell behind like 11-0 in the first couple innings...

Nice to read - thank you for sharing

The 1992 team would have been a playoff team under today's alignment, but man oh man memories of that 91 season helped many of us through the rest of the 90s :-) Video: MLB Network Remembers: Game 7 of the 1991 Series | MLB.com

Like Terry Ryan has said, I think the answer will come from within, not free agency. Already our double play combo is among the best. Hard as it was to stomach, in pure baseball terms the Morneau/Presley trade was a good one. We have great outfield prospects. Maybe both Hicks and Presley will be in the outfield next year. Pitching. It was odd to see Albers and Pinto struggle against each other last night, while Albers and Herrmann seem to work great together. Next year I think there's room for both Herrmann and Pinto -- and of course Mauer as you say. I liked Butera the way he handled pitchers. I would have been happy seeing Florimon/Butera bat 8th and 9th every day, but alas, talking about Butera is just looking backwards. I'm looking forward to Gardy's last win too but I also think we need to find some pitching coaches who can make a personal connection with our prospects and get them figured out. Because like Yogi said, 90% of the game is half mental and there's a lot a coach can do to help a pitcher -- film them in warmups, read opponent scouting reports, make in game adjustments, etc. Also to know when to leave them alone. We need to get Gibson and Diamond straightened out before even thinking about Meyer coming up. Lets hope Deduno can keep it going. It will be worthwhile signing a big name pitcher once we got those guys on track. When that happens we will be contending again in no time. Stay positive!

Safe travels and may there be no more deployments. Remember its easier to ask forgiveness than permission. Twins also play in Colorado before the all star break - Coors field is a fantastic experience and Denver is not far from your base, in Texas distances.

Thanks for sharing -- do you feel this is a meta-signal sent out by the Twins that there will be a very significant and positive change made about who directs the talent going forward? Or is it just Molitor arranging his own interviews?

I've got to think this salary bubble will burst sometime..

I can agree with much of what you say, until this: I have to take exception to this statement. Here is what bothers me and a lot of people about the current "Gardy has nothing to work with" train of thought -- the flipside of the "no manager can win with this team" argument is "no manager could have lost with the earlier teams" and if we had a WS Ring in there, I think this whole debate would look different. Here is what we had in the 2000s, not to mention some weak AL Central competition most of those years: - Joe Mauer, 3 batting titles and 3 Gold Gloves - Justin Morneau, MVP 2006, - Mauer, MVP 2009 - Johan Santana, Cy Young 2004, 2006, - Joe Nathan 260 saves in 7 seasons - Torii Hunter, perennial gold glove Ex-Twin Honor roll: - Matt Garza, Delmon Young, ALCS MVPs - RA Dickey, 2012 Cy Young Michael Cuddyer, 2013 NL batting champ (let's hope!)

I don't know how many times I've got to beat it into these guys' heads seems to be Gardenhire's most common lament. So yeah, he's lost the clubhouse. Hard to get that back once you've lost it.

The idea of bringing Jake as a bench coach next year is fabulous, if he's as smart as his brother is good. Also we need some (more than a token one) Latin guys (but who, I have no idea). I don't think Molitor's lack of experience disqualifies him -- he's been in enough clubhouses where I think he could do just fine.

After 2001, TK left with class, acknowledging it was time for him to step down. Gardenhire could have done this same thing after 2012. He could have taken a paid year off (2013 final year of contract) and even as an old school type, could probably have come back fresh with another organization if he wanted. Yet by most accounts he has kept a white knuckle death grip on this job based on some prior promise made by Pohlad long ago. So I've got to think Gardy's put himself in a box if he is finally forced out -- other organizations will really think twice before hiring a guy like this. Plus, he screams at his players. Maybe one of these days he adapts, who knows.

My take on Sano's incident: praise in public, punish in private. With the background you gave us it just doesnt seem like the showboating was such a big deal. Just what we need is Sano resenting the Twins organization for a perceived embarrassment.