Hosken Bombo Disco

Did you not trust yourself?

Our clean up hitter finally cleans up

To figure that out, you would have to add in his walks and stuff

and then, unfortunately, there was Buxton. /sad trombone

you. are. good.

Would a Mauer home run be considered "reaching base" ?

The Twins, you mean?

If I could find a gif of a ground ball rolling between Disco Danny Ford's legs, I would post it for you

Perfect baseball weather for game 2 of the series. Pitchers: Wei-Yin Chen (3-2, 4.25) vs. Ricky Nolasco (2-4, 4.93). Lineups at bottom. Being a Twins fan in 2016 is no doubt some sort of cosmic test, administered by forces we do not understand, and frankly…. it’s a test we are failing. Did you see what direction the game thread went last night? The team needs help, but more importantly, so do we. We have descended into the mud. We treat straightforward discussion threads as self-help communities. One commenter in a game thread this weekend even suggested that Brian Dozier should check himself in to Pull Hitters Anonymous. If he does, he should wait a few weeks, because I would totally recognize him if he walked in here. Anyway, I am thinking we should consider the five stage model of dealing with baseball grief to get primed for the game tonight. 1. Anger. I am guessing this is the stage Oswaldo Arcia was in when he did something nasty to the clubhouse water cooler. This was the stage Kyle Lohse privately shared with Ron Gardenhire, once upon a time. This is what Brian Dozier did to the baseball last night. 2. Denial. It's not just a river between Minnie and Paul out in center field. 3. Bargaining. See also, negotiating, bartering, trading Trevor Plouffe before the deadline. 4. Depression. It’s sad that this is the fourth phase, but whatever. I already stopped caring about this list a long time ago. 5. Acceptance. Anyway, those are the five stages. You have to admit, the Twins are bad. But that’s ok. We can still enjoy the game. There are noble qualities in all of us who peacefully resign ourselves to 90-loss season after 90-loss season. We know how to do this, and that's ok now. In fact, there is a beautiful symmetry to that 16-40 record we had this year, 8-20 in the first half of the games, and 8-20 after. I would like to see what happens if we have another 8-20 streak. I can accept that. Perhaps if there were a sixth stage of baseball grief, it would be stupor or unresponsiveness [for best effect, pause three hours before continuing to next sentence]. There would come a point where everything that has been said, has been said, and there is nothing more to say. However, the saving grace is that studies have shown, and even Elizabeth Kubler-Ross admitted, that these five stages do not always occur in order, or even at all. Having good support, maintaining healthy relationships, and having other compassionate people nearby, all these things can help even the lousiest-feeling baseball fan cope with the worst of circumstances. And.... this is where game threads enter the stage. So… let’s talk about the Twins! * * exclamation point optional MIAMI MARLINS 1. Suzuki Ichiro, DH 2. Martin Prado, 3B 3. Christian Yelich, LF 4. Marcell Ozuna, CF 5. Giancarlo Stanton, RF 6. Justin Bour, 1B 7. Derek Dietrich, 2B 8. J.T. Realmuto, C 9. Miguel Rojas, SS Pitching: Wei-Yin Chen, LHP MINNESOTA TWINS 1. Eduardo Nunez, SS 2. Robbie Grossman, LF 3. Joe Mauer, 1B 4. Trevor Plouffe, 3B 5. Brian Dozier, 2B 6. Byung-Ho Park, DH 7. Oswaldo Arcia, RF 8. Kurt Suzuki, C 9. Byron Buxton, CF Pitching: Ricky Nolasco, RHP First pitch: 7:10 PM CDT

I say the Twins should lobby the Kansas City manager to get Polanco on the All Star Team. They could activate Polanco for the game and then send him back to the minors the day after.

It seems contradictory to me that the Twins are willing to receive cash in a trade, but not offer cash in a trade. What am I missing?

So the Mets have been shopping for guys who can play corner infield. This is pretty disappointing.

The play log at Fangraphs is up. With runner on first and no outs, tie game, bottom 6th, the Twins went from 62.5% win expectancy before the bunt, to a 60.5% win expectancy after the sacrifice bunt was successful. In terms of run expectancy, the Twins went from a run expectancy of .831 runs before the bunt, to a run expectancy of .644 runs after the bunt. More info on that here. There is a time and a place for them. But usually, even when sacrifice bunts do what they are supposed to do, they are still not worth doing.

You can blame Molitor for setting the expectation. How often are the wrong players bunting in the wrong situations on this team? Too often. Also, it's definitely on Molitor for not flashing Glynn the steal/take sign, or the PLEASE DO NOT BUNT sign. If they don't have one of those, they should.

Yeah, in the post right above yours I originally included a long diatribe on how Polanco should have been playing 2B for Dozier when Escobar went on the DL. But the Delete key saved me once again

Why is Dozier still hitting third? That is the better question, in my opinion. Dozier has gotten some big hits in the past, so of course he thinks he should be hitting third. Disclaimer: I am still a Dozier fan. I definitely want all of my players thinking they should be hitting third every night. I also want every starting pitcher to think he is going to pitch a complete game tonight. I also hope Jepsen thinks he should still be closer. More importantly, we need a manager who knows when to intervene and make substitutions. Like not keep letting Dozier hit 2nd or 3rd, or continue using Jepsen as closer when other guys could be auditioning.

if I had been thinking, I would have teed up a "yes" for you

Sounds like Dozier is coming to bat this inning. I'm gonna bail before it gets ugly again Enjoy the game everyone

Ugh. We need to stop giving up these home runs right after we have a good inning. Is that too obvious? Am I being too obvious?

Just stop posting the posts nobody wants to read * yah we all slip up occasionally, and more so in bad seasons like this

I do! I can always trade up, like that guy who started with a paper clip and after a year had traded it up for a million dollars

P A R K

I guess that would be fun to listen to, game after game, if you are the type who likes listening to skipping needles on broken records.

Sounds like the Twins were given five outs that inning. Oh, well.

happening right now in Yankees-Orioles game, top of 9th: Vance Worley replaces Brian Duensing, surrenders one-out double to Aaron Hicks.