Teflon

Only if the dedicated DH is the second coming of Big Papi. Not worth losing the flexibility, otherwise.

I would add relief pitchers Mike Marshall and Bill Campbell to the unicorn list for being relief pitchers that logged now-inconceivable numbers of appearances and innings in back-to-back seasons, being ranked among the best pitchers in the American League in Cy Young voting. Pitching for the Twins in 1976 and the Red Sox in 1977, Campbell pitched in a combined 147 games over 307.2 innings, saving 51 games while winning 30. In the next two seasons pitching for the Twins, Marshall pitched in 144 games over 231.2 innings, saving 53 games and winning 20. If Eddie Guardado was "Every Day" Eddie, Marshall and Campbell were "Every Hour." An honorable mention goes to Tom Johnson who pitched 146 innings in relief in 1977, winning 16 games and ably filling Campbell's role in the pen.

https://www.mlb.com/mets/video/mets-legend-jerry-koosman-passes-away-at-83 https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/k/koosmje01.shtml

So too does Wilson Phillips.

Here's the beginning, my friend.

A.I. is shortly going to make staffing an analytics department irrelevant. At my place of work it is already digesting massive data sets, identifying patterns and making meaningful analysis and recommendations. One purposely-directed AI agent managed by a Decision Scientist / Data Scientist should already be able to replace most of a current MLB analytics department.

Make that six questions... What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

A player who's averaged 85 games a year for 12 seasons and has a total of 7 post-season at-bats doesn't land in a retired number discussion. It's a tragedy for a player whose ceiling was once compared to Willie Mays by the Twins front office.

Or the Twins could keep him on the back diamond for all of next spring training and rigorously coach him up like in the TK days.

Hopefully he can stick and be a real honest-to -goodness shortstop, breaking the pattern of the Twins drafting shortstops that can't actually play there.

Heading into the August 4th game at KC, the Twins have a winning record against every division in the American League but are a woeful 12-21 against National League opponents. vs AL East 13-12, vs AL Central 18-16, vs AL West 13-8, Inter-League 12-21 At this rate, we'd expect the Twins to go 5-10 against the National League in their remaining 15 inter-league games, 3-3 vs the AL East, 10-8 vs the AL Central and 6-4 vs the AL West for a 24-25 result and an overall 80-82 finish. Only the SF Giants in the remaining Inter-league games are under .500. The rest of the NL teams on the schedule are Atlanta (67-45), Philadelphia (60-53), Milwaukee (69-43) and the Padres (58-55). The path for the Twins to contend will be to pick up their already-winning pace in the AL. This has to start tonight against the Royals who are 21 games below .500 but who have already beaten the Twins 6 times in their 10 games. Twins records by NL opponent faced: ARI 2-1, CHC 1-2, CIN 0-3, COL 2-1, LAD 0-3, MIA 2-1, MIL 1-2, NYM 1-2, PIT 0-3, STL 2-1, WSN 1-2. Twins remaining Inter-League games: (15) MIL 3, PHI 3, ATL 3, SDP 3, SFG 3. Twins records by AL opponent faced: ATH 2-1, BAL 1-2, BOS 5-1, CHW 3-4, CLE 6-4, DET 5-2, HOU 4-2, KCR 4-6, LAA 2-1, NYY 2-1, SEA 2-4, TBR 1-5, TEX 3-0, TOR 4-3. Twins remaining AL games: (34) **EAST (6)** BAL 3, NYY 3, **CENTRAL (18)** KCR 3, CHW 6, DET 6, CLE 3, **WEST** (10) LAA 4, TEX 3, ATH 3, bold = losing records

Bill Campbell pitched 167.2 innings and won 17 games for the 1976 Twins - ALL IN RELIEF!

At least when Garrett Crochet falters, he has emotional support. His family is a really close-knit group.

When did the Twins sign Rex Kwon Do?

After a few $2 beers it becomes harder to read the fine print.