IndianaTwin

But if 24 hours is meaningless and he could be activated tonight rather than tomorrow, why not go another meaningless 24 hours and go with last night? And then another meaningless 24 hours (actually 32) to have had him on Sunday? And so on... Point is, there has to be a threshold to get over, and without MiLB games to use as reference, we don't know what he's done or not done in St. Paul. If another day lessens the likelihood of an Aaron Judge-type 6-inning activation stint before returning to the IL, I don't have a problem with that. The language about Donaldson from this past weekend pointed to a weekend return, so even a game with Chicago is better than none.

Or that the original plan was Friday and they felt like they could push him up a couple days, but not as far as three.

Well, right now, they have six games in five days. Unless you think Odo will be ready for one of the games, you either have to use a bullpen game once or call up someone else. They've demonstrated that they don't want to call up someone else. So, in that case, the issue isn't, "They've just had two days off." It's, "Which game makes the most sense to make a bullpen game?" If there's going to be a bullpen game, I think they picked the right one. It was the second game of a double header (so you only need seven innings rather than nine) and following a pitcher who has been one of your better guys (unfortunately, Dobnak wasn't good in the first game) against the team that appears to be the weaker of the two in that stretch. And don't look now, folks, but expect the same approach starting Friday, when we have seven games in five days. I'm hopeful Odo will be back so that they only need one bullpen game in that mix, but don't be surprised if we get two. (Note -- I'm not arguing for or against bullpen games. I'm just saying that if you're going to go that route, I think they've taken the best approach.)

I do predict at least two trades this week: *On Wednesday, I predict they trade Lewis Thorpe for Michael Pineda. *On next weekend, I predict they trade Juan Minaya for Jake Odorizzi. Further, sometime this week, I also predict they trade a PTBNL for Josh Donaldson.

I can’t speak to whether or not Robinson considered himself a lifelong Republican or not, but according to this article, he supported Humphrey over Nixon in 1968. https://web.archive.org/web/20080302110739/http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070603&content_id=2003372&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb I think it’s pretty hard to know what another person’s politics would be, nearly 50 years after his death, particularly someone as complex and thoughtful as him. Both parties have changed in that time, and one thing that seems consistent in his life was that his political preferences evolved according to the current context. I’ve not read the book edited by the author of this column, but I also found this column an interesting read. https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-jackie-robinson-100-politics-mlk-nixon-0131-20190130-story.html

But what would be really awesome would be to see those unis back in Tiger Stadium. It was getting to be a dive, but it was awesome to feel like you were fully boxed in. Last fall, our family went to game at Comerica and got to Detroit early enough to go to the corner of Michigan and Trumbill. They're working to convert it into a PAL park.

I thought was John Mabry. Or Mabry not.

Rosenthal to the Padres, per the radio guys.

And Miggy joins the top 50 in career hits, tying fellow Tiger Charlie Gehringer. Miggy's No. 24 will be alongside Gehringer's 2 on the wall at Comerica.

You and 45,889 others. You should have gone more often. Looks like that was the best start of his career. One run on three hits and three walks over 7 innings, but the Royals scored four in the ninth off Twins legend Ray Corbin to win 5-4.

Okay, here we go.

Obstruction on Polanco, so Goodrum is safe at home.

Makes sense, getting traded to Motor City and all..

We're just glad someone else got it started for us. :-)

I was admiring Boyd's 0-48 record.

Let's see -- Matthew Boyd is the starter we were wanting to trade for, right? Sure is a bummer we got stuck with Maeda, huh.

Concur on not liking the three-game series for that reason. With that as one more piece of uncertainty related to the playoffs, that's an additional reason why I don't want to give up assets to get a rental.

Even though they've decided against the double doubleheader, it's fun speculating. Taking only the games against the Tigers into account, I look at this way. The more innings the better, because if we have to get two more innings out of our pitching staff, so do they. I'll take my chances with our bullpen over theirs.

No double doubleheader. One game will be made up on Sept. 4 in Minnesota.

I applaud your employer in doing that. And from the tone of your response, I gather that you saw it an overall beneficial thing to do. The cynic can say, “It was a PR move by the company,” but let’s count a few ways that it was actually good business: A company’s biggest resource is often its staff. It seems that you and (and I’m guessing others) did some valuable reflecting.By virtually any account, stress level has been up in virtually all walks of life, and addressing mental health is a significant cost for many employers. They took a step to address mental health by giving the gift of a day off that probably didn’t cost them very much.They sent a message to a segment of their employees that they recognize that the challenges they face are real, further validating their appreciation for this group. The net of all these is that it likely contributed to a sense of well-being for the employees and to this being a desirable place to work. I draw some of these observations from my own situation. For several years, we’ve had MLK Day as a paid holiday. This year, they made it a required work day, but gave us an additional floating holiday in exchange (a net gain, since it gave us flexibility in when we take the day off). But instead of business as usual on MLK Day, we were closed for business and we spent the day in educational activities around systemic racism, including ways that systemic racism has been an issue in the industry we are a part of. And it’s made a difference. Since then, I’ve heard people from senior management to entry level ask about the ongoing decisions we make and whether they are ethical. I’ve heard differences in our thinking about hiring practices. I’ve seen us make better decisions about how we engage with markets that have typically been under-served. So now, the cynic says, “Well, they only did it to benefit themselves. They didn’t really care — they just wanted to make more money.” I think that’s a lame response as well. In both cases, it suggests that individual decisions are singularly motivated, when they are nearly always multifaceted. In this case, I think not playing was a good move on a lot of fronts. PR? Sure. But I think it’s also a good move in adding to the conversation, which is what the majority of players who’ve spoken have seemed to say is their primary goal in not playing. I’ve heard a lot of articulate statements from those involved. The one that stood out the most was Joe Girardi, who said something to the effect of, “I hope that there are kids who are asking their parents, ‘Why didn’t the Phillies play tonight?’ And I hope that there are parents taking those questions seriously and talking with their children about what’s happening in our world.” Players are recognizing that they are in position to encourage those conversations in ways that Indiana Twin and his friends on Twins Daily are not able to do. In my mind, that’s advancing the overall conversation, and it’s a responsible thing for them to do. Did it cost the players anything to reschedule a game? Who cares? Why do so many things need to be seen as a zero-sum game? Why does it only count as a “statement” if someone has made a “sacrifice”? Why was it only worth doing if dramatic changes happen as a result? And why do we as humans sometimes see it as our job to make sure that if someone hasn’t “sacrificed” enough in some other way (at least as judged by me), they at least sacrifice by receiving our scorn for something that they have done with good intentions?

I’m not going to pay much attention to a trade proposal that starts with “Mark DeRosa of MLB Network proposed...”

That's the 30th run that the Twins have scored in the seventh, eighth or ninth this inning. Taking into account that they haven't batted in a few ninth innings, carrying that ratio through the rest of the game would be an average right at 3.0 per game.

Checked out to take care of a few things and come back to all these and a blown lead. What an udder waste of time.

Among the next on the HR list for Cruz is Darrell Evans. Gladden just reminded people of Evans getting picked off third in Game 4 of the 1987 ALCS. The Twins weren’t too good in our dating years, so that season was Mrs. IT’s intro to my fanaticism. She went to bed in the top or middle of the eighth and said, “Now, keep it down out there.” Not five minutes later came the play, and I burst off the couch with a huge, “YESSS!!!!” I immediately went back to apologize. Apology immediately accepted, and I was reminded again of the wise choice I’d made. We hit 34 years earlier this month, and I’m still thankful.

If that’s a simile, what’s a metaphor? To graze cattle in.