IndianaTwin

Thanks, folks. A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog inviting feedback for some paint schemes for the wall in a room that has transitioned from our youngest son's bedroom to our office. Alas, he got married and moved to North Carolina -- we like the married part, just wish he didn't live so far from northern Indiana. That post is here: https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/23701-help-design-my-man-cave/ The goal was to combine a Fathead with some shelving to create a space to display the set of Tony Oliva baseball cards I've gathered, along with some others. I invited feedback to the following ideas: And the one I chose was... No. 6. So, next up was using a friend's table saw to rip some MDF board into 5/8" x 5/8" strips, followed by cutting a quarter-inch angled groove to hold the cards. Then Mrs. IT took over, handling the priming and painting. Finally, my brother-in-law, much more adept at such projects than me, helped me stick the Fathead and place and mount the strips. Here's what I got: I'm pretty pleased. Mrs. IT needs to do a little touch-up painting, touching up the screw holes and a few more spots. What you see here are a complete set of Topps, Kelloggs and Hostess Oliva cards on the left, plus a couple extra odds and ends. On the upper right are my Killebrew cards, with Carews underneath. Neither of those are complete. Eventually, I'll tighten them up so I can add some other favorites from over the years -- Hrbek, Puckett, Gaetti, etc. Probably need to get a Wynegar and some others. It may not take long for Lewis to make an appearance on the IT Wall of Fame. And depending on how full I want to make the space, I may also include a few non-Twin favorites and/or legends from over the years, namely Brock, Aaron, Clemente, etc. I don't have any that are particular valuable (and none graded), but on the wall will at least bring more enjoyment than in boxes under the bed. The total space is about 84 inches by 40 inches. Thanks to @Cornholio, @Rod Carews Birthday, @Wyotwinsfan, @davidborton, @DocBauer, @gil4, @nclahammer, @Original_JB, @dcswede, @Khaddie and @Puckett34 for great insights and suggestions. I was originally thinking I'd go with No. 8, but after coming up with a number of mockups, I was starting to lean toward No. 6 by the time I posted. So to get a couple early affirmations of that option helped firm up that decision. Some other comments: There were some good suggestions that would have given it a much more professional feel (and would have been beyond my capability or cost more than I was prepared to spend. A couple folks cautioned about covering up too much of the Fathead. With that encouragement, I did move the strips out a bit. They end up overlapping by about three inches, rather than the six inches I originally planned. I think that was an improvement, so thanks for those suggestions. If I was to do anything different with the layout, I'd give each row another quarter to half inch of space (starting at the bottom) to push the top row up to have even less overlap with the letters. A few people had ideas for some additions, suggesting some autographed photos, Homer Hankies, etc. (And speaking of, I need to track down one of this year's.) I do plan some of those things with the next steps. The exterior wall of the room has about 43 inches on each side of a window, so I'm thinking of putting in a relatively high shelf for the four Wheaties/Kelloggs boxes (still full) from 1987 and 1991. I may do a second shelf with some autographed balls, but I really don't have any significant ones. I do have some other things, however, such as a Rod Carew RC Cola can and an Oliva-signed cap, etc. I'm only a few years from retirement, so I'll need to consider where to go with two jerseys. I'm perhaps the only person on TD with a game-used Travis Miller jersey. I never thought I'd buy a gamer of anyone, but when you're in the team store and see one with your last name on it, it's tough to resist. My congregation gifted me another jersey when transitioned from pastoring there to another ministry opportunity. In total, I have another 10 or so linear feet of wall space on this half the room to use for such things. Mrs. IT gets the other side of the room. So again, thanks. If anyone heads through northern Indiana on the toll road and wants to stop off for a visit, I'd be glad to show it in person! 😃 And while I'm at it, I do have another spot in the house that folks might find interesting. I've been fortunate enough to have been able to combine some work-related travel with vacations and have been to all 30 current stadiums (plus a dozen or so that have been closed)*. I spent some time to create some collages from photos I've taken along the way (plus a handful from the Web of stadiums that I went to before I started taking pictures). Here's what we have in our entry hallway. Each frame is a division, with the teams in alphabetical order from top to bottom. *Lest you think that's impressive, what's more impressive is the amazing Mrs. IT. She's been to 24, even though she's not a baseball fan. When someone asked her about it, her response, "I don't like baseball, but I like some people who like baseball."

Why do we need to jump to finding blame? They won a few. They lost a few. Baseball happens.

One more, and then I'm GONNA pay bills and do some neglected desk work. Regretfully, I do see Farmer as the question mark. I say regretfully, because I like him a lot. I see him as bringing more to the table next year than Urshela would have this year, and isn't this projection a little lower than where Urshela was projected (and ended up). I actually wonder about Gordon as a non-tender. It's easy to assume keeping him because of how cheap he'll be, but I wonder if they might see the roster spot as more valuable. It stinks for him, but with his injury and the amount of progress other guys made, I'm guessing he's pretty far down the depth chart.

Also, it's going to be a long offseason. When they lost last night, I said, "At least I won't spend as much time on Twins Daily the next few months." And now I've just spent an hour on Twins Daily. I'm excited to see how the offseason plays out.

@cjm0926, the one thing I think you're missing in the summary of what you think will happen is the picking up of options. I think the only two decisions to be made there are Polanco and Kepler. You seem to be implying they will be picked up, and I would agree.

@Brock Beauchamp, I'll put in a plug for the calendar portion to be linked at the top of the Forum page.

The price. Not necessarily the AAV, but the number of years. A consistency in this FO's approach is not to box themselves into the corner on contracts. Buxton's contract is long, but very incentive-based. Correa's is six years, but considerably shorter than what was expected to be needed. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Lopez's 4 year extension the longest they've gone for a pitcher? And he's 27, whereas Gray is 33. I think they'll definitely offer the Qualifying Offer and he will definitely reject it. I'm on board with their strategy of not going long, and particularly not with pitchers. I honestly don't think they will go over three years and potentially not more than two. Some team will go at least four and perhaps even five. (Specifically, I'll go on record as predicting, "Gray to the Reds." Prior experience there. Nashville native (and Vanderbilt grad) and known to be a homebody. Tons of roster flexibility and reason to spend with the kind of success they had this year and the number of young position players they have. The Cardinals check many of those boxes as well, but the Reds seem closer to winning. With young guys like Greene, Abbott and others, I could see Gray viewing himself as the grizzled veteran for Cincy like he was for the Twins.)

I think it was the one in the bottom of the fifth, Twins down 5-0. Runners on 1st and 2nd, and Polanco checked his swing on 1-2. Astros claimed it hit his bat and was caught, which would have retired him. Instead, it was called a ball and Polanco worked the count for a walk, loading the bases. It's a call which isn't reviewable (which has its own questions -- why isn't it reviewable?), so Houston couldn't challenge. It was almost imperceptible, but there appeared to be a slight change in direction, and I think (and Hosken and Woof seem to agree) it would have been reversed if Houston could have challenged. Alas, Kepler and Lewis each struck out, but had either of them gone deep and the Twins come back to win, Astros Daily would have had multiple posts about the topic.

Blessings to you in this path, and I'm glad you were able to spend significant time with your dad. I'm coming up on three years since Dad died (Oct. 31), and we plan to move Mom from assisted living to the memory care unit in the next week or so. Mrs. IT has been on a similar journey with her folks. I'm with you -- baseball has been a good distraction from that kind of stuff. Bummed after yesterday's loss? Sure. But there's plenty of other injustices in the world to direct my anger at. I don't need another thing to get mad at, particularly something that I come to for enjoyment.

I think I like this in that Varland can go multiple innings tomorrow if needed.. Jax can more likely give them an inning tomorrow after going 0.2 tonight than Varland can go multiple innings after doing so.

A.J.: Find me a better trade than Josh Fields for Yordan Alvarez. Me: I have one in mind. 🤣

Concur.

The wrong one.

To be as successful as he is at 5’6” and 165, I’m guessing Altuve is one of those guys whose muscles have muscles.

Send him out for the ninth, unless we score at least four. And maybe even then.

Not unlike last night, actually.

It surprised me, too, so I looked it up. My main point is to remind us that there’s usually something underneath a move that’s contrarian. Heck — we don’t even know if Kirilloff tweaked a hammy or something.

Brown OPS vs. righties = .839 Brown OPS vs. lefties = .728

He’s exactly the person to use. I like having him available to follow Ryan, but this is essentially a piggy-back situation as well.

Don’t choose a bridge!

A.J.: “Here’s the final point I’m going to make on the sweeper.” I doubt it.

Only two guys have more than 450 plate appearances, so that’s a factor.

Not quite as big of a mountain as Saturday. I’d say it’s about 80 percent as big, but I’d get accused of doing math.

Reasonably hard shot down the line. Originally called a hit, but then changed to an error. EDIT to add: You pretty much just saw the replay, except that AK got a glove on it last time.

Prof: “I’m going to get to class early, so I can angle my computer away from the students.”