Shane Wahl

RBIs are not the end all, be all in terms of value. His OBP is highly valuable. His value is more like a $15 million guy now. Mauer is not simply a .300 hitter, he's a .380+ OBP batter. He gets on base for Willingham and company to drive him in (and hopefully Dozier, who should be hitting 5th). And what is a "true leader" exactly?

Sorry, I should have said the quality of that fastball, maybe not the pitcher. That fastball was pretty wicked. I assume the approach was that if you try to pitch around Mauer, you are guaranteed to walk him and putting two guys on base is not what they wanted to do there. Your generalization about the league and Mauer is laughable given the number of walks he draws.

Yes, I believe he should be indeed. I think he can succeed as an excellent setup man.

Haha, well I would have preferred Revere in LF and Willingham in RF than what ended up happening.

Fair enough, but A: he did remark about being more comfortable in LF, B: Revere was not impressing when? In ST? Yet another decision made based on ST performance with this team. I do remember hearing some jabbering about defensive problems this spring, you are correct. But that's stupid, and they are stupid if they let that impact the decision to keep Willingham in left and not have Revere there. Of course without Revere, Willingham should be in LF. So maybe I have Gardy, et al. to blame instead of Willingham? That strangely makes me feel better.

I think that was more about the quality of reliever on the mound and not about Mauer. Gas and moving gas ain't nuthin to ____ with as Wu-Tang would say.

I am not sure so that "great hitter" is the problem, but, like Clinton, what "is" is. I think Revere is only proving himself this year as a AAA hitter ("great" I don't know, but whatever). He is not, as in presently, a great MLB hitter. I am not asking him to slug .400, but he has slugged .302 in 531 major league plate appearances. If .302 was his batting average, then the discussion of IS he a great hitter could begin. Stealing that number of bases is great, and there should be some way to properly calculate that as some fraction of a double (or triple). Both his average and his slugging will go up if instead of grounding to second and short, he lines the ball over them and into the gaps. .320/.360/.360 is what I would look for from him, but I would take .300/.340/.340 if he is batting 8th or 9th and stealing 50+ bases. And playing left field . . . Speaking of, keep in mind that I am more with you than against you on your overall evaluation of Revere. And I don't really understand how Willingham's lack of professional "baseballerness" in not making a simple move to an EASIER (in TF) OF position. That started a chain reaction that changed a rather dynamic Revere-Span-Willingham OF into a bad LF defense and ridiculous offensive and defensive RF situation that is absurd. Given J-Will's stubbornness, I do think that they had to send Revere to Rochester. Jokes like Clete Thomas got involved . . . how about THAT lowering Willingham's WAR and WPA!!!!!!!! I was thinking of blogging about the alternative universe in which the Twins started as planned originally with Revere in LF. I will get that soonish.

Officially staying away from "Joe Mauer-hating" threads on top of the "trade Span" threads. At least the latter has some rational support.

Dempster would be my pick out of the realistic FA options (not Grienke, not Anibal. etc.) and at 36 next year will probably take a 2/$25 million deal with an option on the third year. The Twins could overpay to get him . . . maybe $14 million/year (Pavano + Baker combined for that this year . . . ). The Twins are going to have to get one big signing or else there isn't going to be anyone in the seats next year.

Butera also perfectly framed that strikeout pitch against Avila that was actually outside.

96 mph wickedness!

If Blackburn didn't suck and yesterday wasn't so 'pen heavy, I would have gone lefty/righty with Liriano, Burton, and Perkins.

Boom. 1-4-3 DP.

Liriano out to test my theory about him . . .

Butera is hitting this year. What the hell?

Do not bunt, dozier!!!

Well, it is time for optimism. Morneau in his second game back homers and Plouffe homers for the second game in a row!

Or if there was just a single list of every player in the Twins system and one could just use that full list and the list above? Michael Gonzalez is one and Matthew Koch is another (as far as I can tell). They might actually be the two most promising available position players.

I didn't say that Ben Revere wasn't a good all-around player who was fun to watch and put pressure on the defense. It is just false, as in not true, however, to say that he is a great hitter! I mean he had, what, 31 hits in Rochester this year and 30 of them were singles.

They are going to pay this joke $5.5 million next year. It's atrocious. I have no clue as to why they ever gave him that contract. It was straight-up irrational.

http://www.iheart.com/#/live/3897/?autoplay=true Hopefully that link works for people. David Bromberg in da house.

I know. People are getting pretty desperate. Maybe it just appeals to people to fave familiar names (like Lombardozzi in that preposterous Span trade) involved. I would want people from totally outside to take over things.

The tail end begins when his current contract ends. Seems pretty happily coincidental.

Duensing is excellent as a reliever facing mostly lefties and is not good as a starter facing a bunch of righties.