scottz

Certainly someone to consider. Other than his time with Toronto last year, I think he'd be solid as a fill in at 2B, 3B and OF, and would have value as a pinch runner on days he wasn't in the starting lineup. Kick the tires.

April 3, 1998 - Home Opener versus the Royals at the Dome. Sitting lower deck down the third base line, about halfway between the bullpen and the foul pole and maybe 10-12 rows up with my wife and another couple. Terry Pendleton at the plate, Brad Radke on the hill, Pendleton hits a slicing fly ball down the left field line. It slices foul, takes one spinny bounce once off the carpet and lands right in my glove. Yes, my glove. A 27 year old me brought a glove to the game. But it paid off, me boy. That is the only foul ball I've ever caught. Although probably 15-16-ish years earlier, in nearly the same spot, I had my hand on a foul ball in the row behind me, but my arm was nearly wrenched all the way behind me giving me little leverage, and a classmate had two hands on it, and I grudgingly let it go.

Ozzie and his walk-up music, which is the best on the team by a wide margin.

Plouffe plays with urgency after watching Bocaton mash balls all over spring training fields. Bounce back Plouffe.

Hey Jack, Were we ever really close on AJ?

So, the hometown club has gone out and signed Ricky Nolasco and Phil Hughes, and I am pleasantly surprised by the activity. While I don't love either player, I can hear the upside arguments for both and I think the dollars will be in line with the rest of the market when all free agents are signed. I don't think another "major" pitching signing will happen, but rolling the dice here or there is still in play. Play along and assume the same; which one "take a chance on me" free agent pitcher would you want the Twins to roll the dice on? For me, I have always liked Jeff Niemann. He has battled some shoulder issues recently, but maybe that means he could be had for a minor league deal. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2013/11/jeff-niemann-elects-free-agency.html http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/n/niemaje01.shtml Who do you like? MLB trade rumors has a list of FA's to help you make your pick. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/02/2014-mlb-free-agents.html

"Who pissed off Jack?" was one of my favorite books as a kid. My question to Mr. Goin: Is your given name a variation of Jack (Jack, Jackson, etc.) or John (Jonathan, John, etc.)? Inquiring minds want to know.

That song honors Native Americans. (I respect your collective intelligence enough to not have to put a "/sarc" tag after that for you to know that it is sarcasm.) (However, I don't respect individual intelligence enough to think that an individual might not get it, and therefore have typed the last two sentences.)

Hadn't thought of that, but it is pretty strange. Although, I would guess they changed the name without too much opposition because the Bullets had pretty much always sucked. The Redskins have had success and people emotionally view that success as their own.

I think this is the key to all of this. Who decides what has merit and what is so stupid that it can be either ignored or run over roughshod or both? Throughout history, there have been actions and beliefs that once were viewed as perfectly normal, or at least perfectly acceptable, that changed as a person or people raised issue with them. While this current issue isn't as obviously egregious as an issue like slavery or burning women as witches, it nonetheless is following the same path of people raising it as an issue. If someone declares it stupid without a willingness to try to understand the opposing perspective, that's prejudice (as in "pre-judgement"). Pre-judgement is not nearly as beneficial as judgement. That said, I also agree that not every issue raised can/should be viewed under a microscope, just because someone raised the issue. But issues with merit tend to rise to the top eventually.

When I was in college, I had a Creative Writing class taught by a Native American - I only had him for that one class, but he was one of my favorite professors. I suppose it had to be fall of '91 that it came up, because we talked about the Braves a lot, the Tomahawk chop (the chant and arm motion), and the whole idea of names like the Redskins and logos like Chief Wahoo, whose image he described as "the Little Black Sambo" of Native Americans. From the perspective of someone who viewed his existence and Native American life and heritage as spiritual, these images and names were an affront to him. Even the Braves logo was not palatable to him, but Chief Wahoo offended him.

Don't get me wrong, there was a lot to like about his year and I do like him...his defense was very good and who doesn't love power numbers from a middle infielder? I just got the impression that a lot of people were classifying his 2013 as "great" (or other lofty adjective), and I don't see that. Maybe it is just semantics. In any case, here's to hoping for an equal or better year for Dozier in 2014 and beyond.

I qualify as a lurker, I believe. I read TD on a pretty regular basis and have started a few threads. I choose not to post all that often because everything tends to spiral into a bit of a pi$$ing match instead of an exchange of ideas. If I wanted to argue, I'd just go visit my relatives more. Humor. Thoughts about TD and the Twins, in general. 1) I love the minor league stuff. I haven't seen more than maybe a 30 second highlight video of most of the players discussed, but I love the insights. 2) I am pretty excited that Jack Goin actually signed up for this site. That's cool. Who knows where it goes, but it is neat. 3) I really want this team to do well again. The FAs signed last year made it pretty clear they weren't going to compete in 2013. It would be nice to have some hope at the start of 2014, but I think it will be another year to just get us to 2015. Maybe there will be hope in 2015. (Note: "hope" in my terms means hope to be in the playoffs with a chance to win it all, not just a season sniffing .500. Though .500 is certainly more fun to watch.) 4) I keep trying to put Trevor Plouffe in the Michael Cuddyer bucket - the guy that got moved around, positionally, a little bit and had moments, but didn't really put it together for awhile. I think the number of ABs that Plouffe has now is about the same number of ABs where Cuddyer picked it up a bit. Maybe Plouffe steps up in a similar way. 5) Dozier had a nice season, but it wasn't amazing and I have a hard time understanding why (seemingly) everyone got so head over heels. 6) I've started and deleted a few other thoughts here even though this thread is a safe house. I've already said too much. Time to go back underground with the rest of the lurkers. scottz

I'd say this quote is half right. The first half.

I appreciate the attempt to have people look at it from a "real world" (i.e., non sports world) scenario, but my experience in the real world would say that the employee in question would not be retained in the same role. I have seen long-time co-workers being asked to consider moving on, shifted to other (lesser) roles, and in some cases, let go when a pattern of "projects gone bad" happens on their watch. As a co-worker and friend, I was sad for these smart, talented managers. As someone who understands the business of my company's business, most of the time, the moves made sense. Like I said, I appreciate the angle, but I believe my company would have made a move. A polite move, respectful of the guy in charge, but they would have made a move.

I've gone down this thought process myself - I was pretty certain there had to be a racial bias/cultural bias thing with Gardy. But looking at it now, I don't think that is the case. I think the problem is the inability to relate to/get the most out of players who have large egos or personalities. Now, in some cases those large egos/personalities appeared to outsize their talent (I'm specifically thinking about Valencia). But in other cases, the player's talent seemed to be brought out when their personality was allowed to flourish (here, I'm thinking of Big Papi or Gomez). I don't think race has anything to do with it. A manager's job is to get the most out of his team. If you can't get the most out of a specific personality type, that's a problem. Especially when one of your 2 top prospects is nicknamed Big Mouth. Buxton, on the other hand, would do absolutely fine with Gardy from a personality standpoint.

Why, I watched the highlights, of course. Who wants to watch the Braves play? I kid. Of course there is more to the story. There always is. My point is that REGARDLESS of what happened prior, there are 3 recent instances of the Braves involvement in bench-clearers and in 2 of them, McCann's actions at/near the plate are what *immediately* preceded the benches clearing. And in the other, Harper yelled and pointed at Teheran, but McCann again is the one who attempts to physically confront Harper. So...more to it or not, McCann is going out of his way to physically confront the (admittedly chirpy/cocky) batters. Pattern of behavior.

It's silly because you say it is silly? I say it isn't silly. Touché! En garde! I pointed out 3 cases (i.e., evidence) where one team was involved in separate instances of bench clearing brawls, and their role in it was the same each time (i.e., the team that gave up the home run). In two of those cases, Brian McCann instigated a confrontation at (or before) the hitter touched home plate that put the fire on the kindling that was laid out via the batter. It doesn't excuse the batters' actions, but two of those brawls don't occur if McCann doesn't put on his shiny "Sheriff of Baseball" badge (at least at the time they occurred - perhaps in the future). If you don't want it to be called a reputation, that's OK. Let's just call it a pattern of behavior in 3 separate, but similar, instances. Listen, I don't care to argue about it, but my opinion on this is no more silly than yours. If a guy walks a little too long after a home run and the next time up, a pitcher decides to put one on his wallet, OK, whatever. I think intentionally throwing a baseball at someone is stupid, but whatever. I also think it is stupid if anyone is teaching little leaguers to dot batters for any reason - I never was taught that in any league. Any time dedicated to teaching a pitcher to hit a batter should be re-allocated to teaching the pitcher how to keep a hitter off balance so he doesn't routinely hit the ball over the fence. Any additional time should be spent reminding a pitcher that sometimes a hitter is going to hit the ball over the fence, and that you shouldn't get your undies in a bunch over it, no matter how proud he is of himself. Peace. scottz

While Gomez was over the top, McCann and crew are equally over the top. 8/6/2013 Braves v Nats - Harper goes deep and they plunk him the next time up. Benches clear. 9/11/2013 Braves v Marlins - Fernandez goes deep and McCann stops him as he touches home to apparently tell him the right way to react to a home run. Benches clear. 9/25/2013 Braves v Brewers - Gomez goes deep and starts chirping about getting hit 2 months ago by the same pitcher who can't get him out, McCann stops him before he gets home. Benches clear. How dare all these players hit home runs and watch them for a second (or two in Gomez's case)? We are the BRAVES. I am BRIAN MCCANN. YOU SHALL NOT PASS! The Braves are absolutely in the wrong as well. Also, I've never been hit by "just" an 88 mph cutter, but I have been hit by a 70-ish mph pitch, and it hurt. I'm pretty sure getting hit by an 88 mph pitch would hurt. It doesn't forgive Gomez for his over the top-ness, but let's not pretend it is nothing, just because it wasn't a 96 mph heater in the helmet. Also, isn't the bigger offense here that attendance at Turner Field is reported at 19,558 when clearly it appears to be more like 11,263? Way to support that division-winning team, Atlanta.

I don't know if I believe this, but I'm going to throw it out there for discussion and (fish)food for thought: Gardenhire, with whatever flaws exist, knows a good team when he sees one and is sick and tired of not having a good team. The "pirahnas" label for the A's was with tongue firmly in cheek. A shot across the bow of the Terry Ryan-constructed roster? Discuss.

I agree that it isn't smart business to trade at low value, but there is still plenty of value in next year's $7m contract in a) what should be a bounce back year (to some degree, not to 2012 levels), and is a contract year. The O's want him for the stretch run, and that would be a weak sell on it's own, but they might be buying hope for this year knowing that they will probably get some value next year as a bonus. I am optimistic we can get a player with some value in return.

Indeed it is. Orioles Claim Josh Willingham Off Waivers: MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com

If you're trying to say you just drank a fifth of Scotch, that's not the way to say it.

This makes a great deal of sense to me. Send Diamond down to work on a few things and when Gibby (we're tight so I can call him Gibby) hits his limit, bring Diamond back if he is right. If he is still struggling, let Albers have a go, or even one of the highly anticipated prospects. It still gives them the opportunity to showcase Pelfrey before the trade deadline.

There was a poll back in February that 89 people voted in. < 60 wins - 2 people 60-69 - 19 70-79 - 56 80-89 - 10 90+ - 2 I voted for 70-79, but only because it included the numbers 70-73. If the categories were rearranged to say <65 65-74 75-84 85-94 90+ I think an awful lot of people would have been in that 65-74 bracket. It might be a worse season than most people hoped, but is about the kind of season that most people thought it would be. Maybe it just happened in a different way than we thought.