gocgo

At the beginning of the year, I just wanted the Twins to be competitive and they have exceeded that hope. They are having a bit of bad luck here. Plouffe's drive 2 inches higher and it's gone and we are tied. Rosario hits a dinger last night and the next two guys get on...reverse that and the game is tied.

No hitter going for Young...just saying.

For all the hype about Alex Rios, has he ever played on a winning team? Not saying he's a bad player, but I'm not sure he's all that.

I'm thinking that we are good in this series no matter what happens. Lose all 3, media says "See, we told you so" and then we go on a run because there is no pressure other than the chip on our shoulder. Lose 1, and we are tied for first, win 2 and we get to extend our lead a bit and give the Royals a little smackdown.

What I would like to see is the percentage of changeups that the Twins pitchers are throwing this year compared to last year. It isn't a strike out pitch, but it is a ground ball inducing pitch and ground balls are good.

The way I see it, in the Twins garage right now, they have a lot of spare parts lying around or being honed to fit the big league machine. Right now, we are in the process of swapping out parts that don't quite fit for other parts that we have lying around. Some of those spare parts being honed are Polanco, Sano, Buxton...fill in your names here. Then there are those parts that have been honed...sort of...but really don't fit the machine. Arcia is one of those parts. It's not that they can't be useful if the machine breaks down a bit, but they really aren't a long term fit for the machines day to day business of churning out wins via hits, defense, pitching. Sometimes those parts are better in other peoples garages or a fit for their machine - see Chris Colabello. I'm starting to think Arcia is one of those parts. While I do like Plouffe, I'm not sure where he fits in either. Could he be a super utility guy if Sano does fit at 3rd? He started out as SS, but I have no idea if he can still play there. Bottom line is that the next year will be both interesting and critical to the future success of the Twins.

Will they wait until the end of the season or will Trevor be traded? It would be soooo much easier for the Twins if we just stunk...but here we are.

Oops! Forgot about Nunez....not that hard to do really. Yeah, so please dump Stauffer and bring someone with a bat up. Only question is if they can get Sano the necessary AB's.

Bringing up Sano now makes no sense. Twins need a utility infielder. At this point, Esco is the only SS, Dozier and Esco can play 2B, but that can't happen without a utility guy to play SS. Plouffe may need a break at 3rd and Esco can do that, but, once again, no utility guy to fill in. So, IF they are going to bring up an infielder, Sano is not the one. Polanco...maybe!

They should bring him up for Duensing now! JK.

What the move does is anchor's Plouffe at 3rd base. Mauer can be given a break with Vargas at first, but if Esco is SS, we no longer have a utility infielder. So, something has to give in the near future to get a utility guy up.

Yeah, Dozier grew a beard and got big.

Aaaah yes, the Yankees.... http://nypost.com/2015/06/04/for-any-title-hopes-yankees-need-more-from-their-458m/ We need more for our 458 million!

Which brings up a really interesting trade deadline. Who will make a big move to set themselves apart?

If you want to have some fun, go poke around the newspapers from the home cities of other teams. They range from the eternally optimistic to the world is ending because our season is over. A case in point, read the article from the Boston Herald after yesterday's loss to the Twins: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/columnists/steve_buckley/2015/06/buckley_nothing_has_changed_red_sox_still_terrible or perhaps a sampling from the Chicago Tribune on the White Sox post season aspirations: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/whitesox/ct-playoff-hopes-report-white-sox-spt-0603-20150602-story.html or how about the Detroit Free Press after the Tigers dropped their 7th straight and were swept by the A's at home: http://www.freep.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2015/06/04/detroit-tigers-losing-streak/28511877/ It's really easy to get caught up in our Twins and the weak spots that need addressing, but there are a lot of teams that would love to be us right now.

Getting someone up with some pop would certainly allow for Plouffe to be moved to 3, but until that happens, the options for significant lineup changes are pretty limited.

Dozier is great at leadoff. I wouldn't mess with that. If Hunter is your 3, they who is your 2? Plouffe is your cleanup and I don't see any other candidates for that.

It's not that I disagree with removing Mauer from the 3 hole, but who are you going to put there?

One of my favorite quotes - "Winning may teach you how to celebrate, but losing teaches you how to survive."

Options are based on years. There isn't a set number of options on a player. Here's the explanation from Wikepedia: A common misconception, based on the phrase, "out of options," is that a player may only be moved between the major and minor leagues a restricted number of times. On the contrary, a player has a finite number of option years in which he may be moved between the major and minor leagues an unlimited number of times. If a player is on the 40-man roster but not on the active major league roster, he is said to be on optional assignment—his organization may freely move him between the major league club and the minor league club. The rules for this are as follows. (In all cases, an assignment of a player on a major-league disabled list to the minors while on a rehabilitation assignment does not count as time spent in the minors.) Once a player has been placed on a team's 40-man roster, a team has 3 option years on that player. A player is considered to have used one of those three option years when he spends at least 20 days in the minors in any of those 3 seasons. A team may have a fourth option year on a player with less than five full seasons of professional experience, provided that both conditions below are met. A player has not spent at least 90 days on an active professional roster in a season. Minor leagues that play below Class A Advanced have seasons that are shorter than 90 days, and as such, any player who spends a full season in a rookie or Class A (short-season) league will receive a fourth option year. A player has not spent at least 60 days on an active professional roster AND then at least 30 days on a disabled list in a season. Only after 60 days have been spent on an active professional roster does time spent on the disabled list count towards the 90-day threshold. As with the prior example, this cannot occur with players who spend a full season in a rookie or Class A (short season) league.

I'm hoping that Arcia starts mashing. I do think the better solution to the DH is to platoon Arcia and Pinto. That way both get a fair amount of reps, we add some pop at the plate, and Pinto is our backup catcher. Give me (in 10 days) Arcia and Pinto up, Stauffer and Herrmann down.

Love Pedroia but really tired of him killing us.

Kind of chuckled at Ortiz throwing up his arms after he ripped one up the middle and got out. I didn't seem him doing that on that pop fly double off the monster. I get that there is tradition and all of that, but I kind of thing the ball park is a joke.

This is the ugliest 3-1 game I have watched. Seems like it should be about 8-1.

Yes and I have been there. Small bar, great name.