tarheeltwinsfan

I chose not to listen to Levine nor Provus or Gladden today. Instead I watched my grandsons' U 18 travel baseball team get hammered. My grandson missed a game tying HR by a few feet. I know, I know: If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a merry Christmas.

I especially like what I have read about Jenkins' attitude. Someone compared his attitude to Royce Lewis' attitude. I'll take that everyday. Great pick. Plus he's from North Carolina.

Roll the dice and keep what you draft.

If Jenkins can hit, as the unbiased experts say, and if he has good character traits which compare to those of to Royce Lewis, and if he is available at #5 and if 1) Crews, 2) Skenes, 3) Langford and 4) Clark have been selected, please select Jenkins.

If the Twins get in the playoffs, then this team is built to win due to superb starting pitching. Ryan, Gray and Ober/Lopez/Maeda would be a great starting 3 for a 7 game series. Because the Twins can use the remaining 2 in relief, plus Duran, Jax and Thielbar. If Stewart can come back and keep pitching like he has done so far for the Twins, the relief pitching will be good. But I keep feeling that just one more reliable relief pitcher, who always throws strikes, is necessary. .

Jeffers is a ball player. He can bunt.

Wes who ?

Castro looks very capable when he plays 3B.

I'm glad the Twins took a chance on Keuchel and Kuechel put his faith in the Twins. Although for Keuchel a big part of it may be that the Twins have no lefty starters and will lose 2 starters to FA next year.

The Twins sure could have used Cano in the 8th inning, instead of Duran, who had pitched the day before. I noticed that Cano, Arraez and Rooker all made the All Star team this year.

By the time it came to the 8th inning and the Orioles brought in the 6 foot 8 inch 285 pound reliever, it was already too late.

Good article Ted.

Seth, I think you got so excited about all the great Twins hitting prospects, who in June had the best month of their careers, that you forgot #2. It's OK. Your report was so positive (as are most of your articles and interviews, and I mean this in a very good way) that I wonder how much better could your report possibly get, if you added a #2? Be careful that you don't overdo the excitement. Keep up the outstanding journalism, Seth. And thank you.

I met Chris Williams when he was at Elizabethton. He was a personable, humble guy who was very friendly. I wish him well. I wonder how his fielding and arm strength are at catcher?

Go Twins. Beat the Oreos.

Great analogy.

Interesting statement. I'm not sure I agree, but it is something to think about. There is some sort of a correlation.

No.

I read somewhere that Willie Mays said that he loved baseball so much, he would play for nothing. That may be so for Willie Mays, but look at the position players featured in this dynamic article by Nick Nelson. Which player on the 26 man team has the most "financial" incentive to play the hardest? Who must scratch and claw every time he is on the field, in order to stay on the 26 man roster and be paid as a major leaguer? I contend it is Willi Castro. The man is a competitor because he has to be in order to get major league pay and to get a good contract next year, where he can make some big money and be set financially for life for the first time in his baseball career. Now ask yourself, which 4 position players mentioned in the article by Nick, have the least "financial" incentives to succeed? Is it the player who: 1) Has an 11 million dollar guaranteed contract this year based on a piss poor prior year, because he can hit a home run 25 times, even though, if he played regularly he would set a major league record for strikeouts ( nothing good ever comes from a strikeout) and field well at a position which normally is used to hide a team's poorest fielders? 2) Who is guaranteed 200 million dollars no matter how he plays? 3) Who is guaranteed 100 million dollars, no matter how he plays? 4) Who is guaranteed 30 million dollars, no matter how he plays? There is a fifth player I must include in my comment and that is 5) Max Kepler, who is an enigma to me for a number of reasons, but by the end of this season will have earned almost 33 million dollars from the Twins. I don't know about you, but 33 million dollars earned in a lifetime is an amount I can only imagine. Kepler is being paid 8.5 million dollars (another figure I can only imagine) this year alone, no matter how many times he hits a two hopper to the second baseman, refuses to hit the ball to the opposite field and sometimes dogs it in the OF. These 5) have the least "financial" incentives to succeed, to play well, to do the little things that lead to team wins. to perform, to compete, to claw and scratch. I'm limiting my questions here to "financial" incentives only. Is there a correlation? I have no way of knowing what motivates each of these baseball players, but I do know this: I love my job, but I go to work every day for the money.

May I add Kepler this the above list?

Friends, I'm going to go on the IL for a few days. I need to forget about Twins baseball, unless or until, this train wreck turns around.

Thanks for this super update on some of the Twins minor leaguers who are performing well. Fingers crossed for them. Come on Brooks Lee.

I was all excited about this Atlanta series. Not so much now. I turned off the game during the second inning last night, but went back several times to check if a miracle had occurred. It is healthier for me to turn off the games as soon as a Twins loss seems inevitable.

If you want different results, you have to try different approaches.

I'm holding my replies on this subject until I see a mistake in these comments. Unfortunately, this article and most of the replies appear to be correct. "Strike Three. You're OUT !"