tarheeltwinsfan

My mistake. Thanks Indiana.

If Jenkins were promoted today, what would the lineup be? Who sits? Buck...no. Larnach...no Keaschall...not even Keaschall, because he has been the Twins best hitter since July 1... Bell...no Lewis...no. Jenkins needs to keep playing in AAA for now. Give him a taste of the bigs when the 40 man roster begins September 1.

Good point.

He's in a slump.

Staying home in protest of low attendance compounds the problem.

47 steals so far this year is very impressive by Houston. Plus, plus defense at the key defensive position and.... hitting .300 this year. I am ready for Houston's debut with the Twins.

The Twins need to hire the Wichita Wind Surge PR person, who somehow convinced 6, 778 fans to attend a game in 103 degree weather.

ch I am looking forward to reading more about your adventures this baseball season. What a great series of trips to the different venues. I am envious , but at 81, I don't have the energy to do what you are doing. I will have to live vicariously through your forthcoming articles.

CH I would enjoy an article or a series of articles by you about your experiences at 27 different ball parks this season. Any chance you will go to the final 3 stadiums before the season is over. Was this a one time bucket list or do you travel a lot frequently? Have you been to spring training? Completely different atmosphere for the fans.

Good points. Thanks Cris.

Thanks DL. Very good information. Can I stay at your house until they play the raincheck games?

Thank you for your thoughtful reply Chris. Your points are well made.

At the time, I did not like the Twins signing Donaldson. I did not like Donaldson. He was a jerk then and still is a jerk. Having said that, I must say that even though I live in North Carolina and have only attended games in the Metrodome , when my friend Mark Davidson was playing in 1987 ( which was electric...a 4 game sweep against the rival A's plus the Equitable Old Timer's Game) and again in 1988 ,when I got to know Wally the beer man, I do watch 90 % of the Twins games on tv now and I do go to Ft. Myers every year for a week of spring training. I do qualify as a die-hard Twins fan, ever since the Twins were not even a gleam in Calvin Griffith's eye and were named the lowly Washington Senators. That being said, I have attended games at Fenway (only one game) , numerous games in Atlanta, numerous games in Baltimore and a few games in St Louis. I hate to say this, but based on televised games and on my limited attendance at 4 other baseball parks, the current Twins' fans are not as vocal nor are they as present as the fans seemed to be at the 4 other parks. I do appreciate the fact that the Twins fans do not have the reputation of being jerks like the Yankee fans and the Phillies' fans and to a certain extent, the White Sox fans. I do appreciate good manners and fans who appreciate and reward good baseball. I abhor fans cursing and chanting the word "SUCK" in any form. (Best example are Yankee fans and Duke basketball fans, but then many of these fans are the same people, even though Duke is located in North Carolina). Since 1953, when I was 8 years old, I have, and will always, love the Senators/Twins. But I would like to see the Twins get more respect nationwide and I woold like to see much, much better crowds at Target Field. I've said it before and I will continue to say that the Twins, the city , county and state were short sighted when they did not build a stadium with a retractable roof, which makes it more of a weather risk to make hotel reservations and to purchase tickets to attend Twins games from surrounding areas outside the Minneapolis/St Paul area. It is my belief that the Twins need to attract fans from areas such as Wisconsin, and the Dakotas and from all parts of Minnesota to fill up the stadium and that was the original plan for the Twins to be a regional team., as evidenced by the fact that they are the Minnesota Twins and not the Minneapolis Twins. This especially applies to those few of us Twins fans who would need to make airplane reservations and hotel reservations and buy tickets well in advance of the game days.. I'm reluctant to do that with no guarantee that there will even be a game played and I'll be stuck with rain checks. which would be useless to me. in North Carolina. In summation, even though I agree with Donaldson, he is still a jerk. And as Forrest Gump famously said: "That's all I've got to say about that".

That is sad. He seems to be a really good athlete. What is his problem playing defense? Can it be fixed?

Three questions for this propitious group: 1) Where is the best position for Keaschall to play today ; 2) Where is the best position for Keaschall to play when Buck, Jenkins, Rodriguez, Martin and Mendez are on the team; and finally, 3) Should Culpepper play 3B and Lee play 2B since my baseball educated eye test shows that Culpepper has a rocket arm and Lee does not.

Now that's funny Ash.

I noticed that mistake also. The 38% is the percentage of opposing runners who were not thrown out by Lackey. It's OK Nick. We'll let it slide this time. Keep up the outstanding reporting.

I propose to add Diaw and Tinney to Lackey and Tait.

I did temper my optimism. That's why I put 2028, in my post instead of 2027. Goooooooooooooo Twins!!!!

Lackey, Houston, Culpepper and Jenkins up the middle make for a strong Twins team in 2028. Add Lee at 3B, Lewis at 1B, Keaschall in LF and Emma in RF. Tait, Diaw, Tinney, Mendez, Bradley, Abel, Mathews, Rojas, Prielipp, Morris, Quick, Castro, Ellwanger, Soto , Gallagher, Renfrow and Wachsmann. Where do I order my 2028 World Series tickets?

I'd like to see Ricky Castro get a shot this year in the majors.

Here's hoping Mathews will continue to toe the rubber and put his best foot forward.

The biggest head scratcher at the time was the Varland trade. It did not need to happen. It should not have happened. It was not a money saver. It angered many local Twins fans since Varland was a local favorite. These were the sentiments a year ago, before Varland became an All Star. We humans are not supposed to understand everything in our lifetimes, like the unmeasurable size of the universe, when does it stop being partly cloudy and become partly sunny, if Cinderella's shoe fit perfectly, why did it fall off and the Louis Varland trade.

Beautiful article Seth. It was heartfelt. Best wishes to Stephen. And to you, Seth.

Wow. What a great report about some awesome minor leaguers.