TwinsCD

First time I've been able to check in on this team in a week or so and it's nice to see they're in midseason form already -- not being able to score. Dick said that they've scored something like 5 runs in their last 5 games? Real encouraging.

Jason Castro has a HR. Our new GM is already earning high marks.

I went to college in the Baltimore area around the time Klingenbeck came up and I remember how excited the Orioles were about him coming up thru their organization. So when the Twins traded Erickson for him, I thought that it could end up being ok. Ummmm, no. He definitely deserves to be on this list. I would nominate a number of players that showed up from the late 90s when the team was beyond awful...guys like Kevin Maas, Scott Stahoviak, Matt Merullo, etc. I'm sure you'll find plenty of pitchers from that time too.

Yes sir. I kept moving my eyes from Giambi to Hunter at the wall and then back to Giambi as he rounded 3rd as Hocking got the ball and as soon as Denny threw it, I was like, 'if it's on line, he's got him (I was sitting to the right of the RF foul pole) and I jumped out of my seat when the umpire rung him up.

I'm 40 and single living in Orlando but originally from Harrisburg, PA. I work in sports media and dabble on the side as a high school baseball umpire and basketball referee. So how does a person become a Twins fan living in the middle of Pirates/Phillies territory? Well, I became a fan of players before I became a fan of teams. Our cable system would be able to pick up WPIX out of NY and the station in Baltimore that carried Orioles games so I'd see them play the Twins and was taken by the way Kirby played the game. I also remember during the old NBC Game of the Week days where Bob Costas had made the bet with Kirby that he'd name his upcoming baby after him if he was leading the batting race at the time. Then the Twins went on that run in 87 and I was hooked (or cursed, depending on the year) from then on. Favorite players growing up to now include Hrbek, Mauer, Morneau, Hunter, Radke. I cursed the Brunansky for Herr trade the day it was made and hated Herr during his entire Twins stay. I also cursed every time Allan Anderson took the mound, though, funny part is he was the starting pitcher in the first Twins game I attended in Baltimore in 1989 (Kirby hit 2 dingers that day). Favorite non-World Series moments include being in attendance and nearly crying at Game 3 of the 2002 ALDS vs the A's, the first playoff game after all the contraction talk (and my first at the Dome), having a drink with Morneau at a bar in New Britain in 2003 after he got sent down from spring training and telling him that the organization was crazy to do that and he'll be up in no time, seeing the Twins play an exhibition game in New Britain in 2002 (despite being at least 90 minutes late), and seeing Kirby at the Little League World Series in 1997, patting him on the shoulder and him saying thank you to me because I was wearing a replica Kirby jersey. And even though it sucked that night, I can say that looking back on it, it was fun to be in attendance for the Giambi grand slam in the rain at Yankee Stadium (frickin Trombley). Been on Twins Daily for 3 years now, I think. Don't remember how I found this place...maybe off of some blog article on ESPN that linked me here. During the offseason, I'll check in maybe once a month but once spring training ratchets up and the season begins, I'll pop on once a day. I'll sometimes hang out in the gameday thread if my computer decides it wants to walk and chew gum at the same time since I watch 95% of the games online.

In the linked video below, that crawl ran BEFORE Reardon delivered the final pitch. A bit ballsy by the powers-that-be at KARE back then. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S2pZ6QGtg0

Apologies if any of what I say has already been rehashed in the previous 8 pages. I checked out on these guys in May and only popped back in for a couple of looks a couple of times until the 13-game losing streak. --Despite his history as a player with the team, Bruno should have been bounced as hitting coach on April 15. When you go the first 9 games striking out as many times as they did and do something that no one in baseball had done in 120 years, you have to wonder what kind of approach at the plate that these guys have been getting drilled into them. -Neil Allen should have been gone after the DUI arrest. Yes, I believe in 2nd chances but really, who on this pitching staff has really given us much encouragement for the future? Berrios certainly has the talent but like Buxton and, to a degree, Sano, the continued development once they reached the majors has been lacking. --I believe in a complete napalming of this organization from a leadership standpoint. The ideas that worked in 2002 aren't going to work right now. The new GM **CAN NOT** come from inside the organization. With respect to Rob Antony, the 'Twins Way' is dead. You can hire a Michigan Man for the Wolverines football program or a Dean Smith disciple for the Carolina job (unless it's Matt Doherty) because those brands have worked with successful consistency for decades. The Twins Way died years ago. There is talent in the pipeline and given the last couple of years of poor play, there will be top-notch talent in the pipeline on down the line (if the draft works out). This organization needs someone with different ideas that can help that talent develop and flourish at the MLB level.

2003 playoffs...Twins up 1-0 in the series at NYY and tied 1-1 in Game 2. Radke pitching great. We go to the bottom of the 7th and the Yanks trot out that damn opera singer tenor to sing his 4-minute rendition of 3 verses (slightly exaggerating). Well wouldn't you know it that after having to wait that out, Radke goes cold and the Yanks get 3 in the 7th to win 4-1 and then go on to win the series. As immature as it may sound, I'll always point at this newly-concocted 'tradition' as the turning point of that series.

Welp, after a few starts, I can say that the good news is Nolasco is no longer on the roster. The bad news is that we truly did trade him for broken bats and unwound baseballs. This Santiago guy is not that good.

I get it if it's the 9th inning and you only need one run. Then by all means, get that winning run to 3rd base so you can get him in on a sac fly if necessary. But not now and not with your most consistent hitter at the plate.

9-7 game with 2 on and nobody out in the 8th and your best hitter coming to the plate and you bunt him?? WTF for??? The baseball gods laughed and forced the 3-5 putout. Come on Molly, you're better than that...I think.

http://www.saintannparish.org/media/1/19/Chicken%20Dinner(1).jpg

SANO...DONTCHA KNOW!!

EDDIE EDDIE EDDIE EDDIE EDDIE

OK, Nolasco has jumped through enough fiery hoops. Time to put the stock in the bullpen.

Rosario go BOOM This is the Kyle Lohse I remember giving up on...

Trade Nunez now!!!!

Rosario up, Carly Rae DFA'd, a win yesterday. This weekend is already 500% better.

Abad only has value because he's a lefthanded reliever. Carly Rae has zero value as far as I'm concerned. Twins would be stealing if they found someone to take him off their hands. Every time I see talk of a Suzuki transaction, I continue to curse Bill Smith for trading Wilson Ramos away years ago. As far as Dozier is concerned, if Polanco is ready, then I think you try to make a play. But we've seen what can happen when we rush the kids (Hicks, Bux) that aren't quite ready for MLB pitching and I'd hope they wouldn't do that with Polanco this year and thus, wait until the offseason to move Dozier. But this team is such a mess right now that there really doesn't seem like a fix out there that can translate to a happy 2017. EDIT -- This just in, Carly Rae has been DFA'd. About damn time.

Was following online...any explanation as to why you don't bat Mauer in any of those last 2 at-bats with a runner on base? Surely, he could do more damage than Kepler or Santana would. Why is Molitor still managing this band of misfits again?

I was at the Giambi game in 2002. Fortunately, I was underneath the overhang so I didn't have the added depression of getting rained on. After the Twins put 3 up in the top of the 14th, the Stadium jumbotron played the John Belushi 'was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor' bit and I remember saying, 'it's over'. 14 years after the fact, I look back at that game as maybe the best baseball game I've been to, despite the result. I was also at the A-Fraud Hat Trick/JDM rogue HR game last season and as the game went to the top of the 9th and Perkins was coming in, I texted a friend and said that A-Fraud was gonna get his hat trick and tie the game leading off the inning. Against probably any other AL team, I wouldn't care as much about having all of these bad moments but since I hate the Yankees so much, it just gets more and more frustrating with every gut-punching loss to them, especially in the playoffs.

Good times. I was at this game AND got a ball during BP.

Arcia with 2 hits (a double) and 2 runs for the Rays tonite vs. Boston. The change of scenery already agreeing with him.

http://static-media.fxx.com/img/FX_Networks_-_FXX/632/119/Simpsons_01_04__343617.jpg Twins FO convincing the fans that they know what they're doing.

Admittedly, I haven't watched too many Twins games this season because of various reasons, one being how embarrassingly terrible they've been. My opinion is if you have a lot of young players that you think are going to be part of your organization going forward, it doesn't make much sense to me in a totally lost season to have them hanging out in AAA not learning how to hit MLB pitching. What good will it serve the Twins in 2017 and beyond if you send Bux or Kepler or Park to AAA where they won't see MLB pitching and then bringing them back up again and they flail away like they continually have? The one thing that I've noticed throughout this thread that hasn't been mentioned is why the hell Bruno is still the hitting coach. I thought he should have been axed after that 0-9 start and it's not like they've been racking up the offense since then. If long swings are what we're seeing as a flaw in a number of these young players, isn't it up to a competent hitting coach to start correcting that and seeing some positive results? The only way today's move works is if Arcia clears waivers and he rebuilds himself at Rochester. But dumping him and getting nothing for him is just another colossal fail. I wasn't the biggest proponent of trading Plouffe in the offseason until they decided to send Sano to RF. Why Nolasco wasn't traded (even for unstitched balls and broken bats) in the offseason is beyond me. I was also very skeptical of the Park signing simply because you can't glean anything from someone tearing up Korea. He's like the reverse Pedro Cerrano -- can't hit the fastball. This team needs a complete overhaul and it needs to happen by the ASG.