USAFChief

We call every other visiting player Suzuki?

It's like my OBP-challenged cousin, Danny Santana Roseannadanna always used to say, if it's not one thing, it's another.

Huh??

Yes.

A big league team to root for?

Meanie.

Why would you be going to Florida to visit your parents if they will be out of town the whole time you are there?

The problem with that, of course, is the very real probability that a month of Abad successfully closing makes trading him less likely.

Well, we disagree. If it was an isolated incident, fine. If it were just a player making a mistake, OK. But I don't view it that way. Managers are responsible for setting the parameters of play. And ultimately responsible for results. It might be just a grain of sand, but it's another grain of sand in an entire beachfront of managerial misconduct. And even if you're right, and this particular grain of sand doesn't belong to the beachfront of sand...there's still a beachfront of sand. Would you agree it's long past time to fire the manager? To actually DO something, something more substantial than blame "total system failure", release Fein, and just hope for the better?

The problem is, there's so many mole hills it has the effect of a mountain. Nobody-- NO BODY--thought this was a 16-40 team coming into the season. It's a team short on talent, but nowhere near short enough to be this bad. So you start asking, "why?" IMO, the talent shortage has been compounded, a zillion times over, through poor play. Some of that is just...poor play. Players not performing at the level they could reasonably have been projected to play at. But some of it is, they are really bad at performing the intricate dance that is major league baseball. Really, really bad. They run the bases poorly. They miss cutoff men. They have cutoff men out of position when they do hit them. They have a catcher who can't throw out baserunners, but pitchers don't hold runners or even completely ignore them. You literally can't watch this team for more than a day without seeing some awful play. Awful. A good portion of that is on the manager. And the manager compounds his team's lack of talent by doing really questionable things, tactically. He rests right hand hitters against LH pitchers, and vice versa, often on consecutive days. Witness this weekend. He seems to have zero sense of when to pull a pitcher, almost always waiting until the damage is done before someone makes a desultory trip out to the mound to gloomily ask for the ball. He insists on wasting outs through sacrificing, even though playing for one run is almost always a bad idea, and it might be a historically bad idea with the bullpen he has. Players that have seemingly no sense of what is, and isn't, a good idea tactically. That's ALL on the manager. So when I hear "it's nobody's fault, nothing to see here, move along" for the umpteenth time in a season at or near epic levels of terrible, I react with disbelief. How can somebody watch this team, day after day, and think the manager is doing a good job? SOMEbody is to blame. Start with the guy in charge, and see if that helps. That's what would be done in any. other. business. Hell, it would be done on any. other. baseball. team.

Not to speak for John, but I assume he thinks Buxton should have been running early in the count.

I would guess every team in the majors has a standing "I'm the manager, I'll call the sac bunts" policy in place. Or should.

I can live with a bunt for a hit attempt, AFTER Buxton has stolen second base. Don't like it, can live with it. As it happened...don't like. And both player and manager should be enough on the same page it doesn't happen.

Heard no more? Jepsen will be heard more, I bet.

Yup. I will almost never question the Twins for trying to win. It might not work, but doing nothing doesn't seem like the better alternative, in most cases. I doubt trading for Shields turns out to be a huge mistake.

http://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/scalefit_600_noupscale/56b021d31a00001001ab1c74.jpeg Other campaigns as successful as the 2016 Twins.

Jack is correct...a good FB on the inside corner would have gotten both of the last two hitters. And that seems to me as much on Suzuki as Jepsen.

Eff Few Jepsen.

Eff Few Longoria.

We'll never put you in position to ask that question. ba-dum-tsch

Same advice Mrs Chief gives guests at our house if she served beans for supper.

Obviously.

http://filmmakeriq.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Fargo_033Pyxurz.jpg

He was worried Buxton would pass Suzuki?

What's the expiration date?