John Bonnes

Darn! mikee, I think you beat me to this.... The Onion: Joel Zumaya Agrees To Throw One Last Amazing Pitch "MINNEAPOLIS—Injury-plagued fireball reliever Joel Zumaya informed reporters Monday that his new $800,000 contract with the Twins obligates him to throw one last beautifully self-destructive pitch that will finally annihilate his arm forever...."

Well. This season seems familiar, so far. Ugh. So on the first day that hitters report, Morneau basically says he may need to consider retiring, and on his first bullpen session, Joel Zumaya hurts his elbow. Maybe the Twins should have considered some Season Insurance.

And what exactly is he downside of Morneau playing DH 80% of the time? It just means Doumit moves to first base. ON those occasions that Mauer needs a break at catcher, he and Doumit switch. If anything, it helps the roster to have Morneau DH, because then Gardy doesn't need to worry about his backup catcher being DH.

I like the Royals quite a bit better than the Indians that won 2nd place in our poll yesterday, but I'm going with the Twins. I just think the Royals starting pitching is going to get in their way.

The Indians edged out the Twins for second place in yesterday's poll, so let's hear who you think will win 3rd place (especially given Justin's quotes today). As usual, feel free to add a comment with your reasoning.

This is no way he plays first base full time now, right? They'll play it safe and have him be the designated hitter. I know that's not a lot safer, but what is the upside of having him at first?

To be honest, I don't know. He may not retire. He might go on the DL and not come back. If so, the Twins might get some of that salary back from insurance, but not get all that money back. Or I supposed a deal could be worked out.

The question that I'm not sure it totally being answered is: is he healthy now? If so (and I think that's what may be lost in all of this) then the message should be: "I'm great and ready to go, except possibly for the wrist which is still at 90%. But if I get another concussion, and it's hard to come back from again, I'm probably done." If that's the message, I think we all would be thinking "Yeah, that's kind of what we figured." But I don't know if that is the message that is coming across. I also shook my head when, like last year, we heard that he doesn't need to be healthy until Opening Day. That's never a good sign.

These quotes scare the hell out of me. I hope they scare the hell out of the Twins. For the love of god, get a backup plan beyond pushing Parmelee.

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?242-Friday-s-Recommended-Posts-(2-24)

Just a quick note that I thought I'd post - I hope people find it. 1) Right now, we're trying to find 1-3 quality blog posts to promote each day to the front page. This morning I went out and promoted only one -the one about meeting Vic Powers, which needed a lot of editing but was such a good story I couldn't pass it up. But I wanted to mention that there were at least four others that were right on the edge of earning a promotion. I either was going to need to promote all four or none, and I chose none, mostly because I'm out of time. So I wanted to point out: - There are some good blog entries that don't make it to the front page. You might want to check those out. - It really does pay to put those final touches on a blog entry here. Is it well-written? Is it entertaining or dry? We have a lot of good writers already in this community, so the standard for promotion is already high and going to get higher. - Please don't be too disappointed or down on yourself if a worth entry isn't promoted. Sometimes it has little to do with how good it is, and more to do with our time constraints or the other posts out there. 2) The last couple of days I've come across a few very short blog posts that could generate discussion. I thought these might be better served being a lead topic in a forum. I just want to make sure everyone knows: we can promote individual forum posts to the front page just like we can blog posts. So it you do some research and want it to start (or contribute to) a discussion, don't think that a forum post has a lesser status than a blog post. In fact, the way this site is coded, it looks like forum posts often have more attention. Thanks, John

Just a thought - I think a short blog post like this might be better served in the Forum than in a blog post. I just think it would generate more discussion there, and we can promote good forum entries to the front page just like we can promote blog entries to the front page. I'm not chastising you, I just think it might work better and get even more reads and discussion.

Is there a reason we won't know what happened? I'm fairly sure that both sides will tell their sides right now. Or is this all still supposed to be confidential? It might very well be that Braun's real reason for protesting has nothing to do with the technicality that got him off of the suspension. His team would have used whatever avenue they thought worked best, not whichever they thought was most valid. Then they would leak the real reason they thought it was unfair.

Carl Pavano shows his fastball.

My eyes! MY EYES!!!

If Parker's 9 was the over/under, I'd have trouble picking, but I think I'd take the under. I'll say 8.

Off the top of my head.... #5 - 61* #4 - Major League #3 - Field of Dreams #2 - Bull Durham #1 - The Natural

You're welcome and thank you - we really appreciate everyone's effort. I truly believe that if we leverage all the strengths of this community, there is no limit what this site could become.

You see - this isn't what you by a purely statistical analysis. sln477's confession changes everything. Somebody better tell Baseball Prospectus to plug that into their PECOTA.

pekingman - Thanks. Ugh. Fixed.

This is another good forum topic: who would team pick? It has to be the two most overpaid guys on the team right? Which means our pitching rep has to be Nick Blackburn. More thoughts: - Joe Mays is so happy he retired before this was enacted. - Think of how this would hold salaries and contract terms down. If you're Albert Pujols, are you really thinking there is no way you aren't battling for your life by 2018? - Heck, for a big contract, even a bad start to the season on a one year deal might be enough to get you represented. - Mauer will likely get to battle against his old battery mate, Johan Santana. - I wouldn't be shocked to find out that Gardenhire was privately lobbying hard to have Valencia be the rep.

I agree, but I like both the Twins and Royals better than the Indians or White Sox. ON Fanatic Jack's podcast last night I pumped up the Twins a bit and talked myself into them. I really feel like last year was an aberration in so many ways, and I see so many ways in which the team will "progress to the mean." Better defense, better offense, better starting pitching - and I don't trust the Royals pitching yet.

Aaron posted #26 -#30 tonight. 30. Matt Hauser 29. B.J. Hermsen 28. Pat Dean 27. Deolis Guerra 26. Manuel Soliman

Yesterday, the Tigers earned the top spot with 70% of the vote - but who's next? Just like yesterday, place your vote and then add to the thread below. We'll go again tomorrow for 3rd place honors.