John Bonnes

I'll be very interested to see if they switch formats. The Twins have had their own "radio network" for several years now, though it had very limited programming - mostly just Sunday afternoons and Twins games. I wonder if they kick that up a notch now.

http://aarongleeman.com/2012/08/14/when-and-where-will-twins-find-room-for-triple-a-murderer-parmelee/ Aaron thinks the Twins need to find room for Parmelee, but isn't at all sure how they're going to do so. I'm wondering what others thoughts are. IMHO, this is one of the better Twins developments this year.

I bumped into Doogie at Target Field right after he got that interview. He gave the same sentiment. That audio is apparently on the web site so I'm looking forward to listening to it. I asked Doogie if it sounded like the Twins are hesitating with Beloit while Rochester is hesitating with the Twins. He wasn't sure. I just listened to the interview (the affiliate question is at the very end) and I don't think there's any doubt that it's Rochester hesitating with the Twins and the Twins with Beloit. Ryan alluded a couple of times to having to wait for September for answers. But if both parties want to renew, there's no reason to wait. They can extend and announce it any time. The fact that he says it will be September before these situations are resolved tells us that, in each case, at least one party is planning on finding out what other options they may have. Logically, the parties interested in exploring possible options are Rochester at AAA and the Twins at A ball. If that's the case with Rochester, I gotta think they're wondering about the Mets. If I was them, I would be. I'd kind of like my annual trip to Las Vegas to include a visit to my AAA Twins team. I don't know that I'll be said if it works out that way.

800 OPS nothing - if he can manage a .340 OBP and turn a DP, I'll be thrilled.

He'll be nontendered. He'll get a 1-year deal with someone as a utility infielder (I think it will be guaranteed, but it might be minor league deal.) He'll compete in spring training for one of the last spots on some team's roster. At some point, he'll get another shot at a starting job and I won't be shocked if he latches on this time. But I'm biased towards him and admit it. He might be my favorite bad Twin of all time. I can't think of a worse player I've liked more.

No. No we cannot.

I'll admit - I'm a little giddy thinking about people's opinions, including my own, if Deduno keeps up this success with these goofy numbers for the rest of the season. It would be a sabrmetric nightmare. Not to mention a "Twins Way" nightmare.

At this point, I'm so desperate for production out of 2B, just about anything is in play. Even this. That's the sad truth.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/166061596.html?clmob=y&c=n&refer=y Looks like the speculation was right nd I was wrong. I wonder what ESPN1500 does now?

I can. I'm not sure others can.

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?920-Magic-(Part-20)

"Life's like a movie, write your own ending." - The Magic Store from The Muppet Movie ~~~~~ It started with a decision in the spring of 1990. He asked her if their first date should be an afternoon at the Art Institute or a double-header at Wrigley Field. [ATTACH=CONFIG]2017[/ATTACH]"How is that even a call?" she replied. The sun gleamed, the grass glowed underneath the ballplayers and the magical afternoon was made more so because he thought it was probably their last date as well; neither was from Chicago. But he was wrong. Both traveled enough to occasionally gain discounted tickets and the 1000 miles between Minneapolis and Philadelphia wasn't as isolating as they both thought it would be. Or at least not initially. ~~~~~ Two years later, it was. So with $1000 shoved into his pocket and all his worldly possessions crammed in an '84 Honda Prelude, he moved to Philadelphia to court her. The courtship was fun, but not especially easy. First he had to find work during a recession, then she was assigned to a project out of town. And when the business world stopped conspiring to keep them apart, the tougher questions began. "Will he ever marry me? What's he waiting for?" "Is she really the one? How do I know?" The questions were more destructive than geographic distance ever had a chance to be. On a summer trip out west, his questions were answered in the Black Hills. And on August 13th, when they were supposed to go to a Phillies game, he showed up with flowers, acted all goofy and suggested they go for a walk. And she knew her questions were about to be answered too. Unaccustomed to being nervous, the proposal was awkward but genuine, and the response was delayed but jubilant. Standing together in the park, their future felt too large. Neither knew what to do, where to go, who to see. "So do you still want to go the Phillies game?", he asked. "How is that even a call?" It wasn't a call, because the one place in Philadelphia where they both knew there was some magic that year was at the Vet. The '93 Phils, lead by blue-collar rejects like John Kruk, "Dutch" Daulton, "Nails" Dykstra and closer Mitch "Wild Thing" Williams had somehow claimed 1st place in the NL East. They'd won games at Veteran's Stadium in every conceivable manner, including one in which Williams got the winning hit in the bottom of the 10th - at 4:30 AM. Tonight they were playing the hated Mets and it seemed like as good a place as any to look for magic. The electricity they felt made the game a secondary concern. She'll readily admit that she spent most of the game looking at the back of her hand. But the game slowly became the focal point when the Phillies lost their early lead in the top of the eighth. They scratched in a run in the bottom half, but were still down 5-4 heading into the bottom of the ninth. But there was a reason this hard-nosed city loved this team. They used a crucial error by the Mets to score one run and loaded the bases with two outs. Kim Batiste, a light-hitting 25-year-old utility infielder who seemed to have a special gift for striking out, came to the plate, and....... Grand Slam. Pandemonium. Magic. ~~~~~ Last night those same stupid kids went to a game, just like they have every August 13th now for 20 years. They saw a a double play neither had ever seen before. They wondered if a different Wild Thing might make Twins history. And they watched a 26-year-old utility outfielder have the game of his career. But they'll both admit; the magic didn't explode like it has in previous years. It felt like more of an undercurrent, sometimes visible, sometimes not. That works. These days, likfe is less about flashy fireworks. The work, the passion, is centered on building, supporting and and nervously trusting. The roles have changed since that family was started in Chicago and consumated in Philly. The stupid kids have their own stupid kids. But the base remains the same. Magic.

Perhaps it is something we should talk about. Certainly, the very thread topic is ugly. Adn there is some ugliness that should probably just be deleted immediately. I don't know where the line is, but I don't think it is anything to do with race. I think we would want to be able to address something that we really do think is racist. And when we think something is specious, then the community can (candidly, but civally) respond that way too.

Yours wasn't talking about the Twins, while Thryloss was. Yours was referring to how the site was run. It seemed appropriate to put it in the forum which specifically give feedback on the site. However, I made sure I moved it to another forum which is also featured on the front page. By the way, that's also why I'm moving this one, too.

I bumped into Doogie at Target Field right after he got that interview. He gave the same sentiment. That audio is apparently on the web site so I'm looking forward to listening to it. I asked Doogie if it sounded like the Twins are hesitating with Beloit while Rochester is hesitating with the Twins. He wasn't sure.

I moved this thread to the About Twins Daily Forum. It seemed more appropriate there than in Twins Talk. ~~~~ There's a lot to cover here. You're asking for an explanation about how I handled the thryloss thread about Bremer, so I'll try to answer. I didn't delete it. I almost did, but I thought it was valuable to have 20 or so posts giving fairly thoughtful and passionate contrary replies to the charge that thryloss raised. I think it's valuable to have a community respond to something like that and to have that response recorded. I changed the title. As I said in the last post on the topic, I felt like the title was an inflammatory headline. Ultimately, what was being debated was the use of "property" for one race and "member" for another so I changed the title to talk about that. I deleted personal attacks. The posts I deleted directly attacked thryloss without actually addressing his point. That is always going to be deleted. I deleted another with racist imagery. I modified one other one that addressed the point but degenerated down to an attack. I wanted to not lose the point, so I deleted the last line. I closed the thread after making a post. - I made the post to make clear where I stood on the topic and that I thought Thryloss initial charge was a huge stretch, which I thought I made clear, but apparently was not clear to you. - I closed the thread because I literally got out of bed when I saw this as I was setting the alarm on my ipad. It is 1:30 AM and I need to be at work for an 8:00 meeting tomorrow. I cannot moderate it. ~~~~ I did all this rather than just delete the thread because I believe the quality of a community shows up when it needs to handle difficult and sensitive topics. Of the roughly 25 posts I saw responding to this, I was pleased with how the community handled themselves in most of them, and downright proud of several of them. I edited/deleted the rest because that's the responsibility of moderators and because they could only lead to escalation. I closed the thread because I felt like cooler heads are less likely to prevail at 3 AM. And finally, I'll add this. I'm not perfect. All of us except Brock are failry new to moderating forums. In the light of day, with further reflection, I might have handled this differently. But it's 1:30 AM and it needs to be handled now, and so this is what I'm doing. We'll see if it's the right path.

No, I don't think it does. You don't use the option unless you're sent down. So if he's called up in September but never demoted until next year at spring training, he doesn't use the option. (Can anyone else confirm that definitively?)

I am a little worried about Plouffe over the last few weeks of this season. He says he's not going to be completely healthy the rest of the season. That could lead to questionable performances.

I have trouble believing that Mastroianni is ever going to hit enough to be a decent corner outfielder, but he could hit well enough to be a decent second baseman, especially in this organization. Why not try him at 2B? Who is to say why he was moved in the first place?

Just got home and saw this. I'm going to make a quit comment on this and then close the thread overnight, because I don't think we can monitor it, and it seems to need monitoring. We can get back to it tomorrow if necessary. I know thryloss, who started this post, is sensitive on this subject. I like to think I'm sensitive too and have been accused on this board of being overly sensitive or of searching for racism in places there isn't any. As has been well established, "property" is a common phrase. I can see where referring to a person of one race one way and another race another way could raise eyebrows. I also understand that it could mean nothing at all. (Sunday, while running with my daugher and my dog, I mixed up their names. I'm pretty sure it meant nothing, but it could certainly be interpreted as meaning something by someone who was looking for something like that. I'd hope not to be criticized for it.) I've changed the title of the thread because titles can act like headlines, and I thought changing the headline might promote more civil discourse. I'm also deleting a couple of posts that were eithet attacks or crossed the line in my opinion.

To be fair, I don't think it's limited to the Twin Cities. I can speak for Philadelphia and a little for New York and Boston, all of which are great sport cities. This is a staple of all of them.

100% agree with Mr. Mackey on this one! It's a specious argument. It also a rhetorical trick. The trick is this: instead of debating a point honestly, choose the most extreme possible viewpoint and portray that as the opposing side. That gives lots of room for fire, brimstone and proselytizing. In this case, the extreme point seems to be that payroll is not THE BIGGEST factor in winning and losing. And if it's not the biggest, it must not be important. The absurdity of the initial argument becomes clear when one carries it through to its natural conclusion: if payroll isn't important, why not cut it further? Why not go back to 2000, when it was under $20M? That is absurd, of course. Which is why a writer sticks to hammering his philosophical point - "it's not that important" - instead of engaging in a discussion of the real-world example. (BTW, I'm quite sure I've done the same thing. I'm not blasting Mackey for this. I'm just saying that it's easy to take it too far.) In this case, the real-world examples are this: 1) The Twins payroll went down $13M or so in the same year that MLB payrolls went up a few percent. To suggest that the Twins couldn't have used that $13M to improve their ball club this year is ridiculous. It doesn't mean they would have spent it wisely. It doesn't mean they would have competed. But it's silly to suggest that would have made the team worse. 2) If the Twins cut payroll again this year it will further limit them. I don't disagree that free agency shopping can encourage "laziness." But we have a team starved for starting pitching and a free agent market that is loaded for starting pitching. That could not be a better situation provided they don't shy away from spending some money. That doesn't fix all the problems, but it can fix that problem, and it's likely that there are going to be some huge bargains this year the same way Willingham looks like a huge bargain. Again, I can't see anyway one can reasonably argue that now having an extrt $10-15M to spend is unimportant. ~~~ I'll make one more point that gets me a little more riled up. It is AWFULLY CONVENIENT for the Twins to start with the "payroll isn't that important" three years after they start to live in a publicly subsidized stadium. I don't remember them making that argument back when they were lobbying for a new stadium. At that point, the mantra was that they "have trouble competing" in their stadium. Seemingly, it was important then.

They didn't DFA Nishioka, just optioned him.