John Bonnes

Aaron and John talk about the Twins deciding to send down Byron Buxton after rumors of a Miguel Sano demotion, recapping the trade deadline, the run to avoid 90 losses, Max Kepler's power explosion, Jose Berrios rejoining the rotation, Eddie Rosario catching fire, and what to do about Jorge Polanco. Click here to view the article

Thanks to the MN Corn Growers, Aaron and John recap the trades the Twins didn't make (Kurt Suzuki & Ervin Santana) and the trades they did make (Eduardo Nunez, Fernando Abad, Ricky Nolasco & Alex Meyer) while drinking beer and eating a Royale with Cheese at Lyn-Lake's Iron Door Pub. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click the Play button below. Click here to view the article

I think the only way you can dislike this deal is if you have a high opinion of Alex Meyer. I have probably been one of his biggest supporters, but I still like this deal. Meyer hasn't pitched since May and this year will be about a wash. Next year is his last option year. He showed a lot of hope in those three starts in April in Rochester, and I hope that's real, but a) it pretty much HAS to be real for this trade to not make sense and there is a real question if he's damaged goods at this point. Without those three starts, he's Pat Light, the other guy the Twins acquired today in the Abad trade, only with one less option year to put things together and maybe a higher ceiling.

Well, I really like this deal. Mejia is far from can't miss, but he's 23, he's in AAA, he's having a breakthrough year and seems to be getting stronger as he moves up the ladder. He's also a lefty. (By the way, to have a trio of southpaws at AAA and AA like Tyler Jay, Stephen Gonsalves and Adalberto Mejia?) The one thing I think will disappoint people is that I don't think there is anyway the Twins have in in the majors this year. He's at 108 innings. He only pitched 50 last year, and has never exceeded 105 in his professional career. I expect they shut him down in .... 30-40 more innings at the most?

It drive us even crazier than it does you. It's a limitation of the software. Here is my understanding, and Brock can correct me.... 1) We can merge two straight threads but the earlier thread always becomes the one we keep. 2) However, the same thing happens if we merge a story with comments to a thread - it keeps the earlier one, which is usually a thread with breaking news, which would be fine except.... 3) that it screws up the story. So we can't merge a breaking news thread with a story with comments without womping on the story and thus taking it away from the front page. I may not have all the details right, but we agree - we would love to have the comments from the original thread merged into the story comments. We just can't do it with this version. Sorry about that.

BTW, per Baseball America, Mejia wasn't suspended for a steroid, but for a weight-loss drug: Read more at http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/maturity-conditioning-aided-mejia/#1XbcZJG6msRs4yCG.99

I'll start this off... This is a hard thing to evaluate. I appreciate the methodology that was applied and the work involved. But I also would say there are at least a couple of significant factors that certainly don't work the Twins way. 1. The Twins drafted pretty low from 2008-2011 - and those are the players that are most likely to be producing WAR right now. I would expect them to be in the bottom third for those years, because they were in the bottom third of teams drafting those years. 2. The Twins top draft choices in the most recent years have been prep players as opposed to college players. The fact that Byron Buxton, Jose Berrios and Kohl Stewart are all 22 years old or younger has far more to do with weak WAR scores than their overall quality. This list might look a lot different in a few years as they gain WAR. I published this because I appreciate the attempt to quantify this stuff, and maybe Thrylos or some other members of the community can take this data as a starting point for even more analysis. But I don't know that it suggest that Deron Johnson lose his job.

In a special midweek podcast, Aaron and John visit Kyatchi on 38th and Nicollet and rank the Twins ten most valuable players, discuss Harry's Razor's new blades, watch their significant others geek out over Pokemon Go, and discover that Aaron is turned on by sushi. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click the Play button below. Click here to view the article

Vikings bloggers from several sites are helping the community, and we would like to invite Twins Daily and Wild Xtra members to join the fun. For the next few weeks, we’ll be helping raise money for Vikings coach Mike Zimmer’s foundation whose mission is to better the lives of children through the “learning is cool” program, college scholarships and free youth football camps. You can contribute through this link.The campaign is called the #MoreThanWords campaign and several Vikings blogs are participating, including Vikings Territory, Vikings Corner and the Daily Norseman. The goal of all the MinnCentric blogs has been to build a supportive community of blogs around our passions, and this campaign is a great example of what can be done when they come together. They’re already raised over $10,000 for the foundation and I’m sure the Twins Daily, Vikings Journal and Wild Xtra communities can help that total go even higher. The Mike Zimmer Foundation honors Mike’s wife Vikki, who passed away in 2009. The Mike Zimmer Foundation’s programs include: Mike Zimmer’s “X’s O’s A+’s” Football Camp, a free camp that mixes football with the importance of studies.Mike Zimmer’s MVP scholarships and the Bill Zimmer Memorial Scholarship, which provide as much as $25,000 towards 4-year university degrees.Mike Zimmer’s Stand Out Students, a program that rewards elementary students who achieve honor roll status with awards and visits with Zimmer and Vikings players.We’re proud to have Vikings Journal, Twins Daily and Wild Xtra participate in this program. I hope you’ll find a few extra minutes and a few extra dollars to contribute to this campaign. There are some special giveaways for which you can qualify if you contribute even $10 to the campaign, but whatever you give, thank you for helping to support independent bloggers and the communities they are building. Gratefully, Twins Daily Click here to view the article

Aaron and John talk about the start of the Rob Antony era, belated reactions to Terry Ryan's firing, trade deadline quotes and realities, Miguel Sano's defense, Jose Berrios' latest great start at Triple-A, Roy Smalley's broadcasting upgrade, and touring U.S. Bank Stadium. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click the Play button below. Click here to view the article

And a note to the mods, or those of you that were critical of me in this thread and had their comments hidden by the mods: I've unhidden them. I didn't think any were over-the-top uncivil. I don't mean to reject the decision-making of the mods, who do outstanding work, but in this thread I don't want people to be afraid to be critical of my position (or me, for that matter).

I'm so sorry I didn't check this thread. I should've known it would get comments, but podcasts so rarely get comments on here that I kind of forgot to even look. Most of the questions surround two subjects: 1) Why I believe Ryan should've received another year and 2) How Aaron and I handled the disagreement. 1) I look at Ryan's GM career in his two stints with the Twins. I would grade the GM on overall results during their tenure. I would grade Terry Ryan's first stint with the Twins as an A-, maybe a B+. I would grade his second stint with the Twins as a D through June. HOWEVER, at the end of March I would've graded it as a B-; they had a winning season and looked strong for the future after an extensive 3-year rebuild process under Ryan. The overall grade for a GM can't change that much over 2-3 months. That discrepancy makes me want to step back and evaluate the team, the organization, etc. That's why I wouldn't have fired Ryan yet. I might have done it in October if things continued to be terrible. But I also might not have and given him one more offseason. I think he's earned that much. And yes, Aaron and I cover a lot of things the Twins do wrong. But we also cover a lot of things the Twins do right. Anyone who studies a team can list strengths and weaknesses. But how important each of those strengths and weaknesses are is shown in results. And I don't mean a simple won-loss record. (Bill Smith was 332-318 over his four years. I don't think that means we want him back.) I mean an evaluation of where the organization was when a GM took it over and where it is now. And this organization is in a vastly better place now than it was after the 2011 season. 2) It has always been our policy to not edit our podcasts at all, or even let the tape stop rolling (unless there is a technical problem). That makes it even harder than radio when spirited topics arise - at least in radio, you have a commercial break to gather yourselves. So we have had a few times where we have gotten into it like this. (FWIW, it takes a great deal of guts to have that policy and I respect the hell out of Aaron for agreeing to it. Hell, it takes a great deal of guts to create anything and put it out there in public, but to have something that is instantly recorded, without prep and saved for posterity is borderline insane. It's akin to writing a story that doesn't allow any corrections or edits, only it moves even faster.) It was clear to me that Aaron was frustrated with me and I was frustrated with him. Rather than stop the recording (just because we never had), I tried to move on a few times and was unsuccessful. In retrospect, I wonder why we wouldn't press "pause", cool off for a few minutes (like a commercial break) and then start again when maybe we're both a little more willing to listen and not as determined to talk. If you guys have any feedback on that strategy I'd love to hear it. On the one hand, it might make the podcast a little more interesting as we both regather and not try to make the same point. On the other, the impromptu and genuine passion is what some people appreciate. FWIW, we sat around after the show and had a beer together for 30 minutes. I think Aaron makes a special effort to reconnect with me as a friend after something like that and I appreciate it. And I do the same. It isn't always our first impulse, but I'd much rather put forth that effort than drive a wedge in a relationship or a community just so I can stubbornly reject a viewpoint about a baseball team.

Aaron and John have an emergency podcast at New Bohemia to discuss (and debate) the the Twins firing Terry Ryan. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click the Play button below. Click here to view the article

Or just click the Play button below.Aaron and John. thanks to Harrys.com, get their Human Resources' groove on at New Bohemia - Lake Street, giving each of the Twins their personal performance reviews, including who is Nagana, Nagana, Nagana-work-here-anymore. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Click here to view the article

Aaron and John talk about Max Kepler and the Twins' lineup doing big damage, Kennys Vargas making the most of his (last?) chance, Trevor Plouffe's broken rib and the Twins' medical staff, Eduardo Nunez making the All-Star team, Daniel Palka moves up to Triple-A, the power of Twitter, midseason prospect rankings, and Terry Ryan saying (again) the Twins are open for business. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click the Play button below. Click here to view the article

On Tuesday the Twins announced that Phil Hughes will undergo surgery to combat thoracic outlet syndrome. “This isn’t career threatening,” Twins general manager Terry Ryan said. “It’s an injury that I think explains maybe a little bit of his issue. If that is the case, that’s a relief.” But an objective view of pitchers who have undergone the surgery provides less optimism.Thoracic outlet syndrome syndrome isn’t an injury to bones or muscles. It’s an injury to nerves, in which they become compressed which can cause pain and a lack of velocity. The treatment is to remove that which is compressing the nerves, which is presumably why Phil Hughes' surgery involves losing a rib. But nerve injuries are tricky to diagnose and tricky to fix. Looking at high profile pitchers that have undergone the surgery shows some successes, but also some failures. The failures could be due to the surgery not fixing the problem, or to the problem being misdiagnosed. For instance: Cardinals ace pitcher Chris Carpenter underwent surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) in 2012 in July, and tried to recover in time to pitch for St. Louis in the postseason. He had a little success, but never pitched again as the symptoms returned the next year. Of course, he would also have been 38 years old in 2013, so was the problem the TOS, or just the game catching up to him? Josh Beckett is a somewhat more optimistic story. He had the surgery in 2013 and bounced back early in 2014 in a big way, posting a 2.88 ERA in 20 starts. But he was then diagnosed with a hip injury and never pitched again. But he was also older – 34 years old – and nearing the end of his career. Similarly pessimistic is Sean Marcum’s story. He had the surgery in July of 2013, but still had shoulder issues after it. He was never an effective pitcher after. More encouraging is current Royals pitcher Chris Young. After years of battling injuries, Young was finally diagnosed with TOS and underwent surgery in 2013. He finally stayed healthy in 2014 and 2015 and posted a 3.40 ERA in those two seasons, albeit with only a 6 K/9 strikeout rate. He’s also hurt this year, but he’s also 37 years old. There are plenty more examples, some good and some bad, but this is by no means a trivial diagnosis. Its built-in nebulous nature, which makes it difficult to diagnose in the first place, also means there is risk in the diagnosis and risk in the cure. Ryan is right – if this explains a little bit of Hughes issue, then this would be a relief. The Twins might still see Hughes return to the form he displayed in 2014 if he regains his velocity, strikeout rate and cuts down on the home runs. But there is no guarantee then can count on him to be his old self next year, or the next three years he is under contract. Click here to view the article