diehardtwinsfan

Wait, you don't want Dave to buy a 'free Mark Derosa' add?

The issue chief is the attempt to do it. Like I said before, you'd get quite a few Christians to jump on board with legalizing gay marriages if their rights to choose not to perform them were also protected. I'd be willing to bet that minus the very vocal 10% on both sides of the argument, it would be largely accepted. That's my point.

I agree that they have a vested interest in that, but their track record says otherwise, and until there are major changes within that organization, I'll stand by my right to not trust them. It wouldn't be the first time they (or other orgs like them) changed their terms of service once they had a foothold in the market.

Not sure they are widening it as much as calling it by the rules. During the offensive explosion, they made it much smaller, which in my opinion is ridiculous. Personally, I wanted an automated zone. That could solve a lot of those types of issues in general.

The solution is more private sponsors and less add networks. Any TDers own businesses in the twin city areas that would be up for buying add space? And Dave, I'm sure you can buy space asking they sign Mark Derosa.

I think we all forget this. When Joe Crede tells Scott Boras that he wants to play for the Twins, Boras gets it done. Boras may take most of his players to FA to maximize their return, but at the end of the day, if the player likes where he's at, an extension will be signed. Most of Boras's players though want him to maximize their bottom line. Nothing wrong with that. Just as there isn't much wrong with the Cubs recognizing that they will get him for 7 years at a reasonable price instead of 6.

So their clock keeps ticking when they get sent down b/c they weren't ready? Can't wait for the 'promote too slow' issues when that happens. There isn't really a right or wrong answer here. You have to have a threshold somewhere, and teams will take advantage of it. But as others pointed out, it's in their best interests to do so. I get that. Sucks for the player. I get that too. But I suspect Bryant knew this was a real possibility when he signed with Boras, b/c at the end of the day, he wants to maximize his bottom line. So do the Cubs.

TC Bear and the rally cap would really need to regress for this to play out. I'll add to the prediction though... After locking up the number one pick in the draft, no true standouts were available at that selection.

I really don't care if a church has the ability to fund this. I give money to the church so that it can reach the lost, not defend itself in a lawsuit. I think you sell a lot of your Christian brothers short if you think they don't mind it. Most churches I've been in don't have 10s of thousands of dollars to simply throw at legal fees to prevent an even bigger issue.

The problem unfortunately is that there are lots of people who aren't like the few of us having this conversation. To be clear, I think gay marriage should be legal, even though I'm personally opposed to it. It's a free country. It's also a free country to be against it, just like it's a free country for people to be racists, idiots, sexists, or whatever other stupid belief system they choose to embrace. The only catch is that they have to do so without depriving someone else of their liberty (i.e. no force). Just as I should not be able to force someone to not marry b/c of their sexual orientation, neither should the converse be true.

Perfectly fine by me, but to be clear, Sharpton takes hypocrisy to a completely different level.

They won when it was passed.

I'm more concerned with what Google will take from you in order to give you those blazing speeds, and if the government really wanted to do something, then they should be far more concerned with rights to privacy and controlling what data companies collect and are allowed to keep about consumers. I agree that competition needs to change, but net neutrality is nothing more than an attempt to control what goes on the internet, by providing a means to price less than desirable elements out of the market. It's claim that it's all about the child porn is the part that I find ridiculous. That unfortunately, will still happen, it will be those who are inconvenient to the establishment that will suffer... them and the small ISPs. Those are the ones who will really suffer.

Not sure about the homers, but I think the slash line is pretty realistic. He maybe on the downward arc of his career, but that doesn't mean he's suddenly going to be consistently posting an injury free OPS of .730. I think he can maintain an OPS in the upper .800s for another year or two if he's healthy.

I was going to say Rochester till I saw their lineup. The Lookouts have some decent pitchers in there. Granted the caliber is better in AAA, but I'm not sure it's that much better to make up for the difference in the lineup.

Eric Farris is a CF, no? I'm actually somewhat surprised he wasn't given a legit shot at playing CF for the Twins this year if he was that good defensively.

well, plate discipline tends to translate well to the bigs. A lack of it is well known to hurt in the bigs. That's the difference between Walker and Harrison. I think Walker has the higher ceiling, but in terms of being a productive major leaguer, right now, Harrison is more likely to succeed. It's hard to balance that kind of stuff out on a prospect ranking. That said, back to Walker, I think this year will tell whether or not he has a major league future. If he can put up similar numbers in AA than he did in A+, then I'll be much more confident of his ability to make the jump and be a productive major leaguer. People forget though that he was pretty overmatched his first couple months in A+ ball. The good is that he adjusted. Hopefully he can continue to adjust, but I won't be surprised at all if he struggles to start AA too. I can live with a .312 OBP from a guy that will consistently hit 30-40 home runs, but the main question I have for him right now is whether or not he can realistically maintain a >.300 OBP in the majors. With his contact issues as they are in high A, I'm not sold. The jump to AA is considered the 2nd hardest minor league jump (with the jump to the majors being the hardest), if he can do that successfully, I'll be much confident in his ability to be a productive major leaguer.

actually, part of being a minor league affiliate is recognizing that it's a development league. If the Twins want Rosario playing CF, he'll be there. I wouldn't surprised if Rosario stays in LF even with that. Hicks is probably the better CF of the two, and I really don't see how Rosario's CF case is going to be bolstered by playing CF vs. LF. If he's going back to the OF, it really doesn't matter where he plays, just that he plays. If he's good enough to be a CF, playing LF in AAA won't hurt him.

Jones surprises me. He was doing quite well and had some serious heat. I'd think that someone would pick him up.

So based on that logic, they should just promote everyone with some tools to the big leagues, even if they are only holding their own in the minors? That really isn't a good way to run an organization. These are organization assets, and the idea that they shouldn't be brought along based on how ready or deserving they are seems kind of odd does it not? And tell me how it is that the organization is going to benefit when the guys that do succeed are likely going to spend a lot of service time doing horribly at the major league level.

We're arguing the same thing here Jokin. The Twins promoted him before he was ready. That was my point. I agree he should have been sent down quicker. That doesn't really change the fact that he was moved too quickly. People look at years of service and forget that unless the talent was exceptional, these times frames are pretty normal. Most high schoolers who are drafted are going to spend at least 4 seasons in the minors, and that's for good prospects. Some guys take longer than that, and it's pretty normal (not just a Twins thing). Bottom line is that you are hurting their development by moving them before they are ready. Yeah, a few guys will shine, but more often than not you end up with guys like Delmon Young (who definitely needed more minor league time) or Carlos Gomez (who eventually clicked but not until his final arb year). College prospects tend to spend less time, but they've had 4 years developing against superior competition, and international free agents tend to take the longest as they are brought into the org at 16. They spend time in the DSL usually before playing rookie ball. I'll be honest in that I thought May should have won the job, but I'm not sure where this indictment on the Twins is coming, especially citing guys who debuted young (pretty much the definition of fast tracking in my opinion) such as Santana (age 23), Vargas (24 minus a lost half season due to suspension), Gibson (25 minus a lost year and then some to Tommy John surgery). These other factors are pretty much outside the org's control, and you cannot just pretend they didn't happen. And as others pointed out, minor league success matters too. May wasn't very good in 2013. He was pretty darn good in 2014 and had that calf injury not happened, he'd have been in the big leagues sooner. It's real easy to just look at a guys age and say 'they move to slow', but doing so without context is just wrong.

With the exception of Hicks, I believe all of these guys were international FAs, which means they were signed as 16 year olds. Making a debut at 21/22 IS fast tracking, and as for Hicks, I think the case at this point is this point is that they moved too fast with him.

The problem ben, is the challenge. As I said prior, plenty of religious people will be more than happy to compromise here to avoid those challenges. That's the point I laid out earlier. Like it or not, it's a legit fear and its a fear precisely because these challenges are made. They cost money and this threat is used all the time to force people and organizations to do something they don't want to do, simply to avoid the cost. Grant them protection, and I think a lot of this simply goes away. But you ask Christian leaders their fears (as I have on many occasions) and this subject comes up constantly. It doesn't matter that it's failed. It matters that the attempts continue to come.

Maybe if that were true, but unfortunately it's not. Their concerns are legit, as there are plenty who would be happy to force them down this road whether they were there or not... To be clear, I'm a pretty big advocate of the church staying out of politics. I'm not always a popular guy for saying as much. I think it's a free country, one where gays can marry and religious people can say they think it's wrong.

As someone involved in the federal space, this is a huge no-no, and not something she could just say 'I didn't know'. Lots of risks here, mainly security, as her personal server is probably not held to the same security standards found in the DoD. Not to mention it's shady. I do agree that if this had been Cheney, the left would have been in a tizzy and the right would have blown it off. That sums up my problem with politics in general.