Loosey

I agree with whoever mentioned that we shouldn't just trade Span to trade him. He is under contract for a few more years and is a pretty good leadoff hitter and center fielder. If you can't receive some top prospects for him in return then why bother making a trade. The reason for trading established players is to build for the future, and you aren't going to improve in the future if you trade away the better players you have now for fringe prospects unless you have a younger player in your system who is ready to take the place of the guy you are trading. And I don't believe the Twins have that guy in place yet, Revere isn't ready and doesn't have the arm for CF and Hicks is still toiling in AA. Stand pat on Span unless they are blown away.

I expect him to be a typical Twins starter once we get to the end of the year. I would expect about a 4.00 era long-term. This year though I wouldn't be shocked to see him finish with lower ERA in the 3's.

For comparisons sake and to see where the Twins could also find talent. I would like to see an analysis of where the some of the top aces in baseball today and some in the recent past were drafted. For example Johan Santana was discovered and signed out of Venezuela and eventually drafted by the Twins in the Rule 5 draft. I would like to see other examples such as this.

With the Twins pitching staff seemingly dwindling by the day I started to think about what the Twins could do to bolster it or what could they have done to prevent this. Then I remembered reading a rumor about a trade the Twins were looking at after the 2007 season. If you recall this is the off-season Johan Santana was traded for Carlos Gomez, Philip Humber, Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra. The rumored trade that Bill Smith supposedly turned down because there weren't enough pieces was Johan Santana to the Dodgers for rookie Matt Kemp and 19 year old phenom Clayton Kershaw. Here are some of the articles I looked up confirming I wasn't imagining I read these things 5 years ago. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/clayton_kershaw/page/5/ and http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/rumor_twins_ace_johan_santana_to_dodgers/ . Now these were only rumors but if you remember the steam Johan had back then it isn't unreasonable to think this was true. Additionally, there were also the Clay Bucholz and Jacoby Ellsbury rumors and the Melky Cabrera Phil Hughes rumors. Either way all of them would have been better than the actual trade that happened. This was all 5 years ago and no one can see into the future and we can't go back and change things now, but just this one trade would have this team in a completely different situation today. My timeline shows the Twins turned Johan Santana into the following: Johan Santana >Carlos Gomez, Philip Humber, Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra | Carlos Gomez > JJ Hardy | > JJ Hardy for Jim Hoey | >Mulvey, Humber and Hoey all left the Twins for nothing in return. So using the baseball version of the discounted cash flow method 1 Johan Santana in 2007 = 1 Deolis Guerra in 2012 if you use Bill Smith's trade investment logic. Oy!

With the Twins pitching staff seemingly dwindling by the day I started to think about what the Twins could do to bolster it or what could they have done to prevent this. Then I remembered reading a rumor about a trade the Twins were looking at after the 2007 season. If you recall this is the off-season Johan Santana was traded for Carlos Gomez, Philip Humber, Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra. The rumored trade that Bill Smith supposedly turned down because there weren't enough pieces was Johan Santana to the Dodgers for rookie Matt Kemp and 19 year old phenom Clayton Kershaw. Here are some of the articles I looked up confirming I wasn't imagining I read these things 5 years ago. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/clayton_kershaw/page/5/ and http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/rumor_twins_ace_johan_santana_to_dodgers/ . Now these were only rumors but if you remember the steam Johan had back then it isn't unreasonable to think this was true. Additionally, there were also the Clay Bucholz and Jacoby Ellsbury rumors and the Melky Cabrera Phil Hughes rumors. Either way all of them would have been better than the actual trade that happened. This was all 5 years ago and no one can see into the future and we can't go back and change things now, but just this one trade would have this team in a completely different situation today. My timeline shows the Twins turned Johan Santana into the following: Johan Santana >Carlos Gomez, Philip Humber, Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra | Carlos Gomez > JJ Hardy | > JJ Hardy for Jim Hoey | >Mulvey, Humber and Hoey all left the Twins for nothing in return. So using the baseball version of the discounted cash flow method 1 Johan Santana in 2007 = 1 Deolis Guerra in 2012 if you use Bill Smith's trade investment logic. Oy!

I know this idea will get shot down by most on this board but my thought would be to give Perkins another shot at being a starter. He seems to have matured a lot in the last few years and has learned how to pitch, not just throw. He is turning into a great reliever who can throw in the mid 90's, I wonder what type of velocity he could maintain over 7+ innings every 5 days? My biggest concern isn't that he can't do it, my biggest concern is that our best bullpen pitcher would be out of the bullpen. What is everyone elses thoughts on this?

powrwrap, I think you've watched too much Twins baseball. The Twins are nazi's about pitch count and use it as the holy grail for when to pull a pitcher. In my opinion it is an over rated stat. 100 is a nice round # and has become the go to number for when to a pitcher has thrown too many pitches. Who is to say that 117 isn't the average number where a pitcher loses his stuff and tires, maybe it's 85. What I'm trying to say is that each pitcher is different and Verlander on pitch 101 is better than most pitchers on pitch #15. No problem with letting your workhorse ace finish what he started.

I read the next line and answered my own question.

So will the unplugged part be podcastable or only the first hour?

I just replied to this conversation in general but wanted to add on to your 90% conversion rate. I think Capps will have an ERA around 4.50 this year. Again some back of the napking figuring tells me that in an average 9 inning game he would give up 4.5 runs. Now extrapolate that throughout an entire season and inning by inning and you could figure that he would give up 1 run every other save opportunity. Now if you figure he gets 60 save chances and assume that 1/3 of those are 1 run leads he is in to protect. Of those 1 run leads using this forecasting assumption he would blow 10 of 60 save opportunities (assuming he never gave up more than 1 run and converted all 2 and 3 run leads). 50 out of 60 is 83%, which is well below the average. Personally I think Capps is more like to convert somewhere between 70-75% which is 15 blown games. . . I guess what I am longwindedly getting at is, I don't think Capps should be a closer. Go into the 9th and play the odds and the situation until you find a legitimate closer.

My concern with Capps is and always has been is that he isn't a prototypical closer. Most closer have at least one out pitch to get them out of a jam. I don't see that with Capps. He has a fastball that doesn't move and tops out at about 93 mph, a slider that hung a lot last year and an average changeup. He is fine for a run of the mill reliever, but my belief is that if you are going to designate a guy your closer he needs to have something that is an A+ pitch that can get guys out for 1 inning. If I were the Twins I would treat the 9th inning like any other inning and pitch to the situation, instead of designating a guy who realistically has a 50/50 chance (4.50 ERA = 1 Run every 2 innings pitched) of giving up a run every time he comes into the 9th.

I think you are little too high on the pitching, some numbers seem to be stretches. On the other hand the hitters projections look a little bit low to me. I believe this team will be able to score some runs, unfortunately so will their opponents.

The Twins training staff is a joke. They should have a way to determine if there is something not structurally sound in his elbow. Instead they will say he just needs to take it easy for while then ramp it up, which will happen, until something goes terribly wrong catching the training staff off guard leaving them looking like idiots.

If the Twins are having another bad season it would be nice to see Liriano light it up. I personally don't think the Twins beleive he is ever going to be a Cy Young caliber pitcher year in and year out. That is why a losing Twins' season coupled with a Cy Young-like first half for Liriano could bring the Twins nice return in a trade.

Recently JJ Hardy came out and mentioned that some of his success at the plate last season was due to going back to what he does naturally, which is pulling the ball. The Twins wanted Hardy to go to the opposite field. Hardy mentioned his first BP session with the Twins back in 2010, "My first round of BP with the Twins, I was trying to (pull the ball), and Rod Carew and those guys call me over and say, `That's not we want. We want line drives the other way,"' Hardy said. "So that was my approach for the Twins." In 2011 he changed his approach at the plate and instead of hitting line drives to right field, he was allowed to pull and drive the ball all over the field. Hardy hit 30 homeruns along with 80 RBI last season with the Orioles. Some might say that his success was due to being healthy after dealing with a problematic wrist in his 1 year stint with the Twins, but the jump in production sticks out. What exactly is the "Twins Way"? Here's my take on it in good old fashioned dictionary form! The Twins Way Noun 1. "Producing" runs without the need of homeruns 2. Getting on base by any means 3. Using fundamentals at the plate and on the base paths. - Taking the extra base, hitting the ball to the opposite field to advance runners 4. Playing as a team and not being afraid to sacrifice yourself for the better good of the team In theory this is an excellent approach to scoring runs. It sounds simple enough, get on base move the guy over and find another base hit in there somewhere and you have yourself a run. A fatal flaw in this theory was exposed last year. If you do not have players to get on base consistently at the top of the order a slap single to right field from the middle of the order will be just a 2 out single rendered meaningless. From reading posts this weekend it seems the issue that most people have with the Twins Way is coaching staff's insistence on driving the ball the opposite way. If the Twins truly are having hitters with the ability to drive the ball over the fence instead push the ball to the opposite way I too have a problem with it. However, I don't think that is entirely the case. To be a complete hitter, driving the outside pitch the other way is key to be being a successfull hitter. I also have a firm belief in letting power hitters swing away and not worry about going the other way. It is harder to hit the ball out of the park going oppo and the Twins have little power as it is right now. By making it even more difficult and forcing the Twins Way issue on it's power hitters the Twins could be looking at another power outage similar to last year. My changes to the Twins Way: I'm sure you all are excited to hear some guy you don't know who has no coaching experience or blogging experience tell you how I would fix the Twins Way. But hear goes nothing: 1) As bad as it sounds I would tell Rod Carew he is no longer the "special hitting assistant" or whatever his title is. The approaches he seems to be teaching would work wonderful for every hitter if they had the bat control and limited power that he had in his prime. That being said, I don't know if any player besides Ichiro has the bat control of Rod Carew. He could put the ball where he wanted it when he wanted it whenever he wanted to. That was a skill you just can't teach and his teaching methods are tailored to having that type of ability. 2) Continue to teach "driving the ball" to the opposite field. But ease up on it. Some players should be doing more of it, while some less of it in my honest opinion. According to Hardy it sounds as if the coaching staff was so into going the other way that if a player rolls over an outside pitch they get an earful. That sort of "nagging" can lead to a loss of confidence and eventually a player being afraid to pull the pitches he should. 3) Continue to play small ball with small ball players. Each player on the team needs a role. Span and Carroll need to be table setters. Get on base by any means. Span and Carroll know they are limited in the power department so they should be driving the ball to the opposite field any way to get on base for the middle of the lineup. Mauer, Morneau, Willingham and Valencia need to be the power. Let them grip it and rip it. Mauer will do his thing regardless but a healthy Morneau and Willingham should be able to hammer the ball to all fields and hit it out of the park hopefully with runners on base. (If I remember correctly I don't think the Twins had a 3-run homer until late May last season.) The back side of the order again should be in small ball Twins Way mode. Doumit has some power and should be allowed to roll over a pitch from time to time while the Casilla and Revere should be leadoff hitters at the bottom of the order and use their speed to get on base and create chaos on the basepaths. I believe in the Twins Way as a template, not as an end all be all way to run an offense. Let me know if you agree or have your own opinions on this.

Recently JJ Hardy came out and mentioned that some of his success at the plate last season was due to going back to what he does naturally, which is pulling the ball. The Twins wanted Hardy to go to the opposite field. Hardy mentioned his first BP session with the Twins back in 2010, "My first round of BP with the Twins, I was trying to (pull the ball), and Rod Carew and those guys call me over and say, `That's not we want. We want line drives the other way,"' Hardy said. "So that was my approach for the Twins." In 2011 he changed his approach at the plate and instead of hitting line drives to right field, he was allowed to pull and drive the ball all over the field. Hardy hit 30 homeruns along with 80 RBI last season with the Orioles. Some might say that his success was due to being healthy after dealing with a problematic wrist in his 1 year stint with the Twins, but the jump in production sticks out. What exactly is the "Twins Way"? Here's my take on it in good old fashioned dictionary form! The Twins Way Noun 1. "Producing" runs without the need of homeruns 2. Getting on base by any means 3. Using fundamentals at the plate and on the base paths. - Taking the extra base, hitting the ball to the opposite field to advance runners 4. Playing as a team and not being afraid to sacrifice yourself for the better good of the team In theory this is an excellent approach to scoring runs. It sounds simple enough, get on base move the guy over and find another base hit in there somewhere and you have yourself a run. A fatal flaw in this theory was exposed last year. If you do not have players to get on base consistently at the top of the order a slap single to right field from the middle of the order will be just a 2 out single rendered meaningless. From reading posts this weekend it seems the issue that most people have with the Twins Way is coaching staff's insistence on driving the ball the opposite way. If the Twins truly are having hitters with the ability to drive the ball over the fence instead push the ball to the opposite way I too have a problem with it. However, I don't think that is entirely the case. To be a complete hitter, driving the outside pitch the other way is key to be being a successfull hitter. I also have a firm belief in letting power hitters swing away and not worry about going the other way. It is harder to hit the ball out of the park going oppo and the Twins have little power as it is right now. By making it even more difficult and forcing the Twins Way issue on it's power hitters the Twins could be looking at another power outage similar to last year. My changes to the Twins Way: I'm sure you all are excited to hear some guy you don't know who has no coaching experience or blogging experience tell you how I would fix the Twins Way. But hear goes nothing: 1) As bad as it sounds I would tell Rod Carew he is no longer the "special hitting assistant" or whatever his title is. The approaches he seems to be teaching would work wonderful for every hitter if they had the bat control and limited power that he had in his prime. That being said, I don't know if any player besides Ichiro has the bat control of Rod Carew. He could put the ball where he wanted it when he wanted it whenever he wanted to. That was a skill you just can't teach and his teaching methods are tailored to having that type of ability. 2) Continue to teach "driving the ball" to the opposite field. But ease up on it. Some players should be doing more of it, while some less of it in my honest opinion. According to Hardy it sounds as if the coaching staff was so into going the other way that if a player rolls over an outside pitch they get an earful. That sort of "nagging" can lead to a loss of confidence and eventually a player being afraid to pull the pitches he should. 3) Continue to play small ball with small ball players. Each player on the team needs a role. Span and Carroll need to be table setters. Get on base by any means. Span and Carroll know they are limited in the power department so they should be driving the ball to the opposite field any way to get on base for the middle of the lineup. Mauer, Morneau, Willingham and Valencia need to be the power. Let them grip it and rip it. Mauer will do his thing regardless but a healthy Morneau and Willingham should be able to hammer the ball to all fields and hit it out of the park hopefully with runners on base. (If I remember correctly I don't think the Twins had a 3-run homer until late May last season.) The back side of the order again should be in small ball Twins Way mode. Doumit has some power and should be allowed to roll over a pitch from time to time while the Casilla and Revere should be leadoff hitters at the bottom of the order and use their speed to get on base and create chaos on the basepaths. I believe in the Twins Way as a template, not as an end all be all way to run an offense. Let me know if you agree or have your own opinions on this.

Recently JJ Hardy came out and mentioned that some of his success at the plate last season was due to going back to what he does naturally, which is pulling the ball. The Twins wanted Hardy to go to the opposite field. Hardy mentioned his first BP session with the Twins back in 2010, "My first round of BP with the Twins, I was trying to (pull the ball), and Rod Carew and those guys call me over and say, `That's not we want. We want line drives the other way,"' Hardy said. "So that was my approach for the Twins." In 2011 he changed his approach at the plate and instead of hitting line drives to right field, he was allowed to pull and drive the ball all over the field. Hardy hit 30 homeruns along with 80 RBI last season with the Orioles. Some might say that his success was due to being healthy after dealing with a problematic wrist in his 1 year stint with the Twins, but the jump in production sticks out. What exactly is the "Twins Way"? Here's my take on it in good old fashioned dictionary form! The Twins Way Noun 1. "Producing" runs without the need of homeruns 2. Getting on base by any means 3. Using fundamentals at the plate and on the base paths. - Taking the extra base, hitting the ball to the opposite field to advance runners 4. Playing as a team and not being afraid to sacrifice yourself for the better good of the team In theory this is an excellent approach to scoring runs. It sounds simple enough, get on base move the guy over and find another base hit in there somewhere and you have yourself a run. A fatal flaw in this theory was exposed last year. If you do not have players to get on base consistently at the top of the order a slap single to right field from the middle of the order will be just a 2 out single rendered meaningless. From reading posts this weekend it seems the issue that most people have with the Twins Way is coaching staff's insistence on driving the ball the opposite way. If the Twins truly are having hitters with the ability to drive the ball over the fence instead push the ball to the opposite way I too have a problem with it. However, I don't think that is entirely the case. To be a complete hitter, driving the outside pitch the other way is key to be being a successfull hitter. I also have a firm belief in letting power hitters swing away and not worry about going the other way. It is harder to hit the ball out of the park going oppo and the Twins have little power as it is right now. By making it even more difficult and forcing the Twins Way issue on it's power hitters the Twins could be looking at another power outage similar to last year. My changes to the Twins Way: I'm sure you all are excited to hear some guy you don't know who has no coaching experience or blogging experience tell you how I would fix the Twins Way. But hear goes nothing: 1) As bad as it sounds I would tell Rod Carew he is no longer the "special hitting assistant" or whatever his title is. The approaches he seems to be teaching would work wonderful for every hitter if they had the bat control and limited power that he had in his prime. That being said, I don't know if any player besides Ichiro has the bat control of Rod Carew. He could put the ball where he wanted it when he wanted it whenever he wanted to. That was a skill you just can't teach and his teaching methods are tailored to having that type of ability. 2) Continue to teach "driving the ball" to the opposite field. But ease up on it. Some players should be doing more of it, while some less of it in my honest opinion. According to Hardy it sounds as if the coaching staff was so into going the other way that if a player rolls over an outside pitch they get an earful. That sort of "nagging" can lead to a loss of confidence and eventually a player being afraid to pull the pitches he should. 3) Continue to play small ball with small ball players. Each player on the team needs a role. Span and Carroll need to be table setters. Get on base by any means. Span and Carroll know they are limited in the power department so they should be driving the ball to the opposite field any way to get on base for the middle of the lineup. Mauer, Morneau, Willingham and Valencia need to be the power. Let them grip it and rip it. Mauer will do his thing regardless but a healthy Morneau and Willingham should be able to hammer the ball to all fields and hit it out of the park hopefully with runners on base. (If I remember correctly I don't think the Twins had a 3-run homer until late May last season.) The back side of the order again should be in small ball Twins Way mode. Doumit has some power and should be allowed to roll over a pitch from time to time while the Casilla and Revere should be leadoff hitters at the bottom of the order and use their speed to get on base and create chaos on the basepaths. I believe in the Twins Way as a template, not as an end all be all way to run an offense. Let me know if you agree or have your own opinions on this.

Recently JJ Hardy came out and mentioned that some of his success at the plate last season was due to going back to what he does naturally, which is pulling the ball. The Twins wanted Hardy to go to the opposite field. Hardy mentioned his first BP session with the Twins back in 2010, "My first round of BP with the Twins, I was trying to (pull the ball), and Rod Carew and those guys call me over and say, `That's not we want. We want line drives the other way,"' Hardy said. "So that was my approach for the Twins." In 2011 he changed his approach at the plate and instead of hitting line drives to right field, he was allowed to pull and drive the ball all over the field. Hardy hit 30 homeruns along with 80 RBI last season with the Orioles. Some might say that his success was due to being healthy after dealing with a problematic wrist in his 1 year stint with the Twins, but the jump in production sticks out. What exactly is the "Twins Way"? Here's my take on it in good old fashioned dictionary form! The Twins Way Noun 1. "Producing" runs without the need of homeruns 2. Getting on base by any means 3. Using fundamentals at the plate and on the base paths. - Taking the extra base, hitting the ball to the opposite field to advance runners 4. Playing as a team and not being afraid to sacrifice yourself for the better good of the team In theory this is an excellent approach to scoring runs. It sounds simple enough, get on base move the guy over and find another base hit in there somewhere and you have yourself a run. A fatal flaw in this theory was exposed last year. If you do not have players to get on base consistently at the top of the order a slap single to right field from the middle of the order will be just a 2 out single rendered meaningless. From reading posts this weekend it seems the issue that most people have with the Twins Way is coaching staff's insistence on driving the ball the opposite way. If the Twins truly are having hitters with the ability to drive the ball over the fence instead push the ball to the opposite way I too have a problem with it. However, I don't think that is entirely the case. To be a complete hitter, driving the outside pitch the other way is key to be being a successfull hitter. I also have a firm belief in letting power hitters swing away and not worry about going the other way. It is harder to hit the ball out of the park going oppo and the Twins have little power as it is right now. By making it even more difficult and forcing the Twins Way issue on it's power hitters the Twins could be looking at another power outage similar to last year. My changes to the Twins Way: I'm sure you all are excited to hear some guy you don't know who has no coaching experience or blogging experience tell you how I would fix the Twins Way. But hear goes nothing: 1) As bad as it sounds I would tell Rod Carew he is no longer the "special hitting assistant" or whatever his title is. The approaches he seems to be teaching would work wonderful for every hitter if they had the bat control and limited power that he had in his prime. That being said, I don't know if any player besides Ichiro has the bat control of Rod Carew. He could put the ball where he wanted it when he wanted it whenever he wanted to. That was a skill you just can't teach and his teaching methods are tailored to having that type of ability. 2) Continue to teach "driving the ball" to the opposite field. But ease up on it. Some players should be doing more of it, while some less of it in my honest opinion. According to Hardy it sounds as if the coaching staff was so into going the other way that if a player rolls over an outside pitch they get an earful. That sort of "nagging" can lead to a loss of confidence and eventually a player being afraid to pull the pitches he should. 3) Continue to play small ball with small ball players. Each player on the team needs a role. Span and Carroll need to be table setters. Get on base by any means. Span and Carroll know they are limited in the power department so they should be driving the ball to the opposite field any way to get on base for the middle of the lineup. Mauer, Morneau, Willingham and Valencia need to be the power. Let them grip it and rip it. Mauer will do his thing regardless but a healthy Morneau and Willingham should be able to hammer the ball to all fields and hit it out of the park hopefully with runners on base. (If I remember correctly I don't think the Twins had a 3-run homer until late May last season.) The back side of the order again should be in small ball Twins Way mode. Doumit has some power and should be allowed to roll over a pitch from time to time while the Casilla and Revere should be leadoff hitters at the bottom of the order and use their speed to get on base and create chaos on the basepaths. I believe in the Twins Way as a template, not as an end all be all way to run an offense. Let me know if you agree or have your own opinions on this.

Petco in San Diego is on the top of my list. I went during the 2nd year is was open and liked it a lot. It may be because it was one of my first outdoor baseball experiences, but it still seemed to have a fantastic feel to it. On the other side the worst stadium I have been to (excluding the Metrodome) was Houston's Minute Maid Park. That was dark and felt more like a convention center than a baseball stadium.

I think the problem is that because this is a Twins site, people come here expecting sunshine and rainbows. They want and expect to hear all of the writers claim the Twins are going to win the World Series this year and every year here on out. These readers seem to be in denial that sometimes their favorite team isn't as good as they would like them to be and it's hard for them to hear otherwise. - - - That being said keep doing what you are doing because I am an optimist but do like to read objective points of views that maybe can see things that I bypass on my own. Keep up the good work.

I like Nick's roster but now that Zumaya is out who replaces him. Terry Ryan is looking to go find someone internally who will this be? Also, will this move everyone else up the bullpen pecking order and move the new guy in to mop up last guy in duty?

With all of the doom and gloom surrounding Justin Morneau's quotes this morning, I thought we could go back to happier time when the Twins were perennial Central Division Champs. I'll examine the '02, '03, '04, '06, '09 and '10 Division Champion teams everyday over the next week to determine which team was the best of the bunch. Today let's start by taking a look at the '02 Twins. 2002: The year it all started. Coming out of a strong 2001 campaign that saw them finish 2nd to the Cleveland Indians, the Twins had a young team ready to take the next step. The team was carried by a pitching staff that was lead by Rick Reed of all people after string of injuries to starters Joe Mays, Eric Milton and Brad Radke. Fifth starter Kyle Lohse had his best year as a starter for the Twins and Johan Santana, after starting the year in the bullpen, came on to start 14 games and established himself as one of the best pitchers in baseball. The lineup consisted of mostly homegrown stars such as Torii Hunter, Doug Mientkiewicz, Jacque Jones, Corey Koskie and AJ Pierzynski. This young team was built around defense, pitching and what was later known in these parts as playing "small ball". The 2002 team had three all-stars that in Eddie Guardado making it in his first year as a closer, AJ Pierzynski and Torii Hunter. These young Twins started the season out winning heating up along with the summer going 45-36 at the midway point and enjoyng a 5 game lead in the division. They ended the season with a sweep of the the Chicago White Sox finishing up the season 94-67 and easily won the Central by 13.5 games. leading up to their first playoff series since winning the World Series in 1991. The Twins took on the American League West Champion Oakland A's, winning the series in dramatic 5 game fashion. A series clinching Home Run by AJ Pierzynski followed by his now famous bat flip and "Booya!" sent the Twins onto the ALCS to face the Anaheim Angels. Unfortunately the Twins ran into the magic of the Rally Monkey and Power of Adam Kennedy and lost the series 4-1 after winning the first game, getting a gem of an outing from Joe Mays. Even though they lost this series the team would later prove this wasn't a fluke season and would go on to win the division five of the next eight season. [ATTACH=CONFIG]194[/ATTACH]

I personally think he has come to grips with his concussion situation. Right now it sounds like Morneau and the doctors have symptoms under control but he knows that if he gets hit in the head or issues persist it might be time to hang 'em up. I think he has prepared himself for the worst but is hoping along with the rest of us that he is going to be something close to the Morneau of the past.

The way the Twins are going to use Doumit do you really consider him a 3rd catcher? Yes, catcher is his main position but the Twins have stated he is penciled in to be the DH. The way I look at it is they will come home with 2 catchers (Mauer and Butera) and a DH who can catch in an emergency.