formerly33

If that was presented in question form, I would say yes. As it is,

... or trade him for Josh Donaldson.

Why is it that everyone gets real quiet when I enter the room? (Btw, that's another trademark Mom saying.) For posterity, the game is scoreless switching to the bottom of the second.

You underestimate this team's potential.

Wednesday 5/18, 12:10 PM CT at Target Field TV: FS-N, MLBN (out-of-market only); Radio: Go 96-3, TIBN Weather: Partly cloudy, with a low around 55. Southeast wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening. Lineups: BLUE JAYS (24-15) 1. Bautista, RF 2. Donaldson, 3B 3. Encarnacion, DH 4. Smoak, 1B 5. Saunders, LF 6. Tulowitzki, SS 7. Martin, C 8. Carrera, CF 9. Goins, 2B Aaron Sanchez (3-1, 3.29 ERA) TWINS (10-30): 1. Dozier, DH 2. Nunez, SS 3. Mauer, 1B 4. Sano, RF 5. Plouffe, 3B 6. Polanco, 2B 7. Grossman, LF 8. Centeno, C 9. Santana, CF Tyler Duffey (1-2, 1.85 ERA) Five things to think about: 1. I hope I'm not overstepping boundaries by making a spot start for Who Knows Who without first consulting the Powers That Be, especially since the upcoming game probably doesn't deserve attention anyway. 2. Does that qualify as something to think about? 3. When my siblings and I were younger, like all kids, the moment our mom stepped out of the room we'd either get out of control or neglect our duties ... usually both. A classic Mom quote became, "I can't even go to the bathroom without you guys acting up!" 4. I'm beginning to notice a similar pattern with the mods and Twins Daily ... 5. Rewriting the dictionary: Vegetable [vej-tuh-buh l, vej-i-tuh-] noun A generic term designated to random life forms with no regards for scientific data or good breeding. Enjoy the game (if that's even possible), and go Twins (unless you've already given up on them)! Tyler Duffey's out for revenge, so maybe, just maybe ...

First thing I noticed ... but then I've trained my eyes to look for TC's to obliterate since my brothers used to draw them on the walls. Also, if my eyes and memory do not deceive, it appears your alcoholic beverages count on the top of the fridge has diminished since the last photo. I'm guessing you have Sano's athleticism to thank for that ...

Riverbrian, can you add a poll to this thread so we can vote on our favorite Star Wars characters?

That actually looks a lot like Little Canada's city hall. (Yes, that's a BYTO reference.)

And apparently ... http://cdn3.whatculture.com/images/2014/08/23-teen-pregnancy.jpg

Large and small colons ... ?

Is Dozier going to be demoted to AAA since he could have been out?

Um, yeah, Craig and ChiTown are right ... you can't blame Hillary if the majority of voters turn out to be vile, racist, sexist, ignorant, and idiotic. C'mon.

I don't think we should have free college, and I'm a millennial. I do, however, object to the system as it is today. Understandably, a higher education is pretty much a prerequisite to a good paying job, and though I haven't actually done my research on why colleges are so expensive (I guess this disqualifies me from conversing on the subject), I'm pretty sure they're taking advantage of this fact. They charge the maximum amount they know people are willing to pay - and I'm not saying I don't understand the business side of this scheme - but that price only goes up with increased competition. Financial aid isn't a huge help, either. An example would be the college I used to dream of going to (I suppose this was largely triggered by peer pressure, etc. etc.). The tuition is over $40k a year. Even with scholarships based off of testing scores AND household income, I'd still be swamped in student loans. I guess that's what happens to most people, but my parents wouldn't cosign those loans because they didn't want to be stuck with paying them off if I died. That meant I either had to be reasonable or else wait to go to college until I was 24 or older. Of course, going off our income (middle class) and the fact that I would only be the second person in college at the time, the minimal financial aid I would receive made complete sense. But our circumstance was a bit unusual as there are three kids after myself, all born within a few years, who need to go to college as well. Obviously, the kids who go to these types of colleges are mostly upper class ... most people are willing to settle for less. That's why I'm starting out at a community college and then transferring to the U. They don't have an articulation agreement, however, and while I'm only taking courses that transfer into the U and making sure I get enough credits in every goal area, if I didn't do that (or if the U drops one or more of the courses over the next two years), I could end up taking three extra years to finish my BA. If that happens, although the UMN's tuition certainly isn't going to kill me, going to a community college will have been fruitless. Less than twenty years ago, a friend of my parents' daughter got accepted to Oberlin on a merit based full ride. Today, if you want free tuition for a music degree, your only option is Curtis, and, well, I'm just not that caliber. Few people are. And the fact remains that community colleges don't have the highest standards, and I lucked out location-wise to get to finish my degree at Minnesota. That said, based off our financial situation alone and completely ignoring my talent level, my only options are either starting out at a community college or else going to Curtis. That's why Bernie Sanders appeals to so many people. There is a problem; few people deny that. Bernie's not the solution by any stretch of the imagination, but you've got to admit attending college is simply becoming too challenging for middle class Americans. I suppose if everyone did what I'm doing, it wouldn't be that bad - of course, tuition will continue to rise, and opting for starting out at a community college for a degree in music performance could provide major obstacles in the road going forward, but I'm okay with that. It's a risk I'm willing to take. Given the intense competition in the music world, I'm probably just being dumb, but then, whoever said the road to success was smooth!

Wednesday 5/18, 12:10 PM CT at Comerica Park TV: FS-N; Radio: Go 96-3, TIBN Fantastic baseball weather with clear skies and a high near 65. Northeast wind 6 to 8 mph. Introduction I would like to thank Joseph Mauer for leading off the game in the DH spot; in an alternate universe with no Joe, this Twins team would be significantly worse. A warm thank you to Eduardo Nunez for batting second and playing shortstop, and a very special thanks to Miguel Sano in the three-hole and performing his duties to the very best of his abilities in right. I am deeply grateful for Byung-ho Park who has the cleaning duties for the day and will be covering first; also Trevor Plouffe at third, Brian Dozier at second, Eddie Rosario in left, Kurt Suzuki catching, and Danny Santana in center field ... yada yada yada ... and my sincerest thanks to Nolasco, who will be toeing the rubber for the Twins for an undetermined amount of innings this game. An additional thank you to Ian Kinsler at second, J. D. Martinez in right, Miguel Cabrera at first, Victor Martinez DH'ing for Justin Verlander who will be taking the mound in today's match-up, ol' Nick Castellanos at third, Justin Upton in left, Cameron Maybin in center, Jarrod Saltalamacchia catching, and Jose Iglesias at short. To all of these I am indebted, for without them, this game thread would not exist (though of course this is a counterfactual fallacy, but I'm trying to keep in the spirit of things here, dontcha know). Always33 Twins Daily May 2016 Welcome to the game thread – we got fun and games We got everything you want honey, we know the names We are the people that can find whatever you may need ... Chapter 1 I'm not a fairweather fan, but my love affair with the Twins which I wrote about one year ago in what I like to pretend is a now legendary composition is no longer what it used to be, leaving me wondering if I'm a traitor of some sort to take the game thread today when, other than high school baseball (go Zephs!), I've neglected that aspect of my life to an alarming extent over the last few months. The sequel to the aforementioned story isn't really baseball related, so I won't elaborate on that other than stating that my first crush, Music, made a dramatic reappearance in my life, and at long last my lifelong dreams are being fulfilled as I will be going to school for music this fall. I'm still in a state of shock and disbelief, but I'll attempt to put up my best performance this morning in order to help the Twins avoid a series sweep. Chapter 2 A brief recap of this series features a new team record for lengthiest game thread in modern history. Of more or less importance, during the series opener, the Tigers scored eight runs in the first inning off of Berrios; you'd think that would be enough, especially considering who we are, but apparently that assumption fails to take into consideration who the Tigers are (or at least the Tigers pitching). Kurt Suzuki stepped up to the plate in the second and hit a two run homer to put us on the board, and while he didn't do too badly, I couldn't help but wonder if we would have won had Juan Centeno started. It turns out I was wrong, but that will wait. Miguel Sano hit a solo homer in the third, and in the top of the fourth, the Twins went on to score four more runs, cutting the deficit to one. In the bottom of the fourth, Castellanos was called out on strikes, much to the dismay of Tigers skipper Brad Ausmus, who, despite the fact that the call looked much less questionable than some of the calls I've had the rare pleasure of being witness to at various high school games this year, popped out of the dugout like a jack out of its box and gave Doug Eddings a lesson on the usage of hard core swear words, meanwhile covering Mr. Eddings' shirt front with spittle. Unimpressed with his showmanship, Eddings tossed him from the game, and Brad followed up by thoughtfully lending his sweatshirt to the poor, shivering plate. In my most humble and mildly perverted opinion, Brad Ausmus doesn’t hold a candle to Torii Hunter when it comes to the removal of clothing. Back on topic, the Twins ended up tying the game in the top of the 7th, but solo shots by Castellanos and J. D. Martinez in the 7th and 8th led the Tigers to a not unexpected victory over the Twins. During last night's game, Centeno started the game and went 0-4 with two groundouts, a flyout, and a strikeout. He was not too helpful towards the Twins' cause, though I can only imagine his fielding was spectacular. Mauer and Sano both hit home runs to put the Twins up 2-0, but in the 7th the Tigers scored 7 runs and subsequently won the game. Chapter 3 I wouldn’t say today’s game is a different story. It goes something like this: Twins have a 36% chance of winning. For those who wonder, that's not a good indication of success on the field this afternoon. I harbor a strong dislike for day games during the week. I will not be watching. Chapter 4 Alright … that aside … the issue of negativity has been huge in this community as of late. Well, it's always huge … monstrous or astronomical are probably better terms for the here and now. My takes (disclaimer: this is only meant as fun and lighthearted; no offense intended - please keep it this way!): There are two camps on Twins Daily: the Negative Nellies and the Positive Petes. At first glance it's hard to tell the difference between the two, but after time you realize what an extremely intricate process this whole affair is. On joining Twins Daily, those who like the letter n join the Nellies camp, and those who prefer p become Peters. Other than that, there are few noticeable differences; however, after a year or more of quietly standing on the sidelines watching the rest hash it out in the baseball threads, a privileged few survivors such as myself will come to the realization that the n's have a very positive outlook on life and routinely focus on the floor so they can either be happy when the Twins exceed their expectations or else be happy when they were right (!) and the Twins get a high pick in the draft. P's, on the other hand, spend their days bemoaning the fact that n's aren't optimistic enough and the Twins are somehow playing even worse baseball than they ever dreamed about in their most graphic nightmares. It's all very confusing and can get out of hand at times, but the moderators do their best to keep things under control, and in the end we all love each other and our little idiosyncrasies and agree that Terry Ryan would look quite dapper decapitated with his upper portions served on a silver platter like John the Baptist. Chapter 5 Speaking of Terry Ryan, I had the honor of representing the Twins Daily community by sitting down for an interview with that kind gentleman during last night's game. It turns out he views us all as a sort of consolidated Luke Skywalker type character – lamentably necessary for the show, but uninteresting and possessing ample room for improvement. This is how the conversation went: Me: "Hey, Terry." TR: "How's it going, Always." Me: "Let's not beat around the bush. You said this team was loaded with talent." TR: "Watch your mouth, kid (at Terry's age, everyone seems like a kid to him, but I'm pretty certain he deemed me perfectly embryonic); give it some time. I have some tricks up my belt." Me: "Are you kidding? We started this season with an unplugged drain, and the team's gone right down it. All you did this offseason was make a young team younger … the only major move you made was signing a questionable KBO slugger, and don't try to say your success in that area was anything more than luck. You're handling Buxton exactly how you handled Hicks … if we can't keep Buxton for more than a few years, it would be nice to get something more than a AAAA catcher in return. And given the way you handle your first round draft picks, running away with the 2016 loss record doesn't seem as appealing as it should. And don't even get me started on the bullpen … " TR: "Yeah … let's not delve into the profound depths of organizing a competitive bullpen. Competing in the Major Leagues doesn't compare to your beer leagues, dude. Without precise calculations we could ruin the growth of our young players, and that'd get us contracted out of the league real fast, wouldn't it?" At this point in the conversation the game had become painfully slow, and attendees were having a hard time focusing on the game. Distracted, I pointed off towards our right and asked, "What's that flashing?" "A drunken fan," said Terry, turning away in disgust. "Call security." As he paced indignantly away, he was heard muttering under his breath, "These idiots think they can make the jump from working a Jimmy Johns bicycle delivery route to making transactions for a Major League team, and they can't even keep their eyes on the field for one full minute … that's why we need Dave St. Peter … damn it all." Following this little dialogue, I turned to a Tigers fan sitting next to me and commented on how the team was in shambles and everyone else was sitting on the sidelines, laughing and pointing their fingers. The Tigers fan in question was no exception to the general rule and made some typical snarky comment, the memory of which is still painful and I care not to repeat; my only defense (lame, but still better than the Twins') was a stuttered, "I'm not a homer, but we could be worse … " To which the Tigers fan retorted, "Obviously you're not a homer because if you were you'd belong to the Twins, and then maybe they'd be able to win some games. Yeah … that's what the Twins need … more homers." And, with that happy thought, The end.

Second appearance in this thread alone.

Should MLB consider the inscription of unwritten rules in order to ban them?

Eh, no, a low ERA is obviously a good thing for the team, but it's not the best indication of how the player will hold up long term.

Withdrawal can be a scary thing. I recommend treatment.

If Sanders runs independently, we're presented with the problem of him getting a fair amount of what could potentially be votes for Hillary. Would it be enough for Trump to win the nomination? I don't know, but I do know enough conservative republicans who would vote for Sanders over Hillary because she is supposedly an incompetent criminal ... and then there are those who are still going to vote for Trump because they'll go to any means to try to prevent a Dem from holding presidential office. And that goes to show what morons some people can be. They don't care who the POTUS is or what they stand for. All they care about is the party the candidate has aligned themselves with, regardless of the fact that it was done out of purely bureaucratic motives (at least in the case of Trump and Sanders). Sanders running independently would help no one and could only hurt Hillary and consequently the country. Sanders is intelligent, and he can see that. Anyone who possesses the power to aid Trump's campaign so significantly and does so willingly is the criminal, not Hillary Clinton.

That made me laugh because if this happened anywhere other than on a professional sports field, it would be treated as assault.

Heh ... I wonder how I'd poll if I set up a thread in the SB. "Always33-'God knows I'm a hall of famer'. True despite her steroid use? "Y-one of best | Not sure | N-invalidates" Goodness, the grammar/punctuation in that ad. Sigh ...

You're in third place, but I (who slipped down to second place today) was busted for taking PED's and RB had ChiTown's assistance, so a lot of people don't like us. However, God knows I'm a Hall of Famer.

I ask everybody to pause and observe a moment of silence in honor of this most historic game thread which passes the previous all time record by 84 words. Bravo, Riverbrian. I knew you could do it!

A few thoughts: #1) Bautista probably contemplated charging the mound but decided it would be too childish. #2) However, the opportunity to take a cheap slide at whoever was covering second (who cares what size he is) was too much to pass up. Obviously he was still seething about having been hit (don't try to say there's anything wrong with being upset since clearly there's nothing wrong with the Rangers being a bunch of babies MONTHS after an incident they took offense at). Odor hauling off and punching him in the face was completely uncalled for. I'm not justifying Bautista's behavior - he should've left it at a warning stare towards Bush. But for some reason you and many others are trying to justify Odor's behavior. That's plain stupid. #3) I feel like the argument here is that some players need longer suspensions, not the other way around. #4) No, this is where management comes into play, and that's why Bautista didn't care the size and name of the player he slid into. It was a warning, nothing more. No, he shouldn't have done it. But then again, no, he wasn't trying to break Odor's leg. I'm pretty sure Odor had every intention of breaking Bautista's jaw, at the very least. #5) Bautista was not going to punch Odor. If he wanted to punch him, he could have. His hand was open and he was going in for the usual ~manly~ shove. #6) I can't really blame the umpires for not being everywhere at once and sprouting the eyes of a fly for this historical occasion. / okay, ninja'd ...

Nice, but it's somewhat disrespectful to compare such an intricately functioning system as a molecule to this disorganized Twins team.