spideyo

The toughest thing of course, is that it's not really a choice between a million bucks and nothing. On one hand, you have a million bucks (pre-tax) but you also have a pretty rough lifestyle. Low A guys aren't exactly living in the ritz and flying on charter jets. Heck, is there even an airport in E-town? Plus, the whole time you are in the minors you aren't jus conpeting against other teams, you are competing against other people in the same organization, trying to claw your way up the depth chart. On the other hand, these guys have been heavily recruited to join a college program. That means a coach has built a relationship with them, likely had guaranteed them a certain amount of playing time, and they've been offered a generous scholarship. Free college is a pretty nice offer. Not only that, but you are going to get a lot more fame in the short term as the star of a college team than as just another farmhand. True, college programs don't pay you, but I'm sure you would get some nice "unofficial" gifts and perks.

I must admit, it would be more fun to drunkenly holler out "DINKLEMAN" than yelling for dozier. But that's just my opinion

I wonder how much a difference it makes in terms of relievers getting worn out/over used/injured when you look at how few pitchers are throwing 7,8,9 innings a start. Is it easier to stay healthy when you are only throwing every 5th day, even if you are throwing 5-10 times more pitches? It also seems like you get a lot more pitchers who have had significant, and often multiple, arm surgeries that are still pitching. I'm guessing part of this is because there is a push to throw harder and more arm-twisting breaking balls at an earlier age, but also I think a lot of the guys that do these surgeries may have just retired earlier 20+ years ago. While the technology has certainly improved the chances of successful surgeries and decreased rehab time, I don't think anyone would claim that a pitcher is going to be more durable after a surgery, regardless of how well they recovered. I know if I'd had shoulder surgery or something, I'd be a lot less inclined to push to stay in longer or pitch more frequently, if only because in the back of my mind I'd always be nervous that I'd end up on the operating table again

Escobar almost had a web gem firing a rifle shot in from shallow center, but Doumit couldn't handle the ball

Another possible issue just occurred to me. Unlike most of the major FM radio stations in this market, KTWN still broadcasts only in analog. If you have a radio/antenna that's designed to pick up digital signals (like an Hd radio or something) it may actually not be good for picking up KTWN

Actually, he came in as a defensive sub after Ramirez batted for Florimon in the 7th

I am super pumped that Escobar hit them in with a good double. I think the kid has a lot of potential, but he's got to make an impact right away or else he'll end up being nothing more than the defensive replacement for Florimon's PH late in the game and he's worth a whole lot more to the team than that. Glad to see he's showing it. And hey, isn't it nice to have a bench that's actually useful in a close game? Granted, it could always be better, but it's certainly improved from years past.

The surly cart disappeared because the surly was honestly simply way too popular. Moving it to an actual stand allows them to utilize the "keg rooms" where they can have a dozen kegs chilled and ready to tap at the start of the game. As far as the RF area goes, my understanding of the original plans was that it would be an area available for groups to rent, similar to the roof deck (hence the numbered seats). I suspect that it will eventually turn into that, but possibly not until next season. They were literally still drilling into the concrete over there two weeks ago, so they may have simply not finished it in time to sell it to groups. I have been in the liquor rooms and the keg rooms. There is NO 3.2 beer anywhere in Target Field. There is however, a ton of overpriced crappy beer. So long as Budweiser still has a massive ad contract with the Twins (and MLB in general), crappy beer will be the dominant beer. If you actually like good beer, like surly, fulton, etc., take a minute and fill out a comment card or email the twins or go to guest services. Ultimately, the Twins have to give final approval to all changes to concessions, and if enough people tell them they want better beer, they'll expand it. You can try to ask them to lower prices too, but don't hold your breath. The heat lamps are actually a lot more effective than you realize, it was just cold as hell these last two games. If you compared standing near the heat lamps to being on the roof deck where there were none, you would have definitely appreciated it. They help, but they aren't really designed to deal with 35 degree games. The prices on the food and drink are sadly not likely to go down anytime soon. As far as the quality of the food goes, if you pay $10-$15 for food and it's cold or gross, demand your money back. Seriously. If they argue, ask to see a manager. In Legends club that would be Steve, in Champions club a different Steve, in Met Club Cynthia, in Town Ball/Hrbeks/Roof Deck it's Dan. I'm not sure who the managers are for concessions right now, but when I figure it out I can post it if you guys want. There are very specific guidelines that all the staff is SUPPOSED to be following to ensure quality product, but quite honestly a lot of the staff kinda sucks. You get what you pay for, and DNC doesn't pay that well. That said, the managers and chefs don't spend nearly enough time doing quality checks on all the stands, and usually only address things after customers complain. So complain. I will pass the word on that I have heard complaints about Tony O's for sure, cuz I know Tony wouldn't be happy to hear people are getting crappy sandwiches with his name on it, and we don't want Tony to be sad. As far as the PA system goes, next time I'm at the stadium (I'm off tomorrow), I'll actually go over there and check it out. I know in a lot of areas they have ceiling and wall speakers that are controlled locally that get turned off or down sometimes and never get turned back up. If you find any other dead spots, feel free to let me know and I'll pass those on. While it's technically not my job to have anything to do with any of the PA stuff, I figured out most of the control panel passwords a long time ago, and in many of my other jobs I do a lot of audio tech stuff.

Car Radios typically have far better antenna and tuners, simply because they have to be able to continually gather the signal while moving at rapid speeds. He probably has a crappy radio in his house. Also, FM radio tends to be much more affected by physical obstacles, so if he has older metal siding, stucco (which contains a metal mesh), concrete walls (which usually are full of rebar), or just really really thick walls, it can mess up the signal.

Maybe Butera just needs to work on his pitches, then he could be our third catcher AND 12th pitcher

Got the pitcher wrong, but otherwise Nick nailed the lineup two months ago

Keep in mind, the main transmitter for ktwn is actually in Crystal, so if you are in the east metro it's not going to be quite as strong. Also, while FM isn't going to be affected nearly as much as AM by interference, it has much greater problems with physical barriers, like big buildings, thick walls, mountains, etc

Personally, I think that if our pitching staff is actually doing well enough that we can ride with 11 pitchers, I would welcome Butera to be our 5th bench guy. Heck, then you could have Mastroianni PR for Doumit/Mauer in the late innings, and be able to throw somebody behind the plate for the end of the game.

See the "5 predictions" post where I called that a week ago ;-) Incidentally, I think Mauer will be our main Catcher at least another two seasons, and that gives us a lot of time for a kid like Josmil Pinto to prove he deserves the job.

I'm not a hardcore stats geek. I have no idea how WAR is calculated, so I'm not even going to attempt to make any argument against it. I don't know which stats to look at to best analyze his defensive abilities alone, since a lot of the traditional stats like Assists, Put-outs, and errors are not really going to give much insight into a player's catching ability. Most of what I have to say about Butera is what I have personally witnessed, and what I have heard people talk about. I personally saw him catch a lot over the last two years, and it seemed like most of the time our pitchers were very comfortable with him. There didn't seem to be many passed balls, not many guys stealing on him, not too much confusion between the pitcher and catcher. Based on my personal observations, purely in terms of defensive ability, I think Butera is a far better catcher than Doumit. I know his bat sucks, and this was a very big issue in 2011 (when he caught nearly twice as many games as Mauer), but that was also a year where we only had 4 guys hit over .280 for the season, and two of those were Parmelee (21 games) and Dinkelman (23 games). If you look at his stats from 2010 and 2012, where he was used as a backup and not as our main catcher, his defensive value seems to balance out his offensive struggles much better (as far as I can tell from the advanced stats. Again, don't fully understand them) It seems like all our Italian guys may fall into the Punto role... great guys in a backup role, but inspiring fan outrage when put into a starting role.

Walters isn't on the 40 though, you'd have to take somebody off to make room. I'm hoping today's injury was just a bit of discomfort that they are being SUPER overly cautious about

Seriously, I know that Butera is a terrible hitter, but he is NOT a terrible catcher. He's a very good catcher and has a track record of working very well with our pitchers. I'm not going to advocate that he takes over as a starter, but he is more than capable of being a backup catcher, especially if we can get the rest of our lineup hitting decently. Right now in AAA he can be very valuable working with Gibson, Deduno, and the other pitchers down there who might make it to the bigs this year.

They had to waive somebody to make room for Ramirez. They can't waive anybody that's injured, and they clearly felt that losing Burnett would be less impactful than losing any of the other candidates.

Anyone wanna take bets on who gets called up first from Rochester and when? It's a pretty safe bet that Butera comes up if Mauer or Doumit goes down, but what about the rest of the position players?

Butera is basically insurance against Doumit or Mauer getting hurt. He might not be a hitter, but do we have any other catchers in the system that you would trust during a "real" game? Also, if they really didn't care about losing those guys, they could probably trade them and at least get something for them. Looks like I was right though about someone being willing to grab Burnett.

It won't be pinto or butera. They would lose them on waivers, guaranteed. I would guess thielbar or Hernandez. Burnett has had some flashes of adequacy in the bigs, at that might be enough for someone to grab him

No matter how much money you spend, you can't sign guys that don't want to play here. Some players aren't going to want to come to a team coming off two losing seasons, or play for a manager who might be gone in a year. Some agents (coughborascough) might steer guys away from the twins if they think they can get richer contracts elsewhere. Some guys might just not want to live in Minnesota half the year. We have access to such a tiny amount of facts regarding what goes on in an offseason. That doesn't mean I wholeheartedly agree with every move or non-move, but it's a whole lot more complicated than just being cheap.

Honestly, I think both Pinto and Butera would get picked up on the waiver wire. A lot of teams seem to be hurting for backup catchers. While they could trade Butera, I honestly don't think it would be worth it. He would maybe net a AAAA level guy, or some C-level prospect. It's true he can't hit, but he is a great defensive catcher and has shown a strong ability to work with our pitchers. Even sitting down at AAA, he can be a valuable asset helping to get our young pitchers get ready for the big show. I thought Robertson did alright against lefties last year. We don't really need another LOOGY as long as they keep Duensing in the pen, but it wouldn't surprise me if another team took a flier on him, hoping they can get him to build on last year's numbers. I know once a player is officially put on the DL they can't actually be removed from the 40 man, but can they be removed if they are hurt like Wood, but not dl'ed yet? Also, they do need to add him to the 25 man as well as the 40 man. Robertson and Wood are the only guys of your list on the 25 man, so most likely Wood get's dl'ed if he isn't DFA'ed

Fortunately, the Twins still do. And really, the mascot race isn't that bad. They COULD choose to have all corporate mascots (they did some even last year where they had the subway sandwich, petey the Pee cup, and some other corporate things running around), or they could not even bother with real mascots and just go all digital like they did at the dome. At least it's more entertaining than the water cam.

I've been pushing for Escobar to be a starter since before Spring Training FWIW. That said, I think he would have had to make Dozier look like a little leaguer to take 2B from him. Like Plouffe before him, they gave Dozier a chance at SS and I think they've decided they don't want him there. If he didn't stick at 2b, he'd probably be back at Rochester. Escobar on the other hand, could easily take over SS from Florimon if he slumps a little, and is also able to fill in at 2b or 3b. Much more useful guy on the bench than Dozier would be