Paul

This is one of the few times in my life I have nothing to add.

In baseball as in life...attitude is everything.

You are obviously right about the farm. But the demands have been extraordinary recently. Rather, I see the "hole" at the ML level as being multi-dimensional and very convoluted. But, at the base of the hole I see the root problem as attitude. Something happened between 2010 and 2011. Basicly the same personnel went from 95 wins to 99 losses. I've written on this site about my opinion that the Hardy termination is the crux of the attitude degradation, but that's just speculation. But something happened. This attitude has affected (infected?) every aspect of the teams performance. And the FO and/or on field staff has been unable to stem the tide. Unfortunately, I believe an almost complete turnover of the players OR the field staff/FO will have to happen before the "we" comes back. Or, I might be way off base and it's the "pitch to contact" thing, or the Mauer makes too much money thing.

If only you were there negotiating for the Twins, Mike. Kidding aside, what makes you think the Twins didn't know exactly what they were purchasing with their 183 million?

But if he would only give back some money...we could ease up.

"And no matter how good Mauer is as a player" there will be no end to the blame we will heap on him.

For me it was always the hanging curve/slider. Though the harder the pitcher throws the more energy he contributes to the ball coming off the bat.

Exactly right IMO. But I'm not sure he has the time to learn this stuff. Apparently he didn't listen to coaching until he blew out his elbow.

Oh yea, John. What does the Works Progress Administrion have to do with this?

I believe the anatomy of a mauer boo is, just like any other boo, a pure emotional response. It's not analytical or thought out. I happen to believe people are entitled to enjoy their emotions, as long as the outbursts don't infringe on the rights of others. Some are prone to emotional behavior. Some are not. Some seem to live their lives totally driven by their emotions. Some are seen as "cold fish" by others because they seem emotionless. From my observation, it seems our society encourages the higher emotions of enthusiasm, exhilaration and love while rejecting the baser emotions of hate and hostility. I think this is right as the higher emotions promote betterment while the baser emotions tug the opposite way. Anyway, I find the booing annoying as hell.

Parker, thanks for the link. I didn't see your original link in the article and appreciate you reposting it to help a guy with my vast powers of observation. Very unusual swing that kid's got. I normally drag my rear foot forward a bit so I thought since my foot is mobile I'd try moving it like him. Boy did that feel weird. I wonder if that came naturally or if he developed it. Do you know?

That and I don't own a super computer or have unlimited amounts of free time. I don't know much about computers but I do know this, back in the early 80's I designed on a computer with 4 megs ram. On large drawings it would sometimes take a full minute or more to change views. Now I draw with 2000 megs and get real time response for all but my very largest drawings. But I go on the strib's site now and it takes way way too long to flip pages. That may have to do with my security software...I don't know. And I really don't care. Because between that and my opinion of the general tone of their blogs and reader comments, that site has become insufferable to me. I think I may be in a bitchy mood this morning.

Sending me to the Strib to see your video clips feels like cruel and unusual punishment.

I agree with your 3. But my top 3 are: 1. The complaining of the Twins "pitch-to-contact" philosophy by those who don't know what it means. (This is propagated by some local writers who also don't know what it means.) 2. The complaining of the Twins organization not holding people "accountable". I'm not sure where to begin on this one. Every successful enterprise holds people accountable to the standards they set. But they rarely hold public flagellations. I think that's what the complainers want. 3. The complaints about Gardehire and the Twins only wanting good men that fit in the clubhouse.

If Mauer continues on the track he's on for the balance of his career, most will consider him to be the best catcher the game has ever seen. Bench is the name most disagreeers (is this the only word in the English language with 3 consecutive "e"s ?) will cite. Observe. Bench Year position games 68 C 154 69 C 147 70 C 139 OF 24 1B 12 3B 1 71 C 141 1B 12 OF 12 3B 3 72 C 129 OF 17 1B 7 3B 4 73 C 134 OF 17 1B 4 3B 1 74 C 137 3B 36 1B 5 75 C 121 OF 19 1B 9 76 C 128 OF 5 1B 1 77 C 135 OF 8 1B 4 3B 1 78 C 107 1B 11 OF 2 79 C 126 1B 2 80 C 105 81 C 1 1B 38 82 C 1 3B 107 1B 8 83 C 5 3B 42 1B 32 OF 1 Bench career OPS .817 ( If Bench played 1B or 3B the current generation of fans would probably be unfamiliar with him.) Maurer career OPS .873 (this includes his injury riddled "11" and subpar "12" to this point) I really like and agree with the last two sentences in your reply.

How do you know? If you mean from a business perspective I believe you are clearly wrong. If you mean from an on the field perspective it seems debatable. (I suggest those who believe no other team would pony up for Joe haven't been paying attention to the market.) If you mean from a humanitarian point of view I agree with you. No human is worth that kind of dough because genetics allow them to play the game that they love better than everyone else.

Nice. Two idioms in one sentence.

I think this is the right tack. If you put him in the BP and he fails where do you go from there? No, I think you try and get his head right first, then you make your move. Whatever your move ends up being. Dang, where's Stewart Smalley when ya need 'im. Look what he did for Micheal Jordan.

I had 1500 AM on in the background yesterday afternoon (or maybe the day before) and they had Souhan on. For what it's worth, he commented that he had heard from different sources in the organization that there was a clubhouse issue with Hughes. He said he was one of the young guys that pissed the vets off with his attitude after losing. I pararphrase, but he said something to the effect of "They thought he didn't take losing seriously enough. If they lost and he went 0 for', or booted a ball, or double clutched on a doubleplay he was upset. But, if he got a hit in the loss he was all smiles." He also said "they felt he was a bad influence on Ploufe". I personally take everything Souhan says with a grain of salt, but that's what I heard. So maybe, just maybe, this isn't part of some evil plot by the manager to get Butera back.

Nicely thought out ,Cody. But I think you have the cart before the horse here. I think the messed up came before the messages. And the messages evolved to mixed when the frustrated coaches saw nothing registered with the kid.

Liriano's problem is pretty typical for guys with his stuff. Ever since he first picked up a ball as a child and saw he could throw hard he probably dominated the ball field. I'm sure he dominated every single level he's played. It's hard for guys like that to take coaching from someone who can't do what they do. And if they're not too bright and kind of a bully coaches tend to give up and let them pitch. The smarter ones understand and accept a coaches advice in the minors. Liriano didn't listen until he blew his elbow out. By then he had 15 years of bad muscle memory to overcome. I think he's going through what kids normally go through in HS. I just hope he's as smart as a typical HS kid.

From what I know this is typical of joint surgery. It's discussed beforehand and determined if the doctor should fix whatever needs fixing once he exposes the area and can see the damage. Obviously he had the go-ahead.

Thanks for the reference. Gonna take a while to wrap my mind around this stuff. The pronated release of the curveball???

I think it's that plus the understanding and use of effective pitching mechanics pushes the human body to its limits. I did a lot of research prior to shoulder surgery a few years ago, and came to the conclusion that the normal human body can't withstand operating right on the edge for any length of time. Something breaks.