David HK

Ahhhh.... stats people. Is it just me, or are the Twinkies just more futile with runner on 3rd, less than 2 out?

Come on, now Hicksie. Get some In-surance.

How many Cody's do they have out there? Seems like more than the quota.

BD is the only guy in the lineup with pop on a more consistent basis than anyone else. He needs to be in the 3 hole, for a long time now. Cripe, he's nearly our #1 RBI guy, from the leadoff spot. What could he have done all year, lower in the order? And I like that notion that was made earlier of him batting behind Sano eventually- give that young man protection like that? Whew.... AL pitchers be a-wettin' their pants.

Um, how about YES?!? High leverage situation, early in the game, may need multiple innings out of a guy? Who is a better choice out of that dumpster fire pen than May? GAWD almighty.

Aw, geez. ( I 've been rewatching the Fargo series, brought me back home, dialogue-wise). That's our Manship out there, too, ain't it? Maybe we can rock him like other teams did when he was with us.

Well, shoot. The Indians were clawing back that last inning when my stream froze. I didn't even bother to refresh, I just wanted to remember we had a lead.

I'm totally down with that.

I'm not a stat guy, but I'm wondering how many quality starts we've lost-- That's what's gutting, because we haven't had many of those the last few years, and now we see them regularly. And even tho the BP is a dumpster fire, that's also on the lost-at-sea O.

Oh, how it hurts to hear Buck Martinez say "and the bullpen does it again," and mean it in a positive way.

That's a good job by the young man again. I sure like that Sano fella.

When's hockey back, eh? Tired of watching this. At least if you're getting stuffed on the rink, you can blast a guy for the heck of it.

Oh, the new guy's in. Well, our troubles are over, and we WIN! (Please let this comment come back to bit me in the arse.)

Hm. Aaron Sanchez. So that's what an 8th-inning guy looks like. Ya watchin' this, TR?

Plouffe played that one like a new daddy- no sleep for days. And now, another 4-out inning for the club who mashes everything.

Alas, we're in this place where a 3-1 lead is insurmountable. But it seems about to get worse....

That guy is making me nuts. If I was at the park, I'd find that doody-head and ask him politely to STFU. But only because it's Canada, and I can reasonably be assured he's not armed.

Welp. Give 'em 4 outs, make extra pitches, even Dioner Navarro can bite you in the bum. And now, ladies and gentlemen, for your entertainment--- the Minny-sota BULL PEN!

Wow... Dozey. That's the mark of a bad team. When even the steady guys just pick exactly the wrong time for a brain fart.

Well, this happened yesterday, too-- 15-13 USA victory in the last 10 seconds! So I have hope we can lay another one on our northerly neighbors, eh?

Well, I would love to continue contending, but I don't think it's in the cards this year. It's been a great, and totally unexpected gift to have 'meaningful' games into August, but our post-break play has been worse than pitiful. That said, I DO blame TR and Molly big-time for this slide. As has been well- (even over-) documented on this here little site, we have had 3 glaring-stare-you-in-the-face black holes in the lineup all season long- SS, C, and BP, and NOTHING has been done about it this whole long haul. Jepsen? Too little, too late, and too expensive. Not playing Escobar at SS pretty much the whole time? Inexplicable. Doing F-all about getting Suzuki some relief/replacement? Unforgiveable. And... I've harped on this too many times, but... Boyer? Thompson? Duensing? Fien? W. T... Why are these guys still coming out of that hells-gate of a pen? Contending for the rest of the season or not, we've put ourselves in this unfortunate position by completely ignoring the things we could have, and should have fixed a long time ago. And while I'm at it-- I live in Hong Kong now, but I'm a North Dakota boy, and I lived in the Cities for umpteen years- the lean years, especially. I went to maybe 25-30 games in 1982- NINETEEN EIGHTY TWO, do you hear me???? I by-God suffered, but I could see, that hulking babe at first base, that mustachioed 3B with the Popeye forearms, I could see it coming. Molly, what is up with not giving the young guys a chance to see what they're made of?!? How about Sano playing 3B, and learning, instead of Nunez? How could it be worse to have May or Graham get shelled and learn for the future instead of Boyer or Dunse or one of your other stiffs who aren't going to be around past this season, and should not have been around since June 1. 7 crappy choices in the BP, carrying 13 pitchers + a pathetic bench for so long, it's no wonder we're in free fall now. We've given away too many winnable games through this poor decision making. If we're going down this year without playoffs in Minny land, so be it. But do we have to go down without a fight? Sorry. Bit of a rant. But it's near midnight here, and I'm excusing myself. Cheerio.

How 'boot 12:05? Nope... That's too early... Well how 'boot 12:10 Eh? Nope... That's too late. How 'boot 12:08? Come on... nobody starts a baseball game at 12:08!!! 12:06? Nope... it doesn't feel right. OK... I've got it... How 'boot 12:07? Yes that's it. Great opener, RB-- I didn't know you spoke fluent Canuck. I think you've ootdone yerself, eh?

Well, what a *meh* game. They ran into a good pitching performance, but listless all around. At this point, I gotta remember, I was wishing and hoping for a .500 season this year, and while it's been mostly fun so far (before the break anyway), I'm going to return to my fallback position now. I think we've still got a chance at .500. I'm also glad, at this point, that TR didn't do any more damage at the deadline.