Squirrel

And away we go ....

Game-time forecast: It's still Houston so it's still hot and humid. TWINS: SP, Pino Santana CF Dozier 2B Mauer 1B Vargas DH Plouffe 3B Suzuki C Arcia RF Escobar SS Schafer LF ASTROS: SP, McHugh Grossman RF Altuve 2B Carter DH Castro C Krauss LF Singleton 1B Dominguez 3B Marisnick CF Gonzalez SS ----------------------------------- Brian'll be up when he's up ... stay tuned ... ------------------------------------ Yeah UP when you are UP... Life is that way. Things to Think About: 1. Minute Maid Park -- There was a time when it was called Enron Field. That changed quickly after it was discovered that Enron cooked it's books and all of sudden people were short a little bit of cash that they thought they had. Minute Maid became the new corporate sponsor because Orange Juice has never ripped anyone off. Unless you think you are buying pulp free and you end up with stuff with Pulp. I'd rather brush my teeth and drink Pulp Free then drink OJ with Pulp. I find Minute Maid Park charming... I've never been there but it looks charming with it's quirks and I've always been a fan of stadiums with quirks. The Crawford Boxes... Tal's Hill with a flag pole that is in play. A train full of oranges on train tracks that runs across the LF Wall. I'd feel differently if I found out that the stadium came with Pulp. 2. Josh Willingham -- Late yesterday it was announced that the Twins have dealt Josh Willingham to the Royals for a young pitcher named Jason Adam. Good Luck to Josh... I wish you well. He was one of us... Almost 3 years in a Twins uniform. The Last 2 years were nowhere near as good as the 1st year. That 1st year was pretty damn good but health and consistent plate production became an issue in year 2 and 3. He has always possessed power and I don't think the Twins will be able to replace it in 2014. They will have to figure that out for 2015. The Twins roster is turning over right now and it'll be interesting to see what happens in the off season. 3. Colin McHugh -- I already did a thing on Colin McHugh. He's an 18th round draft pick of the NY Mets in 2008. This guy has come out of nowhere and pitched quite well for the Astros in 2014. How out of nowhere... The Mets traded him to the Rockies and the Rockies DFA'ed him and the Astros said... "Why Not"? and they signed him. That was a good move in hindsight and I kinda wish the Twins would have signed him but who knew. I don't think the Astros expected anything either. He was a warm arm and that arm heated up. His ERA is sitting at 3.18. That's pretty good. 4. Home Run Production -- With the trade of Josh Willingham... My Thoughts go to Home Run Production. Brian Dozier has 20 home runs. 2nd Place... That belongs to Trevor Plouffe and Oswaldo Arcia with 8. When you consider that the opening Twins lineup featured very little speed it becomes quite simple. This team was supposed to hit more homeruns. The Twins are 23rd in the Majors with 88 dingers total. I'm going to beg the Twins to take a different approach for 2015. I'm going to beg the Twins for balance... Speed and Power please. Putting all your eggs in one basket rarely works and it never works when that one basket is almost empty. Please... Please... Please... Front office... Find some power that has power and add a bunch of speed to that. Balance is important or you will topple over. 5. Softball -- My 20 year old son's softball team is short handed so he's bringing his soon to be 49 year old Dad with him to play softball tonight. Here's the thing... This is a team full of 20 year old's and a team full of players that I used to coach. A team full of players that heard me constantly telling them to MOVE THEIR FEET. I was unrelenting... It's easy as coach because my job isn't to move my feet... They have to move their feet. Yep... I gave it to them pretty good and now the old man is about to get payed back.

drbob - I merged your thread with another thread, so youse saaaacer folks can chat it up.

For a minute I read that as his last name was Ashbury and you called him Ass Bury

When I lived in Canada, my mom used to like to joke and say that if Quebec was ever successful at seceding, that the U.S. should recognize them by giving them Texas.

Yeah, that's up there, too ... so a tie between that and The Fisher King. I think The Fisher King was his best performance.

The Fisher King for me, too.

Just got home ... I see Chief is still up ... that's a good sign.

Thanks, Scotty ... I'll adjust the lineup in the OP.

Okay ... this thread has reached a point of 'Agree to disagree.' Keep it respectful or warnings will be issued and the thread locked.

Continue the Willingham trade discussion here, in the article thread. Thanks!

NOOOOOO!!! I had to look this up ... apparent/possible suicide.

No one (me) forgot about the roof this time ... but it's Houston ... that's Houston's forecast. I didn't even have to look it up!

Mauer is on his way to Houston. Speculation is he will be in the lineup. Guess we'll know when they know.

Game-time forecast: hot and humid. TWINS: SP, Milone Santana CF Dozier 2B Mauer 1B Vargas DH Plouffe 3B Suzuki C Parmelee LF Escobar SS Schafer RF ASTROS: SP, Peacock Grossman RF Altuve 2B Carter DH Dominguez 3B Castro C Santana LF Singleton 1B Marisnick CF Petit SS --------------------------------- Okay, Brian ... you're not in the hole, not on deck ... you're up! Now go! -------------------------------- Thanks... ChiTown... It's hard to describe this hole that I'm in... It's dark... There are strange noises... a dripping sound.... Like a giant faucet that doesn't quite shut off. I figure I'm about 200 feet below the surface and it's definitely lonely down here... No Human has ever been here before. I'm sorry... Check that... Mel Gibson is here with me. For Twins Daily... I'm Riverbrian reporting. Things to Think about: 1. Joe Mauer -- Yep... Thought #1 is Joe Mauer. Because here is what I have to say about Joe Mauer. It's about Flipping time. I will never knock Joe's talent... He has one of the sweetest swings I've ever seen. I don't care if his skill set doesn't match the typical 1st basemen offensively. I don't even care if 2014 hasn't been typical Joe like production. I think he will come back and be Joe again. But... as much as I support Joe and I do support Joe. His latest injury and 500 days on the DL again was pretty much the straw that broke my camel's back. Joe hasn't been able to stay healthy. He gets injured way too easily and it's happened enough that it's past the point of what could be called bad luck. I swear he could catch a cold and it would knock him out for a month. Yep... Mr. Positive has gone negative on Joe and it has nothing to do with his ability. His ability is useless if he's on the DL. 2. Tommy Milone -- Tonight we get our first look at Tommy Milone in a Twins Uniform. I still don't understand how we acquired Tommy Milone for Sam Fuld but good for us. Tommy is left handed... 27 years old and he was born in Saugus California which is part of the L.A. area. He played college ball for USC and was drafted in 2008 by the Nationals in the 10th round. As a minor league pitcher with the Nats organization... He just kept pitching good and he walked up the farm system without pause... One Level at a time. In December of 2011... He was part of the package that the Nationals shipped to Oakland in return for Gio Gonzalez. Tommy hit the A's rotation in 2012 and he kept on doing what he was doing in the Minors... He just kept pitching well. He has tossed 468 MLB innings and his career ERA is exactly average at 3.84 while striking out 6.5 per 9. His fastball kinda floats in the upper 80's but it doesn't seem to matter because he gets people out. It's the state of the Twins rotation... I'm excited about an acquisition of an arm with an ERA+ of 100 exactly. I'm looking forward to tonight. 3. Houston -- Houston is a major city on the Gulf of Mexico. From the Sky it looks like concentric circles for Hurricanes to target. If they are not getting hit with a hurricane... They are housing Hurricane refugees. If you have a problem... any problem at all... You call Houston. Residents of Houston are tired of hearing about problems. Conversations are never started with a hello... It's always... "Houston... We've got a problem... I've got a problem... A Friend of mine has a Problem. Houston has a unique climate. It's called Humid Stinking I can't freaking breathe it's so Hot Subtropical. Houston, New Orleans and Mbeya,Tanzania are the only places this climate exists. It is characterized by On Fire Humid summers and Hot Humid Winters where it's just hot enough that it's comfortable enough for the Devil to walk around. The Devil refuses to come out during Summer Months because it's way too hot. Houston Humidity averages 347%. The Average Houstonite spends approximately 45 seconds outdoors in summer and changes shirts 5 times a day. 4. Brad Peacock -- Tonight is special because tonight... Two guys who were traded together will face off against each other. Both Milone and Peacock were part of the Nationals farm system and were both traded to the A's together. Billy Beane... ever the wheeler dealer has now shipped them both off. Peacock was traded earlier to the Astros for Jed Lowrie. Brad is 26 years old and was born in Palm Beach Florida. He was a 41st round pick in 2006. If you ever wonder why teams keep drafting players after 327 rounds. Brad Peacock is one reason why. Every once in awhile... They pay off. Brad Peacock is part of the pheasant family. He has extravagant tail feathers that he shows off during courtship and he has a diet of Flower Petals and insects and he is fully equipped for urination ease. 5. Shark Attacks -- I was reading a story about a 10 year old girl who suffered a shark bite in shallow water in Cocoa Beach Florida. Thankfully... She's going to be OK... But it got me thinking about how infrequent Shark Attacks really are. So I looked it up... According to the information... There are approximately 75 unprovoked Shark Attacks yearly around the world. I love the use of the word unprovoked... It made me wonder who is provoking them? I remember being on an airplane flight and the lady sitting next to me was terrified about the plane crashing... She couldn't relax. I told her not to worry... statistically... you are more likely to be bitten by a shark then be in an airplane crash. She started to feel better when I told her that... Then I showed her my scar from the time I was bitten by a shark... in the water after my plane went down off the coast of Florida. I told her don't worry... we are nowhere near Florida.

Or not. We would have come to some consensus first about something so controversial.

Someone else suggested the post number thing, too, and it's a pretty logical guess. Something Brock would have to answer.

Big dog, I have that same issue on my iPhone 4S. I find that when perusing TD on my phone it works better to have my phone vertically vs horizontally. But yeah, gets in the way when typing a post but it is what it is.

Are you using Chrome?

Great article, A.J. Glad you are back to baseball in a way you love.

Just to make sure ... click on your name up at the top right there, between the 'sign out' and notifications; and choose 'My settings.' That page then should say 'General Account Settings' at the top, and underneath it reads 'Photo, Time Zone, Comments & Visitors, Friends, Profile Information' etc. In the Profile Information section, you should see 'Edit my About Me Page' and under that is Member Title. In that box is where you should put whatever. That's how it is for me, and I would think it's that way for everyone else, but I don't know. Edit: there are two sections that say 'Profile Information,' it would be in the first of those.

Culture changes start at the top, IMO. That would be Ryan or higher, then on down.

Pfft. I only changed it to begin with hoping that teekz would then go and figure out how to change it himself.

Heh, I worked at Title Wave for a brief moment.

Well, I don't particularly wish to die.