Squirrel

Oh, I thought you were going to say you were napping.

You guys need to have some control. You are jinxing the heck out of this game. Do you wanna lose or something?

Well ... that works for me ... I'll get home from work around 10 in time to see the last half or more of the game!

No, his flight from MDW to MSP does.

Yep. Hence the 'weather permitting' caveat in the thread title.

At least you didn't have a parking spot next to Kenny Williams for a couple years. His Hummer could've squashed my little Integra. Although he did almost run over my niece and I when he turned right on red without stopping. Not sure he paid any attention to my Twins bumper sticker ... probably not or my car would've been squashed. He was 'too above' paying any attention to the little folk anyway.

How's that?

Ugh.

If he were any kind of a boss, he'd have told you to take the tickets and enjoy! There would have been a way to get them to you regardless.

Game-time forecast: Partly cloudy with a 60-percent chance of rain. Winds blowing in from center field at 5-10 m.p.h. Temperature around 70. White Sox: SP, Quintana Eaton CF Beckham 2B Gillaspie 3B Abreu 1B Dunn DH Ramirez SS Viciedo RF De Aza LF Flowers C Twins: SP, Pino Santana SS Dozier 2B Mauer 1B Willingham LF Morales DH Suzuki C Parmelee RF Escobar 3B Fuld CF ------------------------------------------------ Okay, Brian ... thoughts on you ... hopefully unrained on ... ------------------------------------------------- "Only Love Can Bring the Rain... That falls like tears from on high" Umm... Must be lotsa love being sent toward the cities from JB. Since the Rain is coming from her area. Enough of the Love JB. Things to think about: 1. Yohan Pino -- 30 Years old from Venezuela and ain't Mother Nature Cruel. He has been in the minors since 2005... Wishin' and Hopin' for that Major League opp... And here it is and Mother Nature is going to make him sit in the locker room wondering if he will actually get that first start in the majors tonight. Seriously!!! Hands to the sky... Why!!! Yes... I'm channeling Pino right now and imagining the thoughts going through his mind. Just cause I can't understand his thoughts (which are in a different language) doesn't mean I can't understand thoughts. 2. Credit Due -- The offense is just sucking right now and it would be easy to focus on it but I'm not going to focus on it... I'm gonna focus on Kyle Gibson today. Kyle Gibson is on a roll. 22 straight scoreless innings... 4 out of his last 5 starts were scoreless... 31 out of his last 33 innings with a zero hung. I'm sure someone can tell me when a Twins pitcher last performed like this. Someone will have to tell me because I can't remember it... It's been so long... Scott Erickson maybe. 3. Jose Quintana -- Jose is 25 years old and he hails from Northern Columbia in the department of Bolivar. He's from the same home town (Arjona) as Ernesto Frieri. He was discovered by DEA agents and signed by the Mets... after a complete strip search he became a professional pitcher. He was suspended for 2007 because of a violation of baseball's drug policy and he became a minor league free agent in 2011 after the Mets forgot he was part of the roster. The White Sox signed him in 2012 and put him in AA. He skipped AAA altogether because the White Sox pitching staff sucked and they had no one else to turn to when John Danks got hurt. Jose Quintana got a surprise opportunity and he made the most of it and he stuck in the rotation and it looks like he might stick awhile longer because they quickly signed him to a 5 year deal. Fastball... Curve... Change. None of them are terrible and none of them are amazing. He's gonna need to work ahead. 4. The White Sox -- They started out pretty strong which was the surprise of many and have cooled a little as the months went by. They are acting like the Twins have this year just hanging around .500... Perhaps they have their own rubber band. They do have an interesting offense of players who can go yard at any time. Jose Abreu is acting like the top power hitter in the game... Adam Dunn is all or nothing... Viciedo can hit some bombs... Even Beckham, De Aza, Flowers can reach the seats if you groove one. I just don't like them defensively but you can see they are trying to improve that with the acquisition of players like Eaton. I hope they all get hurt in a weird washing machine accident. I don't like the White Sox. 5. Judging others -- The old saying... "Don't judge a man until you've walked a mile in their shoes"... It's something I try to live my life by. After you walk a mile in his shoes... Who Cares... You're a mile away and you've got a brand new pair of shoes.

Lots of speculation all around. It seems a mystery. But I think many read this article and thread and started wondering if Joe was going through some of what Morneau did. Whether or not that's the answer is anybody's guess.

Nope, this thread will not close itself. I will give it some help.

Moderator note: Let's stop with the 'absolutes' of opinions here. We are all entitled to view this differently, but let's drop the rhetoric and referring to other poster's views as from 'outer space' or '3rd grade like' or whatever. Keep your differences respectful.

Exactly.

Good; then we can move Esco back to short and maybe send back PFlo back down.

Thanks, Chief, I needed that.

I'm sorry, but I think you give the move to the guy who deserves it, and I think Pino does. And if your goal is the future, then make sure those who are the future are ready for it, so why rush them today, when they will likely get a call yet this year to get their feet wet. Why does it have to be right now? The goal was, imo, to move Deduno back to the pen, which, imo, is the right move. So who replaces him tomorrow? May just pitched, so that wasn't going to happen. I think they are being careful with Meyer, which I think they should if we want the impact out of him in the future that we do. So, who pitches tomorrow? Just because you call up Pino to pitch tomorrow doesn't necessarily mean he's here forever. He'll be here in the short term, and if we get some wins out him, great. But he will be replaced eventually as he is what he is. But for right now, he's the hot ticket. You try it because we need someone to pitch tomorrow. I'm not for giving Deduno any more chances to start, at least not right now, so this is the move to make. For tomorrow. Not for the future.

Okay, strip away what the future may hold and what our projections are for M and M, and who right now, is the best starter on the Red Wings? Who has the best line? I get the eagerness to get M and M started in the bigs, get them acclimated so that next season they can hit the ground running. But who right now holds the best record in Rochester? For me, that's who you try next, regardless. That's the hot ticket. And maybe because Pino has been a minor league journeyman he busts out here. But I'm all for thinking that calling up the one who has done the best right now, this year, is the move to make to help us right now.

Game-time forecast: Partly cloudy. Winds blowing out to left field at 5-10 m.p.h. Temperature around 75. Twins: SP, Hughes Santana SS Dozier 2B Mauer 1B Willingham LF Morales DH Arcia RF Suzuki C Escobar 3B Fuld CF Red Sox: SP, Lester Holt CF Bogaerts 3B Pedroia 2B Ortiz DH Napoli 1B Nava RF Gomes LF Drew SS Ross C ------------------ What interesting thoughts, observations, musings have you for us today, RB? Inquiring minds want to know! ----------------------------------------------- Thoughts I have 5... Observations... again 5. Musings... I'll have to look up the definition before I answer that but I am listening to "Supermassive Black Hole" right now. Things to think about: 1. The Rochester Shuffle -- Through Twins Daily... THEE Source for Minnesota Twins information. I have learned that Sean Gilmartin has been advanced from AA New Britain to AAA Rochester and will start for the Red Wings tonight and this move will push everybody back one day in the Red Wings rotation. Gilmartin had a 3.13 ERA with the Rock Cats and the reason this has become a thought today is because of the math problem that I have. I haven't seen any of these folks pitch yet but the Starting pitcher ERA's in Rochester are sparkling and there are 5 of them. There is May, Meyer, Johnson Darnell and Pino. All 5 are performing well and certainly will not be sent down to AA to make room for Gilmartin so that means that... umm... ???. Purely a guess but it seems like the Twins are prepping for a move to the big club for someone. 2. First Names -- Yesterday we faced Rubby De La Rosa and it didn't go so well. Today we face Jon Lester. So we've gone from a guy with no obvious first name to a guy with two of them. I'm thinking they should trade a name for balance. Rubby can be traded for Jon or Lester and you'd have Jon Rubby or Rubby Lester along with Jon or Lester De La Rosa. Personally I like Rubby Lester the best. 3. Josmil Pinto -- I almost forgot about him... He hasn't been around for a little while. While looking for info on the Rochester Red Wings rotation I came across an article in the Rochester Democrat. In the article... It quotes Glen Perkins as saying that Josmil is "surely not at the big-league level as far as catching for me". So there ya go... The Mystery has been solved. Maybe a Pino for Pinto trade was the plan all along. 4. Jon Lester -- Rubby Lester takes the mound for the Red Sox tonight... He's 30 years old and from Tacoma Washington. He was 2nd round pick of the Red Sox in 2002. He moved through the minor leagues and was always considered a top prospect. He made his debut in 2006 and today is considered the top pitcher in Beantown. He's a tall lefthander who mixes 5 pitches from the left side of the rubber and this makes him difficult to pick up because he doesn't come straight over the top. In the times I've seen him pitch I've never been totally impressed. I think he can get wild at times and that will make him ripe for the picking. I wouldn't never say this to his face because he's tall and left handed and I wouldn't see the punch coming. 5. Father's Day Gift -- I forgot to mention yesterday that my family surprised me with a nice father's day gift. They got me a Kuerig and what a practical neat gift it was. She is 57 years old now but she still has a certain cuteness to her and she tells me all about the news of the day when I wake up and get home from work. I'm nervous with Katie and my wife in the same household... I figure someday they are just going band together and turn on me and life is going to change. So far it's been great but I did find out that Katie will not make me a cup of coffee. Since she won't... I'll have to get one of those new things that make single cups of coffee in a bunch of different flavors.

No, it wasn't.

Oh right. You mentioned this before I think. They are playing up at Ravinia?

Oh right. Good thing I'm not working that one. But unfortunately one of my colleagues will. And now I want to stab my eyes over the image. Thanks a lot, Chief.

csn?

I've actually played the palace

But I just didn't have any time to meander. If I had two weeks off in a row, then yes, I could have hit all the spots you pointed out to me. But I just didn't have time to meander and get to Vermont to see my niece graduate, and get home in time to go to work tomorrow morning.