Squirrel

Man, Dozier, dude is a stud!

hahahaha ... I have no comeback for that. I've tried. But I have nothing.

I expect to see pictures!

heh. All a matter of perspective

Since the Twins have claimed him, I've moved this thread to the Twins Talk forum.

And I say that as one who has been to Rio.

The men, too.

Oops ... was going 1, 2, 3

That's just mean. Funny. But mean.

Game-time forecast: Partly cloudy. Winds blowing out to center field at 10-15 m.p.h. Temperature around 75. Twins: SP, Hughes Dozier 2B Mauer 1B Plouffe 3B Colabello RF Kubel LF Pinto DH Suzuki C Hicks CF Escobar SS Royals: SP, Ventura Aoki RF Infante 2B Hosmer 1B Perez C Gordon LF Butler DH Moustakas 3B Maxwell CF Escobar SS --------------------------------------- Brian, the thinking man, will have more to say here. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you and Happy Easter Things to think about: 1. Yordano Ventura -- 100 MPH... The hard throwing right hander is going to have our Twins on their toes today. Major leaguers can hit a 100 MPH fastball if it's grooved but they don't hit it every time because it ain't easy. Ventura is a good pitcher... a rookie of the year candidate and he's much better than Frank Oxnard... Steve Bakersfield... Luis Obispo... Jerry Santa Barbara and Todd Big Sur. 2. Defense -- Stomp Stomp Defense... Stomp Stomp Defense... You gotta prevent the crooked numbers if you want to win baseball games. Crooked numbers happen when you fail to make outs. If you give a team 5 outs to play with they usually hurt you and that's the ball game. Case in point... The 4th inning yesterday: After a Gordon single... Colabello blew a routine fly ball which would have been the first out of the inning. Instead of one out and a runner on 1st... there are runners on 2nd and 3rd with no out. Moustakas hits a sacrifice fly which should have been the 2nd out with a runner on 1st. Instead it's one run in and one out. After Escobar is hit by a pitch... Trevor Plouffe doesn't move on a routine ball (let's assume he didn't see it... I hope it wasn't because he wasn't on his toes). That should have been the third out with no runs allowed but it allows another run to score and following that the Pinto error on a throw that should have never happened because they should have been in the dugout. When it was all said and done... According to the official scorer... 1 error (Pinto throwing error)... So... Correia is standing on the mound with 5 runs crossing the plate in the inning with 4 of those runs earned but Corriea should have escaped with zero earned. D Matters and those crooked numbers kill you. 3. Crooked Numbers -- Phil Hughes is starting today. 4. Animal Prognostication -- The evidence seems to suggest that the animals are better at predicting things then Joe A. 5. Easter Baskets -- Happy Easter to all!!! This Morning I was honored to be given the assignment of hiding the Easter Baskets for my Nieces and Nephews. I did a great job hiding them... The Kids tore after it... Kids searching high and low. I'd tell them... you're getting colder... you're getting warmer... you're getting colder. This went on for an hour and they didn't find any of them. Finally... My youngest Niece got frustrated and she started to cry. My wife says to me... "ENOUGH!!! ... Damn It Brian... Get in the car and take them to their EASTER BASKETS"!!!

We've had this discussion before. Is there something new to bring to the table that's happened since last week?

Home. What did I miss?

Game-time forecast: Partly cloudy. Winds blowing out to left field at 10-20 m.p.h. Temperature around 70. Twins: SP, Correia Dozier 2B Mauer 1B Plouffe 3B Colabello RF Kubel LF Pinto C Suzuki DH Hicks CF Florimon SS Royals: SP, Chen Aoki RF Infante 2B Hosmer 1B Perez C Gordon LF Butler DH Moustakas 3B Maxwell CF Escobar SS -------------------------- Check back here for Brian's thoughts ... could be dangerous ... so beware! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- They are dangerous... I already cut my finger typing them. So with Blood on the Tracks!!! Things to Think About 1. .500 Ball -- Some of you people are so sick minded that if the Twins just kept returning to .500 ball like a tight rubber band was guiding it. Some of you sick minded people would be happy with that. Just imagine all year... The team will be 3 games back from .500 and then win 3 in a row... Get a game over .500 just to lose the next one. Get 5 games over .500 and lose the next 5 games. Thinking about that a little more... I'd be happy with that. Of course... I've never contended to be anything but sick minded. 2. Defense -- Stomp Stomp Defense... Stomp Stomp Defense... I didn't really get to see much of the game last night... I did see the play made by Brian Dozier in the highlights. Brian Dozier is becoming one of the finest fielding 2nd basemen in MLB. I don't know much about this Rosario looming on the horizon. I've read good things about him. He's gonna have to be real good to move Dozier. 3. Joe A. Preusser -- Joe claims to have series prognostication ability and he has prognosticated a Twins series win. I want to believe in this series prognostication ability because you have to believe in something in life. I need to believe that an Orangutan named "Eli the Ape" from the Salt Lake City Zoo can correctly predict Superbowl Winners. I like believing that Buffalo know to flee Wyoming because they can predict the super volcano. I want to believe that Joe has that same animal skill. 4. Sunday -- I imagine that I will think more about Sunday on Sunday but right now... We dropped last night's game and Sunday we face the 200 MPH hard throwing righty named Yordano Ventura. We may need to win today!!! I'm looking at Joe A. to bring this one home. 5. The Price of a Sandwich -- A couple of summers ago... I took my Family on Griswold style vacation in the car from North Dakota to Kansas City... Then to the Ozarks... Arlington... Austin... The Texas Hill Country... Lockhart... New Bruenfels... Galveston... New Orleans... Clarksdale Mississippi... and back home. We pulled into Kansas City early Saturday and did the Barbecue thing all day. We saw the Twins play the Royals on a Sunday. After the game we were just looking for a quick sandwich before hitting the road for our next stop in Southern Missouri. I had seen this place called "Grinders" on Diners Drive Ins and Dives and this became the chosen destination. We walked in... it was an old building and there were like 4 people in the place. My wife wanted to turn around and grab Subway instead after walking in the door. We stuck with the plan and ordered our food. The sandwiches came to the table when I noticed a back door. I got up and went out the door to see what was out there. It led to this huge open area and a big stage. There was a band on the stage going through a sound check. I told the family to grab the food so we could eat at a table outside and watch. Doing the sound check was Ben Harper himself. Sitting in a chair with his lap slide guitar. Singing a song for a verse... stopping and saying... can you bring the highs up a little and then starting over. It lasted about as long as it took us to eat our sandwiches. The Sandwich was pretty good and it cost 8 bucks. The experience was worth a little more. A few days later at Schlitterbahn's Waterpark in New Bruenfels Texas. While attempting to boogie board on 50,000 gallons of rushing water... In front of maybe 300 kids and parents either waiting in line to try the boogie board themselves or sitting in the grandstand waiting and watching the action below. My Shorts were swept completely off my body and thrown to the back of the pool. As I stood up in all my glory... to surprising applause from the hundreds looking over me!!! I noticed a lady with a sandwich in the stands. I knew how she felt. I just had the unexpected bonus of seeing Ben Harper doing a sound check a few days of ago while enjoying a sandwich.

The right decision. Hey, but I give him props for giving it one last try. Now he knows without a doubt that he did all he could and can get on with the rest if his life with no regrets or wondering 'What if.'

Yes, but does that mean he is the one sent down, too? I wouldn't expect otherwise, but just wondering.

Guess it was time to give Kubel a day off. Did Nunez get sent back to AAA then? (No, those aren't related statements. Just two separate thoughts.)

I love 'cue. Too bad it gives me heartburn. But sometimes I just go for it anyway.

Checked out what a Toronto newspaper had to say about the game. These few lines sums it up: "In all, Delabar, Santos and Happ allowed six runs on eight walks, three wild pitches and one hit. It was a complete unravelling, which led to life-sucking 9-5 loss and a series defeat to a very bad team. Now instead of heading to Cleveland needing just a single victory for a winning road trip, they’re dispirited, demoralized and back at .500." Although I take exception to the 'very' in 'very bad team.' This was the article: http://www.thestar.com/sports/bluejays/2014/04/17/ra_dickeys_struggles_continue_as_blue_jays_blanked_by_twins.html

I'll repeat what I said in the game thread after the inning was over 'Just wow.' Not a 'wow that was fantastic' wow, more of a 'I cannot believe that just happened' wow. It was a monstrous train wreck. Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm glad the Twins weren't the train wreck for a change, but, just wow. Not a sight I hope to ever see again. That was definitely a 'once in a lifetime' viewing, I hope. I wonder if the cold was a contributing factor for those bullpen arms who just could not come in and do anything.

Just wow

1 more and it's hot tub time!

C'mon Perk!

What do you say if you are a Jay when you get back into the dugout?

I think it's the worst half inning ANYONE has seen.

For some reason it would be fitting if Herrmann hit the GS