gil4

We can tell who wants to lose.

Let them wait until we complete the sweep

They have to catch it first

We were starting to see shades of that in the Buxton at-bat.

Opportunities don't seem to be the problem.

Only if we are officially tanking, which I thought we weren't (for now.)

There's always a bit of truth in all good satire. Just usually not that much of it. I bet he did more than that. He was probably on the road for 30 minutes before he decided he'd like to keep getting a paycheck. Plus the answer to the question "Do I want to drive through SD and Wyoming or Iowa and Nebraska" was a resounding "neither." (OK, the was probably in Florida with the team, but I-10 through west Texas will convince you to turn around, too. )

Yeah, finally some words that fit yet won't get us banned from the site.

I'm torn on this. The return could be high, but teams that don't have any good starters tend to turn into a meat grinder for arms. There are only so many pitchers you can keep on the staff, and if you have a bunch of guys who routinely use 90 pitches to get through 3-1/3 innings, it just destroys everybody. It's hard to develop when you are just trying to survive.

What did I do?

I still prefer the classic TC,

When the 2023 uniforms came out, I didn't like them. They grew on me, and I came to appreciate the simplicity. I have always liked the navy blue with Twins as opposed to Minnesota, and script as opposed to block letters. I'm glad we have that option back. These also look like a bit darker shade, so we might not need a second look to tell them apart from Cleveland alternates. I will have to see the whole uniform on a field, but I think I'm really going to like these.

That article is coming ... <copy> <paste> ... now.

Their minor league lines are both not very good. Of course, Henriquez is 4 years younger than Kowar and has 1 great year preceded by two decent months at the major league level. Kowar's ERA has dropped in each major league stint after the first one. The progression was horrendous, really bad, bad, and finally adequate for the last arm in the pen. He missed all of 2024 and the first half of 2025 with Tommy John surgery. Maybe he's finally healthy and ready to do something. Apparently he also missed the last month of 2025 with a shoulder impingement, so maybe he's not Edit to add: I'd tell you whose stats are whose, but I don't remember.

No kidding. Just after the Rogers signing, we hear the Meltdown is sold out . Can the TwinsFest be far behind?

I mostly agree with what you wrote, except for your take on Radke. That 20-win season was not his "one good year." His ERA was at least 15% better than league average five times (ERA+ of 136, 135, 120, 116, 115.) He had three more that were 10% better (114, 111, 110). Just looking at his raw ERA doesn't give a great indication because he was pitching in a era that favored the hitters. I will grant that Radke never received or deserved a Cy Young award, but then Perry really should have been no higher than 3rd in 1970 (McDowell, Palmer.) Radke's career ERA+ was 113, the exact same as Perry's was with the Twins. Radke did it while pitching about 570 more innings (2450 - 1880). I'd take Radke over Perry.

And the hitting is their strong suit. 😒

I had to read the article to see if that was supposed to be a good thing. Let's call it damning with faint praise.

Positive WAR just means they are better than the average AAAA guy you can call up to replace him. I believe 2 WAR is the guideline for a good starter.

I think you are underestimating what a crapshoot it really is. I looked at all the R1 #21 picks from 2007 - 2021. The average career WAR for that group is 0.92. That's Brice Turang (2018) at 11.8 and everyone else adding a combined 2.1. The Twins' one contribution, Alex Wimmers in 2010, is one of the "success" stories - tied for 5th with 0.2 WAR. I will concede that some of the more recent selections will likely add to their WAR totals, but anyone selected #21 from 2016 and prior is either done or likely to have a negative WAR if someone uses them in an emergency. I will also concede that my data selection accidentally skewed the data toward my point. I selected 2021 as a start to allow the player to get to the majors, then went back for a total of 15 seasons. Once I figured out I could just list all #21 overall picks, rather than going year-by-year and looking at the #21 pick that year, I saw that the 2006 and 2005 (just outside my data set) were pretty good - Ian Kennedy (16.9 WAR) and Cliff Pennington (9.9). Then we don't get another pick who was near or over 10 WAR until Jake Westbrook in 1996, so I'd say my point is still valid. The #21 pick is a crapshoot. Heck, 1/1 is a crapshoot, but on a different level. The average WAR for the top pick in that time period is 18.85. It's reasonable to have expectations if you draft #1. At #21, it's more wish and hope than expectation.

All those throws he bounced weren't splitters? Are you sure?

I only half pay attention to Rule 5, so I only remember one previous time the Twins did it. They gave away the top pick in the draft, up-and-coming star Jared Camp, to the Marlins for the #2 pick, for some guy who probably never amounted to anything, Johan Somethingorother. And cash. At least they got the cash.

? Did you leave in Dec 2023 when they announced budget cuts and just drop in tonight for the first time since then? I'm usually the guy in August thinking all we need is a 15 game winning streak to get back to .500 and then we keep going from there, but even I am feeling a bit jaded by the state of affairs with the Twins.

In 2008, the Air Force sent me to Altus, Oklahoma. The local JUCO team - Western Oklahoma State College - was really good, led by star SS Andrelton Simmons, They also had a star OF/P combo named Almonte. I thought, "That can't be THAT Almonte, can it?" It was. He played two years at WOSC and hit nearly .500 both years with a total of 32 HR. He also pitched, and his W-L record over two years was 16-1. That's the only stat I have on his pitching (Wikipedia), and it's one stat that can be easy to pad when you're on a regional power that plays pretty variable competition. I drove past their field many times, including some when games were going on, but I regret that I never actually went to a game.

Let me help: