gil4

Mauer for Like. Butera for Dislike. (The Mauer half probably won't work for a lot of people here, either.)

If you had just emailed we would have missed out on this fun thread, plus you would have missed out on having your name changed to Jerry. (Sorry about that.)

I had to like it just to see. That is pretty bad - I LIKE the comment, I'm not in love with it. A thumbs up would be fine, a smiley would be better but still pretty bad. EDIT: No offense, Jerry, but I had to unlike it just to make that heart go away. I'm sure you understand.

That's him. This is a pretty good article about him. Scott Elarton enjoys healthy season. - Morning Call The title of the article is "Healthy season leads Elarton to ponder future." I don't know why the address says "shoulder-strain" - possibly left over from every other Elarton article ever written.

I was thinking one of the questions should be "Do they not sell razors anywher in Peoria, AZ?" The 70's called and they'd like their 'stache back. I fairly recently retired from the AF, so my knee-jerk reaction is still "that's outa regs." Give me another 5 years and I'll probably agree with you.

And so am I, by suggesting so are you. What's the reference? I just want to know if I'm too old, too young, too ignorant, or some combination. (I'm guessing 1 and 3)

Sizemore just had another knee surgery, but if his first name was really "Gardy" the Twins would probably take him anyway. http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/8707436/grady-sizemore-had-more-surgery-miss-start-season-agent-says

"Other deserving Twins Hall of Fame candidates, Dave Goltz (0) and Brian Harper (4) are not racking up twitter mentions either." I saw maybe a half-dozen games at the old Met, and by far the most memorable was a 1-hitter by Goltz vs. the Red Sox. (Solid single to left by Jim Rice, I think it was in the top of hte 7th.) He was a very good pticher and I hated to see him leave as a FA, but that was near the low point of the Griffith ownership. The worst game I went to (although not the least memorable) was also a Goltz start - it was supposed to be the first game of a twi-night double-header, but it was finally called in the 6th inning after 3 long rain delays. The Twins lost 5-1 and it was such a miserable night that it was seared into my memory. I went and found the box score for it - Aug 1st 1975 - and it reminded me of a few other things about the game. Wilbur Wood was the winning pitcher (the fascination with knuckleballers was pretty close to its peak then, thanks to Ball Four). Tony O was still playing and had an OPS of .848 despite barely being able to walk. (Not that we kne what OPS was back then.) And this play (from Baseball reference): Baserunner Out Advancing; Nyman out at 1B/1B. The Twins pulled the hidden ball trick, the only time I've seen it work at the MLB level. Retrosheet had a better description: "Jerry Terrell caught Nyls Nyman with a variation of the hidden ball trick; after two throws to 1B by the pitcher, Terrell faked his throw back to the mound the third time; Nyman moved off bag too quickly; White Sox Coach Alex Monchak ejected by 1B umpire Bill Kunkel" I thought the game might have been played under protest as well, but I couldn't find any mention of it.

Great suggestion, but I'm originally from CT and I'm partial to the Rock Cats.

I think you need to update your tagline for this thread. May I suggest "My son will be elligible fot the HoF in approximately 2055. Which team's hat should he have on the plaque?" Of course, we all know the answer here.

I'll go with "maybe" just to cover all the bases.

While there are days that "accelerated" feels accurate, I think "advanced" is the word you're looking for. (At least I hope so. If it goes any faster...}

I'm not convinced yet. I like the idea, as long as it's for a reasonable price.

Reynolds plays 3B like Plouffe plays SS - comically bad. He's pretty bad at 1B too. DH is the only defensive position he can handle.

It's a great story, but 29-yr-olds who tear up AA are not long-term MLB solutions and are rarely even everyday MLB players. If he is plan A for 2013 (and I'd recommmend against), plan B had better be a whole lot better than rushing the superprospect who showed inconsistent flashes in low-A last year. Colabello might be a good platoon option for either Parmalee or Morneau, but counting on more than that is crazy.

Thanks for the effort. Your suggestion would have fit Hrbek much better.

We're learning what it should have said...

"ERA is the MOST important stat for a pitcher" It is the most important stat for evaluating current performance, but it is not the best indicator for future performance, especially as a player moves up levels. Even at the major league level, K/W is a better indicator of future ERA than current ERA is. I haven't really kept up on the predictive value of the newer metrics, but the rules "there's no such thing as a pitching prospect" and "there's no such thing as a prospect below AA" both apply. They had nice years, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for them (yet.)

I don't know... is the number 3 the double? Because he definitely ordered the double.

"The Twins are looking for a RH replacement bat in return." I'm torn on this: Pro: 1. Selling high 2. He's getting old 3. He has an injury history 4. He's a defensive liability (not in the D-Young class, but not great) Con: 1. He was healthy last year 2. When he's healthy, the man can hit 3. I don't trust TR to get value on a straight challenge trade 4. Why trade a RH bat who came here voluntarily for a RH bat that didn't? 5. Is Atlanta still a hitter's park? I know Target Field evened out somewhat last year. I'd be concerned about overrating their hitters vs. ours because of park factors. I'd rather get a pitcher, unless the Braves surprise us with the offer.

Sorry I can't help. You made me curious, so i'm posting so I can find it more easily and check back.

Young? Who is he? (Don't miss him a bit. We won that trade.) The Hardy trade was foolish, not because we dumped the salary, but because we had no viable alternative. After we dumped the salary, we turned around a signed Nishi for slightly less than it would have cost to sign Hardy. It was a major gamble that bombed and left us without a shortstop. First base is usually easier to fill because the defensive demands are much less. I'm not sure what we have in Parmalee, but I think he's a better gamble than Nishi was. Mauer can sub there some. I bet Doumit could as well. I know Willingham is pretty limited defensively, but has he ever played first? If Morneau was a free agent right now, would you give him $14M? I think my answer is no, but i'm not sure.

That is awesome.

I disagree on the ordinary effort as well. He went much further than normal because the outfielder was so deep, and he never looked like he could catch it with ordinary effort. He made a token call because he thought he could get to it and because no-one else had called it yet, and he was awfuloly anxious to get out of the way ()because he just didn't have it tracked well).. That said, the protest was hopeless unless the umpires misstated the rationale for the call during the argument. If they said something like "we called it because an infielder had the best opportunity to make the play" rather than using the "ordinary effort" standard, or if they said that the call was wrong but once it was made they couldn't reverse it, then they had a valid protest.

So instead of paying by check the Twins should send a Brinks truck with about 4 million quarters every two weeks?