gil4

Can the bring back the Whalers name? They already have a mascot, although they might have to rename him (from "Pucky") http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q124/cdnuniguy/Mascots/puckythewhale.jpg They could even use the Brass Bonanza for home runs. http://www.brassbonanza.com/hcc/whalers-audio/brass-bonanza

I'm not even ready to concede that yet.

Maybe I can just say I kicked the ball for once.

I did a list in my head before I clicked the link - perfect match. I did think about holding off on Tony O and saving a spot for Mauer, but I assumed we were ready to break ground now and he's not quite there yet, and no sure thing to get there now. Blyleven might be worth an honorable mention, although he built a fair amount of his resume between his two times with the Twins. Johan's list isn't very long, but the peaks were awfully high. He has two of the four Cy Young awards in team history, and he should have had a third. Does TK deserve an honorable mention?

I'm concerned, too, because of the concussion. Hopefully it's just a slump and he will snap out of it, but we're still waiting for Morneau to snap out of it, and it has been 3 1/2 years.

"Yesterday Eddie" - nice. The only thing I like about the idea of Bartlett and Kubel making the team is nostalgia, and that is mainly applies to Kubel. Bartlett was a decent player in his prime and was a whole lot better than Brendan Harris, but hopefully the nice things I said sound like damning with faint praise. He was an adequate SS who was undervalued by his team and traded for an inadequate one. Kubel his hard to think about without wondering what might have been if he hadn't blown his knee out, but what he became was still pretty good for a while.

I guess I have to vote for Puckett's catch, since Punto getting caught rounding third too far wasn't on the list.

I would add that Bunning was a hell of a lot better pitcher than Morris, no matter what Ted Williams said about him and his "little sh*t slider" (Ball Four). He only won 20 games once, but he won 19 games four times (not that it really matters.) Morris' peak WAR was 5.9; Bunning topped that 5 times, including a three-year stretch of 8.1, 8.9, 7.8. And he still had to wait for the vets committee to elect him.

Bunning was probably helped by his political career and Hoyte by his broadcasting career. Haines is in the running for worst player in the Hall and is only there because Frankie Frisch was on the vets committee getting all of his old teammates elected. I'm not sure how to explain Grimes - notoriety as the last legal spitballer might have been part of it. Ritter and Honig had him in their top 100 of all time, but I'm not sure why. Was he another guy elected because he knew Frisch?

"...isn’t anything possible? Kevin Garnett sure seems to think so." Is KG coming back? That would be cool.

Some might be language barrier. Some might be caused by stuff being normal/legal/widely available at home but not permitted by the US and/or MLB.

Teams have always had to weigh AJ's personality vs. his performance. The Ozzie Guillen quote "If you play against him, you hate him. If you play with him, you hate him a little less." is a classic. (I still hate Ozzie more than AJ.) Hopefully the personality has mellowed with age, because the performance isn't what it used to be. If it was up to me, I'd pass.

I just want to add that it wasn't a Tommy Herr situation where he hated us and we hated him. Smiley was a damn good pitcher and I think most of us would have been happy to have him stick around. He had a down year after he got paid, but then he came back and was good again for three years before his arm fell off. Using ERA+, his best year was with the Twins.

He was great through June - 8-2, 2.60 ERA, in 16 starts. He was then horrible in July and August and then was traded for Darren Reed, a pinch-non-hitter (.182/.216/.242 with the Twins, basically in line with his numbers in his brief career.) If Krueger had kept pitching like he had been, the Twins might have stayed in the race. (They fell out of first for good in early August.) Of course, if he was capable of sustaining that success, he wouldn't have been available as a scrap-heap pickup in the first place. It was an exciting season until it fell apart. Smiley was a one-year rental the whole way. IIRC, he wasn't happy with the trade and wasn't happy to be with the Twins, and there was zero possibility of re-signing him.

Oh, THAT's what you meant. I just caught that I had listed him twice. When I'm being stupid please tell me clearly so I don't double down on it.

DeVries, Hernandez, Walters, Blackburn can go. I'm not sure exactly how you arrived at 6, but Darnell and Pat Dean can go too, if we really are out of room. I hadn't thought about Oliveros because he has been hurt, but when healthy he misses bats, although he has never been very effective for an extended period. Also, you have him listed as a starter, but he hasn't started a game since age 18 in the VeSL. Only DeVries and Hernandez are on the 40-man. There is plenty of dead weight from AA through MLB, and finding roster slots for free agents won't be a problem. (Prioritizing might be.) There is always someone hurt and some of these guys are at the point where starting isn't working. Too many marginal players is easy to fix. I want to know who the good players are who will take their places - that's the real problem.

I probably had Roenicke too far up the list - he probably should have been in the number 11 range. I'm not sure the rules either, but I think that's the Outright rule your talking about. By remove from the 40-man, I'm talking about allowing him to seek employment elsewhere if he chooses. I'm pretty sure he's on a 1-yr contract and I'm pretty sure the Twins aren't required to offer him another. I would bet that they could let him know he can have a minor league deal if he'd like to come back, and it wouldn't matter much if he chose not to accept it.

Colabello is on the dead center of my borderline. Hendriks is a notch or two to the keep side. Colabello is a great story, but he is also 29, is limited defensively, and has an OPS of .632 in 171 PAs. I know that's a small sample size, but it's a whole lot bigger sample than most 29 year olds would get if they hit like that. Hendriks is 24 and a pitcher. Young pitchers often struggle for a while before they find some success, although I will grant that they rarely struggle as much as he has. I still think he has the physical tools to get guys out and he could put together the mental part. He struggled some in his first try at AAA, too, but then he did well the second time. Now he has been jerked around a bit and has regressed some, but I wouldn't write him off yet. Neither one is a great bet for success, but if I had to pick one, it would be Hendriks. Also, Colabello might accept a minor league deal again, knowing that there still might be a path for him to get back if Parmelee keeps punting chances, or if Mauer goes back to catching, or if Mauer keps on having concussion symptoms. It's not like we have someone locked in there.

I completely agree. Anorthagen posted an article I really wish would have had more discussion: Who Stays and Who Goes - Blogs - Minnesota Twins News & Rumors Forum I made a list of 13 or 14 players I would remove from the 40-man before Hendriks: 1. Fryer 2. Martis 3. Hermsen 4. Ramirez, Wilkin 5. Roenicke 6. Thomas, Clete 7. Roenicke 8. DeVries 9. Mastroianni 10. Bernier 11. Hernandez, Pedro 12. Pelfrey (FA - possibly re-sign, but probably not) 13. Colabello 14. maybe Parmelee That would get the roster down to 29 or 28 (currently at 42 with two on the 60-day). I'm not sure who will be added to prevent Rule 5 exposure, but some likely and possible candidates are Kepler, Polonco, Wimmers, Salcedo, Ibarra, Vargas. Vargas really faded in the 2nd half and is only in A+; is someone really going to take him in the MLB portion of Rule 5? I'm also not sure on Wimmers, although I guess we have to add him just to see if he can put it together now that he is (hopefully) healthy. I'd say we end up with 5 open slots. Are we going to really going to sign that many legitimate players? If we are and then we need Hendriks' slot, by all means take it (after considering Florimon or Escobar, who will hopefully be made redundant by one of those signings, and maybe Pressly.) But if we are going to do stupid things like sign Ron Mahay to a major league contract or trade for Jim Hoey, I'd prefer to hang on to Hendriks.

Here is my list of who should go from the 40-man (roughly in order of priority): Definitely off the 40 man: 1. Fryer 2. Martis 3. Hermsen 4. Ramirez, Wilkin 5. Roenicke 6. Thomas, Clete 7. Roenicke 8. DeVries 9. Mastroianni 10. Bernier 11. Hernandez, Pedro Maybe / next in line: 12. Pelfrey (FA - maybe re-sign if price is right, #4-5 starter money) 13/14. Parmelee and/or Colabello - Neither has shown anything at tthe MLB level. Parmelee has had extended opportunities and will be 26 in Feb. Colabello is a nice story, hasn't had much of an opportunity yet, and really hit AAA, but he's too old to be a real prospect and I will be surprised if that funky stance can produce long-term MLB success. I guesss we need someone to play 1B next year (assuming Mauer is still a catcher), but I would not count on either of these two to be an acceptable answer. This doesn't include guys who might be elligible for arbitration who might not be worth offering, mainly because I haven't checked who that might be. (Duensing? Swarzak?) This list is just guys whose value is less than the value of the roster spot.

You read my mind - if I was going to write something about the trade, those two lines would have been part of it. I'm not sure when I'll get over it, but we aren't even close to it right now.

The Twins were in a spot where they should have either insisted upon an overwhelming return or kept him for another year. At the time of the trade it was a letdown because the return was far less than the rumors. Bill Smith blinked.

I followed a link that said "Swiftian satire must be attempted only by people" and was hoping to find out whose dog took over the keyboard after the owner passed out.

If A-Rod was still at the top of his game, would the Yankees be hanging him out to dry (so they can recoup some of the contract and not have it count against their payroll)? If the Yankees were backing him all the way instead of hoping they can justify voiding his contract, would Selig be taking such a hard line with him? (I know that is such a long shot that it isn't really being discussed, but if he has a positive test any time in the future, my guess is he and his contract are done.) I hope the punishment gets rolled back to a token (the rest of this year, tops) and A-Rod comes back and turns into Chone Figgins (or worse) for the rest of that contract. I want it to be so painful for him that he wishes he was suspended so he could blame it all on Selig and the time away from the game. Bottom line - I hate the Yankees more than I hate A-Rod. I think A-Rod is washed up and I'd love to see him prove it (at the cost to the Yanks of $27M per year or so.)