Paul Pleiss

If you like bunting, or if you hate it (E Rolf, I'm looking at you) make sure to check out the new Talk to Contact podcast when it hits the airwaves later today. E Rolf goes on a bunting rant to end all bunting rants.

In the words of Jesus Quintana (Big Lebowski) "What's this bull****? I don't ****in' care! It don't matter to Jesus. But you're not foolin' me, man. You might fool the ****s in the league office, but you don't fool Jesus. This Bush-league psyche-out stuff. Laughable, man – ha ha!" Trading Dozier is impossibly silly.

Pinto would make Willingham look like a gold glove caliber CF. Not an option. I think the Twins have enough options in house for corner OF guys.

Welcome to the twilight zone. Joe Mauer is Joe Mauering

Some ugly rotations listed in this article Mr. Christie. Luckily things are improving, albeit slowly. Wake me up when Eric puts his potty mouth away.

Santana's bat had fewer questions than his defense as he came up through the system. His bat has shown up, but those questions about his defense remain, at least at SS. He could very well be the stop-gap to Byron Buxton in CF (Hopefully Bux can put this season behind him, get healthy and get back to tearing up MiLB levels in 2015). I hope Aaron Hicks can be that stop gap. Which brings us back to Santana at SS. Can he be an everyday SS? If he bat stays hot and he stays healthy then he can and should play at SS, but he's a candidate for some SERIOUS regression in 2015. I'm done waiting for him to fall back to earth, but it's got to happen, right? I'm not sold on Santana as a long-term SS, but if he can provide a level of offense defense similiar to what Eduardo Escobar is doing this season, there's no reason to not play Santana everyday. And that brings us to Escobar. I love what he's done this season, doubles machine, solid (not great) defense at SS. He makes the plays he should but doesn't get to much else, and although he passes the eye test, I'm not sure he's an elite level defender. But he's 25 and seems to have figured some things out offensively. The twins should definitely not give up on this guy, and his versatility makes him even more valuable. I think he profiles best as a utilitiy guy on a contending team, but the Twins don't have a contending team, so if someone can play a passable CF and Santana plays good D, Escobar could be a great third-baseman. And if Aaron Hicks stinks it up again, or moves to a corner, leave Danny out in CF and let Escboar play SS. It's a great problem to have. But I still don't think it would be out of the question for the Twins to look at bringing in a veteran SS on a short contract (3 years or less). Why not? Eduardo Escobar

I really enjoy having JC down in Cedar Rapids with access, writing skills, and a passion for this ball club. Awesome write up.

http://assets.podomatic.net/ts/19/ad/da/paulpleiss/1400x1400_9864053.jpg This week on the podcast we are joined by the great Rob Neyer (https://twitter.com/robneyer (@robneyer), http://robneyer.com/, http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit-outside) a real baseball writing celebrity. Also on this episode is Eric's potty mouth. You've been warned.We discuss why we hate the teams we hate and then jump into all of the Twins news from the last week. Most of it involves pitchers, and most of those pitchers have been bad. But not Joe Mauer. Joe Mauer has been vintage Joe Mauer. Tune in for all the fun. Source

Trade Jared Burton, become my new best friend.

If Jordan Schafer can't bunt, he won't make Gardy's 2015 squad. That being said, maybe Gardy won't be managing in 2015.

If someone posts a blog on their own blog and the blog is then picked up for the front page (articles), how come comments from the blog don't show up in the article comments, and subsequently in the forums? It puts the post in 2 places. Anyway to make them one?

I've never been a Wolves fan or a Wild fan, and I officially gave up on the Vikings (as a franchise) the year before the Bret Favre signing. The Minnesota Twins are my Minnesota team. Other than that, I'm more of a fan in general, than specific. Except for the NBA, I loathe them all equally.

Mauer hasn't hurt the team since moving to first base. He's having a sub-Mauer year, but that's a product of him being healthy. When you compare him to other 1B in the league his numbers aren't going to match up the way you typically thing of 1B guys. That's not Joe Mauer. Expecting him to become a power first, low average guy because he moved from out behind the plate is silly. He's Joe Mauer. He takes walks, hits singles, shows doubles power and works the count. That's valuable. It's valuable at catcher, it's valuable at first base, it's even valuable when he's DHing. Don't worry about where the runs come from so much as long as we're scoring them. When Joe had to move behind the plate, the options became find a place to play Joe, or not play Joe. Playing him at first base is significantly better than not playing him, or having him be the everyday DH. Keep running him out there, he's Joe Mauer, and he's going to do Joe Mauer things (and that doesn't include hitting for power). Don't focus on his 23 mil price tag. That is money already spent, money spent when the organization thought he would be a catcher for at least a few more years than he has been before moving out. Separate the production on the field from the contract. Once you ink someone to a deal, it becomes almost meaningless to talk about the money. Joe Mauer is a Twin, and they paid to keep him a Twin. Anything they get from him going forwad is a plus. At first base, at DH, anything he does is value added to the team. He's not hurting the team, he's a big part of the team's success, be it as limited as it may be this season (and for the last few). Where in AK are you? I lived in Kodiak for a couple years. Not too many Twins fans, or baseball fans in general, that I came across in AK.

Free pizza is enough to get me to do just about anything. N-E-THING. I enjoyed your commentary. Welcome to the team.

Who cares if Alex Meyer can throw strikes or not for AAA, let's see if he can do it at the big league level. And what about Eddie Rosario... should the Twins "push" him to AAA just for ****s and giggles? Is Max Kepler going to become the Max Kepler we were all dreaming about 2-3 seasons ago, or has his ceiling come down significantly?

Why is there a post about the Vikings in the Minnesota Twins forum? Shouldn't this be in another forum? Get the moderators on this. Can't have this purple and gold BS infringing on Twins Territory.

replacement level domicile allows me to use my funds elsewhere, to purchase All-Star caliber seats at baseball games. You need replacement level things (Furniture from Goodwill, Trevor Plouffe, Jordan Schafer, old frying pans to take camping, etc, etc) in life.

If someone wanted to pay me to tweet out links to their business, I would, almost without question. If you don't have room on your timeline for an extra few Tweets from the Twins, unfollow them. That's what's great abou Twitter, if you don't like what someone is doing, you just unfollow them. Sometimes I record a podcast and then asks pseudo-famous guests that were on the podcast to tweet out the link. Are the Twins tweets any different than the "That's the ticket" series that Twins Daily does that's sponsored by Ticket King? Get paid for content. Why not?

I'm pretty sure it's still an option, but maybe I haven't seen that yet this year, I don't recall. I like the blue tops way better than the grey on grey away combo. Even the red is better than the grey. Not a fan.

My blog entry abou trolling Joe Mauer didn't make it? BooMauer! Do I still get free pizza?

We made a new podcast just for your ears. I know, you're excited too. Thanks for stopping by. You can download the new Talk to Contact (@TalkToContact) episode via iTunes or by clicking here. The podcast returns, a day late, but a dollar better, and with a full suite of podcast hosts. We discuss Trevor May's debut, the departure of Josh Willingham and Kevin Correia and what those moves mean for the organization and the youth movement happening in Minnesota. We're joined by Brad Swanson (@Bridman77) from the Twins blog Kevin Slowey was Framed (http://smartpitcher.blogspot.com/) to talk about Eduardo Escobar and Twins players heads photo-shopped onto animal bodies (WHAT?! YES!). We finally get around to answering the expansion draft question submitted last week by former listener of the week, John. Which 15 players would you protect? Send us your list to talktocontact@gmail.com. We wrap things up by going around the league to talk about the 1st place Royals, everyone being injured, and what the 1994 season might have given us had it not been for the strike. Enjoy the show. You can follow Cody on Twitter (@NoDakTwinsFan) or read his writing at NoDakTwinsFan, and you can find Eric on Twitter (@ERolfPleiss) and read his writing at Knuckleballs, and you can find Jay Corn on twitter @Jay__Corn! If you enjoy our podcast, please take a couple extra minutes and rate and review us on iTunes. If you enjoy our podcast, please take a couple extra minutes and rate and review us on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are pretty cool, you guys. __________________ Follow me, @BaseballPirate, on Twitter. Check out the Talk to Contact Podcast (@TalkToContact) or email the show: talktocontact@gmail.com

http://assets.podomatic.net/ts/19/ad/da/paulpleiss/1400x1400_9846448.jpg The podcast returns, a day late, but a dollar better, and with a full suite of podcast hosts. We discuss Trevor May's debut, the departure of Josh Willingham and Kevin Correia and what those moves mean for the organization and the youth movement happening in Minnesota.We're joined by Brad Swanson (@Bridman77) from the Twins blog Kevin Slowey was Framed (http://smartpitcher.blogspot.com/) to talk about Eduardo Escobar and Twins players heads photo-shopped onto animal bodies (WHAT?! YES!).We finally get around to answering the expansion draft question submitted last week by former listener of the week, John. Which 15 players would you protect? Send us your list to talktocontact@gmail.com.We wrap things up by going around the league to talk about the 1st place Royals, everyone being injured, and what the 1994 season might have given us had it not been for the strike. Source

I don't think this team makes the playoffs next season, 2016 seems a likely time to pick, but I agree 2017/2018 maybe a safer pick. Interesting data set to ponder. Hopefully we're done with 90+ loss seasons.

C Check - What about back up catcher? Pinto? Fryer? Free agent signing? 1b Check - Okay, deal. 2b Check - Yes SS Check - Not so fast. Eddie Escobar has earned his keep, but what about Santana? Danny is not a CF long term. 3rd base - Can improve. Can improve, yes, but Plouffe has been solid. Could use a platoon partner until Sano gets up. CF -Check - Whoa, no way. Danny Santana is not the answer long term. Team still needs a back up CF too. I think it's unlikely that Schafer is still with the team after the season. This team could use a free agent signing to pick up a corner OF bat too, Arcia is young and improving, but there's still room for another bat at the corner. As far as pitching goes, still lots of holes. But I disagree that it's another losing season. I think the Twins fight for .500 in 2015.