Don Walcott

Another easy play for Arenado.

Dozier to right?

That's redundant.

Desmond hit an absolute laser. Rockies announcers are talking about how Hughes doesn't miss bats much. That being said, why are they bunting? Thank you, Bud Black.

I watch the Rockies all the time and I couldn't agree more about Arenado. When the ball is hit near him, you just know he's making the play. He regularly makes plays that just make me laugh out loud. I've never seen anyone better.

I've been looking forward to this series, as I can watch the games (even though I have to listen to the Rockies broadcasters). However, my wife's from Denver and is a huge Rockies fan, so I'll have to keep quiet if the Twins are winning.

I think this is an interesting topic. The term "Ace" is used a lot, but never defined. I think that is because there are at least two ways of looking at it: staff ace and ace in general. Santana is definitely our staff ace. He wouldn't be the staff ace for many other teams, but he is pitching like a staff ace this year. I looked into the definition of ace a few years back when I was arguing for Jack Morris being inducted into the Hall of Fame on sites where everyone was against him. He was definitely considered an ace for the three teams that he helped win the World Series. Part of that is subjective: he started every opening day for 14 straight years; managers set him up to pitch as often as possible, and specifically games 1 of the ALCS and WS in 1984, 1991 and 1992. However, Morris also exemplified two other less subjective aspects of an ace. First, it seems to me that your ace ought to lead your team in getting outs (IP), and your team should win more when your ace is pitching. Second, during the course of a season, your ace should step up when needed. This means he leads the staff when the team has a winning streak, he stops losing streaks, and he wins important games against division rivals and down the stretch when the pennant or the playoffs are on the line. Then, finally, he wins big games in the playoffs. So far, Ervin is ticking these boxes for this season for this team. I hope he continues to through what would be an improbable season.

What are you guys talking about? Kintzler got a win!!

This thread has become a lot like the threads from last offseason, debating whether the Twins should spend money to improve. Well, they didn't spend money to improve. The results are officially in. AZ still has an ace and a 25-year-old who has had one bad season, but is still a proven starter, going into next season. They are much closer to having a sustainable winning team than the Twins, imo.

Johnson was among the highest paid players with the D-Backs, for six years, starting at 35-yrs-old. That was a risk. Schilling had been good for a few years, had a wasteland for a few years, and then was good again for a few years. Nobody could have anticipated how well he did for the D-Backs. He was paid $6.5 million 2001, then $10 million the next two years. Schill was 34 when they signed him. Both were big risks and huge rewards.

I disagree. I think you go after top free agents when they are available, and you assume that you can put together a contending team around them. Again, the D-Backs went out and got the Big Unit, and then put together a contending team. There are no great free agent pitchers available this offseason, so we don't have to worry about this part of the discussion for another year or two. I guess the Twins will try to trade for pitching. But with no free agents on the market, I'm not sure who is going to be trading away the quality of pitchers we would want.

I understand your point. However, I think they should have gone after free agents when they were available, and now that they are not, I doubt they'll be able to get much value from trades either. We'll probably have to wait to improve the pitching staff until 2018.

Good point. I'm just frustrated by the mentality that the Twins should only ever build their team through the farm system and not spend any money. Obviously, the Miller trade was a steep price. But I would be much happier about this team right now if we had signed Greinke.

If we could go back in time and trade Hughes, Nolasco, Pelfrey and Milone for Miller and Greinke before the 2016 season, would we be better off right now, and going into 2017? Aren't the Twins the cautionary tale here?

The only time Arizona had sustained success and won a World Series is when they went crazy and paid big bucks for Randy Johnson in free agency, and then traded for Curt Schilling. I don't actually know any D-Backs fans, but I would assume they were okay with that strategy.

But they are consistently not up to snuff.

Just got home, turned the game on, caught up on this thread. When I turned the game on, it was "3-1 to Mauer, Plouffe on deck" from Dick. Lmfao.

Is there no chance they trade Dozier?

According to Dick, DSA will conduct an interview with Dick. Is Bremer a candidate for GM now?

What is the classic sense of the word "badly"? Sometimes Roy speaks over my head, I think.

Just had to add to the ridiculous number of posts on this thread.

In my opinion, Joe's earned his money. He not only had some incredible underpaid seasons, he sold a lot of jerseys, and made a lot of Minnesotans proud. I'd rather he have the money than the owners. And I don't think he should be a scapegoat for why we can't spend money on other players. We have plenty of money to spend if we want to do so. Our FO has just chosen not to spend money on free agents.

Sounds like the consensus between Tigger and Hobbes is a Hobbesian choice.

Look at that glorious hair.