Heinie Manush

Call up Gaspar. He's hitting a ton. Place Tonkin on the 60 day and give McCusker a shot.

I presume you call up Gaspar. Martin is hurt. Julien is a mess. Rodriguez is young and has been playing half way decently. Miranda is Miranda. So, how about moving Tonkin to the 60-day and giving McCusker a shot?

More disheartening to me was the news that Canterino has a sore arm. I figured that DeSclafani was a long shot. Was hoping that Canterino would be a nice guy to have waiting in the wings. No problem at all with subbing Varland for DeSclafani. Just don't know who the "next man up" is.

One more move, please. Larnarch/Miranda plus any prospect except Lee or Jenkins for a decent middle of the rotation starter. Hate to give up prospects but I think we're really close.

Having a plan at the plate… The Braves had one against Joe Ryan. Contrast that with Burton’s AB in the top half of the first. 2nd and 3rd with one out. Need to get at least one home. He goes 0-2 seemingly with his by now familiar boom or bust approach. No indication of any adjustment based on game situation. Now he did get the run home but that’s not the point.

I'm wondering whether we had to take on Sanchez in order to make the Donaldson deal happen. As I understand it, he was offered arbitration before the lockout so we or the Yanks couldn't just withdraw the offer. In any case, his salary isn't overly burdensome. he just isn't a good fit for our team.

I was really excited with the first two moves. Gray and Kiner-Falafa plugged two holes at minimal dollar cost. Then the Donaldson debacle. Essentially Garver, Donaldson, Rortvedt and taking on about 14M for two useful but not particularly needed players in order to dump 7M, 21M and 8M over the next three years. I hope like hell that this doesn't signal a retrenchment and Pohlad getting cold feet about the aggressive foray into the free agent market with Donaldson. Trevor Story? Not a big fan. Damn, Kiner-Falafa was exactly the kind of shortstop we needed.

About the Astros missing on Brady Aiken, remember that they used that pick to draft Bregman the next year, then choosing Kyle Tucker with their own pick. For high draft picks they get Correa, Bregman and Tucker. We get Buxton and a utility player. Bigger difference than it may originally seem.

I remember when they drafted Kohl Stewart I thought: ""right-handed high school pitcher, he must have a power arm." Not the case.

Such a small difference between winning and losing close games. No player can be laser-focused for every minute of every game over a long season. The damn thing with this beautiful game is that those moments of inattention will often find you. Example: La Tortuga rounds second widely and can't score on a double with one out. We fail to pick him up. That run likely changes the game. Somehow teams playing well have fewer of these lapses than teams playing poorly. I believe that this ebbs and flows over the course of a season so there's hope.

I'm going to side with the FO on this issue. I firmly believe that this service time "loophole" will go away fn the coming CBA and i believe that Fal/vine knows this.

Argggggh. I'm so happy to be beyond the Terry Ryan anti-analytics reign but Rocco seems to be a slave to them. I'll give him credit for being consistent, but pulling in the infield: in the sixth inning, with a one run lead, with no outs, with a runner on second as well as third... for Trout makes no sense.

Any idea why we pinch hit for Avila to lead off the 7th. Sitting your best defensive catcher with a two run lead with no 3rd catcher to back up seemed odd. Avila injury?

And, remember, Allen came out of the highly thought of Rays organization.

Baker? Sign him, doesn't matter for how much in 2013 (we've got $ and should still be rebuilding) if we can get a team friendly option for 2014. If he's a dud, signing him doesn't hurt our prospects for 2014. If he comes through, we've got a veteran #2 or #3 at a reasonable price. Duensing to the bullpen. We need a better arm to compete and he's been quite valuable out of the pen. Hendricks, Deduno, Gibson and Diamond along with Baker should get a look for the rotation. Forget the others.