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.

Tough to blame the fans when the team, for whatever reason, is being opaque about the matter. It is the nature of fans, and humans in general, to try to make sense of things they care about. As a fan I would like some straight talk about the situation.

Kiriloff not added to the roster. Wonder what that means?

Celestino is a roster management tactic. Delay having to make a 40 man move until things shake out. He needs to be in AAA, not because he can't play a useful role here, but because I believe that he could become an everyday player with development I'd prefer Garlick to Upton. Burning two of Celestino's five annual call-ups is pretty close to a non-issue for me.

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 know that I sound like the kid who got the fancy new bike for Christmas but didn't like the streamers on his handlebars, but let me at least throw this out there. Donaldson 21M, Kiner-Falafa 5M, Rortvedt 1M, Random DH/Bench Bat 2M, Stud pitcher(s) $20M= $49M Correa $35M, Urshela 6M, Godoy 1M, Sanchez 7M, = $49M I only pose this question because I really like Kiner-Falafa. I'm not ungrateful, mind you, just too much time on my hands I guess.

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.

Rule geeks out there. Why wasn’t Donaldsons AB foul ball/dead ball. Ball hits batter/runner in foul territory ball us dead. Strike on JD Polanco returns to first.

I want him to be an ace so it’s easy to overlook a really decent start. Credit where credit is due.