Dave The Dastardly

Nash- I think you're getting too desperate to come up with a trade. Maybe we should take some advice from Kenny Rogers (the singer); "Know when to hold 'em."

Nope. Would rather we not trade the prospects we've supposedly developed for a wounded warrior. Trading pitchers we can put to the test this year for a guy that may or may not be able to pitch for at least a season and a half seems short-sighted.

Is there a stat for mentoring? I'm not being facetious, though I have been known to do so, I'm just curious because we hear it used a lot on TD; certain players apparently are valued for it and other are not. Is there a mentoring coach in the locker room that maintains the data? Now that was facetious.

I could use a hit off whatever Tennesseans use to chase away the winter blues.

Gee, going by goatees, I gotta go with Santana.

He was a rock around the Twins' neck. Impermeable, except at the plate.

I can only assume by all these discussions regarding shortstop, when Nick Gordon is never considered a viable answer, that the guy trips over his own feet, airmails throws to first, resembles a croquet hoop on hot grounders, or forgets to bring his glove if he's sent out to short. So much angst when even the best shortstop in the world can't snag a home run. The issue is pitching, guys. Pitching. Leave Polanco at second if that's his magical position, stick Gordon at short and if he's still committing two or three errors every game at mid-season, bring up one of the kids to take over. In the meantime, sign a pitcher that can go an other wordly (in Rocco's world) six innings with an ERA under 3.00. Every shortstop looks better if the opposing hitters aren't slapping the guy on the mound around like the Gestapo.

Colome over Alcala when the season was already lost. Yet another example of player/team mismanagement by Rocco. Scares me to think what he's going to do with the young players coming up in 2022. If there's a 2022 season. If the Twins actually bring the youngsters up... That's like a herd of elephants in the room. Where's Tarzan when you need him?

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/12/apple-potential-bid-for-mlb-package-could-bring-big-player-into-sports.html "Octagon analysts used 108 out of 114 games from MLB’s 2018 to 2020 seasons to determine average viewership on the Monday-Wednesday package on ESPN, not including ESPN2 broadcasts. They found average viewership of 761,434 in 2018, dropping to approximately 632,000 in 2019 and 358,947 in 2020." I wonder if either side is looking at viewership as part of their negotiations. Hard to spend revenue that isn't coming in.

A rational, well-reasoned explanation for an Arraez trade. And one I could support, albeit reluctantly because I'd miss Arraez' bat. But I'd still like to move both Donaldson and Sano to make room for players like Miranda and give more AB's to Garver

Your argument is not without merit. ? Should be fun watching this unfold as the season progresses. If the season progresses...

I would argue keeping Donaldson is short-sighted. He spends almost as much time on the DL as Buxton, gets "injured" just exercising, his salary would more than cover the salaries for Arraez, Miranda and Kirilloff combined, all of whom will be under team control longer than Donaldson and with Donaldson completely out of the picture we won't have to worry about Rocco letting Miranda sit on the bench for a month without getting an opportunity to play. Sano is sort of similar, keeping him on the team blocks Arraez and Garver from DHing, both of whom I'd rather see come to bat with runners on base than Sano, and his absence opens up first for Kirilloff. As to what we could get back in trade, if we acknowledge that other teams aren't willing to accept Sano in trade, why would we want to keep him? Can the Twins be the only team that finds value in him? Salary dump that can be used for pitching, clearing the path for younger players that may well be the future (2023) and giving more at bats to better, more consistent, hitters. To me, that's long-term thinking.

Trade Donaldson and Sano. Keep Arraez. Think long term. Old guys out, young guys in. Donaldson and Arraez both have bad wheels but Arraez is about a bazillion dollars cheaper. Take the "savings" from trading Donaldson and spend it on signing a pitcher not currently residing in a dumpster. With both Donaldson and Sano gone you have room for Miranda and a guaranteed spot for Kirilloff at first and DH open for Garver when he's not catching. When Garver is behind the plate plug in any other player that Rocco wants to "rest".

Sounds like corporate ownership is a panacea. I wonder if the $450 million tax-payer handout has anything to do with corporate interest. Probably be easier to improve team morale just by changing the team name to something other than "Guardians". I bet that will be the first thing the miracle worker Blitzer will change. The Cleveland Blitz perhaps?

Good thing you explained that. I've been staring at it for 15 minutes, pondering its secret meaning. Was thinking it meant you love steak, grilled, on the backyard grill, temperatures in the 80's, cold beer in hand, Twins on the radio, one up in the tenth, wondering who they were going to send in to ice the game.

Trade him, if the Twins can actually find a club willing to take him in trade. I'll wager there are few that desperate to acquire an inconsistent DH because he's a liability in the field and nobody will want him as a first baseman. How far he can hit the ball or what sort of velocity he can put on a ball going out of the park is immaterial in my opinion. No matter how high or how fast a homerun gets out of the park they still only count as one run. But a strikeout with runners in scoring position can cost a team as much as 3 runs. So why if we have a young player who can hit more consistently and play a better first base, why would we want to retain Sano? Illogical.

Been following this kid ever since I saw an earlier video of him. Great stuff and lots of movement. I think he's going to climb his way up to AAA in short order and make the Bigs in 2023. Love the bit about the "Woody" nickname.

True, but if you think about it and if we're talking about the key members of the relief corps we would indeed be talking about the core of the corps. In any case, a good write-up, Cody.

There's only one way to accurately determine if a player is ready for the Bigs; play him in the Bigs. Expecting some mystical sign to occur in the minors; a burning bush, the appearance of a comet, or Obi Wan materializing to say with a wave of his hand "This is the player you are looking for", it's all guesswork. Donaldson isn't the future; Arraez and Miranda are. Dump Donaldson and use the savings to sign a pitcher that doesn't come with a "salvaged" tag hanging from his jersey and put the kids in the field. By July we'll all know if Miranda is the real thing or not.

I'm afraid we'll cheer Bundy's first appearance and then his career will over. So Andover is a good nom de plume for the guy. Which coincidentally is French for "Who was that guy?". Andover, by the way, was named for the first guy to win the state Annie, Annie Over contest; Andy Ober. He wasn't much to look at but he had a lot of balls.

I rescued my 33-year old son's baseball card collection from the Whirling Dervish who was bound and determined to clean out his former closet for things like... Christmas decorations, and maybe out-of-season coats. Short on baseball news, I have now vowed I will traipse through his collection, reminiscing through those glorious years of yesterday while simultaneously guarding it from the Whirling Dervish and preserving it for posterity. One small step for man, one temporary setback for womanhood.

Don't forget the Run Strategy Coach, the Pitch Count Coach and the Spreadsheet Coach.

I get it. It's the off-season and we need to have something baseball to talk about, but I can't get into these discussions on potential shortstop trades, acquisitions, etc. The 2021 Twins sucked. Big time. That implies the Twins have more than one problem to resolve so they don't suck in 2022 and shortstop, in my mind, pales in significance to signing Buxton and acquiring a decent starting pitcher. We got Buxton inked, how many more wins is that? We get a decent pitcher how many more wins would that be? We sign a shortstop, what appears to be a suddenly rare commodity, how many more wins would that be? Let's all rank the three positions by potential wins and thus priority; if it doesn't come up Buxton No. 1, Pitcher No. 2 and shortstop No. 3 on 95% of Twins fans' lists I'd be damned surprised. So why all the angst over shortstop? I also wonder why Gordon, supposedly a shortstop throughout his minor league career, is so bad at fielding and/or throwing from short that he's automatically written off and instead considered only a utility player. Does mobility issues (range) or a poor arm at short suddenly disappear when he plays center field? Or third? Does his glove turn to stone at short, but not at the hot corner? How come this kid's been automatically written off so completely at short he isn't even been giving any consideration? Instead the talk's about signing one of the three or four elite shortstops for a ton of money when we still haven't landed a high-ranked pitcher. And if it's so important to land an elite shortstop but there's only four possibilities, who the hell is playing short on the other couple dozen teams? Do they all have their own elite shortstops? Or are the majority of them getting by with some average blokes (Gordon caliber) at short and yet still win more games than the Twins? But enjoy the discussions. What the hell, when the Twins ain't playing you have to let your imagination run wild. By mid-January when the snow's hind-end deep, the brass moneys have all been neutered and I've memorized "Major League", "Love of the Game" and "The Natural"... again, I imagine I'll be working on my own baseball novel. Hint: the hero is a pitcher, not a shortstop. Imagine that.

My brother always insisted that he was the only real human being and all the rest of us were robots just put here to annoy him. He could've been right. But nobody shut us all off when the brother went to that Big Stadium in the Sky; bleacher seats. So I've concluded the Twins play a similar role but in reverse; they're only here to annoy us robots. That's why we keep coming back for more Twins disappointment when a real human being would've given up a long time ago. Just be careful you don't accidentally bump your off switch next time your throwing crap at the TV when the Twins go down 1-2-3 with the bases loaded. You can't be recycled.

Sports fans in particular and people in general are notoriously short-sighted. This long-term blindness allows them to complain no matter what happens with Buxton so we shouldn't be surprised when the second-guessing starts. Players get millions, Fans get something to complain about and Front Office types get ulcers. American baseball; something for everybody.