Dave The Dastardly

Sano at Bat: Feel the breeze!!!

Tortuga!

The Little Sisters of the Poor would have more wins if Sister Goretti was on the mound.

Call it schadenfreude but I'm actually staying tuned in to see how many ways this team can implode. Sort of Lovable Mets fixation. Rocco pulls a starting pitcher by accident; I chuckle. Rocco pulls a starting pitcher that's doing okay because he's approaching a mythical barrier and replaces him from a depleted bullpen that promptly blows the lead; I laugh. We drop six games in the 10th inning and I'm holding my sides from laughter. We load the bases up and the next three guys strike out on 11 pitches; I roar with laughter. A player we sign for defensive prowess commits a handful of errors; I howl with laughter. Someone airmails a throw to first base into the grandstand and I'm rolling on the floor with mirth Hell, you can't pay for this kind of entertainment! It's pulled me right out of the pandemic doldrums. Makes me want to stay isolated at home just to watch/listen to the Twins. Can't wait to see how they're going to lose next. I hope they surprise me.

Just once I'd like to meet a crafty righty. I'd shake his hand, but he'd probably give me the slip.

So what was the reason?

I can't get my mind around putting Buxton in the lead-off spot. Wouldn't it be better to have your hottest hitter in the line-up where he might drive in a few runs? Like 4th? Or is that too non-analytical?

A couple of kitchen matches for Colome.

I'd go for all four.

Happ's about ready to cross Rocco's Rubicon pitch count (85). I think he'll be lucky to stay in the game past the 5th. Then we'll be Happ-less and the bullpen will be running in Pamplona.

Jeez Garver! Three pitches?

I think he has Roccorestosis.

A very interesting discussion, Dr. Gast. Lots of well-reasoned viewpoints presented without anyone getting bent out of shape. It's what I love about TD! Thanks for bringing up the subject.

I get the feeling we're talking about two different things. The Front Office signs players, assigns them to whatever level of the organization they feel proper, with input from the coaching staff of course, but the final decision as to the 40-man roster belongs to the FO. No argument there. But, once the manager gets his players, the manager determines the lineup, the starting rotation, who starts which game, when and how to use the bullpen, personnel moves in the game, etc. So if Shoemaker starts instead of Dobnak, that's Rocco's decision. If Dobnak gets used as a short reliever, that's Rocco's decision, just as it's Rocco's decision as to what inning he turns to the bullpen, how long the reliever stays in the game, when to pinch hit, etc. So, signing Shoemaker and Dobnak, Front Office. Who pitches and when, Rocco. Who gets sent down to the minors or brought up to the big club, probably a joint decision. So if you have a player coming out of spring training and he's really hitting, or pitching well and you have another player who hasn't yet gotten into the grove and has an uncertain track record, who do you bring North? Otherwise if spring training doesn't matter, why bother? Plenty of blame to go around. I got a piece of unsolicited advice once when I grew frustrated over folks at the top of the food chain constantly screwing things up and making my job more difficult. The advice was offered by a more experienced man who'd been around the block a few more times than me. "Sometimes," he told me. "We have to do our jobs despite the ba$tard$." I think that's Rocco's situation.

I think the FO signed Shoemaker to be a starter. That's on the FO. But just because you sign somebody to be a starter does that mean he's guaranteed to start regardless of performance, or lack thereof? Does the manager have a role in selecting who starts and who doesn't? Was Dobnak signed to be a starter? I think he was. So who's choice is it to start one player over another? The manager or the FO? I always thought it was the manager, but I could be wrong.

I agree, Dobnak has been grossly mishandled by Rocco. He should've been in the starting rotation right out of the gate instead of Shoemaker. Instead he's been sitting on the bench, losing condition and seeing action mostly as a short haul reliever. Now he's going down to AAA to get him back into shape as a starter. Talk about backing up. And why the Twins haven't brought up some of the young arms from the minors to maybe help stop the bullpen bleeding when everyone else has been struggling I can't imagine. I mean what have you got to lose except... more games?

Whoops! I jinxed that.

I just happened to notice everybody in our lineup is batting above the Mendoza Line! I believe that's a first for this year.

Maybe Maeda has worked out most of the kinks.

La Tortuga

What do you feel like those mornings when you don't wake up? Zombi-ish?

Who? What? Just finished grilling steak for my wife's birthday and missed all the latest.

Thanks. Nice looking lineup. Just finished up whacking that tree into woodstove-size chunks and hauling it to the pile-to-be-split-later. I think I deserve a shot a Jameson. Maybe two - for medicinal purposes. Getting wood is hard for septuagenarians. Play with that if you wish.

Hi Ho Silver! Away! I grew up listening to the Lone Ranger on the radio. Yeah, that’s right; the radio. TVs didn’t start making their way into homes until the ’50’s and I was six and about ready to graduate from kindergarten when we got our first TV; a black-and-white Sylvania. We maybe got two channels and you had to watch ‘em through a snowstorm. So it was a slow transition from listening to radio to watching TV in our household. Anyway, radios back then came in big wooden cabinets with lots of dials, tubes and antenna leads. Things weighed about forty pounds. Not something you were going to carry over your shoulder blasting out eardrums over a square block radius. (Can you use “square” and “radius” in the same description?) For one thing, these monster radios had to be plugged in. For another, they had to be hooked up to an external antenna. Cool thing about that; we had a short wave band on our old “woodie” and I could listen to ships at sea. Getting back to the Lone Ranger, Brace Beemer was the voice of the radio Lone Ranger back in the late ’40’s early 1950’s. Beemer, was a “true” ranger if we use the typical military definition of “ranger”; a highly trained soldier, as in Army Ranger. Beemer lied about his age in order to enlist in the Army at age 14 so he could fight in World War I. He was wounded in action and reportedly was the youngest sergeant in the entire AEF (America Expeditionary Forces). Since there was no officially designated Ranger unit at the time, that made Beemer the “Lone Ranger”. The Texas Rangers baseball team is named after the real Texas Rangers, which were originally formed back in the frontier days to ward off attacks from marauding Comanche warriors and Mexican bandits. Today they’re Texas’ state police. So the Rangers have been protecting Texas since Helen was Reddy. Perhaps the most famous “real” Texas Rangers were John Coffee Hays and Samuel Walker. Hays made the Patterson Colt, a five-shot revolver, famous while leading a small group of Rangers against a large band of Comanches. Greatly outnumbered, the Rangers prevailed because they could throw out more lead with the five-shot Colt. Walker, who rode with Hays, later became friends with Samuel Colt and suggested a number of improvements for the Patterson. One key suggestion gave the Patterson a trigger-guard and converted the pistol into a six-shooter. Colt, impressed with Walker and his advice, redesigned his revolver and named the new pistol the Walker Colt. And that's how the West was won. The baseball Rangers, appropriately enough, won the West in 1996, 1998, 1999, 2010, 2011, 2015 and 2016 but haven't been doing much winning as of late. They’re currently dead last in the West and four games out of first. The Twins are at least second from the bottom of their division. Of course there's that six games back thing... Side note: Current Twin Nelson Cruz played for the Rangers from 2006-2013 and was an actual honest-to-baseball gods outfielder back then. But after he misplaced his favorite baseball glove Cruz decided to become a homerun hitter instead of a fielder. A Little Known Cliff Claven Factoid: Cruz hit his first ever major league homerun batting against the Twins, Willie Eyre pitching. I’m sure you all remember Willie; household name in… the Eyre household. I’m more sure everyone remembers the Ranger’s current “ace”; Kyle Gibson, aka, Gibbler the Nibbler. Gibson is currently 3-0 and sports a 2.16 ERA. I’m assuming he’s given up nibbling. We’ll find out tomorrow. My advice to Twins hitters; take a lot of pitches. Oh, the Ranger’s right fielder is some guy named Joey Gallo. Last time I heard that name he was a successful lawyer in My Cousin Vinny. I wonder if they’ll put him in the game, then take him out in the 7th. You know, a simple in and out procedure. Personally, I remember the Rangers, not fondly, because of A-Rod’s outrageous record-setting contract; $252 million for ten years. Baseball hasn’t been the same since. I guess you could say it’s been juiced. You know, sort of like A-Rod. Maestros on the Mound Twins: Kenta Maeda 1-2 ERA 6.56 20 K’s Rangers: Dane Dunning 1-1 ERA 3.97 24 K’s No Line-ups posted at this time and I've got a fallen tree to deal with so feel free to make up your own.

Wow! Six identical comments! Driving home your point or is the TD changeover not going well? Just funning. I like your title for Sano.