nicksaviking

No it's the weapon Poseidon uses to kill dragons and leprechauns. Trust me, I'm an expert in Greek mythology.

Let's stretch out May!

Great original post. *****Alert, unlikeable comments to follow***** My bold prediction is Robbie Grossman is leading off full time by the end of next week. He has been a pretty bad MLB player the entire time he's been up but he has been good at getting on base at this level and he was elite at getting on base in the minors. I would bet Ryan took a flyer on him more so for this desperately lacking trait than because the team needed another outfielder. Also, all it will take is one week of Sam Fuldian/Jordan Schafferian over-achievement for Molitor and Ryan to fall in love with him and write his name in the lineup in pen for the rest of the season.

I don't think back spasms mean what you think it means. The first time I had them my back was locked up and I couldn't even bend at the waist for over a week. And I was a healthy and active 16-year-old. And they've only gotten worse when they occur as I've gotten older.

I agree. Industry-wide people view the Twins system favorably, so either everyone is wrong, or the Twins just don't know what do with our how to use the talent they have.

Sheer dumb luck should cause at least one or two of these guys to play well, but we aren't seeing anything. Something intangible is at play here. I want to see the young guys, but there's something toxic in that clubhouse, and until wholesale changes are made, I might be in favor of sending them all down so whatever it is doesn't contaminate them permenantly. It might not be fair, but they need to clean house simply to try to bleach away this losing environment. Molitor has handled himself well, but he's clearly dejected and he sounds beaten, and surely all front office and field staff are. Even if they are putting up an honorably encouraging front, it's not working. The Pohlads have to get that negativity away from the young players. Not all business decisions are fair.

From Jeffery Todd's Q&A at MLBTR: Matt 3:01 "There aren't many teams that would stick with a GM for two decades of .474 baseball and zero playoff success. There aren't many markets in which that GM and his longtime front office assistants would receive little criticism and tons of praise for producing 11 losing seasons in 18 years." - A recent article about Terry Ryan and the Minnesota Twins. how to fix the minnesota twins? Jeffrey Todd 3:02 Ouch. Well, you have to wonder whether ownership is pleased that he's managing things the way it wants and helping make the team money, rather than fretting over his W-L record. Alright, which one of you guys is Matt? Todd's take as an assumed impartial outsider is interesting.

And inserted directly into the closer role, whether the manager is comfortable with it or not.

I like having a plan, that's a good start. I don't think I'd keep those guys down until August 1 though. That just seems like we'd be asking for the start of 2017 to be more development and experimentation time. I don't expect the young guys to come up and be ready to play, I expect struggles. That's how baseball has always been. They wouldn't give awards to the top Rookie if they were all expected to play like they've been here before. Let them struggle and learn now so we can get as good of a read as possible in 2017. The plan should be to know who exactly is going to be a contributor in 2017. That should have been the plan this year but 2015's unexpected success didn't allow for that.

You better not be ripping on The Cars! Unlike this team, they're quite enjoyable to listen to.

That's so chauvinist. Why can't women grow a pair?

Is this your first Twins game?!

Holy crap, did D&B just relay a story about Tony O telling Sano NOT to go the other way?!? Now we know no one is one the same page!

I just tried it out on yours, and yes it does. Like away, especially my posts.

Dick just implied Asdrubal Cabrera was a good SS and lumped him in with Lindor and Vizquel?

I read a pretty compelling conspiracy theory that New Coke was designed to fail. As the theory goes, Coke was switching from sugar to the much cheaper corn syrup but knew folks would flip out. So instead they changed the entire formula knowing there would be riots. After a few months of looting and anarchy they "caved in" and brought back original Coke -wink wink-* and everyone rejoiced. *wink = corn syrup

Matt Bush has been called up from AA and is joining the Rangers 25-man roster. For those who don't know, or perhaps more aptly, don't remember, he was the much maligned High School shortstop, picked first overall in 2004 by San Diego. The pick was panned from the start as the Padres picked the hometown kid who played a premium position and passed up a perceived can't-miss ace in Justin Verlander, who made it well known that he was going to sign for big bucks. Due to the similarities, the top of this draft drew all kinds of comparisons to 2001 when the Twins more successfully took hometown kid Joe Mauer, who played a premium position, over the more heralded "can't-miss ace" Mark Prior. Well things didn't work out so well for Bush or the Padres. He couldn't hit, he couldn't field and he didn't develop any power or speed. What he did develop was an alcohol and drug problem. The Padres kicked him to the curb, and likely thinking of the team's past failure to get the best out of Josh Hamilton, Tampa Bay picked him up and stuck him on the mound. That was a short lived union however as he was arrested and jailed for 51 months after nearly killing a motorcyclist which according to reports may or may not have been his third car accident of the day. Out of prison, Bush was picked up this past year by Texas, who continued on with Tampa's pitching experiment. Well it appears as though it worked. In Double A he has a 9.5 K/9, 2.1 BB/9 and a 2.61 ERA. Of course this is only in 17 innings pitched. Of this crazy story, it was that last part that struck me the most, the guy has been in prison for over four years, has thrown only 17 innings this year and was basically a shortstop before hitting the big house, yet the Rangers have already called him up to the majors. Eat your heart out JT Chargois. I have no idea if Matt Bush is contrite, humble or a changed man, if he is, I'm sorry for this next part, because all I can picture after reading this story is a Ranger's player asking him where he played last season. His response would be of course: http://images1.houstonpress.com/imager/u/original/6716749/charlie_sheen_r102610_thumb_200x151.jpg "California Penal."

Luis Arraez looks like he might be an unheralded and underrated exciting prospect. He's the youngest player on the team by almost a year and he's hitting everything with a really nice 9/11 BB/SO ratio. And the fact that he just turned 19 and he's at full season ball already probably says a lot about what the Twins think of him. The Twins normally keep international signings like him in short season leagues.

Nice analysis. It looks like the off day allowed for some really quality research sessions yesterday.

I would not be comfortable with Anthony as GM, but it wouldn't be because of an interview he gave a half decade ago. As amatures in this field, everyone on this site probably has exponentially increased our knowledge of baseball staristics than we did five years ago. Stating someone who is paid to work in a MLB front office hasn't improved in this area when armchair amatures have is ridiculous.

I disagree, I think at best Twins Daily was 50/50 about going outside the organization for a new manager and it was probably much, much higher. But I also don't think they were insistent on hiring a guy with no experience. I think they might have been insistent on Molitor, but I don't think that had anything to do with his lack of managerial time.

I guess if I had to make an argument against it, it would be that there hasn't been a good catcher drafted since 2008. I think the position is a lost cause, the best ballplayers don't want to play it any more.

I'm not saying it's right, but as we've seen how the young guys are used, clearly the folks in the MLB dugout are quite resistant to being used for developmental instruction, it seems they would prefer that done on the farm. I'd guess the Twins didn't want Buxton to "work on" anything at the MLB level as they feel that should be done at the subordinating affiliates, and the big club should be all about the Wins and Losses. I don't at all agree with this considering the record, but that's what it looks like to me.

Not to derail the thread, but I'd be curious to know if Andy McPhail would have had interest in returning and becoming president of the Twins instead of the Phillies had he had the choice.

I though from hearing some of the reports over the past year or so, his slider was suspect. But again, that just means someone reporting this intel is wrong. I hope it's a good pitch, he's not going anywhere without it.