nicksaviking

See you're being an optimist too! You're assuming the government won't have funds to those organizations seized and given to the NRA and Big Pharma!

It's probably easier when my family's butt isn't actually on the line, but in every other life situation when someone gets a bad break we don't tell that person, "Oh geez, your life is going to suck now!" we say, "Hey buddy, things are going to work out, I got your back."

The list isn't very exciting but come June 11th it likely will be. We'll likely have a new #1 prospect and likely a second guy drafted make it into the top ten. Heck if the Twins get lucky with a comp pick they might get three new names. Only a couple of the guys on the current list are close to debuting, which is OK as the team still hasn't come close to making final determinations on the last batch of prospects. If the team was going to have a lull in their top end prospect rankings, this is the time for it.

I'd have to think the SB are low particularly considering the projected uptick in OBP. I like the quickly declining K rate. I wonder what he's getting at with him going to Atlanta? At this point Buxton would become a free agent in 2022, this has the Twins losing him in 2023. So do they trade him, or do they only buy out one free agent year? He has a projected (guessed) OPS of .788 next year and over .800 in 2018 and 2019, if the Twins don't look to lock him up long-term after that I would be disappointed. Ha, but no criticisms as it isn't like Sickels sits around thinking about the Twins all day. Twins fans are probably more likely to read between the lines more than they are supposed to here.

Gay marriage, universal healthcare, preventing global warming, increasing taxes on the wealthy and banning assault weapons all have greater than 50% support from the American public. Half of these clowns are only concerned with getting re-elected in two years. The other half is concerned with getting re-elected in four. At best they'll re-name and make token changes to the ACA (which would have been done regardless of who was in the White House) and they'll lower taxes on the wealthy, which can easily be reversed pending leadership changes. They'll probably pass some kind of solely symbolic and practically useless resolution regarding fire arms which will have no impact but only "re-affirm" support for the 2nd amendment. They'll talk about getting rid of the EPA but they'll never get enough people behind that in two years and at best will somehow go behind the EPA's back and relax some restrictions which will easily be able to be reversed once we have another Flint Michigan situation. None of these sociopaths have the guts to make any real changes, every one of them is only concerned with getting re-elected and getting re-elected. They might actually start deporting people which would be a tragedy in my opinion if they are honest and hard working people. Of course if the GOP does this, they'll likely see support from their blue collar voters but at the expense of their corporate supporters who appreciate the benefits these people bring to the workforce. So immigration probably depends on who the GOP actually is beholden to, we'll see if it's the Rust Belt workers they just won over. I'd guess not.

I could see that happening for aging hitters who end up "cheating" on pitches. Seemed to me that kind of thing happened to Craig Biggio, Dave Winfield and Eddie Murray. Those guys were probably older than Mauer is now though when they gave up on being great all-around hitters and started going with the old "grip-it-and-rip-it" approach. Though typically those types of hitters acknowledge that their contact skills are diminishing due to age and slower reaction time so instead take advantage of the fact that power/strength doesn't typically deteriorate at the same degree and actually quite often increases in healthy males (i.e. not me).

You talking about Mauer? Or Gibson? Or Berrios? Edit: Interestingly, both Mauer and Gibson had a hard hit % of 31% last year. Mauer was trending up, Gibson regressed. A lot.

Good stuff from Keillor. He's right, the next four years the Republican's will be stuck dealing with disasters made from their own devices. Perhaps liberals can spend their time away from politics and enjoy worldly pleasures, but the party leaders better be using these blame-free four years to figure out a strategy to ensure this is the last hurrah for the ultra conservatives, it really shouldn't be difficult.

I agree, I'd like the GM and manager on the same page to begin with regarding roster construction and usage. Molitor's quotes make me think he'll need some hand holding though as I'll not be happy if he needs a GM intervention in April telling him to stop batting Dozier leadoff and Mauer 3rd, which clearly he thinks is the way to go with the current group. The lineup will probably have to be fluid based on player movement, slumps and unexpected improvements that occur through out the season. Molitor's decisions last year didn't demonstrate that this was a strong suit of his.

--“I’ve heard of extreme cases where a manager posts a lineup and he gets a call from upstairs within 30 seconds and (is asked), ‘Why is this guy playing and blah, blah, blah,’ ” Molitor said. -- I guess I'm a bit skeptical of Molitor getting on board if he thinks the GM questioning the manager's lineup is "extreme". In my opinion, Molitor's lineups should have been scrutinized heavily last year and were probably one of the biggest reasons his dismissal would have been warranted. --Jack Goin, I trust a lot. We have conversations throughout the year and I always joke, ‘What does the computer have today?’-- Also, that's not a very good joke. Sounds more like a good conversation starter for the analytics guy, minus the sarcasm.

I wonder if Berardino asked Boras about the Alex Meyer situation last year. With the Twins limited interaction with Boras repped players, I would think it would have been brought up. Perhaps he got a 'No comment'.z

I'm waiting for my wife to become less busy with work so we can watch The Crown together, we don't have many shows we have in common any more. I finished episode three of season two of Black Mirror last night, and wow, how completely fitting. I was going to start season three but The Naked Gun is on MLB Network and I can't quit it. I forgot how brilliant this movie was. Update: I forgot the plot of Naked Gun was stopping the assasination of Queen Elizabeth. I didn't remember the character was actually Elizabeth, I thought it was some fictional Royal. Talk about a spoiler for The Crown .

I agree it's stupid to throw away friendships like that. I don't think we'd be having social unrest and broken relationships if it had been Bush or Kasich or Graham or Rubio that won however. This wasn't some ordinary election won by a Republican. I'm not saying it's accurate, but plenty of people see Trump as someone closer to Hitler than George W Bush on the scale of terrible leaders. People who aren't white males have every reason to be afraid based on Trump's rhetoric and actions alone. People aren't protesting because a Republican won, they are protesting because someone who is legitimately frightening, someone who continually used his status as a rich white man to intimidate and bully women and minorities won. This seems like it should be pretty clear, but based on people's indignation regarding the unrest, I don't think it is.

You can if your platform is only raising taxes on the 1%. It worked for Obama. Twice. I was one of those that thought Sanders couldn't win. I have no clue now though because I thought Trump couldn't win either. I thought too many base and moral Republicans wouldn't turn out as they'd be too embarrassed to be associated with him.

I'm OK with the Soto signing as well and it sounds pretty plausible. Lavine traded for Soto once back in 2012 and a familiar reliable defensive backstop seems like something a new GM would target. It was also the Rangers who made him a platoon catcher so I'd guess Lavine wouldn't go back on that.

Quote “He’s not a $13.5 million pitcher,” a rival executive CURRENTLY TRYING TO PRY SANTANA AWAY FROM THE TWINS said. “What’s he worth? Maybe half that. In this market, he’s probably an $8 million to $10 million guy. Teams know him. He’s been around. There’s a lot of mileage on that arm. He can pitch meaningful innings for you, but he’s not a dominant guy.” Geez Berardino, know when you're getting played.

I don't much care about velocity, just the strikeouts. Usually they correspond but not always.

I'll admit that I have a hard time understanding their plight; not that I don't understand many are struggling, just that it's difficult to contextualize and I'm sorry for that. I'm in an area where unemployment is about 2% and has been for a decade. There are help wanted signs on every block, yet Trump still carried the day here. I don't want anybody to struggle with food or housing or employment and I feel for those that do. I'll also admit that I feel more strongly for minorities with the same struggles than with white males as instinctively I probably think white males can easier change their situations, perhaps that's not true. When it comes to the election, I understand that a lot of people viewed Clinton as the face of a system they don't like, I don't agree but I understand. What is hard to understand for me, and surely for other folks like me, Trump is the epitome of those who always benefit from the corrupt and inefficient system that they don't like. It's like everyone just decided to cut out the middle man and put the actual problem in charge.

Only one of them was a **** candidate and Trump's greatest feat was convincing so many people otherwise. Not all of his supporters are bigots, but enough are that hate crimes are spiking in a mere 48 hours since the election. Those that voted for him, even the non-bigots, clearly thought this is acceptable collateral damage because none of this was unexpected.

I think this thread hit its moritirium on Adam Walker discourse. Let's try to refrain from making it a big thing.

Didn't we all kind of suspect that about the past leadership though? Why they couldn't just add a handful of new people from the outside and keep the main braintrust intact? Old policies and philosophies were so entrenched and unmovable that they needed to be dug out at the roots.

Really good article, and it half convinces me Allen should get another shot. It's interesting at the end when he implies he wasn't comfortable pushing his organizational philosophies until now. We all were critical of the "country club" mentality that might stiffle new voices, though I would like to think Allen would have been more assertive. I also am a fan of changeups, but I'm not a fan of cookie-cutter players. Allen kind of makes it sound like changeups are going to be mandatory. But overall encouraging stuff.

Yeah we should probably knock that old eye-sore statue down; our new president could turn that real estate into some real swanky high rises.

This one from Cracked not so comforting: http://www.cracked.com/blog/dear-white-people-stop-saying-everything-will-be-ok/ And it's spot on. Just like most middle class white folks, it's really not my hide that's on the line.

Well that "bring Americans together" stuff he said in his acceptance speech sure lasted long.