Nine of twelve

I think someone pointed out that Duffey's drop-off in performance happened at the same time as the crackdown on grip-enhancers. Correlation does not imply causation, but the timing is noteworthy.

I think it's been established pretty clearly that he is the REAL DEAL. He is already one of the most dominant relievers in MLB, and he could progress to the point of being the most dominant by a large margin. Whatever we can get him to sign for now will be dwarfed by what the market will pay him if he stays with one-year contracts until free agency. Of course there are risks, but in the long term this looks to me like it's a good, cost-effective investment for the Pohlad family fortune.

I think KD89 was saying that the Sox fans were the ones who voted LaRussa most annoying.

It is impossible to stagger MLB and AAA games. In the minor leagues every series is 6 games, played from Tuesday through Sunday. Monday is the travel day. This makes scheduling and travel much easier.

It was stale and had no character on the day of the first game played there. It's the last of the boring 20th Century ballparks. The next stadium to open was Oriole Park at Camden Yards which ushered in the modern era of baseball venues.

I suppose there's no harm in giving him a look-see. It's a no-risk contract, and if he's better than the likes of Contreras, LaMarre or Garlick we can keep him instead of them when cut-down day arrives.

The main issue is not how much of the Twins' money is being thrown. It's deciding which players the money is thrown to and which players decide to catch it. It's certainly better to have more payroll money available than less, but it still comes down to scouting, knowing which players are likely to perform the best.

Remember that we also received a catcher in those trades. Even so, it's certainly a risk trading an established catcher.

BTW, speaking of the entitlement issue with fans, the Gophers mens hockey team is the Yankees of NCAA Div. I. They feel that the way recruiting should work is thusly: the Gophers choose which players will be on their team and all other colleges go from there. This is especially the case regarding players from Minnesota. I hope their streak of not winning a national championship continues.

The catching supply will always fall short of the demand, so selling could take place only if we are in the highly unlikely position of having a never-ending supply. The hoped-for goal is to develop catching and pay the salary required to keep the developed catcher.

The Red Sox are the Yankees, except with beards.

Some are saying to trade for a good catcher. That would be nice, but no team with a good catcher would trade him unless offered a significant overpay, and then they'd still say no. Some are saying to take the best catcher available with the 5th overall pick. OK, but then don't be angry when the player taken #6 becomes a star. We were so spoiled by having one of the five best catchers in history playing for us. Now we are seeing how difficult it is for catching to be a strength. While we should always strive to improve in every facet of the game, when it comes to catching we need to be satisfied with satisfactory.

In today's game Miranda hit a home run in the second inning. It was his 3rd dinger in 3 consecutive at bats. Maybe the author is onto something here.

There is probably only one situation, maybe two, in which it matters which of a team's starting pitchers is considered to be its best starter. That situation is the first game of a postseason series. The possible second one is opening day, but since that is just one of 162 regular season games it's really not that important. To me it's silly to fret about having "an ace", or "a number 1", whatever the definition of that is. Just find your five best starters and put them in the rotation. If there is an opportunity to add a pitcher who is better than at least one of those five then do so if the price is acceptable.

I'd like to see some kind of independent evaluation of the accuracy of the radar guns in use throughout baseball. I don't necessarily disbelieve that pitchers are hitting much higher velocities today than in the past, but I don't necessarily believe it either.