LaBombo

But the Grouper Loaf of the Diego Garcia Expat Club is not to be missed if you're in the neighborhood. Wash it down with a bottle of Nature's Miracle...

If it's the latter, there's a company that makes several products to both prevent and clean up after... http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71hyFUjb3NL._SY355_.jpg

Scott Ullger? He waved runners from third to the dugout on several occasions, and once sent another on a highly illegal human organ courier trip to Hong Kong.

And maybe he can Ease Hunter's Pain after his low diving board dive for that ball in the corner...

http://img.bleacherreport.net/img/article/media_slots/photos/002/034/482/hi-res-006e453d3a6e577281cdf2a800ca3319_crop_exact.jpg?w=650&h=433&q=85 And thanks for not going with 'Suzuki Klutch'. That probably spared me from a college flashback involving a socket wrench and a broken window.

It's reached the point where you almost hope he goes on the DL for what turns out to have been a nagging injury that the vaunted training staff has been working on for at least a month. He just doesn't seem right, and it's past the point of bad luck following the good luck he had earlier.

That makes me kind of nostalgic for Gardenhire. Gardy's Twins played the Yankees with all the poise and guile that Cruise played poker with in Stripes... http://www.morethings.com/fan/bill_murray/stripes/bill_murray-stripes1981-1320.jpg "If you'd have scored nine runs your team would've won! You're gettin' good at this!"

You're still a punk... http://www.movieactors.com/photos-stars/paul-le-mat-americangraffiti-3.jpg

We need to provide disclaimers now?

Huh huh.http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-M6u7BkWKhDo/VWjAFPrrESI/AAAAAAAAWyo/eAZR5PrP2y0/s1600/rj02.png

Get going, you pirate!

With Buxton in the lineup maybe they'll be the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy next year...

The entire Twins Daily community apologizes for not providing you with your dose of culture...

Send a bolt of lightning. Very, very frightening..

Achter. http://ep.yimg.com/ay/yhst-39482811324711/get-to-da-choppa-47.gif

Heat death of the universe projected to take place in 10^100 years. I don't see it going much beyond.

Like... existentially, or at baseball?

Dirt laying the groundwork for another Torii encore in 2016... Didn't Thome amass a higher WAR in a 2010 home stand than Hunter has this year? He was a good player and a fun guy to watch and root for, but... c'mon.

Topper.

But he's small, sort of fast, and has no power. How is that not an ideal leadoff hitter? Oh, that's right, you stipulated that the situation in question was not taking place in 1968. Never mind.

My post was intended to reference the construction of a competitive roster. If Ryan chooses to do pursue another goal, the Twins will be of relatively little interest to me anyway. And bringing a player who has contributed at replacement level in the second half of 2015 back for his age 41 season is not fielding a competitive roster. Put in a TD forum context, if Hunter is part of an ongoing discussion on this board in spring training 2016, it should only be a discussion about Ryan's fitness to continue as GM, or the Twins' bleak future with the Pohlad family as owners. That leaves Kepler. I'm a big fan, and hoping he continues his ascent to the majors in 2016. But he has just 400 plate appearances above A ball, and in them he has benefited from a whopping .375 batting average on balls in play. That's about as sustainable as a nationwide transportation system run on whale oil. And yes, knocking fifty or sixty points off his slash line still gives numbers that show a breakout year, albeit a less remarkable one. But that's not enough to bother with wringing hands now about what to do with him next year if he kills AA and AAA pitching for half a season. If Kepler does, he either replaces Arcia or Rosario if one of them struggles, or the Twins trade one of the three in-season, knowing their needs and strengths better than they did in the offseason. Worst case is that Kepler proves himself ready for the majors by some point next season but spends the rest of it in AAA anyway, at age 23. Sub-optimal to be sure, but hardly a major personnel gaffe.

Is there an announced or assumed impending roster move to reduce the bullpen to 7 pitchers? If not, there's no place for Robinson, or any other 5th OF, for that matter. 13 pitchers => 12 position players. Just for accounting purposes, not lineup construction, that's... Eight regulars. Sano at DH. Nine. Hermann/Fryer/ficus plant at backup catcher. Ten. Hicks as fourth outfielder. Eleven. Thing-uardo One or Two as backup infielder. Twelve. And that's it, until the Twins feel confident enough to lose a reliever or until the rosters expand, yes?

"... clearing the 2016 outfield logjam..." Logjam? Really? Before even talking about 2016, let's remember what happened the last time the Twins 'cleared a logjam' in the outfield. Span and Revere were sent packing to clear room for Aaron Hicks. And individual merits aside, the trades, taken separately, appeared to at least make sense in that they sought to use organizational depth to address a weakness. But as a result of them both being traded before Hicks' MLB debut, Twins fans were treated to a revolving door of journeymen in center. And they mostly followed two half seasons of Hicks looking either comatose or swarmed by yellow jackets at the plate, and like a performance artist using center field as a stage for an interpretative dance retelling of the voyages of Magellan. That said, there's one other issue with clearing the logjam: THERE IS NO !@*% LOGJAM!!!!!!!! Hunter and Robinson are gone. I can't even imagine how that's a discussion. Buxton in center and Arcia and Rosario at the corners. Hicks backing up Buxton and giving either corner guy a day off against a tough lefty. An infielder who owns an outfield glove as the 5th OF, because teams with a bullpen big enough to form a marching band don't get to have a real 5th OF. If that's too thin of an outfield, sign a DH bat (probably right-handed) who can play a tolerable corner outfield occasionally. That's essentially what Hunter is now anyway, though the Twins don't realize it or refuse to acknowledge it. And most of all, repeat after me: There. Is. No. Logjam.

W00t! Suzuki helped off the field by a mob of fans who had just finished a double marathon...

Yes. He had just fallen off the turnip truck, but didn't leave empty-handed...