Dodecahedron

Surely he is making contact at least once in most of his strikeouts? I have nothing against Sano, but everything about him is predictable. I wish the Twins would have traded him years ago. And no, I don't believe that trading him is impossible today, it just would not be the blockbuster trade the Twins are hoping for. If the Twins want to compete in the future, they have to be willing to swallow that jagged little pill once in a while.

Baldelli is back. You can tell by the W-L record. I have not looked at the box scores, but I know from experience I will see something nonsensical either in the lineup or the pitching management for every game if I do. At this point, that's a boring exercise. In light of that, MOAR DINGERS. It's the only way to win with this manager.

The Twins are most likely to trade Buxton for players of this caliber, so this is some good foreshadowing.

Also, Fred Cox, while a Minnesota Viking, invented the Nerf ball, which opened up sports to millions of kids. As for Northwestern, they invented the football helmet that turned football into a sport of even harder hits and permanent brain damage.

Those statcast numbers really make Kepler look like an all-star player having a career year. But he's not. He's just not. We can call any metric that suggests Kepler is doing fine as "Fake News." The front office approach has been, I believe, to maximize statcast production and that would equate to greatness for the players and lots of wins. Kepler seems to be doing everything he was told to do, and it's simply not amounting to anything meaningful for him or for the team. It is perhaps not fair to blame Kepler for being mediocre in his prime. As for Sano, I wish him all the best. I know he will have great moments in the future. It is my pie-in-the-sky wish that his future accolades happen on another team. The Twins need consistency, not occasional highlight reel footage. I'm optimistic about who the Twins have in the pitching pipeline. But who the heck am I? I predicted this year's starting staff, sans Shoemaker, would be incredible. *sad trombone*

The American Wrestling Association of Minneapolis popularized wrestling, fed many personalities into later leagues, and is responsible for all of the variants we see today. I dislike wrestling, but Minnesota played a huge part in its exponential growth. If so many Minnesotans had not watched the AWA on Channel 9 on Sunday afternoons in the 80s, theatrical wrestling would have never taken off as it did. As for the Gophers, college football has become a staple of the South. Football talent, as a general rule, is not going to end up in Minnesota these days. And that's fine, NCAA Division I football is the biggest con in sports. I doubt anyone wants the UofM to turn into the University of Texas or Texas A&M anytime soon, where the tail wags the dog and the megadoners for the football program shape the priorities for the entire university. If memory serves, Gophers hockey had a nice run of dominance around the turn of the century. The Minnesota Kicks were a popular, exciting, and successful team for the short time they were around before the league collapsed due to mismanagement. It was not until the 2000s when the LA Lakers won more championships in LA than they won while they were in Minnesota. Did we forget about Minnesota Fats? He was magical.

Buxton alone has enough injuries banked to ensure that the next playoff team has very good luck with injuries.

Donaldson will be here for a while, and that's a good thing. His numbers are good, his fire is good. His public statements this year on pitching helped improve the entire game of baseball. People who will speak truth to power are rare, when you find one of them hold onto them. And I like that home run video, for what that's worth. I am assuming that umpire was calling a very bad game. As for his health, it's amazing how a losing season suddenly sees players sitting out more often. Only two players have played more games than Donaldson this year for the Twins. I wouldn't worry about his health. Of the 57 players who have been on the 40-man roster this year, Donaldson has been on the field more often than 55 of them.

Would you trade a lottery ticket for something you can pick up in any convenience store on any street corner? I'd probably keep the scratcher.

I think he is doing a great job this year. I am merely comparing his OPS+ with his previous years. "A down year for Arraez" is still a pretty darn good year, at least so far in his career.

When the Twins play the Yankees, the umpire has been the 26th/27th man on the Yankees roster for a heck of a long time. I would hope the owners of the Twins have spoken up about this to the league at some point. If not, now's a good time.

We were all surprised when Arraez batted leadoff from LF in the opening game of the year, and not in a good way. He proved himself then and he continues to prove himself, and this is actually a down year for him. As pointed out elsewhere, he is also playing very good defense this year. If memory serves, he was universally loved in 2019 when he dominated after being called up for the first time, so I'm not sure where the current hate comes from. He is underrated for sure.

Ryan's start v. Cleveland looks slightly less stellar given the fact that Cleveland just got no-hit again. Nevertheless, he is certainly on the right trajectory.

Wow, the Twins finally did the obvious thing to do. I guess snowballs can survive in hell after all. It's a shame it took until mid-September to give the kid a chance.

Yes. Pineda would be a waste of money. Blocking people not what the Twins need to be doing.