stringer bell

Trying to post in the sunlight w/ my mobile device. Didn't realize I was on the wrongG thread. Sorry.

Trying to post in the sunlight w/ my mobile device. Didn't realize I was on the wrongG thread. Sorry.

Escobar!

Hicks aggressive!

All runs "earned".

Well, that lead didn't last long.

Are there stats regarding which umps get their calls overturned the most?

First fly ball really carried.

I am attending today. Hoping for a good game.

Desperate. Maybe it will click for him, but I really doubt it. I hope Mike and the rest of you advocates for Hicks abandoning switch hitting are right.

Hammer and Arcia will return as regulars, meaning one spot will belong to Pinto, Parmelee and Kubel. Gardy will have to do some managin' to give all those guys enough at-bats.

Except that by using a "Gomez timetable", Byron Buxton would already be established as the future of the franchise in center field. Hicks has this year and maybe part of next year to establish himself. I have said it many times in many ways, I don't think Hicks will ever hit enough to be a viable regular as a corner OF.

After the Twins swept SD and were at high water of two games over .500, it was probably unfair to credit them too much. After being swept by the Giants, maybe we shouldn't be going with the "season over" meme. Knee jerk reactions are usually wrong, and sometimes embarrassingly so. The Twins are currently one game under .500 and in a jumble of teams groups around the breakeven mark. Most likely at least one team will emerge from that pile to make the playoffs, and most likely it isn't the Twins. There have been many poor performances and a few positive surprises for the team. Their overall record still ranks as a surprise. Ricky Nolasco, off his last couple starts, has to be grouped in the disappointments and given his contract, he is starting to look like a really bad free agent signing. That said, Nolasco has a track record of very consistent and useful mediocrity and it is likely he will regress to the mean. I think it is far too early to give up on guys who have performed in the past. I get nervous about guys that haven't performed and are projected to produce, like Hicks and to a lesser degree, Parmelee. The Twins, in their half-baked way, are rebuilding. They need to see for sure what they have in young players like Hicks, Pinto, and Parmelee, along with Arcia and Gibson. It is a long season. Some things we are pretty certain about will be wrong. Some things we see as preposterous will turn out to be pretty good calls. I want to see this team get better and that means that the young guys need to step up.

Regarding a coach who speaks Spanish, Cuellar is from Texas IIRC. It would be better for young Hispanic player had a mentor who shared a bit more of their culture. A coach on the bench from Puerto Rice, Venezuela, or the Dominican would be ideal.

Get healthy, Sam Fuld! A lot of feeling that somehow Colabello got shafted by being sent down. I heard both Tim Laudner and Jack Morris say that they thought he shouldn't be sent down. Well, he isn't hitting and he is only really a first baseman. That position is taken, leaving DH and the Twins have many candidates to DH. There remains one too many shortstops, but that can be fixed when Fuld returns.

We should hear the transactions after the game. Reinforcements Arcia and Hammer in exchange for ? & ?.

Surprised by the lineup. Not surprised that the Giants are ahead. I sure would like to see a few guys swinging the bat well.

It's been a brutal month for Chris Colabello. He was the toast of our town in April, and apparently now he's just toast. With two power hitting outfielders ready to return to the active roster, Colabello may well have a ticket to Rochester NY by the end of the day. With a lefty starting for the Gigantes, I would presume he will get a start today. Short of multiple homers and a half-dozen RBI, I don't think he has a spot on the roster on Monday. What will CC do in what I perceive to be his last shot to remain with the Twins?

I clicked "like" on AM's post above, but I do have a nit to pick. Going into the season, Hicks had 124 days of service in MLB. In order for the Twins to bank another year of service time, Hicks would have had to have been in the minors for four months. It is possible that Hicks could qualify for Super 2 arbitration after next season and a demotion would probably end that scenario.

I simply cannot see any way that Hicks bat will play in a corner OF spot. He had a little power spike last year, but he has a grand total of 5 XBHs in 130 plate appearances. My point of this thread was that flanking Buxton will be two slower guys most of the time.

Agree with just about all of this posting. Plouffe had a bad game on Friday (0-4 at the plate, a couple of substandard throws) and earlier in his career I would have worried about a downward spiral. I fully expect Trevor to do good things the rest of the series.

Let's try this again tomorrow. I hope it was just one of those games.

But, but, I was watching on tape delay! Just caught all the way up after Pinto's DP grounder.

We all know those back-up cameras aren't for the young, limber folks like you. They are for us aged, arthritic types.

I think Bremer, acting as team mouthpiece, has pretty much signed off on his demotion.