Han Joelo

Yeah, I was a daily reader but the newer formatting here is tough. Does not play well on an iPhone due to so many pop-up videos, and Safari doesn't think it's safe so I have to click through warnings on my laptop. Kinda miss the simpler times. Will search out a box score on MLB.com. Having said that, you guys still are the greatest.

I've been out of the loop--is Wander Javier not a top 20 prospect?

I love you guys. That Wade highlight got copied three times in comments about Rosario, with nary a mention. What a sweet pick. Rosario is like a character in a Major Leagues type movie. Whatever he does, good or bad, he's the dose of chaos this team needs.

Man, I have not commented much in the last few months, but this article is exceptionally powerful. Precisely because it is not what anyone expects from Stu. It's like you popped in a Will Ferrell movie looking for a cheap laugh and instead you had to reexamine your life while watching Everything Must Go.

This is so awesome! Love this. Right when I'd started lamenting how old I'm getting, I rolled across Rich Hill's selection. Nice choice. He was probably like a sixth grader when that song came out.

Man, the rotation looks solid, but still deciding on the fifth spot, and the choices are Randy and Homer? Where's Nuke? Randy should change his name to Pitbull or something.

Avatar to remain as is for the foreseeable future. Keep it up, Dobber.

You call up Celestino and sub him in for the late innings with an occasional start. Cripes, didn't the Yankees have Judge in center at times last year? Or something or some team like that? Joey Gallo too? Those guys make Kepler look like Buxton defensively.

I feel like its gotta be a guy who hits a bunch of taters. Rooker's my guy.

I love it. This is somehow both very Twins-like, and yet very un-Twins-like all at the same time. The Twins don't shop in the $200 Million dollar section, and I'm glad they've avoided the $100 Million dollar "lightly used" (but potentially lemons) section. I'm from Idaho; if I wanted to root for the Yankees or Dodgers, I would have done it a long time ago. This is how the Twins will do it, if its going to get done. Strap it on and give her hell. (I'm not precluding an all-in trade, though, either.)

Total OPS+ for these lineups: Twins: 1174 Yankees: 1012 Asterisks: 1169 Case closed. No Twin under 100.

I like the way they've set this up. Leave opportunities for the younger guys who started stepping up last season to make their mark. Beat up on the weak central division. Don't put your eggs in a basket until you see what is actually cooking. The main argument I see for trading right now is that some of our prospect capital will flame out/get hurt--if you knew which one's, selling high would be nice!

Well obviously I know the answer to that, but before I divulge it publicly, I need to see if Falvine knows it.

I've kind of been in a Twins bubble for a few months. Or out of it, I guess. I never got my hopes up for a Cole or Strasburg level signing, and was only mildly disappointed MadBum went elsewhere. Whatever plan you want to call this--I'd say it's always been plan A. This type of reclamation mining has to be the top thing listed on Falvine's resume. They just have to pull it off...correctly. At any rate, I'd lay even odds that one of these three pitchers will have a much better season than one of the other three I mentioned.

I don't think I've commented since the Game 1 loss. I've been, perhaps ironically, or punically, too numb. You have revived me with this comment.

I'll be honest--the list of players who didn't rise to the occasion is long; and Berrios is at the top of the list. It seemed like Rosario sunk to the occasion, or at least the head of his bat did--way low and outside the zone. Polanco and Sano, sort of? Cruz did as expected. Polanco acted like he belonged there. Everybody else? However, I'm not ready to throw in the towel. This team has been punched plenty of times this year, and gotten up off the mat. They didn't win 101 games by accident. Ok, maybe they did--the accident of being in the AL Central. I don't know what these guys are really like in the locker room, but I hope Astudillo was giving a lot of guys some grief for wasting his spot on the roster. Let's go Dobber!

If I'm reading all of this right, as well as the information on MLB.com, I cannot just jump in and pay MLB.tv to watch this game/the playoffs? I'm astonished. And, apparently, naive. And, I may not be able to spell naive correctly, even after all these years. If I read it correctly, I'd have to pay MLB.tv $25 to stream, but also have a subscription to cable that has a MLBNetwork package? After parsing a health insurance bill today, I'm not surprised by this. The number one product America makes profits on is: Confusion. I wouldn't be a Twins fan (and my boys are almost completely unaware Major League Baseball exists) if I hadn't had the Twins playoff baseball on free tv when I was 12. The Big Three networks were quite the melting pot, back in the good old days. What will happen tonight, is my wife will be on a device, while I'm on a device or two listening to the game and chatting with you guys, and my boys will be on a third device, streaming some sort of anime crap like Bakugan or Beyblades. Or, I'll probably do like Number3 and just check in here and there on Gameday, while watching a movie with the family. I know I am in a pigeon-holed minority, but I'm pretty astonished that a big baseball (Twins at least) fan like myself contributes so minimally to these enormous baseball salaries. Whatever my subscription to the radio broadcasts costs. I can tell you that no amount of advertising by Treasure Island Resort and Casino (yes, I can sing the jingle) will ever get me to travel to Minnesota and spend money there.

All good. Ice cold. Handedness aside, I'd take Gibson over Thorpe and Perez also. I have a vague (and perhaps faulty) memory of Perez coming out of the pen back in April, and being awful. At least Gibson has been preparing.

The Ringer tackled this, detailing the Twins 21st century ineptitude against the Yankees. https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2019/10/2/20894822/minnesota-twins-playoff-curse-alds-new-york-yankees It is kind of painful to read, but depending on where you fall in the Science vs. Magic debate, I'd say the Twins are due for some serious regression to the mean here.

Excellent article. Nothing much to add, other than thanks!

What a cast of characters. No disrespect to the vanilla flavors we had in the past, but this team if bursting with flavor. Sure hope these games will be on Fox--maybe one benefit of playing the Yankees? (Other than finally setting them down.)

I love the way the recap writers are able to have distinctive voices. Love your style, Cooper. (Love all you guys, though( While he's not doing it alone, Sano seems like he has been performing at an MVP-type pace lately. He seems all grown up out there. Literally and figuratively. It looks like he's got an offseason job if he wants one--Mitch Trubisky and Aaron Rodgers would be having nightmares if they saw that man coming off the edge. I suppose it would take some Twins losses, but it would be kind of cool if they won their 100th game precisely as the Royals lost there's. Not to pile on the Royals, but it would just be a neat mathematical coincidence.