roger

+1, 54 to some of us is just a kid, eh old nurse?

There were several times during that book when I was having problems continuing to read. He really had to be one of the very special people this nation has ever known. I wonder if Nishioka's personal life also was part of this decision. I know it was announced that he was getting divorced. I wonder if that isn't final if going home may give him a chance to get his family back together.

A. J., congrats on a very nice season both for the team and you personally. I expect everything is a bit hectic right now with your big day rapidly approaching. Will you Dad be presiding over the ceremony? Have a great winter!

First off, I said overqualified. Benson had very good numbers at New Brittain. They were not good enough to make him an All Star for the Eastern league. All reports I read and can go back and find deal with Benson having an attiude at Rochester. There is no mention of an injury. The hand soreness developed after he was a New Britain and could have well been caused by him punching a wall yet again. His performance with a bat at Rochester was poor. 100 plate appearance is an adequate sample size to give him a chance to work it out. Your comment about 'Benson having an attitude at Rochester' is not an accurate description of what I understand the problem was. This statement tells me he was a problem and 'having an attitude' would indicate something negative. To discuss the problem, one needs to begin with discussing Benson's very competitive nature. The problem at Rochester as I have heard from their announcers and people writing in the Democrat and Chronicle was that his competitive nature combined with an early slump caused him to get very down on himself as he tried to improve his results, ie, he was putting tremendous pressure on himself to do better. To me, that is not an attitute problem. Perhaps to you it is. He dealt with two injuries this year. The hand injury was not soreness, it was a broken hamate bone which required surgery. Again referring to local writers, they referred to a specific game when it happened. Making a statement about 'him punching a wall yet again" is throwing things out on the internet that just should not be there. If you have something to support such a claim, please let us know where it came from. As for not being injured at Rochester, we don't know if that is true. We know when his hand was injured and that was after he was demoted to New Britain. He later had knee surgery. I have not seen anything telling us about when his knee was injured, perhaps Seth knows more. What I can gather is that it was something he was dealing with and the doctors went in to clean it out. When in surgery, they found it was more serious than they thought and instead of being a few week recovery he was shut down for at least four months. Without knowing exactly what was involved with the surgery, it appears he had been dealing with a knee problem for some time which may, or may not, have been present while in Rochester and may, or may not, have affected his play. Twins Daily is an exciting and wildly successful blog with tremendous readership. Please don't put things out there that are merely speculation. Again, if you have specific information supporting your position please provide it so we all will know more about what really happened to a very talented and athletic young man.

Thanks for the roster Seth. The two most interesting tid bits I get from the roster are, 1) German Minier being there as a 16+ year old who hasn't played in the D.R. Tells me they are very high on this young man and want to get started; and 2) Seeing Kennys Vargas will be there. After missing most of this year with his suspension and odd rules that turned 50 games into about 125, he needs all the work he can get. Secondly, being invited tells us the Twins remain high on him and aren't ticked off because of his mistake. Seth, I had heard several times recently that Kyle Gibson would be working in Fall Instructs before going to Arizona in early October. Is he there and just not included on the roster? Speaking about A. J. above, do you think he wasn't invited because of his wedding this fall? Thanks Seth, have a wonderful weekend!

I certainly agree with your top three and expect that for what its worth, the three D's are penciled into the #3-#5 spot for next spring. Like many of you, I see Duensing as their top left-handed set-up guy with Swarzak staying in long relief. I also see five others who will compete for a spot in the rotation in spring training, with Hendriks having the best shot of breaking in. The others are Walters, Vasquez, Hernandez and Nick Blackburn, who remains a member of the organization who is unlikely to go anywhere as long as someone would have to pick up a $5.5mm contract. I expect Gibson will begin his season in Rochester where they will limit his innings a bit so that they don't have a Strasburg situation later in the year. I see him as being one of the first guys they go to early in the season when someone is injured or falters. I also expect Mr. Ryan will sign at least a couple minor league guys (like Dudino and Walters this year) who will get a look in spring training and provide depth at Rochester. I also think there is a good chance he will sign Scott Baker to an incentive heavy contract. I don't see Baker being ready for the Twins on opening day, however, could join Gibson as someone to step in and improve the rotation come late May or June. That leaves two holes to fill with one being their top guy. Hmmmh!

+1. As for those who don't want someone from within the organization, Glynn is new to the organization this year. The people in Rochester, such as Jim Mandelaro, speak very highly of Glynn as a manager and person. Huge improvement over Tom Nieto who was hated there. Has a ton of coaching experience with several good organizations. Have wathced a lot of Rochester games this year and he has a mediocre team playing very well. Also has a local tie as he is originally from Minnesota.

Just so we're clear, this policy does NOT mean that we can't be critical of Ryan or of moves he makes or doesn't make. It just can't be a personal attack. Granted, but if you are going to have a policy against everyone in the game, why exclude front office personnell? Being critical is one thing, but the negative comments about them and certain people constantly saying they should be fired etc. get old very quickly.

Thank you John! I think one addition is needed to Rule #1. Please add 'front office' to the list of teams, players, agents, etc. In regards to that, I recall reading many very negative comments about Mr. Ryan or the FO in the past week regarding what should be done about Nick Blackburn and Tsuyoshi Nishioka. When Mr. Ryan did what some of us wanted and few expected, I have been returning to this site expecting to see several of those posters leave comments that they were wrong. I am still looking for those admissions or apologies.

I am so bloody sick and tired of reading this line or something like it on the forums. The Minnesota Twins were the most consistently successful small market team of the 2000s. They made the playoffs more often than not and while they struggled in the postseason, overall they posted one of the better records in all of baseball for the decade. So why shouldn't we have a little faith in the front office? Because the team had two awful seasons? Because of that, we should ignore the entire decade the preceded it? Jesus... People around here need to step off the ledge and take in a little perspective. Yes, the Twins are bad right now but their farm system is on the rebound and help is on the way. They have a solid core of young-ish players. They have money to spend. Stop cherry-picking the past two years of horrible baseball and ignoring the ten years that came before it. +1, thank you!

Seth, I saw Jurrjens pitch against the Red Wings twice this year. The games were about a week apart. In the first, the Wings hit him all over Frontier Field. He really struggled to get outs. The second start went to him as the Wings couldn't do anything. Not certain what I feel about this guy. I know he was an all-star not all that long ago. But which Jurrjens are you getting? Maybe a minor league deal of some sort or a one year deal with a lot of incentives, but no way over one year.

93.75mph

Yes, it is unrealistic to expect Rosario to become that player. But we can dream, can't we? And someday, some kid is going to become that player who will hit more home runs than Henry. Why can't it be Rosario? Now it is time to put the computer away, take a shower and go out and drink some wine!

I always think back to my youth when I read descriptions of Rosario such as you posted today. Reminds me of a player who came up for the Braves when I was a kid. Came up as a second baseman with good speed who would go on to play outfield. He wasn't real tall with a slight build. His strength was his quick swing with incredible wrists. Sounds exactly like Rosario, doesn't it? The player I saw as a kid would go on to hit over 700 home runs. We can't expect Rosario to be that player, can we?

Knowing how the Twins work in the draft, etc, I expect they have saved a few dollars so they can add a little bump to the six guys they want to sign for $50k or less. As we saw in the first draft under the new CBA, they kept a few hundred thousand and used part of it for Zach Larson. Expect they will do the same with the International budget.

Seth, they signed Josh Guyer. Never saw what they paid him, but likely he could be part of the added amount. Here is the link to the Aussie's story... http://www.ibaf.org/en/news/2012/07/31/minnesota-twins-sign-aussie-josh-guyer/a484960c-8e30-4d32-a891-3911b8060f0a

So why can't we just enjoy the improvement and enjoy the success, instead of advocating that we blow up the whole team and plan for 2015? Thank you

I posted the following in the post on Nishi. Read into his comments what you want. Also, the player I saw wasn't someone who was doing everything he could to impress the Twins or anyone else. Before leaving for vacation, I watched nearly half of Rochester's games the past couple weeks. A couple games before Valencia was called up, he allowed two balls to go right under his glove about a step to his left. The first night, the official scorer changed it to an error after initially calling it a hit. A day later, the exact same play they again called a hit. He also grounded into two double plays that day, running about 2/3 speed to first base. I suspect his comments when talking to Jim Mandelaro didn't help with Twins management, when he was quoted as saying he was playing for 29 teams other than the Twins.

John, Before leaving for vacation, I watched nearly half of Rochester's games the past couple weeks. A couple games before Valencia was called up, he allowed two balls to go right under his glove about a step to his left. The first night, the official scorer changed it to an error after initially calling it a hit. A day later, the exact same play they again called a hit. He also grounded into two double plays that day, running about 2/3 speed to first base. I suspect his comments when talking to Jim Mandelaro didn't help with Twins management, when he was quoted as saying "he was playing for 29 other teams than the Twins." As for Nishi, he no longer looks out of his element as he did with the Twins last year and to a lesser extent early this year in Rochester. He has been hitting for more power of late, including several key extra base hits in big rbi situations at important points of the games. I recall two specifically in the past ten days or so, including a bases clearing double into the right-center gap. Is he someone you want to pencil in as your starter, probably not. But I think you will see a player who no longer looks like he doesn't belong.

Was watching the game Seth. Looks like it was a last minute decision for no apparant reason.

Watching the Rochester Columbus game. The Columbus announcers just mentioned that the Twins-REds were in serious discussions. A bit later mentioned that Span had turned down trade. May be same source.

I can't imagine him having a no trade clause either. If he does, that would be another worse than bad move by Bill Smith.

I fully expect that Gardy will retire at the end of this season. I doubt that physically, he can take much more of this losing. As for a replacement, A leading candidate should be Gene Glynn, the first year manager at AAA Rochester. Has ton's of experience coaching a couple long stints in the majors as well as coaching/managing in the minors. He could easily bring his two main assistants with him, Tom Brunansky and Bobby Cuellar. IMO, would be very solid manager to lead the team in its turn around that should begin next year.

Was a tough year for Nishi, eh? Broken leg first week of the season followed by a disappointing return together with things going south in his personal life. All that going on while he was dealing with a new culture, language, etc. Glad to see him playing well since his return from the DL earlier this season.

No. The Red Sox got one with their new ballpark a few miles away. It is one of the things the Twins are working at getting out of a new agreement with Lee County that Bill Smith is working on.