Monkeypaws

Went to Pittsburgh last year - pretty close for me, but yeah, the best for sure.

BTW, if you EVER have a chance to watch a game in this park, go out of your way to do so - was there a couple years ago, and my day started with a gay pride parade, started by a line od 300 choppers or so, followed by a great afternoon game, Baumgartner hitting the winning HR, hours spent looking at the bay. My wife hates baseball, and even she agreed it was a highlight of the trip.

Listening to the FS crew talk up the work Grossman put in on D over the offseason makes me like him a lot more as 4th D.

How does Bochy let this go on?

LOL, that double - Erv should give lessons in being "relaxed"at the plate.

At the moment, Buck is hitting .202 Slow and steady Mr. Buxton. Your D is already other worldly GoldGlove material.

Nature vs. nurture is a common paradigm. In my experience, nurture can help, or hinder nature. Nurture doesn't corrupt, it merely hinders if it is bad. This is nature all the way to me. EZ pass.

It is a huge risk to not grab a talent like this when the #1 overall lines up. I like Wright, and he would be a good add to the system. However, Greene looks every part the phenom, most likely a once in a career chance for Falvey and Levine to get their hands on such a player without breaking the bank. The thing about Greene is that, apart from baseball skills, he seems to have a great make-up and loads of character. 7 million plus change is only a few more than they wagered on Nishi, and far less than they wagered on Park. Be bold leadership. be bold.

You'll never build a winning culture in Minnesota if you keep trading your best players. Trading Santana and Dozier means "we expect to lose." What does a guy like Sano expect to happen to him someday if the Twins keep trading away top players for the future? At this stage of the rebuild I think it is far better to keep good players, play good ball, and risk losing them as free-agents. You gotta win to be relevant.

I guess I'll go along with that. Still, Greene seems like an exceptional young man, both on and off the field. I sure would like to see the Twins invest in such a guy.

If it ain't broke, why "fix" it?

Why not give AAA guys like Slegers and Wheeler a try? What's the point of having a farm system if you never give guys a chance? How bad would Slegers be? Gibson bad? Hughes bad? Meija-like? Never know until you give them a try. Hildenberger has a sub 2 ERA for his entire minor league career, 6 teams, 3+ years. I'd like to see these guys get a shot before making trades.

Survey of the latest power rankings: ESPN: 15 CBS: 8 SI: 14 MLB: 12 Bleacher Report: 14 Yahoo: 11 Trending upwards.

Greene a longshot - hmm. Excellent makeup, great physique, baseball skills up the wazoo, electric arm, all in a 17 year old. Longshot to be Cy Young, maybe, longshot unlike any other 18-21 year old, mmm, he looks more like a sure-shot to play MLB as an impact player to me. My crystal ball is no better than anyone elses, but to call him a longshot is, well, a longshot. Law of averages should eventually weigh in favor of a RH HS pitcher. There are very few sure bets in the draft: I'd like to see the Twins roll the dice here - they have 2 other picks in the top 40. Cosmic tumblers are aligning....

The Twins have never had what you'd call a deep rotation. 87 was Viola, Bert, and Straker. 91 had 3 legit guys in Morris, Tapani and Erickson. The filler on those teams was the likes of Mike Smithson, David West, and Joe Niekro. Santana, Santiago, Berrios, Meija + might do just fine. A five game losing streak and this team is at .500. Going "all in" at this point seems a bit premature. Please no more Hu for Jepsen or Ramos for Capps type of deals. Or more appropriately, seeing as the dscussion is staters, Neagle for Smiley.

So maybe the waiver wire guy that everybody freaked out about, Wilkes-Booth or whatever his name was, was just to replace Berrios?

Deadline deals is for dummies - wild gm Fletcher has proven that. Keep your best prospects and play youth down the stretch. Shannon Stewart is the only pennant drive acquisition I can recall that made a positive difference in recent history. More often than not you get Capps, or bad Kendrys Morales.

This was the first time I watched him pitch an MLB game and just trust his stuff - no nibblenuts, just putting it in there and letting them whack it if they could. Most of what they could square up was handled by the D. Very encouraging result vs. a good team.

Here's some hope: Buxton has a higher batting average than Mike Nalpoli and Alex Gordon, and is .02 behing Jose Bautista, and .10 behind Alcides Escobar. Slow start Georgia guy waiting for some warm weather.

Wierd - watched the Twins blow a pop-up in the infield tonite yet get the guy at second. Just saw Boston do the same thing half an hour later. Hadn't seen that in years, now twice in 30 minutes or so. Good old baseball.

I dunno, first place in May kind of exceeds my expectations, by a lot actually. So has the mainly sharp fundamental baseball.

Let's call it a lesson in moderating our expectations, and patience.

I'd be happy if the season ended with Buxton as a .250 hitter, and Berrios with an ERA below 4.5 Rome wasn't built in a day.

He is worthy. Wish the Twins had just sat on the original contract, but he has fully become a pitcher. If he ever gets his stuff back, wow! If not, future pitching coach.

Looking at his minor league stats, he ain't THAT bad. ML.B unready to be sure MiLB: 3.67 ERA, 7K per 9, 1.7 BB per 9. Waiver worthy - wtf not? Lefty!