Monkeypaws

Was at the game today, and noticed the following nations represented: USA, Dominican Republic, Germany, Brazil, Nicaragua, Australia, Taiwan, Cuba, Agree 100%. Don't like the song, and wish it would leave the ballpark. The anthem is sufficient. Did enjoy watching Chargois hit 97-98 on the gun though.

I'm usually in favor of keeping Buxton on the Twins, but the other night vs. Cleveland, I knew he was gonna strike out, and leave men on base, and he did, and so feebly. He needs to go down, and not work on raking AAA pitching, we know he can do that. Instead, they need to work with him to correct the flaws ML pitchers are exploiting and become a harder out at the ML level. I don't know which coaching staff is best qualified to do it, but that would be my strategy. EDIT Stepped away before posting, and have changed my mind: that should be on the ML staff. Don't think Bruno is the guy for that task. Molitor, however, would be the ideal personal coach for Buxton: speed, line drives, some power. PM is the ceiling of Buxton's potential. Wish he'd taker him under his wing and nurture the potential. (don't know he hasn't, but it seems like an ideal match to me).

Haven't read the 6 pages to this point, but wow what a dismal atmosphere in that stadium. I saw an update while watching the MLB free game of the day, a day game, and it was a night game in TB. Grim, grisly, just awful. Thank the powers that be for Target Field. I remember rare forays to the Metronome on beautiful May evenings and just hating the whole experience.

Maybe Polanco has determined that himself, without any help from coaches, management etc. Just a wild shot in the dark....

I watched a bit of today's game - Santiago has a funky delivery, and good lefty junk stuff. He got lit up by Santana, but apart from that one pitch, I thought he looked pretty good. Odds are the trade will be a wash, but having one less obscenely overpaid vet on the roster does the team some psychological good, even if they pay Ricky some more on down the line. Meyer will need to have a revelation of significant magnitude for me to feel anything but happy about this trade.

Walker led the Southern League in HRs last season, the FSL the year before that, and the Midwest League the year before that. He tied for the Appy league lead in 2012. His 21 homers now lead the IL. He's consistent, that's for sure.

I'd avoid the expensive free agent route, especially guys with lots of mileage on them. I'd like to think Garver is the future, and he is almost ready. Murphy could still turn it around. Turner could be a solid back up. Garver has thrown out 51% of would be base stealers this season at Chattanooga. He's 25 years old. He has an ops just over .800 in over 300 AA at bats. Pretty solid.

They left him behind on their road trip. I'd swap Wheeler for him, or maybe Goodrum. Prima donna.

Here is one interesting tidbit I discovered 5 minutes ago. Nolasco was leading the Twins in innings pitched this season with 124, 4 more than innings eater Santana, as well as Santiago. Never would have guessed that. Still, hard to comprehend a good AL team wanting to add him, unless Allen is utterly useless. Good barometer on the "Twins way," with our 2 most underperforming pitchers going elsewhere.

He's no longer the token lefty though. Makes his spot all the more tenuous.

Suzuki is below average defensively to be sure, but here he is again being above average offensively. He sits right now at 251 plate appearances, about 200 away from him being vested. Ain't gonna happen. He's been a solid guy for this team, despite his shortcomings. With no heir apparent, why fret? You can't wish for him to be gone for something good, and be mad that he didn't fetch something good, if you don't think he's good. Other GMs probably are on the same page as you sir, which I mean as a compliment.

Now we are into the realm of pure speculation. I doubt very much there were teams out there wanting to unload top 100 prospects on the Twins for what they were offering. It's been a theme in the past because it is founded on pure bunk.

Wow, props to Antony: got some starting pitching in Santiago and Meija; unloaded Nolasco; got some nearly ready bullpen guys who throw hard. Very fine audition. I think he made the team better going forward, without giving up much really.

When I first read this I misread 37th overall for 37th round. Much more excited about it now. Here's an article from a site called MassLive about Light: http://www.masslive.com/redsox/index.ssf/2016/06/pat_light_boston_red_sox_prosp.html Most Sox prospect rankings I looked at had him in the 14-16 range.

Just realized Milone in number 33 - never noticed before.

Don't know if any of you are into disc golf, but there is a major tournament in Minnesota today, the Majestic. Oddly enough, the man currently occupying last place, at +24, is Thomas Malone. Close enough for me, although I'm a fan of Tommy Milone.

Eduardo is having a nice day in SF, his first start(at short). Single and stolen base, and 2 run double. He was certainly our most competent hitter and base runner this season.

Came across this lad looking over the Midwest League leaders. 3rd in BA at .327, ops over 800, 19 years old in low A ball. Pretty impressive. He's never failed to his over .300 at each stop on his way in the minors, career .325 hitter with an ops over .800. Under the radar he has flown for me, but hard to ignore that level of performance. You mighta picked a real sleeper there Goulik.

If Little Papi could have half the career of Big Papi, I'd be satisfied.

Del Rosario's ERA has been trending in the right direction, from over 11 after 1 start, to over 6 through most of June, now down to 4.61 after this start. Also, of his 45 Ks this season, 24 have come in his last 3 starts. According to MiLB, he weighs 145 pounds?! 6 feet tall.

Competent doesn't mean great - he has improved greatly over the years. He'll never be a gold glove candidate, but many gold glove winners started out as bad or worse the TP.

Play them at the positions of need: Sano at 3rd, Polanco at short. How long did it take Plouffe to become a competent fielder? Over the course of a season we might have something.

Nice to see folks are daring to dream big now that the Twins made a deal This whole convo reminds me why Ramos for Capps was my all time most hated trade in Twins history.

The Part of me that actually watches Twins games will miss Eduardo. Fun guy to watch. I'm glad he's going to a great team with a great ballpark in a great city. The part of me that visits Twins Daily is very happy with the trade though, and is hoping for more.

I guess i never got Bruno as a hitting coach. Maybe there's a history of great hitting coaches that weren't great hitters themselves, and I could totally see that. On the good, there were 271 dingers: but Bruno was a career .245 batter with 1187 Ks, 19% of his at bats.. Don't our Twins resemble that a bit too much for comfort?