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Amazing post.

Kind of nuts that we're talking about a surfeit at CF less than a year after Ryan traded two of them away.

What is it about the NL West and overpaying for our catchers?

The funny thing about Albers is that despite his ridiculously slow fastball, his minors success wasn't purely PTC-based - he posted a 7.9 K/9 at Rochester this year. I don't think he'll be able to replicate that in the majors (SSS but he's at 2.1 so far), although I would love to be proven wrong. So I would be satisfied with say 4.25 ERA, 6.0 K/9, 175 IP, 17 quality starts. Replacement level for some teams, middle of the rotation for the Twins. All that is assuming Albers even makes the big league squad out of spring training. Sorry about the negativity, it's a fun story and would be thrilling if he can keep up the great outings.

Eeeeesh.

My favorite part is that this was the last deal announced. Like, they were haggling over Drew freaking Butera as the clock ticked down...2:58...2:59. Meanwhile the dozen teams calling about Morneau and Perkins got a busy signal. (I know that's not how it actually works)

As much as he's had a solid season this year, I don't expect Beresford will start at SS next year. Looking at his minor league track record he's slowly been transitioning to 2B, playing less and less SS.

Good for Cuddy. I was worried last year's injury issues would be the beginning of the end for him, glad he's bouncing back in a big way.

Just sitting here. Slow day at work. Imagining Oswaldo-Sano-Buxton going back to back to back ROYs. Now I'm happy.

I wouldn't hate sending diamond down for Gibson. Gibson's innings limit will expire around the end of July. Hopefully by then Diamond will have gotten back to the form he was in last year.

So many great answers already. I'll skip all the obvious ones like soaring homers and swing and misses. There are a couple of qualities that are unique to baseball that I love: 1) the particular way a breaking ball moves. I think most baseball fans really relish the pitcher-hitter duel at the heart of the game, and for me the best part is watching a curveball snap downwards. It seems so unreal given all that I've experienced of physics, I understand on a technical level how it works but it just doesn't look like it ought to do that. And even more than that it's just an elegant thing to watch. 2) the time-scope of baseball is different than every other game. With a 162-game schedule plus playoffs, and since players often have longer careers than in other sports, the narrative of a season or a player's career takes more real time to play out. I like this, it gives you a sense of continuity, like the players who were good 3-5 years ago are mostly still good today (sorry A-rod). It's like we're in the midst of a developing story, whereas for example in football we're always looking forwards to the draft and players who were good just two years ago have often cycled out due to injury or decline. I like football but it has an entirely different feeling to it. 3) the stolen base is so much fun, especially when you're at the ballpark and get to watch all of the relevant players each do their particular task, the pitcher eyeing the runner warily over his shoulder, the runner trying not to give his sinister intentions away, then bursting down the line at just the right moment, the catcher violently hopping to his feet and whipping the ball past the crouching batter to the fielder who just sprinted to cover the bag as the runner gets there, the ball hitting his glove just inches above the runner's foot...it's all so fast and graceful and especially suspenseful. I can't wait for Billy Hamilton. 4) Hating the Yankees. 5) Hating the White Sox. 6) Rooting for the small market teams, as long as they aren't playing the Twins. 7) the farm system and the way you get years and years to froth over the next phenom, checking all the farm clubs' webpages to review the stats of the guys who Gleeman and Seth had on their lists. Checking Google Maps to see how far the drive to Elizabethton is. 8) beer on a summer day. 9) relievers who are fat and have hideous facial hair. 10) the stats. This is maybe controversial but I like baseball even more than I did growing up because of the advanced statistics that, for me at least, really help understand the game. Hand in hand with this are video/gif breakdowns like Parker does that make is possible for fans of the game to really appreciate it on a whole nother level. There's so much more but man I'm happy it's April again.

Hopefully we don't have to wait 7 years for a competitive team, but it is a lot of fun to imagine a perfect world in which every prospect pans out.

It's an interesting situation. Figure that Gardy's primary goal is maximizing wins this season while Ryan needs to play a longer game. So what happens if, say, Hicks looks awesome in spring training and Gardy wants to start him in CF April 1, but Ryan wants to hold him in AAA for service time reasons? I suppose this stuff happens all the time and they probably have a decent working relationship/arbitration process, so it's not like I'm expecting him to him to punch in Ryan's door. I'm just sure Gardy's going to be real pissed if he doesn't get all the tools he wants (see also: starting rotation) and yet ends up without a job, and I wouldn't blame him. I don't think that managers make much of a difference, but I do feel a twinge of pity for a guy who saw us through so many pretty awesome years.

Cheer up, at least the title of this post starts with Neal Diamond.