Teflon

This John Swol article on Twins Trivia provides thumbnails on a few of them.

The new CBA also banned smokeless tobacco for all new players coming into the MLB - this following Tony Gwynn's death in 2014 from salivary gland cancer brought on by his years of dipping tobacco.

I don't think the Twins are done with Murphy either and I believe Falvey and Levine signed Castro for exactly the reasons you highlighted. On to shortstop!

On this 2016 Thanksgiving, in addition to Twins Daily I'm thankful for Theo Epstein, Alicia Vikander, micro breweries and free elections. (Not so much for the electoral college, though.)

The last few years I got the impression (whether an accurate read or not) that the Twins were not so much reluctant to have propsects struggle as part of their development as they were reluctant to put those struggles on display in front of a shrinking fan base that they were hopiong to sell hope for brighter days ahead. By changing up the front office, a fair amount of that hope is now transferred to Falvey and Levine who are, in a way, propsects themselves.

What does this news do for Sano? Motivate him to get in better shape and work on his defense since he's now the full-time 3B or make him feel it's okay to take it easy this off season since he has no one competing with him at the position...

But if the strategy doesn't work out then you're left with flip flops.

Finding pitchers who can put up Ks will help the defense immediately. Simple equation - for every nine putouts Dodger fielders had to make, Twins fielders had to make ten. Even if the Twins got to the same number of balls as the Dodgers fielders and fielded at the same level of competency, they were still destined to make ten percent more errors. Now, put a bad fielding Twins defense on the field with a pitching staff that requires you to make ten percent more plays and you get the 2016 Twins. And the GM that thought that would work gets fired.

I wholeheartedly defend your right to speculate. http://www.history.co.uk/sites/default/files/ancient-aliens-1.png

Based on the limited exposure during a save opportunity, any decent pitcher can convert them at nearly the same success rate as a high-paid closer - it is one of the most over-valued positions in baseball. The Twins realized this years ago when they converted guys like Guardado, Nathan, and Perkins - who were not closers - into very serviceable back-end guys. DO NOT spend money on a closer. Spend it in general on good middle relief and find a decent option from that group.

Tom Thibodeau spent his year away from coaching traveling around the league observing a dozen other NBA franchises in operation and teaching himself new ways to build, prepare, and coach his team. The Twins new front office should consider that Ron Gardenhire may have had a similar chance to reinvent himself in his time away. http://stmedia.startribune.com/images/564*328/16twin021613gal.jpg

Derek Falvey quoting Geno Smith: "It's almost exciting to think about all the room for improvement that we have."

Dammit. I was going to call myself Nelson Cruz but I see he already registered it. -Melson Cruze

On September 20th, ten years ago, the Twins defeated Curt Schilling and the Red Sox, 8-2, giving the AL East title to the New York Yankees. Joe Mauer went 2-5 to put his batting average at .344. Torii Hunter homered (his 28th) and drove in 4 runs in the game. Michael Cuddyer knocked in his 101st run while Justin Morneau knocked in his 125th. It was the Twins 4th win in a row and improved their record to 90-61, keeping them within a 1/2 game of the Tigers who defeated the White Sox, 6-2. The Twins would go into the last day of the 2006 season tied with the Tigers at 95-66. The Twins took care of their end of things in their finale, downing the White Sox 5-1 in the Metrodome and then turned to the scoreboard to see how the Tigers were faring against the Royals. The Tigers had already lost their first two games to the Royals in the series, giving up 18 runs. They quickly got out to a 6-0 lead in the final game but couldn't hold it as Kansas City scored 3 in the 4th inning and 4 in the 8th to go ahead 8-7. The Tigers tied it back up in the bottom of the 8th on a Matt Stairs home run, but the 9th inning was scoreless. As fans (and Twins players) watched on the video boards at the Metrodome, the Royals and Tigers went to extra innings. The score remained 8-8 though the 10th inning and the top of the 11th, but Detroit got something going in the bottom of the 11th on singles by Magglio Ordonez and Carlos Guillen. An intentional walk to Pudge Rodriguez loaded the bases with only one out. Royals pitcher Joe Nelson got Brandon Inge to strikeout and then Royals manager Bill Doran brought in Jimmy Gobble to face Curtis Granderson with two outs and the bases still full. Granderson struck out for an American League leading 174th time and the Royals had earned another inning of baseball. In the top of the 12th, the Royals got to Tigers pitcher Kenny Rogers for a pair of runs on three singles and a bases-loaded walk. In downtown Minneapolis, the fans watching in the Metrodome whooped! The Royals just needed to close the door now. Gobble returned to the mound for Kansas City. Pinch-hitter Neifi Perez grounded out. [Cheers in the Metrodome.] Placido Polanco struck out looking. Two outs.[More cheers!] Gobble walked Craig Monroe. [A hush] Sean Casey steps up to the plate. After a ball and a strike, Gobble pitches. Casey swings. It's a grounder that the Kansas City first baseman fields and steps on first base. Royals Win! [The Metrodome Crowd Cheers and Yells!!!!!] The Twins win the AL Central Pennant! Happy Birthday. Many Happy Returns!

Being on record with a the most dire view of how things will unfold is a prerequisite to the later "I told you so" which, as we all know, is the penultimate of posts.

Toronto was also the birthplace of former Twins players Jesse Crain and Rene Tosoni. Crain last pitched in the majors for the White Sox in 2013 but was back in Chi-Town this week (at Wrigley Field) to attend a Pearl Jam concert. Tosoni is currently playing for the Sugar Land Skeeters of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball where his manager is Gary Gaetti.

Regarding the Metrodome's dismal atmosphere, remember the "We Like It Here" motto that was printed on the tunnel down the right field line? I thought it was cleverly placed as a lot of the Metrodome seats faced that direction instead of toward the baseball field.

Very nice insights, Parker. I recently saw some Nolan Ryan footage and noticed the same thing. He did not push off of the rubber at all, either. He had a long stride but lifted his right leg after he planted his left and just pulled it through the motion after him. All his velocity came from his 90-degree trunk rotation which was perfectly synced with his trebuchet-like arm whip. Sandy Koufax was similar but appeared to have more "fall" in his delivery, buckling his back leg on the rubber as he started his motion towards the plate so he would drop forward, rotate, and arm-whip at the same time. Of course the mound was 18 inches high back then and the Koufax style reflected that. Doubt he could use the same motion on today's shorter mound.

The Braves announced that this weekend, as part of their year-long farewell commemorations before relocating to Cobb County, they will be staging a historic reenactment of Sid Bream's mad dash home to score the winning run in game 7 of the 1992 NLCS. It's scheduled to get underway Saturday at 7 pm and to conclude tentatively at noon on Sunday.

With as active as the Texas Rangers were at the trade deadline, I kept waiting for a Twins deal that would package Adam Brett Walker so we could have...

Well, on one hand it's Abad deal but on the other, not a bad deal.

I misread this and thought that the Twins were trading deadline tidbits - like calling up the Mets front office and saying, 'You remember back in '07 when we traded you Luis Castillo for Dustin Martin and Drew Butera? Well, here's a really interesting tidbit on that deal..." Unfortunately, I think that would be more activity than we'll actually see from the Twins front office at this trading deadline.