minn55441

My question from last year was how much did Castro stick around and help Wilson and Garver during his recovery period. Was he around the team helping on a daily basis or did he skip town? I remember I thought this was the ideal situation last May, Garver getting the majority playing time with Castro serving as a mentor. This is of course if Castro sat in on the daily pitching meetings to help orchestrate that days matchups. I have never seen Castro as the catcher on a winning team, I did think he could help Garver to eventually become an above average receiver.

I have always liked Zobrist. this is a great move for the Royals.

Enough with the infield pop ups.

I'm with you. He was my last choice among the existing candidates.

What do you always hear from free agents? I want to go someplace where I can win a championship. At age 60. I really don't think money is the main concern. He wants to go some place where he can win. The Twins and the Cubs both have strong minor league systems, will that be the determining factor? Would you rather face the Cardinals, Pirates, Reds and Brewers or is your road to the postseason easier facing the Royals, the fast fading Tigers, the Indians and White Sox? If I'm turning 60 and know this is my last chance to put myself in a position to win a world series, I would ask myself where can I win. What situation gives me the best shot of making the post season. What organization would benefit the most from the skills I could bring to the job? I'm not sure money would be the deciding factor. I think Joe will decide based on the probability of winning a world championship. Period.

How much of this success can we contribute to the arrival of Kennys Vargas? Not to say that Vargas is hanging around the cage giving him pointers, but there is something to be said about peer pressure. Up until this point, Arica has been the young bull. The young power hitting prospect on the team. With the arrival of Vargas, Arica now has someone roughly his age on the team with a similar skill set. Arcia is competitive, you can see it in everything he does. With the recent arrival of Vargas and the early success he has had not only hitting for average but also hitting the long ball, I can see this as a real wake up call for Arcia. I can see him not wanting to be upstaged by one of his team mates. There is something to be said for team dynamics and I don't think it is a coincidence that Arcia started hitting at essentially the same time that Vargas arrived on the big league club.

It was a bull going to stud. I think it is a chevy ad.

got hit again today with a sound ad. ad was in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Let me know if you can't see the screenshot.

I believe he will turn 31 in September. We are now officially in a youth movement. Doesn't fit into those plans.

Apparently he was not happy in Oakland. Felt he had pitched well enough to stay out of AAA. I wonder how much of that frustration was related to his service time and the fact that he could miss super two status? If I remember correctly our own Glen Perkins had the same issue, I think he even went so far as to file a grievence with the union. Many thought he would never play in Minnesota again as he demanded a trade. I wonder what the real story is benind this? If we wait a week to bring him up and he misses the opporutnity to become a super two how would he handle that?

I agree for the most part, but Marginal for most teams is different than marginal for the Twins, Astros and Cubs. Most teams marginal means that they are on the border line of making their top 25. Our marginal, means that they are border line major leaguers. The cast offs from the powers have to be better than Kubel and Bartlett.

Arizona Diamondbacks - 80.5 over Atlanta Braves - 87.5 over Baltimore Orioles - 80.5 over Boston Red Sox - 87.5 Under Chicago Cubs - - 69.5 Under Chicago White Sox - 75.5 Under Cincinnati Reds - 84.5 Under Cleveland Indians - 80.5 Over Colorado Rockies - 76.5 Under Detroit Tigers - 89.5 Under Houston Astros - 62.5 Over Kansas City Royals - 81.5 Over Los Angeles Angels - 86.5 Over Los Angeles Dodgers - 92.5 Over Miami Marlins - 69.5 Over Milwaukee Brewers - 79.5 Under Minnesota Twins - 70.5 Over New York Mets - 73.5 Under New York Yankees - 86.5 Under Oakland Athletics - 88.5 Over Philadelphia Phillies - 76.5 Under Pittsburgh Pirates - 83.5 Over San Diego Padres - 78.5 Under San Francisco Giants - 86.5 Under Seattle Mariners - 81.5 Under St. Louis Cardinals - 90.5 Over Tampa Bay Rays - 88.5 Over Texas Rangers - 86.5 Under Toronto Blue Jays - 79.5 Under Washington Nationals - 88.5 Over Tie breaker: The two AL WC teams will be: Angels and Orioles Tie breaker 2: The two NL WC teams will be: Braves and Pirates

Tickets for the actual all-star game are only sold in strips, where you will need to purchase tickets to all of the events. tickets for the fanfest and the futures game went on sale this morning at 10:00am. the cheapest ticket for the futures game looks to be $25. Keep in mind however that a lot of people will be forced to purchase an entire strip for the all-star game and will then be looking to dump the tickets for the other events. Not a guarantee, but I would think that you will be able to find tickets for these other events for much cheaper as we head closer to all-star week.

I thought you had to purchase an entire strip for the events, but it looks like you can purchase individual tickets to fanfest and the futures game. Here is a link http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/events/all_star/y2014/all_star_tickets.jsp?partnerId=ed-7958737-658954653&source=ed-7958737-658954653 tickets went on sale at 10:00am monday March 10.