REPETE

Strikeouts are boring, Besides that, they're fascist. I heard that someplace before. A couple of the World Series games were ludicrous as far as HRs go. The ball couldn't stay in the park, and that was with some of the best pitchers in the game. There is something to be said about stringing together hits, manufacturing runs, etc.

I'd also be interested in John Castino's brief time at 3B, before his back gave out.

LOVE THAT KID!

Seems to me a no-brainer to make May a starter again, and hope he fulfills his destiny, even if that's as our #3. During the offseason, go sign a couple quality relievers (including a closer). If/when the Twins are competing for the division in June, and IF there's a glaring hole in the rotation, go get a quality starter.

We need Willingham back on the 40-man, just in case we need him against Chapman!

I agree with most of the posters, that 2016 was a disaster, but this team should still probably be around 70-75 wins (basically the same team won 83 the year before). I don't believe we can blame the FO quite yet, for a number of reasons. 1st, they got a very late start. 2nd, they needed time to evaluate everything they have from low A to the majors. 3rd, there's still a lot of time between now and P & C reporting. 4th, Dozier is the only viable "trade piece" they have, and he's a 2B. The market for 2B is not great. Should they have pulled the trigger for DeLeon? maybe. But only time will tell. They still may get a much better return, or DeLeon may turn out to be a bust. We lost 100+. This year, as stated, we may do it again. This turnaround will take time. Whether its Falvey or TR, this team is too far away to go out & pickup one missing piece. We need about 5 missing pieces.

I really can't say. That's what I'd always heard, that this was an "understanding". The only thing I could think of was Ryan would've been crucified in public opinion & the press for giving Perkins an official No Trade Contract.

True, but Mauer's deal was hardly very "team friendly". Perkins could've gotten more money from a lot of other teams, but wanted to stay in MN. Whether or not you agree with the deal premise, it was an understanding between Perkins & Terry Ryan, and Ryan wasn't the type of guy to break that promise. My guess is Ryan's way of thinking was, we're small market, and got a very team friendly bargain because I struck this deal. If I break this deal, my word is worthless, and we'll never get another "hand-shake" deal again.

Perkins was a different deal. He signed a very team-friendly contract with the promise from management they would NOT trade him.

Integrity and honesty. A class act all the way! I didn't agree with everything he did, but some things I didn't agree with worked, so I'm not going to dwell on those that didn't.

makes you wonder if the Pohlads went to Antony, and asked him if he'd be content to be their puppet, and do their bidding.

Also not a Gladden play by play guy, but do like Provus. Oftentimes, with the radio on, you're doing something else at the same time, so a little voice inflection lets you know something just happened. With Gladden, there can be 5 runs scored, and you don't even know it. I wasn't a John Gordon fan for the opposite reason. He'd jump out of his chair for a warning track fly ball. But at least you paid closer attention.

Keep him. As already stated, it'll cost the same to bring in another #3. He's a good clubhouse guy, and can help the young kids coming up. You need some veterans on a young team, and he's as good as any we'll get. Dump Nolasco for anything. Now there's room for one guy. Dump Milone for anything, now we got two spots. I doubt that's going to block anyone in the minors.

I believe this article nails it. The team overperformed last year. they've underperformed this year. Who are they really? I think somewhere in between. They missed a lot of things in the offseason (which has been pointed out repeatedly in TD), but I still don't believe this team is a 110 game loser. Starting pitching at the beginning of the year wasn't that bad, but hitting was. When the hitting got a little better, the pitching suddenly took a nosedive. When the starters did pitch well, the bullpen would blow it. In the beginning, we were counting on the veterans, until the young guys figured it out. Had they vets done better, maybe they win 5-10 more games. Had a couple young guys performed, add another 5-10 more games. So if a few things go better this year (which they did last year), we're somewhere between "still not contending", to best case, hovering around 500, but neither case is the fiasco year we've had so far. .

When they found themselves stuck in this position of having Plouffe & Park, I don't think they had a choice but to declare it permanent. Otherwise, I'm sure they were concerned Sano would've lolligagged around in the OF or pouted until they moved him back to 3B.

As Roy Smalley's pointed out (about 100 times, I believe), it's more than just taking balls & swinging at strikes. His assessment of Buxton seems right, in the fact he's constantly pulling off the ball when he's getting a breaking ball on the outside corner. As Roy puts it, "his butt's going the wrong direction to hit that pitch". So I think the strikeout/walk ratio is telling, but especially in Buxton's case, he's striking out on a lot of pitches that are borderline strikes.

As one person called it: "Florida is God's waiting room..."

3 pages into this topic, and I'm stunned that nobody has brought up the elephant (no, not calling Ortiz an elephant), but would Ortiz have thrived nearly as much here as in Boston? He did seem injury prone (fair or not) during his time here. There are many speculations as to how he overcame those injury problems via chemistry. True? Certainly not proven. But let us not forget, A-Rod has never tested positive either, but most are willing to call him guilty. As for the issues the Twins had with him trying to use the whole field, it must have made some sense to him, as he's put holes into the Green Monster, on the occasions he didn't hit it over.

All very valid points, and I apologize for making blanket statements. My frustration in reading TD lately in this disaster of a season is the rash of rants pointing to one specific reason. My point is, there isn't one specific reason, or one simple answer. I understand differing views, but in this debacle of a lost season, they've had absolutely NOTHING go right, and I don't believe anyone foresaw a collapse of this proportion. Some stated they saw a frustrating season, but I don't believe anyone could have honestly predicted THIS..

Anytime a team struggles, or completely falls apart so early, like this one, people are scrambling for reasons, and you end up with rants. People saying "the young guys were mismanaged and need time in AAA" is 180 degrees opposite of last year's "Don't sign veterans, let the young kids come up". "We needed a veteran OFin the offseason" this year was written last year with gnashing of teeth "Why did the team sign Hunter? Terry Ryan must go!!!" "We've mismanaged the young kids by not letting them play through their struggles", yet we allowed Rosario to fumble through 1/4 of the season before his long awaited demotion. Last year, the call was "Bring up Buxton now!". This year, the call is "Why didn't they sign a veteran OF? They should've known Buxton wasn't ready!" Let's face it, this season is a disaster of major proportions, which I don't think ANY of us saw coming. Some regression? Sure. Potential 120 losses? No way! Even if the roster had some regression, there is/was still enough talent on the roster to win 70 games. The simple fact here is, in hindsight, better roster moves certainly could've been made; Rookies & 2nd year guys should be playing better. Handling of the young prospects could certainly be different. However, NOBODY saw this collapse of epic proportion, so perhaps we need to step back and take a deep breath. 2 weeks ago, the season was too young to just throw in the towel. If there's no change in the play by June, perhaps the roster will be handled differently. Blaming the FO/Manager for 10 wins takes a lot of focus away from the fact the kids we've all wanted to see playing, are simply not performing. The veterans aren't performing. Nothing is clicking at the same time. Why? I don't think there is a rational answer, just circular hand wringing arguments.

My question is, has Molitor said why he's got the young kids up here sitting on the bench? I'm sure TR made the decision to bring them up, but obviously, Moli has no faith in them to play every day (or more than once a week). I always liked TK's approach; "we didn't bring them up to sit on the bench." With a full fledged youth movement, ie, trading some veterans at some point, will he start playing them, or will we be watching Rex Grossman & Mastroianni play everyday, with Molitor becoming a player/coach, and Bruno becoming our RF?

I'm still stuck on how beer & chocolate aren't compatible. Two great tastes that taste great together! I defy you to dislike Mich Golden Light & M&Ms together. I think if Mauer puts together a couple more .300 averages, he's in.

From my observations of Gardy (full disclosure, I did NOT like him at all), he was fine with young players, as long as they "played the game the right way", and if he "liked how they went about their business", He liked the Rocky type players, "ham and eggers". He could appeal to them, as that's what he was. Where Gardy fell short was dealing with the cocky, young, "showboat" type players. Go-Go was the perfect example (although the argument could/should be made he should have been in AAA), but he completely mishandled Hicks, too. He had Hicks wound up in knots. I think he'll be fine as a roving instructor, as long as they don't keep him on one guy too long. Id have hated to see him roving in the minors when Sano got into all the hoopla over a bat flip.

I don't think Dozier fits the bill. What made Gladden so important was not only how he played, but how he wanted EVERYONE on the team to play the same way. I think he's a guy that would call you out if he thought you weren't giving 100%.

All I can say is "WOW"! Ricky Nolasco starts off this article as making the team as the 5th starter, Suzuki is now a power hitter, and the only posts here are about Big Whiner, er, Big Papi? Papi must've truly struck a chord with TD, otherwise we'd be hearing for the 87th time this spring about how we need to trade/cut/kill Nolasco; the FO is full of morons who only care about payroll; yada yada yada. I vote for more Papi talk, as it's refreshingly new. That is, until it gets old.