tharasix

That's Mauer power!

Poop.

Ugh. Sacrifice bunts when you already have a runner in scoring position and you have the lead. *grumble*

4 walks in 2+ innings is not good for a pitcher's longevity.

Kind of sad that TD has a more active game thread on the Wild game than WX.

It also seems to mean that the Twins aren't going to prevent Sano from playing 3B against all logic if the situation arises.

CBU

Molitor just said on the pregame that Sano and Rosario have been taking some ground balls with Plouffe out. They followed that up to say that Plouffe is going on the DL.

That's quite the critique of Sano's defense that you have Buxton listed as RF as well.

You can get many Android apps to stream directly to a TV using a Chromecast, which is relatively cheap. You can also stream the full screen of an Android device, but it's lower quality.

I was going to go the other way with it. At least he doesn't have to face Duffey's curveball now.

Never going to happen. If that's how a solution starts, you need to go back to the drawing board.

Is this umpire's zone as bad as the ESPN gamecast makes it look? I've seen about 6 called strikes well outside the zone.

The Internet is a write-only medium.

Houston lost, so now the Twins are in full control of their own destiny as far as the second wild card goes. If they win out, they're in, even if it takes a game 163 against Houston.

"the Twins are going to have to go all Chris Sale" I love this term. I love it even more because of what it means for the Twins as compared to the rest of the MLB.

I made it to the game, too, but I forgot my phone in my car. It was a lot of fun watching Duffey handle the Angels and seeing the guys go yard. Hicks almost got one too, if he had kept it inside the right foul pole. I actually called Mauer's homer a pitch or two before it happened.

I thought for sure that you were making a Homestar Runner joke. Ignore me. Carry on.

How do you type with boxing gloves on?

May is headed to the bullpen, according to ESPN.

A few years back, our second series of the year was on the road against the Yankees. Before one pitch was thrown in that series, Gardy said the following to the media (paraphrased): "Let's just survive this series, then we'll get home and see what happens." That drove me insane. That's advertising to the world that he firmly believed his team had no chance of beating the Yankees. That was the man supposedly leading this team. Anybody who knows anything about leading people knows that's not how it's done. There should be no question where the responsibility for this attitude should have been. Since that interview, I was ready to see Gardenhire out. It's too bad it took a few years of losing for it to happen.

I'm curious why you didn't mention Burdi as a candidate.

I would definitely agree with this prediction under the previous staff. My totally unfounded hope with Molitor is that he'll realize the truth in your statement of "nothing left to prove in AAA" and have May and Meyer on the 25 man. Stuffing them in AAA due to contractual convenience only delays our return to relevance. Our rotation should be Hughes, Santana, Gibson, May and Meyer, as far as I'm concerned. Put Nabisco and Milone in the bullpen or AAA. Dump Pelf. If we have young players that are ready to take their lumps in the majors, they should not be blocked by less talented veterans that aren't going to be part of the next division winner. This team needs to fully commit to the rebuild and quit crawling toward mediocrity.

My hope is that Torii has an impact on more than just Hicks. Arcia springs to mind. Also, I would hope that Hicks, Rosario and Buxton all audition for the CF job this spring, and the best one sticks. Make Hunter part of that decision making process if that helps justify the money. If the Twins are going to pay him to be a mentor, I'd hate to see it spent on Hicks just because he's the eldest of the three prospects.

From now on, Buxton will be known to me as The Bunt Ox.