Doubles

Who's gonna be the first poster to start the first thread of the Twins first trade today? By the lack of power vested in me, I shall coronate this poster the "Jon Heyman" of the MTT forum on Twins Daily.

I wish Joe would spike a helmet, break a bat over his knee, or even drop an audible "Gosh darnit!" after grounding out 4-3 or hitting into another double-play. Remember when Carl Pavano went mental on a Gatorade machine in the dugout a coupla years ago? Now THAT showed some fire. I wish Joe cared about his craft as much as Pavano clearly did.

^ I I I I Can't like the above post enough...

Gibby- I wouldn't recommend trying to outdrink Mr. Dixon. That is one massively large individual. At least he was during his playing days...

I kinda thought so, but wanted to bounce it off you guys as I rarely, if ever, watch the National League.

I'm okay with the Twins staying out of the Tulo sweepstakes. I haven't read this entire thread, but I'm sure someone has already made these points. Yes, Tulo's been productive, but keep in mind the Jays are getting Tulo from age 30-35, not 21-28 year old Tulo. His offensive numbers are obviously gonna regress moving out of Coors Field, and durability is a concern. There is also a high probability that his defense and range will certainly decline as he ages. Here are also some numbers that would make me uneasy: 375 512 203 606 529 Those are Tulo's AB's starting with 2014 and going backwards to 2010. Yeah, shiny new toys are cool, but if they don't work and you can't play with them very much it really takes all the fun out of it. Especially when they come at the expense of possibly getting other toys that actually work when you want them to.

Andrew McCutchen, who Twins fans will get a good look at the next two games, seems to be the player most-often brought up when talking about the potential of Byron Buxton. Would Twins fans be happy if that's what Buck pans out to be? Pretty sure I'd be elated with that.

Not watching the game, just listening, but seems like a good time to submit that I really, REALLY like Gene Glynn as 3rd base coach.

Was hoping we'd seen the last of the Brewers for a while. Why ya gotta post a pic of Ryan Braun (next to Fred Gwynne)?

Also fair. But I guess my point is that Arcia is such a bad outfielder, that if he's not hitting, he's not contributing. If you're gonna be that one-dimensional as a player, whatever that one dimension that you may bring better outweigh all the other negatives in your game. So far this year with the Twins, Arcia's offense hasn't been nearly enough of a "compensating factor" to off-set his horrible outfield play.

If your lack of fielding ability makes you a defensive liability, and your lack of offensive production makes you an offensive liability, I have no time for you.

I would not be at all surprised if Arcia never sees a Twins uniform again.

The question was relative to which "in-season" call-up got the most hype. Mauer made the team out of spring training, thus eliminating him from the discussion.

I think that could probably be said about almost every organization's prized prospects.

Not sure in what context you mean "bad comp." The question revolved around "most-ballyhooed in-season debut for a prospect." Wasn't a comparison to any other players based on ability, track record in the minors, or anywhere else. Calling up the number 3 overall pick mid-season just two years after being drafted brought with it a certain amount of hype, even if it was 20+ years ago. Obviously, the amount of information available publicly for baseball fans was not nearly what it is today. For those that remember how the Strib was laid out then, Sunday was the big day for baseball reporting beyond the Twins. I'm sure Baseball America or other baseball-exclusive periodicals were available, but for many of us growing up here, the Strib was it. There was about 4 full pages dedicated to baseball if I remember correctly. A couple of pages alone listed the batting stats for almost every prominent big-leaguer. Another area was dedicated to showing the stats of all the minor league teams in the Twins' system. That was about it as far as minor-league / prospect coverage went back in the day. We weren't able to scroll though Seth's Twitter timeline to get detailed info about every prized prospects ABs like we are lucky enough to be able to do so often nowadays. I was at the Dome on the day McCarty made his debut. McCarty was the subject of an almost ruthless amount of ribbing, from players, coaches, and the manager from the nanosecond he arrived at the ballpark. Kirby Puckett, who in November of 1989 became the first $3MM player in MLB history, was all over McCarty. "Hey man, new sheriff's in town! Comin' to take Puck's job! New sheriff in town!" I musta heard Puck say that about 10 times that day.

Hey Brock- Just curious of why you're so leery of Cheech Rosario. I like what I've seen of him, and I'd much rather watch him than Arcia- especially in the outfield.

Completely disagree. We can argue all day about how many games a guy should be suspended for PEDs. Nothing hurts / impacts a player more than missing the post-season. I am totally on-board with any deterrents put in place to stamp out PED use.

I would strongly prefer to keep watching Cheech Rosario than I would Arcia. Was beating that drum well before today's tater.

Corey Provus is sooooo good on play-by-play. He's brought real professionalism back to Twins radio. Was a long drought since Herb left us...

Molitor didn't use Perkins in innings 9-12 with the score tied, but did run him out for the save situation in the 13th. All the seamheads out there okay with this? I mean, do we still even accept this win? Or should we ask the Commish to make a "special exception" and take it off the board?

Switching positions, especially between infield and outfield, and especially at the highest level of the game- can be a very tricky adjustment. I salute Plouffe for putting in the time and work he has to improve so much. Hopefully this will play out and this level can be maintained for a long time. The Twins have had some very, very good defensive infielders at the corner positions over the years. Guys like Hrbek and Mientkiewicz were very naturally gifted fielders. Let's hope Plouffe joins guys like Gaetti, Koskie, and Morneau as guys who through hard work turned their labels as defensive liabilities into above-average defenders.

I'd like to see MLB flip-flop the rules for interleague play. In other words, I'd like to see American League rules in National League parks & vice versa. Give the hometown fans an experience they haven't been privy to yet.

I don’t think it was overrated at the time, but in the years since 1987 ALCS Laudner’s pickoff of Darrell Evans has certainly been overlooked and in a way, “lost in the shuffle.” The Twins won the first two games at home, and the Tigers had taken Game 3. Game 4 was pivotal. A Tiger win meant they had held serve and preserved home field advantage. A Twins win would put them one win away from their first World Series appearance since 1965. This was a critical game. The Twins were leading 4-3 in the bottom of the 6th inning and threatening. A sacrifice bunt moved Evans to third and Dave Bergman to second. Juan Berenguer, on in relief for Keith Atherton, was set to face Lou Whitaker. Berenguer’s first pitch to Whitaker was low and inside. Laudner back-handed the pitch, sprang from his crouch, and threw an absolute pill to third baseman Garry Gaetti, whose snap-tag nailed Evans for the second out. Two pitches later, Bergman would advance to third base on a wild pitch, which naturally leads to speculation that Evans would have scored to tie the game had he not been picked off. Berenguer eventually retired Jim Morrison on a fly ball to center to retire the side. Tigers threat, inning, game, and essentially season, over. Twins eventually went on to beat the Tigers 5-3 in the critical Game 4, before finishing them off the next day in Detroit with a 9-5 victory. The following quotes from the clubhouse that night are courtesy of the Chicago Tribune: ``I thought it was the turning point in the game,`` (Tigers Manager Sparky) Anderson said. ``Gary and I have a predetermined signal,`` Laudner said. ``If he feels he can get him out, he puts it on, and I`ll throw it down there. The ball was down and in, it kept me square to third base. ``It`s fun to do something when it works,`` Gaetti said. The play was embarrassing to the 40-year-old Evans. ``It was something I didn`t expect,`` said Evans, who was further embarrassed when he made two errors after being inserted at third base. ``The ball was in the dirt, and I went a half step too far. It was a big mistake, no question about it.``

I agree that Molitor's hit total in and of itself should not affect his ability to manage either way. But I do think it comes into play from a credibility standpoint. Managers need their players to respond to their cues and follow their lead. Being in the Top 10 in hits all time gives Molitor a certain level of status among those players who have an aspect of "baseball historian" in them. It may not mean anything to players who show up at the ballpark without even knowing which starting pitcher they will be facing that day. Those guys are another issue altogether. Take Joe Vavra, for example. One knock on him we heard about for years was, "What did he ever do in the major leagues as a player?" Answer: Nothing. He never made it above AAA. How are major league players supposed to buy-in to a guy that was never a major-leaguer himself? Not saying I necessarily agree with all of this, but I firmly believe these perceptions are out there.