BD57

Dozier is far & away the most valuable commodity. He's also the only player we presently have who would belong in a "pennant contender" lineup - - - - if he's traded, we darn well better get back "pennant contender quality" pitching.

It would be wonderful if politics stayed out of here - especially knowing that anything critical written about certain politicians of a different political persuasion would yield howls of protest, etc. .... BEYOND ALL THAT ... I don't like trading someone who a contender would be happy to have in its lineup / rotation in the hope that someone you get back might develop into a a player a contender would be happy to have in its lineup / rotation - not when your current roster is otherwise devoid of such types. I know, that's a "duh" for most folks. That still holds true in the case of "hope you get 2 back" trades - it just seems that, more often than not, you take a step back . . . . . you lose the guy who you know is "contender quality" and, more often than not, do no better than 'break even.' A team like the Twins, which isn't prepared to out-bid others for the "A-List" free agents, has to identify & develop talent internally. IMO.

Good discussion article. Dozier is a "better than contender average 2B" right now (one of the few the Twins have). Even if you get a true #1 in return, he pitches once every 5 days, Dozier plays all 5 (more often than not) - you're giving up a lot the other 4 to get that one day with the #1.

Understand being concerned, but keeping him in Minnesota hoping he'll figure it out isn't getting him anywhere.

Sano isn't going to learn to hit major league pitching in Rochester. He needs to stay in Minnesota & play. As far as his defense is concerned, that's a work in progress which will require a lot of ground balls before & between games, even if he has the best work ethic you could hope for - put another way, it's going to take time, but if he's willing to work, he should be at least "serviceable."

It's not "all Mauer's fault" because he's one guy, and a team can't stink because of one guy. The notion that the Twins aren't spending money to get guys who can help because of Mauer's contract - that's BS, IMO. You don't pass on guys who can help because you have one bad contract, not in a game where you're not subject to a salary cap. Mauer's been one part of a whole series of misfortunes . . . . Mauer & Morneau were going to be at the heart of this order for years, but we lost them both & haven't recovered.

Best wishes for Glen - here's hoping surgery & rehab goes well and he regains full use of his arm & shoulder . . . if he can pitch, great, but what matters most is the rest of his life.

When a team is playing as poorly as the Twins have been, there's very little on the Major League Roster that's going to be attractive 7/31 trade bait. What the Twins need is a number of guys to get on a roll for the next 6-7 weeks . . . enough to create some value. If what we've seen continues, we might was well bring up the kids & let them learn in the Bigs.

For the Twins to sign a FA, we'd need a FA who wants to sign w/ the Twins (i know - "duh!!!"). I suspect the Twins would have to pay a premium to lure the type of FA which could "fix the problems" - those guys first interest will be in New York, Boston, Chicago, LA . . . huge markets where there are significant off field opportunities too. Being "just as good" isn't going to be enough. You guys think the Twins have that kind of money? I suspect the answer is "no." - not to the extent that they can build a championship roster through free agency. Which means "farm system."{

Well, to be fair, that's the way most teams operate, if they have a guy who is a dependable closer - the ones that "close by committee" tend to do so because they don't have any one guy who they can count on. With that said, having two guys who are capable might affect your evaluation of whether Perkins or Jepsen is "available" on a particular day. What you need to take full advantage of having two guys capable of closing is at least two guys capable of pitching the eighth inning. Here's the thing, though - - having two guys capable of closing, do you now become reluctant to pitch both of them in the same game, similar to the "pinch hitting with your second catcher" thing Gardy was loathe to do? Think about it - if the goal is to spread out the work, then the preferred practice would be to avoid pitching them both in the same game because doing so means it's been "the same number of days since they pitched" for both of them until you spread them out again. Sure, you can ignore that for a couple of days in important games, but at some point in time, that thought starts lighting up like a neon sign . . . . Maybe you let matchups determine it - if both are available, who's coming up in the 9th for the other side & which guy has a better record against those guys?

The guys seem to be playing "happy" baseball. We're getting good production from Dozier, Plouffe, Hunter & others. Perkins has been everything we'd hope for.

"scoring a run" would be a nice start.

Thank you for sharing your grandfather with us. May God be with and bless you and your family in the days ahead.

Nice article. Dozier comes off really well.

Don't go making sense .....

While we all know about the pitching problems from last year, during last 1/2 - 1/3 of the season, our starting lineup should've been playing for Rochester in the International League. At what position(s) last year did we even get "average" production?

John, anticipatory congrats on 20 years with TVOR - glad to hear you don't want or need another option.

We wanted Morneau or Parmelee and preferably both - to have big years. If Morneau did, then we'd have something to build on if we kept him & something of value to trade if we didn't. If Parmelee was having a good year, we'd have more options re: keep Morneau or trade him. But, to date, neither of them are having a good year. And the Twins lineup looks like Swiss Cheese - way too many holes. Morneau's performance doesn't merit the money he's getting. Problem is, we really don't have anyone to plug into his spot - as mediocre as he's been compared to other 1st basemen, he's the best we have. Morneau isn't himself; Parmelee hasn't shown he's capable of being an "average" 1st baseman. We got issues.

Cannot begin to imagine the pain of burying a child ....

Geez, Hicks ..... makes some great catches and other times he looks absolutely flummoxed.

I might go with "Trampled Under Foot" for Delmon Young and "The Song Remains the Same" for the rotation

My completely unscientific impression .... Morneau doesn't appear to be staying in on the ball the way he did when he was hitting HRs. He's always had a bit of a look like he's pulling off the ball, but it's more pronounced (IMO) this year.

I understand we're wearing throwbacks .... the Braves are Brewers, btw - don't understand why we're not wearing "Home" Saints unis.

Anyone know why we're wearing road units at home & the Brewers are wearing home unis on the road?

IMO - please note what that means - Gardy's done a decent job. I don't like the way his loyalty plays out sometimes .... seems like we have to use at least two spots in the batting order on guys who've proven they can't hit a lick. Punto getting as many starts as he did, Bartlett getting buried at AAA for as long as he was, things like that. But, ultimately, stuff like that doesn't happen in a vacuum; if the front office put guys who were clearly better on the 40 man, we wouldn't have heard so much about guys battling their tail off, etc. Look at the batting order. How many of the slots are filled with guys who rate out at "league average starter or better"? Mauer, yes; Willingham, yes; Morneau, if he recovers his game, yes ... after that? As a unit, it that batting order "league average or better?" When we play defense, are the 8 guys we run out there "league average or better?" We know the answer where starting pitching is concerned. And, IMO, there was only one stretch - and that stretch was over by the time post-season began (2006 - injuries to Radke & Liriano) - when we had "post-season worthy starting pitching." We've done pretty well with rosters which were outgunned by the time we got to the post-season. Gardy has something to do with it ... but he has the same shortcomings as the rosters he took to the post season. Pretty good, but not great; better than average, but you don't play "average" in the post season. We'll see how Gardy manages this season - is he able to do what Tom Kelly did right before he retired?