Heinie Manush

Kiriloff not added to the roster. Wonder what that means?

Celestino is a roster management tactic. Delay having to make a 40 man move until things shake out. He needs to be in AAA, not because he can't play a useful role here, but because I believe that he could become an everyday player with development I'd prefer Garlick to Upton. Burning two of Celestino's five annual call-ups is pretty close to a non-issue for me.

I'm wondering whether we had to take on Sanchez in order to make the Donaldson deal happen. As I understand it, he was offered arbitration before the lockout so we or the Yanks couldn't just withdraw the offer. In any case, his salary isn't overly burdensome. he just isn't a good fit for our team.

I know that I sound like the kid who got the fancy new bike for Christmas but didn't like the streamers on his handlebars, but let me at least throw this out there. Donaldson 21M, Kiner-Falafa 5M, Rortvedt 1M, Random DH/Bench Bat 2M, Stud pitcher(s) $20M= $49M Correa $35M, Urshela 6M, Godoy 1M, Sanchez 7M, = $49M I only pose this question because I really like Kiner-Falafa. I'm not ungrateful, mind you, just too much time on my hands I guess.

I was really excited with the first two moves. Gray and Kiner-Falafa plugged two holes at minimal dollar cost. Then the Donaldson debacle. Essentially Garver, Donaldson, Rortvedt and taking on about 14M for two useful but not particularly needed players in order to dump 7M, 21M and 8M over the next three years. I hope like hell that this doesn't signal a retrenchment and Pohlad getting cold feet about the aggressive foray into the free agent market with Donaldson. Trevor Story? Not a big fan. Damn, Kiner-Falafa was exactly the kind of shortstop we needed.

About the Astros missing on Brady Aiken, remember that they used that pick to draft Bregman the next year, then choosing Kyle Tucker with their own pick. For high draft picks they get Correa, Bregman and Tucker. We get Buxton and a utility player. Bigger difference than it may originally seem.

I remember when they drafted Kohl Stewart I thought: ""right-handed high school pitcher, he must have a power arm." Not the case.

Rule geeks out there. Why wasn’t Donaldsons AB foul ball/dead ball. Ball hits batter/runner in foul territory ball us dead. Strike on JD Polanco returns to first.

I want him to be an ace so it’s easy to overlook a really decent start. Credit where credit is due.

Any thoughts about catchers going away from the low squat to better block balls in the dirt with a guy on third.

CBA experts. Sano has 5.06 years service time. I believe that he can be sent to the minors. He’d have to pass through waivers which he would. Am I correct? Seems as if it would be the last chance.

Such a small difference between winning and losing close games. No player can be laser-focused for every minute of every game over a long season. The damn thing with this beautiful game is that those moments of inattention will often find you. Example: La Tortuga rounds second widely and can't score on a double with one out. We fail to pick him up. That run likely changes the game. Somehow teams playing well have fewer of these lapses than teams playing poorly. I believe that this ebbs and flows over the course of a season so there's hope.

I'm going to side with the FO on this issue. I firmly believe that this service time "loophole" will go away fn the coming CBA and i believe that Fal/vine knows this.

I, too, believe that the FO was sincere in leaving Kiriloff off the opening day roster. Cave/Garlick/Arraez rather than an inexperienced Kiriloff coming off a poor spring made sense. Remember the rushing of Aaron Hicks and Buxton. The biggest reason I don't think that service time was a key consideration is that I believe that it is almost certain that this loophole will be closed in the coming CBA.

Argggggh. I'm so happy to be beyond the Terry Ryan anti-analytics reign but Rocco seems to be a slave to them. I'll give him credit for being consistent, but pulling in the infield: in the sixth inning, with a one run lead, with no outs, with a runner on second as well as third... for Trout makes no sense.

Cave, Ehrie, Marwin. The plan to go with them to weather the injury storm was not without merit as each has shown that they can be valuable fill-in players. Sadly, none has given us even decent production. Add to this that none of Kepler, Eddie, Luis or Jorge has stepped it up and we've got real problems. The opener/bullpen games have taxed our relievers. Trade deadline has passed. Starling Marte would have helped at a price that didn't seem very high. Gotta jump start this thing. Call up La Tortuga and one of the corner guys. DFA Ehire or Vargas. Send Wade down. Cave becomes a back up. And use a #5 starter.

Any idea why we pinch hit for Avila to lead off the 7th. Sitting your best defensive catcher with a two run lead with no 3rd catcher to back up seemed odd. Avila injury?

A newly released novel by Emily Nemens, Cactus League, is, in my opinion, a gem.

I'm here to stick up for Ehire. When healthy we have 11 starters to rotate through 9 positions (counting Garver and Gonzalez). 6 or 7 days a week the starting nine comes from these eleven. The other two guys provide bench bats. For the twelfth guy, I want a fielder that I can count on to make the plays. Adrianza is that. The alternative is Austidillo which allows both Garver and Castro to be in the lineup. Arraez, while perhaps the better player, just doesn't fit the vacancy that we expect to have.

He had success with the sneaky fastball over the top. Now the hitters know what's coming and Hildy's all but abandoned it. Perhaps he can work on another pitch from that arm slot. Otherwise, just another case of major league hitters adjusting to a gimmick pitcher.

I figured that Adelberto would turn up "injured". After 10 days he gets 20 days to pitch in the minors to show that he can adapt to the relief role. Buying time is all. Not a bad strategy.

Dang it Eddie, two run lead, dive for that ball.

CJ base running blunder. Hope it doesn't hurt us.

Awful effort all around.

Willians at 3rd tomorrow afrernoon.