Darius

Who cares if Milone is out of options? Honestly, why would finding a way to keep him be Amy kind of priority? You can find a beating heart to stand in the mound and lose games in the independent leagues (see Albers, who is Milone-Lite). It's mind boggling that there are two young starters lighting up AAA, with excellent stuff, and the Twins continue to run out Tommy Milone, who has been a ticking time bomb with an 88 mph arrow straight fastball for his entire career. The guy has never been a good pitcher. I have never seen semi-advanced sabermetrics be disregarded in such a way, when talking about a player and their value (by most fans). Only the Twins front office would make a decision that's this deplorable. I'm sorry, but that's just a fact. Throw the starting pitchers that the Twins have at their disposal I to another system, and there wouldn't be a single one that would continue to run out Tommy Milone when they've had a top 10 pitching prospect ready for The majors since mid-2015 (Berrios), and another very good prospect who has already spent half a season as the team's best pitcher (Duffey). It would be totally different if the Twins were 12-5 at this point. But, TR is sitting and watching this team in a tailspin, on the verge of being completely out of hope before May, and its nothing but status quo....which was FUBAR to begin with. If this season doesnt epitomize the reasons why TR needs to go, I don't know what more can be done (The bullpen situation, the Sano/Park debacle, the Duffey/Berrios set-up out of ST). Does he need to set the all-time loss record for someone other than a few fans to take notice of how utterly incompetent he is when it comes to managing an MLB roster?

Is it really a big surprise to anyone that is bullpen is one of the worst in the game? None of these guys have ever been that good (with the exception of Perkins, who is now two years removed from a full season of relevance as a closer). It's just awful roster management, which has been a recurring issue from this front office for two decades.

Just imagine how many bad relief pitchers TR could trade this guy for as the deadline approaches. But, seriously. If the Twins can't crawl back into it, and he keeps playing this way, on that contract, there could be some intruiging value there. This may be shocking to some, but it's not illegal to sell high.

Just what this organization needs...some now blood. /s The country club mentality this franchise has had since the early 90s is one of the main reasons why they're never successful, IMO.

Really nice to see Gordon putting up good number across the board (especially all of those doubles). Berrios picked up where he left off where he left off last year, as expected. He should be with the big club right now. Too bad they need to milk that service time. Really excited about Kohl Stewart. After all the concern about him, he looks primed to take a big step this year. The big league club is starved for pitching (even though it's been the offense off to a slow start). Really nice to see these young power arms putting it together (Stewart, Meyer, etc.). Again, they just need to get Berrios up here, and try to crawl back into this thing.

Look on the bright side: Our best pitcher is really looking in AAA this year.

Tommy Milone gave up a couple runs the third time through the order? Shocking. Absolutely unbelievable turn of events.

Why don't they just make Sano ride to the games on a crotch rocket, while drinking a beer and texting, helmetless. Zip line him down from the Bud Deck down to the batters box for every at-bat. Send him to Lifetime to play pickup basketball in a pair of Nike Shox after the game. I mean, he could get hurt getting out of bed in the morning. You can't live life scared.

If these guys "always have to be sent back" you have an organizational problem. Stop the BS lip service, do your job, and fix it. Can't wait to hear what TRs excuses are in 2017. Then 2018, 2019, 2020....and so on. Of course, it's never: "Truthfully, I made some really bad decisions, again, and would like to take some responsibility for this train wreck.....again."

I don't understand....why isn't spending money a "luxury" that the Twins have? No salary cap, boatloads of cash from a new stadium, owners are some of the richest people on earth. The Pohlads don't want to spend money to field a talented roster. It has nothing to do with whether or not they "have the luxury." They're cheap, plain and simple.

All you can do is laugh at this point. TR is just an awful GM (I'm sure this will be censored...because heaven forbid you talk straight about TR around here). Do people honestly think the Twins still have a chance to win anything this year? Then, if so, honestly think that Murphy will contribute to that in any way? I'm sorry, but he's not fixing a darn thing. They're 7 games out for the division, and the season isn't even two weeks old yet. It'll likely be 9 by the time the Angels leave town. Three teams in the division look pretty darn good (Royals, Sox, Indians). Let's get real here, folks. It's over.

Meh. The bullpen arms in the minors do nothing for this team. Terry Ryan won't call one up until the season will be longneck over. Also, the most promising one, IMO, is injured (Burdi). May should be starter. To me, that's a no brainier. He may not be a great one, but he has some of the best stuff in the organization. Also, I think he's showing he can't handle the bullpen mentally. He unravels mentally in tough situations. Not the guy I want trying to slam the door on someone else's base runners in the 7th/8th inning I don't know how anyone can think going into a season with guys like Fien, Abad, etc. in a major league bullpen is a good idea. Kevin Jepsen isn't a major league set-up guy, and Glen Perkins is no longer a major league closer. Not good ones, anyway. This is a bad bullpen top to bottom. Ryan Pressley is the only guy who suits his role at this point. Typical Twins way to sit and wait for thing to "normalize." I hate to break it ya, but this is "normalized."

There isn't another organization in any sport that has been ran this hysterically bad over two-plus decades, with no changes to top front office personnel. I wouldn't go down to that stadium this year if they paid me. It's unbelievable that there are big enough suckers out there to pay these prices to go watch this garbage. As long as that continues, nothing will change.

Dick Bremer gets more out of touch with reality every year. He makes Hawk Harrelson look like Elon Musk.

Symbolism.

1) I don't why people keep bringing up weight. It means nothing really, in the case of Sano or Santana. I wouldn't think there is any less risk if he was 230, instead of 280. 2). Sure, there is always risk at any position, including DH. The risk of injury when playing outfield, however, is not the same as DHing. That's clear. Schwarber wouldn't have torn his ACL, and would still be playing, if he could be DH'd. Assigning the same level of risk across the board is kind of preposterous. Why not minimize risk as much as possible? 3). It's different if Sano is a gold glover out there. But, he's not. He's bad. He's arguable cost the team a game already. I keep hearing "right field defense doesn't matter" from all of these people whose opinions are typically spot on. That's just not true. Right field defense was the lone difference between the Twins losing in the bottom of the ninth, and getting a chance to retake the lead in extra innings. Sure, a game here or there typically doesn't matter over the course of an MLB season....but there is also that rare time when a team loses a game 163, or finishes the season a couple of games out of the wildcard. Why not do everything you can to maximize your victories? Is DHing Park everyday really doing that, and putting Sano in RF really doing that (I don't care about sunk costs)? So many think it's a cut-and-dried yes. But, I think that's debatable. 4). There's also that pesky little thing called the future. Why teach your best player a new position? Especially when it's not realistic for him to be there long term. Let Sano be Sano, and have assets of significantly less value make a career altering change.

Punto is a pretty great representation of the Twins in '00s: Good enough at a few things to beat out bad competition for a spot, but never quite talented enough to be taken seriously or take the next step.

Swings at the balls, and watches the strikes. Rosario is a lost cause at the plate.

There isn't a more proficient team at stranding runners in scoring position with no outs. I guess that's what Molitor gets for batting Danny Santana in the two-hole. On the bright-side, finally something you can't really blame TR for. PAUL!

Guessing that Santana gets to sit and think about that one tomorrow night...

TERRY

That was impressive. Wow.

Very well written preamble to the game thread. As someone who has traveled Europe on a Eurial, and ridden a greyhound halfway across America (which I'm convinced is what actual Hell would be like), I feel your pain. I'm convinced it's some cruel, genius, marketing ploy thought up by airline execs. By the time I got to my destination, I would've paid ten times the going rate for the worst seat on the worst airplane.

I'm actually more concerned about Sano than Buxton at this point. Sano is chasing some really bad pitches. He just doesn't look as confident at the plate as he did last year. I think the effects of trying to play outfield is a real concern. Baseball is a game of confidence, and struggles in one area always seem to seep in other parts of the game. A lot of it has to do with pitchers having better scouting reports, but will he be able to make the necessary adjustments? I honestly can't say one way r the other at this point. Although, he did look much better last night, IMO (while DHing). Buxton, on the other hand, looks like his approach is much more refined this year. It looks sustainable. He's laying off those tough pitches, like fastballs up and out of zone, and breaking balls that start on the outside corner and break off the plate. When he is swinging, it seems to be a pitch he wants, and he swing with authority. That's just wasn't there last year. The strikeouts will eventually come down as he accumulates at bats. Another note: Dozier really concerns me right now. Pitchers are pounding him away, and he can't seem to figure it out. He could have a rough year. Hopefully they don't keep him in the lead off spot much longer.

Strike outs are overrated (in a negative kind of way). I'd prefer a guy who strikes out 300 times, and hits the ball with authority when it's put in play, as opposed to a guy like Mauer who "hates to strike out," so he weakly grounds into 2 DPs per game.