rogrulz30

He is only worth that if he is a full time catcher, he isn't and won't be every again, which makes his value very very poor, unless he starts hitting for power.

I am nuts. I can be, as I said miraculous scenario, why not??

I wanted to take a look at some points that have been hot topics for the last couple weeks. I wanted to look at the best way to improve the teams performance right now, and as the homer would say right the ship. At this point being 10 games back and being 15 games under .500, I am not giving the Twins much of any chance of doing anything, but I can talk about it. I also want to mention some Joe Mauer topics that have been a non stop thing the last couple weeks. Joe Mauer is healthy!! Joe Mauer is also a slow starter, it is only mid May. Joe Mauer is starting to get boring to watch. We have seen this before, except now it is in spots where it doesn't make much impact in the games. I am going to throw out a couple of scenarios: 1. To make Joe Mauer worth the 23M he will be making he has to learn to hit the ball for power. There is no question his value is a lot higher in the #3 spot in the lineup, then the number 2. If he doesn't hit for power we really need to suck it up and throw Mauer in the 2 spot. This is the main reason why I think we need to unload Vavra. The worth of Mauer is worth more than keeping Vavra around. Yes I know this may not be the be all for him to hit for power, but it wouldn't hurt at all at this point. I have watched the same thing from Mauer now and it isn't spectacular. I am sure Mauer wants to do more, I am not sure he knows what to do at this point. I know he is smart enough to give the team a chance for him to hit the ball out of the park. If we are not going to change, then lets change the lineup. I really think we are going to get the .298/5 HR year from Mauer. YES! great spot batting #2, not worth the 23M a year unless he can catch more often than he is now. I was a proponent for the deal, I probably always will, but if we have to be stuck with the performance, lets put him in the places he needs to be. Lets say we can right the ship this year, Yes it is a long shot, but what the hell else is there to talk about at this point. Move Vavra, bring in somebody else, we need a change for some of the reasons I mentioned above. Span, CF Mauer, C Doumit, DH Willingham, LF Morneau, 1B Plouffe, 3B Dozier, SS Carroll, 2B Revere, RF Casilla Utility Butera Bench Yes, this would have to happen I think Pavano Diamond Hendriks, Liriano to replace when he gets the confidence back Duensing Blackburn The rest of the bullpen has been very surprisingly good. Eliminate Capps from the "closer" role and go by committee. I don't care what that looks like, we just can't have Capps close games, or out there in just "save" situations or tie game situations in the 9th. The main changes would be Vavra gone, Mauer batting #2, keep Diamond up, bring Hendriks back up, put Duensing in the starting rotation, eliminate the closer role. If Morneau can swing the bat, the lineup just gets soooo much better. Once Valencia got sent down, and Morneau is healthy the offense gets a lot better. The team gets a lot better. Let me be the homer we all are and just hope something miraculous happens. If I was the front office, I would do these things on May 17th in the middle of the AL Central part of the schedule. After all said and done, I can't watch Blackburn/Marquis pitch anymore, we have 0 chance of winning with them on the mound unless the Twins put up 8 runs in a game. We are stuck with Blackburn, the Twins are going to have to eat the 3 million from Marquis. Lets change that up so I can watch games that the opponents don't have 4 runs by the 4th inning.

I wanted to take a look at some points that have been hot topics for the last couple weeks. I wanted to look at the best way to improve the teams performance right now, and as the homer would say right the ship. At this point being 10 games back and being 15 games under .500, I am not giving the Twins much of any chance of doing anything, but I can talk about it. I also want to mention some Joe Mauer topics that have been a non stop thing the last couple weeks. Joe Mauer is healthy!! Joe Mauer is also a slow starter, it is only mid May. Joe Mauer is starting to get boring to watch. We have seen this before, except now it is in spots where it doesn't make much impact in the games. I am going to throw out a couple of scenarios: 1. To make Joe Mauer worth the 23M he will be making he has to learn to hit the ball for power. There is no question his value is a lot higher in the #3 spot in the lineup, then the number 2. If he doesn't hit for power we really need to suck it up and throw Mauer in the 2 spot. This is the main reason why I think we need to unload Vavra. The worth of Mauer is worth more than keeping Vavra around. Yes I know this may not be the be all for him to hit for power, but it wouldn't hurt at all at this point. I have watched the same thing from Mauer now and it isn't spectacular. I am sure Mauer wants to do more, I am not sure he knows what to do at this point. I know he is smart enough to give the team a chance for him to hit the ball out of the park. If we are not going to change, then lets change the lineup. I really think we are going to get the .298/5 HR year from Mauer. YES! great spot batting #2, not worth the 23M a year unless he can catch more often than he is now. I was a proponent for the deal, I probably always will, but if we have to be stuck with the performance, lets put him in the places he needs to be. Lets say we can right the ship this year, Yes it is a long shot, but what the hell else is there to talk about at this point. Move Vavra, bring in somebody else, we need a change for some of the reasons I mentioned above. Span, CF Mauer, C Doumit, DH Willingham, LF Morneau, 1B Plouffe, 3B Dozier, SS Carroll, 2B Revere, RF Casilla Utility Butera Bench Yes, this would have to happen I think Pavano Diamond Hendriks, Liriano to replace when he gets the confidence back Duensing Blackburn The rest of the bullpen has been very surprisingly good. Eliminate Capps from the "closer" role and go by committee. I don't care what that looks like, we just can't have Capps close games, or out there in just "save" situations or tie game situations in the 9th. The main changes would be Vavra gone, Mauer batting #2, keep Diamond up, bring Hendriks back up, put Duensing in the starting rotation, eliminate the closer role. If Morneau can swing the bat, the lineup just gets soooo much better. Once Valencia got sent down, and Morneau is healthy the offense gets a lot better. The team gets a lot better. Let me be the homer we all are and just hope something miraculous happens. If I was the front office, I would do these things on May 17th in the middle of the AL Central part of the schedule. After all said and done, I can't watch Blackburn/Marquis pitch anymore, we have 0 chance of winning with them on the mound unless the Twins put up 8 runs in a game. We are stuck with Blackburn, the Twins are going to have to eat the 3 million from Marquis. Lets change that up so I can watch games that the opponents don't have 4 runs by the 4th inning.

Capps has 7 saves, that stat is soooo over rated though. He has gotten quite lucky on a few of those. The biggest thing is, when your team comes back from 3 down, you need a shut down guy, Gardy, should not have put him out there.

I was wrong with liking giving Matt Capps a second shot in the closer role. When we let Nathan go, I thought the rangers overpaid for him, we needed someone that was decent at the back end, I thought Capps would get over the struggles he had last year. I was dead wrong. I was the only one that liked it, I can admit now that we should have found another arm in the bullpen to finish games. I am still a big proponent of the closer by committee option, I think the Twins could still figure that out running Capps and Perkins from the 7th on. Last nights game was one of those where you absolutely need someone that can help win that game. Lots of excitement in the 8th inning for the Twins. Willingham and Doumit really picked up Mauer in a big spot, I had a lot of fun watching that, it gave me some hope that the Twins could pull this one off. Here comes "Cappsy", strolling to the mound giving up a run and destroying the comeback at home vs the division leaders. It really pissed me off, you really need that win!!! Why can't Liriano pitch the fastball to contact? Does he have to throw a ball 2 ft outside the zone on every 0-1 pitch? I still think Liriano can get it, it is really mental, when he keeps the fastball down to lefties he is going to get them with the slider every time once he gets and stays ahead. It is also simple when he keeps the ball in on righties, throws the fastball up when ahead, they still can't catch up. I think a few weeks in the pen will fix Liriano, and hopefully get him on the right track to get some trade value for him byt the end of July. This is the make or break 30 games for what will transpire in July, who is going to be leaving, what we can start watching for the AA, AAA guys. I have to say last nights game was fun to watch, seeing the new guys bring us back, it looked like fun. Have we really lost anything from Cuddyer/Kubel. I would say not so far. I think those two moves were very good, in saving a buck and maybe even gaining something. I will talk about this next time.

I was wrong with liking giving Matt Capps a second shot in the closer role. When we let Nathan go, I thought the rangers overpaid for him, we needed someone that was decent at the back end, I thought Capps would get over the struggles he had last year. I was dead wrong. I was the only one that liked it, I can admit now that we should have found another arm in the bullpen to finish games. I am still a big proponent of the closer by committee option, I think the Twins could still figure that out running Capps and Perkins from the 7th on. Last nights game was one of those where you absolutely need someone that can help win that game. Lots of excitement in the 8th inning for the Twins. Willingham and Doumit really picked up Mauer in a big spot, I had a lot of fun watching that, it gave me some hope that the Twins could pull this one off. Here comes "Cappsy", strolling to the mound giving up a run and destroying the comeback at home vs the division leaders. It really pissed me off, you really need that win!!! Why can't Liriano pitch the fastball to contact? Does he have to throw a ball 2 ft outside the zone on every 0-1 pitch? I still think Liriano can get it, it is really mental, when he keeps the fastball down to lefties he is going to get them with the slider every time once he gets and stays ahead. It is also simple when he keeps the ball in on righties, throws the fastball up when ahead, they still can't catch up. I think a few weeks in the pen will fix Liriano, and hopefully get him on the right track to get some trade value for him byt the end of July. This is the make or break 30 games for what will transpire in July, who is going to be leaving, what we can start watching for the AA, AAA guys. I have to say last nights game was fun to watch, seeing the new guys bring us back, it looked like fun. Have we really lost anything from Cuddyer/Kubel. I would say not so far. I think those two moves were very good, in saving a buck and maybe even gaining something. I will talk about this next time.

So I was trying to get ready for softball season today. Hit a ball off of a tee for the first time in about 15 years and it was pretty fun. It was the first time I have smelt spring this year. Yes I live in Duluth, we get summer really late!!! I was thinking about the Twins game wondering what the line was first off. I thought it would be Angels -122, it was -145, lost a little interest, but wanted to watch the game. Unfortunately, (fortunately after knowing the result) the wife of the guy I was playing ball with had things recorded, so we had to wait. Ended up not watching the game at all, caught the very last end of the TV show, Twins Post Game, and saw what made my day, Danny Valencia is optioned to AAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I predicted this would happen, and Luke Hughes would take his place this year, well at least I got 50/50 on this one. This is very overdue in my eyes, as I have been the biggest Valencia hater there is. I want to mention my thoughts on why this was the time for this. Valencia has been a plague for this team for over a year. He is a pompous ass, he hasn't improved in offense or defense. He is unwilling to learn, has pretty much said FU to the team. This was the best move the Twins could have pulled to do a couple of things, make a statement!!!! 1st, 2nd get some new blood and excitement for this team. One man can be a plague, in this case we have a plague on the offensive time, we have a plague on fluidity in pitching, Liriano moving to the bullpen to get confidence was another great move, right or wrong, if Liriano can get CONFIDENCE, he can be a starter on this team. I believe this is what is going to happen. The rotation is going to get an improvement, the lack of Liriano bringing the confidence down will be huge. Having Liriano learn the bullpen, throwing, rather than aiming is going to give him confidence. I am going to make the homer statement of the year. Next 20 games, Twins 13-7. Unfortunately today was my favorite 2012 Twins moment, besides opening day. Go Twins!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I was trying to get ready for softball season today. Hit a ball off of a tee for the first time in about 15 years and it was pretty fun. It was the first time I have smelt spring this year. Yes I live in Duluth, we get summer really late!!! I was thinking about the Twins game wondering what the line was first off. I thought it would be Angels -122, it was -145, lost a little interest, but wanted to watch the game. Unfortunately, (fortunately after knowing the result) the wife of the guy I was playing ball with had things recorded, so we had to wait. Ended up not watching the game at all, caught the very last end of the TV show, Twins Post Game, and saw what made my day, Danny Valencia is optioned to AAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I predicted this would happen, and Luke Hughes would take his place this year, well at least I got 50/50 on this one. This is very overdue in my eyes, as I have been the biggest Valencia hater there is. I want to mention my thoughts on why this was the time for this. Valencia has been a plague for this team for over a year. He is a pompous ass, he hasn't improved in offense or defense. He is unwilling to learn, has pretty much said FU to the team. This was the best move the Twins could have pulled to do a couple of things, make a statement!!!! 1st, 2nd get some new blood and excitement for this team. One man can be a plague, in this case we have a plague on the offensive time, we have a plague on fluidity in pitching, Liriano moving to the bullpen to get confidence was another great move, right or wrong, if Liriano can get CONFIDENCE, he can be a starter on this team. I believe this is what is going to happen. The rotation is going to get an improvement, the lack of Liriano bringing the confidence down will be huge. Having Liriano learn the bullpen, throwing, rather than aiming is going to give him confidence. I am going to make the homer statement of the year. Next 20 games, Twins 13-7. Unfortunately today was my favorite 2012 Twins moment, besides opening day. Go Twins!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lexi casilla B+ I have enjoyed watching casilla this year, has played defense well, been more patient at the plate, batting over .280, going to bat #2 in the lineup now.

Wow, sorry for the horrible grammar I will make sure to change that. Didn't know it was a grammar test on my own blog.

I saw the disgust on Gardy's face when pulling Hendriks in the 3rd inning. I too was disgusted, had to change the channel. I actually told my wife I felt bad for Gardy. I would feel bad in the situation he is in, when his hands are tied. What do you do, you have to make the trek out there before the 6th inning every game as your team is not in any game. I went through the bad times for the Twins, but the thing is I expected losses, they were underdogs, but yet they fought tooth and nail to try and win games. We have veterans on this team, veterans that know they have a job in the Major Leagues and whatever the team does, they will still be playing if here or somewhere else. In the glum years the players fought to stay up, and was quite fun to watch them earn their way on the team. Honestly this team really is done, they know the starting pitching is soooo bad that they can't keep up, no matter what offense you put out there. You would think that in early May being 6 games out of first place, you still have some hope, but when you are 6-17 and have the absolute worst pitching staff I have ever seen, you know you are in for problems, and lots of them. I love Twins Daily, I am on here quite often just reading takes of some of the other fans, it is great. I think we are running out of topics, as I am. We are stuck talking about Drew Butera. Yes, that is the biggest hits on the forum. Clete Thomas, Drew Butera, Brandon Inge, and Sean Burroughs are the topics. Yes, Morneau was a scare, he will be back Friday. It is unfortunate that it has come to firing Gardy!!! I know he is going to get the brunt end of this teams misfortunes. I think it is inevitable. This is going to be a real long season if there isn't a change. Teams are just feeding off of the fact they get to face this rotation. I have to say right now I can't watch! That is rare for me not to watch baseball, let alone watch my favorite team. At this point do you think the Twins are going to make any sort of comeback? Realistically, the optimist would say, hey get done with the first 35 games, if we are within 7 games, lets see if we can play the weak central competitively, right? I would hope that is the case, I am guessing we would sink lower and lower into the abyss of MLB due to a rotation that isn't going to get any better. It has come to the point where in order to appease the fans, we may have to revamp the whole thing. I get used to "Twins" baseball, but that has been eliminated since leaving the Dome. Something new for me as a Twins fan would seeing an entire new style. TK, to Gardy is all I have seen and been used to. I am guessing we will be seeing the new "Twins" baseball here sooner than later. The over/under in games Gardy gets thrown out of is 1 more in a Twins uniform in my opinion. I know this is a Twins blog, but I can write whatever I want, it is my blog. I have to say I have season tickets to the Minnesota Vikings. The NFL is the most profitable league in the US. The Minnesota Vikings is the 16th highest market in the league, out of 32 teams. We are right in the middle and would be a very profitable team for the NFL with a stadium. Obviously sports fans want/need a stadium. Hell the Gophers got a stadium. Problem is that it is an election year. (Has anybody seen the Wire?) Politicians are gross!!!!!!!!!!! I may catch hell for this statement but I don't care. I don't vote!! I would vote if I seen someone worthy of making decisions that were favorable to me, or my family, I am selfish. In my mind the only reason we don't have a stadium resolotion for an NFL, yes NFL team is because this is a stupid election year, and the legislature and politicians need to delay how the decisions are going to go, or delay the inevitable, because they need to see how voters would vote on certain deals. WE VOTED YOU IN MAKE A F'N DECISION THAT IS BEST FOR THE CITY/STATE, NOT WHETHER OR NOT YOU ARE GOING TO GET VOTED IN AGAIN BASED OFF OF A DECISION YOU SELFISH PRICKS!!! I can be selfish, I am not in office, if you are in office you make decisions that is right. First off, if there were decisions that are going to be made whether or not to have an NFL team here MAKE THE DECISION. I am a fan of getting a stadium, most people in my world are as well, and I understand the people that don't want to pay the money for it, due to the fact they aren't into sports I get that. What is the most watched product, yes NFL. I am not a religious person as well, great give me crap for that I don't care once again, but I would have another way to create money to help fund a stadium. SELL LIQUOR ON SUNDAYS ADD A SMALL TAX!! Put freaking slot machines at Canterbury and Running Aces. Let me tell you every person has a choice of putting money in a slot machine at Mystic, I can put 1 to probably a million dollars or more in a slot machine, why are you going to limit the opportunity to put money in a machine at canterbury or running aces. I live in Duluth, I can go to the holiday right now and probably buy 10 grand worth of powerballs tomorrow, along with 10 grand worth of lottery tickets, I can go down the street to Fon Du Luth Casino, do the same in the slots or black jack, hell I can go over the bridge to superior and play as much slots as I want in any bar. These are the things I can't do, I can't buy liquor on Sundays, (WTF?) Nope no alcohol sales on Sundays, I can go over the bridge, thank you Superior, WI for selling my 31 year old ass liquor on Sundays. I can't play poker online for real money, even though I can put money in an online account and play slots. You will sell me cigarettes that kill thousands a year, but you won't sell me marijuana. I GUARANTEE I CAN FIND WAYS TO FUND AN NFL STADIUM THAT ISN'T GOING TO KILL ANYBODY, IF SOMETHING WERE TO HAPPEN IN ANY OF THOSE SCENARIOS IT WAS FROM A CHOICE THEY MADE. I am soooooooooooooooo sick of politics/politicians. P.S. I love living here, we have a lot of freedoms, but some of these things are really ridiculous. That is the end of my rant.

I saw the disgust on Gardy's face when pulling Hendriks in the 3rd inning. I too was disgusted, had to change the channel. I actually told my wife I felt bad for Gardy. I would feel bad in the situation he is in, when his hands are tied. What do you do, you have to make the trek out there before the 6th inning every game as your team is not in any game. I went through the bad times for the Twins, but the thing is I expected losses, they were underdogs, but yet they fought tooth and nail to try and win games. We have veterans on this team, veterans that know they have a job in the Major Leagues and whatever the team does, they will still be playing if here or somewhere else. In the glum years the players fought to stay up, and was quite fun to watch them earn their way on the team. Honestly this team really is done, they know the starting pitching is soooo bad that they can't keep up, no matter what offense you put out there. You would think that in early May being 6 games out of first place, you still have some hope, but when you are 6-17 and have the absolute worst pitching staff I have ever seen, you know you are in for problems, and lots of them. I love Twins Daily, I am on here quite often just reading takes of some of the other fans, it is great. I think we are running out of topics, as I am. We are stuck talking about Drew Butera. Yes, that is the biggest hits on the forum. Clete Thomas, Drew Butera, Brandon Inge, and Sean Burroughs are the topics. Yes, Morneau was a scare, he will be back Friday. It is unfortunate that it has come to firing Gardy!!! I know he is going to get the brunt end of this teams misfortunes. I think it is inevitable. This is going to be a real long season if there isn't a change. Teams are just feeding off of the fact they get to face this rotation. I have to say right now I can't watch! That is rare for me not to watch baseball, let alone watch my favorite team. At this point do you think the Twins are going to make any sort of comeback? Realistically, the optimist would say, hey get done with the first 35 games, if we are within 7 games, lets see if we can play the weak central competitively, right? I would hope that is the case, I am guessing we would sink lower and lower into the abyss of MLB due to a rotation that isn't going to get any better. It has come to the point where in order to appease the fans, we may have to revamp the whole thing. I get used to "Twins" baseball, but that has been eliminated since leaving the Dome. Something new for me as a Twins fan would seeing an entire new style. TK, to Gardy is all I have seen and been used to. I am guessing we will be seeing the new "Twins" baseball here sooner than later. The over/under in games Gardy gets thrown out of is 1 more in a Twins uniform in my opinion. I know this is a Twins blog, but I can write whatever I want, it is my blog. I have to say I have season tickets to the Minnesota Vikings. The NFL is the most profitable league in the US. The Minnesota Vikings is the 16th highest market in the league, out of 32 teams. We are right in the middle and would be a very profitable team for the NFL with a stadium. Obviously sports fans want/need a stadium. Hell the Gophers got a stadium. Problem is that it is an election year. (Has anybody seen the Wire?) Politicians are gross!!!!!!!!!!! I may catch hell for this statement but I don't care. I don't vote!! I would vote if I seen someone worthy of making decisions that were favorable to me, or my family, I am selfish. In my mind the only reason we don't have a stadium resolotion for an NFL, yes NFL team is because this is a stupid election year, and the legislature and politicians need to delay how the decisions are going to go, or delay the inevitable, because they need to see how voters would vote on certain deals. WE VOTED YOU IN MAKE A F'N DECISION THAT IS BEST FOR THE CITY/STATE, NOT WHETHER OR NOT YOU ARE GOING TO GET VOTED IN AGAIN BASED OFF OF A DECISION YOU SELFISH PRICKS!!! I can be selfish, I am not in office, if you are in office you make decisions that is right. First off, if there were decisions that are going to be made whether or not to have an NFL team here MAKE THE DECISION. I am a fan of getting a stadium, most people in my world are as well, and I understand the people that don't want to pay the money for it, due to the fact they aren't into sports I get that. What is the most watched product, yes NFL. I am not a religious person as well, great give me crap for that I don't care once again, but I would have another way to create money to help fund a stadium. SELL LIQUOR ON SUNDAYS ADD A SMALL TAX!! Put freaking slot machines at Canterbury and Running Aces. Let me tell you every person has a choice of putting money in a slot machine at Mystic, I can put 1 to probably a million dollars or more in a slot machine, why are you going to limit the opportunity to put money in a machine at canterbury or running aces. I live in Duluth, I can go to the holiday right now and probably buy 10 grand worth of powerballs tomorrow, along with 10 grand worth of lottery tickets, I can go down the street to Fon Du Luth Casino, do the same in the slots or black jack, hell I can go over the bridge to superior and play as much slots as I want in any bar. These are the things I can't do, I can't buy liquor on Sundays, (WTF?) Nope no alcohol sales on Sundays, I can go over the bridge, thank you Superior, WI for selling my 31 year old ass liquor on Sundays. I can't play poker online for real money, even though I can put money in an online account and play slots. You will sell me cigarettes that kill thousands a year, but you won't sell me marijuana. I GUARANTEE I CAN FIND WAYS TO FUND AN NFL STADIUM THAT ISN'T GOING TO KILL ANYBODY, IF SOMETHING WERE TO HAPPEN IN ANY OF THOSE SCENARIOS IT WAS FROM A CHOICE THEY MADE. I am soooooooooooooooo sick of politics/politicians. P.S. I love living here, we have a lot of freedoms, but some of these things are really ridiculous. That is the end of my rant.

That is a very good point, you can't stay we didn't give Gardy a chance to win it all, he had to figure out a way to beat the Yankees, he didn't do it. I like many others like Gardy, I also hate replacing managers as the fix all, (and I am not claiming Sirloin is saying that) If we were to go a new route, which I have thought about it all day, I know that is sad, I would be in favor of Sandberg, (which was one of my fav's growing up watching WGN), and Francona. I think Francona is very smart, and he would have the "WS" experience. I think the inability to coach Mauer,(or at least understand he isn't a 3 hitter right now)/Valencia, maybe even Nishi may have his job now.

I was wrong with pujols, I should have went with hunter, wow pujols isn't close to his old self

He has to hit the ball in the air and hit more hrs in the 3 spot, he isn't going to change, he needs to bat #2

I understand the change of guard idea, but I would have to think that I don't think it is the coaching staff, w/ the exception of vavra that makes the team bad. Injuries to very key players have made it difficult for gardy to put out a presentable product. When the higher ups can't put pitching on the team, your team will be bad. I would like to see this full year with gardy and really see if the manager really makes the difference

Realistically the onslaught of fans being fed up with this team is happening fast, the Twins can't win ballgames this year with the pitching staff they have. This is really going to be an ugly, ugly year.

It has started already, it is only going to get worse and worse as the Twins continue to lose after horrible pitching. They have no way to rectify the situation looking at the pitching rotation this year. At this point they are really going to have to dump players soon.

Wow, that is a helluva statement, not one that the Angels fans would want to hear. I said instantly that the Pujols signing was not very good for the Angels, I never thought the production would be that bad, I thought he would help of course, and be a great player, but maybe for 2 or 3 years, after that the decline would be there.

As Manny Acta from the Indians said " I feel sorry for the people who are going to see him going forward, because he's going to go off. He's getting close. I'm glad he's out of here." He is at home now vs the worst MLB rotation in the league, if he doesn't go off now, it could be pretty interesting for the Angels. Let's compare Mauer to Pujols right now: Mauer BA .325 OBP .419 SLG .428 1 HR (5 2b+3b) 13 RBI Pujols BA .216 OBP .266 SLG .295 0 HR (7 2b+3b) 4 RBI Would you have thought that after 21 games? 21 games is still a relatively small sample size for a hitter, but 88 AB's and signing someone for 10 years 240 millions, if I was an Angels fan I would be a little concerned anyway. With all the optimism coming into this year for the Angels being 9.5 GB the Rangers this year, I am glad I am not an Angels fan calling for Mike Scoscias head. http://www.halosheaven.com/2012/4/17/2956677/mike-scioscia-is-not-the-problem I did this for the first time this year, I may continue to do it, but I jumped on a place that is similar to Twins Daily and looked at what others are talking about for their team. The Angels have a similar record of the Twins, they had way higher expectations going in, before I looked I was expecting something to the point of Pujols facing the worst rotation in the league and have some high hopes. I didn't see anything of the sort. I did see a lot about the manager which actually surprised me at first, then I got to thinking that fans love to blame managers!!!!!!!!!! In every sport it is the easiest person to blame, and as I have pointed out before how many games to MLB managers win or lose in a 162 game schedule? Anyway I would have to agree with Acta on this one where Pujols could upstart his year vs the Twins starting tonight. My prediction tonight is Pujols has more RBI than the Twins score runs vs CJ Wilson.

As Manny Acta from the Indians said " I feel sorry for the people who are going to see him going forward, because he's going to go off. He's getting close. I'm glad he's out of here." He is at home now vs the worst MLB rotation in the league, if he doesn't go off now, it could be pretty interesting for the Angels. Let's compare Mauer to Pujols right now: Mauer BA .325 OBP .419 SLG .428 1 HR (5 2b+3b) 13 RBI Pujols BA .216 OBP .266 SLG .295 0 HR (7 2b+3b) 4 RBI Would you have thought that after 21 games? 21 games is still a relatively small sample size for a hitter, but 88 AB's and signing someone for 10 years 240 millions, if I was an Angels fan I would be a little concerned anyway. With all the optimism coming into this year for the Angels being 9.5 GB the Rangers this year, I am glad I am not an Angels fan calling for Mike Scoscias head. http://www.halosheaven.com/2012/4/17/2956677/mike-scioscia-is-not-the-problem I did this for the first time this year, I may continue to do it, but I jumped on a place that is similar to Twins Daily and looked at what others are talking about for their team. The Angels have a similar record of the Twins, they had way higher expectations going in, before I looked I was expecting something to the point of Pujols facing the worst rotation in the league and have some high hopes. I didn't see anything of the sort. I did see a lot about the manager which actually surprised me at first, then I got to thinking that fans love to blame managers!!!!!!!!!! In every sport it is the easiest person to blame, and as I have pointed out before how many games to MLB managers win or lose in a 162 game schedule? Anyway I would have to agree with Acta on this one where Pujols could upstart his year vs the Twins starting tonight. My prediction tonight is Pujols has more RBI than the Twins score runs vs CJ Wilson.

I also agree if Mauer is going to bat #3 he needs to hit for more power, or he needs to realize he is a really really good number #2 hitter, and put him there.

Boston continued to throw Valencia fastballs away, and Valencia tried to hit a homerun on every one of those pitches, most of them he of course hit a baby pop fly, or sent a tailor made double play ball to the shortstop. Nothing is going to be changed with Valencia, he is uncoachable, and will continue to try and hit the ball over the fence like the selfish player he is.

Well I get to take a look at two teams that I have a futures bet with a buddy on what team would win more games this year. Of course I took the Twins. Both teams are a futile 5-14. Both teams needed each other at this point, I am glad the Twins get to do it at home, or maybe the Royals are glad to see the Twins on the road since they can't win a game at their own place. 0-10 at home for the Royals to start the season in a season they host the All Star game and a lot of buzz surrounding the team is not a good start for that team. Teaford vs Pavano to start the weekend series and I believe for the 2nd time all season the Twins are favored. YES THE TWINS ARE FAVORED to win a baseball game. I want to say that I really don't like writing bad things about my favorite team. But when the team is 5-14 it is hard to find good things to write about, and to be honest it kind of pisses me off as well. It is what it is. I can say this for sure, it is only April, a lot can happen in a 162 game season. The optimist in me for the season will say that the Twins need to sweep this series and make it a big stepping stone to set up the West Coast Swing and play good baseball. There is nothing more that I want except to play good baseball and win a few series. Looking through the blogs and forums we all have our ideas on where things went wrong, who to blame, why we are sooo bad. The reality of the season is we have 3 quality starts in 19 opportunities. The Twins are batting .192 w/RISP or something close to that which is 28th in MLB. With somewhat of a small sample size those numbers are supposed to avg out for a season, the problem with that is when the numbers avg out in the wrong spots. You could bat .192 w/RISP when you are down by 8 runs or up 8 runs and it doesn't matter, it matters when you are up or down by a couple runs, we haven't had the big hits when we have needed them to win games. We have been in multiple games and haven't gotten the runs home. Blame Joe Mauer, sure, Morneau, absolutely, Valencia, yes, Span, sure-- they have all had AB, where they had the game on the line trying to get runs home, it hasn't worked so far, hopefully that will change. The way the Twins used to win games though was Pitching/Defense, it was never really talked about when you gave your ballclub a chance to win early in the games, we didn't need to score runs all the time in those spots because our pitchers put us in spots where it was easier to win. The boo birds are going to the wrong people at Target Field. The fans are expecting more because "hey we got this great ballpark" we need to spend more money and put a better product on the field. The fans are absolutely right, the fans also have to realize what they have invested in Morneau, Mauer and if they were or were not going to be healthy. This is a tough position for Terry Ryan to be in, of course we could have made moves, but if we were to make moves and those guys couldn't play we would be in the same spot.. The boos are going to Mauer because he is making the most amount of money and he is batting like **** in spots in the 7th inning on, when we need him because our pitching has been really bad. Batters can't be put in these spots consistently and be able to drive in runs on a consistent basis. The fans realistically should be cheering Mauer as he has played every game and is batting over .300, who typically has April be his poorest month. If the fans are going to boo at Target field, they should be booing Danny Valencia, and all the starting pitchers. (yes another Valencia dig) For the time being as well let us think about what Terry Ryan and Gardy have gone through to get to this point. A farm system that was left baren, Scott Baker who needs Tommy John surgery, a Jason Marquis who couldn't really pitch in spring training, and a very talented pitcher who needs a therapist. On top of that knowing or not knowing if their 2 stars would be healthy this year. Reality is the Twins are bad mainly because of the starting pitching. If somehow the 20 minute behind closed doors meeting between catchers and pitchers does anything and the starters are able to get some quality starts in the Twins will win games. WE NEED THAT TO START VS THE LOWLY KC ROYALS.