ewen21

Jurikson Profar was hit three times yesterday and he was apparently hit the 3rd time because he stole a base in the FOURTH INNING! It is inappropriate to play hard in the fourth inning of a baseball game? Players are supposed to ease up on the pedal in the fourth inning of a ballgame? According to Paul Molitor they do. "It's the fourth inning," Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. "We're still playing baseball. He stole second base in that situation that I didn't think was an unnecessary situation, in my opinion. There's still a lot of game to be played." Twins manager Paul Molitor had a different view. "The thought process between the unwritten rules of the game is not clearly defined," he said. "What I might think and what he might think might be different things. I was surprised that [Profar] ran with the score the way it was, when he did. And getting hit there was something that Banister felt wasn't appropriate." http://www.startribune.com/busenitz-up-romero-down-and-take-out-your-unwritten-rule-books-and-turn-to-page-1-379/486368501/ "I thought the intent there was excessive, especially they tried to dial him up three different times. The guy's playing baseball hard. I guess you can look at it at the difference of what they're focusing in on and what we're focusing in on." Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/mlb/texas-rangers/article213732554.html#storylink=cpy The underlined part. In a big way.

Yeah. Whatever that is.

That would be nice if Gordon was hitting. He has been horrible in Rochester

That is nice that he did that, but I couldn't care less about those kinds of things. As long as the guy plays with heart, is a good teammate and contributes (check, check and check) he is A-OK in my books. If he signed autographs and was a "nice guy" but was a loafer and a clown? He could sign autographs and kiss babies until the cows come home and I wouldn't appreciate him one bit. I don't need players to talk to me or give me anything but 100%, some production and zero off the field BS. If a player can do that then that is all I ask as a fan

How is Wilson.s blocking, defense, framing and pitch calling? Is it so good that we need to keep him even though he has proven he cannot hit at the major league level? He's also 35 years old. YOu do realize this, don't you?

If that is the worst thing we can confess to then we're doing OK

Proof that offseason conditioning is a big deal

My mistake.

He's actually 24 and he deserves to be talked about right now because he is struggling immensely with a big BIG part of his game. He has to hit major league pitching and the fact is he isn't right now. This warrants a conversation, in my opinion.

Aaron Hicks doesn't make the Yankees tick. He's a nice complementary player.

He would have been so overmatched it wouldn't have been pleasant

I also think last year will be his best defensive year. He had 24 defensive runs saved. He was presented with an inordinate amount of opportunites and I feel that kind of this makes the run saving ability he displayed last year "unsustainable" That said, he hits four times a game. We cannot afford auto outs in our lineup and that is what he is now. This is hardly a scathing indictment, but rather a reasonable expectation for him. He has to hit at least ,250 and hit for SOME power. He showed he can hit 20 home runs last year. Or was it a mirage?

OK. How about the people who were calling for Mauer to get a three year extension or those who thought he would make a run at 3,000 hits? Can I call them out on their perspective? Or is that not cool?

They are busting him in and he can't do much about it. Look, I am not saying this is THE issue, but it's hard to get around the fact that he isn't in very good shape and he came off micro fracture surgery. HIs quick twitch muscle reaction just isn't what it was. This has reeked havoc on his confidence and ability to handle those pitches and that has an affect on what Parker calls pitch recognition. His conditioning and mindset go hand and hand and those two things are the root cause for a lot of his issues. If that questions his work ethic or character as a ballplayer then so be it. I have been a huge Sano backer since I saw Pelotero Ballplayer. I have been rooting for him and even when the allegations came through this winter I was still in his corner. Right now it is hard to brush off how he got to where he is. It is more to do with his own inactivity and overconfidence he had in coming back from the surgery without doing the work necessary.

We could have used another professional hitter to lengthen that lineup

He would have been a good pickup for the 2006 team but Gardy was so enamored with Punto

What??? I was speaking only theoretically. Then again, this was about when that team made it's run. Do I think this team will do the same? Not hardly.

Reminds me of the "can't mortgage the future" BS Terry Ryan threw out there during the 2006 season. we could have easily dished off Slowey for a veteran bat to give that team some teeth. I am a big believer that if you have enough young players having success in 2006 you HAVE TO trade assets in the farm system to attempt to make a serious run and getting to the WS. Strike when the iron is hot and this team never EVER did that. Instead we had Eeyore for a GM

It's becoming less and less important understanding that Buxton is a good kid who listens. etc. That is all very well and good but it doesn't absolve him from anything. This is the major leagues. He needs to put on his big boy pants and stop pressing so much. If he can't do that then maybe he doesn't have the makeup to be a major league ballplayer. Sano, needs to understand that he put himself in this position because he has terrible off seasons. We are talking five and six months at a time that he has to get healthy and in top shape. This what today's player has to do. If he doesn't understand that he will have a short career

NO ONE wanted this to happen. It would have been hard to stomach this if someone told me this would happen last October. This shows that a player can take two steps back over the winter if they aren't careful. Being a professional athlete requires a lot of attention all year round. TO refuse to accept ANY correlation between the drop in production to the changes in his body over the last several years would be to shut down a possible solution. Some people get angry about "questioning his work ethic" and such. Who cares? To spiral downward the way he has invites all kinds of questioning and it entirely reasonable to site conditioning as one of the causes. Not THE cause, but a cause. To say it has NOTHING to do with it is a far bigger assumption to make

Let's not get carried away about any Solarte, Hicks or Goodrum. If we are bemoaning the loss of them then we really need to step back and look at what we have. Buxton and Sano aren't getting all the blame, but the sure as heck need to be doing a lot better. Both are totally clueless this year and they have been given so much rope. Are they supposed to not be held accountable for their poor play? If you think the Twins are bad at developing players I agree with you. That, however, doesn't excuse Buxton or Sano for dreadful performances. There are plenty of players younger than them outperforming them by a wide margin. I am tired of hearing "give them time" These are supposed to be blue chippers. They should be performing at a much higher level and Sano really needs to take ownership of the fact he had an awful winter preparing for baseball. That is on him. Let's just face facts.

He has quietly become the leader of this club, in my opinion

OK here we go

A lot of people were pushing to get Darvish whatever it takes so..... Verlander might have us at or near .500, but this team has so many holes and other things to be concerned about rather than a guy we weren't going to get anyay

Nick, as always, excellent work. THere is one thing, however, that I have comment on with regards to this offense. This article didn't say go there, but other articles recently have with regard to the negative affect the Buxton and Mauer injuries have had on the lineup. Thus far this year these two players have given the Twins 228 at bats and have produced a COMBINED 12 extra base hits. Buxton has given us at .158 average and an OPS of .383. When these guys come back Joe is going to need to do more than just walk, hits singles and bat around .280 and Buxton is going to need to hit the reset button back to zero, pretend this is a new start, and get his act straightened out. Talk about his speed and defense all day long, but if he can't .200 in his first 15 or 20 games back I am done waiting. A demotion has to be in order. There needs to be accountability on the Twins end