WiesbadenDAN

Just 15 more years on Bonilla's Mets contract. I would make that guy show up to spring training every year, just to make him run sprints, shag flyballs, pitch some BP....

Good stuff Nick! As a diehard Minnesotan and Twins fan I loved Perk not only because he was great but because he was one of us. Because of that I felt like he got who we were, although there is one thing he will never understand. That is the fact that we loved him no matter what and because he sat in in that dugout we were represented and represented with class. Thanks Glen!

I bet I will be up at 2am because we are so close to winning the playoff series!

I just like the fact that the BeeGees didn't immediately throw a supercharger on the brand new sports they were given and risk blowing the engine and voiding the warranty. First of all I never felt this team was quite ready, but yes in hindsight it would be great to have another dependable arm in the bullpen. Also, I have no idea what was happening behind the scenes in trying to acquire additional pieces for a possible run, so it hard for me too judge the BeeGees with a broad brush. I feel they made an honest evaluation of the situation. You can't wish for numbers guys and then get mad at them when they make statistical decisions. Like Sun Tsu said: “If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril.”

So it is not "shave big bunnies"?

MVP: Castro POY: Gibson Reliever: Shaggy Rookie: Mejia Changed my guesses 5 times...definitely overthought them at this point. I just hope all the races have at least a few deserving canidates.

Herr Kepler's development into at least a borderline all-star is one of my 3 keys to the Twins having success sooner rather than later. The others being Rosario and Berrios. So I am obviously bullish on the guy because I am fan of his and the Twins. SO....570 AB 286/343/492 28 2B/19 HR/3 3B. Solid defense and a great attitude. Bringe den Donner junger Mann!!! I will wear his jersey in Germany this summer and see if I can drum up some new fans. 20 years from now maybe Twins daily will have to spin off Twins Taglich.

Solid info! Now I am very hungry.

I really just hope for a K rate below 30% and the rest will take care of its self.

Horrible news, so young and apparently he had a very positive impact on those who knew him. RIP.

Yeah I have MLB.tv but I some how can't make it through the day without knowing the result of the games so it is not quite the same. Although the perspective is less influence by the emotions of the moment. And the replay versions taking 30-40 minutes is pretty convenient.

Thank you for keeping me in the loop. This site is more important to me than ever. I am currently in Germany and can only manage to watch about 10% of the games due to the odd hours and fondness for sleep. So I get most of my fix from this site and the amazing intellectual bickering that accompanies the articles. I do not post much, but I am truly thankful. I just hope I could frame my appreciation as well as Jason Castro can frame a borderline strike.

Towns Buxton Sano Wiggins Those 4 have MVP capabilities in the near future. The rest of the folks is difficult as there is to much splitting hairs. 25 years ago I just returned to Misawa AB Japan from a 10 month tour In Riyadh Saudi Arabia for Desert Storm/Shield . The trip back basically made me miss the first 5 games. I got to watch Game 6 live on Armed Forces TV and was hoping to see game 7 as well, but of course the military had other ideas. I was supposed to receive an award from the Wing Commander. I was a less than amused! However, this is not something that can be turned down without major consequences, especially for a peon like I was at that point in my Air Force career. SO I show up and it turns out the commander was from Minnesota, and guess what? Right, He sent the deputy commander to perform the duty, so as I can only assume so he could watch the Greatest MLB game ever played, and I was so pissed, I got to hear it on AFN radio, but NOT the same. Although, I still cheered like an idiot! My roommate recorded it for me...but set it to 3.5 hours on his VCR so it cut off in the 8th inning I think, that was just painfully funny at that point. I did not get to actually see the end of the game until about 3 months later when my mother sent me the whole game when it came out on VHS. The Commander that did not show up was Col McFarland. (first name I do not know), If by chance you you are reading this, I am still pissed!

Hopefully next spring I can forget that I read any of this!

Ya know Seth, even though I was pretty pessimistic coming into this season, I do not believe there was any way to predict many things that have gone wrong this season. Last season did seem a little bit like smoke and mirrors and I am hoping that this year was just as much in the opposite direction smoky and mirrory. The offense however has given me hope, and as you point out there is so much room for improvement. The pitching staff on the other hand is about to get expensive, if the Twins are serious at all about contending in the near future.

Well so that is just over half of his career IBB and going through box scores, it seems Cuddyer and Hunter come up quite a bit after Joe and if I remember correctly Justin had a clean up hitter mental block at times. granted FEAR may still have had something to do with some of the IBBs, but I think Lefty/righty match up with more strike out prone outcomes had something to do with it as well. It would be interesting to see who was after Joe for each of those IBBs...but I am way to lazy and scared to prove myself wrong.

"Mauer is just 15 intentional walks behind Killebrew’s 152. This statistic speaks to the respect that Mauer has around the league and with opposing managers." Or maybe it is how little respect for who is or was batting after Joe?

Agreed...5 for 5 Zander Wiel is my vote as well.

Yes they are making his jersey and I have to buy at least 5 for my German family members. This is going to be expensive! http://www.twinsmlbshop.com/search?controller=search&orderby=position&orderway=desc&search_query=kepler&submit_search=

Melting pot is missing Australia and Germany.

I think Kepler has a shot at ROY consideration as well.

I live in Germany and every once in a while someone will mention Max to me and ask what I think. If he makes an impact he will become very popular in a country who loves their sports stars. This could turn out to be not just a good on the field find, but also a marketing boom for MLB and the Twins. Germany is not a big basketball country and Dirk/Mav gear is everywhere. Please do not trade him, my German father in law really wants a Kepler Twins jersey!