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Happy Opening Day! The Home Opener will get all the attention (and attendance). But which Twins/Royals game is "The Ticket" this week? We’ll break it down….. Best Pitching Matchup Monday, beacuse it includes Trevor May and he’s so important to this season. After spending over $100M on free agent pitchers the last two years, the Twins need some help. The 25-year-old May could be a big part of the rotation for several years to come.Last year, we watched May come up and walk the ballpark in his first game, but he ratcheted up his control after that, walking 15 guys in 43.2 IP – versus 44 strikeouts. He also looked pretty good in limited time in spring training. But what you’ll really want to watch is how he pitches with runners on base. That was a significant issue: he was a different pitcher when pitching from the stretch. Last year he had a .241 batting average against when the bases were empty, but .421 batting average against when a runner was on. When the bases were empty, he struck out four times as many batters as he walked. But when a runner was on, he walked more than he struck out. He was also three times more likely to give up a home run with a runner on base. May can look unstoppable when he is working with a clean slate. But when runners get on base, his pace slows, his control loosens and he looks flustered. Is it mechanics? Confidence? Composure? A little of each? See for yourself. Winner: Monday. Which Game Has Been Immediately Preceded By Five Months Of Not Going To A Baseball Game? Trick question. The answer is: Winner: All of them (provided you only go to one of the games). Which Game Has The Best Tickets Available? Well, the home opener has been sold out for weeks, thanks in part to a sweet sweatshirt you can get. The good news is Ticket King still has home opener tickets available for as low as $120. The next two games are the targets of true bargain hunters. I see reasonable Target Field tickets for Wednesday, but I see a whole slew of tickets under $10 for Thursday. (And they’re even cheaper if you use Twins Daily’s secret discount code below.) Winner: Thursday Which Game Can I Expense? The home opener allows your client to miss work, brag to their friends and start happy hour early. Seems like it’s custom made to me. Winner: Monday What If I Work For A Living? Then Wednesday night’s 7:10 game is for you. Plus, you’ll get to watch Kyle Gibson, who may need to work for a living if he doesn’t do a better job than that 3.2 inning start last Wednesday at Detroit. Winner: Wednesday Which Game Will Have The Best Weather? Spring sprung just in time for this series and for the whole homestand. Opt for the third game, which starts at 12:10 PM, giving you lots of sunshine and Vitamin D. Winner: Thursday because Vitamin D is important. Best Game For The Family Not only is Wednesday’s game the only one outside of school hours, it will also give you a chance to talk up Jackie Robinson to your kids, since the Twins (and all of MLB) will be celebrating the 68th anniversary of his first game. If you really want to make an impression, use the off day on Tuesday to watch the movie 42. Winner: Wednesday What If I Want To See The World Make No Sense? The Royals are the American League pennant winners AND off to a 6-0 start this season. Those are both hard to believe. But the big surprise is what has driven their hot start: home runs. The Royals rank second in major league baseball with eight home runs this year. That is amazing because -- as well as last year’s AL Champs played -- their power was anemic. They Royals hit just 95 home runs last year. This year they’re on pace for 216. And it’s not like they added a bunch of sluggers. One could argue that their biggest power addition was Kendrys Morales. Yup, the same Kendrys Morales who hit one home run in his seven weeks with the Twins. So if you want to see a team continue to surprise us, I recommend…… Winner: Monday, because there is no way this lasts, right? There you have it: Monday's home opener wins with three votes, but you can’t go wrong when baseball, spring and good weather come together. We’ll see you at the ballpark. Click here to view the article

(Originally posted on www.twinsandlosses.com) The Twins know when to Fuld them. They know when to walk away, know when to run. The Twins made moves after they convinced themselves that they were much better off than they actually were. Colabello was red hot to start the season. Gibson was putting up impressive stats for his first month. And Joe Mauer was non-existent. Well Bello cooled off, Gibson isn't the fireballer we thought, and Mauer is still M.I.A. That's not to say the Twins don't have some good pieces in the mix. Perkins has become a fine closer, with a few bouts where he does his best Eddie Guardado impression. Brian Dozier was almost an All Star. An average June, that's continued into July hasn't done much to prove the doubters wrong. Dozier is still one of the better players on the 25 man roster, and it's not even close. Aaron Hicks and Josmil Pinto have been sent to the minors, and haven't been seen or heard from since June. Sam Fuld closed the door on the Aaron Hicks experiment for the time being, and Kurt Suzuki's red hot season has allowed the Twins to let Pinto develop at AAA. Pinto has battled injuries, and his stats have been anything but impressive. Eric Fryer is hardly a threat in the line-up, but Gardy and Co. are more content to roll with Zuke and Fry Guy for this season. Speaking of Gardy, he might be fired this season. His entire staff might go too. And hopefully Terry Ryan is out the door shortly after they've been escorted from the premises. If there's a failure at the major, minor, and managerial levels (4 seasons of 90+ losses would be one example), then the general manager is equally to blame. Bill Smith got his grubby little fingers into the cookie jar and left crumbs for TR during his short tenure as GM. Ryan has done a good job stocking the minors, but some of his major league moves have been questionable at best. I think the fan base is pointing a lot of blame at the manager and pitching coach, and not enough at the GM. One downfall of writing an article all day is that things happen. Things like Sam Fuld being traded to the Oakland Athletics (who also landed Lester and Gomes for Cespedes) for Tommy Milone. Milone was pretty much bumped from the A's rotation with the addition of Jason Hammel, and Jeff Shamallamadingdong (Samardzija). A lefty with a career 3.84 ERA (automatically the lowest on the Twins starting staff FYI), Milone has been sent to AAA. Maybe for a test and tune, but it'd be a shame to keep Milone in the minors for the remainder of the season. It's not like the Twins have done that with any other minor league pitcher this seas... Kendrys Morales, another low cost waiver signing, turned into Stephen Pryor. Between Scott Boras, and personal greed, Morales ended up back in Seattle, playing for a lot less money, on a team that ended up having a good shot at the post-season. Pryor owns a career 2.81 ERA in 34 games pitched. He's been out since 2013, dealing with multiple surgeries. He's the kind of player the Twins can develop into a middle/long reliever, and possibly a set up man. His velocity is down from the high 90's to the low 90's. Hopefully that will come up a few MPH after he's healthy. The Twins also signed undrafted rookie Brandon Poulson earlier this week. The kid's touched 99 and 100 on the radar. He's improved his control since just last fall. Did I mention he ran a 6.60 60 yard dash in his socks? Oh, he's also 6'4". He's been sent to Elizabethton to play rookie ball, and get acclimated with the pros but should see time in Fort Myers in the not-too-distant future. Poulson's legend may grow to Paul Bunyan-esque levels if he continues to improve and impress with each stop on his way to the majors. Kennys Vargas is set to make his major league roster debut, days after Terry Ryan said he'd probably have to make a stop at AAA - Rochester before getting called up. Vargas is a great prospect possessing both power and speed. He'll hopefully be one of the many rookies who help turn this franchise around sooner rather than later. I hope he doesn't struggle like Aaron Hicks did when he jumped from AA - New Britain to the majors. Time will tell, and I personally think Vargas is a better ball player than Hicks could ever hope to be. The tradeline looms like a dark cloud over Twins Territory. Maybe the Twins will get lucky and someone will take Ricky Nolasco off our hands for free. Maybe we could even package JJ Barea in and free up some cap space for the Wolves too. Hell, why not try to find an All Star goalie for the Wild. I'm sure the LA Kings would take Mike Pelfrey for Johnathan Quick. amitire??

In a wild MLB Trade Deadline Day that saw David Price to Detroit, Jon Lester and Jonny Gomes to Oakland for Yoenis Cespedes, John Lackey to St. Louis for Joe Kelly, and even Stephen Drew from Boston to the Yankees, Terry Ryan and the Minnesota Twins' front office can hold their heads relatively high. They locked up All-Star catcher Kurt Suzuki for two more years at $12 million with a slick vesting option for a third year based on plate appearances, as Mike Berardino tweets. The Twins played it smart and basically have full control of that vesting year. However, with Kennys Vargas being called up to fill the designated hitter spot in light of Kendrys Morales being traded back to Seattle and the "triumphant" return of Joe Mauer to first base and not catcher, it doesn't look good for Josmil Pinto, who now has plenty of time to progress defensively in Rochester. It certainly wouldn't be a surprise if Suzuki gets 485 plate appearances in 2016, but it would mean Pinto still can't catch and Mauer still won't catch. With his improved approach at the plate that Parker Hageman recognized in video reconnaissance, maybe three years of Kurt Suzuki won't be so bad. Let's just hope Pinto learns to frame pitches at least as well as Suzuki in a hurry so Ryan can move Suzuki sooner rather than later. He did make another slick move in giving waiver claim Sam Fuld back to Oakland for starting pitcher Tommy Milone. I like Milone, whose given name is Tomaso Anthony Milone. Milone has put up impressive numbers in nearly 500 MLB innings pitched, but his strikeout numbers have steadily fallen. If he gives up even fewer homers and walks, which would be expected given Target Field and Rick Anderson, Milone will be an effective starter until 2018 when he becomes a free agent. And he will be better and cheaper in the role Kevin Correia has been failing to fill. Correia will be waived, and I wouldn't be shocked if he ends up the fifth starter or long reliever of a National League Wild Card contender...say, the Pirates. Any return on Correia is good return. Hell, maybe if we throw in a reliever they'll give Vance Worley back. Of course, we must also consider Ryan's move to send Morales back to Seattle, which brought relief pitcher Stephen Pryor in what looks to me like a salary dump of sorts. Pryor's only 22, but I don't see Ryan's interest except that Pryor's biggest problem is walks, and if there's anything the Twins organization preaches it's, "Don't give free passes." I didn't understand the move with so many young pitchers to throw out there as relievers: Thielbar, Fien, Pressly, Tonkin, even AJ Achter; and I still don't understand it after none of our relievers were traded: Burton, Duensing, Deduno, or even Perkins (although that would have been heartbreaking). So the Sam Fuld trade was outstanding, the Kenndrys Morales trade was pretty terrible, and perhaps the best move Terry Ryan made was to extend Kurt Suzuki at reasonable dollars and years. The Twins will most certainly be active at the waiver deadline, with Correia, Willingham, Burton, and maybe even Deduno to be considered. It's the most wonderful time of the year. For original story visit http://gogonzojournal.com/sports

Aaron and John talk about how thin the ice is for Ron Gardenhire and maybe even Terry Ryan, trading Kendrys Morales to Seattle, other potential trades before the July 31 deadline, John's rap knowledge, Chuck Knoblauch, Kirby Puckett and the Twins' Hall of Fame, broken clocks being right, cutting Matt Guerrier, and the beauty of mini donuts.You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click on the "play" button below. Click here to view the article

The Minnesota Twins announced on Thursday afternoon that they have traded designated hitter Kendrys Morales to the Seattle Mariners for reliever Stephen Pryor. To fill Morales spot on the roster, they recalled Jorge Polanco from Single-A. Pryor was the Mariners right-handed “closer of the future” back in 2012 but has been sidetracked by injuries since. The most recent, a torn back muscle on his pitching arm side, cost him most of 2013 and meant a late start in 2014. He’s spent most of the year in AAA with only one relief appearance with the Mariners (against the Twins this month). In AAA-Tacoma, he’s had 27 strikeouts in 31 innings but has also had 18 walks. Control has been a bit of a problem for Pryor throughout his minor league career: he has walked 88 batters in 162 IP in the minors. In his major league career, he has 35 K in 32 IP with 16 BB and a 1.313 WHIP.Kendrys Morales was signed on June 7th by the Twins to help with their playoff push, but both he and the team struggled soon after. Overall, he’s hit just .234 with a .584 OPS for the Twins, and has seen only a slight uptick from that production in recent weeks. By trading him to the Mariners now, the Twins will only be responsible for a month-and-a-half of his $12M salary, or about $3M. It’s somewhat a surprise that the Twins traded for a reliever instead of a pure propsect, but while Pryor is a relief pitcher, he is also a power arm prospect that could play a significant role in the Twins bullpen for several years. Or, he could be damaged goods. He turned 25 yesterday and has over a year and a half of service time, so he’ll likely be eligible for arbitration after the 2015 season. It is doubtful the Twins could have received a significant prospect for Morales, who is not hitting enough to be in high demand, and that's not including his defensive limitation. This is a “sell-low/buy-low” trade for both teams, but the Twins will have more time to wait for Pryor to regain his form, and will spend less money while they wait. It also clears up any debate about the direction the Twins plan to take at the trade deadline. They are "sellers" and this could be one of several moves the team makes over the next week. Click here to view the article