St.Paul Cub

Soto is a stud! Everyday my man crush on him grows.

I would hope Lou is seeing what happens when your leadoff hitters take walks and get on base and realize Soriano isn't a fit. In my opinon 3-6 should be Lee, Ramirez, Fuku, and Soriano. Depending on who's starting you can switch up the other positions. I could live with Fuku at #2, but I think his batting behind ARam is helping ARam.

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No doubt. It's been that way since the Rockies first season.

Should've kept Marshall in. Lou's use of the bullpen is way to skewed by righty vs. righty matchups.

I wouldn't be surprised if both Theriot and Cedeno start at SS and 2B with Soriano coming back and DeRosa turning into the supersub that the team envisioned with picking up Brian Roberts, at least until one of them cools off and DeRosa moves back to 2B. Not saying that's the ideal scenario, but something I wouldn't be surprised by.

Have we ever had our pitchers work on bunting? At least Soriano didn't strike out on a ball outside of the strike zone.

We do! We just never hit them 1 or 2. No doubt. It just kills me how we're so fundamentally unsound we can't play small ball and manufacture runs in anyway to save our life. I watched the Twins and Gomez (rookie with speed) led off with a bunt, stole 2nd, and then Mauer hit to the right side and runner on 3rd with only 1 out. I honestly don't remember ever seeing us do anything like that. Maybe in the Don Zimmer days...

Wow! That was a line drive homerun!

The great thing about a home office is that I can watch the game without calling in sick. The bad news is I can only catch the WGN games. Either way I'm pumped for opening day!

I hope Murton gets traded. I think he'll be a good player for some team and it's obvious for one reason or another that ain't happening in Chicago. I wouldn't be surprised if he gets traded in some deal with Marquis. I know Marquis is the 5th starter, but I really think they're just doing that to drive up his value. Let him start out hot, get his value up and then he's gone.

I've come to that same line of thought. If they really want a leadoff hitter and are worried about throwing Pie into the fire then just do Crisp for Marquis. Have Patterson lead off the games where Pie plays CF and DeRosa spells A-Ram, Lee or others; use Pie as a defensive replacement, pinch runner, and pinch hitter; keep Marshall as another lefty in the pen/long reliever; keep the other assets for injuries and potential deadline deals; and be done with it.

Agreed. It has to include Marquis if we have to take Payton, but I'm sure that's the hold up with the Orioles. Makes no sense to get rid of Marquis for Crisp and then have to take on Payton as well in a second deal.

Classic. And of course Metal rules, but the last thread I was on that went on and on with no resolution mentioned gay 80's bands. Hence the reference. Don't want Crisp just to move Marquis.

Buster Olney was on Sportscenter the other day and when asked what deal might have the biggest impact, he said Fuku. Then he went on to say that if they did get Roberts it would really help to further balance the RH lineup. We've gone from Rick-Rolled to Fluffers. I think a discussion of gay 80s pop bands is the only thing missing from this thread. So I will say that while they didn't have huge commercial success in the U.S., Erasure was pretty good. Now we have it all....?

I hate this thread. I despise this thread. But yet, I can't stay away.

Does anyone have the numbers from when Soriano was injured and Theriot was in the leadoff spot? Not trying to say he'd be just as good as the other options discussed at length, but I remember him being pretty productive during that time frame. Just curious.

Thanks Bruce. Great information and hopefully a little sanity in this thread. Somewhat off topic: Does anyone think that if most of the posts weren't reply quoting a quote of a quote of a quote of a quote and so on that we'd be over 100 pages?

That's why we'd never make it as Brewer fans.

I threw up in my pillowcase on freshman orientation thanks to mixing that and Vanilla Coke. Ouch. That just sounds brutal. 7/8 Limon and 1/8 regular coke sounds fine though. I mix it up every now and then as well. I was mixing Jim Beam and Ice Tea in the summer, which was damn good, but the wife couldn't even touch it.

I totally agree with each and every point. Crisp doesn't thrill me, but if we're also getting rid of Marquis or Dempster then it's a lot better. I just don't want another Pierre type deal.

I think these are the 4 that were mentioned yesterday when I posted about the update on MN radio. I'm sure part of it was wanting him in another division. I think Carlos Gomez and Guerra were the two highly ranked prospects. Both came into the minors as 16/17 year olds, so still unsure what upside. Humber was mentioned as a #3 at best, but Guerra supposedly was the one that made the deal happen.

First of all Charley Walters just makes stuff up. He's right about 1% of the time so he's going by someone else's story. That said the Twins beatwriter said that it's likely to happen soon. They don't want the distraction at Spring Training if Santana is still on the team. This was very apparent at Twinsfest this weekend and this guy is very plugged in. Sounds like it's going to be one of the New York teams. Hank Steinbrenner wants to do a deal, but his brother and Cashman are against it right now. If it's Hughes and Cabrerra the Twins would do it and even let them throw in Igewa who's not getting along with Ron Guidry. The Mets have offered 3 minor leaguers (whom I can't remember by name) and word is if they offer a 4th, the Twins would take it even though they'd ideally want proven players. The issue for the Mets is all 4 minor leaguers would deplete their farm system of any value. For what it's worth, I'd like Santana, but would be somewhat reluctant due to the cost of the deal, the prospects we'd have to give, and the fact that this last year he just didn't look right. His fastball lost something and his other pitches weren't nearly as effective. That being said he was still a very good pitcher, but no where near the dominant pitcher of the previous years. That has me slightly worried.

So we're talking a package of Hill and Pie plus others for Roberts and Bedard. Then Dempster/Marquis and DeRosa for Sarge Jr. I don't dislike it. Just not sure I'm thrilled with it as I really like Hill and would love to see Pie get a chance for an extended amount of time (though that will probably never happen).

I think it's a low risk signing. He's old, but I think he can still be effective. I don't think it shuts the door on any trade, it might make it more likely in that if we were to trade Marshall and Gallagher for Bedard we'd still be alright back of the rotation. Z, Lilly, Bedard, Hill, Lieber/Marquis/Hart