Lohse for Brett Boone?

[PierBridge]

Quote:

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Other teams have different recipes for success. The Twins recipe is different, and solid enought that others teams now emmulate it. If you don't like it, that's your perrogative. Go cheer for the Yankees.

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Well said.

[bigbucks]

I'll second that PierBridge.

[bigbucks]

I agree with you & according to my calculations it's only 5 teams with better records. We're just currently in the wrong division, with the White "hot" Sox. A lot of the reason people can't see that is because they've come to expect us to lead the division with this type of record year after year, because we have been.

We probably have actually gotten better this year, if you figure our divisions gotten a lot better & we still have another win or two. We almost have to have improved.

[pikehunter]

Thanks gentlemen ...

Big Bucks, you're right, it is only five teams. I forgot about the 48-41 division-leading Padres. And I agree, I think we have gotten a bit better. I think we're in excellent shape for the Wild Card, and, I may be in the minority, but I think that IF Mauer and Morneau come around (which there have been recent signs of) we have a legitimate shot to chase down the Sox.

Since 2000, this squad has been a second-half team, which bodes well. Plus, despite a disapointing series in KC, we saw real signs of guys playing with some emotion in that series, which always seems to agree with this team.

[pikehunter]

He's ours: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/mariners/2002373960_webboone11.html

[buzzsaw]

We got Boone!!

MINNEAPOLIS -- The Minnesota Twins made a bid to bolster their young infield Monday by acquiring former All-Star second baseman Bret Boone from the Seattle Mariners.

The Mariners will also send cash to the Twins in exchange for a player to be named later. Boone, whose salary for this season is $8 million, was designated for assignment by Seattle earlier this month in a disappointing, tearful end to his career there.

A 12-year veteran with 252 career homers, Boone was batting .231 with seven homers and 34 RBIs for the struggling Mariners when he was cut.

In 2001, Boone hit .331 with 37 home runs and 141 RBIs. He finished third in the AL MVP vote that year, but he has steadily declined at the plate since then.

Still, at 36, he should provide some seasoning for a Twins team that currently leads the AL wild-card race, but is getting little production from an inexperienced infield.

Second base has been a particular struggle, with Luis Rivas, Nick Punto, Luis Rodriguez and Michael Cuddyer each starting games there this season

[PierBridge]

So we got him for a $150,000 and a player to be named later which amounts to nobody.....That sounds fair...

I did not know he was such a good defensive player 4 GOLD gloves is pretty impressive and I think a big factor in the move.

[Captain B.R.K]

Yeah...we didn't give anything up and Seattle is on the hook for paying almost all of his 9 million dollars for the year.

I think he'll be a good addition in the dugout with his years of exp. and batting/fielding skills.

[Stratosman]

Numbers have steadily decreased over the last few, but look at who we have now, and we know he has potential, maybe a new uniform will kick-start him.

[Dotch]

Boone can't hurt, might help. If nothing else the trade should keep some of those wanting to jump off the bandwagon around to see what's gonna happen. Diehard Twins fan here since their inception. Think I even had a little Twins T-shirt back in '61. Sure looks like a good deal at this point and will be interested to see what happens. Win or lose, I'll still watch. Go Twins!

[Windy City Walleye Hunter]

Hey, Nice pick up by The Twinks. Bret and Juan Roid-Con should become fast friends. Maybe Juan can mix him up one of his special "protein shakes" as a welcome drink. You may get a few hits out of him and some glove but I would have to agree with the others who have said he is just an old washed up "roid head" who is off the juice and his numbers are showing that. Still may be better than what the Twinks have now. Just my 2 cents. Here's to a great All-Star game tomorrow. Buehrle and Garland can shut down the Nats for 4 or 5 innings then YO-HAN can come in and maybe have Nathan finish it up. YOU CAN PUT IT ON THE BOARD...YES!

[Pig_sticka]

Very nice, if he can pickup even alittle bit from the pace he is at now it will be a help from what we have. And in the field he should be a nice help, even though our farmys do good at 2nd also.

I was hoping for them to pickup a 3rd baseman but 2nd base is our next thing we needed. Anyone know how Bartlett is doing in the minors?

Either way Twins fans have to be excited to see what he can bring to the table, I will make a point of it to watch his first game with us and I know he will come through with something to show us he is ready.

[pikehunter]

I agree. They took a good long look at some third basemen, but I don't think anything materialized.

Bartlett is hitting .316 (.387 OBP) with 2 HR, 21 RBI, 27 runs, and 9 doubles in 174 at-bats in AAA.

Plenty of tough decisions to make in the next couple days, that's for sure.

[buzzsaw]

Heres an article I just picked up on ESPN, our friends from Chicago should get a bang out of it.

Oh, there is much rejoicing throughout Minnesotaland, for Bret Boone is on his way to town and is here to save us. Yes, Bret Boone will saunter into the Minnesota Twins clubhouse (where light-hitting second basepeople can feel at home!TM) with his mighty bat and his trusty glove and he will save us -- not just from the gaping maw of our nine-game division deficit, but from ourselves.

Bret Boone to the rescue.

Bret Boone will make it all better. He will provide a veteran's presence to a struggling team. He will be a soothing influence on our absentminded, emotionally fragile, easily-startled infielders. He will add a seasoned bat to a lineup comprised of Triple-A refugees, braces-mouthed barely-legals, and free-swinging spaz monkeys.

Bret Boone will show us the way. He will awaken the long-dormant seeds of promise inside Luis Rivas. He will help Matt LeCroy with his base-stealing techniques. He will teach Justin Morneau how to stare blankly at pitches outside of the strike zone. He will find who slipped the steroids into Juan Rincon's strawberry milkshake. He will get Joe Mauer a better haircut. He will give twitchy closer Joe Nathan a hug and tell him it's all going to be OK.

With his help, the Minnesota Twins will receive the people's ovation and fame forever!

Bret Boone will bring down our enemies! With one squinty-eyed stare, he will destroy the fragile egos of Mark Buehrle and Jon Garland, turning them into quivering masses of self-doubt. He will send the larcenous Scott Podsednik into a devastating shame spiral. He will convince Ken Williams to bring Roberto Alomar out of retirement to help his old team. He will motivate Frank Thomas to leave baseball for a career in conflict resolution.

Yes, my friends, Bret Boone will bring the White Sox to their knees!

Bret Boone will change things around here! He'll swoop into the Minnesota legislature and negotiate a stadium bill that enlivens the community, feeds disadvantaged puppies and gives us a ballpark that doesn't completely suck. He'll make the Kansas City Royals get real baseball uniforms. He'll lock Lou Piniella, Frank Robinson and Kenny Rogers up in a room with an anger management therapist and won't let them out till they're holding hands and singing "You Can Call Me Al."

He'll stuff Tom Cruise in a burlap sack and leave him in Tropicana Field for the buzzards to eat. He'll bring the Valerie Plame leaker to justice. He'll make Lindsay Lohan dye her hair back to the way it was and maybe even eat a sandwich. He'll unite humanity in love and harmony. He'll remove all recollections of "Bewitched" from the public's consciousness.

And when the aliens come -- oh! When the aliens come with their big scary robot tripods with the pea-green claws and evapo-rays and indestructo-shields, when the aliens and their tripods hunt us all down in our basements one by one, taking us into their evil tripod lair and harvesting our blood and turning us into fertilizer, because that's the kind of sick creeps these aliens are -- Bret Boone will take his mighty bat and hit a grenade square into the tripod's noggin -- POW! Right in the kisser! And the tripod will explode, and then Bret Boone will pick us up in his big strong (though not quite as strong as they used to be) Bret Boone arms and carry us off into the bright new tomorrow, where we will watch the tripods fall while Morgan Freeman tells us the aliens all got killed off by, like, bad sushi.

And then we will look deeply into Bret Boone's eyes and we will say, "Bret Boone, I thought you were a fading All-Star cut by a last-place team, but you saved us. You saved us all."

[pikehunter]

Good stuff.

Just a little background: The article buzz posted is by Anne Ursu, who runs a Twins blog called Batgirl. If you're a Twins fan and haven't found your way there yet, you should really check it out. It's highly entertaining.

If you think the posted story will get a rise out of the Chicago fans, wait until they see what Batgirl calls the White Sox. (I'd post it here, but I'm pretty sure it would get edited.) Let's just say, she aptly describes them as whiners.

[Eric Wettschreck]

WOW!!!!!!!!! Boones gonna do all that for us?!?!??!?!?

We really did get him for a song, didn't we?

[buzzsaw]

hey Pike, Batgirl is whack! I think she does some potent drugs!

[pikehunter]

Buzz,

We have to remember that she is a fiction author of several novels, so she's the creative type.

And very well could be on some potent drugs.

[bigbucks]

I think it's hilarious. I don't think most Twins fans have any illusions that he's "the Saviour", they just think it's a solid, low risk, low cost move that could "help" us, not "fix" us. After all I think the Twins & a lot of us fans realize, they aren't really broken, just need some tweaking & more maturation. Will it help us make the playoffs? Maybe If it doesn't have we done any damage to our team? Highly unlikely

[The Grebe]

If he is a savior, he best start doing some saving! I may have missed the game where he done some saving, cause I ha'nt seen anything?

I think they were trying to pull off a deal like they did with Shannon Stuart, he came in and he was an instant fireplug....might not happen this time boys?

And why do they say "Have to bring in a veteran" what is Jones, or Hunter, Radke, Mullholland, Mays, Rivas, to name a few, little girly boys who have just come up from the minors?

All of our guys start off good and then after they are coached on how to be major leaguers, they don't do dump!

Mourneau has be become "Swooshin" Justin, instead of Dustin Justin. Cuddyer has fallen off as has Rivas, Stuart, Hunter, to name a few. These 1 or 2 run losing efforts, leaving 10 or 15 base runners stranded just about every game sucks!

What are the coaches doing, dumbing them down? Don't these guys like playing for these coaches? If it was'nt for Bramer and Blyleven, some of these games would be hard to watch! Unless Boone turns into an over night phenom, he is'nt the answer.

[SledNeck]

You have successfully misspelled almost every name in your post. DOH!

[The Grebe]

Sledneck...The key word is "almost", I got Hunter and Jones right!

[buzzsaw]

I just saw this trade that may make sense on MSN.com

Twins acquire 2B Jeff Kent from Dodgers

Bret Boone hasn't passed muster since coming over from the Mariners earlier this month, and his age and recent history suggest he's not going to get much better. On a wider level, the Twins rank near the bottom of the AL in key power indicators, and they're particularly inept against left-handed pitching. Kent helps on both counts and fills a position of manifest weakness.

Kent, even though he's 37 years of age, still has a solid glove and at the plate has been the most productive second baseman in the NL this season. A middle infielder who slugs better than .500 while playing half his games in Dodger Stadium is quite a player. Kent's exactly what the Twins' foundering lineup needs.

L.A.'s angle? They have an embarrassment of riches in terms of middle-infield prospects, and they slough off a contract that could be somewhat burdensome over the next two seasons. To boot, the Dodgers can plunder some of the Twins' minor league pitching depth.

[Willy]

What is he making and how long is he signed for?

What about Soriano? I have heard his name lately and I know that Texas may be looking to move him.

How about Mays and a prospect or Mays and Romero for him. Maybe there is a way we can get a 2b and a 3b.

Trade Romero to Boston straight up for Bill Mueller.

Then trade Mays and a prospect to get either Soriano, or Kent. Preferably Soriano!

[buzzsaw]

The Bret Boone era in Minnesota is over, he has been given his unconditional release and Jason Bartlett has been recalled from AAA. I guess thats just another sign of the Twins throwing in the towel.