Simmer Down, Manny

Hey Manny Machado! You must be a fan. The feeling is mutual, but replay shows you were just a little over emotional my friend.

Mattingly wearing down?

The Dodgers are usually left to my friend and colleague Marshall, but something tells me that he’s too depressed to deal with the underachievers in Chavez Ravine. Plus I know he has a lot of other things going on. Don Mattingly, you are one of my all time favorite players in the history of the game. However, your assessment the other day that your team just isn’t very good was a cop out on par with “guns don’t kill people …” and “**** happens.”

Take ownership of the problem.  You have the best young pitcher in baseball, maybe the best young hitter in the National League, and $220 million dollars worth of players.  If you can’t handle it, sir, I understand.  That is a lot of ego and a lot of pressure.  I’ve seen lesser people fail.  Just don’t try and blow off your fault in this situation.  It is your job to get max effort from these prima donnas.

Twins spending to contend?

The Twins have put Jason Kubel out of his misery?  No, he still gets paid so he has no right to be miserable …  now us the Twins fans … watching him for the last 25 games has been a lot like having to listen to your least favorite song every night before you go to sleep for four hours!

In other strange news regarding Kubel … the Twins replaced him with Kendrys Morales. I’d be lying if I said I saw that one coming.  I also didn’t expect this team to be this close to .500 coming into June either, so it’s possible that I really underestimated the talent on this team? Oh wait, I’ve watched this team, and they are playing really lucky ball. The one thing that they are doing that is quantifiable and not quantifiable at the same time is how they are having different players get hot so far throughout the season.  The season started with Cowbell Colabello and Brian Dozier, and then Kurt Suzuki and Eduardo Escobar, and now oft-injured Josh Willingham and Oswaldo Arcia are starting to heat up.

The other thing that has changed a little is that two-fifths of that rotation aren’t stinking up the joint every start, and Kyle Gibson is at least pitching well at home. The scary thing for Twins fans is that the team has a lot of pitching talent in the minor leagues, and almost all of them are pitching well!

Jeter getting the shaft?

Derek Jeter is not going out like his friend and teammate Mariano Rivera this season. The tributes to him are weaker and less creative, and the performance on the field is far from Hall of Fame caliber. But the man is over 40 so fans, haters and teammates alike need to cut him some slack. That goes for you David Phelps.