Article: Want to ask Twins President Dave St. Peter a question?

[Parker Hageman]

Do you have a question for Twins President Dave St. Peter that you have wanted answered? A topic he should address? Now is your opportunity.Twins Daily and the No Juice Podcast will be hosting St. Peter in a special video Q & A session at the Excelsior Brewing Co.'s Taproom on Tuesday, October 21^st. Submit your question in this thread below and it could be answered by the team’s president.

 

 

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[jharaldson]

With a dramatic reduction in ticket sales likely, are you considering any short term programs (Ex. Knothole Games) to keep fan interest?

 

Dick and Bert are fixtures in the TV booth but the Twins have mixed in a number of guest commentators over the past few years (Coomer, Kelly, ect...).  Any new faces coming in 2015, potentially even Gardenhire?

 

The Vikings have been getting some heat for a refusal to put glass in their new stadium that would help reduce the amount of bird deaths.  Did you have a similar "niche" problem while building Target Field and how did you go about addressing the issue?

[Dman]

Mr. St. Peter,

 

If the core guys coming up turn into All-Stars and we finally build a top 5 team will you be willing to spend over the budget to keep that team together for as long as possible?  Even if it meant losing money for three or four years if the team was really good would ownership do that for the fans and the city?  

[Rick Niedermann]

In years past payroll was suppose to be 53% of revenue. Many years revenue outdistanced the payroll by quite a bit. What happened to that money? Why isn't a percentage of those funds placed in a "Payroll Savings Account" that would allow the team to add a premium free agent when needed. Like this year! The timing couldn't be better with the Top Rated position players nearing the Big Leagues. Twins fans feel like the Twins have not kept there promises that if a new stadium was built we would have a middle of the pack payroll. 85 million does not cut it in Twins Territory!

[Williston]

What external advice/consultations have you or the organization sought in order to help assure the decisions you are making today pay dividends in the future. Shouldn't Mr. Pohlad have someone outside the organization with whom he can talk about whether the Twins front office/on-field staff is doing a good job?

[Secondary User]

At the start of this season, you were adamant that the organization had significant offers on the table that were rejected by free agents, and that greatly affected the clubs inability to make full use of its payroll budget.  What lessons did you learn from that experience, and how will you go about ensuring that the organization isn't leaving money on the table this off season?

[h2oface]

When will Terry Ryan be replaced?

[jharaldson]

Mr. St. Peter,

 

I need to leave suddenly, can you pick up the check?

[zenser]

If you weren't associated with the Twins, would you buy tickets (single game or season) to watch this product? And why?

[GoGonzoJournal]

Given the Twins' performance, attendance levels, and the ridiculous "compare the Twins to a car" marketing survey, how is it you are still employed?

[GoGonzoJournal]

With no All-Star Game to entice season ticket holders, will ticket prices or food/beverage prices be lowered next season to curb the effect of decreased attendance? Why or why not?

[GoGonzoJournal]

I've called the Minnesota fan base "Minnesota nice" many times, and they've lived up to that description all my life. I feel they aren't involved in the game enough, and weren't when the team was good either. What can and will be done to change this?

[benji21]

What, if any, is the policy on hiring externally?  It feels as though the Twins are more averse to outside hires (and ideas) than just about any other club.  What are the dangers of hiring from the outside versus hiring internally?  Groupthink can be a poisonous aspect of company life and, from the outside, the Twins seem to suffer from aspects of it.  What would your comment be to the accusation that groupthink has set in?

In summary, my line of questions (obviously) has to do with the Twins history, or lack thereof, of hiring externally.  Parker, when you interview, please be sure to follow up on questions.  Too many times do these guys get slow pitch softball questions that they give form answers to or the political style answer of answering a question that was not asked or answering his own question.  Please don't let him evade direct questions that you ask.  The Twins have been putrid for far too long and hardcore fans who seek out Twins content online and casual fans alike have questions that they would like addressed.  It would be nice to get honest, straight answers.  I'm mad at the Twins and at the Pohlads way of business.  Thanks for opening this up for questions and getting this interview!

[JB_Iowa]

Do you still believe that the 25th man doesn't matter?

[clutterheart]

You and your team are bad at marketing the Twins and have been living off the taxpayers who funded your stadium.

Your marketing efforts are now a joke.

Your product stinks.

You had a customer base who gave you enormous goodwill yet you bungled it.

 

Who are you going to fire for being so bad at their profession?

How is it you still have a job?

[lightfoot789]

As the Twins President - Are the "New" Twins built to replicate the Royals model of success or the Orioles recent model of success?  Speed and Defense or Power and defense?  We will assume the pitching is on the way too.

[DocBauer]

Now in Target Field and increased financial resources, the Twins produced the three highest payrolls in team history in 2010, 2011 and 2012 when it was believed the Twins had quality teams with a real chance to win. Said payrolls ranked 11th, 9th and 13th in ML payroll respectively those seasons. Terry Ryan is on record as stating 2014 payroll topped $90M, and that $100M "should be more than enough" to put a competitive team on the field. And last offseason, the Twins went on an unprecedented FA spending spree, and even attempted to spend more.

 

In past offseason's, we've heard references to the Twins not raising payroll, or not raising it much. Now we're hearing conversely different comments such as not expecting it to drop much.

 

Simply, considering the apparent change in spending philosophy as spoken, as seen in practice during the 2014 offseason, as characterized by Terry Ryan recently, without use of a crystal ball or revealing the FO plans entirely to the world, can we actually expect the Twins to be aggressive for a second straight season to augment the payroll and the construction of the team for 2015?

 

 

[Paul Pleiss]

Dave, can I call you Dave?, what are you most concerned about going into this winter? What exactly do you, as the team president, even do? Were you behind that fantastic failure of a PR move about comparing the Twins to different types of cars? Where do those ideas come from?

 

Who chooses the give-aways for games? Is there a suggestion box for such things? I'd love to see more gnomes. Now that Gardy's gone, I think a Perkins gnome, or a Dozier Gnome would be great addtions to my garden. I'd love to have a whole roster of Twins gnomes running around my property creating chaos.

[gocgo]

Mr. St. Peter,

 

I would like to hear your assessment of the AL Central team by team.  Here is mine:

 

KC - young, hungry, on a roll, using the tools they have to the max (base running, defense, etc.)

 

Detroit - Scherzer a FA, Verlander on the downward slide, not a strong defense.  Downward spiral coming with a dried up farm system..

 

Cleveland - not good, not bad.  Just flatlined and I don't see that changing unless they grab a high end pitcher and improve their defense which was not good.

 

Chicago - previous GM sold the farm with the "All In" year that didn't pan out.  It will take them a while to restock the shelves.  They did catch lightning in a bottle with Abreu and they do have a high end pitcher with Sale.  After that....yech!

 

Minnesota - no high end starter to compete with the Scherzers/Sales.  Offense is where it needs to be to compete, although Mauer at first is not ideal.  Outfield defense needs to improve along with offensive productivity.

[sandbun]

What evaluations of the front office do you do after the season? What were the results of these evaluations?

[Parker Hageman]

Thanks everyone who contributed to this! Dave St Peter was a great guest, addressed many of the questions asked here and in the forum section. He did not physically harm me for asking unending questions on the payroll.

 

The video will be up in the next few days.

 

Thanks again to all! 

 

[zenser]

Is this podcast available?

[Wookiee of the Year]

Is this podcast available?

Looks like it is now.

 

Is the video available somewhere?