The Lockout Diaries: Week 3

[Nick Nelson]

Dear journal,

It's been 21 days since darkness fell upon the world of baseball. Despite a total lack of news or activity from the realm of MLB, Twins fans are finding ways to generate lively discussion and spirited debate. 

Here in the holiday season, I find it rather heartwarming. Like the Whos of Whoville singing and celebrating in defiance of the greedy Grinch.

On the latest episode of the Gleeman and Geek podcast, Aaron and John lamented the Twins' lack of significant action before the lockout. They were echoing the sentiments of fans far and wide, who are underwhelmed by the club's lack of urgency and glaringly incomplete current product. I know I found myself nodding along.

Inspired by that conversation, I wrote up a blog post examining the front office's mindset and rationale. We're all frustrated with what appears to be a major missed opportunity at the high end of the free agent market. I wanted to understand why.

The best theory I can come up with, which I outlined, is that the Twins are seeking to maintain maximum flexibility with a long list of pitching prospects who are about ready for a shot in the big leagues. The pipeline this regime has been building and cultivating for half a decade is ready to start producing, and they want to see what they've got. They need to, in fact.

That's not to say they are done. The Twins will have work to do when things fire back up, and no one denies it. But I do see some logic in the reluctance to pursue expensive multi-year deals for veteran starting pitchers. 

That article sparked a lot of good discourse, with nearly 100 comments nesting beneath.

Beyond the enjoyable chatter with Twins fans on TD and Twitter, I've had other tangentially baseball-related diversions to lean on this past week. 

Seeing our friend, and MLB.com Twins beat writer, Do-Hyoung Park compete on Monday's episode of Jeopardy! was an absolute thrill. He made us all proud by giving the dominant Amy Schneider a run for her money. 

Speaking of Twins writers, I had a chance to grab beers with John Bonnes and Dan Hayes the other night, which led to plenty of jokes, laughs, and diatribes over baseball and beyond. 

Chatting with Dan served as a stark reminder that – while I might be bored and annoyed by the lockout drama as a fan – it's a whole different level when your entire job is dedicated to covering a shuttered team.

For me, the stoppage has been mostly unnoticeable, in part because of the above diversions and in part because MLB tends to be very quiet in the latter half of December anyway. We'll see how long the remains true, because we still seem to have a long road ahead. It sounds like the league and union don't even intend to start getting into the meat for their negotiations until after the new year.

Tension and discontent will likely start rising around that time. But right now, 'tis the season for none of that. And so I wish a warm Christmas and holiday season to you, journal, along with anyone who might be reading.

 

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[nclahammer]

Hopefully the baseball off season will change from a "Silent Night" to Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" soon.   Merry Christmas TD!

[Whitey333]

Excellent article!  I always enjoy reading the articles on TD and all great comments.  Happy Holidays all!

[gman]

Hopefully the Ground Hog won't predict another 6 weeks of long cold winter. But maybe Santa will put something great in the stockings.

[tarheeltwinsfan]

Merry Christmas, my TD friends.

[Blyleven2011]

Santa Claus is coming to town  , santa says falvines are naughty and not nice  , 

tired of the lies in their plan and lies from pohlad .... just tell the twins fans the real truth in going forward and we just might accept it ,, 

Lack of movement on the retooling project ,, analytics and lack of movement in strengthening needs don't get it done

We get their crap all the time .

Santa carries lots of coal and that is what they are getting where they should get the pile of crap  ...

Read between the subliminal message  ...

Merry Christmas twins and sports fans in TD land