No Significant Twins Winter Meeting News

[DJL44]

19 hours ago, David Maro said:

Everyone is saying trade Polanco and Julien can't play 2nd.Do they really think Farmer is the answer at 2nd.And yes they may have help in St Paul,but that is not a given.

I think the people who are saying trade Polanco aren't usually the same people saying Julien can't play 2B.

[DJL44]

42 minutes ago, davidborton said:

30% of the  ballplayers under contract come from other countries. Why? Promotion, MLB didn't read the train's time schedule 50 years ago and the train left without her. MLB misses that same train every year. <Color me sad>.

Country, population

USA, 334M

Mexico, 129M

Japan, 124M

South Korea, 51M

Canada, 40M

Colombia, 52M

Venezuela, 28M

Cuba, 11M

Dominican Republic, 11M

Panama, 4M

 

Those are the countries where baseball is a major sport. The total population is 784M which gives the USA 43% of the population of baseball playing countries but 74% of the MLB population. We aren't as crazy for baseball as the Dominican Republic but we're producing more than our share of baseball talent.

Those stats include Puerto Rico as part of the USA (because it is).

[Dave Borton]

55 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

...We aren't as crazy for baseball as the Dominican Republic but we're producing more than our share of baseball talent.

Those stats include Puerto Rico as part of the USA (because it is).

All the stats are good. But they are only a snapshot. 

We have a diminishing percentage of the ballplayers compared to say, 1970, 1990, 2010, etc. My point was baseball popularity is on the wane here at home and in part, MLB leadership (or lack thereof) and ownership are responsible for that.

[DJL44]

41 minutes ago, davidborton said:

My point was baseball popularity is on the wane here at home

We would probably have another 20-30 additional players from Japan in MLB if there was full freedom of movement between leagues. In a generation we've gone from having our first Hall of Fame level talent from Japan (Ichiro) to having the best baseball player in the world from Japan (Ohtani).

[SteveLV]

Baseball was THE major league sport through the mid-60's.

SInce then, the NFL has surpassed MLB big time.

For some segments of the US population, the NBA is also more important.

[sweetmusicviola16]

I think it is a typical off season. A few trades,including the big one with Soto. A few FA signings. But the top of the FA market is slow, that is pretty much normal. But if you want to ask why there is nothing significant,that would be on the hometeam who has made it known that they are cutting payroll. Gone are Gray and Maeda, with no major salary or top player to replace them. You may see a trade of Polanco, Kepler or Vazquez, but I doubt this happens. Unless it is a part of a blockbuster involving our top prospects to cut more payroll and acquire a frontline SP. We might see a low tier FA signing of an SP. But you can't expect much of an off season when the plan is cutting payroll.

I'm not even complaining about this. It just is what it is.

[DJL44]

4 hours ago, SteveLV said:

Baseball was THE major league sport through the mid-60's.

SInce then, the NFL has surpassed MLB big time.

For some segments of the US population, the NBA is also more important.

For people under 18 Fortnite is more important than baseball.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

On 12/6/2023 at 8:02 AM, SteveLV said:

Title says it all.  All kinds of news including trades and multiple signings, nothing involving our squad.

Color me disappointed.  It would be nice to be aggressive rather than passive once in a while.  It sorta worked (after a long and winding road) with Correa last year, but we are looking at leftovers once again Twins fans.

I hope this post ages poorly and something still happens, but I doubt it.

By the way, Fedde receives 2/$15M?????  He was nontendered by the Nat's 2 years ago, career ERA north of 5, and one year in Korea and he gets that deal.  Seems nonsensical....

In other news, my sources tell me “water is wet”.

Shocking turn of events indeed

[Major League Ready]

On 12/6/2023 at 12:41 PM, chpettit19 said:

LeBron also got paid for that. It helped him personally a ton. These guys get dragged across the coals every time they do anything in the age of the internet. There's no winning the PR war as a professional athlete. NBA fans HATED it, and still tuned in. Just like people hate the Kardashians, but still tune in and have made them into billionaires. 

It's absolutely not on the players to fix the league's problem. Not saying it is. And that's why I said I 90%. But the league doing better also means the players do better. All we hear about these days in Twins Territory is how the TV model has died and now the Twins are screwed, but don't be mad at the Pohlads because other teams are going to be screwed and slash payroll, too. If that's actually true then it becomes a player's problem every bit as much as the league's problem because if revenues actually do go down because Ohtani and Trout and Betts and Freeman and so many other stars in baseball prefer to stay private then salaries go down.

I have absolutely no problem with Ohtani wanting to have this be private. And it's going to be fascinating to see if he picks the Dodgers after Roberts made things public. But Olney isn't totally off base about this being bad for the league. It is. Not Ohtani's job to fix that by any means, but it is bad for baseball. Both things can be true.

I read this and thought ... This is spot on.  After thinking about it.  The player's dictate this particular form of intrigue for MLB.  All the media outlets would be more than willing to promote baseball in this way.  So, it really is up to the players where this sort of publicity and promotion is concerned.  

My opinion sways toward that this is the players right and we should respect their choice.  We just need to understand that players making hundreds of millions are going to make self-centered choices.  There was absolutely no benefit to Ohtani in providing access and as you point out probably a PR nightmare.  Players don't think long-term about the league.  The tone of the last CBA was clearly about "getting mine".  The luxury tax and revenue sharing illustrated they are focused on the immediate terms and putting the most money in their pockets while the forced an increase in revenue disparity.   Expecting anything else from them would be naive.

Now, the league could have and perhaps approached Ohtani with some form of promotion that would have negated any PR concerns.  However, I doubt that a guy who released the information himself was going along with any form of MLB promotion.

[chpettit19]

8 hours ago, Major League Ready said:

I read this and thought ... This is spot on.  After thinking about it.  The player's dictate this particular form of intrigue for MLB.  All the media outlets would be more than willing to promote baseball in this way.  So, it really is up to the players where this sort of publicity and promotion is concerned.  

My opinion sways toward that this is the players right and we should respect their choice.  We just need to understand that players making hundreds of millions are going to make self-centered choices.  There was absolutely no benefit to Ohtani in providing access and as you point out probably a PR nightmare.  Players don't think long-term about the league.  The tone of the last CBA was clearly about "getting mine".  The luxury tax and revenue sharing illustrated they are focused on the immediate terms and putting the most money in their pockets while the forced an increase in revenue disparity.   Expecting anything else from them would be naive.

Now, the league could have and perhaps approached Ohtani with some form of promotion that would have negated any PR concerns.  However, I doubt that a guy who released the information himself was going along with any form of MLB promotion.

Totally not Ohtani's job to do what the league wants. I'm totally fine with him doing whatever he can to get whatever privacy he can. Guy is an international superstar and I'm sure any bit of privacy is like water in the desert to him.

An interesting thing that came of it is that he got a PR problem anyways. Don't think his standing in Canada is great right now. He did everything he could to keep it private and the media gave him a PR problem anyways. Roberts broke the rule about talking about Ohtani meetings anyways. Cohen came out and talked about how Ohtani's people never called him and it's been taken by plenty in NY to mean he doesn't like NY so he's got a NY problem now, too.

I don't know how much of baseball's problem in this area is the league office, the star players being private, star players not speaking english as their native language and living in other countries during the off-season, a combination of all 3, or something completely different. But "the hot stove" hasn't been hot for years. And it costs the league revenue. I have no idea how much, but it's not nothing.

Don't know how to fix it, and have no problem with Ohtani wanting to be private or Trout fighting "the face of the league" stuff, or any of it. But it's not great for the league. The league needs another Griffey Jr who can draw in non-baseball fans to the game. Ohtani could (should?) be that kind of attraction. But it doesn't seem to be who he is, and there's nothing wrong with that. 

Here's to hoping Royce Lewis turns into a national star this year and we can have "the face of the league" rocking a Twins jersey!