“Clean Books” and “Good Books” are Two Different Things. Don’t Make a Trade You’ll Regret.

[old nurse]

22 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

Not my money and I do not understand salaries and revenues in the economic region that is MLB.  So my questions are a little different.  Is there some financial crisis in the Pohlad holdings that make them suddenly in need of money?  If not why did they suddenly decide to cut when the promise of winning was in front of them? 

If reputation meant anything the Pohlads should want to go out on top and be local heroes.  They would get their money in a couple years regardless, but to slash the team, disappoint the fans and leave with the money stuffed in their collective pockets makes no sense. 

The announcement does not mean that anything happened suddenly.  

After 30 some years they might have figured out that everything has to fall just right to go out on top. 

There are many factors that could cause them to want to sell. Many in the family not being interested is one good excuse put forth, The future of baseball as a cash cow for the family is another. The eventual failure of RNS being the large profit center for mid market teams could be a good reason to sell.

Could there be other business losses to cover? Possibly. Possibly they see a better return for the money elsewhere. Owning a business valued at over 1.5 billion and have people pillory the family for wanting a profit from it is probably not enjoyable. 

[tony&rodney]

13 hours ago, sweetmusicviola16 said:

After Burnes signed with Arizona I'm seeing Pablo headed to Baltimore. They went the rental route but I think they may want more security this time around. Basallo and McDermott coming the Twins way? Just a hunch here.

You may be correct but Basallo and Mayo is a firm "NO" from me. Basallo might be a decent slugging first baseman after he no longer uses his catcher's glove, but pitching is hard to find. I was willing to go Lopez for Jarren Duran but Boston is smart enough to sign a lesser free agent instead.

[TopGunn#22]

12 hours ago, sweetmusicviola16 said:

After Burnes signed with Arizona I'm seeing Pablo headed to Baltimore.

I agree with sweetmusicviola16, Baltimore may step up their pursuit of Pablo.  

First:  The Orioles do not have the $7.55 million at their disposal that the Twins and 6-7 other teams do to make a strong play for Roki Sasaki.  Further, no one in their organization has publicly stated that they even have interest in pursuing Sasaki (However, Falvey HAS stated the Twins "have interest").

Second:  The young talent that the Orioles have is just starting to matriculate to the majors, but they don't have room to play everybody.  Gunnar Henderson, Jackson Holiday, Jordan Westburg, Coby Mayo and Sam Basallo are all in the IF.  Heston Kjerstad, Colt Cowser, and Enrique Bradfield are all in the OF.  The Orioles also have Tyler O'Neill and Ced Mullins and for the time being, Anthony Santander in the OF as veterans.

Something has to give.  And in their starting rotation, CBS Sports only lists Gray-Rod, Eflin and Kremer.  The Orioles have a massive need for SP.  A trade of Lopez AND Paddack wouldn't out of the realm of possibility.  

Holiday is an elite SS.  The problem he has is that Gunnar Henderson is ALSO an elite SS.  Right now, Baltimore has Holiday penciled in at 2B with Westburg at 3B, but that's an awfully young IF to compete for the post season with.  You'd have to go back to Cey, Russell, Lopes and Garvey to get a similar comparison, but Russell had been up since 1969 in several stints and had played more OF than SS.  Bradfield is an intriguing CF candidate.  He'll be 23 this season and has reached AA.  Last year in 469 PA's he hit .272 with an OPS of .729.  He walked 50 times and K'd 72.  He also stole 74 bases.  The only slight drawback is that he's a LH hitter.  With E-Rod and Jenkins on the way the Twins would be looking at an all LH hitting OF.  But Bradfield could be that leadoff hitter.  Luke Keaschall would be the RH hitting complement to them if he wasn't already starting at 2B/1B.  

The other team the Orioles are sure to talk with is Seattle with the target being Luis Castillo.  Castillo has seen his velo dip a bit and his K rate slip a bit, but he's still an Ace-caliber SP.  Seattle, like the Twins also has the full bag of $7.55 million to go after Roki Sasaki to replace Castillo with should they decide to pillage talent from the Orioles.

If you think CBS is being harsh by only listing 3 SP's on the Orioles depth chart, ESPN only adds the injury prone John Means to the rotation leaving only 4 somewhat viable candidates.  The Orioles are in a desperate situation.  Some of that young talent will need to moved.  What if Jackson Holiday could be had in a Lopez & Paddack deal?  Play him at 2B and Lewis at 1B for 2025, see how it goes and maybe move Correa to 3B for 2026 and Holiday to SS?  Lee at 2B and Lewis at 1B? 

The only way I do this is if I end up with Sasaki to replace Lopez in the rotation.  That should be determined around the middle of January.  If Baltimore hasn't made a deal for Luis Castillo by then and Sasaki is a Twin, the Twins could get quite a bit back from Baltimore and further "right size" the payroll.   

[sweetmusicviola16]

7 minutes ago, TopGunn#22 said:

I agree with sweetmusicviola16, Baltimore may step up their pursuit of Pablo.  

First:  The Orioles do not have the $7.55 million at their disposal that the Twins and 6-7 other teams do to make a strong play for Roki Sasaki.  Further, no one in their organization has publicly stated that they even have interest in pursuing Sasaki (However, Falvey HAS stated the Twins "have interest").

Second:  The young talent that the Orioles have is just starting to matriculate to the majors, but they don't have room to play everybody.  Gunnar Henderson, Jackson Holiday, Jordan Westburg, Coby Mayo and Sam Basallo are all in the IF.  Heston Kjerstad, Colt Cowser, and Enrique Bradfield are all in the OF.  The Orioles also have Tyler O'Neill and Ced Mullins and for the time being, Anthony Santander in the OF as veterans.

Something has to give.  And in their starting rotation, CBS Sports only lists Gray-Rod, Eflin and Kremer.  The Orioles have a massive need for SP.  A trade of Lopez AND Paddack wouldn't out of the realm of possibility.  

Holiday is an elite SS.  The problem he has is that Gunnar Henderson is ALSO an elite SS.  Right now, Baltimore has Holiday penciled in at 2B with Westburg at 3B, but that's an awfully young IF to compete for the post season with.  You'd have to go back to Cey, Russell, Lopes and Garvey to get a similar comparison, but Russell had been up since 1969 in several stints and had played more OF than SS.  Bradfield is an intriguing CF candidate.  He'll be 23 this season and has reached AA.  Last year in 469 PA's he hit .272 with an OPS of .729.  He walked 50 times and K'd 72.  He also stole 74 bases.  The only slight drawback is that he's a LH hitter.  With E-Rod and Jenkins on the way the Twins would be looking at an all LH hitting OF.  But Bradfield could be that leadoff hitter.  Luke Keaschall would be the RH hitting complement to them if he wasn't already starting at 2B/1B.  

The other team the Orioles are sure to talk with is Seattle with the target being Luis Castillo.  Castillo has seen his velo dip a bit and his K rate slip a bit, but he's still an Ace-caliber SP.  Seattle, like the Twins also has the full bag of $7.55 million to go after Roki Sasaki to replace Castillo with should they decide to pillage talent from the Orioles.

If you think CBS is being harsh by only listing 3 SP's on the Orioles depth chart, ESPN only adds the injury prone John Means to the rotation leaving only 4 somewhat viable candidates.  The Orioles are in a desperate situation.  Some of that young talent will need to moved.  What if Jackson Holiday could be had in a Lopez & Paddack deal?  Play him at 2B and Lewis at 1B for 2025, see how it goes and maybe move Correa to 3B for 2026 and Holiday to SS?  Lee at 2B and Lewis at 1B? 

The only way I do this is if I end up with Sasaki to replace Lopez in the rotation.  That should be determined around the middle of January.  If Baltimore hasn't made a deal for Luis Castillo by then and Sasaki is a Twin, the Twins could get quite a bit back from Baltimore and further "right size" the payroll.   

I agree with you also. I'm not sure of which pieces would best fit together but I do see Baltimore as a team that will heavily pursue Lopez because they have to. They're in a corner right now. Sure they could also pivot to Flaherty and Pivetta but Lopez is a better option as far as talent level goes. And as you mentioned, the prospects either need to play and have a place to play or they just crash and burn.

[saviking]

22 hours ago, bean5302 said:

Almost nobody in baseball is slower than Brooks Lee. Correa wins easily.

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/sprint_speed

You are correct. Correa is 26.8, and Lee is 25 something. Lee is slow ..

[JesusisLord7]

Buxton made 15 million base on playing 102 games. If you took what he gets paid base on 102 games like 147,000 per game then if he played like 162 games like many players he's be making like near 24 million per season. It's really a bad contract. 

 

[JesusisLord7]

I know that's not how he really gets paid but I'm just trying to measure his productivity. 

 

[old nurse]

52 minutes ago, JesusisLord7 said:

Buxton made 15 million base on playing 102 games. If you took what he gets paid base on 102 games like 147,000 per game then if he played like 162 games like many players he's be making like near 24 million per season. It's really a bad contract. 

 

15 million for what Buxton provides when he plays is cheap 

[bean5302]

On 12/28/2024 at 6:11 AM, mikelink45 said:

Not my money and I do not understand salaries and revenues in the economic region that is MLB.  So my questions are a little different.  Is there some financial crisis in the Pohlad holdings that make them suddenly in need of money?...

Possibly. The Pohlad family owns a lot of commercial property, and commercial property got an absolute thrashing in terms of value post-COVID. The family has been working to diversify their holdings, but it's not like these big commercial properties are liquid right now. Selling the Twins would give them lots of liquidity they need to be flexible in growing business value.

https://tcbmag.com/tcbs-2022-people-of-the-year/
 

Quote

United Properties’ Downtown Portfolio

1990s: RSM Plaza, 8th and Nicollet: United’s first downtown acquisition—a building from 1969—repositioned an aging office tower into a contemporary showpiece. 

2009: Target Field

2010: Ford Center, North Loop: United’s first major conversion took a 1912 warehouse/manufacturing building across from Target Field and converted it into modern office space.

2010: Loose Wiles Building, North Loop: Redevelopment of a vacant turn-of-the-20th-century office building on Washington Avenue.

2013: 505 Nicollet Mall: Redeveloped the shuttered Neiman Marcus department store into Centerpoint Energy’s Minnesota headquarters.

2014: Be the Match HQ, North Loop: Offices for the nonprofit organization, located across from Ford Center.

2016: Target Field Station: Includes Element Hotel, Fillmore music venue, and Caribou Coffee.

2016: 651 Nicollet Mall: Redeveloped former Saks Fifth Avenue into retail and office space, plus new Douglas Dayton YMCA.

2017: The Nordic/Sable, North Loop: Mixed-use project across from Loose Wiles, including a half-acre public plaza, some of North Loop’s only public space.

2018: The Kickernick, Warehouse District: Renovation of an historic building in a troubled section of downtown.

2022: RBC Gateway, 250 Nicollet Mall: A $450 million development, the city’s largest- mixed-use project, containing office space, Four Seasons Hotel, and condos. Generated $10.4 million in a land sale that went to the Minneapolis Affordable Housing Initiative.

Mid-2020s: Upper Harbor Terminal, North Minneapolis riverfront: 500 units of affordable housing, outdoor amphitheater, and 150,000 square feet of commercial space will be the hallmarks of the $175 million project when completed mid-decade.

 

[Major League Ready]

On 12/29/2024 at 10:55 AM, JesusisLord7 said:

I know that's not how he really gets paid but I'm just trying to measure his productivity. 

 

Last year his productivity was $4M per WAR so he produced roughly double the average free agent.