Tom Pohlad Is on a Mission to Rebuild Trust. A Critical Juncture Lies Ahead.

[TheLeviathan]

3 minutes ago, LastOnePicked said:

The one thing I have zero interest in is Twins fans going after Twins fans. If you're actually spending valuable time at TwinsDaily, chances are you're a fan. Congratulations, you're in the club.

Some of us still have some optimism left in the tank and some of us don't. I'm fine with that. Not a single one of the Twins' problems have anything whatsoever to do with the fandom.

It is the lowest form of sports discussion.  The absolute worst.  You've lost whatever position you hold the moment you start that lecture.  

[TL]

15 minutes ago, HarmonK03 said:

He purposely doesn't put a number on it, but you decide to.  Is so you can be upset if he doesn't hit your perceived number.  Let's see where it ends up and who it gets us, then we might have a reason to get upset, but setting a preconceived goal when he didn't is a set up to be angry later.

Not about having a reason to be angry, I’ll watch regardless and I can appreciate and even enjoy (within reason) trying to win without spending like a large market team.
 

Just reading between the lines. He has to realize the reaction he would get from a lot of fans if payroll is less than 2024, let alone 2023. Or maybe he’s anticipating being forced to increase payroll because of a floor. Whatever it is, he is expecting to spend some money. And I don’t think this team is very far away so a ~20% increase can make a real difference. 

[D.C Twins]

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       “Let me just say, I have been very vocal about what our ambitions are. I have been vocal, and to some degree critical, of where we’ve been. And so you can take some comfort in the fact that, with payroll, wherever we land is cognizant of both those things and will be commensurate with what we’re trying to accomplish.”

(Narrator's Voice): The Twins fans are 'cognizant' and do not 'take some comfort'

[bean5302]

I have zero faith the Twins will be in a position to be aggressive at the opening of free agency in a way that makes sense, at least. If Zoll is behind the wheel, I have no doubt we'll see signings early.

Jake Bauers
Nathaniel Lowe
LaMonte Wade, Jr.
Dominic Smith
Adam Frazier

Once we get those sub$10MM lefty DH/1B on the roster, we'll be unstoppable.

Joc Pederson will be out there, too, but Zoll will probably draw the line at $10MM and he'll command more than that. We need at least 10 lefty defensively challenged guys for sure.

[nicksaviking]

1 hour ago, Cory Engelhardt said:

All 3 of those starters are very much upgrades over our 5th best starter, no? I mean, like you know you'll get a baseline with any of them, and that's never a bad thing. Peralta is someone I like because he is known as a good clubhouse guy. Adding someone like him helps the rotation and helps the clubhouse.

Trevor Rogers is very much statistically a pretty big upgrade too. I can't imagine anyone arguing otherwise.

Case Mize this year was more fine than great. But would I take him over Dean Kremer and Bailey Ober? Yes I very much would.

So we’d take from the front of the rotation so they can add to the back?
 

Ryan, Lopez, Bradley and via trade (like how they acquired all of the above) add another arm to the TOP of the rotation and #5-7 can be the higher upside Priellip, Rojas and Abel.

[USAFChief]

1 hour ago, TheLeviathan said:

  This "fan" would rather root for an organization that makes wise decisions and appears to have a clear vision and purpose

Don't let the door hit you in the a$$ on the way out.

[Vanimal46]

1 minute ago, USAFChief said:

Don't let the door hit you in the a$$ on the way out.

Because that’s the solution… Booting out the existing fans. 

[D.C Twins]

4 hours ago, USAFChief said:

First...The level of mindless vitriol from a subset of Twins "fans" is nauseating. 

Second, and on topic. He's said, and done, a lot of good things since taking over. He clearly recognizes there's been a huge erosion of trust in ownership and management. His team acted correctly at the deadline. 

It's a bit unfair, since the FA class is thin, but I'm willing to give them a chance to prove it. 

Let's see what the opening day roster looks like, whenever that is.

I so wish that it was 'mindless vitriol' but alas, it is 'absolutely well earned vitriol'

Part of the well-earned vitriol is that the team most certainly did not act correctly at the deadline which was plain to see real time for those of us in the 'mindless vitriol' camp

[USAFChief]

Just now, Vanimal46 said:

Because that’s the solution… Booting out the existing fans. 

I'm not the one who asked out.

[Vanimal46]

1 minute ago, USAFChief said:

I'm not the one who asked out.

You’re taking it upon yourself to dismiss and boot any fan who wants a direction for the organization. I have no doubt Tom P will be grasping at straws for 82 wins until he sells the team. 

[Vanimal46]

Tom P still hasn’t figured out yet that the first step is building a young core of talent. Then supplement them with the big money FA signings. He’s gonna try the raising the floor method with middling veterans to be relevant 

[nicksaviking]

Before this gets out of hand, I’d like to mention that I honestly enjoy Chief being the optimist in this conversation. 

[Cory Engelhardt]

18 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

So we’d take from the front of the rotation so they can add to the back?
 

Ryan, Lopez, Bradley and via trade (like how they acquired all of the above) add another arm to the TOP of the rotation and #5-7 can be the higher upside Priellip, Rojas and Abel.

Before this season Peralta was every bit an ace level pitcher. I think he still has that in him

[D.C Twins]

14 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

Before this gets out of hand, I’d like to mention that I honestly enjoy Chief being the optimist in this conversation. 

[LastOnePicked]

8 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

Before this gets out of hand, I’d like to mention that I honestly enjoy Chief being the optimist in this conversation. 

The battle lines are drawn.

Those of us who wanted a full offseason rebuild are going to point to every lost potential prospect as the difference-maker we needed down the line. Those who wanted to take a shot with what we had are probably living by the idea that it's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. Can't keep your powder dry forever. Something like that.

If Lopez, Ryan and Buxton have a great year in 2027 and the team makes a real playoff run, I will welcome a massive avalanche of "I told you so"s. It would be fun. But right now, Team '26 Rebuild has a solid 1-0 lead. 

Chief is great. None of this stuff is ever personal from my perspective.

[Major League Ready]

1 hour ago, NYCTK said:

Yeah, but Christian Yelich has been a pretty vital player in the Brewers recent sustained success. 

We traded for Lopez.  Perhaps I should have stated specifically that trading for an established can be a great move.  Of course, that was not the point.  The point was that trading for established players is not essential as sometimes stated here and generally contributes far less than trading for prospects.  

BTW .... Just to put Yehlich in perspective, he had 2 really good seasons for Milwaukee.  Yehlich has average exactly 2 fWAR over the last 7 seasons.  Solid but not a needle mover.

[TheLeviathan]

20 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

Tom P still hasn’t figured out yet that the first step is building a young core of talent. Then supplement them with the big money FA signings. He’s gonna try the raising the floor method with middling veterans to be relevant 

So I'm honestly chuckling out loud as I type this.  I asked for "wise decisions" and "clear vision and purpose" and this justifies the description that I am "asking out".  Like...how ridiculous is that?

If that's the conclusion anyone draws than they are not only accepting that neither of those things are on the horizon, but is acting defensively AND aggressively against any fan who espouses that those expectations should exist.  

I find that to be the bare minimum for my full-throated support.  Otherwise, I'm absolutely going to remain a skeptic and a critic of this team's leadership along with being a fan.  

[TheLeviathan]

26 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

Before this gets out of hand, I’d like to mention that I honestly enjoy Chief being the optimist in this conversation. 

It is a rare level of hypocrisy from the person who took over every thread about how Rocco ate babies for like two years.  Funny how that criticism wasn't a blank check out of the fandom.

[Vanimal46]

1 hour ago, TheLeviathan said:

It is a rare level of hypocrisy from the person who took over every thread about how Rocco ate babies for like two years.  Funny how that criticism wasn't a blank check out of the fandom.

Once you climb the corporate ladder to Twins Daily Contributor it’s all about synergy and alignment. And now I’m going to turn things over to David Stearns to explain things further… We can take this offline and circle back later  

 

[ashbury]

Quote

In a vacuum, I'd love to level-set and set expectations for the fan base. 

Pohlad's words are less important than actions.  But nevertheless I'm tired of the particular words I keep seeing spewed out.  This may not rank up there quite with Joe Pohlad's infamous "right-sizing" the payroll, but it's cut from the same cloth.

Truly successful people know how to shift gears from the corporate audience to the general public.  If they can't do it, they need to share some of their salary with people competent in public relations.  PR earns snickers when it speaks in hollow generalities (as hollow as the remainder of Tom's quoted remarks, actually), but good PR is worth a great deal - relationships with the paying public are vitally important.

With Joe it felt like we were hearing a deeply insecure person trying to convince anyone within earshot that he's an insider on a par with other business heavyweights.  Tom doesn't seem the same, but slipping into manager-speak is no less off-putting.