Article: Thoughts on the Twins? One baseball agent's perspective on Minnesota's front office

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Reading through the comments, I also think we are at risk of overstating the Loyalty factor of this organization. Some of us will remember a big first baseman named Justin Morneau who played his whole career here, all-star, hugely popular, and wanted to retire in a Twins uniform. GM waived and traded him for a minor league outfielder as I recall.

[Trevor0333]

While obviously an agent rarely going to to rip a organization you have to read between the lines a little. It's obvious this agent is someone who is looking out for what his client wants more than purely what suits the bottom line for their firm or putting their client in less than suitable places opurely to eek out every last dollar.

 

The Twins have a good organization and I very much agree with their philosophy as a whole. However I feel they stick to that to strictly almost to a fault. You still need to take some calculated gambles from time to time. For all the crap Bill Smith got and most deservedly so, he atleast had the gumption to go out on a limb. The Young Garza swap for example. Gutsy move that needed to be made to address the lineup.

 

It can be reckless to give out large FA contracts but you have to augment the weak parts of your team from time to time. Even if that means over paying, you keep the years down. You dont want to put yourself in a position where you dont have the payroll available to keep the guys you want to resign.

[Twins Daily Admin]

I thought it an interesting piece. This is verified by all the natural follow up questions that people are raising. It might be interesting to hear Sosnick's take on some of the:

 

1) how doe money compar e to other factors. Do guys generall value that last half million dollars? Or million?

2) which front offices have a less than stellar reputation regarding being honorable?

3) how do you differentiate your clients from similar players? Nolasco from Arroyo or Johnson from Halladay, for instance?

4) where do the Twins rank developmentally compared to other teams? How about financially? What teams are they similar too?

5) how important is trust in a front office when you're trying to work out a deal? How about trust in an agent?

6) how are offers presented/accepted? By now, do you know which handful of teams your client will likely end up on?

 

if anyone has any of their own, throw them in the comments. We'll try yo do more of these.

[Seth Stohs]

Reading through the comments, I also think we are at risk of overstating the Loyalty factor of this organization. Some of us will remember a big first baseman named Justin Morneau who played his whole career here, all-star, hugely popular, and wanted to retire in a Twins uniform. GM waived and traded him for a minor league outfielder as I recall.

 

After they went to him and asked him what he wanted to do, stick around or be traded to a contender.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

After they went to him and asked him what he wanted to do, stick around or be traded to a contender.

 

The big tell will be who Morneau signs with for '14. (No doubt it won't be for much) But I will bet you a soda it's not the Twins.

[Alex]

The big tell will be who Morneau signs with for '14. (No doubt it won't be for much) But I will bet you a soda it's not the Twins.

 

I hope they don't sign him. I love the guy and hope he turns it around next season but I don't think it's worth the Twins pursuing him.

[Otto von Ballpark]

6) how are offers presented/accepted? By now, do you know which handful of teams your client will likely end up on?

 

In this vein, I think detailing the process would be fascinating. Is free agent bidding somewhat open among teams, or is it more "blind"? How often are teams offered a chance to top an offer? Do teams share/confirm info, or can they only really get it from the player/agent? (For example, how did TR know that Correia "left money on the table"? Did Correia or his agent tell him that, or did TR get that from another GM?)

 

Just stepping through a "typical" signing would be really interesting. I suspect many fans think of the bidding as more "open" than it actually is, probably because it is rather open in other sports, with restricted/unrestricted free agents, matching offers, salary caps, etc. But I really don't know.

[old nurse]

In this vein, I think detailing the process would be fascinating. Is free agent bidding somewhat open among teams, or is it more "blind"? How often are teams offered a chance to top an offer? Do teams share/confirm info, or can they only really get it from the player/agent? (For example, how did TR know that Correia "left money on the table"? Did Correia or his agent tell him that, or did TR get that from another GM?)

 

Just stepping through a "typical" signing would be really interesting. I suspect many fans think of the bidding as more "open" than it actually is, probably because it is rather open in other sports, with restricted/unrestricted free agents, matching offers, salary caps, etc. But I really don't know.

 

If teams share information to keep costs down it is collusion. There is absolutely no other benefit to a team to otherwise share information.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

I hope they don't sign him. I love the guy and hope he turns it around next season but I don't think it's worth the Twins pursuing him.

 

I agree. I love the guy too. The Morneau-Presley trade made sense in baseball terms but not so sure as a business decision (it falls on its face as a "honorable" or "right thing to do" or Twins Way decision). People still came to the park to cheer Mauer & Morneau. The losing has stained the good young players we do have. So we are now a Mauer injury away from having a lineup of names that no one cares about and can't win games. I guess they weighed this consideration this summer and rolled with it anyway.

[LaBombo]

I think the idea is that the agent here is puffing up, not that Parker was. I have no doubts that the Twins organization is well respected and for good reason, but I'm not sure how much that really tells us. We all know the Twins are straight shooters and I'm sure that's appreciated, but it has little to do with what the organization does well or what it could improve upon.

 

Agreed. Puff piece can be construed to mean whitewashing or deliberately painting an overly rosy picture, but I don't think anyone was accusing Parker of that. It seemed to me that those comments were directed at Sosnick, and probably it was less an indictment of his honesty and more of a sense of resignation about the expectation for comments in such an interview to be limited to compliments and positives.

 

That said, while I can see why Parker took umbrage at the puff piece comments, his resorting to amateur psychology to express his displeasure with one of those comments was out of character and left a sour taste after what was an interesting article.

[Parker Hageman]

See, here's a different kind of agent.

 

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/rays/agent-boras-joins-chorus-ripping-tampa-bay-market/2152283

 

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I realize everyone thinks they are playing an angle with the Twins stuff but I have my reservations about that. I also highly recommend you read Jerry Crasnick's book "Licenses To Deal" that was written about the SosnickCobbe group:

 

http://www.amazon.com/License-Deal-Season-Maverick-Baseball-ebook/dp/B00CJFBXKU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384384509&sr=8-1&keywords=License+To+Deal

[TheLeviathan]

Boras is also on a propaganda campaign today. He took to task a number of teams specifically in order to spur their fanbases to clamor for more spending. I'm not sure any agent commenting on a team should be taken seriously regardless of their tone. There is always an ulterior motive driving it. I mean, hell, that's their job basically.

[clank2000]

It appears Matt Sosnick read Jerry Maguire's memo.

[howieramone1406390264]

See, here's a different kind of agent.

 

http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/rays/agent-boras-joins-chorus-ripping-tampa-bay-market/2152283

 

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I realize everyone thinks they are playing an angle with the Twins stuff but I have my reservations about that. I also highly recommend you read Jerry Crasnick's book "Licenses To Deal" that was written about the SosnickCobbe group:

 

http://www.amazon.com/License-Deal-Season-Maverick-Baseball-ebook/dp/B00CJFBXKU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384384509&sr=8-1&keywords=License+To+Deal

 

Not everyone believes they are playing an angle. There are good guys and bad guys in every Industry Group and I already knew the Twins FO was very well thought of.