Corey Koskie Elected to Twins Hall of Fame; Joe Ryan and Twins TV Updates

I’m in for the streaming! Very reasonable price, I think. 

16 minutes ago, Bigfork Twins Guy said:

First off I love Corie Koskie and am very happy for him.

I know I will get some thumbs down on this comment, but is the bar kinda low here for Twins HOF?  I wonder if we looked back at other Twins players if we could find somebody NOT in the Twins HOF with better stats than Corey had?

Over his six seasons (and 11 game September call up), he hit a combined .280/.373/.463 (.836) with 180 doubles, 13 triples and 101 home runs. 

I don’t have a list of Twins HOF guys, but what I can say is that Koskie is 14th in WAR among position players whose time in the franchise was primarily in Minnesota rather than Washington.

I know there are some non-players among the HOFers, but that would suggest that it’s not out of line for Koskie to be the 41st member. The guys immediately above him are Dozier, Morneau (Buxton), Tovar and Hunter, before a big jump up to Bob Allison, etc. I don’t know if Dozier is in, but the other guys almost certainly are. 

(Addendum to previous.)

And to anticipate what could easily be a future debate, the current next two after Koskie are Roy Smalley and, um, Max Kepler.

42 minutes ago, Bigfork Twins Guy said:

First off I love Corie Koskie and am very happy for him.

I know I will get some thumbs down on this comment, but is the bar kinda low here for Twins HOF?  I wonder if we looked back at other Twins players if we could find somebody NOT in the Twins HOF with better stats than Corey had?

Over his six seasons (and 11 game September call up), he hit a combined .280/.373/.463 (.836) with 180 doubles, 13 triples and 101 home runs. 

Depends on whether you are Small Hall or Large Hall for the Cooperstown HoF.

Depends on whether you think a local HoF should be as selective as the national one.

Depends on whether you favor guys who proved their stardom via longevity, or by shining exceedingly brightly.

Depends on whether you think there is one particular path to the HoF or that all kinds can coexist.

Depends on whether stats should decide things or whether it's the person who is inducted.

Answering these questions (and there are others - this isn't an exhaustive set) will help explain why there can be differences of opinion.  Broadly, I'm a Large Hall guy, and when it comes to a particular team I'm even more expansive; let's celebrate our sport's and team's heritage rather than constantly denigrating really good players as "not good enough," and I would love there to be an additional tier called "Inner Circle."  I tend to lean toward the guys who starred even if briefly (thus I look first at Wins Above Average on b-r.com, rather than Wins Above Replacement).  I'm okay with including players that other people favor, at least to a certain extent.  And finally I am very inclined to give extra "points" to a player for things not quite captured in the stats, even on the flimsy grounds that a guy was famous (in a good way of course) because it's a hall of FAME.

People who disagree with me on these points aren't going to find agreement with me on the players I pick either.  That's fine, otherwise it would be a boring world to have everyone in lockstep.

So with that said, kudos to the Twins for choosing Corey, and congratulations to him!  His career was a bit on the short side, but he excelled while here.

49 minutes ago, ashbury said:

Depends on whether you are Small Hall or Large Hall for the Cooperstown HoF.

Depends on whether you think a local HoF should be as selective as the national one.

Depends on whether you favor guys who proved their stardom via longevity, or by shining exceedingly brightly.

Depends on whether you think there is one particular path to the HoF or that all kinds can coexist.

Depends on whether stats should decide things or whether it's the person who is inducted.

Answering these questions (and there are others - this isn't an exhaustive set) will help explain why there can be differences of opinion.  Broadly, I'm a Large Hall guy, and when it comes to a particular team I'm even more expansive; let's celebrate our sport's and team's heritage rather than constantly denigrating really good players as "not good enough," and I would love there to be an additional tier called "Inner Circle."  I tend to lean toward the guys who starred even if briefly (thus I look first at Wins Above Average on b-r.com, rather than Wins Above Replacement).  I'm okay with including players that other people favor, at least to a certain extent.  And finally I am very inclined to give extra "points" to a player for things not quite captured in the stats, even on the flimsy grounds that a guy was famous (in a good way of course) because it's a hall of FAME.

People who disagree with me on these points aren't going to find agreement with me on the players I pick either.  That's fine, otherwise it would be a boring world to have everyone in lockstep.

So with that said, kudos to the Twins for choosing Corey, and congratulations to him!  His career was a bit on the short side, but he excelled while here.

Though talking about the Twins HOF, you actually kinda summarized why I’m more of a Big Hall Guy for Cooperstown. After visiting a couple of times, I asked myself, to use a current example, “Does it diminish Mariano Rivera’s legacy to have Billy Wagner in the Hall?” No, we all know that Mariano was a capital S-STUD, whether there’s five relievers in the Hall or 15.

But will Billy Wagner being there pump up an Astros fan and bring a new level of enjoyment to the game for that? Well, I remember how loud I yelled when Tony-O was named. So, yeah, let’s err on the side of grace. It’s a game, after all. Let’s celebrate what’s awesome about it, including this short guy who could blow the ball past just about anybody.

And like you, I give “points” to guys for the things that don’t “count.” It’s the Hall of FAME. Not the Hall of Best Players. For example, given the numbers, I think Tommy John is a borderline case. Being a Big Hall Guy, I’d probably vote for him. But contribution to the game? Think of how the game has changed from him being the Guinea pig and going under the knife. Dang. With some of the cool stuff they have on display there, they should have one of Dr. Jobe’s scalpels. Shoot — when John dies, they should harvest a tendon. Okay, maybe not. But still, I think John deserves in.

Or Curt Flood. His stats would be on the extreme edge, better than just a few other CFs who have been selected. But talk about a career-ending injury (to the soul). Every player who has signed a contract since Andy Messersmith should be sending Flood a Christmas card. I think he deserves inclusion, and his role in breaking the reserve clause should be on his plaque.

So back to the Twins. Yes to Koskie.

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I’ll differ with you on the Inner Center thing, however. Not a fan of that. I think it just leads to the same tendency to denigrate. Sure, we can all agree on Willie Mays being in, since he’s first in WAR among CFs, but is the edge of the Inner Circle at Mickey Mantle (4th) or Joe DiMaggio (7th) or …

Just not sure that’s worth it. Let everyone have their own mental Inner Circle if they want.

5 hours ago, CRF said:

So...is this gonna be $100 bucks more on top of what I'm already paying for cable? 

That probably is up to your cable provider; my best guess is if your current service includes a package of regional sports networks (like FanDuel), Twins.tv will slot into that package. If not, you might need to balance an upgrade versus just streaming the Twins. Your provider may not have the details yet, but ultimately they'd be the ones making the final coverage calls.

On 1/24/2025 at 5:53 PM, Bigfork Twins Guy said:

First off I love Corie Koskie and am very happy for him.

I know I will get some thumbs down on this comment, but is the bar kinda low here for Twins HOF?  I wonder if we looked back at other Twins players if we could find somebody NOT in the Twins HOF with better stats than Corey had?

Over his six seasons (and 11 game September call up), he hit a combined .280/.373/.463 (.836) with 180 doubles, 13 triples and 101 home runs. 

Corey Koskie managed 22.1 career bWAR for the Twins, and that's a very good baseball career in general, even if the only stayed with the Twins. For players who wore a "Twins" jersey that puts him at 14th in batting and 23rd overall in "Twins" history. For a team which has been around for 65 years, that's pretty good. Koskie's Twins contribution is essentially identical in WAR to Morneau, and Dozier (not in).

Your options to get into the Twins' HoF:
1) Be a truly an exceptional player for the Twins during your playing career (Radke, Puckett, Mauer)
2) Be a "good" or better player strongly linked with the '87 or '91 Championship team (Gagne, Gaetti)
3) Be active with the Twins post career (Cuddyer, Hunter, Gladden)
4) Be part of ownership, recognizable voice or part of the front office (Pohlad, Carneal, Stelmaszek)
5) Have nobody else qualifying for the HoF under previous rules and the team is desperate (Tovar)

While Koskie was a very good player, I think he got the call because of #3.

https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/minnesota-twins-corey-koskie-hall-of-fame/

Quote

For more than two decades, Corey Koskie's presence and impact have been felt across Twins Territory, embodying what it means to be a Minnesota Twin through his leadership and community stewardship," Twins President & CEO Dave St. Peter said in a written statement. 

If a player generates less than 30 career WAR with the Twins, they're not going to get in without help from rule 3-5.