The Benefits Of Badness

Pretty good article Nick.

It does remain to be seen whether the Twins will use this time to clean the vets out and provide reps for the future.

It'll be nice to be first to the scrap heap as opposed to last for a change #glasshalffull

Berrios, Chargois, Walker, and  Jason Wheeler should then all be spending from August on with the Twins after they have traded a bunch of veterans.  Garver, Turner, Granite might also fit in the audition category for September.  Anyone on the 40 man roster older than 26 ought to be trade bait.  There are 13-14 players that fit that demographic.  Abad to a contender would fetch the most but a couple others might bring back more than a tuna can.  The more of them they trade, the more people can post in 2 years how stupid the Twins were to trade them. Here is hoping some notoriously bad trading teams are on the edge  of the playoffs in July.

Good piece. And all basically relevant. The sad part, for me and I imagine quite a few others, is the hopeless feeling that virtually nothing significant will be done. Everything you have listed is valid and needed. But nothing in this owners or FO history allow optimism that any of the following will take place with enough impact to change the face of this team drastically:

1. Trading beloved vets. See Dozier, Suzuki, and add Nunez, Grossman, Escobar. Plouffe might be the exception, and if he doesn't go, the rest of your article is bird cage lining.

2. Eat contract money. The big three SP. And if things don't change, I would add Park. If that's the kind of hitting it takes to get to thirty solo HR's, I will pass thank you.

3. Introspection. I can look in the mirror everyday, and think I should get a haircut! I can tell my wife, "I need a haircut". I can even issue a press release. But until I go to the barber, my hair is still gonna be too long.

The best the optimist in me can do is hope what you wrote happens. The pessimist in me thinks little will.

I think it would be criminal to wait to the trade deadline, or Terry's usual August to move guys. The extra two months would be very nice for the young guys.

I have a sneaky feeling we are not going to win 70% plus of the remaining games to make a run here. Especially on the backs of a rotation with Ricky Nolasco, Pat Dean, etc.

Good list. Can't argue with any of it! I especially hope they bring up some young pitchers and let 'em learn the hard way.

Another benefit of being terrible is that the Common Man on kfan has plenty of funny talking points if you are the type of person that would rather laugh than cry . Biblicaly bad gg

One additional benny.  Pretty tough to raise ticket prices or any other prices after a year like this.  Now whether you want to pay the current price to go is another subject.  Once could even make the case that they should drop ticket prices if they want to get people in to the park.

Good list. Unfortunately it's fantasy to believe Terry Ryan will change his stripes and suddenly start clearing out vets, dumping expensive contracts, or trading someone at their peak of value (Abad). This is going to be the same roster next year except for the pieces that we let walk away for nothing. No creativity or gumption.

You can audition rookies in August and September in almost any season, but it doesn't give you a whole lot of useful data to prepare for next year (see Kennys Vargas, Chris Parmelee, etc.).

 

The Twins epically poor start has given them an advantage that they already know, at this early date, that they can start to look to the future.  No sense delaying it until August to try buoying modest trade values.  There is absolutely room today for Chargois in pen without waiting for Abad to be dealt, there is room for May and/or Berrios in the rotation without waiting for a SP trade, innings for Wheeler to see if he is worth protecting on the 40-man again this winter, etc.

The problem is I just expect terrible decisions to continue until they completely clean house, if they do at all.

Nolasco, Hughes, Ervin Nunez, Plouffe, Dozier, Abad, Jepsen etc. Expect one trade on 7/31 and another for cash in mid August. No meaningful DFA's. And May will remain in the pen all year.

One additional benny.  Pretty tough to raise ticket prices or any other prices after a year like this.  Now whether you want to pay the current price to go is another subject.  Once could even make the case that they should drop ticket prices if they want to get people in to the park.

Basic organizational economics says they should lower prices. The variable cost of putting additional butts in the seats is pretty small. Operating a sports stadium is almost entirely fixed cost. Plus with those additional butts in the seats there is the knock-on revenue of concessions and merchandise that won't be sold without people to buy them. 

In other words- since the number of seats at a stadium is fixed, the revenue maximizing point should be trying to sell as many seats as possible. 

Interesting. 

Are the Twins not auditioning players right now?  The list:

Sano, Buxton, Polanco, Kepler, Centeno and a host of players on the pitching staff like Duffey, Dean, Tonkin, Pressely, Rodgers.  Probably missing a few more.  MiLB players that were on the opening roster or added.

5 of that group played last night.

Granted, it's not a conscious effort.  It's a litany of players who somehow came out of Spring Training in less than optimal condition and ending up on the DL.  And others [or same] came out of Spring Training seemingly lacking skills on the mound or at the plate and field.  I still question what the hell happened there.

I like Molitor, a brilliant baseball mind.  But at age 60, with no Managerial experience, is/was he the right choice for this team?  This team needs a young, energetic manager that's more in-tune with the young, energetic modern players. 

Direction comes from the top.  After Jim Pohlad shot off his mouth with the stupid "Total System Failure" comment, what has HE done?  Nothing.  Not even context on what was wrong.  Just a "well, not the team, but an individual to step up".  Oy vey.

Until #5 results in front office changes, the rest of these benefits are worthless. I hear nothing that sounds like ownership understands how bad this situation is

The problem is I just expect terrible decisions to continue until they completely clean house, if they do at all.

Nolasco, Hughes, Ervin Nunez, Plouffe, Dozier, Abad, Jepsen etc. Expect one trade on 7/31 and another for cash in mid August. No meaningful DFA's. And May will remain in the pen all year.

I don't wanna like this- but I can see it happening.  I think TR does things these days now just to p*** me off.

And may I add-----  that #4 reason, which should be maybe the best one, only works if a certain field manager actually puts those kids in a game.  He's been forced to play Bux because of the injury situation, and by gum, when DanSan comes back, I don't want to see him taking Bux's ABs away.  Gee, we're getting Mastro back soon too, that probably means Kepler goes down in favor of a "vet."  We've probably seen the last of Alex Meyer for another year, most likely due to Molly's mishandling of that whole affair, and where the heck has Arcia been the past couple of weeks?  Molly needs to go, but quick, if any of that #4 option is going to happen.

It is nice to get great seats for cheap. Was there Saturday. Row 1, Section 120. $30.

Joe Mauer is a great player, but the experience of having him makes me leery of "investing" so much hitting talent in that position. It makes the management of the 25-man roster harder.

 

Getting 130 games behind the plate out of any one player is a challenge, and then you want your stud batter in the lineup for the other games, which likely means DH. That in turn means you can't carry too many "corner" types like we have now, vying for extra at bats at DH (or those corner positions); at DH it also means there's a temptation to carry a third catcher if the manager is paranoid about being caught having to have pitchers bat in case of a mid-game injury. There's also the worry of the stress of playing catcher wearing your elite bat down.

 

These are not insuperable obstacles, and of course you don't want an offensive black hole playing the position. But given a close decision, I would opt for another player, at a high first round pick, than catcher.

I think you need to accept the guy may only get 8-10 years behind the plate. But we have a huge hole at catcher that isn't getting fixed anytime soon.