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Brock Beauchamp

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Blog Entries posted by Brock Beauchamp

  1. Brock Beauchamp
    The Twins' season has concluded, but do you need your next baseball fix over the long winter?
    Fans who follow the Twins know the thrill of building a team from the ground up — from scouting promising talent to developing all-stars. But what if you could experience that same excitement firsthand, managing every detail of your own franchise? That’s where Franchise Ball steps up to the plate. It’s a free online baseball simulation game that lets you become the general manager of your own team, competing in real-time leagues against other passionate baseball minds around the world.
    In Franchise Ball, you’re not just watching the game — you’re building it. You’ll draft players, negotiate trades, and fine-tune lineups to maximize performance. Each simulated game unfolds with advanced stats and analytics that reflect real baseball logic, making every managerial decision matter. Whether you prefer to model your team after the [blog team name] balanced strategy or carve out your own unique identity, Franchise Ball gives you the tools to do it.
    The experience runs 24/7, with games played daily across competitive divisions and playoff seasons. As you progress, you can develop player depth charts, scout prospects, and manage your team’s finances for long-term success. The system rewards strategy, patience, and smart decision-making — the same skills that front offices use in Major League Baseball.
    Unlike many sports games, Franchise Ball doesn’t rely on flashy graphics or pay-to-win mechanics. It's a pure test of baseball management and intellect.  You can join leagues, form rivalries, and climb the global rankings while keeping tabs on your stats through the game’s detailed dashboard. Every box score and scouting report feels like a genuine piece of baseball management history in the making.
    Franchise Ball is completely free to play, with membership upgrade options, and we're constantly listening to our community to bring new features to the game as they come in. So if you’re inspired by the way the Twins rebuild, retool, and compete year after year — now’s your chance to run your own team and see if your baseball instincts can match up. Visit Franchise Ball today, start your own franchise, and take your first swing at baseball greatness.
  2. Brock Beauchamp
    Several months ago, user @mikelink45 contacted me via private message and asked "why don't we have a debate forum on Twins Daily?"
    I didn't have a good answer to that question, as the idea of such a thing had never crossed my mind. Roll forward to today and we're excited to announce the Head 2 Head Debate Forum!
    The premise is simple: two Twins Daily users - names obscured to prevent bias in voting - square off on a single topic over the course of a week and the Twins Daily community votes on the winner afterward. There will be rules limiting the frequency of posts and the number of rebuttals in an attempt to streamline this process into an easily-digestible debate for reading and voting. We will only host one debate at a time and the frequency of the debates entirely depends on user interest in both participation and voting. We have a few topics already lined up with interested users but our community will be the ones deciding most of the topics and participants once everyone familiarizes themselves with the operation of the forum.
    Note: to keep everyone on topic and focused, there are a few differences between this forum and most other forums on Twins Daily: users cannot create topics in this forum, nor can they respond to posts until the debate is complete, at which point the debate thread becomes a free-for-all for everyone to participate in the topic.
    If you're interested in the rules, topics, or participating, please jump over to the H2H forum right now and check out the initial series of posts explaining the rules, how to suggest a topic, and how to participate!
  3. Brock Beauchamp
    Every offseason, we offer our You’re The GM! tool (formerly the Payroll Blueprint) to build your ideal Twins roster. This year, we’ve updated and streamlined the tool a bit to improve the experience.
    The idea behind this feature is to give fans a chance to play the role of General Manager (or CBO or PoBO… you get the idea) for their favorite team, the Minnesota Twins. It’s meant to give fans the opportunity to discuss (and, let’s be honest, argue) how they would approach the long, dark MLB offseason.
    This tool is intended to be informal and fun, so we’ve left it as open as possible. There is a payroll “budget” that loosely resembles the Twins' 2024 payroll, but there is no penalty for going over that number. It’s a guideline, nothing more. Second, you can submit as many blueprints as you like throughout the offseason. As the offseason landscape changes, users often return multiple times over the winter and create new blueprints.
    Before we get into the breakdown of the tool, you can save your blueprint and come back to it at any time. The only restriction is that you must register an account on the site to create a blueprint (so we can save a draft for you and also post the blueprint for others to discuss).
    Let’s get into the tool itself. It has four quadrants that work best if addressed in a counter-clockwise order (this tool works much better on desktops due to its complexity but will work on mobile devices if need be).
    Top Left: The 26-man Roster
    We have created a rough guideline of what the Twins 26-man roster looks like today. The roster is flexible; any player can be added or removed as you see fit. We’ve also included either guaranteed salaries or, in the case of arbitration and contract options, the recommendations of MLB Trade Rumors. This section is where you build your roster and make changes based on the following two sections. As you make changes to players and salaries, the total payroll number (right side of the screen) will change, allowing you to track your budget on the fly.
    The bottom field in both columns is for any dead money you assume during the course of your offseason. Acquiring dead money should be rather uncommon but we want to present users the opportunity to take on dead salary if it suits their purposes.
    Bottom Left: Arbitration & Trade Decisions
    Here, you will find a selection of arbitration options and internal options (usually from the 40-man roster or minor leagues) to assist in building your offseason roster. On the right-hand side of this column, you will see Trade Candidates, a list of the 35 players most likely to be traded this offseason, per MLB Trade Rumors. To help you get up to speed with these candidates, we offer a direct link to the MLBTR write-up on trade candidates.
    Bottom Right: Free Agents
    Here, you will find the top 50 free agents, again per MLB Trade Rumors. These are sorted by position to facilitate quickly finding your desired free agent and include the recommended salary for that player. Because this is a blueprint for a single year, we only include their projected salary for the coming season, not the number of years or anything else. To help you get up to speed with these free agents, we offer a direct link to the MLBTR write-up on the best 50 free agents available this winter.
    Top Right: Dead Money, Your Total Payroll, & Commentary
    The only unalterable field on the page is Dead Money; it is players to which the team has committed money but has no reasonable way to get out of the contract. Below that, you will see the recommended budget, your current total, and the percentage you are over or under that budget. Again, keep in mind the budget is only a guideline, and you can go above it as much as you like…
    But defend your choices, coward! The following field is Title, which gives other users an idea of what to expect with your blueprint (e.g. Sign Juan Soto, Damn the Consequences). When your blueprint posts for other users, it will read “Your Username’s 2025 Payroll Blueprint: Sign Juan Soto, Damn the Consequences”.
    The following field is Your Comments & Explanation, a long-form field meant to type out the rationale behind your decisions. Here is the place to fully explain your trades (including which players are leaving the Twins to bring in new players), why you targeted specific free agents, and, any promotions from the minors you advocate or any options you declined to extend to a specific player. This is often multiple paragraphs, you can write up as much detail as you desire.
    That’s it, you’re done! At this point, you can either publish your blueprint to the forums or save it for later if you feel it’s incomplete.
    Thank you for joining us at Twins Daily. I hope you enjoy playing the role of general manager, at least for a moment!
    Start Your Payroll Blueprint Now
  4. Brock Beauchamp
    FOCO is a partner with Twins Daily and support of their products helps support this site; 100% of the funds/materials received from these promotions go directly to our users in the form of prizes and gifts.
    To commemorate the Minnesota twins new city connect uniforms, our friends at FOCO is releasing a brand new Minnesota Twins 2024 City Connect Bobblehead Collection. This limited-edition collection will spotlight our favorite Twins players, Carlos Correa and Royce Lewis, and even our beloved mascot, TC Bear, to make sure Twins fans all around are showing their city connect spirit for their Minnesota Twins and the city of Minnesota. 
    The Minnesota Twins 2024 City Connect Bobbleheads portrays them wearing the new city connect uniform in an action pose, ready to rep the state of Minnesota with every stitch. The bobbles feature a thematic, team colored backdrop in case there were any doubts where your allegiances lie. A unique feature is the “10,000 Lakes” text display on the reverse side of the backdrop, so your state pride is on display from all angles! Minneapolis and St. Paul city skyline accents on the base to showcase the twin cities. There is a team logo display on the top of the base for an extra dose of team spirit, as well as miniature team logo displays and thematic wave accents on the front of the base to bring you back to lazy days on the lake! Lastly, there is a front name display so everyone knows who the faces of the franchise are! Each bobblehead in this collection will be numbered out of 144, be 8” and cost $85.  
    Like all FOCO bobbleheads, each one is hand-crafted and painted so that no two pieces look exactly the same creating a unique and diverse presence to each bobblehead that FOCO released.  These Minnesota Twins 2024 City Connect Bobbleheads are expecting to go fast so fans should act fast to ensure they get their hands on them! Get yours here!

  5. Brock Beauchamp
    In case you missed it, we launched the Minnesota Twins Players Project. It's a community-driven effort to collate and refine the best information about any Minnesota Twins player, past or present.
    One of the aspects of this feature is its extensive use of tagging. When a player is created in the Players Project, it searches all of Twins Daily for related tags; that could be front page news, forum topics, or here in the user blogs.
    If you want your work (either in the forums or blogs) to be part of the Players Project, use tagging! It's found under the title field in any new post, a small button that says "Add Tags..." Let's quickly run through tagging and how to do it properly, ensuring that your work is captured correctly in searches and the Players Project.
    All tags are lowercase (kirby puckett, not Kirby Puckett) No special characters (Kala'i Rosario should be tagged as kalai rosario and Simeon Woods-Richardson should be tagged as simeon woods richardson) Only tag players! Creating special tags like "87 champions" or "2024 twins" don't do anyone any good, all they do is clutter the tagging auto-fill feature You can tag up to seven players per piece but show some restraint, only tag players that are involved meaningfully That's it! Tagging is quick, easy, and creates more awareness of your content, try using it from now on!
    While you're here, check out the Players Project and add your favorite player today!
     
  6. Brock Beauchamp
    FOCO is a partner with Twins Daily and support of their products helps support this site; 100% of the funds/materials received from these promotions go directly to our users in the form of prizes and gifts.
    For Twins fans looking to take their Twins game day outfits with a blend of style, comfort, and team spirit, the latest offering from FOCO hits a moon shot out of the park. The Minnesota Twins Plaid Bib Overalls are not just a piece of clothing; they're a statement of unwavering support for the Minnesota Twins, designed to make you stand out in a crowd full of Twins fans, whether you're at the game or enjoying your Twinkies from anywhere around the world.
    Their all-over team-colored design comes in the official Minnesota Twins colors that captures the essence of the team spirit, making it a must-have for any devoted Twins fan. Prominently featuring a large Twins logo on the front, there's no questioning where your allegiance lies. The inclusion of a bib pocket is not just for aesthetics but makes for a practical addition that allows for easy storage of essentials like your phone, wallet, or game day tickets. With a buckle closure and adjustable bib shoulder straps, these shortalls promise a custom fit that's both comfortable and flattering. The combination of the polyester woven canvas and short pant legs further enhance airflow, ensuring you stay cool and comfortable, no matter how intense the game gets.
    The versatility of the Minnesota Twins Plaid Bib Overalls by FOCO is unmatched. Ideal for game days, these shortalls ensure you're dressed for victory. They're also the perfect choice for tailgating events, where comfort meets style. And when it comes to concerts or festivals, these shortalls allow you to enjoy the music and atmosphere while proudly showcasing your team spirit.
    Whether you're cheering from the stands or celebrating with friends at a tailgate, the Minnesota Twins Plaid Bib Overalls are the ultimate fan gear. Combining functionality with style, they're a must-have for any diehard Twins fan looking to show their team pride in a unique and fashionable way. Get ready to turn heads and make a statement at your next game day or event by grabbing a pair here!


     
  7. Brock Beauchamp
    FOCO is a partner with Twins Daily and support of their products helps support this site; 100% of the funds/materials received from these promotions go directly to our users in the form of prizes and gifts.
    Twins Nation! Although this year did not go the way we planned it to go, it was good to see the Twins win another division title and prove that they can hang with the best and have the talent moving forward to compete for a World Series title, something us Twins fans have not seen in quite some time. Although the Twins didn’t get the job done this season, we also want to remind you of the past Twins teams and some of the ridiculous talent they had in their prime days back in the day!
    It has been awhile since we have mentioned our friends at FOCO with all of their high quality and innovative Minnesota Twins products that we have showed off to you guys. This morning, FOCO has released a Kirby Puckett Minnesota Twins 2X World Series Champion Bobblehead. Kirby has his white Twins jersey on with batting gloves on holding his black baseball bat with his two World Series trophies by his sides. This bobblehead is very limited to only 123 pieces at a retail price of $75 standing proudly at 8 inches tall. 

    This special piece will sell out quickly so make sure to get your hands on one of these masterpieces and bring a little bit of championship passion to your home. Like all FOCO bobbleheads, each one is hand-crafted and painted so that no two pieces look exactly the same creating a diverse and unique look to each bobblehead FOCO releases.  
    Make sure to grab your Kirby Puckett Minnesota Twins 2X World Series Bobblehead now to have this delivered to you by the start of next baseball season and cheer on your Twins World Champions style. GO TWINS!!
  8. Brock Beauchamp
    FOCO is a partner with Twins Daily and support of their products helps support this site; 100% of the funds/materials received from these promotions go directly to our users in the form of prizes and gifts.
    Get ready to celebrate America's favorite pastime with a touch of nostalgia as FOCO, a leading manufacturer of officially licensed sports and entertainment merchandise, announces the release of an exciting new collection: Peanuts Charlie Brown MLB Team Themed Bobbleheads. This collaboration brings together the beloved Peanuts characters and the iconic teams of Major League Baseball in a charming and collectible form. Fans of both Peanuts and baseball are in for a treat as they witness the timeless charm of Charlie Brown and his friends coming to life in the form of bobbleheads.

    The Peanuts Charlie Brown MLB Team Themed Bobbleheads collection features a bobblehead for each MLB team, meticulously designed to incorporate the essence of Peanuts and the respective MLB team. Charlie Brown dons the Twins colors and logo and is positioned with a baseball bat in hand and a Twins hat. He stands atop a thematic team base with his name displayed in front and the Twins logo on the bottom. 
    As with any highly sought-after collectible, FOCO understands the importance of exclusivity. The Peanuts Charlie Brown MLB Team Themed Bobbleheads collection is a limited-edition release, with just 150 units for each one. This limited availability creates a sense of urgency among collectors, enhancing the excitement surrounding the release. It also retails for $65 and stands close to 10in tall. 
    The Peanuts Charlie Brown MLB Team Themed Bobbleheads collection will be available through FOCO.com, FOCO’s official website. As demand is expected to be high, it is recommended that fans act swiftly to secure their favorite team's bobblehead.
    The release of the Peanuts Charlie Brown MLB Team Themed Bobbleheads collection by FOCO marks an exciting moment for fans of Peanuts and Major League Baseball alike. By intertwining the timeless charm of Charlie Brown and his friends with the tradition and passion of baseball, FOCO has created a unique and collectible experience that will be cherished by fans for years to come. Don't miss the opportunity to own a piece of this exceptional collaboration. Add one to your collection here!
  9. Brock Beauchamp
    Our partners at FOCO have announced the release of a really cool bobblehead and we'd like to share it with our Twins Daily users. The bobblehead is a celebration of Kirby Puckett's six (!) Silver Slugger Awards. This bobble is limited to only 96 units so you're getting something quite unique and special.
    FOCO is a partner of Twins Daily and we receive credit for purchases made using our affiliated link here. All proceeds from sales using this link are returned to our users via special offers and free gifts!

  10. Brock Beauchamp
    Twins Daily is a partner with FOCO products and earns products for any affiliate purchases you make, 100% of which is returned to our users in gift form. Any support you provide is support of the Twins Daily community itself!
    To celebrate the return of baseball, FOCO is releasing a Spring Training Bobblehead Collection that features commemorative team bobbleheads, mascots, and some of the game’s best players from the Grapefruit and Cactus Spring training leagues.
    The commemorative player bobbleheads in the collection feature spring training league logos across the body and head. They all stand atop a plate themed base with various thematic elements from the league that they play in. The player and mascot bobbleheads are also on a base with various thematic elements from the league they play in and their names are displayed in front. The commemorative generic players will retail for $75, the mascots for $70, and the athletes for $80. All of the bobbleheads in the collection are limited to 144 units and stand at 8" tall.
    These unique bobbles will only be available for a limited time so check them out!
    FOCO Spring Training Bobblehead Collection

  11. Brock Beauchamp

    Introducing Dark Mode!

    By Brock Beauchamp,


    Twins Daily
    This has been one of the most-requested features for a long time and I'm happy to announce that Dark Mode is finally a thing you can use across the site! Dark Mode is a new way to use Twins Daily, especially at night or in darkened rooms. Instead of the background being black text over white background, it's the inverse: white text over black background. Some people find sites easier to use and read in this inverted scheme and now it's really easy to toggle back and forth as needed.
    At the top right of each page, you will see four icons in the red bar; the first icon is a half-filled circle. Click that to toggle back and forth from light to dark modes on the site. That's it!
    Now, the site has become quite sprawling and while I tried to check every aspect of how this renders on each page, I surely missed some things. Therefore, dear user, you are my quality assurance team. If you see anything that's hard to read, doesn't work right, or just plain looks weird, add a comment below and I'll get it fixed as soon as possible.
    For those of you who have been asking for this feature for so long, sorry it has taken this long. What seemed like a pretty simple feature actually turned into an overly-complex problem that I couldn't solve without quite a bit of effort.
    Once again, I'd like to give a big thanks and shout out to our caretakers of Twins Daily; without their continued support, small-but-important features like Dark Mode would be much more difficult to implement. The added freedom to hire additional staff allows me to spend more time focusing on these types of projects. Thanks again!
  12. Brock Beauchamp
    As a long-time Wisconsin resident, I actually followed the Brewers for a couple of years as a small child before becoming a Twins fan. As a result, I've always kept an eye on the Crew and it became really easy to cheer them on after the move to the National League.
    So when we had the option to purchase a Brewers forum and give it the Twins Daily treatment, it was a no-brainer for me to jump right in.
    And so we launched BrewerFanatic.com! Right now, it's basically a pared-down Twins Daily but the community is outstanding and, just like here, there is a dedicated community that offers Brewers insight you won't find elsewhere. While the site is still relatively new, users are coming around to blogging about things like how Earl Weaver baseball rekindled a love of the sport.
    And, as you'd expect, the front page is full of Brewers analysis. Hell, I even talked myself into writing a few pieces over there (which I haven't done here since 2014 or so), like an early-season analysis of Christian Yelich's lingering launch angle problems. We have Jeremy Nygaard doing his typical draft wrangling and Seth is helping the trio of Brewers minor league gurus get up to speed with nightly minor league affiliate recaps. And just like here, we have up-to-date active rosters and 40-man rosters.
    So if you're a Brewers fan, closeted or not, come on by and check out the site!
    Also, the site justified me purchasing this hoodie as an acknowledgement of the pure fire that are Brewers logos (they're all great, seriously).

  13. Brock Beauchamp
    While we try to keep the cost of our prizes reasonable, for the first anniversary of the awards, I had an idea and I was going to spend as much as it required to find this gem of a prize.
    After quite some time searching - I'd rather not say how long - I've found the ultimate prize for the top mid-season Community Award.

    A signed baseball bat.
    A signed Kyle Lohse baseball bat.
    A signed Kyle Lohse baseball bat with his Twins jersey number on it.
    What's astounding about this find is that Lohse played a significant portion of his career in the National League... a league where he never wore the number 49.
    Why is a Kyle Lohse baseball bat significant? He was a pitcher, after all... well, this is why. 
    Is this the bat Kyle Lohse used to smash ol' Ronnie's door? I mean, probably not... but if Pete Rose can sell his #4192 bat over and over again for profit, we can all pretend that this bat first (only?) saw action against an office door in the Metrodome on that random night in September of 2005. Who's to say otherwise, really?
    So, dear Twins Daily community member, if you want this prize, start typing, for it will only be available to the user who writes the most popular post on the Twins Daily forums in the first half of the 2022 campaign.
    PS. I've scoured eBay for months but have yet to find an auction for the accompanying Ron Gardenhire office door but should you come across one - legally or otherwise - you know where to find me and I'm willing to pay big for it.
  14. Brock Beauchamp
    New to the site, we've added both the active roster and the 40-man roster pages!
    These pages will update nightly so they'll always be up-to-date with the current state of the big league club, adding yet another long-term feature I've wanted to see on our baseball sites basically forever. There isn't a lot to say about these pages other than they feature the standard set of player info: name, position, handedness, DoB, etc.
    To find these pages, use the hamburger menu at the top right of every page (the three horizontal lines), click "Twins Resources", and then you'll be presented the options for both the roster pages and the team schedule for the season.
    As always, if you have suggestions for new features you'd like to see added or improvements to current features, please comment below!
  15. Brock Beauchamp
    Well... do you, punk?
    Last July, we started a new community initiative where we offer prizes for the most liked posts and blog entries on the site. We'll post these awards four times a year: first half of the season, second half of the season, offseason, and spring training. Probably. Unless it becomes a miserable experience, at which point we reserve the right to stop at any time.
    These prizes... aren't great, to put it bluntly. They kinda stemmed me from reading comic books in the 1980s and loving the "No-Prize" award in every letters page written by the editor of Marvel Comics, signed off by Stan Lee and wow... I'm getting old real fast with that sentence so I'm gonna stop.
    But the prizes, while not great, are incredible.
    This season has been such a train wreck, such a total collapse of all things at once, such a complete and utter failure across the board that it was difficult to decide which of the many ripe fruits I should pick off the Minnesota Twins 2021 tree to celebrate this season finally coming to a close. But ultimately, I had to go back to the source of our collective misfortune and, at that point, it became clear what most needed celebration: the 2021 Minnesota Twins bullpen. And once that clicked into place, I realized there was only one place I could go with the second half community prize:
    A Ron Davis commemorative display.
    This display not only features Ron Davis' epic 1984 campaign with the Minnesota Twins but it also features Ron Davis' epic 1984 campaign with the Minnesota Twins.
    2021 Twins fans surely can commiserate with everything I said - and didn't say - in that sentence.
    But there's more than just a few trinkets included in this display, as the below video will show to you skeptics still standing in the back:
    Ron Davis Commemorative Display Prize Ron Davis Prize.mp4
    Yes, you heard that right. That is Grammy award-winning artist Sarah McLachlin singing her 1997 hit "Angel" from her 8x platinum album, Surfacing.
    So if you have the nerve, feel the moxy, can be the spoon, will channel your inner Randball's Stu... this perfect piece of Twins history could be yours, all you have to do is write the most popular post in the Twins Daily community. That could be a comment on a news story, a reply to a blog post, or even a blog comment.
    For the lucky person who can be all those things to all those people all at the same time, you will win the ultimate piece of Minnesota Twins memorabilia.
    I know, you just want this thing so much but remember, YOU HAVE TO EARN IT.
    Just like Ron Davis.
  16. Brock Beauchamp

    Introducing video!

    By Brock Beauchamp,


    Twins Daily
    Twins Daily has been talking about video internally for the past... 5+ years... or more...
    But as you may have noticed, we finally started dabbling in video around the trade deadline, only dipping our toe in for starters. We had a few stops and starts and bumps along the way as we learned a lot about how to display video and integrate them into the site. We're definitely still learning and expect to see significant changes along the way but we've moved to the next step of video: a permanent page to present and archive all our videos!
    Right now, the bulk of the video content is from our own @Tom Froemming and his great (almost) nightly recaps but that's just the beginning, we have a lot more in the works from many names you'll recognize that we'll be rolling out in the coming months. As with the rest of Twins Daily, expect the same great, daily content that breaks down not only the Minnesota Twins but also their minor league affiliates, particularly the St Paul Saints and Wichita Wind Surge!
    You can also check out a few of our vintage Twins highlight reels with our partners at TC Media Now, of which we hope to expand upon in the coming months!
    Check out the new Twins Daily video page and let us know what you think!
  17. Brock Beauchamp

    Introducing Achievements!

    By Brock Beauchamp,


    Twins Daily
    Welcome to the brief rundown of Twins Daily’s newest feature, achievements! I’ve been waiting a *really* long time to roll this feature out to users and have spent a rather unhealthy amount of time developing it for the site. I hope you enjoy experiencing it as much as I enjoyed making it.
    Achievements, or awards, or gamification… you’ve probably run into it before in other avenues of your digital life. Achievements are most common (and were largely born out of) the console video game world, beginning on the Xbox platform in the mid-2000s.
    Basically, it boils down to this: do stuff, get (sometimes silly) awards and badges for doing it. Over the past month, I’ve designed over 60 custom badges that you can be awarded for performing sometimes mundane, other times complex, tasks across the Twins Daily platform. Comment on a post, get a badge. Write a blog post, get a badge. Vote on a poll, get a badge… you get the point. Do some of these tasks multiple times and sometimes (many times) you’ll get additional badges.
    If you visit your user profile page, you’ll see it now looks different, with achievements being prominently displayed near the top.

    With over 60 badges available right now, some of you older, veteran Twins Daily users will start accumulating achievements the moment you begin participating in various aspects of the site, as many (as many as possible, but not all) of the achievements are back-dated to the time you began using the site. So explore the site, try completing some random tasks like post a status update, and see if you get a badge for doing it!
    As you "achieve" new things, on top of badges, you will also be awarded points. Once you hit certain milestones in points, you raise in rank (out of 14 ranks in total). In the image above, my rank is "draft eligible", the third rank you will achieve.
    Here is a sampling of a few of the badges you can be awarded right now:

    Some achievements will be won seemingly at random but I assure you, there is a specific set of items that awarded you the badge (and sometimes, those items need to be completed in a specific order). And some badges will be awarded manually for “exceptional” things done on the site. Those will be the hardest to collect and the rarest achievements available on Twins Daily.
    And if anyone manages to get them all or one of the *really* difficult-to-uncover achievements, Twins Daily may have some special prizes available to users who can accomplish those rarest of feats on the site…
  18. Brock Beauchamp
    Every few days, I'm going to try to cover some of the features of the new site in a few paragraphs.
    Using the old site, as I'm sure many of you are aware, tables were basically unusable. That has changed! I'll tackle B-Ref tables quickly in this post but you can do similar things with FanGraphs or other sites that use table data (which is how almost all stat sites display their content). First, pop on over to Lord Byron's B-Ref page:
    https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/buxtoby01.shtml
    I'm going to grab his 2019-2021 season stats. Just above his stat table, you'll see Share & Export. Click and then select Modify, Share, & Export Table. Boom, you can then select what stats you want to display and which you want to remove. I've removed all seasons except the last three. I also removed team and league because "duh". Then click the big X in the top right of the yellow square and you have your filtered table. Grab that table by moving your cursor to the top left of the table (just to the left of Year in this case) and while holding down the button of your mouse/trackpad, drag toward the bottom right of the table. The table will begin to highlight in yellow as you select the cells. Grab them all and let go of the mouse/trackpad. Then copy what has been selected (control+c on Windows, command+c on macOS).
    Pop over to Twins Daily, start typing a comment, and paste your content (control+v on Windows, command+v on macOS).
    Year Age G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB Pos Awards 2019 25 87 295 271 48 71 30 4 10 46 14 3 19 68 .262 .314 .513 .827 116 139 3 2 2 1 1 8/HD   2020 26 39 135 130 19 33 3 0 13 27 2 1 2 36 .254 .267 .577 .844 127 75 2 1 0 2 0 8 MVP-16 2021 27 24 98 92 19 34 10 0 9 17 5 0 4 23 .370 .408 .772 1.180 236 71 0 2 0 0 0 *8   7 Yr 7 Yr 456 1602 1472 223 363 87 17 60 189 67 9 95 467 .247 .297 .451 .748 99 664 10 13 14 8 3     162 162 162 569 523 79 129 31 6 21 67 24 3 34 166 .247 .297 .451 .748 99 236 4 5 5 3 1     And that's it!
    Note: you can use this method for most websites and spreadsheet data so whatever table data you have available you need to copy and paste, this method will likely suit your needs.
  19. Brock Beauchamp
    The old Twins Daily had a pretty simplistic version of the feed but I felt it was so awkward and weird to use that I hid it away from most users' eyes.
    Not so with the new version and I suspect after reading this, some of you (particularly forum users) may set a custom feed as your Twins Daily landing page. It's that useful. Instead of having to click through the (kinda insanely large now) Twins Daily site, you can tailor a feed to show basically whatever you want: select authors, topics you've followed, fellow users, unread content only... the list goes on.
    First, to find your personal feed, near the top right of the screen you will see a newspaper icon in the red bar below your user information.

    That brings you to the default view, which is Unread Content.

    Here you'll see a variety of options to tailor your custom stream to do almost anything you like on the site. I'll spare you going through each item in detail individually, as it's all quite self-explanatory. You can choose tagged content, type of content (news, forums, blogs, status updates, etc.), read/unread only, content you've participated in or started, followed content, and finally, how it's sorted.
    Depending what kind of device you're using, you can also choose Condensed or Expanded. Condensed just gives you the title and link while Expanded offers a truncated version of the content as a preview.
    Once you've decided on your changes, you can save this stream using the save prompt below. You're allowed to have multiple custom streams so name this new stream and it joins the others.
    Once you're done customizing your stream, Click Stream Options at the top right of the selection drop-down, and your choices become your default custom stream. Every time you click that newspaper or visit your stream, the selections you've made will remain in place.
    That's it, enjoy the new site!
  20. Brock Beauchamp
    I've been looking at the blog section of the site lately and see that it hasn't gotten any TLC since launch. I made some small changes to how the blogs are listed in the mobile section of the site this morning and that got me thinking... I'm not a blogger. I should ask you bloggers what you want changes you'd like to see made to the site.
     
    I'm open to any suggestions, though obviously, time constraints may apply to whether the requested changes are feasible or not.
     
    So, what would you like to see? More customizability in the blog sections, better image support, different sorting methods? Give me your feedback on anything blog-related and I'll compile the most requested changes and see what I can do about it.
     
    Please don't suggest "carry over blog comments to the front page", though... I'd love to do that and it's a long-term goal but it simply isn't feasible right now. It'll get done at some point but that change will require a complete rethinking of how comments are generated and posted.
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