Brock Beauchamp

If anything has changed in the past 35 years, it's that people who like to complain have platforms to do so and they will absolutely exercise that right as often as possible. I mean, people are livid about the pitch clock, even though it actually returns baseball to how it felt 40 years ago. The same people hollering about the pitch clock are the same people who dislike how baseball has changed in the past several decades. In short, people are stupid and we should not listen to them. The new M logo is fine. I'm not in love with it but it's fine. I'm not sure why I should even care much about it.

I think it looks really good on this hoodie.

I mean, it's just a sans serif "M". It doesn't even really look like Miami's logo, it's just the same letter.

I'm coming around on the M logo. I wish the star was more visible on the hat, I feel that's the weakest part of the design. Overall, I like the designs. I LOVE the new home jerseys, both the standard white and the Twin Cities versions.

Thank you! I spend wayyyyyy too much time thinking up the absolute stupidest prizes I can imagine. I've literally spent a year trying to work out how to create a hilariously terrifying prize. Hopefully I'll get there in 2024.

Please realize this is a juggling act that never ends. In 2022, Twins Daily (for the first time) had over 2,000,000 users drop by and visit. That's an enormous number and it's largely due to the how diverse and comprehensive our coverage is through news, forums, blogs, videos, rumors, etc. Twins Daily is one of the biggest baseball sites on the internet now. It's mind-blowing how a site for a single mid-market team grew this large and juggling the needs of a disparate user base is always a struggle. There's too much content to structure in an organized way. When the site launched, we hoped to run 5-7 stories a week. Right now, we're averaging 5-7 articles a day. We used to have front page news threads in the Twins forum. It completely broke the Twins forum and that's when we were running half the stories we are now. Users stopped generating threads because they'd be pushed out of sight within a few hours by the continual onslaught of front page news threads. We're all about community here so that didn't fly. We value those user-generated conversations and therefore moved news threads to a separate forum to give users more breathing space to create and discuss their own content. In short, when you have 2,000,000 users visiting in a year, there's no perfect way to coordinate that much content. It's going to be chaotic, it's going to be messy, and it's not going to work perfectly for literally anyone who uses the site. You might want to explore this tool a bit. It's super-customizable and pretty cool if you drill down into it. https://twinsdaily.com/discover/unread/

Oh no.

We will, we just need the writers down there this year to scout things out post-hurricane.

PM me your address!

While Minnesota may be forever mired in winter, the crack of the bat is being heard in Ft Myers. Baseball is back, and it’s time to hand out our offseason community awards. Image courtesy of Brock Beauchamp While Minnesota may be forever mired in winter, the crack of the bat is being heard in Ft Myers. Baseball is back, and it’s time to hand out our offseason community awards. A few times a year, we hit the pause button and take a moment to talk about and reward our most popular community members and the contributions they bring to Twins Daily. During what was (far and away) the wildest Twins off-season of my lifetime, the community exploded with content. You wrote 123 blogs from when the Astros hoisted a trophy through the day the Twins took that field in their first split-squad games in Florida. 123 blogs. Incredible. Let’s take a look at some of the other numbers: During the off-season, 424 people registered to comment on Twins Daily Over that time, 806 unique people contributed content to the site Users started 1,045 topics In those topics, you wrote 26,948 posts In those posts, you awarded 55,357 reactions to other users All of those are record numbers. Every single one. Mind-blowing. Our most prolific poster was @chpettit19, with @Mike Sixel coming in a close second. Thanks to both of you for your continued quality contributions to the community! Let’s get to the awards, shall we? Most Popular Post The Luis Arraez trade was almost certainly the most controversial of the winter, and @Puckett34’s thoughtful take on the advantages and difficulties of losing a fan-favorite player was the most popular post of the off-season. This award usually goes out to someone who swoops in with the snark, so seeing it go to a serious post is a bit of a surprise. Well done, Puckett34! We award you a thoughtful and heartfelt prize for your thoughtful and heartfelt take on the trade: a laser-etched wood photo frame of Nickelback lead singer Chad Kroeger holding an autographed Nick Punto baseball card. Honorary Mention Losing Carlos Correa to the Mets was the low point of the Twins' off-season. In the thread detailing his surprise signing (not-signing) with the other New York team, @Nashvilletwin wrote what many of us were feeling; baseball is broken, and MLB seems not to care. Unsurprisingly, this post was wildly popular with the Twins Daily community, earning it the second most popular post of the offseason! Most Popular Blog Entry From the fan perspective, manager Rocco Baldelli is the most controversial person in the Twins dugout. Where much of the fanbase blames Baldelli for baseball ills that transcend what happens in Target Field, @Nick Hanzlik takes the opposite approach by suggesting Baldelli is the perfect manager for today’s game. Some people agreed, which is why it’s the most popular blog entry of the Twins Daily off-season! Congratulations, Nick, and for your efforts, you shall be awarded this (not at all garish) limited edition Spring Training 2023 Minnesota Twins bobblehead! Honorary Mention Want a surefire way to create conversation? Take Mount Rushmore, add your local sports team, and fire off some opinions. That’s exactly what @Luke Thompson did in writing up a blog about the four players on the Twins’ Mount Rushmore, earning the second most popular blog of the off-season! As I mentioned earlier, Twins Daily broke every record over the off-season: more users, more comments, more blogs, and more everything. And a big reason for that is the users mentioned above and all of you who comment daily on the site and add your thoughts, insights, and opinions on the Minnesota Twins. That’s why Twins Daily is the best place to talk Twins baseball. And now it’s time to start watching some baseball and our Minnesota Twins! View full article

This piece is actually by John Bonnes FTR. There was an error in the last piece and I had to re-post his content so the audio would work.

Today's Caretaker-only audio diary includes Twins Manager Rocco Baldelli's bullpen plans, Kyle Farmer on his new (and old) teammate and interviews with Edouard Julien and Sonny Gray. We're trying something new for Twins Daily's Caretakers: an audio report from John Bonnes on what he's seeing and hearing from players, coaches, and management inside Hammond Stadium. Today's report includes: News on Jorge Polanco's slow ramp up in spring training, and whether is knee is already a concern Emilio Pagan's offseason, and why his first bullpen session was so encouraging Thoughts from pitching coach Pater Maki on camp and how the Twins are adjusting to the new pitching clock. If you're a Caretaker, just scroll down for your exclusive content! And if you're not, maybe consider becoming a Caretaker? You likely visit regularly, and that's going to become even more likely as the season gears up. Supporting something you value feels good, especially when it's been here feeding your baseball habit for over 10 years for free, right? We're in spring training reporting because we love this stuff, and we want to share it as much as we can, so you can find lot of free content from Fort Myers other places on the site. But unfortunately, spring training is expensive, and that's especially true this year after Hurricane Ian damaged a lot of the lodging options. Plus, there are lot of other benefits, like a free Winter Meltdown ticket and early access for guest, special callouts on the site, and lots more inside or in-depth content like this. So please consider joining our little club. The money is going to a site you love, to support coverage you love, and writers you value. Thank you so much. Join Here to support Twins Daily and get your exclusive content! Image courtesy of © Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports View full article

Huh, the sidebar is acting oddly. I'll add it to my bug list. A bunch of content is missing from it.

That isn’t the tone of the piece at all, it’s entirely from Martin’s perspective.

Excellent piece from Gleeman today, talking about how Martin is returning to his roots and no longer trying to elevate the ball with intentionality. I don't like the undercurrent of what is being said here, that the Twins were trying to homogenize Martin and it simply failed. I'm not furious about it or anything but I think a team that had Luis Arraez on it for years should know better than to do this to a capable spray hitter. There are different ways to become a capable baseball player and that's okay. https://theathletic.com/4233049/2023/02/22/twins-prospect-austin-martin-2/

Who is this @Ted Wiedmann person and why wasn't he writing for this site a long time ago? 😃😃😃😃😃😃😃 Outstanding work!

With better revenue sharing and a salary floor, it shouldn't be a huge issue if the team wants to keep those players. And it drastically alters how teams approach free agency, lengths of contracts, and a bunch of other things that currently favor the likes of the Yankees and Dodgers.

If we're just throwing out wild ideas how to make baseball way better, here's another one: 1. Change how arbitration works and update it to use the same metrics teams use internally to evaluate players (on a surface level, WAR). 2. Players are guaranteed a $1m salary and arbitration begins in player year two. By player year five, they're making 100% of what a free agent makes (25%, 50%, 75%, 100%). Change that dynamic and it completely flips super-sized $300m guaranteed contracts on their heads. Players no longer need to push so hard at maximizing free agency in CBA negotiations because good players are hitting free agency with $100m earnings. WHICH IS HOW IT SHOULD WORK

Yeah, frankly, I think you were wrong. What baseball needs is someone who simply doesn't care about the informal "rules" that owners have colluded over in the past. Someone who blows right past salary thresholds and exposes the BS the owners have been pulling for years (ie. using salary thresholds as soft caps but not doing anything to actually fix the much larger problem of low-revenue and low-spending teams). Remember that MLB owners did not want to allow Steve Cohen to buy a franchise and this is exactly why they didn't want him in baseball. Which means we should all be supporting the hell out of Steve Cohen for being a madman. If the owners don't want something, fans should probably feel the opposite.

I'm going to post some stuff here as John sends it over so we have a place for you caretakers to follow our reporting.

Because the caps that have been offered benefit only the owners. Again, the players want to make money. If you guarantee them money, they'll accept all sorts of things they've shut down in the past. This can't be looked through the lens of "players hate salary caps" simply because they've rejected caps in the past. Look at the actual offers and what they would have done to player salaries. That's why players rejected previous caps.

The biggest reason the PA and owners have had such a vitriolic relationship is because the players keep losing ground in comparison to other sports. Lock salary caps/floors as a percentage of revenue as they do in other sports and I suspect the PA comes around. The PA simply wants to make money so offer them guaranteed money.