Brock Beauchamp

@ashbury By the way, you just reminded me that I had created a badge last month but never saw it in my feed. I looked in the admin panel and it wasn’t set to live so I activated it.

For clarity, I do not expect the “sticky” video to remain in its current capacity (rolling on every page load) but for testing purposes, we need it to roll every page load for a few days. Then, probably this week, it will never roll with the sticky video for a similar amount of time. Afterward, we will have a solid(ish) idea of the performance gap between various kinds of videos and can move forward with a more informed approach to video.

We're experimenting with this new format and are very open to changing how we approach video... but please keep in mind that video is time-consuming and that pre-roll ad is the only thing paying for us to create this kind of content (more accurately "paying Tom to create this kind of content"). Please give any and all feedback, this is absolutely still in the beta stage and it WILL be changing in the future based on feedback, overall performance, and user interaction.

It only feels appropriate if these two talented but massively disappointing teams split the series against one another.

Numbers don't say what I "want" them to say. They say Buxton is an elite level player if he's on the field. And I have NOT said Byron Buxton is the best player in baseball. Argue what I've actually said, not what you think I've said.

The numbers tell a very different story. Byron Buxton Batting Stats for Years 2019 to 2021 Year PA G Rbat Rbaser Rdp Rfield Rpos RAA WAA Rrep RAR WAR waaWL% 162WL% oWAR dWAR oRAR Salary 2019-2021 540 153 25 6 2 26 3 62 6.2 19 81 8.0 .540 .512 5.4 3.1 55 $9,950,000 Average 180 51 8 2 1 9 1 21 2 6 27 2.7 1.8 1.0 18 $3,316,667 Per 650 PA 650 185 31 8 3 32 4 75 8 23 98 9.7 1 1 6.5 3.8 67 $11,976,816 If you're not into WAR, here are his traditional numbers, which are equally eye-popping: Byron Buxton Batting Stats for Years 2019 to 2021 Year Tm G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB 2019-2021 MIN 153 540 504 88 142 44 4 33 92 21 4 25 129 .282 .322 .581 .903 139 293 5 6 2 3 1 Average 51 180 168 29 47 15 1 11 31 7 1 8 43 98 2 2 1 1 0 per 162 games 163 572 534 94 151 47 5 35 98 23 5 27 137 311 6 7 3 4 2

Ah, okay, that makes more sense. And no, there's no *guarantee* Buxton's value hasn't peaked but the chance his value is peaked right now is probably single-digit percentage points, a low enough risk to not be a real concern. On the other hand, I've come over to the side where I believe Buxton should be the Twins' number one target. The Twins are never going to spend in the top third of baseball; if they're going to win, they need to gamble on upside and there's no bigger gamble nor bigger upside than Byron Buxton. As fans, we often complain this team doesn't "take their shot" when competing. Betting on Buxton is the Twins taking their shot in a big way. If you get a single healthy season out of him at any point, he's Mike Trout level good, the kind of player that can be worth ten wins. And if the team gets to the postseason, there's no bigger difference-maker on the field. I say pay the man and "take your shot".

Rogers is making $6m this season so $8m for 2022 is a good estimate.

This is a rather foolish approach. I understand being wary of extending Buxton but he's literally the most valuable player in baseball when he's on the field (highest WAR per game played since the start of the 2019 season). Trading that guy for "whatever we can get" is poor asset management. If Buxton is to be traded, the responsible thing to do is to try to trade him at a point when his value isn't bottomed out, probably this offseason.

I also dislike planned tanking for draft picks but in the second half of a lost season, playing youngsters and possibly losing a bunch of games and moving up the draft board isn't really the same thing as intentionally tanking. The Twins entered this season with every intention of winning, which is considerably different than what the Pirates are doing.

I agree with a lot here but I'm not sure why so many people minimize Berríos' skill level right now. No, he's not an ace, at least not by my personal definition, but it's almost impossible to classify him lower than a good #2 right now. His ERA rank out of American League qualifying pitchers the past three seasons: 8, 13, 11. HIs ERA+ over the past three seasons: 119. That's pretty clearly a guy who, if he's maybe just a click below a traditional ace, is clearly in that second tier of starting pitchers.

I'd rather be in Oakland and it's not close.

What's silly about it? Going into a trade deadline, there are always questions about what teams will offer for any player, doubly so for a 41 year old DH. To get this kind of return from the Rays, of all teams, was unexpected. The trade looks good in the here and now with obviously incomplete information. The way the trade looks today will change in time but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to evaluate the process that led to the trade.

This is hilarious because the first draft of this article had this image in GIF form.

Welcome to the inauguraualal Twins Daily Community Awards presentation! For some time now, we’ve wanted to start giving out prizes to the community for doing fun things like posting on our forums, writing blogs on the “not quite worst in the American League… yet” Minnesota Twins, yelling at clouds, and other things that no rational adult human being would spend their free time doing. Welcome to the inauguraualal Twins Daily Community Awards presentation! For some time now, we’ve wanted to start giving out prizes to the community for doing fun things like posting on our forums, writing blogs on the “not quite worst in the American League… yet” Minnesota Twins, yelling at clouds, and other things that no rational adult human being would spend their free time doing. We expect to give these awards out a few times a year, provided we don’t become distracted by something else that seems more fun, or maybe we just get bored and wander off. We’ll cross that bridge when it comes. To be semi-serious for a moment, we at Twins Daily appreciate the conversation and great content you all provide the Twins community every single day. It’s awesome to see this site bigger and better than ever as we approach our tenth (wait, what?) birthday next February. Without all of your great content, this site would be nothing more than John Bonnes and Nick Nelson sitting in a bar arguing how to spell “Chris Parmelee” and both of them getting it wrong. While we have a great stable of writers to give the community a platform and topics on which to speak, it’s the community that fills the second half of Twins Daily and, unlike most of the second half of the internet, reading the great output of this community isn’t an embarrassment to all mankind. Okay, enough of that. Without further ado… Top Post of the First Half of the 2021 Season goes to… @Old Twins Cap In the middle of June, when all of us were reaching a low point of our Twins fandom, Old Twins Cap stood up and pronounced that not only is this season rather pathetic, any chance of winning a World Series ever is basically gone. We’re doomed, our Twins fandestiny only to bring us more sorrow and heartbreak for all eternity. Sadly, he’s probably not wrong. https://twinsdaily.com/forums/topic/51892-game-recap-twins-7-mariners-2/?tab=comments#comment-1046436 For this post, Old Twins Cap received the most likes of the first half of the 2021 season, rendering his bite-sized entry the top post of the first half! As a prize, he is awarded an autographed Rocco Baldelli rookie card. Look at cute wittle Wocco. He’s adorable. Keep this card close to your heart always, Old Twins Cap. Blog Post of the First Half of the 2021 Season goes to… @Greglw3 Taking a very straightforward, nuts-and-bolts approach to blogging, Greglw3 is light on the words, heavy on the imagery, and wholly capturing our hearts with this blog entry. Not settling to convince us who is the best Twins leftfielder of all time, Greg instead asked us to convince him of the best leftfielder of all time. Some might call this approach lazy, I call it efficient. https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/23049-who-is-twins-best-lf-of-all-time-reopened-with-3-new-choices/ And convince we did, apparently. His blog entry gained the most views and comments of the first half, winning him the blog post of the first half award! To celebrate this achievement, he will receive a rookie card for the Best Twins Leftfielder of All Time (a commanding victory), Bob Allison! We’d also like to congratulate Bob for being very good at the baseball and the extraordinary baseballing he performed in his baseball career of baseballing. Collectin’ Those Likes @USAFChief With a whopping 2,541 reputation points in the first half of the season, our dear ol’ moderator Chiefie received the most likes and attention of anyone on Twins Daily! That’s a good thing, I hear! Sorry, Chief, you get no prize other than our hammering away at that like button whenever we see one of your posts. I hope that helps put food on your table. We’re on a shoestring budget here, we can only do so much. Better luck next time. Collectin’ (About Half as Many of) Those Likes @ashbury At 1,375 reputation points, ashbury was next in line behind chief and also gets no prize! And those are our awards for the first half of the 2021 season. No matter how painful this season seems, remember that there's a cottage industry of Minnesota Sports Therapists, just use the coupon code "wide left" to activate your personal pain point. Thank you one and all for everything you do here at Twins Daily. It’s truly an honor (and a lot of fun) to build and maintain the website that so many of you visit every single day to talk Minnesota Twins and how painful it is to be a sports fan in this god-forsaken state of ours. And remember, we have a fantastic community hidden behind the front page here at Twins Daily. I highly recommend you check out our forums and our community blog and interact with some of these great folks. Jump into the conversation with us anytime, everyone is welcome. Until next time! View full article

I’d offer five years, $15m per season as a base. Every season at 80 games played, escalators begin to kick in that max out at $30m a season for 150 games played.

I hope Cruz posts a 1.500 OPS with the Rays. I want to see him win a World Series and do very well. I like both him and the Rays organization.

Does that make the effort less worthy?

Evaluations don’t have to be considered permanent to exist. One can evaluate what something looks like now with full understanding our knowledge is incomplete.

In a trade reportedly referred to as "an A+ return" from Keith Law (haven't had a chance to read Gleeman's article on. it yet), I'm not sure we could have expected much better than two good-not-great pitching prospects that are close to the majors. What are your impressions of the deal after you've had a chance to sleep on it? Twins get: Joe Ryan Drew Strotman Rays get: Nelson Cruz Calvin Faucher A Warm Fuzzy Feeling

My first choice was Spiders but also would have accepted River Fires. Guardians is really meh, especially in the wake of the NHL adding a team called "The Kraken".

I killed the family three weeks ago and hid the bodies in the shed. They don't mind.

After a few hours of scrambling over the Cruz news, I’ve found my proper spot for the night.

If true, this deal is going to make "who do I cheer for in the postseason" a verryyyyyyy easy decision.