Brock Beauchamp
-
Posts
32,669 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
328
Content Type
Profiles
Minnesota Twins News, Rumors & Analysis
Minnesota Twins Videos
2026 Minnesota Twins Top Prospect Rankings
2022 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses
Minnesota Twins Trade & Free Agent Rumors
Minnesota Twins Fan Guides & Resources
2023 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses
The Minnesota Twins Players Project
2024 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses
2025 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses
2026 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses
Forums
Blogs
Events
Store
Downloads
Gallery
Everything posted by Brock Beauchamp
-
I was going to pop in to say Longenhagen is pretty high on the Cubs side of the deal.
-
Exactly. As for Pittsburgh, my belief that MLB needs more financial equality is completely separate from my belief that Pittsburgh’s ownership is rotten. I will not defend that organization.
-
No, winning draws fans and a World Series team just traded away a good player for budgetary reasons. I don’t know why you’re being so obstinate about that being bad for baseball as a whole.
-
Or the A's. Or the Pirates. The massive inequity in baseball is bad for the sport as a whole, as it turns MLB into a regional entity, not the nationwide entity it needs to be to thrive. We've seen this happening for decades now as the payroll gap grows. In 1990, the Royals (!!!!!) had the highest payroll in baseball at $23.8m. The lowest payroll was the White Sox (???) at $8.5m. The lowest payroll team had a payroll of 40% of the highest payroll team. The median team had a payroll of 67% of the highest payroll team. In 2019, the Red Sox had the highest payroll in baseball at $222.2m. The lowest payroll was the Rays at $60.4m. The lowest payroll team had a payroll of 27% of the highest payroll team. The median team had a payroll of 56% of the highest payroll team.
-
Oh, for sure, which is why I'm increasingly in favor of some kind of draft incentive for not tanking. The NBA lottery is a fine place to start the conversation but I'm not sure it's the right answer or only answer. -
A salary cap isn't the only solution. One can use various draft incentives, a salary floor, and more rigorous luxury taxes to increase overall competitiveness. Except none of those things will likely happen, as MLB long ago showed us how much it's willing to sacrifice the quality of the sport for short-term profits. Every year, it's becoming more apparent to me that baseball needs a complete overhaul to avoid being left behind by more exciting, flexible sports. Those changes include both on-field and top-level changes that drastically change how the sport operates.
-
It's not about trading a player too early or too late, it's about how it looks that a team that made the World Series just traded their starting pitcher who started the final game of the season because they can't afford to compete straight-up in 2021. That's an awful look for baseball and organizations, either willingly or not, pushing the envelope of "efficiency" to the detriment of immediate competition in the coming season is not good for the sport. One of the two World Series teams is worse than they were 24 hours ago because they can't afford to pay one of their best players a modest salary in the coming season. This is not the kind of baseball I want to watch every year.
-
The Red Sox do it to Betts, then the Cubs do it to Darvish the following offseason. MLB needs to get its house in order if they want to stay competitive with other sports. They have so many problems that badly need to be resolved, as it's getting harder to be excited about baseball pretty much every year.
-
I'm sure the Rays would rather keep *some* of their players instead of needing to trade every single one to keep a bottom-of-the-barrel payroll. And imagine how could they could be, given their predictive performance acumen, if they could keep the players they want to keep.
-
Baseball would be so much better if Tampa didn't have to operate within the confines they operate.
-
Because it doesn't really make sense. Unless the difference in hitting is enormous, you try to play your best defensive infielder at shortstop every day, or close to it. And if the Twins aren't at least moderately confident in Semien returning to being a pretty good (not even great, just pretty good) hitter, they shouldn't go anywhere near him because other teams will offer him enough money to make that a bad decision.
-
I agree that positional flexibility is important but the real wild card in my eyes is Arraez. Mediocre, maybe kinda bad, skills at second don't slide anywhere else on the diamond comfortably. Second base is a bit of a dead-end defensively. If the player's arm was better, they'd be a SS or 3B, not a 2B. And Arraez's range is anything but impressive so he doesn't have much going for him in any aspect of the defensive game. And Luis is too damned promising as a hitter to relegate to the bench more than once or twice a week. I'm not really sure what to do with him and as much as I hate to say it, a trade may be the best option for the Twins. Which is really unfortunate because there's no one on the current team I enjoy watching at the plate more than Luis Arraez. I'm quickly growing tired of three outcome baseball and Arraez is a breath of fresh air to a style of baseball that is simply more fun to watch than today's game.
-
The problem is that Cruz, like all of us, is mortal. He's also at the age where decline comes in a hurry. The number of great hitters at age 40 is very small in the history of MLB... but the percentage of those same players who were out of baseball completely at age 42 is very high. Cruz is at the age where literally the best hitters in the history of the game stopped being good at baseball. Jim Thome was a beast at age 39. At age 40, he was good. At age 41, he retired. Frank Thomas was a beast at age 38, good at 39, and retired at 40. When the fall comes, it comes in a hurry. I'm moderately comfortable with Cruz signing for his age 41 season but have absolutely no faith in guaranteeing his age 42 season. My line in the sand would be a generous offer for 2021 with an option and generous buyout (say $3m) for 2022. Give him a nice incentive to stick around without risking $15m on a 42 year old hitter.
-
Not even close. Semien grades as a plus in pretty much every defensive metric while Polanco grades well into the negatives in pretty much every defensive metric. Semien posted good numbers in 2018 and 2019 before dropping off in the 60 game season this past year, but I take any numbers from 2020 with a huge grain of salt. And just watching Semien play, he looks like a good shortstop whereas Polanco makes me cringe on a regular basis, especially that arm. One concern I have about Semien is length of contract and the fact he is 30 years old. While he looked very good as a 27-28 year old, that's far from a guarantee he will continue to look good as a 32 year old, especially at SS, where it feels the defensive decline happens quickly and without warning.
-
Better than average. He's good. Maybe not elite Gold Glove calibre, but good.
-
My interest in Semien has direct correlation to the front office's conviction about his bat going forward. He posted one monster season but has been pretty pedestrian with the stick outside that single season. Still, his glove is a massive upgrade either way.
-
Much, much, much better.
-
Jake Odorizzi, What's going on w/ him?
Brock Beauchamp replied to Doctor Gast's topic in Minnesota Twins Talk
Forbes valued the Twins at $1.3b earlier this year. -
Jake Odorizzi, What's going on w/ him?
Brock Beauchamp replied to Doctor Gast's topic in Minnesota Twins Talk
Why do you carry so much water for billionaires that sell teams for literal multitudes more than they paid for them? The Pohlads bought the Twins for roughly $40m in... 1984? Going from memory here. But the Twins would sell for roughly $1b today. No big deal. That's only several tens of millions gain. Per year. For 40 years. No biggie. You're totally right. -
Jake Odorizzi, What's going on w/ him?
Brock Beauchamp replied to Doctor Gast's topic in Minnesota Twins Talk
I don't think owners should operate teams at a loss (though I wouldn't complain if they did, as owning a team is often a status purchase and every ownership group sees a massive windfall when they sell) but it'd be cool if they operated closer to where they're supposed to operate, which is just over 50% of revenue going to payroll. But ownership groups cook the books so heavily that most don't actually get anywhere near that percentage. -
Jake Odorizzi, What's going on w/ him?
Brock Beauchamp replied to Doctor Gast's topic in Minnesota Twins Talk
Eh... probably, but only from a risk mitigation position because Hill looked entirely human down the stretch. I don't think he will be good in 2021. -
First, I never came close to implying anyone is a bigot and second, naming a baseball team the Indians and eliminating the word altogether are wildly different conversations. This thread is about the former and I haven’t commented about the latter *at all* so you’re just guessing at my opinion on that.
-
No way would I give up Lewis for one season of a player. Two, maybe, but not one season. Baseball is just too much of a crapshoot to push all your chips into the middle of the table for just one season.
-
Congratulations, you've realized that cultures that number in the millions of people are not monolithic in their opinion. https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/blackhorse-do-you-prefer-native-american-or-american-indian-kHWRPJqIGU6X3FTVdMi9EQ
-
Using slurs against your culture or race to empower your own people is not appropriation. History, particularly modern history, is littered with words (I will not type here) that cultures use within their own boundaries because they were once awful slurs hurled at them by outsiders (almost universally, white protestant American males). Those cultures turned those hurtful words and phrases into power. It has happened time and time and time again. This post is just gross.
