Brock Beauchamp

Yeah, Stranger Things feels a lot like Abrams because they're both pulling from the same inspirations. And I quite liked Super 8 so that's a good thing.

Yes, exactly. DSP has a role in this organization and he seems capable of performing that role. Someone has to run Target Field, television rights, licensing, etc. That's an important job that, when done capably, greatly impacts revenue beyond ticket sales. Hiring a president of baseball operations does not invalidate the role DSP provides the organization. This argument feels a lot like previous Bill Smith / Gardenhire arguments. The desire to see someone's role focus on skills better suited to that individual is not synonymous with the desire to see that person leave the organization entirely. Let DSP go be good at the things DSP seems to be good at. Leave the baseball stuff to someone else.

I'm a bit bearish on Netflix for the next few years even though I own, dunno... $3-4k of their stock? I'd have to check. This is the way I see it playing out: 1. Netflix struggles in the short- and mid-term as everybody and their mother decides "Herp derp, we can offer our own streaming service! It'll be tops! There's no way we'll lose money supporting a team of developers and server costs (probably starting at half a million a year) because people will love the idea of paying $8/mo to stream only AMC television shows! PROFIT!" 2. These individual stations will lose their ass as they realize that unless the content is spectacular, a la carte television will not work. A few content providers will shine: Netflix, HBO, Amazon. The rest will see either diminished subscription rates (who wants to pay $8/mo for AMC?) or 2-3 month subscriptions that binge-watch everything over the past year and then cancel. Either way, it won't be enough to support the infrastructure, which is super-duper-expensive. Developers aren't cheap. The amount of bandwidth required to stream seamless video isn't cheap. 3. After all this plays out, Netflix and Amazon will continue plugging away as content providers realize they can make more money by leasing their content to an aggregate provider instead of going all Wild West and creating/maintaining their own streaming service. I could be wrong but I foresee stuff like CBS All Access being giant failures when all is said and done. If a network can't provide 4-5 stellar shows a year - which Amazon, HBO, and Netflix have shown they can do - they won't survive. And Amazon and Netflix aren't only providing great original content, they're also aggregating content from other providers. They may stumble a bit for a few years but ultimately, I see them coming out on top.

Yes, in a very schlocky way. You don't really understand what's happening until the third or fourth episode but there's enough intrigue building that the story's relatively slow progress never hinders your enjoyment of the series. The mini-series is basically a mash-up of Stephen King, 70s/80s Speilberg, and a slew of horror/thriller stuff from the 80s. It has two of the most endearing characters I've seen in awhile: a goofy-looking kid with a teeth problem and a young girl with a shaved head and mysterious origins. The show is so much damned fun, the four kids and the sheriff being the most fun.

Yeah, maybe... I'm just really over the argument "maybe the next move will be better". Had the Twins not so badly screwed up the management of Berrios, Chargois, and Meyer I'd have a lot more patience right now. The entire pitching staff has been a clowncar since the first week of the season.

It's revisiting the 80s in a very fun way. It's an homage to 80s entertainment but in a modern, less-cheesecake filled way. It's one of those fascinating examples of entertainment tipping the cap to inferior products and delighting the audience without falling into the pitfalls of the worst parts of the genre. I'm never quite sure how producers/directors pull it off but they can and they do. The synth background music is to die for (but it's the spooky, subtle kind of synth that isn't poppy, just mood-setting).

Netflix did it again. I'm halfway through the series and the amount of painstaking detail to recreate the 1980s: clothes, houses, music (SO GOOD), even the title font... It creeps up on you and increases the enjoyment of everything in the miniseries. And the characters are great, too. The Duffer brothers bait you with trope-laden characters (the skeezy boyfriend, the lazy sheriff) and then pivot with the characters in delightful ways. When a character is on-screen, you're interested to see what happens to that character and the moments where you want the show to "move on" are few and far between. There are no bad characters. There are no boring characters. I don't know if it'd be possible for me to enjoy this any more than I am. I'm watching it slowly just to soak in the glorious details like perfect synth background music, the overtures to Stephen King, and those 80s jeans.

I agree patience is important - and I'm one of the more patient posters on the board - but it's getting ridiculous. The way this pitching staff has been managed is infuriating.

1. Boshers will pitch no more than three times before the deadline. His value is what it was. 2. The Twins are bursting at the seams with Boshers-type pitchers. If another team wants one of those guys, the Twins already had one on the roster with a longer track record.

Ugh. What the hell is wrong with this front office? Call up Chargois and be done with it.

If the club changes its branding, I'll lose my mind. United has the best branding in Minnesota sports and it's not close. Everything about the look of their branding is design perfection.

I'm not ready to bench Mauer but I'm all for sitting him at least once a week, probably twice, to get younger guys more reps. It's not like Joe's stat line matters this season anyway.

Minnesota already has a supporters club. They're called the Dark Clouds. I think MLS will do well here but I'm not convinced a team playing a different sport in a different city once a week is going to impact the Twins.

If the Twins forked the presidency into baseball / business roles, I may applaud until my hands fall off. I don't necessarily want to see DSP go, I merely want to see more baseball people in the front office. That's a great way to split the difference.

Cool story. Find a post where I've lambasted ownership for making a profit.

The opposite is likely to be true. Baseball is cheap. They play 81 games a season in each ballpark.

Maybe but the average ticket price of an MLS game is something like $46. The average Twins ticket price is $32. Given the lack of game overlap and the fact they're different sports, I think the effect will be negligible.

United and the Twins will play in Minnesota on the same day roughly ten times a season. I doubt the Pohlads are too concerned about it.

A better question is "why should he?" Would you leave money on the table if you were guaranteed a contract to do the thing you love to do?

Interesting. I've read articles stating the exact opposite. I'll try to dig one up if I have the time.

No, we're not muddying up anything. We're simply suggesting other stats exist beyond slugging percentage (and I won't even dignify your continued usage of RBI with a rebuttal). In fact, OBP has a higher correlation to runs scored than slugging percentage. If anything, I'm using a better stat than you are. We all want Mauer to play better and slug higher. That isn't in dispute... But some of us aren't restricting stat usage to fit our viewpoint.

We've begun a transition to an entirely new ad system. Expect to see it roll out some time before the start of the football season.

Good catch. I didn't bother to flip over to the MLB tab because I assumed the NL looked similar to the AL.

I don't get the conspiracy theories flying over Ryan's departure. How many times did we hear Ryan say "The Pohlads are not restricting payroll?" Half a dozen? For now, I'm just going to take the man at his word. Sure, he may have been lying (for what reason, I don't know) but until evidence appears to the contrary, I'm sticking with the most plausible answer. Was this decision correlated to money? Sure, as most decisions are in business... A bad baseball team draws less revenue than a good baseball team. Terry Ryan built a bad baseball team. I don't see a need to look further than that.

I'd prefer to keep Sano at third for as long as possible. In a lost season, we may as well find out if he can hack it at a more premium position. Getting Polanco playing time would be nice but with Park in Rochester and Sano in Minnesota, I think the long-term play is Miguel at third (if possible). Either way, it's not something I'm going to get too riled up about. As long as Sano stays in the infield, I'm moderately happy.