bean5302

I think it was a massively successful season for Sim. He went from potential DFA/release candidate to start the year to effective back end rotation arm. He certainly helped the Twins while arguably matching the much over-hyped, yet perplexingly pitching just like he has most of his career, Pablo Lopez through most of the season. First start, April 13th through August 3.85 ERA, 4.03 FIP, 52% starts 5.0+ IP and ERA under 4.00 vs. Pablo Lopez over the same span 3.95 ERA, 3.68 FIP, 58% starts 5.0+ IP and ERA under 4.00 Does he have a new weapon? I don't know if he does or not, but it's pretty obvious he needs to be able to sustain that 94mph avg. fastball to be successful. 92-93 was good enough at the beginning of the year, but when his fastball started to decline, the scouting reports were now out and it seems 93 was no longer enough to get it done.

Kepler shouldn't have been in a Twins uniform the last couple of years, but the guy is one of the more valuable players wearing a "Twins" jersey who has ever played. 1. Carew* 64 WAR 2. Killebrew* 60 WAR 3. Mauer* 55 WAR 4. Puckett* 51 WAR 5. Oliva* 43 WAR 6. Hrbek* 38 WAR 7. Knoblauch 38 WAR 8. Allison* 31 WAR 9. Gaetti* 27 WAR 10. Hunter* 26 WAR 11. Tovar* 26 WAR 12. Buxton 25 WAR 13. Morneau* 23 WAR 14. Dozier 23 WAR 15. Coskie 22 WAR 16. Smalley 21 WAR 17. Kepler 21 WAR Following Kepler is Mack, Gagne*, Polanco, Span, Brunansky, Cuddyer*, Gladden* and a whole host of others. *Twins HoF Will Kepler make it into the Twins HoF? I don't know. It'll honestly probably depend on what he contributes to the organization off the field after his retirement. Guys like Gladden certainly didn't make it based on what he produced on the field for the Twins with his only good season coming in 1988. (5.7 career Twins WAR in 5 years, more valuable with the Giants to start his career, and played with the Tigers at the end)

Public funding is nuanced in terms of its benefits, which are often very limited, IMHO, but it basically boils down to: Pro sports franchises are in high demand, and they're a major source of prestige for the cities who have them. High demand, and low availability so communities are willing to use public money to acquire them. That's the market at the moment. Like it or not.

Nobody cares if Pablo pitches for the Twins next year. Like zero people. It won't matter 100 season ticket packages. Attendance went up after Kirby Puckett retired. Attendance went up after Joe Mauer retired. Lopez is just another good, but not great pitcher. If Lopez left and the Twins brought in Blake Snell (not happening in a million years), nobody would care that Lopez wasn't here anymore. Fans do not care about players. They care about the team. Nobody was devastated when Kyle Gibson left. Attendance went up after Jose Berrios was traded. Also, it's 10,000 hats, not 5,000, but still. Fan appreciation for 1/4 of the stadium capacity, LOL. We appreciate 25% of you who might attend, haha. I do believe the total is 10,000 and season ticket holders are allowed to purchase give-a-ways before the season. My guess is maybe 8,000 hats are left after season ticket holders are forced to purchase the "free give-a-ways" if they actually want a shot at getting them.

Downtown is the only viable solution for an MLB team. You need the population density for season ticket holders and to support attendance for 81 home games a year. Recent stadiums outside of "downtown" areas were designed to be growth communities which would have high population densities shortly after the stadium opened.

Social media is not a valid source for the feeling around a team, LOL. Twins fans love the Twins. Minnesota fans love the Vikings, but at one point, they did love the Twins. In regard to Denver, it is 100%, absolutely 100%, a Broncos fan base. Every other sport is just a an also ran. The Rockies are the little engine that couldn't. I've lived in Denver, seen dozens of Rockies games over the years at Coors including Twins at Coors games. The Rockies are the St. Paul Saints prior to affiliation. Do you know the Rockies audio people taunt opposing pitchers? They play "Say something, I'm giving up on you" for opponents' mound visits. They engage adults in actual on-field intermissions, like running from the left field wall to 2nd base, placing the base, then running across 1st base. The Rockies cater to young adults with an awesome upper deck bar area (like what Cutwater was probably imagined to be by some idiot Delaware North hack). The Twins cater to 5 year olds (who have a little less discretionary spending capability it turns out). Again, I don't know how many times I need to state this. PEOPLE DO NOT GO TO STADIUMS TO WATCH THE GAME. People go to the game because: 1. It's trendy. It's popular. It's a place to be seen and to brag you're there (social media). FOMO stuff. 2. It's fun to be out at a crowd event. 3. The entire game day experience is special and memorable. It's item #1 where the Twins fail. The most important item on the list. Target Field was popular in 2010-2013. Do you know how hard it is to find somebody to go to a Twins game? I created an online friggen spreadsheet with all my games and which ones I had a buddy to go with and shared it countless time this year. I messaged people, posted, etc. I still wound up going to several games solo despite offering a free Club Level seat, despite being able to show people the coolest things at Target Field. It was so much easier to find people to go to Wild games (even though the fan experience at Xcel absolutely sucks aside from the action on the ice). Going to a Twins game is largely seen as a nuisance for people. A "I'm probably not going to have any fun anyway, but at least there will be good company" That' the reputation Twins games have right now. Do you know what changes that? -> People in the seats; popularity Do you know what changes people in the seats? -> Season ticket holders. Do you know what changes season ticket holders? -> North Loop residents Do you know what the Twins have done to attract North Loop residents? -> ABSOLUTELY NOTHING The Twins are busy catering to K-6 kids in the suburbs like it's friggen 1985.

I don't get... A) the celebration for 100 games played. B) the anger at only 100 games played. Buxton is an 80 game a year player. He has chronic hip, back, migraine and (now) knee issues. He will never play a full season. It's just not possible. There's no reason to be mad at him about it. It just is. I'm sure it's a milestone for him and his family especially after last year. Buck's been great down this stretch of games since he returned. He did pretty much all you could hope he could do. Does anybody remember what that guy went through to try and play last year? His regimen was insane. It was ridiculous. Getting his knee drained constantly, icing and immobilization every day until practice time. The guy did all he could just to be able to DH. The front office should have known better when they couldn't find willing trade partners for him in 2021, and then extended Buxton on a 7 year contract with an NTC instead of re-signing him for 3yrs when he was allowed to test free agency. The front office knew how valuable the rest of baseball GM's thought Buxton was, but the Twins front office tripled down on the "I'll show you!!" style contract. That's not Buxton's fault. We can't be held responsible for the... I'm not going to name names after a game. But it's 3rd and goal and Anderson's shoe comes off, now I love Anderson! but that ain't Bob Schnelkers fault! We have a throw out to AC in the flat and the ball's thrown low. That ain't Bob Schnelkers fault!... Honestly, this the the bed Falvey made. Now ownership needs to hold him accountable.

Look at Povich's recent starts, man. It looks like he's figuring stuff out. Last 5 starts 2.60 ERA, 3.13 FIP, 3.42 xFIP 10.41 K/9, 2.60 BB/9.

No way. When the Pohlad's creak open the dusty wallets for any type of decent giveaway, they're gone 30+min before game time. Some gates run out 1+hrs before game time.

Attendance will.

I think firing Rocco now is a mistake. Let the new GM decide whether or not he wants Rocco.

Nope. That's not enough. Jim Pohlad (not spokesperson, Joe) needs to make a statement about things. Take ownership for the hard reverse in team financial direction, and an overcorrection on salary reduction. Confirm this is the most disappointing year in his tenure of owning the Minnesota Twins. Then confirm Dave St. Peter is changing roles while the Twins pursue a fresh new perspective on how to get fans engaged with the team again, and fix the TV situation. Pohlad should admit ownership's role in the TV debacle, and make it clear the reason Target Field hasn't been drawing is a failure on the part of the front office and marketing rather than the fans not supporting the team. Finally, confirm the Twins are parting ways with Derek Falvey and Thad Levine with the intent of finding a new, experienced GM to run the baseball operations side. He can hark back to the position ownership had last year, that it was time for the Twins to be advancing in the playoffs, not just making them, and that ownership is committed to building a World Series Championship team, not just a .500 ballclub or just making the playoffs.

Now we wait to see if ownership responds to this flaming sack of poop on the doorstep of Twins fans.

Kudos to Pablo getting out-dueled by Cade Povich in an absolute must win or season over game. Lopez was a big reason the Twins struggled this year. The "ace" managed to put together a solid season for a #4 pitcher. Thankfully, we've got several more years at only $22MM coming up.

MLB also has 130 players who are qualified as hitters (average 4-5 per team). Only 2 for the Twins. Willi Castro and Carlos Santana. Last year, only 1 Twins player qualified, Carlos Correa. Platoon city.

Correa has a full no trade clause and the Twins would have to eat a substantial portion of his salary to make it happen, IF Correa was willing to go to one of the 5 teams in MLB who might be interested.

I think Lopez would get around his current AAV and his current years in FA, but probably an extra year for 4 at $80MMish. He's comparable to Eduardo Rodriguez IMHO.

I was at the game last night through the 10th inning before departing before it got too late for me and a friend. This team is just not very good, but it was a great night for a game for sure. The tiny crowd was also quite electric considering the size. It was really a fun atmosphere, honestly.

There is basically no such thing. There are maybe 2 posters who seem to actively blame fans for the attendance woes. The rest of the site seems to be: 1) It's the Pohlads fault for not being willing to bankrupt themselves over the next decade. 2) It's the Pohlads fault for suddenly backtracking on their financial plan, not holding their incompetent CEO accountable for ineffective marketing which resulted in the poor attendance, and not holding anybody accountable for the crazy TV debacle.

Lopez is the easiest way to temporarily relieve the payroll crunch, though his value isn't going to be as high as people might think. He'll bring back a top 50 prospect or an average org top 3 and a org top 5-10 or something like that. Maybe less considering how poorly he pitched for the first half of the season considering his $22MM salary coming in. The biggest issue is the fact the Twins will no longer have a #1 or #2 caliber pitcher on the roster after doing so. It'd cost an enormous amount of capital to make up for that.

This is why ownership's 180* about-face in regard to "right sizing" and comparing themselves to other teams they didn't even research (Like AZ and BAL) was infuriating. Ownership accepted a long term approach, then wanted out of their investment.

The Twins are at $140MM with the existing guys they control even if they decline Margot and Farmer because the following players are hitting or advancing in arbitration. Willi Castro Arb3 $6MM (+$3MM) Royce Lewis Arb1 Super2 $4MM (+$3MM) Trevor Larnach Arb1 $3MM (+$2MM) Ryan Jeffers Arb1 $5MM (+$4MM) Alex Kirilloff non-tender Joe Ryan Arb1 $5MM (+$4MM) Bailey Ober Arb1 $5MM (+$4MM) Cole Irvin Arb2 $4MM (+$3MM) Jhoan Duran Arb1 $3MM (+$2MM) Griffin Jax Arb1 $4MM (+$3MM) Brock Stewart Arb1 $2MM (+$1MM) Michael Tonkin Arb2 non-tender Justin Topa Arb2 $2MM (+$1MM) That's an increase in $30MM of player salary coming from arbitration, even if the Twins non-tender Kirilloff and Tonkin (not that either would matter much). In addition, Carlos Correa goes from $33MM to $37MM. and Pablo Lopez jumps from $8MM to $22MM. Just the increases for Correa and Lopez basically entirely offset Santana, Kepler, Desclafani, and Theilbar.

Mercedes doesn't have a 24% K rate. Think it was like 21%? I was talking about Beltre (who played in the DSL)

I honestly would have made a $20 bet Buxton would never play 100 games again in his career after the last couple seasons. The Twins got more playing time from him this year than they could have expected. I expect 80 games a year. That said, he's still an 80 game a year guy in my eyes.

Yasser Mercedes all the way for me. CPX results are way more important to me than DSL as I feel it's a substantially higher competition level. A 24% K rate in DSL is pretty concerning to me.