bean5302

It's a free site, but you probably have cookies which prevents you from viewing stuff. I provided you with the data from a respected source as you requested. What you decide to do with the data is up to you.

If Ohtani wasn't involved, or if Ohtani was involved while bets were placed from California, there will be criminal charges. 1) Sports gambling outside baseball is not against MLB rules. If Ohtani lost $4.5MM betting on other sports, it's a non-issue from a MLB rules perspective. 2) Online sports gambling is ILLEGAL in California so bets cannot be placed while the device used to place the bet is in the state. Whomever placed the bets is in trouble if they were placed while standing in California. 3) Commenting on what is a criminal investigation is verboten. Any and all attorney's are going to advise their clients not to say a word more than they absolutely have to for a whole host of reasons. 4) What is being alleged is that Ippei Mizuhara embezzled $4.5MM from Ohtani, using Ohtani's money to pay off gambling debts, and then Mizuhara attempted to cover for the payment coming from Ohtani's accounts by saying that Ohtani authorized the wire transfers. Ohtani is extremely likely to have granted people power of attorney to handle his financials. I don't know about Mizuhara's expertise in the financial world, but he is obvious close to Ohtani and I could see Mizuhara having access to some of Ohtani's financial assets. There is no reason Ohtani would have assumed $4.5MM in debt for his interpreter. The only way Ohtani is in trouble is if he placed online sports bets while he was in standing in California. While I truly believe the Dodgers and Yankees get whatever they want, whenever they want from MLB, that is probably not the case for law enforcement when we're talking about millions and millions of dollars of illegal betting with a name as high a profile as Ohtani's.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/829590/minnesota-twins-operating-income/#:~:text=The Minnesota Twins reported an,dollars in the previous year. 2020 = -$49MM 2021 = $10MM 2022 = -$27MM at $151MM total payroll, avg. ticket $38.94 and 22.2k/game for total gate revenue $70MM 2023 = you'll have to extrapolate, the estimate is not published yet at $156MM total payroll. avg. ticket $40.61 and 24.3k per game for total gate revenue $80MM. Be generous and figure an extra $5MM in revenue from concessions/merch sales. So -27 + 15 - 5 = -$17MM before the playoff shares or changes to revenue sharing. Based on that, the Twins probably still lost a little in 2023.

Sonny Gray had hamstring tightness. It's not really even a strain. He's pitching tomorrow and there's optimism he'll pitch in the Cardinals opening series. Worst case scenario looks to be him missing a single start. Considering Gray's contract with the Cardinals pays him only $10MM this year, the fact the Twins didn't bring him back is reprehensible.

The owners have fielded a team that's lost money 3 of the past 4 years. Their payroll was over $150MM last year. If the Twins spent $300MM, there'd be complaints they didn't spend $310MM.

Balazovic's spin rates and movement on his pitches don't play at the MLB level. The numbers from Statcast are very pessimistic on him being a legitimate MLB caliber arm of any type. Larnach was drafted after a sudden home run surge at Oregon in his Junior year. He never showed that kind of home run result at any level before or since. He's got a line drive style swing which is more Joe Mauer than Joey Gallo so to expect him to generate OPS through home runs isn't reasonable at this point. Unfortunately, Larnach struggles to recognize almost all MLB pitches other than the 4 seam fastball or a curveball which results in his Joey Gallo-like contact problems. He's decent depth or probably a good enough emergency starter. Miranda is the only one of the three who might be every day starter material. The Twins are clearly interested in getting a last look at Kirilloff at the plate against MLB right handed pitching so Miranda starts the year in the minors.

Larnach (34.0%) struck out more than Wallner (31.5%) last year.

a28 - 752 PA, .250/.293/.392, OPS .685 wRC+ 92, 4.3% BB, 22.7% K <-- Nick Gordon a27 - 1501 PA, .248/.305/.389, OPS .694 wRC+ 91, 5.7% BB, 24.1% K <-- Willi Castro I'm not saying Gordon is as good or better than Castro, it's just a little entertaining to see how recency bias creates heroes or demons out of players on fan sites, haha.

I think it's a fine regular season rotation considering how strong I expect the hitting to be. It's probably a major weakness in the playoffs, but it's not an impossibility one of the rotation arms could take that major step forward to fill a #2 role. I think the greatest chance of seeing a playoff starter emerge might be Ober, but it's tough to believe he'll continue to outperform his FIP and xFIP so much. 2023 3.43 ERA, 3.96 FIP, 4.20 xFIP = Ober 3.66 ERA, 3.33 FIP, 3.28 xFIP = Lopez 4.51 ERA, 4.13 FIP, 3.76 xFIP = Ryan 4.63 ERA, 5.02 FIP, 3.81 xFIP = Varland Career 3.63 ERA, 3.95 FIP, 4.14 xFIP = Ober 3.86 ERA, 3.65 FIP, 3.64 xFIP = Lopez 4.05 ERA, 4.01 FIP, 4.01 xFIP = Ryan 4.21 ERA, 3.93 FIP, 3.85 xFIP = Paddack 4.40 ERA, 4.82 FIP, 3.90 xFIP = Varland I don't think the Twins probably need to do anything until the trade deadline as a rotation heavy on #4's can certainly get you to the playoffs, they just won't let you advance.

Kyle Farmer owns a career wRC+ 122 against lefties.

It's a wonder we don't see more calls to demote Royce Lewis to AAA to clear roster space for Brooks Lee. After all, that'd free things up to shift Carlos Correa over to 3B and let Brooks Lee have the shortstop role, and Royce Lewis isn't having a great Spring Training, either. I'm going to point out, this is an equally ludicrous proposal.

Not as old as I felt at the gym last night... grumble grumble

The Twins' value has increased at about 8.9% on a cumulative average annual rate since being purchased by Pohlad for $45MM total in 1984 to $1.39B today. It sounds like a huge gain, but it's less than the rate they'd have earned investing all their money in the S&P 500 (the most common Stock Index Portfolio). Fans rabidly demand higher payrolls and increased investment from owners in the pursuit of a World Series Championship, but at the same time, complain beer is expensive (me included), and the franchise has likely posted negative operating income 3 of the past 4 years (lost money). Savings accounts rose to 8% in the 80s before dropping back to 5% in the 90s. They tanked as the mortgage security market collapsed for good reason. Banks can only invest money in a very few ways in an extremely highly regulated industry. Mortgages. Government Bonds. After that, things get awfully complicated and financially risky for a bank. Aside from that, savings accounts are a horrible, horrible investment. They're similar to a money market account. Designed to securely hold value, not increase in value like a traditional investment. They feature poor returns because the money is so liquid. Aggressive liquidity rules means banks have to be careful to invest savings account deposits in short term, highly liquid assets which have poor returns. Thus, savings accounts also have poor returns. When MLB fans stop buying beer, prices of beer will decrease, etc. The Twins cannot dictate to the MLB market what fair pricing will look like. In regard to the players; they chose this structure. There are plenty of other structures the MLBPA could have agreed to the owners would have been happy with. The MLBPA has focused on delivering maximum compensation to elite and veteran players while minimizing compensation to younger or less talented players. In 2022, the top 1% of incomes was $800k, and the top 0.1% was of American incomes was at $2.8MM. The average MLB player is among the highest income earners on Earth. There are players who are worth more than owners. Some principal owners have a total net worth as low as $400MM. Shoehei Ohtani just signed a $700MM contract. The vast majority of players who reach the MLB level are drafted in the first 10 rounds and receive 6-7 figure signing bonuses at age 17-21. Owners and players are in the same category. Ultra wealthy. Keoni Cavaco's signing bonus was $4MM. That's a working lifetime of $100k per year average salary.

The Twins' bullpen is crazy deep. Losing Duran still hurts because of how well he can close things out, but it's not like there aren't more arms on the team who can fill a high leverage role adequately. The rest of the reported injuries don't really impact the team over their injury replacements or how minor they are, IMHO.

So you're saying Correa and Buxton should be writing checks to the Pohlad family, right?

https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/news/twins-anthony-desclafani-il-bound-with-forearm-strain/ Pretty decent level of speculation Desclafani could require surgery. His elbow been a long term issue dating well back into last year at this point. Not promising.

Not concerned about Buxton. Unfortunately, obliques don't heal quick so I wouldn't expect to see Duran much before May. Desclafani going on the IL at least provides clarity and an opportunity for Varland. It's Varland's rotation spot to lose at this point. If Varland pitches well, and Desclafani doesn't need TJ, I expect the veteran arm will probably be moved to the 'pen. Theilbar's spot will probably go to Funderburk.

Imagine somebody making minimum wage breaking their back at a warehouse turning down $100k for a remote job tapping out words on a keyboard in a comfy office chair. It's certainly fun to dream about having the talent to be paid like that, but for the players, it's about being paid fairly for the value they provide relative to their peers. :)

First, the proposed trade is a significant overpay by the Twins. Second, the Dodgers don't need a SS. Third, it doesn't help the Twins since Margot is not a RHB outfielder, he's a part time utility outfielder who can cover center field. The need is center field to back up Buxton, not corner outfielder to back up Wallner or Kepler and Adnes has no place in CF. Forth, Adnes is a middle ranked prospect probably in the top 200ish? Brooks Lee is an elite prospect. I think somebody got a little excited by Spring Training stats...

Snell and Montgomery massively overplayed their hands by trying to demand 7-9 year contracts up to $290MM. Snell had a 5-6 year $150MM offer from the Yankees and he turned it down. At that point, there was still plenty of season left, and it should have been obvious where the marketplace was at. I'm not sure what they're thinking at this point, but their value has probably bottomed out at this point.

As I recall, Baldelli talked about Joe Ryan needing to walk more guys in unfavorable counts. Not that walks are good, but it's better than grooving a fastball in the meat of the zone just to avoid a walk on a 3-1 or 3-2 count. I don't know if that's necessarily true or not (Ryan trying too hard to avoid walks), but hitters absolutely tee'd off on Ryan in the 2nd half, and the Twins clearly didn't have a ton of confidence in Ryan come playoff time. I do not share the optimism of most fans when it comes to Ryan. Having one excellent pitch and a few borderline serviceable pitches is almost always a recipe for bullpen arms, but Ryan's stuff seems to play just well enough to keep him in the rotation for now. I think he's flashed his ceiling already, but I also believe he can probably hang on to a #4 type starter role for a while longer. None of the Twins' starters behind Lopez have a legitimate upside of a #1-2 rotation arm in my opinion, but stranger things have happened. I also don't think the Twins absolutely need a top of the rotation pitcher at the moment. They can go get one before the deadline. The rotation seems plenty deep with #4, high floor guys, and that's a fine recipe for making it "to" the playoffs with Lopez in the rotation.

Vazquez has some up and down seasonal performances recently, and he's not quite old enough to write him off completely. Just have to hope this is one of his "up" years, I think.

He's not. Wallner had a slow start in 2022, but... 2023 AAA (3/31-4/15) = .280/.333/.600 OPS .933 wRC+123 2021 A+ (5/4-5/14) = .289/.378/.553 OPS .930 wRC+ 147 This spring Wallner is missing pitches by a bit. He's generating a lot of pop ups and not many line drives so it looks like there's a little hitch in his game he'll need to address. It's a non-issue at this point. Spring Training is nothing like the regular season.

Having a pitcher address a hitch in their mechanics or make an adjustment to tipping pitches or something in game is huge. Making those mindful adjustments carries over with muscle memory, and being able to make them during a game has got to be incredibly valuable. When it comes to the length of Spring Training, it's good. It should definitely not be shorter. We've seen what happens when Spring Training gets condensed, and it's a huge pile of injuries. Guys are starting their real on the field workouts for the first time in months, and veterans are especially susceptible to an odd pain or tweak here or there shutting them down for a week or two. Relief pitchers are probably the least in need of a long spring, but plenty of hitters develop a bad habit they need to work out or have some timing issues they need to work through.

I would be stunned if Wallner was left off the 26 man after being one of the best hitters producing on pace for a 4 WAR full season in MLB last year. Spring Training has nearly two weeks left. I'm confident Wallner will get it together, and even if he doesn't, there's no way to say he's not working on something. The Twins know what they have in Larnach. He's solid injury replacement depth, but he comes with maybe a 1.5 WAR ceiling due to his below league average bat. He's probably best considered a lefty version of Kyle Garlick on a team that doesn't need more lefty bats. It's a shame for Larnach because there are a few teams around the league where he'd have a better shot at some playing time.