Nine of twelve

I haven't read every post regarding Correa but I don't think anyone has said this in so many words. I expect that the Twins are and were fully aware of Correa's medical history. I would further expect that their determination was that this was not likely to be a problem for the length of the 3-year contract he was signed to last spring. Of course, the Mets and Giants both have had much longer-term contracts to be responsible for, and I would expect that their respective determinations have been that this is much more likely to be a problem for the length of the terms involved. I would further expect that the concerns are valid based on the fact that two separate medical evaluations have been done and the team raised a concern in both cases.

We have a new head trainer. That's not the same as a doctor.

The evil empire has several franchises. NYY, NYM, LAD, Bos, Phi, LAA (even though they can't stay out of their own way), Hou. Tex, Cubs, CWS could soon join that club based on the population of their fan base, hence their TV revenue.

There could be a "chemical issue" that does not involve performance-enhancing drugs or cheating, for example testing positive for THC. I'm not sure if THC use is still proscribed in the current CBA but with marijuana becoming legal on a such a widespread basis I would expect that clause to be eliminated in the next agreement.

I highly doubt any conspiracy theories. First, I'm sure this was a very thorough examination. If a team is about to pay a player $350M I would expect nothing less. Second, if there's something significant that has arisen I'm sure everything is well documented. And I would expect that Boras has a physician on retainer to confirm any issue that may arise as the result of a physical. Everything on all sides will be completely above board. Nobody in this situation will be able to get away with any shenanigans.

Scheduling a cleaning is totally easy and painless. Don't mind doing that at all. I usually do it 6 months in advance.

There is no way the Twins would have or should have matched or beaten this offer. The only good thing about the whole situation is that by negotiating for Correa's services the Twins forced another team to overpay by a whole lot, thereby making it more difficult for that team to improve their roster in other ways. It's just unfortunate that this is more helpful to the Dodgers than it is helpful to the Twins.

But the Red Sox did something similar when Vazquez was there and were caught and penalized. It's just that they weren't quite as egregious about it as the Astros were.

I take Correa's comments in this regard with a block of salt. A smart player will always, always talk positively about his current situation. That's why any mutual interest between CC and the Twins, whether actual or perceived, will boost the offers both from the Twins and from other teams.

Haven't read the comments yet, but the answer is no, of course not. Moreover, I don't like the title of this thread. At age 25? Really?? Ted, can't you be rational?

Yep. And, probably more important, accurate scouting.

No surprise. And I don't think this will have a major effect on Correa's eventual contract. Turner's contract is more of a benchmark.

I think the team should and will give just about every pitcher an opportunity to impress during ST.

Why do we need to establish a definition of success?

Everyone in the world knows that the Twins will not match the highest offer. So it's not in the best interest of the team to wait a long time to see what the other offers are. About the only leverage the Twins have would be Correa's desire to play here (depending, of course, on whether that is the case and how strong and sincere that desire is). I don't know what the best way is to exploit that but making offers to other FA SSs early in the process might tip the playing field in the team's favor at least a little.

I was in Ft. Myers at the end of October. Even after one month of recovery efforts there was still a mountain of work to do. The beaches have been devastated. It's going to take a long time. The organization is fortunate that their facility survived with so little damage.

And could we just have that happen once or twice every year?

I'm sad to see Urshela leave but it needed to happen. To me it's obvious that the Twins view Miranda as their 3B for the next few years at least. I think Kirilloff will log a lot of time at 1B. I have been saying for a while now that I think Arraez should be DHing most of the time. So let's use some of that $9M toward a SS and/or some pitching.

I would love to have the 2019 Nelson Cruz on the roster. The 2023 Nelson Cruz? No.

Home whites: satisfactory, a bit of an improvement over the previous home whites. I think using navy for the number on the front to provide contrast with the red script is a good choice. (I still see T u π n s on the script, but it's OK, I'll adjust.) Home blue jersey: I like the white block MINNESOTA on the front better than the red script of the previous navy jerseys. I like the red number on the front. Alternate cream home uniform: I think I like this the best of the five uniforms revealed today. It's a good complement to the other two home options and the all-navy trim helps to give it a retro look that doesn't look dated. Road grays: a definite step up from the previous road grays. I like the understated pinstripes; they add a bit of sharpness without making the uniforms look too busy and it helps to differentiate us from the Guardians' and the Atlantas' road grays. Road blue jersey: It's the same as the home blue jersey, right? That's fine with me. Caps: well, I guess I can grudgingly go along with the new M if the team feels it's something they just have to do. I hope it eventually becomes the less-used alternate to the standby navy cap with the white T and the red C. The all-white TC looks right with the alternate home cream. And I am very happy that the red jerseys, the powder blue uniforms, and the Kasota gold trim are no longer with us. The team never looked like the Twins in red jerseys. It's just not right, sort of like if the Yankees decided to have green jerseys or something like that. I suppose the powder blues could be worn from time to time if there's a 1970's bad fashion theme night or something like that, but only very occasionally at most. One detail that we didn't see today is the socks for players who wear pants above the ankles. It appears that the socks for the alternate home cream uniform are solid navy with no stirrups. I strongly approve. I hope the socks for the other uniforms are the same. No need for stripes or anything else down there.

On the scrap heap of history where they belong, I hope.

I feel bad for Twins fans but even more so for Sano that his potential was only intermittently realized during his tenure with our favorite team. And I agree that the question asked at the top of the opening post is a bit out of line. Kind of like filling out a customer satisfaction survey that asks, "How disappointed were you in your experience with us today?" So I wanted to include a video of this high point in his career. For me this was the moment when the Twins locked up the AL Central in 2019. And based on pitcher Nick Goody's reaction I think the same was true for him. And Terry Francona too.

The save as a statistic didn't become official until 1969, following the start of the trend of using a designated closer in the 1960's. I think the trend of moving away from that strategy is going to continue and for that reason the save statistic is going to become less and less useful in telling us which relief pitching performances are the most important. Remember when GWRBI was an official stat in the 1980's? It was based on the same criterion that determined the winning pitcher: it was the RBI that gave the team a lead for the remainder of the game. Turns out it wasn't a very useful stat so its official status was discontinued. I can easily foresee the save going the same way. What would be more revealing is to use a formula of some kind to weigh the game situation into a reliever's performance to produce something akin to WAR or WPA. It could even take into account factors like whether your opponent is a division rival close to your team in the standings or whether it's a game in early April as opposed to an elimination game in the last week of the season

It is understandable why teams designated closers for so many years. The consistency of the same pitchers working the same innings helped pitchers prepare for individual games. But this approach didn't take into account the most important thing, something Tom Kelly is famous for saying: put players in situations where they are most likely to succeed. This means you set up your pitching so that you don't have your fourth-best reliever facing the opposition's best hitters, no matter what inning it is. Use your best reliever in the most important situations.

Chief appears to be saying the Twins have not had satisfactory success with their current strategy, so therefore the strategy is bad. MLR appears to be saying that there is evidence that Twins' lack of satisfactory success is not necessarily because the strategy is bad, it's also possible that Twins management is not executing the strategy well enough. Is that about right?