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arby58

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Everything posted by arby58

  1. arby58
    This just keeps getting better and better - or is it the other way around? Reminds me of Yogi's quip that nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded.
  2. arby58
    I've never before read a post that admitted their grading system was 'totally made up and almost completely arbitrary.'
  3. arby58
    He's started a grand total of 36 games between the minors and the 9 he started for the Twins last year. Last year, he was clearly overmatched at the MLB level. It's hard to judge expected MLB performance by games in the Grapefruit league - you don't consistently see major league hitters, and you're rarely going to go through the lineup more than once. So I don't have a problem with the Twins 'stashing' him at St. Paul even if he has a great spring training. The Twins have at least six starting pitchers with more experience, and sometimes pitchers do need more of it to perform well at the MLB level.
  4. arby58
    I've always found it interesting that the Wilfs are generally considered great owners by Minnesota sports fans and the Pohlads are considered the opposite. It's not as if the Vikings have had all that much more success than the Twins. I think the answer is two words: salary cap. You can't complain about the Vikings spending, because of the cap. Not so for the Twins.
  5. arby58
    I'm pretty sure most do. If they truly want 'to do anything they wish' there are more enlightened (and for that matter entertaining) options. I mentioned this elsewhere, but most of a billionaire's net worth is tied up in illiquid assets. That means either liquidating stock/options (with the tax implications - they'd rather hold them and borrow against them so when they leave this earth stepped up basis means never having to say you're sorry about capital gains) or getting financing for what could be hundreds of millions of dollars. In that case, the billionaire has to take into consideration paying off the note - and from what? If the team is a bottom line loser AND they're paying off a nine figure note . . . it can seriously crimp even a billionaire's lifestyle. I know there are a few owners who treat this as a 'hobby horse,' but if you look at team spending, it generally aligns with revenue.
  6. arby58
    Even your run-of-the-mill billionaire doesn't have $1.5 billion in liquid assets, so it's likely they have to arrange financing, which means even $100-$200 million in the difference can mean a lot more when you build in those costs (and it isn't as cheap to borrow money as it was a few years ago).
  7. arby58
    He did a good job in Texas, and I liked him as a player for the Twins as well - not much offense but positionally flexible (sound familiar?) and a 'good guy.'
  8. arby58
    They keep advancing him and making him a starting pitcher. Those seem to be treating him like a starting pitcher. His innings per start were ramped up as the year went along last year - none of that suggests they view him as anything but a starting pitcher.
  9. arby58
    I don't understand the 5 man rotation without either SWR or Festa. I would have it as Lopez, Ryan, Ober, SWR, Paddock - and if Paddock is traded, Festa. I'd also put Matthews in front of Raya in the AAA pecking order.
  10. arby58
    I'm also tired of going around in circles on this. OF COURSE he hired him - that's the 'get his approval' part. Taylor still owned the team. Fine, L&AR were involved, even brought it to him, but he still had to make the decision, and it could have been no. Meanwhile, he had been in charge in 2019 when they drafted Edwards number one and drafted other key pieces. That said, I'm no longer responding - my first post was I didn't believe Taylor would be interested in the buying the team, so why don't we get back to the issue of who might.
  11. arby58
    You want to look at what is mostly ancient history, and I want to look at the past few years. It's sort of the HOF peak period versus career Yin and Yang. In the last three years, the T-wolves have been much better than the Twins in terms of results - and they may well be this year as well. Picking Edwards was an important decision, and there were plenty suggesting they take Ball or Wiseman, neither of which has had the career (or the upside potential of Ant. Connelly also made some trades that many fans disliked (a lot), and you know that Taylor had to sign off on those as well. As somebody recently said, 'flags fly forever' and I'd give the T'wolves at the moment a better chance to fly a flag in the near future than the Twins. If they do, the 'horrible owner' thing starts to sound off-key.
  12. arby58
    https://hoopshype.com/rumor/lamelo-ball-favorite-for-no-1-pick/ https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2020/4/8/21211341/lamelo-ball-nba-draft-mock-scouting-report-highlights-video https://www.si.com/nba/2019/12/02/lamelo-ball-nba-draft-potential-first-pick https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/30217723/source-minnesota-timberwolves-meet-potential-no-1-pick-lamelo-ball
  13. arby58
    So what? They were minority owners, and Taylor had to approve it - and he did.
  14. arby58
    Taylor still had to approve it - and he did. I'm not suggesting Taylor should buy the Twins, but his tenure with the T'wolves, once he turned over the decisions to Connelly, have been just fine. You also gloss over that Edwards was a brilliant draft selection, and that was in 2019 - well before the 2021 buy in by Lore and ARod. If they had selected anybody else, they would not have been in the Final Four last year.
  15. arby58
    I'm amazed at those who think the Twins draft poorly. They consistently rank in the upper half of MLB farm systems, and that starts with drafting. I also think those of us who fixate on Twins injuries simply do not do the same with other teams. Using stats, the Twins were 11th of 30 MLB teams last year in games lost due to injury. 2023 they were 13th, 2022 they were 12th, 2021 they were 20th. Doesn't exactly support the rhetoric.
  16. arby58
    Seriously? Connelly was NOT hired by ARod and Lore. Nor were they in charge in 2020 when Ant was the first pick in the draft. The T'wolves got that one perfectly right. The other two consensus first picks, LaMelo Ball and James Wiseman don't add up together to Ant's career win shares (14+4.3 versus 21.6). You don't like Taylor, fine, but enough with the revisionist history.
  17. arby58
    I think Taylor learned his lesson with the T'wolves when he brought in Connelly and turned over decision making to him. Why would he do differently with the Twins?
  18. arby58
    I'm more interested in the on-field stuff. The Twins have plenty of talent, particularly in the young pitching category. Fans who think a new owner is going to change the team from being mid-market are, IMHO, gonna be disappointed.
  19. arby58
    I don't know why Taylor would (a) be interested, given that he had the T'wolves on the market and is 83 years old, and (b) drive the team into the ground. The T'Wolves were in the Final Four of the NBA last year (long time since that has been the case for the Twins) and he has a strong team in place with Connelly and Finch running the basketball operation. Ant is a bigger star (with greater potential) than anybody currently on the Twins 26 man roster. They are a bit underwhelming so far this year, but the have the talent to go far if they jell over the last third of the season.
  20. arby58
    The thing that is missing here is context - is it really all that different for the Twins than other franchises? I recall a couple years ago when the Yankees, of all teams, were ravaged by injuries and ended up at the bottom of their division. For that matter, the Dodgers have had a string of high end players miss significant time - the difference being they can just spend a couple hundred million dollars on replacements. I remember last year being amazed at the number of Dodgers pitchers that missed all or most of the season: River Ryan, Emmett Sheehan, Dustin May, Clayton Kershaw, Brusdor Graterol, Tony Gonsolin, Conner Brodgon, Ryan Brasier - plus Walker Buehler closely managed after coming back from his second Tommy John surgery. These are almost all solid MLB players (some stars), and it makes the Twins pitching injury situation last year look not nearly as bad as we think it was.
  21. arby58
    Besides, Alcala's stuff, when he is on, is electric. I'd be shocked if anyone described Tonkin that way.
  22. arby58
    The Twins were top half (tied for 13th) in average innings pitched per starter last year - and that was with two rookies having a lot of starts. The year before that they were tied for third. Baseball has definitely changed in terms of the role of starting pitchers, but the Twins actually exhibit less 'training wheel' mentality towards its starting pitchers of late than most MLB teams.
  23. arby58
    Seems to be on the verge - although I would bet (other than a series of injuries) that he rocks it in '25 at St. Paul. You have to figure (unless they unload Paddock) that Festa and Matthews are ahead of him (I'm assuming SWR is the 4 or 5 Twins starting pitcher).
  24. arby58
    Oh, come on - his WAR last year was -0.1. So why did the Yankees let him go if he was such a catch? I'm not buying a 35 year old pitcher with his track record.
  25. arby58
    I don't get why Tonkin is considered a better option than Alcala (or others, for that matter). For his career, he is 0.0 WAR, he was nothing to write home about last year, and he's 35 years old - he's not going to get any better.
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