Whammy

Kreidler being the choice does feel like a "Erod, you get back from the IL, show us a healthy week at AAA and we'll call you up" situation.

Currently about a week past the initial timeline for him to return.

I enjoyed the accompanying picture choice.

I hope that all of Paul Molitor’s games this year aren’t a 3 man booth #FreeMolly

... and that doesn't include the revenue they get from ad sales on the free show.

Quick math on the patreon.... 3500 monthly subscribers. $8 per month. $28000 per month. I believe patreon takes about 1/3 of that and assuming Aaron and John split the rest evenly, then that's about $10,000 per month. I'll leave it to you as to whether that pays the bills or not.

Can't have a sophomore slump if you never have a freshman season!

I really enjoy 90% of what Gleeman produces, but I agree that he does get hung up on obsessions sometimes. The current one is Target Field attendance.

Feels like you might have said something similar when he and John launched their patreon podcast 5 years ago. And you'd have been wrong on that one. I have no idea if it's going to work out for Aaron, but based on a) his initial comments, and b) the number of comments I am seeing on his articles, it seems to be going pretty good 24 hours in. Just because YOU aren't willing to pay, doesn't mean many others aren't.

Listen… I love Buxton. He’s my favorite player, but he 100% would’ve been on 3rd if he was hustling. In my mind, I think there’s a small chance he could’ve made it home if he was in “full throttle Buxton” mode from the start.

Not a misplay. The angle they just showed on TV was perfect

Awesome hit by Buxton there, but he’s GOTTA make that a triple.

Yeah… The guy that just gave up 4 unearned runs (maybe 3) is definitely on the hot seat.

There goes Buxton chance to extend his hit streak with runners in scoring position. (From 1 to 2)

I forgot about the silly $13M because it was completely meaningless silliness related to coming to an agreement just before the arbitration hearing. It never ever had any chance of being picked up. Zero. 0.0000000% But technically, yes, there is a $13M mutual option.

I was a huge Wallner apologist but honestly ABS ruined my view of him. It’s not that he’s made dumb challenges, it’s that the challenge system has shown us that he has no idea where the strike zone is. That’s bad.

I have more hope in Royce at this point than Wallner, but a) not much more, and b) he actually only has two more years of team control after this, as opposed to Wallner’s 3 years

I think this is just you being obtuse. Not many teams jump from 70 wins to championship contender. I don’t think we’re going to get even close to 85 wins this year, but if enough things go right, we do get to 85 wins, and we sneak into the playoffs, I simply don’t believe that you will not have perked up at all. If for no other reason than we will have identified some very solid core pieces to a championship contender.

One thing to add to the Jersey topic. I know this is total recency bias, but I was a little bit tempted this weekend to buy an Austin Martin game worn (or maybe it was “team issued”) one from the Twins authentic apparel place down the RF line. It was actually kind of a reasonable deal. If I’m there in the near future, he’s still doing well, and the jersey is still available, I think I might buy it.

$13m is his projected arbitration raise. Thats just historically, guys making what he’s making this year make that amount in their next year. Thats not locked in at all. If he performs poorly, it can be less. If he performs really well it could be more. If he’s injured, then it can be less than tht projected amount, but it can also be $0. So, the reason why he might say yes to 2/25 is because one of his options is to make $0 in 2027 and $???? In 2028. We’re getting the cart waaaaaay ahead of the horse here, but just for the sake of argument, if he was to have TJ surgery tomorrow, then 2/25 would be an exceedingly fair offer. So fair, that I’m kind of skeptical that the Twins would make it.

This reminds me of a conversation I had with my daughter at the game yesterday. She loved Bader and was sad when he was traded. I told her all the reasons why trading Bader made sense, but in the end she didn't really care. She missed having her favorite player on the team. So now she's talking about getting a new jersey. She'd mostly outgrown the one she has, which was a generic (unnamed) city connect jersey. So then we are talking about WHO she should get. She wanted to get a Bader one last year, but since I knew he was almost certainly only here for a year, I said no. You'd ideally get one for a player who's going to be around for a while. I have a Buxton one, so she didn't want that. She didn't really want a pitcher because she wants to be able to know they will probably be playing if we go to a game. Her: Jeffers? How long does he have left in his contract Me: This is his last year. He's been really good but it seems unlikely that he'll be back. Once our good players hit free agency, usually they're gone. Her: Moose? How long does he have left. I love his nickname. Me: 3 years left, but he's been really bad this year. I hate to say it but I'm not sure how much longer he's going to be around. Her: Larnach? Me: Last year with him. Don't get me started. Her: Royce? Me: Similar to Wallner Her: Keaschall? Me: He's probably the right one. He's got a lot of years left and he's kind of stinking right now, but I think that will probably turn around. So, we went with Keashcall. He then proceeded to rip 2 doubles in his next two AB, so that was nice. All of this is to say... I agree. Long term connections matter. Fanbases are built off not only connection to the team, but connections to players. Trading away your good players toward the end of their arbitration might make baseball front office sense, but that doesn't mean it makes franchise sense. Both of those things need to coexist.

One wildcard to some of those scenarios is how a potential new CBA might change some of those options.

It would be his last year of arbitration. So... like an option year, but different. If we assume TJ Surgery for a second, then here are the Twins options: 1. Offer him arbitration, And hope that he comes back mid-season and is effective enough that you can trade him (unlikely) or give him a Qualifying Offer at the end of 2027. 2. Don't offer him arbitration this offseason. In which case he's gone and we get nothing for him. 3. Offer an extension similar to what we did with Chris Paddack. Say... 2 years, 25mil. This give Ryan some security and gives the Twins one more healthy Joe Ryan season before his free agency (and potential QO).

Silly random question, but isn't Joe Ryan required to go on the IL now, since he didn't face 3 batters? It's probably moot because he will anyway, but just something I thought about.