Riverbrian

And that's fine. I don't think anyone here was entirely happy with the result. All I'm arguing is that Joe Mauer became a .325 hitter with a .400 OBP by playing the game a certain way. I am entirely happy with the result. Not making an out is a great at bat. Any thoughts to the contrary is goofy.

It was a Great professional At-Bat by Joe Mauer facing a guy who has been very tough on left handers and an ump that was consistently giving the outside corner against lefties to the pitcher throughout the game. Criticizing a player (who did not make an out) in a key situation. Is an impossible situation for the player and completely unfair. Joe C is running out of things to write about obviously.

I think we can all agree that injuries happen. It does seem to me that some don't consider it. Depth is important. A. The Current Twins do not have a decent option off the bench for Pinch Hitting duties. B. The Current Twins have at least two starters at SS and 2B that are prime candidates to be pinch hit for at the end of games in key moments. C. The Current Twins also have two other starters who are decent hittes but not legitimate Home Run Threats for those key situations where a late inning home run is the last hope. D. Look at point B and C and then Re-Read point A I believe that Parmelee should be called up Right NOW. This Time he shouldn't waste time on the bench like he did in his last call up. He should be placed into a rotation of Doumit, Mauer, Morneau and Willingham. 5 Players and 4 positions... Whoever sits can become that pinch hitting option. With the current state of the Twins... It makes no sense to me to suggest that Morneau is blocking Parmelee... Nothing is blocking Parmelee... The only thing that is blocking Parmelee is Gardenhire's insistence on playing players nearly every day. Nobody has to be traded to make room for Parmelee. Players should only be traded because we need Pitching or Middle Infield. This isn't a knock on Gardy... Well it kinda is... But I think he's a fine manager. Just a little creativity here is all that's required. Calling Parmelee up and rotating him in right now does many things. A. Provides a decent pinch hit bat late in games. B. Gets him more MLB Exposure C. Provides a MLB experienced injury replacement for the injuries that will occur. D. Gives injury prone players and aging players a day of rest from time to time. E. Improves the Team!!! No Brainer!!!

That is fine and good, but I wasn't commenting on having the Twins games broadcast on a rock station - I was talking about how you will have to flip stations on Sundays to hear the manager show on AM 1500 and then to FM 96 for the game. I've never heard of having official programming split up like that. Now having games broadcast on non-sports stations (in this case 'modern contemporary' or whatever the latest format for the struggling station is) is a whole 'nuther issue. Also as you pointed out - football isn't baseball. Totally different and shouldn't be compared IMHO. I hope the Braves aren't a model for anything - despite having past success Atlanta area is notorious for having a poor fan base and being a bad sports town in general. Too many transplants and transients. I'm sure it has - again not the issue I was talking about exactly. Also comparing other sports and other areas isn't apples to apples, but the times are a changin'. This is a first for this area. I'm not sure what point you are trying to make here. I never called it a format. The manager show, the hot stove show, and all the other official sanctioned Minnesota Twins subsidiary programming occurs because of the Twins. The main point I was trying to make is its pretty odd that you have to switch bands and stations to obtain programming from a single source. Sports talk never has been as popular as listening to music, by shoehorning games onto stations that do not provide sports talk for ratings will kill off sports talk on the radio. With the internet there are places like this that will become more and more important for sports fans to get their fix (as if they weren't already due to the quality of content) but losing it still sucks. Totally agree One thng is for sure... I've heard the signal is a little challenged but for those who can hear it. The broadcasts will sound fantastic... On FM... Cracks of Bats... Smacks of Gloves... A whole new sound quality for baseball. As far as Sports Talk and the future. Who knows... There are a lotta signals... Some will end up Sports... Cuz you have to do something different with all of them. The hope is that National Syndication doesn't take over like it has in smaller markets to save on overhead.

I do What Format? lol... I can't touch that one. I haven't seen enough data (demo breakdowns or research) to make that call nor would I do that for free if I did... lol My advice in this area has value!!! Jeremy... I'd listen to Twins Daily Radio. I might even spend some time hanging with the Thrylos show. Hopefully, he will have plenty of callers to counter his points. The outlandish commenter has done quite well in the talk radio genre.

"Later" was the next day. It wasn't like a year later. Which brings up an off-topic question. Anyone have actual knowledge of how "players to be named later" are actually agreed upon? My impression--and I don't even know if it's based in any facts or rumors or just my own imagination--is that the two teams are down to a "well it can be one of these x guys" and then whoever is still undecided can pick from among those x players. And I would guess they do the deal without nailing down that final detail because it needs to happen before some deadline (like the time between making the waiver claim and when it expires). Is that about right? Anyone? I'm guessing Cdog... My assumption is that a list of potential players that a club will give up is provided. The Trading team may like a couple of players on that list and agree to the trade and then take some time to watch the players a little more closely before officially grabbing the player. However, I could Ten Miles off on this. This has just been my assumption.

Nice Post... I agree with you... If Willingham would fetch a top line pitcher. By All Means. Seriously Did Valencia use Your Love as a walk up song. Another example of his cluelessness. Your Love is by a Group called "The Outfield" and Danny Valencia played a substandard Third Base.

If the Twins can squeeze an upside pitcher out of the situation... Let's do it. On the Suspension... All I have to say is... Damn... That Stuff really works don't it.

They do when they want a specific programming. Never have I heard of a situation where official programming was split between multiple stations. Sure you can tune into KFAN for minuscule amount of Twins coverage, WCCO for their coverage, and ESPN 1500 for their coverage, but you tune into ESPN 1500 for the Twins sanctioned programming. The games, the shows, etc. Now it will be split. This isn't deciding if you want to listen to Dan Cole, Reusse & Mackey or Chad Hartman for their take and time devoted to topics, this is you dial jumping to get official Minnesota Twins programming. As far as I can remember, a first here in MN, and I haven't heard of that elsewhere. The fact that this is only guaranteed through 2013 tells me this is a experiment, whatever the reasons. The concept isn't new. Especially in NFL football. Here's a list. Not comprehensive... Not even close to comprehensive. Dolphins football on Classic Rock WBGG Ravens on Rock WIYY Bengals on Rock WEBN Browns on Rock WMMS Steelers on Rock WDVE Texans on Country KILT Colts on Country WLHK Chiefs on Classic Rock KCFX Raiders on Modern Rock KITS Chargers on Rock KIOZ Packers on Top 40 WIXX Falcons on Hot AC WSTR Bucs on Countey WFUS Now Football is one game a week as opposed to a full daily baseball schedule so from that standpoint it is somewhat unique. But... Braves baseball is heard on flagship Classic Rock WNNX and many MLB teams broadcast to affiliates who are music formatted in rated markets. The Twins will be number two and if they get a ratings and revenue increase. More will come in the future. You can also find examples of NHL... NBA and College broadcasts on FM music stations. This train pulled out of the station quite some time ago. Official Twins programming is not a format. It isn't even official. The Twins very smartly will accommodate the sports stations in town because they want and need top of the mind awareness and should provide it anytime and anywhere it is requested. Twins programming wall to wall will not pay the bills. 1500 and KFAN are 13th and 15th in the market. The Twins are not their only topic. They need Twins Fans... Viking Fans... Gopher Fans... In the case of KFAN... They devote time to non sports and still don't come close to what KEEY, KDWB or KQRS does for audience levels. There simply isn't enough of us Twins Freaks out there that want to hear about the Twins all day every day. Also consider that MLB baseball is only 6 months year. You have to consider programming for the other 6 months. A game is only 4 hours a day out of 24. You need to consider programming for the other 20 hours. Once you consider that and consider that there are already two sports stations and they are low rated to boot. Becoming the third Sports station is a bad idea. You need a format that brings in bigger numbers and can do so... All day and all year. Our Twins have become a strong supplement to other programming. You have to jump around now and you will have to jump around in the future. The dream of a 24/7 Twins radio station would be an unworkable concept due to poor ratings unless its done on the Internet or a side channel.

Are you saying it's ok to sell a.........nevermind. Wish we could have gotten more for him... Considering what we gave up to get him... However... I don't miss him one bit... I hate very few Twins players... He I hated...

The Short Answer is: Because Cume is Shared... No Sense in Fighting it. Listeners overwhelmingly do not listen to one radio station only. It's best to recognize that and then work on ways to attract new cume to your station. The key is to not worry about where the Twins Audience is going outside of the broadcasts. The Key is that they are coming over for the broadcasts which gives you cume that you didn't have with your music format. Now you get both and both sets of cume add up to the overall total. Yes... There is a trade off because you lose out on listening occasions and that effects the other half of the formula(TSL). However, the majority of Twins games are broadcast during low level listening periods.(Nights). So it ends up being a great trade. The other key is the current state of KTWN... It's a 1.4 share... that is terrible... They are desperate to find a footing somewhere. The Twins alone will not provide enough to get them into elite status but it can get them a solid jump start in a key demo... 25-54 Male. That's why I expect a format switch toward a format that appeals to that demo. If they can reach Top 3 in that demo... It could lead to increase Agency Buys and a higher cost per point. IE... More Revenue.

Remaining a music format makes sense. However, I would be surprised if they remain a Hot AC format. They will need a format that Compliments... Augments the Twins listener demo. I'm not sure a female based format does that.

Your Best Teachers should be in the Instructional leagues. This is where you re-construct swings and Pitching Mechanics... Starting from scratch in a lot of cases. Plant the seeds for upward growth. If things are not fixed here... A player's advancement can stall and the player won't reach the the better teacher at the upper level. As you move up the levels... Especially at the Major League level... You need a Psycologist. The player has mostly grown and it becomes a case of adjustments and dealing with the head.

It doesn't have to mesh and it probably shouldn't. Who knows what management comes up with on KWTN. They may believe that the Twins broadcasts are a portal into a sports format but the reality is that Sports formats are not ratings gold... Even with no direct competition. Becoming the third sports format is ratings death... Even with the Twins games on your signal. The combined ratings of both Sports formats don't add up to the ratings of one KEEY or one KDWB or one KQRS. Not even close, KWTN is low rated to begin with... Entering the Sports arena and competing against two other formats ranked 13 and 15 (12 plus)overall in the Twins Cities market isnt very bright. They may well just do that but it wouldn't be bright. The Twins on a music format or News Talk format... Anything besides sports gives them the possibility of combining two different sets of listeners and this increases cume. Cume X TSL divided by Total quarter hours is how you calculate AQH(Average Quarter Hours). AQH is then divided against the market total and that is how you get the radio share(ratings). The formula isn't important for you to know but... In a nutshell... If you want to increase your ratings. You can increase your cume(the number of listeners who tune in) or increase your TSL((time spent listening)how often they tune in or how long they tune in)... And of course increasing both cume and TSL will certainly move your ratings needle and that's called a home run. In a competitive major market like the Twin Cities... Increasing TSL is a hard thing to do because there are so many radio choices. Increasing cume is also hard but easier because cume is shared from station to station. Very few listeners... Listen to one station only. So if you focus on the cume. Think of it this way. A large percentage of KFAN and 1500's audience... (Sports fans) are soon to sharing their cume with KTWN because of the Twins. Currently there is (most likely) a very small percentage of cume sharing happening between KFAN and KTWN... Or KQRS with KTWN for that matter. So KTWN has just increased their cume big time with this one move and they dont have to change format. They will get the music cume and the Sports cume. It doesn't matter if the music cume goes away when the Twins come on... They are already in the book. Marked down. It doesn't matter if the Sports fan goes away when the music comes on. They will also be marked down. By broadcasting the Twins on a different format. They get both. The Twins will also provide something a struggling station needs... Traffic through the door. Traffic that will become aware of what the station is doing when they are not broadcasting the Twins. That's nice advertisement for a product with a horrible 1.4 share in the latest PPM. A 1.4 share suggests that a large number of people don't know what they are doing right now. If they switch to a sports format or all Twins all the time... All they will be doing is cycling through the same guy or gal for sports and the Twins and your cume increase will be less and therefore lower ratings and lower revenue and the whole idea is to increase revenue for the station. Otherwise they would simply stay with the sweet deal that 1500 delivers. A million plus ad revenue. It doesn't have to mesh. Now weather current programming at KWTN or the Pohlads see this and think this way is another matter. There are radio people in charge... Believe it or not... who don't understand how Arbitron ratings work.

That would be a big mistake on 1500 and KFAN... If they remain Sports formatted stations... Not talking about the Twins would be like not playing AC/DC on a Classic Rock station. All of the programmers for all stations should know that. The Twins are a nice 25-54 Men audience draw... KTWN should find a non sports format that complements that demographic. Going Sports will be the third sports and will throw away the increased cume possibility. They won't get the increased ratings that way and therefore the increased revenue. Classic Rock?

I know... The Pohlads have obviously determined that this better for them. They could have made this move a couple of years ago I believe and chose not to. Times have changed. The Twins will increase the ratings on KTWN... That is what I'm saying. They have 30 year old Barbara who listens during non twins broadcast times and now they can add 55 year old Bob during the games. This increases the overall ratings even if the ratings during Twins Dayparts are down. However, according to Arbitron, the Twins are doing fairly well with audience levels. With Bob and Barbara working together. They have increased their overall cume from Monday to Sunday and those increased ratings can turn around and be pitched for more money and now you have a radio station that is billing higher and that goes into the Pohlads Pocket. Therefore the Pohlads have determined that they will make more cash this way as opposed to selling the rights and keeping the in game ad revenue. It's a smart move because KTWN has been struggling a bit lately. The worst thing they can try to do... Is try to put together a format that Twins Fans will enjoy all day long. They will be better off playing a different format and collecting new cume during Twins Broadcast Hours.

There are two main reasons why radio stations purchase the broadcast rights. 1. Money 2. Ratings Pretty obvious I know but the Pohlads are in position to determine if they will make more money from the selling the broadcast rights to another station or keeping the advertising revenue themselves with their own signal. I think that determination has been made based upon the switch. From a ratings standpoint. This is the tricky part... The Twins can actually bolster a radio station's ratings overall in standard 6a to 12m Mon-Sun measurement by bringing in unique cume during games and therefore improve the overall ratings. It doesn't matter what format they offer outside of Twins broadcasts... as a matter of fact.... A different format from a sports broadcast would be preferable. Nights are low in-tab timeslots and the Twins will bring in listeners from demographic's young to old seperate from normal audience. This unique cume is added to the overall cume(non-Twins listeners) throughout the day and it increases cume overall. Simply... Listening numbers can be down during the actual Twins broadcast times(I don't think they will but they could) and overall station numbers will go up because the Twins Audience will be different audience and added to the normal format listener cume... Therefore increasing cume overall. Cume is one half the formula for determining audience share. In short... Smart move by the Pohlads and KTWN programming staff. The worst thing that they can do at this point is go to Sports format during non Twins Hours because it seems to align with being the Twins station... By keeping a music format and the Twins... They will draw cume from two sets of audience and ratings will increase and therefore revenue for both the Twins and their radio station. This is a no brainer!!!

Each sitting once a week is not a problem. It keeps everyone fresh and it keeps a decent option off the bench in key moments. Anybody on your roster playing once a week while the starters are trotted out every day is a bigger problem in my opinion. Besides... Sitting once a week is pretty darn close to "as close to as possible".

A little creativity and it's easily done. Willingham, Morneau, Doumit, Mauer can all sit on occasion and if they rotate the time.... Everyone can play a decent amount. Simply sticking Parmelee into a rotation of these players will get everyone ample playing time with no bench rusting for anyone and you will always have a decent pinch hitting option on the bench for all games. The same thing could be done with Mastrioanni right now. Revere and Span can sit every once in awhile to get Mastroianni some additional playing time. 25 Players on your roster. Use them all. Except for Butera of course. I would call up Parmelee right now and send down a bullpen arm and start this rotation immediately. If Parmelee is going to ride the pine... Well of course leave him in Rochester. It's just a little bit of creativity.

If you combed thru all of the tapes of Bremer's Career... I would bet large sums of money that he has used the word "property" before and I will bet that it was used for White Folks in the past. When you broadcast as many games as he has for as long as he has. You don't just start using fresh adjectives. You have the same crutches and words to describe situations. Again, try to fill a baseball broadcast with words for 3 hours and then do it again tomorrow, all the way to next month, next year and next decade. If anyone feels that property is worthy of this... It's a clear overreacation. Try it... After you try talking through a baseball game one time... Try to imagine doing it daily. We can't seriously be hung up one word that can be explained multiple ways. This reacation is clearly a case of a reacation by the beholder and not the commenter.

Has anyone ever tried talking for 3 hours every night? I challenge some of you tonight. Turn the sound down on your TV and try to broadcast the game. The overwhelming majority of you will be done by the first inning or batter. Give Dick a break and safely conclude that property means absolutely nothing and was one word out of a thousand different words uttered in the space of 3 hours of a slow moving game... That was game 115 out of a 162 game season. Also... How closely do you have to listen and pay attention to the thousands of words said in game 115 out of 162 to even catch "property" or "member" and who the hell else notices such things? How hard do you have to look for it??? You pretty much need a microscope to see racism in this situation and industrial strength molehill to mountain machinery to even present it to others. It's 2012

I'm guessing the Blue Jays could say why he was moved in the first place, seeing how he hasn't played 10 games at 2B since low A ball 5 yars ago. There are a couple of things that give me pause. Why did the Jays move him? That's one. The other is Why hasn't Gardy tried him at 2B yet? On the other side of that... Why did the Jays let him go? He can clearly play this game. The Jays may have missed.

At least you didn't accidentally go with LeCroy instead of Lucroy. Yeah... I would have lost that walk Lucroy got me. lol

I do agree with you. I'm normally too picky about defense to really be serious about something like this. However, he's taking grounders daily for a reason. I thnk it's worth a look see. If he handles 2B a little. He can do a little work over the winter and into spring and you have a 4th OF'er with 2B ability. If he shows he can't handle it. He can stop wasting his time taking grounders daily. Far fetched idea... I get that... But... I'm thinking his production at the plate and on the base paths might be more than what we are currently getting at 2B. Skip Schumacher pulled it off. The Cardinals don't seem to be so positionally rigid as other teams are. Things seem to work for them.