tony&rodney

He has started his tenth year at the controls and everything except Buxton is now his creation. He's Mary Shelley.

Sorry, how could I omit him? Take away ..... your choice. FWIW, we already watched this team in August and September. If you get nostalgic and have MLB.com, you can go back and watch the games.

The lineup and roster is nearly set: C) Jeffers, Jackson; 1B) Clemens, Julien; 2B) Keaschall; 3B) Lewis; SS) Lee; ut. if.) Kreidler; OF) Martin, Roden, Buxton, Outman, Wallner; SP) Lopez, Ryan, Ober, Woods Richardson, Bradley; RP) Sands, Topa, Orze, Funderburk, and four others from among the young fellas. Falvey stated each of the last two years that he liked the team and they rolled it back. He has been positive and stated that he expects further development just recently. It is what it is. Unless someone manages to get the ear of a Pohlad, this is likely it. Ironic that Joe Pohlad is our only hope.

Both Lopez and Ryan have two years left of control, PL at $43M via contract and JR at $18M (mol) via arb. Both are excellent TOR pitchers that fit as #2 SP on most teams and are #1 SP on some teams. Ryan's lower price makes him affordable to all teams and allows teams with more money to spend an extra $25M in the next 2 years over Lopez. Both pitchers are likely open to reasonable extensions if they view their home team as a decent place to work and live. Pay very little attention to BBTV regarding a low value for guys like Lopez or Skubal. In the end, a team must decide if they are going for mediocrity or if they actually want to compete. Teams like San Diego, Seattle, and Milwaukee have proven their interest in winning. Other teams have big money. But still others just blatantly choose to be mediocre. I am hoping the Twins look hard at San Diego or Milwaukee.

This is Year 10 of the falvey experience. Who is the one player who is a bonafide experienced starting position player? It's Byron Buxton, drafted in 2012. I'm real hopeful that all of Connor Prielipp, Walker Jenkins, Kaelen Culpepper, and Emmanuel Rodriguez rank among the top seven rookies in the American League in 2026. Hope is all I got.

Yes, trillion. It is indeed communism for the poor. I was trying to be very conservative with the 30-50 trillion dollar number but have seen an economic report in the last year that did use $80 trillion. Don't remember the exact source. I read way too much. One of my goals for 2026 is to daydream more often and play the piano.

Someone might remember that this was tried previously. MLB has sole rights to approve any ownership group. They will not approve a state or large group ownership and vet individuals or small groups. This is not in the bylaws to my knowledge but has already been tried and defeated. MLB has turned down ownership from some pretty wealthy dudes because the owners did not see a path towards controlling the person. Most famously Mark Cuban was turned down. Also, MLB chose Carl Pohlad over others. That actually cost the Griffiths a little money.

Appreciate the optimism and hope springs eternal so to speak. It is worth remembering that we read similar upbeat posts with the big trade last year for Mickey Gasper. Alex Jackson is out of options and they are paying him more than the minimum. The other catchers still have options and thus there will not be a competition for the backup catching slot. There has been a decided trend under this front office to ride those type of players all the way into September. That is my concern.

We are hoping against hope that the front office is competent. They must be or they wouldn't have those jobs. Then again, we could spend the rest of the winter discussing people who pulled down big paychecks in important jobs who didn't have a clue what they were doing but liked their job and the independence and freedom they had in their position. Is it possible there is anyone connected with the Twins that is .... shall we say less than proficient in their position? I doubt it because from the very top on down they all earned everything. If we use some reasoning or shards of logic it does seem like this trade may indicate a will to compete. Will they? Oof. First Jackson has to beat out the big trade return from last year, Mickey Gasper. Now, because one makes more money, so we must conclude that that player is better so Gasper toils in St. Paul while Jackson unexpectedly wins the triple crown as a Twin. Right? We should be patient. This is a big trade, bringing a catcher. We already decided that Clemens and Julien are fine at first base. What were the other needs? Oh, the bullpen where Orze and Topa join Funderburk and Sands to hold down the back end of the bullpen while others, previously mentioned in an interview with Falvey can fill the front of the bullpen. Now if the Twins can just find a right-handed hitting outfielder, the team will be set.

I'm looking for catchers that might be available who will be as good as Christian Vazquez. Nice that the Twins won't pay for CV any longer but Alex Jackson cannot catch or hit as well as Vazquez. So I identify the usual cliche guys with Harry Ford being a real choice. Ford could be acquired but he would cost a Royce Lewis or Emmanuel Rodriguez or Matt Wallner or Zebby Matthews or maybe Bailey Ober. One of these guys maybe. Problem is the Twins are looking to keep anyone who breathes and love Gasper. The over/under for the current roster is either 63 or 65 wins I think. Somebody should know. We already saw this roster play post All Star Game at a 33% winning clip. Something has to give. This trade feels exactly like the move for Mickey Gasper.

Volpe is struggling to stay with the Yankees. He is still ok at shortstop but declining. His bat is mostly swing and miss. i don't think the Twins trade Lee for Volpe even if the Yankees send another guy.

The next person who figures out how the Twins evaluate players will be the first. Something has to give because the manager and coaching changes brought in some experienced knowledgable baseball minds. They might go crazy if Gasper type moves continue to be the norm. Now the Twins added an out of options catcher who is 29, just ok defensively, cannot hit, but does have power in his bat when it is found. Help is needed.

Nothing was hurt in the acquisition of Alex Jackson. Payton Eeles never recovered from knee surgery and had no future in the Twins organization. The strange part is that Jackson will cost a million more than Noah Cardenas and probably isn't as good. Additionally Jackson is out of options. The Twins passed on Rortvedt recently, a similar guy in some ways but superior with the glove and less expensive. The main concern is that somebody loves the potential pop in Alex Jackson's bat and if the Twins spend $1.8M that guy will be around all year even with a .400 OPS. If this is a noteworthy trade, 65 wins will be just a dream. Jackson joins Julien, Kreidler, and Outman to form the 2026 bench. It's best to just go back to hoping someone, anyone within the Twins front office has an idea for adding talent that is above AAA level. It could happen, so I'll wait.

Jackson arrived to professional baseball as a prospect who did not have a position and was poor defensively but had a big bat. Over time Jackson developed into a fair enough backup catcher but his bat has termites. The current iteration of Alex Jackson makes Christian Vazquez a veritable base-hit machine. Jackson's career OPS is .527, but he did show some life last year. Hope springs eternal. Payton Eeles never recovered from knee surgery. He looked bigger and much slower last season with his defense game declining. At least that was my perspective from watching him play on numerous occasions. I don't think the Twins ever intended to give him a shot and he didn't earned one so best Payton goes to another team.

Many people would like change and are tired of billionaires, but look at our government and the people we elect at the national level. Anywhere from $30-50+ Billion has been shifted from the middle and lower classes in the last 50 years. Until there are changes in voting habits things will get worse as far as affordable in sports, housing, food, medical care, and more. Power is the driving force. Sports are our drug of choice. It cost me very little money. Mostly I'm hopeful of positive change but I have zero control. It's just entertainment.

Explanation or vent here?

He should either be in the lineup every day because the team believes in his potential or he should be dangled for a trade that brings back a catcher or first baseman. Harry Ford plus a low A/R/DSL player for EmRod? Brody Hopkins and Tre' Morgan for EmRod? I raise the trade aspect only if the Twins just plan on sitting him in AAA. While Emmanuel certainly hasn't proven anything he has the type of talent that pushes an organization forward if he hits, runs, fields, and stays on the field.

To all this above, add that the 2026 Twins are not a playoff team with a payroll below $150M. Reality.

FWIW, Calvin Griffith owned 26% of the Twins, his sister Thelma owned 26% (part of an irrevocable trust), and H. Gabriel Murphy, a Washington D.C. business fellow owned 40+% of the Twins franchise. Calvin made all decisions and ran the team but included Thelma in most everything. Murphy had zero voting power nor any input into any dealings but received money from profits. He sold his shares to the Tampa Bay Baseball Group for $11.5M in April of 1984. Minority or limited partners have say only if it is written down. Politeness can dictate otherwise. Given the history of the Pohlad family it seems they retain total control. However, people can change.

Putting aside whether Lopez should be traded, the Twins do need offense and players who can defend and run too. When one suggests the Twins need to add a catcher, 1B, and shortstop or whatever your preference, I want to hear a specific player's name. Lopez doesn't work too good for any available catchers or first basemen. I'm not aware of any shortstops who are available. Jeremy Pena? Boston would trade Abreu or Duran for Lopez. Abreu is a no for me because he is a strong side platoon player. I would take Jarren Duran if I knew he could accept this move and that the Twins had ideas to move a couple of their excess outfielders in another trade or two. Maybe the Twins could accept Harry Ford and Ryan Sloan from Seattle but that doesn't really solve the hitting woes. I'm hoping the possibility exists where the Twins spend $135M on payroll and can add some players while holding on to Pablo Lopez. We don't know where the franchise is headed.

Totally agree.

This would essentially entail every dollar collected by every team pooled and then distributed evenly. Sounds great to me. Problem is how do compensate those individuals who purchased a team for $2.42B as opposed to those who paid $10M? I'm curious how all funds can be collected. NFL has open books, MLB's books are closed. If parity is the plan, have every player be available in a draft and teams pick until they have spent to an agreed upon limit. Those players who currently have contracts would carry those contracts to their new team. So if the Twins picked first they could take Ohtani and pay him $2M per year and defer $68M until a future time which shortens their player budget in those later years. Of course this doesn't work either because we haven't considered endorsement money and many other details not to mention whether a player wants to work in a particular place. I disagree that the NFL is a template to use. One of the primary complaints across the internet is player's salaries. Ok, I get that. I never made more than $50M in a year like Juan Soto. So there is a simple solution, restrict the total assets of any individual that lives or works or does business in the country to a number .... $10M should be enough. This would increase parity and solve a whole host of other issues. When all of the money is distributed ..... who is going to work?

Baseball plays every day, 162 games. The NBA and NHL play half that many games, the NFL just a bit more than 10% of the games. All media contracts are national in the three other leagues. In the case of the NBA, there are suitcases of money arriving from their international presence. MLB does not take in nearly as much money via national deals. MLB wants to move towards more of a 'one pile' media money deal, but local markets are very diverse and there isn't the attention paid to every game like the once a week NFL. The MLBPA has a far better pension than others, superior benefits, and all contracts are guaranteed by MLB. This is not true across the other leagues. Why should the players give up their gains? The NHL has a cap around $90M. They have 20 some players and guys working for virtually nothing in a minor league. The NBA has 15 players and a development league of a dozen more players. The NFL has 50 some players and some practice squad guys. MLB teams have 26 players with another 150 plus making minor league money. Colleges provide free development for the other leagues. MLB doesn't have big numbers of college players and those guys spend 2-5 years or more in the minor leagues. The sports are very different in their development and structures. Imagine if the Twins had 26 players in their minor leagues. Town ball and senior leagues would be better. There isn't much evidence that parity is increased in the other leagues. Fans are mollified however. The major push for financial sharing is from fans not owners. I could care less what happens but any strike/lockout will harm MLB. One of the byproducts would almost certainly be a further reduction in the minor leagues. We have seen how this affects development to some extent. Further, I don't see why the owners would choose to lose money but stranger things have happened. My thoughts on this have nothing to do with what I want or wish would occur, but rather a simple thought, follow the money. That is about all I got.

55-70 win team. 63 wins would be the over/under. You could be correct. It does seem like some signals are there.

Exactly. I get that a crap ton of fans think that a salary cap will level the playing field as far as how much money each team spends but that doesn't make sense. A number of people have referenced 80-90% from cap bottom to top. So the top teams already spend $300M. The bottom spenders will now spend $240M? Drop the top limit to $200M, which is impossible because several teams are already contracted for much more than that amount. Now the bottom team spends $160M. Sounds doable until you see that there are more than half of all teams below that number. Then you take away revenue sharing? I completely understand that people magically want their team to spend as much as the next team. I completely don't understand how people can expect 25 (whatever the number) teams' owners to lose tens of millions of dollars because they feel sorry for Pittsburgh. BTW, this idea that MLB would lose a season or even more than a few weeks in cold, wet April would put the game back 20 years. There are mechanisms to reduce the impulse of wealthy teams from gathering all of the best players without caps. I'm confused why anyone would buy into a notion of a salary cap in MLB. There are virtually no similarities between NFL/NBA/NHL, which some folks look at as an example.