tony&rodney

Draft picks in baseball are tough. Rooker, Larnach, Cavaco, Sabato, ... the book on these guys has not been written yet. Petty and Miller are barely brushing their teeth.

I'm pretty excited to see Buxton play this summer. I know a number of people are down on him because of all of the missed games and injuries but I'm very pro Buxton and think we will see him bust out for a prolonged number of games this year, hopefully 150.

I hope not because a lot of people are pumped to see a healthy Trout, Ohtani, Rendon, and Syndergaard play along with some guys like Walsh and Marsh. They have star power.

Trea Turner was scouted as a superior player than Gordon. However, the Twins had missed badly with Levi Michael from UNC and were hesitant to go with another similar player from North Carolina (NCState). That was a miss. I'm not sure what was so enticing about Tyler Jay. Big Ten baseball has not been as good as the ACC, SEC, PAC, or other warm weather conferences.

Today or tomorrow .... it will happen. An agreement will be announced today unless eight owners rebel.

Agreement forthcoming ....

Isn't it amazing that both teams of negotiators, all highly paid, struggle so mightily to be rational. The quibbling is crazy. Jeff A (comment above) may have the most correct say on the matter. Are they having too much fun being in the news to complete a deal? The owners win, always. The players have received what they mostly wanted. If they don't want a draft, kick the can down the road and call it a three year deal. Another couple of weeks and now there are actually serious problems, which will be much more difficult than any of the issues currently discussed. Finish it.

Well, as a monopoly we should not expect MLB to open their books. The PA keeps tight controls of their internal votes and so we don't really know how the players with less experience feel. These are issues that will continue and we are outsiders to the real goals of each side, likely just money. I question your lack of source, lack of citation and lack of statistics. Statistica is using whatever information they can put together to come to their conclusions, which seems fair enough but is largely an estimate. The Atlanta Braves are owned by Liberty and required to file a full financial report of their businesses that is published for shareholders; it is public information. The numbers from the report did show a substantial positive gain for Liberty from their baseball operations. Yes, they were in the World Series but most of the big gains for World Series teams are the year after, due to increased season ticket holders, ad revenue, etc. So, MLB should not be expected to reveal their finances but we should not assume that there is accurate financial information on the clubs. It isn't our business really unless a city required said economic information in return for public funds used to build stadiums and that has not happened to date. On another topic, it seems like the PA should punt their issues down the road as regards the international draft. By the close of the 2024 season, each side might view the issues of today in a different light. Three years is something, at least.

Let's hope the curse of Drew Maggi has expired. It was a low point.

Buxton under 60 games or half a season? Wow. He has had bad luck - true. I will take the over on 100 games. I do agree that Byron had seemingly lived under a flag of bad luck, but it will turn in 2022.

This article is right on. I'm not expecting a $130-150 million payroll in 2022, but a few moves easily would help the team and any pitching prospects who debut. The moves suggested by Nash Walker would make a difference, cost very little in prospect capital, and leave the Twins below $125 million for the roster. Naturally, we defer to the Twins concerning what additions are made but the increase in playoff opportunities is a real reason to add some experienced players.

If Kirilloff and Kepler rebound with consistency, I see a real big year from multiple players. Donaldson, Buxton, Garver/Jeffers, Sano, and Polanco can all have strong seasons. A couple of players not currently on the roster could play pivotal roles as well. I see big contributions from Miranda and Martin too. I'm expecting a real powerful batting lineup from the Twins this year. The two left-handed hitters, Kirilloff and Kepler are key. The pitching side is unclear. The Twins could get some solid starts from the young pups like Winder, Ober, and Ryan, and I am high on Alcala in the pen. A couple of additions are needed to bolster the pitching staff though and success for the Winders on the roster could be tied to who gets added in the next few weeks.

On the Tampa Bay Rays stadium - The Trop is better than the Metrodome ever was but getting there is not worth it and there is nothing around the place. The people in Tampa or northern Pinellas County need to set aside two hours plus just for the drive. It's a long story but a stadium in downtown St. Petersburg would certainly have been better. A good site in Tampa should work as well. Sadly, for that area, the team will likely move out of the state after their lease expires. There is a sufficient population and interest or love for baseball in the Tampa Bay metropolitan area but the business decisions made thus far have made the experience pretty difficult for those fans.

Perhaps this gets amended to 16-20 seconds but it should be enforced. Let the umpires enforce this rule. Like everyone has stated, the players already are used to this from their time in the minor leagues. We need enforcement not more rules that are ignored. Pace of play is easily solved if baseball, in fact, wants this. One change that might impact play would be to return to 15 day for injured or concussed players and reduce the number of times a team can shuttle a player back and forth to four each season. Additionally, once a player is sent down that player may not return for 15 days. Currently, there are all types of shenanigans played with injuries. Tampa Bay used 41 pitchers last season. Teams and their managers would need to adjust to how they used their pitching staff and 40 person roster. I believe this would reduce injuries as fewer players would be max effort disposable pitchers.

This is correct. The fatigue does increase the chance of injury often due to a slight variance in form. The max effort also leads to more mistakes the modern pitcher or stubborn pitcher will invariably attempt to power through. At times, I was guilty of this and it never was effective for more than a pitch or two and caused issues.

Good list. Mauer was a star from the start. He was rated highly on every list imaginable. He went on to a HoF career and is ranked by those who publish lists nationally as among the ten best catchers in the history of the game (high of #5, low of #10, consensus #7). Just an aside ... before the draft there were many arguments back and forth concerning the choice of Mauer versus Mark Prior. Good natured jabs in all directions. I ended one with, "Prior will be coaching pitchers while Mauer is still behind the plate building his resume for Cooperstown". Just fun trash talk between players and their coaches and none of us really knew what direction the Twins would go in that draft. These series are always fun to read and I appreciate the time and energy the writers put forth in accumulating the information for each player. Thank you to Cody Christie for this series.

Was there anything in my post that seemed remotely personal? Why does it seem like your response indicates a total disdain for different thoughts due to your apparent hate for the union? I absolutely did not mean to offend in any way. Ironically, the opening line of an article in The Athletic today voices what I have said for some time, "The owners have already won." A look at the math or the big picture might be a good idea for you because your position has assumed that an agreement will include everything the players side initially sought. It might be a better idea to see what the revenues and roster salaries look like for 2022 and through the eventual CBA. I'm betting that there will be little change. If teams anticipate an overall swing of $21 million then you will see a roster budget of somewhere in the $90-110 million range this year for the Twins. The owners win either way and as I have previously stated it seems like both sides have lost their way regarding the health of the game. Cheers.

Many people have suggestions about what strategies the players or owners should have in the negotiations, but we just need to understand that each side has their own agenda. The players are trying to stop the loss of their economic position from the past three CBAs. The owners want to keep their hand where it is currently. The CBT, a misnomer because it is really a soft salary cap, doesn't affect many teams but does hold down acquisitions. Joey Gallo was traded last year with cash to keep the Yankees below the limit. The minor leagues are totally controlled by MLB. It's a monopoly that the PA has no say in whatsoever and MLB would not entertain any interference in that. I might agree that players should ask for a reduction in times a team can send players down to the minors, say three times. I might like a simple salary scale of $1M, $2M, and $3M for players in their first three years but MLB and the PA are focused on separate goals. So, both sides have some positions that seem disingenuous to me. Maybe this is resolved tomorrow. They are less than $5 million per team apart and this is easily accounted for in how each team builds out their roster. I understand that the owners initiated a lockout because they would not chance a strike later in the season but now they need to step forward, because they win in any event.

I'm not sure about others but speaking just for myself, there is no hatred. The example of the car is actually fair. The owners are faced with an increased expenditure of near $5 million per team. This, of course, could easily be absorbed into the budget because there is not any minimum for team salary. The Twins, for example, could easily field a team with a budget of $90-110 million this year. While I might have prepared a different set of requests for the players than the PA, the power play by the owners is unnecessary because they win no matter the outcome of a new CBA. The lockout (various people have incorrectly called it a strike or walkout) should have been resolved already and maybe it will be tomorrow. The effect on fans is a net negative towards baseball for the most part. The comments that refer to research that shows baseball losing out among younger people is not necessarily a good preview for future growth of the game. Both sides seem adrift on growing the game, but the onus for the current situation does lie with the owners because they precipitated a lockout.

Willie Banks is a name to cause caution regarding pitching prospects. I remember him well.

Jax does seem like a good bet to be on the staff. Does Jax make Duffey expendable and available to trade? Walls?

I am as excited as anyone to eventually see some of the Twins young prospects. The Twins have an average or slightly below average farm system with no pitchers currently projected by scouts or analysts to be frontline starters. This is according to pretty much every single system that rates the prospects. Of course, we don't have to agree. I, for one, am not ready to have the Twins lose 100+ games per year and replicate the Baltimore experience. In this post a few players were forwarded as possibly gaining an advantage because they are in camp while others are locked out. The lockout hurts Winder but helps Canterino. I have never been a big fan of Smeltzer but he gains an advantage over Thorpe and others because he is in camp. I can also see Martin being an option as our left fielder. However, JD and other experienced players remain the foundation of the Twins team and mixing in prospects as they are ready is the best option for competitiveness.

"When the love of the game" I have pulled off the road to watch a few innings of youth baseball just for the ambience more than a few times. This despite having played, coached, and attended thousands of games, not counting my Twins addiction via radio and video. The pandemic backed up to the lockout does push the sanity of my choices forward to some extent. There are some vast differences between MLB and the other levels of baseball other than the obvious talent. I like them all but want them to remain distinctly separate. For example, a pinch runner for the catcher in baseball in high school and seven inning games is ok but I don't want those in MLB. ... "meets the business side of the game" I cancelled my mlb.com account after twenty years. MLB has bullied the public into building stadiums across the country and the benefit remains controversial. The PA has taken some odd stances in my opinion but have also indisputably lost financial position in the 21st century economics of baseball. Like everyone else, there are issues that would seem very beneficial for the union and players not currently in discussion in the present negotiations, but I defer the choices of battle to each side because I am an outsider. Meanwhile, the owners want the players to remember who is the boss. I cannot support their side for a raft of reasons. The reserve clause is reason enough on its own, but the history of malfeasance by the owners, well documented, buttresses my position. A settlement could be reached today for the cost of one Colome or even a Shoemaker, but not cost as much as one Happ. Greed and power are ugly sides to take and I'm not pleased with the current fight between these two sides. Finally, where love meets business gets played out in the comment section of newspapers, magazines, and online forums. While the writers of the vast majority of sources see this lockout as primarily a mistake by the owners, the comments raise an interesting side of a national consciousness. Many, many comments refer to the wages of players as unjust and too high and wish for the end of the PA union. These same people are in favor of TIF and excessive handouts for the owners. Half of the owners inherited their teams, which is an interesting and somewhat ironic side note considering the entire discussion at hand. It is an interesting commentary to see the comments promote welfare for the owners and a wish for authoritarian control over the players. Perhaps each side finds a way this week to end this untimely debacle. One thing that seems to be unfolding, however, is that the current business decisions will include changes most certain to erode my love of the game even as it satisfies the needs of others. When baseball draws little circles where a fielder must stand before each pitch, puts in the larger bases, and reduces the umpires to pointless participants listening to a headset for their calls, and their other changes, an entire set of fans will become enamored with the "modernization" of the game while a few people like myself will just fade away from a game we once loved.

Good call on these players. It seems like Smeltzer could benefit the most in the early season, providing there is something happening by May. He will have his routines down by April and could be pretty tuned in for St. Paul. Those on the 40 person roster will face a period where they need to ramp up. The pitchers are already three weeks behind and despite some who view Spring Training as a little pointless, the time from mid February to the end of March is critical for developing a feel for pitches against hitters and gaining some stamina. Smeltzer gets an improved opportunity in the current situation.

On 3/5/2022 at 6:56 AM, Major League Ready said: You know baseball but when baseball people think they are business analysts or understand economic analysis we get this type of exceptionally poor conclusions, especially when considerable bias is at hand. The owners are just playing a power game. They win in any iteration of a final CBA. The PA position would add $5-6 million per team and they have retreated from their ask since that was broken down by the folks at Fangraphs. You haven't added a single cogent thought in any of your posts to date or contributed positively to any conversations, except to suggest repeatedly that the owners are the guardian angels of the future of baseball. Of course, you are entitled to your own ideas. I think everyone understands your position.