robbie111

For those wanting to know more about Andrew Albers here's a nice article. http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/...739/story.html

If you haven't heard much about him he pitched a lot for Canada in international tournaments and helped Canada beat the U.S for the gold medal in the Pan Am games 2-1. Here's a write up. Hopefully this link works. http://www.calgaryherald.com/sports/baseball/Dream+still+alive+North+Battleford+pitcher+Albers+beat/8060739/story.html

Home batting .377, obp .419, slugging .580, Ops .999 Away batting .229, obp .275, slugging .271, Ops .546 Any theories why?? I think he was hitting most of his homers away from Target Field in previous years but this year he's hit his 2 Hr's at home. Nice to see his hitting streak so far and all the RBI's but man if he can get it together on the road lookout.

Morneau's last 8 games he's batting .438. This year at Target Field he is batting .369, .414 obp, slugging .569 and has an ops of .983. The only issue is his road play. Also his ops is HIGHER than Plouffes after todays game (.755 to .738) Let's just hope the last 8 games are not a mirage and he can start hitting on the road.

Morneau's been really good at home this year .350 ave .400 obp .533 slugging and .933 ops. and both homers and 5 of his doubles have come at Target Field. Little worried about his road games this year although really happy with his last 7 games where hes batting over .400. Hope he continues to heat up.

Andrew Albers has quietly had a very good season in AAA with almost 9 K's per 9 innings average and very few walks. Any chance he is in the mix with Deduno, Devries, and Gibson as the next pitcher to come up.

Also nice to see Mauer and Morneau hitting well to start the year. I know it's a super small sample size but seeing Morneau with only 1 K and 3 BB should tell you he's seeing the ball well. I'm especially happy though with the pitching and seeing clutch hitting with Escobar, Floriman and power from Plouffe and Willingham. A dream start to the year is right. Much better than I thought they were going to start.

Nice 11 pitch walk Morneau worked.

After his performance in the AFL this year I hope he can keep healthy. Any chance he's a September callup?

I was just wondering if anyone here knows who from the Twins organization is playing this year. I know Morneau and Andrew Albers and possibly Scott Diamond will be representing Canada. Who else is playing and for what team?

Any chance they could pry Zack Cozart and Robert Stephenson or Kyle Lotzkar away from the Reds? Would Carroll and Willingham get that done?

If your parent company is making $14 billion in advertising sales I'd say so. Plus the added payroll could easily be negated with increased advertising costs due to an increase in market share expected from the new look Jays. As I mentioned in another thread if they were to add Justin Morneau (Captain Canada in baseball), he alone would probably bring in many new sponsors and advertisers to Rogers Sportsnet and increase views of their games which would boost the ammount they could charge for advertising on their stations. Rogers is also the largest owner of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment which owns the NBA's Toronto Raptors and tried this already with huge money that was offered to lure Steve Nash (Captain Canada of basketball) even though Nash took much less to sign with the Lakers. So anyone who thinks Rogers (Jays owners) wouldn't accept Morneau's contract isn't looking at the big picture.

If another company owned the Blue Jays that figure would be substantially higher. The Jays are owned by a cable company which owns sports networks in Canada. The 36M is a figure they made up to pay themselves and doesn't reflect the reality of the situation. This is from Forbes magazine. But Toronto is owned by $14 billion-in-sales Rogers Communications, which also owns sports channels that pump through Blue Jays games as well as those of its other two teams, the NBA’s Raptors and NHL’s Maple Leafs. The company’s strategy of using sports programming to boost profits has been paying off and shares of Rogers have been outperforming the market recently. On top of the increase in carrier fees Rogers can command from its sports programming, last year Rogers Sportsnet paid the Blue Jays a rights fee of $36 million. So Rogers gets a doubleheader from its sports programming. The Blue Jays have a much larger cable television audience than the Marlins and thus star power on the diamond can translate into much more money from advertisers. It does dwarf the twins revenue, the 36 million is a fee they basically pay to themselves and really doesn't represent anything. Rogers Tv network paid Rogers sports team. They could have made the figure higher for example 180 million if they were selling the team to show how much revenue it brings in. So where they make their money is in advertising, cable company carrier fees (from competing cable companies for example Shaw in canada) and shares in the Rogers company. It's a different model.

There's no way I'd want Buerhle for Morneau, I'd look towards Romero who had a horrible year and has had surgery to clean out his elbow but was Toronto's Ace in 2011 and maybe one or both of Taylor Cole or Roberto Osuna. You could probably do even better than this as Morneau has way more value to Toronto than most people here realize. The Jays owners are Rogers Communications. They are a huge cable company and own several national sports television stations and a large number of sports radio stations. Morneau is to baseball what Steve Nash is to basketball. He brings in large numbers of Canadians to watch him play his sport. Rogers makes money not only from what the Jays sell for merchandise or ticket sales but mainly from advertising revenue on its sports stations. Having a centerpiece like Morneau (Captain Canada of baseball) would bring in a large number of new sponsors and companies and raise television ratings during Jays games which helps Rogers Sports increase rates for advertising time. By the way Rogers made $14 billion from its advertising revenue according to Forbes magazine, which is why they can afford to absorb salary. Rogers also is an owner of the NBA Toronto Raptors and tried this already by offering a huge contract to Steve Nash (Captain Canada of basketball) not because they thought he'd bring them a championship, but because of the money they would make selling advertising to television sponsors during Raptors games (Nash refused it and took much less to be with the Lakers). This is the same reason the Twins should hold out for more from the Jays if they were to trade Morneau as it's not about his value on the field per se, it's about his value to bring in advertising money. Anyone who thinks Toronto would have trouble absorbing Morneau's contract isn't looking at the big picture.

He's probably the best known Canadian Baseball player in the game right now, even more so than Brett Lawrie who plays for the Jays, or Joey Votto for the Reds. Morneau won Canadian Athlete of the year in 2008 (Over all hockey players) which has only happened twice before. Ferguson Jenkins and Larry Walker were the other two baseball players. He also narrowly missed out in 2006 his MVP year to Steve Nash who had just won his second MVP in a row in basketball. So to answer the question yeah he is a national hero in Canada and if the Twins were smart they could probably get a stronger deal from Toronto than from any other team because of that fact.

Would you trade Willingham and Span for Lincecum?

Morneau will put LOTS of fans in the seats in Toronto and Rogers who owns the Bluejays have several Sports Networks in Canada where Morneau is very well known. It makes sense for them to have him at 1B or DH. It addresses a left handed power bat that the Blue Jays need. Don't forget they were interested in him this year at the trade deadline. Let's just say I wouldn't be surprised to see him dealt to the Jays.

What could we reasonably get back from them?

Count me in too!

That would be great, I look forward to Bert saying it's Turpen Time.

I know I'm gonna get ripped for this but with the exception of Willingham and sometimes Plouffe, Twins could have the best defense in baseball if they added two great gloves at SS and 2B. With so many pitch to contact starters this might make a greater impact to the overall team era for starters than adding an ace. Possibilities might be Yunel Escobar or Zack Cozart at SS and Darwin Barney or Jason Kipris at 2B.

I'm thinking of taking a tour of smaller baseball stadiums next summer around the U.S and Canada. I'd appreciate any info on what are some good stadiums, how many fans typically at games, what kind of cool food they serve, etc. Just to start here's the last one I was at, just south of Calgary Alberta Canada. The name of the stadium (Seaman Stadium) made me laugh (hey I'm immature) but they had 2,500 enthusiastic fans and the stadium was named best place to watch a game in Canada in 2011. They have only been around for a short time (2007) and it's one of the nicest places I've ever watched a game. It's a summer collegiate league for lots of American and Canadian University students. They've also graduated the first player from their baseball academy to the majors this year. http://www.dawgsbaseball.ca/ and look under facilities.

Can anyone else can find a split for what Morneaus done since the all star break compared to everyone else in baseball. That would be interesting. The thing I am liking is his walk to K ratio recently. Just found his splits .361 ave .406 obp .602 slugging ave 1.008 ops. The other thing I'd like to see is his numbers come up at Target Field. On the road this season he's hitting .301 with a .571 slugging ave and a .928 ops. At home its .250 average, slugging .395 and an ops of .711

First 6 games in August .458 ave .481 obp .833 slugging 1.314 OPS . If he finishes this year hitting above .285 and slugging over .500 I'd say he is officially back.

Great analysis of this now. Thanks Parker. http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?872-Morneau-is-steadily-improving