ashbury

I've been down on Gallo for his low OPS when tied or behind, so he gets props from me for the game winner. Lotta missed opportunities by the rest of the team.

NEVER! I want to lose in the 11th.

I literally shut this game off twice, saying I was done, and came back to see how it came out and it had hardly progressed.

IKR

Be careful how you phrase your wish to the Baseball Genie. A walkoff HR was on the bingo card there at the end.

Time of game, 3:28. Flashback to 2022. Those were simpler times. Worse times. This game kind of dragged.

RBI. Good gravy. The wheels are coming off, bit by bit.

He apparently dropped off that piano on his back and delivered it to its destination before being inserted in the game.

Are you watching the Oakland feed? Their announcer used that exact word.

GALLO!!!!

Ummm.... "no"?

Yes.

Yes.

I think Vazquez's rookie eligibility ran out some time ago.

There is a certain stage of grief that entails bargaining.

The team is owned by banking money. I speculate that, within whatever league rules there are (and in particular there is no hard salary cap, just luxury taxes) the team to some degree self-insures in a way that the general public has no particular right to know about. I choose to believe ownership would not let a truly disastrous contract cripple their asset for half a decade - front office personnel might have to forgo annual performance bonuses for a while. All this, in preference to paying another company for the same insurance. You can spin that as, "the Pohlads are cheap. They won't even pay Lloyds of London for a policy." Even more so than usual, just my opinion.

Do these tidbits come from inside sources? Glad to see rounds 3-6 picks in the fold, as well as some further down the line. Itchy to get closure on the very top picks, and of course will hope for 100% signage. But it's early. Not so early, though - deadline has been shorter the last year or two than it used to be - what's the drop-dead date?

I think I've said many times that I resist calling Tampa a successful franchise at all. They're a bit akin to the surgeon who brags that his procedure was a success but the stupid patient died.

That reaches way back in the memory banks, considering that TD didn't come into existence until 2012 or so. Comments made on Usenet should be null and void by now.

Probably. It's not a feather in anyone's cap in the FO if a bottom-five argument can be made, though.

Despite the futility of the AL Central, which would make you think higher draft picks for several years running would lead to some loaded farm systems, the highest ranked system is Detroit's at #14, basically average, with Cleveland right behind them. Minnesota and Kansas City and Chicago all are languishing in the bottom 5 in their eyes. What the heck?

A general manager has to be focused on many dimensions. One that I haven't seen mentioned lately is maintaining the revenue stream. How do you sell tickets (and the goodies like jerseys) after you wave the white flag? Maybe it's possible but you'd better have a damn solid and proven plan. And that goes for selling season tickets next off-season, if you leave a sour taste in the fan base's mouth in July this year. I think fans are much more forgiving (for a while anyway) of players who don't perform, than when the FO pisses them off. Some will argue (and now I'm not particularly addressing you) that Twins attendance is already in the tank. I don't believe that is true. Year over year attendance seems to be up for the Twins. I scanned recent box scores for attendance and they've been playing to 25K+ houses, which even represents an uptrend. I believe instead they actually have quite a bit to lose if they are sloppy. You could easily end up with an Oakland situation for the remainder of the season and on into the next. I think people totally underestimate what a chronic problem you give yourself once attendance dips below 10K a game. You don't just snap your fingers and get them back. Looking only at the prospect haul one might get from Sonny Gray (as the best example) ignores at least 4 things, the other three of which have been addressed here and there in this thread: 1) the value that the player brings to the team's performance getting to the post-season, 2) the value of not entering the post-season with a crippled roster because you were pessimistic, 3) the value of a draft pick if they issue a QO and he rejects it, and 4) the fiscal disadvantage of tanking.

Now do Brock or John Bonnes, Mr RandBalls Stu, assuming that's even your real name, if you're so brave.

I don't know if anyone disagrees with this point of view. We paid less each year to get Nelson Cruz, and got more. I also don't know what constructively can be done about it, if that turns out to be the scenario. Lean on Buxton to "do the right thing" and walk away from the money?? There's a player's union who's going to exert equal and opposite pressure, lest a harmful precedent get established. A contract's a contract.

Barber doesn't know the meaning of the word 'quit.' There are many such words.