ashbury

That is the minimum courteous press release when making a change in upper management. Since I don't think any of us has much of an idea how Falvey and Levine shared the decision making duties, or (equivalently) what Falvey delegated to Levine, or what their working relationship was like, we're mostly just speculating. After several years, was Falvey genuinely disappointed with the independent decisions Levine made? Were the major decisions all joint, and they jointly concluded the process wasn't working? Did Falvey need a fall guy in order to preserve his own job? (A little less pointedly, was he instructed by ownership that "something will have to change" given the poor 2024 outcome, and this was the change he genuinely opted for?) Considering the way that they were thought of together in 2016 going forward, these latter options are a sad outcome but not every working relationship lasts forever. Levine's seemingly kept his mouth shut in the meantime. Has anyone here listened to his podcasts, and picked up traces of anything regarding his time with the Twins? He could make waves, but probably believes that would kill any remaining chances in the baseball world. And so we just sit. And speculate.

Yeah, if not for that, he might not be able to take part in that podcast you mentioned. 😄

Getcher nose outta the spreadsheets and watch a game outdoors, whydoncha? 😄

If Buxton decides to waive his no-trade clause, and actually demands a trade, that's grounds for immediate dismissal of the FO.

Plenty of young coaches etc look to take that next step up. They'll accept the salary they are offered and will go along with the FO's principles concerning development and game play. They will say they're Just Happy To Be Here™, and will teach the young players to Try Real Hard™. They'll be just Good Enough™ for the purposes. And maybe they'll get momentary positive results with a collection of Not Ready For Prime Time™ players.

They probably would accept unlimited knowledge, power and worldly pleasures, or failing that maybe mermaid legs, magic beans, $24 worth of glass beads, or a mess of pottage.

By which you mean you hope he finds himself after a fourth major league organization gives him an opportunity?

Fun fact: "Thomas Hatch" anagrams to "Ha! That Schmo". You could look it up.

Bad luck that we had to face perennial Cy Young candidate (checks box score) Slade Cecconi today.

I would be surprised if there were fewer than two F-bombs included in the actual quote. If someone already mentioned the following, I apologize, but IMO Tom Kelly (perhaps apocryphally) even managed a topper on the spot: "Fine, it's only the 7th game of the World Series."*shrug*

Managers have a finite shelf life. It's not as long as most people expect, despite a few outliers like Lasorda and Sparky Anderson. A different manager might spark different and better results for the Twins. For a while. Lather, rinse, repeat. "Wanted: one red-ass manager, conversant in analytics. Bring own spreadsheet software. Salary commensurate with experience, right-sized downward by ten percent or so."

"Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains." Gotta have at least a little Bull Durham love here.

Excellent checklist of things to watch for, and then cross off the list one by one as they fail to materialize. 🙃 I'm not ready to invest much thought in this until the FO outlines what the get-well plan is. If they don't reveal it publicly, I'll take it to mean it's too dire to speak out loud, and I'll flush all hopes of 2026 contention. Trading away all the useful bullpen pieces under control for 2026-27 was a pretty good clue.

Any teams that still employ major league scouts probably have.

We have all the major league baseball Kodys in existence, and that is more than I can take as it is.

Among the various mischaracterizations, this is maybe the easiest to disprove. Gray went on record as saying that when the Twins informed him that they wouldn't have the money to re-sign him for 2024 and beyond, he instructed his agent "a couple of times" to take another run at finding some common ground. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/08/al-central-notes-baez-gray-correa-twins-moncada-soroka.html I'm gonna keep disputing it a long as this old fabrication keeps getting repeated.

I fact-checked on snopes.com, and "RandBalls Stu" is apparently an entirely fictitious name which is totally made up and probably bogus. Take that into account when assessing the truth of this article; it's probably a sting operation where they seek to lure a bunch of gullible people to the vicinity of Target Field where no baseball is being played and then deport them to the south side of Chicago where there is also no baseball being played.

Also for Keirsey. 🙃

Yeah, you'll have to ask someone else. I'm a cheapskate too. Maybe we can stage a Cheapskate Olympics. Run a series of cheap-offs.

Lotta good stuff in there. Walks Will Haunt... in reverse! 😄 I've been an Emmanuel Rodriguez skeptic for a long while now, even though I'm at the same time intrigued. Edouard Julien had a similar profile, and he did succeed when he reached the majors - until he didn't - so I don't think it's automatically a death knell. But it's necessary to speculate and figure out, "what happens when to the walks when they go a way? Because they will." Major leaguers can throw strikes when they want to. Will the walks turn into strikeouts-looking, or weak contact, or something better if the batter's eye really is elite and he isn't just selective but effective? In the latter case, those major league pitchers will continue to mix in a healthy ratio of walks. Players who walk a lot in the really young leagues might still have a wide range of abilities that will eventually come out (or not).

Since I nitpicked, I owe you an on-topic response, which is to say that the much maligned Baseball Trade Values website uses exactly this observation as part of its basic approach. The variability of performance once a prospect reaches the majors serves as a slight damper on a player's trade value (I THINK this is what you approximately mean by "value" in your post) versus the hindsight once he gets established, but there's no question that front offices are looking for "excess value" in any MLB contract and the artificial ceiling on salaries creates a ton of that for the right players. Yes, a contract like Soto's is nowhere near the maximum if true free agency were possible. Someday some MLB club is going to mess up the paperwork for a prized rookie, some court will declare the contract void, and we'll find out what the max could be like.

This amounts to nitpicking to the nth degree but I don't know whether the CBA says that. Article VI begins, "Individual Player salaries shall be those as agreed upon between a Player and a Club...." (my emphasis) and then it states what the minimum salaries are to be (increasing each season) and when arbitration becomes available (3 years as you say). It goes into infinite detail about what happens in split major/minor seasons, and meal money, and so forth. But I don't see where it says plainly that you can't "agree upon" more than the minimum. Indeed, b-r.com shows Royce Lewis being paid $745,000 in 2024. The CBA minimum for that season was $740,000. I somehow find this very interesting, even if totally unimportant. How in h-e-double-toothpicks did Lewis pick up an extra $5,000 from the Pohlads??? In his shoes, part of me would want to say, "keep your pity money, I'll get paid later in ways that will dwarf this pittance." The other part would want to crow, "look at me! I got SOMETHING." But more importantly, what dark magic does Scott Boras use to pry a few dollars from the Pohlads' cold spectral clutches? And why does he waste it to get a mere $5K? (I know, I know: it's to show everyone he CAN. Maybe most importantly, it seems to me that the players' association had to know this form of collusion among owners ("I don't have to pay you a penny more than the minimum, that's my 'negotiation' for you") would occur given the wording of the CBA, and chose not to include wording that either sanctifies the practice or somehow forbids it.

Ah, very true. Sorry for misunderstanding. Today's a Pablo day, but also Pablo Day, and I whiffed.