ashbury

The owners of the Miami Marlins do. My least favorite ballpark experience in the US of A. I like to discuss the previous half-inning - can't. Literally can't.

*crickets* 😀

There have been posters here who claim that Buxton simply isn't good - that he can't hit. I presume they represent some significant portion of the fan base at large. Last season's batting numbers (OPS in the low 700s though that's not necessarily the metric his detractors would select) were used to demonstrate this. Responses that he was hobbled by injury were dismissed. Buxton's 2024 pretty well disproves that point of view. The man can hit, "when healthy." His numbers this year would be an asset even as a corner outfielder. As a CF, he's a difference maker. It's the "when healthy" part that remains a legitimate negative. It's great he managed 90+ games in CF for the first season in many. That still leaves the team with the need for Plan B for 70 or so games. And I have zero confidence that Buxton will play in more games than this, in 2025; indeed I would place the over-under line lower than that. So this article goes too far in saying Buxton proved the doubters wrong. Correct on point number 1 in the article, but #2 and #3 remain cause for concern.

Depending on how the FO workload is spread out, replacing Levine makes the most sense to me. That person can then decide about Rocco. Coaching needs a shake up too, minor leagues included. Big player personnel decisions have to be made as well. I keep having the feeling that Falvey is going to win a World Series with a deep pocketed team someday. My hawt taek of the morning. My main concern is whether Falvey is too loyal to fire the man he joined the organization with. Loyalty is a positive quality, but so is clear eyed decision making. And, as I said to begin this post, I lack the inside information to know whether Falvey should fire Levine or himself. Useful information would include: which genius believed that acquiring Manny Margot was the finishing touch to the position player roster, and which genius constructed a pitching roster that apparently deemed DeSclafani a viable member of the rotation. If Falvey merely signed off on those trades, saying "you're the GM," that's one thing. If instead he overruled some different proposals and said "have you tried talking to the Dodgers about Margot?" then that's another.

Ah. Trade bait. Good thought, but they have to actually follow through.

In terms of players I blame the hitting more than the pitching. I don't accuse them of quitting, simply failing. Not ready for analysis yet, just disgust with the outcome.

1948? Of all years to pick....

St Louis and Milwaukee are the standards the team should aspire to. My view, from moving to the Twin Cities in 1978 and keeping tabs on things since I moved away in '96 is that it's just not a good baseball town. Never been, in my range of experience - maybe you could have called it that during 1961-70 but it didn't last, and they began having occasional last-place attendance despite not fielding last-place talent. Could it be developed now into a good baseball town like the two I just mentioned? Maybe, but it would take a decade or more to do it - this is like an ocean liner that can not be turned around on a dime. I bet the Pohlads have paid for multiple market studies and concluded that long-term investment would not do what I would hope. Can't replicate the tailgating experience in Milwaukee, and I don't know St Louis's secret sauce. I am guessing though that both teams have forged a close relationship with the community in various little ways that are self-sustaining now but would be expensive to initiate from scratch. The Twins seem to try to market their stars, and when those stars get injured or don't perform to their ceiling they are left with little. I'd term the Twins' marketing as "transactional," meaning "you give us your money, we'll give you this." And when expectations fall short, the Twin Cities behave a bit passive-aggressively and starve the franchise of revenue. I feel sure the Brewers and probably the Cardinals market the overall experience more effectively than the Twins can. It's above my pay-grade, sad to say, and I hold no illusions that I would do better than Dave St Peter if I were in his job. I loved living in the Twin Cities and enjoyed the people, but I missed having good water-cooler talk with co-workers about the Twins, except in 1987 and 1991 when success was easy to talk about with front-running fans. Twin Cities is a good sports town: it's Vikings, Vikings, Vikings. But I've said this before in other threads recently and I'm not* going to keep banging the same drum. * Probably.

"Yes."™ I'm going to say easier, but only slightly. But I've never been sold on KAT the way some have been.

I suggest keeping modest expectations for this. That is the paradox of any free-agent you sign - with rare exceptions, the player signed with you because no one else made a better offer. Now you want another team to take over that same contract, and offer you minor-league talent for the privilege? Carlos Correa for example signed with us after two other deals fell through and the Twins got him for less - but those other teams could have offered the same amount less and apparently did not. The flow of talent might actually have to go in the other direction - remember the Josh Donaldson trade, which did not net us prospects of note and in actuality cost us something. That one was a complicated scenario which our FO did a good job of disguising.

Unless someone believes this will turn out to be Cade Povich's best season in the majors, I'm not too interested in being accused of "clutching prospects" or whatever pejorative term people like to use. Setting aside the mistake of targeting Jorge Lopez specifically (which was easy to be worried about in real-time), it's hard to think of the return it would have taken from another team to pry a lefty starting prospect like Povich away from me. And it's not like Povich himself is super special, but still having him now might have made roster management easier this season and perhaps more so next year. The drafting part of the FO is hitting on all cylinders but their talent evaluation at the minors and majors level, both inside the organization and outside, must be being done by other individuals because I have serious questions about their acumen over the span of several seasons now.

Now do one for Bailey Over, I mean Ober.

Rocco's use of Funderburk was in direct contradiction of what he said in yesterday's post game about not giving up until elimination was mathematically official.

You do you. 😀

Goody. I was disappointed not to see Austin Martin get tested when he played CF the last time I went; just a couple of can-o'-corn flies or routine singles dumped in front of him in that one game I saw. So this year I want to see Kala'i challenged to go back to the wall and leap, and then on the next batter come in on a humpback liner and decide whether to dive or play safe. And of course to see Danny and Ben tested on hard smashes just barely within reach. Can't judge much when the pitchers are striking out the side - hm, maybe there is method to all the respective front offices' madness?

A nice way for Rocco to celebrate his 43rd birthday.

The Twins are Twinsing a bit, too. When Topa gives up the lead in the 9th you all are going to lose your collective minds. 😀

I mentioned elsewhere that on the Red Sox fan site "Talk Sox," someone launched a "Fire Alex Cora" thread on October 19, 2017, three days BEFORE he was hired. Early posts: How long do we have to wait for a W? no improvement in the kids yet. This DD hire is a disaster. Bum. Hasn't won a single game yet. Unbelievable. His communication skills are very questionable. In fact, none of the players have heard a thing from him. He won't give a news conference. He hasn't named a starter for the next game. And he doesn't even travel with the damn team! Now THAT'S a fan base worth respecting and a site worth reading.

Unless the 40-man spot itself can be put to better use. I haven't looked at what prospects need protecting from Rule 5.

The customer wants flying cars for zero dollars. I learned early in the marketing phase of my career to treat customers with respect but not to take them too seriously, and keep decisions grounded in actual reality rather than what customers will tell you. You go by actions, not words, where customers are concerned.

F it. I'm still making the drive down. 😀

Good luck on that. Thumbs up on your post rather than sad-face, in a spirit of optimism for the outcome.

I don't know why you are turning thumbs down on my posts when you and I are saying the same thing. In the words of Yogi, if people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, nobody’s going to stop them. I'd feel different if the Twins were perennial losers now, like in the 2011-2018 era, but last year and until August this year there was a good product to watch. Milwaukee and St Louis clean our clocks on attendance year after year. Winning is a zero-sum game across the league, so you have to have a better marketing plan than "win every year".

Sports is unlike most businesses.