mlhouse

Weird coincidence. I was in the same spot on the highway when I heard that Kirby was retiring and that he had died.......... And, to be fair to the Twins circa 1984, the player they wanted to be their centerfielder, Jim Eisenreich was injured (essentially). Jim just could not stay in the lineup but he could have been a tremendous lead off hitter.

I can't believe it was 5 years ago already. As far as signing Hunter, I can't see it. I understand the concept of "bridging" to your prospects, but what is the point of that? We would be better off playing the prospects themselves at rookie minimum and getting them experience, rather than paying an old vet significant money to not change the outcome.

Lets look at another historical example, Chuck Knoblauch. Drafted in 1989 at the end of the first round he started played 50 games at A- and 20 at A+. In 1990 he was in AA. And in 1991 he was with the Twins. Following the Twins current conservative path, he would have played 1989 at Elizabethton and maybe the end of the year at Beloit. He would have started 1990 in Beloit, then maybe part of the season in Ft Myers. If he was really good they would have had him in New Britain in 1991 and maybe a shot at the end of the season with the MLB team. So, Knoblauch might have made the Twins at the end of the season he was ROY in. THis was mainly the path Mauer took (Rookie--->A---->A+/AA--->A+/AAA/MLB).

For those of us pushing for moving prospects into the major leagues faster, I will point out that the 1982 Twins lost 102 games. Plus, when they are losing with these guys, I already can hear the complaining about the "cheap Pohlads" for playing minimum-salary player who should be in the minor leagues. One other thought: While the '82 team was the foundation of tehe '87 world champions, let's not glamorize the 1987 Twins, or lose sight of the fact that they were a severely flawed team with only 2 effective starting pitchers. They caught lightening in a bottle by being in the right division (they won the division with 85 wins), and getting hot at the right time. They took a chance with that core group, and got lucky in '87. I agree that players who are ready can and should move through the minors quickly. But that is clearly not the case with Sano; 90 errors in the 3 years would make him a 20-year-old DH who struggles to hit breaking pitches.Similarly, someone suggested putting Joe Benson on the 25-man in 2013 "to see what he can do": In 2012 he was demoted early for terrible production, then was injured for most of the remainder of the season. If you recall, he and Parmalee were recalled in 2011, and while Parmalee excelled, Benson looked like a guy snatched out of AA-ball without the tools to play in the major leagues. Personally, I'll side with Ryan and see if he can pull together a competitive club in 2013 by adding pitching, and give most of these guys at least another year in the minors. Sano is NOT Bryce Harper, and rushing him, Rosaria, Arcia, Benson, et al, onto the major leagues is going to hurt the team in the near term, with no evidence it would help them longer-term. Who cares how many games the Twins lost in 1982. That is the point. When you are losing, rebuild. After two 95+ loss seasons what players have the Twins developed for the long run? Get the prospects, like Joe Benson, up to the major leagues and see what they can do. From the 1982 team there were several guys who made it and a few that did not, like Dave Engle, Lenny Faedo, and Brad Havens. Rebuilding is a two step process: develop the guys who are good and weed out and replace the guys who are not. By moving early on Lenny Faedo they got Greg Gagne up to replace him. If you move conservatively you will not get that information.

I left off Brunansky too, mainly because he was a minor league product of the Angels system. His career path was a 17 year old Rookie ball player, A+ as an 18 year old, AA as a 19 with a late season 9 game stint in AAA. AAA as a 20 year old with call up to major leagues. Traded to Minnesota as a 21 year old, 25 games in AAA and 127 games as a major leaguer. Or Tim Tuefel. He was a college 2nd round draft pick and started his short season in AA. At age of 22 full AA season, followed by a split AA/AAA year. As 24 year old he did AAA and was late call up to the Twins. Think about what their career projections would be following the Twins standard?

I have been arguing this point for two years now. THe Twins approach to their minor league system is too conservative. A few years ago, when the team was at least a contender for the playoffs it was probably the best approach. But now, as a rebuilding team, it isn't. Aaron Hicks NEEDS to be the starting OF for the Twins next year. No partial season in AAA. Major league. Same with Gibson in the rotation. Sano and Rosario need to be looked at too during the course of the season. I think the Twins need to keep Joe Benson as a backup OF and see if he can do anything. If the management cannot tell if they are keepers and can be developed they are not doing their jobs and need to be fired. This is our reality going forward. So, why the hell not? After consecutive 95+ loss seasons they have nothing really to lose. To not do this means that they simply cannot or will not develop young players at the major league level. Listen, this worked in 1982. After a couple of rough years, it paid off. Hrbek(21 years old), Gaetti (22 years old), Puckett(23 years old), Viola(22 years old), Bush, Gagne, and Launder were all players "rushed" from the minors. Puckett played a short season rookie year, a full season of A+, 21 games at AAA and then to the majors. Viola started in AA, pitched 8 games in AAA the next year before he was called up to the majors. Hrbek played a short rookie year, A-, and A+ when he was called up to the majors. Gaetti short rookie, full A, almost a full year in AA and then late season call up. But, they got to the majors really young, worked out their problems at the major league level, LOST lots of games and but in the end, it all turned out alright.

1. I think your Joe Benson is rated too high. I know that position should not be a major deciding factor, but with 4 other OFs ahead of him in the top 10, his chances of making it have been severely diminished. 2. To a lesser extent, same with Adrian Salcedo. His 2012 campagin was a major setback and there is no way that he should be considered a top 15 prospect. Alex Wimmer is also rated way too high. He has only pitched 45 innings in the past two years. same with Matt Summers. You need to have BJ Hermsen rated ahead of either just for production, Hudson Boyd for potential, and Luke Bard also for highly drafted potential. 3. Danny Santana is ranked way too high for a guy with a sub-300 OBP at Elizabethton/Beloit. His HR pop is nice, but not signficant. He certainly cannot be seen as highly of a prospect as Dozier, who performed much better at those levels. 4. All of the college relief arms that the Twins drafted need to be considered much higher than they are.

One last note, on Kyle Gibson. The Minnesota Twins absolutely need to put Kyle Gibson in the major league starting rotation next year. They need to give him major league innings and develop him there. The team will not be competitive and they need to evaluate him fully. Gibson will be 25 years old this month. If they play it safe, send him to AA, or even AAA, and bounce him around for a while by the time he can even think about becoming a good major league pitcher he will be 30 years old.

Garza went from Ft. Myers to the big leagues in one year. Slowey went from Ft. Myers to Rochester. (same with Baker and Crain) Oh, and Kyle Gibson did too in his first pro season. Brian Duensing pitched for Beloit, Ft. Myers and New Britain in the same year. Logan Darnell did that last year. The Twins had five of their 2012 draft picks move up to Beloit this year. That's not exactly slow. The guys that didn't were fighting some injury. There are a bunch of examples of examples of college pitchers who the Twins have moved up quite quickly. Are they more patient with the toosly hitters? Absolutely. Should they?! Probably not. I'd say their track record with guys like Morneau, Mauer, Kubel, Cuddyer, Span, Revere indicates that they're not exactly hurting their players. Yup, every organization is going to have their Matt Moses, and the jury is still out on Plouffe and Benson and such... 1. And, the Twins were screwed in the Santana trade. THAT IS THE WHOLE POINT. None of the prospects developed. We over evaluated them BECAUSE the Mets promoted them quickly through their organization. We thought, hey, Guerra is a 18 year old player pitching in A+ ball and holding his own. If he would have been in the Twins system he would have been in the GCL and would not have been a valuable enough piece to include in a major trade. So, yeah, this is a mistake that the Twins made when they were a competitive team. 2. AS far as your examples, Duensing did move up several levels in a single year. That is true. But that is only part of the story and really only reinforces my point which is that the Twins started him WAY too low in the minor league system to begin with. He should have started his first full season in A+ then moved up to AA that year. By the time he made the major leagues he was 26 years old. Slowey got to the big leagues a little quicker, mainly because he made the Elizabethton to Beloit jump in his short season professional debut. But again, my point is that there is no way Slowey should have ever been in Elizabethton for even an inning. He was an advanced college level arm that should have gone with to Beloit to start or a short season A league to begin the year. 3. And, the jury being out on Plouffe is an example. He will be 27 years old next season and the jury is still out. I am not blaming the Twins approach for this, but the slow, leisurely approach to prospect development is part of this issue. And, players like Mourneu should have been a Twins regular 2-3 years earlier. There was ZERO reason to have Mourneau start two seasons in New Britain. And, because of his injury and slow minor league development (GCL, GCL, A, A+, AA/AAA) in the end Jason Kubel only played 5 full seasons with the Minnesota Twins. Once he established himself the team could no longer justify spending the money on a 30 year old FA. 4. I can understand some of this conservatism when the Twins were a playoff level team. But, because of their unwillingness to maximize the trade value of their minor league prospects we never had a fully competitive team that could make it beyond winning the weakest division in the major leagues. 5. Not that the team is in complete rebuilding mode, there is no reason to be as conservative. We need to get players up to the major league level, get them this high level experience, and continue to develop them there. This article is just an example of how a winning team brought up a prospect that was not even as highly rated as Arcia and got him major league experience. While a team like the Twins, a 95+ loss team over multiple years, continues to wait. He will probably start the season in Rochester and maybe get a whiff of the majors late next year. But, the Twins will then bounce him up and down for at least another year. 6. Lastly, the Twins need to recognize that they are not a contender and that they are in a total rebuilding mode. Back to back 95+ loss seasons should be a pretty good indication that this is the case. But, I do not think it has sunk in to the teams management. I like Gardenhire, but he is not a development type of manager and does not have enough patience with young players to be what the Twins need over the long run. I said this before the beginning of the year, we need to completely rebuild with the young players at the major league level and we need a staff that is willing to take the lumps and work with them to make them better players. The Twins did it in 1982 and that paid off. They can do it again in 2013. But, pretending we are contenders just pushes the rebuild out. Arcia, Hicks, Parmalee and even Joe Benson should get major ABs next season. Some of these players will make it, others will fail. But the answers are needed to questions that have not been asked.

The other aspect that the Twins really need to look into is to find a short-season A team to work with. Most of our college level draft picks should be assigned to such a team, rather than Elizabethton. Sure, it is great that Elizabethton is always a "winning" team, but one reason for that is the Twins send more advanced players there. WIth a short season A team, we can send the advanced prospects to a higher competitive level without upsetting the rosters of the full season A teams. From this level, the players can go three different routes: the advanced players to A+(or even AA), the average players to A, and the below average players to the various extended spring training leagues. For the advanced prospects, this creates a short cut in development. A college prospect could be in A+ ball their first full professional season instead of A that the Twins will move them to. I am not saying that the Twins have not had exceptions in moving through the minors. Jesse Crain and Scott Baker are two examples of what I think should be the standard for the Twins, and if you look at their minor league career you can picture how a short season A team would have naturally fit into their path.

The station by station approach that the Twins use hurts them in two ways: 1. It reduces the trade value of their minor league players. Not that the Twins would ever consider making a trade that would trade a high level minor league players, but several years ago when they had playoff level teams they could have looked to make a deal of minor league players for established veteran players. Because we hold our players back, we don't get much "age premium" in valuation. To see how this works, look at the Santana trade with the Mets. The minor league players we got from the Mets were vastly overrated, and the reason why was that players like Delois Guerra were pitching at levels 1-3 higher than they would have been in the Twins organization. "His stats aren't spectacular, but he is a 18 year old pitching in A+ ball"................... 2. The station by station approach shortens the development window of the players. IF a star minor league prospect gets to the major leagues at 24 years of age (lets say Chris Parmalee) their career windows are much shortened. IF they struggle at first (lets say Chris Parmalee) sending them down is a valid option, but that takes more time off the clock. Suddenly, the player is 26-27 years old with limited major league experience, and the clock has run out. If you get the player up when they are 21-22 years old they still have time to work the major league kinks out.

It would be half-full if the production we got from the players listed above contributed to a mediocre team, i.e. 81-81. But this team is far from that. Second, the other reason why this team is far from half full is the financials. The Twins are paying a lot of money to lose 95+ games two years in a row. Third, several of the players that Seth lists in the "half-full" category are far from proven. Scott Diamond had a good year, but is there any certainty in him having as good of a year next? Burton and Fein are short relievers, a position that has historically been hard to predict quality from year in to year out. Question marks abound about players like Trevor Plouffe, Chris Parmalee, and even Ben Revere to some degree.

The question I have always had about the Twins decision to sign Nishioka is this: is that the way he looked in Japan? With the Twins, he had the worse looking swing I have ever seen. His swing was completely futile with terrible mechanics, particularly from the left side of the plate were it looked like he simple waved the bat in a hopeless attempt to make contact. Or did his swing and mechanics completely change when he reached the United States?

And, this is the one of the biggest failures of this team in the past 10 years. We have had high end prospects that have never added real value that we could have dealt for quality veterans. And, the value of making those deals is that trading prospects is a highly leveraged trading strategies. For example, by dealing a handful of prospects you can get a pitcher like Johann Santana. You just have to be willing to pay him. Next, as I have pointed out elsewhere, the Twins simply are not able to pull the plug and switch to rebuilding mode. They can't without removing Gardenhire and his staff because they are not able to work with young players, and that might be the hold up. I appreciate loyalty, but when you are amongst the worst 3-4 teams in baseball two years in a row you need to be rebuilding. Finally, another problem with the Twins minor league organization is a lack of a Short A minor league team. Instead, we send almost all of our college draftees to Elizabethton. This creates a stacked team and exciting league championships, but creates a log jam of this talent in the minors. From Elizabethton they are all going to Beloit, which means the 19 year old HS players like Hudson Boyd and Harrison are now mixed in with a large clump of college players. IF the Twins sent the bulk of the college players to a short season A team that would leave more innings/ABs to the players in Rookie+ that needs them. Then, the top half of the short-season A team would move to Ft Myers instead of Beloit combined with the players that move from Beloit to Ft Myers. That moves them up one year faster than the normal TWins progress. And, while some will fail in this transition, that is not the point, and in fact, that failure is to teh Twins advantage. That is, instead of progressing through the minors at a leisurley pace and then fizzling in AA or AAA, they fizzle two or three years ealier in A+.

They need to limit his innings to under 180 no matter what. That should not be a controversy for the Twins. It isn't as if we will be in a playoff run or anything. How the Twins do it is almost immaterial. My guess is that if he is on the Twins roster it might be somewhat clever to use short stints on the DL across the season. Then the Twins can add another starter to take Gibson's place in the rotation and can have him continue with the team for rehabilitation. No matter what, Gibson needs to be in the Twins rotation. I don't care if he is "ready". The Twins need to get him to the major league level and have him start to learn how to pitch to the highest level hitters. If he has a 5+ ERA, who cares. Gibson will be 25 years old next season, Frank Viola had 5+ ERAs in 1982 and 83 as 22/23 year old and he turned out alright. There simply isn't any more time for Gibson to be spending in the minors.

The Twins are far, far, far away from contention, and the truth of the matter is that the only way to get into contention is to become worse. In 2013 the Twins need to do what they should have done THIS year. REBUILD. Our lineup 2013 should be: LF Oswaldo Arcia (Willingham traded) CF Ben Revere (Span traded) RF Aaron Hicks 3B Trevor Plouffe SS Pedro Florimon 2B Eddie Rosario 1B Justin Mourneau (trade possible, but hard to do with his contract) C Joe Mauer (trade possible, but almost impossible because of PR) DH Chris Parmalee Utility Brian Dozier Doumit Joe Benson Rotation: Diamond, and combinations of players we have tried this year, Kyle Gibson This team will be terrible, but from this group will rise the players that will form a rebuilt team. Think 1982, and the 102 loss team. But from that team came the core group of players that won both the 1987 and 1991 World Series, including Hrbek, Gaetti, Brunansky, andViola. Other players, like Sano and Buxton, will have to be added over the next couple of years to take the places of players that do not pan out just as the 1987 team added Kirby Puckett and Greg Gagne. But, the issue is you can develop players at the major league level if you have the managers at the top that are willing to work with the young players and take the losses. Right now, the Twins do not have such a group.

HAHAHA...are you serious?

The Slama "problem" is just a small piece of the problem with the organization: They did not realistically evaluate their chances this year, so instead of rebuilding they pretended "we are a contender". THey should have ripped this roster apart and played players like Dozier, Benson, and Slama from day 1. The pieces that failed, failed. The pieces that worked, worked. Then move on from there. But, rebuilding means discarding Gardenhire and his staff because it is clear that this staff cannot work with young players and develop them, and it also means dropping the slow train to the big leagues that our minor league practices now. It worked in 1982, the worst year in Twins history. But, in 1987, much of that lineup was the core of a World Series winning team. But, to pretend that stop gap measures like Jamey Carrol are going to make any difference is ridiculous. I would rather lose 100 games with Dozier at SS (Lenny Faedo was our SS in 1982) and find out if he could cut it (Faedo could not and was replaced by Gagne) or not. Instead, we have prolonged the rebuilding process another year.

Methinks that you got it wrong. It really is worth more to the taxpayer than the person who is going to the Lee County Sports Complex (game or not). Because the the fan will go where the Twins are spending their Spring Training. The Fort Myers taxpayer's job depends on the business that he or she is working for (and I am not talking about the Twins or the Miracle) is making enough money from those fans to pay them. No, the JOBS will go where the Spring Training games are. If you really want to be a ticket taker at a stadium, then you can pack up your belonging and move to the city were the Twins or another team relocate. I am sure the Twins would even give you priority and maintain your seniority!!!! NEXT, and this is a concept big dollar stadium advocates CANNOT GET THROUGH THEIR HEADS, VERY FEW JOBS DEPEND ON A FEW HOURS OF THE TWENTY DAYS THERE ARE SPRING TRAINING GAMES IN THE STADIUM. Sure, there are a handful of people who work at these jobs and that income may be very important for them and their families. But, this represents a 8% FTE assuming that every spring training related job works a full 8 hours on a game day(again, another doubful assumption). But on a macro-level these supposed jobs just do not justify the investment the Twins are seeking. For the lost income from these jobs, the county would probably be better off just paying them directly for their lost income rather than dumping huge money into stadium improvements.

Another point. There is no evidence that such improvements are needed. The Spring Trainign games are all played to a stadium played to capacity and ticket prices are relatively high. If you are a business that needs to improve, usually this is signaled by lowered demand or lower prices. Neither of these signals are evident. What this is is simply "park envy" that is so prevalent in professional sports. One team gets some bell and whistle, so every team thinks that they have to have the local taxpayers pay for this new bell and whistle. If you have been to Hammond Field for a ST game or a Miracle game and did not enjoy the experience, then too bad for you. The stadium is more than adequate for its purpose. Lastly, I do not completley dismiss using taxpayer money to support stadiums. Particularly in Florida which does not have state income taxes because we have tourists that pay a substantial part of our state bills. But, such support should be limited. I think giving the Twins the naming rights and incremental improvements of $10 million, maybe even $20 should be considered, particularly since the state funds 50% of the investment from tourist development money. But, that is not what the team wants because they think they can get it all.

LOL!!!!!!!!! You are totally ignorant then and do not understand the investment issue at hand. LEE COUNTY WOULD BE THE ONE MAKING HTE INVESTMENT. Their cut on this value is the sales tax revenues they generate from this incremental revenue. To make an investment decision you look at cost versus benefit. And, their cut on the revenues would not be sufficient to cover their expenses. THERE IS NO OTHER WAY OF PUTTING IT. Next, as I have already explained to you, $50 million is 0.4% of the annual taxable sales in this county. I am not going to say "big deal", but, really, big deal. It isn't worth investing $45 million in acquiring (we already worked that out but it seems to be over your head). Next, lets look at another of your claims. You claim that 20-30% of local airport flights would be lost. In 2011 there were 7.1 million flights into RSW. You are claiming that we would lose between 1.4 and 2.1 million flights a year because we would not have 20 baseball games here in Ft Myers. Sad that anyone can believe such claims, but apparently you do. I think the airport will be just fine. Based on this obvious hyperbole, I think this calls into question pretty much everyone of your other claims (Seriously, do you really believe that 33% of the gas stations would go away because of spring training?). And, most importantly, it really calls into question your original assertion that there is $50 million in INCREMENTAL revenues because of spring training. I believe that number is grossly inflated and most (but not all) of that spending would happen anyways as the snow birds come to Ft Myers and other tourists come to Marco Island, Sanibal Island, or Ft Myers Beach. And, as usual, I will add this issue. If these improvements are so necessary that the great Twins fans like yourself, who love the game, watch the BP and prospects, are not willing to pay whatever the costs associated with these improvements in increased ticket prices, THEN THESE IMPROVEMENTS ARE NOT NECESSARY AND THE TAXPAYERS SHOULD NOT PAY FOR THEM.

LOL... I am far from a casual fan. I have followed the Twins since 1969 and know almost every minor league player in the system. I highly doubt that your knowledge excedes mine. But, what you are mistaking is that 95% of the people who go to a Twins Spring Training game are casual fans. They know Joe Mauer and Justin Mourneau. Beyond that, they have very little clue who is even on the major league roster, much less when players like Wilkin Ramirez or Danny Lehmann come into the game to replace them. They are paying to watch the game in the confines of a small stadium, in the Florida sunshine, and that is the true value of the experience. Next, spending time on the back fields is free (except for a parking charge if you park on the field). You can go before the game and wander around, watch BP and other activities. That is another special value of spring training, but the vast majority of the fans have no clue who they are watching. One time I was watching a batting practice group of the aforementioned Lehmann, Trevor Ploufe, Deobeson Romero, Toby Gardenhire, and David Winfree. I bet that you woudl know who all of those farmhands were, and I did too. But the vast majority of the fans at Spring Training would not. Next, completley laughing at your claim that the county is not fulfilling their end of the bargain! The word is "maintained" and that leaves a lot of interpetration. Clearly though, player dorms and academies are not part of maintenance ($7.2 million the Twins want the taxpayers to pay), and most likely much of the other improvements the Twins "require" are nothing but blue sky. Having attended a game in Jet Blue Stadium, that is a comparable stadium in all aspects except cost. Lastly, your snide remarks about the Red Sox left overs are simply highlighting the mistakes local government officials make with taxpayers money. It is easy to spend and give into such threats. But, now the county is left with an empty facility that they still owe $20 million and will have to maintain and make secure. This is a similar mistake. Like I said, I love having the Twins here. But, Spring Training is vastly overated. If they left because they cannot fleece the taxpayers of this county $45 million, then good riddance. It will have zero impact except for the empty promises the team made and if they can find bigger suckers somewhere else, then so be it. Again, if these "improvements" are not worth an extra $1 or $3 or $5 to the PERSON GOING TO THE GAME, then how is it possible that they are worth it to the taxpayer who are not at the game? You people seem to beleive these improvements are so necessary, but clearly unwilling to pay for it yourself. You want all of the value but are not willing to bear the cost. It is sad that governments have worked themselves into this type of unnecessary spending and are blackmailed by these teams

Lets assume that your $50 million is correct and there is $50 million in incremental spending in Lee County because of Twins. That means that the County gets $3 million in tax revenues. That barely pays off the "investment" in 30 years. But, over that time, the Twins would have asked for another $50 million and the $20 million the county still owes on the old Red Sox facility is not being paid. In reality, not all of the $50 million is incremental. Believe it or not, tourist come to Ft Myers for other things than Spring Training. Next, your claim that Ft Myers would lose 25% of the hotels and restaurants and 10% of the stores is laughable. Again, lets assume the $50 million total you claim is ALL INCREMENTAL to Spring Training and would go away if the Twins moved to a different location. That is 0.4% of all taxable sales in the county. Clearly certain facilitites taht receive economic "rents" because of their location to the stadium or are directly related to the tourist trade might be impacted, but that is far from your overstated claims. And, again, that is assuming taht all of the $50 million leaves. It would not. Lastly, your last comment addresses what the proper role of government should be. Local governments obviously have a role in sewer and water improvements and road construction. I would even argue that they could play some role in helping a project like improving Hammonds stadium (read above) and helping the Twins gain revenue (let them control the naming rights). But, $45 million to make these improvements is way beyond their role. If these improvements are needed, the Twins should make these improvements and charge the increases back to their customers, i.e. the Fans. If they cannot be charged back to the customers, then it clearly calls into question the true NEED for such improvements.

Do you even know what you are talking about? The Twins want the taxpayers of Lee County to pay for all kinds of goodies, including $7.2 million in "Player Academy". They want $30 million in improvements on a structure that only cost $14 million ($23.9 million in current dollars) to build. There is no way that the Twins win this one based on the "maintenance" clause in the agreement. There is also no way that the county gets value back to cover these costs and any economic analysis will reveal that. It is a facility that is used 17-20 times/year for Spring training. Right now, the stadium has a 7,500 seat capacity. For spring training, the total ticket revenue for 20 sold out spring training games at $30/ticket is $4.5 million. The cost, over 30 years at 4% interest of $45 million is $2.602 million. Sorry, if you think those numbers add up then you now nothing about business. What the county should do is allow the Twins to market the naming rights for the stadium and negotiate minor improvements to the stadium at less than $10 million in cost. Even this is extreme blackmail and if the Twins want to bolt, I say good riddance. And, while it is very possible to move spring training sites it is not cost and risk free either. The existing Florida market is pretty much covered, particularly on the Gulf Coast side of the state and to improve on Hammond Stadium the Twins would need new construction. I doubt that there is a community on the Gulf that is financially interested in such a deal. There might be opportunities on the Atlantic side of the state, like the West Palm-Boca axis, but there are many reasons why the Twins are located on the Gulf Coast, particularly demographic reasons (Midwesterners flock to the Gulf, East Coast people to the Atlantic) and if the Twins chose that region that would be a huge risk. And, I doubt that they can get even close to as lucrative of a site in Arizona. As a resident, I usually go to a Twins Spring Training game when family and friends come into town, and it is nice having my hometown team here. But, frankly, the experience is vastly overrated and insanely expensive to watch a part major-part minor league game. And

Frankly, you miss the main point, which is SPRING TRAINING AND MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL DOES NOT NEED $45 million of taxpayer money spent on stadium improvements. Hammonds Stadium is fine just the way it is. But, our modern sports culture believes that they need to have all of the bells and whistles for "free", with the real costs borne by the taxpayers. Here is another fact. The county still owes $20 million on the City of Palms park that was abandoned by the Red Sox to move (at taxpayers expense) to Jet Blue. You claim that spring training baseball "brings in" $25-50 million a year. I think that tourists that attend a spring training game might spend that total as tourist, but not all of it is incremenal spending i.e. much of that would be spent anyways. But lets assume your estimate, using a 6% sales tax, that means that the government recoveres $1.3 to $3.0 million in sales tax to cover all of their costs the have invested in the stadium. The low end of this estimate barely covers the costs of the paying off the EMPTY stadium, much less the $77.9 million Jet Blue Stadium and the proposed $45 million Hammonds Stadium renovations. And that is based on the assumption that ALL of the revenues are incremental revenues created just because of the stadium. Again, if the renovations are so important the business owners i.e. the Minnesota Twins should pay for it themselves and pass along the costs to their customers. The team owners and the fans should not expect that the taxpayers should foot the bill. And, if you want to include the minor league operations, the Miracle have a total attendence of less than 125,000. The highest ticket price is $7. That is less than $1 million total gate. They are already in over their heads stadium wise. Minor league baseball is great. But it cannot justify $5 million in stadium costs, much less $45.