Sssuperdave

I don't quite understand where the Baseball America article is getting all of the information for this proposal. I don't see anything on mlb.com other than the article about Portland desiring a baseball team. I'm sure that all of these decisions will be made somewhat independent of each other, where the Baseball America makes it sound like a package deal. In reality I think each topic should be considered on it's own merits: Should Baseball Expand?If it expands, what is the best divisional alignment?Given a new divisional alignment, how best should the playoffs be handled?How many games should teams play in division vs out of division?Should the number of games played change?What should be done with the DH?I love the idea of expanding to 32 teams, but I don't like the idea of getting rid of the AL/NL split, or 4 division winners and 8 wild cards, and I don't see any reason why expanding to 32 teams means you have to get rid of leagues, have 4 divisions, or reduce the number of games.

Yup, this is entirely plausible and reasonable, but Souhan didn't say a single thing in his article to indicate that this was the case. You're giving him too much credit imo. Souhan could have written a real article about the effects of weight and conditioning on injury recovery and what that means for Sano, but he chose not to.

I have to agree with those saying not to sell Twins Daily short. The content on Twins Daily is phenomenal and has developed to the point where it has almost become my single source for Twins news. Seth provides player interviews and human interest stories that are much more in-depth than anything you can find in the MSM. Parker provides analysis that is more technical and detailed than anything in the MSM. And, most of the folks on Twins Daily are respectful about leads and giving credit where credit is due. I learn about trades and transactions on Twins Daily, but I never get the impression that Twins Daily "breaks the story." Every time a Twins Daily post or article refers to a trade it starts with the name of whoever broke the story, usually with a link to their tweet. This is definitely not what Souhan calls "Jabba the stat, sitting in his basement... acting like he broke the story". Until now, the only big thing that was missing on Twins Daily was a "game story", something that broke down each game, and now Tom has expertly filled that void. I absolutely love the features Tom includes in his game reviews, like the current standings, WPA, and bullpen usage. And he includes a few highlights, so I get more out of Tom's write-ups than a full-blown game story by a beat writer. Way to go Twins Daily!

2 Things... I would use real quotes and real data coming from real people, even if those people are anonymous. Souhan actually did some of this in the blog post. I think the conditioning of a professional athlete is absolutely fair game for a newspaper article, but not when the article is written in a way that communicates you are accusing Sano of simply eating a bunch of junk and getting too fat. Instead, you can write an article that communicates that Twins officials are concerned about his conditioning, and include real reasons why they are concerned, with real examples of how weight and conditioning can impede what Sano is trying to do as a pro. I would talk in specifics about things that are measurable, avoiding generalities that can be construed as personal attacks. Even interpersonal things can be approached from a specific and measurable angle.

I'm a bit late to the party here but would like to share several random thoughts... In my opinion, Souhan's blog post contained better reporting than his original article. The blog post actually contains some specifics, such as that "a Twins official I've known for a long time told me that Sano's weight was 290". I'm dumbfounded as to why he left specifics like that out of his article. While I still would have found it a stupid article, at least it wouldn't sound as much like he was just making stuff up to fit his narrative. Another example... in the article he says "Pablo Sandoval comes to mind", where in the blog post he says "They mentioned Kent Hrbek's early retirement, Pablo Sandoval's career decline..." Again, better reporting in the blog post than the article, of course then he has to go on and take a potshot at Perkins.Souhan's portrayal of "untethered bloggers" strikes me as ignorant, petty, and vindictive. He refers to them as "Jabba the Stat, sitting in his basement, wearing his Kimono, eating his Cinnabon." Seriously Souhan? Just like his criticisms of players, he takes a lazy approach to criticizing bloggers. Rather than actually taking some blog content and critiquing it, he resorts to name-calling and insults. Of course, if he would actually read some of Gleemans' stuff, for example, he might have to admit that Gleemen is just as good a writer, if not better, than he is.Does Jim Souhan actually know any of these "trolls, liars, plagiarists, and frauds," to use his words? Actually, I don't have to ask, he himself says that he doesn't know them, and claims it's because they are cowards because they won't take the step to show up in the clubhouse. Well Jim, in order to back up your claim of them being trolls, liars, and plagarists, I dare you to show up at the next Twins Daily pub crawl. You might be surprised at how reasonable and sane they actually are.Finally, I did think it was cool that he called out Seth Stohs and Brandon Warne as guys blogging in a way that requires a bit more accountability. It shows me that Souhan at least has the sense not to lump all bloggers in to one bucket, even if I disagree with the bucket he lumped the rest of them in to.

Is anyone else concerned about Garcia's transition from the NL to the AL? Perhaps I'm still reeling from the Nolasco fiasco, but Garcia looks to me like no better than a 3/4 in the NL every year except 2015, and I'm concerned that it makes him a 4/5 in the AL, which isn't all that much to get excited about. Also, please tell me I'm not the first person to come up with Nolasco fiasco.

Yup, and I'm guessing that's the driver of the difference between his bWAR of 1.9 and fWAR of 0.9. In this case I believe the bWAR. Santana is dramatically outperforming his FIP, and I think Buxton is a huge reason why.

So after today's game Royce has a triple slash of .500/.500/1.250 (1.750) Let the promotion calls begin!

Yup, happened today in the bottom of the 1st: GCL Twins Bottom of the 1st Akil Baddoo grounds out, second baseman Jaime Estrada to first baseman J. C. Escarra. Royce Lewis homers (1) on a fly ball to center field. Victor Tademo called out on strikes. Jared Akins strikes out swinging.

In my opinion, the bolded parts show what it has been like to be a Twins fan over the last 20 years. We are so beaten down that we only set our sights as high as winning one of the weakest divisions in baseball. How is the fact that the Astros are a much better team than the Twins not a harbinger of doom? It is exactly a harbinger of doom if the goal is to win the World Series. If I'm Falvey and Levine, my goal is to be a better team than the Astros, not to sneak into a wild card spot and then hope we get lucky. And it's not just the Astros, after you beat the Astros you have to beat a team like the Cubs or Dodgers or Nationals!

Very exciting that the top three prospects are in AA and performing well. Even though the overall farm system isn't as strong as it used to be, the top three could start meaningfully contributing to the Twins as early as next year. When you add Gonsalves, Romero, and Gordon to the already forming young core of Sano, Buxton, Kepler, Rosario, Polanco, and Berrios, you have the makings of a team that could compete for several years. It kind of feels like the early 00s when Mauer, Morneau, Hunter, Cuddyer, and Santana were all breaking in.