h2oface

The older players have agreed to this system. They got progressively more jealous and perturbed that the draftees were getting such large bonuses and had done nothing, so they changed it to the draft pool and slot money starting in 2012 to try to control it (Stephen Strasburg signed with the National in 2009 as the number one overall, and his contract was over $15.1 million dollars before the change). and the owners liked that too (at least the small market team owners did). The young 1st and second and third year players that are stars do not get compensated with the "value" they provide with great seasons for their performance for those years, nor can they negotiate a better contract, thanks to the MLBPA that they have virtually no representation on. They get minimum salaries that the older players have decided in the CBA for them to get, and the younger players have no say in the matter. That is the point. They have not agreed to this system. They are a victim of it with no representation.

I really don't enjoy the Homer/Strikeout plan. I find it a pretty boring brand of baseball.

Ryan Pressly was under control for another year and a third (more if you count the postseason), and would have not been a free agent until the end of 2019 when he was traded in July of 2018. He sure would have looked a lot better to me just on the Twins' mound in the late innings of the 2019 post season than Alcala ever has, and my bet, ever will. Even if we let him walk after 2019, like the Braves did Freddie Freeman after winning the World Series with him in 2021 as his contract expired (and the Braves looked totally out of it at all-star break in 2021, with a record of 51-54 on July 30), it would have still had a ton more value than hoping to replace Pressly with Alcala (Duran was a starter and Alcala was billed as the Pressly replacement), and over 5 years later, it hasn't even come close to happening. "If the vision at that time was for Durán to eventually fill the same role for the rebuilding Twins as a late-inning dominator capable of shutting down any opponent, then the front office was quite prescient...... <(It was Alcala that had that billing - he will be ready when the Twins are again competitive - which was actually the very next year, and Alcala was nowhere close - and the Twins were with a much weakened pen)>. ......Still, I think they'd like to take back the Pressly trade if they could. Instead of having him available to their division-winning team in 2019 (and maybe beyond), they've watched Pressly do what Durán just did in October, pretty much every year. In exchange for Gilberto Celestino and Jorge Alcalá, Minnesota gave up one of the best postseason relievers since Mariano Rivera–and sent him to the powerhouse they were trying to overcome in their own league, no less. In 46 postseason appearances, Pressly has a 2.22 ERA and an 11.7 K/9 rate. He's never been tagged with a playoff loss and, perhaps most staggeringly, has allowed one (1) home run, while facing 181 batters in (mostly) game-deciding moments." "A few things strike me as I revisit this last inning of Minnesota Twins action in 2023. One is that we probably don't talk enough about the Pressly trade, and how dramatically it helped shift the balance between Minnesota and Houston over the past five years." Amen to that. But when folks did talk unfavorably about the trade, they were blasted with "hindsight" and "something not nothing" and "it was still the right trade, regardless if it didn't work out". I bet many might still try to say how it was still a good trade and it was better to get something. Me? Not then, and not now. Pressly was on the rise and became the pitcher that cannot be replaced. There was basically 1 1/2 years of control that turned out to be a waste. Even is Alcala ever becomes a real value, what Pressly could have provided for us instead of Houston in 2019 is not worth the "something" that the Twins got or might get. This front office makes all kinds of deals for just 1 1/2 years of control (Mahle for a recent one), so why do you have to trade our best away for a hope and a dream when they still have 1 1/2 year left? They don't.

Great to see the bonuses. The MLB CBA is so veteran skewed, and the young players have no real power to change the CBA. To pay Vasquez around 10 million and Jeffers less than a million for doing a better job, for example, is comical. And Correa.............. but that kind of inequity happens to every team, and so it goes. Perhaps there should be a salary base for each player, and the remaining payroll money could be dealt out each year according to how each player actually performed and contributed. Watching veteran players suck up the coin for sucking and other young players get shafted comparatively for far out performing them just because they have less years under their belt is a reality that cries injustice. If owners were fair, they would dole out bonuses to the deserving just because they deserve it, regardless of the contracts.

Yuk. And not the funny Yuk.

Now I just let 0-2 affect me. 😇

Assuming? I’m not assuming anything. Hindsight is 100% accurate.

Doesn’t matter how many words one uses to defend the Ryan decision - we will never know the answer. What we do know is it was the wrong decision to use Theilbar. No doubt. 😇

My heart goes out to Kirilloff. Well wishes for a quick re-hab and healing. As for team management - what was he doing on the roster in the playoffs? Did they not know he was hurt?

Just watch it go by……. Bye bye season. Fitting it was a called K. 14 Ks total, when you count the ones called that weren’t.

How do you beat the Astros AND the umpire?

That was like a middle middle change up that Alvarez hits out of the park BECAUSE HE SWINGS AT IT INSTEAD OF WATCHING IT GO BY!

Ya gotta love coming home with a 1-1 split. What a great game for the Twins and their fans. 3-1 in this post season. Living high on travel day. Why our pitchers keep giving Alvarez anything at all to hit is baffling. Giving him middle middle is just stupefying.

Ha. Probably not this year’s 🥂

Yes. And all were hittable, no? Hoping on the ump to get it right instead of fouling it off or driving it anyway gets today’s result. This is the playoffs. Time fo heroes, not watchers. Verlander only had 6 Ks in 6 innings. Our boys struck out 7 of the last 9 outs.

I would like to see how many hittable pitches were taken by the our boys both in the zone and very close. With two strikes, it is time to protect the plate and get hits on those way to many hittable pitches. As long as there are umps calling the pitches, you can never rely on them to make the right call. And looking at first pitch meat to make the count 0-1 down the wire? Not a good strategy in the playoffs.

1-12 RISP 13 Ks Bailey Ober starting. Game one to Astros.

Great point, I mean really, if you are just conceding the game, and want to go home, just signal the walks. At least it is honest, and you are not pretending you are still trying. Just think how horrible it would have been for Luplow to get hurt tossing those 63 mph heaters. Wild pitch? The players could run into each other trying to catch the pop-up. All kinds of things could have happened. Really make it meaningless.

I will always hate not playing to win. It always matters. Great game by Ober. At least he played to win. That’s always good practice as you approach the next game in a 0-18 streak.

…. and the Braves are sitting at 301 homers with 5 games to go. They need 7 in 5 games to take away what will be a short lived record of 307 set by the 2019 Twins. But we have replaced it with the K record. That will probably be mercifully short lived, too, I bet - unless the Twins keep breaking it themselves!

Absolutely. The Reds are HUNGRY, and will be fighting for a playoff spot.

There’s always Tommy Watkins coaching third, and the brilliant decisions, eh? Does that count?

If that’s all a fan wants to see, I’m glad they stay home!

I wish Julian would do that and quit getting called out so often on super close pitches. I know he has a plan, and is very much an asset, like tonight’s solo homer, but he could be so much more if he just adjusted when he has two strikes instead of being so steadfast.

That would have been better than what it actually was, which was 3-4 with a 4 game losing streak and losing 3 in a row to lowly Detroit - 2 by being shutout!