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TheLeviathan

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Everything posted by TheLeviathan

  1. TheLeviathan
    It can be both though right? I'm not saying the Twins didn't hold themselves back (ownership at least), but it could be that their own limitations were only further limited by idiocy with some potential trading partners. At least that's where I'm at: The Twins didn't do enough. Part of that is definitely because they put draconian restraints on themselves, but part of it is also because many of the most attractive assets that fit their needs were on teams that made it even more difficult by demanding ridiculous trade packages to consumate a deal. It need not be mutually exclusive. And I find that the MOST likely scenario.
  2. TheLeviathan
    Your argument that X won't do Y because it doesn't make sense and is wildly incompetent is not how the world works. It's the classic is/ought fallacy. Your line of reason can be proven wrong by reality in many, many ways. I'll give a few profound examples from baseball alone: the Oakland Athletics. The Florida Marlins. Franchises who have basically decided that their operational philosophies are "Did you thoroughly piss off a baseball loving home sapien today?" Or the Twins - who decided to pinch pennies after their first time winning a playoff game since sliced bread. Or the Twins who looked at Bally's and said "What could go wrong?" Or MLB that thinks regional blackouts are totally fine for, like, several decades. Or pretty much every MLB team thinking the best way to build future athletes is to feed them McDonalds, live in a shack, and workout with rocks tied to sticks. Not a god damn one of those things makes any sense. Or would seem "likely" for an organization to do in any rational world. And yet.....here we are. Perhaps the old "don't trade in your own division" isn't some made up thing, but a relic that hasn't died no matter how badly it should.
  3. TheLeviathan
    Totally get you, but nothing short-sighted, stupid, or irrational surprises me in baseball. I mean...you've seen the leaked trade talks from the Astros scandal right? It defies explanation. The Twins should have done more this offseason and done more not to put themselves in this situation. It's also possible that other teams do things that make absolutely no sense. After all...ours certainly does.
  4. TheLeviathan
    It's about the degree of "better" they are demanding. More than that, none of us have any problem believing the Twins are willing to do dumb, irrational things. We're living in that moment right now by a decade's worth of dumb decisions on their broadcasting alone. (And I'm sure we could come up with a lengthy list of others!) A blind chimp could've seen the problems coming and yet....here we are. Not everything everyone does is rational. And definitely not in baseball where tradition matters far more than common sense.
  5. TheLeviathan
    I absolutely do believe it. The quotes in Gleeman's article and Hayes confirm that and neither of them are Sid Hartman. They don't run that quote without some understanding that it's legitimate. Do I believe they may have come down somewhat? Yes, but if that's your starting point, it's already a negotiation that is unlikely to be fruitful. We've seen leaked trade discussions - teams absolutely do inexplicable, stupid things in negotiations. As fans, we want to believe teams just do normal, rational things and have normal, rational trade discussions. But we know that's not true. The Twins convinced themselves to sit out the offseason because of their own ridiculous decision making on broadcasting. They've used "well this guy is coming off the IL is like making a trade" to justify things. Baseball, more than any other sport, is full of individuals and organizations that don't get out of their own way ALL THE TIME. So...yes, I absolutely believe other MLB clubs make old-timey, short-sighted, stupid decisions quite regularly.
  6. TheLeviathan
    Well, it's worth considering whether a player's performance is likely to continue....no? There are red flags in that profile. Pretty serious ones. I'd also have taken the gamble, but it in no way helps the biggest issue that should've been addressed. We needed a starting pitcher and our options were just dreadfully limited. That said, had there been options, I'm pretty confident money would've been the bigger issue than trade price. We won't know because this deadline offered jack squat worth acquiring. (Other than Eflin. That one I can concede should've been a reasonable target to go after)
  7. TheLeviathan
    Look, Puk would've been a possible bullpen improvement, but a look at his analytics tells you this might regress hard and look like Okert. (From those two links, you'd say Okert is a better bet) That said, the price is worth a gamble, but let's not pretend he's some sure fire grab. His hard hit rate, walk rate, and declining K rate are all red flags in their own right. The fact that the Tigers and White Sox wanted guys like Walter Jenkins and Brooks Lee as a starting point because the trade is inter-division pretty much kills any realistic idea that they were attainable. Of course the starting price is high, but that's "are you feeling ok" levels of high. That's..."are you high?" levels of high. Even moreso....the Yankees backed out on Flaherty due to medicals. Call me crazy...but I'm sorta proud of the team for backing out on a player with that red flag. We've had enough of that. The failure wasn't yesterday. It was sixth months ago due to six years of stupid media practices. Had there been a robust bunch of good pitchers moved yesterday, that would've been a different story.
  8. TheLeviathan
    We'd have won this game if Rocco had traded for Cliff Lee yesterday.
  9. TheLeviathan
    The Pohlads pinching pennies was not going to make a huge difference yesterday. The best available talent was in our own division, so when you take that out of the equation you're left with some real dregs. The truth is that there just wasn't much worth acquiring yesterday. That said....the penny pinching has put us in this position because there was talent worth adding this offseason. They made terrible broadcasting decisions and then, due to their own mismanagement, used that to justify sitting on their hands when it mattered and there were options. That's what remains worthy of criticism. None of that is the fault of anyone but the Pohlads.
  10. TheLeviathan
    This isn't a good reason. The truth is....there was almost nothing good available this year. It's still disappointing, however. There were ok options that could have been had.
  11. TheLeviathan
    We'd have won this game if Rocco hadn't pinch hit Covid for Influenza in 2020.
  12. TheLeviathan
    Busy night...sorry folks. Rocco cost us this game. If he kept his facial hair more groomed like in my days we'd have better at-bats. Little known fact, Rocco invented analytics out of spite.
  13. TheLeviathan
    We'd have won this game if Rocco didn't think Vasquez can play CF and Buxton is a good 2B. Little known fact: Mosquitos would've been extinct 612 years ago had Rocco not overmanaged their population.
  14. TheLeviathan
    This loss and cancer are squarely at Rocco's feet.
  15. TheLeviathan
    Boston would very much like to match this up.
  16. TheLeviathan
    If they do....then move on. I'm not going to pay for him like he's an all-world player. But I'll buy on him at a "very good" price tag. There isn't a single player I see currently on the market worth giving up Lee. Maybe if Toronto sells that changes, but as of now that player is not on the market. Hell, I don't see anyone worth giving up any of our top prospects for.
  17. TheLeviathan
    Depends who the Fish like. Toss em Gabriel Gonzales and a prospect or two in the 11-25 range.
  18. TheLeviathan
    This team needs a leadoff hitter. It needs left handed hitting. The pitching on the market is mostly overrated and I think the team will be fine, barring injury, sticking with it's own options at this point. I certainly don't want to pay through the nose for Snell or Severino or Eovaldi. Instead I propose we solve the first two problems with one aggressive move: Free Jazz Chisholm. Play the man in LF. Bat him leadoff. Let his freedom from the oppression of the awful Miami franchise help him restore his form. Bonuses: We have a good relationship with Florida so if you want to expand the deal for an arm, it's likely possible. Chisholm has several years of team control. He can play CF so he's Buxton insurance (among infield positions for flexibility, not that it would need to be used). He might bring a speed element this team desperately needs. The lineup balances so much better with Chisolm-Miranda-Lewis-Larnach-Correa-Buxton-Kepler-Castro-Jeffers. Then go add Diaz to replace Vasquez. Just to save us all the pain every 9 trips.
  19. TheLeviathan
    No one is construing Cory Provus as having climbed to the mountain top, regaled in Twins official branding, to proclaim the broadcasting plan via a scroll written in blood. Yeesh. Provus didn't make a formal announcement, so the question is silly. What Provus DID do, however, was pull the curtain back on what the team was trying to achieve. An actually objective person would say that the team's marketing staff would've rushed to correct those statements if they were seriously in contrast with their plan at the time. An objective person would look at the team's public apology and recognize that the outcome doesn't seem to have matched their intents either. (Intents which align to what Provus stated) An actually objective person would realize this train went off the rails because the Twins were flying by the seat of their pants on an issue they haven't managed well for decades now. (And have been accutely bad at recently) In the end they chose the biggest bag of money they could get right now. That is a defensible move on some level, arguable on others. It's also the easiest, least conspiracy-driven explanation of it. An "objective" person wouldn't need to have this laid out so many times for them to get off their strawman.
  20. TheLeviathan
    Well, it definitely wasn't on you. In addition to what you and RiverBrian have posted, I'll add this link. On the May 8th broadcast of Dan Barreiro's show, he opens up a vein about it as well. You can start it at about the 30 minute mark and go from there. Especially at 35 minute mark it's pretty clear the team was telling him that they believed there would be television coverage for the area. He spoke out based on conversations with top brass. Was he sent out as the mouthpiece and "sanctioned" for that? Probably not. Did he make it up whole cloth and just start spewing his own opinion? No, that's equally ridiculous. What he said was clearly the result of conversations he had. Now, are these things fluid? Sure. But it's obvious to anyone whose not trying some herculian mental gymnastics that things didn't turn out the way the team planned and not the way they communicated with their lead announcer. They made their bed with a dying model when they had alternatives. Is it completely on the team? No, the entire MLB media model is catastrophically stupid for the sport, but this particular problem was avoidable. It was immediately avoidable this year if they had gone with MLB. It was avoidable years ago with a less short-sighted approach to broadcasting.
  21. TheLeviathan
    *Checks original story* Um....they ARE screwing over a bunch of their customers. Right now. Today. They could've been rolling out that new option last year. Or the year before. Or 5 years ago. Regardless of when they do/did it.....those current customers are going to have to change what they subscribe to. The demand to change services is the only part of this that is guaranteed for many customers. That fact won't change when they roll it out next year. That's baked in to what "change" is. Hell...had they not "waited", some of us who sail the seven seas or find other ways (T-mobile, etc) might have considered their new broadcasting plan and gotten on board! Instead, we're fully ostracized from their broadcasting balance sheets. Permanently in all likelihood. What you keep missing with the suggestion "It's ok to wait" is to fail to see how that exact strategy has culminated in this embarrassing failure to serve fans. The Twins' (and MLB at large primarily) prioritization of short-term profits and waiting just made this mess even messier and dragged out. This battle is coming for every MLB team in time, the smart ones will get ahead of the curve. The Twins clearly failed to by waiting.
  22. TheLeviathan
    Group 1 is lying to themselves if they don't think "being forced to change" isn't inevitable. Continuing to cater to that group and that mentality is partially why we sit here today. It's the "fingers in the ears, close my eyes, pretend cable will be just fine" method. It isn't. It won't be. It hasn't been for a LONG time. All the Twins did by making the choice to hitch their wagon to Bally's one more year is force a payroll cut and kick the can down the road. Other markets have demonstrated that there are alternatives, even ones that don't require a change. (Like in Phoenix, where basketball games are available on local channels) Will they be as profitable? No, but no future solution will be as profitable as the cable era. The goal should be to grow the game and your fanbase. Putting that decision off has real long-term consequences. "Waiting" has been the strategy for nearly a decade. They've "waited" themselves into exactly this mess. The Twins certainly aren't alone in blame for this and perhaps, by some of their past choices, there may not have been much of an option. However, this is the culmination of a series of bad partnerships and short-term thinking that landed them here. No hindsight is required either....some of us had been arguing about this inevitability for 6-7 years now.
  23. TheLeviathan
    You're making a valiant effort against an asinine strawman.
  24. TheLeviathan
    Interesting To clarify...no, I am not actually psychic. And who gets the blame? Easy. MLB and it's ridiculous web of nonsense they call "broadcasting" has slowly eroded their fan base and made their game take a further and further backseat. The terrible media decisions even came with a bonus poison of having massive payroll inequality to boot! Every decision about broadcasting during these changes to sports media has flowed from the league's unwillingness to grow with the times and prioritize eyeballs on their game over short-term profits. The old guard has had baseball on the wrong path for decades. It's already too late to fix most of the damage, just like Bally's dumb app was too late to change things there.
  25. TheLeviathan
    I would probably rank my top choices the following way: 1. CL Lopez (Baltimore) 2. LF/2B/3B Happ (Cubs) 3. SP Castillo (Reds) 4. RP Finnegan But I'm for sure calling the Marlins and seeing what options I have. Plugging Happ into this lineup would be a wonderful way to keep the defense great (he's marvelous out there) and he has positional flexibility to help with how we use the DH. As a bonus...he crushes LHP.
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