Johnny Ringo

It’s always a delight when you post Melissa. Great info as usual. I saw FloRida in concert but I did so because I was duped. I thought it was a timeshare presentation

You never know about these things. Take the '87 Twins for example. Hrbek and Gaetti had their little cabal (Bruno, Bush). However Kirby, at best, was a fringe member of that, Viola was in his own orbit. Bert was in a different one. Senor Smoke was carrying state secrets and a huge bag of potato chips in his famous silver briefcase. Everyone was terrified of Don Baylor. Gladden hated Lombo. Everybody hated Gladden. The truth of the matter is if you look at the list of the best players of all-time, there are a lot of dubious characters in there and even a few reprehensible ones. Being nice is great. Being great is nicer.

Polanco was shopped more aggressively than the movie rights to The Wager. (Hopefully someone will get this joke.) This is what we got back. I think it is, at best, underwhelming. Tony Disco seems destined for more surgery and Topa may just be a shooting star across the sky. The two prospects, like all prospects, should come with more warning labels than a pack of cigarettes. Opinions vary on Polanco. One well-know pundit thinks we should of gotten Bryce Miller back for him. (See a certain recent Patreon podcast about 90 minutes in.) So that made me think. Maybe paying for content and cannabis-infused beer are both bad ideas.

It's like giving your kid $3 at the candy store. They are going to spend the 3 bucks whether they like the candy or not.

Comedic gold as usual. “We’ve had a couple folks get tuned up by unforgiving property owners pretty good, but they were interns. " The lack of activity by the FO has make the TD writers a little stir crazy. I fully expect to see a" hot take" article over whether Intern Bob has a better future recycling career than Intern Betty.

My softball cred is shaky at best.

I hardly meant to suggest that the Twins should discuss potentially trading Player A or Prospect B for Player C. Nonetheless, I do think there are a zillion topics that could be socialized responsibly. If nothing else, communication can be used to galvanize Twins nation which is dying to be loved. Analytics are broadly misunderstood and even more broadly maligned. The RSN implosion and the attendant payroll effects has created confusion and backlash. What are the implications for the change in the playoff format to team construction and philosophy? I could go on and on. The Twins often complain that fans don't love them like they should. Radio silence doesn't help their cause.

Dan Hayes is smarter than I am but it makes no sense for the Brewers to sign Hoskins (the ultimate "win now" expression) and then to deal front-line starting pitching. Especially given that the NL Central seems easily winnable. I would think that a measured view of Cease's value, the asking price and a presumed intra-division "tax" makes signing him improbable. My guess (not that I like it) is that this team is pretty fully formed. I would be shocked if the payroll out of the blocks exceeds $120 million, so any further maneuvering will be predicated on the ability to move Kepler and/or Vasquez. To be clear, these wouldn't be my choices. One of my frustrations with this front office (and there are many) is their lack of accessibility to the media. The only time Falvey is interviewed is with one of the Twins friendlies who serve up more softballs than Jenny Lynch. It would be refreshening if he sat down with a Barreiro (the best interviewer in the TC for my money) or someone of that high impartial quality and discussed honestly the state of Twins nation.

Seth, I swear you must know more about the Twins minor league system than most people in the FO. One of the frustrations of the team must be their, shall we say, modest success in developing pitching internally. They seemed very heavily staffed in Ft Myers around pitching which perhaps speaks to that. Do you know how the Twins compare to other clubs in this regard? Staff, protocols, development philosophy ? Just curious. Ps. Keep up the good work.

Golly. I am trying to be nice. There is a million miles between "making policy" (whatever that means) and approving an initial plan of reorganization. The judge's responsibility is to maximize the value of the estate for the benefit of the creditors pursuant to plans of reorganization put before the court. At times, the company's plan is counter to that goal. In that case, the court has a duty to reject that plan in favor of competing plans advocated by other parties. But whether this plan is approved or not, as my grandmother would say" what does that have to do with the price of tea in China?" Twins fans don't care about us debating our jurisprudence bona fides. They care about watching the Twins easily and at an easy price. I would guess Amazon's interest here is very specific; attaching themselves to the surviving (non- rejected) Bally contracts. I see no other reason why they would need or want Bally's. So whether all of this means anything to the Twins and the broadcast of their games is unclear. Maybe it provides a 2024 solution. Maybe not. But I will be shocked if it is at a price that the Twins like very much.

As far as I know, no plan of reorganization has been approved by the bankruptcy court, so this leverage you speak of is specious. Even if it is approved, I would say that it only elevates Bally to, once again, the position of a viable option. The Twins made a mistake. They didn't see the collapse of cable and the RSN model coming and it caught them flat footed. Why is all this happening? There is a bigger picture issue here. The Twins/MLB can't figure out to replicate the revenue streams they enjoyed from cable bundling. To replace $55 million net you likely need $65 million gross. Can the Twins find 650,000 households to pay $100 each to watch their games? I don't think they can. In fact, I don't think they can come close. If you slap the games on a new or existing streamer (Amazon) you still need to recreate the revenue stream. How many non-Twins fans want their Amazon bill to go up because the games are now on there? The technology to view the games is not the gating factor. Right now, the math is.

It is disappointing that this discussion has devolved into a rant about millionaires and billionaires. Insert any other group into the discussion, that "they" "always" or "never" do this or that and see what reaction you get. I will tell you that millionaires and billionaires are like everyone else. Ten percent are saintly, ten percent are the devil and 80 percent are somewhere in between. But the notion that they have a herd mentality bifurcated by three 000s is equally ridiculous and funny. Casual empiricism would tell me that historically 80% of the stuff written about Joe Mauer on this forum has been negative. All based on his money and hamstringing the team financially into disappointing results. (Like any one person that wrote that stuff would have turned the money down.) Now that he is headed to Cooperstown, he has always been our guy. Perhaps this is my favorite passage of the week (see above) "The Twins are running out of options and running out of time. Diamond and Amazon have maximum leverage against a team desperate for cash. " (This may or may not have been written by clickbait AI. ) I am pretty sure this would be news to the folks at One Twins Way. I would guess the club doesn't need to make one penny from media this year and the Twins/Pohlads will be just fine. I would tell Mr. Labuza and Mr. Bonnes that if you want to write about finance and bankruptcy particulars then know something about them or consult someone who does. I realize that this isn't the Wall Street Journal but do we want to have grownup discussions or not?

I used to deal with bankruptcies professionally. Now I know how a doctor must feel when they watch Grey's Anatomy. Holy smokes. But it means we are getting Jordan Montgomery, right? I'm amazed you don't save this good stuff for the Patreon feed.

I understand Keri's reaction completely. Kenny Benkowski passed away last year. He was 85. Kenny was better known by his professional wrestling nom de guerre, Kenny Jay. Jay signed on with the AWA in the 60s as a “jobber.” A jobber is the wrestling equivalent of the Washington Generals. They are paid to lose. If you were good at it, you were a “carpenter.” Kenny was a highly skilled carpenter. He managed to look like he was in every match, right up to the moment that time considerations required that he throw it. He often wrestled “heels” or bad guys. Typically, these loses involved some dastardly hijinks by his opponents. But he also lost to the “faces” or good guys. Here, he lost fair and square, if you forget that it was rigged in the first place. He was the ultimate non-discriminatory tanker. He lost to, amongst many others: the Bruiser, the Crusher, Andre the Giant, both Vachon brothers, Verne Gagne, Verne’s kid Greg, and another Minnesotan with another made-up ring name, Jesse “The Body” Ventura. He was invariably announced by the ring announcer before matches as “the very capable Kenny Jay.” Capable is typically a complimentary word. Not to me. It’s been tainted forever.

Provus is great. I am happy that he got the chair. Morneau seems like he is on an endless strong of first dates. He feels the need to talk incessantly, often with very little to say. The beauty of baseball on television is that the game often paints a picture itself. Constant chatter can be unnecessary and annoying. Justin must think he is paid by the word. Morneau also suffered in comparison to Plouffe last year, who was considerably better. Early on in the year, Dick seemed unaware of Trevor's prominence in the podcast world and annoyed by his presence. He was often banished to the cubby by the dugout. The whole thing was actually hilarious at times. Some day a book will be written on Gladden. How he made it to the Twins HOF despite a replacement player career. How he endured for years and years in the broadcast booth despite lacking skill, humor, knowledge or even a rudimentary command of the English language. I will sleep overnight at a book story to get the first copy. The explanation for all of this will be the greatest story ever told.

If his name was anything else, I might agree. But there is too much pain and history here over squandered opportunity. Sometimes you just need to divide up the albums and move on. Great job as always Seth. With the proliferation of sports streaming (you can watch squirt hockey for goodness sakes), is there any thought to the Twins streaming more minor league games? The technology is so darn cheap now. College kids would probably do it free for the experience. And let's face it, free and cheap are the FO's two favorite words. :)

I would just put that in the category of "things we don't know".

We should be willing to trade every player always. Forever and ever, amen.

LA got Shohei Ohtani and Minnesota got Steve Miller (and fake Journey and a band TBNL). Such is life as a Twins fan. See you at the yard, Meat.

Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me ten times and shame on my parents for having me.

Julien would be gone because of analytics? To quote Mandy Pantinkin in the Princess Bride, " I do not think this word means what you think it means." If you Google what Moneyball means, you might find a picture of Eddie. He is the very essence of what Billy Beane saw before the rest of world did. A guy dismissed because of middling dee and average power but an on-base MACHINE. How a kid from French Canada grew into this is a head-scratcher but the way he grinds out at-bats is a marvel. It is like Beane invented him in a lab.

The number of responses here kind of made me chuckle. Paddack looked great for that flash last year but none of us have a clue what he will be in 2024. My guess is that around 120 innings of mid 4 ERA ball is the base case. But as the math guys would say, this comes with significant error bars. Injury prone, 2 TJs, but all the promise in the world. The enthusiasm around this topic might be attributed to hot stove cabin-fever though. Dear God. Give us something!!!!!!!!

Great satire is funny because it's edgy and close to the truth of what people say and do. We have all met a version of "Tom Hanson". I nominate this for the RandBalls Stu HOF. First ballot, yeah?

I really don't think there is a dark mystery to Falvey's comments. I believe that replacing the $54 million revenue shortfall from the Bally exit will be much more difficult than people realize. There is not another network willing to step into the void that I am aware of. Cable television is dead, man. They just haven't told the relatives yet. Ok just stream the game, you say. Well lets walk through those economics. The Twins have a rabid fan base but it's small. Will 250,000 people pay $200 a year to stream games? 500,00 @$100? That seems somewhere between formidable and pie-in-the-sky. Early on, ad revenue will be light and expenses will be considerable. Someone has to pay for the on-air talent, the trucks, the cameras, the travel. No doubt, advertisers will want proof of concept. (The MLB streaming service runs ad-free.) People yell "One year thing! CHEAP POHLADS!!!". I would calmly say back "Realistic Pohlads." The new-gen Pohalds are good (not great) owners who expect the Twins business model to carry its own weight. They are neither thieves (Oakland ) nor sailors on shore-leave spenders (Mets, Padres) and that is just fine. Despite the well-known Bally issue, you had pundits like Gleeman and the Geek just a few days before the Falvey reveal talking about a 2024 payroll of $154 (Gleeman) and $170 (Bonnes) million. I had the laugh of the year when John said the players should expect to get a cost-of-living increase. (That math should be run past the following three entities: the Fed, the folks dishing out diplomas at Carlson and reason.) One of Gleeman's many brags (he is becoming a drinking game) is that the FO listens to their podcast. So, I think Falvey was just trying to get ahead of those kind of expectations. To say "Hey, this Bally thing is a thing. Be a little patient. We are working on it."

Gray wanted to be a free agent and by all reports wanted to pitch in the south/closer to home. (I realize that St. Louis only checks Box B.) The only way the Twins were going to retain him was to outbid others and they are in no position to do that. (I think the implications of the RSN implosion is greater than people think and the hangover will last longer. But that is probably a discussion for another day. ) Maeda, at this point in his career, I think inarguably is only pretty good. Pretty good can be replaced. Of course, human nature is to yell at the FO for their inactivity to date. Let's wait for the dust to settle. We can decide in the spring if we really want to grouse.