TNtwins85

Martin has always shown above average OBP in his college and minors career. That’s his game and you need guys like that. Especially if they bring average or above average defense.

I expect Martin to get a full run in LF. Rosen probably gets into LF and RF a couple days a week. If Martin can do what he did in august and September I’m good with those numbers and the stealing and D he brings. Being on base at a .365-.380 clip for sure helps this team no matter how many HR’s he hits.

A platoon with Clemens makes it almost seem like it could be a fit. If you squint really hard.

I love another perspective on a different facet of the new CBA other than the same old talking point of how a cap/floor magically fixes the game. Very interesting and something I will think about. Good article!

Yes!!!! Very interesting you were a union negotiator! Everyone seems to think a said system will fix it for the Twins without thinking 1. Now they are truly competing against 29 other teams. 2. Someone still has to be last. And 2a. A badly run organization could still be mired in decades of irrelevance without a true bonafide way to get out. Exhibit A: go ask the Lions until recently, the Browns and the Arizona Cardinals. Exhibit B: LA clippers, and the yes, the Minnesota Timberwolves until recently. There will still be badly run teams and to think the Twins benefit from said new system may be a dream. It’s gotten me plenty of thumbs down today only because I believe reality hit these people that a new system might be worse for the Twins. Lol

If I had a gun to my head and had to pick one I’d pick a floor for sure. But one doesn’t come without the other it seems. As so is the narrative I guess since a cap/floor is the ONLY way to fix something that doesn’t seem as broken as most make it out to be. Again as is life a few people/teams ruin it for everyone.

So more Severino type deals? Is that what grows the game and creates more parity? Or does it simply guarantee more overpaid , mediocre, aging veterans?

This seems reasonable. I would love for teams to be forced to show their developmental budgets and forced to spend a certain amount of their shared revenue on development. More prepared, developed and higher talent level prospects helps the game itself. Being forced to spend more money and forced to only spend a certain amount only forces mediocre players to be guaranteed salaries when a more talented player in the minors might not get the chance. Talent should be the goal. Not paying owners and mediocre players which is what a cap/floor system incentivizes. Am I the only one seeing this? Lol

Absolutely!!! When the league and players constantly claim it’s broken and repeat the narrative it’s inevitable to leak and spill out of regular peoples mouths. There’s probably a myriad of ways to fix a problem but if the talking heads repeat a narrative that’s what people hear and repeat.

???

My question is why does it strictly have to be a cap/floor system? Because this issue has been logically thought out or because that’s the narrative?

If teams are forced to spend on high, middle and lower tiered vets to meet a floor that definitely does not benefit younger more attractive in terms of potential and salary type players. Especially when they gutted the minors and the draft last CBA. They did get a higher minimum salary but at the detriment of thousands of players( due to less draft rounds and development leagues) and handfuls of minor league affiliates. Who does that help? Surely not young and upcoming talent. Squeezing teams that rely on young talent to keep up. Sound familiar to any big corporate models since the 90’s? This is a game between the MLB and MLBPA to guarantee more money for veteran players. Any other argument is moot as long as players and owners cry inequity.

So maybe only 10-15 teams could realistically compete for that players services?

But why would a player sign that when they know there’s 29 other teams to compete for their services guaranteed in free agency as opposed to maybe 10-15 now?

Would definitely lead to more than one league. This was tried numerous times in the late 1800’s/early 1900’s. Go watch Ken Burn’s “Baseball”. Definitely a good watch to understand the business structure of the game today.

Maybe. That’s not the focus though. In what article anywhere on this subject have you heard anything about fans/kids? Nowhere. The answer is nowhere. Which means they’re not thinking about what’s best for the fans, the kids or the game(young talent we could say). It’s what’s best for the players (high, middle and lower tiered especially) and the owners. Anything else is an after effect. Tell me when the last time was that a multi billion dollar conglomerate came and asked you what you thought about something……

I’ll be more excited to see how he plays against his own age. Not the fact the Yankees were gonna sign him for $5M and the Twins get him for $500K. My question . Is he good?

Yes!!!! It would guarantee it instead of providing a clear path out of mediocrity. A few terrible owners and bad teams are gonna drive the whole league into a lottery of decades of haves and have nots. No guarantee the Twins become a “have” in that system.

Good run teams will still be good run teams. Badly run teams could be mired more deeply to the bottoms of the league. A cap/floor system guarantees nothing but money to aging middle and lower tiered players and more money in owners pockets.

Oh it will be a mess! And it will be an unwarranted mess when logically it “could” be fixed without making a mess. But, it will be driven solely by the owners/players greed for who gets the money when the incentive structure should be centered around young talent. It is unlikely that young players will derive anything of substantial worth out of this deal just has always been the case. Once again big money to established players will flow to them and their middle and lower tiers buddies and less spots and money for younger talent. The owners will get more in their pocket by not having to spend as much and the revenue structure that will be changed lets them get more. Essentially the game will not change really.

The question is does money solve that whole equation or could young talent solve that equation?

As long as the owners and star players make the most money they don’t care. Both sides are selling a bag of goods to the media and fans without actually fixing the structure which is probably more complicated but fixable without the magic bean of a CAP/FLOOR. Lol, when you look through the veil a cap/floor system doesn’t address many things in the game. The disparity could be fixed with a different draft compensation system along with a development mandate. Which would incentivize lower market teams to collect and develop younger talent. Shifting money from old players to young talent while also implementing an international draft for players who are 18 and not 16 would push younger more accurately scouted talent to the lower market teams. This is a talent issue. Not a money issue. It can be fixed by fixing who receives the most young talent as that’s the real currency of the league. “Young” talent. That’s not what owners or rich players want. To them they sell a “ Who gets the money” bag of tricks and sell it in the media and that gets repeated until fans start garbling the same message. I believe this can be fixed but my definition of fixing the game and the players/owners definition are massively different.

Everyone around here consistently thinks that the Twins are gonna come out of this salary cap/ salary floor situation showered in gold but they forget one thing. If everyone is spending the same that creates more competition. Which means you’re not gonna have your teams to beat up on. With a salary cap there’s gonna be less incentive for teams to lock up and sign players to massive long term deals which means more player movement. Your jersey of X star player will be less relevant. Which also means your star player probably gets traded away to maximize the cap/floor. Teams at the top of the cap take advantage of teams with more cap by unloading high priced aging players to sign younger players. If teams like the bottom dwellers are going to spend like the middle tier teams it creates less spots for younger more exciting players which ultimately makes the game “older.” Unless the drafting and development structure is also changed it could lead to longer term irrelevance. There won’t be a super rookie who can come in and jumpstart a franchise right away like the NFL/NBA as it still takes years in the baseball structure. It will create less avenues for younger players to come in. Also, just like in the NFL and NBA you’re still gonna have teams like the Arizona Cardinals, the Lions until recently and the Browns. Teams like the Clippers, the Hornets/Bobcats and yes until recently 20 some years of irrelevance from your own Minnesota Timberwolves in the NBA. With that in mind if the structure is somewhat the same which is what everyone seems to want it seems teams on the wrong side of the coin seemed to be forever mired in decades of terribleness. Even in this magical Narnia scenario where everyone thinks that their team comes out better there still seems to be teams that never cross that threshold and feed off the bottom for 5,10,15 years. That could be the Twins. It could make it harder for teams to rebuild with younger players and accomplish a turnaround as their forced to sign players to simply be over the floor. All I’m saying is that everyone seems to look at a cap/floor as something that helps the Twins, but maybe they turn into the Browns and the Timberwolves. Then what do you do? Shout from the mountains that the system isn’t fair once again? Once the genie is out of the cap/floor lamp you’re never putting it back in. Be careful what one wishes as your Twins could become the Browns. Good run teams will still be good run teams and badly run teams may be really bad for decades as evidenced in the other sports. The Phoenix Coyotes were once a team as well. With all the praising of the cap/floor system your Twins could become the next Browns, Lions, Clippers or Timberwolves and an ownership group will convince the league that baseball is unsustainable in Minnesota. Also, new owners can always be worse. That’s a thing. Just as this could be a great thing for the Twins it could be a nail in the coffin for Minnesota baseball. A massive change in a CBA creates changes good and bad. The league and MLBPA will always sell you the good but they will never tell you the bad. Especially when professional sports more and more mirrors large corporate America.

I’m in the same boat as far as a high walk rate in the minors and questions about contact. I guess that’s why I don’t see him as the super prospect some do. Once he gets attacked on the corners and by major league quality breaking balls I’m not sure that walk rate holds up. I think a super utility OFer is his future and he could succeed. Kinda like a RH Willi Castro who only plays OF. Idk. I’m just not impressed by Mr. Rodriguez

Doesn’t need to be a narrative or the front office showing their hand. Simply informing fans of what the direction is and how that will be accomplished and being honest goes a long way to giving fans something to look forward to.