Sousy

Given the market, there's no way an elite starting pitcher signs a contract like this.

Buxton's view of this has always been pretty clear: I want to be here, I want you to invest in my future. There's a lot of reasons that Buxton should be angry enough to want to leave - but now the Twins have made the commitment he wanted all along. Here's hoping it all works out. Related: now that this is settled, where's the best place to buy an eleven year old a Buxton jersey for Christmas? ?

I don't think we know yet - it all depends on Lewis' recovery and how his play continues to develop. Something we've learned this year: you just can't have enough middle infield / centerfield depth. Hopefully Lewis stays on track to be a dependable everyday shortstop.

WE GET BUXTON FOR CHRISTMAS!!

I like that idea, which Buxton himself seemed to be open to. The question is how much is 60 games worth in guaranteed money, considering we've said Josh Donaldson is worth $20-ish (don't recall the exact number offhand) million a year. There are already many arguments about how even half a Buxton has proven the worth of a full Donaldson, and I'm largely in agreement.

I think he's excited about staying because Baldelli has allowed him to play the game he wants to play and is someone that can understand (and coach) a player that has struggled with injuries. Of all things this year, I was most impressed with how Baldelli handled a frustrated Buxton who was upset when he thought he was 'good to go' after the hip injury.

Carl made his fortune largely in buying and selling debt. Small banks in the Midwest during the 1980s farm crisis meant foreclosing on a lot of small farms and profiting. I don’t know if you’d classify that as nasty, but no one has clean hands in those scenarios.

This is interesting. Certainly a big name - I'm not sure what to think at this point.

If Taylor Rogers is available, I’m on board just for the gimmick.

The whole situation is funny in a way because it certainly led to the most awkward five hour drive in history.

My memories of the Metrodome have a few different phases: 1. As a kid, the place seemed like magic. Baseball games with dad / uncle / occasional school group because the knothole prices were cheap. At that age when major league baseball was special, the Metrodome was special. I even remember watching the Timberwolves play their first NBA games in the Metrodome, though upper deck seating for those games wasn't great. I think Michael Jordan was playing in one of those games, but you couldn't really see anyone's jersey or have any idea who was going in and out on that basketball court way down there.... 2. As I got older, so did the Dome. After the '87 and '91 teams when Minnesota baseball went into a decade long slump everything just felt worn out and tired about the experience in the Dome. The lackluster baseball probably had a lot to do with it, and by the time the late 90s rolled around "fun" was in St. Paul; the Dome felt empty and kind of sad in comparison. 3. The Dome also had the memories of trips to see Iowa @ Minnesota football games, when the Dome was a giant roadtrip for Iowa football fans. Of course, said roadtrip also meant the Metrodome became a code word for joking about idiots realizing that you can't take the goalposts out of an indoor stadium, or drunken bathroom trysts. (I've been in those bathrooms - yuck city.) 4. The stadium fights. The Metrodome became a symbol of all the things that didn't work by trying to keep the Vikings happy, the Gophers happy, the Twins happy... and no one was happy. All in all, I have a certain nostalgia for things that happened there - but I don't really have a nostalgia for the place itself.

This is one of those chicken-and-egg problems. It's been a long time since all playoff games were on free TV, whether that's due to revenue or viewership concerns (i.e. 'which comes first'?) One thing we did find out earlier in the year: MLB handling an 'event' can produce a lot of viewers (5.9 million tuned into the Field of Dreams game) and that people love watching the playoffs. * Further down the article it notes viewership numbers of games broadcast on FOX (the only over-the-air broadcasts of MLB) and the numbers don't seem to be much greater or different than what seem to be expected for cable TV broadcasts. * I imagine these viewership numbers are going to be the primary argument for an expanded playoff field, but there's also not a lot of evidence that expanded playoffs lead to better ratings. What does seem to lead to better ratings: having the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers in the playoffs.

It seems that signing a full-time DH is (and should be) on the bottom of the priority list. Next year they'll be in a position (assuming no trades / moves) there are several players that could rotate in and out of the DH slot; and having that spot for players to rotate in and out of in order to allow for a bit of rest without being out of the line up was a pretty good feature in the last half of the year. * Donaldson struggled with being an 'everyday in the field' guy with leg issues; being able to rotate to DH was huge. Being able to rotate Miranda into 3B would be helpful. * Sano is a guy that has struggled with particular scenarios, and it seems that Kirilloff is waiting in the wings to take up some time at 1B, if not become a full time 1B / OF player. * Arraez was in a few spots where having his bat was great, but having his knees in the field full time wasn't. Short story: I like Cruz, would love to see him come back in some role if the desire is there, but it's certainly not something the front office should (or would) put a lot of time / money / priority into.

I can imagine a few different cases happening: 1. The leagues offer a cable package similar to a "Bally Sports North" type of thing. This would obviously be heavily discounted from what exists today that is aimed at capturing the casual / non-streaming viewer. That's still a pretty large audience that they won't want to abandon. 2. There will be some games that will be given to national broadcasters as exists today - there's ESPN games, FOX games, what have you. 3. There's a single product (maybe branded in a way like MLB.tv, NHL.tv was essentially the identical technology base) that a dedicated fan can simply subscribe to for either a team or the entire league just like the offerings today. The big difference is not having blackouts - you just subscribe to "MLB, NHL, NBA" or some combination of the three as a package deal. I can see the leagues working from the point where they are now in concern that the broadcasters, agreements, etc. that are in place now are making it too hard to actually view the games. I can see them adding a bunch of premium services, different tiers, etc. - but I can't seem them making it harder to watch the product. (Remember how well having all the 1991 North Stars games on that weird PPV thing went?)

Oddly enough, this sounds just like the TV deals that were put in place in the late 80s / early 90s. The difference here seems to be the leagues themselves wanting to originate content rather than relying on some other TV provider. (That eventually lead to the consolidation of the 'Fox Sports Net' and such.)

As a comparison, MLB lists a yearly subscription for today’s MLB.tv at $139.00 / year. (Though I’ve never paid full price because of the usual 1/2 price offers.) I could see MLB offering some kind of streaming package for that amount (or realistically more) with carve outs for national games, playoffs, etc.

Right - the hard part is finding a landlord that is friendly to the idea of a renter being in and out, and only renting for a few months at a time, maybe less depending on players being moved from A -> AA -> AAA... and putting it on a player to figure out all of those moves. The Twins might be in a somewhat decent position with having onsite dorms in Fort Myers, and what has to be pretty cheap housing / cost of living scenarios in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Wichita, Kansas.

I dunno - I kind of read that as being something along the lines of MLB selling a streaming 'baseball' service that would make MLB.tv a single subscription for any game. The technology for that is certainly already there. The only problem is that MLB selling streaming access to games suddenly makes the RSNs much less valuable in the eyes of cable carriers, which will certainly reduce the amount they are willing to pay for carriage fees. Why charge the HGTV / Food Network only crowd for local market baseball games? MLB stands to gain in better control of the distribution of the product, MLB stands to lose on the revenues in the current cable package market. Hopefully the latter doesn't make the former hard to swallow. It feels like it's a future they need to prepare for anyway.

100% in agreement. I've never really understood the "don't plan to compete" especially when the core of the current team (especially in the lineup) is certainly capable of being a competitive team in the AL Central. Even in the expanded playoffs this year, the Red Sox are a team no one had pegged into one of these 'competitive windows', but being in the right place and getting hot at the right time can go a long way.

That's the Joe Mauer deal. That's why I'm a little surprised that the contract news from earlier this year that Buxton seemed happy with in terms of guaranteed money was a little surprising. Maybe the incentives didn't add up to Mauer money, but I'd argue that: * Even a 1/2 time Buxton would be worth that supposed $8-9 million in guaranteed money. * A healthy Buxton is just as (if not more) valuable to the team that Joe Mauer was when he signed the big money deal.

I'll keep an eye out for it - in most cases I've noted the page stops rendering altogether. It will time out after a bit, but you're left with a mostly blank screen.

I thought I'd mention this in case anyone else is experiencing it - I've not been able to open an individual post / thread on a mobile browser for about a week or so. For whatever reason, I can 'touch' a thread title (or blog post title) and it does nothing but freeze the browser. I haven't investigated to see if there is a blocking JavaScript process or some other error happening. It's pretty consistent on Google Chrome running on my iPhone 8.

Where the 'metrics' have impacted the game has been the ability to train for small improvements. Old days: "If you want to really sneak one past Babe Ruth, you gotta pitch low and put a little english on the ball." Today: "If you want to really sneak one past Babe Ruth, we've analyzed that his contact percentage on low and away breaking balls is 27% less, and we've determined that if Bob Pitcher wipes his forehead twice, touches the rosin bag once then sets his shoulder to a 27 degree angle on the windup the low and away pitch breaks at a 55% faster rate." The ability to train and coach for those kinds of scenarios can make a big difference over the course of a game. For whatever reason in the pitcher vs. hitter scenarios, the small improvements - even without sticky stuff - seem to favor the pitchers more than the batters in 2021.

Also, in looking up the people that work in those functions for the team, I am super amused that Mitch Garver has a LinkedIn profile. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitch-garver-028910a0

This is one of those things I never really thought about, but of course the team has a dedicated technology / operations group to support the organization. Just where are the team offices actually located?