Otto von Ballpark

That's a good point. And I just realized that Hulu Live TV doesn't let you skip commercials in DVR recordings either, unless you pay $10 for "Enhanced Cloud DVR", at which point it is the same price as YouTube TV. So I updated my original post. (At least the DVR commercials shouldn't mess up your screen like they do in the on-demand content -- they should just be the same commercials that were in the original broadcast.)

How to watch the Twins in 2020 (Besides being 6 feet away from anyone and wearing a mask. ) This post is about streaming video. There are a lot of options now for cord-cutters (those without cable/satellite TV service). I will limit this post and its discussion to legal methods, though -- feel free to private message me otherwise. First and foremost, you should know if you are in the Twins TV market or not. This will determine MLB.TV blackout policy. Enter your zip code at this link to check: https://www.mlb.com/live-stream-games/subscribe#blackout-restrictions The Twins local blackout areas are all of Minnesota, Iowa, and both Dakotas, plus parts of east-central Wisconsin. Outside the Twins TV market: Get MLB.TV! You'll only be blacked out of the national TV games (only 2 on the Twins regular season schedule right now) and any games where the Twins play the team in your local market. (You may be able to temporarily subscribe to one of the services below, with a free trial even, to fill in those gaps. Or listen to the radio streams, which are not subject to blackout.) MLB.TV is $60 for this short season, less 35% if you are student or military -- or better yet, free if you are a T-Mobile customer (or know a T-Mobile customer!) through August 3rd: https://www.t-mobile.com/mlb Inside the Twins TV market: A couple years ago, there were 6 streaming services that carried Fox Sports North. Now we're down to 3: Hulu Live TV, YouTube TV, and AT&T TV Now. (Although a few years before that, there were zero, so it could be worse!) Hulu Live TV: Currently the cheapest and most widely available way to get Fox Sports North in the Twins TV market is through Hulu Live TV at $55 per month. It looks like they cover pretty much the entire Twins MLB.TV blackout area. You can verify that Hulu Live TV will carry FSN for you by entering your ZIP code here: https://www.hulu.com/live-tv#allchannels YouTube TV: Some folks prefer YouTube TV although its price recently jumped to $65 per month, and it no longer carries FSN in Iowa. You can enter your zip code here to check: https://tv.youtube.com/welcome/ AT&T TV Now: Finally, there's AT&T TV Now, which is $80 per month and again doesn't seem to offer FSN in Iowa. At that price, I won't bother linking them. All 3 offer "cloud DVR" so you can record games, although Hulu Live TV charges $10 extra ("Enhanced Cloud DVR") in order to skip commercials. All 3 offer 1 week free trials for new customers. All 3 also offer national games on ESPN, FS1, and TBS, although notably Hulu Live TV does not carry MLB Network (which doesn't generally have any exclusive games in the regular season, but did have one last postseason). In-Market wildcard: Fox Sports Go You can't subscribe directly to it, but the Fox Sports Go website and apps allow you to sign in with a supported pay TV login and stream FSN (as long as you are in a location where that pay TV provider offers FSN). All 3 of the above pay TV services, plus many cable/satellite providers, support Fox Sports Go. This is especially useful as these pay TV providers limit how many devices/locations can watch simultaneously, but Fox Sports Go streams don't count against those limits. You can see all of the supported providers and sign in to Fox Sports Go here: https://www.foxsportsgo.com/register#more Summary Use MLB.TV if you can, Hulu Live TV if you just want to watch live or you are in Iowa, YouTube TV if you want to time-shift (record the game and skip commercials), and don't be afraid to use pay TV credentials with Fox Sports Go. Feel free to share your baseball streaming experiences in the comments. Happy streaming!

As noted above, the promotion is live now. You can redeem it anytime through August 3rd. For the Athletic subscription, note that it is technically a "free trial" so you'll sign up for a new account during the redemption process. You also have to provide payment info, although you can cancel the subscription immediately to prevent it from auto-renewing while still keeping your free access active for the next year.

We could get Edward Mujica back out of retirement — he was the ultimate bullpen “sleeper”: https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_901616

If you're only considering the cheapest admission into home games, I suspect it was always more affordable to get into the Metrodome than to pay a monthly cable or satellite bill (generally the only way to watch every Twins games in-market on TV back then).

By Fangraphs, Dozier was about a league average player in 2019, but by B-Ref, he was 1 win below average. And he was also about 1 win below average at both sites for 2018 too. At age 33 now, right-handed, and having not playing a position other than 2B in 8 years, I'm not sure how helpful that is to any team. There will be worse performers in MLB this season, but contenders like the Twins want to aim for better production than that; and rebuilding clubs want to give the playing time to someone younger, or someone more flexible -- someone with a future or at least with more potential to be flipped to a contender in trade.

The radio-only option is nice. There is a $3 monthly option too, handy for this short season. It also includes video highlights and condensed games through the phone app, but worth noting those videos are also free to anyone to watch on the website: https://www.mlb.com/live-stream-games Those videos are also free through TV apps (Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV, etc.) if you sign in with a free MLB.com account.

Your "number of fans" data is suspect. In terms of attendance, MLB attendance has been falling, but I think that's primarily because the new ballpark boom has dramatically slowed in the past 10 years. The attendance levels from 1990-2010, with a new park replacing an antiquated every year on average, probably wasn't sustainable. FWIW, apparently NFL attendance has been falling recently too: https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2020/01/03/nfl-attendance-hits-a-15-year-low/ but admittedly it's more of a TV game. And in terms of TV viewership, local MLB TV ratings are actually doing quite well, and given the differences in the sports/schedules, that's probably a better relative gauge of baseball's popularity than national TV ratings. Baseball will probably never do that well as a national TV sport again, due to the nature of the game (long season/series rather than single weekend events) and the expanded options of the modern media landscape. It doesn't mean the sport or its management is somehow flawed because of it.

Bump! This deal is coming back next Tuesday, July 21st, 2020. It now covers both T-Mobile and Sprint customers, thanks to their merger. Bonus: a one-year free subscription to The Athletic will also be available Tuesday.

Correct, although most MLB Network games are available on MLB.TV too. MLB Network exclusives that would be blacked out on MLB.TV are pretty rare — usually just a single postseason game, and then the rare game (on a weekday afternoon?) that isn’t carried by your local RSN but MLB Network picks up the away team’s feed.

Hulu Live TV could help. Looks like it would have all of those blackout games, except for the Tigers.

If you're in the Twins MLB.TV blackout area, you should be able to get the FSN games on Hulu Live TV. $55 per month, no contract -- with a one week free trial, you can probably catch the whole 2020 regular season for $110. A 6 month baseball season would cost $330. (If MLB.TV ever gets rid of blackouts, it will probably cost at least that much or more.) Unfortunately, there's really no way right now for MLB.tv subscription revenue to even come close to what the networks pay MLB for those exclusive local broadcast rights. And with everybody stuck at home and other entertainment options on hold, those rights are even more valuable for the TV networks right now.

Thanks for the tip! Quick question: if you log in to the Fox Sports Go website (or app) with your Hulu Live credentials in Iowa, can you watch Twins games and Fox Sports North content? And do you also see Fox Sports Midwest content there too? https://www.foxsportsgo.com/register

And then both benches will clear for a socially-distanced brawl!

Because Pineda's original suspension was reduced on appeal, he would have been eligible to play in the 2019 postseason if he had been able to complete his suspension beforehand -- that's specified in the agreement: http://twinsdaily.com/topic/34800-front-page-michael-pineda-suspended-60-games-for-banned-substance/?p=912047 And because he would have been eligible to play in those postseason games, they can also count toward his suspension.

Very late to the thread, but there are some pretty stark differences between service time and suspensions -- first and foremost, suspensions are meant to be punitive. Also service time affects all players, while suspensions currently affect only a very small handful. All of this suggests that the two things don't have to be considered equally. And while neither the MLBPA or MLB could have predicted a 60 game season when they signed the joint drug agreement a few years ago, they were very much aware of it this spring as they negotiated about how to handle a shortened 2020 season. The MLBPA likely prioritized service time and 100% prorated salary for all of their members over reduced suspensions for just a few, and it's hard to blame them for that decision. I suppose someone could ask the Twins MLBPA rep Taylor Rogers if they brought up the subject. And Pineda's "greater financial loss" in 2020 is no greater than any other player in the league. His games & dollars lost to the suspension remain exactly the same -- he's just lost the same additional games and dollars as everyone else due to the cancelled games. If you reduced his suspension now, one could argue that Pineda would actually be deriving a special benefit from the public health crisis that no other non-suspended player would be getting.

https://twitter.com/toreyvanoot/status/1266879267369091073?s=20

Yup. I don't mind baseball on AM radio at all, and of course there's always streaming the radio feed through MLB.TV, but it's often handier to listen offline to FM radio through my computer or Android phone.

Iowa fans, you can check out Hulu Live TV -- they appear to still offer FSN in Iowa (plus Fox Sports Midwest and Chicago sports stations). $55/month. You can double-check by clicking the "View all channels in your area" link on this page and entering your zip code: https://www.hulu.com/live-tv

Best as I can tell, Minnesota, the Dakotas, and parts of western Wisconsin will all continue to receive FSN on YouTube TV.

Yup, it looks like some may have celebrated too soon -- while YouTube TV has retained most of these Fox RSNs, they are apparently shrinking availability: A quick check of zip codes suggests that Iowa will no longer get Fox Sports North on YouTube TV (they'll just get the Chicago sports networks), sorry!

For those radio listeners in the Twin Cities, Twins games will be on both their flagship WCCO AM 830 and FM 102.9 "The Wolf" this season: https://twitter.com/Twins/status/1234855885765300225?s=20

Thanks for sharing! Looks like the only RSNs dropped were YES Network (Yankees) and Fox Sports West / Prime Ticket (Angels). Sticking it to the big market fans!

I don't think it's ever been reported that the Dodgers offered De Leon plus Alvarez and the Twins turned them down. Not that I'm faulting the Twins FO for anything in this sequence of moves, but it seems just as likely that the Dodgers saved us from that deal, rather than any kind of special insight from Falvey and Levine about these particular prospects. (Maybe with an assist from the Rays, who set the price for Forsythe at De Leon alone, which limited how much the Dodgers were willing to offer us for Dozier.)

I'm not sure it's that hard to believe -- it really just highlights the volatility of prospects (particularly pitching prospects). The same could be said of basically any trade where a top prospect gets hurt / doesn't work out. For a Twins example, at the time of the Span deal, there were probably quite a few lesser prospects available who would have ultimately represented a "better return" than Alex Meyer.