Bradfoot

I think the Twins will continue to play like they have been and finish at or slightly above .500. The question is will that be enough. The division is awful and will likely be up for grabs until the end. The new playoff format might be interesting this season though. As things are right now, the lowest seed in the AL (Rays) would play the 3rd seed (Guardians/Twins) while having a better record than them. If they win that game, they would face the 2nd seed. On the other hand, the first wild card team or 4th seed (Blue Jays) would face the 5th seed (Mariners) that currently has 3 more wins than the 3rd seed then play the 1st seed if they move on. It seems like the 6th seed will have an easier path than the 4th seed because of the weak Central division.

They exceeded the threshold last season so they aren't completely against going over. They will probably need to reset that soon though and will probably push to next season. They can opt out of the Wil Myers contract (20M) and the contracts are up for Sean Manea (9.7M), Mike Clevinger (8M), Stammen (4m), and Johnson (3M). If they fill out the rotation internally, which they probably can, they might be close. It will probably be another offseason of them trying to ditch the Hosmer deal. After this season it drops to 13.63M per year so it might be a little more manageable to get rid of if they can get him to agree to it.

Hosmer is not included

Padres would pay the Hosmer Contract for 23, 24, and 25. The Nationals would only pay the remainder of this years salary of the deal. Not a bad player to have playing for free.

I don't think the trade calculators are capable of valuing a potential future trade properly. For instance, Miami does not need to trade Lopez. There is no urgency for that. Larnach and Steer may seem like an even trade to the calculators but does that trade value convince Miami to sell someone that they have no reason to sell? I don't think so. I think a seller trading a highly regarded player with 2.5 years of cheap control would be reasonable to expect to "win" the trade by a fairly wide margin. It would take more than Larnach/Steer to get Lopez.

I don't really see Miami parting with a great starter that still has 2 full years left. They could find a corner outfielder of Larnach's caliber much easier than replacing Lopez. They want to be competitive next season and I believe Lopez would be a big part of that. I think odds are better of them finding an extension for Lopez in the next 2.5 years instead of trading him. I could see him getting a deal similar to what they gave Sandy Alcantara last offseason, buy out the arb years and get 2-3 additional years.

The 13th ammendment does have to do with this since you saying the consequence of breach of contract is forced servitude. The 13th ammendment does not allow that behavior. If there was a breach of contract it would be more of a early termination fee or barring him from working for a competitor which I don't think they can do in this case since it is not another pro baseball team. Finding a substitute is nowhere close to impossible. Even if the Twins did not promote the most logical person (the assistant), there are hundreds of candidates available. If the Twins wanted to go the college route again they can talk to any of those that just finished their season. There are also hundreds of past pitching coaches out of work, former players that would like an opportunity to coach, etc. Making the argument that Wes Johnson is the only person in the world that can be our pitching coach next week is not at all true. "During a pennant race" is also not true. We have not met the halfway point of the season yet. He cannot be forced to finish the season, there may be a penalty for ending the contract early but there is no legal method of forcing him to coach the remainder of the season against his will.

The 13th amendment specifically says Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except for a crime which they have been convicted, shall exist in the United States of America. Employment contracts are not fully enforceable, there may be penalties for breaking it or non-compete clauses but that would depend on the contract. Even if the team doesn't give their blessing, the player or coach can absolutely leave. In most cases they would only forfeit the remaining money and not be able to sign with another team in the same league for a set period of time. Since the NCAA is not affiliated with the NFL or MLB in any way, the NFL and MLB don't have any say in who is hired by NCAA. A non-compete clause would not be applicable in this move since he is not moving to another MLB team. The Twins are not in competition with LSU.

You can't fault the guy for making what he must feel is the best decision for himself and his family. As we have seen many times, the teams don't show much loyalty when the team is under performing or if a better opportunity is available.

I watched a couple of those White Sox games against Cleveland. Some of the sloppiest defense I have ever seen. Dallas Keuchel must be frustrated that he got charged for 8 runs when his infield was booting groundball after groundball. They were very generous with the hit ruling in that one.

The Microsoft Mariners of Seattle and the U.S. Bank Twins of Minnesota will play a 3 game series at T Mobile Park. The first pitch is brought to you by Arby's "they have the meat." Lets take a look at the starting lineup brought to you by..... Theres the 3rd out brought to you by All State, "you're in good hands." Now lets pause for 3 minutes of uninterrupted advertising.

Ditch the DH. Every position should hit and every hitter should be able to field a position. If you want Nelson Cruz's bat you have to have Nelson Cruz's glove.

With this small of a sample size it is pointless to analyze batted ball data, 4 batted balls without a hard hit would make Larnach's 50% hard-hit rate become 38%. But since we are playing this game, it is curious that you highlighted Larnach and not Nick Gordon. His sample size is even more ridiculous at 6 events (compared to 14 for Larnach) but I wouldn't have bet they would average over 95MPH. Nick Gordon - Average Exit Velocity 95.7 (3rd on Twins), Hard-Hit rate 66.7 (14 plate appearances) Trevor Larnach - Average Exit Velocity 88.4 (11th on Twins), Hard-Hit rate 50 (19 plate appearances)

Perfect games and No hitters are romanticized feats hyped up by the sports media. Are they cool and impressive? Absolutely! Do they mean anything in a team's quest to win a championship? No! Any team trying to win a championship should be focused on the big picture and protecting an injury-prone pitcher in his first start of the year, after a weird Spring Training schedule, on a cold day, and with a huge lead makes perfect sense to me. I support the Dodgers decision.

I'm alright with their decision to pull Kershaw. He has been getting a reputation as an injury risk for the last few years. Might as well protect him when it is this early in the year, after a weird spring training schedule, a cold day, and staked out to a 6 run lead. They are absolutely right to take the whole season as the big picture instead of focusing on a single game achievement. His health for the next 6 months is much more important to their World Series asperations than a perfect game.