bird

I'm not sure if the agent influenced Ricky more or if Ricky influenced the agent more, but it's very obvious that their PR skills were heavily influenced by Carl Pohlad. Such endearing fellas.

I'll take Chicago's and Detroit's to start the season too, alarp, who wouldn't? Just saying, give me two random injuries in the rotation for each team, and we might be singing a different tune.

That's a good question: What motivates a portion of the local populace to pay a premium over average MLB prices? The "ballpark experience"? And then, how much of the decline in ticket sales is due to price resistance versus an objection to an inferior product? Or versus a choice to spend entertainment dollars elsewhere, like at the movie house or Science Museum or Saints games?

I'm not so sure the conversation devolved at all, Mike. For a lot of fans, because of the sky-high prices, the topic of relative ticket prices isn't very relevant. The other factor you mentioned, the relationship between public subsidies of a stadium and the stadium ticket price may have some legs as a topic. Although not for this guy

That's about twice the cost of a movie experience after parking, etc. I know the Exectuive Director of a trade group regarding the movie theater business, and at least the affordability issue is on their radar. Not sure MLB is paying attention since right now they're swimming in cash.

Season tickets should not be part of any discussion about family affordability these days. It's become an absurd notion for 95% of families to consider it. I'm personally saddened, and have been for a long time, with how all of professional sports has "progressed." Please, just read post #12 from scottz above and tell me why what has happened is a good thing. It's a sad indictment, and there are times I wish the whole economic structure of pro sports would just come crashing down. And there's plenty of blame for this greed to be spread around, frankly. Certainly guilty are the owners, players and agents, politicians who push for subsidies, and fans who bitch up a storm when their team doesn't sign Greinke for $200 friggin' million. The whole system is insane. I'm one of the very fortunate ones who can afford to go to ballgames if I want. But I don't. And it hurts, believe me, to stay away, but in all honesty it's a stand I wish others would join me in taking.

True stuff, but who do you think will log more innings in the OF between Santana and Arcia? Please note you do not have the option here of answering "yes".

I think Gardy was fired. And past roster choices often gave us a lot worse youthful choices than Molitor has in 2016 with Santana and Arcia. For example, Aaron Hicks. If someone is going to convince me that the Twins have this faulty love affair with "veteran presence" as we see so often argued here, then someone needs to explain how Arcia and Santana made the team and the starting lineup LAST year before being exposed as "unreliable and inconsistent." Arguing that the Twins over-estimated Maestro and Schaefer, who were perhaps equally unreliable and inconsistent, doesn't support an argument that they have an irrational jones in favor of veterans or a negative bias towards youth or even inexperience. How would one explainn their confidence in Buxton going in to 2016, when the consensus on TD was that they needed to sign an experienced FA? I think all of these types of decisions are made with a fairly blind eye towards age, or even experience.

Baseball priced the average family completely out of the equation a long long time ago. They just ratcheted up the costs for the above-average family.

Molitor is making the call, and I agree with most everyone else that Santana and Arcia are overwhelming favorites. Molitor seems to absolutely love what he sees from Danny Santana. His comments indicate his belief that Santana will ultimately be an asset in the batter's box as well as in the more obvious ways. And I agree that Molitor's criteria for his 5th OF ( I think Santana will get the call to fill in more often than Ozzie) will be a bench bat, someone they can rely on to take competent AB's when called upon. Given Arcia's history of taking some pretty stupid AB's, I think he needs to continue to show the kind of transformation we've seen so far. He has the edge, and of course being out of options is his trump card. Neither Santana or Arcia stand a snowball's chance of slipping through waivers in my view. Molitor does not have a bias towards a "veteran presence", and frankly, I don't think this bias exists at all on the part of Ryan or anyone else still drawing a paycheck from the Twins. The bias is towards reliable, professional, consistent baseball, not tenure. Sweeney and Quentin are here in case Arcia reverts to his past knuckle-headed ways.

But what's Danny Santana's BAPIP?

Just read a blurb from a Chicago writer the other day saying Chicago team officials are suggesting that Carson Fulmer isn't on as fast a track as is perceived, and that he needs a full year of development time. Makes the Mat Latos pick-up all the more important as competition for their #4 and #5 slots, as the other contenders, Erik Johnson and John Danks, have scuffled a bit. I'm not so sure MICHAEL Fulmer isn't in the same boat for Detroit. If the division comes down to a war of attrition in rotations, maybe the Twins would fare better. In any event, the three prospects on this list most likely to seriously impact the season for their team are all Twins.

As a fan, I love Fangraphs. As for how much credibility one assigns to its content? To each his own. It seems to me that having a strong opinion about how much utility a MLB team might derive from Fangraphs is a bit presumptuous. I personally learn something from the site. My only criticism is related to how people mention projections and then misconstrue them as being more "reliable" (i.e. predictive) and more valuable that they actually are. My complaint is not with the content itself. One thing I found interesting was a couple of tweets, I think by a guy named Mike Newman, who was extremely critical of Farnsworth and what he published. He took special exception to what he claimed was Farnsworth's use and plagarization of scouting reports and videos that scouts had prepared and been paid pennies for, and turning them into free content on Fangraphs. Did others catch that?

" Count to ten, Brock. Breathe. Breathe." -- Ted Cruz

Farnsworth must just hate the Twins.

I get this, and maybe it's completely delusional wishful thinking on my part, but... I can see a scenario where one or more of our most expendable veterans pitches well enough to attract the attention of a good ballclub whose rotation gets decimated by injury. If Duffey, Berrios, and May all pitch well enough for long enough to earn Molitor and Allen's full confidence, I can picture a trade or two to make room for them. Obviously, Nolasco and Milone are the guys who come to mind. But somehow, I could see Santana being dangled too.

Huh? The Cubs' nucleus of home-grown talent is on average almost two years ahead of the Twins in terms of hitting stride, and there's more top-end talent to begin with. I'm a big fan of what the Cubs are doing. Let's hope that Buxton, Sano, Berrios, and company give us as much to get excited about and that maybe as early as next year, they will be projected to win the division.....you know, kind of my point?

When the Twins are so loaded with talent that the experts are picking them to win the division instead of predicting (projecting?) them to win 70-some games, get back to me. We're not where the Cubs are....yet.

It's going to be a riveting spring, with so many unanswered questions! What a treat. Meyer, Chargois, Burdi, Reed, Melotakis, Pressly, Tonkin, Graham, Rosario, Landa while they're in the big league camp. And Zack Jones when he's sent back to us by the Brewers as a nonrefundable return.

It is a two yr program. But what's the big deal with being held back twice? They MUST have been fond of Chief.

Yeah, I'll concede this point easily, but point out that the leak could come from Hunter's or Buehrle's agent. I'd suggest that as a slightly more likely source because of the potential benefit involved for the agent and his client. And for sure we agree on your last point. No rumors about Plouffe doesn't clearly suggest a whole lot. Ryan however did.

Can we just agree that the Twins are less likely to be the source of a rumor than the team on the other side of the matter? Can we also stop arguing that, because the Twins were the subject of one trade rumor, that it means they aren't closed-lipped in general? Can we simply acknowledge that sometimes writers speculate about a trade that has involved no talks between teams? Can we stop speculating, based on the absence of rumors, that the Twins made no calls, or took no calls about a player, when in fact we are clueless? Can we stop saying there are no excuses when something we want to happen doesn't happen?

Okay, Mike Sixel. One guy. And he's not sober.

Meaning that this constant talk about how the goalposts keep moving is an utterly false narrative that gets constant play, especially by you, my friend. Meaning, very very few people who have been regular contributors on TD have first said 2014, and then said 2015,.... and now say 2019..., which is the narrative you are trying to say is playing out. Meaning, from the very beginning, the Twins, and Ryan in particular, have been crystal clear and totally forthright in saying they're not going to take shortcuts and that it would take time. Did the Twins move the goalposts in your narrative? Meaning, we have the infrequent commenter who throws out a number....2017, 2018, 2019, whatever, and you immediately throw out this vague "moving the goalpost" thing, knowing that the shadow gets cast with the Twins in it, amiright?. The team was competitive in 2015, to the surprise of you and me both. For 2016, the range of predictions, after removing outliers, is probably a range of between 76 and 84 wins, wouldn't you say? I don't remember a single regular commenter predicting a division title in 2015, nor have I heard that prediction even once here on TD for 2016. Why would we talk about goalposts given this? Probably the closer thing to the truth about moving the goalposts would be to examine past attitudes towards the Twins farm system and how adamantly some people were saying only a couple years ago that the help that would eventually come from it would be puny compared to what we now are seeing, and to see how those same attitudes have understandably changed. Right? We're not seeing people going there, thank heavens. From my standpoint, "something has not gone wrong". Things have gone almost exactly as I thought they would. As a longtime buddy of mine, you first heard me describing this during their first 90-loss season. No predictions as to the timetable, just a happy witness to a long rebuilding journey with all its fits and starts and warts and mistakes and brilliant moves.

Common knowledge.