The Great Hambino

But he'll have a much tougher time chucking the ball out of the stadium in dead center in frustration after forgetting how many outs there were earlier in the inning (this actually happened)

I swear I've seen it before but I can't find it either. There's even a compilation of Hawk calling walk-off losses that doesn't include it. I don't know how that's possible. It does include a Mauer walk-off walk, so at least that's something

Disclaimer: my Twins memories begin with the 1991 World Series Highlights VHS (that baby should've won an Oscar and is available on Youtube). And this is favorites, not best C: Mauer 1B: Morneau 2B: Knoblauch (if you never heard anything about him after 1997, he was really fun to watch). If he's disqualified for his post-Twins-career shenanigans, then Dozier 3B: For one season, Sano's all-star year. For their Twins career, Koskie SS: Correa (that throw home might be the best sporting moment I've ever witnessed in person. And we at least got to pretend that we were a Big Boy Team for once when he signed) LF: 2019 Rosario, I guess (can Hunter slide over to left?). Maybe the chalk outline they put on the Metrodome wall for Butch Huskey CF: Buxton (close call over Hunter). Unlike Knoblauch, Puckett has more viable replacements behind him to make up for the post-career icky-ness of it all RF: Cuddyer DH: Cruz DH2: Thome (I don't care, I'm inventing the position for him, simply for shutting Hawk Harrelson up for an entire trip around the bases) DH (nice guy edition): I had a college football teammate get drafted by the Twins and spend a few years in their system (he's also now a surgeon and an incredibly nice guy. Some people are just good at everything, the jerk.) Anyway, he got a chance to meet major leaguers on rehab assignments every now and then. When Rondell White joined his team for a spell, he took the entire team out to dinner and couldn't have been more friendly and helpful. I felt that deserves a shout out here Utility: La Tortuga (the clip of him scoring from first against the Yankees was a modern art masterpiece) Backup C: Redmond (smell 'em) SP: Johan, Radke, Pablo, Morris, The Summer Of Liriano (I thought we were watching a mutant pitch that year) Closer: Guardado (Nathan was better, but Eddie was more fun to watch) Bullpen (nice guys edition): once upon a time, a 9 year old Hambino and his family road tripped to KC for a series against the Royals. For the first and only time, we tried to get autographs after the game. Little brother dropped his baseball and it started rolling toward the team bus. Out of nowhere, Rick Aguilera sprints after it, gets it before it disappears underneath, signs it, and hands it back to him. Also, Mark Guthrie made every extra effort to sign my ball even though my crappy pen wasn't working. Even wiped it off on his shirt. They didn't have to do these things, so they get a shout out here Bullpen (local guys edition): Neshek and his funky motion, Varland pitching like a wrestler, Perkins for reinventing himself so successfully as both an effective reliever and fun TV personality (my old college teammate also interacted with him when he was still a starter and on a rehab assignment, and let's just say the experience wasn't exactly the same as with Rondell White) Manager: Kelly (Cigar + Zubaz + Titles = GOAT) GM: McPhail (Ryan disqualified for not going for it at the 2006 deadline) Owner: N/A

I'd argue that you might find a better trade market for relievers at the deadline but in the offseason for starters. At the trade deadline, teams have only one way to improve their team (trades) and only one way to pay for it (prospects - you're not trading away major league contributors if you're in contention). So their capital available to use toward improving their team is limited and they must allocate their resources based on the needs of their roster. If a team is in strong contention, they probably have a pretty solid rotation - at least enough to fill out a shorter postseason rotation. Sure, everyone would like to upgrade, but they have to weigh the opportunity cost of not upgrading their lineup, for instance, at the expense of upgrading their rotation. There's a finite pool of prospects that can really move the needle that each team has, so they have to allocate wisely. So the pool of potential buyers for starters is smaller than the pool of contending teams, thereby shrinking overall demand for starters. On the other hand, every team could use an upgrade at reliever. So we see a lot more relievers moved than starters since the overall demand for relievers is higher, at least in quantity if not quality In the offseason, on the other hand, there are a) more potential buyers since more teams are plausible contenders and b) more resources available to acquire upgrades since free agency is available. Right now, quality free agent starting pitching is ultra expensive, so it's perhaps a more efficient allocation of resources to use prospects (or maybe even major league position players), and not dollars, to upgrade at starter. In addition, you don't have the same opportunity cost problem since using prospects to add starters doesn't prevent you from upgrades elsewhere - you can go shopping instead in the free agent market. Teams are also more willing to use major leaguers in trade for starters since they can be replaced with free agency - that's not an option in the middle of the season. As for relievers, they're so volatile year to year that it's tougher to make a bet on them in the offseason. Unlike at the trade deadline, where we have a better idea of who's good and who's not this year.

If they didn't do any meaningful buying at the deadlines in 23 or 24, I have no idea why they would be buyers now in the incredibly unlikely scenario where they're competitive this year

Re: Raiola, I'd imagine he's waiting to see what shirt Patrick Mahomes puts on next before making his decision

If that's the reasoning, I think it's a pretty risky bet He almost quite literally has nowhere to go but down. And even if he doesn't, is there any reason to think the Jets won't be picking high again next year, and with decreased chances that they had taken a QB this year?

Add in Sonny Gray, and the Cards are paying a lot of money for players to play for someone else.

Wow. Zac Taylor is now currently the only head coach employed by the AFC North Also keeps this impressive streak alive: the Steelers haven't fired a head coach since the AFL was still in existence

If they can't find a viable second location for expansion, I wouldn't be surprised if Nashville becomes what LA used to be for the NFL: the boogeyman that gets communities to shell out giant stadium subsidies under the threat of relocation. A whole lot of stadiums were built between the mid-90s and mid-00s (including markets like Cincinnati and Pittsburgh that are already smaller than Nashville), which means a whole lot of stadium leases are going to be expiring in the next 5-10 years

Someone once said that when a headline of an article or a news story asks a question, the answer is almost always "no". Oftentimes it's used to make baseless claims or accusations under the guise of "just asking questions". Sometimes it's used to manufacture a positive spin on a rudderless baseball franchise

Twins have shown interest* in Dominguez * - briefly, a month ago The fact that this even registers as reportable information tells you everything you need to know about the state of this organization's offseason. Get rid of Duran and replace him with an older, worse, likely more expensive version of Duran - I can't understand why anyone would ever doubt their stated intention to compete in 2026

He'd have been better off just staying in Carolina if we're going down that route

It's disappointing to me that everyone just defaults to 4-team divisions. They already have issues of imbalanced playoffs caused by weak division champions with 3 divisions per league; bumping that up to 4 only exacerbates the issue. You can justify it in football since the small number of games means you can't play everyone, so rewarding the champ of a smaller group that plays each other a bunch makes sense. With a bigger season and more balanced schedules, there's no need. If you want to have 4-team pods within an 8-team division for administrative purposes or identifying rivals that play each other a little more often, cool. But it can be like the NBA where the divisions technically exist but don't really mean anything

Which is why, for me, any "think of what the Vikes coulda done with Rodgers this year" argument falls flat. They would've had to ship him back from Europe in multiple pieces playing behind that empty husk of an o-line they were rolling out at that point in the season

I'd argue that 11/22/2012 was peak Jets

I wonder if he'd pair well with Kliff Kingsbury as OC. With the modest success he had with Kyler, I'd imagine he'd love to work with Lamar.

Wow, I really didn't think they'd do it

It's possible that at this stage of his career and after the Brinks truck he received from Atlanta, Kirk might be willing to trade off the guarantee of Day 1 starter status for a more realistic shot at a ring. If he limits himself strictly to places that will guarantee he's the starter, he's going to retire ringless. Personally, I don't think he has that mindset. But it's possible. I don't think being a bridge starter would be much of a limiting factor since he's definitely year-to-year at this point of his career. His days of multi-year guarantees are likely over

Fun fact: the Vikings ranked 27th in cap salary lost to reserve lists in 2025. Every team lower than them made the playoffs

I'm not. They made a horrible choice at QB in free agency, their best offensive player got hurt early in the season (and there's a steep drop-off to #2), and they traded their two best defensive players during the season. I don't know of any coach - in particular a first-time head coach - that could succeed even a little bit under those conditions. He deserves at least another year

The signing of Arcia in and of itself is not a problem. It is a no-risk, low-reward proposition. That's perfectly fine. The problem is where the signing of Arcia slots in the sum total of moves the Twins have made this offseason in order of importance given that a) they have so many areas in need of an upgrade b) their stated intention to not use any of their most valuable assets to find upgrades at those areas of need via trade and c) their stated intention to compete next year. It also looks sorta comically bad that the Twins have now invested in cast-offs that the Rockies (Arcia), Marlins (Wagaman) and Pirates (Kriedler) have deemed unworthy of a roster spot. Be on the lookout for who the White Sox DFA next!

I heard something somewhere that brought up a good point I hadn't thought of before: as sort of a supplement to the Rooney Rule, teams can now get compensatory third-round picks if they have a minority coach/exec hired to be a head coach or general manager elsewhere. For example, the Lions have an additional 3rd this year because Aaron Glenn got the Jets head job. With Flores, it would seem that the Vikes could be in line for a similar pick (technically a pick each of the next two years, I believe). However, his contract technically expired. From what I heard, the rules aren't clear how this situation would be handled. Could be an interesting development down the road

There's a nonzero chance they thought they were hiring Ozzie and are now too embarrassed to go back on it. Seriously though, if this is an attempt by them to address why they've been so bad at developing their own international free agents (seriously, it's been Arraez, Emma, and basically zilch else since their 2009 class), then I'm all for it

Yeah, imagine trying to contain Jackson while spread thin trying to defend a wide-open passing attack. If he stayed healthy, it could be like a video game