mikelink45

Wish I could understand professional sports economics, but even with an economics major back in the 60s I am so far from this reality that I can only shake my head. The egotists in NY have always disregarded the true economics of the game because they wanted to win. Who do we have with that mentality now? The silly thing is that baseball teams competed with themselves. How many teams were going to give Mike Trout, Mookie Betts, Gerrit Cole - you name them - $30 million a year? Those were ego contracts. The record is filled with Pujols types riding into the sunset on some huge and ridiculous contracts. The Rays have shown the way to cheap teams and so have the A's. But of course the billionaire owners smile on their way to the bank and that is the last thing I want to see. If the owners recognize that their teams are just a bauble in their bragging rights world then they can spend whatever they want. The difference is the commissioner who has less interest in baseball and more in the bottom line that anyone in recent memory.

Thanks for the note - watching the Dodgers get it done with both singles and HRs is exciting - just like Mookie stealing bases and moving around. The Dodgers have forced errors by being aggressive and so have the Rays. In their last win the Rays took to small ball and Phillips hit was 82 MPH - a ball does not have to have a massive exit velocity. We even saw a sacrifice bunt for a run in one game. I am a big fan of Arraez and I think his small ball makes a difference. I think ownerships statements after the playoff loss hint at getting some guys on base and moving runners along. I hope so. I even see statements on ESPN and Athletic hinting that the three outcomes are creating boring games. Since MLB wants fans in the stands shorter games with more action is what they need to find. The 100 mph pitch is hittable by mlb batters if they want to adjust - we see it all the time and that is about to level out. How much can an arm produce?

What is Tampa seeing in SLegers?

I would say good bye to all the players listed and to Littell. It is nasty, but the time has come to move and I think the Twins already indicated where they stand.

I do not see much value here when you look at the players like Smeltzer and Dobnak. Alcala is too good to trade. Stashak? Rogers on a down year and a half? It is those prospects that have the most value, but they are also what we need.

And now lets have a 30 man roster so we can keep adding more and more pitchers. In 2019 they played with the rule that allowed players to come up and down with the 10 day IR. That changed and rosters went up. RP having to throw so many innings in so many games wear out. I would prefer a 4 pitcher rule - choose four and that is all you have for a designated game until 10 or more runs is scored. Baseball is getting boring - give me a Koufax, Gibson...BP games are not for me.

I had an idea. What if someone got a hit, stole second - maybe third and someone else got a hit and they scored? In new school does that not count? What if someone got a hit, someone bunted and then a single brought them home? Does that not mean that the run scores? Do I have to wait for a HR? Should I look for a K instead of a sacrifice? Do I have to fire up the computer. What to do? No HR? We cannot score that way. We need HRs without runners on base because analytics say that is really the cool new way to do it. Let's eliminate the sacrifice, the bunt, the stolen base - I know they worked for 150 years but they did not have computers. Mookie Betts looks great, but what is he doing stealing two bases? Why would we hit to the weakness of a shift when we can score a high exit velocity on the ball we hit for an out? Why go the other way when we can get a launch angle? Doesn't exit velocity score us more points? Doesn't launch angle get us an extra mention on Sports Center? Don't we get more runs for a HR with more distance? What is it with the old school. Get a hit. Advance a base. Score. So boring. And then there are RBIs - who cares. No one is getting a hit other than a HR anyway so why worry about a batter who can actually bring that baserunner to home plate? Runs, RBIs, Batting average - so yesterday. And then there is pitching. We should all throw 100 mph because the batters can never adjust to that! Have them hit into a DP - what are you talking about it will impact my K/BB rate. The ERA is so old school lets just worry about K/HR. And starting pitchers who go into the later innings - why? So what if we need 43 RP to handle all the extra innings. We do not need Spahn, Marichal, Mathewson - they are old school. Lets just have 9 pitchers per game per team. Boy is that fun. No saves, no complete games, no dominating Sandy Koufax or Bob Gibson. Let's have a lot of Duffeys, Romos, Aaron Bummers - who? Yup. No more pitchers in the HOF. Who needs them? And, by the way, no more fans in the stands. Not because there is Covid, but because the game is getting so damned boring. As an addendum - game three of the WS - the Dodgers had long balls, but they also scored on singles, they had a bunt for a run, and they stole bases. When you blend old school with some new maybe the game can get fun again. Game 4 - Tampa Bay ties the series. Yes they got HRs, but a single and an error won the game. By putting the ball in play so many things can happen. It went for a single, it was dropped by the centerfielder and then the catcher - errors seldom happen on a K. Game 6 - Kevin Cash proved what I hate - Snell was upset and should be. He is an Ace and he was ready to be Jack Morris but the damn team policy removed the human element and the Rays deserved to lose.

An ankle injury is more serious than it might sound to those who have not had one. The bones and complexity of the ankle make the operations and recovery difficult. Let's see if this operation works - if Polanco is all-star form again this conversation is moot. So lets get a good option for the utility position in case the injury continues with him.

I join Linus is my concern. Looking at their numbers I am not impressed. Canterino looks like he has real promise. abato really has no numbers other than his draft status so I am not sure how to judge him. It is good that he is here. Enlow has been over rated for the last year or more. I just do not see him advancing for a very long time. And Cavaco has only his draft status to recommend him. He needs to show more. So if we eliminate the three above, who takes their places on this list?

I loved having Eddie and I wonder how many key hits he got - the ones that actually won games or gave us a good chance to win because it seems that other than Cruz he was the one who was ready for the big AB. But I see the momentum and the cost so I think he is gone. I will miss him, but Cleveland would love him. Rogers might be easy to say he can bounce back from this year, but you point out that he was on a downward trend the year before too. I have to defer to Wes Johnson, but if the fix is not simple that is too much money in a down economy. Buxton is such a tease - the W - L with and without him is amazing, but the fact that he only played in 154 games in those three seasons means he really had a one year output. That is really a difficult performance to award. What I really want to know is when do we get another CF - to back up or share the load. Kepler and Cave are not acceptable. Who in the minors is ready? What FA is available. Do they believe Royce Lewis can be out there? Is Celestino a CF?

I love that you refer to other organizations instead of the Twins for Curtiss and Slegers. What they are doing is working, but Tampa Bay's real story is Arozarena! You need someone to hit the ball to win.

This would read better if you did not use the qualifier - "at times"

One issue is not service time - it is age

Good bye Avila - it is the only thing that makes sense to me. Three catchers is just too much luxury for the team. As much fun as Astudillo has been his story has gotten old, and yet I see him still retained as the third option.

The Ortiz syndrome should not stop the team if the results of a trade are really favorable.

In a perverse way, Jeffers might have been the most valuable. While he was not up all year he was a surprise call up who handled the pitchers, the framing, the defense, and the bat which kept the Twins going after Avila bottomed out and was injured and Garver completely came apart and was injured. Without Jeffers we would have had the turtle behind the plate. And then there was Rooker who demonstrated why we needed a right handed bat all season, not just for a short span.

Let's move to another side of the argument - the Twins don't know how to draft pitching talent. Our number one arm prospect - Duran - also came as a trade. So what does Cleveland know about drafting and developing pitching talent? I would be fine having a home grown rotation.

This has to be the easiest choice you have had for Pitcher of the Year. Your list of past winners is fascinating. Is Maeda the new Ervin Santana?

Lewis and Gordon or Blankenhorn. No outside help needed, promote.

Beyond the first three I have a hard time matching the list with the title of the award. And then I still struggle with Maeda who was not down, it was just the Dodgers choices.

I think the answers will be delayed until all of baseball looks at what will be spent. This is a time when collusion among owners could work - except that Steinbrenner and the Yankees sound like they could up the anti. However if they are the only ones all the salaries will be depressed and owners would love that. The Twins dilemma is only a problem if the team decides it needs to make a big cut. I cannot look at baseball salaries as part of my world - I just lop off the last three zeros or my mind freezes. With that being said - Cruz is a very expensive luxury if he digresses for one year, and an absolute blackhole if signed for two. Rosario loses only because we have Kiriloff, Larnach, and Rooker. Rogers could and should bounce back. May does not bounce back because he has been the same pitcher with great promise every year. He goes. If we are moving in the youth than Gordon and Lewis are the utility players - Lewis can play CF. Adrianza, Cave, Gonzalez are gone. Not confident in Thorpe/Dobnak for a rotation spot. Give me Duran - look at the young Ian Anderson of the Braves. And then look to see which other young arms you can trust - Balazovic?

If you wonder if Nelson Cruz is one of a kind you have to go back to the Twins 1987 and a man named Don Baylor. Here is a video clip to remind you of his power and importance from that world series. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3461288973914917 At his death the Pioneer Press had this to say, "Don Baylor’s 27 games with the Minnesota Twins were by far his shortest stint with any team, but they were a big 20 games, for the Twins and for the longtime major league slugger. “It was the best time I ever had in the game, playing with these guys right here,” Baylor told the Pioneer Press during the 20th anniversary celebration of the Twins’ first world championship in 2007." Baseball Hot Corner wrote, "Baylor was clearly on the downside of his career, but was one of the more respected veterans in the game. In addition, he finished 13th in the American League MVP voting in 1986, so he still had some production left in his 38-year-old bat." And does this next quote sound familiar - no it is not Nelson, but Don, "Nolan Ryan spoke about Baylor being like a manager when he was a player and was someone everyone knew would be a manager when his career was over. The importance of his presence in the locker room for Kelly and the players in 1987 could not be overstated." The next year he left for the Oakland A's and ended his career batting 220. Yes aging happens fast. He had an OPS of only 703 in those 20 games and no HR - that is until the WS! His WS OPS was 1.082. Nelson has had a longer and more productive stint with the Twins and showed the same ability to step up in the post season (perhaps the only batter that really did) and now he is also at a potential turning point as the Twins look at this contract and his age. No I would not give him two years. But it is worth another season - even though it really is costly at this point in MLB finances. Nelson has an OPS of 1.020 over two seasons and that is amazing. Baylor went on to manage - I suspect Nelson could do that too - if he wants to. Of courses stars make enough today that very few want the headaches and the reduction in pay that managing comes with. I might add that the Twins might have lost out on the best of Ortiz, but we have a rich history of aging stars being our DH - Molitor and Winfield are additional examples. With DH in both leagues maybe it will be more difficult in the future.