mikelink45

Keep the young players coming. Keep giving youth a chance - we brag about our prospects - start turning them in to players. Small chances are big growing experiences and very important in the long term.

Duffey and Busenitz did not grab the opportunity. Duffey had such a great start and then the league really figured him out. That is disappointing. Busenitz will be back up. Kinley and Hughes are disappointments and Hughes certainly did not perform great this spring, but that contract guarantees him more opportunities than most and Kinley represents the FO - if they choose someone they are going to make sure that person gets a good long look. Just so they do not look too long, we have a pennant to pursue and that means the best players on the roster, not fringed obligations.

More lawyers! This will really challenge team strategies.

And there will be no more contract dumps here or in the NBA until something changes

What does he look like this spring? Are we seeing him make strides with the new coaching?

The pathway for young hitters is really difficult. I hope he can have a quick rise through the minors. There will be a lot of sorting out of prospects and current starters in 2 years.

I remember Johnny Sain who always seemed to do magic with the pitchers and piss off management. A good coach makes a difference for players and sometimes that is really significant.

Decades ago I worked as a tax accountant for Honeywell and National Car Rental Corporation. Taxes are complicated and state and federal laws impacted the businesses and decisions. Baseball is an interstate commerce and has had many laws passed to protect the teams. Now the new tax law creates another obstacle with unexpected consequences that could play into the teams ability to trade and move players. As we look at the Twins and their prospects we often think of assets that can be acquired. Read the following quote from the New York Times and you will see that things have gotten more complicated for everyone. "WASHINGTON — As President Trump congratulated the World Series champion Houston Astros at a White House ceremony last week, he also heaped praise on himself and congressional Republicans for passing a sweeping tax cut last year. He hailed Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, the House’s chief tax writer and an Astros superfan, as “the king of those tax cuts.” What he did not mention is that the new tax law Mr. Brady helped draft, and which Mr. Trump signed, levies a large new tax on the Astros, and similar franchises across professional sports. The law changed a corner of the tax code that mostly applies to farmers, manufacturers and other businesses that until recently could swap certain assets like trucks and machinery tax-free. But by adding a single word to the newly written tax code — “real” — the law now allows only real estate swaps to qualify for that special treatment. That change is meant to capture more federal revenue, in order to partly offset reductions in business and personal income tax rates. It forces manufacturers, farmers and others to pay more in capital gains taxes, if they trade an asset for something more valuable. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates the change will raise $31 billion over the next decade. It also means that the Astros and other sports franchises could now face capital gains taxes every time they exchange or trade their highly paid players." There is more to this, but this gives you an idea of what could happen and how confused GMS must be at this time. http://mlb.nbcsports.com/2018/03/19/new-tax-law-could-affect-mlb-trades/ http://www.businessinsider.com/gop-tax-law-make-mlb-nba-trades-harder-2018-3

I do not disagree with what you right, but since I am an advocate of advancing the youth quickly Gordon is close enough for me to move him up.

I began to get excited about Rooker last year and I love it when the good ones blaze through the minors in 2+ years or less. Those that do are special - Griffey, Trout...and I hope Rooker joins the list. Many of you know from my posts that I am always ready to move young players in rather than filling in with average vets. I hope that Lewis gets a good spring look too.

My only prediction is that this will be a really enjoyable season for fans.

What he did is not as important as when this happened. Yes he will miss half a season, but in reality it will be a full season. Will he be in baseball condition when he comes back? Will someone else step up and fill his role? For a young player who has had 1/2 good season this is really a bad situation. And in a competitive sport it is not about forgiveness or team support - it is about getting an opportunity and holding on to it. On a team with Gordon, Javier, and Lewis, wasting a chance is stupid.

The Twins greatest strength is its defense in the Outfield. Buxton is the reason and we need to keep building on that - ultimately defense makes a better pitching staff. We just need to tighten up the left side of the infield and hope that Rosario can keep his talent under control in LF.

Is there any chance that his second half surge had some chemical enhancement? I am fine with Ehire to start, but if Gordon gets off to a good start - bring him up, actually if Lewis gets off to a really good start - bring him up!

Bring in Gordon. We will soon have a logjam at 2B/SS so take advantage and do some experimenting. Do not go to old utility players - look to the future.

I have read and thoroughly enjoyed Aaron Gleeman’s Minnesota Twins the Big 50 and thoroughly enjoyed the nostalgia and stories. It is an excellent book and I am sure that Aaron dislikes the one big editing error that has the big page for Jim Kaat as Jim Katt. Otherwise Aaron should be very proud of the book and the quality he maintained. There are players for every era and some choices that surprised me, but nothing that I completely disagree with. I was surprised that it was not 50 players and there were sections on world series games and teams and even our previous two managers – where is Billy Martin? This made me wonder if we did not have 50 worthy players. I tried to think of who I would add. I am sorry that Lyman Bostock was not there and as an old Twin fan I missed Vic Power. Two seasons for Vic, but gold gloves and 280 average with 26 homeruns. He was colorful, exciting to watch and a player who really connected with the fans and the other one was Mudcat Grant who also had too shore a Twins career but was so much fun to watch and cheer for and his 21 wins made him worthy of our fandom. However, since we had managers and teams and games in the Gleeman book I thought about who I would have as NUMBER 51 – and Is THE OWNERS. What can I say to summarize the owners of this franchise? Of course, there is the forever echo of fans calling Pohlad cheap, but I think the most egregious of all his actions was during that low point in major league baseball when they were considering contraction and Carl volunteered to let the Twins be eliminated. Willing to accept $250,000,000 Carl was not going to lose money, but he certainly gave up Twin City admiration. “Well, he was frustrated,” Selig told the Pioneer Press last month during an interview. “The guy tried everything. I know. I was up there. I thought we had a deal two or three times and every time it fell apart, mainly for political reasons. “Contraction had nothing to do with Minnesota. Baseball was really struggling at the time, losing a fortune as a sport. There were owners who believed that contraction might help. I wasn’t of that particular view, but the owners were searching around,” Selig said. Then a local judge stepped up – “Hennepin County Judge Harry Seymour Crump became a local folk hero when he issued a temporary restraining order that forced the Twins to honor their lease and play the 2002 season at the Dome. “The vital public interest, or trust, of the Twins substantially outweighs any private interest,” Crump wrote in his ruling.” (Brian Murphy) Then there was the original owner – Calvin Griffith. In a well written article Kevin Hennessey wrote, “Calvin reacted to the new baseball economics by futilely trying to resist changes such as salary arbitration, player agents, free agency, and the increasing importance of television revenue, which gave an advantage to teams in larger markets. As time moved on, Griffith was considered a “dinosaur” or a “vestige of yesterday” relative to the new baseball owners of the late 1970s. Then there was the Waseca Lions Club meeting where Calvin let his tongue run loose and ended up losing Rod Carew - “Griffith interrupted himself, lowered his voice and asked if there were any blacks around. After he looked around the room and assured himself that his audience was white, Griffith resumed his answer. “I’ll tell you why we came to Minnesota,” he said. “It was when I found out you only had 15,000 blacks here. Black people don’t go to ball games, but they’ll fill up a rassling ring and put up such a chant it’ll scare you to death. It’s unbelievable. We came here because you’ve got good, hardworking, white people here.” Next was the feud between Calvin and his son Clark who refused to serve an apprenticeship in the minors. And in 1983 the team considered moving the franchise to Tampa Bay. http://sabr.org/research/calvin-griffith-ups-and-downs-last-family-owned-baseball-team-0

Nice report I like the photo since I see that as our SS/2B combo in 2019 - by the end of the year and if they can package Polanco and Gordon they can accumulate more of that minor league depth that Falvey mentioned.

If you are going to change batting average we need to start reporting in % Mauer is a 30% career hitter. And then a 297 average woult be 29.7%! Of course, besides the fair pole we have to redefine foul balls to offensive balls, or spoiled if we do not want to confuse with offense and defense. I believe, for accuracy, it is not instant replay it is a slow and boring replay. With all the shifts we may have to redefine positions too. Although even now a shortstop sounds like a refueling (gas) station. And a GRAND SLAM??? Not a four run home run. Which actually should be a four base hit since you better run to first, second and third too. Keep working at it - you might have a publication and then a career teaching people the new terminology.

I have great hopes for him and it is exciting to see him develop. Pitchers need time. I am reading Gleeman's Minnesota Twins 50 book and it is fun to read the stories and remember the players and experiences, but one thing jumps out as I read about Santana, Viola, Radtke - they were brought in young and given a chance to learn in the majors and it paid off. That is why I continue to push for Romero and Gonsalves to be given the opportunity Berrios had to experience MLB and work through some struggles. Our biggest opportunity to get back to the WS is not Odorizzi or Lynn - it is the maturation of this young player and the rise of one or two more from the minors.

This makes no sense - yes DFA Vargas and let him prove himself where they give him a real chance. But I read the LF summary on TD and with Kiriloff, Baddoo, Wade I do not see Cave as a need. Maybe they will prove me wrong.

I really like the prospect list - Ehire and Grossman are filler only and if we have them our quality goes down.

Those of you who liked this story might like https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/t/taylodu01.shtml the best of the deaf pitchers.http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/14fca2f4 "In large part, Taylor was an above-average pitcher, as his ERAs usually showed, and perhaps because of the challenges he faced, popular with teammates and fans. His teammates learned sign language, he was visible because he was with the Giants, and as the Saturday Evening Post said, "Wherever Taylor goes he will always be visited by scores of the silent fraternity among whom he is regarded as a prodigy."

I cannot see the improvement this spring. I can only hope that the people who matter see something I am missing. I have been hoping Garver was put on the team for a year, but my confidence is shaken. I hope he really takes off.

In the midst of all the talk about Sano and his weight, I got to thinking about the judgments that people make about other people – baseball players and their size – think Altuve or Randy Johnson, their weight, their various physical attributes – like my essay on Pete Gray who over came the fact that he lacked an arm or Jim Abbot and others judged to be handicapped. Perhaps it is the fact that my daughter is deaf that made me think about Dummy Hoy. “Dummy” Hoy – William Ellsworth Hoy – was known as Dummy because he contracted meningitis at age three and was deaf the rest of his life. And deafness denies the ability to mimic speech so he was also “dumb” or unable to speak. Born in 1862 – during the civil war, he grew up in the same era that baseball grew up. Sent to a school for the deaf in Ohio, he was trained as a cobbler and he had the initiative to go from working in the back of a shop to owning his own shoe shop. The school, like many others felt that a deaf and dumb person was not capable of doing much more than fixing shoes and even then, some people refused to have such a handicapped person fix their shoes. But he persevered, and he also took advantage of the fact that many people went shoeless in the summer and he followed his passion to play baseball. By age of 24, his love of baseball and his constant work on baseball skills attracted a scout and led him to professional baseball, first with a minor league team in Oshkosh, WI under HOF manager Frank Selee and then in 1888 with the Washington Senators. ! As a rookie he stole 82 bases and that record stood until the Ricky Henderson, Maury Will, Vince Coleman era. In his second-year major league season he had OBP of 376m scored 98 runs and stole 33 bases. His career was not a gimmick like the midget of Bill Veeck’s carnival promotions with the St Louis Browns. Dummy Hoy played major league baseball until 1902 and accumulated 32.5 WAR. He also demanded respect and turned down an offer from the Milwaukee Brewers (1880’s team) because the manager laughed at the idea of a deaf/mute thinking he could play baseball. In his career (14 years) he had 2048 hits, a .288 batting average, 596 stolen bases, and a .386 OBPAs a fielder he threw out three men at home in one game and had 45 assists for the White Stockings in 1901. In addition to being deaf and never hearing the roar of the crowd, the call of the umpire, or the sound of his teammates, he was also at a disadvantage as a player who was 5’ 4” and 150 pounds! Jose Altuve would love him. Lacking all the electronics of todays’ ballpark, Hoy was at a disadvantage, not being able to hear the umpire call balls and strikes. He asked his 3B coach to signal the ball and strike call to him and eventually got various signals to coordinate with teammates. Asking the umpires to use hand signals began the current system umpires use for outs, strikes, balls, fouls. But the HOF credits umpire Bill Klem for this even though Klem came after Dummy Hoy retired. The fans, appreciating his skill and determination did not yell and scream when he did something outstanding, instead they stood and waved their arms and hats in salute. He later replied, “It is not enough that the deaf candidate for baseball honors has the necessary ability, he assuredly must have the nerve and courage to even apply for a trial.” He finished his career with the minor league Los Angeles LooLoos of the Pacific Coast League with 156 runs, 46 stolen bses and 419 put outs. But in many ways his final play in his career was the most amazing of all professional players. A ball was hit deeply to the outfield and in those days, fans were allowed to stand in the outfield – often there was no fence. He was determined and charged into the fans in very deep centerfield and when he encountered a horse, he jumped on the horses back, and then he used the horse as a springboard to leap and catch the ball! With a deaf wife, they raised to very successful hearing children and he took on the raising of his nephew when he was orphaned at three. That nephew went on to establish the Helm’s bakery and become a millionaire who supported the Olympics. Hoy was put in the Cincinnati Reds HOF – in 1896 while playing for the Reds he led the league in homeruns with FOUR. He was also named in the Deaf Athletes HOF and should be in the MLB HOF. Former teammates – Honus Wagner, Connie Mack, Clark Griffith, and Sam Crawford – all in the HOF – tried unsuccessfully to get him in. In 1961 he tossed out the first pitch in the third game of the World Series and died in December of that year. The number of deaf players is very small but perseverance will mean that there will be more. http://www.infobarrel.com/Deaf_Baseball_Players_Who_Made_the_Major_Leagues

I am not impressed with either, nor do I believe in Pressley. However they go, they will continue to shake up the low end of the BP during the first half season.