Richie the Rally Goat

Update: on our way up to Orlando, about 20 minutes outside of Fort Myers on 31, drove past Babcock Ranch…. 5 minutes later was still driving past Babcock ranch… begged the question: “what is Babcock Ranch?” The place is huge and doesn’t look like a ranch at all. so we lookes them up on the google and got a tour. They claim to be the first fully solar powered community. Eco friendly, it was pretty cool. Definitely worth checking out, while you are visiting the Fort. A little weird… not gonna lie… but cool. They are still selling initial builds of houses, so be prepared for the pitch. a few days in Orlando then heading back down to the Fort

photo courtesy Expedia Day 3 at the fort. Haven’t ventured to Lee County ballpark yet. Do intend to do so, probably Monday. Thus far have been to the beaches, the pool at the Airbnb, 6 mile slough, has a great meal at the Mucky Duck on Sanibel. enjoying the escape from the cold of NW Wi. it’s currently 85 degrees and Sunny day 4: lakes park in the AM, off to the Swimming pool for the PM. Currently 82 and sunny on deck for the weekend: heading up to Orlando. Universal Studios on Monday, Cape Canaveral Tuesday Back to the Fort Intending to catch a Dolphin cruise and hang out at the ballpark, hoping to catch some drills or bullpen sessions, hitting off the tees with the minor leaguers. I’ll try to check back in later. im missing baseball terribly but still having a great vacation

Yeah, I was expecting (and kind of got) “Lewis keeps getting micturated upon” when in reality almost every minor leaguer lost 2020, almost every baseball player gets hurt and loses significant time, and prior to 1994, there were work stoppages every 3-4 years for several decades and pretty much everyone had to deal with those too. I think it’s Twins fans that need to calibrate expectations more than any event that was somehow thrust upon Lewis.

It was the right thing to do at the time and hasn’t hurt the team in any way since. maybe it didn’t work as the FO hoped, but I hope they do that deal again with Kirilloff or Rooker (or whomever the next budding, on the cusp type player is).

That rotation, Montas, Ryan, Odorizzi, Ober and Bundy would be somewhat competitive, at least enough that if the hitters really crush it, like 2019, they could legit contend for a division. Montas is a legit 150-175 inning starter, the rest of that motley crew tops out at 150 with Ober and drops to 100 or less very quickly. that’s maybe 600 innings but of the 1500 the team needs for the season if they all stay healthy and effective. As another poster mentioned, there’s 4-5 ifs there. half the innings pitched (after losing SWR who they need to supplement) comes from the farm (or Dobnak/Jax) at best. Probably more, someone is getting hurt. Nope, not buying that 5 man rotation as competitive

Choo Choo! im on board for my latest countryman to be in the Twins system

Im up to episode 7 of All of us are dead. Zombie outbreak spreads like wildfire through a Korean school. Chaos and fear, mixed with terrible bullying, fantastic show I can’t find the post, but whoever suggested Korean TV… THANKS!

That or a potential scab

since 2018 in Low A through AAA Rortvedt sported a 101-102 wRC+ with the exception of when he repeated A+ in '19 he sported a 132 wRC+ for 98 plate appearances. Maybe with a little patience he could hit slightly below average as a major leaguer. As well as Rortvedt fields the catcher position, a slightly below average bat could give him a nice long career as a major leaguer. Keep in mind that the average for catchers includes a very wide deviation. There are catchers like Garver who mash, and there are catchers like Michael Perez and Austin Hedges who don't.

Mod note: Keep to subject. this is about Winder, not the rule book

1 year 10-12 isn’t going to get the job done, but it is a negotiation. He’s not priced as marked, I doubt even the Rockies are jumping at 20+m. He can ask, it doesn’t mean he’ll get it.

If Story were to only hit his Road half of the split for 2022 in a Twins Uni, he’s still be in the top 18-20 SS in MLB. Most players hit better at home than road (though clearly not to this extreme) and he’s still a very good fielder. Story would not be the number 5 SS with those numbers but a massive upgrade over alternatives like Iglesias, Galvis or Simmons

I’m all in on Pitching. Plan A, B, C… but were the Twins to sign Story, I would be quite happy.

1) I think the FF popularity is a symptom and enhancement of the accessibility, not a cause. Because people understand the game better than they used to, the fantasy football experience became more fun and created newer and deeper fans. Fantasy Football was absolutely a late stage driver, but it needed a Madden to build the baseline first.

Agreed, but that’s won’t not can’t. This CBA negotiation shows me a continued unwillingness to change, but if things continue down the observed course, they could change out of necessity. As the other poster identified in the 94 strike, losing fans can change attitudes

Major League Baseball made that choice 40-ish years ago. Why can’t they make choices to change it? why is this a permanent situation?

Welcome to TD - great first post - Keep it up!

The 94 strike absolutely hurt MLB fandom, but if you look back before the 94 strike MLB averaged a work stoppage every 3 years from the late 70s until ‘94. Your observation on the strike impact is astute but all of the other leagues had work stoppages since the last MLB stoppage in ‘94. it’s a contributor, for sure, but less of a smoking gun

I absolutely agree with the OP that a strike shortened offseason negatively impacts the Twins strategy significantly. I would also add that the change in offseason rhythm exposed Levine as a bit of a one-trick pony. Resilience means adjusting to changing markets. 2021 plan in free agency was the same as it was in 2019 and 2020, but settling for Shoemaker and Happ backfired. This offseason the plan didn't change, Levine went back to the same well. When Plan A is to swoop in on undervalued assets at the end of the offseason but there is never any wiggle room to target players earlier in the offseason, you can't recover and aren't resilient.

He is awesome, I agree, but he’s not going to be around the booth for much longer. The learning from him other broadcasters could especially do well: grace. Kaat is such a kind and graceful commentator, he speaks very well to what he knows (which is broad and deep) and doesn’t about which he doesn’t. lots of wisdom there

you could superimpose a simplified spray chart and speak to the shift, or heat maps of pitcher v hitter to show why the catcher sets up, and when that wild pitch gets away... mechanics and fundamentals, there's ways even if the plays aren't as scripted

Great story, well written - Thanks!

I went off on a tangent in mikelink45’s extremely well written and thought provoking post “When Baseball was King”. But started thinking about why baseball isn’t king. In my mind a significant shift happened in the late 70s and early 80s. The sport that I think was a major contributor was the NFL and not just that the NFL broadcasted it’s games to wide regional audiences scheduled to minimize overlap and put premium matchups in prime time, there was one man… If you’ve been watching NFL games lately, you probably know who I’m talking about: John Madden. The man was a superstar of TV broadcasting. The formula was simple, teach the game in understandable jargon, show everyone how much you LOVE the game. 1988’s John Madden Football video game has the quintessential story about it. The narrative is that Madden wouldn’t lend his name to the game unless it taught kids the strategy and critical thinking. By the 90s many NFL commentators copied Madden, pulling out the telestrator and yelling “boom” but Madden’s legacy lives today through new teachers of the game like Tony Romo. Henry Ford was quoted once "I will build a motor car for the great multitude...constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise...so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one-and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God's great open spaces." What Madden, the NFL, and Henry Ford got right is achieving accessible consumer products and experiences. By making them affordable, available and understandable the products/services blossomed into dominant actors in their segments. But alas, this is not a football blog. This, is a baseball blog. In the early days of cable, the MLB didn’t coordinate on an mlb schedule or TV contract that facilitated the growth of the league or airing prime matchups to nation wide audiences. They let the individual teams reach their own TV contracts, competing not only on the diamond, but limiting viewership on the air waves. Has there ever been an MLB teacher of the game, a John Madden-esque commentator who taught deeper insights, strategies? A superstar? Not just describing what happened, but why. There’s many Bert Blylevens’s and John Smoltz’s while on air, talk about why they don’t like the game, and bad-mouth the math nerds, while saying stuff that is antithetical to the strategy of why the shift or pitch call was actually happening in the game. I fall into the camp of fan that the analytics enhances my enjoyment of the game. That is not the case for every fan. The analytical math nerds have taken over many of the successful teams, but of course we don’t want math lessons live on TV. How can baseball more thoroughly democratize the data? Teach the strategies that make the game so slow and confusing for casual fans? Accentuate the minutia that Madden did with the telestrator 40 years ago? Who can be the baseball equivalent of Henry Ford and John Madden?

Expanding on this point and addressing the OP: In 2021 Griffin Jax pitched the most innings of any pitcher currently on the roster. This team needs to rely on quad-A types worse than Jax to get through the season, no way do they limit him to the one-inning opener role. He’s the workhorse of the rotation

To that point, I don’t believe they will use openers because they can’t afford the roster spots devoted to one inning pitchers. piggy backing, absolutely likely in my mind. I picture a 7 man rotation in 5 games