Major League Ready

The first rule for anyone who has ever done this kind of work is to have the facts before drawing a conclusion. If I knew why they opted to wait a year I might agree with you. It's just really hard to imagine that they did this for no reason. I will be right there with you if it turns out they gain nothing by waiting a year.

The Padres have not produced exactly one 90 win team since the turn of the century and the Dbacks have not been a model either. That said,, their model looks good. The Twins were not prepared to launch their own channel. Perhaps they should have been but we can't judge this until we see what they roll out next year. I am not going to bitch that the Twins are poorly run because they did not throw their paying customers under the bus until we see their long-term plan.

All of this when your position is they should have told every customer we don't care that you have chosen services to meet all of your needs, you need to buy an additional service. By the way, we are doing away with every option that would allow you to bundle sports coverage with all of your other desired services. First rule in sales or any business for that matter is to keep your existing customers. When did the twins organization say they were doing away with balk-outs. Corey Provus is not a Minnesota Twins executive and he has no standing to make statements on behalf of the organization. He should have known better and I would guess someone from the Twins informed accordingly.

Streaming requires no commitment so anyone switching can move on if something changes. Bally's also announced the new contracts they have so anyone interested in switching would have assurance of the status of Bally's contract for at least the rest of this season. By next season this market will evolve and there will be new / modified options.

I did say Comcast did not need Bally's as much as Bally's needed Comcast, did I not. What's your point? Was it not reasonable for the Twins to believe these parties would work something out? Comcast is suffering from cord cutters, are they not? Is this not additional incentive for people to cut the cord even if it's in the form of something like Fubo. Comcast cuts the Twins and the Twins somehow don't care about their fans but had they cut every Comcast customer as well the customers of every other service that would be just fine. Sounds to me like the people who elected to not have coverage are mad that the twins did not throw paying customers under the bus. Somehow it would be good business to prioritize potential customers who have been unwilling to pay for coverage.

That's convenient positioning. People did not rush out and get cable. They had services in place and those services consisted of programming far beyond the MN Twins. The alternative would have been to force everyone of those Comcast subscribers and those from every other service to go purchase an additional service. The vast majority of these subscribers value the other programming and would have been forced to purchase incremental services. If that's not the case, switch to Fubo or DirecTV or whatever. What's the problem. Arizona's deal is $225. What if you are also a Suns fan or want other TV programmng? This type of deal has a limited audience because for many it's an incremental expense and it makes more sense to switch to Fubo or DirectTV streaming. BTW ... Comcast and Bally's really need each other so the Twins believing they would come to terms is not exactly far fetched. Comcast less so than Ballys but this promotes more cable cutting.

Thank you! The twisting gets tiresome. The original post complained that Comcast and Bally's only cared about the almighty dollar. Wow. What a surprise that a business is concerned about profit, Then, let's forget that anyone here could get the service if they were willing to pay for it. Therefore, they are concerned about dollars which of course is reasonable. Yet, somehow it's unreasonable for others involved in a business for the purpose of making money to be concerned about profit or for that matter survival in the case of RSNs and cable providers are getting hurt badly as well. When expectations are that other parties should do something we won't, there is no hope for logic to prevail.

Good point! It does seem a little silly to be outraged that a business is concerned about profit. Anyone here not care about what their job pays them? Anyone not want to make more? This situation was exacerbated by cable cutters. In other words, people concerned about money. I certainly don't have a problem with that choice but let's be realistic that the rub is money for everyone concerned, the teams, the RSNs, the carriers, and the consumers. Why would it have been more acceptable if the team had forced every current fan paying for coverage to be forced into the situation that prompted Riverbrian to start this thread? He sure did not seem to like it. Yet, the majority here seem to think it would have been just fine had the twins forced this situation instead of Comcast and Ballys.

I am wondering how all of the people who had coverage would have felt about being left high and dry had they dropped Bally's. Another broadcast company was not going to sign a contract without exclusive rights. Therefore, the alternative was to force everyone to buy a streaming service in addition to whatever service (ie. Comcast) that they were already paying for. Reasonable (not perfect) alternatives exist for those who opted not to pay for Comcast / DirecTV, etc. Granted eliminating blackouts for in market games would have made those alternatives better but I doubt a large percentage of those people unwilling to pay $139/year for out of market games were going to sign up for a package of all games, given that package was going to be considerably more. Perhaps not double but like somewhere around $240 and that's just the Twins. For most people the solution needs to address multiple sports. There are already streaming services that cover several sports and you can bet more are coming as the NBA and NHL seek alternatives. If Bally's and Comcast's can't agree to a solution, Comcast customers have many other alternatives. Isn't that what you do when a service no longer meets your needs?

He is league average for the year but 50% below average in May. Shouldn't they give significant consideration to how players are performing currently as well as for the year when making this type of decision. The stats for May are below. Margot has actually been slightly better than Julien. If Larnach can play the OF now, there is no reason for Margot to play against RHP and if they limit Margot to playing against LHP he will be fine. Of course, there is also the aspect the question of what's the best way to get Julien on-track. A reset in AAA is probably best for Eddy BTW ... Santana has been pretty decent the last 6 weeks. # Name Team PA BB% K% BB/K AVG OBP SLG OPS ISO Spd BABIP UBR wGDP XBR wSB wRC wRAA wOBA wRC+ 1 Max Kepler MIN 100 8.0% 16.0% 0.50 .281 .354 .506 .859 .225 2.2 .314 -0.1 0.1 -0.2 17 5.1 .374 146 2 Willi Castro MIN 117 9.4% 17.9% 0.52 .267 .342 .429 .770 .162 7.8 .317 0.3 0.2 0.0 16 2.8 .339 123 3 Carlos Correa MIN 114 8.8% 19.3% 0.45 .255 .316 .471 .786 .216 4.5 .291 0.1 0.2 -0.2 16 2.6 .338 122 4 Jose Miranda MIN 99 4.0% 13.1% 0.31 .280 .313 .462 .775 .183 2.4 .286 -0.1 -0.2 -0.2 14 2.2 .337 121 5 Ryan Jeffers MIN 103 6.8% 31.1% 0.22 .198 .275 .495 .769 .297 2.9 .208 0.4 0.2 0.1 14 1.8 .330 116 6 Carlos Santana MIN 103 11.7% 14.6% 0.80 .242 .330 .407 .737 .165 2.5 .250 0.0 0.1 0.0 13 1.3 .325 112 7 Trevor Larnach MIN 73 8.2% 20.5% 0.40 .209 .274 .388 .662 .179 0.7 .208 -0.1 0.1 -0.1 8 -0.9 .293 91 8 Kyle Farmer MIN 38 5.3% 18.4% 0.29 .235 .316 .324 .639 .088 3.0 .296 0.1 0.0 -0.7 4 -0.5 .292 90 9 Byron Buxton MIN 51 7.8% 29.4% 0.27 .213 .275 .383 .657 .170 5.9 .267 0.4 0.1 -0.3 5 -0.8 .290 89 10 Alex Kirilloff MIN 67 9.0% 31.3% 0.29 .167 .239 .383 .622 .217 1.6 .167 0.0 -0.3 -0.1 6 -1.9 .272 76 11 Manuel Margot MIN 60 6.7% 11.7% 0.57 .232 .283 .268 .551 .036 5.1 .265 0.2 -0.1 0.3 4 -2.7 .252 62 12 Austin Martin MIN 15 6.7% 26.7% 0.25 .214 .267 .286 .552 .071 7.5 .300 0.1 0.0 0.4 1 -0.7 .249 61 13 Edouard Julien MIN 85 11.8% 36.5% 0.32 .187 .282 .200 .482 .013 5.6 .318 0.0 0.1 0.8 5 -5.1 .232 49 14 Christian Vázquez MIN 58 0.0% 24.1% 0.00 .089 .103 .107 .211 .018 2.4 .116 0.1 -0.1 -0.4 -3 -9.7 .096 -44

The only OFer that needs to be moved up to AAA is Rodriguez. They don't have any utility prospects in Wichita making a strong case for a promotion. DFA Margot and bring up either Walner, Martin, or Keirsey and that takes care of it. Hopefully Brooks Lee pushes the issue but he needs to put together 6-8 weeks before we need to cross that bridge. When we do, hopefully they can find a trade partner for Farmer before the deadline if he plays well enough to merit a trade or he could be DFAed as well.

Just go to the team site and look under the "Team" tab in the menu and then Individual Stats.

Castro started slow like just about everyone else. However, since the win streak started (4/22) Casro's wRC+ is 143. That's certainly worthy of being a regular starter. It does, however, take away from the team's defensive flexibility. It will work out fine if he plays LF against LHP because Larnach can come in when Farmer goes out and Castro moves to 2B. The weakness is CF when Buxton is out.

They probably make a move that buys them some time. IE. Send Julien or Kirilloff down to reset.

I will be interesting to see if this power surge continues. 8HRs already this year compared to 10 all of last year. 19% K rate which is slightly less than last year so that's good. It will be telling if they move him to AA in the next month or two. Good chance he is ready when Vazquez's contract expires If that happens. Of course, the big question is if his defense is progressing. The stolen base number are a bit concerning.

What are you thinking is behind all the rule changes if not sustaining the sport? I have worked with many very large corporations assessing various forms or organizational change and investment. Most of them emphasize return on investment over the course of an asset life or sustainable profitability. I suppose billionaires could be different than corporations but (just my opinion) I think perception is far different than reality in this case. Greed is best served by maximizing ROI and short-term thinking does not facilitate ROI.

For starters, had they opted for no TV revenue, the decrease in revenue from 2023 would have been over $80M. I know people want to ignore the BAM money but the decrease would have required an even bigger cut. Had they required a MLB TV subscription the loss would have been $60m+ and all of the people watching through current sources would have been forced to pony up for MLB TV and they would be complaining.

How much information do you suppose we have. I am pretty sure we don't have a lot of the information necessary to make a business decision or critique one. We have no idea what's going on behinds the scenes. We don't know what is being planned or what MLB has asked of the twins. We don't know what options were available, the economics of the alternatives or how the contractual / legal issues influenced the decision. We don't know a lot yet assume we know how to run their business better than they do. What if the team or league has a great long-term solution but that solution required a development period that made a current year solution infeasible?

Where do you find tOPS+ by position. That's an interesting stat? I like the idea of Miranda getting DH bats while Jeffers catches more but who is getting cut when Lewis comes back? They would have to cut Margot or Farmer. I wouldn't sweat losing either one but I don't see it happening.

This could be said about every group. The owners, players, Bally's, the carriers, and the fans who could have coverage but are unwilling or perhaps unable to pay the cost required for coverage. All of the outrage is not really that coverage is unavailable, it's that we have to pay to get it. The basic premise is that the owners should not care because they are rich. Hello, how do you suppose they became billionaires. If you expect a billionaire to operate their multi-billion dollar asset as a non-profit hobby you will be disappointed just as you would be disappointed if you expect players making more 10X per year what most fans make in a lifetime. All of this angst is because adults can't accept that MLB is a business. The industry and the options look significantly different next year. I am wondering if Fubo is planning a new offering as we speak. They could offer a package of regional sports and a handful of other channels for $40-50/mo and fill the void while attracting new subscribers. Those new subscribers are good candidates to expand their subscription. It's possible Bally's saw this potential and prohibited it contractually.

Vazquez makes me cringe when he comes up. It would be great if Noah Cardenas takes off. That would tee him up to take over next year. Unfortunately, his offense has dipped with every level he goes up and he is trending downward of late.. They could eat the $10M if they had a good prospect to replace him. I have been expecting a trade that included a catcher for a while now. Of course, they are hard to come by. I was also hoping they traded Polanco for Harry Ford straight up or even added a prospect. That would have been ideal. He won't be ready until next year but it would be light at the end of the tunnel.

My provider engaged in the same fight with Bally's and ended up dropping them. The Twins can't fix the problem between Comcast and Bally's and they can't offer an alternative mid-season. It's pretty simple. Switch providers. You can rectify the situation if you elect to do so.

The decision to make Kepler a QO won't be based on if they are willing to pay him $20M next year. They will make the QO if they believe another team will make an offer he will accept instead of the QO.

Hernandez got $23.5 from the Dodgers after producing 1.8 WAR in 2023 and 2,.9 in 2022. Max produced 2.9 WAR last year. He is on pace for 4 WAR this season. Let's say he produces 3.4 WAR. His previous 2 years is higher and he is trending up where Hernandez was coming off a bad year which is probably why he only got 1 year. If max produces 3+ WAR, there will be better offers than 1 year / $20M. Obviously, that's just my opinion but I believe someone is going to offer at least 2/35M and the qualifying offer will be rejected.

It hasn't been good but neither has Rosario since the 1st half of 2018. He was not good at the end of his tenure here and he certainly was not a solution going forward. So why are you complaining about a bad player not being here. I am very glad we have not had to watch Eddie Rosario take up a roster spot for the last 3+ years. Go ahead and complain about LF production but complaining about Rosario being gone makes absolutely no sense.