Major League Ready

Do you think this model is viable long-term? Would this model generate less TV revenue than every team in MLB?

Are you really saying the Twins should screw over their current customers because they elect to subscribe to Comcast / DirecTV / others in order to service clients that have been unwilling to pay for service? Why is it a bad plan to service the current clients while MLB and/or the Twins roll-out a new option next year?

Very good point. They were probably surprised by Amazon jumping in. This could also explain why MLB would want the Twins to keep the status quo for one more year. They would still have a problem if the teams demanded MLB as the new owner of Diamonds sports to honor the existing contracts. All of the teams would have to agree to a new revenue model specific to local broadcasts to make acquiring Diamond a viable plan.

Ever heard the saying you can never have too much pitching?

The Yankees, Mets, Cubs, Dodgers, Red Sox, and Astros already have their own channel. All of the other markets are going to be in jeopardy as the RSN model likely continues to struggle with situations like Comcast. It seems RSNs will have to go to subscription based model that can't possibly allow them to pay the current rates on existing contracts. MLB hired a group of industry experts to come up with a solution. My guess is that solution could not be rolled out for this season. BTW ... MLB had record revenues again last year. The doom and gloom is not warranted. They have a problem with distribution that is going to be hard to navigate. It would have been much easier to evolve into a new model if Diamond and the existing contracts would have gone away. Some teams would have really took it in the shorts short-term but eliminating those contracts would have provided a wide-open path to a new distribution model. I wonder how feasible it would be for MLB / NBA / NFL / NHL / WNBA and the various soccer leagues to form a partnership and develop a new network distributed on their own streaming platform and also distributed through any other medium that wishes to partner. Obviously, that's a lot of interests to meld but those other sports must anticipate similar problems. Perhaps they should have attempted to buy Bally's when they were in bankruptcy.

You are only looking at defensive stats. I would hope the Twins determine who plays by determining the net runs gained or lost on both sides of the ball. It does not matter if player X will give up 10 less runs than Julien if Julien produces 20 more runs than player X with the bat. Of course, the same is true of Castro. I seriously doubt the net of Casto's defense / offense and base running is less than Framer at this point. Their WAR stat would support this conclusion.

Correct me if I am wrong. Twin’s fans fall into 3 groups. 1) Fan’s currently paying an over the air carrier $80+/month for Twins / Wolves / Lynx / Other. 2) Those who have a streaming package for the Twins or Twins + Other MLB teams. 3) Those who are unhappy with 1&2 and are unwilling to pay for either form of coverage. All of the members of group 1 would have obviously been screwed had the twins not resigned with Bally's.. Group 2 has remained the same. Group 3 would have a new solution. If this solution was inexpensive, this group would be happy. Members of group 3 feel the Twins should have forced the current paying customers to drop their current provider and switch or pay both providers if they wish to keep coverage for the TWolves/Lynx and all of the other channels their family wants to keep so that they could have a cheaper option. I understand the desire for a better streaming option but the insistence that the Twins are incompetent because they took $40M+ from Bally’s to continue servicing their paying customers is where some of you lose me. Wait a year. Would anyone bet there won’t be a streaming option next year? It seems to me this outcry is over one more year of things remaining the same while MLB not just the Twins roll-out a solution for group 3 and any group 1 or 2 members who WANT to switch.

I don't disagree even a little, but Comcast has 17.5M subscribers. DirecTV has 11M, etc. Should we ignore their right to choose because we prefer a different product? Those people would have been forced to find a different solution. All I am saying is that both sides of the equation should be considered. It's easy to ignore what those people want when you are not one of them.

Castro's value is filling in for injured players across several positions or guys getting a day off and doing it quite well. He had 2.5 bWAR last year and already has 1.1 this year. He is on a 6 WAR pace. Let's say he only gets half way there. (3 WAR). He covers the role of 2 bench players and that flexibility producing 2.5 WAR or more is not too expensive. Quite the opposite. He is a valuable piece. IDK that I would extend him but I sure keep him here next year.

The offensive numbers during the streak are crazy. Carlos Santana had a wRC+ of 171 and that was 8th best on the team. Wow! Let's bask in it while we can. # Name Team PA BB% K% BB/K AVG OBP SLG OPS ISO Spd BABIP UBR wGDP XBR wSB wRC wRAA wOBA wRC+ 1 Trevor Larnach MIN 25 16.0% 20.0% 0.80 .429 .520 .667 1.187 .238 2.6 .533 -0.1 0.1 -0.1 7 4.0 .513 241 2 Ryan Jeffers MIN 41 9.8% 12.2% 0.80 .394 .488 .697 1.185 .303 4.6 .407 0.3 0.2 0.1 11 6.1 .502 233 3 Willi Castro MIN 44 0.0% 18.2% 0.00 .419 .432 .721 1.153 .302 6.9 .500 0.2 0.1 -0.5 11 6.4 .496 229 4 Edouard Julien MIN 37 16.2% 29.7% 0.55 .300 .432 .700 1.132 .400 1.6 .375 0.0 0.1 -0.1 9 4.9 .480 218 5 Jose Miranda MIN 25 0.0% 12.0% 0.00 .400 .400 .680 1.080 .280 0.9 .429 -0.1 -0.1 0.0 6 3.1 .468 210 6 Byron Buxton MIN 27 7.4% 25.9% 0.29 .348 .444 .565 1.010 .217 4.8 .467 0.4 0.1 -0.7 6 2.8 .445 194 7 Max Kepler MIN 33 12.1% 9.1% 1.33 .393 .455 .571 1.026 .179 4.4 .400 -0.1 0.1 0.1 7 3.4 .443 193 8 Carlos Santana MIN 44 6.8% 13.6% 0.50 .256 .341 .615 .956 .359 1.6 .207 0.0 0.1 -0.1 9 3.5 .412 171 9 Kyle Farmer MIN 23 8.7% 21.7% 0.40 .238 .304 .381 .685 .143 2.6 .313 0.1 0.0 0.0 3 -0.1 .306 99 10 Christian Vázquez MIN 26 3.8% 34.6% 0.11 .320 .346 .320 .666 .000 4.9 .500 0.1 -0.1 0.3 3 -0.2 .303 97 11 Alex Kirilloff MIN 28 10.7% 25.0% 0.43 .208 .286 .375 .661 .167 2.6 .235 0.0 -0.2 0.0 3 -0.4 .292 89 12 Manuel Margot MIN 16 6.3% 18.8% 0.33 .214 .250 .286 .536 .071 7.1 .250 0.1 -0.1 0.2 1 -0.9 .236 51 13 Austin Martin MIN 24 12.5% 25.0% 0.50 .143 .250 .238 .488 .095 7.5 .200 0.2 0.1 0.4 1 -1.5 .231 48 14 Carlos Correa MIN 14 14.3% 21.4% 0.67 .167 .286 .167 .452 .000 2.6 .222 0.0 0.1 0.0 1 -0.9 .228 45

I merely wanted to point out that every customer of Comcast, DirecTV, or other carriers would have been left out had they not signed a deal with Bally's. This is being ignored. Very few households / families have Comcast just for Bally's so it's not as simple as you suggest. Most people have Comcast, DirecTV, etc for a variety of programming. Therefore, many would still have that expense and still be paying for their current services. BTW ... You ignored the part of my post that stated "Should we blame the customers who continue to rely upon an outdated model. I don't think so."

Whoa big fella. I had absolutely nothing to say about cord cutters being hypocrites. I said it was not true that the Twins were relying solely on the "sinking ship" of regional sports. More importantly, shouldn't we also consider that everyone currently paying Comcast, DirecTV, etc would have lost access to broadcasts had the team not signed a new deal with Bally's. A streaming option would have been ideal but my guess is there is a reasonable explanation as to why there is not. Why would they turn down the chance to reach more viewers and generate extra revenue? You can assume incompetence if you wish but nobody is that stupid.

There is a constant barrage of articles that conclude the organization is cheap. It would be great if just once, someone wrote an article that compared the Twins to other teams in terms of payroll as a percentage of revenue or revenue rank vs payroll rank. Cheap is a relative term. With all of the energy devoted to defaming the organization and its owners, it just seems appropriate that a little effort be devoted to providing the information that would illustrate the relative accuracy of these claims.

The only problem with this argument is that the Twins did not rely solely upon Bally's. As Chief pointed out, the product is available from other sources. Also, had the Twins abandoned the Cable model, all of those customers would have had to switch (pay) for an alternative distribution. Should we blame the customers who continue to rely upon an outdated model. I don't think so. I didn't blame people for CDs going away nor did I blame the companies that made CD players. There is always some pain associated with this type product/market transition.

Alcala

Festa looked very good yesterday. The pitch that got hit out was not a bad pitch. He really did not miss over the heart of the plate and a lot of his misses were very close off the edges. He just might be in the ML rotation at some point this year.

That statement was made in the context of insisting Santana was a full-time player and Julien is a part-time player when they have the same number of games played and same PAs. You can come back with a poor phrasing and I would concede my argument drifted. The fact remains the bitching was about Santana being full-time. What's really wild is Sanatana is a 1B. What does that have to do with Julien or Polanco? So what, if Julien is platooned? He is 2nd on the team in WAR and among the leaders in most offensive stats. Would it be better to have Polanco there who is currently playing below replacement level?

Well, if you can't argue a legitimate point I guess the comeback is to complain. Are you or are you not ignoring that Polanco has been a negative WAR player? Should we ignore his 167 BA or his .577 OPS? How exactly would this have been helpful to the Twins?

My objection was classifying Santana as a full-time player and Julien as a part-time player. Julien has played in 28 games and Santana 25. They are within 2 PAs. To classify one as a full-time player and the other as a part-time player is misguided. Perhaps more importantly, this is being positioned as a problematic for the team. What's the problem if you have other players to match-up against LHP? Granted, Farmer has been bad but he is a significantly better hitter than Polanco against LHP over their careers. Why is it a problem to have Farmer or Castro or even martin play 2B against LHP. Lot's of LH hitters are weaker against LHP. Why is it a problem to match-up?

How hard is it to replace a below average hitter (against RHP) and at best average defender? Let me help you out. Not very hard. What does it matter if he is not easily replaced against RHP when we have a much better replacement. You are ignoring the fact that he currently is a negative WAR player. He has not been hard to replace at all. Will that continue? Probably not but the Twins early troubles were not a product of losing Polanco's production which has been poor. The only possible place for him to play is against LHP at 2B over Farmer. Farmer has been poor but Polanco's has also been bad against LHP this year with an OPS of .397 so relying on Farmer is no less suspect than Polanco against LHP given Farmer is the better career hitter against LHP. I will take Miranda at 3B over Polanco at this point. It's quite possible that won't be the case at the end of the season but right now I will take Miranda.

It looks like the plan is to activate Duran.

Your post is accurate in your opinion. Calling the player on the team with the most plate appearances a part-time player is ridiculous. Then, when you single out a player with the same number of plate appearances (Santana) as a full-time player you are demonstrating bias and the statement has no credibility. You are throwing a fit over losing a player that has negative WAR. Is Julien the better player or not? Is Polanco easily replaced against LHP or not? Address the issues instead of stomping your feet and complaining I am mean.

Julien is leading the team in plate appearances so the “he is not playing everyday" argument lacks credibility. Polanco’s primary value is 2B against RHP so yes Julien is the primary justification for Polanco being gone. Julien is the far superior player in that capacity. Against LHP Polanco is a career below average hitter. He is easily replaced in that capacity. He looked well below average at 3B. Miranda is the better choice there right now. Polanco is not a 1B. He has never played the position so the fact Santana is playing 1B has little relevance. Also, Santana has 2 less PA than Julien but in your eyes Santana is a “full-time” player while Julien is not. The bias here in twisting their roles is quite evident. Casto is simply a better player at this point. He was the better offensive player last year as well as this year. He is a far superior base runner and a better (more flexible) defender. That’s why his WAR was higher than Polanco last year and it’s why he has a .8 WAR YTD while Polanco has a negative WAR.

Miranda is another guy that was not great in the low minors and then crushed AA and AAA. He is also a good athlete and has played 100+ Milb games in CF. Holland could be a great asset as a super utility guy who can back-up SS and CF.

I can see a set of circumstances where Polishuk's opinion would play out but Baldelli is by no means saying Santana is going to be the everyday 1B. He said it would not necessarily be a traditional platoon. It's also a best case scenario where Santana is at least average offensively and I sure don't know what we are going to get out of Santana. If he sucks like he did early on, putting Kirilloff or Miranda at 1B and having the other one of these two DH is the better option. Miranda was not really in the picture when Polishuk offered this opinion. We would have to assume Baldelli opts for a far worse option in a scenario where Miranda continues to play well of Santana is as bad as he was the first 20 days of the season.