Teflon

I hadn't heard this until recently this but the Brewers are playing the "relocation" chip as leverage for new taxes to finance ballpark upgrades. The White Sox are also talking about relocating. (and selling the team.) Do you think this is just squawking or are their road trips to Nashville in our future?

I wouldn't discount the proficiency of Cleveland's organization to develop players. Dollars spent aren't everything. (Please see the Rays and Orioles whose combined 2023 payrolls are less than the Twins)

The good news - you could have been at the Vikings preseason game tonight and weren't.

Not true. Richie Incognito is literally a nobody.

The Minnesota Twins are to the MLB what the word "knickknacks" is to the English language.

3 is Magic Number

I really like the 3-man booth with Morneau and Perkins. Glen and Justin seem a lot looser and more candid together than when working separately. Disclaimer - I've had 3 beers.

Who's to say the 1987 Twins fans wouldn't have been complaining, too? There was no social media, no internet in 1987 so the only grumbling would have been much less conspicuous - especially as the Twins were failing miserably (29-52) on the road again and again that year. Give the 1987 fans Twitter X and Twins Daily and see if their day-to-day state of annoyance would have been so different.

Last year, 10 AL pitchers received votes from the 30 local market voters in the BBWAA: Justin Verlander, Dylan Cease, Alek Manoah, Shohei Ohtani, Framber Valdez, Shane McClanahan, Shane Bieber, Nestor Cortes, Gerrit Cole and Kevin Gausman. Justin Verlander won the Cy Young receiving all 30 first-place votes. Verlander was 18-4 with a 1.75 ERA He also led the AL in WHIP by around 100 basis points. His 5.7 in pitchers' WAR (as calculated by Baseball Reference) was 4th overall behind Cease at 6.4 (14-8), Ohtani at 6.2, (15-9) and Manoah at 6.0. (16-7) The most similar 2022 AL Cy Young vote-getter comparison to a 2023 Sonny Gray looks like Shane McClanahan who was 12-8 with a 2.54 ERA, 4.1 WAR, a 0.926 WHIP. (2nd in WHIP to Verlander, 6th in Cy Young voting) Framber Valdez, meanwhile, had a higher ERA than McClanahan, a higher WHIP, a lower K rate and a worse SO/W ratio but got 4 more BBWAA writers' votes than McClanahan. (Both had a single 4th place vote, Valdez had 12 5th place votes, and McClanahan got 8 5th place votes) The main things in Framber's favor seems to be the 17 games he won and that he led the AL in innings pitched with 201. (McClanahan finished at 166), This year, there isn't anyone having a Justin Verlander-type season so it's likely that 1st place votes will be split. That should make the overall scores lower and more dispersed. Still, should Gray stay among the leaders in AL pitchers' WAR at season's end, the additional wins that Eovaldi and Eflin have will be enough of an aesthetic differentiator to move Gray down the list. Since Voters have to list 5 pitchers, he'll definitely get some 5th place votes, maybe even 4th. With Ohtani and Cole also in the mix, however, I would be surprised if he gets any 3rd-place votes or higher. Wins are like the bathing suit contest in the pre-2018 Miss America pageant. Miss Arkansas and Miss Ohio may be neck-and-neck after the talent judging, but...

While Sonny Gray has been the best Twins player over the course of the season and has impressive qualitative stats, the Cy Young probably involves some quantitative minimums, as well. Not sure that Sonny gets to 10 wins or that the Twins post a better than .500 record in games that he starts - which is not his fault. Gerrit Cole, Nathan Eolvaldi, and Zac Eflin look a lot more like traditional Cy Young candidates than Gray.

Thanks for the summary, Ted. I appreciate the effort that you and the others put into these recaps.

"It’s very likely we won't see a player like Mauer again for decades." I hold out hopes for Walker Jenkins. That kid looks like he came right out of central casting. Nice piece, Ted.

Here you go:

I take Ted's view, too. A person can't just look at the high contracts at the end of a player's career for the simple reason that star players are so grossly underpaid at the beginning of their careers. You have to look at total production and total compensation like Ted's tweet did. For the whole of his career, Mauer's total salaries equated to only 70% of his estimated value to the Twins. That's quite a bargain.

Thanks, Matt. I really enjoyed reading that.

Of the current MLB teams, I'd give the nod to the Giants for having both the best TV announcers (Duane Kuiper, Mike Krukow) and radio broadcasters. (Jon Miller, Dave Fleming.) Kuiper and Krukow are definite homers and a bit irreverent but you really get a sense of them being buddies and enjoying being at the ballpark together. Miller is, IMO, the classic play-by-play caller with an elegant style, a great voice and a handy trove of facts. It's refreshing to watch/listen to a Giants game and to not be subjected to the usual ex-player stock phrases or regurgitation of the team's game notes. The Giants are also bringing in some interesting new faces on TV with Javy Lopez and Hunter Pence. PS - I really miss Herb Carneal. His voice was as much a part of my memory of summers past as the sound of the lake or the crickets at night.

I'm surprised on the timing of this as the Luplow signing could potentially upstage the Joe Mauer Twins HOF weekend.

Cleveland hasn't exhausted all options until they bring in Lonnie Smith as a special assistant to oversee baserunning.

The Twins and their MLB cohorts need to put more effort into the assigning of phantom injuries to players they want to sit down for a while. Something like, earlobe necrosis or having a vestigial tail removed. PS - Glad to see Keuchel. Not so much that I have high hopes for him, but just because it's something different and therefore interesting.

If modern technology can make a home ear-cleaning tool for the masses with a microscopic ear canal camera, I refuse to believe medical science can't fix Buxton for however many millions the Twins insurance would shell out.. Shut him down now for as long as necessary to surgically repair him and rehab him. I don't want to seem him at all in 2024 if he's going to be the same player he is at present. They invented a unique surgery for Tommy John back in the day, Somebody needs to pioneer the "Byron Buxton" surgery.

As a Minnesotan, I think Mauer's a first ballot Hall of Famer - but as a Minnesotan, I also know things hardly ever go like that for us. Harmon Killebrew, for #@!$'s sake, took 4 ballots to make it and he was the number 5 all-time HR hitter when he became eligible.

I'd be shocked if the Twins make front office changes for 2024. This season should have already been viewed as a write-off given Correa's funk, Miranda's regression, Polanco's injuries and Buxton's limited capacity. The Twins actually should have been sellers to see if they could get something for Gray or Maeda or Gallo or Kepler but I suppose standing pat is the compromise when you're mediocre but in first place by default.

Seeing as Gray and Maeda are both free agents to-be and the Twins are contenders only because they're the Eddie the Eagle of MLB this season, at least one of those pitchers should be traded for a player with some estimated future value. If it's Maeda that's traded, the Twins can make Gray a qualifying offer for next season to ensure they get a compensatory draft pick when he invariable signs with another team. That seems like the best case scenario.

In April Rocco Baldelli told the team "There's snow tomorrow" which the team misheard as "There's no tomorrow" and began swinging willy-nilly. In May, Baldelli told the team to "Only swing at pitches in the zone" but he failed to specify whether that was the strike zone or the central time zone. In June Rocco asked the team to be more selective at the plate so they started choosing more leafy greens in their post-game buffets. In July, Baldelli told the team the fans were getting fed up with all the K's at which time the team's left fielder began signing autograph requests, Max 'epler.

Even with the downgrading of wins as a factor, it's hard to believe a starting pitcher ending the season with a (likely) single digit win total in a non-shortened season would draw any consideration. PS - According to Baseball Reference, Gray's nickname is "Pickles". I, for one, believe that Twins Daily should start using nicknames more frequently. An exception would be made for Trevor Larnach. In his case his full name -Trevor John-Ikaiakaloa Larnach - should be used at all times because it's simply music to the ears.