IndianaTwin

I had several 0-for-14 strings. Often back-to-back.

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong (heck, it's the internet -- someone might try correcting me if I'm right!), but I think players can be put on the 60-day IL at the beginning of spring training. Not sure how that's positioned this year, but in normal years, that means Enlow and Maeda could go there now (but not until the 40-man is full and the spot is needed), so they are effectively at 37 spots.

For those of us not keeping score at home, what does that leave us in St. Paul? And forgive me for not having this bookmarked, but is there still a Google doc somewhere that has salaries? Where does this set of folks leave us?

We’d all like to see the Twins FO publicize their plans in black and white, but we just got Gray. I think there’s a metaphor there for us to not overreact on individual transactions. There’s a longer-term plan at play — let’s check back on April 7.

By definition, they would have had to spend more than 3/$71M to sign Stroman. For Gray, they are paying 1/$10.17M plus a prospect (and getting an option for 2023 in Gray). The Twins also get a prospect that’s not as highly regarded as the one they are giving up, but that is closer to the majors.

No particular preference on the size of second and third base, but I think the biggest win in terms of player safety would be the “double base” at first extending into foul territory, since that’s where the biggest number of collisions happens. It would also simplify the issue of running outside the base line on bunts and dribblers in front of the plate.

As somebody who’s spent many a night until after 11pm at the radio, I’m all for the pitch clock. —Indiana (Eastern Time) Twin PS: It was one thing to grow up in Iowa and stay up late to listen to the west coast games when they lasted 2:30. I don’t even think of staying up late in Eastern time to listen to west coast games when they last 3:30.

Bob Miller — 1 for 38. Ouch! But at least he had a walk, right? In the case of pitchers, it’s a bit of asterisk because of the DH. A guy like Rincon was such a solid contributor for a period of time that it’s hard to think of him as a one-hit wonder in the big scheme of things. But Taylor Motter, on the other hand… The Juan Rincon memory is several autographed baseballs for my kids. I’ve named this on several occasions, but my impression is that Joe Nathan’s role as bullpen leader set the tone for the bullpen of that era (Nathan, Rincon, J.C. Romero, Jesse Crain, Matt Guerrier, etc.) to be very willing autograph signers. Comiskey’s lone redeeming factor is a low fence down the right field line, and the bullpen guys were always willing to sign for my kids.

Disco. Check. (Yesterday) Hosken. Check. (Today) Bombo. Coming?

Or “Let’s play Kikuchi-coochie-coo together.” And ”My love is this Big, Mike.”

How about one that says, “Let’s write a new love Story”?

When I was having a hard time coming up with a shortstop, I gave consideration to making an exception for Pablo Sanchez.

Great idea for a series. Do you take requests? Each time I see a post from Hosken Bombo Disco, I wonder what happened to Hosken, Bombo and Disco. And Willie Norwood.

To take it a notch further, they wouldn’t have shifted on Carew in the first place.

It's really a moot conversation at this point. The question as presented and the responses suggested are dependent on the past CBA. When we know the rules going forward, we can respond with meaningful answers.

I'd suggest trading A.J. Pierzynski for Luke Weaver and some lottery picks. Point being, Weaver has only gotten past 66 innings only once. It's tough to think of him as a full-time starter. (In his defense, he started 12 games in a 60-game season in 2020, so he was on pace for way beyond that.) But his stuff can be nasty. In my mind, he's a Joe Nathan candidate. Trade for him, teach him to the pbtbtbtbtbt thing, and add him to the bullpen.

Maeda trade Odo trade

This looks like a fun watch as well.

Yeah, Hooch and Murphy are primarily there because I couldn’t find good alternatives. And thanks for adding It Happens Every Spring — I’ll add it to my list as well.

I was hoping someone would mention Bang the Drum Slowly. That’s probably No. 1 on the my need-to-watch list.

I confess that I’ve not seen either of the musical films, but I gotta have heart and track them down.

Good call on Lou Collins from Little Big League. I did consider him, but didn’t include him in the writing. I didn’t take into account who was playing the character, so that didn’t help Elster and Durham. That would be an interesting take in its own right — an all-star team of MLB players who played someone (other than themself) in a movie. I always make it a point to watch the credits at the end of baseball movies to see what names I recognize. Pete Vuckovich was Clu Haywood in Major League, for example. I wasn’t aware of Jack Powell, however.

Hey, it’s the Christmas season and there’s no real baseball on TV. Nor is there any real baseball news, and I don’t want to discuss one more time whether the Twins are in rebuild or retool mode. But it’s a wonderful life, and there are movies to watch. On a recent road trip with my son, we tried to come up with the starting lineup on the All-Time Baseball Movie team. These are the fictional guys. It would be too easy to insert Lou Gehrig from Pride of the Yankees and Babe Ruth from any number of films. Here’s what we’ve got. Add your comments and rebuttals below. Leading off and playing center field, we have to go with the speedster Willie Mays Hayes from Major League. The original version, not Major League II, III or whatever they’re up to by now. When you hit like Mays and run like Hayes, you gotta be in the lineup. Hayes is a tough call in center over Kelly Leake from Bad News Bears and Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez from The Sandlot, but you clearly gotta keep the latter on the roster as a pinch runner. Batting second and playing left field will be Shoeless Joe. I know that I said this is fictional and Joe Jackson was real, but the movie is clearly a fantasy, and we’re talking about perhaps the best-known character in the genre. With that line drive back through the box off Ray, he’s clearly adept at going with the pitch, a skill we’re looking for in our No. 2 hitter. Batting third, where we want one of our best hitters, we have to go with The Natural, Roy Hobbs. He plays rightfield and has the lineup’s best walk-up music. If you don’t believe that, just stay after any minor league game for the fireworks show and you’ll get a listen. It’s not intentional to have worked our way around the outfield with top three spots in the order, but it came out that way. We’re kinda going to continue that by finding a way to get Major Leaguer Pedro Cerrano’s bat in the lineup, which we’ll do in the cleanup spot as the DH. Movies don’t tend to have the DH in a starring role, but Jobu hits the fastball very much. Oh, and don’t steal his rum. Catcher is tough. Some of the genre’s best characters are behind the plate. I know I’m going to get flack for not choosing Crash Davis from Bull Durham, but the dude’s a career minor league. Stay tuned, I’ve got a spot for him. Similarly, Jake Taylor from Major League is a gamer, a masterful bunter and a great handler of a pitching staff. And then there’s Hamilton Porter from The Sandlot. I don’t think I can go with him, but we need him on the bench – there can’t be a better bench jockey and trash talker in the league. But all those pale compare to the one who truly was in a League of her (Their) Own, Dottie Hinson. She’ll woman the backstop and bat fifth. Following her in the lineup and batting sixth is her teammate. Playing second base, we have the window-breaking slugger, Marla Hooch. First base is a hitter’s spot, but it’s actually a little weak in the movies. Granted, Clu Heywood leads the Major League in most offensive categories, including nose hair, but we only want the good guys on our team, so we can’t use him. Similarly, Mr. 3000 is just such a bad movie that I’m not going to use Stan Ross. That leaves us with another aging slugger, back from Japan, Mr. Baseball Jack Eliot, and he’ll bat seventh. Third base is another sparse one. The potentially obvious choice here is Roger Dorn, but he pretty much showed himself a clubhouse cancer throughout Major League, so we’ll have to pass. Instead, we’ll go with our third pick from League of Their Own, Doris Murphy. She can rub teammates the wrong way, as witnessed by her taking on Kit Hinson after a rough game, but she’s clearly a gamer, the kind of player who want as a spark batting near the bottom of the lineup at No. 8. Finally, we need a shortstop. Amazingly with such a glamour position, I couldn’t come up with a good standout shortstop from a baseball movie. I mean, with his way of coaching up teammates, it seems likely that “The Jet” Rodriguez could pull out his inner Cesar Tovar and play there, but I don’t think he actually does in the movie. But I’ve got an unnamed sleeper. Unnamed in that I couldn’t remember his name ever being used in the movie. But you need defense up the middle, and with that final play to come in and bare hand the tipped ball to preserve the perfecto at the end of For Love of the Game, this unnamed guy will play short and bat ninth. By contrast, though it may seem that the lineup is a bit weak at the bottom, we’ve got a loaded rotation. He is, by definition, a Rookie (of the Year), but with the bionic arm, Henry Rowengartner is in the mix. I like to work young guys in slowly, so I’m going to start him at No. 5 in the rotation. And speaking of youth, we’ll have another youngster in the No. 4 spot, Amanda Wurlitzer from the Bad News Bears. Despite her youth, she does have championship experience, leading the Bears to the title game. At No. 3, we’ll go with Bingo Long from his Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings. He’s based on Satchel Paige, so that’s impressive. Picking between the top two spots was tough, but I had to go with experience. I like Ebby Calvin “Nuke” LaLoosh’s million dollar arm in Bull Durham, but I don’t want someone with a five-cent head getting the start on Opening Day, so he’ll have to wait for game two. Which means that our Opening Day starter will be Billy Chapel from For Love of the Game. When you wrap up your Hall of Fame career with a perfect game and demonstrate that “the cathedral that is Yankee Stadium belongs to a Chapel,” you’ve shown you have the moxie to get the Opening Day start. There’s several noteworthy candidates to fill out the staff while pitching out of the bullpen, including Kit Hinson from League of the Their and Eddie Harris from Major League, but we know that it will be the Wild Thing, Ricky Vaughn from Major League, marching out of the bullpen to close games after a stellar career in the California Penal League. The team’s top pitching prospect is the newly signed Rigo (“Peanut Boy”) Sanchez from Trouble with the Curve. So there’s the roster. But before we get away, we have to recognize that it takes more than players to run a team. You need a coaching staff, for example, and baseball movies have given us a few. Because they formed the best manager/coach duo, our team will be led by Pop Fisher and Red Blow from The Natural. There are other noteworthy coach/managers who can fill out the coaching staff, namely Frank Perry (For Love of the Game), Jimmy Dugan (League of Their Own) and Lou Brown (Major League). I’m big on character, so it’s against my better judgment, but I did save a spot for Morris Buttermaker from the Bad News Bears. Also in the dugout will be young Bobby Savoy (The Natural) as our batboy. Billy Heywood from Little Big League was a choice for the coaching staff, but I realized that he has to be the team owner, since several other of the team owners portrayed are dirtbags. Think of Rachel Phelps from Major League and The Judge from The Natural. Heywood’s more seasoned ownership partners include Gary Wheeler (For Love of the Game) and candy bar mogul Walter Harvey (League of Their Own). Also in the team’s administration is GM Ira Lowenstein (League of Their Own). He oversees a scouting staff that includes Gus Lobel (Trouble with the Curve) and Ernie Capadino (A League of Their Own). The latter is known for his skill in negotiating contracts, as demonstrated in signing the Hinson sisters. For astutely observing how much better Pete Taylor has been playing since his parents came to visit, Pete Klein (Trouble with the Curve) will head the team’s analytics department. Heading the scouting staff, and likely working her way up to GM on her own, is Mickey Lobel from Trouble with the Curve. With such a varied range of experience on our team, there are bound to be injuries, and we’ve got the best possible medical staff in place. Heading the group is Doc Archibald (Moonlight) Graham from Field of Dreams. Assisting him, with specializations in providing CPR and overseeing the pool at the training facility, is Wendy Peffercorn from The Sandlot. A team like this needs a place to play, and fortunately they have stadium architect extraordinaire Ray Kinsella (Field of Dreams). As noted above, I do have a backup plan for Crash Davis. He’ll assist Ray as groundskeeper, with particular expertise in managing the irrigation system. Also of note in game day management is Frank Drummond (Naked Gun), who will serve as stadium security. He’s also been known to fill in for Enrico Polazzo in singing the National Anthem. A team like this certainly deserves media coverage. Again, there’s lots to choose from in the broadcasting department, since using an announcer is often part of what helps the plot flow in sports movies. They’re playing themselves, so our rules keep us from naming John Gordon (Little Big League), Vin Scully (For Love of the Game) and Curt Gowdy, Jim Palmer, Tim McCarver, Mel Allen, Dick Enberg and Dick Vitale, all from Naked Gun. But even if that rule didn’t apply, the broadcasting gig would still have to go to Harry Doyle from Major League. And finally, we need someone to wax eloquent and write Roger Angell-like essays. The clear choice for that would be Terrance Mann. So, how’d I do? Who’d I miss?

But the thing is, they didn't. To expand on my very brief post above, the cost for three years of Odorizzi was a 20-year-old who had just finished Low-A and, if I'm remembering correctly, wasn't among the Twins most highly regarded prospects at the time. There's no guarantee they're going to get a return like that on every trade, but it goes against the assumption of most on this string who seem to be thinking that any level of quality is going to come at massive expense.

Jermaine Palacios for Jake Odorizzi, anyone?