IndianaTwin

So much to agree with here, Doc, particularly the two comments I snipped. I will stake a claim to have been saying, “I told you so,” to TD, however, in sensing there was more to come. That’s part of the new definition of the “Twins Way,” to my observation. Patience seems to be part of the mission statement. Consider this: In a “normal” year, there are 120 days from Dec. 1 to Opening Day. They lost most of that, but picked up a week on the back end. They essentially have 25 days to do 100 days of work. Said another way, if one day equals four in the post lockout world and we’ve got about 17 days to opening day, it’s kinda like Feb. 1 in a “normal” year. And Odorizzi and Donaldson are two excellent moves they made after that date in past years. So… Prediction No. 1: There will be a move for a legit starting pitcher (and note that by “legit,” I’m looking at it from the end of the season, not from what those of us on TD think on Opening Day.) Prediction No. 2: It will be someone completely off the TD radar. Many, if not most, of their best moves were ones that took us by surprise. Prediction No. 3: It won’t cost as much as we think. I circle back to Palacios for Odorizzi. They haven’t put this much effort into building minor league assets to give them away. Those are general comments to TD. To you, Doc, a life coach comment from an Iowa native who’s lived in northern Indiana my adult life and who travels to Nebraska and South Dakota regularly for work. ? Don’t even think of moving here! Appreciate what you have. Thanks to clouds off the lake, we say goodbye to the sun on Nov. 1 and welcome it back on April 1. And thanks to the moisture in those clouds, 10 degrees here feels so much worse than 10 degrees there — it goes to the bone. I was in Sioux Falls in late February, and I’ll take 10 below there over 10 above here. The grass isn’t greener on this side of the fence. It’s buried under a pile of gray slush.

Dude — way to ruin my supper. For at least a couple hours, I’d gotten Thursday’s debacle out of my mind, and you had to remind me. I will say, however, that it was pretty awesome to be with 15,000 of my closest friends at CHA Friday afternoon for the women’s blowout. (And besides, I appear to be about 10 years older than you, so consider the stress I’m dealing with. I guess I do have on you that I’m old enough to remember Steve Waite’s drive to the basket against Georgetown.) Back to the nachos.

This front office has no idea what it’s doing. All this “in on” Story stuff, and I’m sure they’re not going to get him. (Sarcasm, by the way.) Once again, a lot of ink/keyboard strokes spilt on TD in vain. When will we learn that the FO is rarely pursuing the move we are pushing for and almost always does its work under the radar? Few of us expected Odorizzi, Pineda, Gray, etc., and “everybody” on TD “knew” that Correa wasn’t an option.

Hopefully Gladden handles this better than Les Nessman:

That’s why a lot of managers are reluctant to use their catcher as a DH. So, for example, Garver only DHed in three games last year, when his bat would have made him a candidate to do so more regularly. I didn’t go to the bother of looking it up, but my hunch is that it might have happened at times when Astudillo was on the roster.

Yes, but you lose the DH, so the pitcher now hits in Player B’s spot in the order.

Correct. 59-61 over the final 120, so basically a .500 team over the final three-quarters of the year.

I was optimistic about Rortvedt as well, but I think you’re right, jmlease1. To build on this: Player A 98 AB in his first major league season, with a .169/.281/.510 and 41 OPS+. Career .241/.355/.672 slash line in five minor league seasons. Player B 155 AB in his first major league season, with .197/.296/.533 and 46 OPS+ Career .221/.340/.644 in many minor league seasons, because he’s now 38 years old. Sanchez may not be our answer at catcher (and we don’t know what’s still to happen in the transaction world), but folks, let’s not get too hung up about losing Player A (Rortvedt), just like we weren’t too hung up about losing Player B (Drew Butera).

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.

What do people think? The main thing I think is that it’s way too simplistic to ask the question if these are being treated as guarantees. A “budget” is a “spending plan.” A “plan” is a moving document. And many factors play into how a spending plan moves. Have any of us actually heard the FO talk about what their budget is? Not that I’m aware, and we shouldn’t. Frankly, it’s a competitive disadvantage (both in trades with other teams and in negotiations with agents) to have named your budget. And aside from that reality, my sense is that Pohlad and the front office are more driven by “value” than by the final expense line in the budget. They showed they would spend on Donaldson when they perceive that they are getting value for the contract. They showed they would spend on Buxton when they perceive they are getting value. They showed they would spend on Cruz, Clippard, Reed, etc., when they perceive they are getting value. Conversely, they have showed that they won’t spend on …, or …., or …. when they don’t think they are getting value for that. In that way, it would be irresponsible for them to NOT take Buxton’s incentives into consideration. They have to assume some of them will be paid out. But taking them into consideration isn’t the same as assuming that all of them will kick in. The reason they get paid more than you and me (and I’m making an assumption about TD readers’ salaries, I realized. :-)) is that they know how to find the balance between the two extremes. This year, Maeda’s aren’t going to kick in, for example, but we all (including the FO, I’d argue) hope that most of Buxton’s do.

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.

On MLB Network the other evening, they talked pitch clock and said the Single A league that tried it reduced game time by 30 minutes. I know that’s 30 minutes less to sell beer and nachos, but spending 30 minutes less at the park makes my non-fan spouse more likely to attend. Watch one of the networks 1960s reruns, and that’s the thing you’ll most notice. I went to a basketball game with a visiting friend the other evening, and he talked about how nice it was to watch televised sporting events when he was on the West coast, because of the start times. Living in ES/DT time, having a start time even one hour earlier would have made a big difference in my kids ability to watch games on TV. If you have kids, what time were you shooing them off to bed when they were in elementary school? Now think about how that fits with an 8:35 World Series start.

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.