tarheeltwinsfan

That's like I felt when the Twins traded Berrios. WTH ?

I like Sonny Gray but I like Chase Petty more. I am not a fan of this trade.

Does it work for you if the Twins only have 2 years pf control of Sonny Gray?

Well thought out and well written article. Thank you.

As a result of this trade, the Rangers need someone to play 3B. Hmmmm. Who might be available ?

Due to this trade, the Rangers need someone to play 3B. Any idea where the Rangers could obtain a former MVP to play 3B ?

Where is Willians Astudillo when we need him?

Who will be the back-up catcher when the inevitable happens and one of the 2 current catchers gets hurt?

Agree 100%.

Thank you, Mitch for your contributions, your enthusiasm, your effort and for your smile. You are truly one of the good guys. I wish the very best for you and your family.

SETH, THANKS TO YOU AND THE OTHER WRITERS AND CONTRIBUTORS FOR HELPING US GET THROUGH THIS FRUSTRATING TIME DURING THE LOCKOUT. ALL OF YOU WHO WRIOTE FREQUENTLY ARE REALLY GOOD THERAPISTS FOR ME AND FOR MANY OF US LOYAL TD FOLLOWERS AND CONTRIBUTORS. I'M GLAD THERE WILL BE BASEBALL. HOWEVER THE AGREEMENT WAS A LITTLE LATE FOR ME, IN SOME RESPECTS, SINCE I JUST RETURNED FROM A WEEK AT FORT MYERS. MY WIFE AND I MISSED SEEING THE TWINS PLAY THE YAMKEES, PHILLIES AND RED SOX. THERE WERE SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR TRIP. HERE THEY ARE IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER; THE WEATHER WAS BEAUTIFUL AND SO WERE THE BEACHES AND WE SAW MANY BEAUTIFUL BIRDS AND ANIMALS AT DING DARLING WILDLIFE PRESERVE. WE DID GET OUR MONEY REFUNDED FROM STUBHUB FOR THE TICKETS TO THE 3 GAMES WHICH WERE CANCELLED. WE HAD LUNCH WITH AN ARMY BUDDY AND HIS WIFE WHO LIVE IN NEARBY BONITA SPRINGS. WE SHARED MEMORIES, OF THINGS THAT WE SAW AND DID IN THE ARMY AS OUR UNDERSTANDING WIVES PATIENTLY LISTENED TO THEM. I WATCHED THE CLASS A INTERSQUAD GAME, I GOT TO TALK WITH DO PARK, THE MLB.COM WRITER FOR THE TWINS. WHAT A NICE, FRIENDLY GUY. DO ENJOYS HIS JOB. I ASKED IF HE HAD A DEGREE IN JOURNALISM AND HE TOLD ME HIS DEGREE WAS IN ENGINEERING. INTERESTING STORY HOW HE BECAME AN MLB WRITER. PROSPECT AARON SABATO AND I DISCUSSED OUR TARHEELS' VICTORY OVER DUKE IN COACH K'S LAST HOME GAME AT CAMERON INDOOR STADIUM, SINCE WE ARE BOTH UNC GRADS, WE BOTH ENJOYED THAT BASKETBALL GAME VERY MUCH. I CONCLUDED YOU PAY YOUR MONEY AND TAKE YOUR CHANCES, REFERRING TO THE 96 FORMER DUKE PLAYERS WHO WERE PRESENT AND WHO USED TO SLAP THE FLOOR AT CAMERON STADIUM AS A WAY TO FIRE THE DEFENSE UP AND THE FOLKS WHO PAID THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS FOR TICKETS TO BE PRESENT FOR COACH K'S LAST HOME GAME.. DURING THE INTERSQUAD CLASS A BASEBALL GAME, I CONCLUDED THAT 19 YEAR OLD NOAH MILLER CAN PLAY SS AND HAS POWER TO SPARE, AS HE HIT ONE OVER THE RIGHT FIELD FENCE DURNING THE GAME, AT A PITCHERS' PRACTICE, I CONCLUDED THAT CHASE PETTY IS VERY IMPRESSIVE WITH EXTREME VELOCITY, REALLY GOOD CONTROL AND A SLIDER THAT DREW VERBAL REACTIONS OF 'WOW' FROM THOSE OF US STANDING BEHIND THE CATCHER AND THE FENCE AS THE BALL SNAPPED SHARPLY DOWNWARD AND SIDEWAYS. FINALLY I WANT TO SAY THAT I SINCERELY APPRECIATE TD AND THE EFFORTS OF THE OWNERS WHO MAKE TD POSSIBLE AND THE EXCELLENT WRITERS AND CONTRIBUTORS AND MODERATORS, WHICH MAKE IT THE BEST TEAM ORIENTED WEBSITE IN ALL OF MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL. PLAY BALL.

Really nice article. Thank you.

Friends, All I know is I'm sitting in an Air BNB in Fort Myers, writing this. My wife and I drove 12 hours to get here from North Carolina because I had the foresight to order my spring training game tickets early to see the Twins play the Yankees, Phillies and Red Sox, all of which were cancelled last week. Stub Hub has refunded my ticket money, but I. could not get my Air BNB money back, so we came any way. So far my highlight has been watching Chase Petty throw from a mound to a catcher (He has awesome speed, a wicked slider and most of all, control) He threw 90 % strikes. I know, I know it is practice and it is spring training, but many of the other pitchers were not throwing 50% strikes.) Now back to my subject matter I'm still out the money for the place where we are staying, the cost of gas and the wear and tear on my car, eating out instead of preparing food and $35 for a lousy tee shirt that says Twins Spring Training; My other Twins Spring Training shirts from years past have the year on them (2016, 2018, 2019), but not this years tee shirt. Not a single tee shirt at the Hammond Stadium gift shop had 2022 on it, I asked the sales lady why and she said the obvious..."The Twins did not want to get stuck with a lot of unsold tee shirts that can't be sold next year.." I thought to myself, "When did the Twins order these tee shirts and why did the Twins figure there would be less people buying these shirts at Spring Training in 2022?" The gift shop today at Hammond Stadium was a sad sight. There few fans in it. There was one family of 4 from South Dakota and a couple from Minnesota and me. It reminded me of a sad song Frank Sinatra sang called "There Used To be A Ballpark Here" . I next asked the nice lady, who was in charge of the gift shop, how this lockout has been affecting them. She told me it was especially hard on the concession vendors. I asked if they could draw unemployment of some sort and she said no. I asked how many people this affected and she told me 400. She told me the players association has put aside some money to help folks like this at spring training sites and those at major league sites who miss some weeks of the regular season.. That's nice, but it should have been avoided. I am sad about this lockout and, while I don't want to walk away from the Twins when this lockout time is over, it does make me feel down. especially when I think about what is the reason for this walkout. I my humble opinion it is greedy pride. which has precipitated this walkout. That's bad news for us baseball fans. But I put this baseball walkout mess into perspective for myself, when I thought about this: 1) My family and I and most of my friends, who chose to listen to our doctors and health care professionals, don't have to fear Covid like we did the last two years because we have been vaccinated and vaccines are readily available for others who want them, and 2) we're not cold and hungry and living in a Ukrainian subway station with our children to escape Russian artillery. When I think of Covid and the poor people of Ukrainian, it makes grateful to be sitting in an AirBNB at Fort Myers with my beautiful wife, enjoying the beautiful weather, the bright green of the leaves on the trees and bushes, spring breezes, the variety of sub-tropical birds at Ding Darling Wildlife refuge, the BBQ at Mission BBQ and a chance tomorrow to visit with a really good man who was one of my lieutenants in the army in 1968, Plus Chase Petty sure can pitch.

Morneau told this in an interview in the broadcast booth either before or shortly after his Twins HOF award was given He said he had too much to drink the night before and still got two hits the next day, while hung over. Mauer told him that he needed to be better prepared for the games and not play hung over, Morneau told Mauer that it didn't affect him because he had gotten two hits. Mauer said," yea, but how many more could you have gotten if you hadn't been hung over?" That got Morneau's attention and he said he started going about his business the right way. He was praising Mauer as he told this story. I really like both of those guys.

I heard Morneau tell about Mauer helping him to stop partying so much and to take his job seriously and go about his business the right way.

My wife and I have enjoyed Ding Darling Wild Life Refuge, especially early in the morning or late in the afternoon, when beautiful birds fly in and out of the park . There are viewing towers and alligators. There are also good, easy, beautiful walking trails. I like to go see the spoonbills, ospreys, herons, pelicans and anhingas. but I would rather see some Orioles, Blue Jays and Cardinals.

Good assessment. Hope Arraez does the work and it helps him.

I must disagree with your conclusion. I can understand Garver's points. He is saying that he and other team members were distracted by really sad and difficult things that happened, which had to be dealt with and which would have affected most of us in distracting ways. I realize that in life, bad and difficult things happen, and we, as humans, try to "keep on keeping on", but the things Garver mentioned were things which could not just be set aside, to be dealt in the off season. I contend delaying grief or internalizing fears is not healthy. A baseball team is close, like a family. Mike Bell's death was the death of one of the Twins' family. The team grieved in individual ways and as a team. The George Floyd situation and the resulting events have been difficult for our country, but remember, Minneapolis was at the epicenter of these events. It must have been on the minds of a close team of young men of different races, different countries and from all walks of life. I also submit that many of these young men may have had somewhat limited life experiences in some ways. These young men lived together, traveled together, worked together. I expect that they had many serious discussions about life and death, about race and prejudice, about law enforcement's difficult job, which involves huge responsibilities to enforce the law justly, about Covid vaccines and anti-vaxer's, about masks and anti-maskers, about what is really effective in fighting Covid and what is just stupid, about freedoms to choose vs. the safety of all those who dress together, shower together, eat together, travel together, and breathe together and discussions about the political upheaval during an election year, which we Americans experienced in 2021. I know at my North Carolina law office of 12 fairly homogeneous people, we really struggled with these and other topics last year, including the Covid death of a family member of an employee. This past year was a difficult year for most of us. Hopefully we all have learned some valuable life lessons which will serve us well as we continue on with our lives and face new challenges.

Mike, while I respectfully disagree with your conclusion, thank you for a well thought out position and for presenting the other side to Cody's position.

Cody, I agree with your assessment. Thanks for writing a good article, which shows a trade proposed by another writer and a good argument as to why the proposed trade would not be a wise move.

"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain." One can say that about PECOTA predictions, however It is the hope of the entire Twins nation that this prediction is close to being accurate.

Really interesting article Seth. Thank you for this information. I really like the minor league housing changes.

I couldn't agree more.

I can't agree to signing these two, historically mediocre - minus pitchers. However signing the Free Agent Colorado SS is another story.

I don't think that is strumdatjag's point. He is simply saying, no matter who's fault this lockout may be, some fans will leave baseball. I get it. On a related topic, and this is just my opinion, but probably professional violinists and percussionists have more financial need to unionize, than do major league baseball players. I may be wrong, but I am assuming there are more financially struggling violinists, than financially struggling major league baseball players. However, as strumdatjag has pointed out, one does not have to understand labor relations law in order to say, "To hell with this mess. I've better things I can do in beautiful Minnesota (or North Carolina) during late spring, summer and early fall".