Trov

This season will test the organization philosophy that the players do not need to be baby sat, and they are adults that make their own decisions. Just because they are not playing games or being coached every day, they have the technology to work on things and share videos with coaches. This will be a season of self motivation for many prospects, and I believe that will separate the real prospects from the ones that will flame out. I can see why the Twins are in win this season mode. They planned to do that all along, what makes it different now. They are built to win over next few years too. I am sure they will figure out ways to get increased development of their other prospects they are not keeping an eye on at CHS field. I could see the top pitchers trying to get together with hitters and just playing simulated games basically. Remember when you were kid and only a couple of guys could get together you would ghost runners? Something like that. Hitters can hit against machines. Pitchers can pitch to a backstop, but without a real hitter you have no clue if your pitch is really being effective. You have no clue if you are tipping, or if your have a good sequence. You can build up strength, but so much of pitching is mixing things up, and developing movement on pitches. These have to be tested against live hitters, in my opinion.

First, Pineda situation is not as simple as some would like it to be, see my response in Doc's forum. Romero, until I hear more I am just going to assume the fact it has not resolved is based on the COVID situation and essential government shut down of things like that. I had sent in passport application February, told end of April would be when I would get it. It did not come until end of June. I am sure the Visa situation is not something the government is trying to get done quickly, as they have been banning travel from all kinds of places anyways. As for the 60 man roster, it is much of what I was expecting. I would still like to know if the COVID list will allow someone to join 40 man. I would hate to see Buxton go down with injury then have the one or two viable backups have COVID for period of time and we cannot put a replacement on team. As much as I want baseball back, this will be an interesting season.

If this rule carries over for years to come, then maybe need to address possible scoring change for the baseball purists that will site numbers like RBI or runs scored for greatness or hall of fame. In reality, this will change the offensive numbers of the players on a team very minimally. In 60 games, very few will go into extra innings. The ones that do, there will be very few extra chances. At the end of the year, bet a player at best may get 2-5 RBI extra, that is at best and I bet no player will really get more than 2. Think of the odds the same player keeps getting up in extra innings with these chances and keeps driving in the runs. Extremely low. Sure, maybe some player will be like Mr. 3000, the Bernie Mac movie, that once they reach whatever RBI or run score number they feel will put them a lock for HOF they will retire on the spot, only to find out baseball years later decided to not count his couple of RBI in these games. This will not swing any MVP decisions, or HOF votes the couple extra RBI you may get over the 60 game season.

I expect either almost no trades at the deadline or some really big trades. First, it will be hard to evaluate history of trades for value of these trades. Normally, we look at years of control and cost of control to help decide what return should be. Less time with team getting player less they would give in return. However, as pointed out, the impact could be even bigger this year. In terms of years of return, we do not what next year will bring, the assumption is full season at full pay, but what about fans. We hope life will revert back to some level of normal by next April, but we do not know. So there may be very reduced fans for next year. Owners will be less likely to want to take on big contracts for next year. Also, there is major expectations of work stoping the year after, so even if you have player under control for that year it may be wasted. That means a team may be less likely to give up a prospect if that year was going to be factored into years of control. Conversely, if a team feels that a player this year will get them over the hump in the crazy season that it is, and trading for a hot player for rental may be worth more than any other year. This could lead teams to making trades you would never expect. I bet, most of the trades in that situation will be international signing money and less of prospects as we have no clue how some players will be developing. The last thing to think about is that most teams see a bump in attendance after a WS win, but if that cannot happen, then will teams want to give up future assets for chance at win in a year of a crap shoot that you will not see a boost in revenue that you normally would.

First, Doc I agree with your premise that he is being punished more than intended. He was expected to miss a relatively small portion of this season, but due to COVID he will be missing over half the season. So if you go by percent of season he is being punished greater than normal. However, the punishment was for games, not percent of a season. Yes, when the punishments were written the assumption was 162 games would be played every season, and the thought of percent of season was not in the punishments. I could be wrong, but I believe the players agreed on the punishments for violation of drug protocol. If they would have put in percent of a season, then there would be more of an argument for a prorated reduction of his penalty. However, that would be difficult to carry it over two seasons then, as if he was supposed to miss 37% of a season, then what he served last year in this situation he would have missed only a couple games. Now, maybe moving forward the league and players will work into agreements what happens if season is shorted by "act of god" like other leagues have. I agree he is getting a raw deal, but his penalty was games not percent of season. He could ask the union to step in, but my guess they will not in this situation.

I am not a fan of the 6 games against natural rival. With only 60 games those 3 game difference can be huge. Brew crew I think will be weaker this year than years past but they always have played us tough. Tigers playing Pirates, I assume is the extra games even thought Cleveland is close to Pittsburgh, but the natural inter state rival against reds makes sense. I assume they are not doing direct flight for "rival" That matchup is a who cares, both will not be good this year most likely. The chicago matchup could play big, and the Ohio matchup. Both Cubs and Reds are decent. Cards will be licking their chops to roll over the Royals. If I was an NL central fan other than Cards I would be very upset with the extra three games they will get.

Kepler v. Bauer at Reds, 4HR game? That place is know to be HR friendly.

Read the article, interesting they will be reducing roster size as season goes. Also, it does not explain how movement off the major league 30 to 28 to 26 squad will work. Do they need to have options available like normal to be moved off active roster to bring in someone eles, I would assume so. If they move a player from the 60 to the 40 will a player on the 40 need to be on 45 IL(if you did not read they dropped 60 to 45 for this season, still whole season basically). What if all your CF are in COVID issues can you swap them off 40 without a DFA and clear waivers. I am sure the league is figuring it all out, but these are questions I have. In terms of who I would include. I would make sure I have at least 2 viable defensive replacements at CF and SS. Assuming the possiblity of injury or illness you are going to want to be able to bring in defensive replacements as soon as possible. The chance of signing a FA to bring in will be reduced because of what they would have to do health screening wise and getting up to speed.

I do recall some rumors of expansion, not sure where that would be. They need to get the Rays out of Tampa. They are too good of an an organization to be stuck in that bad of a stadium and that bad of a fan base. Vegas has a AAA team, but I could see them making bid for an MLB team. A few other big AAA cities could make bids too, like Portland. If there is two more teams I would love to see no inter-league play at all. It started as a gimmick to get fans interested after the 94 strike. Getting to see teams you never got to see, and getting to have special rivals, but for me it fell flat. The difference in rules is annoying. The fact that there has to be a series every day is annoying, but make sense to not have a 14 and 16 team league like they had before, not fair to 16 team league it reduced percent of playoffs. I would welcome expansion to just get rid of inter-league play. If they want to keep it, we need single rule book. Before inter-league play I felt All-Star game was better, also before so much national coverage. It was the one chance you would see the stars of the other league, but now you see them all the time. It made the WS even more fun to see, because the two teams had never played that season and most likely had not played in a WS together. It gave a different feeling. Now you may have played the team as much as 6 times, and possibly just played them at the end of the season. This is just my perspective and sure many people do not agree. I would be opposed to the "rivalry" series too. Sure the Twins kind of have a rivalry with brewers, more so fans have it not the players. The inter city rivalry can be fun, but imagine the "sub-way" series back in the day if there had not been inter-league play, maybe the pizzia clemons thing would have been less, but the series would have been more fun I think. Only half the league has natural geography rivals, where the other half get forced together.

Does anyone know how many regular play by play or color commentators that are female in baseball now? It is great that many reports are out there for women, but what about in the booth calling the game. I know Bert will have the job with Twins until he does not want it, but with the rotation of retired players why not have some females in the booth? Why has it always been a man that calls the game, until very recently? I am looking forward to first female coach. The other major sports have some, no head coaches but assistants, and starting to get some in front offices I believe too. So many females get silenced in sports because the too long held belief that men know more about sports. The talk shows are starting to have more female input, time to get more coaches and more in the regular booth calling games.

The depth is the biggest plus the Twins will have. Not only at the MLB level, but with expanded squads and taxi systems the MLB ready hitters will be helpful. There will be positive tests, some teams already reporting that. That means most likely 14 days at least before returning. So not only small injuries having huge impact, missing 14 days, most likely 13 or 14 games is about a quarter of the season. Depth and hot streaks will carry this season. I could see if a guy is hot your ride him out, but second a slump hits you need a change. No room for error.

I liked the drill he talked about. I think maybe Twins should make Buxton do that. I am happy about the quote of the hitting plan. Hit strikes hard and don't worry about walks. Mitch Garver took that and ran with it this past year. There was many stories of Twins swing at first pitches, that also backs up the swing hard at strikes approach. Many times the first pitch is the best one you will see, so why take it just to work the count. Look your spot and let it swing, take anything else. Here is to hoping the kid has the true power. His bat is what will make him a player. In terms of where he falls on lists, who cares about those lists. So many people are wrong on those lists, just like so many of us are wrong at our guesses of who will do what.

In the spirit of the forum I will come up some interesting rules. I am not advocating for them, nor do I like the current change to extra inning games. How about for extra innings go to 1 pitch at bats? If it is a strike, including foul balls, you are out. If is a ball you walk. To prevent shifts, all players are tethered to poles in ground and cannot get detached. Sure whip lash may be a problem, but imagine Buxton going full speed to catch ball in gap and oh ran out of slack and he gets pulled back. Yes the tethers will make sure that between all fielders they can cover every inch of the field, but no players will ever cross paths. This will also prevent collisions on the field. How about for this season only, since no fans in stands, if player can get into stands to get the ball it is still live. Meaning foul ball if player can get into stands, we would have to remove the safety net, since it will not longer serve a purpose protecting empty seats, and the fielder catches it, that is an out. In addition, if a ball would be normal HR, even if it lands in stands if player can get to it he can throw it back into play just like it was off the wall. If extra innings go beyond 3 innings, then they do a three legged relay race around the bases. Oh wait that is not socially distancing so that is a no go. Maybe we just have a live tic toc dance off and the "fans" vote for who wins. The next signing will be the top rated tic toc person(not even sure if that is a thing) and they will ride the bench until it is their time to shine, I mean we got 30 players right. Anyone remember baseball simulator 1000? If you do not look it up, but lets bring in their power ups that can be used one time per game. Much like at carnaval, if Pitcher can predict their next pitch speed, they get an auto strike, but if they are wrong it auto ball, unless pitch is put in play, however, hitter cannot be struck out via this method, you at least need to give them a chance. To prevent possible cheating sign stealing, since the use of in game video screen will be pointless, the center field camera will constantly shown on the screen for all to see. This will make it fair for all then. Finally, coaches challenges will not be decided by replay review, but by test of strength by each manager. That is decided by the home manager by what test of strength will be used.

There has been very few posts about safety. They have a plan it is a 67 page plan that lays out much of what you bring up and much more. However, nothing about this was fighting over what returning would look like. There were some players expressing concerns, but none of the back and forth was if the plan was safe enough.

There is a 67 page safety manual that was drafted at the beginning of this. The players will have to agree to it before returning to play. Part of that has some rule changes, such as the 30 man squads, taxi squad, universal DH, limited travel, and many other things, that should hopefully address the questions you bring up. Maybe it does not. However, it seems the safety issue was either agreed to, or not all that important as other than opt out options for pay safety was never part of any discussion, at least that were leaked to press.

I fear MLS will top MLB and that will be a sad day for me. Imagine U.S. players going to Japan to get paid more and be in the best league around. It just may happen. People only have so much sports money to spend.

By voting no to the 60 game agreement, the players said we will file a grievance. This is because they knew MLB would impose 60 games. The grievance will get ugly. There will be work stoppage in 2022, unless the two sides spend a lot of time having meaningful talks over the next year. What is not clear to me is if the players need to agree to expanded playoffs this year, or if MLB can just force it. Also with DH in NL, does there need to be agreement there? Do the players need to agree to the altered alignment that has been discussed? Can MLB impose a "bubble" plan like they discussed before? With no agreement at all, outside of the full prorated pay, do players need to agree to the other details? What some may not be thinking about is fact we do not know what next year will bring. We hope that there is vaccine by next season and COVID will be in rear view, but at this time we do not know what will be allowed. As states are opening up cases are increasing. Will there be limitations to number of fans next year? If there will be we will be right where we are again. Owners will not do a full season with no fans or even 25% Maybe at 50% but if that still limits the high priced seats and would require more low priced seat sales that may not fly either. I would not be surprised if there is possibly 2 full seasons without baseball. This year and next. Hopefully during that time they can work out something for 22 agreement. If this standoff is any sign of the future things do not look good. As has been talked about, the owners these days are not owning the team as the main way to make money. It is a side investment. What that means is if they are not making money they will not invest. That also means they have less of an interest to make sure games happen. Think about it. If are a billionare without the team, why would you need the team? What I am getting at is the owners can out wait the players, should they decide. Most of the players cannot go 2 seasons without pay. Some cannot even go 1 season without pay. Very few people will budget for that, when you are expecting income coming in, plus they are not making the millions that the top players are making. Most are in the first three year pay levels, and when you take out taxes and agent fees, and other people you employ, what a player takes home in first three years is not a ton. Yes, it is better than many who watch, but the point is, they are not able to rest making nothing. In the end, the owners always have the power because they can survive with not making money from the business of baseball, where most of the players do not make money unless they are playing baseball. I hope both sides get heads out of you know where and work together. I doubt it will happen but here is to hoping.

Heard a Doogie rumor that Sabato is in town and as long as physical goes well he is expected to sign above slot value.

First, I am for removal of all statutes that promote people that oppressed others, or backed the oppression of others. To simply say, well it was that time, demesnes what people went through. You can understand why they said what they said, but you do not need to honor them as well. For people that believe we need to have these symbols for history purposes, there are places for them in museums for people to choose to see them, not in public accessed areas where you are forced to see them. It is important to learn from history, and you can use example like Mr. Griffith to learn from. Mainly, that what you say and do can come back to haunt you years later. Some may change their ways over the years and are not the same as the person who said or did what they are being condemned for, but you still cannot take back what you said or did. I personally had never heard of his comments back then, before I was born, and did not know that is what led to Carew being traded. Not that I had high thoughts of Mr. Griffith to being with, but this lowers them even more. Sure, you can say it was a different time and it was accepted to say those things back then so let it slide. But if you let it slide now, then you will continue to let it slide and the message that is sent is that it is okay to say those things and not get any backlash for it. The Twins made a decision to remove a statute because of one of three reasons. Possible a little of all three. One, they did it so prevent any negative press that would look bad in the future and hurt their bottom dollar. Two, they wanted to make it be know they are forward thinking and accepting of social change, in hopes of getting good press to have people come to games in future to help their bottom dollar. Three, they truly feel this is a good message to inform people that they will not tolerate any racists no matter when or by whom. Mr. Griffith's comments were over 40 years ago. However, his words still get echoed by many people to this day. He most likely was not an overt racist, as Rod Carew stated he did not believe Mr. Griffith was. He seemed to be stating it was a business decision and it was a racially biased business decision. It could have been stated they were moved because he believed there would be greater fan support and left it at that. However, he basically called black people violent by stating they go see wrestling in stead of baseball. This shows the ignorant racism that goes on in the country. That is so deep in system that we just accept it. I for one, and wish it did not have to be said as a white man, am glad light is finally being shined on some of these issues and people are finally willing to stand up against the racist white people, overt or covert, that let those words of hate fester and get desensitized to it until we just accept it. I am even more proud today to be a Twins fan than I ever have been. If I had learned of the comments of Mr. Griffin before today even more so when the statute went up, something I barely knew of as well, I would have been ashamed to be a Twins fan. Racism was through baseball for a very long time. There is still very few black people that choose to play baseball compared to other sports. It takes many generations for wounds to heal and to drive out the kind of thinking Mr. Griffin thought. I am glad the Twins, without protest, decided to it. For the fans that are not happy, maybe you should take a good look in the mirror as to how you really feel about black people. I personally hope it will drive you from going to games so I will not have to share the same space with you, and subject my family to your way of thinking.

If we even get there. From what I have read the owners thought there was a deal at 60, then players say no no no, that was just a proposal from your side. We want 10 more games, and some more money too. So some owners, who barely agreed to go to 60 are now not happy. Will they split in the middle at 65? Makes sense, but nothing during this process has made sense. Can 10 games really stand in the way? Can 5 games really stand in the way? The 10 games is about 8.4 million per team. Not a whole lot, but it just seems like both sides want to say yeah we won this one. With the amount of money the owners have it is like fighting over a few bucks to most of us. The thing is, these guys are business people that do deals all the time and want to feel they won the deal. Players have felt like they have been on losing end of deals for past decade now and they are fed up. However, should the owners operate at a loss simply because they can? No business plan calls for losing money. You do not own a business and let it run at a loss for extended periods of time simply because your other businesses make money and you will be fine. You run a business to make money. How many stock holders of a business are okay with their stock prices going down because the business is losing money?

If defense was not a thing, Kirilloff would be tops. I have huge expectations for that kid on the offense side. From what I have heard he is average defense, but offense he could be amazing. If he can stay healthy. Not calling him injury prone but he missed a seasons with tommy john not common for a fielder. He has missed several stints last year with different injuries I believe. I am huge on him and think he will be middle of line up hitter for years.

It sounds like Sano is still in DR. I wonder if this will affect his visa coming back to US for season, assuming there is one. I also wonder if Twins will hold off on him playing until more questions are answered by authorities.

With the hopes that this last offer will get it done or very close to it. I am not sure how much of the past talks about 30 man rosters and taxi squads and how all that will work are in it. I assume they are. If that is the case they could march out a 6 man rotation, provided the starters work well with that. I know some guys in past say that is too much rest than they are used too. The pineda question of how many games he will have to serve is a big question. I believe he was at about 60 left, do not fully recall. If he is asked to serve them all, as the punishment is for the number of games, but that was with expectation of full season. It would make sense that the punishment would be for the percentage of season he was suppose to miss. If he can come back after about 20 games and play rest of season that would be good for playoff. If he needs to miss most of season no way should you just throw him in playoffs, assuming we make it.

I have a feeling Jeffers will be high on lists next year. As long as he can hold up on defensive side he looks like he will hit at a level that will be top end of catchers at MLB level for a few years.

It will be interesting what Twins do with Javier next year. He was available for rule 5 I believe this year and went undrafted, mainly he was still young and no team was willing to put him on Roster for full year, bet if you could go back some teams may have changed mind now. A team may be willing to take him next year just to take a look at him. If he was not so highly touted as a 16 year old he would not be in top 20 lists anywhere.