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gunnarthor

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Everything posted by gunnarthor

  1. gunnarthor
    The penalties are unfair and the testing is a joke. MLB has set up a system that will catch a handful of players a year while letting most get through so fans can pretend that PED use isn't still part of the game. According to wikipedia's list, only 19 ML players have been caught since the renegotiated system in 2014. I'm not sure if 19 is the exact number but it feels right. I'm pretty confident a lot more than 19 ML have been using PEDs in that time frame. Masking agents have improved greatly which is allowing athletes to use more and better drugs. We've seen that in the Olympics (where Russia essentially put all their athletes on something), we've seen it in chess, football, horse racing. But, yeah, baseball is super duper clean. Baseball teams are investing millions to figure out how to have players perform better are completely ignoring drug use b/c AJ Preller and Thad Levine are virtuous guys.
  2. gunnarthor
    You're missing the point. The player and the team both want the same thing. They want the player to use PEDs. If teams didn't want this, there are concrete actions they could take to stop it. This isn't "babysitting." It's an investment.
  3. gunnarthor
    I'm not even sure what that means unless you're suggesting players aren't roiding as much as 10 years ago which of course you have no evidence for.
  4. gunnarthor
    Poor multi-billion dollar owners. If only they could have done something about the PED problem in the sport. Oh, wait. They created a system that completely blames the players and gets fans to side with them. Great job, victims! If you think baseball teams are ignorant of the PED use, fine. There isn't a lot of concrete data out there but we have several examples of the Yankee and Red Sox front offices knowing of PED use among players on their team and on other teams. I'm sure as front offices have gotten smarter, they've decided not to keep tabs on those sorts of things. The Twins could easily set up their own training compound in the DR and fill it with their own trainers/medical people/dietitians if they wanted. Teams didn't do this at the height of the PED era for a reason. They wanted plausible deniability. They aren't doing this now for the same reason. They want the benefits that the drugs can give their players to help the team.
  5. gunnarthor
    I hope that the players will insist that PED penalties affect both the player and the team in the next round of the CBA - even if it's just making the lost salary get donated to charity instead of staying in the owners pockets. And no one is saying Polanco shouldn't be blamed. But he's not the only one who should get blamed. MLB has created a system that pushes PED use. The Mitchell Report even said that. I don't think it's unreasonable to say that both sides - not just one - should be penalized. The Twins knew (or should have known) who their players are training with in the off season. And they also knew (or should have known) where these guys are training and the risks that might create.
  6. gunnarthor
    This take puts all the blame for PED-use on the players despite no one in baseball thinking that is true. We saw in the ARod fiasco that the Yankee owners were begging MLB to suspend him so they would get out of paying his salary while at the same time people in the FO were emailing ARod asking him to get Cano some PEDs. Drug testing in MLB is a joke which is why their catch rate is so low. MLB pretends that they are stopping PEDs and occasionally they'll catch someone. But their aim in PR, not actually stopping PED use. If they really wanted to stop this, they would put penalties down on teams for violations which would mean teams would stop letting players train with the Angel Presenal's of the world. You are right that the players bargained for this, which makes it fine. But it's still stupid and unfairly penalizes one side and ignores the bad faith work of owners and teams. sheesh.
  7. gunnarthor
    I think Buxton will finish top five in MVP voting this year. Should be a fun year to watch him.
  8. gunnarthor
    My main problem with the punishment is that it only punishes players and actually gives some benefits to the owners (not paying salary). The Mitchell Report (as crappy and owner-favored as it was) made note that PED use was a problem caused by both players and teams. Any punishment should affect both, not just the players. But baseball doesn't really want to get PEDs out of the game, it just wants to pretend it's doing something.
  9. gunnarthor
    You don't think agents and teams know which players are juicing? You don't think teams and agents are helping/condoning such behavior? You think players are roiding up all by themselves?
  10. gunnarthor
    I suspect a lot of front offices know/suspect that their players are doing this and are ok with it so long as they don't get caught. It's hard to imagine why front offices let players continue to train with Angel Presenal back in the day if they didn't think PEDs were in use.
  11. gunnarthor
    I like the trade since Vargas wasn't part of our future but man, we certainly are collecting LH OFers. I agree with others that our AAA OF should be pretty good but I'm not seeing how they move unless we're trading Kepler or Rosario sometime.
  12. gunnarthor
    Yep. Broken legs aren't really suggestive of future injury. He'll be really good this year.
  13. gunnarthor
    Molitor is a very bad manager.
  14. gunnarthor
    I think a Castro/Garver platoon - if Molly actually does it - is a good idea. My concern is that he'll give Garver a lot of at-bats against RHP and sit him for LHP.
  15. gunnarthor
    I'm not sure Gonsalves is quite a fair comp here. Gonsalves started the year with shoulder soreness and didn't pitch until the end of May. Gonsalves and Romero are also different stuff-wise. Romero is the better pitcher who might move more rapidly (like Berrios). I'm not convinced that Gonsalves will make the majors ahead of Romero despite being at AAA.
  16. gunnarthor
    I don't really have a problem with it. Many teams, including the Twins, have had arms jump from AA to the majors. AAA isn't that important for pitchers. Right now it's just a numbers crunch but Romero will (probably) make the majors this year anyway.
  17. gunnarthor
    I like this. AA will be really interesting to watch. I hope Stewart can fix his career. Thorpe and Romero have some pretty high ceilings. I don't think either are really blocked by AAA guys - they can move Jorge to AA if needed, for example. I imagine that May will go to the AAA rotation when he's healthy.
  18. gunnarthor
    I think the Morrison signing was the FO's way to hedge on Mauer. He might be back but if I had to bet on it today, I think Morrison is our starting first baseman next year and Mauer is out.
  19. gunnarthor
    Of course not. Vargas isn't a third baseman. Sano, on the other hand, is. And he's played there, fairly well defensively, so far in his career.
  20. gunnarthor
    Here's the video of Sano yesterday. https://www.mlb.com/video/sanos-rbi-single/c-1885330183?tid=69972428 He's a bid guy but I'm not sure he's hugely over weight. He doesn't look like the Panda from a few years ago, at least.
  21. gunnarthor
    Jeez, he's our most dangerous offensive weapon. He could lead the league in homers. He was a legit all-star last year who played on a broken leg for a bit before going down. He held his own at third last year. The FO signed Morrison so they don't seem to worried about him not playing third. Despite the rumors of his weight, he's looked good so far in ST, he's crushing the ball (OPS over 1.100). Maybe we should wait with the pitchforks until he's actually failing? He'll be fine. He'll be an all-star again this year and finish top five in home runs. He's a freaking stud.
  22. gunnarthor
    I actually think Cleveland is due a rough season. They've had two straight killer post-seasons. They lost their emotional leader. Their rotation was pretty healthy last year (only used 7 starters).
  23. gunnarthor
    Holy crap. 1/12? Owners are sure winning this collusion war.
  24. gunnarthor
    Keep in mind, next season will include Harper, Machado, Kershaw, Blackmon, Donaldson, Andrew Miller, David Price has an opt out, Gio Gonzalez ... It's an insane class and one of the reasons owners are trying to keep prices low this offseason. There's a pretty good argument that Dozier won't be a top 10 free agent next year. So he could take the Twins one year offer and wait another year.
  25. gunnarthor
    I think with the collusion by owners this offseason that Dozier is more likely to accept a qualifying offer next offseason than go through free agency.
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