John Bonnes

Awesome job. Thanks for sharing this.

The Twins, shooting for something for casual fans, may have stumbled onto something that had a much wider appeal. Offering tickets for all Fridays or all Saturdays (or maybe even all Tuesdays or all weekday day games) is a good way of catering to people's schedules. It's hard to believe that more teams don't do this. The world has changed a bit since the monolithic season ticket packages were originally introduced. They're easier to manage now - I can see a whole slew of niche options being made available.

The Minnesota Twins’ attendance, not surprisingly, has reflected the struggles of the team. That creates a unique challenge, a challenge that must be addressed before a single game is played, since attendance is almost completely determined by ticket sales in the offseason. Last year, 83% of the Twins ticket sales were bought prior to Opening Day. So the Twins talked to their customers. “We did a deep dive this offseason on customer behavior and what we found is that when we moved to Target Field, we opened ourselves to a lot of new customers,” says Mike Clough the Minnesota Twins Vice President of Ticket Sales & Service. The deep dive revealed that when the Twins played in the Metrodome, there wasn’t a lot of reason to attend a game if you didn’t really love baseball.However, Target Field is a different animal. “We have people that come to the game and barely watch the game but have a great time,” continues Clough. This is the super-casual fan. Baseball wasn’t on their radar five years ago, but is now because Target Field is a destination. In many ways it is the quintessential Minnesotan urban summer experience: a way to be outdoors with friends and meet new people with a shared rooting interest. It’s become a community gathering place. That was particularly true on weekends. “Looking at the games that that segment attended, it was primarily Friday and Saturday games,” reveals Clough. So the Twins put together two season ticket packages that cover their thirteen Friday (mostly night) home games or their thirteen Saturday home games. Then they added a final package that covers the 13 Sunday (mostly afternoon) games. ”We added Sundays primarily for families,” says Clough. This is a unique package born out of researching who attends Target Field games. To Clough’s knowledge, no other teams have created similar packages. (You can find more details by clicking on the ads in the right margin of Twins Daily.) The offer is unique in other ways, too. First, there is a level of consistency that is absent from other season ticket packages. Looking at the Twins 20-game package, the games jump from one day to another, which can cause problems for those who might have regularly scheduled activities or commitments. The Weekend Warrior packages simplify scheduling by targeting one day per week, including a Sunday option for people coming home from weekends away. It’s also unique in how the tickets are delivered. The tickets are only delivered digitally, so fans can either print them off or show them on their smartphone using the “At The Ballpark” app. The industry is evolving towards electronic-only delivery of tickets. “We want to understand what that experience is like,” explains Clough. By limiting the delivery of these tickets, the Twins gain insight on issues that might result from moving all season ticket holders to electronic-only tickets. Last year’s attendance at Target Field sank to 27,785 per game, the lowest mark for the Twins since 2005, which was before a new ballpark was announced. Of course, that was also after three straight postseason appearances. Less frequent victories for the team have resulted in more creative offers. This latest promises a summer full of weekend baseball, starting at $350. That doesn’t sound like a bad way to spend a Minnesota summer. Click here to view the article

Aaron and John talk about projecting the Twins' rotation and bullpen, Parker Hageman fathering another human, whether the Twins could have and/or should have signed James Shields, getting razors delivered from Harrys.com, burning cars, betting millions on Tommy Milone, baby-making and baby-sleeping, and almost getting into a fight with a drunk guy next to them (who later fell asleep and was kicked out). You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click the Play button below. Click here to view the article

I have doubts about a lot of the AL Central and the Royals are not exceptions. Losing Shields hurts a lot & that wonderful postseason run is going to skew expectations. Off the top of my head, I say 82-80. I'm looking forward to more of these.

There is, obviously a lot that needed to be left out. The various courtships the cities went through were maddening. Griffith teased the area for years. And the fact that both cities built competing stadiums is amazing to me and the St. Paul essentially went unused. It was truly a mess that they somehow muddled through.

"...a drain on our gross national product." Dads are the best.

The Minnesota Twins first home baseball game was played on April 21st, 1961, but that 5-3 loss was the tip of a large and rocky iceberg. Minneapolis and St. Paul civic leaders, yearning for their metro area to be considered “big league,” had been chasing a major league team for almost a decade. It did not go smoothly.The St. Louis Browns, Philadelphia Athletics, New York Giants, and Cleveland Indians had been wooed unsuccessfully. In their pursuit, the Twin Cities sibling rivalry flared up so that each built a major league stadium–but neither had a major league team. Civic leaders went so far as to back a new major league, the Continental League, which was to begin play in 1961 along with New York, Denver, Houston, Toronto, and other frustrated metro areas. To short-circuit the new league, Major League Baseball responded by expanding by four teams - but even then it looked like Minnesota would miss the cut. Part 1 of a 12-part series that breaks Twins history into fun-sized chunks. When the expansion meetings ended, however, Minnesota had their team. They weren’t awarded one of the expansion teams, but the Washington Senators, owned by Calvin Griffith, were relocating to Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington. To ease the political backlash of that move--the American League owners rightly feared the nation’s lawmakers retaliating with additional antitrust hearings or other potentially punitive legislation--the D.C. area was awarded one of the two American League expansion teams. Griffith and the Twin Cities leaders had been talking about moving his franchise to the region for several years. In the face of pressure from minority owners and politicians, Griffith had never committed. However, with guarantees in place for attendance, moving expenses and bank credit, the quest had finally been completed. The franchise which Minnesota adopted was a team on the rise, though not by a terribly high standard. The Senators had not finished higher than fifth in the American League since 1946. Their inaugural season as the Twins didn’t change that trend; the team finished 70-90 and in seventh place in 1961. It also led to manager Cookie Lavagetto being replaced by Sam Mele, who would manage into the 1967 season. But Mele inherited a solid core of players. Catcher Earl Battey’s work in the 1960 season had earned him Most Valuable Player (MVP) votes, and he would garner multiple Gold Gloves and All-star appearances. Outfielder Bob Allison had been named Rookie of the Year just two years earlier, and would rank in the top ten in home runs eight times. Starting pitcher Camilo Pascual would win 20 or more games in 1962 and 1963 and be recognized as an All-Star five times. And 22-year-old Jim Kaat was beginning a career that would end with 283 wins and 16 Gold Gloves. Each was capable of doing significant harm to an opposing team, but they were joined by an absolute Killer. Next: Harmon Killebrew Leads A Revival Click here to view the article

Aaron and John sample lot of beers at Lynlake Brewery, review Winter Meltdown talks with Minnesota Twins President Dave St. Peter and outfielder Jacque Jones, shift blame from John to Aaron for last week's lack of a podcast, speculate on the differences between Ron Gardenhire and Paul Molitor, wonder if the Twins will REALLY be the worst team in the American League, debate the Twins Opening Day Roster (hitters only), review Aaron's career as a point guard, talk scotch and answer mailbag questions. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click the Play button below. Click here to view the article

Seth, do you think the order of these options are the real order in the Twins minds? And is that based on conversations with the decision makers? Because I have to think that D is the 2nd option, considering it was the primary option last year - and worked. (Not that it matters because I don't think they get past A. Which I also think has a high likelihood of failing again. Can we PLEASE just let Hicks prove himself in AAA for more than a month at a time?)

Aaron and John hang out at 612 Brew and talk about the Twins' arbitration settlements, whether to offer Trevor Plouffe a long-term deal, FanGraphs' unfavorable projections for the Twins in 2015, the art on 612's new beer cans, Byron Buxton compared to Carlos Gomez, the perfect setting for Aaron's bachelor party, David Price's record-breaking arbitration salary, and next weekend's "Winter Meltdown" event. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click the Play button below. Click here to view the article

Aaron and John meet at Mason's and ramble about Jacque Jones career and his upcoming appearance at the Twins Daily Winter Meltdown, Joe Mauer's contract, crying babies, a mailbag and meeting the in-laws. You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click the Play button below. Click here to view the article

:-) That's an interesting point. My sense is that, in general, the Twins trend towards the "smart and young" part of that equation, but eschew the "outside the organization" part. Gardy was certainly young. It might be that Macphail was an outlier outsider because, for the most part, when the Twins were under Griffith he was calling the shots and didn't have (or delegate to) younger up-an-comers. There was really nobody else to take that job. As for MacPhail, I guess I didn't recognize that he had done pretty well overall with the Cubs. And I guess I had never thought about how "farm-based" his philosophy was throughout the organizations. It certainly stayed in place with the Twins after he left.

It was a terrific event last year and led to some fantastic stories. FWIW, if you're going to Twinsfest, you need to make this a focal point of the weekend. It does not get any better than this.

~~~ Buy tickets HERE ~~~ You will not be able to buy tickets at the door tomorrow (Saturday) so today is your last chance to gain admission to the Twins Daily Winter Meltdown. Jacque Jones and Twins President Dave St. Peter will be attending, there will be free beer, commemorative pint glasses, lots of Twins talk and it's a two-block walk from Twinsfest. If you do buy or have bought tickets, they'll be waiting for you at the door. Here, one last time, are the details:January 24th, from 5-8, at Mason’s. Just walk the block from Target Field and TwinsFest and join us.Question & answers with Minnesota Twins President Dave St. Peter, and Jacque Jones! We're sorry to announce that Tim Laudner will not be able to attend the Meltdown due to family obligations. Our community's thoughts are with Tim and his family.Two free beers from local craft brewery 612 Brew.Drink specials from Dobel Tequila and Three Olives Vodka.Raffle that include two Twins Opening Day tickets from Ticket King.The limited edition Twins Daily Winter Meltdown Pint GlassTickets go on sale Tuesday RIGHT HERE. $25 on Tuesday only, $30 after.We'll see you next Saturday!Jacque Jones, Tim Laudner and Twins President Dave St. Peter are on board and now you’re at the plate. Stop by the Twins Daily Store and nab tickets for $30. We've made extra tickets available this year, so we made it through the first day without selling out, but remaining tickets are limited, so please don’t delay. One last time, here are the details:January 24th, from 5-8, at Mason’s. Just walk the block from Target Field and TwinsFest and join us.Question & answers with Minnesota Twins President Dave St. Peter, Twins alum catcher and Jacque Jones!Two free beers from local craft brewery 612 Brew.Drink specials from Dobel Tequila and Three Olives Vodka.NEW: Raffle that include two Twins Opening Day tickets from Ticket King.The limited edition Twins Daily Winter Meltdown Pint GlassTickets go on sale Tuesday RIGHT HERE. $25 on Tuesday only, $30 after.We'll see you next Saturday! Download attachment: Jones_Jacqe_Curtain_GI_450.jpg ~~~ Leading off: Twins President Dave St. Peter. Batting second: Twins catcher (and current Fox Sports North analyst) Tim Laudner. And I’m thrilled to announce that Jacque Jones will be our #3 hitter at the Twins Daily Meltdown. Jones patrolled the outfield for Twins for the better part of seven seasons, including being an integral part of the teams that won three division championships from 2002 through 2004. He was the leadoff hitter for those teams, with a .782 OPS and 132 home runs with the Twins, all while playing exceptional corner outfield defense. That shouldn’t be a surprise, considering he played center field for most of his minor league career and as an All-American at USC. He also played with the US Olympic Baseball team in 1996 at Atlanta, winning a bronze medal with future Twins teammate Matt LeCroy. He was drafted that same year by the Twins in the second round. When he left the Twins following the 2005 season, he signed with the Chicago Cubs and played with them for two years. He also spent time with the Tigers, Marlins and Reds organization before returning to the Twins in 2010. As a result, he received loud standing ovations during his at-bats in the two exhibition games played prior to Target Field’s first official MLB game. Download attachment: Winter-Meltdown-2015-logo-plain_400.jpg St. Peter, Laudner and Jones are on board and now you’re at the plate. Stop by the Twins Daily Store tomorrow (Tuesday) morning at 8:00 AM to nab tickets at the one-day price of $25. While we’ve made extra tickets available this year, we sold out last year by noon, so please don’t delay. One last time, here are the details:January 24th, from 5-8, at Mason’s. Just walk the block from Target Field and TwinsFest and join us.Question & answers with Minnesota Twins President Dave St. Peter, Twins alum catcher and Jacque Jones!Two free beers from local craft brewery 612 Brew.Drink specials from Dobel Tequila and Three Olives Vodka.The limited edition Twins Daily Winter Meltdown Pint GlassTickets go on sale Tuesday RIGHT HERE. $25 on Tuesday only, $30 after.We'll see you next Saturday! Download attachment: Winter-Meltdown-2015-Pint-Glass_300.jpg Click here to view the article

You're taking on a challenging task: to come up with a fielding measurement that uses numbers fairly accessible for the minors, and do one must work with a very limited set of data. One also must make a lot of assumptions about the noise that is inherent to such an approach. I think a lot of those assumptions are a little optimistic. That said, the results are encouraging. From a 10,000-foot level, it seems to identify (reputed) good vs (reputed) bad shortstops last year in MLB. My questions: 1. Have you done so for other years (to make sure this methodology didn't match your data as opposed to vice versa)? 2. Are the scores for a particular player fairly consistent from year to year? 3. If you take players whose defense has slipped do to age (say from their mid-20s to their early 30s), do you see a negative trend? Thank you for sharing this Thrylos. It does make me wonder, even with all the noise surrounding double plays: 1) are they an underutilized indicator of fielding2 2) is the ability to turn them an underappreciated (and potentially very impactful) skill, like pitch framing?

And he's certainly willing to face the music. The questions he is asked at this are not softballs, and he also responds to questions on Twitter. To be honest, I find that kind of willingness to be honest and candid about themselves prevalent among most "baseball" people. They need to be to succeed. They usually aren't overly sensitive. Sometimes people around them are overly sensitive, thinking that they're protecting or sticking up for them, but in reality, the performers and decision-makers are pretty willing to talk candidly about their actions, provided the criticism and analysis isn't stilted.