John Bonnes

BTW, if you're intersted in the latest radio ratings, here was what David Brauer of Minnpost published in May: http://www.minnpost.com/braublog/2012/05/new-buzn-k-twin-formats-shake-twin-cities-radio-ratings

I've been paying attention to this for obvious reasons. Here is my take, fwiw, which is not much. If i remember right, the deal signed last year extends through next season so we're talking about the 2014 season. Last time around, I think KFAN, WCCO and KSTP all bid. KSTP won because they pay the Twins $1M for the rights and get NONE of the in-game advertising revenue, which the Twins market and sell too. So KSTP is essentially paying $1M (a lot in radio land) for the bounce effect of having listeners end up on their dial every night. I assume ESPN is involved somehow, but don't know enough to know who is paying who. BTW that $1M price tag is why the Twins left WCCO. Or it might have been that along with the Twins switching to the model where they get the in-game revenue. I don't think any other station has really been nearly as aggressive as KSTP in that regard. When the stations bid, it isn't just about that money. It's also about how much they'll focus on the team during the day (which is essentially like advertising them), what they will commit to the pregame/postgame show, etc. And often, it isn't the radio station paying the teams. In the Wolves case, I'm almost sure they were paying the radio stations to broadcast their games. As for 2014, I really think KSTP will again be the most aggressive financially. They have to be. WCCO doesn't seem to be able to be that aggressive financially any more. KFAN doesn't need to be that aggressive - they're #1 virtually from morning to night in their key demographic. They'll likely try to convince the Twins that their reach and coverage will benenfit the Twins (and their advertisers) more than KSTP and that makes up for the $1M. That's not a bad argument. But one sticking point might be that there will be conflicts in September with Vikings/Gophers games. As for KTWN, I thnk it is typically brilliant Pohlad maneuvering. They buy a station, try to operate it so it doesn't lose money, but a good chunk of its value comes as leverage for their radio contract. I'm sure the Twins will claim that it will be nice to have their own all-day coverage which they can control. (And I don't doubt they believe it. They very much like to control their message.) They also have established this Treasure Island Baseball Network, and they could build that out. Finally, if the Twins move to KTWN, they would develop an asset for the Pohlads. But I just can't believe they'll actually moving to a fairly small FM station. So ultimately, I think they'll end up on KSTP again. They can't afford to let them go. (And I think the Twins know that, which is why they float this KTWN thing.) Somehow the ESPN partnership will help them out. But if KFAN really wanted to try and deliver a death blow, they could commit to go strong and get it and see if it knocks KSTP out of the sports radio biz. (Actually, that's another good point for the Twins staying with KSTP. Going to KFAN might mean no real competition - other than KTWN - at the next round of negotiations.)

I, for one, can see the Twins offering him arbitrration. I don't think they have a better internal candidate, and it only costs them 1.8M to keep around the devil they know. I suppose they could go with a ST compeition of Escobar, Nishi and Florimon and see how it goes, but I'm not sure they would be comfortable. Actually, check that. Here's what I think will happen: the Twins will offer Casilla a deal for $1.2-$1.5M before they have to decide if they have to offer him arbitration. If he accepts it, he'll stay. If not, they'll drop him. But I think he'll accept it.

#1 - I'm not sure exactly how to make that work, but the point is taken. Though I really believe that if done right, criticism is welcomed. #2 - Agree. That would be part of our goal of this club. #3 - Good idea #4 - Another good idea, but I would put it on the forums.

Touche.

Chris Jaffe at the Hardball Times notes that today is the 25th anniversary of Joe Niekro being caught doctoring a baseball. http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/blog_article/25th-anniversary-joe-niekros-nail-file/ Coupla thoughts.... - I never realized he was caught by St. Paul native Tim Tschida - I wonder what the fallout would be today for being caught cheating in this way today? In general, I think their is heightened reaction to "cheating" of any kind, as evidenced by the furor surrounding Sammy Sosa's corked bat incident. But this was just so goofy and semi-lovable. I don't remember much indigtation about it. I wonder if there would be today.

It's a fine line to walk, to be sure. We don't want to ban fun, but we also understand that some valuable voices can be scared off by a hostile tone in threads. Believe me, this has been a hot internal discussion lately.

Loud and clear on the "2 blogs a week thing." Believe me, I get it. i'm glad you gave that feedback. The "twice per week" think wasn't to generate more content. It was just a way to get people into the habit of posting, which I think leads to better post. I'm also sensitive about the criticism, but I don't want this to turn into a butt-kissing party either. I want us to grow, and editing/criticism does that. Maybe private messages are a good idea for that but there is something to being public and candid, too. I also like the 3-2-1 idea. And I also like Thryloss "contest" idea. It's exactly the kind of thing that a "club" could do. What if the "club" offered the following: 1) everyone tried to do one post per week and 2) every 3rd week that post is a contest/shared topic of some kind? So for two weeks you can right whatever you want. But for the 3rd week you would be required to do a certain topic (story about a twins player) or type of story (game recap) or something like that? I'm also open to what the "carrot" would be. Maybe a special icon you can post on your avatar?

Last night I thought you were dreaming when talking about an early start. Congrats.

Since his return, 5 of 18 with a double and a HR. Also 4K vs 1BB.

I agree with this 100%. We will work on that.

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?869-State-Of-The-Community-Update

The trade deadline is a significant event in Twins Daily’s calendar and now that it’s over, I thought we might give an update on how the community is faring. We have 1923 registered users and 963 of them have contributed at least one post to the site. We have 2209 threads with 40,120 posts. Each month, the number of posts has been increasing by 24%. 133 members have tried blogging and produced 1342 posts. Over 150,000 unique visitors have stopped by the site since we went live just over five months ago. On trade deadline day, we set a record for activity with 45,000+ page views. What’s more, on Friday we will pass our 3 millionth page view. We (actually, Brock gets all the credit for this ) have also rolled out a new mobile version of the site that we hope will help you keep in touch with the community even when you have to be away from your PC. I hope you’re all as thrilled with the scale of what is happening and are committed to making everyone feel welcome. The goal of this site was to make it easier for Twins fans to find great independent Twins writers and thinkers, regardless of the background and baseball beliefs. We’ve now reached 150,000 fellow fans who have read your posts and blogs three million times. So THANKS for continuing to share your passion and make this community an inviting baseball oasis. Please think about sharing it with friends or even strangers who are as passionate about the Twins as you are. Passions are best when they’re shared. And PLEASE don’t hesitate to share your thoughts/suggestions about the site in our Questions About Twins Daily forum. Blogs You would think we might be happy with 133 member blogs and 1342 posts. We are, but I believe we can do more - that there is a lot of hidden talent out there. So in our forum I’ve opened a thread talking about the establishment of a Twins Daily Writer’s Club. If you’re interested in writing more, please check it out and let me know of any ideas you might have.

The trade deadline is a significant event in Twins Daily’s calendar and now that it’s over, I thought we might give an update on how the community is faring. We have 1923 registered users and 963 of them have contributed at least one post to the site. We have 2209 threads with 40,120 posts. Each month, the number of posts has been increasing by 24%. 133 members have tried blogging and produced 1342 posts. Over 150,000 unique visitors have stopped by the site since we went live just over five months ago. On trade deadline day, we set a record for activity with 45,000+ page views. What’s more, on Friday we will pass our 3 millionth page view. We (actually, Brock gets all the credit for this ) have also rolled out a new mobile version of the site that we hope will help you keep in touch with the community even when you have to be away from your PC. I hope you’re all as thrilled with the scale of what is happening and are committed to making everyone feel welcome. The goal of this site was to make it easier for Twins fans to find great independent Twins writers and thinkers, regardless of the background and baseball beliefs. We’ve now reached 150,000 fellow fans who have read your posts and blogs three million times. So THANKS for continuing to share your passion and make this community an inviting baseball oasis. Please think about sharing it with friends or even strangers who are as passionate about the Twins as you are. Passions are best when they’re shared. And PLEASE don’t hesitate to share your thoughts/suggestions about the site in our Questions About Twins Daily forum. Blogs You would think we might be happy with 133 member blogs and 1342 posts. We are, but I believe we can do more - that there is a lot of hidden talent out there. So in our forum I’ve opened a thread talking about the establishment of a Twins Daily Writer’s Club. If you’re interested in writing more, please check it out and let me know of any ideas you might have.

One of our (and especially my) biggest goals when creating Twins Daily was to encourage other independent Twins writers. That's why every member who joins automatically gets a blog and why those blog posts are featured on the far left of the front page. But so far, I'm unhappy to say, I think we (meaning TwinsCentric) has done a poor job of fostering these. Too often we get busy with our writing duties and on the forums and don't give the blogs enough attention. I really feel that those brave enough to post should receive feedback, editing and maybe even promotions. We do some of that, but I really feel like we (and especially I) don't do as much as we would like. So I had a thought I wanted to run past the community.... What if we started a "Twins Daily Writer's Club?" The idea is a group of Twins Daily members, interested in working on their writing skills and sharing their work and critiques with each other. I'm looking for feedback. Here's what I'm thinking.... 1) People decide if they want to join. I don't know if we need to formally have a signup or not. Kinda feels like we should, but I'm open to otherwise. 2) Everyone who joins commits to three things..... a) they write on their Twins Daily blog at least twice per week. It's find with me if they're copying it from their other blog. they take time to read others blogs and leave a comment that includes one positive feedback and one constructive criticism. What did they love and what would they do different. c) after the read another's blog post, they use the "Rate this entry" in the top right-hand corner to rate it. I'm hoping this will encourage writers and provide valuable feedback for each of us to get better. Each of the TwinsCentric guys would also be included. And based on the ratings, we could have a short list of good blogs to promote each day. We might even get to the point where we're publishing them on the TwinsCentric Strib's blog or some other web sites that are clamoring for good Twins-based content. Like I said, I'm looking for feedback before we implement this. So I'd love your thoughts below. THANK YOU for taking the time to consider this. Sincerely, John

So was he undrafted? Is that why he can sign after the deadline?

I think Ryan's point is that they're never going to just buy their way out of the basement; that building a winning organization requires lots of things besides money. But I think it also reinforces something that we could have guessed - the Twins aren't going to go hog wild in the free agent market this offseason. They never have before and I don't know why we would expect them to now. I just hope it doesn't mean they will be further slashing payroll, or not take advantage of what is going to be a crazy deep pitching free agent class.

In a (likely) ineffective attempt to short-circuit the sound of Other Voices,,, 1) I think Gardy is a good manager. 2) I think his bullpen use is usually a strength. But how the hell do you justify tonight. I'll be honest - I'm not sure if I'm more dissappointed by his strategy, his deception, or by the media not calling him on it. And I'll admit - I could have been there and called him on it myself, so I can only be so critical of it. To recap.... The Twins entered the game in the top of the ninth tied and Blackburn was done. We found out that the top two right-handers, Burton and Burnett, were unavailable because they pitched last night. But rather than bring in Perkins, Gardenhire brought in Jeff Gray. That move is semi-defendable - the first, third and fourth hitters were all right-handed. It didn't go well. The second batter, LHer AJ Pierzynski, hit a two-run homer that won the game for the Sox. That's bad, but what was worse was the post game explanation. "Perkins was save only. If we pitch him any other way tonight, he's not available tomorrow." Of course, there was no possibility of a save tonight one the game entered the 9th in a tie. And "tomorrow" Burton and Burnet would likely have been available with a day's rest. So was Perkins really unavailable? Was Gardy confused about the possibility of a save? Did he really think a possible lead tomorrow was higher leverage than a tie game tonight? Did he just think he could sneak through that 9th with a right-hander? It's hard to say, because nobody asked.

Just to clarify, that is Mackey's guess.

http://www.1500espn.com/sportswire/Mackey_Twins_GM_Terry_Ryan_not_banking_on_free_agency_this_winter073112 Phil Mackey quotes Terry Ryan, examines the payroll commitments and concludes....

I'm not stirring the pot. I'm also not anti-Ryan, though I'll admit this deal has shaken my confidence in him more than any other move he has made. But that's not my point. Those might be other voices. And I'll stand by my two major points from that post: 1) If your stats say Liriano=Blackburn, then your stats are not pertinent. Blackburn will be put through waivers this August and no team will claim him. That would not happen with Liriano. It is ridiculous to suggest they have equal value. And if WHIP or WAR says they do, then those stats are as irrelevant as looking at their respective heights. 2) What hurt Liriano's return most in this trade was Ryan's timing. I don't doubt that this was the best offer Ryan could get - on Saturday night 24 hours before his last start. I am confident this was not the right time to move him. I honestly can't fathom anyone making the case that it WAS the right time to move him. I'd love to hear it. The only argument I can envision is that they were terrified his value would decline even more - which would have cost them the equivalent of maybe a future Tolbert and Duensing? So what? So just so I'm clear (and try to drown out Other Voices) here is my point: I didn't expect a huge return. I don't have a vendetta against Ryan. But this trade was done without any kind of negotiation with Liriano, sent him to a division rival, was done when his value was at its lowest point in the last 3 weeks and brought back a pathetic return of prospects that aren't likely to be anywhere near the Twins top 10 list. That's a bad trade.

Huh? Span declined it? He doesn't have a no-trade clause, as far as we know.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/164351676.html One revalation I found interesting is that the Twins explored trading him after 2010 (which was when there was also so much contract extension talk).

According to Heyman, the Reds and Phillies are no longer talking. Maybe that opens the door for a Span deal? https://twitter.com/JonHeymanCBS/status/230289400695762944