chpettit19

I don't think it's likely that Wallner replaces Margot. The Twins have shown no sign whatsoever that they're willing to go that left-handed and lose their option to platoon at an extreme clip. But I agree Julien needs a reset. He needs to figure out breaking balls which very well may require a swing change. That work should not be done in the majors.

Outside of being able to get out from Vazquez's deal somehow and bringing in Diaz for the rest of this year I don't see anyone on the Rockies roster I'd like. Nolan Jones is intriguing if you think he can be close to the guy he was last year, but the Twins need difference makers and the Rockies don't have any of those. Shuffling around random relievers or mediocre to bad vets doesn't help this team. If they're not bringing in legit, top-end MLB talent don't waste time with trades and just go with what you already have in house.

I'll take the blame for that and move on.

My answer to your question is that Cory Provus was quoted on the blackouts on December 1st and was on Gleeman and the Geek December 18th saying again that he was told they were done. I don't care what he was told he could and couldn't say, the team failed no matter what. They either told him he could say it or they didn't temper expectations after either incident of him saying it, and apparently didn't tell him not to say it after the first one. Unless, of course, you think they told him not to say it and he just completely ignored them and went around spouting off about blackouts and the team still didn't come out and refute him. There's no doubt they failed in that situation. Dave St Peter later apologized for not ending blackouts. He was actually quoted in November as saying their number 1 priority this offseason was to expand access. The Twins have said they let their fans down, and that was before Comcast cut Bally's. Everything you've defended has either been apologized for by the team or is indisputable that they dropped the ball in 1 way or the other (either told Provus he could say it or didn't refute him after). Feel free to keep defending what nobody actually associated with the team is defending. But it's gotten to a ridiculous point now and it's not worth debating anymore. The Twins said they failed, but you're welcome to continue saying they didn't if that makes you feel better.

He then said it again on Gleeman and the Geek on December 18th. 2+ weeks later. Either the Twins were asleep at the wheel in telling him not to say those things or he ignored their instructions and said it again 2+ weeks later. Neither time did the team make any attempt to temper expectations. Pretty hard to see how the team didn't fail somewhere no matter how much anyone thinks they told Provus he could say.

Again, never called them incompetent. That's the word you put in everyone's mouth when they dare question any decision the Twins make on either the baseball or business side. And I'll, again, point to Dave St Peter who's literally the president of the team literally saying they failed. If you're going to dump on me for saying negative things about them maybe don't use a topic where they're saying the same thing to do it. If you ran the Twins and an employee over-promised (without permission) something as impactful as a new method of providing TV coverage, would you temper expectations and put out an executive issued statement that you're hoping to meet those promises or just let your entire customer base believe the promise made by the person you literally pay to talk about the team? We've gone back and forth enough on this. You think fans are wrong for being upset. The team has apologized for it so they seem to disagree. That's all we really need to know about the situation.

Wow. You honestly believe a guy who talks for a living (for over 20 years now) had a slip of the tongue, not once, but multiple times over multiple days? You think he lied about being told that blackouts were over? You think the team made no efforts to correct him so fans wouldn't get the wrong idea when he was making public statements? And you think Dave St Peter apologized just for fun? What an unbelievable take. Dave St Peter: "The disappointing news is we had said very openly that our top priority was expansion of reach of our games." "And at the end of the day, we ended up doing a one-year deal on linear distribution only, and we recognize that leaves a growing number of our fans in a place where they’re gonna have a harder time watching our games." "It’s clarity for ’24, but we’re not delivering on an objective that we had going into the offseason about expanding our reach, and we’ll double down on that priority for the future." Maybe quit blindly defending the corporation and accept when they themselves are telling you things went poorly and they failed on their promises. The idea that Corey Provus would speak out of turn when his entire career is built on what he says is laughable. Businesses get it wrong all the time. Dave St Peter: "The biggest thing is, we get it, we’re not tone-deaf. We understand the gap and feel horribly that we have, at least in the short term, been unable to address it. But we continue to focus on it, and I’m hopeful that maybe sooner vs. later we’ll be able to resolve the issue and enhance accessibility. I think it’s critical for the Twins." The president of the team is apologizing for, and acknowledging, all the things that went wrong that you're now telling us they did right. You're defending things the team themselves aren't even trying to defend and you think I'm the one who's too arrogant. Yikes.

Again, the team never once corrected him and then the top team executive apologized for failing to meet the promise. This is such an awful take. His employment is dependent on the team liking what he says. Literally. That's his job. If he says things the team doesn't like they fire him. He made this statement multiple times over multiple days and the team never came out and said it wasn't true. He even explained that part of the reason he jumped to TV was because he was told the blackouts were done. Then, after they signed with Bally's, Dave St Peter (who is a team exec) came out and apologized for not ending blackouts like they'd said they would. Corey Provus absolutely had permission to say those things and it's willful ignorance to think he didn't.

As of today I'd be quite surprised to see them pulling off any major trades. Don't really expect them to even pull off minor trades. They already have their veteran platoon bats, and they don't have many openings in the pen. The openings they may have in the pen for the playoffs would likely be filled by Varland and whichever starter doesn't make the 4 man postseason rotation. Injuries could obviously change all this, but as of right now I don't see them being buyers or sellers. I think they stick with what they have and take their chances.

The Diamondbacks and Padres didn't launch their own channels, they're being produced by MLB. The Twins had that as an option. Both the Twins and MLB even said as much. MLB took over broadcasts in the middle of the season last year. The idea that they couldn't have done that for the Twins is nonsense. You're making stuff up to defend things that the team themselves have already apologized for and claimed the opposite of. Good for you for defending the honor of the Twins while they apologize to their fans for the very things you say they shouldn't apologize for, I guess. And they've already announced the long-term plan is to have MLB produce their streaming games moving forward starting in 2025. The only thing they haven't openly stated is exactly why they chose to wait a year. But the team has apologized for not meeting their promise of no more blackouts. They've admitted they failed at their number 1 goal of expanding their fan base. They've admitted all of this stuff was bad and wasn't their plan, but you still defend it. Are you going to bitch that the Twins are poorly run next year when they drop Bally's like their stated plan was to do and go with the MLB streaming package? Or will those paying fans not matter? I'd guess they won't matter because the Twins will have told them where they can access their product and the fans will have the choice on whether or not to go with those options. Instead of telling their fans 2 separate things that within months were wrong. But maybe I'm just a bitchy fan who doesn't understand that making your customers jump through hoops is actually a genius plan.

I think there's a lot of room between dud and borderline MVP. I think he falls in there. Streaky power hitter who gets sliced up by teams that can attack his weaknesses (mostly inside mixed with soft away like Houston shredded him with in the postseason), but punishes teams that can't consistently beat him in. If he turns into a 145 OPS+ hitter I'll be surprised and thrilled. Not saying it's impossible, but don't think it's likely. I'd be happy with a 120 OPS+ for him with a spike season here and there where he gets to 135+.

Dang, I hope you're right. That would be very nice.

So the Diamondbacks and Padres are the poorly run businesses? And, reportedly, the Twins will be the poorly run business next year when they join 13 or 14 other teams in doing exactly what you're saying is the bad idea? Your belief is that Corey Provus just went out making stuff up about black outs and the team never once corrected him? Yeah, that's very believable. Rogue employee making promises for the team that they never refuted even though it was wrong. That's definitely what happened. Weird that someone in the Twins informed him, but not any of their fans. That's definitely a great business decision. Even weirder that he said it on more than 1 occasion with multiple days between them. So either the team was slow in telling him to stop or he just ignored them and kept saying it. Which do you think it is? Edited to add: Dave St Peter came out after they signed with Bally's again and apologized for failing to meet their promise about ending black outs. And I'm pretty sure he is a Minnesota Twins executive with standing to make statements on behalf of the organization.

It was pretty well known before they signed their deal that Bally's and Comcast weren't seeing eye to eye. The idea that the Twins shouldn't/couldn't/whatever-you-want-to-say have known there was a problem with Bally's and Comcast before they signed a deal worth 10s of millions of dollars and dictated what options fans had to view their product isn't a good argument for the Twins doing things correctly. Either they knew and signed anyways or they didn't take their time to do even the slightest diligence in finding out what Bally's contract situations were with all their cable providers. Either way it's a failure on the Twins part. Because it was widely reported all offseason during the bankruptcy hearing what Bally's contract situations were. The Twins simply had to Google it to know it was far from a sure thing that Bally's and Comcast would work things out. Many of us knew it because we read a handful of articles on the bankruptcy stuff. And Comcast is most certainly not the first provider to drop Bally's so it's not like it's some unprecedented thing where Bally's is just so important YouTube, Sling, and others hadn't already cut them out and never looked back. The idea that the Twins signed a multi-million dollar deal without knowing is worse for them when it comes to the quality of their business decision making. The Twins told their customers at the start of the offseason blackouts were going away. They flipped at the end of the offseason and told customers they were going back to Bally's and blackouts would still be a problem. Customers were then able to make their informed decision about which services they could use to gain access to the games, even though it was late in the offseason. In less than 2 months a large chunk of those customers had the rug pulled out from under them. And your argument is that those fans shouldn't be upset and should just continue jumping through hoops to find different ways to watch this team. What other businesses tell their customers they need to continually find a new way to access their product? And would you claim their customers should stop complaining and they should just deal with it if that were the case? Is it good business to tell your customers 1 thing, then tell them that was completely incorrect and do this other thing instead, then have half the people who did that thing be told to just go do a 3rd thing? I'm no business genius, but that sounds like poor business strategy that would likely lead to frustrated customers, some of which who would stop trying to access that product and find other things to spend their time and money on.

Are there other businesses out there that make it hard for their customers to gain access to their product and then have people defending that practice as good business that shouldn't lead to customer complaints? I know there are the "high end" type businesses that look to sell things for higher prices because of scarcity, and that's why the Twins sign exclusivity deals, but are there companies that rely on high customer volume that make it hard for customers to access their product and then people turn around and say "well, obviously the customer should just try harder to get this product, it's not the company's fault their customers won't jump through hoop after hoop to get their product?" Because the Twins rely on high customer volume for both ticket sales and being able to sell broadcast rights at maximum revenue. And there are numerous people out here blaming fans for being unhappy having to guess which platform their games may be on from month to month. So I assume this brilliant business plan has many others who use it to great success and that's why people are suggesting fans are being ridiculous by complaining about this situation.

Why does it promote more cable cutting? These people "had services in place and those services consisted of programming far beyond the MN Twins." If they didn't have cable for the Twins why does Bally's not being on there matter? Did people not get or keep cable because of the Twins or are they going to cut the cable cord because of not having the Twins? Can't have it both ways. If people weren't signing up for or keeping Comcast because of the MN Twins then Comcast really doesn't need Bally's. Your first argument directly refutes your second.

This is the Twins strategy, but with mediocre to bad vets instead. Usually short-side platoon ones at that. Gallo, Andrelton Simmons, Margot, Farmer, Santana, etc. get never-ending chances to figure it out instead of letting some kids learn. I'm not as strong on the "let the kids play" stuff as others, but if my options are crossing my fingers on young guys figuring it out or crossing my fingers on old guys holding on I'll take the young guys. Especially if I'm loading up on 15+ mil worth of the old guys. Give me 1 much better old guy and then young guys trying to figure it out.

Far better? He's at a 128 OPS+ and 125 wRC+ currently (good for 36th and 43rd amongst qualified hitters), and has a career 136 OPS+ and 134 wRC+. What are you defining as far better? 140+ OPS+ or wRC+? There were 10 qualified hitters in all of baseball last year with a 140 or better wRC+. 29 with a 125 (Alonso's current number) or better. 10 and 32 hitters for OPS+ of 140 or 125. Pete Alonso was 33rd in baseball in 2023 in OPS+ and 41st for wRC+. And you think Wallner/Larnach will be far better than that? I hope you're right. It'd be great to have a borderline MVP candidate or 2 on the roster. Personally, I don't think either of those guys are top 30 hitters in baseball.

While I believe a big, everyday, middle-of-the-order bat is a better target than pitching at the deadline, I don't like targeting a guy you have no chance of re-signing. I'd take Alonso for Gonzalez straight up with the Mets eating the rest of his deal, but I don't think the Mets take that deal. The Twins need a bat like his, but not on a rental deal for what it'd cost to get him.

I'd say leaving all 3 of those guys unprotected in the Rule 5 and having none of them picked shows the Twins, and league, have made their decision and likely won't go out of their way to get them to the bigs. Not saying those guys don't deserve a shot, but 26, 28, and 27 year olds who go unselected in the Rule 5 don't often have teams going out of their way to give them that shot.

I'd start my trade pitch with Julien and go from there. If they aren't ready to start letting Raya go deeper into games soon he'd be the next guy on my offer. If they don't want Julien I'd flip to Lee and try to build a package around him. But SP isn't where I'd be focusing my player acquisition energies at this point. This team needs offense more than it needs pitching. If they're pulling off a big trade it should be for an everyday, heart-of-the-order bat, not a SP. It's not that I wouldn't like Luzardo, but I don't think that should be their focus if they're spending significant player capital in a trade.

Brooks Lee is not a "super utility guy." He's possibly a utility infielder, but he's not going to the outfield. And he hasn't played "all over the infield" in any meaningful way. He has 9 professional innings at 2B, and 67 at 3B compared to 1200 at SS. Brooks Lee does not replace Castro, he replaces Kyle Farmer. And hopefully does it this year. He's an interesting trade piece, though. If the Marlins see him as an MLB ready SS he'd have really nice value going to them, but if they see him as an injury risk just coming off a herniated disc his value is going to be much lower. If he lights up St Paul for the next 2 months he'd have really good value on the market, but would also be a really nice reason to DFA Farmer if he doesn't get his stuff together and start performing.

I'm really not sure when it's appropriate to play Farmer at this point. Castro is better against lefties than righties so the straight platoon at 2B they planned with Julien and Farmer isn't there anymore. Margot is the more straightforward platoon with Larnach or Kirilloff in left, and Santana and Miranda are the platoon guys at 1B with Kirilloff (if Miranda isn't already the DH). I don't know when you put Kyle Farmer on the field with this roster. (The answer is they'll sit Kepler against lefties to put Castro out there and play Farmer at 2B, but I don't like that answer)

Varland is going to keep getting chances to be a starter until multiple other guys pass him in the pecking order. The Twins aren't getting through the rest of the year with just 5 starters. Has Festa passed Varland? Maybe, but he's not on the 40-man so it's not a for sure thing he'd get the call when a starter is needed. Is anyone else even close to passing Varland? They won't move him to the pen until the end of the year or until he's 9th or 10th in the rotation depth chart. Right now he's 6th or 7th.

I've seen the "what will they do with Miranda when Lewis returns?" articles/threads/whatever on here, and all over the internet recently. I've always been confused by any answer other than "figure out where they both play to keep them both in the lineup everyday." But the more and more I see people talk about it and think about it I've come to accept that there's a real chance they send him down. They should be fired immediately if they do, but they wouldn't be. Outside of their big money guys and Jeffers he's the last guy they should be considering moving. He's arguably the best hitter on the team right now. I know it's a long season, and you need to account for that, but sending down your best hitter in order to maintain "depth" is a joke of a move. They absolutely can't be giving it serious consideration. But I know they are. Their "positional flexibility" plan has completely failed if they have to move their current best hitter to AAA to add their young superstar back to the roster.