Twodogs

Just because no one can show you proof right at this moment doesn't mean MLB hasn't colluded to not sign him. I mean it seems pretty weird no one would take a flier on him. MLB has been found guilty of collision before, when no one was supposed to know. Realize that all of these billionaires all know each other, and have to be able to work together, so a few hand shakes under the table wouldn't be surprising at all. I'm sure he's been Colin Kaepernicked. But if no one else is going to get him, then at least we aren't missing out on anything. He's probably at least good enough still to compete. I mean he did well in Japan last season, look what Yamamoto got? Regardless of whether you hate him or could care less about him or like him the facts are that he's good enough or been good enough to get a shot. So guys like Michael Vick got forgiven, Deshaun Watson was forgiven, I mean the list goes on and on. So he's probably been black balled, but like I said, if he can't be used against us then who cares if we can't get him?

That post was supposed to be just kinda funny. Since the Twins need starting pitcher depth and Toronto stinks.

Maybe hook up a trade with Toronto to bring Berrios back?

Without it, the Twins probably don't have anyone picked. I'm going to get yelled at here, but I'd actually like to see voting go back to the ballparks. Let the people who actually attend games vote. I don't mean punch cards and hanging chads, put up a QR code and let the people who actually attend the games vote. I'm a season ticket holder for the Angels and it seems to me that the people at the games actually get to know the players their team plays against better and not just their own. Also, then if you want more all star representation then go to more games?? I know, I know that's not possible, but it's what I feel. I just remember back when the Royals got the whole starting infield voted in because of online voting.

Geez, I'm not a Rocco fan. I mean I actually like the guy, just I'm not a fan of his managerial style. Never have been, but his managerial style is a direct reflection of the GM's that put him in that spot. However, beyond all of that. The Twins are like 12 games over .500 with no help from the off season, lost Cy young candidate, and other pieces and basically just did absolutely nothing this off season. Yet they are still 12 games over .500. So Rocco has done nothing to harm this squad whatsoever. I have nothing to complain about this season. I feel that the total reliance on analytics will eventually bite them come playoff time, but it gets them to the playoffs often enough, and that's with many of their best players having been down at some point in time this season. So Rocco is doing his job, I voted as zero, he has been responsible for 0 extra losses this season. Probably even could go the other way. But I have no proof of that. So leave Rocco alone. The Twins are doing well, especially for what they set them up for this past off season.

Is there anywhere where I can find a good stat page on individual minor league teams? I mean when I go to MILB team stats it just shows home runs? I liked being able to follow and see all of the stats back in the day, I just can't find that stuff anymore, at least they really seem to make it hard to find.

Hopefully, but right Now Luis has picked up where he left off in Miami. I cheer for Arraez but I also cheer for Martin. Hopefully he gets to that point.

Whoa there, I like Martin, but he hit .270 in 21, .240 in 22 and .260 last season. I mean Luis Arraez hit .350. now I know the Twins got Pablo Lopez for him and that is a good trade. But could you imagine had they traded someone else for Lopez? Let's say Miranda, he was a super hot name going into last season. Could you imagine having had Arraez hitting 350 with a .400 on base leading off last season? I don't care about stolen bases at that point in time. A ton of those solo shot home runs would have been 2 run shots. I like Martin and I hope he becomes a good lead off hitter, but I don't think he is anywhere near Arraez, at least at this point in his career. The stolen bases will mean more if he can become a consistent .290 - .300 hitter. He doesn't have to hit .350 to compare to Arraez, but it has to be better than .240 - .260. I see your point though as Arraez did not run much, so I like Martin, just I don't think he's quite there yet.

I think with Lewis, Santana, Miranda and Kirilloff you have 4 guys for 3 spots. That's probably what you want. I mean if the Twins average 6 games a week Lewis isnt going to play more than 4 games at 3rd. One of those games he will DH and one he will probably just rest. Miranda will be able to sneak a couple of games in at 3rd and probably 1 at DH and 1 at 1st base. 4 games out of 6 would be decent for Miranda, Santana and Kirilloff will get the rest of them.

I'd think Miranda would get DH at bats and some 3B to give Lewis a rest. I think Santana actually plays 1B and they won't put someone in who probably doesn't practice their all that often. I mean I could see him over at 1B once in awhile, but I think Santana will man the position most of the time unless he just stops hitting all together. JMO

Apparently Rod Carew won't even step into Angels Stadium as long as Artie Moreno is still the owner.

He was always a great personality in the clubhouse also. I know many people dont really care about that kind of stuff, but it's important to have those kind of dudes in a clubhouse during a long season.

Wade seems like the guy that always just needed a shot. I mean he hit .253 with 18 Hrs in 2021 and .256 with 17 in 2023. Pretty good production. His 2022 was down and his games were down so maybe he was dealing with some injuries that year or something. But my point is, if we were guaranteed .250 20 Hrs and an .800 OPS from Wallner we'd all be giddy about it. I hope Wade keeps producing for the Giants.

I think there is zero chance of this this season. Now I'm not 100% against this type of stuff, but you make a decision like this in October and get the player ready for the transition in the off season. You don't make a decision like this in May.

Dang Rocco must have fallen asleep in the dugout to let Ober come out for the 8th?

It's kind of a neat idea, but I don't think it would be a good idea to try to do this mid season. I think this has to be discussed in September so the player has the off-season to train for it, and spring training to ramp up. This isnt the first time Jordan Hicks has been tried as a starter.

I mean yeah why take Ober our with only 68 pitches? Ober was on fire.

He looked good for the most part. He went through the first 2 innings in about 12 pitches it seemed like. He had a bad 4th inning, but looked good the 5th inning. Can't give up 6 but hopefully he can go 6 - 7 innings per start.

Dang Wallner hit that shot over the batters eye. That thing was a shot!!

Sitting here at the last ST game of 24 and I like the fact that Buck is playing again even though he played CF yesterday. Good sign he's feeling good and ready for the season. Mostly the main starters are going today except probably Castro. Their record stinks but hoping for the best today. I know we were at the Baltimore game a couple of days ago and it got out of hand but it was tight for most of the game. So hopefully Twins handle the Braves today before they move north.

Well it seems weird to me that you already had Michael A Taylor, and now you have Margot, who is probably the same type of player but they had to give up a prospect for him where Taylor would have just cost 4 mill?? How much does Margot cost? Probably pretty close to the same and they had to give up a prospect?? That's the only thing that makes me scratch my head on this one?

I think in the long run it seems to be the Twins have the best shot at championships. A baseball team has the advantage of being able to draft and develop. So even when the Twins are crappy for a year or two they have a chance to rebound with development. It seems the other teams have to draft and win right away and that is really hard to do. Plus at least with the Vikings they always seem to have an outside shot so they perpetually try to add that one piece to get them over the top and it never works. Realistically the Vikings have a bad team with like 5 really good players. The O-line can't stop anyone and the D can't put pressure on anyone unless they are blitzing. So I'd give the Vikings a shot if they just blew the whole thing up, got rid of everyone. Go out and lose, save all of their money, get high draft picks and build a Defense and an O-line. Then use the money you saved and get a QB either with one of the top picks in the draft or through free agency. Then they'd have a shot, it would take a couple of years of straight up losing but then they could put the blue print together. The Wild, I'm not sure what they would need to do, and if the Wolves can do well this year then who knows when they will do well again because it always seems like the best players go to places like LA and not really Minnesota? I think with minor leagues baseball teams still have the easiest way to build a sustainable franchise?

I think it failed because they didn't do a great job of putting agreements together for the mediums that would be showing victory sports. I mean living in California, I know for that short period of time I had no access to Twins games. Thank God with my direct TV package that I could watch the other teams broadcast. I think back then they thought they were just going to force people to have to get Victory sports network. Once they realized that wasn't going to work they shut down instead of trying to cut some deals. It was probably a great idea, probably trying to copy the YES network, but they failed in actually getting the product out there on the platforms people could see. Now with the Internet so much more of a player, if they did something like that again they'd need to get those deals in place in a few more platforms. Because there is still cable, there is still satellite but now there are more platforms that need to be addressed. I think it would be great, especially if you could get the owners of all of the different teams to go all in on their own network. But they have to do some serious planning and deal cutting to get it done.

For the Twins to really be successful as a business they need to figure out how to reach people. I mean I totally understand the idea of lowering ticket prices and I can also see that if the Twins do well then that will also help bring fans. But winning is probably the wrong solution. I mean everyone wants to win, but what I'm trying to get at is that the Chicago Cubs until a few years ago were perennial losers never winning the big one, on top of that most of the time just being really bad, but they still had a huge fan base. Red Sox very similar, not always bad, but were lovable losers for a very long time. How are they able to have such a huge following and not do well. Then on the other hand, the inventors of analytical baseball, the Oakland A's who have had lots of successful seasons, no WS victories since the last 80's or early 90's. But under Billy bean had lots of playoff runs, however they have alienated their fan base to a point where no one comes to the games. Similar with Tampa Bay, a team that is often very good but no fans come to the games. So somehow the Twins need to reach out to the whole state of Minnesota, North Dakota, Iowa, parts of Wisconsin, and South Dakoka because the people in those states all could be Twins fans. Maybe they need to be active in the public schools, or park board systems, put money aside to redo or build baseball parks in towns in these areas, where the Twins brand can be stamped on a field kids play ball at. I'm just coming up with ideas to make lifelong Twins fans regardless of their win loss record? I also think it's cool that the Saints are now the Twins AAA team, I get the fact that they can bring in a reliever in one day and send him back the next. But doesn't almost seem like the Saints and the Twins are competing with one another for nightly fans? What if their AAA team was in Sioux Falls or Fargo. Still really close where players could be brought in quickly, but there would be Twins fans created in those areas because they could follow those ball players from their area to the Twins. I don't know all of the answers, I'm just shooting out ideas.

I mean for teams to be signing 700 million dollar contracts the game must be doing pretty well.