offensive_loons_fan

I mean, hopefully upgrading the Roden, Larnach, Wallner, Keaschall, and Martin of it all.

I'm not going to say the Varland trade was a stroke of genius, but hindsight is 20/20. Varland's ERA with the Twins went from 3.81 in 2022, to 4.63 in 2023, to 7.61(!) in 2024. His 2025 was looking better, but with his career trajectory, it was easy to say "he's not good, but we've got him on a hot streak, let's sell him before he regresses to the mean and get some kind of value for him." Again, still not an elite trade and I think everything looks worse through the lens of the bad feelings we all had at the time, but if I squint hard enough I see what they were going for.

I didn't see the article as an indictment of Luke. More of a humorous "baseball players, amirite?" look at a guy twerking away in the box, with a little baseball observation thrown in.

A lot of things to react to here, but my initial take is that this really humanizes Falvey and I appreciate his commitment to trying to do right by players when they are traded or cut.

I have the borderline-superhuman ability to root for the team in front of me, enjoy them when they are good, enjoy them when they are not winning championships, AND root for them to do the front office moves that could eventually get them to the promised land, and even enjoy the lousy baseball that comes in the meantime. I contain multitudes.

I've said this elsewhere but I think that either approach of "we need to tear down to the studs and rebuild" or "we have a good core and if we spend some money we can make a truly competitive team" is, at least, a defensible point of view. What is not defensible is the current approach of "we refuse to do either, and magical thinking will carry us to victory on a budget." The front office's fear of just picking one of those paths and walking it will delay a genuine resurgence for the team by years. Two addenda to this thought: My point only makes sense from the fan standpoint that "winning is the point," and maybe less from the front office's standpoint of "we run a business." I don't think everyone is agreeing on what "competitive" means. I see folks talk about competing and they say "we can still make the playoffs!" Playoffs are good, but if this squad does somehow make the playoffs does anyone really think they have the chops to win a title? That leaves us stuck in a place in which maybe making the playoffs is good enough, and prevents us from either rebuilding or beefing up. But at least for me personally, competing has to mean taking that next step and reasonably having a chance to, you know, do that thing Tom Beringer says.

Everything was always cooler when you were young, but man I miss the days of Torii Hunter stealing home runs and Doug Mientkiewicz doing the splits at first base. Team wasn't elite, but it was a ton of fun.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!

I'm either too high to read that title or not high enough.

The other guys' numbers are likely to regress to the mean somewhat...but so are Joe's, honestly. Love him to death but there's no reason to think the other guys are outperforming their baseline but that this is now just Default Joe. Hope this is his new norm, though!

If Delaware can operate tonight without interruption with 500 fewer employees, then the Twins need to turn around and ask why they have been operating with that much unnecessary overhead, and should be paying Delaware a fraction of whatever their contract is currently at. Of course I don't think they actually will operate without interruption. I'm imagining fewer vendors and very long lines. Also definitely not advocating for an outcome that would displace any concession workers. Mostly just saying that Delaware kind of shoots itself in the foot by stating they are going to operate just like usual. No win situation for them in saying that.

This article just about making my cry here on a Tuesday afternoon, come on.

The Twins' reluctance to fully commit either to acting like legitimate contenders or to going into full rebuild mode is going to delay the club's resurgence by years.

I agree with all that about SWR, but to potentially lose him for nothing when we have so many holes in our pitching felt like a really extreme overreaction. I suppose in truth, his lack of roster flexibility may have been a reason they were ready to lose him. Fewer ways to let him figure himself out.