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offensive_loons_fan

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Everything posted by offensive_loons_fan

  1. offensive_loons_fan
    I'm sure people are out there doing this, but I would love to see a more comprehensive retroactive review of previous top prospects and how they have actually performed in the big leagues, and of lower-rated prospects and how they have panned out. It's definitely some cynicism and selective memory on my part, but it feels like 85% of "next big thing" guys fizzle out. Then there are a disproportionate rate of guys who were low rated and ended up becoming at least viable. This isn't just baseball but seems to be true across a lot of sports to varying degrees. What is going on there? What is so fundamentally flawed in prospecting that it seems like everyone is just guessing?
  2. offensive_loons_fan
    The article regrading the trade deadline moves had a lot of comments that amounted to "hey, increasing an already low spend by less than $10 million is not that impressive. They need to spend more." I think that's true in a very broad sense, but in practice the market kind of was what it was at the deadline. I think they made a decent, measured spend for what they could get. It's not enough to just "make the number go up." I feel the same about this offseason. Obviously the team needs to spend more, but the free agent market is going to suck and we do not have a lot of good trade capital outside of our now-emerging prospects. I would like to see us keep those prospects and see who they can become. But the downside of that is that we may kind of have to hold still on the roster building rather than spending on guys who are "meh, sure." That would mean 2027 becomes another maybe lousy year as the prospects grow their wings, and we see the FA market evolve. This site's audience probably will not love that. But I think it's the right long-term play.
  3. offensive_loons_fan
    I mean, could the answer be as simple as just once they finally came to the conclusion he would need the surgery, they scheduled it and it was scheduled weeks out? Which is what I have to do whenever I need to get surgery? Especially if you want a particular surgeon, they do not necessarily drop everything they are doing and fly out to give you same-day surgery like a medical Amazon.
  4. offensive_loons_fan
    Personal opinion: neither of these guys are so central to the team, or have such great upside, or are making an amount of money that would give me heartburn about either exposing them to waivers (Funderburk) or feeling like you are burning money by sending them down if they don't perform (Sands). If Funderburk isn't figuring it out at this point in his career, I am not worried about losing him. For Sands, I feel like the organization more broadly needs to be at a point at which a million dollars for this guy is not seen as a criminal loss. A million for what Sands could be is an ok investment. If it doesn't pan out, a million is not that much to lose. If a salary floor is implemented and the Twins are $50 million beneath it, then what's a million dollars for a guy who could hit his stride again? The real question or problem is that a decision to do one thing is a decision not to do another. Are they keeping one and/or the other at the expense of acquiring a better option on the market? That gives me much more heartburn than either losing Funderburk or losing a million bucks with Sands.
  5. offensive_loons_fan
    Almost had a heart attack when I read the "five earned runs allowed in 18 2/3 pitches" typo.
  6. offensive_loons_fan
    I think what I really want is for us to be able to move on from someone like Ober. You want to be in a position to look at a 4.50 - 5.00 ERA pitcher that will usually be healthy for their start and say, "we can upgrade from that." Maybe I'm cynical but I think the house of cards of our pitching staff needs a lot of things to go right for that to be true.
  7. offensive_loons_fan
    I get the temptation to look at results and say "does this earn Shelton more time," but in practice a decent organization needs to have a holistic approach that spans multiple years. What is the organizational philosophy, and is Shelton a guy that can give you that? Then you give him and the front office several years to build the roster toward that vision. If, after a few years, that progress hasn't been sufficient, then maybe you dump him and/or change the vision. But having him for a single crapshoot season, in which it is still difficult to see what the longer vision is and with him having limited ability to impact the roster to fit that vision, is entirely inadequate to make any kind of decision. If they got rid of him, it should be because they have a specific person in mind who can achieve a specific goal, not because he couldn't spin the straw of this patchwork roster into better gold.
  8. offensive_loons_fan
    Obviously his brief spell in the majors wasn't successful, but man if you are another team like the Pirates and you get the chance at a dirt cheap lottery ticket like this, you couldn't ask for a ticket with much better odds. Hope he does well in his career (except against the Twins)!
  9. offensive_loons_fan
    They have achieved.
  10. offensive_loons_fan
    The notion that he might have had a crisis of confidence in finding out the team was so ready to get rid of him reminds me of why front offices play their cards closer to the vest than we as fans might like. It's easy for us to hop online and say "why doesn't the team demote X player," "why can't they see we have a hole in Y position," "why can't they see Z player isn't working?" Likely, they are seeing all of those things, but the work of maintaining morale requires that they never engage us on these things, and for my part I try to avoid dragging players through the mud even when they are plainly not playing well.
  11. offensive_loons_fan
    Did they just do away with the Game 163 because the union fought against it and won? I can't see the league or owners giving up basically an extra primetime playoff game and its associated revenues. Obviously player fatigue and health are the big deterrents, but I think the league itself would rather "Weekend at Bernie's" the players through the game if it meant an extra dollar.
  12. offensive_loons_fan
    For what it's worth, all three of these examples come grounded in the "we just move people around positions" philosophy of the organization. Starters become relievers, infielders become outfielders, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria.
  13. offensive_loons_fan
    I probably would have counted myself erring on the side of selling rather than buying, but more importantly I had just wanted the team to pick a lane. Either admit to a full rebuild and commit to it, or believe you are truly contenders and spend to win. The idea that we could contend, but just with the pieces we already had, felt plainly incorrect and frustrating. I feel increasingly like the lane has been chosen, and even though I would have been selling, I'm mostly happy to see where the commitment will take us. Can't stop at just this trade deadline, though!
  14. offensive_loons_fan
    I love Byron Buxton. I hope good things happen to him for all of his days. He is not a jersey retirement candidate unless something incredible happens in the next five years. Some argue that being the face of the franchise or a career-long tenure or giving us some great memories has to count for something. They do count. But vibes alone cannot get your number up there.
  15. offensive_loons_fan
    I mean, hopefully upgrading the Roden, Larnach, Wallner, Keaschall, and Martin of it all.
  16. offensive_loons_fan
    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.
  17. offensive_loons_fan
    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.
  18. offensive_loons_fan
    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.
  19. offensive_loons_fan
    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.
  20. offensive_loons_fan
    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.
  21. offensive_loons_fan
    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.
  22. offensive_loons_fan
    THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!
  23. offensive_loons_fan
    I'm either too high to read that title or not high enough.
  24. offensive_loons_fan
    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!
  25. offensive_loons_fan
    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.
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