Vanimal46

Interesting note about Alvarez. He's fallen off MLB.com's top 100 prospect list after starting at #49 last year. I don't pay for Baseball America or Baseball Prospectus to know if he's still on those lists. It looks like a great non-trade.

Sigh... I hoped this off-season would be different. Every year they wait is another year overlapping the time when Buxton, Sano, Rosario, Berrios, etc. need to get paid. If the Twins can't compete for the best FA SP in a year where every large market org sits out for financial reasons, what makes people think they can compete next off-season when their luxury tax penalties are reset?

Touche. That's what I get for skimming through the list instead of reading.

Gordon's high on prospect lists because he does most everything at an average or above average rate. He hits well enough, not elite but not horrible. He fields well enough, not elite but not horrible. So on and so forth. When you add all of that up, it's a valuable prospect. I think he'll have an extended career in the majors. This is a big year for him. Re: Polanco. I agree the 2nd half isn't him. It's very hard to maintain an .870 OPS throughout the season. Baseball-Reference projects him to be a .256/.313/.410 player in 2018. I'd be good with that if he continues to improve defensively. Re: Kepler. Yeah he certainly deserves a spot in the top 10. That's a pretty big omission. An even bigger omission IMO is Sano. I don't know how someone who has 40 HR potential and major league success didn't make the list. I agree with Gleeman's list more than Cody's.

Unfortunately Calhoun is a Texas Ranger now... He was included in the Darvish trade to LA. Buehler is also a high level prospect... #13 on BA, #13 on MLB.com

Unfortunately it all went downhill after the waiter tried talking us down... The intern ran to other tables and began pointing out flaws in other people's food! "The Caesar salad is in a decline phase!" "You think this pepperoni and sausage pizza is ELITE?! Pfft, I wouldn't pay $10 for that..." "This salmon dish is inconsistent!" Then the manager got involved and suggested we eat at another establishment with fewer options to choose from.

Domingo Santana is a year too late... He broke out last year hitting 30 HRs, .876 OPS, and 3.3 fWAR. The Fangraphs guys are speculating about him being a headliner in a potential Archer trade on their podcast.

I agree with all of this. One thing we can't count on however is Sano, Polanco, Buxton, and Kepler staying as healthy as they did last season. It's not mentioned enough how fortunate the team was that every position player stayed healthy throughout the season. Buxton missed a couple of weeks at most, and Sano missed the last month and change. That's it. So I agree they'll all produce better numbers, it just may not look like it if they're playing less games.

This window is the most exciting IMO. We've been conditioned to say trade him for prospects, and call up the kids because they're not competitive over the last 6 years. The window for making competitive moves couldn't happen at a better time. 3 AL Central teams are tanking. And frankly half of baseball is more interested in the 1st overall pick than a wild card berth. Pretty exciting times.

Great... Now we need an investigation of the investigation to find out if the Intern can indeed read! He started saying chi- like chicken, but we don't know for sure!

I appreciate the Fangraphs' article, and generally, yes free agency is silly where teams rarely get what they paid for. For most free agents, it's the one time they can finally cash in for providing incredible value while under pre-arbitration or arbitration salaries. No fan clamors for a player to earn more money when they're providing 5.8 bWAR making a $400k salary like Joe Mauer in 2006. MLB teams made a combined profit of $981 million in 2016 according to Forbes, and franchise valuations have exploded from $18.1 billion to $46.1 billion over the last 5 years. I'd rather see the players get a better piece of the revenue pie over billionaire owners. If teams are unwilling to pay players for past performance in free agency, they'll have to look for ways to pay players for their current performance.

I'm pretty comfortable in Dozier's ability to be productive until he's 35+ years old. His bat hasn't slowed down, and the power he shows should keep him as a .800+ OPS batter, and 3-5 WAR player. Plus, there's something to be said about the Twins needing a "face of the franchise" when Mauer's contract is done. Dozier is already being marketed as the team leader, and for the most part is already the face of the franchise. I'm not confident in Polanco or Gordon's ability to make up for Dozier's on/off field value and offensive production.

http://gentlemint-media.s3.amazonaws.com/images/2012/04/18/6745f59b.jpg.505x650_q85.jpg ANND Welcome! To Minnesota Twins Whine Line: Detective Edition! I'm your LEAD Investigator, Vanimal, along with my trusty sidekick, the intern. Since we last checked in, both of us set down the PS4 controllers, put MLB The Show back in the case, and studied for our Private Investigator license! In the real world, we noticed that it's January 30th, and 8 out of the top 10 free agents have still yet to sign! It's a strange, boring off-season... There's been several STRONG takes about why this is happening... And we're no different! We decided to put on our Deerstalker, and dive deep into the REAL reason why recent off-seasons are boring... Collusion: It happened once before, so it could happen again, right? That's what we thought too! Until we put it to the test using real world examples... Have you ever arranged a conference call with 30 busy people before? It's NEARLY impossible to do! Plus, they would waste countless hours of time! Owners will be talking over each other, waiting for others to take themselves off mute, jumping on the line 25 minutes late, and needing to "circle back at a later time." All of that sounds exhausting.... Whine Line Verdict: False. Waiting for a Sale: As consumers, we're accustomed to Black Friday, Cyber Monday, 4th of July BLOWOUTS, or "just because!" sales. Doesn't it feel good to purchase what you wanted, for a 30% discount! Of course it does! General Managers are humans too, and they want to feel like they got a discount... Now these days he could look at MLBTradeRumors, FanGraphs, even the Twins Daily Handbook to find salary projections of free agents. Where's the excitement?! The THRILL of the hunt?! Perhaps they're waiting for their Cyber Monday sale.... Whine Line Verdict: Certainly possible! Too Many Options: Typically at this time of year, 1 or 2 of the top free agents are left unsigned... If that! This year, there are 4 to 8 times as many options! Is it possible that General Managers are frozen in fear because there's too many players to choose from? We took our investigation on the road to get to the bottom of it! ANNND Welcome back! We're broadcasting LIVE from the Cheesecake Factory! That's right, the home of a 20 page menu.... If you can't find something to eat here, you're not looking hard enough! In order to test this theory, the intern and I gave ourselves a 30 minute window to decide what to order... WAITER: "Here are your waters, gentleman. Do you have any questions about the menu? Or know what you want?" VAN: "I think we need a little bit of time. There's so many options here. Any specials?" WAITER: "Today's soup of the day is split-pea, and we also have a Philly cheese steak with your choice of fries, salad, fruit, onion rings, or vegetable." VAN: "Wow, even the sides have a bunch of options to choose from... Okay, we need some time." 8 minutes later... WAITER: "Are you ready to order? Questions at all?" VAN: "Yeah, a few questions. I'm debating between the Avocado BLT, Philly cheese steak, Chicken Parmesan, or Chicken Enchiladas. What would you choose?" WAITER: "Hmm, well, our Philly is one of the most popular orders today. The Chicken Parmesan is okay, but I would recommend our Spaghetti and Meatballs over that. And frankly, you're better off going somewhere else for Mexican food." VAN: "That helps... And the Cobb Salad?" WAITER: "I mean, it's a salad.... So... How about you sir, are you ready?" INTERN: "I'll have the uh, chi.... No. Not that. Umm.... Can you come back to me?" WAITER: "Guys, I do have other tables to tend to. I'll come back later." 13 minutes later.... WAITER: "Okay, how about now?" INTERN: "I.... I...... I JUST CAN'T DECIDE! Please, come back to me, okay?" WAITER: "Are you crying, sir?" INTERN: "It's your fault! There isn't a perfect option to order... EVERYTHING has flaws!" WAITER: "Okay, this is getting weird. What about you, sir?" VAN: "I have narrowed it down to 2 items, and I will get back to you by the end of the week." WAITER: "This ISN'T how this works, sir. Look, guys, it's only lunch. You're just spending some money now... It's not like you're trading me your watch, or I don't know... a top prospect like Nick Gordon in order to eat. So what do you say? Let's figure this out before my shift is over, okay?" VAN & INTERN: "Wow... This HAS to be how Falvine feels signing free agents.... I've seen the light!" Whine Line Verdict: TRUE

The symptoms and signs have been here for years. We're noticing it now because of the serious lack of activity this winter... The best of the best free agents have no issue getting long term contracts. Harper/Machado/Kershaw will have multiple 7-8 year contracts to decide over because of their age heading into FA. The rest will demand similar long term contracts and struggle to find a team willing to do so. You bring up analytical front offices and that plays into it for sure. They see years of data handing out poor FA contracts rewarding past performance, and now they don't want to do it anymore. So how are players supposed to get their piece of the revenue pie? If the market is capped for international FA, and their contracts are controllable for 6-7 years, how can they earn money for their performance right now?

I love this post. This is how we should think about a long term contract for Darvish.

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on these scenarios and what would be best for Romero long term... Let's say in 2018 he throws ~125 innings in the minors, and another ~30 innings pitching in the MLB bullpen. Or... He pitches ~165+ innings all in the minors. Forgoes the Sept. cup of coffee to keep arm healthy for 2019.

The Twins have a quality problem, not a quantity problem with their starting staff. I don't see Cobb or Lynn slotting in above Santana and Berrios in the rotation. Which is what they need to compete. Darvish and it's not close.

Your move, Minnesota.

Well, it's self serving for ownership and the cable networks that spent $100 million to broadcast the games. It would be nice to set a limit on commercial break time before they get to NFL levels. Since they'll never go away, I wouldn't mind split screen commercials or product placement like "Snapper Mow' em down" innings.

Exactly. Seems like they're grasping at straws claiming that fans think this will ruin the game. They're still doing the same thing for the last 100+ years. The only thing different is asking them to do it in a very reasonable amount of time. I'd be curious to read Hildenberger, Buesenitz, and other recent call ups who's worked under these constraints.

Hmm, I don't know how long commercial breaks go for currently... Good point though. If they're eliminating 5 seconds that's not enough to make a difference. If anything it will end up being 5 less seconds of highlights before the inning begins.

SCORCHING Hawt Taek: The pace of play MLB is focusing on now is a distraction for the impending money s***-storm coming up in 2021. Jeff Passan wrote a detailed article about this topic too and mentioned they were proposing cutting half inning commercial breaks to 2 min 20 seconds for local games, 2:40 for national games. https://sports.yahoo.com/mlbs-plan-can-make-baseball-games-least-10-minutes-shorter-224752035.html

There's a fine line with pitching mound visits. I agree that fielders running over to the pitcher has been a part of the game forever. However, there should be a limit because some players take advantage of it. I remember in game 163 Gary Sanchez could have created a dirt path walking back and forth from the plate to the mound.

I'm all for these changes and more. The pitch clock isn't going to be a factor except with notoriously slow pitchers. Fans won't even notice the clocks and will enjoy pace keeping up throughout the game.

Miss Vanimal and I went to The Post earlier tonight. It's definitely worth your time and money. The acting is fantastic - which I expected with Hanks, Streep, and sneaky star power mixed in throughout (Carrie Coon, Bob Odenkirk, Jesse Plemons) And the plot is effectively relevant today... Given that political figures threaten freedom of the press on a near daily basis. Go see it.