Vanimal46

Agreed. That system is built to reward old metrics like BA, HR, RBI for hitters: Wins, ERA and saves for pitchers. There's a reason why outlets like MLBTR can accurately estimate everyone's arbitration salaries. System hasn't changed in 30+ years.

Hmm, the radio network didn't cancel our phone number yet, Intern... What do you say, one more time for old sake? ANNND Welcome! To Minnesota Twins Whine Line: Farewell Edition! I am your host for... Well, whenever the radio network realizes they forgot to call Time Warner and cancel the service! We've got ourselves a real BARN BURNER tonight between the Twins and Yankees. Did you hear? Ownership wants to have more financial flexibility with it's roster heading into 2019, and show MAY not exist soon. In case if that happens, we have several ideas to fall back on! Before we dive into those ideas, let's talk about the weather... It's a gorgeous night tonight in Minneapolis! 78 degrees and mostly sunny at first pitch. REAL FEEL of 76 degrees! Wind out of the S at 12 MPH... TREAD CAREFULLY with the gusts. Those could sneak up on you at 18 MPH! Alright, we've had a lot of time to think about what our next idea is, since the phone wasn't ringing offering us a contract! We think they're all BRILLIANT, but you be the judge... Live at Costco: So many pros with this choice! They offer free samples most days... There's a covered mattress hidden in a drawer to sleep in! And TVs so the Intern can play MLB the Show. There are also a lot of cameras inside the building... And employees may notice that we haven't showered in a while. On second thought... Mow Lawns for Money: The more we thought about why we love baseball, we kept circling back to the same love... OF grass designs! Who cares about the game itself, the stage is what matters! And what better stage to play on than a cross-cut pattern in the outfield? We will do that to your lawn! For a small fee... Live on a farm: After years under the pressure of 100,000 watt radio maybe it's time for us to buy a tractor, grow a beard, and reside in Hattiesburg, MS. If we're running low on cash, we'll come back! Then retire again... But if they call again, we'll come back and do really well! Then talk about retiring again, but $20 million dollars is too much to ignore and mail it in for another year. At that point enough is enough: it's time to go. On the side we can star in commercials for Wrangler and Micro touch razor blades... You may be asking yourself, "Am I reading a cliff notes' version of Brett Favre's life?" And I'd reply "Yes." We can't think of any better way to end this than on a weird, random, confusing note. LET'S GET A WIN TWINS! Oh wait! We have a voice mail to answer.... Thank you for the call Ash. Intern, how many times did you have to restart this game for the Twins to win on MLB the Show? .... 7?! .... We don't predict a good outcome, Ash.

I certainly don't know the answer to this, but the fight between MLBPA and owners is going to be intense. Can this sport survive another strike/lockout? Who will break first? MLBPA hired Bruce Meyer, who literally wrote the book on sports law, and won free agency rights for players in the NBA and NFL. I'm sure the players will be fighting for less service time before hitting free agency. Sheryl Ring of Fangraphs wrote a detailed article about Meyer if you're interested in learning more. https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-mlbpa-has-a-new-chief-negotiator/

This is the last scheduled game thread hosted by Minnesota Twins Whine Line in 2018. Given the uncertainty of game threads in the future, it may be the series finale of Minnesota Twins Whine Line. If it is the last game thread, the intern and I have learned very little over the last 4 years! But we wouldn't trade it for anything. Thanks for listening. Hopefully we see you down the road.

Their half-ass handling was a significant contributor to this lost season. The Twins were still in the race and they forgo his rehab assignment because he's valuable to the team. It was a horrible decision and resulted in 40+ unhealthy at bats playing on one foot. What's Buxton's reward for being a trooper playing through injury? Being sent home in September and holding him back from free agency another year. Oh boy. I hope going forward Buxton looks out for himself and takes the time necessary to play at 100%. Because clearly there's no reward for playing injured with this front office.

We can slice sample sizes in a lot of ways to fit either agenda. You say he had a hot 2 weeks in September. I can reply saying he hit .270 from May 1 to the end of the 2017 season which is above average to go along with elite defense. We can go back and forth on this all day. But my problem isn't the offensive production or lack of it. My problem is the FO in cold blooded fashion suppressed his service time and failed to communicate with him. Teams tend to take advantage of this loophole before the player ever puts on an MLB uniform. It's extremely unusual to do this to a player with MLB experience over 3 years.

For 40 ABs. Lots of people look bad in a sample size of 40 ABs over the course of a season.

Sure I thought it was time for the last FO to go like everyone else. You're confusing me with someone else about the scholarship thing. I have no idea what you're talking about. IMO Buxton earned the right to remain on this team as soon as he was healthy from his results last season. The only take aways I have from Buxton's 2018 is he continues to get banged up with lingering injuries, and he can't play on one foot. Everything else is chalked up to a lost season and thrown in the trash bin.

I pegged you as a Christmas tree purist, Chief. Even assumed you made it a family event like the Griswold's....

Take comfort knowing how wet his feet are from this experience... Invaluable!

And what's the deal with airline food?

Duffey is the opener tonight, which sounds like a recipe to start the 2nd inning down 7-0. 5 BURNING questions: - Most overrated fast-casual restaurant? - Decorative pillows on the bed... Your thoughts? - Best furniture to take a nap on? - Who has the best hair in baseball? - Real or fake Christmas tree? 9/11/2001 a day we will never forget.

Dohkay. 2017 never happened I guess.

I could have said it better but that's what happens when I work and type at the same time. So far the human consequences are Buxton not returning phone calls from the Twins. He's probably not going to be apart of any off-season Twins PR events. The relationship can be smoothed out over time ($$$$$) but I doubt it. Athletes have egos and hold grudges as well as anyone else. This decision stings and will linger for a while.

I know the why and we don't have to discuss why they did it. What the people that are for this move don't want to talk about is the human aspect and the consequences with their decision. As I mentioned before they didn't do anything illegal or beyond their prerogative. It's just a ****ty thing to do to a person. Especially a person that's thought to be a foundational player for the organization.

I agree they will have a hard time receiving full trade value for Trout. As a fan I'd love to read the bonkers trade offers for him though!

I wonder if the Angels can't come to an agreement with Trout on a contract extension if they shop him this winter? If they trade Trout I imagine they'll do the full tear down and build around Ohtani.

There's a style out there for everyone. That style is not for me if I was an employee or player for them. I worked for a cutthroat sales organization before and my Director was the Terminator. If you didn't close business that month and hit your quota, you were shown the door. The only way he knew how to motivate people was instilling fear of losing your job. It was awful.

Unless Erv finds that missing 3 MPH in his fastball he's cooked. He was at his best with the Twins and throughout his career when his FB was sitting 92-94 with the occasional 96. He won't survive with an 88-90 MPH fastball.

Instead of operating in good faith and working with him on an extension over the remaining 3 years he's under control, they elected 4 years of control and torpedoed their chance at extension talks any time soon. The early season slump is on Buxton. The remaining 40 some ABs out of 90 total this year are him playing with a broken toe and obviously hindering his ability to play. It's a lost season. P.S. I would love to be largely bad at my job and win a Platinum Gold Glove award along with receiving MVP votes.

1. You don't know Buxton was going to hit below .200. Historically, September is the best statistical hitting month over his career. 2. This story isn't going away because nothing has been resolved yet. 3. Buxton getting called up wouldn't do anything for the short term future of this team, agreed. However, the FO chose to piss off one of their foundational players for the organization's short term benefit. Imagine you at your own job. Working through injury, being a team player. You're 13 days away from getting a raise and other benefits. Instead your boss says we don't need you anymore this year. No one would take that well.

It's the responsibility of Derek Falvey, Chief Baseball Officer IMO.

The human aspect of the job seems to be the thing Falvey and Levine struggle with the most. Minimal to no communication with key organization players past and present. Ignore your personal feelings about these players... They did not speak to Dozier about an extension or his future with the team. They did not speak to Mauer about his opinion of getting traded or not. They did not speak to Buxton about their decision to send him home for the season. Most decisions they've made so far is for the benefit of the organization, and Pohlad's wallet. It's not like they've done anything beyond the rules set in place. However, they don't sound like people I would personally want to report into. I want to feel like a real person, not an ant in an ant farm.

I just saw Shannon Brooks is out for the year too, dang it... Williams is who we got for now.

I doubt Astudillo wants to spend another 2 years in the minors, and would like a real opportunity somewhere. If he wants to be a C it's not going to be in Minnesota with Castro returning from injury. There are plenty of teams that will still be tanking in 2019 that could give him 300-400 PAs. Who knows, maybe the Twins will be one of those tanking teams!