TwinsArmChairGM_Jon

Over at SB Nation's Baseball Nation blog, Rob Neyer asks the question today, who is the player you associate with each franchise? For the Twins, he says... Now, clearly you can't go horribly wrong with Killebrew. He had probably the greatest individual career in franchise history and set the power standard that all other Twins' hitters have and continue to chase. He also stayed involved with the team as an ambassador and was absolutely recognizable to fans like me who were born too late to watch him play. The only other option, in my opinion, would be Kirby Puckett, of course. Winning two world series, the second in epic fashion, he was the face of the Twins basically since day-one of his career. Despite an injury shortened career, he was the most beloved Minnesota athlete of his time, possibly all time. I certainly have more fond memories of Puckett, but that's because I didn't get to watch Killebrew play, unfortunately. I think they are both deserving, and and there's probably no wrong answer here. Do you feel strongly about one or the other? Or someone else?

I'm pretty sure it has something to do with organizing the carpool to the Teresa Mauer ice cream sundae parties. In all fairness, Bartlett did suck at that.

I see Today's post from TwinkieTown also points this out.

http://www.1500espn.com/gallery/minnesota_twinsphoto_day_021913/pID48838 That spleen surgery really did a number on him.

If you haven't read the recent entry from Jon Marthaler regarding Joe Mauer's image status among Minnesotans, you should. Just as you should probably read everything from Jon Marthaler. There seems to be at least two major schools of thought on Mauer these days: 1) He's not a leader, isn't tough, doesn't want to win bad enough, and doesn't perform up to the level of his contract (Note: this opinion doesn't seem to be as pervasive on Twins Daily as certain forums and comment sections elsewhere) and 2) C'mon really? He had a lingering injury in 2011, but is still a future HOF'er. What more do you want? I think that's the crux of the issue. What do people want from Joe Mauer? One of the under-analyzed aspects that plays a significant role in the Mauer backlash phenomenon: his personality. This non-baseball related skill set is the biggest difference between Joe and beloved Minnesota icons like Kirby, Tarkenton, or Nanne. Now I don’t know Joe. I don’t even know anyone whose cousin used to dog-sit for Joe’s junior-high guidance counselor. But by all outward appearance he is just not a terribly charismatic person. Inside the guarded confines of a major league locker room or among those who know him well, he may be, but not to the average Nelson in Minnesota. To focus on Puckett, as the Randball blog did, in addition to the World Series success, Puckett had a surplus of personality. He laughed and joked. People like public figures who genuinely laugh and joke. They identify with people like that. Hey, I laugh and joke sometimes, this guy is like me. They are more forgiving of public figures, even flawed ones, who are charismatic -- see Puckett, Kirby or Clinton, William. When I saw the commercials where Kirby was betting Quarter Pounders on a trick-shot pool contest, I was like, sure, Kirby bets hamburgers like that. I buy it. I’m not sure people feel the same way when a head and shoulders ad comes on. This plays into people’s perception of a “winner “ vs a “non-winner”. I think Kirby would have been perceived as leader, and a winner, even without the titles. Just look at Michael Cuddyer. By all statistical measures, Cuddyer was a fine offensive player for his career, but not a really outstanding one, especially defensively. Fans loved Cuddy though, he did card tricks and had a believable smile that played well in the media, even when things weren’t going well on the field for him. And Cuddyer made a lot of money here, almost $40,000,000. Did the expectations for Michael shoot way up when he signed his 4 year extension? Certainly not the way they did for Mauer, and maybe not at all. Even proportionally to the money they signed for, did people want more out of Cuddy after his deal? I just think that significantly more rope gets extended to or taken from athletes, and people in general, who have public charisma. For all his athletic ability, Joe doesn’t display this in a public way. Should we hold this against him? I believe the backlashers do, and unfairly at that. So, what do you really want from Joe Mauer?

If you haven't read the recent entry from Jon Marthaler regarding Joe Mauer's image status among Minnesotans, you should. Just as you should probably read everything from Jon Marthaler. There seems to be at least two major schools of thought on Mauer these days: 1) He's not a leader, isn't tough, doesn't want to win bad enough, and doesn't perform up to the level of his contract (Note: this opinion doesn't seem to be as pervasive on Twins Daily as certain forums and comment sections elsewhere) and 2) C'mon really? He had a lingering injury in 2011, but is still a future HOF'er. What more do you want? I think that's the crux of the issue. What do people want from Joe Mauer? One of the under-analyzed aspects that plays a significant role in the Mauer backlash phenomenon: his personality. This non-baseball related skill set is the biggest difference between Joe and beloved Minnesota icons like Kirby, Tarkenton, or Nanne. Now I don’t know Joe. I don’t even know anyone whose cousin used to dog-sit for Joe’s junior-high guidance counselor. But by all outward appearance he is just not a terribly charismatic person. Inside the guarded confines of a major league locker room or among those who know him well, he may be, but not to the average Nelson in Minnesota. To focus on Puckett, as the Randball blog did, in addition to the World Series success, Puckett had a surplus of personality. He laughed and joked. People like public figures who genuinely laugh and joke. They identify with people like that. Hey, I laugh and joke sometimes, this guy is like me. They are more forgiving of public figures, even flawed ones, who are charismatic -- see Puckett, Kirby or Clinton, William. When I saw the commercials where Kirby was betting Quarter Pounders on a trick-shot pool contest, I was like, sure, Kirby bets hamburgers like that. I buy it. I’m not sure people feel the same way when a head and shoulders ad comes on. This plays into people’s perception of a “winner “ vs a “non-winner”. I think Kirby would have been perceived as leader, and a winner, even without the titles. Just look at Michael Cuddyer. By all statistical measures, Cuddyer was a fine offensive player for his career, but not a really outstanding one, especially defensively. Fans loved Cuddy though, he did card tricks and had a believable smile that played well in the media, even when things weren’t going well on the field for him. And Cuddyer made a lot of money here, almost $40,000,000. Did the expectations for Michael shoot way up when he signed his 4 year extension? Certainly not the way they did for Mauer, and maybe not at all. Even proportionally to the money they signed for, did people want more out of Cuddy after his deal? I just think that significantly more rope gets extended to or taken from athletes, and people in general, who have public charisma. For all his athletic ability, Joe doesn’t display this in a public way. Should we hold this against him? I believe the backlashers do, and unfairly at that. So, what do you really want from Joe Mauer?

The relatively low valuation of the Twins TV deal certainly holds down the Twins value when comparing them to other markets. The Padres signed a new TV deal that brings in $60M/year compared to the Twins $29M. Target Field helps, but TV money is a bigger factor in valuations these days, I believe. http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120815&content_id=36758474&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb

Whoops, this popped up as the first story on the ESPN Twins Clubhouse page, and I didn’t catch the dateline. I could go with the joke about information taking a lot longer to get to Alaska too. Some thoughts on where this would change if it was done today: With the injury concerns lessened for Mauer and Span (and Morneau to an extent) as well as the emergence/higher expectations for Revere, Willingham, Doumit, and Plouffe, is that enough to bring the Majors ranking higher than 8 out of 30? The pitching is so bad, it would be impossible to argue for a big jump. A 15-18 ranked offense and a 1-3 ranked pitching staff unscientifically equals…8-10 without considering defense. The Minors ranking may get bumped up a bit with the addition of this draft class and good years from Sano, Arcia, Hicks and Parmalee, not too much though as there’s still not much on the doorstep. Outside of a potentially healthy Gibson, there aren’t even any starters in the driveway. It’s pretty depressing that even before this year the Finances rating was 13 out of 30. It will be interesting (possibly very frustrating) to see what the payroll does next year with lower gate revenue from this year. This rating might be dropping as we speak. Since the 25 out of 30 overall ranking is still probably about right it’s hard to argue too much.

http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7562207/mlb-future-power-rankings-2012-nos-30-21 ESPN put up some long-term power rankings for all 30 teams that rates organizations in 5 different categories to come up with an objective outlook for the near future. Each team was ranked 30-1, 30 being the best, for each category: Majors, Minors, Finances (how much do they have to spend), Management (includes Ownership, FO, and Manager), and Mobility (level of flexibility with regard to current contracts). The Twins came up #25 which seems fair, even if Jim Bowden's commentary is either really dated or just moronic. Based on previous entries from him, I'm not ruling out the latter. Twins Rankings: Overall - 33.5 out of 100 Majors - 8 Minors - 13 Finances - 13 Management - 12 Mobility - 6 What does everyone else think if the analysis and the Twins rating?

Whatever happened to Miguel changing his last name to Jean instead of Sano? I haven't once heard him referred to as Miguel Jean since he said he was changing it.

Josh has had a good start, but let's not go crazy over a short stretch. I certainly wouldn't move him in between Mauer and Morneau against righties. Vs. Righties '09-'11 Morneau > .294/.391/.525 Will-I-Ham> .259/.358/.356 Historically, Morneau has also done just fine against lefties for left-handed hitter.

I should clarify that my real point was that KFAN didn't have the kind analysis that you and Gleeman offer. I understand they are the Vikings network and are consequently going to talk about them all year 'round, and they do talk Twins to an extent, but your show will be a good addition for them. I moved out of state last fall and still podcast Barreiro and Common regularly. When you only get Fox Sports and ESPN national radio, you quickly start to miss local sports talk which is another reason the Gleeman and the Geek podcast was valuable for me. Congrats on the new gig.

Good stuff. Thanks for posting this.

With this dedicated hour of Twins talk on KFAN, that will bring the grand total each week up to one hour (hyperbole intended.) More Twins talk; always a good decision.

The extra base hits are definitely a good sign, but the concerns that existed before a double and two home runs are still worth considering. It's nothing to feel "silly" about. The Twins are certainly considering it as they appear to be ready to have him DH the beginning of the year. An article also said that just being physically tired can make him more vulnerable to recurring symptoms. I'd love to see him continue homering, but the up and down nature of his recovery so far leave me with measure optimism.

This article could also have been titled, "Is It Time to Worry *More* About Morneau". Not even taking into account his other ailments, the multiple head injuries he's suffered are good reason to worry about Morneau for the last year and a half (and really, for the rest of his career.) I really want to see Morneau do well both for the Twins' sake and because he's a really fun player watch when he's raking or staring down stuffed lions. I don't think Parker was saying we didn't have reason to worry before, but there's been good reason to be concerned ever since the terrible takeout. I think we can all hope the recent push to study brain injuries leads to real and effective treatment for them.

The Twins are 0-0 in the era of Terry Ryan II. That's probably enough time to call for his head.

I emailed Jim Mandalero, Red Wings beat writer in Rochester, about the documentary series, and he said that it was indeed completed. He said he didn't think it was very good (I think he compared it to a bad Ken Burns knockoff), but apparently it is out there somewhere. It's strange that there is so little information on it online.

That's what I was wondering too. If it ever was completed, it would be interesting to see it now with some more of those guys up on the Twins Roster. Just doesn't seem to be much information out there.

I remember hearing about a an upcoming PBS documentary focused on the '09 Rochester Red Wings season, but I don't remember it being broadcast? Did anyone see it? Was it actually aired? I can't seem to find much info on it now. I'd be interested in seeing it now if was available somewhere.

I also don't really understand the Will-I-Ham to RF kerfuffle. Generally, but especially in Target Field, you want your rangy-est OF's in left and Center. I know Josh has played LF so far, but it's also not uncommon for aging outfielders to move to right. Kirby did later in his career. I wouldn't say Willingham is "aging", but he certainly has the least range compared to Span and Revere.

Safeco, because it's a great place I've heard, and also it's currently the closest major league park to my residence. I'd also like to see Fenway. Outside the the Dome and Target Field, I've only been to US Cellular. I was very unimpressed with US Cellular.

Ben Revere's offseason football throwing program really changed him. I don't even recognize him anymore from that picture.

Ideally, at least for now, Revere is most valuable as a fourth outfielder off the bench. He's great as a defensive replacement and his speed plays well as a pinch runner. Unfortunately, we don't have an ideal team, so Ben is most likely going to be starting. His arm is not great or even average, so I have a hard time starting him anywhere but LF as long as we have Span. His offensive statistics consist of a small sample size in parts of two seasons, but so far he has shown low OBP's and little power which shouldn't surprise anyone who saw his minor league numbers. He needs to raise his OBP 20 points this year just to get to league average and even there his offensive value is limited because of his lack of power. Is it possible for him to drastically raise his on-base-percentage to something well above average? Sure, but he's going to need to to be a Leadoff/Two hitter. Until then he's going to be a bottom of the order OF with some speed.

In response to Seth's request to throw Parker out of TwinsCentric for this, I vote aye. Aaand the "ayes" have it. Is there a TwinsDaily Kangaroo Court we can bring this up in?