Squirrel

‘A doubleheader severed’ is really quite an image.

Yay! The minor league reports are back!! Thanks for all the info.

I’ve missed your blogs! Thank you for this, as both a musician and a Twins fan.

No parking fees on non-game days. And I do believe that there are uber/lyft services in the area now but don’t know how reliably. The trick with Sanibel during high season is to go early, like 8-9am, get your beaching in, then lunch or whatever and leave by 2-3. Or go later, around 3-3:30, get your beaching in then go to dinner, wander the shops, then head back around 8pm. You will avoid the worst of the on/off traffic that way.

My first Spring Training was 1991. Don’t recall how many STs I went to in those early years ... 4 or 5? But I haven’t missed a spring since 2001 for one or two weeks. My favorite time to come is sometime during that week leading up to and including the first games. It begins then. The long winter is over. It’s the beginning of baseball season. Leaving winter behind for those beautiful, green, perfectly-manicured fields ... it’s just the most unique baseball experience there is. Those first workouts and drills, the confluence of Twins past, present and future, even if it seems impossible you still have hope for something great. But whenever I can get there, whether the beginning like that or towards the end, there’s always something to take in. I will be there this year, too ... my 19th in a row.

Uh, who said that exactly? I think the structure of this would allow for more flexibility, actually.

Does anyone know of any other contracts being structured this way for players at this stage in their careers? I wonder if this could be a trend. I could see this structure potentially being better from a budgetary planning standpoint.

Good thing I won’t be living here by then!

Hahaha ...

I'm glad these guys have an outlet other than baseball. He is a talented young man.

Yes ... I'm aware. Which is why I clarified ... and added it to this article. But I see now it was removed. It's a weird thing the way articles and article threads are and aren't linked. The comments are linked, but sometimes the content or format doesn't transfer when the article thread is generated. And any tweak I put into the article thread goes away when the original article gets edited. So ... I'll add it ... again ... to help keep up the clarification. (Or perhaps one of the admins could put that line into the body of the article so that it transfers. Not that it's really needed, but, obviously for a few it is.) And I agree it's somewhat obvious ... because it's too ... 'What. The. Heck????'

Just for a point of clarification in case a few of you missed it ... the tag line on this article reads: "Twins Daily is THRILLED to welcome Randball Stu as a weekly satirical contributor." Welcome, Stu!

I’m not much of a football person, but that was quite the list, Seth. I had to laugh, though, with the number of people who said Patriots but started with saying, ‘I hate to say it, but ...’ It’s probably how I’d say it if I were making a prediction. But I’ll cheer on the Rams. Well, I would if I were watching.

And I was really watching his hands closely to see if I could spot the slight of hand and didn't see anything. It was really magic!!

Great event, as always! Thank you to everyone who made it happen.

If you put [ i ] [ /i ] (without the extra spaces) around the words you want italicized, that should work. It is a bit more unwieldy, however.

I can’t fault you for wanting starting pitching. We all do. But I think the wait and see game only leaves us with a missed opportunity. I’m betting on this core, now, and wanting to add to it now. Harper and Machado aren’t available next year. I think adding one of them now puts us over for this season, because I think our core will be ready and will perform this season. I don’t think it’s wise to wait for some time tbd. If we signed Machado now, he moves to 3rd when Lewis is ready, and he’s here to anchor the next core. If you sign Harper, our OF depth can be used in a trade for better pitching. And you have either one into the future. We can wait and see, but if the core responds as I think they will this year, we will still be missing a piece and we’ll be out of the playoffs in the first round. But, you never know. That’s baseball. I’d be very happy to be wrong on that count.

I agree that one player doesn't make the team by themselves. And agreed, one player can't make a bad team good. So ... does this mean you think we have a bad team, or a team not good enough to sign someone like Machado or Harper? The way I see it, I'm betting on this team to be good, that the core is primed and ready, or at least competitive in the central. Adding a Machado or a Harper, in my opinion, makes us competitive with Boston, New York and Houston. That's why I think one of these players should be added ... to get us to the next level, and hopefully beyond. And having him the next few years, while this young group keeps getting better, you've become a force to be reckoned with. That's what I want this team to be. And I don't see it happening standing pat or waiting and seeing ... because the opportunity is now. We have the flexibility in payroll, and we have two superstar players ripe for the picking. That's how I view it, anyway.

I'll wait to say that when Machado signs with another team, because ... well ... I suppose it's possible ... Sigh.

I respect your view, even if I don't completely agree with it. I've said this before, but one of the big reasons I wanted a Machado is because I believe in this team, I think it's on the verge, and if even 3 of those 7 you named really puts it together, Machado adds to that and puts them in range of Boston and New York and well past Cleveland. You bet on that hand and land the final card in the royal flush. (Okay, so I really am not a poker person so really shouldn't be using poker analogies.) This is part of my frustration through early 2000's ... we had teams that were just there and another addition would likely have put them over into real contention. (Yes, I know, there's no way of knowing that for sure, but, this is all a gamble.) And I just don't see a change in business. This was the year for opportunity ... and for me, I see it squandered. Yes, I'm frustrated.

If they all click then you have a winning team for a few years and then you make some trades. We can’t keep playing the ‘what if’ game. Prospects are prospects until they prove otherwise and that core hasn’t proved anything. And what if they don’t? Then you have Machado to anchor the next wave. If you do nothing but plan for the future you will continually lose in the present. And I’m not suggesting we trade everyone and mortgage the future. I’m just looking for a little more present that isn’t an unwise penny-pinching budget.

In my now cynical and less hopeful eyes, I think it says they don’t think this core will do it so they are adding just ‘hoping for some lightning’ players to fill the roster. Until the next wave comes through. Same old story. And what does it say to this core? If I’m this core I’m going to do as well as I can, biding my time until I can get out from under such a winning mentality. (In case anyone didn’t catch it, my winning mentality comment was sarcasm.) If Im this year’s core I’m thinking that’s one huge Sisyphusian goal they’ve been given. This FO has built a team that might be barely competitive ... competitive, not winning ... in the AL central, and the AL central only ... and that’s if all the ifs come together. Remember how excited we were last year? Yeah, fool me once ... While I’ve been very vocal about signing Machado, because I felt that could be done without breaking the bank, I also felt it could be done while gathering a few other GOOD pieces through FA and/or trade. I mean, even the best of the RP, we could have signed one or two of those as well and still kept to a similar budget as last year. With their budget last year, which they did fine with ... by fine, I mean, did they lose money last year? No? Even with such poor play, they managed? Hmmm. They have had opportunity this year to add really good pieces to the in-house talent that wouldn’t break the bank, that would have kept them in the realm of last year’s spending, that wouldn’t have put them over the top in the realms of Boston, LA, New York spending, that could have garnered a team that would have been competitive in all of the AL and NL. Instead we have eked out one huge possibly, keep your fingers crossed, maybe, if we get lightning in a bottle, super budget team that in all probability puts us in .500 range. Count me in the hugely disappointed, hugely uninspired, this is going to be a very long season camp. I guess our new window is when Lewis and Kirilloff get here. Same old story. And I’m hoping that my outlook is very wrong.

Well, if the Sox sign Machado over the Twins, I'll be cheering them on, so not so bad.

Blecht!

Uh, no. The temperature is more ... temperate ,,, in comparison to the suburbs, because of the lake, but the climate isn’t milder. Stand on the corner of Michigan and Roosevelt in the dead of winter and maybe you’ll understand the difference. I would much rather be sitting in Target Field in April for a game than either of Wrigley or Guaranteed Rate. But I’d rather be sitting in either Chicago Stadiums in late October than Target Field. I say that based on experience of the weather and climate of both areas.