Squirrel

I think the only numbers to be retired should be an impact player who spends his entire career with the team and/or the next player to go into the HOF as a Twin. I have no idea what future or current player will accomplish that. Given that, Radke’s number should already be retired.

I think both.

They aren’t planning for the future. They aren’t getting the best out there. Didn’t the FO themselves say that last year was a mistake having too many one year contracts on the team, that it made for a very noncohesive clubhouse? It’s a ‘We’re standing pat’ kind of move. This is not improvement. When there are better options out there, that we could have for more than a year, and we’re not making those moves, speaks volumes to me. It’s half-assed, imo.

Yes. Unless you’ve already determined you aren’t going to compete and are looking for potential bounce-back players to sell at the deadline.

I know fans who used to go to a lot of games completely skip the season last year. Why? Because why go? And I'm there, too. At this point I'm not even excited to go to ST ... even when I'm already going to be in Fort Myers anyway. Why bother? To me that doesn't seem to be a way to run a business ... run off a big chunk of your revenue source.

First of all, you are once again injecting your same old post, as you do whenever someone suggests aggressiveness, that they need a lesson in business without relating it to anything in this thread let alone anything with the Twins. You’ve been told to stop doing that. If you have something specific to add about the Twins or this thread, great. But don’t take it down the path of generalities of ‘You don’t know how businesses works.’ Because it’s my post, I’m not going to hide yours or assess a point, but if it had been anyone else’s, I would have. Secondly, I haven’t really laid out a plan, but this team has a lot of flexibility to go big. I’m not talking about a $200million payroll here, but they could spend equal to what they did last year and it would still be aggressive because they have that much flexibility. It’s disappointing for me to hear they didn’t even try for Thor, that they won’t be in on Machado (even though I know he probably wouldn’t have signed here anyway), and that they picked up Cron (ugh) as that shows me once again they have no serious plans to compete and I think they are missing an opportunity. Further, Pohlad seems to be laying out the excuse that it’s Sano’s and Buxton’s fault. Great way to say you don’t believe in them to put anyone really good around them and just go with average or less than average. Good way to lose your biggest source of revenue ... the fans ... and that can’t be smart, either. And good way to set in motion the possibility of two great players walking at the first opportunity. Maybe we’ll be happy with that, but there is still a very reasonable chance we won’t. But, the off season isn’t over, so I’ll give them leeway to see what we have in March, but I’m not holding my breath. Third, you don’t need to manage manage my disappointment by trying to dash my hopes. I’m an older adult and know how hope and disappointment work. However, I do happen to think that ‘hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.’ Calculated risk ... great way to put it. Thanks, Han Joelo.

Thanks for alerting me ... I took my like away.

I think they should still be aggressive even with the ifs that are Sano and Buxton. When will be the next time they will have this flexibility in payroll? I say take the bet that Sano and Buxton will come through and add big. Add like they are expecting them to. If they don’t come through we will be better off because we added something. If we don’t add and they don’t come through, we will be lucky to even match our wins of this last season. But if they do come through and we haven’t added, that will be another wasted season. There is no way to know either way, so take the leap of faith.

And let’s hope we get a few of them ...

I'm not sure you are getting what I'm saying ... I'm saying we can and absolutely need to do better. It's not about either/or with Cron or Austin, it's not about how we can roster them both, it's not even about if either or both provide any kind of positional flexibility ... NEITHER provides enough improvement. I'll wait to see where we are at the end of March, but if this is an example of the moves we are to see this winter, (and I've got to believe better is coming, but also won't hold my breath) and nothing significantly better, the very small increment of improvement this move might make will make little to no difference to where we are now. You might say we are moving in the right direction ... I'm saying that movement isn't enough to matter right direction or not. Maybe we've moved enough so we aren't standing right ON the hornets' nest, but we still need to move significantly farther and away from it not to get stung.

That's a good take ... and I hope that's the case. It's difficult to move away from 'In the past ...'

Heh, that doesn't surprise me ... it would have surprised me if he wasn't the one who homered on a pitch farthest off the plate. It wouldn't surprise me either if you looked at all his homeruns and the he would be the one who hit the most homeruns off the most different pitches.

But this is my issue ... is this even an improvement, even if incrementally small? I think it's debatable and no way to know. I also don't think an incrementally small improvement is the improvement the Twins need. An incremental improvement, imo, is not an improvement in the Twins' case. In this game increments might make the difference between top teams edging out the other, but a small incremental improvement does not make the difference for the Twins getting to the top. Even if it might nudge the needle, it's not enough. We don't need a needle nudger, we need needle pushers.

Just like they weren't counting on winning the bid for Park ... hope their 'we weren't counting on this and now have to make room' doesn't screw us up.

Me, too. I don’t think this is an upgrade move and doesn’t really fill holes.

Seth, is the asst pitching coach the BP coach? Are they doing away with that definition?

A girl can't carry on an athletic tradition? I mean, get them both playing tennis and we could have a new generation of dominant sisters in the sport.

Wow, yay for Tommy Watkins! That makes me happy! Hefner as asst. pitching coach? Is that a new name for bull pen coach? I’d say that Baldelli held true to wanting a diversified staff.

It's funny ... I have a very small purse ... clutch size ... and half the time it gets checked, half the time it doesn't at various venues and sometimes at the same venue. At the White Sox stadium it all gets put through a detector. You take it all off, put it in the bin at the side as you walk through the metal detector and pick up your stuff at the side. It's really quite efficient whether or not you have a bag.

I don't think it's a problem they are trying to fix. If you read the NFL bag policy, after they give you all the specs of acceptability, there was this line: 'Official NFL team logo clear plastic tote bags will be available through club merchandise outlets' And I think your solution regarding traffic into the stadium was a good solution ... no bags to check, go into this line; bag to check, go into that one. I've been to plenty of places that do this and it works fine.

That was my response, but was so dumbfounded couldn't even articulate it, so thanks for that.

Both Lewis and Kirilloff are Boris clients? Oh boy ... neither is going to sign here long term. Once they are able to go they are gone.

I think 280 is as low as he can go.

I think the Carolinas are pretty entrenched as Braves territory. There are also a LOT of minor league teams in and around that area, including the Charlotte Knights, the AAA team for the White Sox.

I like the idea of adding two Canadian cities. Wonder what the Blue Jays would think of that?