Don Walcott

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2020/02/astros-spring-training-fan-trash-can-heckler-mlb-cheating-scandal And so it begins . . . .

Point 1: I agree. Point 2: MLB has already taken care of this. This season is going to have the marketing magic of reality TV. There will be Astros hitters getting brushed off. There will be fights. There will be more from Trevor Bauer and Alex Bregman. And I will be sorely disappointed if fans don't employ some form of trash can antics -- maybe a "Let's go Astros" chant with a banging of trash cans (bang, bang, bang-bang-bang) whenever an Astros player is up to bat? Maybe a serenade of "Your Cheating Heart"? This season, MLB should advertise the Astros controversy as if it's All-Star Wrestling coming to town. . . . Okay, I'm mostly kidding. Take it easy on me.

I don't understand the valuing the draft pick so high. First, with 30 teams, why do we call it a 2nd round pick? It's a 3rd round pick. The 7th third round pick, to be precise. Second, when do we realize the $4 million or $7 million in value from the pick? Have we factored in the time-value of money? I understand there is some value to the pick. But I'm not sure about the methodology any more than how different WAR calculations vary from making Maeda an All-Star to a solid #6 starter. Finally, I'm the first guy to post about how the ownership should spend money. They have. This off-season is satisfactory to good, in my opinion. Getting $10 million back on this deal is fine by me. I'm happy with the "win now" trade without the extras, so why wouldn't I be okay with $10 million going our way, plus a low minors catcher, for Raley (who would never have played on our major league club, and is at least being returned to an organization who he knows and who knows him) and a draft pick that nobody really knows whether it will ever benefit the major league club. This trade makes sense. And I'm glad we didn't end up trading with Boston.

Just read that we're sending Luke Raley to the Dodgers. No identification of what minor leaguer might be heading our way.

The Red Sox need to come back to reality. I'm beginning to believe the opinion that they are caving to public pressure. I'm now remembering that ownership walked back comments from last fall saying they wanted to get under the luxury tax. They are dumping Price. This is such a dump that they will still pay half of his salary, because nobody would pay any more than that. Would be one of the biggest salary meals a team has ever eaten. They are trying to get something for Mookie because if they don't do it now, they'll never get anything for him, and there's no way he'll re-sign with Boston. Minnesota is happy keeping Brusdar, or trading him for Maeda if the Dodgers are still game. The Dodgers are perennial favorites to at least make the WS without this trade. And they probably would have won at least one recent WS if Boston and Houston weren't cheating. They are also probably the favorite to sign Mookie next off-season. Boston has a terrible farm system, and they are about to lose the next two years of ##1 and 2 draft picks. Boston is also under incredible scrutiny from their fan base. It seems to me that Boston have very little leverage to try to do any better than the original deal. I hope and expect the Twins and Dodgers to leave them twisting in the wind.

I hope they stand firm. This aggression will not stand, man. New shyte has not come to light. You want a toe, I'll get you a toe. . . .

Good point. The potential buyer in this scenario then asks for monetary concessions.

I'm beginning to agree with you. It seems like someone who gets cold feet when buying a house using the inspection report to withdraw their offer. The process is legit, and the opt out excuse can be legit, but sometimes the process is just used to get out of a deal you wish you hadn't made.

Initially, I liked the trade because I like Maeda, and thought he would be more valuable to us for this year and the next year or two. However, the longer this drags on, the more I like the idea of getting Brusdar back and supporting him in becoming a dominant pitcher -- whether he ultimately starts or not. I think it's fine to let Boras do the dirty work of calling out Boston for shenanigans (if that's what happened). Not sure why they wanted to back out or renegotiate the deal, but that's what they did. And FSG, as a company have done this before in Europe, where Liverpool backed out of a deal for Nabil Fekir due to concerns about his medical. That ultimately turned a potentially 50 million Euro player into a 20 million Euro player. The player still insists that it was untrue that there is any medical concerns about his knee, and there are rumors that the deal was stopped because Liverpool had concerns about his personality. So Boras may have a point to pursue here with the Red Sox. And I hope this results in Graterol pitching with a chip on his shoulder Yeah, they come to snuff the Brusdar, but you know he ain't gonna die!!

You working for the Red Sox, now Chief? In other news, everyone around me seems to have a Boston accent today. They're everywhere!!

I'd be careful about ballpark statistics as well. The main reason why there are less hits in Dodger Stadium over the past 4 years than in Target Field is because the Dodgers pitching staff have given up less hits than any other team over those four years. In 2016, the Twins gave up 127 more hits than any other team, and have been bottom third in that stat each of the last three seasons. Additionally, the Twins have had more hits over those four years than the Dodgers. So if you just swap these two teams, Target Field would probably look like more of a pitcher's park. And every game in Target Field over the past four years has had a DH hitting, compared with a pitcher hitting in Dodger Stadium 2-3 times per game. Certainly, ballparks are a factor. But the teams that play in them are more of a factor.

One interesting thing to me is that it appears that the only reason this trade needed to go three ways was that the Twins wanted Maeda more than Price. Obviously, Boston was willing to swap Price for Graterol. So why didn't the Twins just do that trade with Boston? I would guess that such an offer was on the table, and the Twins wanted Maeda more than Price. It will be interesting to see if Maeda out-performs Price over the next four years. I wouldn't bet against it. And I would definitely bet that Maeda will be the better value for the Price. I suspect the Dodgers had to pay the Price to get Betts (probably knowing they can sign him long term). I'm trusting the FO on this call. This is not to say that I don't like Price. I've always liked him as a pitcher, and he's a really interesting guy. But it concerns me that he's a big into video games and has had arm problems in recent years. One final response regarding whether Maeda should start a playoff game. Our main competition in the playoffs will likely be heavily right-handed. Maeda is devastating against righties.

I live in Santa Fe, but my wife's from Denver, so we visit at least a couple times per year. We usually see at least one Rockies game. I've seen 4 of the 6 games the Twins played at Coors Field. Definitely saw a lot of Twins fans at the bars near the field. Just looked at the schedule, and it seems we play at every other NL West park this year, but we don't play in Denver for some reason. Very disappointing.

We're also going to have Arraez for the full year instead of Schoop. That needs to be counted in to any calculation (even though I think the WAR calculation is not very useful).

Grateful Dead, "Cold Rain and Sano" -- a twofer.

I agree with Ash. . . or maybe I don't, depending on what he was ultimately saying. Odo may be trying too hard for the K stats, and not doing enough trusting his defense so he can get through early innings without high pitch counts. Maybe that's just who he is as a pitcher. However, in my opinion, that's not nearly as valuable as the #1 or #2 starter who can go 6 innings consistently, and will give you 7 or more with some modest frequency. That makes Berrios a lot more valuable to me. I agree with Brock, that Berrios seems to be betting on himself (though we don't really know what he's been offered), and that confidence is a good thing. However, at some level of offer, he and his advisors will have to accept guaranteed money, rather than risk losing out due to injury. Given our obvious need for a #1 or #2 starter, and Berrios's development towards being one, I'd break the bank to get him signed for 4-5 years right now. Especially after whiffing on FA starters this off-season, we need Berrios more than any other player on this team right now. I'd give him $16-18 million/year yesterday if he signs on for 4 or 5 years.

I was joking. I wouldn't think you meant anything bad about our players.

I think Polanco is a very professional young baseball player who will work hard to improve on his defense, as are Arraez and Sano. While all three of them have inherent limitations, I think we'll be pleasantly surprised by their improvement on defense this year. And Adrianza and Gonzalez won't hurt us when they come into the lineup as well.

Is it worse to refer to players as coming from a dumpster or as bed crappers? Either way, I'm not sure I'd refer to the human beings who used to play for our team as bed crappers.

Here's the lineup I'd like to see: Polanco Donaldson Cruz Kepler Sano Rosario Garver Arraez Buxton

I'm really excited about this signing. It didn't look like we really needed to upgrade our hitting at any position. However, looking at the numbers, we've significantly upgraded 1B and 3B as a result of this move. Believe it or not, over 162 games, 1B was our worst OPS by position, and 3B was our 4th worst: 1B .309 OBP .451 SLG .744 OPS 27HR 3B .326 OBP .484 SLG .810 OPS 40 HR Last year, Donaldson and Sano did this: Rain 155 games .379 OBP .521 SLG .900 OPS 37 HR Sano 105 games .346 OBP .576 SLG .923 OPS 34 HR I expect we'll get about 140-145 games from each of them at these positions, with each of them getting a few games at DH as well. So we will likely see OBP, SLG and OPS go up significantly at both positions. We'll probably see similar HR numbers at 3B, but add about 20 HR at 1B. I think this is a conservative estimate, as Donaldson got off to a slow start last year, hitting 30 of his 37 HR from June forward. And Sano also started slow, worked on mechanics, and then was brilliant the rest of the year. Add to this, a full season of Arraez instead of Schoop which will likely improve OBP at 2B (with less HRs). Despite losing about 15-20 HR, I view as an improvement at 2B. And if Buxton can stay healthy (fingers crossed), we should improve our overall numbers at CF and RF. With a full spring training to work on defense, I'd expect Sano to be at least as good at 1B as we had last year, and 3B defense will be significantly better. I also believe that with another year of experience at their positions, Polanco and Arraez will improve at SS and 2B. And, of course our outfield defense should improve significantly if Buxton stays healthy (fingers crossed). Kudos to the FO for getting a high end free agent. That was the only way we were going to significantly improve on offense, while also improving on defense.

I believe “muchas bombas” is the preferred nomenclature.

Much better terms than I expected.

WOOOOHOOOOO!! If he's playing the Braves, this is going too far.

The penalties are harsh, and possibly a good deterrent. However, as long as we allow technology in the dugouts when the game starts, there will be people who will find ways to push the envelope, and occasionally cross the line. The rules against using technology to steal signs have been in place for 20 years, with periodic reinforcement of the rules since. And teams were still stealing signs with technology. In a discussion on MLB last night, Verducci, Costas and Rosenthal all advocated no technology in the dugout at all once the game starts. I think this is a good idea, if we're serious about eliminating this type of cheating.