Dave The Dastardly

Baseball negotiations have fallen victim to the national malady; logic and rational thought have fallen by the wayside and taking one for the Gipper has been replaced with one-up-manship. There is no "I" in team and there currently is no "we" in baseball.

The biggest log in the jam is Sano. 2nd biggest is Donaldson. There's no place for either of them if the Twins are serious about becoming competitive in 2023. And if they hang on to both of them this season, if there's a season, that will push that hoped for competitiveness back to 2024 as Kirilloff, Garver, Miranda, Jeffers, Larnach, Arraez and Gordon will all lose AB's and playing time this season as a result. There ain't no future in the past.

Welcome to the club. Give me a few more years and I'll be sub-Forrest Gump. That's all I'm going to say about that.

Hope springs eternal. And this is spring, meteorologically speaking.

I don't understand your comment at all. People are not automatons. Baseball players are only human. They're affected by what goes on around them one way or another whether they want to be or not.

Sano is redundant. The Twins have better defensive options at first and any number of players they can rotate at DH. Those options may not hit 500' homeruns, which don't count anymore than a homerun that squeaks across the wall by 2", but they do strike out less, get on base more and hit for better average; less outs, more RBIs.

Okay, CBA negotiations are going nowhere fast, the start of spring training is only a wish, games are somewhere out there in the distant future, we're getting tired of reading about hypothetical trades, we're contemplating stepping in front of a pitching machine loaded with rocks... what can a fan do to get his baseball fix? Some time ago, probably 20 or so years back, during another long Minnesota winter, I began writing a baseball novel. I dicked around with it every winter since, adding a little, revising a little, revising earlier revisions a little, etc. etc. Well, defying my wife's skepticism, (though she's usually right) I finally finished it. That's right... It's done. Miracle of miracles! Anyway, being a Twins fan, I centered the story around a mythical Twins organization, so there's a contraction sub-plot cooked in there and you might recognize a fictional version of a well-known Minnesota character or two, but it mostly revolves a young pitching prospect that loses his way, overcomes some personal failures and eventually works his way back to what he was born to do; pitch in the major leagues. Appropriately enough, it's entitled "The Prospect" and is slowly becoming available through a number of e-book stores including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple, Kobi, ya da ya da ya da. Cost you less than half the price of a stadium beer ($3.39) but it's a long read that should last you through the baseball drought till spring. Then if the lock-out isn't yet over, well, I'll have to start writing another baseball book. https://books2read.com/u/m2YaJ7

I'm confused. You say Gordon's arm strength is questionable at short, but he can play all three outfield positions? Don't outfielders still have to make accurate throws to the cut-off man? Aren't cut-off men farther away from an outfielder than the distance between shortstop and first base? Aren't good outfielders supposed to keep base runners at first with a strong and accurate throw to second? Has baseball changed that much since I last played? I need help understanding this.

To quote a good old boy southern legislator whose name currently escapes me, "It's hard to get pigs away from the trough without making them squeal." Right now neither side in these negotiations is squealing and they aren't going to start squealing until the trough runs dry. Then they'll start eating each other. And that's when it will take an arbitrator, not a mediator, to settle this. I think I'm going to take up fishing this summer. Seems like a good time to wet a line again.

Good move saving the nachos. They're about $20 for six of them, aren't they?

Somebody hide the dumpster. Or maybe take Falvey's deal-signing pen away. Free Nick Gordon!

I've been looking for that answer since they brought him up. It remains one of the many mysteries of Rocco player management. You'd think a guy who spent his entire minor league career being schooled by Twins coaches on how to play shortstop would at least be capable enough to fill in at that position, especially since he can play a decent centerfield. I don't know... does he have the yips at short? Forgets to tie his shoes? Passes gas? Doesn't have a high spin rate on his throws to first? Come on, somebody answer that so I can stop kicking the dog ( I don't have one - maybe that's the problem) and sleep nights again.

Nash- I think you're getting too desperate to come up with a trade. Maybe we should take some advice from Kenny Rogers (the singer); "Know when to hold 'em."

Nope. Would rather we not trade the prospects we've supposedly developed for a wounded warrior. Trading pitchers we can put to the test this year for a guy that may or may not be able to pitch for at least a season and a half seems short-sighted.

Is there a stat for mentoring? I'm not being facetious, though I have been known to do so, I'm just curious because we hear it used a lot on TD; certain players apparently are valued for it and other are not. Is there a mentoring coach in the locker room that maintains the data? Now that was facetious.

I could use a hit off whatever Tennesseans use to chase away the winter blues.

Gee, going by goatees, I gotta go with Santana.

He was a rock around the Twins' neck. Impermeable, except at the plate.

I can only assume by all these discussions regarding shortstop, when Nick Gordon is never considered a viable answer, that the guy trips over his own feet, airmails throws to first, resembles a croquet hoop on hot grounders, or forgets to bring his glove if he's sent out to short. So much angst when even the best shortstop in the world can't snag a home run. The issue is pitching, guys. Pitching. Leave Polanco at second if that's his magical position, stick Gordon at short and if he's still committing two or three errors every game at mid-season, bring up one of the kids to take over. In the meantime, sign a pitcher that can go an other wordly (in Rocco's world) six innings with an ERA under 3.00. Every shortstop looks better if the opposing hitters aren't slapping the guy on the mound around like the Gestapo.

Colome over Alcala when the season was already lost. Yet another example of player/team mismanagement by Rocco. Scares me to think what he's going to do with the young players coming up in 2022. If there's a 2022 season. If the Twins actually bring the youngsters up... That's like a herd of elephants in the room. Where's Tarzan when you need him?

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/12/apple-potential-bid-for-mlb-package-could-bring-big-player-into-sports.html "Octagon analysts used 108 out of 114 games from MLB’s 2018 to 2020 seasons to determine average viewership on the Monday-Wednesday package on ESPN, not including ESPN2 broadcasts. They found average viewership of 761,434 in 2018, dropping to approximately 632,000 in 2019 and 358,947 in 2020." I wonder if either side is looking at viewership as part of their negotiations. Hard to spend revenue that isn't coming in.

A rational, well-reasoned explanation for an Arraez trade. And one I could support, albeit reluctantly because I'd miss Arraez' bat. But I'd still like to move both Donaldson and Sano to make room for players like Miranda and give more AB's to Garver

Your argument is not without merit. ? Should be fun watching this unfold as the season progresses. If the season progresses...

I would argue keeping Donaldson is short-sighted. He spends almost as much time on the DL as Buxton, gets "injured" just exercising, his salary would more than cover the salaries for Arraez, Miranda and Kirilloff combined, all of whom will be under team control longer than Donaldson and with Donaldson completely out of the picture we won't have to worry about Rocco letting Miranda sit on the bench for a month without getting an opportunity to play. Sano is sort of similar, keeping him on the team blocks Arraez and Garver from DHing, both of whom I'd rather see come to bat with runners on base than Sano, and his absence opens up first for Kirilloff. As to what we could get back in trade, if we acknowledge that other teams aren't willing to accept Sano in trade, why would we want to keep him? Can the Twins be the only team that finds value in him? Salary dump that can be used for pitching, clearing the path for younger players that may well be the future (2023) and giving more at bats to better, more consistent, hitters. To me, that's long-term thinking.

Trade Donaldson and Sano. Keep Arraez. Think long term. Old guys out, young guys in. Donaldson and Arraez both have bad wheels but Arraez is about a bazillion dollars cheaper. Take the "savings" from trading Donaldson and spend it on signing a pitcher not currently residing in a dumpster. With both Donaldson and Sano gone you have room for Miranda and a guaranteed spot for Kirilloff at first and DH open for Garver when he's not catching. When Garver is behind the plate plug in any other player that Rocco wants to "rest".