nicksaviking

Bummed about Duran, but I'll take an oblique over an elbow or shoulder, so this doesn't sound devastating. Not shocked about Thielbar. I can't wait until he's back, but this is pretty SOP for him lately. Less shocked about DeSclafani. They always could have done better anyway, so I feel bad for him, but the team might be better off for it.

And relative to what the owners are making from their work.

I agree that KOC probably wants a pocket passer, but I'd like someone who can operate out of the pocket though, which I still think is different than the Jackson/Hurts model. I absolutely do not want another statue back there, especially not with this interior OL. So my order would be Maye, Daniels, McCarthy, Nix ------------------> Penix. I think I like Rattler more than Penix. I understand I'm an outlier on this one.

I never had interest in Snell, but I mean I get it from the players' perspective, especially pitchers. They typically don't get paid what they are worth during the initial contract. This is their last chance to cash in on what they should have already been paid. Teams are now wiser though about paying for future production instead of past production. Which is smart by the teams, but the system is pretty broken for the players.

Yeah, the Twins definitely have had past issues with grabbing players who sign late and missed most or all of training camp. There seems to be a big difference between signing these guys and trading for someone who's already been warming up all spring. I most certainly wouldn't have much apatite in these players after dealing with Lance Lynn, Chris Archer, Logan Morrison and Kendrys Morales.

Yeah, personally I'm not basing spring training stats on my decision on who to roster, but those two are 14th and 15th on the team in OPS. If anyone is giving the Twins ambitious thoughts based on spring training stats, it's Brian O'Keefe and Willie Joe Garry

I'm more than fine with seeing Lee now or anytime this year, and he can leapfrog any other prospects as far as I'm concerned, but if AAA performance is the benchmark, he's probably sitting about 6th or 7th in line. Not sure this line of thinking holds up.

Knock it off, you continue to pick at the details because you can't argue the big picture. * Bottom line, no other mid level team is winning, so the Twins need to try something else. Something that none of them are doing. **If it's impossible to compete because of the payrolls, then the Twins and the other teams in their boat need to demand a change. Like every other league was capable of doing. *This is the point, argue this one. **This is not the point, stop trying to change the argument to fit your narrative.

Every other league has done it. The powerful Jerry Jones and Wellington Mera didn't want to do it, tough luck to them. And the NBA's salary situation largely changed due to two Timberwolves deals. The illegal one with Joe Smith and Kevin Garnett's record breaking contract. But this is all really just picking at the minutia. My suggestions were only examples. My argument is that the Twins shouldn't emulate any team; they should blaze their own trail as these other clubs aren't winning championships either. Find a way to win that the others have not, by strategy or by politics, I couldn't care less. I'm fed up with simply being happy getting to the playoffs because that's our lot in life as a mid-market team.

How many of them have won a World Series this century? There's only one, so yeah, they aren't being competently run. The current practices of small and mid market teams ARE NOT WORKING. It is near impossible for these teams to win it all with the strategies that are being and have been used, and equally impossible for them to be consistently competitive. If the league has completely crapped it's pants and salary caps and floors are not possible, the Twins need to stop being followers and try brand new strategies. Blasphemy, I know, we like to be reactionary not revolutionary here in the Upper Midwest. Personally the practice I think they should first try, is to NEVER blow their precious budget on middle of the road free agents unless there are no internal options. Spend all your money on a handful of high quality players and then use your optionable and low cost players for the rest. Keep your 26-man roster as flexible as possible and leave yourself nearly endless possibilities through out the season. Only take the risk of paying a couple of high upside players locking up the roster, not a dozen low upside players you can only part with by burning money. If that doesn't work, try something else. If they don't like that idea, try something else, maybe off the field. Like forcing the owners of the top revenue teams, which is the minority, to 100% share revenue. Just stop doing what other teams are doing that also aren't working.

Why would they give up a 3rd when he just went for a 6th? Clearly no other team thinks he is a viable starter, why would the Vikings?

Why do all Minnesota teams have to be followers? Trailblazers tend to be the franchises people remember. Besides, their lack of revenue is 100% on them. They've been bungling their TV deals since they incompetently tried to create their own platform two decades ago. Dave St. Peter should have been replaced with an acute business mind long, long ago. There's no reason their revenue shouldn't be in line with their market size. And their market should be bigger. How do they let the Cubs, Cardinals and Royals basically get to claim Iowa?

Fields looks like Christian Ponder, but with mobility. Slow reads and worse, extremely indecisive. Still, he had some hype, I’m surprised he could only get a sixth. Less than Howell, Pickett and basically Ridder got. Though I think Howell was a sneaky good grab by Seattle. The picks are bad, but he did nearly throw for 4000 yards on a dysfunctional team, and he can scramble.

Yeah, Harbaugh does what Harbaugh wants. If he wanted McCarthy instead, the only thing that would stop him is an impossible contract, not the GM. Or sanity.

It is, but as much as people like to sing the praises of TB, they only had the one year where they made a dent in the playoffs. These strategies are clearly great for the regular season, but I'm not sure they translate in the post season. Having enough players who don't need to be taken off of the field for platooning, along with having some top end starting pitching seems like it's needed come October. A roster full of platoon players and using 'bullpen' games in the post season doesn't seem to work too well. As it is, I think the current Twins are trying to copy the Rays, who are in fact re-enacting a version of the Twins and A's from the first decade this century. I don't want to emulate that.

I'm not giving Luke Raley any credit until he does something with the Mariners. He looks like one of those nobody players the Rays find and turn into gold before they turn into dust with their new team. But willing to open up to the idea of this being a bust if the Mariners find the same success.

Well then I blame Florio for getting my hopes up. Maye better be the target then.

I agree, but I don’t think of Chargers ownership as rational football minds. I had ZERO interest in Harbaugh as coach. They are celebrating hiring him as if he was the best thing that ever happened to the franchise. They’re going to do whatever Harbaugh wants them to do until Harbaugh burns all his bridges.

Yeah, that's what I've wanted for so long. A young star QB like Herbert could make me change my mind though. Herbert getting traded could be like Matt Stafford getting traded; top end QBs that were cursed to be on dysfunctional franchises get moved to a better situation. The odds that even one of those rookie QBs are as good as Herbert is probably 50/50 at best.

I'd have to think having Herbert at QB would make him interested in staying. I mean, as long as the money is right.

Teams don't usually trade picks for picks this early, mostly because if there's a guy they wanted at 23, it's too early to tell if he'll be there. Have to think they plan on moving up, and maybe before the draft starts. Although Florio did suggest the Vikings could use the picks to trade for Justin Herbert allowing Harbaugh to draft his guy McCarthy. Florio said it's a long shot, but I don't think it's that crazy of an idea. Herbert would probably be awesome in the Vikings offense, though then they wouldn't get that rookie contract to aid them. They could probably find a way to pay Jefferson still by rearranging some money, but it would be tight.

At least he's 31, he can toast the Vikings next year if the Vikings are going to struggle anyway. And the Bears have a lot of picks, I was worried they'd pick Williams at 1 then package 9 and something else to move up for Harrison, paring them together for years. Probably not happening now.

Jarvis Ardel Brown was born March 26. 1967. He was drafted by the Twins in the 1st round, 9th overall, in the 1986 draft. He made his MLB debut on July 2, 1991 and was added to the playoff roster which won the World Series. He left via free agency in 1992 and played for a few more teams that absolutely nobody cares about. View full player

The frustrating Minnesota sports franchises turned my heart turned to stone awhile back, so my emotionless terminator mind says the top directive is to let Smith go and spend his salary elsewhere, however my auxiliary information bank suggests retaining him will lessen the desire of the front office to once again blow another early pick in the secondary. Processing, processing, processing...... Result: Negligible negative impact to possible positive impact. Proceed.