nicksaviking

Nothing wrong with see through pants unless you have something to hide. TSA should give them less hassle at least.

These same posters? Not sure about that. I said right away in the offseason I'd like one big free agent (and they weren't big, they were very reasonable), and if they couldn't get one of the three I liked, I'd like them to get none. Ripping the Twins for their disastrous handling of the TV deal and ripping Joe Pohlad for his complete tone-deaf interview and seeing it as a frightening omen for the future aren't the same as demanding more free agents. And aren't other posters allowed to have wanted OTHER free agents and not these particular four? These guys all have enough warts to turn stomachs. I mean, do we normally open birthday presents blindfolded and like what we get unconditionally?

I'm not sure which arm he's had his multiple injury issues with, but if it's his throwing arm, outfield might already be a asking too much.

With a rebuild on my mind, I might let Hunter walk and sign one of the younger pass rushing free agents, but the Vikings could probably do both JJ and Hunter now. Though I think investing in the OL should be the top free agent priority, particularly if they do get a new young QB. Even with some end of the year troubles, the expensive part, LT, should be fine. Interior guys are cheaper; they could go whole hog on those three spots to make in not a concern for a few years.

Kirilloff's injury history is a big concern. But I don't know about him holding down a middle of the order spot better than Julien. Kirilloff hasn't come close to doing what Julien did last year. And unless you have a Paul Goldschmidt type, I don't think a team should shy away from moving a 1B who has equity. This team in particular; there are so many internal options.

So I guess Sports Illustrated isn't completely gone. They picked up on a discussion from MLB.TV that I don't think I've seen mentioned here yet. In it Jon Morosi says: "Basically what Derek Falvey indicated to me is that Lee will get some reps at second base. If you have Brooks Lee at second potentially, then you can move Julien from second to first, Correa at short, Royce Lewis at third. That's a really athletic infield if everybody's healthy and productive." I THINK this second part is Morosi conjecture, and not an actual comment from Falvey, but perhaps it was implied to him. Either way, it makes sense and that possibility has been mentioned on this site too. Morosi's next statement was what SI was really getting at: "I'm a little bit worried about the Twins' rotation, but the fact that Lee is close to being major league ready, as [Falvey] told me, is a very promising development and it could even create some different options for the Twins to move a position player in a trade to bulk up their starting rotation," So I've been advocating for one of Julien or Lee to be traded for top end starting pitching. But SI's take was that it is likely Kirilloff the Twins are aiming to move. Makes sense, and after all, there were early off season reports about the Marlins trying to get first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino from the Royals. Heck, those reports about Pasquantino could have inspired the Twins to pivot to Kirilloff. If moving Kirilloff is indeed the goal, to me that's a best case scenario in terms of which young players I'd prefer to keep. It seems unlikely Kirilloff has a ton of value, but I'd have thought the same of Pasquantino. And I'm not one to be shy about tossing in other appealing prospects in a trade either. In any case, if this fairy tale is a possibility, I imagine it would hinge on how well Kirilloff looks here in spring training; here's to good health! https://www.si.com/mlb/twins/news/report-brooks-lees-ascension-could-lead-to-trade-for-pitching

I think it's the other way around. Bellinger was pretty vocal about those involved with developing the Astros garbage can technology.

The men and women running the on-field operations of baseball are getting younger as that demographic tends to be more interested in mining new data and and developing new methodologies to get an advantage on the diamond. It's frankly surprising that that the owners aren't doing the same with the people running the part of the operation that is concerned with attracting more fans and more important to the owners, generating the money. Modern promotion of the teams and players, figuring out how to stream games to huge audiences, collaboration with other interested entrepreneurs and societal awareness of the brand seems to be a foreign language to most of these guys. As annoying as it sounds, there are probably 30 17-year-old YouTubers sitting in their parents basements who could figure this stuff out better than the current 30 people trying to understand this modern baseball.

Agreed. And not corner OF, his value will really only come into play if he's able to man center.

Nice work snagging that interview!

Yeah, to an extent I feel bad. Though THAT incident didn't cause this auction, it's almost certainly due to the well publicized issues with not paying child support, which I'm also fairly unsympathetic to. I was done with the athlete idol before Peterson came around, but I mean, this stuff is a pretty big reason why I cheer for the team and not the player. I come across pretty cold sometimes always wanting to move on from long time players, but we don't really know these guys. The guys that replace them could be fantastic humans for all I know, or they could be scumbags. So best course is just to cheer to win a trophy is my take.

I think he was broke while STILL in football. The NFL seems to have made it a point to educate the new players about their money, but they didn't while AP was making all of his. I could use a new office chair though....

This is the only one I care about.

I don't trust Bellinger either. His contract demands are really asking for a lot of short term memory.

Ha, this is fantastic: https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/report-dom-disandro-suspension-impacted-nick-sirianni-during-games So an Eagles reporter is claiming the Eagles fell apart after that sideline security guy got suspended for tussling with Dre Greenlaw. And the reason for that is because that security guy's main job is to keep Nick Sirianni from fighting with his players and coaches. Wow, that's awesome! I mean awesome because I hate the Eagles.

I'll give it some time, but I'd like to re-evaluate this in terms of Jim Pohlad vs Joe Pohlad in a couple of years. This is what Jim said when he took over: Meanwhile, this is what Joe just said; TB and Baltimore? Why even go there? Why not just leave the bottom payroll teams unstated, is he trying to set expectations for the franchise that low going forward? I get that the situations are different, but should the tone? Even if Jim was just giving lip service, which I never thought he did, these two clearly listed their priorities in different orders.

Also, I've been wanting a replacement for Dave St. Peter for a long time and have recently ripped him for the final broadcast deal that didn't match up with what the team was telling us would happen just days prior to them agreeing to it. But is it possible St. Peter had intended to go with a MLB deal, avoid blackouts and take in less TV revenue, and then at the last minute Joe stepped in and said, "No, were taking the money"?

Honestly, the "right-size" part is less troublesome to me than the "business" part. Obviously it's a business, all the franchises are. But other owners don't discuss it in those terms for one, because they know the optics are bad, but also, they do want to win and keep an engaged fan base. Instead they use terms like 'team', 'franchise', 'organization' or 'product'. I haven't been much of a Pohlad basher since about the time the Jim Pohald took over, but man, Joe Pohlad is really giving off John Fisher/Robert Nutting vibes this year.

The one thing that has been bugging me today is, why does everyone know what the Guardians and Rangers new TV contract is, but not the Twins? Both those teams took a 15% hit so it stands to reason the Twins did too. Obviously, if the Twins want to cut payroll by 30%, they don't want to publicly say that their TV deal was only cut 15%. But still, why would the Guardians and Rangers WANT their figures disclosed? Did they do it intentionally or are the Twins just that much better at keeping a lid on this? Seems unlikely with how much inaccurate babble about TV deals and blackouts came from that side of the Twins operations in the days and weeks leading up to the deal.

I'm guessing he's not trying to be cryptic? But maybe? Either way, I do like that he doesn't say that Falvey is looking at other FREE AGENT players: "The players that are out there right now, that, probably, a bunch of fans are talking about, we're not in the market for those players," Pohlad told WCCO radio Tuesday afternoon. "But there are definitely other players that can have a positive impact on our team that [president of baseball operations Derek Falvey], I'm sure, is looking at." I want no one else on the market, hopefully it's trades.

Not sure the Yankees would sign than trade a starter, but the teams currently willing to sell a starter could be waiting to see Snell and Montgomery sign knowing that teams who miss out on them may join the bidding for their pitcher.

The only story I care about is the one about winning a World Series. When Dobnak was up and given that weird contract years ago, the Twins were a different team. His pitch-to-contact, groundball-heavy approach is the complete opposite of what the Twins look for in their rotation now.

This year's sequel to last year's surprise hit has gone completely off the rails. It's possible we'll look back and decide it's not the abject disaster that it appears at first glance, but it clearly didn't stick to the script, the continuity errors are mind boggling and there's a clear cash-grab element here. Basically, it's left us all saying, "This doesn't make any sense, can someone please explain what is happening here? Didn't Carlos Santana die a couple centuries ago?" So I was thinking, should this mindless sci-fi abomination produce ONE more nonsensical twist before the credits roll, and the Twins throw in the biggest head-scratching plot hole yet by doing another late film Boras-client resurrection, which of the main three would I prefer to see come out on top? I'm talking about Cody Bellinger, Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery. Should it be a straight 1 year deal, I think I'd go Snell, Bellinger, Montgomery. The reasoning being, that with only one year to gamble on, Snell clearly has the upside to be that second playoff starter I think this team needs. Bellinger is a logical 1B/CF safety net and Montgomery is really good, but not exactly really great. However, if it was a deal akin to Carlos Correa's original contract, with three years but opt outs, I'd go Montgomery, Snell, Bellinger. That reasoning being that Montgomery does seem to be a pretty reliable mid-rotation guy at worst, meanwhile with any perusal of their track records it's clear that Snell and Bellinger are easily capable of getting beheaded in the first act which would significantly hurt the chances for next year's follow up. Just for fun (because baseball is still supposed to be fun regardless of the current atmosphere here), who would you choose? Obligatory: There can be only one!

I work in a bank. We all get mindless webinars and training about the expectations of internal vs external conversations. Revealing privileged information like the elimination of blackouts or discussing revenue streams would most certainly draw the ire of HR if not get the employees fired. Like it or not, if you talk about your company, the public will presume you talk FOR your company. Not blaming Provus or the other employees. Blaming those that didn't tell them these conversations were inappropriate.