bighat

Really hope they don't try and sneak this rule in for 2021. There are a lot of "Engagement Specialists" working at MLB that have no interest in baseball, who are trying to get more and more of these Mickey Mouse rules into the game because they think it'll help social media metrics. Another good example is the expanded playoffs. More teams in the playoffs, more of their fans stick around to watch/tweet/etc. 2020 only, please.

Wow Dan that was a herculean effort! No arguments here, also very impressed.

I like it as it is. It's fun to have a few series in NL stadiums each year and have NL teams visit Target Field. I think it's great for Twins fans to see our team playing in new locations so we can get a peek. San Diego, New York Mets, Colorado, etc. And equally good for the Twins brand to have every MLB team get in and check out Minneapolis and Target Field. The reviews are always glowing. If there's a town that could do with some praise right about now, it's Minneapolis. The more eyes we have on the city as it recovers from tragedy, the better.

It's never happened in the history of mankind.

I bet we'll see games at some point that have 2-3 MLB players on the entire bench, with the rest of the team made up of AA and AAA guys. Whether that's because of Covid-19 hitting a team (and everyone on the team needing to quarantine) or a team just giving up (ie: if you're on the Miami Marlins, you just decide "nah"). Many games this season are going to look like early Spring Training games. Maybe on a good day we'll get a Polanco and a Sano sighting in the same game, see Rich Hill work an inning, etc. But it's very possible these games are going to be even more meaningless, disappointing those of us with even the lowest of expectations.

Wait, I thought we were joking here. Wasn't the point to make fun and complain about the candy-a$$ new rules?

I posted something like this on a thread a month ago and have been thinking the same thing all season. The Twins can't just "reload", they do have to rebuild. Is there any team getting shafted more than the Minnesota Twins during this stoppage? This is like the '94 Expos. Twins were lucky to pick up Nelson Cruz's option, grabbed that backup catcher, this was supposed to be THE YEAR. Poof, those guys are both gone, we get nothing. Pineda, get nothing. Odorizzi? Bye-bye. Plus we lose a year of production from Josh Donaldson. 2020 was supposed to be the year we got the most out of his contract, by the time 2023 rolls around he's going to be Albert Pujols and that's not what we paid for. Devastating, could be another 20 years before we see a Twins team like this.

Great ideas! Everyone's clamoring for more excitement, what better way that interacting with the fans on social media. A couple ideas on the table: 1. Twitter and MLB have teamed up for the new "Teenz-Call-The-Shotz". Now, young hip fans can vote on where to position the outfielders for every at-bat. Want to position Buxton right behind 2nd base? Have Max Kepler sit on the limestone ledge? Nothing's out of bounds, so get ready for some whacky and hilarious scenarios! 2. Tik-Tok's in the game, too! The hip new app has launched "You Be the Manager", which lets the fans with the most creative Tik-Tok videos get to call the pitches for the 9th inning! Hold on to your hats, this is going to make those save situations a lot more interesting! 3. Fans in the stands look like they're getting bored? Not anymore! Here comes the "BINGO BALL"! If the Twins facebook page gets enough "likes" in the 7th inning, the opposing pitcher will be forced to throw one gold baseball to every batter in the inning. If the batter gets a hit, that's an automatic run (plus free nachos for all the fanz). 4. What's a ballgame without music? Spotify's got the fans covered in 2020 - for just $5, you can enter to have your playlist featured throughout the game. Your playlist will continue for 9 straight innings, and it won't stop during game play!

Comparing Joe Ballplayer salaries to those of Joe Everyman is apples to oranges. A 25% paycut for many of us would result in a drastic change in lifestyle. A paycut from 5 million to 3.5 million wouldn't likely have the same impact on a ballplayer. Do I think ballplayers deserve to make millions? Certainly! I never once understood the argument and the hate for Joe Mauer from the Twins community in regards to his contract. They make what the market dictates. Fine by me, go nuts Mookie Betts, you deserve every dime you get. Do I think that ballplayers could suck it up a little bit during this once-in-a-lifetime pandemic for the good of their game, brand, and the country? Also yes.

So Sano kidnapped a guy he thinks was involved in a horrendous crime, beat him up and threatened to hang him....but he got the wrong guy? Or at least the victim's lawyer is saying that? Yeesh. Let's hope all parts of this story are untrue.

"When things are bad"? This isn't a "down year" for baseball, this is a once-in-a-lifetime worldwide pandemic that's killed 100,000 Americans. I do think players should indeed give up contractual money. The owners are already losing no matter what. Question for you: Do you think players should make zero financial sacrifices in the wake of this national crisis?

One of my favorite Twins, he was always a tough out and played stellar defense. An above average MLB career, did well everywhere he played. Sad to see a player like him leave the game.

I'm with you buddy! The owners and league are taking a massive financial hit due to something (Covid-19) beyond their control. The players have effectively said "That's not our problem. I want my money". They're behaving like debt collectors for the mob, no empathy no sympathy just GIVE ME MY MONEY. Blake Snell said as much, verbatim. And worst of all, ZERO consideration for the fans. Are the owners innocent angels who can do no wrong? Of course not! But should they really bear 100% of the financial hit for this pandemic? The crazy part is that probably 75% of the players would be fine with the league's proposal, but the player's union and a few hard-asses in leadership are screwing this up for the rest of the guys. I am sure that guys like Polanco, Sano, and Kepler would be on the field right now warming up for a Sunday afternoon ballgame right now if they could. At this point just have a week-long skills exhibition in Orlando and be done with it, because a 50-game season is an absolute slap in the face to anyone who follows the game.

THANK YOU! Not thrilled. In the first round the Twins take a first baseman who can't play another position? Means his glove is very suspect. I saw some projections saying he's a future DH - which is fine I guess.....but in the first round? This guy is going to have to be a 30-40 HR player to stay up at the MLB level. Twins must have thought he was the best player available. Very strange pick IMO. Not a fan.

Baseball will always be my favorite sport and I do want to see it in 2020 - although if it's just going to be a shell of a season with players wearing hazmat suits, I'm not sure I would be interested....but I digress. Overall I'm utterly embarrassed for the game right now, especially in light of what all the other sports are doing. Take, for example, what's going to happen with football. This NFL season will draw more at-home viewers than ever. From a marketing perspective, they're going to get creative as heck: more mic'ed up players, online interaction, all sorts of "virtual experiences" and whatnot. It's going to be revolutionary and it's going to be such a hot topic.... Meanwhile, baseball had the chance to do it first. And they're too busy arguing! Owners look greedy and players look like awful cry-babies (just look at their tweets). The players, in particular, look bad here because they're the names we KNOW. Quick: who owns the Oakland A's? The Kansas City Royals? Most fans don't have a clue and they don't care. But we do know the players, and we listen to what they say, and all we're hearing from them is "NO". Even worse, baseball isn't a contact sport! So football, the most contacty-of-contact-sports is gonna put their product out there, meanwhile these guys in MLB won't budge an inch. And it's all surrounded by "union discussions", the mere mention of which bores the public to tears and makes people lose interest in the process. All in all the whole situation is a witches' brew of bad optics for baseball. Again, the best word for what's going on: EMBARRASSING.

Yeah. I went to the Spring Training opener this year - Twins vs. Gophers! It was the only game I'll see all season in person. And the funny thing is, as meaningless as that game was, it meant way more than anything we'll see moving forward. A 50-game "season" isn't a season. It's worse than a town ball weekend tournament.

Probably not, frankly I think we should avoid large gatherings when possible. I'd watch on TV though. That said, with all the distance measuring in place, we're still all touching the same melons and oranges at the grocery store, people are out handing menus back and forth to waitstaff, and heck old ladies are probably exchanging fabric patterns at JoAnn Fabrics. Regular life just can't be halted and I think we've seen that. Whether or not we want to admit it, we are still going to be spreading germs. That's why I think it's best to keep those 35,000 seat stadiums empty so we don't push our luck too far.

I am with you. A 50 game season is the new idea they're trotting out there. 50 games? Seriously? And you're trying to tell baseball fans that this is a "baseball season"? That's a slap in the face. If they are really going to give us a 50 game season, I'd rather they just play a week-long exhibition tournament in Orlando or something, so it gets over with quickly and we don't have to watch for too long. Because 50 games is an absolute joke. 114? Not ideal but I'll take it. Less than 100? Joke city. Several leagues, including European soccer, the NBA and the NHL are all getting back to playing and are getting out there. The NFL is without a doubt going to play. For baseball to be the only sport (a non-contact sport!) to somehow fail to put a real product on the field is just embarrassing. Shame on all of them.

I feel uneasy discussing "what 2020 baseball will look like" because I'm still not certain we're going to see any baseball. Counting my chickens before they are hatched makes me nervous!

Duffy is vastly overrated by way too many people on this forum, at least in my opinion. Sure, he was solid last year. Solid. Not amazing. He was 5-1 with a 2.50 ERA. That's pretty much what you want from a middle reliever. So whoop-dee-do, he didn't suck - that doesn't mean he's Ryan Pressley all of a sudden. And let's not forget, the Twins were putting him in very low-leverage situations quite often last season because of his terrible past. Remember that? It was only in 2018 when he pitched to the tune of a 7.20 ERA. And before 2018 he was also, frankly, terrible. Duffey has shown he can be awful and has a few seasons to prove it. He's shown he can be solid, but he's only done that once. Nothing tells me he's elite or even in the conversation of elite relievers. Rogers is far and away the best bullpen arm we have and should get the ball in the 9th when the pressure's on. Not even a question.

So when I was fresh out of college, I got my first sports writing gig as the Sports Editor at a small, local weekly paper in the horsey suburbs of Orlando, Florida. It was 1999, I was 24 years old and I thought I'd hit the big time. It just so happened that my first week on the job, there was a big MLB dust-up regarding the umpire strike. I was young, watched ESPN all the time, and I figured it would be great for me to write a full-page opinion piece for the paper about this topic. After all, I was a big time sports writer now! I wanted my voice to be heard alongside the big name reporters and networks. As you can probably guess, absolutely nobody who read the local newspaper gave a rat's behind about my opinion. And my publisher chewed me out. Why? Because that was a national story and I was supposed to be reporting on hyper-local topics, like the local swim meets and park board meetings. If our readers wanted to read national news stories, they'd buy the USA Today and turn on the network news. I think you get where I'm going here, Nick: there are a million places we can go online to fight/squabble/preach/complain about the situation going on in Minneapolis and around the country. I'm not saying you don't have a right to voice your opinions here - it's your site, your choice, and in some ways the whole point of this topic is to make yourself heard. That said, we can find other places to go down this wormhole. Most of us come here to talk Twins, to talk baseball. And we are very loyal to this site because we LOVE the Twins discussion topics here. We have a very diverse set of political opinions here, but the cool thing is that we don't get into that on TD. We can all be on the same team - when we fight, it's about Eddie Rosario and where he should hit in the batting order, rather than about political stuff, which can run deep and hit some toxic levels on all sides. Just some food for thought.

Good question. In the case of the Premier League, I think they're just taking the approach that they're "resuming the season in full" after a long break. They will finish out the season with all the games that were originally on the schedule: https://www.espn.com/soccer/english-premier-league/story/4102936/premier-league-to-return-on-june-17-amid-coronavirus So they're playing their full season, I guess. I think they said there are a few TV deals they need to iron out but as far as getting athletes on the field, it's a green light.

Not sure about whether or not I hope the players union gets bulldozed....but I agree with your overall sentiment here 100%. What's going on right now is that players are saying a big "F-YOU" to the fans. They are not taking the fans into consideration at all. Zero, zip, nada. They've completely lost sight of the forest for the trees here. This is an awful time for our nation - and the world. A once-in-a-lifetime scenario. Why not just say, just for this season: "Okay, we'll take it and do this one for the fans". It's not like they're getting totally shafted, either! I've seen all the details and I'm sure everyone has laid those out on this thread already. Baseball in Asia is back. European soccer in Germany is back already. English Premier League soccer is returning. The NHL is coming back with a weird little playoff thing. The NBA should be back as well. Meanwhile, MLB is the only league out there that all you hear about is the fighting between owners and players. Squabbling. B*tching and moaning. And you know what? It's par for the course. A lot of people are sick of it. They will never lose me as a fan because I'm kind of a baseball nut, but I can see casual and even hardcore fans of the sport dropping like flies after this.

I'm thinking more and more that this thing just won't happen. And if it does, it's going to be a failed experiment. Pretty bummed.

I know we need to be safe. Players need to be safe. The public needs to be safe. I get it....but jeez. Players sitting 6 feet away from each other, in the stands, with no high-fives, no touching....that's unrealistic and frankly just plain stupid. Sounds good on paper, but just picture it in your head for a minute. How are the players going to get up to the stands? Gonna build steps above the dugout? Or are they all going to sit behind the plate? How long will it take for a guy to get back up to the stands after a ground out? And with all those measures in place, they completely go out the window the second the pitcher touches the baseball. Because the catcher will also touch the baseball, the shortstop will touch the baseball, the first baseman will touch the baseball, and the ump will touch the baseball. They're going to be touching the same surfaces. So why do all that BS above? Just to somehow signal to the public that you're "doing the right thing?" I'm 100% for having baseball this year, if it can resemble the game we know. I was feeling hopeful a few weeks ago, but with the owner/player clash and these awful new rules...ugh. I never thought I'd say this, but I'm beginning to side with the folks who say they'd prefer to have no season.