Other Baseball

So, here I am, living and working offshore. I use my Paypal account for one purpose- to send $ to my pal, who's taking care of stored stuff for me, as such, I don't keep a very big balance there on an ongoing basis. As I'm about to send him a payment today, I notice my account has been wiped out- by Mlbtv. Somehow, they reached into my paypal account, taking more than the balance I had there, which triggered an automatic debit from my US bank account, reducing the balance I thought I had there. Now, in order to send $ to my friend, which is due right now, I have to wait the 3-5 business days for the $ to hit my account. How the hell is mlbtv able to heist it immediat…

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/03/pirates-sign-david-freese.html#comments I don't think there was any market for Plouffe at all. Can we make it official: Plouffe is now the new Duensing for trade scenario's (A player that is thought to have a market but in reality doesn't)?

Holy schnikies - pitchers and catchers report today. There are still a lot of names out there-Desmond, Jackson, Rios, Fowler, Gallardo and Alvarez are the headliners. Most of them will get a decent last second contract, but some of them might have to "settle" for a 1 or 2 year contract on the cheap. Who would you like to sign at a discount bin price and what would you pay for them? here's my shopping cart: Marlon Byrd or Will Venable - 1 year 3 mil (I know we have options at OF, but one of these guys would make me feel a lot better) Breslow or Coke - 1 year 1 mil Cliff Lee - 1 year 3 mil (if he passes his medical, why not take a flier-there was a thread on this al…

Seems like a buttload of rubbish everytime I read it, yet it is posted as gospel. What gives? Are these pro scouts, or pro bloggers?

Pretty cool: http://m.mlb.com/news/article/166636990/braves-marlins-play-fort-bragg-game-on-july-3

CC Sabathia opens up on the Player's Tribune about his decision to seek help for his alcoholism last October. A very good read. Here's the link.

I sadly have to post this with my favorite player leaving my favorite team. The Braves traded Andrelton Simmons and Jose Briceno to the Angels for Erick Aybar, Sean Newcomb, Christopher Ellis, and cash. Sucks.

A bit of a random topic here, but I wanted to get your opinions on this. It seems less and less rare that when a player gets traded to another team he finds out through twitter, Sports Center, a text from a friend, etc. rather than the team's GM or manager telling them first. How pissed would you be if you found out in one of those ways (especially if the general public found out before you)? Shouldn't these logistics be changed? Or does this just mean "don't let the door hit you on the way out," after a team is happy they traded someone they ultimately didn't want?

This is certainly not an important matter but thought it may be of interest to some. This is an AP article I lifted from the STrib web site. SARASOTA, Fla. — Bye-bye, Oriole pie. Over the last several years, the Baltimore Orioles often celebrated victories with center fielder Adam Jones smashing a pie in the hero's face. Among the teammates he tagged, in fact, was Felix Pie. Now, the team has decided to end the practice for safety reasons. The ritual became so ingrained that Jones arranged with a local bakery to furnish the pies. Not all players were fond of Jones' antics, which generally came when an Orioles player was being interviewed on television. Jones tweeted the…

Per Billy Witz on twitter: On this note, this can't be good for Jose Reyes, who is reportedly being taken to trial.

Chris Mitchell of Fangraphs wrote an interesting post this morning where he looked back at Baseball America's Top 10 Prospects from 10 years ago, and where they ended up. It's pretty interesting to read the names and remember the fact that they were baseball's darlings. Some panned out better than others, and some never made their impact in the MLB.... Here's the link to look back at the names.

I suggest reading this, if you want insight into FG projections: a: and how they might be different than what the people might think b: and why they often aren't as rosy as your projections are for your team c: humor in a pretty solid burn on the whole "they hate us because they don't think we'll be good" meme...... http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/why-we-hate-the-diamondbacks/

According to Ken Rosenthal, 38-year-old Nick Punto has decided to retire from baseball. He sat out last year despite having a contract, so this is not any surprise. Punto was the brunt of some jokes by Twins fans, to be sure... at the end of the day, he had a very solid, long career. He posted a WAR of over 15 and had a couple of very strong seasons. Mostly, he was a terrific defensive utility man. Even with the bat, he worked pitch counts, took a lot of pitches and drew walks. Formerly a polarizing figure among Twins fans, I hope we can all agree that he had a nice career!

I found this on the internet. Thank you internet. In case this doesn't work, it's a picture of Nick Punto, but as an otter. http://youotterreadthisblog.tumblr.com/page/2

https://twitter.com/BGlobeSports/status/701881731322765312 As much as we like to criticize Sano for only losing 5 pounds, at least he doesn't look like the Panda.

http://deadspin.com/jonathan-papelbon-is-back-with-the-nationals-and-not-c-1760558786 I really thought there would be no chance that he'd still be there but what do I know? Anyhow, the best part of this story is that Paps wanted to wear a muscle shirt with "Obama can't ban these guns" to the apology press conference but team officials talked him out of it. So he wore it later and told the press he wanted to wear it earlier. Man, he's the gift that keeps on giving.

In efforts to find video of some current Twins' swings from their amateur days, I came across videos of Joe Mauer's high school football career. As the quarterback for Cretin-Derham Hall, Mauer led the Raiders to consecutive Prep Bowl berths. In 1999 Cretin trounced Hastings 42-21 and the game featured some impressive passes from the future Minnesota Twin including this 40+ yard touchdown pass. With minimal ability to step into the throw, it was clear that Mauer had some elite arm strength. http://i.imgur.com/1Y2N1qZ.gif The following year, Mauer's senior season, Cretin was back in the finals looking to defend their title against the football factory of Eden Prairi…

After seven seasons with the Twins (after the drafted him in the 3rd round of the 2005 draft), Brian Duensing is (kind of) heading home. The Royals announced today that they have signed the left-hander to a minor league deal. Darren Wolfson is reporting that he can make up to $2.6 million if he's with the Royals all season, and he also has two opt-outs.

I'm linking to Patrick Reusse's on demand page here, not because he mentioned Twins Daily on his show today, but because his 13-15 minute interview with Twins Media Relations Director Dustin Morse is really interesting. I think the Twins Daily readers will find it entertaining. Morse is on at about the 15 minute mark of Hour 2 (12:30 mark) on Thursday, February 18. You can download it or listen to it on the page. Maybe it's just me, but I thought it was good. They talked about how newspaper coverage of baseball has changed. What happened when MLB.com came along and had team-specific beat writers. Some on TV requests. The change in what they allow in terms of non-tra…

How stupid can you be? Mejia.tiff Mejia.tiff

According to a Miami sports talk host, Andy Slater, former Minnesota Twins outfielder Delmon Young was arrested in Miami on Sunday night after reportedly attacking a valet driver. Per the local police department, Young is accused of attacking the driver, choking him and using racial slurs. The victim was able to free himself and Young left the scene but when the police caught up with Young at his residence, Young answered the door "naked from the waist down" and used more racial slurs while being arrested shortly thereafter. In 2012, Young had to complete 10 days of community service and participate in a hate crime program stemming from an arrest in New York City …

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK NOTICE TO PERSONS WHO PURCHASED MLB EXTRA INNINGS FROM COMCAST OR DIRECTV OR PURCHASED MLB.TV You Have an Opportunity to Subscribe to Discounted Individual Team Packages through MLB.TV and Other New Online Products A federal court authorized this notice. This is not a solicitation from a lawyer. A proposed settlement (the "Settlement") has been reached in a class action lawsuit brought on behalf of consumers who purchased MLB.TV or purchased MLB Extra Innings from Comcast or DIRECTV between May 9, 2008, and January 18, 2016. The proposed settlement is between the individuals who brought that lawsuit and th…

The Sporting News posted a pretty neat little blog/page showing each uniform number (1-99) and highlighting the best player in MLB history to wear it. It also provides Honorable Mention where appropriate. The Twins/Fans should be happy with #s 28, 29, 48, 57, 65, 81 and 97... And we'll probably be understanding at #s 3, 4 and 34. Fun read. Feel free to discuss.

Anybody plan on watching this? I would love to, if I can find the time. Beresford, Gibbons, Van Steensel, Wade, and Whitefield are going for Australia, and for South Africa we have Pearce and Ebersohn.

Looking for one or two more owners to join a highly active, highly competitive league. The average manager made 53 roster moves last season. AL-only, 6x6 with some saber-leaning categories (OBP instead of BA, QS instead of W), 8 or 10 teams. Send me a message for more details.

Saw this on minorleagueball but a proposal that might get passed in the next CBA is one that allows a team to have 28 men on the roster although only 25 would be designated as available for the days game. Basically, it's a way to keep players fresh and get a little extra rest through the season without needing a DL trip. If Plouffe needs 5 or 6 six days off, the team doesn't have to play short-handed or send him to the DL. I kind of like the idea. It also creates more ML jobs and makes it easier to stash a guy like Arcia or Danny Santana, who are out of options. The negative would be that a team would have to have 28 players off of their 40 man roster up. Since yo…

Kind of shocked that Carlos Torres was not picked up on waivers. A salary of $1.05M is not a bad deal for a player who could rebound.

I've posted on TD and BYTO going back a number of years fantasy rankings by position. I just published my series of rankings this week on Tomahawk Take, so I'll include the links here. Realize this is for a Braves site, so there's a Braves tilt to the end of the article... Catchers First Basemen/Designated Hitters Second Basemen Third Basemen Shortstop Outfielders Starting Pitchers Relief Pitchers

MLB has asked the US anti-doping agency to help its investigation into allegations made by Al-Jazeera about PED use by certain players. The NFL did not ask the agency for help. http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/14652385/mlb-asks-us-anti-doping-agency-help-investigate-al-jazeera-claims "The partnership offers obvious benefits for both MLB and USADA. MLB gets USADA's institutional knowledge of the doping world, along with the quasi-governmental agency's extensive contacts with law enforcement. USADA gets to participate in an investigation that involves the nation's most powerful sports leagues, neither of which is under its jurisdiction. Both bodies will be watching …

Jon Heyman just tweeted two things: It was followed shortly by: I'm personally perfectly comfortable with the Twins not going that number of years...