Twins' Beat Writers Laying the Groundwork for a Smaller Payroll

[Mr. Brooks]

They are still like 20th in baseball in payroll, I think.

So, sure, by their own penny pinching standards, sure they've spent.

But compared to where the rest of the league is at right now, they are still trying to get by relatively cheap.

[Thrylos]

 

not sure how that matters at all......does it matter at all in your mind?

 

Yes.  Beat writers are traveling with the team and are there pretty much every game. Souhan and Reusse are not.  They have certain old buddies in the FO, that's about it.

[Riverbrian]

I wonder how they both came up with the same opinion. Maybe by speaking to people inside the Twins' organization?

 

I guess it's possible they had lunch together and decided they should both write articles about the Twins spending money.

 

I think it's a natural conclusion to draw after the autopsy is complete. It's isn't a stretch to consider both arriving at similar conclusions independently. 

[Riverbrian]

 

I don't completely disagree with the theory, but perhaps just once they could try the quality over quantity approach. Yeah, they got a lot of free agents, but every time a new one was reported, the word "bargain" was in the headline.

 

If the Twins aren't or shouldn't spend money on free agents, then they should do something completely game changing. Piss off the whole league by over paying for the best managers and coaches, the best GM, the best scouts, the best analytical minds and the best developmental personnel. Upgrading those positions would cost peanuts compared to the typical free agent spends.

 

Walk into Fenway flashing the $60M they aren't going to spend on players and say, "Who's coming with me?"

 

I've often thought the same thing from an outside the box viewpoint.

 

What if the Arms race changed from players to development? Or perhaps the question should be... why hasn't it? 

 

Instead of spending 12 million on Lance Lynn... Spend 12 million on a system that is gonna produce 10 Lance Lynn's.  

 

Take your analytics department and track the most successful scouts across baseball. Offer them double or whatever. Find the best analytical minds... Offer them double or whatever. Find the best hitting coaches and pitching coaches throughout the minor leagues and offer them double or whatever. Make Minnesota the easy place to say Yes to by compensating them a whole new level.

 

Go get these guys and get a head start on the competition. The other teams will of course eventually match once they realize that they are bleeding talent but you'll have a head start before they recognize the blood. 

 

Of course you would have to do a better job identifying these folks then the job you've done identifying the players that you are currently spending your resources on. 

 

I'm getting tired of business as usual in baseball. I want my team to think outside the box and get rid of anyone who isn't able to think outside the box. 

[Riverbrian]

 

Basically, the Twins need to do a better job evaluating the players they have. Something this FO has been frustratingly reluctant to do.

 

I hate to say it but the current plan seems to be:

 

Set the course and follow it in the river and hope that you reach the other side of the river before you sink.  

 

 

[mngopherguy]

 

you don't think the team feeds columnists at all? 

 

I know that other companies in MN do, having talked to them about it....

 

We don't know, but it does seem an odd coincidence. Like I said, I hope they don't sit out FA completely.

 

It does seem like an odd coincidence, and knowing the Polads it is believable, but they have a different job than the beat writers.  They generally write opinions (usually crappy ones) not facts.  

[RatherBeGolfing]

How Jim Souhan has a job continues to amaze me.

[USAFChief]

Only my opinion of course, but I would be shocked if Reusse would function as a mouthpiece for ANYone.

 

He is a curmudgeon through and through, and worked long and hard to get to a place where he can actually BE a curmudgeon through and through to his heart’s content.

 

I believe he’d quit before he wrote a propaganda piece for the Pohlads.

[nicksaviking]

 

Only my opinion of course, but I would be shocked if Reusse would function as a mouthpiece for ANYone.

He is a curmudgeon through and through, and worked long and hard to get to a place where he can actually BE a curmudgeon through and through to his heart’s content.

I believe he’d quit before he wrote a propaganda piece for the Pohlads.

 

He'd only quit if his brain didn't explode first.

 

I agree. If someone asked Reuse to write some propaganda for the Pohlads I'd expect his next article to be a scathing tear-down of the Pohlads disclosing that they requested the propaganda.

 

I'd guess the impetus for the similar articles is the Twins record and how they got there despite the free agents. It's a pretty straight line to follow.

[Mike Sixel]

Having worked closely with media people in some of the largest companies in Minnesota.... You'd be surprised how many "mavericks" do the bidding of big companies in Minnesota... This might not be that, but it isn't as rare as you all think