heresthething

Don't hate the signing, hope it works out. BUT if it doesn't this FO has got to cut bait early enough so we can recover, hopefully last years's fiasco with the retread pitchers taught them a lesson. We didn't have much invested into Happ and Shoemaker either and look how long they hung on to them.

This thread and talk of using bullpen starts with no 5th starter has me shuddering at what could happen to a pitching staff that is not deep. We'll have our share of those clankers where the starter goes 2-3 innings. Then what? how many pitchers does Rocco use up trying to stay in the game? Our bullpen can't afford to get over exposed like that, we just don't have the quality arms.

Then again it was against Twins pitching. He'll continue to do well but not sure those Twins stadium numbers will hold up.

Exactly this. The deals puts Falvine on a whole different trajectory for building the team and puts pressure on them not to screw this up by not putting the pieces around him to win. However, if things go sideways they've got a monster trade chip to bring back value. The more I read about this deal the more I like it for both sides. Well done Twins!

Exactly this. And it sounds like there are multiple sources saying Scherzer has been a real problem. Is there any oversight from the team's union reps asking what is going on? It wasn't a secret the owners gave them a final offer. What was the process to say no to it and who outside that negotiating team knew? The owners will outlast them, players have an expiration date.

If true, a 20 million gap over 7 years is absurd for the Twins to balk at. If you're already at 80 the extra 20 for a shot at this level of talent is a no brainer. How many millions have we watched them throw at dumpster talent in the hope that they will have a turn around year? Yet they seemingly won't budge for Buxton.

True, good point to make Major league. We can't assume just because he is playing the performance will be there too but on the other hand he appears to have figured some things out at the plate which IF it carried forward would be high to elite level of overall play.

The frustrating thing for me is that if the incentives really kick in it's because Buxton is playing and performing well. That translates into winning more games. How is this a bad thing financially for the Twins? Seems the very outcome of win-win everyone would want. Seriously, what's so hard to understand about this?

I lose track of who in the FO was in charge of scouting since Falvine took over. Curious to know, are there any carry overs or we've replaced them all?

Let's say Kiriloff gets healthy from here forward and does well enough at first base to give him the majority of the innings. Could rotate Sano between first, third and DH as needed but the tradeoff is that's a lot of playing time tied up by a player that goes into extended slumps and doesn't have the flexibility of a true utility player.

You guys ever look into a transcription service? Lots of interesting content but honestly I don't have the time to listen to the whole thing. I suspect in transcript form you would get more engagement from the users on this site too. It will have some transcriptions errors here and there but might be worthwhile to look into it.

Guaranteed it is. It's noise the owners don't want coming into the CBA. Having said that, hopefully this is a win-win scenario. it won't be perfect day one but ya gotta start somewhere and this is a big step.

This approach would hopefully give the Twins more games with starting pitchers getting to at least 6 innings so we aren't killing the bullpen. Those short starts are ok once in a while but they can really mess up the bullpen for days.

Very likely fans at Dodgers Daily don't bitch about things like the Kemp deal or even trades because the owners have a massive checkbook that can cover over any of those problems. Money matters when it comes to the discourse on this site b/c that's how Pohlad operates.

If we're gonna take the FO at their word that they had world series aspirations what they actually did wasn't even close to acceptable. They gave 2/5 - 40% of the starting rotation to old washed up pitchers AND THEN they double down on the decision by giving them a long leash. Bullpens are hard to figure out, the signings didn't bother me too much so meh on that. They get an A+ for sticking to their budget, whatever that gets you in today's MLB with no salary cap. But then again the Rays stick to their budget and look at what they've built. One can only hope they have learned a lot from this pitching cluster of a season.

Watching the game last night I found it interesting to hear Perkins talk about how the type of pitcher Dobnak is with the sinker makes it tough for them to be in a bullpen role. As he is talking about this I'm thinking of the Happ/Shoemaker moves along with the contract extension they give Dobnak in the off season only to put him in the bullpen. IMO it just adds to the pitching cluster this FO made of the season. While I realize hindsight is 20/20 the FO and coaches are supposed to know this type of stuff right? I mean, if Perkins is sitting there talking about it it's not like this was some hidden pitching secret no one but him is aware of. Hearing this type of analysis makes me wonder about who's really responsible for the analysis that led to this pitching mess. I'm having the same reaction to this I had when the Nishioka fiasco played out. Every person on the team that had their fingerprints on that decision should have been fired immediately. If you're going to self impose a limit on your payroll budget you just can't make these type of blunders.

Hopefully the FO has learned that we need pitching and then more pitching and finally lots more pitching in order to compete. If they seriously go after pitching like they should I am not opposed to signing Simmons again at the right price. The guy isn't the reason it's a lost season...the pitching is. I think they will get a deal done with Buxton or if they can't they better trade him for ....pitching. Donaldson probably isn't going anywhere and we need a DH, Sano is not the answer. And of course there is the CBA to consider. I don't think it's 0% we see a stoppage. If they negotiate a lower # of years to free agency that will be interesting to see what it opens up for talent to move around.

The proposal by the owners is an interesting anchor point to the negotiations. To put out there that there is a floor and a cap signals to me that the owners are finally starting to get serious about addressing the competitive imbalance. As stated in other comments the union needs to introduce true revenue sharing, that would be fun to watch how the owners respond. I would also like to see the players add in updating fan access to watch games from this goofy and irrelevant blackout scheme they have today. It will only draw more fan interest and help market the players. Why should the players do this? Because the owners surely won't. Unfortunately it appears there is enough of them with big interests to keep it as it is.

Won't be surprised if Simmons is in the FO plans for next year at the right price. As mentioned in these comments and elsewhere, the Twins need to focus their money on pitching and what are they gonna find that's overall better than Simmons with whatever is left over? Maybe a trade will be done to fill this hole but it isn't like whatever we put out there with what we have today is going to be that much better.

I watch a lot less this year, a big reason is because they're awful but several contributing factors really make it hard to even just enjoy the game for what it is and that's because: The time between pitches is out of control. Please bring in the pitch clock. Defensive shifts have drained away too much action. The counter argument is that players should adjust and exploit the shift. Well...it's been long enough and they aren't doing it so I have no hope it will happen. I like the challenges and the instant replay but come on, why does this take so long? When a reliever comes in they get 2 pitches to acclimate and then game on. They've been warming up already, And lastly, the technology is there to use the robot umps so let's get on with it. It's become annoying as **** to watch missed calls and just adds to the overall bleh for me. As if all that wasn't enough there's this elephant in the room called competitive balance which has been rotting away MLB since free agency started. Baseball needs a salary cap and a floor to help ensure ALL of the teams are able to field a team that has some shot at the post season.

My guess is the guaranteed money was too low and regardless how much it makes sense for a player like Buxton to have an incentive laden contract, there has to be some considerable pressure from the agents and the union not to go too far down that path for someone as talented as he is.

Exactly my thoughts too, that new agreement is a huge factor to consider. I'm not sure how they will do this but I expect owners to find a way to get closer to something like a salary cap. Maybe it's just a higher luxury payroll tax but the sport has to get some level of control over the spending (both threshold and ceiling) to get some more competitive balance. Players want the years shortened to free agency, maybe that's the key for them.

There has been a couple of times this season where Smalley has said what he thought they should do for pitch selection for a specific at bat and it made some sense and the Twins don't do it and get burned. Today for example Dobnak is pitching to Yordan Alvarez and Dobnak is behind 2-0 and grooves one that gets hammered for a HR. Smalley notes that Bregman, a right hander, is up next. He is also a good hitter but Smalley's point is the % is better righty/righty and with how Alvarez is hitting the ball if you're behind already don't give him anything to hit. To me it didn't look like the catcher was setup outside, if anything the catcher was sitting low but in the middle. The point to all of this is I've been wondering about pitch selection all season, this isn't the first time they've called a head scratching series of pitches. Yes, pitchers need to execute but ya gotta work with what you have and this season it isn't much. Catchers look into the dugout but how much of the game is their call?

Exactly, someone does. No way a Tom Kelly coached team or looking externally a Ned Yost team would be performing like this. And there were several years both of those coaches had low levels of talent and their teams weren't playing like this.

That was brutal. Can't say I'm a fan of the new positioning they do, seems it leaves them more open to foul tips off of the top of their legs. That foul tip can find a catcher in the swim suit area regardless but just looks like they are way more exposed than the traditional crouch.