Otto von Ballpark

The Twins returned home with a sweep of KC, but remained in second place. Meanwhile, the TD forums searched for a road back to first. Starters going deeper, bullpen consistency, good health, and matching leather outfits were just a few of the community suggestions intended to boost the Twins' chances. Despite a 9-0 win, @Battle ur tail off sensed trouble in paradise: Sonny Gray not too happy with Rocco... While Rocco's relationship with Sonny may be frayed, winning cures everything, right? @Brock Beauchamp advocates for a breakup -- not between Rocco and Sonny, but between Sonny's rotation mates Dylan and Chris. Baldelli needs to break up Bundy and Archer from pitching back-to-back games, to spare the bullpen from overuse. Twins relievers dominated the Royals all week with 13.1 shutout innings. We should enjoy it while it lasts according to @Trov, because The unpredictability of relief pitching means it may not last, as evidenced by some current and former Twins. Did you know that, in addition to their real-world roster, the 2022 Twins could have fielded an entire additional roster of injured players? @Game7-91 plays the part of Orpheus, seeking the return of the underworld Twins from Injured List Hades. Can the 2022 Twins play deep into October and even into November? At least some minor league Twins will, in the Arizona Fall League. @Seth Stohs kicks off the speculation about Who will the Twins Send to the AFL? The list could include some 2023 major leaguers. Do you remember 1987? @Brushback101 does. Starship's "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" ruled the airwaves, and nothing stopped our Dome Warriors on their way to a World Series title. Can the current club find some of that 1987 Miracle Juice We Need? A complicating factor is that the league tests players for "miracle juice" now. What's the Twins' missing ingredient -- or have they already found it? Share your recipe in the forums. View full article

Not quite? Here's what you'd get with each plan in Minnesota: MLBTV: every non-Twins, non-national TV game for $25/month MLBTV Single Team Package: just the non-national games for a single non-Twins team (for example, just the Brewers games): $20/month Bally Sports Plus: every non-national Twins game (if the Twins get on board), plus every non-national Wolves and Wild game, for $20/month

From my understanding, it's a bit of a two-way street -- neither the Twins/MLB nor Bally can launch an in-market streaming service without revising their current broadcast deal.

A single team out-of-market package in MLBTV is currently $20/month. Seems like a reasonable starting point for pricing a single team in-market streaming package. Also, the full out-of-market MLBTV package retails for $25/month, which suggests that most folks are primarily subscribing to watch a single team. Games beyond that team are probably not a motivating factor for most consumers right now.

I understand that concerns about pricing and priorities will be subjective. FWIW, I don't think either of us are representative of the "average" fan/consumer, so it's probably pointless to project ourselves too much. (I'd also caution against reading too much into polls or online comments about the issue, unless you also want to endorse Rocco's firing after every Twins loss ) All we really know is that Bally Sports Plus is literally an option/price that's never been available to consumers before. It's not for everybody, but in terms of general consumer choice and accessibility, it represents progress over what is currently available (and likely over what was available in the past too, given declining live TV package trends).

Those were past rates that you were "grandfathered" into. From the current Netflix Plans and Pricing page: These prices apply to new members and will gradually take effect for all current members. Current members will receive an email notification 30 days before their price changes, unless they change their plan. Basic Standard Premium Monthly cost* (United States Dollar) $9.99 $15.49 $19.99

I wasn't suggesting that a lot of people binge-watch two seasons of something every month! But for most people, binge-watching the one or two shows you want to watch is the best way to get value out of a service like Netflix, rather than subscribing indefinitely. (Which is why some services are moving back to weekly releases of new episodes.) And having a source to pseudo-binge-watch sports (watch them a few times a week) for $20 could likewise be more economical than paying for it in a more expensive TV bundle.

There is a $10 Netflix plan, but it is limited to 480p resolution (standard definition). It's probably the equivalent of a phone-only streaming service, since the picture quality suffers so much on larger screens. The potential cost savings in cord-cutting was always about unbundling -- you wouldn't need to spend $100 on cable if all you wanted to watch (or all you had time to watch) in a given month was on just a few networks.

No, this doesn’t affect cable viewers. It is an alternative service for people who want BSN without getting cable.

The early streaming TV providers were not sustainably priced -- they were losing money trying to gain subscribers/market share. Those prices shouldn't be used as a barometer for current prices any more than Columbia House's 12 CDs for a penny. Best case going forward, you're probably looking at a $65+ package like YouTube TV.

But cable never gave us the option pay as little as $20/month and still get FSN. On cable, we were almost certainly paying more than $20 towards carriage fees of channels we rarely if ever watched, just for the privilege of paying for FSN too. As far as I know, unless the existing TV deals specifically included direct local streaming rights, they are not included. So teams have to negotiate for those separately (or renegotiate their TV deals). FWIW, the MLB teams on Bally networks collectively seem to be taking a harder stance on this than the NBA/NHL teams. I don't know if MLB will come up with a meaningful alternative, though.

I wish they were still on Hulu or YouTube TV for the benefit of you and others who prefer it, but I wouldn't describe that $65+/month package as particularly cheap or accessible. And the games are a lot of content. Even if you only watch 1/3 of Twins game action (or 1/3 of Wolves/Wild), you'd probably be around 20 hours a month. That's about the same as binge-watching two whole seasons in a month on Netflix.

To my knowledge, the Minnesota RSN has never been available to consumers at a lower cost than this.

Great article. I used to love watching games on MLBTV with just the ballpark audio track (no commentary) -- I'd probably enjoy that even more now that I know about the audio engineers behind it. Unfortunately MLBTV stopped offering that audio option in 2020 and have not brought it back (league wide, so it's not just a Twins/Bally/Target Field thing). I know MLBTV is a separate entity, but since they were using his audio feed, I wonder if Tveitbakk has any special insight about that decision.

Winder is still on the AAA injured list — hasn’t pitched anywhere in over a month now.

I think you could have an aggressive strategy to pull Bundy there -- but not after a game where you aggressively pulled Mahle too. An extra inning from Mahle on Friday day could have saved Fulmer for Saturday or prevented Durán and López from pitching back-to-back nights. Either of those advantages could have ultimately won the game for us Saturday, without risking the game Friday.

Not all cleanup hitters are equal. Outside of April/May 2022, Taylor Ward is a thoroughly average or below average MLB hitter. If it's too risky to let Pagán face Ward in that situation, perhaps the questionable choice is using Pagán rather than forgoing another intentional walk.

Ironically, you started this line of inquiry with the presumption that "analytics" must be to blame somehow, but you're actually advocating a strict analytical approach: look at a chart of average outcomes to determine your strategy. But teams are using that chart *plus* the circumstances of the actual situation to inform their decision (because no players are perfectly average, they all have different tendencies, etc.). We may not agree with all of their decisions, and they won't work out every time, but let's not pretend that your strict analytical approach would work better every time either.

That was the answer you presupposed when you asked your question, not the answer you were given. The intentional walk is still very much an available strategy — but it is situation-dependent. You still need to figure out the best way to get 3 outs too, and sometimes that may mean pitching to guys like Jake Cave or Tim Beckham rather than setting up force plays.

Wow, never saw that before! From Power and Promise: 1986 Minnesota Twins Highlight Video (starting around the 19:40 mark)

Don’t forget the team building activities of the ‘88 team: How Steve Lombardozzi Rammed His Head Into Dan Gladden's Fist Later, the next morning, imprudent wisdom or the spirit of Jersey Joe Walcott inspired Stevo to make a call on Gladden's suburban estate. I'm not saying the two had a cerebral, dignified discussion...but judging from the scratches and bruises and cracked ring finger on Gladden, in addition to the whopping steak Lombo had over his eye upon reporting to the home clubhouse that afternoon, it's fair to say they found a way to sort through their problems as only real men do. Twins manager Tom Kelly, who saw the storm building for about a week, said "It's probably better that it happened." TK was most likely correct: boys will be boys. Case closed.

It appears to be a Sheboygan Sausage promotion — they link to the apfco.com entry form on their official Facebook page: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02pTRDzN5qWqoMUQHMHzsdWQjcjdmENm2jqHRFBfgJNEfGYzEH2j3uv2qjF6EzQcdvl&id=106888219976

It never rains in sunny California, but the Twins' fall from first has left the TD forums wondering, are (Sonny) Gray skies going to clear up? Community members face the choice of putting on a happy face, or the gloomy mask of tragedy. Either way, almost two months of regular season baseball remains to be played in a close division race, so it's hardly "Bye Bye, Birdie" for baseball talk. @killebrewlover serenades us with that old meteorologist's torch song, This season's forecast. Darkening clouds. Stormy weather ahead. "Don't know why there's no sun up in the sky, stormy weather / Since my team and first place ain't together, keeps raining all of the time..." @strumdatjag observes the quiet end of a Twins career in Crickets for Sano. Or perhaps, like Mulan, these are good-luck crickets, and Miguel can return for the Twins postseason run he's been destined to lead since 2009? The Twins have previously benefitted from piranhas and goats -- could an insect be next? Not all is negative: @PseudoSABR shares a FanGraphs article that suggests we received excellent value for What the Twins gave up in terms of prospects at the deadline. Mahle, Fulmer, López, and even Sandy León have already contributed to Twins victories. In fact, León's nickname is apparently "Noah" -- could he help the Twins survive this storm? @bwillly suggests a potential new role for an under-the-radar Twins contributor: Could Smeltzer be a long reliever? Devin is still starting for St. Paul, but it's only a matter of time before the Twins need his innings again, either in the rotation or the bullpen. In the minor league forum, @ScottyB kicked off a discussion of This Winter’s Rule 5 Draft. Which players on the farm have earned a 40-man spot after the season? Could any of them help even sooner, as major league reinforcements for the Twins stretch drive? Lastly, when I find myself in times of Twins trouble, the Other Baseball forum can be a source of levity; but alas, not today. @Steve71 looks around the league and concludes that MLB is Broken. But other than that, how was the pennant race, Mrs. Lincoln? Whether you're feeling cross and bitterish, or thinking of banana split and licorice, share it in the forums! View full article

Aren't you the one assuming that he was going to be out? Merrifield is not putting all his eggs in that basket if he believes he has a chance to be safe. He obviously felt he had a chance to be safe when he broke from third and nothing he would have seen on his way to the plate would have told him he had no chance -- he knew it would be close, but he'd have a chance. His awareness of the challenge was just a fallback option, in case he wasn't called safe. If he tries a fancier indirect slide, not only does that fallback option likely disappear, but the slide will also take longer as he'd have to move out of his direct path from third. So the challenge fallback wasn't the only thing that kept him on that slide path.