Old Twins Cap

Wow. Bullish on Romero. Hasn't been to AAA level yet. Fewer innings than many prospects. Decent stats. Better raw stuff. And, Hope you are right.

The smart thing here is to make sure the stable is full, and, compared to recent years, it is. Not race horses, mind you. But, a couple MLB veterans, young guys with live arms, some returns from injury, some looking to bounce back -- the stalls range from nothing to prove to everything to lose. Gotta like that. Quarter horses, Morgans, some draft horses, even a nag or two. In the end, it's protection against injury, drives competition, hopefully creates trade bait and odds favor a chance stallion having a good year.

Palacios is the headliner? Didn't the Rays just re-assign their pretty-good RF LH Corey Dickerson? Are you sure Kepler is not involved?

Well, happy to be a member of the proud minority then. Bullpen has been added to, substantially. That was the highest priority over the last two seasons. Starters are young and unproven. But, I like guys who need to earn it. And Twins have a lot of them. So, they have options. The ridiculous thing was when the Twins had NO options to start, even in Triple A, back in 2013-14, God, what were their names? I have happily forgotten. Happy for spring, bring on the games. If we lose to start, learn from it and get better.

It's like Terry Ryan said: "You can't make them sign a contract to come to Minnesota, at any price." Or something like that. We don't want Yu either, my friend.

Brilliant. And, thank you. Not sure sports have gotten better since then, but, at least we have the memories.

I wouldn't even worry about Baseball Club owners. They make money regardless, in multiple ways. Hell, they just got a huge windfall in the new tax bill. But the Yankees and the Dodgers are reportedly trying to get out from under the luxury tax, which gets worse and worse for them every year if they can't get under. So, everything in this article, plus pulling the Dodgers and Yankees out of the market, who normally have no upper limit on salary, -- plus the players holding out for overall salary growth above 20% because they know how much money is being made -- and you've got a multi-factorial explanation for what is going on. We love our players, but, another baseball strike would be a huge hit for baseball. The image of a group of super-wealthy individuals on the picket line hoping for higher wages. Just begging for a Trump tweet tantrum.

I don't know, MLB players work hard and agents push them aggressively, but if I'm one of those pitchers and I turn down $100M contract to play a sport that I love... hoping for $125M? I mean, c'mon, your are set for life at $100M, even with a stupid marriage or two. Whatever, free country, ask for more, you may get it, baseball clubs are swimming in dough. But me, I take the $100M and try for a ring. I've got nothing to lose at that point.

Logjams are meant to be broken. If Rodney is decent, there will be opportunities to trade him at the deadline. Same with other vets and hurlers out of options. In MLB, a good reliever is worth a prospect or two to another team fighting their way up the ladder. No problems ever in collecting bullpen pieces.

Don't underestimate the strength of signal this sends to Darvish and Arrietta. Twins going all in to win a World Series over the next number of years, offense, defense, bullpen. Hard not to like it. And yes, unless I am mistaken, this is the Twins' first money committed in 2019. Big rollers don't think in terms of one year. So payroll shoots up 35% in 2018? Who cares. By 2021, you have a World Series Title and another generation of Twins fans who idolize going to Target Field with their kids. It's about long term and if Falvey and Levine can present a credible case that there will be a route to growth, profit and overall return by choosing their path.

At MLB Trade Rumors, the author pretty much suggested that the Twins are the only suitor with financial flexibility to make a deal of this magnitude. I don't know why it's so hard to say the Twins are front-runners. It's like we are a cold Omaha and no one could imagine a star of Darvish's magnitude choosing to play here. There are infra-red heaters sprinkled throughout the stadium.

Mauer is racking up impressive numbers, on a career basis, and there may be interest on his part in adding to them in the out years -- without doing too much damage to lifetime Batting Average. Halls of Fame, lifetime rankings, those are the measures that get to guys at the end of their careers, as in "How good was I as a player compared to other guys?" And, the ring thing. I think Mauer hangs around and continues to build a legacy. Minnesota would obviously be first choice, but how does he fit? And, what about money, a world series? It's going to be a telling moment in the story of Joe.

Mauer is definitely worth than Tyler Duffey.

There will be a thorough investigation, there are witnesses, everyone will get a chance to tell their story. But, for Sano, let's face it, not good. Coming on the heels of his weight issues, this will not paint a pretty picture. Does he have a role on defense with a rod in his leg? Can he hit the low outside curve ball? Can he keep his HUGE personality within a team framework? I can't begin to answer those, other than to say, this is a career-altering type of incident, even if not nearly as severe as Aroldis Chapman's emptying a gun into his garage wall. If this was a one-time thing, maybe Sano works around it. But, it fits a pattern, not a flattering one, and that will be hard to erase from people's understanding about who he is as a person. All that said, I hate that America has moved into a Scarlet Letter type posture with these accusations. We need to be able to weigh evidence carefully, ask questions and get clarity before condemning either victims or perpetrators.

I think the "unmentioned" is that someone -- some-bodies -- are doing a lot of work and, though the site was started with an idea that this could be sustainable, reality is, like a lot of start-ups, it just isn't. So, we started a business, it had a framework for self-perpetuation, but, to get it going and keep it going, we-had-to-do-what-we-had-to-do, the original model has not proven out, and now we need to face up to how to make this work or consider letting it all go. Maybe this is close? Some reading between the lines, but that's what I get. Most Blogs and websites and even internet companies, even large and successful ones, do not have a business model to start with. They don't. They either do it out of passion and because someone is crazy, or they just have a really good idea in a particular area, and hope that, over time, a business model emerges. The ones that survive remain open to possibility and are nimble and adjust as circumstances dictate. But, push comes to shove, you start an internet website, low barrier to entry, now you have readers, now it's a couple years on, no one is making money, everyone is donating time, but there's no way to monetize and people are getting frazzled. From the outside, I like to stop by, everyday, see what's going on. But, no idea you were fundamentally looking to incubate writers. Not for a moment would I have thought that. As an English teacher, I can say, you aren't going to incubate writers readily. Writers who are good are already working and busy. The ones who are motivated are already working and busy. The ones who are passionate are working and busy and willing to help out or to try their hand. The others.... well, there are a lot of other writers on the Internet and they won't get you anywhere. The best way to advance a business is to do it yourself. Countless hours of work. It's yours, you created it, take pride in it, etc. People only care about things they create; they do not care about things that others have created. The best reason for an outsider like me to write is not money. It's more about having a forum to put ideas and quality writing out that is going to draw eye-balls and create a reason for me to put more effort into baseball writing. There's a lot of things to write about, and baseball is profound, but, for me, only in a kind of semi-spiritual way, which takes time to tease out. Statistics are great and I'm glad to have a window on that world, but in the final analysis, I don't love baseball because of statistics. I love it because of the human drama. The best reason for me to write is as a prelude to assembling essays into a book to publish. But I have no idea that anything I wrote here would ever get kicked up to the front page. And I think that is what people are saying. You want open-source, you gotta live with open-source. You want curation, you guys gotta do that and it isn't self-managing. I mean, your moderators are hyper-vigilant about even a hint of controversy, but you want open-source on articles? I'm not seeing internal consistency on that. But still love the site and hope you figure it out.

These Rule V picks and losses, they aren't going to matter one way or another. Our Bards and Burdis will not amount to much, Kinley will get returned and end up selling used cars in Florida. The most eventful recent Rule V development was when Justin Haley hit that Detroit outfielder in the head with a fastball and it lead to a near-brawl with Sano and James McCann. Why even pick a guy off someone's scrap heap?

Let me help translate: Despite 2017 season and a window of opportunity created by their offense, Twins are not going to make a playoff run in 2018. So, rather than pay for veteran relief, they are going to have young guys pitch the late innings and see what happens. Hopefully, by 2019 or 2020, this will sort itself out.

Cishek gone as well. Once again, Twins slow on the draw as the reliever market started rolling. They won't win World Series in 2018 in any event, so maybe it's about defining what that window of competitiveness means. Or, something. Darvish or bust at this point.

Warming up the headline edit: Twins Acquire Two Three Prospects For International Bonus Cash Won't be long now.

Like the Brass of Twins FO. They got right to work once Otani jumped. Find a problem in Jelfrey's vision, void $3M contract, get on the Otani runway, don't get selected for the swimsuit portion, but have what Mike Sciosia in lingerie needs: International cash. Every team on the coast is showing us their cards. "Who knows what Otani really wants? Fffft. Never go to a fist-fight with flowers and pixie-dust. The Friars should jam a lot more in that long dark robe. They ain't got a prayer. The Giants hoping to win with a pocket full of Posey. Maybe Otani has eyes for Buster? No one knows what Otani wants, but Twins know what teams pursuing Otani want.

I'm glad the standard for Twins' rotation seems to be moving from "opening the season" to "competing for the division" toward "winning in the playoffs". Those are really different measures and really important to gauge correctly.

Well what's this? Strib article, what you call burying the lede: Twins add trainer The Twins have hired a new assistant trainer. Masa Abe joins the club after spending seven seasons with Arizona, the past two as the trainer for Class AAA Reno. Abe also was Team Japan’s trainer during the 2017 World Baseball Classic. Good hire, I'd say.

I'm following this, I know the Yankees. I think we have a real shot. Here's why: 1. Ohtani is a young man who does not subscribe to conventional thinking: not in the way he plays -- wanting to swing both ways (arf), and in leaving Japan before it was financially advantageous. Like, he's different. 2. New York has very high expectations, huge, with media overkill and constant buzz, if not CRAZY pressure to perform. So, here's this 23-year-old kid trying to do something that hasn't been done in the modern era. Is New York really the right place for this? The pressure, the need for success -- not just on him, but the new manager, Cashman, the Steinbrenners. Bad scene, it really is for Ohtani. 3. And, who is the new manager in New York? Really? Going to negotiate and sign a world-class Japanese two-way player and you don't have a manager right now? It is what it is, but, that does not impress. 4. Minnesota, for all its little warts, needs a DH and an Ace pitcher, just so happens. If I am that kid, I say: "They're young, they're rising, they need me, I have opportunity to establish myself in two-way credentials." Bad English, comme ci, comme ca, but, I think Ohtani wants the right fit, in a myriad of ways. 5. Price is not a factor. This kid wants success, he wants to play baseball. He understands that at 23, that's what matters. Make your fate in the world's great game, and you will eclipse the sun and live happily ever after. Play it safe and be a decent pitcher for the Yankees and you will live forever wondering, "what if"... Twins got a chance here. I consider them the favorites, after Mariners.

So, we lose a low leverage reliever to a bad team and maybe a long reliever to a bad team. Sounds like good moves if you are a good team that needs to upgrade in order to win at the playoff level. In other words, let them have our burnable materials and let's focus on actually beating the Yanks for once.

But, that's the point, right. If contending teams don't want those guys, why do Twins? We are contenders, aren't we? At some point, our yardstick has got to be winning a playoff series, and the ones who don't measure up have to be shipped out, for their good as well as the Twins.