danielp19653

My dislike for teams almost always comes down to one particular player I don't like or insane spending. Most of my spending dislike comes from liking the twins where they'll never be in the top 10 spenders so just makes it annoying when teams double their payroll. Fans in baseball have never really bothered me, I get that much more on the football side. Despise Saints and Eagles fans, hated Broncos fans growing up in Wyoming cheering for the Vikings. Baseball fans have very rarely rubbed me the wrong way, for the most part all the ones I've talked to have enjoyed talking about their team and the sport as a whole without attacking your team or just being an a** to be one.

There is absolutely no way he can handle 70% of games in the outfield. I think much more reasonable amount for him would be closer to 50-30-20. We all want to see the guy play all season but we have a hard enough time getting him to play half the season let alone 70% of the season in the most physically demanding position on the field. We have 4 players who can play center on the roster, while Buxton is the best at it there's no way his body is going to hold up for more than half the season out there. He has the bat on this team to be the DH, with Arraez gone and 30% of the DH starts up for grabs give them to Buxton. Who cares if he doesn't love being a DH, he also doesn't love getting his knee drained daily and IL stints either.

I don't remember which game it was but was watching the away broadcast and the announcers both commented on the M looking like Miami and if we're paying Miami for it or got in the trade with Lopez. Not a great sign when people outside the organization immediately jump to another team when seeing your logo

Personally I'd slide Gallo down to 6th and move Miranda and Kiriloff up until Gallo regains some of the old form, also if we happen to see a lefty on opening day I'd be interested to see if Taylor maybe starts over Kepler and Solano or Farmer over Gordon. Not sure how hard they want to lean into the platoons, especially on opening day but will be interesting to look at as it gets closer.

Personally I'm a fan of the 6 man rotation with the Twins roster, Everyone except Ryan has injury issues and couldn't stay on the field within the last two years. Give them the extra day off and hopefully that keeps them all out there for more starts on the year and potentially deeper in games where 80-90 pitch count isn't quite as concerning with the extra day off. I don't see anyway they get through May with all 6 still healthy so get through the cold months with the extra arms then condense to 5 with whoever goes down and bring up the extra long reliever from AAA

Did anybody sign up for the MLB.tv service for spring? How many of the Twins spring training games were you able to watch? Was considering doing that for the games since Bally doesn't cover a ton of the spring slate. Also are spring training games subject to black out for Minneapolis area as well on the MLB.tv app?

Man I would gladly take a full roster of pitchers all sitting around or below a 3.5 ERA, I don't know how that would be feasible but would love to see it. Feels like second half of last year may have been valued a little heavy based on Pagan and Lopez's reliever projections.

The commissioner talked about short term lifting black outs and the regional side of things if the contracts fall through and MLB.tv is the source for viewing but still sees regional sports networks as the way forward before a long term transition away for additional exposure. I would guess they encourage teams going with new deals to take shorter contracts or contract with streaming platforms without blackouts to start the transition. One of the articles stated one of the biggest hurdles is that every team has their own contract and have different end dates and stipulations around the black outs.

I guess I don't see the harm in letting Megill try and sort out pitch location to start the year in AAA that's not something that requires MLB innings, seems like he has good velocity but struggles with keeping it at the top of the zone and it falls into the belt area too often. I agree no one in the bullpen should have a long leash with the options on hand but why would that mean we wouldn't sign Hand with a shorter leash? Maybe I'm misunderstanding the end of the article but feels like you're saying don't sign Hand because a long leash could be bad, so give the current options a long leash instead. I'd rather take the extra option and give him the lower leverage spots and if he still performs above the xERA great we have an extra option as a setup guy, Otherwise cut him and bring up the best option from AAA and he gets the low leverage spots.

Reducing the position players is a win in my opinion, would be more efficient to just let the other team forfeit and just not play the last two innings but that will never happen. Like most not a big fan of the implementation the free runner, I think most suggestions I've heard would be better in my opinion such as having them at 1st to allow a DP as an option. Or only having the runner after 12 innings. But at the end of the day their goal is purely end the game as quickly as possible post nine innings, and short of having a home run derby situation like the shoot out in hockey I don't know how you get the MLB on board with anything other than this or allowing ties.

I agree it used to be kind of a fun little side show to a game that otherwise was already done. It happens often enough now the novelty has worn off and feels no different to just having a mercy rule and ending the game

Are the Marlins picking up Lopez's Salary for the year? I don't remember the exact terms but if not would that set us closer to the even line? (No idea what his arb salary is or the trade terms on that)

My guess is its Maeda's to lose, he has more experience and has shown more ability. But if he falters early or doesn't get stretched out in spring to that 5+ inning threshold I could see the Twins having him start in long relief and then pull him into the rotation once someone goes down. I think Ober has upside but I think the only way he gets into the rotation is an injury in the spring or a setback for Maeda that cuts his innings or delays his season start.

I agree at the end of the day it plays out the same or worse most times the ball is in play, not like anyone has an .800 average on balls in play, but I think the biggest part is that subconscious hope as someone just watching the game. When Arraez came up with someone out on second you have the part of you that can't imagine anything other than a poke into the grass for a run, and alternatively when Sano or Gallo comes up that it'll be another strike out or lazy fly ball 250' from home. Like I said overall I think he probably ends the season as a worthwhile pick up for the price. Just makes watching games less entertaining, something I think baseball as a whole is struggling with as pitchers improve and the guys who play to the three true outcome side become more common. You expect less and less to happen each at bat when guys like him come up. You expect the strike out instead of a ball in play that could be an error or find space.

My biggest complaint is just the absolute misery of watching a guy totally incapable of making contact for weeks at a time. I don't think anyone would say he has no value or even if he has a low average he can't provide at least starter level value over a season but like Sano man is it the worst feeling ever as a fan to have a runner on second or third with one out and see him come up and flail away.