Doomtints

I don't think the 87-09 time frame is exactly right as there were changes during that time period. Still, that's the general look anyway. And yes those were my favorites. My least favorite is the 72-86 uniforms (which again I think changed a bit over the course of the era). Even back then the uniforms seemed unprofessional compared to (most of) the rest of baseball, and blue is usually a color I like.

The Vikings can no longer lay claim to being in the worst superbowl of all time. Hooray?

I can see Romero being an elite set up guy now and perhaps a closer someday. None of us know what the Twins are thinking, though.

Of the three things, the most possible one is also the most counter-intuitive one for most of us: - Rosario had an .800 OPS in 2018 in spite of having just two good months and five terrible months. This sounds very much like Buxton to me, so sure, pencil it in. Hopefully those good months are not August & September, though, because the Twins might not wait that long with Buxton. - No one questions Sano's power, but perhaps we should because having a metal rod put in your leg has to be a big adjustment, an adjustment he hasn't made. We can blame his weight, sure, but what if that's not the problem? - No one questions Berrios's ability but the infield defense might not be there for any Twins starter to have a sub 3.00 ERA.

Also, A 'bounce-back' for this dude is getting back to 100 ERA+. Hold onto your seats!

They cut De Jong for this? Really? Building for the future right there. Let's just cut all the 24 year olds. Cue the Mariners picking him back up in 3... 2...

+1

The Twins are rumored to be in the loop on these things every year but nothing has ever transpired from it. We don't need to spend any time thinking about this. If it happens, great, we can all be shocked at that time.

Among Twins fans, Polanco has generally been slightly underrated. I think he will be fine and will have a couple of very good years in his career.

Buxton was key to 2018. Now I'm not expecting quite so much, I'd be happy if he just gets on base.

Every year the Twins are put in the bucket of being in the running for some top tier free agent. It's never transpired. I think we can safely ignore this stuff.

Note that the "discard pile" in question consists of discarded players from teams who want to contend. The Twins are not picking up cast-offs from bad teams cutting salary. The Twins won't catch up to the contenders by taking their castoffs. The Twins were already in the middle tier but I suppose these moves can push them over 80 wins again (in theory).

A team that won't spend money can't do multiple 1-year deals. The money problem never goes away, but those players do, all while blocking the cheap players they could have been developing.

Actually I didn't say the climate different at the stadiums at all (though I could have, as it is). Both stadiums are close to the lake and both are cooler than further inland, though Progressive gets much more humid. It is brutally windy in Wrigley. Until the dead of summer it is freezing in that stadium. As for the comments that 1-2 hours won't make a difference: 1) The difference between the northern and southern boundary of Chicago is equivalent to driving halfway to Duluth from the middle of the Twin Cities. 2) The difference between one edge of the Chicago metro area would that full drive to Duluth. Is the climate in Duluth different from the Twin Cities? 3) I studied meteorology in college, and areas around bodies of water and mountains can have drastic climate differences over very small distances. You may notice a very big body of water next to Chicago. The areas around the lake have a much milder climate than the Twin Cities both in the winter and in the summer. The microclimate around downtown is windier (and it feels much colder) in the winter, yes. It's also much cooler in the summer (unless you're on the rivers, where it's brutally humid). If you are going to quote "official" weather figures from the Chicago area, note they are probably coming from O'Hare airport which is in the suburbs west of Chicago.... not near the lake. We just got about 5 inches of snowfall last night and going outside is the first it has felt like the Twin Cities winter weather that I remember in about three years.

Remember for a minute that Chicago is massive. When you enter the Chicago metropolitan area you are still 2-3 hours from downtown. When you enter the CITY of Chicago, you're still an hour from downtown. Where the baseball stadiums are and where the affluent people live is a much milder climate than it is an hour to the south and an hour to the west.

Chicago has a milder climate than MN, it's both warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer. Most of the winter is in the 30s and most of the summer is in the 60s-70s. Every winter has some colder snaps (in the teens, generally) but they only last a couple of weeks at a time, and of course there are some weeks in the 80s (which seem brutal when you're not used to it). Those cities on the east coast are very mild too.

Yes. Although I wrote otherwise, I meant to write WIN a superbowl. I don't care much if they just get there.

The Vikings have never won more than two playoff games in any season. With three playoff games required to make the super bowl now, we may never see them get there. Maybe it's for the better. I expect them to lose the big games now, and if they ever won it all I would probably be so shocked my heart would explode and that would be my last day on earth.

The triple constraints are important to understand for any organizational effort. They are: 1) Cost - In this case, player salaries 2) Time - The 2019 season 3) Scope - What do they want to accomplish? (This has to be more granular than "win the division") Stakeholders typically pick one constraint as the most important. We know which one that is for the Twins. This is called the triple constraint because changing one will always affect at least one of the others. In the case of the Twins, a cost constraint limits the scope of what they can do. There are still things the Twins can do on the scope side if the cost side sucks, but they have to focus on small things. Improving defense across the board. Improving OPS at certain positions. Higher OBP at three positions, more lefties, whatever. The Twins have to figure out exactly what they want to do, because that time constraint isn't changing. Note that punting on the year doesn't help. The primary constraint for this organization (cost) will still be there next year and the year after. There's no point in punting, they have to be creative to make it work with what they've got. This organization has to focus on small improvements and hope everything aligns the right way at the right time at some point down the road, and yes be very careful with 1-year deals as they will shoot themselves in the foot unless they decide to change that cost constraint. The only issue with long deals is the cost constraint takes them off the table, they're not actually "bad." Give credit to Ryan for understanding this, but keep the demerits by his name for not executing on it. And you didn't REALLY believe it when Pohlad said Ryan was mistaken in this, right?

I would be mildly surprised if HIldenberger is on the short leash some are predicting. I think he gets the year to sort things out, barring a 9.00 ERA after a few months of course. But hey, I don't understand anything about this team anymore, so....

Without looking I would guess the numbers support this, but what's going on is probably the opposite. Average (and below) hitters probably hit worse when the team is behind, at least in general.

Hm. When I look at his numbers from 2018, I don't see any down months at all, in fact he probably outperformed any Twin in any given month. If he had a slump, it was no more than around ten days in length and he more than made up for it. It's a shame he was hitting around .200 for a week or whatever though. Seems like a positive that he adjusted as you describe, and still managed to hit 37 dingers and had a .905 OPS by year end. We seem to tolerate our "stars" hitting near .200 for longer stretches with nowhere near this performance at the monthly or yearly levels, so I'm having a hard time seeing any negatives about Machado.

His agent(s) say the reported numbers were inaccurate and low, and they were very upset this got leaked because it affected their ability to negotiate with the Yankees who were prepared to open the checkbook much further. I suspect the numbers are accurate and this caused the Yankees to rethink what they had on the table...

I plan to show up anyway and press my nose against the window while shivering until someone lets me in.

Machado would immediately become the best and most reliable player on the team. I think this tells us all right there it won't happen. The Twins only upgrade on the margins. We're talking about signing a potential hall of famer who is about to hit his prime years, and in free agency of all things. He has 34 bWAR and he's not even halfway through his career! He is worth 2-3 times any player on the current roster. But, have no fear, if the rumors are true we will all get to see him hit dingers at Target Field often, just in a White Sox uniform. The Twins will also have a nice reitrement ceremony for him to celebrate him dominating the Twins all those years like we saw with some recent retirees from other teams. It'll be fun for all.