Trov

I am not saying the Dodgers did not use the contract Maeda signed to their advantage, but would not call it "Bush League" to do so. Maeda signed the deal, he did not have to, and he knew the possibility of how it could play out. Same thing with the CBA. Sure the owners have worked the deal to their advantage, and the players are not happy about it, but the deal was made and the teams are working within it. Now collusion is another thing, but collusion requires that teams actually worked together to keep pay down, not that they separately decided that the player was not worth the price they wanted. Just because the player feels they are worth a certain value does not mean the teams agree. Teams have changed their valuation process since the last CBA, that is why there will be a work stoppage because players signed a bad deal that is working against them. They did not have the foresight of how it could be manipulated against them. Maybe their union leader should have thought of those things. It is not like the players were conned or anything, they just did not expect the change in thoughts by teams and evaluating players. The fact that they are opposed to a cap and floor means they want the largest part of the revenue pie, while owners are trying to the same. Both sides trying to get more, instead of sharing in the wealth means the other side will get less. It is like sales generally. Stores will charge varying prices and some people will shop around for cheapest price, or price match, but the store is hoping customers will pay more for same product you can get else where.

It will depend on what the trade was for. It was for cash, then no case, in my opinion, if it was for a portion of his actual pay then they may. Some deals as I understand it call for a part of the actual pay, meaning if the player gets suspended and the player does not get paid that portion, then the trading team saves as well. For example, if the deal was for 50% of the actual pay, then the trading team will save. However, if the deal was for just cash, say 5 mil, and the assumption was to pay for a portion of the contract, the deal for 5 mil would still stand.

I did not watch it, but looking at the lineups I cannot help but thinking either one could have a chance this season, but when you take the best of both the lineup has depth. Defense may be a little bit of a question, but if Buck can get back 100% that will help a ton.

In a short season any team can be a thorn for anyone. A single hot streak for hitters in short series or run of hot pitching may swing this whole season for anyone. I would not take any team light. Detroit will be a terrible team still, but they started out hot last year, it is possible they do it again.

It depends on how many games Joe West umpires. There is not a single series that I can think of where Joe West umpired that Gardy was not ejected at least 1 time, sometimes more than that. Joe West goes out of his way to eject people. I get he is crew chief but I have seen him waddle across the whole field to do it.

I have always been huge on character and chemistry when it comes to baseball. It plays some in other sports, but feel baseball is much larger. You basically spend just about every day with the same people from end of February, to hopefully end of October. No work place are you expected to do that. In other sports the season length may be as long, but there are more off days. I also feel the character of teaching the younger players is always important. Some older guys will not do it, in fear it will cost them jobs down the line, or they just do not like doing it. Some guys just cannot teach very well. However, when you can get a guy that can and does it is great. Coaches can only see so much, and sometimes they may not connect to the player like another player can. I believe the Twins staff do a good job of connecting to players because they do not seem them as a one size fits all and fit our plan or leave kind of approach. They see each player as an individual and understands what works for player A may not work for player B.

The men in the industry that put down her passion or warn her to stay away are more afraid of her success than warning of her failure. They fear that her success will lead to more women coming into the area and taking jobs from the men that feel entitled to it. I am glad she managed to get connected to Bauer, a guy that many think is eccentric in his views, but that may be what led to his decision. He is one that bucks the trends and in this case hopefully it leads to great success for her and paves a path for other women that may have been deterred from the warnings of the fearful men that women will take their jobs. Gender has nothing to be with ones ability to perform her job. The only reason she will be stopped is if the men in the industry block her out of it. Keep knocking down those walls Ms. Luba.

I have to commend her for writing the "I can't afford to play this game" piece. She took a huge risk to do this. She is already a small set of women in baseball, and to write about how bad the minor leagues get exploited. She took a huge risk, and now it looks like she is getting huge rewards for it. She could have been blackballed by MLB for bringing to light about minor league players disrupting the MLB minor league system. She helped break the gender wall, and she took a risk that many before her never were willing to do. Good for her, and I hope great things for her in the future.

I would not say Odo is an "ace" because of his lack of dominance and lack of pitching deep into games. He can have good games and good stretches, but his approach to pitching and lack of dominate out pitch holds him back to be an "ace" in my opinion. He will not give into hitters but also lacks the "out" pitch that aces have. He is a good pitcher and glad to have him, but not sold on him leading a rotation. When I think of aces I think of guys that will dominate for 7 plus innings. Odo goes 5 innings most starts maybe 6 if you are lucky. I bet if we get electronic strike zone he may improve because he loves to nibble the corners and if he is not getting calls his strike to ball ratio goes up, even if he is actually hitting zone. I would be interested to see how often he was throwing strikes not called, and balls that were called strikes. I could be wrong but it seems like he had a lot not called that should have been.

Interesting read. You would never think of pitchers or teams talk about these things even about 5 years ago. I like that the team worked with him and hopefully the pitch will work well for him. Many teams years ago would say his slider is terrible just scrap it and go with the other pitches. Twins now are saying you have great spin, lets find a grip and arm slot that works for you. Makes sense to me to develop pitches that will help, instead of just saying lets stick with what ya got. This may be why Falve and company have managed in past to identify pitchers that others have not. Hope this continues for years to come.

I have been a big fan of Eddie for awhile now. He has always hit well at all levels. He is not the typical guy hitting, with his huge chase rate, but good contact on chases. He is a leader in the club house and loves to come through in big situations. You can point out to several times he stepped up in big situations, but you need to accept the bad with the good. For years, people have stated his defense is below average and his decision making on defense is questionable. He thinks he can make every throw, but sometimes he makes poor choices and runners advance. When hot, the man can carry any team and will be feared by all pitchers, because other than behind him, there is no where you can throw a pitch he may not hit a HR on. I once saw him hit a HR on a ball at his eyes. When cold, he will leave you shaking your head wondering what he was thinking. He is who he is and will never change at this point in his career, no matter how much you ask him too. That being said, the question the Twins need to answer is if they feel they have someone as good, or better, in the system. That includes the impact in the clubhouse, something that I feel goes underrated for both positive or negative impacts. I do not see any long term deal in his future at this point. If he has good season this year the Twins will be up for big choice, tender contract or not. My guess, they will not because he is replaceable on the field, and teams may be looking to save money next year because of unknowns of COVID and fans in seats.

It is interesting, this was talked about awhile ago before the summer camp started as a possibility. They cannot do this long term when rosters get down all the way to 26, but may be worth doing for a week or two. I would hope it is not set in stone though and will be adjusted based on game situation. For example, if the starter goes 5 solid innings, but pitch count is where it is time to go, but teams has a couple run lead. I would hope the regular bullpen would get the nod to secure the win. If however, the starter struggles and hits whatever pitch count at say 3 innings I could see a second starter coming in to hopefully get 3 to 5 innings and save the pen. Then as rosters reduce and the starters go longer the plan would be to do normal games. This could also be a plan of say 1-5 and back up 1-5 based on COVID or injury. Of course it would make sense to move guys up to matchup better, but if they are already set up with days of rest that may not be able to happen. Who knows, I cannot read Rocco's mind.

Mitch Garver against Tigers makes most sense. If Gardy and Anderson have same plan as they did when they were leading the Twins pitchers. They told pitchers not to nibble and make hitters put ball in play to get on. Well Mitch has approach to swing at pitches in middle of plate and not swing at borderline pitches. So the approach for Mitch lines up with Gardy plan. They will throw it right down middle to get ahead, or if they fall behind they will then throw down the middle to not walk someone. You may not be able to defend a walk, but you also cannot defend a ball 10 rows back in stands either.

This kid cannot catch a break. Catches a cleat in the turf. Not making some crazy catch in a scrimmage but a normal catch and hurts himself. I hate to call him injury prone, but pretty sure he has injured every body part at this point in his career. It is not that he has a nagging issue that just does not heal, but something new each time it seems like. This could not have been prevented from telling him to not go all out, from how it was described that he caught a cleat. I hope he comes back quickly for his own sake, not just the Twins.

I agree health will be huge, but so will depth. In normal season, you can live with a a star being out for two to four weeks, sure you may lose a few games because of it, but you have a long season to bounce back. This year, no time to bounce back, the playoff race starts now. Think about, by the time the season starts, we would normally be talking about who is in or out on the trade deadline and which teams are going to try to make a push. I believe that this year the deeper franchises will have the best edge. Also, the front offices and managers that will make the quick changes needed. If someone is in a slump you may need to act much quicker on benching them. In most seasons you can give a guy a month to start hitting, not this time, that is half the season. What will be most interesting is to see how surprise teams that get out to hot starts what they do come September. Do they make changes to improve team for playoffs, or ride it out and see what happens? Teams that expected to be good that struggle do they try to make bold moves? My guess is most teams are going to have a plan this year and not deviate from it much. Teams that expect to be a building year will do that, even if they get out to hot start. They will not change out the players that got them there and let them build. Teams that expect to compete will make quick changes to roster and lineups to avoid getting into deep hole if things go badly to start. Teams that expect to compete will pull starters much faster and treat so many games like must win games, because they pretty much are. In a normal season some games become just throw away games. You can tell you are going to lose so you throw out the bullpen guy that needs to work on something to get beat up. You rest the regulars for the next game. It will be hard for any team that wants to compete to just be willing to accept a loss this year. It will be a fun season to watch I think. I just will try to not get too invested.

First, I find some flaws in the article. Cron and Smoak play same position so no way could have signed both. Also, it would have been at expense of Donaldson, he is better than both at a better defensive position. Cron held his own, but was not amazing defense at first, in my opinion. Keuchel is far from his cy young season, other than that season he has never performed all that great. He was good after that season, but it was his age 27 peak season. He is now 32, coming off of 8-8 with a FIP of 4.72. Sox are not know to be great fielding team. Anderson led league in errors at SS.

Lets just hope they are not "Meth Gators" https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/15/us/police-warn-flushing-drugs-create-meth-gators-trnd/index.html

Of the hitters, I would put Celestino as most likely, Kiriloff next, then Lewis. My thinking is Celestino being on 40 man makes him easy to bring in. When Buxton gets hurt, hopefully he can stay healty for 60 games, Celestino is most logical to replace him. Why, because you replace defense with defense. Rest of roster should carry offense, Buxton will hit 9th again most likely so even some drop in offense is not huge. Kiriloff because his bat is MLB ready I believe. He is best offensive ready player so can replace either corner spot or DH/1B situation if needed. Lewis because he is versatile and can play any position, except for catcher, so he will have many chances depending on injury and illness. Jeffers has a chance, but will need something to happen to catchers set ahead of him. Larnich bat may be ready, but based on need an ranking I think he will fall short, may just be based on years in system too.

This season will test the organization philosophy that the players do not need to be baby sat, and they are adults that make their own decisions. Just because they are not playing games or being coached every day, they have the technology to work on things and share videos with coaches. This will be a season of self motivation for many prospects, and I believe that will separate the real prospects from the ones that will flame out. I can see why the Twins are in win this season mode. They planned to do that all along, what makes it different now. They are built to win over next few years too. I am sure they will figure out ways to get increased development of their other prospects they are not keeping an eye on at CHS field. I could see the top pitchers trying to get together with hitters and just playing simulated games basically. Remember when you were kid and only a couple of guys could get together you would ghost runners? Something like that. Hitters can hit against machines. Pitchers can pitch to a backstop, but without a real hitter you have no clue if your pitch is really being effective. You have no clue if you are tipping, or if your have a good sequence. You can build up strength, but so much of pitching is mixing things up, and developing movement on pitches. These have to be tested against live hitters, in my opinion.

First, Pineda situation is not as simple as some would like it to be, see my response in Doc's forum. Romero, until I hear more I am just going to assume the fact it has not resolved is based on the COVID situation and essential government shut down of things like that. I had sent in passport application February, told end of April would be when I would get it. It did not come until end of June. I am sure the Visa situation is not something the government is trying to get done quickly, as they have been banning travel from all kinds of places anyways. As for the 60 man roster, it is much of what I was expecting. I would still like to know if the COVID list will allow someone to join 40 man. I would hate to see Buxton go down with injury then have the one or two viable backups have COVID for period of time and we cannot put a replacement on team. As much as I want baseball back, this will be an interesting season.

I expect either almost no trades at the deadline or some really big trades. First, it will be hard to evaluate history of trades for value of these trades. Normally, we look at years of control and cost of control to help decide what return should be. Less time with team getting player less they would give in return. However, as pointed out, the impact could be even bigger this year. In terms of years of return, we do not what next year will bring, the assumption is full season at full pay, but what about fans. We hope life will revert back to some level of normal by next April, but we do not know. So there may be very reduced fans for next year. Owners will be less likely to want to take on big contracts for next year. Also, there is major expectations of work stoping the year after, so even if you have player under control for that year it may be wasted. That means a team may be less likely to give up a prospect if that year was going to be factored into years of control. Conversely, if a team feels that a player this year will get them over the hump in the crazy season that it is, and trading for a hot player for rental may be worth more than any other year. This could lead teams to making trades you would never expect. I bet, most of the trades in that situation will be international signing money and less of prospects as we have no clue how some players will be developing. The last thing to think about is that most teams see a bump in attendance after a WS win, but if that cannot happen, then will teams want to give up future assets for chance at win in a year of a crap shoot that you will not see a boost in revenue that you normally would.

I am not a fan of the 6 games against natural rival. With only 60 games those 3 game difference can be huge. Brew crew I think will be weaker this year than years past but they always have played us tough. Tigers playing Pirates, I assume is the extra games even thought Cleveland is close to Pittsburgh, but the natural inter state rival against reds makes sense. I assume they are not doing direct flight for "rival" That matchup is a who cares, both will not be good this year most likely. The chicago matchup could play big, and the Ohio matchup. Both Cubs and Reds are decent. Cards will be licking their chops to roll over the Royals. If I was an NL central fan other than Cards I would be very upset with the extra three games they will get.

Kepler v. Bauer at Reds, 4HR game? That place is know to be HR friendly.

Read the article, interesting they will be reducing roster size as season goes. Also, it does not explain how movement off the major league 30 to 28 to 26 squad will work. Do they need to have options available like normal to be moved off active roster to bring in someone eles, I would assume so. If they move a player from the 60 to the 40 will a player on the 40 need to be on 45 IL(if you did not read they dropped 60 to 45 for this season, still whole season basically). What if all your CF are in COVID issues can you swap them off 40 without a DFA and clear waivers. I am sure the league is figuring it all out, but these are questions I have. In terms of who I would include. I would make sure I have at least 2 viable defensive replacements at CF and SS. Assuming the possiblity of injury or illness you are going to want to be able to bring in defensive replacements as soon as possible. The chance of signing a FA to bring in will be reduced because of what they would have to do health screening wise and getting up to speed.

Does anyone know how many regular play by play or color commentators that are female in baseball now? It is great that many reports are out there for women, but what about in the booth calling the game. I know Bert will have the job with Twins until he does not want it, but with the rotation of retired players why not have some females in the booth? Why has it always been a man that calls the game, until very recently? I am looking forward to first female coach. The other major sports have some, no head coaches but assistants, and starting to get some in front offices I believe too. So many females get silenced in sports because the too long held belief that men know more about sports. The talk shows are starting to have more female input, time to get more coaches and more in the regular booth calling games.