Trov

I liked the drill he talked about. I think maybe Twins should make Buxton do that. I am happy about the quote of the hitting plan. Hit strikes hard and don't worry about walks. Mitch Garver took that and ran with it this past year. There was many stories of Twins swing at first pitches, that also backs up the swing hard at strikes approach. Many times the first pitch is the best one you will see, so why take it just to work the count. Look your spot and let it swing, take anything else. Here is to hoping the kid has the true power. His bat is what will make him a player. In terms of where he falls on lists, who cares about those lists. So many people are wrong on those lists, just like so many of us are wrong at our guesses of who will do what.

There has been very few posts about safety. They have a plan it is a 67 page plan that lays out much of what you bring up and much more. However, nothing about this was fighting over what returning would look like. There were some players expressing concerns, but none of the back and forth was if the plan was safe enough.

There is a 67 page safety manual that was drafted at the beginning of this. The players will have to agree to it before returning to play. Part of that has some rule changes, such as the 30 man squads, taxi squad, universal DH, limited travel, and many other things, that should hopefully address the questions you bring up. Maybe it does not. However, it seems the safety issue was either agreed to, or not all that important as other than opt out options for pay safety was never part of any discussion, at least that were leaked to press.

I fear MLS will top MLB and that will be a sad day for me. Imagine U.S. players going to Japan to get paid more and be in the best league around. It just may happen. People only have so much sports money to spend.

By voting no to the 60 game agreement, the players said we will file a grievance. This is because they knew MLB would impose 60 games. The grievance will get ugly. There will be work stoppage in 2022, unless the two sides spend a lot of time having meaningful talks over the next year. What is not clear to me is if the players need to agree to expanded playoffs this year, or if MLB can just force it. Also with DH in NL, does there need to be agreement there? Do the players need to agree to the altered alignment that has been discussed? Can MLB impose a "bubble" plan like they discussed before? With no agreement at all, outside of the full prorated pay, do players need to agree to the other details? What some may not be thinking about is fact we do not know what next year will bring. We hope that there is vaccine by next season and COVID will be in rear view, but at this time we do not know what will be allowed. As states are opening up cases are increasing. Will there be limitations to number of fans next year? If there will be we will be right where we are again. Owners will not do a full season with no fans or even 25% Maybe at 50% but if that still limits the high priced seats and would require more low priced seat sales that may not fly either. I would not be surprised if there is possibly 2 full seasons without baseball. This year and next. Hopefully during that time they can work out something for 22 agreement. If this standoff is any sign of the future things do not look good. As has been talked about, the owners these days are not owning the team as the main way to make money. It is a side investment. What that means is if they are not making money they will not invest. That also means they have less of an interest to make sure games happen. Think about it. If are a billionare without the team, why would you need the team? What I am getting at is the owners can out wait the players, should they decide. Most of the players cannot go 2 seasons without pay. Some cannot even go 1 season without pay. Very few people will budget for that, when you are expecting income coming in, plus they are not making the millions that the top players are making. Most are in the first three year pay levels, and when you take out taxes and agent fees, and other people you employ, what a player takes home in first three years is not a ton. Yes, it is better than many who watch, but the point is, they are not able to rest making nothing. In the end, the owners always have the power because they can survive with not making money from the business of baseball, where most of the players do not make money unless they are playing baseball. I hope both sides get heads out of you know where and work together. I doubt it will happen but here is to hoping.

Heard a Doogie rumor that Sabato is in town and as long as physical goes well he is expected to sign above slot value.

First, I am for removal of all statutes that promote people that oppressed others, or backed the oppression of others. To simply say, well it was that time, demesnes what people went through. You can understand why they said what they said, but you do not need to honor them as well. For people that believe we need to have these symbols for history purposes, there are places for them in museums for people to choose to see them, not in public accessed areas where you are forced to see them. It is important to learn from history, and you can use example like Mr. Griffith to learn from. Mainly, that what you say and do can come back to haunt you years later. Some may change their ways over the years and are not the same as the person who said or did what they are being condemned for, but you still cannot take back what you said or did. I personally had never heard of his comments back then, before I was born, and did not know that is what led to Carew being traded. Not that I had high thoughts of Mr. Griffith to being with, but this lowers them even more. Sure, you can say it was a different time and it was accepted to say those things back then so let it slide. But if you let it slide now, then you will continue to let it slide and the message that is sent is that it is okay to say those things and not get any backlash for it. The Twins made a decision to remove a statute because of one of three reasons. Possible a little of all three. One, they did it so prevent any negative press that would look bad in the future and hurt their bottom dollar. Two, they wanted to make it be know they are forward thinking and accepting of social change, in hopes of getting good press to have people come to games in future to help their bottom dollar. Three, they truly feel this is a good message to inform people that they will not tolerate any racists no matter when or by whom. Mr. Griffith's comments were over 40 years ago. However, his words still get echoed by many people to this day. He most likely was not an overt racist, as Rod Carew stated he did not believe Mr. Griffith was. He seemed to be stating it was a business decision and it was a racially biased business decision. It could have been stated they were moved because he believed there would be greater fan support and left it at that. However, he basically called black people violent by stating they go see wrestling in stead of baseball. This shows the ignorant racism that goes on in the country. That is so deep in system that we just accept it. I for one, and wish it did not have to be said as a white man, am glad light is finally being shined on some of these issues and people are finally willing to stand up against the racist white people, overt or covert, that let those words of hate fester and get desensitized to it until we just accept it. I am even more proud today to be a Twins fan than I ever have been. If I had learned of the comments of Mr. Griffin before today even more so when the statute went up, something I barely knew of as well, I would have been ashamed to be a Twins fan. Racism was through baseball for a very long time. There is still very few black people that choose to play baseball compared to other sports. It takes many generations for wounds to heal and to drive out the kind of thinking Mr. Griffin thought. I am glad the Twins, without protest, decided to it. For the fans that are not happy, maybe you should take a good look in the mirror as to how you really feel about black people. I personally hope it will drive you from going to games so I will not have to share the same space with you, and subject my family to your way of thinking.

If we even get there. From what I have read the owners thought there was a deal at 60, then players say no no no, that was just a proposal from your side. We want 10 more games, and some more money too. So some owners, who barely agreed to go to 60 are now not happy. Will they split in the middle at 65? Makes sense, but nothing during this process has made sense. Can 10 games really stand in the way? Can 5 games really stand in the way? The 10 games is about 8.4 million per team. Not a whole lot, but it just seems like both sides want to say yeah we won this one. With the amount of money the owners have it is like fighting over a few bucks to most of us. The thing is, these guys are business people that do deals all the time and want to feel they won the deal. Players have felt like they have been on losing end of deals for past decade now and they are fed up. However, should the owners operate at a loss simply because they can? No business plan calls for losing money. You do not own a business and let it run at a loss for extended periods of time simply because your other businesses make money and you will be fine. You run a business to make money. How many stock holders of a business are okay with their stock prices going down because the business is losing money?

If defense was not a thing, Kirilloff would be tops. I have huge expectations for that kid on the offense side. From what I have heard he is average defense, but offense he could be amazing. If he can stay healthy. Not calling him injury prone but he missed a seasons with tommy john not common for a fielder. He has missed several stints last year with different injuries I believe. I am huge on him and think he will be middle of line up hitter for years.

With the hopes that this last offer will get it done or very close to it. I am not sure how much of the past talks about 30 man rosters and taxi squads and how all that will work are in it. I assume they are. If that is the case they could march out a 6 man rotation, provided the starters work well with that. I know some guys in past say that is too much rest than they are used too. The pineda question of how many games he will have to serve is a big question. I believe he was at about 60 left, do not fully recall. If he is asked to serve them all, as the punishment is for the number of games, but that was with expectation of full season. It would make sense that the punishment would be for the percentage of season he was suppose to miss. If he can come back after about 20 games and play rest of season that would be good for playoff. If he needs to miss most of season no way should you just throw him in playoffs, assuming we make it.

I have a feeling Jeffers will be high on lists next year. As long as he can hold up on defensive side he looks like he will hit at a level that will be top end of catchers at MLB level for a few years.

It will be interesting what Twins do with Javier next year. He was available for rule 5 I believe this year and went undrafted, mainly he was still young and no team was willing to put him on Roster for full year, bet if you could go back some teams may have changed mind now. A team may be willing to take him next year just to take a look at him. If he was not so highly touted as a 16 year old he would not be in top 20 lists anywhere.

98's was one of the first seasons I really started to pay attention to the Twins, or most sports generally. I was young passive fan before it, remembering little things here and there. It was not the HR race that brought me in, just my age. I remember Otis Nixon playing and thinking he looks like he is 80. He was 39, but his face looked like he was 80.

I have not looked into the expected quality of the players that have signed. More of a deep dive than I am willing to invest in. However, it is interesting to see which teams have signed the number they have. First, it is small investment to bring someone in so very little risk, even for the, liquid cash strapped teams, a little bit of jest there. I would agree with assessments that teams with not as deep of farm systems would be best, or systems known for developing certain type of players. For some, it may be where would they by playing in minors next year, closer to family ect. Many things would go into a decision when each team has same cash offer.

Maybe a give away is a tear apart doll. I remember there being tear apart ref dolls in football.

One thought that just popped in head. Is there anything to stop a team from signing an undrafted kid to the 20K Then turn around right away and sign them to a long term MLB contract? Of course I assume they need to be on 40 man so that would be an issue, but just thinking outside the box to get around the 20K issue. I could see some teams for juniors that they are high on do something like this. However, it would have been more likely they would have just drafted them too. Just wondering if there is a loop hole that can be exploited.

This years signings will be interesting. With so much up in the air for next year, and an expected high number of players going to college, that being all undrafted high school players. Teams really will not be able to do as much moving money around. Half the rounds really makes that an issue. When you have 10 rounds you can take little from several players to add up to larger for one. When you have 4 players like Twins, cannot move as much money.

Some pretty good players on that list. Kubel if he would not have tore is knee up early in career may have been crazy good. I know he played for years and did very well, one of my favorite for the time. No one I would have preferred with bases loaded. It sure is interesting to think about how so many people got drafted ahead of these guys. It goes to show how crazy hard it is to predict future development of players. So often you draft on potential upside by looking at physical size, and attributes. You see the wholes, and you just hope they will get fixed. Some times you see a guy like Radke, never had great velocity, but he knew how to pitch. I am sure many drafted ahead of him, never made much of an impact. They most likely had higher velocity or taller. He just knew how to pitch. Just looked up his draft too, we had number 3 Dave Mccarty, passed on Man ram, Shawn Green, Demitri Young, to name a few. Got Hawk in same draft though. I bet if you look deeper, many of the guys were from smaller areas or cold weather places that would not get much scouts to. I think these days with show cases, and the ability to have digital tape in high def with use of programs to look at the spin rates, launch angles ect. there will be much less of the late round bloomers. They will still happen, because you can never interview them all to know their heart and desire to be the best. So little separate so many, and the small things like desire will make a big difference.

I believe Twins felt he was best available, he may not have been a position of need with several bat first guys that are likely to be first base or DH in future. However, if the power is legit as it seems, that just adds to the stock of players we can deal from too. Right now in the league first base is not the offensive position it normally is, so a lot of teams may be willing to deal to fill those holes in the near future. Not saying they drafted him just to trade later. Cruz will be gone in a year or two, most likely, unless he the next Julio Franco. So then Sano most likely will be DH and you have Rooker, and now Sabato to fill in first. Kiriloff has got some time there too. If you can hit, they will find a spot for you.

The Doc Gooden one stings because maybe if he was living in mid-west he could have stayed clean, not saying he would have but being in different environment could have helped. Big Mac does not hurt, for two reasons. We many not have got bert back to win the 87 series, and Big Mac most likely would have been traded as well because he would have been blocked by Hrbek. Trout hurts a ton. Of course may pass on him, but when you miss on best of all time it will sting. At least Gibson did make the majors unlike the first and last on your list. Think about Trout and Yelich on the same team? Well in reality no way would Twins have signed both to the contract they have gotten, but for a few years man that could have been a nice lineup. Of course, we never know if the Twins would have made them develop the same way.

I think drafting best available always the way to go. I hate hearing people say we need this position right now so should draft that position. Normally, no one drafted will contribute for at least 2 years or more normally. There are the rare college guys that need less time, depending on organization. Also, for hitters, if they can play CF or SS they can play other positions. I think high end high school guys are always a good way to go with all things being equal. Pitchers are so volatile, and from high school even more so. It is so hard to predict how some guys will adjust to better competition. Personally, I would want to interview and talk to the players. Of course physical skills are important, but feel baseball, unlike some other sports, work ethic and ability to adjust and learn is huge and makes all the difference. Yeah if kid throws 100 you cannot teach that, but if he does not know a second pitch and cannot learn a second pitch, the velocity will only go so far. If a hitter crushes only fastballs but cannot hit or pick up a breaking pitch, teams will learn to never throw a fastball to him. At least if the player is athletic he can hopefully give value with that. Take Buxton, he has huge swing issues and offensive issues, but his athletic ability raises his value on defense so much we can take less offense from him.

I wrote awhile ago in comments that I do not expect many to sign, much like the article here pointed out. Too much up in the air. The main question will be what is expectations of college and would it be too late to find a college to go to for the high school kids that were expecting to be drafted but were not. Are they willing to commit 3 years? If I had a kid that was not drafted and college was an option I would advise him to go to college. This goes against what I normally would advise if the bonus is big enough, like over 100K go pro, if you really believe in yourself. Many times guys turn down high school offers and go college get drafted first round sign 7 figure bonus and flop. I just feel the questions about what minors will look like have too many questions for a 20K bonus.

You clearly side with the players by highlighting the "agreement" of prorated pay. However, there is much debate as to the specifics of the agreement. One side says it was with the assumption fans would be in seats. The other says it was not with that assumption. If the owners are even close with the numbers they claim that 40% of revenue comes from fans in seats, then clearly the owners would have assumed the deal for full prorated was based on fans being in the seats. I have not read the actual agreement, but have heard the two arguments and both seem to have some weight. The important thing, is that the owners have the ability to pick the amount of games at the full prorated pay. You also mention the opt out of worried players, but fail to include the full pay for "high risk" players who opt out, and the players get to decided who is considered "high risk" with the league getting NO say. Therefore, the players could say if any member of their family, even if they do not live with them but may come in contact with them is high risk the player can opt out for full pay. So if they have a member of their family over 60 they could most likely opt out. How many players do not have that?

I expect the 50 game season will be what happens, if anything at this point. Players will not accept anything less than full prorated pay, and owners are not willing to pay more than 50 games at that amount. With the extended playoffs it would be interesting to see how teams will set up to hopefully make good run to playoffs. I also wonder if fans will give same boost for the next year coming off a WS win. That is one of the main things that teams get to talk about WS champs and sell more tickets, but at this point who would buy tickets for next year?

I wish the players you mentioned drafted after you had put where they were drafted. You make it seem they were very near them, but my guess that is not the case. Josh Hamilton was a bust for the Rays in that draft as well. I have stated many times, everyone misses in drafts and have the wish we would have taken this guy. How many teams are kicking themselves for missing on Trout? Yes this was three years in a row of high picks but very rare will a player be a lock. Even early on the Mauer draft people said the Twins screwed up, but now years down the road he was the better pick.