Vanimal46

The go-live date for the Twin Cities is September 26. Wolves and Wild games will be available. The Twins likely for 2023 season.

He was just promoted to St Paul today, so maybe there’s a chance.

I would argue they haven’t invested in enough people, not specifically money, in recent seasons. Even the highest paid relievers go through bad seasons, and bad investments like that can anchor a team like the Twins. Edwin Diaz, for example has ERAs of 5.59, 1.75, 3.45, and 1.33 during his Mets tenure. We simply can’t hide a $10-15 million reliever if he ends up with a 5+ ERA. Id rather go with the quantity over perceived quality approach in the bullpen. We should be more aggressive calling up fringe SP prospects and transition them to the pen. We should sign 4 or 5 Joe Smith types instead of 1. And shuffle through them until a couple over perform.

I agree, the Twins are in a good position to take on a risky investment such as a top of the rotation arm. I’d have no problem giving Verlander or DeGrom $40+ million on a short term deal. We can also look creatively in the trade market taking on a large expiring contract from teams looking to shed costs. Such as Yu Darvish, Blake Snell, Zach Wheeler, etc. To answer the question can you think of a better place to invest given the # of pre-arb players on roster, I still think SS is the answer. Royce Lewis looked promising, but it is a very small sample size of 41 MLB PAs, 153 AAA PAs. I think the team would be much better depth wise if Lewis came back as a super utility playing CF when Buxton requires time off, 3B if Miranda needs a day off or shuffles to 1B, even the corner OF spots. It’s a big risk to rely on him as the every day SS. If Correa gets red hot in September, he’ll certainly opt out. If he remains a sub .800 OPS player, that’s a toss up… Boras may suggest opting back in for $35 mill and try their luck for a big contract after the 2023 season. Beyond SS, a large investment could be made at C if we’re interested, and perhaps an upgrade in RF over Kepler.

I believe you’ve compiled years of data that highlight how poor of an investment free agent pitching is. So I am shocked, frankly, that you’re suggesting to do so.

You’ve never received a fungus after a haircut that required a steroid? Clearly you’re not living the multi-millionaire life. It’s all the rage!

Like every player who’s been popped for PEDs… Deny, deny, deny when you’re on a long term, life changing money contract. Take the short term hate and people will forget soon enough.

Checking the score during commercial breaks of Better Call Saul. Glad to see we’re winning. Of course Joe Ryan pulled at 80 pitches. God forbid he throws another pitch after that.

Even more absurd than the first excuse.

In theory yes, there are not many relievers in baseball anymore who are consistently good month after month, year after year. Even guys like Kenley Jansen who are multi time all stars have bad years then find it again. They are the kings of SSS and I am in agreement with Falvine’s philosophy of not spending big money on the position. The problem in recent years is not moving on quickly enough from veteran relievers. Colomé stuck around all of 2021 after his horrific start to the season. Pagan is still here when he’s been the root cause of 6+ losses. If you’re going to rely on your pen completing 4 innings every game, you need a large stable of arms to rotate through, and have a quick hook when it doesn’t work out.

After the 1st preseason game I like the RB depth. Chandler looks like he can play right away. Mond is still worth investing reps and development time. However, if he’s the true backup and is thrusted into action mid game, or multiple weeks, he’s going to get exposed immediately. If he was our starter for 17 games, we’d be lucky to win 3.

Chris Archer also has a mutual option for $10 million next season. I’m sure he’d love to get paid that much to “start” for 3-4 innings, but he’ll likely be out too. With minimal progression from the pitching prospects, we’ll be in the market for 2 or 3 starters again this winter.

Watched part of the Vikings preseason game and went grocery shopping instead of watching the Twins. Sweet corn in Minnesota right now is top notch ? If Kepler is still trying to play through a broken toe, he is not doing anyone any favors by doing so. If he’s healthy, we’ve got much bigger issues. I was thinking before it’d be fun to attend another game at TF during this unprecedented home stretch of games. Now, it doesn’t seem to be worth the trouble.

The Twins team I witnessed with excitement and optimism in April and May feels like a distant memory now. They’re just not fun to watch these days. I don’t know if Kepler is still hurt or what, because he’s been awful with the bat. Concur with @Aggies7there should be a major shakeup with the supporting coaching staff after the season.

Not a good look for Tatis Jr.

Chicago lost to KC today. They’re in free fall.

This preseason there were 10 pitching prospects in TD’s top 20 prospect list. Several of them on the cusp of an MLB call up if things progressed correctly. Duran and Joe Ryan are the only ones who have surfaced and made an impact on the MLB roster. The rest have taken massive steps backwards or continue to get injured. I expected 1 or 2 more out of the Sands, Balazovic, Canterino, Winder, Strotman, SWR group. 5 years into the project (forgoing the lost development year in 2020) and minimal results… I’m pretty disappointed with the results when that was the main reason why Falvey was hired.

I’m all caught up on Better Call Saul before the series finale on Monday. They really kicked things into gear during the last season which I appreciate. I think previously they were slow playing Jimmy McGill’s transition to Saul Goodman too much. The writers have been excellent dripping in Breaking Bad nuggets, and Kim Wexler is an excellent character in the show.

It’s been known for some time that it’s either win the division or be out of the playoffs. 85 wins is probably going to be enough to win the Central and all 3 teams are capable of doing it. We’ve got a fairly easy 10 game stretch against LAA, KC and Texas. Winning 7 or more out of 10 is crucial.

Brutal. Good luck to him in his recovery.

Getting every team on the same financial ground is one thing. A step in the right direction. Step 2 is even more crucial… Incentivizing teams to actually try. That will hold another set of challenges. One of the reasons I stopped watching the Timberwolves many years ago was knowing they have virtually no shot at signing a star free agent. That still holds true today. They’ve had to overpay for mediocre talent to come to undesirable destinations. Will the Reds be any more competitive spending to a salary cap floor when all they can attract is Dylan Bundy types? Or trade for bloated contracts?

Yeah, competitive balance is a big problem in sports. I hoped that a salary floor would have been a higher priority during the last CBA negotiations to offset the haves and have nots. I don’t believe a salary cap will fix anything, because as we’re seeing in other sports like basketball and hockey, the cap can be manipulated. For example, it may take $35 million for the Twins to sign Carlos Correa. But in the salary cap world, he could choose to sign with the Yankees for $20 million and recruit another top player to join him for $15 million. Knowing that winning a championship will bring endorsement deals to offset the salary lost.

It is not. He pitched 140 innings last year. He’s only at 90 innings this year. He’s just not a TOR arm when many people here pranced around claiming he was after the Cruz trade.

Buxton would have made that catch.