With the Twins season now over, we'll start our annual "Rewind" feature tomorrow. This year, we'll look at the 2002 Twins, the first of the "Get to Know 'Em" teams to win the division. A lot of us should remember this team, so I hope you'll put lots of stories, memories, thoughts, etc. in the comments. There is no off-season at the WGOM!
Now that I'm 37 and have 2 kids I can't remember what I had for breakfast!
Can't wait Padre. Let me be the first to say Free Johan!!
I'd like to see sean's final comparison graph of the season
Thanks for reminding for this year.
For 2002, what comparison seasons do you want? I can think of 2001, but any others?
Lynx. That's what's on. For one more game.
Final game of the series is on tonight.
I think it should be pointed out that for all the criticism Derek Falvey took for "giving up on his team", the trade deadline deals have worked out great so far. You really can't argue that Garcia and Kintzler would have raised the Twins even to the first wild card, and they'd have had zero effect on the game last night, so the trades did not hurt the Twins a bit this year. For the future, they acquired three players who look like they'll be able to help down the road. I don't expect the critics to ever admit it, but Falvey comes out of those trades looking really good.
Closers are almost always overrated. Falvey did well.
I'm with stick.
Totes.
Kintzler's probably pretty happy about it right about now, as well.
Agreed.
I don't regularly listen to SI's The Narrative podcast, but their "The Giants Go West" episode caught my eye yesterday. Minneapolis was mentioned in the first fifteen seconds, so I thought I was going to get some of that part of the story. Nope.
It was still an okay episode, but this chapter of Minnesota baseball history interests me (particularly the counterfactual of NL baseball in – and Willie Mays' return to – Minneapolis), so I was disappointed.
So, not that I am looking for free legal advice, but anybody got any (good advice)? What are our rights vis-a-vis the insurance company for the driver who totalled my wife's car?
We are anticipating being lowballed.
IIRC, don't the insurance companies typically work that out themselves, such that your insurance company needs to be satisfied with what their's is offering, and since it's all industry insiders making the deals, good luck to anyone standing outside who wants to say something different?
Yea, so far, their company (Liberty Mutual) and ours (State Farm) seem to be regarding market value for her car as some sort of state secret. Our agent has seemed rather uninterested in providing us with much service, and theirs has been downright unresponsive.
that said, we have to have SOME rights in this situation. right? right? As in, we've agreed to nothing in writing, and, I suppose, could take the other party to court. Which benefits nobody but the lawyers.
I just want a fair settlement and some customer service. Is that too much to ask? (don't answer that; obviously it is)
Might you be able to light a fire under your agent's posterior by making some noise about looking for a new insurer after this is resolved if you don't feel your claim has been satisfied?
Will that really work? I don't know much about it but it seems like property and casualty insurers have so many clients that they don't really care about losing one.
When I totaled my car last fall, I got a pretty embarrassing offer at first and told my claims agent that I was fine with my car being stored (and them paying storage fees) until they could get me a number that would satisfy me. They had some convoluted formula by J.D. Power that found "comparable" vehicles and arrived at a number based on that. Most of the comparables were... not comparable, of course. I had the benefit of being able to be without a car for a few weeks with the timing of my accident, and eventually they gave in. It was frustrating.
Does California have an insurance commissioner? I have found that contacting the Washington state insurance commissioner's office has at times been really helpful.
California does indeed have an (elected) insurance commissioner.
As it turns out, Liberty Mutual got back to the Mrs today (after days of her calling them and getting the runaround). Offer was, IMO, a lowball, but not ridiculously so.
Their report cites three comparables: all the same model, but not the same year (one the same year, two that were a model year newer) and with varying mileages. Two were for vehicles on Autotrader with somewhat higher mileages (132K and 112K, respectively, compared to our 102K). The third was for a 2005 model year (ours is 2004) with only 62K. They averaged across the three (list prices plus/minus some options and mileage adjustments). The first two were list prices, the third, an actual sales price.
I'm guessing that we won't have much wiggle room to get more out of them.
As to CH's question above, we have not filed a claim with our insurer. The other driver was at fault and we are dealing with his insurer. Not much room to threaten to change insurers there. 🙁
So last night...
Sheenie wasn't in the room until after Kepler doubled in the first inning. (Doing bedtime.) She left again when Buxton came up in the third, and returned just after. (Grabbing a and in the kitchen.) Then she left with the bases loaded in the seventh and no outs, and returned for the Hicks walk. (Decided to walk the dog.) She seriously missed eight plate appearances of the whole game, and the Twins outscored the Yankees 4-0 during those eight plate appearances. Ouch.
Should have walked the dog to Duluth and back.
A case I handled at the district court is having oral arguments in front of the Minnesota Supreme Court right now. That's pretty fun.
Damn my meeting schedule!
I'm not there arguing it; I passed out off when I switched divisions awhile ago.
Getting beat by the Yankees in the playoffs again is a great reminder why I spend so much less time following baseball. 5 of the top 10 payrolls are in the playoffs. 1 of the bottom 10 payrolls (the Twins), barely made it and was eliminated by a team that spent twice its payroll.
I will be rooting for the Clevelands and Houstons that remain in the playoffs but they are playing different games. No matter how young their core, they can't truly keep their teams together in the long term, and if they hit any bumps in the road, they can't just sign an elite free agent (or three) to patch a hole.
Allowing some teams to spend $100M more than other teams, year on year on year, is just as asinine as it would be to allow teams to pay for a 4th outfielder so they can play 10v9.
They could have done something about this by now, but as long as they have no interest in solving this, I'll have little interest in their product.
Regarding this obvious(?) lack of parity, I love the game of baseball enough that I've been able to put up a mental block of sorts. It's showing cracks. I attended fewer games this year than my wife did, and took my children to not a one.
Same. I enjoy watching baseball enough that I can overlook the title hunt issues.
The only team left in the AL I want to see in the World Series is Houston, though. I just cannot root for Cleveland because of that logo.
Dido.
I'm rooting for Houston the rest of the way.
I will admit that I am rooting for a sweep out of the Clevelanders. I do not want the Yankees to have nice things, and winning a one game playoff, only to be annihilated in three noncompetitive games when the "real" playoffs start? That would be just about perfect.
I don't like their name or logo, either, but the only reason they are allowed to have that name is that the league office and the other 29 teams are totally fine with it (I would imagine Atlanta specifically). Either we boycott the league or we accept that it's part of the product we consume--not supporting an out-of-market team isn't going to make any difference.
But, unless I'm mistaken, last year they purposely wore that logo during the entire playoffs because Manfred said there would be "discussions" about it after the season, so while I agree the league is complicit, the team itself is still very much responsible for it.
That said, I'm just stating who I'll be rooting for. I'm not going to actually support any team left. I only need one hat, after all.
My main point is just that even if Cleveland is responsible for it in the first place, we are all complicit. If you attend or watch a game involving Cleveland, some of those proceeds go to that club. If you ever bought an mlb.tv subscription--like I did for many years--some of that money goes to Cleveland. They aren't going to change until it hurts them financially.
MLB's media partners could be better about putting pressure on this situation, too. Imagine if ESPN never mentioned Cleveland's or Atlanta's baseball teams, refused to broadcast their games, and they published standings that removed all games involving those teams.
It's easy for me to say I don't like it--harder for me to do something that actually matters about it, and I'm as guilty as anyone on this.
I went to a couple AAA games this year, but no MLB games. Saved a lot of time and money in the process. I love baseball as a game but I don't think MLB loves me.
I keep vacillating between optimism and pessimism for next season. A health Sano, a full year of improved Buxton, etc. Should be great! But if injuries, or the league catches up to them... will be painful to miss the playoffs. Etc.
I'm very interested to see what Falvey does. There appear to be some good pitchers potentially available. I want one.
The Tigers and White Sox are in full rebuild mode and the Royals are losing basically half their starting lineup and were already near the bottom of the league in offense. The Twins and Indians will have a big advantage vs. the rest of the AL playing all those teams 18 times each, so I could see the Twins making a pretty substantial improvement again just because of a soft schedule. I don't see them passing the Indians at this point, barring a lot of injury luck, but I wouldn't be surprised at them getting the wildcard game at home next year. Hopefully, it will be like the Game 163s in '08 and '09 with the Twins losing the first on the road and winning the second at home.
I find it interesting how thrilled Yankee fans seem to be over winning a game that they spent all day yesterday saying was a foregone conclusion.
🤔
Probably because it didn't seem quite so inevitable 5 minutes into the game.
From LEN3 on Molitor:
Paul Molitor was asked after the game about his future, but he declined to answer the question. His fate is in the hands of CBO Derek Falvey and GM Thad Levine, and I would not be surprised if they let him go after the season. There's been some rumblings about that in recent weeks. Plus, Falvine is unpredictable.
That wouldn't surprise me at all. All the "he won 85 games with a team that lost 103 last year" people seem to forget that he was the manager last year.
True, but he had the team in contention till the final weekend the season before. They won 70 games the year before he came, so essentially the team has improved by a net 15 games in his 3 seasons but he has a losing record overall. I'm not enamored with the guy but I'm not sure how many managers would have done better. Other than bunting too much, he seems to manage games pretty well.
I think there's really two factors that matter here:
1) Is Molitor on board with what Falvey and Levine want to do?
2) How do the players feel about Molitor?
If the players will play for Molitor and Molitor is willing to support the direction the FO takes, then I think a change is as likely to cause damage as it is to help the team. But if Molitor doesn't support the FO or the players don't respect Molitor, then I think it makes sense to make a change. Managers don't matter much, but you at least want to avoid any toxic relationships up and down the chain of command.
I think a third factor is 3) Do Falvey and Levine already have a replacement in mind?
Grabbing a bite in transit to Lancaster PA, currently <40 miles from NYC. I can smell the flop sweat from last night's game from here.
NY tollways are two thumbs up; PA highways road construction su-ucks. Plus goram Garmin.
Listening to the light jazz instrumental band warm-ups in the hotel central atrium area drift through our window -- "Breakdown". Nice tribute.
Don't bunt on Madison Bumgarner or he'll kick the ball across San Francisco 😂
With the Twins season now over, we'll start our annual "Rewind" feature tomorrow. This year, we'll look at the 2002 Twins, the first of the "Get to Know 'Em" teams to win the division. A lot of us should remember this team, so I hope you'll put lots of stories, memories, thoughts, etc. in the comments. There is no off-season at the WGOM!
Now that I'm 37 and have 2 kids I can't remember what I had for breakfast!
Can't wait Padre. Let me be the first to say Free Johan!!
I'd like to see sean's final comparison graph of the season
Thanks for reminding for this year.
For 2002, what comparison seasons do you want? I can think of 2001, but any others?
Lynx. That's what's on. For one more game.
Final game of the series is on tonight.
I think it should be pointed out that for all the criticism Derek Falvey took for "giving up on his team", the trade deadline deals have worked out great so far. You really can't argue that Garcia and Kintzler would have raised the Twins even to the first wild card, and they'd have had zero effect on the game last night, so the trades did not hurt the Twins a bit this year. For the future, they acquired three players who look like they'll be able to help down the road. I don't expect the critics to ever admit it, but Falvey comes out of those trades looking really good.
Closers are almost always overrated. Falvey did well.
I'm with stick.
Totes.
Kintzler's probably pretty happy about it right about now, as well.
Agreed.
I don't regularly listen to SI's The Narrative podcast, but their "The Giants Go West" episode caught my eye yesterday. Minneapolis was mentioned in the first fifteen seconds, so I thought I was going to get some of that part of the story. Nope.
It was still an okay episode, but this chapter of Minnesota baseball history interests me (particularly the counterfactual of NL baseball in – and Willie Mays' return to – Minneapolis), so I was disappointed.
So, not that I am looking for free legal advice, but anybody got any (good advice)? What are our rights vis-a-vis the insurance company for the driver who totalled my wife's car?
We are anticipating being lowballed.
IIRC, don't the insurance companies typically work that out themselves, such that your insurance company needs to be satisfied with what their's is offering, and since it's all industry insiders making the deals, good luck to anyone standing outside who wants to say something different?
Yea, so far, their company (Liberty Mutual) and ours (State Farm) seem to be regarding market value for her car as some sort of state secret. Our agent has seemed rather uninterested in providing us with much service, and theirs has been downright unresponsive.
that said, we have to have SOME rights in this situation. right? right? As in, we've agreed to nothing in writing, and, I suppose, could take the other party to court. Which benefits nobody but the lawyers.
I just want a fair settlement and some customer service. Is that too much to ask? (don't answer that; obviously it is)
Might you be able to light a fire under your agent's posterior by making some noise about looking for a new insurer after this is resolved if you don't feel your claim has been satisfied?
Will that really work? I don't know much about it but it seems like property and casualty insurers have so many clients that they don't really care about losing one.
When I totaled my car last fall, I got a pretty embarrassing offer at first and told my claims agent that I was fine with my car being stored (and them paying storage fees) until they could get me a number that would satisfy me. They had some convoluted formula by J.D. Power that found "comparable" vehicles and arrived at a number based on that. Most of the comparables were... not comparable, of course. I had the benefit of being able to be without a car for a few weeks with the timing of my accident, and eventually they gave in. It was frustrating.
Does California have an insurance commissioner? I have found that contacting the Washington state insurance commissioner's office has at times been really helpful.
California does indeed have an (elected) insurance commissioner.
As it turns out, Liberty Mutual got back to the Mrs today (after days of her calling them and getting the runaround). Offer was, IMO, a lowball, but not ridiculously so.
Their report cites three comparables: all the same model, but not the same year (one the same year, two that were a model year newer) and with varying mileages. Two were for vehicles on Autotrader with somewhat higher mileages (132K and 112K, respectively, compared to our 102K). The third was for a 2005 model year (ours is 2004) with only 62K. They averaged across the three (list prices plus/minus some options and mileage adjustments). The first two were list prices, the third, an actual sales price.
I'm guessing that we won't have much wiggle room to get more out of them.
As to CH's question above, we have not filed a claim with our insurer. The other driver was at fault and we are dealing with his insurer. Not much room to threaten to change insurers there. 🙁
So last night...
Sheenie wasn't in the room until after Kepler doubled in the first inning. (Doing bedtime.) She left again when Buxton came up in the third, and returned just after. (Grabbing a and in the kitchen.) Then she left with the bases loaded in the seventh and no outs, and returned for the Hicks walk. (Decided to walk the dog.) She seriously missed eight plate appearances of the whole game, and the Twins outscored the Yankees 4-0 during those eight plate appearances. Ouch.
Should have walked the dog to Duluth and back.
A case I handled at the district court is having oral arguments in front of the Minnesota Supreme Court right now. That's pretty fun.
Damn my meeting schedule!
I'm not there arguing it; I passed out off when I switched divisions awhile ago.
Getting beat by the Yankees in the playoffs again is a great reminder why I spend so much less time following baseball. 5 of the top 10 payrolls are in the playoffs. 1 of the bottom 10 payrolls (the Twins), barely made it and was eliminated by a team that spent twice its payroll.
I will be rooting for the Clevelands and Houstons that remain in the playoffs but they are playing different games. No matter how young their core, they can't truly keep their teams together in the long term, and if they hit any bumps in the road, they can't just sign an elite free agent (or three) to patch a hole.
Allowing some teams to spend $100M more than other teams, year on year on year, is just as asinine as it would be to allow teams to pay for a 4th outfielder so they can play 10v9.
They could have done something about this by now, but as long as they have no interest in solving this, I'll have little interest in their product.
Regarding this obvious(?) lack of parity, I love the game of baseball enough that I've been able to put up a mental block of sorts. It's showing cracks. I attended fewer games this year than my wife did, and took my children to not a one.
Same. I enjoy watching baseball enough that I can overlook the title hunt issues.
The only team left in the AL I want to see in the World Series is Houston, though. I just cannot root for Cleveland because of that logo.
Dido.
I'm rooting for Houston the rest of the way.
I will admit that I am rooting for a sweep out of the Clevelanders. I do not want the Yankees to have nice things, and winning a one game playoff, only to be annihilated in three noncompetitive games when the "real" playoffs start? That would be just about perfect.
I don't like their name or logo, either, but the only reason they are allowed to have that name is that the league office and the other 29 teams are totally fine with it (I would imagine Atlanta specifically). Either we boycott the league or we accept that it's part of the product we consume--not supporting an out-of-market team isn't going to make any difference.
But, unless I'm mistaken, last year they purposely wore that logo during the entire playoffs because Manfred said there would be "discussions" about it after the season, so while I agree the league is complicit, the team itself is still very much responsible for it.
That said, I'm just stating who I'll be rooting for. I'm not going to actually support any team left. I only need one hat, after all.
My main point is just that even if Cleveland is responsible for it in the first place, we are all complicit. If you attend or watch a game involving Cleveland, some of those proceeds go to that club. If you ever bought an mlb.tv subscription--like I did for many years--some of that money goes to Cleveland. They aren't going to change until it hurts them financially.
MLB's media partners could be better about putting pressure on this situation, too. Imagine if ESPN never mentioned Cleveland's or Atlanta's baseball teams, refused to broadcast their games, and they published standings that removed all games involving those teams.
It's easy for me to say I don't like it--harder for me to do something that actually matters about it, and I'm as guilty as anyone on this.
I went to a couple AAA games this year, but no MLB games. Saved a lot of time and money in the process. I love baseball as a game but I don't think MLB loves me.
I keep vacillating between optimism and pessimism for next season. A health Sano, a full year of improved Buxton, etc. Should be great! But if injuries, or the league catches up to them... will be painful to miss the playoffs. Etc.
I'm very interested to see what Falvey does. There appear to be some good pitchers potentially available. I want one.
The Tigers and White Sox are in full rebuild mode and the Royals are losing basically half their starting lineup and were already near the bottom of the league in offense. The Twins and Indians will have a big advantage vs. the rest of the AL playing all those teams 18 times each, so I could see the Twins making a pretty substantial improvement again just because of a soft schedule. I don't see them passing the Indians at this point, barring a lot of injury luck, but I wouldn't be surprised at them getting the wildcard game at home next year. Hopefully, it will be like the Game 163s in '08 and '09 with the Twins losing the first on the road and winning the second at home.
I find it interesting how thrilled Yankee fans seem to be over winning a game that they spent all day yesterday saying was a foregone conclusion.
🤔
Probably because it didn't seem quite so inevitable 5 minutes into the game.
From LEN3 on Molitor:
That wouldn't surprise me at all. All the "he won 85 games with a team that lost 103 last year" people seem to forget that he was the manager last year.
True, but he had the team in contention till the final weekend the season before. They won 70 games the year before he came, so essentially the team has improved by a net 15 games in his 3 seasons but he has a losing record overall. I'm not enamored with the guy but I'm not sure how many managers would have done better. Other than bunting too much, he seems to manage games pretty well.
I think there's really two factors that matter here:
1) Is Molitor on board with what Falvey and Levine want to do?
2) How do the players feel about Molitor?
If the players will play for Molitor and Molitor is willing to support the direction the FO takes, then I think a change is as likely to cause damage as it is to help the team. But if Molitor doesn't support the FO or the players don't respect Molitor, then I think it makes sense to make a change. Managers don't matter much, but you at least want to avoid any toxic relationships up and down the chain of command.
I think a third factor is 3) Do Falvey and Levine already have a replacement in mind?
Grabbing a bite in transit to Lancaster PA, currently <40 miles from NYC. I can smell the flop sweat from last night's game from here.
NY tollways are two thumbs up; PA
highwaysroad construction su-ucks. Plus goram Garmin.Listening to the light jazz instrumental band warm-ups in the hotel central atrium area drift through our window -- "Breakdown". Nice tribute.
love the bounce on the water.
I hope the software for self-driving cars doesn't have this bug.