Condolences to any members of the #BillsMafia out there. Buffalo must be littered with as many broken hearts as broken tables.
29 thoughts on “January 25, 2021: Whacked”
I really like our front office as their roster construction is based upon long term viability with the occasional short term adjustment keeping us competitive. That being said, as a fan, it is sometimes difficult to watch us hold our cards to the last minute during the offseason. Even harder this year with our division rival making moves early. Personally, I check the trade rumors at least twice a day. Maybe I should just check once a week.
I prefer to check at pitchers & catchers report.
If it helps, you can just think about the Wolves whenever anything in the Twins organization annoys you. That's what I do.
I was discussing this with one of my brothers. We’ve both been very pleased with the general strategy of this front office when it comes to roster construction, and the trend toward late offseason signings has generally worked out. But this offseason has been frustrating for exactly the reasons you describe. I can understand the hold-up with Cruz and how that might snarl other plans with the composition of the starting lineup, but I simply don’t get not making a move to sign players for more depth roles — for example, Enrique Hernandez and Jurickson Profar both seemed like good fits on the roster, and the kind of free agent depth a championship-caliber roster needs. J.A. Happ is fine, I guess, but I’d like him better as the fifth starter in a six-man rotation that ensures all of the starters ramp slowly back up to their usual innings thresholds.
I’m not overly enamored with any of the available free agent shortstops, but I’m not hopeful the Twins acquire someone better (ahem, Trevor Story) in trade, even despite Lindor’s modest acquisition cost. Maeda, and perhaps Romo & Odorizzi, seem to be the extent of significant big league acquisitions this FO has made in the past. Maintaining prospect depth is all well and good, but San Diego is showing that they see an opening to use some of its own depth, and I think the Padres will be proven right to do so. (A.J. Preller is all in on whatever he does, which has not been entirely successful or healthy in the past.)
Making the playoffs can’t be good enough anymore. Sometimes it feels like this FO is too content with that high floor, low ceiling approach. At some point, they’re going to have to make their own luck, because they certainly haven’t been getting any from the universe.
I'd love to see Andrelton and his defense help out the pitching staff. And RH batters. Too much is being made of the pitching staff, of which the Twins more than held their own last year, and I think they'll be fine again this year. Also, I'm a little concerned by Story's career stats away from Colorado.
My worry with Simmons is that he is so dependent on his glove for value, he’s 31, and he’s had a leg injury. Simmons’ bat is still better than Adam Neverhit’s ever was, but he’s in a three year decline for DRS and a two year decline for UZR/150. He’s fared better by Statcast’s Outs Above Average, ranking third (2018) and second (2019) among qualified shortstops before dropping to 23rd last season.
Of the free agents available, it comes down to Semien or Gregorious for me. I think Gregorious will get three years, and I don’t think that lines up well for the Twins if Lewis sticks at short. I’d try to get Semien on a pillow contract, I think.
Making the playoffs can’t be good enough anymore.
Maybe not, but I think that's the goal of the organization. When I look at what they've done, the moves they make look to me like moves to stay competitive in the division, not moves to win a championship.
Up until a couple of months ago, the Dodgers were just "making the playoffs" for how many years? All the while spending 200 billion dollars a year. What exactly were THEY doing wrong? It's pretty easy to say that a team should prioritize winning the World Series.
Making the playoffs is a good achievement when four teams in the league make it. When five teams make it, it’s a bit less meaningful. When half the league makes it — which seems to be the direction Manfred and the owners want to go, given the national media contract incentives — it becomes practically meaningless.
That’s before adding on the Lucy & the football run of playoff futility the Twins have experienced. A whole generation of fans more or less has come of age during that time, conditioned to view the playoffs as a time not just of disappointment, but national embarrassment. At a certain point, that becomes toxic enough that making the playoffs might make short-term economic sense, but actually significantly erode fan interest over the longer term.
I’m not saying I don’t appreciate following a team that does well in the regular season. It’s much better than the GMBS/TR Redux run of futility. I’d obviously rather encourage my daughter’s love of the game by watching good baseball. But I’m pretty sympathetic to voices — including those of folks like Meg Rawley & Ben Lindbergh, and especially Michael Baumann — who are critical of owners that are increasingly viewing their baseball teams as sidecars to real estate investment schemes and the like. That’s not entertaining.
Frankly, watching playoff-caliber team through 162 game season then fall flat on its face in the postseason is like reading a long novel that implodes midway through the last section. I don’t need every novel I read to have a happy ending, but I don’t feel like rewarding an author who repeatedly writes 5/6th of a compelling novel, where the mediocre or embarrassing 1/6th always comes at the end.
This literally doesn't rebut my point in any way. Like, it doesn't even lightly touch on my point.
For years, the narrative was that they were cheap. For years afterward, it was that they were dumb (excuse me, "old school"). Now it's just that they're snakebit. Fine. I'm not sure if you think I'm hyping up consolation prizes, or what, but I can assure you that I'm not pleased that they haven't won a playoff game since the Ford era*, either, but to reiterate my point -- winning the World Series is not a matter of will or planning. Rather, it's not JUST a matter of will and planning. Unfortunately, luck ends up playing an outsized role in things. The Braves had a rotation full of Hall of Famers and only ended up lucking their way to a title as an underdog against a Cleveland team that had a lineup for the absolute ages -- that won absolutely nothing. Sports are weird. To be "embarrassed" by this seems futile.
Regarding ownership viewing teams as investments, I don't know what to tell you. There aren't ANY sports where that's not the case, and it's a completely separate talking point. I will say, though, that this argument doesn't seem to be as valid for the Twins as it does to the Red Sox, Rangers, Pirates, and others who aren't even remotely trying to field a competitive team this year. The Twins are a very good team that has been improving their team, so again, I really don't get what this argument has to do with anything.
* by which I clearly mean the era during which Pres. Ford was alive and on earth.
And here I thought you meant the Lew Ford era...because he was the Twins’ starting DH the last time they won a postseason game.
You’ll note I never said the Twins have to win the World Series for me to be happy with them. You put those words in my mouth; I’m not going to defend them, because they’re not mine. I’m not a Yankme fan — so please don’t ascribe that mentality to me.
Since the beginning of the 2004 season, the Dodgers have won the World Series once, reached the World Series two additional times, lost the NLCS four times, and lost the NLDS five times. Over the same period, the Twins have lost 18 straight postseason games. Of those loses, six belong to the current front office regime. I’m not saying this front office has to win the World Series to prove they’ve built a great team...but they need to win a playoff series. This level of extended postseason futility is toxic to a fan base — something that people who root for other Minnesota teams should recognize.
I'm not sure what the functional difference between building a team that can win one (1) playoff series and one that can win the world series is.
We're ALL sick of the drought.
We're ALL sick of the drought.
Now me, I’m just here for the record breaking streaks.
The past two seasons have had two of the top four winning percentages in team history (post move) -- I'm okay with the direction management has this team heading, and post season results are going to follow*
*eventually
I entirely agree with this. They're not cheap anymore, and they're clearly not stupid. Now they just need some post-September luck.
They need a healthy Buxton in September. I don't know if that qualifies as luck or not but they are a different team with him in center field.
They absolutely do. They need him at full health going into the postseason, as well as Donaldson, Maeda, and Berrios, at least.
The past two years have been fairly disastrous as far as health going into the postseason.
I think to my mind, part of the frustration centers around how seemingly easy it has been for other teams to improve - namely the White Sox. Of course, a big part of that is that when you have more to improve, that means it is easier to make those improvements. The Twins have been one of the top teams in baseball the last couple seasons, and available areas of improvement are relatively few, when compared with teams like the White Sox.
That's not an excuse - of course they should still be making those adjustments and improvements. But some of them just aren't easy to make, and many of them aren't personnel questions, they're performance questions. If Donaldson and Buxton are healthy, the front office will look better. If the coaches can prevent Sano from striking out 87% of the time, keeping him at 1B will look better, etc.
apparent improvements -- season's end is where that is ultimately determined
A fair point.
I have my fingers crossed
I’m not sure this is a good idea.
This full-scale 60ft, 25 ton Gundam robot jumped out of anime into our world thanks to engineers in Yokohama, Japan (video: @yoshi115t) pic.twitter.com/m1AlLloH2Z
I was sad to see that I missed the notice that Matthew Seligman had died of Covid last year. He was a bassist that performed with Robyn Hitchcock, Thompson Twins, Thomas Dolby, David Bowie, etc. etc. I knew him from Bruce Woolley and The Camera Club.
MLB offered a universal DH if the union agreed to expanded playoffs. Union rebuffed the deal, which included extra money for players, so at least for now there will be no universal DH.
Ostensibly the goal with a universal DH is to prevent pitcher injuries, but my first instinct is to follow the money and I don't see how extended playoffs help achieve fewer arm injuries.
I cared about football again for like 6 weeks. Back to normal again now.
I cared about football for like 4 hours! I was totally in on the bills in the bowl. I feel a bit gut punched but that’s more likely because I ate spicy lunch. Also, sorry for the heartbreak, but I know beefalo can hack it.
Taking out the Saints and Packers in consecutive weeks is the first time I've liked Tom Brady. Well done, sir.
I really like our front office as their roster construction is based upon long term viability with the occasional short term adjustment keeping us competitive. That being said, as a fan, it is sometimes difficult to watch us hold our cards to the last minute during the offseason. Even harder this year with our division rival making moves early. Personally, I check the trade rumors at least twice a day. Maybe I should just check once a week.
I prefer to check at pitchers & catchers report.
If it helps, you can just think about the Wolves whenever anything in the Twins organization annoys you. That's what I do.
I was discussing this with one of my brothers. We’ve both been very pleased with the general strategy of this front office when it comes to roster construction, and the trend toward late offseason signings has generally worked out. But this offseason has been frustrating for exactly the reasons you describe. I can understand the hold-up with Cruz and how that might snarl other plans with the composition of the starting lineup, but I simply don’t get not making a move to sign players for more depth roles — for example, Enrique Hernandez and Jurickson Profar both seemed like good fits on the roster, and the kind of free agent depth a championship-caliber roster needs. J.A. Happ is fine, I guess, but I’d like him better as the fifth starter in a six-man rotation that ensures all of the starters ramp slowly back up to their usual innings thresholds.
I’m not overly enamored with any of the available free agent shortstops, but I’m not hopeful the Twins acquire someone better (ahem, Trevor Story) in trade, even despite Lindor’s modest acquisition cost. Maeda, and perhaps Romo & Odorizzi, seem to be the extent of significant big league acquisitions this FO has made in the past. Maintaining prospect depth is all well and good, but San Diego is showing that they see an opening to use some of its own depth, and I think the Padres will be proven right to do so. (A.J. Preller is all in on whatever he does, which has not been entirely successful or healthy in the past.)
Making the playoffs can’t be good enough anymore. Sometimes it feels like this FO is too content with that high floor, low ceiling approach. At some point, they’re going to have to make their own luck, because they certainly haven’t been getting any from the universe.
I'd love to see Andrelton and his defense help out the pitching staff. And RH batters. Too much is being made of the pitching staff, of which the Twins more than held their own last year, and I think they'll be fine again this year. Also, I'm a little concerned by Story's career stats away from Colorado.
My worry with Simmons is that he is so dependent on his glove for value, he’s 31, and he’s had a leg injury. Simmons’ bat is still better than Adam Neverhit’s ever was, but he’s in a three year decline for DRS and a two year decline for UZR/150. He’s fared better by Statcast’s Outs Above Average, ranking third (2018) and second (2019) among qualified shortstops before dropping to 23rd last season.
Of the free agents available, it comes down to Semien or Gregorious for me. I think Gregorious will get three years, and I don’t think that lines up well for the Twins if Lewis sticks at short. I’d try to get Semien on a pillow contract, I think.
Making the playoffs can’t be good enough anymore.
Maybe not, but I think that's the goal of the organization. When I look at what they've done, the moves they make look to me like moves to stay competitive in the division, not moves to win a championship.
Up until a couple of months ago, the Dodgers were just "making the playoffs" for how many years? All the while spending 200 billion dollars a year. What exactly were THEY doing wrong? It's pretty easy to say that a team should prioritize winning the World Series.
Making the playoffs is a good achievement when four teams in the league make it. When five teams make it, it’s a bit less meaningful. When half the league makes it — which seems to be the direction Manfred and the owners want to go, given the national media contract incentives — it becomes practically meaningless.
That’s before adding on the Lucy & the football run of playoff futility the Twins have experienced. A whole generation of fans more or less has come of age during that time, conditioned to view the playoffs as a time not just of disappointment, but national embarrassment. At a certain point, that becomes toxic enough that making the playoffs might make short-term economic sense, but actually significantly erode fan interest over the longer term.
I’m not saying I don’t appreciate following a team that does well in the regular season. It’s much better than the GMBS/TR Redux run of futility. I’d obviously rather encourage my daughter’s love of the game by watching good baseball. But I’m pretty sympathetic to voices — including those of folks like Meg Rawley & Ben Lindbergh, and especially Michael Baumann — who are critical of owners that are increasingly viewing their baseball teams as sidecars to real estate investment schemes and the like. That’s not entertaining.
Frankly, watching playoff-caliber team through 162 game season then fall flat on its face in the postseason is like reading a long novel that implodes midway through the last section. I don’t need every novel I read to have a happy ending, but I don’t feel like rewarding an author who repeatedly writes 5/6th of a compelling novel, where the mediocre or embarrassing 1/6th always comes at the end.
This literally doesn't rebut my point in any way. Like, it doesn't even lightly touch on my point.
For years, the narrative was that they were cheap. For years afterward, it was that they were dumb (excuse me, "old school"). Now it's just that they're snakebit. Fine. I'm not sure if you think I'm hyping up consolation prizes, or what, but I can assure you that I'm not pleased that they haven't won a playoff game since the Ford era*, either, but to reiterate my point -- winning the World Series is not a matter of will or planning. Rather, it's not JUST a matter of will and planning. Unfortunately, luck ends up playing an outsized role in things. The Braves had a rotation full of Hall of Famers and only ended up lucking their way to a title as an underdog against a Cleveland team that had a lineup for the absolute ages -- that won absolutely nothing. Sports are weird. To be "embarrassed" by this seems futile.
Regarding ownership viewing teams as investments, I don't know what to tell you. There aren't ANY sports where that's not the case, and it's a completely separate talking point. I will say, though, that this argument doesn't seem to be as valid for the Twins as it does to the Red Sox, Rangers, Pirates, and others who aren't even remotely trying to field a competitive team this year. The Twins are a very good team that has been improving their team, so again, I really don't get what this argument has to do with anything.
* by which I clearly mean the era during which Pres. Ford was alive and on earth.
And here I thought you meant the Lew Ford era...because he was the Twins’ starting DH the last time they won a postseason game.
You’ll note I never said the Twins have to win the World Series for me to be happy with them. You put those words in my mouth; I’m not going to defend them, because they’re not mine. I’m not a Yankme fan — so please don’t ascribe that mentality to me.
Since the beginning of the 2004 season, the Dodgers have won the World Series once, reached the World Series two additional times, lost the NLCS four times, and lost the NLDS five times. Over the same period, the Twins have lost 18 straight postseason games. Of those loses, six belong to the current front office regime. I’m not saying this front office has to win the World Series to prove they’ve built a great team...but they need to win a playoff series. This level of extended postseason futility is toxic to a fan base — something that people who root for other Minnesota teams should recognize.
I'm not sure what the functional difference between building a team that can win one (1) playoff series and one that can win the world series is.
We're ALL sick of the drought.
We're ALL sick of the drought.
Now me, I’m just here for the record breaking streaks.
The past two seasons have had two of the top four winning percentages in team history (post move) -- I'm okay with the direction management has this team heading, and post season results are going to follow*
*eventually
I entirely agree with this. They're not cheap anymore, and they're clearly not stupid. Now they just need some post-September luck.
They need a healthy Buxton in September. I don't know if that qualifies as luck or not but they are a different team with him in center field.
They absolutely do. They need him at full health going into the postseason, as well as Donaldson, Maeda, and Berrios, at least.
The past two years have been fairly disastrous as far as health going into the postseason.
I think to my mind, part of the frustration centers around how seemingly easy it has been for other teams to improve - namely the White Sox. Of course, a big part of that is that when you have more to improve, that means it is easier to make those improvements. The Twins have been one of the top teams in baseball the last couple seasons, and available areas of improvement are relatively few, when compared with teams like the White Sox.
That's not an excuse - of course they should still be making those adjustments and improvements. But some of them just aren't easy to make, and many of them aren't personnel questions, they're performance questions. If Donaldson and Buxton are healthy, the front office will look better. If the coaches can prevent Sano from striking out 87% of the time, keeping him at 1B will look better, etc.
apparent improvements -- season's end is where that is ultimately determined
A fair point.
I have my fingers crossed
I’m not sure this is a good idea.
But...the kaiju!!
I was sad to see that I missed the notice that Matthew Seligman had died of Covid last year. He was a bassist that performed with Robyn Hitchcock, Thompson Twins, Thomas Dolby, David Bowie, etc. etc. I knew him from Bruce Woolley and The Camera Club.
Ostensibly the goal with a universal DH is to prevent pitcher injuries, but my first instinct is to follow the money and I don't see how extended playoffs help achieve fewer arm injuries.
I cared about football again for like 6 weeks. Back to normal again now.
I cared about football for like 4 hours! I was totally in on the bills in the bowl. I feel a bit gut punched but that’s more likely because I ate spicy lunch. Also, sorry for the heartbreak, but I know beefalo can hack it.
Taking out the Saints and Packers in consecutive weeks is the first time I've liked Tom Brady. Well done, sir.