My dad sent me a picture of a young man that was ahead of him in line at the post office: Tony Oliva. He said everyone kind of started interacting with him once they realized it. At first I was thinking, man, let the guy go to the post office. However, I noticed he was wearing a Twins jacket and my next thought was, well, I guess he's not going for anonymity.
I've never seen someone be more accommodating of fans.
Had something similar happen many years ago; a half dozen of us were at work training and were grabbing lunch, and Stan Musial sat down at the table next to us. It was all I could do to get the others to ignore him and just let him have his meal in peace.
Tony O is known among all the collector shops in the city as the most accommodating and easy to work with athlete. It’s actually had a detrimental effect on his autographed items, since he signs everything for everyone.
My favorite story is about John Green: he signs all his books, so any that have slipped through and were accidentally shipped without his signature are actually worth more!
Funny thing about John Green’s autograph in his books is that he actually individually signs piles of loose leaf paper that are then processed into the books when they’re being printed.
Tony Oliva getting all the ushers working at the gate to sing Happy Birthday to a fan was the highlight of my home opener weekend this year.
So, it would have been nice to lock in Correa, but are people really that upset about losing out on Rodon? He's got a single season in his entire career with 30+ GS and he just got a 6-year deal. It's possible that he'll be consistently healthy, but I think Yankees fans are going to complain about Rodon A LOT over the next six years.
Kind of? He was the one "ace" pitcher the Twins might have signed. The Twins have good pitching depth but they don't have any starters with a reasonable chance at 4+ WAR.
I mean, just because Rodon is the only "ace" on the market doesn't make him any more likely to stay healthy.
Sure and I'm not exactly upset. Dylan Bundy led the team in starts, with 29. Ryan led in innings pitched at 147. The pitchers they had weren't hallmarks of durability either.
I'm not upset because I never expected the Twins to sign him. The Twins are never going to out-bid the Yankees for someone, and neither is anyone else, other than maybe the Mets or Padres.
Still avoided Whamageddon so far this year...
Passan reporting the Twins signing Joey Gallo 1 yr/$11 mil
I think I like this move
A left-handed bat. Is another left-handed outfielder leaving the team or going all in on lefties?
Maybe he'll be awesome and prove me wrong, but this sounds to me like a "we did something so we could say we did something" kind of move.
I actually like this in the abstract if Gallo realistically could play CF in a pinch or against a RHP when Buxton needs the day off. They’d probably still run Gordon out there, but depth is depth.
But there’s even less reason to have Kepler now, and they’ve complicated their opportunities for Larnach & Wallner, and Kirilloff to a lesser degree.
Isn't Gallo just a more expensive Kepler, but with a little better glove, a little more power, but still a lower OPS+? If he was a righty I'd have been all over this pickup
Would have been fun to have had him on the 2109 squad.
That's a very good aging curve.
Not really. Kepler’s career OPS+ is 101; Gallo’s career mark is 109. Kepler has two seasons with an OPS+ above league average; Gallo has four. Kepler’s production is more consistent — he’s recorded seasons of 96, 95, 97, 98, & 93 outside his two above-average seasons. When Gallo scuffles, it’s uglier, but his worst above-average season ties Kepler’s second best.
Well, I said they'd sign someone at the position that they least need...
The ChiSox sign Andrew Benintendi to a 5 year/$75 mil deal
That contract will pay for itself by playing the Twins a lot. He has a career .355/.424/.593/1.017 slash line in 46 games
We are down from a blizzard warning to a winter weather advisory, so I assume The Great Storm is over. We were without power for about sixteen hours (roughly midnight to 4:00 p.m.), but the house only got down to 57 degrees. I am grateful that the power came back before it got any colder.
The Wild have been on a heater since I called their team a disappointment is these LTE a few weeks back.