All Things 2020 Minnesota Twins In-Season Thread

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forever a gopher said:
We’ll get him, but since it’s Minnesota, he won’t get an immediately eligible waiver, and he’ll have to redshirt. So he’ll instead go to OSU where he’ll get immediate eligibility.
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More like we get him but the season is cancelled and he decides to go pro.
 


howeda7 said:
I think they will play if they can start by August 1st. Past that date they will cancel. People are going to be restless for sports to resume, even if only on TV. Once one league jumps the others will follow quickly. Just as they did in postponing.
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I think once you get past football training camp opening, it's gone.
 

Interesting article in the Strib talking about possible contract implications if the season is not played.
Goes through players whose contracts are up, players who will be eligible for free agency, etc.
Also talks about players who have possible contract bonuses tied to production and will be hurt by a shortened season, including the new pitcher Maeda.

Another aspect - Pineda's suspension is based on games played. If there is a season, he still has to sit out the entire suspension. But - ironically - if the season is cancelled, the suspension apparently does not carry over to 2021.

Hopefully, they will play a season. But - if there is no season, there could be a lot of turnover on the roster.
 


I think this is possible. I've heard MLB execs are very worried about not playing at all for 18 months while other leagues all come back sooner.
 


per Sid:

Twins President Dave St. Peter said he has never experienced anything like the current shutdown of Major League Baseball in his long time with the club.

But he said one thing is certain: The team will do anything it can to play games this season.

“From a Twins perspective we are prepared to be nimble. We’re going to follow the direction of Major League Baseball. If the Major League Baseball schedule calls for playing home games at Target Field with or without fans, we’re going to be ready for either scenario,” St. Peter said. “That is our job. I can assure you we are doing a lot of planning for both of those scenarios, as well as other options that are being considered.

“Right now there are just a lot of ideas. I wouldn’t describe it as that there are concrete plans. The health and the safety of our players and our staff is our No. 1 priority, and clearly that is where our focus is today.”

The last time baseball didn’t play a complete schedule was during the strike-shortened seasons of 1994 and 1995. St. Peter had been with the club for five years at that point after starting as an intern in 1990.

“That was painful in its own right, but nowhere near as severe as what we’re dealing with today, just understanding the human toll this is taking,” he said. “Baseball is important, but it’s nowhere near the most important thing that our globe and our world and our country is dealing with.”

www.startribune.com

Dave St. Peter says Twins are ready to play, whatever the scenario

www.startribune.com www.startribune.com

Win Twins!!
 

Twins update. In the 1st round of the MLB amateur draft, the Twins select 1B Aaron Sabato from the University of North Carolina.

from the scouting report on MLB.com:

Sabato represents a big influx of right-handed power into a Twins system that already has a good amount of high-upside position player talent moving up the organization. The 6-foot-2, 230-pound Sabato is said by evaluators to come with some defensive limitations, but the power is real, with an 18-homer season in 2019 that set a North Carolina freshman record and also earned him first-team freshman All-America honors from Baseball America and D1Baseball.

Sabato was ranked by MLB Pipeline as the No. 41 prospect in the class. This represents the fifth straight season in which the Twins have drafted a position player with their first selection of the draft.

And a tidbit from the Strib:
At a Perfect Game showcase in 2017, Sabato broke Bryce Harper's record with a 103-mph exit velocity hit.

Last four rounds of the draft on Thursday. Twins have 3 picks - forfeited their 3rd round pick by signing Josh Donaldson (remember that...) and also traded a pick in the 'Competitive Balance Round B' to the Dodgers in the Kenta Maeda deal. (also seems like ancient history...)
 

I can't believe MLB is dithering away the summer negotiating over 50 or 80 games. Just play 80 games, split the difference between 75% and 100% and call it a day.
 

howeda7 said:
I can't believe MLB is dithering away the summer negotiating over 50 or 80 games. Just play 80 games, split the difference between 75% and 100% and call it a day.
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I feel like the tv ratings will be through the roof for MLB if they can get their act together.
 




This is becoming ridiculous. They would have no competition, and because of that, more people would be watching baseball. Thus, maybe they could use that to bring back some of the fans they’ve lost over the years.

This should have been figured out a month ago.
 

forever a gopher said:
This is becoming ridiculous. They would have no competition, and because of that, more people would be watching baseball. Thus, maybe they could use that to bring back some of the fans they’ve lost over the years.

This should have been figured out a month ago.
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MLB rarely gets things figured out.
 

The owners want to set a precedent for the next CBA. They also were lying about their losses.

Shame on them.
 



Back to the Twins Draft. here are the remaining picks:

Minnesota chose Tennessee outfielder Alerick Soularie, who owns a .336 career average with the Volunteers, with the 59th overall pick.

After sitting out the third round, having forfeited their pick in order to sign free agent Josh Donaldson last winter, they followed up by choosing hard-throwing high school righthander Marco Raya of Laredo, Texas, in the fourth round, and outfielder Kala’i Rosario of Waiakea, Hawaii, in the fifth.

Soularie, who led the Vols in batting average and on-base percentage as a sophomore, then led them in home runs when the 2020 season suddenly ended in March, is versatile enough to play all three outfield positions and perhaps, after taking ground balls there this spring, second base. And Raya has a fastball that can reach 94 mph, even though he has yet to turn 18. Another power hitter was the Twins’ final pick. The 6-1, 200-pound Rosario, 17, was Hawaii’s player of the year.

So, in a draft where the conventional wisdom said teams would focus on college players who were closer to being ready for the majors, the Twins went with prospects who have tools but will need development. They seem to be very confident in their player development system. I saw one write-up where the HS pitcher from TX was compared to Berrios in terms of his build and stuff.

Of course, with no minor league season this year, the drafted players - presuming they sign - will spend the rest of the year at the team academy in Florida, I presume.
 

forever a gopher said:
This is becoming ridiculous. They would have no competition, and because of that, more people would be watching baseball. Thus, maybe they could use that to bring back some of the fans they’ve lost over the years.

This should have been figured out a month ago.
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Seriously, figure it out!

 

It is beginning to look as if Rob Manfred and the owners have decided that they are going to try and go after the players' union, and are using a global pandemic as an excuse or a rationale.

reminder - the CBA is up for re-negotiation after the 2021 season.

If the owners maintain the hard-line tactics, a lot of people are predicting that MLB will be heading for its first work-stoppage since 1995.

I've seen people predicting there will be no season - none - in 2022.

And this comes at a time when only 8 or 9% of the public lists baseball as their favorite sport.

This could permanently reduce baseball to a fringe or niche sport - maybe even dropping it below soccer and hockey. And, could result in a huge upheaval when network TV contracts are up for renewal.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
It is beginning to look as if Rob Manfred and the owners have decided that they are going to try and go after the players' union, and are using a global pandemic as an excuse or a rationale.

reminder - the CBA is up for re-negotiation after the 2021 season.

If the owners maintain the hard-line tactics, a lot of people are predicting that MLB will be heading for its first work-stoppage since 1995.

I've seen people predicting there will be no season - none - in 2022.

And this comes at a time when only 8 or 9% of the public lists baseball as their favorite sport.

This could permanently reduce baseball to a fringe or niche sport - maybe even dropping it below soccer and hockey. And, could result in a huge upheaval when network TV contracts are up for renewal.
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This would be hard to recover from. I'm so mad right now.
 

I saw that the most recent proposal was that the players would receive 70% of their prorated salaries, and they rejected it. The players are claiming in their initial talks, the owners said they'd receive 100% of their prorated salaries (of course nothing was agreed to/signed, so it's somewhat meaningless at this point). If there is no ticket sales, concessions, parking, merchandise, in-stadium advertising, etc. the revenue will be TV money only. So if the revenue is way down, why would the players receive their full salary? I have little sympathy for the uber-rich (and usually pretty douche-y) owners, but I don't understand why the players think they're going to get their full salaries while the owners take the full brunt of the situation.

Meanwhile, there is enough openings on sports channels, and enough viewer demand, they could probably broadcast every MLB game on national TV. Especially with the season being a sprint, the interest would be high, given that every game means so much. They were able to come back from the previous work stoppage only with the steroid HR race. If they have another work stoppage, I don't think they'll ever get back to what they were.
 


forever a gopher said:
I saw that the most recent proposal was that the players would receive 70% of their prorated salaries, and they rejected it. The players are claiming in their initial talks, the owners said they'd receive 100% of their prorated salaries (of course nothing was agreed to/signed, so it's somewhat meaningless at this point). If there is no ticket sales, concessions, parking, merchandise, in-stadium advertising, etc. the revenue will be TV money only. So if the revenue is way down, why would the players receive their full salary? I have little sympathy for the uber-rich (and usually pretty douche-y) owners, but I don't understand why the players think they're going to get their full salaries while the owners take the full brunt of the situation.

Meanwhile, there is enough openings on sports channels, and enough viewer demand, they could probably broadcast every MLB game on national TV. Especially with the season being a sprint, the interest would be high, given that every game means so much. They were able to come back from the previous work stoppage only with the steroid HR race. If they have another work stoppage, I don't think they'll ever get back to what they were.
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I've never seen a sport as a whole take a potential huge win and turn it into such a huge loss. Over a net of about $10 million per team in extra payroll. They will lose many multiples of that if they don't fix this.
 

howeda7 said:
I've never seen a sport as a whole take a potential huge win and turn it into such a huge loss. Over a net of about $10 million per team in extra payroll. They will lose many multiples of that if they don't fix this.
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The players are being f'ng stupid, and I say f'k the players at this point. Their response to virtually everything at this point is "That would be a salary cap!!!!!"

And everyone screamed Brees was "tone deaf". These guys are f'd in the head
 

important point to remember - Players receive salaries for regular-season games. During the playoffs, players receive a share of a bonus pool based on revenues. So, players want a solution that results in the most possible regular-season games, because that's where they get the most money.

Owners, on the other hand, get revenue from various sources, including tickets, regular-season TV deals, and post-season TV deals - but the post-season TV deals are the most lucrative. If regular-season games are being played with no fans, owners stand to lose money the more games are played. In other words, the owners prefer a solution with fewer regular-season games so they can cut their losses and maximize the revenue from post-season TV deals.

The players are convinced that Manfred is basically running a stall game. the longer this drags out, the fewer regular-season games can be played. so, the players think Manfred does not want to resolve this until the end of June at least.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
important point to remember - Players receive salaries for regular-season games. During the playoffs, players receive a share of a bonus pool based on revenues. So, players want a solution that results in the most possible regular-season games, because that's where they get the most money.

Owners, on the other hand, get revenue from various sources, including tickets, regular-season TV deals, and post-season TV deals - but the post-season TV deals are the most lucrative. If regular-season games are being played with no fans, owners stand to lose money the more games are played. In other words, the owners prefer a solution with fewer regular-season games so they can cut their losses and maximize the revenue from post-season TV deals.

The players are convinced that Manfred is basically running a stall game. the longer this drags out, the fewer regular-season games can be played. so, the players think Manfred does not want to resolve this until the end of June at least.
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Couldn’t this all be resolved by doing a straight revenue split? Then all they have to negotiate is what that split is. The more games and postseason games they play, the larger the revenue from TV to split, and everybody wins.
 

forever a gopher said:
Couldn’t this all be resolved by doing a straight revenue split? Then all they have to negotiate is what that split is. The more games and postseason games they play, the larger the revenue from TV to split, and everybody wins.
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The players have said that anything remotely close to a revenue split is a "salary cap". For them it's been a non-starter. Even though it seems like the most logical compromise and resolution available given the circumstances.
 

howeda7 said:
Rob Manfred should be fired ASAP. First his terrible handling of the cheating scandal and now this. Bud Selig was awful and I'd take him back right now.
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Why would he get fired? I presume he is acting/negotiating just as his bosses, the Owners want him to.
 

forever a gopher said:
Couldn’t this all be resolved by doing a straight revenue split? Then all they have to negotiate is what that split is. The more games and postseason games they play, the larger the revenue from TV to split, and everybody wins.
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Yes and no. The owners claim that with no fans, they will lose $ for every regular season game played, which is why they want fewer games and players to take less than 100% of their per game salary. Most of the TV contracts are already set.
 

Ope3 said:
Why would he get fired? I presume he is acting/negotiating just as his bosses, the Owners want him to.
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Presumably, but this has been handled terribly. I'm sure the NBA and NHL weren't singing Kumbaya, but they didn't negotiate through the media and Twitter.

MLB could hardly have screwed it up worse than they have. They could have owned the month of July and gotten their highest regular season TV ratings in decades. Instead the bickered it away and we're going to at best get a 50 game season that won't start until after the NBA comes back and the NFL is well into training camp.
 

No doubt it's being handled terribly, which will hurt all parties both long and short term. My point was Manfred was doing it just as the Owners want him to.
 

Ope3 said:
No doubt it's being handled terribly, which will hurt all parties both long and short term. My point was Manfred was doing it just as the Owners want him to.
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One problem MLB has is there are no strong owners to take the bull by the horns. Whatever you think of him, if this was happening in the NFL, Jerry Jones would be all over Roger Goodell. So would Mark Cuban in the NBA probably. Who is that owner in MLB since George Steinbrenner?
 

howeda7 said:
One problem MLB has is there are no strong owners to take the bull by the horns. Whatever you think of him, if this was happening in the NFL, Jerry Jones would be all over Roger Goodell. So would Mark Cuban in the NBA probably. Who is that owner in MLB since George Steinbrenner?
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Not sure what the point is of even mentioning Steinbrenner. There were long work stoppages in 1981 & 1994-95, not to mention several other shorter ones while the The Boss was in charge.
 

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