All Things 2023-2024 Minnesota Twins Off-Season Thread

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short ornery norwegian said:
I tried to do some checking and I am not aware of any MLB club that does a simulcast. as far as I can tell, they all have separate radio and TV teams.

now, there are several clubs where the same announcers will rotate between radio and TV, but it's not a simulcast. the announcers do some games on TV and some games on radio. this is more common with the color position but in a few cases, the play-by-play guys switch back and forth between radio and TV. The Pirates have two play-by-play guys who take turns doing radio and TV.

FWIW - found a chart on wikipedia listing all the radio and TV broadcast teams. for Twins TV, the primary announcer is TBD - so they already updated the list with Bremer's announcement.
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In Vin Sculley's later years for local broadcasts he only called (solo) Home games and Road Games against NL West teams. His entire call was on TV, but the first 3 innings only would be simulcasted on the Dodger Radio Network. The last 6 innings on the Radio they had a different team. When I was in SoCal from 1995-97 they were already doing this.

Also in LA for NBA basketball games, the Lakers would simulcast Chick Hearns broadcast for both radio & TV. Quite a few Laker games would be on national TV, so often it was radio only.

It's possible to do, and it can be done well, especially if you have legends at the mic.
 

If what I am reading about Dick is true the twins handled this in a really poor way. To not allow him some sort of farewell tour or to say goodbye on the air is a dick move.

It’s funny cause these type of things were always done so well by previous twins leads and now with Joe Pohlad in charge this seems to have been handled badly.

I have no love or hate towards Dick, as I thought he was getting bad the last couple of years, but he’s still the voice of twins baseball for 40 years. He’s earned some more respect than a new release on a random Tuesday in October.
 
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From the Parkinglot said:
If what I am reading about Dick is true the twins handled this in a really poor way. To not allow him some sort of farewell tour or to say goodbye on the air is a dick move.

It’s funny cause these type of things were always done so well by previous twins leads and now with Joe Pohlad in charge this seems to have been handled badly.

I have no love or hate towards Dick, as I thought he was getting bad the last couple of years, but he’s still the voice of twins baseball for 40 years. He’s earned some more respect than a new release on a random Tuesday in December.
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Last guy in the world you should try like a schmoe.
 

From the Parkinglot said:
If what I am reading about Dick is true the twins handled this in a really poor way. To not allow him some sort of farewell tour or to say goodbye on the air is a dick move.

It’s funny cause these type of things were always done so well by previous twins leads and now with Joe Pohlad in charge this seems to have been handled badly.

I have no love or hate towards Dick, as I thought he was getting bad the last couple of years, but he’s still the voice of twins baseball for 40 years. He’s earned some more respect than a new release on a random Tuesday in December.
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If they knew before the end of the season that they wanted to make a change, they should have let him say goodbye on air. They even let Bert do that. My guess is that this was some combination of "we want a new voice with the new TV product" and "we don't want to pay Dick" and they hadn't decided it at the time. It still sucks if it wasn't his call though.
 

disclaimer - haven't seen this for myself but saw a writer tweeting about it...

apparently the Athletic is reporting that Bremer's departure was not his choice and was not due to any health concerns. can't find the tweet, but the gist of it was that a source in the Twins' office confirmed that the Twins "wanted to go in a different direction" with the TV broadcast. If I had to guess, I would say that the Twins probably want to go a little younger - or maybe even go to a different model where the role of the play-by-play guy is reduced and they play up the analyst position.

FWIW - the last couple of seasons I've seen plenty of people on Twitter taking some shots at Bremer for botching home run calls - getting really excited on balls that wind up being caught in front of the warning track and so forth.
 


Although the move makes total sense, I really hope Provus stays on the radio call. I don't have cable for the majority of the baseball season and thus only get to watch the games aired on Fox. I catch maybe 75% of the games on radio, so selfishly I don't want to lose Provus as the radio guy. He's certainly earned the promotion if given, however.
 

forever a gopher said:
Although the move makes total sense, I really hope Provus stays on the radio call. I don't have cable for the majority of the baseball season and thus only get to watch the games aired on Fox. I catch maybe 75% of the games on radio, so selfishly I don't want to lose Provus as the radio guy. He's certainly earned the promotion if given, however.
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one thought - put Gladden on TV. he really doesn't do play-by-play on radio, so he'd actually be a better fit for TV.

But - I doubt that Danny would clean up his style for TV and I suspect the powers-that-be want to go younger with the hire.
 

As the Rangers are just 6 outs away from winning it all, I try to think about what it would be like if this were the Twins. I experienced 87 and 91 to some degree but I was 7 and 11 at the time so didn’t really appreciate the significance. And in 91 I was probably thinking I would see it happen a lot as it was twice in a 5 year span.

Someday it will happen again.
 

GophersInIowa said:
As the Rangers are just 6 outs away from winning it all, I try to think about what it would be like if this were the Twins. I experienced 87 and 91 to some degree but I was 7 and 11 at the time so didn’t really appreciate the significance. And in 91 I was probably thinking I would see it happen a lot as it was twice in a 5 year span.

Someday it will happen again.
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Good times.
 



The Washington Senators 2.0 who were begat in 1961 when the originals moved to Bloomington, MN to become the Twins, have won their first World Series.

11-0 on the road in the Postseason. Quite a feat.
 

wouldn't have predicted this when the Twins played the Rangers during the regular season. Twins won the season series 5-2.

The Twins just pounded the Rangers' bullpen. And if I remember correctly, there was a game where Dallas Kuechle came in and threw something like 5 scoreless innings against TX to allow the Twins to come from behind and win. I was on the road that day and listened to most of it on the radio.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
disclaimer - haven't seen this for myself but saw a writer tweeting about it...

apparently the Athletic is reporting that Bremer's departure was not his choice and was not due to any health concerns. can't find the tweet, but the gist of it was that a source in the Twins' office confirmed that the Twins "wanted to go in a different direction" with the TV broadcast. If I had to guess, I would say that the Twins probably want to go a little younger - or maybe even go to a different model where the role of the play-by-play guy is reduced and they play up the analyst position.

FWIW - the last couple of seasons I've seen plenty of people on Twitter taking some shots at Bremer for botching home run calls - getting really excited on balls that wind up being caught in front of the warning track and so forth.
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I wouldn't be surprised if the Twins are trying to mimic the Timberwolves' successful hire of Michael Grady. However, I've always liked Bremer and I thought he fit the market and the organization well. His work actually improved after the club finally got rid of Bert and brought in competent analysts.

As others have said in other ways, not giving a very solid play by play announcer who has been with the team for forty years a farewell season is horseshit.
 

Ope3 said:
Sounds like Bremer was pushed or at the very least nudged out the door.

theathletic.com

Dick Bremer out as Twins play-by-play man after 40 seasons in booth

In a stunning move, the Twins announced Tuesday their longtime play-by-play man would no longer be part of the broadcast booth.
theathletic.com theathletic.com
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Bremer and the Twins broadcast future was the subject on a SkorNorth podcast yesterday. Main takeaways:

- Bremer was nudged/pushed and was a good soldier about it.
- All of the on air talent's contracts for both TV & Radio are up.
- Odds on favorite is Provus, but noted Timberwolves went completely out of the organization last year for their move.
- The idea of a possible simulcast was brought up briefly, not dismissed as a possibility.
 



short ornery norwegian said:
one thought - put Gladden on TV. he really doesn't do play-by-play on radio, so he'd actually be a better fit for TV.

But - I doubt that Danny would clean up his style for TV and I suspect the powers-that-be want to go younger with the hire.
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I’m pretty sure Dazzle is too gruff (and as you mention probably too old) for TV. I love his random ramblings as it breaks up the monotony of a long season, but yeah, his ability to call a game is pretty suspect.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
wouldn't have predicted this when the Twins played the Rangers during the regular season. Twins won the season series 5-2.

The Twins just pounded the Rangers' bullpen. And if I remember correctly, there was a game where Dallas Kuechle came in and threw something like 5 scoreless innings against TX to allow the Twins to come from behind and win. I was on the road that day and listened to most of it on the radio.
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The Twins also swept the D-Backs who looked absolutely checked out at the time.
 



Ope3 said:
Amazing how Kepler went from DFA candidate to a no brainer pick up the club option.
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I was just going to say that if Kepler can start hitting in April and Jorge can stay healthy, both are fantastic bargains.
 

Slim Tubby said:
I was just going to say that if Kepler can start hitting in April and Jorge can stay healthy, both are fantastic bargains.
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Just a hunch, I think they’ll try trading Polanco. There isn’t much in the free agent market for 2B. Could get a decent return.
 

2 amazing lists I was reminded of on PTI today.

Managers to Win a World Series in both AL & NL:

Sparky Anderson - Reds/Tigers
Tony LaRussa - A's/Cardinals
Bruce Bochy - Giants/Rangers

Multiple World Series MVP Winners*:

Sandy Koufax - Dodgers
Bob Gibson - Cardinals
Reggie Jackson - A's & Yankees
Corey Seager - Dodgers & Rangers

*Award was instituted in 1955.

The 2 new Rangers will likely join the others in Cooperstown. Bochy will go in as soon as he's eligible. Seager is certainly on track with a few more solid years.
 
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my new favorite farm team player - Kala'i Rosario - won the Home Run Derby as part of the Arizona Fall League All-Star game festivities.

the game was on TV - I saw Rosario with 1 AB - and he struck out on a good low breaking ball.

Rosario and Aaron Sabato tied for the AFL HR title with 7 apiece.

(context - Rosario had 17 H - 7 were HR. Sabato had 14 H - 7 were HR.)
 





Gopher_In_NYC said:
Vs. a free agent pitcher?
I don’t think they could afford both.
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Their best bet always is to trade for a pitcher. The chances of them even being able to sign a top free agent starter is always slim.
 


My semi-realistic offseason wish list would look something like this:

1a. Gray accepts qualifying offer (unlikely)
1b. If not, trade for Corbin Burnes. He's a free agent after 2024 and the Brewers are unlikely to resign him (probably unlikely as well but maybe?)
2. Sign Hoskins
3. Trade for one of Washington's relievers Finnegan or Harvey
4. Trade away Polanco
 

GophersInIowa said:
Their best bet always is to trade for a pitcher. The chances of them even being able to sign a top free agent starter is always slim.
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I don’t think he has to be “top tier,” with our depth. I think Ryan or Ober can be a number two - time to place bigger expectations on them and tell them time to step up.
 


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