All Things 2024 Minnesota Twins In-Season Thread

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TRF Guy said:
Happy 40th birthday to former Twins center fielder Denard Span.

Span tied the modern (since 1900) major league record (and Ken Landreaux's team record) with three triples on June 29, 2010. He went 4-for-4 with a walk, five RBI, and two runs scored in an 11-4 win over Detroit.
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Cool info and thinking about Kenny Landreaux made me smile
 

Gophers1992 said:
Happy birthday Denard. I just happened to catch him on the radio a few weeks ago with PA, he was on just after Joe's HOF nomination was announced. He of course raved about Joe's abilities. But I also learned that he is doing a lot of charitable work to help people get access to transportation in the Tampa area. Always seemed like a great guy and I'm glad he's enjoying life post-baseball.
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He married a Golden Gopher Women's hockey player, Anne Schleper who was on Team USA for the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

I wonder what sport their son will gravitate towards.
 



coolhandgopher said:
View attachment 30294
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My random Ken Landreaux childhood memory goes back to 1980 while he was in the midst of his Team Record 31 game hitting streak. As it went on, must have been in the 20s I was sitting in the LF bleachers at Met Stadium with my dad and brother.

He got a knock to extend the streak and as promotion tie in with General Mills they would send a case of Wheaties down the backstop screen then the bat boys would chuck the boxes of cereal to the fans.

Good times.
 




coolhandgopher said:
The best thing that ever happened for my mental health (in relation to this site) was when the off-topic boards were split. I know I wouldn't have continued to be as active on here if I had to continually wade through that cesspool to access pro sports, movies, music, etc.
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I check on it very rarely just out of curiosity. It's just unbelievable the same people saying the same things over and over for years. No hyperbole, if I spent as time reading and responding as some of them, I would never have a chance to leave the site. It would be a full-time job. It's truly frightening how often and how quickly they can just keep going.
 




Gopher_In_NYC said:
Cool info and thinking about Kenny Landreaux made me smile
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Kenny was either traded or left in F/A, to the Dodgers in 1981. The Dodgers won the World Series that season. He was ok...then had several solid seasons for the Dodgers before retiring.
 

tikited said:
Kenny was either traded or left in F/A, to the Dodgers in 1981. The Dodgers won the World Series that season.
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Apropos, as he was born there.
tikited said:
He was ok...then had several solid seasons for the Dodgers before retiring.
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Solid big leaguer, as he played 11 years and in addition to his WS, was an AS in 1980 with the Twins. Career ,268 hitter as well. Per Baseball Reference, his first cousin was Enos Campbell, Astros player, among other clubs, from that era.

Cool how this turned into Kenny Landreaux appreciation day - the board at its best. Reminds me of when my mom would say, “go make your own fun.”

www.baseball-reference.com

Ken Landreaux Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More | Baseball-Reference.com

Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Ken Landreaux. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com
www.baseball-reference.com www.baseball-reference.com
 

ran across this from a post on 'Twins Daily.' an interesting way of looking at team payroll in comparison to attendance.

from "Paul D" (part of a really long post about Twins payroll issues)

To further evaluate the Twins position I decided to compare Payroll to Attendance. I did an analysis of the 2023 attendance for each team compared to their 2023 payroll. The team with the highest payroll for 2023 was the NY Mets and they were ranked 14th in total attendance. They ended up paying their players $137 for each person who attended a game. Second was the White Sox who had the 15th highest payroll but the 24th highest attendance. They ended up paying $108 for each person. The rest of the top 10 were the Yankees at $85, the Angels at $80, the Phillies at $80, the Marlins at $79, the Twins at $78, the Rangers at $77, the Padres at $76 and the Tigers at $76. The Twins ended up in 7th place among the 30 teams. The overall average was $68 for each fan attending. The team that spend the least on payroll compared to attendance were the Orioles at $31.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
ran across this from a post on 'Twins Daily.' an interesting way of looking at team payroll in comparison to attendance.

from "Paul D" (part of a really long post about Twins payroll issues)

To further evaluate the Twins position I decided to compare Payroll to Attendance. I did an analysis of the 2023 attendance for each team compared to their 2023 payroll. The team with the highest payroll for 2023 was the NY Mets and they were ranked 14th in total attendance. They ended up paying their players $137 for each person who attended a game. Second was the White Sox who had the 15th highest payroll but the 24th highest attendance. They ended up paying $108 for each person. The rest of the top 10 were the Yankees at $85, the Angels at $80, the Phillies at $80, the Marlins at $79, the Twins at $78, the Rangers at $77, the Padres at $76 and the Tigers at $76. The Twins ended up in 7th place among the 30 teams. The overall average was $68 for each fan attending. The team that spend the least on payroll compared to attendance were the Orioles at $31.
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I know the other sports are entirely different animals, but it's quite possible the Twins' worst enemy when it comes to payroll and perception is the other 3 pro teams in this market. The Vikings got a boatload of public money to build their stadium, and it never seems that money is a problem in spending it to attempt to build a winner. Red McCombes they are not. Glen Taylor has had plenty of issues as owner, but spending money generally hasn't been one of them, as we haven't lost guys because we're unwilling to give them max deals. It doesn't seem like it will be a problem with the new owners either. The Wild spent big with the Suter/Parise contracts and pushed all their chips in on that one. It obviously didn't work out, but they tried and didn't let money be the limiting factor. Add in all three organizations have newish practice facilities in the area (mostly paid for on their own dimes), and you can see them spending money to make the team better. While the Twins have their new spring training facility, it's 1,500 miles away, so out of sight, out of mind.

Taxpayers of various jurisdictions have largely paid for the building and upkeep of each venue for the pro sports teams. Right or wrong, the only one people feel they're getting short-changed on (and/or have resulted in broken promises) is the Twins. Below is a scathing article regarding this from Twins Daily recently. The author makes assumptions on the numbers, but I believe the spirit is generally correct; that the Twins aren't spending as much of their revenue for player payroll as they promised. I don't trust much when it comes to the "operating losses" that have been claimed by the organization. They get to claim things like a portion of depreciation on Target Field, as well as claim donations made by the Twins Community Fund, which likely is mostly made up of fundraising paid for by third parties, and not the Twins themselves. As with most corporations, the actual losses and losses on paper are often very different.

Even if you take the Twins at face value (a big stretch), per Forbes, they are +$114MM in operating expenses over the past 10 years. Included in that is a -$49MM deficit claimed during the COVID year (not sure if that includes what MLB paid each of the teams or not).

Capture77.JPG

https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/...ed-to-50-of-revenue-for-payroll/?tab=comments

https://www.forbes.com/teams/minnesota-twins/?sh=28b6d7663bae
 
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Forbes magazine recently published its annual evaluation of MLB franchises and their financial situation.

Now, to be clear, some of this is based on estimates, but it's considered to be fairly close.

For 2023, Forbes has the Twins showing an operating loss of $27-million on revenue of $267-million.
as I've mentioned, I heard Pat Reusse on a podcast say that he had heard that the Twins had lost money for "three years in a row."

in MLB, teams are much more dependent on local revenue than the NFL or NBA. when attendance is down, that means lower revenue. and now the Twins are losing some of their TV revenue.
 

The Twins Top 30 Prospects is now up -

www.mlb.com

Twins Top Prospects

The Official Site of Major League Baseball
www.mlb.com www.mlb.com

Fun facts -
Jenkins is #1
Funderburk #30

Two SS prospects in the top #11

Tanner Schobel (2nd & SS) #8. He hit .265 with 16 big flys at HighA & Wichita last season. Here’s his scout breakdown -

Schobel put himself on the map as one of the top Draft-eligible sophomores in the 2022 class after hitting well in the Cape Cod League in the summer of 2021. He kept on raking as Virginia Tech’s shortstop the next spring, hitting in the middle of a potent college lineup, finishing with 19 homers and a 1.134 OPS, enough to land him in the Competitive Balance Round B and the Twins signed him for $1 million. He spent most of his pro debut with Single-A Fort Myers.

A right-handed-hitting infielder, Schobel’s contact skills already stand out. He struck out in just 14.2 percent of his plate appearances and registered an overall miss rate of just 14 percent on all pitches, according to Synergy, during his sophomore year with the Hokies. He displayed that skill, as well as his ability to control the strike zone, during his relatively modest pro debut. He worked during instructs to add some depth to his swing, as he had a tendency to be too out in front with a pushy swing, with the hope he can impact the ball more as a pro and adjust to breaking stuff more consistently.

Schobel is a good athlete who could potentially play shortstop with decent actions and a solid arm. He played a lot of second base during his pro debut, and he’ll likely keep moving around, with the Twins' depth at shortstop as much of a reason for that as Schobel’s inability to stick there.


Danny De Andre #11

Here’s his scout breakdown -

Ranked No. 14 on MLB Pipeline’s Top International Prospects list when the signing period opened in January 2021, De Andrade was one of two players to get seven-figure bonuses from the Twins. The Venezuelan infielder signed for $2.2 million and had a solid, if unspectacular, debut in the Dominican Summer League. He came stateside in 2022, and after a rough start, showed improvement as the Florida Complex League season wore on.

De Andrade’s knack for making contact is a blessing and a curse. He has very impressive bat-to-ball skills, having struck out in just over 15 percent of his plate appearances over his first two summers of pro ball. The down side is that he’s fallen into the habit of expanding the zone too much, something he got away with in the DSL, but then he was chasing and missing at the start of the FCL season. He focused on hunting pitches over the plate after his first month, and that cut his chase rate in half while sharply boosting his walk rate. He’s made some small swing adjustments as well, because he used to enter too steeply, which led to too many ground balls. That tweak plus added strength should help him turn his contact into more impact.

While De Andrade doesn’t run particularly well, his instincts, hands and arm give him the chance to stick at shortstop, especially if he follows through with his conditioning. He’s seen time at third base already and could slide over if he slows down more, though that will put a little more pressure on his bat.
 
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forever a gopher said:
I know the other sports are entirely different animals, but it's quite possible the Twins' worst enemy when it comes to payroll and perception is the other 3 pro teams in this market. The Vikings got a boatload of public money to build their stadium, and it never seems that money is a problem in spending it to attempt to build a winner. Red McCombes they are not. Glen Taylor has had plenty of issues as owner, but spending money generally hasn't been one of them, as we haven't lost guys because we're unwilling to give them max deals. It doesn't seem like it will be a problem with the new owners either. The Wild spent big with the Suter/Parise contracts and pushed all their chips in on that one. It obviously didn't work out, but they tried and didn't let money be the limiting factor. Add in all three organizations have newish practice facilities in the area (mostly paid for on their own dimes), and you can see them spending money to make the team better. While the Twins have their new spring training facility, it's 1,500 miles away, so out of sight, out of mind.

Taxpayers of various jurisdictions have largely paid for the building and upkeep of each venue for the pro sports teams. Right or wrong, the only one people feel they're getting short-changed on (and/or have resulted in broken promises) is the Twins. Below is a scathing article regarding this from Twins Daily recently. The author makes assumptions on the numbers, but I believe the spirit is generally correct; that the Twins aren't spending as much of their revenue for player payroll as they promised. I don't trust much when it comes to the "operating losses" that have been claimed by the organization. They get to claim things like a portion of depreciation on Target Field, as well as claim donations made by the Twins Community Fund, which likely is mostly made up of fundraising paid for by third parties, and not the Twins themselves. As with most corporations, the actual losses and losses on paper are often very different.

Even if you take the Twins at face value (a big stretch), per Forbes, they are +$114MM in operating expenses over the past 10 years. Included in that is a -$49MM deficit claimed during the COVID year (not sure if that includes what MLB paid each of the teams or not).

View attachment 30303

https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/...ed-to-50-of-revenue-for-payroll/?tab=comments

https://www.forbes.com/teams/minnesota-twins/?sh=28b6d7663bae
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short ornery norwegian said:
Forbes magazine recently published its annual evaluation of MLB franchises and their financial situation.

Now, to be clear, some of this is based on estimates, but it's considered to be fairly close.

For 2023, Forbes has the Twins showing an operating loss of $27-million on revenue of $267-million.
as I've mentioned, I heard Pat Reusse on a podcast say that he had heard that the Twins had lost money for "three years in a row."

in MLB, teams are much more dependent on local revenue than the NFL or NBA. when attendance is down, that means lower revenue. and now the Twins are losing some of their TV revenue.
Click to expand...
One thing to keep in mind, is at this point, the Twins don’t know their broadcast rights for next year either.

Royce Lewis’ agent is the human(?) being Scott Bora and he’s under team control till 2028 and thst contract will dwarf Correra’s if he stays healthy and continues on his trajectory.

Buxton isn’t a free agent until 2029 & Correra in 2023.

It’s sensible to me to first try and see if Tony D. Or Varland can be your 5th starter, as you can always make a trade later for a starter.
 
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short ornery norwegian said:
Forbes magazine recently published its annual evaluation of MLB franchises and their financial situation.

Now, to be clear, some of this is based on estimates, but it's considered to be fairly close.

For 2023, Forbes has the Twins showing an operating loss of $27-million on revenue of $267-million.
as I've mentioned, I heard Pat Reusse on a podcast say that he had heard that the Twins had lost money for "three years in a row."

in MLB, teams are much more dependent on local revenue than the NFL or NBA. when attendance is down, that means lower revenue. and now the Twins are losing some of their TV revenue.
Click to expand...
I buy that they lost $$ in 2020 and 2021 for sure due to no/reduced attendence. $27 million last year? I don't buy it.

That would imply their break even payroll even with the Bally $$ at $54 million was $127 million or so. They had a payroll of ~$110 million in 2011, but in 2023, they could only afford $16 million more than that without losing $$?

Starting with a baseline payroll of $100 million when Target Field opened in 2010 and increasing 3% per year, the 2023 payroll should have been $143 million and 2024 should be $148. So they were a bit high last year and are low this year, but I'm not buying $20+ million losses.
 

If you're struggling to get folks to the ballpark, maybe announcing that you have no interest in spending on players isn't a great strategy to urge more people to buy tickets.
 

FWIW - Twins attendance at Target field
2010: 3.22 million --- payroll $97.6 million (10th in MLB)
2011: 3.16 million --- payroll $113.2 million (9th in MLB)
2012: 2.77 million --- payroll $100.4 million (11th in MLB)
2013: 2.47 million --- payroll $82.0 million (21st in MLB)
2014: 2.25 million --- payroll $85.4 million (18th in MLB)
2015: 2.22 million --- payroll $108.1 million (19th in MLB)
2016: 1.96 million --- payroll $105.3 million (18th in MLB)
2017: 2.05 million --- payroll $108.1 million (21st in MLB)
2018: 1.95 million --- payroll $128.7 million (18th in MLB)
2019: 2.30 million --- payroll $119.6 million (18th in MLB)
2020: ----------- --- payroll $45.6 million (18th in MLB)
2021: 1.31 million --- payroll $125.2 million (18th in MLB)
2022: 1.80 million --- payroll $134.4 million (18th in MLB)
2023: 1.97 million --- payroll $153.7 million (17th in MLB)
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
If you're struggling to get folks to the ballpark, maybe announcing that you have no interest in spending on players isn't a great strategy to urge more people to buy tickets.
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Enjoy the team and product instead of obsessing over potential payroll issues. If they suck, don't go. If they're fun and competitive, go watch.
 

TNGophfan said:
Enjoy the team and product instead of obsessing over potential payroll issues. If they suck, don't go. If they're fun and competitive, go watch.
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Exactly.👍

Joe Pohlad is not forcing anyone to watch, at least I hope not🤓.
 



Gopher_In_NYC said:
Apropos, as he was born there.

Solid big leaguer, as he played 11 years and in addition to his WS, was an AS in 1980 with the Twins. Career ,268 hitter as well. Per Baseball Reference, his first cousin was Enos Campbell, Astros player, among other clubs, from that era.

Cool how this turned into Kenny Landreaux appreciation day - the board at its best. Reminds me of when my mom would say, “go make your own fun.”

www.baseball-reference.com

Ken Landreaux Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More | Baseball-Reference.com

Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Ken Landreaux. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com
www.baseball-reference.com www.baseball-reference.com
Click to expand...
Didn't know that Enos Cabell was his cousin; perhaps that fueled a bit of the animosity Cabell directed towards Ron Davis in the infamous '82 Tigers-Twins brawl (when Dave Rozema was stretchered off after an ill-advised karate kick. (on a side note, I'd want Larry Herndon on my side if I had to scrap)

Speaking of the name Enos, not a name you see much anymore--can only think of three in my life--Cabell, Enos "Big Country" Slaughter, and Roscoe P. Coltrane's inept deputy who was enamored with Daisy Duke (and got his own spin-off show!) It seems we lived through the peak Enos times.

Ohh, and while not related to this post, I did a little searching to see Landreaux's path out of MN and he was traded to the Dodgers for Mickey Hatcher and a couple of minor leaguers who never saw the big leagues. Hatcher of course was most noted for his giant glove in a Fleer baseball card.
1709104946208.png
 



coolhandgopher said:
Didn't know that Enos Cabell was his cousin; perhaps that fueled a bit of the animosity Cabell directed towards Ron Davis in the infamous '82 Tigers-Twins brawl (when Dave Rozema was stretchered off after an ill-advised karate kick. (on a side note, I'd want Larry Herndon on my side if I had to scrap)

Speaking of the name Enos, not a name you see much anymore--can only think of three in my life--Cabell, Enos "Big Country" Slaughter, and Roscoe P. Coltrane's inept deputy who was enamored with Daisy Duke (and got his own spin-off show!) It seems we lived through the peak Enos times.

Ohh, and while not related to this post, I did a little searching to see Landreaux's path out of MN and he was traded to the Dodgers for Mickey Hatcher and a couple of minor leaguers who never saw the big leagues. Hatcher of course was most noted for his giant glove in a Fleer baseball card.
View attachment 30306
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We need more of Mickey’s zeitgeist in all Professional sports.
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
We need more of Mickey’s zeitgeist in all Professional sports.
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Mickey's in baseball, ranked:
1. Mantle
2. Cochrane
3. Vernon
4. Rivers
5. Lolich
6. Tettleton
7. Moriandini
8. Hatcher

There's a smattering of other baseball Mickeys, but not many. Pretty impressive list--if you want your kid to be big leaguer, name 'em Mickey.
 


GophersInIowa said:
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Three man booth? It adds another dimension to the overall experience when two ex-players are discussing the game.

The Mets telecasts with both Darling and Hernandez are perfect, as it’s fun to have pitches and position player’s perspectives.
 

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