All Things 2024 Minnesota Twins In-Season Thread

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Ope3 said:
The bigger blunder was the PR hit by being transparent about it and announcing it.
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Young Joe won't make that PR mistake again. He'll send the front office out to tell the public that they have advised ownership not to spend money, as his elders always did.
 

Tony Oliva led off the top of the 10th inning with his first career home run on this date in 1964.

Former Austin, Minnesota townball player Bill Skowron had tied it up in the eighth. The Twins went on to win 8-6 in the nation's capital.
 

forever a gopher said:
Twins currently sitting dead last in team batting average, and below the Mendoza line. Woof. Braves as a team are hitting .302!!

Twins are also second-to-last in SB's with a grand total of 4 on the year. Can't hit and don't run. Have only 5 more runs scored than the garbage White Sox (who are last in the league). Looking bleak right now.

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It's hard to steal bases when you can't get on base.
 

If you love this organization's offensive ineptitude, but are sad that you can't watch the Twins strikeout tonight, you're in luck! The Saints are in Indianapolis tonight against baseball's top pitching prospect, Paul Skenes and you can watch it for free via mlb.com
 


jamiche said:
Young Joe won't make that PR mistake again. He'll send the front office out to tell the public that they have advised ownership not to spend money, as his elders always did.
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The best PR would have been to not say a word about player payroll, either way. Could have just gone with "Hey, nobody out there we felt was worth what the player/agent were asking for."
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
If you love this organization's offensive ineptitude, but are sad that you can't watch the Twins strikeout tonight, you're in luck! The Saints are in Indianapolis tonight against baseball's top pitching prospect, Paul Skenes and you can watch it for free via mlb.com
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Skenes will be up with the Pirates the day after they are guaranteed a 3rd year of minimum before going to arbitration.
 

In the championship series thread, 1994 was brought up for the Twins because of the strike. Some interesting tidbits about that season in case you forgot:

1. The Expos had the best record and were on pace to win 105 games.
2. The Rangers were on pace to go 74-88. They were leading their division at the time of the strike.
3. Matt Williams was on pace to hit 62 home runs.
4. Tony Gwynn was hitting .394
5. Chuck Knoblach was on pace for 65 doubles, just 2 short of the all time record in a season
6. Alex Cole still had sweet goggles.

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GophersInIowa said:
In the championship series thread, 1994 was brought up for the Twins because of the strike. Some interesting tidbits about that season in case you forgot:

1. The Expos had the best record and were on pace to win 105 games.
2. The Rangers were on pace to go 74-88. They were leading their division at the time of the strike.
3. Matt Williams was on pace to hit 62 home runs.
4. Tony Gwynn was hitting .394
5. Chuck Knoblach was on pace for 65 doubles, just 2 short of the all time record in a season
6. Alex Cole still had sweet goggles.
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Mentally, I have thought that 1994 Labor Dispute effectively killed the Expos hope of staying in that city long term.

It sure would have been fun to see one the greatest hitters ever (Gwynn) make a run at Ted Williams territory by shooting for .400.
 



Ope3 said:
The best PR would have been to not say a word about player payroll, either way. Could have just gone with "Hey, nobody out there we felt was worth what the player/agent were asking for."
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"We had many competitive offers out. We were so close!"
 

Just got an email from twins.com announcing a totally original promotion that has me back on board: Thursday June 13th is....PRINCE NIGHT! Awesome. I've been waiting for them to finally do some sort of Prince tie-in.
 

Ope3 said:
The bigger blunder was the PR hit by being transparent about it and announcing it.
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from my perspective - IF they were going to come out and announce it ahead of time - then they should have gone all the way and opened the books.

the Pohlads' argument is that the team revenue does not support a higher payroll. well, if you want people to believe that, you have to provide facts -- information.

open up the books and show us. If the team - as has been suggested - really had multiple operating losses in recent years - then put it out there in black and white. make a case to the public:

as in -- the team has been losing money at X level of payroll.
-- the team will be losing revenue on its local TV situation
--ergo the team has to reduce payroll to keep from losing more money.

that would be real transparency. instead of the Pohlads saying "take our word for it."

If the Pohlads had said nothing and cut the payroll, I think the PR hit would have been worse.
 

The few moves they did make aren't yielding any thing. DeSclafani hurt. Topa hurt. Staumont hurt. Margot is terrible and brings nothing to the table.

Simply bringing back Michael Taylor and a decent #5 starter option would have helped a lot. Nothing can overcome this dead@ss offense though. It won't improve until this front office and they're awful swing for the fences philosophy is gone.
 



stocker08 said:
As I said.....it's not a perfect science. You can't just buy your team a world series.....but you can increase your chances greatly by bringing in top talent.
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Twins are generally middle of the pack in terms of overall payroll and relative to market size, I'm fine with that. I don't expect the Ownership to operate at continual deficits.

2023 they had a record Team Payroll. Circumstances dictated they take a step back from that. They were not alone 10-15 clubs are in the same position.

Conversely, sure the Wild and Vikings are spending up to the allowable Salary Cap. They also are going to have TENs of Millions of dollars in completely Dead Cap hits. I don't see how that is any better or worse than the Twins, given they all produce roughly the same results.
 

Ope3 said:
Twins are generally middle of the pack in terms of overall payroll and relative to market size, I'm fine with that. I don't expect the Ownership to operate at continual deficits.

2023 they had a record Team Payroll. Circumstances dictated they take a step back from that. They were not alone 10-15 clubs are in the same position.

Conversely, sure the Wild and Vikings are spending up to the allowable Salary Cap. They also are going to have TENs of Millions of dollars in completely Dead Cap hits. I don't see how that is any better or worse than the Twins, given they all produce roughly the same results.
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And the Timberwolves are in Luxury Tax territory.
 


forever a gopher said:
Twins currently sitting dead last in team batting average, and below the Mendoza line. Woof. Braves as a team are hitting .302!!

Twins are also second-to-last in SB's with a grand total of 4 on the year. Can't hit and don't run. Have only 5 more runs scored than the garbage White Sox (who are last in the league). Looking bleak right now.

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Ope3 said:
Twins are generally middle of the pack in terms of overall payroll and relative to market size, I'm fine with that. I don't expect the Ownership to operate at continual deficits.

2023 they had a record Team Payroll. Circumstances dictated they take a step back from that. They were not alone 10-15 clubs are in the same position.

Conversely, sure the Wild and Vikings are spending up to the allowable Salary Cap. They also are going to have TENs of Millions of dollars in completely Dead Cap hits. I don't see how that is any better or worse than the Twins, given they all produce roughly the same results.
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The problem with this is that sticking to this strict "we can only spend this amount" baseline.....the Twins end up moving on from players that they should be holding onto.....and on the flipside.....panic buying players that other teams have rightfully moved on from when payroll dictates. It's not an efficient or effective way to build a roster.....continually gambling on other teams leftovers.

And no.....I do not expect the Pohlads to continually run operating deficits each year. But outside of 2020 (covid year) and last year.....it's pretty rare. There's no reason why they can't budget to get close to break even. They don't need to turn a $15-20 million (estimate) operating profit each year. The Pohlads are filthy rich as it is. And even if they don't turn an operating profit.....the franchise is gaining value year over year. In the past five years alone the Twins franchise has gained nearly $250 million in value. Since 2009 their value has spiked over A BILLION dollars. Yet the Pohlads still demand to run an operating profit damn near every year.....despite that $20 million being a pittance to them in the long run? Sorry.....but that's not an ownership team that gives a damn about winning.
 

stocker08 said:
The problem with this is that sticking to this strict "we can only spend this amount" baseline.....the Twins end up moving on from players that they should be holding onto.....and on the flipside.....panic buying players that other teams have rightfully moved on from when payroll dictates. It's not an efficient or effective way to build a roster.....continually gambling on other teams leftovers.

And no.....I do not expect the Pohlads to continually run operating deficits each year. But outside of 2020 (covid year) and last year.....it's pretty rare. There's no reason why they can't budget to get close to break even. They don't need to turn a $15-20 million (estimate) operating profit each year. The Pohlads are filthy rich as it is. And even if they don't turn an operating profit.....the franchise is gaining value year over year. In the past five years alone the Twins franchise has gained nearly $250 million in value. Since 2009 their value has spiked over A BILLION dollars. Yet the Pohlads still demand to run an operating profit damn near every year.....despite that $20 million being a pittance to them in the long run? Sorry.....but that's not an ownership team that gives a damn about winning.
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This. If they're as disinterested as they seem, sell the team. Take your huge profits and invest in something else. There are seasons that are partial rebuilds and scaling back payroll makes sense. Right after you won a play-off series for the first time in 20 years wasn't the right time for it.
 

stocker08 said:
The problem with this is that sticking to this strict "we can only spend this amount" baseline.....the Twins end up moving on from players that they should be holding onto.....and on the flipside.....panic buying players that other teams have rightfully moved on from when payroll dictates. It's not an efficient or effective way to build a roster.....continually gambling on other teams leftovers.

And no.....I do not expect the Pohlads to continually run operating deficits each year. But outside of 2020 (covid year) and last year.....it's pretty rare. There's no reason why they can't budget to get close to break even. They don't need to turn a $15-20 million (estimate) operating profit each year. The Pohlads are filthy rich as it is. And even if they don't turn an operating profit.....the franchise is gaining value year over year. In the past five years alone the Twins franchise has gained nearly $250 million in value. Since 2009 their value has spiked over A BILLION dollars. Yet the Pohlads still demand to run an operating profit damn near every year.....despite that $20 million being a pittance to them in the long run? Sorry.....but that's not an ownership team that gives a damn about winning.
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The reduction in Local TV Revenues is going to likely go beyond this year and the impacts are unknown. Signing quality Free Agents who are likely to demand multiple years would also impact the franchise budget in the future.

There is additional uncertainty likely with National TV Revenue as ESPN has been signally they are going to get out of the MLB business.

Also as mentioned, the Twins are not alone. Several other franchises scaled back, even successful ones in recent playoffs.