The thing that bugs me the most is the double standard that parts of the fanbase show.
Like if the Twins signed Flaherty people would be falling over themselves talking about how the contract is way too expensive and he’s cooked and he hasn’t been good in five years and how Falvey is going back to the injury scrap heap but since Detroit signed him it’s “well at least one team in the central wants to win next year 😔”
I’ll care more about the spending thing when the young guys are approaching FA in *checks notes* … more than half a decade.
I’ve come to accept that Falvey and Co. always goes into cryo sleep most of the offseason and they aren’t going to pay for pitching.
We are a small market team with limited resources and baseball is a business after all. Perhaps it’s smart to hold off and make some acquisitions/trades after the season has begun? Is there some wisdom in not opening the wallet so early in the off season?
There’s just some truth that everyone has to accept. I certainly don’t like this truth but here it is-
The Pohlad family is not willing to spend top dollar to win a world series. It’s just not that important to them. They absolutely would LOVE to win one, but they have no willingness to spend to the point where the team is well above their means. They will not eat it out of their pocket and you will never see the Pohlads pull a Mike Illitch and just start spending like crazy to get one ring before someone goes. As an ownership family, the Pohlads’ ideal season is basically last year. They spend basically mid pack salary wise, they win a couple playoff games and advance and are competitive in the next round. Then it’s “aw shucks, well next year we’ll come back to the playoffs and ANYTHING can happen” … Well, yes, anything could hypothetically happen but the Twins were a solid 3 players away from being able to beat houston in that last series.
What does that mean for this year? There is absolutely no acceptable reason for the payroll to come down given what happened last year, even with the TV money going down. You just broke a nearly 20 year losing streak in the playoffs, you advanced a round, were moderately competitive with a team that has been basically the standard bearer in the AL… We should be adding payroll, not subtracting it. But it’s going to go down because the Pohlads know that a payroll in the low 130’s should more than suffice to win the central, make the playoffs, play the “anything can happen card” and then hope. They’re not willing to eat the difference on the TV money to give us what we deserve.
And listen, the team’s going to be solid this year. It’s not like we have any reason to think there will be an utter collapse. I’m certainly looking forward to the season. But I think every single fan should definitely have a sour vibe because at a time when the Twins should be adding payroll and pushing the issue to make a run with a young exciting core, they’re going to do the same crap. I mean seriously, we’re basically at christmas time, there has been no movement by the team at all. Nobody’s come in, we’ve only lost people, and all the free agents worth a crap are either gone, or someone there’s no way we could afford. So now we have to go the trade route, and then that’s going to be “awesome, we got a cool pitcher… but we had to trade polanco/kepler to do it” so even an addition figures to be a push. Why would the vibe not be down a bit?
I can’t take anyone seriously who relies sooooo much on flaky projections and especially the trade values website (which is a hot steaming pile of unreliable garbage) for so much of his content. When a YouTuber with a *monetized channel* feels it necessary to also create Patreons and other pay formats is beyond the pale and crass. The guy used to be entertaining until his ego set in. Now he’s lecturing fans on how they should feel? Spare me. It looks like a lot of others agree based on his big drop in viewership.
6 comments
Balanced takes are refreshing
The thing that bugs me the most is the double standard that parts of the fanbase show.
Like if the Twins signed Flaherty people would be falling over themselves talking about how the contract is way too expensive and he’s cooked and he hasn’t been good in five years and how Falvey is going back to the injury scrap heap but since Detroit signed him it’s “well at least one team in the central wants to win next year 😔”
I’ll care more about the spending thing when the young guys are approaching FA in *checks notes* … more than half a decade.
I’ve come to accept that Falvey and Co. always goes into cryo sleep most of the offseason and they aren’t going to pay for pitching.
We are a small market team with limited resources and baseball is a business after all. Perhaps it’s smart to hold off and make some acquisitions/trades after the season has begun? Is there some wisdom in not opening the wallet so early in the off season?
There’s just some truth that everyone has to accept. I certainly don’t like this truth but here it is-
The Pohlad family is not willing to spend top dollar to win a world series. It’s just not that important to them. They absolutely would LOVE to win one, but they have no willingness to spend to the point where the team is well above their means. They will not eat it out of their pocket and you will never see the Pohlads pull a Mike Illitch and just start spending like crazy to get one ring before someone goes. As an ownership family, the Pohlads’ ideal season is basically last year. They spend basically mid pack salary wise, they win a couple playoff games and advance and are competitive in the next round. Then it’s “aw shucks, well next year we’ll come back to the playoffs and ANYTHING can happen” … Well, yes, anything could hypothetically happen but the Twins were a solid 3 players away from being able to beat houston in that last series.
What does that mean for this year? There is absolutely no acceptable reason for the payroll to come down given what happened last year, even with the TV money going down. You just broke a nearly 20 year losing streak in the playoffs, you advanced a round, were moderately competitive with a team that has been basically the standard bearer in the AL… We should be adding payroll, not subtracting it. But it’s going to go down because the Pohlads know that a payroll in the low 130’s should more than suffice to win the central, make the playoffs, play the “anything can happen card” and then hope. They’re not willing to eat the difference on the TV money to give us what we deserve.
And listen, the team’s going to be solid this year. It’s not like we have any reason to think there will be an utter collapse. I’m certainly looking forward to the season. But I think every single fan should definitely have a sour vibe because at a time when the Twins should be adding payroll and pushing the issue to make a run with a young exciting core, they’re going to do the same crap. I mean seriously, we’re basically at christmas time, there has been no movement by the team at all. Nobody’s come in, we’ve only lost people, and all the free agents worth a crap are either gone, or someone there’s no way we could afford. So now we have to go the trade route, and then that’s going to be “awesome, we got a cool pitcher… but we had to trade polanco/kepler to do it” so even an addition figures to be a push. Why would the vibe not be down a bit?
I can’t take anyone seriously who relies sooooo much on flaky projections and especially the trade values website (which is a hot steaming pile of unreliable garbage) for so much of his content. When a YouTuber with a *monetized channel* feels it necessary to also create Patreons and other pay formats is beyond the pale and crass. The guy used to be entertaining until his ego set in. Now he’s lecturing fans on how they should feel? Spare me. It looks like a lot of others agree based on his big drop in viewership.