Author Archives: Jim Crikket

Forbes: Twins Rank 14th in Value Among MLB Teams

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Forbes magazine published its annual “Business of Baseball” on Forbes.com on Wednesday and the Minnesota Twins rank pretty much right smack dab in the middle of the pack in just about every financial category that Forbes measures.

The Twins rank 14th among the 30 MLB teams in terms of the team’s value, 15th in operating income ($16.6 million), and 13th in team revenues ($213 million). By the way, based on that revenue figure and the estimated $113 million the team shelled out for Major League salaries last season, it would appear that the Twins paid out 53% of revenues for player salaries, which is pretty much exactly what they claim the try to do annually.

The team’s value increased just 4% over 2010, which ranked them ahead of only three other MLB teams. The Royals’ increased their value just 1%, while the Rays and Mets actually saw their values drop. On average, MLB teams saw their values rise 16%.

What’s holding the Twins back? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out. It’s all about the TV money, folks. The teams that are seeing their revenues (and thus their values) rise are those milking significantly more income from broadcast deals. More teams are getting a cut of profits from the Regional Sports Networks that carry their games, while the Twins are getting comparative peanuts from Fox Sports North. That doesn’t bode well for the Twins’ ability to keep up with other teams’ ability to pay players.

The refrain fans heard from the Twins during the 15 years or so before the opening of Target Field was that the Twins needed the new stadium in order to realize similar revenues to those teams that already had their new stadiums. Now, with those revenues flatlining, the story is broadcast revenues.

As the Angels, Rangers and even the Padres are beginning to join traditional big revenue teams like the Yankees and Red Sox at the top of the list of high income teams, it’s obviously not going to take long for the Twins to fall behind on the competitive balance curve again unless they can find a way to wring more money out of FSN.

I’m going to go over the numbers in more detail over the next day or two and may post a bit more if anything interesting comes out of that analysis, but if you’d like to see the list for yourself, just click here to go to the Forbes site.

Information specific to the Twins is found here.

– JC

St. Patty’s Day is Separation Day

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St. Patrck’s Day means different things to different people. But if you’re a baseball player trying to make a Big League ballclub, you should have a pretty good idea of where you stand with your manager and General Manager by the time you lift your first green beer of the evening on March 17.

At this point, there are just over two weeks left of Spring Training, so if you have any hope of heading north with the Big Club, you had better have made some sort of positive impression by now. You simply can’t look like Leprechaun feces on the field for the first half of March and expect to be wearing a Major League uniform on Opening Day.

The Twins had 67 players in their Big League camp to begin with and will take only 25 with them to Baltimore to begin the regular season. In reality, there were only a handful of spots open on the Twins roster to begin with and not much has changed with regard to those players that were “locks.” Of course, Joel Zumaya’s injury immediately made one more bullpen spot available and now there’s some question whether Scott Baker’s tender elbow could cause him to start the season on the Disabled List, which would open up another pitching spot. Otherwise, the Twins were really only looking to determine who their bench position players would be and fill out the back end of their bullpen.

So let’s look at who the leaders are as the guys take that long bus ride across the state of Florida for a St. Patty’s Day contest with Ozzie’s new-look Miami Marlins this afternoon. (Our friend and fellow blogger, Thrylos, has been maintaining “scorecards” that track game-by-game performance of those contending for bench positions and bullpen spots over at The Tenth Inning Stretch. It’s a handy tool that you should glance at regularly.)

All statistics are through Friday, March 16.

Third Catcher:

It’s been almost a foregone conclusion that the Twins would carry a third catcher, in addition to Joe Mauer and Ryan Doumit, They’re still carrying six other catchers, but Danny Lehmann, Chris Herrmann and Daniel Rolfing will be heading back to minor league camp as the number of pitchers is thinned out.

The assumption has been that non-roster invite J.R. Towles would challenge Drew Butera, but Rene Rivera has perhaps been the most consistent performer of the group. Towles made a good first impression early in the month, but has been mediocre, at best, since then. Don’t rule out Butera, however. After a slow start, he’s had a couple of good games recently. I think Drew remains the odds-on favorite to keep his spot on the Twins bench. Here’s a fun small sample size Spring Training fact, however: Going in to today’s game, all three of these potential back-up back-up catchers are hitting at least .300 in official Spring Training games.

Other bench players:

The Twins really only have open spots for a utility infielder or two, if we assume that Ben Revere and Trevor Plouffe have secure spots as the third and fourth outfielders. There was no shortage of infield candidates, but to be brutally honest, there haven’t been three guys who have thus far demonstrated that they deserve to get a MLB paycheck.

The best of the bunch, so far, is Chris Parmelee (.368/.478/,684). His performance this spring would seem to indicate that his impressive September call-up was not a fluke. The problem is, it’s unlikely that the Twins really want him to spend 2012 sitting on the Twins bench. He needs to play baseball every day and, unless Justin Morneau is unable to answer the bell in April, Parmelee is going to be the Rochester first baseman.

Non-roster invite Mike Hollimon has looked good (.400/.455/.700), but he has to keep it up if he’s going to force the front office to give him someone else’s spot on the 40-man roster. On the other hand, unlike with Parmelee, the Twins wouldn’t think twice about letting him collect splinters on the Big League club’s bench if he can fill in around the infield and be effective in a pinch-hitting role.

Luke Hughes (.273/.333/.500) is definitely still in the hunt for a bench spot, as well. He’s out of options, which helps his cause. He also started out physically behind other contenders, as he nursed his shoulder back to health. Since returning to regular playing time at bat and in the field, his performance has picked up considerably and he finished this week strong.

Of the rest of the candidates for bench spots, nobody as been absolutely terrible, but nobody has been consistently good, either. Outfielder Joe Benson (.250/.304/.400) has been impressive at times, especially defensively, but he’s got the same issue Parmelee does… the Twins won’t keep him just to sit on the bench. Brian Dozier (.250/.294/.375) is probably in the same boat.

Handicapping the race with two weeks left, I’d say the early favorites remain the most likely players to open the year in Twins uniforms. Luke Hughes has a spot unless he kicks it away. Tsuyoshi Nishioka (.261/.292/..348) probably does, too, not so much because he’s looked good, but because almost nobody else has looked a heck of a lot better. Keep an eye on Hollimon, though, because if he finishes strong, he could force the Twins to make a very difficult decision regarding Nishioka.

The rest… Aaron Bates, Sean Burroughs, Ray Chang, Brian Dinkelman and Pedro Florimon… have had a moment or two they can be proud of, but I look for each of them to be sent down or released over the next 7-10 days.

Pitchers:

Things are much more interesting… and surprisingly optimistic… on the pitching front. For all the fretting about how the Twins would manage to cobble together a bullpen capable of backing up one of the most mediocre rotations in baseball last season, we’ve seen a number of candidates make strong cases that they deserve a shot.

Let’s start with Liam Hendriks (7 IP, 0.00 ERA, 1.000 WHIP). He started out pitching just an inning in his outings, but threw three hitless innings at the Red Sox when he got a chance to start. He was never likely to fill a bullpen role for the Twins to start the season, but if Baker has to postpone his season debut a while, Hendriks has looked good enough to step in to his spot. Whether he’s a Twin on Opening Day or not, I look for Hendriks to play a significant role for the Twins over the course of the season.

Alex Burnett, Carlos Gutierrez, Jeff Manship and Kyle Waldrop needed to perform well this spring. Those are guys who have been brought up in the organization and who the Twins expected to be developed enough at this point to be contributing at the Major League level. A big reason there are so many pitchers in camp that have been signed from other organizations within the past year or two is that those four pitchers have not yet proved they can do the job.

Burnett (2.2 IP, 16.87 ERA) has struggled, but the other three guys have been pitching well. They are getting some competition from Matt Maloney, Jared Burton, Casey Fien and P.J. Walters, all of whom have been pretty impressive, as well.

Others have had a good day here and there, as well, but I think the field has been narrowed to Gutierrez (5 IP, 1.80 ERA, 1.200 WHIP ), Manship (4.1 IP, 2.08 ERA, 0.462 WHIP), Waldrop (4 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.750 WHIP), Maloney (5.1 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.750 WHIP), Burton (5 IP, 1.80 ERA, 1.000 WHIP), Fien (3.1 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0.300 WHIP) and Walters (5 IP, 0.00 ERA, 1.000 WHIP).

Keep in mind that Gutierrez, Manship and Waldrop are all already on the Twins’ 40-man roster, while the four “outsiders” are not which means the Twins would need to find room for any of them they decide to keep. [EDIT: Matt Maloney is also already on the 40-man roster… my bad.] This race is still too close to call, but I’m excited that there are so many guys who are meeting and even exceeding expectations as we head in to the final couple of weeks of Spring Training.

I’ll be heading down to Ft. Myers for the final week of Spring Training and I’m looking forward to seeing how this all shakes out.

– JC

Looking for Breakout Seasons

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By this point, everyone knows the variables that will determine whether the Twins will have a successful 2012 season, right? Mauer, Morneau, Baker and Span have to stay healthy and the bullpen needs to be vastly improved over last year. We know all of that because every beat writer, columnist and blogger has pointed at those issues over and over again since October.

Sure, if the established veterans all return to the level of productivity we’ve come to expect from them, the Twins should avoid the kind of meltdown they suffered through last season. That said, if the team is going to actually contend in 2012, they’re going to need more. They will need breakout seasons from players that have not yet demonstrated that they belong among the American League’s elite names at their positions.

But where can the Twins expect to find those potential breakout seasons?

The typical arc of a professional baseball player’s career is actually more predictable than one might think. Their prime years are pretty much from ages 26 to 32. We all spent a lot of time discussing the back end of that range during the offseason, as we discussed the pros and cons of offering multi-year contracts to Michael Cuddyer, who is just past that “prime” range, and Joe Nathan, who is well past it.

But when you are looking for potential breakout years, it makes more sense to focus on the front end of the range. The Twins are notorious for bringing their minor league prospects along slowly through the organization and, for a club with a reputation for disregarding advanced statistical analysis, it appears that they may have a basis for this particular proclivity. Projecting that most players hit their strides at age 26, I doubt that it’s a coincidence that most Twins prospects aren’t often starting their Major League careers (and their arbitration clocks) until they’re at least 24 years old. The Twins apparently try to time a player’s Big League debut a year or two before they expect him to break out and become a fully productive Major League ballplayer, then get as much of their peak years as possible while they’re still affordable.

Glen Perkins

For example, Cuddyer was getting his first real full-time duty with the Twins at age 25 and had his first OPS above .800 (or first OPS+ season over 100, if you prefer that metric) in his age 27 season. Torii Hunter got a taste of the Big Leagues in the season during which he turned 24, but he really figured it out in 2001, the season he turned 26. More recently, Glen Perkins may have made his debut at age 24, but it wasn’t until last year, in his age 28 season, that he carved out a meaningful role for himself with the Twins.

Armed with this knowledge, who should we be looking at in 2012 as having the potential to have breakout seasons? Here’s a list of possible candidates:

Trevor Plouffe turns 26 years old in June. He’s shown some pop in his bat and, let’s be honest, if he had demonstrated passable defensive abilities, he’d be the Twins regular shortstop right now. If he can play a decent outfield, Plouffe could establish himself this season. But few players really get it all figured out in their first full year of regular time in the Show, so we should probably hold off on establishing those expectations of Trevor quite yet. Maybe next year.

The same would be true of pitchers Anthony Swarzak and Kyle Waldrop. Both will be 26 years old pretty much throughout the upcoming season, but given their relative lack of Major League experience, it’s probably not realistic to expect them to have Glen Perkins-like results already this season.

Luke Hughes

Infielder Luke Hughes is starting his age 27 season and he got a few swings in at the Big League level last year, so we can hope to see him step his game up a little bit. He’s not currently penciled in for a regular starting job, though, so you have to wonder if he’ll get the plate appearances necessary to make significant strides in 2012.

So if those candidates aren’t likely to break out, who will?

First, keep in mind that Denard Span just turned 28 years old a couple of weeks ago, so while he’s arguably already had his breakout season, he’s still on the front side of his peak years. He’s reached the point of being physically mature and has enough experience that he really should no longer be seeing much of anything offensively or defensively for the first time. That being the case, I’d like to see Span take a big step forward with his game this season, assuming he can stay healthy.

Another familiar name on my list of potential breakout seasons is Francisco Liriano. We’ve been waiting for him to have a true breakout season for what seems like forever. Despite having several seasons of Major League experience in the books, Liriano is still just now entering his age 28 season. That’s slightly past our “breakout season” ages, but it’s not too late to see it happen… yet. That said, this is arguably the last year that anyone can make the, “he’s still a young pitcher with potential,” statement, so it’s now or never (at least with the Twins organization) for Frankie.

If it seems like Alexi Casilla has been around forever, too, it’s because he has. He was rushed a bit after being acquired from the Angels for J.C. Romero and his service clock started while he was still just 23 years old. That means he’s just now entering his age 27 season (he turns 28 in July). Casilla has been inconsistent, to say the least. But this season, he’s starting off at what’s arguably his best defensive position, second base, and so far this spring he’s making good contact from his spot at the bottom of the Twins order. The game should finally be slowing down a bit for Lexi and if he can play decent defense while getting on base with regularity, he could play a significant positive role for the Twins in 2012.

Danny Valencia

Finally, the guy with perhaps the greatest potential for having a true breakout season is third baseman Danny Valencia, who will be 27 years old throughout the first five months of the season. Valencia’s had two full years now to adjust to Big League pitching and there’s no reason he shouldn’t take a major step forward in 2012. Everyone seems to project Valencia as hitting in the #7 spot in the Twins lineup and he very well may start the season there, but if he’s still hitting in the bottom third of the order in August, I’ll be disappointed.

So those are my “breakout season” picks… Liriano, Casilla and Valencia (with some additional improvement also from Span). Talk all you want about Mauer, Morneau, Baker and the bullpen, but in my mind, the Twins’ success, or lack thereof, this season is riding just as much on the ability of these players to make significant strides as any other factor. They are hitting their prime years and it’s time for them to show fans what they’re made of.

– JC

GameChat: Yankees @ Twins, 12:05 FSN

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The Twins are putting what’s pretty much their “A” line up out there today against the visiting Yankees. Considering the 2+ hour bus ride from Tampa and the fact that this is a “split squad” day for the Yankees (they have a “home” game today, too), they actually brought a fair number of regular position players to Ft. Myers.

Denard Span was originally listed as the starting CF, but was a late scratch with a stiff neck. I don’t like the sound of that, but I’ll try not to get too worried… yet.

Nick Blackburn takes the mound for the Twins and Phil Hughes does so for the Evil Empire and, best of all (at least for those of you in Minnesota), the game is being shown on FSN. So, once again, we’ll open up a GameChat window for anyone interested in stopping by.

Here’s today’s lineups:

YANKEES

@

 TWINS
Gardner, LF Revere, LF
Granderson, CF Carroll, SS
Swisher, RF Mauer, C
Ibanez, DH Morneau, 1B
Cervelli, C Willingham, RF
Vazquez, 3B Doumit, LF
Nix, J, 2B Valencia, 3B
Laird, 1B Benson, CF
Pena, R, SS Casilla, A, 2B
  _Hughes, P, P   _Blackburn, P
  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
NY Yankees 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 9 0
Minnesota 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 3 x 5 8 0

Admit it, it’s always a good feeling to beat the Yankees, even if it’s just an early exhibition game.

Once again, the Twins pitching had a good day. Nick Blackburn got the job done in his three innings  and the six relief pitchers that followed did just fine, as well. The difference between yesterday and today was that Twins hitters also showed up. Danny Valencia hit his second HR in as many days and today he was joined by Joe Benson and Mike Hollimon who had blasts of their own. None of the damage was done against Yankees starter Phil Hughes, but at this point, I’m just happy to see bats making good contact on baseballs for the Twins against anyone.

This is the week we’re likely to see a few of the 66 players that started the spring in the Big League clubhouse take their gear across the parking lot to the minor league complex. There aren’t likely to be many surprises, but we’ll soon start to get a better idea of who’s in serious consideration for those last roster spots and who isn’t.

– JC

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GameChat: Twins @ Pirates, 12:05

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I see the Twins Spring Training game today is on MLB.tv, but I’m not sure if it’s being televised on FSN or not. Either way, I thought I’d put up a GameChat for anyone else who doesn’t have anything else going on today.

It sounds like Scott Baker had a rough couple of innings in a “B: game this morning. He told reporters that there was nothing physically wrong with him, he just couldn’t get the ball down. That’s good news… I think. The Twins did actually score some runs, for a change, however. Oswaldo Arcia homered and Chris Parmelee had a couple of doubles. That’s more offense than they’ve shown in almost a week’s worth of games.

So let’s see how they do in the “real” game this afternoon.

TWINS

@

 PIRATES
Span, CF Presley, LF
Carroll, SS McLouth, RF
Willingham, RF Navarro, SS
Morneau, DH Barajas, C
Valencia, 3B McGehee, 3B
Plouffe, LF Fox, 1B
Pearce, 1B Hernandez, Go, CF
Revere, C d’Arnaud, 2B
Casilla, A, 2B Bedard, P
  _Doyle, P   
  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Minnesota 0 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 4 6 1
Pittsburgh 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 11 0

Four runs on six hits may not sound like much, but it’s a veritable power surge for the Twins lately. Danny Valencia stepped up today with a 2-run HR and a double. Starting pitcher Terry Doyle was less than impressive, but the relief corps that the Twins sent out to the mound after Doyle all certainly behaved as though they are serious about claiming spots in the Twins bullpen. Swarzak, Burton, Maloney, Waldrip, Oliveros and Walters all pitched scoreless innings and all struck out at least one Pirates hitter. Swarzak gets extra credit for coming in to finish off the 3rd inning for Doyle before pitching his own complete inning in the 4th.

– JC

Hump Day Humbug

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I’ve written often lately about how Spring Training is the time for just enjoying the fact that baseball is being played by our guys in Florida and setting aside the disagreements we’ve had with Twins management over roster decisions the past few months. I still believe that.

Image: zazzle.com

But I’m sitting here this morning realizing that it’s only Wednesday AND that my original Spring Training plans, had they worked out, would have had me leaving for Ft. Myers a week from today. Instead, it will be two weeks later, so I’ve got a whole THREE WEEKS to wait. Humbug.

So, perhaps it’s just my mood, but I’m going to share my grouchiness with all of you this morning.

I’ve watched most of the three Twins games that have been available on the internet and let me just say this… if Ron Gardenhire thought starting camp three days earlier than usual to work more on fundamentals was going to return this team to the days of playing baseball the “Twins Way,” he must be wanting to throw up about now.

I know the wind has been crazy during a couple of the games and that some outfielders are playing out of position a bit (Ryan Doumit played LF the other night for the first time since HIGH SCHOOL), but so far the way guys are fielding, throwing and running bases, I’m not sure three extra WEEKS would have been enough to instill fundamentals in some of these players.

With so many pitchers in camp, there’s a ton of guys who have to know they’re going to have to really stand out every time they get even an inning of work in a game. That’s unfortunate, because ideally you want to use Spring Training games to simply work on location or release point for specific pitches, without being overly concerned about whether the hitter figures out you’re throwing the same pitch over and over until it feels good.

But most of these pitchers don’t have that luxury right now. Every time one of them goes out there and walks a couple of guys or gives up more than one hit in their inning of work, they know they’re one step across the parking lot to the minor league clubhouse (or one step toward outright release). I’m not going to name names, but if you’ve been watching, you know there’s a couple of guys feeling the heat right now.

The Twins are playing another “B” game as I write this Wednesday morning. I’m not sure I like the trend toward more “B” games. I understand that with so many pitchers in camp, they simply need to get more live innings in, but those games also start to become excuses to leave starting position players home, rather than making them bus an hour away to play in that day’s “real” game.

For example, Alexi Casilla, Jamey Carroll, Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau are all playing in the “B” game today, while Denard Span and Josh Willingham are the only certain starting position players making the trip to Sarasota to play the Orioles (unless you want to count Ben Revere as a starter). Teams already tend not to take a full group of starters to road games, but if it gets to the point where they never take their best players, it will mean two things: The games will be less interesting for fans and pitchers will face fewer legitimate Major Leaguers as they prepare for the season.

I understand there are pros and cons to this. For example, if Babs and Andrew got their butts out of bed early enough today, they had a chance to see Lexi and the M&M boys support Nick Blackburn up close and personal without paying a nickel to do so. Also, now that minor league camp has opened, there will be guys sent across the lot every few days, so the need for “B” games becomes less important. In other words, I’m probably concerned over nothing… but hey, I’m in one of those moods so I thought I’d mention it.

Here’s another thing that’s really a good thing, but I’m going to grouch about it anyway. All-Star Twins blogger Aaron Gleeman shared the news in his blog this morning that he’s had a very successful year on the weight-loss front. This is great for Aaron and I’m happy for him… but realizing that a year ago, he outweighed me by about 120 pounds and now he’s dropped at least 25 pounds below what I’m carrying just reminds me how unsuccessful I’ve been on that front.

Finally, tomorrow is the opening day of the Big Ten Conference mens’ basketball tournament. This is usually something I more or less celebrate. In fact, for the first several years it was held, I made the trip to Chicago to attend it in person (this was before I realized that instead of fighting blizzards to attend this event, I could go to Florida to watch baseball in 80 degree weather). But this year, my Hawkeyes not only are unlikely to advance far in the tournament (I’ve become accustomed to that lately), their first game is at 10:30 in the frigging morning on Thursday! And if they beat Illinois, they turn around and play early again on Friday!

So the bad news is that I have to essentially take the entire day off from work Thursday (and maybe Friday, too) to watch Big Ten basketball all day. Hey… wait a minute… that means that, from a work perspective, this kinda may be “Friday.”

Hmmmm… I think I feel my mood improving, after all.

– JC

Talkin’ Big Ten Basketball

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Yes, I know this is a Minnesota Twins blog first and foremost. But, as many of you know, my interests do extend beyond the Twins and even beyond baseball.

I’m also a fan of NCAA basketball and, in particular, Iowa Hawkeyes basketball.

Monday night, I joined the Phil Naessens’ podcast to talk about the Big Ten conference as they get ready to open the BIG tournament later this week.

We discussed each Big Ten team and Phil & I each made our Big Ten Tournament champion picks and I picked one of the teams that have to play four games to make a huge run (no… unfortunately… it’s not the Hawkeyes).

So, if you’re interested in listening to Phil and I talk Big Ten hoops for a half hour or so, click here and feel free to leave comments!

– JC

GameChat: Red Sox @ Twins 6:05

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Tough to get this GameChat up before game time when I work until almost 6:00, but I’ll put it up and then go add the lineups.

And here they are:

RED SOX

@

 TWINS
Iglesias, SS Span, CF
Sweeney, RF Nishioka, 2B
Youkilis, 3B Mauer, C
Ortiz, 1B Morneau, 1B
McDonald, D, DH Willingham, RF
Kroeger, LF Doumit, LF
Shoppach, C Hughes, L, DH
Punto, 2B Dozier, SS
Repko, CF Hollimon, 3B
  _ Buchholz, C, P   _Marquis, P
  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Boston 0 4 1 0 0 0 5 0 0 10 11 0
Minnesota 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 2 7 2

I think the technical baseball term for that kind of game is “butt-ugly,” even for a Spring Training game.

Jason Marquis was certainly less than impressive in his Twins ST debut, though his defense didn’t exactly help him out either.

On the positive side, Liam Hendriks looked sharp with 3 Ks in two scoreless innings and Carlos Gutierrez, Brendan Wise and Tyler Robertson all added an inning of scoreless pitching each. Joe Mauer was the only Twins hitter with more than one hit, contributing two singles.

– JC

Our 2nd Knuckle-versary

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Two years of Knuckleballs. Who-da thunk it?

A year ago, CapitalBabs wrote about how surprised we all were that 30,000 visited our site in our first year of existence, so you really can’t believe how shocked we are that more than 50,000 more of you people stopped by to see us during our second year!

The Twins blogging community has become an amazing place. It grew to the point where there have been literally dozens of blogs worthy of regular reading. We have blogs by the professional journalists, by people focused on the science and mathematics of baseball, by people who have devoted a good segment of their lives to studying the Twins minor league system, and by people like us who are mostly just doing this blogging thing to provide an outlet for our viewpoints and to have some fun with others in the process.

What’s great is that all of these people with very different backgrounds, talents and viewpoints all come together thanks to a common interest in the Minnesota Twins and a willingness to put themselves and their opinions out there for others to read, enjoy and, yes, often times criticize. But that’s OK. Free and open civil debate is the cornerstone of our country. The number of people willing to open themselves up and participate in that process enhances the experience of being a Twins fan.

The creation of Twins Daily by the TwinsCentric crew is a new and exciting event for Twins fans. It has the potential to be a real “game changer” for the Twins blogging community. I will admit to having a concern that it may become such an overwhelming focal point for Twins fans looking for blogging content that it makes it more difficult for the rest of us to keep our own “lesser” blogs alive. It certainly means we need to step up our game to assure our content is worth the effort for those readers willing to click a few extra keys to come see us. If we prove unable to do that, then our readership will likely drop off and we may find ourselves faced with some difficult decisions.

But that’s something for another day. Today, as we anxiously await the opening of another Twins season, we’re celebrating the fact that we’ve not only survived for two years, but by any measure of our original expectations, we’ve thrived beyond what we could have imagined.

And we have you, our readers, to thank for that. Thank you for your support and we look forward to sharing another Twins season with all of you!

– JC

Expanded Playoffs Adopted… and I Like It!

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Right up front, I LIKE the expanded playoffs adopted officially by MLB today.  I went on record supporting this concept a couple of years ago and I stand by that support.

Beginning this fall, there will be TWO Wild Card spots in both the AL and NL, instead of one in each. In a perfect world, I’d have no Wild Cards at all, but that realistically is never going to happen. This is the next best thing.

I know that scheduling issues meant that, for 2012 only, the LDS will have a goofy format where the first two games are played in the lower seeded team’s stadium and the following three in the higher seeded team’s place. That’s not ideal, but they’ll go back to a 2-2-1 format next season, so whatever.

Image: MLB.com

The primary reason I like this concept is that it returns emphasis where I believe it belongs… on winning your Division title.

Players and managers (and thus most fans) have become conditioned, since 1995, to establishing their team’s season-long goal as being to “make the playoffs.” This is the way it is in the NFL, NHL and NBA, and while MLB has had fewer playoff spots than other major sports leagues, that same mentality has established itself in baseball since the Wild Card was implemented starting with the 1995 season.

Since that time, it has no longer mattered if you win your Division or not, as long as you managed to win enough games to beat out all of the other Division “runners up.” Several times over this period, teams that have locked up the Wild Card spot have stopped bothering to even compete for their Division championship, preferring instead to rest players and set their rotation for the playoffs. In at least one case, a team very clearly tried NOT to win their Division, in an effort to get the first round match-up they felt most comfortable with. That cannot be allowed to happen.

It won’t happen again.

There are only two real objections raised to the new plan.

One is that it results in the likely outcome that a strong second place team in one Division is placed at too great a disadvantage to Division winning teams of lesser talent and abilities. We’ll call this “the Yankee objection” and it goes something like this:

“The Yankees are always the best team in the American League, even when they let another AL East team win the Division and this format will mean that when the Yankees do allow someone else to win the AL East, they won’t get in to the playoffs on equal footing with the AL Central and AL West Division champions who are never ever as good as the Yankees. Therefore, the Yankees will gain their rightful place in the World Series less often than they deserve.”

To this I say, “If you’re so much better than everyone else, win your f’ing Division or shut up.”

The other objection, raised by a lot of players and managers, is that it just isn’t fair to make a team go through a 162 game season and then have their playoff hopes hinge on a single game. Everyone is conditioned to believe that you’re supposed to get a series of some sort in the postseason to establish your right to move on or go home.

And I agree… for Division champions.

But we’re not talking about Division champions here. We’re talking about two teams that didn’t win a damn thing over the course of that 162 game season. By all rights, they shouldn’t get to play ANY more baseball. They finished no better than 2nd place in their Divisions.

But we need an even number of teams in the “real” playoffs for each League, so one of those losers has to be let in to the postseason party. That’s fine, I guess, but this business of letting that also-ran team enter the playoffs on equal footing with the teams that DID win their Division needed to end.

So, once again, my answer to the whiners who think their 2nd place finish should entitle them to getting to play more than a single play-in game is pretty similar to my response to the first objection… “If you don’t want your playoff hopes determined by a single Wild Card game, win more games.”

In the end, Major League Baseball is saying that they want Division Championships to matter more than they have since 1995 and this change absolutely guarantees that teams will go flat out to win their Division, rather than settle for a Wild Card spot.

There are other benefits of this change, of course, but they are not so much real reasons to make the change as they are pleasant byproducts.

More teams will be in contention for one of those Wild Card spots late in the season. This is important, not only to fans in the markets directly affected by their team continuing to have a shot, but across the entire fan base, because it will mean more fans continuing to pay attention to more games at a time of year when baseball loses a number of eyeballs to football games. The playoffs and even World Series have become less watched in part because, by the time the playoffs roll around, fans in most markets have lost interest in baseball and have been watching football for over a month.

I also really like knowing there will always be two “win or go home” games every season. The down side of having playoff “series” is that there are years when not a single postseason game has the drama of both teams needing a win to avoid elimination, because there are years when no playoff series goes the full five or seven games. That will never happen again.

The handful of “game 163” contests in recent years have been instant classics. Now there will be at least two of those games every season (though not many of them are likely to have the drama of the Rockies, White Sox and Twins wins this decade). And it won’t come at the cost of other potential game 163s because there will still be potential tie-breaker games.

I understand that there are plenty of people who don’t like this change. That’s fine. As always, I acknowledge that everyone is entitled to their opinion… even if it’s wrong. 🙂

– JC