The Cedar Rapids Kernels have announced a press conference is scheduled for 1:30 pm Wednesday to announce their new Major League affiliation. I think it may be the Minnesota Twins, what do you think?
So does Charley Walters at the PiPress. Although he does have one tiny fact wrong… Beloit opens 2013 in Cedar Rapids on April 4, not the other way around. If you’re curious, you can find the Kernels 2013 schedule by clicking here.
Perfect Game Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium, Cedar Rapids (Photo: Jim Crikket/Knuckleballs)
I’m sure others will concur now that the Kernels have announced the press conference, which is open to the public (in case any of you don’t have anything else going on Wednesday afternoon).
Scuttlebutt around this here inter-web machine had the Twins brass scheduled to meet with the Quad Cities River Bandits in Davenport on Tuesday, but I have neither seen nor heard any confirmation that such meeting took place.
In addition, reports indicate no formal written agreement is yet in place between the Kernels and Twins. If that doesn’t happen over the next few hours, though, the press conference could be pretty short.
I’m sure all of your favorite local news outlets will have coverage of the press conference tomorrow. Here at Knuckleballs, we’ll hopefully be able to just sit back and enjoy the news.
For several months, I’ve worked on and off on drafting articles examining the complicated relationship between blogging and reporting. Following the reactions I’ve received from last night’s post concerning the Twins and Cedar Rapids Kernels, I thought this morning might be a good time to get that ball rolling.
I’ve been accused, if indirectly, of making stuff up to get more traffic here at the blog. I really have no motive to do that. Anyone who’s been here will notice immediately that we don’t incorporate advertising at Knuckleballs. Maybe that will change some day, but frankly I just don’t consider it worth the hassle. In any event, the revenue we generate from 200 reads per day and 2,000 reads per day is exactly the same. Zero dollars. We cover the expenses involved in maintaining this site out of our own pockets. Of course, it’s nice to have people read your stuff and I happen to think I’m a decent writer, for a fan.
(Image: dailyblogtips.com)
But that’s the thing… I’m a fan, not a reporter and I have no grand dreams of getting paid big bucks to do this stuff.
While the trend toward reporters all having blogs and some fan-bloggers getting space in traditional media outlets is making that line more and more grey, the line is still important. At least it is to me.
If I were a reporter, I should have needed two sources to go on the record before posting last night. As a fan with a blog, yet a blogger with some sense of journalistic ethics, I need at least one source that I have a high degree of confidence in who is willing to tell me it’s OK to publish what I know.
Since I’ve been doing this a while, I have a pretty nice number of sources (at least for a blogger, I would imagine), both in Minnesota and Iowa. One of them confirmed that the information in my lead paragraph was accurate and after some discussion (in which I asked if I should hold off posting for at least a day), I was given the OK to post on this blog Monday night. I did so.
I understand that I may have made life challenging for some people that I highly respect in one or both organizations, the Twins and Kernels, as a result of my posting the information and I do regret that. I also feel bad that perhaps a few people along the Avenue of the Saints who are known to “know me,” will be looked upon suspiciously as being my source. I’ve certainly had more than one person tell me they wish I had held off. It was not my intention to cause problems for anyone and I do apologize to anyone I inconvenienced in any way. I was a fan with some damn exciting news to share and a vehicle at my disposal for doing so. Period.
But I stand by what I wrote. I did not say a PDC had been entered in to. I said the Kernels had agreed to a proposal to enter a PDC. I believe that information was and is accurate. I guess it won’t take long to find out if that’s true.
There’s another group that I struggle a bit with the question of whether I should apologize to them. That would be members of the “working media” who may have been irked at me for intruding on their turf and publishing before they could do so, either because they didn’t have sources willing to go on the record or because they chose to honor a request to hold back reporting the story a while longer.
It suppose it can be maddening to honor a request not to publish information only to see another writer, whether traditional or non-traditional, put the story out there. I saw that happen, in fact, this past weekend with the information that the Twins representatives would be in Cedar Rapids Monday. Some of us may have had that information as confidential, but apparently others had the OK to publish Sunday. It happens.
So I can understand their frustration. Reporters have a tighter set of rules to live by than I do, as I pointed out before. In today’s confusing media world, that has to be really difficult to work through at times.
But if a reporter also has a blog, is s/he bound by the same standards for what they print in that blog as they are when they write a news story? What about sports columnists? Where are the lines?
Similarly, what about a fan-blogger who either occasionally or regularly gets an offer to have his work posted on a traditional media site? Should s/he do so if s/he knows s/he wouldn’t have published the blog post in the first place had it been written FOR that media outlet?
What’s most important, perhaps, is that the readers understand that there IS a difference between the information they see in a blog (including this one) and the information they get from, for example, the online version of their local newspaper. The “real” newspeople are professionals and you should nearly always consider their information to be far more credible than anything you read in a blog. They may not always be able to get the information out there first, but when they write something, you can generally trust it. That certainly can not and should not be said about all bloggers.
The best I can do is tell you this: When you see something I’ve written here or on any other site, you can believe I follow certain ethical guidelines that I impose upon myself. I don’t make stuff up (or on the rare occasion that I do, you should be able to recognize it immediately as satire), I don’t claim others’ work as my own. I don’t burn sources. I don’t even discuss them. I know the difference between on the record and off… and I make sure my sources understand the difference, too. I do not post anything that I am asked to keep confidential.
As consumers of online information, we all have to determine for ourselves if the stuff we read out there should be treated as credible information or just stuff put out there for entertainment purposes (or even just to cause trouble). I hope you find my writing to be credible and I certainly hope you don’t think I’m out here just to cause trouble for anyone. On the other hand, if you choose to believe my writing falls in to the “just entertainment” category, I can live with that. In fact, most of the time, we do try to be at least a little bit entertaining here.
After weeks of speculation, we’ve confirmed that the Cedar Rapids Kernels have agreed to accept a proposal to enter in to a player development contract (PDC) with the Minnesota Twins for the next four years. Twins officials toured the Kernels facilities Monday afternoon and met with the CR Board of Directors later in the day. A news conference may be held Wednesday in Cedar Rapids for the formal announcement.
The Twins, who have been sending their Class A prospects to Beloit for the past eight years, had been rumored to be favoring a move to Cedar Rapids for several weeks. Given that the Twins brass showed up for a meeting almost immediately after the two sides were allowed, by MLB Rule, to even communicate with one another, those rumors turned out to be well-founded.
At the same time, the Kernels were looking for a fresh start with a Midwestern Major League affiliate after notifying the Angels that they would be ending their 20-year affiliation with that organization. Cedar Rapids is the closest Midwest League city to the Twin Cities and, while there’s a sizable Twins fan base in Eastern Iowa, there certainly is potential for the Twins to expand their media presence in the area.
Beyond geography, however, the two organizations are viewed as a good fit on a number of other levels. Both the Kernels and Twins emphasize the value of community involvement by their players. Twins fans are certainly familiar with the value that organization puts on having their players get involved any number of local charities and causes. The Kernels will prove to be a good training ground for their prospects in this regard, as evidenced by their Summer Reading Program. The Kernels also have a significant “host family” program, which allows players to save money by living with local families during their stay in Cedar Rapids.
The reason for the Twins ending their relationship with the Beloit Snappers is widely believed to center on issues involving the facilities there. Pohlman Field is one of the older ballparks still utilized by a full-season affiliated minor league team and efforts over the past decade or more to get funding for a new ballpark in or near Beloit seem to have lost any momentum they might once have had. After eight years, the Twins apparently did not see the situation improving any time soon.
Overhead view of Perfect Game Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids
The Kernels are community-owned, with a Board of Directors essentially operating as the organization’s owners. They have played their games at Perfect Game Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium since it opened in 2002. It was built on the site of their “old” Veterans Memorial Stadium. Next summer will be the Kernels’ 12th season in the facility. There are a number of newer ballparks in the Eastern Division of the Midwest League, but among the Western Division locations, no city has a newer ballpark than Cedar Rapids. Peoria opened O’Brien Field in 2002, as well. (Though not new, the ballparks in Appleton WI and Davenport IA have both undergone major renovations in recent years.)
This will be the first affiliation between the Twins and Cedar Rapids. In the past, the Twins have sent their Class A prospects to Midwest League teams in Wisconsin Rapids WI, Kenosha WI (which moved to Ft. Wayne IN while affiliated with the Twins) and the Quad Cities (Davenport IA) prior to Beloit.
Cedar Rapids Baseball has a long history extending back to the 19th century when Hall of Fame manager John McGraw played for the local team. Since the establishment of today’s MLB/MiLB affiliation-based relationship, Cedar Rapids has hosted minor leaguers sent by the Astros, Cardinals, Giants, Reds and Angels. Going back further, CR also had agreements with the Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, Milwaukee Braves and Brooklyn Dodgers. Former Twins John Rosboro, Chili Davis and Les Straker once called Cedar Rapids home, as did current Twins infielder Alexi Casilla.
This is obviously a bit of a windfall for us here at Knuckleballs and that windfall will be shared with our readers next summer, when we should be able to provide a considerable amount of first-hand coverage of the Twins’ Class A team.
The final game against the White Sox for the 2012 season is actually set up as a fairly interesting pitching matchup. Jake Peavy vs Scott Diamond could actually be a fun day if both of them are on their games.
More importantly, we have both Mauer & Doumit back in the lineup today! I’m a little surprised to see them both but I’m not going to complain. With Mauer at 1B, he doesn’t have to challenge the back overly much with the Catchers crouch. But Doumit is taking his strained oblique behind the plate so I hope both of them are able to do well. It’s helpful to have both of their bats back in the lineup.
Given the pitching match-up, the offense is just going to have to do better than they have in this series so far.
Joe Mauer’s return would have to be considered a success as he contributed his 30th double and his 10th home run of the season. Alexi Casilla came through with a couple of hits, including an RBI double. Kyle Waldrop, Jared Burton and Glen Perkins were good for 3.1 innings of pretty decent (read: scoreless) relief work. But that’s pretty much where the good news ends today.
Scott Diamond was not good. Anthony Swarzak was no better and arguably worse. All of that adds up to a sweep at the hands of the White Sox. On the season, the Twins managed to win just four of 18 games against Chicago. That pretty much sums up the season. – JC
no, really! I know that half of creation is in “college football” world today (including my husband) but come ON! Liriano vs Deduno has to rate somewhere on your “gotta see” list.
Still no Mauer or Doumit but I have a feeling that will take a little bit of time for both.
I’m going to take advantage of the Free Saturday to go get some work done on my car but after that, I’ll be back because listening to this on the radio is simply not going to be good enough – this I will have to SEE.
Since DeVries is done for the year with a fractured rib, we have a start from Vasquez tonight. And since Sale got cheated out of his matchup against Verlander, this will have to do. LOL
Oh, and as JC predicted in the small amount of time he and I were both able to chat during last night’s game, the Twins have brought Chris Herrmann on board to be back-up catcher. I feel a little better about that and I bet Gardy does too.
NOTE: I’m a bit bass-ackward today. Usually, I post an article here on our own blog, then… maybe… a day or so later I’ll also post it over at TwinsDaily.com with a “This was originally posted at Knuckleballs” disclaimer. Today, I’m doing it backwards. See… I started out just intending to start a new discussion thread in the Forum section of TwinsDaily’s message board. After doing so, however, I realized it was really long for a message board item, so I went ahead and created a TwinsDaily blog entry, too. Then I decided I really might as well post it over here, as well. So… here it is! – JC
Charley Walters of the Pioneer Press posted a column (click here) with a number of quotes from Twins president Dave St. Peter concerning the possibility of the Twins locating a minor league affiliate in St. Paul, now that the city has funding assured to move forward with building their new stadium. The stadium is being built to Class A standards (which basically deal with things like clubhouse and training facilities and a certain minimum seating capacity).St. Peter’s quotes and summary:
1) “I would certainly never say never to that… But I certainly don’t anticipate that being reality over the short term… Certainly in the next two to four years, I think it would be very unlikely that that would happen.” This makes sense because the stadium won’t be ready until 2015 and the Twins will be entering in to a new player development contract (PDC) with another Midwest League team next week which will have either a 2 year term or a 4 year term. Assuming the Twins don’t end up renewing with Beloit, it’s most likely going to be a 4 year term. It would be unusual for a first agreement with a new city to be just two years… those affiliates are not going to want to have to go through the process of finding a new partner again just 2 years down the road.
2) “The reality is that a lot of things would need to happen for that even to be considered.” He goes on to state that the biggest factor would be the territorial rights that the Twins own. No affiliated minor league team can set up shop within a certain distance of the Twins’ territorial rights without the Twins’ permission and St. Paul is definitely inside the restricted territory. I’m really not so sure that’s the biggest factor, however. The Twins could give approval conditioned on the minor league team remaining affiliated with the Twins. This is the deal Dayton has with the Reds, from what I’ve read. That’s why, even though Dayton’s PDC with the Reds has not yet renewed this year, there’s no chance Dayton could sign with another MLB team even if they wanted to.
Twins President Dave St. Peter (Photo: John Mowers)
It seems to me that the bigger issue for a possible St. Paul affiliate is that neither the Twins, nor the Saints, nor anyone else can just say, “we’re going to do this,” and make it happen. Existing affiliated minor league teams are assured affiliations under MLB rules and nobody can just tell the Midwest League they’re going to put a team in St. Paul. There are really just a couple scenarios that could result in a Twins MWL affiliate in St. Paul (forget about a AA or AAA team… There isn’t a AA league anywhere near the midwest and even the new stadium doesn’t meet AAA minimum standards, which require a 10,000 capacity stadium, at a minimum):
For a NEW team to be awarded to St. Paul, the MWL would have to petition baseball to be allowed to expand and it would have to be by two teams to remain an even number. Since every MLB team already has a full season Class A team, expansion won’t happen.
Someone could buy an existing MWL franchise or at least convince owners of a current MWL franchise to relocate to St. Paul. They would have to give 18 months notice of intent to relocate. But the real problem is finding a franchise willing to relocate. The MWL has a lot of newer stadiums and teams are generally doing OK financially where they are. There are a few older ballparks that could certainly stand to be replaced, but those teams are pretty much all community owned, I believe. The teams in Beloit, Clinton and Burlington, for example, aren’t going to relocate or sell out because, even if attendance isn’t huge, they’re at least breaking even financially. Peoria, if they did decide to sell or be relocated, would almost certainly move to another central Illinois community. (There are a number of Frontier League team owners that would probably welcome the opportunity to become affiliated minor league team owners.) There really don’t seem to be franchise options available for a possible move north.
Finally, even if these obstacles were overcome, the MWL itself would have to approve a St. Paul location. Could that happen? Yes, but it’s far from certain. The league rejected an ownership group that wanted to place a team in Marion IL (southern tip of IL) back in 2005-06 somewhere because Marion was far enough outside the league’s current footprint that the increased travel costs for other MWL teams would be significant (and those costs are paid by the minor league team, not the MLB affiliate). The league has subsequently admitted Bowling Green KY, but it wasn’t a slam dunk. BG was essentially a “transfer” from the South Atlantic League so an affiliated minor league team already was located there. Even then, it was resisted by some members of the league. Scheduling also becomes a problem because players must be given off-days any time they have to travel by bus more than 500 miles and about half the MWL locations would exceed that distance from St. Paul.
In the end, if I were the Twins, I’d certainly like the idea of putting an affiliate in St. Paul so I’d be saying the same things St. Peter is. But when he says, “…a lot of things would need to happen for that even to be considered,” he ain’t lyin’ because it’s not a decision the Twins can unilaterally make and almost all of the parties that would have to give approval have strong incentives not to.
Episode 4 of the Twins related baseball podcast, Talk To Contact, is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here.
Talk To Contact: Twins Podcast
Episode 4 is easily the best of the 4 we’ve recorded so far, except for maybe the “lost” episode that Paul’s laptop ate before he was able to get it online, but other than that, this is the best Twins talk in town. In the latest episode Paul and I discuss Alexi Casilla and his future with the Twins, prospect BJ Hermsen, Real live Pirates, beer and we even had a guest appearance by Giles Ferrell who talked Joe Mauer with us. It’s 74 minutes of gold. I hope you take some time to let your ears enjoy the masterpiece, and leave us a review on iTunes, or drop a comment to let us know what you think.
*There is a slight audio issue with this episode, in which Paul’s voice only comes through on one side (the left I believe) of the recording. I have no idea what caused this, but blame Paul, he work’s the tech side of things. 🙂
The biggest baseball news in Minnesota today had nothing to do with the Twins. The Saint Paul Saints are going to be building a brand new stadium. Look out, Target Field!
Last night the Twins were let down by the starting pitchers, the bullpen and Ryan Doumit‘s defense. Tonight they have a chance to salvage a win in a 3 game home series with the Royals. In the first two games Minnesota has been outscored 19-6, so even keeping the game close would be an improvement. The Royals are sending Luis Mendoza to the hill and the Twins are countering with the winless wonder, Liam Hendriks. Mendoza is not very good, and Hendriks has not proven he is any good yet, so this could be a fun game for fans that like offense.
Joe Mauer and Chris Parmelee are still out of the lineup, but at this point I would assume that Ron Gardenhire and the Twins are erring on the side of caution and making sure these guys are 100% before putting them back in the line up.
Well that sounded like a fun game (at least the last few innings) anyway. Liam continued to struggle, giving up a couple of runs in the first inning, but the Twins offense managed to stay within striking distance and ultimately took the game in to extra innings, winning 4-3 in the 10th.
The Twins bullpen did a real job tonight. Hendriks survived five innings, but that left five innings of work from the pen. Robertson, Fien and Burton not only worked one shutout inning each, but none of them gave up so much as a hit. Glen Perkins followed with two shutout innings, giving up just one hit. That’s some pretty impressive work and it would be quite easy to just give the Boyfriend of the Day award to that group.
You could also make a case for Denard Span. While he had only one hit, it was a walkoff double in the 10th inning and that’s pretty BOD-worthy. For that matter, Alexi Casilla, who entered the game as a pinch runner, led off the 10th with a double of his own and ended up scoring on Span’s double and that was pretty sweet work on Lexi’s part.
But tonight’s BOD award is going to Trevor Plouffe. Not only was Plouffe the only Twins hitter with more than one hit, one of his two hits was a home run in the 9th inning that sent the game in to extra innings. Beyond that, Plouffe made a diving defensive play in the 5th that saved a run. Without that play and the homer, this game was another loss. For that, Trevor is our BOD! – JC
