Being a Twins Fan is Hard

That is all.

It may be time to hop on one of the Chicago bandwagons for a year.

munchy wrote:

It may be time to hop on one of the Chicago bandwagons for a year.

I hear ya’ but I’m a self-professed homer.

I’ve been a big Twins fan since I went to game 2,6, and 7 of the 1991 world series. Got to see Kent Hrebek wrestle Ron Gant off first base in game 2, Puckett’s home run in game 6, the Loni Smith’s double play deek and Jack Morris’s 10 inning performance in game 7.

I know it was 25 years ago but the Twins are the only MN team to win a championship.

Sad to see what’s happening now.

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You think being a twins fan is tough? Try the brewers for a lifetime, they even suck when there good.

Felt bad for Berrios. He looked upset. Kid has good stuff though. Will just take time.

I have to agree with the “blow everything up” mentality. I don’t want to trade Plouffe but we need some serious prospects, but how do you trust Terry Ryan’s history of trades.

Who do you play in the outfield……the guys who can catch the ball or the guys who can get at least 1 hit a week. The way Arcia plays defense he should be a butcher at Cub. But he will get ya a hit or two every week.

I’m to the point of sending Ryan off into retirement and get a fresh set of eyes in here. I want somebody from outside of the organization. I’d let Molitor hang around until the end of the year and then let the new GM bring his guy in.

If Sano is your guy he is either your full time 3rd baseman or DH. get him out of the outfield before he hurts himself or runs somebody over.

I feel terrible for the people who dropped $$$ on season tickets..

I didn’t think the Twins would be doing worse than the Brewers this season. Thats too bad, I’ve always liked Molitor

Hope this major sports trend doesn’t hit the Lynx or the Vikes.

“If Sano is your guy he is either your full time 3rd baseman or DH. get him out of the outfield before he hurts himself or runs somebody over.”

^This^

And now for my next surgery… Is some scope on my knee from being the SS that went back on a pop fly, only to be up-ended by the oaf in the outfield that ran in and didn’t call the ball. 30 years ago and it still hurts … Sano is that oaf and Dozier is going to get killed.

But it’s the same old equation with the Twins, who can you actually trade Plouffe for the get Sano back to 3rd? A marginal pitching prospect at best —

I quit watching games, reading the sports page, and paying any attention to sports about 15 years ago. Best decision I ever made. MN teams are awful. Yea, the Twins won a couple of World Series. 25 years ago. Yea, the Vikings went to the Super Bowl. 40 years ago. Gopher football was national champs. 56 years ago. Timberwolves? Wild? Mediocre at best.

Go fishing instead, it’s much more relaxing.

SR

Steve Root wrote:

I quit watching games, reading the sports page, and paying any attention to sports about 15 years ago. Best decision I ever made. MN teams are awful. Yea, the Twins won a couple of World Series. 25 years ago. Yea, the Vikings went to the Super Bowl. 40 years ago. Gopher football was national champs. 56 years ago. Timberwolves? Wild? Mediocre at best.

Go fishing instead, it’s much more relaxing.

SR

I hear ya, but the Twinks the only remaining sport/team I watch any more. Football players are nothing but “fodder for the police blotter” and Gopher Basketball – don’t even get me started … That used to be the other sport I watched. Done —

bumps in the road….

big_g wrote:

bumps in the road….

I admire your optimism my friend

Steve Root wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>big_g wrote:</div>
bumps in the road….

I admire your optimism my friend

Steve, he’s a Gopher fan, optimism is all he has.

guilty… now back to the Whisky thread….

My boss bought tickets today, so I guess I’ll go enjoy the food and maybe see them end their latest losing streak…at least everything is on his dime!

The play that Arcia made on that ball in the 9th sums up what we have in the outfield. The ball boy who made that incredible catch earlier in the game could have caught that ball in left field. The line that Arcia took towards that ball told me all I need to know about his abilities in the outfield. I will always be a Twins fan but this is going to be one heck of a long season…RR

James Holst wrote:

That is all.

Hell has just froze over.

Doug Larsen wrote:

I have to agree with the “blow everything up” mentality. I don’t want to trade Plouffe but we need some serious prospects, but how do you trust Terry Ryan’s history of trades.

Trade for “serious prospects”? Isn’t that what the Twins have been boasting the last 4-5 years? “Just be patient, we have top prospects coming up the ranks” is what they kept marketing. Supposed “phenoms” Buxton and Sano have arrived and now Buxton is a minor leaguer and Sano probably wouldn’t crack any other MLB starting lineup right now. I do have to agree about Terry Ryan, has he made a trade that actually worked well for the Twins?
What I find so amazing is the dramatic free fall from last year. How much could have changed for this to happen? Was Tori Hunter that much of a factor?

I told my wife I would only shave when the Twins win to try to get her more interested in the game. What a backfire. I look terrible, but at least I am saving a ton on razors.

I’ve always found the easiest way approach to sports is to view it as an entertainment industry. This is good because that’s exactly what it is. Once you’re able to do that you start seeing shades from exciting to interesting to boring and the misery goes away. Then it’s a simple matter of following Rootski’s advice: If you’re interested then tune in. If you’re not then find something else to occupy your leisure time. Easy Peasy.

Boss wrote:

It still goes back to the fact we gave up too much to sign Mauer to the long contract. He only gets on base or a hit when it doesn’t matter.

Here is the central division payrolls. It’s not what you spend it’s how you spend it.

White Sox $114 million

Kansas City $131 million

Cleveland $96 million

Detroit Tigers $196 million

Twins $105 million.

Pretty sure the Tiger fans are wondering what went wrong also.

Here’s something you can’t make up and pretty much sums up the season so far:
I looked on the Twin’s official website to check the box score for today’s game. I see a replay headline for the Video Corner “Twins ball boy makes great catch”. It’s got to be pretty close to rock bottom when your game highlights include a ball boy catching foul ball.

Today’s loss, 9-2 to the Oriole’s. They might be better off fielding this roster. Give us something to laugh about….

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Yup, this looks like our team.

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Max Scherzer struck out 20 tonight in 9 innings for Washington. Meanwhile Hughes gets lit up in 3 innings. HARD to be a Twins fan might be the biggest understatement of all time.

Team salaries are such a tough thing to evaluate at face value. Team owners are making more money than ever. In actuality, team salaries are at an all time low when viewed as percent of revenue.

I like to think about it from a ‘contention window’ perspective. With 30 teams in the league, it’s nearly impossible for a team to expect to compete for a championship every year.

What most of the successful smaller market teams are striving to do(or should be), is cut payroll, stockpile prospects quickly and try to cash in before those young cost controlled players hit free agency.

A team like Kansas City, Chicago Cubs and Houston are good examples of this. The key is to stockpile those prospects quickly, so that you have many good prospects hitting the majors within a couple years of each other. With any luck, those prospects pan out and you have 2-4 years with a really young core to a team that doesn’t cost you much. THIS is the point when you start to throw the money around. You start signing veteran players to fill gaps in your team. Maybe sign an ace in the offseason. This is what the cubs started doing a few years ago to perfection.

This maximizes your window of contention. You have probably half a decade or a bit longer of real heavy contention. Then, inevitably, those cost controlled players leave for bigger contracts and your longer term deals you signed as you were coming into your window start to look bad as those players age or decline.

Unfortunately, the Twins are already up at 100M payroll and we aren’t even close to contending. It’s doubtful our ownership decides to pay for a $175 – $200MM team anytime soon, so unless all our young guys really kick it into gear, we aren’t in great shape.

40% of our payroll is tied up in Santana/Hughes/Nolasco/Milone, about $40MM. That’s a bad use of $40 million.

You nailed it Phil. A team like Minnesota out of a 20 year span could have about a 5-7 years to really compete (i.e. ’87-92 and ’02-’10). Then again, if all of the building factors don’t come together as orchestrated … you could have quite a drought —

Time will tell if the young core of this team will gel, and if the front office can add in some bona fide veteran contributors to fill the remaining gaps.

Right now it doesn’t feel good but it didn’t either in the early ’80’s.