floating barrels

How do you spell ‘rebuilding?’ TWINS…..

If they can get some good prospects for trading Santana, so be it. It’s more than what they got for Hunter.

Why don’t they just hold a rummage sale…this owner is a joke, always has been a joke, and always will be a joke!

No wonder he is rich!

Quote:

---

Three letters.. W T F?

---

I could not agree more. The Twinkies are not going to be going anywhere but down for now.

I just dont get it?????

The sad part is that Polad’s kids are worse than him.

To put Torii’s contract into prospective…

Currently he will be the 4th highest paid player (18 per year) in the MLB.

Do I think Hunter is worth that much as a 32 year old CF? NO!!

Does Hunter think he is worth it? Probably not!!

Would I/you have done the same thing? YES!!!

If Hunter got 18m / what will Santana get in a pitching starved league, I think he is looking at least @ 20m / year. In no way the Twins (80m payroll) can pay 25% of their payroll to a guy pitching every 5th day and only pitching ~ 15% of their innings per year. He has to go NOW (not at the All Star Break) and we need to get more then the 2 / 3 picks. We need to rip some team of their minor leagues. 3 or 4 top 10 prospects (1 Outfielders, 1 Starter, 2 Infielder).

It’s going to be tough for 2 years but watch out for 2010 in the new stadium.

As far as having a cheap owner I can’t agree more. What do you expect from a old time “banker”?

Yeah now that the Crew has lost Coco, Im wondering the same thing. WE cant count on Turnblow to save our games.

If he goes to the Yankees I hope his arm falls off.

Quote:

---

If he goes to the Yankees I hope his arm falls off.

---

If he goes to the Yanks, I hope he milks them for all the $$$ they throw his way.

I don’t blame the Yankee players, I blame the people who feed that machine. That market is so out of hand, and the fans keep buying into it.

Now the Red Sox are part of that scheme too. Polad could do the same thing if he chose to.

Did you actually think the Twins would keep the best pitcher in baseball after they were able to fleece taxpayers for a new stadium? I can think of a few better uses for that tax money, like maybe fixing some infrastructure issues.

At least once the new stadium opens fans can take the new I-35W bridge to go sit in the outdoor stands and have a few brews while they watch some bad baseball.

This year the Twins received $22 million in luxury tax money from MBL.

In 2010 the team will be worst then in 2008. What is the incentive to field a competive team? Smilin Carl got his stadium, he will charge “personal seat liscense” for the “right” to buy a seat. Ticket prices will rise by 25% over 2007 prices. People will line up to shell money over to this guy. He will dump salary, not add to it.

From the day the stadium opens he has 2 years to stuff all the money he can into his pockets. Year three they will put the team up for sale, pocket huge profits from the stadium you wanted & bought for him.

I have been bashed here for years telling you what a pig this guy was. You now have the opportunity to see it first hand. Let the whining begin, the Twins are done.

No, no, no, no, no, no, and no! The Twins are not done and I for one am glad we have a team model that is quite UNLIKE the Yankees. The Twins have had the same amount of success as the Yankees over the last five years so quit whining.

Here’s my take on Hunter. I wondered why the Twins did not pursue him like they did Puckett. Remember, at one time, Kirby was the highest paid player in MLB. So why didn’t we go after Hunter similarly. Hunter is a career .271 hitter who’s been on the All-Star team twice. He has not won any World Series or League titles. He’s a great fielder.

Now contrast that with Puckett. A career .318 hitter who at the time of his big contract was in the midst of leading the league in hits 3 consecutive years(4 total). He was the first and one of only two major leaguers EVER to amass 1000 hits in his first 5 seasons, and one of two to ever get 2000 hits in his first 10 seasons. When he was up for contract, the Twins had won a World Series. In 1988, he hit .356 with 24 homers and 121 RBI’s and finished THIRD in MVP balloting. His .318 average is the highest by any right handed hitter in the latter half of the 20th century.

Thanks Torri, you were a good one, but not hall of fame great. The Twins will re-tool and will re-build around Mauer and Morneau.

And thank god we are not like the Yankees!

Eric

Cougereye is right on. They have a chance to re-load right now, if they wait it will be a re-build. The M & M boys, a new bat or 2 from the Santana trade maybe an actual DH this year and let’s go………
PS- They also need to limit Punto’s AB’s to under 11 for the year!!!!!!

I am not a Hunter lover either. He had two good seasons at the plate when he had a batting champion and an MVP in front of him in the lineup. There were WAY too many times the fre swinger came out in him which resulted in strikeouts. He also was about the worst situational hitter in the Twins lineup (although Mauer is close). He never learned how to hit with two strikes.

Now Santana…a proven pitcher with 2 Cy Youngs. I seemed last year that the other clubs had started to figure him out. He went to the fastball/change up combo too often and hitters reached a pint they could sit on a 50-50 chance. I wonder if he was saving his arm by not throwing the slider so he could reach free agency. At probably a contract from the Yankees that will rival ARod I would vote no on signing Santana too.

I am not convinced the Twins can compete in the playoffs with their formula. They may compete in the division regualrly simply on the desire of the young players to reach the cash Nirvana. Established players do not put out 100% for 162.

Still a Twins fan, but MLB is starting to lose my interest (the NHL and NBA are long gone).

Puckett probably could have gotten more money somewhere else but it was probably too hard to leave his mistress behind.

I don’t think too many people care about Hunter leaving. But trading away the best pitcher to rebuild? And yes rebuilding. Finishing under .500 and 17 games back doesn’t qualify for re-loading. Teams like the Yankees and Angels are re-loading. I think it rubs taxpayers the wrong way. They get a new stadium and then won’t step up to the plate to give Santana what he is valued at. I’m not sure what Morneau’s contract status is, but I bet he will be the next out the door. I don’t even like the Twins and I think it is a crappy deal.

I would guess Terry Ryan did not agree with alot of the happenings in the front office either….. Bottom line, it is a business and will be run for profit. Do I think any player is worth even a million dollars a year, to play a game, that I guarantee when they retire, they will say they would have played for free…. no.

big g

Sad to see Hunter go but I agree – he’s not worth $18M per year. I don’t blame Hunter for taking the $ and I don’t blame the Twins for not signing him.

Santanna has a no trade clause in his contract. That means if he does get traded he will most likely be asking his approved team for a long term extension worth a lot of $$$. He should/will leverage that to his advantage. I believe the Twins will not trade him and lose him at the end of the 2008 season to free agency.

The twins have done a great job with the “grow them from the farm approach”. I truly enjoy going to the games and my 8 year old son is a die hard fan. Pohlad is a business man and I’ve come to terms that he is more concerned about his finances versus winning at all costs. I’m Ok with that. It’s his team – he can do what he wants. The yankees are expected to win everytime they go on the field because they have the highest payroll. I guess I like the under dog – always have and always will.

How many other teams have a former Cy Young, a former MVP and a former Batting Champion on the same team? The Twins have also won the Central Division the last 4 out of 6 years. Granted, they have not won the big one since ’91 but they are doing something right!

Somebody here will know how to research this. I believe Smilin Carl paid something like $70 million from Calvin when he bought the team. I think it was something like 1981 he bought them? So he has owned them just under 30 years. (My time flies) I would not be shocked to see an asking price in the neighborhood of $600 to $650 million.

So he stands to make roughly $530 million on the low side.

Add in two world series championships, which today are valued at $40 million profit over the next four years.

Add in $20 million a year from MLB over the last 10+ years.

Add in the tax benifits for the corpoation and you will start to get an idea of how he is worth in excess of 2 BILLION dollars.

I never begrudge anyone making money…………it’s the American way. I do become offended when they complain about the small market BS. The alledged sale to North Carolina. And who can forget volunteering to be contracted in exchange for even more money.Don’t forget the failed Victory Sports. Can you imagine what he would have been like had that worked for him!

They are not retooling, reloading or rebuilding. They are attempting to find out just how much you will allow them to line their wallets with your money.

I have lived through Calvin and now Polhad, the main difference is you always knew it was about the money with Calvin. He was man enough to admit it.Carl just thinks we are stupid and it’s way above him to consider what you think about his team. As long as he is making money all is good with him and he won’t change a bit.

Nobody on this board is a bigger baseball fan then I am. However………..if it looks like a skunk……..smells like a skunk……………

By chance are you realated to Rush Limbaugh?

This was in the Pioneer Press. Now this would be a great move!

Quote:

---

It will be surprising if the Twins don’t trade closer Joe Nathan, perhaps to the Milwaukee Brewers, in the coming weeks.

---

I’ve come to understand that pro sports are big business and given that, the money involved I cannot relate to. Putting that aside, I do think the Twins are re-loading. The Yankees are just signing back their guys, the Angels got rid of a good young SS for a pitcher who has proven nothing beyond one great year and then signed a CF who we all agree was not worth the $$. Good luck to them. It may take the Twins longer to re-load since they use homegrown talent for the most part, but they have a solid nucleus to build around.

It may be hard to trade Santana however. The big market teams may be unwilling to part with prospects since he’ll be a free agent next year anyway. Why give up your prospects when you can bid on him next year in a free market. Our only chance would be for a team to offer prospects who will gamble on being able to sign him to a long term deal. We might get more for Nathan right now as a team can bank on him for a few years if they trade for him (similar to how we got Nathan in the Pierzinski trade).

My only concern right now is that we don’t have much excitement in the minors right now. Not sure who the next star is going to be.

I’m looking for opinions on the importance or benefits of a fully free-floating barrel for a rifle used mainly for hunting.

I just bought a Tikka T3 Lite in a .22-250, and after checking the barrel I noticed if I run a piece of paper between the barrel and stock, it stops about 4″ short of the action.

Tikka claims a free-floated barrel, and I checked my dad’s and my Browning A-Bolts, and both have adequate clearance right up to the action. I know a floated barrel keeps it from contacting the stock when it heats and expands, and in most hunting situations I’m in that’s not an issue. But if I’m shooting at the range in Sept. and it’s 60 degrees, will the accuracy be affected when the barrel heats up?

Most rifle barrels that are free floated and bedded should be floated to within about an inch in front of the action, you will find that most factory rifles are not this way. Alot of new wood stocked rifles have points of contact in the barrel channel which can effect accuracy when the the temperature changes and the wood expands and contracts, and as the barrel warms up from shooting. I personally check this on all my rifles and sand out any point of contact or rough spot it usually doesn’t take much, and I believe it does help in shooting in different conditions.

In my understanding, free floating barrels really have more to do with isolating the barrel from the effects of the stock changing with moisture and temperature levels. What kind of stock do you have? A synthetic stock would be least affected by weather conditions, a laminated stock is a little more affected and a regular wood stock would be the most affected. The affect is really relative also. There are a lot of rifles that are not free floated that shoot excellent groups – better than most shooters can use.

If you are really concerned with the lack of space close to the action, and the gun is new, I would call the company and talk to them about it. If they advertise a free floated barrel, then it should be just that. On the other hand, it may shoot just fine the way it is. It all depends on what level of accuracy you expect, and what you are happy with.

Good point about most factory rifles not being precisely free floated. I had the same on a Savage. There was a little contact with the synthetic stock, which I quickly took care of with a dremel.

Thanks for the replies.

The stock is synthetic. I have been doing a fair amount of shooting, but I’ve had a less than perfect rest and have been shooting some fairly old shells my buddy gave me to shoot up. I’m going to get some new shells today and go shoot with a gun vise and really pay attention to groups and barrel heat.

C Hof,
When you talk about contact, was it just one little high spot or a certain point where contact was all around the barrel.

Contact the mfg. They will give you answers about their product as apposed to opinions.

On my Savage, the cutout for the barrel seemed to be off center in the synthetic stock. So, along one side of the barrel, the stock contacted it for several inches. it was pretty easy to take a little material off, and you can’t tell unless you take the stock off.