2018 Minnesota Twins In-Season Thread

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GophersInIowa said:
Are they going to get the field cleared in time for the home opener tomorrow? Doesn't look like the temps are going to help much.
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Another scheduling mistake by MLB. the Twins should always play the first two-three series on the road. There are so many West/South teams to make this work. There are 12 warm weather teams (not counting Colorado) that should always start the season at home.
 

tikited said:
Another scheduling mistake by MLB. the Twins should always play the first two-three series on the road. There are so many West/South teams to make this work. There are 12 warm weather teams (not counting Colorado) that should always start the season at home.
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They did start the first week on the road but the season started extra early this year. I'm assuming it's because they now want to give a day off after each home opener in case of bad weather.
 

GophersInIowa said:
They did start the first week on the road but the season started extra early this year. I'm assuming it's because they now want to give a day off after each home opener in case of bad weather.
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But MLB knew they started early this season. I'm just saying there are ways to make sure this type of situation almost never becomes an issue. Some teams always start on the road and some at home. Just make it tradition and things will balance out as the season goes.
 

Here's the thing: if you say the cold-weather teams like the Twins will always start and end the season playing on the road at warm-weather sites, then the cold-weather teams will have more home games during the prime part of the schedule in summer, while the warm-weather teams will have fewer home games during the middle of the season.

Every team wants to be playing at home when the weather is nice, and school is out, to maximize attendance. but - only half of the teams can play a home game on any given date. Somebody has to be the road team - including the start and end of the schedule when there is a higher chance of running into bad weather in certain cities.

it stinks this season, but you can't assume the weather is going to be terrible every year. The Twins will have some poor-weather games on the schedule - but unless you play in a dome, there will always be some risk of bad weather.

If the Twins have a big homestand in August, and it rains for a week, will people be saying they need to change the schedule?

I can remember sitting through games at the old Met Stadium in September wearing an arctic parka.

What it really gets down to is the old dome argument. A dome guarantees that every game will be played as scheduled with a controlled climate. but, when it's a beautiful day or night in June, July or August, do you really want to go inside to watch a ball game? Can't have it both ways.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
What it really gets down to is the old dome argument. A dome guarantees that every game will be played as scheduled with a controlled climate. but, when it's a beautiful day or night in June, July or August, do you really want to go inside to watch a ball game? Can't have it both ways.
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Mercedes-Benz_Stadium_roof_animation_2.gif
 


short ornery norwegian said:
Here's the thing: if you say the cold-weather teams like the Twins will always start and end the season playing on the road at warm-weather sites, then the cold-weather teams will have more home games during the prime part of the schedule in summer, while the warm-weather teams will have fewer home games during the middle of the season.

Every team wants to be playing at home when the weather is nice, and school is out, to maximize attendance. but - only half of the teams can play a home game on any given date. Somebody has to be the road team - including the start and end of the schedule when there is a higher chance of running into bad weather in certain cities.

it stinks this season, but you can't assume the weather is going to be terrible every year. The Twins will have some poor-weather games on the schedule - but unless you play in a dome, there will always be some risk of bad weather.

If the Twins have a big homestand in August, and it rains for a week, will people be saying they need to change the schedule?

I can remember sitting through games at the old Met Stadium in September wearing an arctic parka.

What it really gets down to is the old dome argument. A dome guarantees that every game will be played as scheduled with a controlled climate. but, when it's a beautiful day or night in June, July or August, do you really want to go inside to watch a ball game? Can't have it both ways.
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Rain is very different than 30 degrees in April. Adapting April's schedule isn't that taxing. You don't need to worry about Sept. as much.
 

I've been to Miller Park several times and I don't really feel like I'm outside even when the roof is open. I'd much rather be at Target Field when the weather is nice.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I've been to Miller Park several times and I don't really feel like I'm outside even when the roof is open. I'd much rather be at Target Field when the weather is nice.
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Same thing with the Diamondbacks stadium. Sure...you can look up and see the sky. But you can't see the skyline, etc. After visiting those two stadiums I convinced myself that the only answers should be a fixed roof, or no roof at all.

It's like the difference between a sunroof and a convertible (with a top that doesn't go up).
 

tikited said:
But MLB knew they started early this season. I'm just saying there are ways to make sure this type of situation almost never becomes an issue. Some teams always start on the road and some at home. Just make it tradition and things will balance out as the season goes.
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You can't start every northern team on the road for two weeks. Their first two series already are. Everyone wants as many home games as possible in June, July and August and as few as possible in April and September. If you do that, it would skew the mid-summer schedule as well as April.
 



As for the roof, if they had built it on the originally intended site where the Guthrie is, there would have been room for it. Where Target Field is, there isn't. And neither the team nor the county was going to fork over an extra $100 million to pay for it.
 

howeda7 said:
You can't start every northern team on the road for two weeks. Their first two series already are. Everyone wants as many home games as possible in June, July and August and as few as possible in April and September. If you do that, it would skew the mid-summer schedule as well as April.
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Alright. I give up. Maybe just hand out hand warmers to every fan until the snow clears then.
 

It's official: Dozier and the Twins made national-news asses of themselves with their cockamamie whining.

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Bad Gopher said:
It's official: Dozier and the Twins made national-news asses of themselves with their cockamamie whining.

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I agree that it's dumb. At the same time it was the media that brought it up. I don't think the players were whining about it. They were asked about it and answered.
 



GophersInIowa said:
I agree that it's dumb. At the same time it was the media that brought it up. I don't think the players were whining about it. They were asked about it and answered.
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Are you sure? Based on the reporting I've read, it seems like Dozier (and Berrios, to a lesser extent) were pretty forthcoming about their frustrations and didn't need to be coaxed by journalists into verbalizing it.
 

Bad Gopher said:
It's official: Dozier and the Twins made national-news asses of themselves with their cockamamie whining.

<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Slate is fake news.
 

dpodoll68 said:
Are you sure? Based on the reporting I've read, it seems like Dozier (and Berrios, to a lesser extent) were pretty forthcoming about their frustrations and didn't need to be coaxed by journalists into verbalizing it.
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That was my understanding. Maybe I’m wrong.
 

howeda7 said:
You can't start every northern team on the road for two weeks. Their first two series already are. Everyone wants as many home games as possible in June, July and August and as few as possible in April and September. If you do that, it would skew the mid-summer schedule as well as April.
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You could still have a fairly equal amount of games in March and April, just have more of the northern teams play home games mid to late April.

What’s dumb to me is the Twins are starting a 12 game home stand today. Make the home stands shorter earlier in the season. Then a long cold and snowy stretch doesn’t affect as many games.

Edit: Just realized that the last two games of the home stand will be played in Puerto Rico. Forgot about that.
 

Sid: Tough offseason isn't slowing Twins' Miguel Sano

The Twins and manager Paul Molitor must feel lucky that just six games into the season they are 4-2 and have third baseman Miguel Sano already performing at the All-Star level he showed last season.

With Sano coming off offseason surgery on his left tibia and then facing an MLB investigation, which eventually was closed for lack of evidence, there was some uncertainty whether he would start the season with the big league club.

But Sano is not only back and healthy, he provided the spark to the Twins’ 4-2 home opener win over the Mariners at Target Field on Thursday.

The Twins went 2-for-16 as a team through the first five innings and hadn’t manufactured much of a threat to Seattle starter James Paxton. But after Joe Mauer led off the sixth inning with a single, Sano came to the plate and on a 2-1 curveball clubbed a home run to left-center to even the score at 2-2.

“It’s impressive,” Molitor said. “He has a chance to do some special things with the talent that he has. I think he is still learning. He’s going to become a better hitter, as well as a better power hitter. I like the fact that he’s using the whole field a little bit better.

“But that home run today, we were having a tough time with Paxton out there, and with one swing he gets us back to even.”

http://www.startribune.com/tough-offseason-isn-t-slowing-twins-miguel-sano/478935903/

Win Twins!!
 

Game today postponed even though it’s warmer than yesterday and the snow isn’t supposed to start until late afternoon.

I’d be curious how many games have been postponed at Target Field since it opened compared to other outdoor stadiums. Can’t seem to find anything online about this though.
 

Yeah I'm kind of surprised they postponed it, happened right after they updated the weather forecast pushing the start of the snow back another hour. Doesn't make sense.
 

bottlebass said:
Yeah I'm kind of surprised they postponed it, happened right after they updated the weather forecast pushing the start of the snow back another hour. Doesn't make sense.
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Final round of the Masters. Come on!
 

STrib: Joe Mauer prepares to add another keepsake to his collection

Joe Mauer, winner of batting titles, Gold Gloves, Silver Slugger Awards and a growing number milestone mementos, has the materials to decorate one of the all-time man caves if he wanted to.

Yet most of the hardware and baseballs he has collected through his career — when he has remembered to ask for personal memorabilia — is packed away in boxes. Mauer owns two homes and one cabin in Minnesota, but none of them has a designated area to reflect his 15-year Twins career. The first baseman admitted that he doesn’t know where some of the stuff he has won or accumulated is even kept.

“My parents have the MVP trophy [from 2009] and a couple other things,” Mauer said. “But I didn’t want to put stuff up until after I’m done playing.

“I have stuff, but I don’t have it out. It’s in storage boxes and stuff like that.”

http://www.startribune.com/joe-mauer-prepares-to-add-another-keepsake-to-his-collection/479106873/

Win Twins!!
 

Sid: Joe Mauer's $184 million contract with Twins nearing its conclusion

Historic by any number

While Mauer’s deal was the perfect timing of a pending hometown free agent coming off a historic season, with the team opening a new ballpark, it might not be the most incredible contract in state history.

That probably goes to Kevin Garnett when he and the Timberwolves changed NBA contracts forever after he signed his six-year, $126 million deal in 1997 at the age of 21. That deal helped lead to the 1998 NBA lockout.

On top of that, Andrew Wiggins’ recent five-year, $146 million deal will have a higher per-season average. Wiggins will average $29.2 million per season, compared to Mauer’s $23 million.

You also have the dual deals that the Wild gave Ryan Suter and Zach Parise in July 2012, which had an unprecedented length at 13 years for $98 million for each player.

Still there is no question that Mauer’s deal remains the most talked-about contract in state history.

You have to wonder if the Twins and Mauer can find a deal like the Wolves gave Garnett late in his career — two years for $16.5 million in 2015.

http://www.startribune.com/joe-maue...-with-twins-nearing-its-conclusion/479063943/

Win Twins!!
 

bottlebass said:
Yeah I'm kind of surprised they postponed it, happened right after they updated the weather forecast pushing the start of the snow back another hour. Doesn't make sense.
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Hearing a lot of kvetching about this postponement, but I really don't blame them. The original forecast had the snow beginning early enough that it could have blanketed the field during the game.

I was at that game a few years ago in late April when it started to snow in the 2nd inning and didn't stop. It was like a snow globe, and they played Christmas songs between innings. Very fun in its own way. But it was warm enough that it wasn't accumulating on the field, and they'd just postponed the game the day before, so they were heck bent on playing it.
 

have to remember that this is the only time Seattle is scheduled to play in MN this season. That has a huge influence on decisions to play or not to play. The Twins knew the forecast for Sunday was bad, and there was a chance that game would be postponed. So, that put more pressure on the team to play on Saturday.

Re-scheduling a game in this situation means finding a date when both teams are open and able to play a make-up game - while taking travel and other issues into account. Re-scheduling two games would be more difficult.

bottom line - they were going to play on Saturday unless they got hit with a freakin' blizzard. stinks for the fans, but that's the way it works.

Now, if it was a series against a divisional team like the White Sox or Tigers, it's easier to make up a game. So, I would bet that, if they had been playing a Divisional game, Saturday's game would not have been played.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
have to remember that this is the only time Seattle is scheduled to play in MN this season. That has a huge influence on decisions to play or not to play. The Twins knew the forecast for Sunday was bad, and there was a chance that game would be postponed. So, that put more pressure on the team to play on Saturday.

Re-scheduling a game in this situation means finding a date when both teams are open and able to play a make-up game - while taking travel and other issues into account. Re-scheduling two games would be more difficult.

bottom line - they were going to play on Saturday unless they got hit with a freakin' blizzard. stinks for the fans, but that's the way it works.

Now, if it was a series against a divisional team like the White Sox or Tigers, it's easier to make up a game. So, I would bet that, if they had been playing a Divisional game, Saturday's game would not have been played.
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If there's a valid complaint against MLB in this, there should be more divisional games early for exactly that reason. You can't make every southern team give up 15 home games in July to play at home for all of April, but you can make the inevitable re-scheduling easier.
 

I swear, if there was a way for this team to play for a half a run, they'd do it.
 


And Buxton nearly ties it up with a homer that JUST goes foul......
 


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