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Are the Twins really ready to spend? We dissect Tom Pohlad's comments · Twin Cities Territory

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Tom Polad talks about the team's future and pledges to
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: invest more in the team. Jeremy Zoll gives some clues
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: about what this team will be doing in the offseason.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: And pitching coach Pete Mackey is out as an eventful
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: offseason for the Minnesota Twins begins. This is Twin Cities Territory,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: your Minnesota Twins podcast here on the Foul Territory Network.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: I got a fan that's still on. Let's turn that off.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: We Tuesday afternoon, the Twins held their sort of annual
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: end of the season state of the team press conference,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it. Lots of interesting stuff
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: in there today. We're going to break it all down. Thanks, everybody,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: for watching. If you like what you see, toss us
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: a subscribe right now on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, however you
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: consume it. A lot of people watched the last show.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: The interest is here. Thank you, everybody, for listening. We're
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: going to keep it going today. It's all about that
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: press conference. and let's get started. So Tom Polad was
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: the obvious star of the show on Tuesday, Dan. A
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: lot to say. I think I'll start with he assessed
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: the season in general, and somebody really cast the bait
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: for him to basically pat himself on the back for,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: you know, like we gave it our all this year
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: and just came up short. But I thought he had
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: some actually pretty pretty honest and frank comments about like, yeah,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: we'd love to give ourselves an A for effort, but
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: the record is the record. And genuinely seemed to be
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: put off by the fact that the team slumped and
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: struggled down the stretch and also very much aware of
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: the fact that they're going to need a lot more
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: to contend next year.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, with his first comments, with his opening comment, he
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: said this season, you know, the record's the record and
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: that it was a failure in that way But then
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: when we came back to him and asked him again
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: about it, he said he viewed it as a missed opportunity.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: And he kind of doubled down on it. Because clearly
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: the Twins could come away from this trying to pretend
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: like it was rosy. And there are points of it
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: that are rosy. There's good stuff that did occur in
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: the 2026 season for the Twins. But he didn't let
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: himself off the hook at all and said, look, this
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: is on me. He said that from the start. He said,
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: at the end of the year, we'll talk about the record.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: We'll talk about this a successful year or not a
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: successful year. And he said, look, we finished under 500.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: We didn't play meaningful games in September. We didn't finish
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: with a 500 record. So when you look at that,
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: it wasn't a successful year. And I thought that honesty
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: was good just because if you try to, I don't
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: think Twins fans want anything but honesty, brutal, honest truth
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: right now. They want to know where they stand and
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: And him coming out and saying that was smart to
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: do that because if he had gone the other route,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: we'd be hearing about it a lot. And, you know,
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: the rest of it was that going on to how
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: there is a good core in place and it's time
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: for ownership to step up and invest. Do you have
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: that quote specifically lined up?
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: I do, yes. Let's hear from the man himself. Here's
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Polad on the state of the payroll and what the
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: team needs.
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: But I am confident that Jay-Z, if he has conviction
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: about a move that's going to improve this roster and
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: help us accomplish our goals, that this ownership group is
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: prepared to support him with the financial resources he needs.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: That was on the heels of him saying $ 100 million
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: payroll is not enough. $ 100 million payroll. That was supposed
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: to be a longer video.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Something happened there.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: I lied.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Somehow I lost you.
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: That's all we need.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: You got to the meat and potatoes there. But he
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: said essentially that $ 100 million is not enough and that
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: basically the way I really– oh, man. I'm blanking on
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: it now. Earlier he had said that one of their goals,
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: he thought in the past that the franchise had been
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: content to play competitive baseball and that he's not, he
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: doesn't think that's a proper goal for this team that
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: he thinks the goal needs to be playoffs every year,
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: but really win a championship that he is aiming that high. Now,
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: look for the twins to do that. It's going to
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: take a lot because we know like, look how good
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: the brewers have been for a decade almost. Right. And
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: the brewers have a comparable payroll or the brewers have
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: never gotten close. Right. Right. They, they should be the
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: blueprint for a team like the twins. But they still
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: have never, unfortunately, they went up against the good Dodgers,
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: the Dodgers that figure out how to take all those
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: resources and spend and win. But the Brewers have never won.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: And so saying winning a championship, that should be the goal.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: But also, it's an incredibly hard goal. And so even
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: if the Twins were spending $ 160 million, I don't. you know,
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: it's going to take a lot of perfect things happening
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: to win a championship. But I still, I like hearing
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: him say that being just like content with competitive baseball
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: is not the way teams should go. Their fans get
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: tired of that. When you don't go for it, when
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: you got a shot, your fans get tired of that.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: And so I can understand why the wording was the
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: way it was. And I thought he did a good job,
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: much better than I just have of being effective with
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: getting his messaging across. Yeah.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: The $ 100 million part of the quote that got cut
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: off from that video is, according to the transcript, the
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: approach we're going to take this offseason is strictly about
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: what our strategy is. And I have said over and
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: over that a $ 100 million payroll or anything close to
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: that is not sufficient to be consistently competitive and in
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: the playoffs. And so we intend to take the offseason
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: and meaningfully invest. I know everybody in this room wants
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: me to define what meaningfully is, and I understand that.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: That's a subjective word. Obviously, yes, you can't know exactly
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: what the dollar figure will be. And also, it's not
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: all about that. As we've seen time and time again,
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: I mean, again, we've mentioned the Mets several times on
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: this podcast as an example of how spending money does
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: not guarantee victories. And there are plenty of teams like
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: the Brewers in the playoffs who have done so with
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: modest spending. But the best part of that little video
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: that I cut off was, look at how intently Jeremy
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Zoll is just... He's locked in. Focused in here on
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: everything that his boss is saying about how we're going
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: to spend more money. That's the best I can do.
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: Freaking lasers.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: But yeah, Tyler, I mean, you know, the cynics will say,
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: sounds great.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: And we'll see.
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: But like getting it done in free agency is a
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: different matter, not just because of the history of this
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: team and often not getting it done, but like it
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: is a two-way street in free agency. You've got to
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: find the right deal that makes sense, a player that
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: wants to come and sign and also at a price
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: that feels like it's responsible. Right.
• 7:32
  Speaker 5: And it's historically, you know, we've been in the mix before.
• 7:36
  Speaker 5: you know, Wheeler was the one that comes to mind
• 7:38
  Speaker 5: when he was a free agent, you know, they made
• 7:39
  Speaker 5: him a legitimate offer. Um, but I think it's one
• 7:44
  Speaker 5: where potentially like they may have to overpay a little
• 7:47
  Speaker 5: bit for a guy who has options because you're going
• 7:51
  Speaker 5: to have to lure them away from the big city.
• 7:54
  Speaker 5: You know, if he wants to go to the white
• 7:55
  Speaker 5: socks instead, or, or, you know, New York, obviously all
• 7:58
  Speaker 5: the East coast teams are always in the mix. You know,
• 8:00
  Speaker 5: California is beautiful, all those things. And those all factor in. And,
• 8:04
  Speaker 5: At the end of the day, like it's, I mean,
• 8:07
  Speaker 5: obviously I spent 10 years of my life in Minnesota.
• 8:10
  Speaker 5: It's like, it's a great place, you know, and it's
• 8:13
  Speaker 5: an enticing place to live. It's great for families, all
• 8:15
  Speaker 5: those things, but that's not dollars in someone's bank account
• 8:19
  Speaker 5: at the end of the day. And it's guys who've
• 8:22
  Speaker 5: worked very hard to reach free agency and they want
• 8:24
  Speaker 5: to get, you know, sometimes you get one crack.
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: At it and that's all you're going to get.
• 8:28
  Speaker 5: And so you've got to maximize that opportunity. Like Jeffers
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: has already said, he's like, I'm not going to put
• 8:31
  Speaker 5: myself in a corner of and, and basically short sell myself.
• 8:35
  Speaker 5: Like I'm going to go get what I think I
• 8:36
  Speaker 5: can get. And so you have to keep that in mind.
• 8:40
  Speaker 5: Like I said before, too, you, you don't, you know,
• 8:42
  Speaker 5: they've tried with guys and it just kind of didn't
• 8:44
  Speaker 5: work out or maybe it just wasn't the right timing
• 8:46
  Speaker 5: to go get, you know, like Carlos came and it
• 8:49
  Speaker 5: was great, you know, and it worked for a minute
• 8:51
  Speaker 5: and then it just, it didn't ever take.
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: And, and that's, that's the toughest part in baseball.
• 8:57
  Speaker 5: And like I've said over and over again, I would
• 8:59
  Speaker 5: never want to be a front office guy making those
• 9:01
  Speaker 5: decisions just because it is such a crapshoot.
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: A guy gets hurt, whatever it is.
• 9:06
  Speaker 5: But at the end of the day, the competitiveness is
• 9:10
  Speaker 5: what came to mind when Dan was talking too.
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: It's such a relative thing to be competitive every year.
• 9:16
  Speaker 5: These teams are all in these wild card series, and
• 9:19
  Speaker 5: some of them, frankly, they weren't good. And so being
• 9:22
  Speaker 5: competitive can change from year to year. And even when
• 9:26
  Speaker 5: we were winning the Central, we– in our heart of hearts,
• 9:31
  Speaker 5: we still knew we're not those guys. We knew we
• 9:33
  Speaker 5: were competitive. We hit a bunch of homers, things like that,
• 9:36
  Speaker 5: but there's a difference in being competitive and being a
• 9:39
  Speaker 5: competitor for those bigger series in the playoffs. That's the
• 9:45
  Speaker 5: hurdle they're trying to get over right now. I'm definitely
• 9:48
  Speaker 5: interested to.
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: See what they do. There's some pieces. Who knows what
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: they're all going to end up being.
• 9:53
  Speaker 5: Like I said, trade guys, whatever it may be, but
• 9:56
  Speaker 5: um you know they're going to have to get out
• 9:58
  Speaker 5: there and put it on the line to try and
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: get one of these big guys to come help us out.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: Obviously uh nobody knows how that's going to go but
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: jeremy's old twins general manager did give some bit of
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: a preview of what they're thinking heading into the offseason
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: during this press conference as well um He mentioned starting
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: pitching depth, though they feel good about it. He said
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: you can never have too much starting pitching. He singled
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: out the bullpen as an area that needs improvement. He
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: also pointed out that the opening of free agency is
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: technically before the lockout begins, and it is possible there
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: will be activity. And if the Twins might be players
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: that early in the process, even without knowing for sure
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: what's going to happen with the lockout, at the end
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: of the day, Dan, he like, he kept every door open,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: but I did think that there were some, that those
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: were some interesting insights nevertheless.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: Well, Tom, Tom, Tom Pollad is an aggressive person. That's
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: his personality. He, he wants that. And I think that's
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: why he and Jeremy Zoll are philosophically aligned as, as
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: he put it there today. Zoll's more aggressive than Derek
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: Falvey was. Derek Falvey is a risk averse, um, leader.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: And that's very understandable when you run in the twins,
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: because you know, you can't just give things away that
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: are affordable assets that you're going to need over the
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: long haul to be successful. That's how they operated basically
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: under Derek Falvey. And that led to some disappointing trade
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: deadlines because when prices are exorbitant, they weren't necessarily willing
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: to go down that road. 2019, they got Sergio Romo,
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: which worked out great, but that was not a big
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: spend to get Sergio Romo and, and, uh, the reliever
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: who shall not be named, uh, also, um, 2023. Yeah.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: Sam Dyson. Uh, anyways, um, anyways, uh, 2023, they didn't
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: do anything. Deadline 2024. They didn't do anything. Deadline. They
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: added Trevor Richards. Those were sort of disappointing outcomes. I
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: think 2020, 2019 worked great because, uh, Because those kids
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: in the bullpen, including one of the people on this,
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: they benefited from having that veteran voice come in. Yeah,
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: it was a great move. But none of these were
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: high profile. And we saw the Twins try to make
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: high profile. And I think Jeff Hoffman was a big
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: add this year. We've seen this aggressive mindset in place.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: And I think that's what they're aiming for in free agency. Now,
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: they were right to... Basically say it takes two to tango.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: You can't convince someone that Minnesota and April is an
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: awesome place. That's a real hard sell for free agents.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: I imagine that they want to be aggressive. It probably
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: would be a very good move for them to be
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: aggressive and get something done before a lockout. So that
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: we all have something to talk about. The last time
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: the lockout happened.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Think of us, guys. Come on.
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: Look, I'm being honest. I am being serious. No, it's
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: not even that. Look, they went in a lockout last time.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: And I believe they had Randy Dobnak on the pitching rotation. Oh,
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: and they signed Dylan Bundy. They'd given Byron Buxton his
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: $ 100 million extension. But they had Randy Dobnak and Dylan
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: Bundy locked into the 2022 rotation at that time. Now,
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: they did a great job piecing together a rotation after
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: the break. They got Sonny Gray within hours of it.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: They made other moves. They added pitching. Chris Archer came in.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: It was a very interesting team. The offseason in March
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: was put together. But they waited. And the Twins typically wait.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: The Twins, as free agency goes, typically are looking for
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: the good bargains. Why is this guy still out here
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: in January? And I think they– have talked aggressively about
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: getting out there and making a move. And they, they
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: tried to make a move for Frambois Valdez last year.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: Detroit blew their offer out of the water. The twins
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: still were in the top probably for the best four. Yeah. Yeah.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: The twins ended up being in the top three or four.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: There was a serious offer made, but it wasn't close
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: to what Detroit threw out there. But I like being
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: aggressive and, probably is what this team's fan base needs
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: to see. And, and, uh, Tom Polad said, uh, let's
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: put action to words. Cause look, the, the truth is,
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: and I liked that the Jeremy's all acknowledge that because
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: he knows they, they got to, everybody knows in this
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: organization that they got to win back fans one step
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: at a time. They did a good job at the
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: deadline being aggressive and getting team players. And, uh, They
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: got three players who actually performed great for them between Hoffman, Minter,
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: and Kramer. I mean, that was a good trade deadline.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: That's the first step, the first step of many. And
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: they seem to understand that. So they're saying it's possible
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: they'll be aggressive. I think it would be a line,
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: you know, idealically, I think for fans, they need to
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: see something. And having something to think about during the lockout,
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: as frustrating as it would be to be like, oh,
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: we're not going to have this guy until April or May,
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: I think that's a good kind of approach to it.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I mean, the serious part about what you're saying,
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: we're joking about having content, but the noise is going
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: to get very loud if they don't do anything before
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: the lockout. And I would have to believe that the
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: vast majority of the most desirable free agents are going
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: to be, the teams are going to bite the bullet
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: and pay them even though they don't know Right.
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: They're going to get their money no matter what.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: So they'll probably be gone by the time the lockout
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: comes around. And then it's back to, are we just
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: adding pieces? But Zol did say that, this is his quote,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: Tom and I have also talked about this idea of
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: not wanting to spend just the hidden number to say
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: we did. So they've been throwing about this range. And
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: I think that's smart. A safety net. Yeah. If you're
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: going to spend 50, 60 million more dollars on the team, great.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: But let's do it. In a smart way.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: Let's make smart moves. You just don't throw money out
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: at a crappy free agent. Okay, not a crappy free agent.
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean? You don't throw money out
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: at a mid-tier free agent just to say, we spent
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: $ 30 million on this guy over two years. Look, we're
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: proving it. That's the wrong way to approach it. You
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: have to approach it where you're improving your team and
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: And when you look at the position group, they're going
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: to have lumps next year because Walker Jenkins and Emmanuel
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: Rodriguez are going to be rookies going through it the
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: whole way, the way that Luke Kieschel went through it
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: this year. And Luke Kieschel struggled in March and April.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: But the fact is you're going to have those guys.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: You're going to have Byron Buxton. There's not a lot
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: of space in the outfield to go out and get somebody.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: It's arms. You've got third base locked down. Yeah, it is.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: It really is. It's bullpen, and Jeremy Zoll indicated improving
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: the bullpen was key. I think that's right. Jeff Hoffman
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: ended the year on the IL with right elbow inflammation,
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: but he said it was mild, and we talked about
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: this the other day. But having somebody to pair with
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: him and Andrew Morris and Yoandris Gomez to give Derek
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: Shelton more options so you don't blow out your relievers,
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: that should be the sole focus. They get good relievers. Now,
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: reliever market in free agency– last year actually really sucked.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: When you look at what went out, there was very few.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: Pete Fairbanks did not have a good season. Kenley Jansen
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: really didn't have that good of a season. There may
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: have been one high-profile reliever that had a good season,
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: but there were a lot of guys that didn't really show.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: So that's... Juwan Duran had a rough night. Sorry. Rough
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: day the other day.
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: We didn't have him.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: We'll talk about that later.
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: But....
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: So being aggressive is good, but being aggressive with good
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: intent and not wasting it on just a big show.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: If they get a salary floor and these teams have
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: to get up to that salary floor, it's going to
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: be interesting to see how they go about that.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Then you will have to get to a number just
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: to say you did it. That probably means extensions.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: For your young guys. and paying them.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 18:47
  Speaker 5: Some early, early ones, which is also good for future stuff.
• 18:51
  Speaker 5: The one quick on that, like depending on who they have,
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: I know we're about to talk about them.
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: You know, they're getting rid of some of the pitching
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: core in the big leagues.
• 19:00
  Speaker 5: I wonder if they already have someone in mind that
• 19:03
  Speaker 5: they're like shooting for as potentially even a sales pitch
• 19:07
  Speaker 5: to these guys. Like, Hey, we're going to bring in
• 19:09
  Speaker 5: so-and-so potentially, whatever. Like there's a lot of those moves
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: that make a difference for teams. I mean, like when
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: we brought in Wes and, and overnight half of our
• 19:17
  Speaker 5: group all ticked up and below, you know, our stuff
• 19:19
  Speaker 5: got great. Like there's, there's a lot of what ifs,
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: depending on who comes in or out, you know, to
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: help maybe a guy who hasn't had a good year,
• 19:27
  Speaker 5: that is a free agent.
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: And it's a little tweak that they see. Like there's
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: some things that can happen pretty quickly.
• 19:33
  Speaker 5: If you get the right guys, you know, the guy
• 19:35
  Speaker 5: that they want, I should say into those roles, it
• 19:38
  Speaker 5: can change pretty quickly at times.
• 19:39
  Speaker 6: The road to.
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: 95, Duff, the road to 95.
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: The road to 100.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: That is a good segue into our next topic and
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: a word from today. It's Fox One. That is a
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: festive little opening right there. But Fox One, if you
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: don't know, there we go. There's a QR code right
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: there on the bottom of the screen. You can start
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: your three-day trial today, fox1. com. That's where you can find
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: all of Fox's streaming baseball games. So they pick it
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: up with the NLDS and NLCS and World Series, all
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: those games available on the Fox One app, and they're
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: offering a free trial right there if you scan that
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: QR code. If the Twins would like to be part
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: of the postseason in the future, the pitching is obviously
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: probably the single most broadest, biggest area that needs addressing.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: Both the starting pitching and bullpen did not rank particularly
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: well last year. And of course, Pete Mackey is out
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: as the pitching coach. That was a big part of
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: Tuesday's press conference as well. Dan, I thought comments on
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: that were interesting too. Derek Shelton was talking about having
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: the right skill set. And it kind of all sounded
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: to me like code for it'd be nice to have
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: somebody who played As our pitching coach, I don't think
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: Mackie played past college, if I'm not mistaken. But is
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: that harsh? Am I wrong there?
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: It's possible. They said fresh new voice. There was a
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: lot of coded words there. The one thing that I
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: really took away from it was we didn't think we
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: got all of what our guys could give us. They
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: thought there was some performance left on the table. They
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: ended up 25th in ERA. Now, I thought initially that
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: was going to be because this defense was just horse pucky.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: I edited myself there, guys.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: Horse what?
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: Horse poop. Anyways, 25th and fifth. Apologies to Fox One
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: for this foul mouth. But they were 20th and fifth.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: There was not a lot of– it was not as
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: much on the defense as it would have looked. And
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: I think overall, you look at Pete Mackey's tenure, the
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: twins were actually– Very solid. I think they were– they
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: may have been 20th in ERA over his four years.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: I'm doing these stats from memory. But they were eighth
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: in FIP, which meant essentially, man, that defense really sucked
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: behind their pitchers. They were ninth in war in Pete
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: Mackey's tenure. So clearly he got a lot out of
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: the staff, but I think that went away this year.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: That didn't happen as much. Really, I think what it
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: comes down to is Derek Shelton wanting his own guy.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: He had five holdovers from Rocco Baldelli's staff. two of
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: those were the assistant hitting coaches and he was able
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: to still bring in his guy to lead that group.
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: And that, that bond worked together. Those three worked well together,
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: but you know, Pete Mackey and Louise Ramirez or Louie
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: Ramirez were, were still holdovers from Rocco staff. And, you know,
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: even Latroy was, was Shelty's guy. And I think he
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: saw some good impact from major league voices between Grady
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: Sizemore and, and, and Latroy. So, it wouldn't shock me
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: if that was one of the guys they're vetting. Somebody
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: has major league experience. I don't know that for sure,
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: but it's clear that they were just looking for a change.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: And really, I think it is Shelton feeling good with
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: his guy. You're, you're, you know, it's a forced relationship
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: the other way. And, and they were, you know, we
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: saw some good things. Dean Kramer did develop. We saw
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: Taj Bradley did develop. Taj Bradley became a, winner, but
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: Zebby Matthews didn't take that step. There was, there was growth,
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: but it wasn't the steps that they totally wanted, you know,
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: and it's, I think that's kind of stuff that plays
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: into it. So Pete's a good dude. He's a smart dude.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: He's going to end up somewhere with a job. I mean,
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: he started as their player development, their pitching coordinator and,
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: and really put some good systems in place for this,
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: this franchise in 18 and 19. But, you know, I
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: think they just thought it was time to move on
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: and try something new.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: I forgot to have Shelton's comments on Mackie queued up
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: here as well. Hopefully it's the full video you sent
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: me this time.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: We'll see. Here we go.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: Here's Derek Shelton on the decision to move on from Mackie.
• 24:19
  Speaker 7: It's building a group. It's not one specific person.
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: None of these jobs anymore are one specific person that's
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: doing it. So kind of doubling down off what Jay-Z
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: said earlier, it's building the skill set of a group
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: that we feel. And I think in this situation, we
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: felt that the skill set that we had within our
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: group was not getting the most out of our players.
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: And we wanted to kind of redevelop what that group
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: looked like.
• 24:48
  Speaker 7: So to say, like, we're looking for one specific person,
• 24:51
  Speaker 7: I can't tell you that. I mean, we do have.
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: a list of names that we were vetting and talking about,
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: but it's going to be more about building the whole group.
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: I think a perfect definition of that is what we
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: did in the hitting space this year.
• 25:03
  Speaker 7: And we were able to hire, you know.
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: Keith to come in with two guys that were already
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: here and we built a really strong group. So I
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: think foundationally, the most important thing is building it out.
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: So to end, not trying to avoid the last part
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: of your question, although, you know, I can do that.
• 25:20
  Speaker 7: Um, But I think we're.
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: Not looking at one specific skill set.
• 25:25
  Speaker 7: We're looking at a group skill set.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Derek Shelton always has jokes.
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: Love it.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: Tyler, from a pitcher's perspective, what matters to you most?
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: Do you care if they played or not? It goes
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: in waves, I think.
• 25:45
  Speaker 5: There's just certain conversations that you have at times where...
• 25:50
  Speaker 5: I don't know, we all do it. Like even watching
• 25:52
  Speaker 5: post-game interviews yesterday, like guys, depending on how they're feeling,
• 25:55
  Speaker 5: that they react differently to certain things that are said.
• 25:58
  Speaker 5: And sometimes like when you know someone hasn't been in
• 26:01
  Speaker 5: your shoes, the last thing you want to hear is
• 26:03
  Speaker 5: them trying to tell you.
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: What you're doing. And that's literally, it's just a fact.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: It happens.
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: And it doesn't matter who it is.
• 26:09
  Speaker 5: Even if it's a hitting guy talking pitching sometimes, you're like, okay,
• 26:12
  Speaker 5: stay in your lane. But there is also just the
• 26:17
  Speaker 5: mental and physical aspect of, You know, Latroy Hawkins, for example,
• 26:21
  Speaker 5: talking to you midseason as, you know, I'm sure Morris
• 26:25
  Speaker 5: had many conversation with him like, hey, man, I'm going
• 26:27
  Speaker 5: through it right now.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: What should I do?
• 26:29
  Speaker 5: You know, and like Taylor Rodgers and I both picked
• 26:31
  Speaker 5: up something from Latroy years back where he's like, I
• 26:35
  Speaker 5: didn't play catch four day games because I wanted to
• 26:38
  Speaker 5: be as fresh as I could for that day game
• 26:40
  Speaker 5: after the night game when I pitched. And so like
• 26:42
  Speaker 5: he and I added that to our mix of things
• 26:44
  Speaker 5: to do just to recover a little differently, things like that.
• 26:47
  Speaker 5: And then it's funny enough, that kind of made waves
• 26:50
  Speaker 5: down through the system to where guys started taking more
• 26:52
  Speaker 5: off days and things like that.
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: It's just, there is so much, you know, it's so.
• 26:58
  Speaker 5: Analytics-based now that anyone, you know, any three of, one
• 27:03
  Speaker 5: of the three of us could go and be a
• 27:04
  Speaker 5: pitching coach if you just followed the report, honestly. And
• 27:08
  Speaker 5: that's how it's run some places. And that's, you know,
• 27:10
  Speaker 5: it's not the best. I think that's why we're seeing
• 27:13
  Speaker 5: things change the way they are. They're bringing in ex
• 27:15
  Speaker 5: players to be GMs now and, and coordinators and things
• 27:18
  Speaker 5: like that.
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: You know, I think it's a.
• 27:20
  Speaker 5: Turn of the tide a bit, you know, unfortunately for some,
• 27:23
  Speaker 5: but at the same time, like Pete, he did great.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: I've worked with him.
• 27:26
  Speaker 5: And when I was in, I guess I was still
• 27:28
  Speaker 5: in Rochester's before we had moved and he helped us.
• 27:30
  Speaker 5: We were, we were disgusting out of the bullpen in Rochester.
• 27:33
  Speaker 5: I think that was an 18. You know, we had
• 27:36
  Speaker 5: like the best pitching staff in like all of baseball
• 27:39
  Speaker 5: combined in AAA. And that's credit to him. He came
• 27:42
  Speaker 5: in and helped a lot of guys with a lot
• 27:44
  Speaker 5: of things. But, you know, to Dan's point, having, you know,
• 27:49
  Speaker 5: Sheltie's getting to pick his guy and having that rapport
• 27:52
  Speaker 5: with him, you know, just changes the dynamic of all
• 27:55
  Speaker 5: those conversations. And, you know, it's just you never know
• 27:58
  Speaker 5: what's going on behind closed doors. You know, meetings that
• 28:02
  Speaker 5: are had, maybe they want to change how they do those.
• 28:04
  Speaker 5: You know, it's just tweaks that, you know, you hope.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: It works out.
• 28:07
  Speaker 4: Sometimes it doesn't.
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: And, you know, like.
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: We've got a bunch of young pitchers. We're going to
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: have a bunch of guys coming off rehab, things like that.
• 28:13
  Speaker 5: Like it's going to be a weird year next year anyways.
• 28:16
  Speaker 5: So it's definitely something I think Shelty as a manager
• 28:21
  Speaker 5: wanting to make the most of his opportunity as well.
• 28:23
  Speaker 5: He wants to go down with his guy if he's
• 28:25
  Speaker 5: going to go down, you know, and that's, I think
• 28:27
  Speaker 5: that's part of it. I think, you know, the performance
• 28:30
  Speaker 5: doesn't help either. You know, at times when, when your
• 28:32
  Speaker 5: guys aren't doing what, you know, the numbers say they
• 28:35
  Speaker 5: should be doing, maybe it's, it gets tricky, but, you know,
• 28:39
  Speaker 5: it is, you know, nice hearing, you know, I had
• 28:40
  Speaker 5: Eddie Gordado as my bullpen coach, like who, who else
• 28:44
  Speaker 5: could I go, go to that would have more information
• 28:46
  Speaker 5: than that guy on pitching in the ninth inning, eighth inning,
• 28:49
  Speaker 5: whatever it is. Like, you know, so it's just, sometimes
• 28:52
  Speaker 5: there is nothing better than, than the experience and being there.
• 28:55
  Speaker 4: And you know, so we'll see, I'm, I'm interested to
• 28:58
  Speaker 4: see who they bring in.
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: I agree with you mostly, Duff. I think the experience
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: is critical and, but I do think that teams are
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: looking for people that are willing to blend in the information.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: You can't just take the experience, right? That's the one part,
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: because the one reason why Eddie probably didn't work out
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: was that he fought it. Want to trust that. Yeah.
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: He fought the analytics and, and Latroy on the other hand,
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: I will not say like, yeah, yeah, I know. I
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: still remember Matt McGill. Uh, but, but, um, you know,
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: the thing I thought with Troy and I know like,
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: his background is coming up through the front office, seeing
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: how it worked is at least, being willing to embrace
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: a little bit of it i would bet that the
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: choice mentality is like 80 20 it's more here and
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: and here it is yes but that 20 information can
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: make a difference pitch usage you know pitch mix and
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: all that stuff so i'd you're looking for hybrids, but
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: I do think that the major league experience is important,
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: especially in a role like that. Just, just seeing what,
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: hearing what guys talked about with Latroy and coming out
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: of the bullpen, like it benefits some young guys a lot,
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: maybe a veteran staff. You don't need as much of that,
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: but I mean, even veteran guys still want to hear
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: that stuff once in a while. So, you know, it is,
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: it is finding a blend, but I certainly think the
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: experience part will play a role here. Of course, look,
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: they're going to, hire an analytics guy in a week
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: and we'll be like, oh, you know, great. Who really
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: truly knows is what I'm trying to say, but yeah.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: On that note, MLB on Fox is streaming on Fox One.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: The postseason is here and we have your front row
• 30:47
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• 30:50
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• 30:54
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• 30:59
  Speaker 1: at home or on the go live or on demand.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: Never miss a moment stream. Now start your Fox one
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: three day free trial today at Fox one.com. Just a
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: reminder as well to everybody. Uh, you can read about
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: all this stuff on the athletic right now. Dan was
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: at the press conference on Tuesday, uh, wrote on it.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: It's right there for you at the athletic. We'll move
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: on now. Uh, There was also a slew of injury
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: updates that came in, Dan, at this press conference. Walker
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: Jenkins having a minor procedure. Byron Buxton on the men.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: Basically sounds like they feel pretty good about everyone being
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: ready for the season, except for Anthony Bonda, who's going
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: to need until midsummer to recover.
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah. By the way, horse pucky is a slang term
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: that means nonsense, or it's a polite way to say
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: horse manure. So I censored myself. At least it's polite.
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: I looked that up. um Byron Buxton the word is
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: that he is going to rehab till Christmas we talked
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: to him on Saturday or Sunday at the ballpark and
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: he was on crutches but he was aiming to get
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: off crutches but also he kind of was in this
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: mindset where every detail matters and he's not gonna screw
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: around so he wasn't trying to rush to get off
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: of crutches but the twins said his rehab will go
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: till November or till Christmas day roughly and then he'll
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: start his ramp up now the one part about that
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: that's tricky is that typically I think he starts swinging earlier,
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: the bat probably like in December or November. So he'll
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: lose a little bit of time working on his swing,
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: but they believe he will be ready for the start
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: of the season. And anyways, the start of the season
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: might be later because of a lockout.
• 32:41
  Speaker 4: So he might benefit from that. He'll have some extra time.
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: Right. Yeah. Walker Jenkins was, and by the way on Byron,
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: you know, I, I know there's skepticism on it, but
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: I asked because Shelton said he's going to be a
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: very productive player, and I just wanted to ask and
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: make sure that that was not being too rosy and
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: too optimistic and asked a few people behind the scenes, hey,
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: are you guys really thinking this or are you guys
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: game planning different? And the responses I got were that
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: they do believe he's going to be ready for the season.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: So Byron going into that surgery had said, the doctors
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: had reassured him that he was going to be good
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: on his hip for the rest of his career. He
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: might deal with stuff post career. Would it shock me
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: if at some point in his life, Byron Buxton needs
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: a hip replacement? No, a lot of people need hip replacements.
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: That's just a fact of getting old. But, uh, he
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: thought doctors had reassured him that the rest of his career,
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: he'd be fine. So, um, everybody proceeding forward. Yeah. Um,
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: Walker Jenkins apparently had a cranky elbow is how they
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: described it. So he went in yesterday to have a
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: scope and have our favorite terms, loose bodies. And what's
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: the other one? What is it? Scars? What? Scar tissue,
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: scar tissue, except that there's no scar tissue because he
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: never had a previous surgery, but loose bodies and like
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: a cleanup of his elbow. But he's also expected to
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: be ready to go. I guess he's been dealing with
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: that elbow for three or four years and they decided
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: it was time for him to do that. Hoffman and
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: Zebby were the other two. Hoffman is going to be
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: rest and recovery. Zebby had a mild, was it flexor?
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: A mild flexor strain. Those are scary. They were not concerned.
• 34:41
  Speaker 4: Don't say flexor.
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: But Let me look it up before I botch this.
• 34:46
  Speaker 5: Flexor is the precursor to the bad one. You don't
• 34:49
  Speaker 5: want to hear flexor talk. Yeah.
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: Zebby is a flexor pronator strain.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: Pronator.
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: There it is. Yeah. What we were told was he
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: was going for a second opinion on that, but they
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: also were confident that rest and recovery wasn't going to
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: result in surgery. It did not sound like it was something–
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: where surgery is on the table. So they were monitoring it,
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: but also because it's where we're headed to the offseason,
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: they were not stressed about it. And again, their opinion
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: was they thought, even though he's getting a second opinion,
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: that it was unlikely to result in surgery. So those
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: were the four kind of updates there. But Hoffman just
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: sounded like, even Hoffman said it, Long season. If we
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: were playing for something, yeah, if we were playing for something,
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: Hoffman would have tried to push through. He felt it
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: in his last outing in San Francisco, that shaky save.
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: But even he thought, you know, with a little more time,
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: he'd be fine.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: The wild card round is going on right now. And
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: there's been a lot of interesting things already. We had
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: Red Sox-Yankees. We had Juwan Duran costing the Phillies game
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: one of that series, which will now go to game three.
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: Tonight.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: Also, Houston Astro fans booing their team in game one
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: of the series against the White Sox. The Astros didn't
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: put up much of a fight in either of the
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: two games, as it turned out. But after game one,
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: a player on the Astros, reliever Bennett, is it Bennett? Sousa? Yes.
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: Had a pretty charged quote. If you're watching on YouTube,
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: I have the screenshot from our article from the Athletics
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: Chandler Roam But he said, the fans are definitely spoiled
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: with a lot of ALCS and World Series runs, and
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: we have to earn that right to bring this team
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: back to that position. That being said, when this team
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: was in their first playoff series 10 years ago, Minute
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: Maid Park was probably packed. It makes a big difference.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: If we were in Chicago, it'd probably be loud as shit. Tyler,
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: your thoughts on fans booing a division champion team in
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: the playoffs? In game one, before we even really know
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: which way it's going.
• 37:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's an interesting one. I.
• 37:09
  Speaker 5: honest to be honest the the whole starting of series
• 37:12
  Speaker 5: with the bullpen game I think just set them up
• 37:15
  Speaker 5: for failure yeah you know unless it went perfect it
• 37:18
  Speaker 5: was maybe going to be okay but um yeah it's
• 37:22
  Speaker 5: and it's part of it like I'm I live here
• 37:24
  Speaker 5: in Houston and it is a completely different landscape for
• 37:28
  Speaker 5: baseball now like it's it I'm not going to comp
• 37:31
  Speaker 5: them to you know the Yankees of old or the
• 37:33
  Speaker 5: Dodgers now but they were on that kind of trajectory
• 37:37
  Speaker 5: for a while and Fans did get used to it,
• 37:40
  Speaker 5: and they don't like losing. No one likes losing, and
• 37:43
  Speaker 5: franchises kick into gear like that. The talks turn to we,
• 37:48
  Speaker 5: even when fans are talking about their teams, and they
• 37:51
  Speaker 5: take some pride in it.
• 37:52
  Speaker 4: Fans buy tickets, and some say that's the right to boo.
• 37:56
  Speaker 5: You pay for a ticket, that's part of the gig,
• 37:59
  Speaker 5: and everybody also says we make lots of money. It's
• 38:02
  Speaker 5: our job to play well, and it stinks. I've been booed.
• 38:07
  Speaker 5: you know, off the field, it sucks, man. But it is, unfortunately,
• 38:11
  Speaker 5: it's part of it. I think it's one, it's such
• 38:16
  Speaker 5: a reactionary thing to say, you know, right after a
• 38:19
  Speaker 5: game like that.
• 38:19
  Speaker 4: You know, it's tough.
• 38:22
  Speaker 5: I'm going to be noncommittal because it is, it's such
• 38:26
  Speaker 5: a selective thing. Like, in the moment, fans, they're probably frustrated.
• 38:31
  Speaker 5: They wanted to see their guys put up a fight
• 38:33
  Speaker 5: and they had a tough game. And to that matter, like,
• 38:36
  Speaker 5: when we went to the wild card in New York,
• 38:39
  Speaker 5: you know, they didn't boo because they were beating the
• 38:41
  Speaker 5: crap out of us. But had we been at home
• 38:43
  Speaker 5: doing that same thing, like we probably would have gotten booed. Um,
• 38:46
  Speaker 5: you know, it's just, it's, it's a, it's a hostile environment.
• 38:51
  Speaker 5: It's an excited environment. You know, everyone's happy to be
• 38:54
  Speaker 5: there and it just creates a, it creates emotions for
• 38:57
  Speaker 5: everyone involved. And, uh, especially for guys who haven't been there,
• 39:00
  Speaker 5: you know, Susan, you know, this is probably his first
• 39:03
  Speaker 5: crack at, you know, unless he, I can't remember if
• 39:05
  Speaker 5: he was there last year or not, but, you know,
• 39:07
  Speaker 5: it's his first crack at a postseason, and, you know,
• 39:10
  Speaker 5: a weird one at that, you had some teams that
• 39:11
  Speaker 5: probably shouldn't have been in the postseason in.
• 39:13
  Speaker 4: There, you know, it's, you know, I know Zach's excited
• 39:16
  Speaker 4: to talk about his.
• 39:17
  Speaker 5: Thoughts on it, but it's just, it's a weird, weird postseason,
• 39:21
  Speaker 5: it's tough, fans definitely don't want to see that, so
• 39:24
  Speaker 5: come first day next year that he's he messes up
• 39:28
  Speaker 5: a little bit like he's probably going to hear it
• 39:30
  Speaker 5: and that's part of the game you play as a
• 39:31
  Speaker 5: player um if you're going to say stuff like that.
• 39:34
  Speaker 4: You better be willing to take it on the chin he.
• 39:37
  Speaker 5: Next time around apologize he did he backpedaled he back
• 39:41
  Speaker 5: he apologized.
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: Um, but it's one of those, I don't mind what
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: he said. Like, I think it's, no, no, no, no.
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: I think it's fine to boo and it's fine to
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: be pissed off about the booing. I get it. You're
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: it's the playoffs.
• 39:52
  Speaker 4: Or say something about the opposing fans. You know, I don't.
• 39:58
  Speaker 5: Know who of us have done that, but you know,
• 40:00
  Speaker 5: it happens and you just got to wear it for
• 40:01
  Speaker 5: a minute.
• 40:02
  Speaker 4: You know, I don't delete anything. So like in my archives.
• 40:05
  Speaker 5: On Instagram, I'm sure I could pull up some great, uh,
• 40:08
  Speaker 5: Messages from some excited Yankees fans from the past.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: Tyler had a run-in with some Yankee fans. We don't
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: need to cover that one.
• 40:20
  Speaker 5: They threw chicken tenders at us. They threw things at
• 40:23
  Speaker 5: our families. I can say what I want.
• 40:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I heard that.
• 40:28
  Speaker 5: Kyle Gibson's wife, I think, received some French fries to
• 40:31
  Speaker 5: her head.
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: It was not good. With ketchup? With ketchup? I heard
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: Ben and Sousa had a tough time at home yesterday.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: I did not.
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: I don't think the experience went well. Ideally, you want
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: the 2023 Twins crowd, right? But I think, Duff, I
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: know you guys were disappointed in 19. Granted, you came
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: home down 2-0 to the Yankees, but the energy wasn't
• 40:55
  Speaker 2: quite as good in 2019. Just having been there for
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: both 2023 was rock concert loud. And that's the other side.
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: it was awesome in 2023. And in 2019, I do
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: remember guys saying, I mean, let's get Jake Oterizzi on
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: this podcast right now. He had some wild opinions and
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: good opinions. And he was one of those guys was like,
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: where are the, where's the crowd? So what do you got, Zach?
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: What do you think about it?
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: The major league baseball wildcard round is the worst playoff
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: round in sports. It's, Baseball is not meant to be
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: settled in a best of three series, in my opinion.
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: It takes away a lot of the strategy. You're not
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: testing the rotation depth. I haven't golfed in months. I
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: don't know why these clubs are back here. And then
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: you're playing afternoon games. Yeah, I don't like that. The
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: stadiums are like a third empty because who wants to
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: spend the prices to go to the first of four
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: rounds in an afternoon weekday when they have to rearrange
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: their life to do so, where either your team's going
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: to lose and like, why the hell did I waste
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: my day here? Or they're going to win and there's
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: another round to come and hopefully two more after that
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: where I'd much rather go to those games. Then on
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: top of it, I understand you can't, in a situation
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: where it would be like Dodgers versus Mets, you can't
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: have them crisscrossing the country. It just sticks. But having
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: them all in one stadium is just such a shame.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: You just had Red Sox-Yankees, and you didn't get a
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: game of that at Fenway. I know the Yankees crushed
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: them and deserved to win, but even if they were
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: going back to Fenway down 2-0, of all fans to
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: not give up, it would be Red Sox fans after 2004.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: Wrigley fans weren't going to get a game at all
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: in this postseason because the Cubs lost to the Padres.
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: It just seems like a whiff. Did anyone even know
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: the Yankees and Red Sox were playing? It was over
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: in 24 hours. This is your best rivalry in the sport,
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: and it just got no showcase whatsoever. Win something. Win
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: your division.
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: Win your division.
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: It's not to say that deserving winners aren't going through
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: or that even the games haven't been compelling. That Phillies-Braves
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: game yesterday was amazing.
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: Oh, it's amazing.
• 43:27
  Speaker 4: It's been some great ones.
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: They've tried to squeeze this round in and it just
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: feels like it's handled all wrong. And Dan, you said like, well,
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: you can't be playing into mid-November. And I agree. Right.
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: You probably have to reduce the schedule to 154 to
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: get a more, to get a better. And if we
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: did that, sure. That's cool. But you can't do 162
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: and make this our best of five with off days,
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: you'd have to do like a two off day. You'd
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: have to do, you'd probably the best, like maybe you
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: could do it if you just made them play the
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: day after the season ended, but you need to keep
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: that day for tiebreaker games. So that's the problem right there, right?
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: Monday has to be available for in case like a
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: team missed two games and had to play a double
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: header to make it up, that kind of thing. Um,
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: so you have to start Tuesday. Okay. And anytime you
• 44:18
  Speaker 2: throw in a travel day, you can't play that day.
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: So that's a workout day or a voluntary workout day.
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: So logistically, it's just so hard to slam into. Otherwise,
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: you're getting in there mid-November. And we've seen the World
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: Series go to, what, November 2nd? Maybe even a little
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: after that.
• 44:34
  Speaker 4: Imagine Target failed.
• 44:38
  Speaker 3: In November.
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Now, if you were doing a World Series that
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: was in– thought of let's do a World Series week
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: in Las Vegas. Every game's indoors for seven games, and
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: in between you have your awards show one night, something
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: like that. If you did it like the Super Bowl
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: where weather wasn't an issue, you could extend into November,
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: no problem. But with the way it is, I can't
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: imagine being in Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, some of these places
• 45:11
  Speaker 2: in early November. Yes. with the elements. So I get
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: why we have the short round and the way it's structured.
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: The only way to really rectify it would be to
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: go to one 54-game season.
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: That's it. Or stop doing this. It's just not... No,
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: they'll never give up the revenue.
• 45:28
  Speaker 3: I know, but.
• 45:28
  Speaker 4: They will never give up that player.
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: Even the old one-game wildcard game was better because at
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: least it's the urgency of a game seven.
• 45:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's the winner take all. It's just golf.
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: It's just a weird number of games to play for
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: a baseball series and then just not letting both fan
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: bases have a taste of it.
• 45:48
  Speaker 4: It feels regular season. It's a regular season series basically
• 45:52
  Speaker 4: at the.
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: End of the year. And the Astros had to do
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: everything they could to get in leading to that bullpen game. 81-81,
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: the Astros had to win 3-4 in Sacramento over the
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: weekend because they blew that game in Seattle on Wednesday
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: night where Hader came in and walked in run and
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: or walk the bases loaded in a rose rain like
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: basically by having six in there you certainly create a
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: little bit more room for chaos in that first week
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: but i i don't know i like it it's unfortunate
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: like man thank goodness for schwarber and uh bryce harper
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: yesterday because the cubs got routed by the the padres
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: the yankees routed the red socks the.
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: Other three series are terrible the And.
• 46:39
  Speaker 2: Again, some years will be amazing. The White Sox was solid.
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: The White Sox was, yeah.
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: Their fans were booing them. That's how bad that one was.
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: The Astros fans. No, no, you're right.
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: The Astros were disappointing to their fans. I mean, 81
• 46:55
  Speaker 2: and 83 for the season. Yeah. That's a crazy. Playoff team.
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: We're running long again. I probably would have cut this
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: topic off, but the problem with the rundown is that
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: I feel committed to get to everything that's on this list.
• 47:08
  Speaker 4: And it's too good.
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: It's too good. If you didn't see this yesterday, go
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: to Mike Tomlin's YouTube page right now. I think it's
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: brand new for the occasion. It's probably ripping right now, too.
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: It's probably freezing because so many people are on it.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: His kids convinced him to share with the world a
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: Minecraft video city that he has apparently been working on
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: in secret he called it his secret obsession for the
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: last 12 years he said in the video and here's
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: just a few shots of uh this doesn't really even
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: do it justice but like he he built all of
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: this in minecraft which i've never really played it but
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: i understand it's like i mean you're building this literally
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: piece by piece and he's got like.
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: Going in designing house design condos yes right you see this.
• 47:54
  Speaker 4: He built he built a literal city A high rise
• 47:57
  Speaker 4: is the whole thing. It's incredible.
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: He has an obsession with aquariums. There's aquariums everywhere. This
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: little room at lower right, that's an aquarium behind a
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: bed with some sweet skull art on the wall.
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that was his penthouse.
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: It was 20 minutes of Tomlin walking us through the city,
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: and it's only episode one. Apparently, there's more to come.
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: It's just incredible to get that kind of look at
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: what a NFL head coaches. He's, he was the Pittsburgh
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: Steelers coach for years. If you don't know NFL head coaches,
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: life was, was like, and like what he did to unwind.
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: And it's actually so impressive that has led Pittsburgh Steelers
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: fans to be like, wait a minute. Well, while we've
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: been mediocre for the last 12 years, our head coach
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: has been spending his free time doing that.
• 48:44
  Speaker 3: I gotta go.
• 48:45
  Speaker 4: I got, I got a meeting later.
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: Oh, it was, you'd never know.
• 48:50
  Speaker 5: Some of these guys, man, players, coaches alike, like, There's
• 48:53
  Speaker 5: some hobby. I mean, think about our jobs are weird
• 48:56
  Speaker 5: and we're away and alone so often. It's like you
• 48:58
  Speaker 5: find something to do.
• 49:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah, for sure.
• 49:01
  Speaker 5: I bought a Nintendo Switch and grinded Zelda for a
• 49:04
  Speaker 5: couple years straight. It's just you find mindless stuff that's
• 49:08
  Speaker 5: fun and it's your decision versus everyone else's for a change.
• 49:13
  Speaker 4: It's, you know, that's incredible. I watched, I think that's
• 49:16
  Speaker 4: what people love.
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: I think like Mike Tomlin is just like us that
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: I think that's what people really liked. Like the, the
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: outside fans, not the Pittsburgh fans.
• 49:27
  Speaker 6: Um, but like, uh, I like the community people who just, yeah,
• 49:32
  Speaker 6: the people who know, I think people who just any
• 49:35
  Speaker 6: everyday people seen that a coach is this high powered
• 49:38
  Speaker 6: NFL coach who won a super bowl and is probably
• 49:41
  Speaker 6: a hall of famer.
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: It was like, yeah, like that. He just is like us,
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: that he does normal everyday crap that we do to
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: distract yourself, to think about, to get past the Antonio
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: Bryant sagas and to get past the Aaron Rogers sagas.
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: He just goes home and, and play does Minecraft and
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: builds and.
• 50:04
  Speaker 4: Like creates awesome stuff.
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: His kid tweeted.
• 50:08
  Speaker 5: Like I said earlier, there's a lot worse off field, uh,
• 50:11
  Speaker 5: activities pursue than playing Minecraft.
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 50:15
  Speaker 4: As we've seen very clearly.
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: Yes, we have. His kid tweeted that he like used
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: to come home and his PlayStation would be gone. Not
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: cause he was in trouble just cause his dad had
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: taken it to play Minecraft.
• 50:28
  Speaker 4: Uh, so awesome.
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: Warren sharp tweeted, uh, Mike Tomlin, Minecraft splits, but like,
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: if we take him out as a word that it's
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: been 12 years before Minecraft in his seven seasons, uh,
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: one Superbowl win, two Superbowl trips and five and three
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: in the playoffs with Minecraft, 12 seasons, no Superbowl wins
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: or trips and a three and nine playoff record. So, uh, I,
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Have fun with that.
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: Maybe he left a game plan in some of those condos. Maybe,
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: maybe he left.
• 51:00
  Speaker 4: I was learning about playbook.
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: Um, That's it for this week, everybody. Thank you so
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: much for listening. We'll be back next week. We'll probably
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: pick out some of our free agent targets for the Twins,
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: and we'll talk about whatever else comes up in the
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: new cycle as well. I'll be much more forgiving in
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: my hot takes about the Division Series. I promise you that.
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. If you like what you hear, please
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: toss us a like, a subscribe, however you watch or listen.
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: If you're on YouTube, there is a QR code on
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: the screen right there right now to make it super easy.
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: Thanks very much, everybody. Have a great weekend. We will
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: see you on Monday.
• 51:33
  Speaker 7: Bye-bye.