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Lessons for the Twins from a low-spending, small-market World Series · Twin Cities Territory

0:01
Speaker 1: The Timberwolves look good, guys. 1-0, baby. Warriors, not so much. Sorry, Dan.
0:08
Speaker 1: Rough night for you guys. Tyler Duffy with the KG
0:11
Speaker 1: jersey in the background. Love to see that.
0:13
Speaker 2: And Titch.
0:14
Speaker 1: Along here with Zach Pierce and Dan Hayes from The Athletic.
0:18
Speaker 1: This is Twin Cities Territory, your Minnesota Twins podcast. Here
0:22
Speaker 1: on the Foul Territory Network, the World Series is about
0:25
Speaker 1: to get started on Friday. We will talk about lessons
0:28
Speaker 1: the Twins can take from the World Series teams. Also,
0:31
Speaker 1: a report in The Athletic today says that November is
0:34
Speaker 1: expected to be a free agent frenzy. Maybe good news,
0:38
Speaker 1: maybe bad for the Twins and their fans. We'll see.
0:40
Speaker 1: Royce Lewis looking for answers. Dan had a story about
0:43
Speaker 1: him today on The Athletic. We'll talk about that. And
0:45
Speaker 1: an award for Pablo Lopez, or at least a finalist
0:48
Speaker 1: nod for Pablo Lopez, despite not playing at all this season.
0:52
Speaker 1: All that coming up today. Reminder, if you like us,
0:56
Speaker 1: we would love to have you following along. It's going
0:58
Speaker 1: to be a busy offseason. We think should be a
1:00
Speaker 1: lot to talk about one way or the other. Please
1:01
Speaker 1: toss us a like, a subscribe, however you watch or listen.
1:05
Speaker 1: If you're doing that on YouTube, there's a QR code
1:08
Speaker 1: on the screen right there to make it super easy
1:11
Speaker 1: for you. Let's get into it. It's Rays versus Brewers
1:15
Speaker 1: in the World Series. And as we head into an
1:20
Speaker 1: offseason with a lockout looming in which there will be
1:23
Speaker 1: a huge fight over whether it's fair to let these
1:26
Speaker 1: big market teams spend all this money. Here we have
1:29
Speaker 1: Tampa Bay and Milwaukee playing each other. Tampa, of course,
1:33
Speaker 1: a lower payroll than the Twins this season. Milwaukee, slightly
1:38
Speaker 1: higher payroll, but probably the closest comp you'll find to
1:42
Speaker 1: Minnesota in terms of geography and market. So it's a
1:48
Speaker 1: World Series that is certainly anomalous. It doesn't usually happen often.
1:53
Speaker 1: that we get two teams so far down the payroll
1:55
Speaker 1: chart in the World Series. I think it's the lowest meeting,
2:00
Speaker 1: at least in recent memory. So there are some things
2:04
Speaker 1: that kind of jump off the page to maybe take away. Tyler,
2:08
Speaker 1: we were talking before the show started about one of
2:12
Speaker 1: the notable things from these staffs is they apparently have
2:16
Speaker 1: larger analytics and scouting departments than the league average.
2:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, a lot of charts have come out all of
2:24
Speaker 3: a sudden it was everywhere. Like, look how much these
2:27
Speaker 3: guys have and we don't have. And I'm like, if
2:29
Speaker 3: these are true, this is some telling evidence.
2:34
Speaker 2: Yeah.
2:34
Speaker 1: I believe Tampa was like near the top. Milwaukee's not
2:36
Speaker 1: too far behind and the twins are roughly average when
2:39
Speaker 1: it comes to analytics, but it's created this interesting, I
2:42
Speaker 1: think issue, Dan, where like on the one hand, the
2:46
Speaker 1: twins should draw some inspiration and hope from the fact
2:50
Speaker 1: that two teams that don't have any discernible advantage over them,
2:54
Speaker 1: at least in terms of money spent and location, are
2:58
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. But on the other hand, it's also
3:01
Speaker 1: kind of illustrating how far away they are given the
3:03
Speaker 1: way these teams are set up and the way they've
3:05
Speaker 1: been running.
3:07
Speaker 2: It's funny, the Twins are now slipping further down that
3:10
Speaker 2: list of teams the longest since they've won. Cleveland is 1948.
3:15
Speaker 2: We're going to have a first-time winner here between Tampa
3:20
Speaker 2: and Milwaukee. And obviously that's a, that's a cool thing. Uh,
3:23
Speaker 2: but you know, on those charts showed that the twins
3:27
Speaker 2: are average and where the brewers are. And it's funny
3:30
Speaker 2: cause the brewers are definitely America's favorite, uh, team when
3:35
Speaker 2: it comes to doing the little things. And it's like,
3:37
Speaker 2: it seems like it runs counterintuitive to analytics. And clearly
3:41
Speaker 2: the brewers, I believe by one chart had the most analytics, uh,
3:46
Speaker 2: employees in in the majors and yet they play small
3:49
Speaker 2: ball they do they look for base rank they they've
3:52
Speaker 2: aligned their systems in such a way where it coexists
3:57
Speaker 2: and it's very successful i mean this is a team
3:58
Speaker 2: that's been there eight of the last nine years and
4:01
Speaker 2: now finally gets over the hump and gets the world
4:03
Speaker 2: series and looks pretty darn good as far as um
4:07
Speaker 2: you know winning a world series like you look at
4:11
Speaker 2: that and you go okay this is the way we
4:12
Speaker 2: should go and the twins were headed that way the
4:15
Speaker 2: twins have belt tightened a little bit the last couple
4:17
Speaker 2: of years and they have reduced their numbers. So their
4:20
Speaker 2: league average, but they were above. And that's something that
4:23
Speaker 2: they have to figure out that, that ground because the
4:26
Speaker 2: twins used to do some real cutting edge stuff. And
4:29
Speaker 2: they felt like they were finding some advantages that, you know,
4:36
Speaker 2: helped them given that they don't have the payrolls of
4:39
Speaker 2: the Dodgers and, now I don't know that they feel
4:42
Speaker 2: like they are on that same level as they used to. And,
4:46
Speaker 2: you know, that, that's one thing you don't want the
4:47
Speaker 2: league to pass you by. And I, I would be,
4:50
Speaker 2: you know, I think this all started a few years
4:53
Speaker 2: back when the payroll got cut by 30 million, because
4:57
Speaker 2: we've seen people in house leave and not have their
5:00
Speaker 2: jobs filled. Um, and that's, that's something that's happened quite
5:03
Speaker 2: a bit over the last couple of years where jobs
5:05
Speaker 2: just get, you know, maybe one person handles a little
5:08
Speaker 2: bit more, um, you know, doing more with, uh, doing
5:11
Speaker 2: more with less. It was a famous newspaper industry, uh,
5:16
Speaker 2: phrasing from about 20 years ago. And I think that
5:18
Speaker 2: in some cases in baseball, we're seeing teams try to
5:21
Speaker 2: do that. And so you don't want to get too
5:24
Speaker 2: far behind in that race. Um, because when you are
5:27
Speaker 2: a smaller market team, you need to get every competitive
5:31
Speaker 2: advantage you can find and figure out how to make
5:34
Speaker 2: up for shortcomings. And, you know, that's, that's something that, um,
5:39
Speaker 2: I know that Derek Falvey, they really wanted to go
5:41
Speaker 2: that direction. This is a team that had a front office.
5:44
Speaker 2: The joke was, and it may be true, but back
5:47
Speaker 2: in the early 2000s, had like eight front office employees
5:50
Speaker 2: in baseball ops. And it's been built out and there
5:53
Speaker 2: was a lot of overhead. There was a lot of
5:56
Speaker 2: new jobs added, like hundreds of jobs added. And we've
5:59
Speaker 2: seen a little bit of a reduction in that. So
6:01
Speaker 2: they got to find that middle ground where they can
6:03
Speaker 2: still be producing really quality work and yet also figuring
6:08
Speaker 2: out how they can make it work financially.
6:13
Speaker 1: I don't want to make too much out of one
6:16
Speaker 1: year when the lottery tickets come up for the, for
6:19
Speaker 1: the small teams. But I think the thing with these
6:22
Speaker 1: teams is that it's not just this one year. Like
6:24
Speaker 1: you mentioned, Dan.
6:25
Speaker 2: Right.
6:26
Speaker 3: Milwaukee has been there every year.
6:29
Speaker 1: Tampa, Tampa for the sixth time in eight years is
6:33
Speaker 1: in the playoffs and second time in that span in
6:35
Speaker 1: the world series. Um, Really, ever since they first got
6:39
Speaker 1: to the playoffs, which was in 2008, and they made
6:41
Speaker 1: the World Series and lost to the Phillies, Tampa's been
6:45
Speaker 1: right there almost every year. They had one bad bottom-out
6:48
Speaker 1: season in 2016, but otherwise 77 wins besides that one
6:53
Speaker 1: year was low for them in any year. They're playing
6:56
Speaker 1: in the AL East against the Yankees and Red Sox
6:58
Speaker 1: and never spending money, and yet all these playoff appearances,
7:01
Speaker 1: three World Series now since 2008. They have kept the
7:04
Speaker 1: pipeline going. churning and you know like you can even
7:09
Speaker 1: kind of add cleveland into this mix too they continue
7:12
Speaker 1: to make the playoffs with with small payroll these fan
7:15
Speaker 1: bases i'm sure would still have their frustrations over watching
7:19
Speaker 1: players get you know developed in their system and leaving
7:22
Speaker 1: um but it it drives home tyler like they're we've
7:27
Speaker 1: been sitting here the last show was all about imploring
7:30
Speaker 1: the twins to make a splash in free agency right
7:33
Speaker 1: and spend some money but there's other ways that to
7:36
Speaker 1: spend money to that might be even smarter down the line.
7:40
Speaker 2: Yeah.
7:40
Speaker 3: And it's one that I'm thinking about my time, you know,
7:43
Speaker 3: towards my last few years in Minnesota, when, you know,
7:46
Speaker 3: the West Johnson's of the world came in, you know,
7:48
Speaker 3: working with Josh caulk, you know, Jeremy Hefner, that crew, um,
7:51
Speaker 3: you know, and we worked on the force plate mound,
7:54
Speaker 3: which is something that like the casual fan. One probably
7:58
Speaker 3: doesn't even know what that is, but two doesn't understand
8:00
Speaker 3: that these teams, these bigger organizations have full blown labs.
8:06
Speaker 3: And the twins, this, that, see, I think it was
8:08
Speaker 3: 18 or 19. They had us throw on them at
8:10
Speaker 3: spring and to get some readings on how you're using
8:12
Speaker 3: the ground and, you know, all the track men data,
8:15
Speaker 3: things like that. And, you know, it's like a hundred,
8:17
Speaker 3: $ 200, 000 mound, if I'm not mistaken at the time anyways.
8:20
Speaker 4: And, you know, that was like, oh, that's really cool.
8:23
Speaker 3: And then, you know, I ended up with the Yankees
8:24
Speaker 3: organization and AAA and hear about, they had a, they
8:27
Speaker 3: called it the gas station in Tampa and it was
8:30
Speaker 3: a whole facility basically they had built for their pitching department.
8:33
Speaker 3: So it's like, yes, like, There's spending and then there's
8:37
Speaker 3: levels to the spending, so to speak. And to that point,
8:41
Speaker 3: I think they have attempted at times to really get
8:44
Speaker 3: all in on the analytics and hiring in these people.
8:47
Speaker 3: And they bring in Josh Kalk, who obviously was a
8:49
Speaker 3: mastermind of pitching and shapes and things like that. I
8:53
Speaker 3: think he was an aerospace background before he got into baseball.
8:57
Speaker 3: So it's like the moves have been there to get
9:01
Speaker 3: the process rolling. But then seeing the comparisons, you know,
9:04
Speaker 3: we're kind of average. I say the twins are kind
9:07
Speaker 3: of average as to how much manpower they're putting behind it.
9:11
Speaker 3: And you can see some of the results have correlated
9:14
Speaker 3: with these bigger groups behind the scenes running the numbers,
9:18
Speaker 3: providing information to players.
9:20
Speaker 4: It's tending to work out. And so that's somewhere that.
9:23
Speaker 3: Potentially spending could happen that may not see a payroll
9:27
Speaker 3: jump for your roster and your team. but behind the scenes,
9:31
Speaker 3: it's several millions of dollars that is being paid to
9:34
Speaker 3: help your team develop and get better.
9:37
Speaker 1: It's also, Dan, there's finding the players and scouting them
9:42
Speaker 1: and developing them, but also shrewd trades has been a
9:45
Speaker 1: part of this as well for Tampa too.
9:47
Speaker 2: Yeah. There used to be that joke that if Tampa
9:51
Speaker 2: made a trade before you even saw who they got,
9:53
Speaker 2: everybody loves that trade for Tampa.
9:56
Speaker 1: Yeah.
9:57
Speaker 2: And don't trade with them. And it's funny for the twins.
9:59
Speaker 2: They've actually worked out their deals with Tampa because they
10:03
Speaker 2: got Taj Bradley. They got Joe Ryan from Tampa. And
10:06
Speaker 2: I'm sure those are some things that they wish they could,
10:08
Speaker 2: the Rays wish they could undo. But the Rays got
10:11
Speaker 2: Yandy Diaz from Cleveland in 2018 in a trade that
10:17
Speaker 2: sent Jake Bowers to Cleveland, Now Jake Bowers with Milwaukee
10:22
Speaker 2: was the NLCS MVP, which is kind of funny. But
10:26
Speaker 2: Junior Caminero came over in a 2021 trade from Cleveland,
10:31
Speaker 2: and that was for a reliever named Tobias Myers. I
10:35
Speaker 2: can't remember if he's lefty or righty, who never pitched
10:38
Speaker 2: for Cleveland. He has pitched for the Mets. But those
10:41
Speaker 2: were two deals that the Rays knocked out of the park. And,
10:44
Speaker 2: I mean, you're talking about a franchise that could have
10:47
Speaker 2: just been crushed because they gave Wander Franco that huge
10:52
Speaker 2: extension three or four years ago. And then he got
10:55
Speaker 2: in legal trouble and basically off the books and is
10:59
Speaker 2: out of baseball because of that legal trouble. But I mean,
11:02
Speaker 2: they had the team they were building and like a,
11:05
Speaker 2: just a massive cornerstone of the prod, you know, a shortstop,
11:09
Speaker 2: a very good major league shortstop just got removed from
11:12
Speaker 2: the roster. And yet here they are still thriving and,
11:14
Speaker 2: And it's in part because they've nailed their trades over
11:17
Speaker 2: the years. You can look around and find it. I mean, look,
11:19
Speaker 2: even in the Bradley trade, of course, the twins are
11:22
Speaker 2: thrilled to have Taj Bradley, but the Rays got Griffin
11:25
Speaker 2: Jacks who they have turned into a starter and he's
11:27
Speaker 2: only got one more year with them before he hits
11:30
Speaker 2: free agency. And Taj Bradley has three more years before
11:33
Speaker 2: he hits free agency, which is why the twins really
11:35
Speaker 2: liked that trade. But I mean, Griffin Jacks started, I
11:38
Speaker 2: believe game three of the ALCS and has pitched and
11:41
Speaker 2: pitched well for them. So even, even when they lose
11:44
Speaker 2: a trade, they still did pretty well in that trade too.
11:47
Speaker 2: Like it wasn't that that's as close to a win-win
11:49
Speaker 2: trade as possible. And, and I think that, you know,
11:53
Speaker 2: they've done fairly well in a lot of their deals
11:56
Speaker 2: over the years.
11:58
Speaker 1: I think when we, when we talk about payroll and
12:00
Speaker 1: we just hear the term, we think of it exclusively
12:04
Speaker 1: as players, but it really includes the entire staff, the
12:08
Speaker 1: entire organization. And like, if you're the twins watching this
12:12
Speaker 1: right now, if you want to get better next year,
12:15
Speaker 1: say you're willing to spend $ 20 million more to do it,
12:18
Speaker 1: you'd probably go out and sign a player. But if
12:20
Speaker 1: you want to think a little bit bigger picture, that
12:23
Speaker 1: same amount of money could buy you a lot of
12:26
Speaker 1: staffers to help build your own version of Tampa Bay's
12:29
Speaker 1: machine too, Tyler.
12:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's kind of the one we were talking about,
12:33
Speaker 3: and I couldn't find the direct quote, but it was
12:37
Speaker 3: trying to quantify that, and it was like, Say you've
12:40
Speaker 3: got 40 people behind the scenes making roughly 100 grand each.
12:44
Speaker 3: Some make more, some make less, whatever. But that's not
12:48
Speaker 3: an insignificant amount of money. That's an arbitration-eligible player's salary,
12:53
Speaker 3: sometimes a couple of them. And it's several millions of
12:56
Speaker 3: dollars that ends up being poured in. And whether that,
12:59
Speaker 3: like I was hitting on earlier, you're building a facility,
13:03
Speaker 3: whether it's at a AAA complex or it's at your
13:06
Speaker 3: spring training facility, even in your big league stadium, like,
13:09
Speaker 3: you know, they have the incredible semi at the time
13:12
Speaker 3: and Hawkeye and all the things, all the, all the
13:16
Speaker 3: cameras that do all the analytics and biomechanical stuff. Like
13:19
Speaker 3: there are tons of things in that place in Minnesota
13:23
Speaker 3: in particular that are, are there and working. But it is,
13:27
Speaker 3: it's just, sometimes it's that one other opinion or the
13:31
Speaker 3: one other thought and baseball is, you know, you give
13:33
Speaker 3: lessons to kids and I got lessons growing up and
13:36
Speaker 3: things like that. And sometimes it's just hearing it a
13:38
Speaker 3: different way. It's all the same information. It's all the
13:41
Speaker 3: same data. It's just interpreting it and getting it to
13:44
Speaker 3: the player. And that's what I think at the end
13:47
Speaker 3: of the day, these two teams have done extremely well
13:50
Speaker 3: is bridging the gap between numbers, crunching old school baseball team,
13:55
Speaker 3: and then.
13:56
Speaker 4: Meet somewhere in the middle.
13:57
Speaker 3: And that's whether it's the managers in charge that are
14:00
Speaker 3: getting it the right way, it's the coaching staffs they hire,
14:02
Speaker 3: which we've talked about. It's all the little things that
14:06
Speaker 3: you have to get right. And that's what makes it
14:08
Speaker 3: so difficult sometimes.
14:09
Speaker 4: And that's why, yes, paying.
14:11
Speaker 3: The best players lots of money for your team pretty
14:14
Speaker 3: much works most of the time. But if you get
14:17
Speaker 3: it to merge the way it has for these two clubs,
14:20
Speaker 3: it's the formula that Minnesota, I think, has to try
14:23
Speaker 3: to attempt to follow because they're not going to go
14:26
Speaker 3: spend $ 300 million It's just never going to be that.
14:29
Speaker 3: And they're not going to go spend $ 200 on a guy.
14:31
Speaker 3: So their avenue is mimicking these two franchises and the
14:35
Speaker 3: one that just got eliminated in Cleveland. I think those
14:37
Speaker 3: are three great teams to try to see what they're doing,
14:42
Speaker 3: try to figure out their mystery mix that they have
14:45
Speaker 3: behind the scenes and make it work. And scouting at
14:48
Speaker 3: that point too matters. Players, seeing them in person and
14:52
Speaker 3: seeing it work out and being able to predict a
14:55
Speaker 3: little bit This guy's a gamer, you know, can't put
14:58
Speaker 3: a number on it, but my eyes tell me he's
15:00
Speaker 3: a good baseball player. And then having the numbers to
15:02
Speaker 3: back it up, I think is the final answer to
15:06
Speaker 3: the question.
15:07
Speaker 4: It's just getting the right guys together to come to
15:09
Speaker 4: that conclusion.
15:11
Speaker 5: AJ, in this post-season, there is a chance for a
15:15
Speaker 5: fan base to get very excited to witness either their
15:18
Speaker 5: first ever World Series title or a World Series title
15:21
Speaker 5: that hasn't been in a long time, right? So if
15:24
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16:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's no reason the two can't coexist. The old
16:19
Speaker 1: school scouting and the new school analytics. And Dan just
16:22
Speaker 1: texted me a chart that shows exactly the problem. The
16:25
Speaker 1: brewers and Ray's. Have among the most scouts in baseball,
16:28
Speaker 1: the Twins have the very fewest. There you go.
16:32
Speaker 2: Yeah. And, you know, it's funny because the Twins, I thought,
16:36
Speaker 2: and we saw less. There was more baseball this year
16:42
Speaker 2: in the clubhouse. And, Duff, I know you saw the
16:46
Speaker 2: transition when analytics started to flood in to the clubhouse,
16:50
Speaker 2: and there was a lot.
16:51
Speaker 4: Yes.
16:52
Speaker 2: Early on with the twins, I thought Rocco did a
16:54
Speaker 2: good job of creating a culture where they allowed analytics and,
16:58
Speaker 2: and they, you know, it, it was, it was clearly
17:02
Speaker 2: helpful because it was needed time. It was like modernizing
17:05
Speaker 2: a franchise that was stuck, you know, in the past
17:08
Speaker 2: and it was absolutely needed to happen. And then maybe
17:11
Speaker 2: it tilted a little bit because there was definitely a
17:14
Speaker 2: little bit of a difference this year where there were
17:17
Speaker 2: specific people delegating it. There was fewer, uh, There were
17:20
Speaker 2: just fewer bodies in the clubhouse, I thought, this year
17:22
Speaker 2: from the Twins' perspective. And that was something that I
17:27
Speaker 2: know that was sort of– it felt like a name
17:29
Speaker 2: of the new coaching staff. It's like why they did
17:32
Speaker 2: Latroy Hawkins as the bullpen coach. It's why they got
17:35
Speaker 2: Grady Sizemore as the first base running coach was to
17:38
Speaker 2: find that blend a little bit more. And I think
17:41
Speaker 2: that's why– I think they're trying to find that But
17:48
Speaker 2: at the same time, the blend is important and you
17:55
Speaker 2: still need the bodies. You can't get away from all
17:59
Speaker 2: of that. The Twins cut down. There's no pro scouting anymore.
18:03
Speaker 2: I think there's one guy in pro scouting who does
18:07
Speaker 2: pro scouting, but it's a lot of computer analysis, stuff
18:11
Speaker 2: like that. That chart I just sent Zach. It's from
18:15
Speaker 2: Baseball America and the Twins have 39 scouts. Are the Yankees–
18:19
Speaker 2: I don't have my glasses on, Zach. Are the Yankees
18:21
Speaker 2: at the top with 106 on that chart?
18:26
Speaker 1: It is the Yankees. Yes, 109.
18:30
Speaker 2: 109. And the Rays are 78 and the Brewers were 84?
18:35
Speaker 2: Those two are flip-flops.
18:36
Speaker 1: Other way around. Other way around, yeah.
18:37
Speaker 4: Okay.
18:38
Speaker 2: Yeah. But, I mean, clearly there's a lot of money
18:40
Speaker 2: being poured into scouts. Yeah. That's something the twins on
18:44
Speaker 2: the amateur scouting department, they, they, you know, one, they
18:48
Speaker 2: have a very veteran group that knows each other. And that's,
18:52
Speaker 2: that's clear, but that's where they put their bulk of
18:55
Speaker 2: their money in scouting. But it is surprising to see
18:59
Speaker 2: that number be 39 scouts when the major league average
19:02
Speaker 2: is somewhere about 20 to 25 more than that. So
19:06
Speaker 2: it's you know, figure out that mix is interesting. It's also,
19:10
Speaker 2: I'd like to see what these numbers were three years
19:12
Speaker 2: ago before the belt tightening happened on, on all those charts,
19:16
Speaker 2: because I would imagine the twins probably had about, I
19:19
Speaker 2: don't know, a handful to 10 more people working analytics
19:22
Speaker 2: at the time. And I think that number has been
19:25
Speaker 2: cut down.
19:25
Speaker 1: And so, yeah, based on this chart, the twins have
19:30
Speaker 1: looks like seven international scouts and the brewers and rays
19:35
Speaker 1: are both rocking like 20 or 30. Um, and you know, we,
19:40
Speaker 1: we talked at length on that Brewer show we did
19:43
Speaker 1: a couple weeks ago about how, much they've knocked that
19:45
Speaker 1: out of the park with the international signings that they've
19:48
Speaker 1: picked up. So huge difference for sure. Before we move on,
19:55
Speaker 1: we've mentioned a couple times on the show that we're
19:58
Speaker 1: going to do a live show on Monday re-watching Game
20:01
Speaker 1: 7 of the 91 World Series, the 35th anniversary of
20:05
Speaker 1: that momentous occasion in Twins history. We're going to do
20:08
Speaker 1: the live show at 11 a.m. Central time. So if
20:10
Speaker 1: you want to watch it live, come join us on
20:13
Speaker 1: YouTube at 11 a.m. Central. You can obviously always watch
20:17
Speaker 1: it later. You just wouldn't be able to be part
20:18
Speaker 1: of the conversation. We're not going to watch the entire game,
20:21
Speaker 1: just some parts of it. I'll have it all kind
20:24
Speaker 1: of explained.
20:25
Speaker 2: You don't have three and a half hours?
20:27
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think our listeners do either. So
20:32
Speaker 1: I'll spare you that. And also we are going to
20:34
Speaker 1: keep our listening audience in mind as well. We'll try
20:36
Speaker 1: to make it. friendly for that crowd as well, but
20:40
Speaker 1: you'll have to either watch the game on a different
20:42
Speaker 1: screen or just use your imagination because I'm sure if
20:45
Speaker 1: you're a big enough Twins fan to listen to this podcast,
20:47
Speaker 1: you probably can basically recite everything that happened in that game.
20:50
Speaker 4: I've seen it a few times already.
20:52
Speaker 1: Right, so it might not be too hard to just
20:56
Speaker 1: imagine it. We'll move on to a look at next month, November.
21:03
Speaker 1: I believe it's five days after the World Series ends
21:06
Speaker 1: is when Players can officially start moving. And a report
21:09
Speaker 1: today on our website, The Athletic, from Andy McCullough, said
21:13
Speaker 1: that according to a lot of sources, executives and others
21:17
Speaker 1: around the league, they expect November to be a little
21:22
Speaker 1: bit nuts. You see the quote there on the screen.
21:25
Speaker 1: If you're watching, an executive told Andy, I think there's
21:28
Speaker 1: going to be more urgency and I think it could
21:30
Speaker 1: be a fun month of November. If we treat December 1st,
21:33
Speaker 1: that's the date the lockout would take effect. Like, this
21:36
Speaker 1: is a deadline, so let's get some shit done. This
21:42
Speaker 1: kind of plays off of what Monday's show is all about,
21:45
Speaker 1: in which Dan very passionately implored the Twins not to
21:47
Speaker 1: sit on their hands and miss out on the early
21:51
Speaker 1: waves of free agency. And the article, Dan, basically, you know,
21:55
Speaker 1: the logic behind it is teams aren't going to want
21:58
Speaker 1: to wait. They're going to want to know what they
22:00
Speaker 1: have to work with before the lockout begins and just...
22:05
Speaker 1: that kind of domino effect of like, as soon as
22:07
Speaker 1: the first person signs, then everyone panics and wants to keep, uh,
22:11
Speaker 1: you know, getting their guys locked up. So here we
22:14
Speaker 1: are again, talking about this same topic, but, um, when that,
22:18
Speaker 1: when that date hits, whenever it ends up being five
22:20
Speaker 1: days after the world series, uh, the twins, if they
22:24
Speaker 1: intend to make free agency a part of their, their
22:27
Speaker 1: strategy to spend here in the off season, it better
22:29
Speaker 1: get going pretty fast.
22:31
Speaker 2: I think it's probably a little bit of a, um,
22:33
Speaker 2: Lesson learned from 2022, which was everything happened in March, basically.
22:39
Speaker 2: I mean, there was a lot of stuff that happened
22:40
Speaker 2: before December 1 in 2022 or December of 2021. Before
22:46
Speaker 2: that 2022 season, there was a lot of free agent stuff.
22:49
Speaker 2: There were a lot of big names that went off
22:50
Speaker 2: the board, extension sign, that kind of stuff. But I
22:53
Speaker 2: think we saw so much movement in March and that
22:56
Speaker 2: was painful for players, families, for teams trying to, you know,
23:01
Speaker 2: figure out what, like you said, what they have, um, and,
23:05
Speaker 2: and put it all together at the last minute in
23:08
Speaker 2: a three week span. Uh, I mean, Sonny Gray came
23:12
Speaker 2: over and basically started his throwing program with the twins
23:16
Speaker 2: after the lockout, after his trade, like he, you've talked
23:21
Speaker 2: about that, just where he was in his off season
23:24
Speaker 2: program and, and catching up. Cause he, you know, he
23:28
Speaker 2: was dealing with something, uh, in that off season. And,
23:31
Speaker 2: so I'm sure teams would like to get out there and,
23:35
Speaker 2: you know, in one way that it really will help
23:38
Speaker 2: the teams, because if you have a very exciting November
23:42
Speaker 2: and fans are clamoring for next season, and then next
23:46
Speaker 2: season is just sitting there on hold. Um, you have
23:49
Speaker 2: a bunch of Yankee fans going, man, we just traded
23:51
Speaker 2: for Juan Soto. We brought him back. You know, uh,
23:56
Speaker 2: can't wait for this reunion with judge and, you know, something,
24:00
Speaker 2: you know, to that effect. um, you will have fans
24:03
Speaker 2: that get upset with the process being slow and external pressure. So,
24:09
Speaker 2: I mean, it wouldn't shock me to see that happen
24:11
Speaker 2: at all. But again, I, I think if you're the twins,
24:15
Speaker 2: you need to be part of that frenzy. You just
24:17
Speaker 2: need to jump in and give your fans something to
24:19
Speaker 2: be excited about for 2027, because you've got an exciting
24:25
Speaker 2: young core in place. You've got some really sound options
24:29
Speaker 2: in your starting rotation. Um, and you have depth in
24:32
Speaker 2: your rotation and you have bullpen pieces, you just, you
24:36
Speaker 2: need to augment that roster, fill it out and, and
24:40
Speaker 2: add depth to it and give it, you know, these
24:43
Speaker 2: aren't the kinds of things you can wait around for.
24:45
Speaker 2: I mean, some of them certainly aren't, there certainly are
24:47
Speaker 2: depth pieces ads at the end of the off season
24:51
Speaker 2: where you can look for discounts, but if you're really
24:54
Speaker 2: trying to make a difference and change things, getting out
24:57
Speaker 2: in front of it is a good idea. And so,
24:59
Speaker 2: It would be very good, I think, for the Twins
25:02
Speaker 2: to have an active November if baseball is going to
25:05
Speaker 2: be participating in 1-2.
25:08
Speaker 1: I don't even think it has to be– you don't
25:10
Speaker 1: have to go land some major name. Just whatever you're
25:13
Speaker 1: going to do, do it.
25:16
Speaker 2: Correct.
25:16
Speaker 1: To your point, give us something to talk about. Yeah.
25:19
Speaker 2: I think another– Yeah, it is not– sorry, real quick.
25:24
Speaker 2: This does not mean the Twins need to go out
25:26
Speaker 2: and trade Emmanuel Rodriguez and get a stud pitcher back.
25:31
Speaker 2: This does not mean it needs to be like this
25:34
Speaker 2: landmark move. Just be active.
25:37
Speaker 4: That's it.
25:39
Speaker 2: Right.
25:39
Speaker 3: No, what I was going to say, I think another
25:41
Speaker 3: angle of there might be some urgency is there's no
25:45
Speaker 3: telling what will be in the CBA when that comes around.
25:48
Speaker 3: Is there a floor that's going to be hit? All
25:50
Speaker 3: of a sudden, is there a cap in place? So
25:53
Speaker 3: having some guys already on the books and things like
25:55
Speaker 3: that lessens that panic, to your point, of the spring training. Oh,
26:00
Speaker 3: we have to add $ 50 million to hit the floor
26:02
Speaker 3: all of a sudden. I think they'll grandfather things in
26:05
Speaker 3: and contracts like that. So maybe even potentially you sign
26:08
Speaker 3: a guy before it, you're good on the tax threshold,
26:11
Speaker 3: whatever it may be. There's so many wrinkles to it,
26:14
Speaker 3: and I think there's some advantage to having a guy
26:17
Speaker 3: already on your books for that reason heading into the
26:20
Speaker 3: next year and the new CBA and so on. And
26:23
Speaker 3: so I think it's, I think a lot of teams,
26:26
Speaker 3: it's already starting. The rumors are happening. So that means
26:29
Speaker 3: there's some, some fire somewhere. I, yeah, it's, I think
26:32
Speaker 3: the twins won't be the only one looking and that's
26:34
Speaker 3: going to be an issue for them. Cause that means
26:37
Speaker 3: that price is just going to keep going up on guys.
26:41
Speaker 2: Just a correction from the other day, by the way, just,
26:44
Speaker 2: I said that the twins signed Michael A. Taylor. I
26:48
Speaker 2: knew the date, was correct it was like late january
26:51
Speaker 2: i forgot they traded for him just to set that
26:54
Speaker 2: record straight but yeah.
26:56
Speaker 1: Pirates we should have done the corrections so.
26:58
Speaker 2: No they we should have done a correct segment the
27:01
Speaker 2: uh the athletic regrets the terror the foul territory twin
27:04
Speaker 2: cities territory show regrets its error um yeah no they
27:09
Speaker 2: they acquired michael a taylor from kansas city uh on
27:13
Speaker 2: january 24th 2023 for Stephen Cruz and Evan Sisk. Both
27:20
Speaker 2: guys have made the majors.
27:23
Speaker 4: Catch partner, Evan Sisk. I was with him all Omaha.
27:27
Speaker 2: Great.
27:29
Speaker 4: He's nasty.
27:29
Speaker 2: Pitched against him, I believe, this year for Pittsburgh.
27:35
Speaker 4: And Cruz.
27:37
Speaker 3: Cruz throws a billion. He's fun to watch. He's like Yonderon,
27:42
Speaker 3: but bigger somehow.
27:46
Speaker 1: Thanks for clearing the air, Dan. We appreciate it. That's
27:48
Speaker 1: good journalistic ethics on your part. Moving on on our
27:52
Speaker 1: list here. Dan had an article in The Athletic. It
27:55
Speaker 1: was yesterday?
27:56
Speaker 2: Today? No, it was this morning.
27:59
Speaker 1: On Royce Lewis. It was based on the interviews from
28:04
Speaker 1: the end of the season availabilities. Yeah. Where Lewis talked
28:09
Speaker 1: pretty frankly about his struggles to end the season. Actually,
28:12
Speaker 1: throughout the season, obviously. Bad start, bad end. pretty good
28:16
Speaker 1: middle in between, but overall, just not the kind of
28:19
Speaker 1: production the Twins need from first baseman. I'm sure this
28:22
Speaker 1: is a topic we will revisit this offseason, but because
28:25
Speaker 1: Dan wrote about it today, I just wanted to talk
28:28
Speaker 1: about it. Some interesting.
28:30
Speaker 1: You can always count on Royce to be pretty frank.
28:35
Speaker 1: He said... Unfortunately, I had a down start. I had
28:38
Speaker 1: a really good up in the middle and then a
28:39
Speaker 1: down to end. Next year, my goal is to have
28:41
Speaker 1: it be up, down, and then up again, and it
28:43
Speaker 1: changes your whole year. If you fail that first math test,
28:45
Speaker 1: it's hard to bring your grades back up to an eight.
28:47
Speaker 1: I love that he's saying, Dan, there's still going to
28:50
Speaker 1: be a down part. Don't get me wrong. But I'm
28:53
Speaker 1: hoping it's two highs and a low instead of two
28:56
Speaker 1: lows and a high.
28:58
Speaker 2: They've talked a lot about him with his consistency, and
29:01
Speaker 2: it's always been an issue. Part of it is he
29:03
Speaker 2: couldn't stay on the field in 2024, 2025. It was
29:07
Speaker 2: coming off that amazing 2023 season where it looked like
29:10
Speaker 2: stardom was on the way for him and four homers
29:14
Speaker 2: in the postseason and all the good stuff. And then
29:16
Speaker 2: he dealt with two years of injuries. And this year
29:19
Speaker 2: he finally was able to stay on the field. The
29:22
Speaker 2: consistency still wasn't there. And it's been something where we
29:26
Speaker 2: saw early on his pitch selection was bad early in
29:29
Speaker 2: the season. Then he kind of got it corrected, figure
29:31
Speaker 2: out how to hit pitches again. Made some swing adjustments
29:35
Speaker 2: at AAA, just the timing mechanism with his foot. But
29:39
Speaker 2: even that was inconsistent.
29:40
Speaker 4: Throughout the rest of the year.
29:42
Speaker 2: At the end, he really slumped. The last 38 games,
29:46
Speaker 2: last 150 plate appearances, had a. 481 OPS and blamed
29:53
Speaker 2: his pitch selection. And that was something that he talked
29:56
Speaker 2: about was that pitchers adjusted to him because he had–
29:59
Speaker 2: Once he returned from AAA, basically from, I think it
30:02
Speaker 2: was June 8th that he came back, June 6th, somewhere
30:05
Speaker 2: in that range. And until mid-August, he had like 850 OPS.
30:09
Speaker 2: So he had two good months. His pitch selection was better.
30:13
Speaker 2: But then pitchers adjusted to him and they started throwing
30:15
Speaker 2: away and expecting him to either lay off or chase.
30:21
Speaker 2: And he could not lay off. He went away from
30:26
Speaker 2: what he had been doing so well. And he acknowledged it,
30:29
Speaker 2: that pitch selection was a bad, like was basically the
30:33
Speaker 2: biggest issue for him this year and that he was impatient.
30:38
Speaker 2: Like this is something I guess you see a lot
30:41
Speaker 2: of guys go through. It's not uncommon, but it will
30:46
Speaker 2: be probably the difference maker for him. And he's trying
30:49
Speaker 2: to make the point that the biggest thing was his
30:51
Speaker 2: health this year and it gave him chances to adjust.
30:55
Speaker 2: And as long as he can stay healthy, that, Byron
30:58
Speaker 2: Buxton's best years came later in his career. He's looking
31:01
Speaker 2: for a trajectory similar to that. The question is, will
31:05
Speaker 2: that happen with the Twins? Can they be patient enough
31:07
Speaker 2: with him? Financially, he's probably going to make about.
31:11
Speaker 1: $ 5 million this year.
31:12
Speaker 2: If payroll is going up, then they can fit that in.
31:17
Speaker 2: The thing is, where do you fit him? The Twins
31:19
Speaker 2: were 28th in weighted runs created plus at first base.
31:23
Speaker 2: They were a plus 87. The baseline is 100. Can
31:26
Speaker 2: you explain that one.
31:28
Speaker 1: To me like I'm five weighted runs creative?
31:30
Speaker 2: Sure.
31:31
Speaker 4: Please.
31:31
Speaker 2: Yes. So basically it takes your OPS. It figures in
31:36
Speaker 2: park factors. It figures in the pitchers you're facing. It
31:39
Speaker 2: figures in every factor that potentially it tries to imagine
31:44
Speaker 2: that you're all hitting at Coors Field at the same
31:47
Speaker 2: time or you're all playing your games at the same
31:49
Speaker 2: park at the same time, right? It takes every factor
31:52
Speaker 2: it can. so that they can take 1996 Dante Bichette
31:57
Speaker 2: out of Coors Field and put him on the same
31:59
Speaker 2: plane as 1996 Jeff Kent at Candlestick Park. Sorry, Jeff
32:06
Speaker 2: Kent wasn't there until 1997. 1996 Matt Williams.
32:09
Speaker 4: At Candlestick Park.
32:11
Speaker 1: Just saved us from another correction.
32:13
Speaker 2: I did. I did save us from another correction. But
32:16
Speaker 2: it wants to imagine that, everybody's playing in the same
32:20
Speaker 2: place so that it can evaluate your numbers because we
32:22
Speaker 2: know the core is effect on hitters, right? We see
32:25
Speaker 2: those gaudy numbers and we see, used to see guys
32:28
Speaker 2: before the humidor tons and tons of home runs and
32:30
Speaker 2: be like, Oh, they're the greatest ever. And then you
32:32
Speaker 2: see somebody at Seattle and like, it wants to find
32:36
Speaker 2: us as clear of a line to evaluate those guys.
32:40
Speaker 3: Guys that play in Kansas city versus, you know, target
32:43
Speaker 3: field or where Detroit for that matter before they moved
32:45
Speaker 3: to Waldron. Like, Miggy should have hit 700.
32:49
Speaker 1: Right.
32:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So 100 is the baseline, right, for
32:54
Speaker 2: WRC +. That is the average league average. So if
32:58
Speaker 2: you are 110, you are 10% above league average. If
33:01
Speaker 2: you are 87, you are 13% below league average. So
33:06
Speaker 2: the Twins' first base production was 13% below league average, which,
33:11
Speaker 2: as you can imagine, with a team like Baltimore, how
33:13
Speaker 2: sky high theirs is, it's probably like– significantly up there
33:18
Speaker 2: because Pete Alonzo came in and had a monster season. So,
33:22
Speaker 2: you know, the twins were 13% below league average, but
33:27
Speaker 2: the high end, they're probably 80 points below that or
33:30
Speaker 2: because there was, I'm going to guess there's a team
33:32
Speaker 2: that's one 65. I just know that where they were
33:36
Speaker 2: was 28. That's not going to cut it. That is a,
33:39
Speaker 2: it's one of the few positions that they have where
33:42
Speaker 2: they can, they're not set for the future. because Brooks
33:46
Speaker 2: Lee looks like a third baseman. Kalen Culpepper is your shortstop.
33:50
Speaker 2: What they do at second, first, DH are up in
33:54
Speaker 2: the air. Clearly DH is probably a Byron Buxton and
33:58
Speaker 2: whoever else, when Byron's in the field, whoever else is
34:01
Speaker 2: knocked out of the outfield. Your outfield positions look pretty
34:04
Speaker 2: set between Keyshaw, Jenkins, and Emma in left. So where
34:10
Speaker 2: are you going to do it? And first base being
34:12
Speaker 2: below average like that, You know, you wonder, will they
34:15
Speaker 2: give Royce the chances to do that and find it?
34:19
Speaker 2: And I mean, again, the money part makes it right. Like,
34:22
Speaker 2: I think five million, they can afford to do it.
34:26
Speaker 2: It's just, can he handle, say they brought somebody in.
34:30
Speaker 2: Say they brought in a Raphael Devers, and I'm not
34:32
Speaker 2: saying that's going to happen, but say they brought in
34:34
Speaker 2: Raphael Devers. How is that going to work? where is
34:37
Speaker 2: Royce going to play? Where is he going to fit?
34:41
Speaker 2: This is a guy that was the 1-1 and believes
34:44
Speaker 2: he has a huge future ahead of him. He mentioned
34:47
Speaker 2: that at the end of the story that Byron Buxton
34:51
Speaker 2: had his best years after he got off to an
34:53
Speaker 2: injury-riddled start to his career. Can Royce fit in that picture?
34:57
Speaker 2: That's going to be the question. Do they either ride
34:59
Speaker 2: it out one more time because he was healthy finally,
35:03
Speaker 2: or do they move on Or do they try to
35:05
Speaker 2: fit him in? And fitting him in, I mean, Royce
35:08
Speaker 2: is a good teammate, but you've already asked him to
35:11
Speaker 2: move from third to first. First, you said it was
35:13
Speaker 2: going to be third to second. You suggested second base
35:18
Speaker 2: was going to be in there. I think he wanted
35:20
Speaker 2: to do second base, but they wound up putting him
35:22
Speaker 2: at first base. It's going to be an interesting dilemma
35:28
Speaker 2: to see how they handle it because Royce, he's He's
35:31
Speaker 2: a big personality in that clubhouse, and he wants to
35:34
Speaker 2: be that guy. Also, you know, it's been three years
35:39
Speaker 2: of this. Royce Lewis was great in 2023 at a
35:42
Speaker 2: 921 OPS, and since then he has not been great.
35:46
Speaker 2: He was hurt those first two, but he was healthy
35:48
Speaker 2: this one, and it still didn't happen. So, like, how
35:51
Speaker 2: long do you keep going? It's definitely a challenge. It's
35:58
Speaker 2: one of their biggest challenges. I think it's one of
36:00
Speaker 2: their bigger questions the offseason. how to proceed with Royce Lewis. Yeah.
36:05
Speaker 1: And I like, what's your best chance of improving there
36:10
Speaker 1: is like, I.
36:11
Speaker 2: Mean, he was a nine 21 OPS three years ago.
36:13
Speaker 2: He was an eight 50 peak OPS for two months
36:16
Speaker 2: this summer. If he's an eight 50 OPS guy, you're
36:19
Speaker 2: thrilled with that production. Now with his downs, is he
36:23
Speaker 2: a seven 75 or seven 80 OPS? Like, can he
36:26
Speaker 2: do the eight 50 to start then maybe a, a
36:29
Speaker 2: 480 in the middle although you'd like that to be
36:32
Speaker 2: more like 600 in the middle and then 800 again
36:34
Speaker 2: at the end like that that looks great that's royce
36:38
Speaker 2: lewis hitting 25 bombs and and playing good first base
36:41
Speaker 2: defense for you and having the kind of season from
36:45
Speaker 2: a run producer a clutch guy we just haven't seen
36:48
Speaker 2: him sustain that and he's you know there's so many
36:52
Speaker 2: things he he he did a swing coach at the
36:57
Speaker 2: start of the year and then that got changed. It
36:59
Speaker 2: didn't work out. He worked with the new hitting group.
37:01
Speaker 2: He found some good things with the new hitting group
37:03
Speaker 2: and he sounded pretty solid. Like he liked the plan
37:06
Speaker 2: that they were going to work on. He got bat
37:08
Speaker 2: speed back. He adjusted his bat speed and got it
37:10
Speaker 2: back to 75.1 this year, which was up because a
37:13
Speaker 2: couple of years ago, people were like, where did his
37:15
Speaker 2: bat speed go? So he felt healthy.
37:18
Speaker 4: Now it is taking– Knee surgeries will do that.
37:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. No, no. And that's the thing. Like how
37:25
Speaker 2: much did all of that result? But if this is
37:28
Speaker 2: your baseline and he's healthy, can he grow from this?
37:33
Speaker 2: That's a big question because he was a free swinger.
37:37
Speaker 2: The numbers were not great. His out-of-zone swing percentage was 36.2.
37:41
Speaker 2: Out of the qualified hitters in baseball, that was 100
37:42
Speaker 2: out of 135 qualified hitters. That's not good. His out-of-zone
37:52
Speaker 2: contact percentage, I believe, was 52.9. That ranked 119 out
37:58
Speaker 2: of 135. Now, three years ago, when he was the
38:01
Speaker 2: 921 OPS guy, he was hitting 63% of baseballs that
38:05
Speaker 2: were out of the zone. So he was making contact
38:07
Speaker 2: on those, still finding his pitches and hitting them. He's
38:11
Speaker 2: got to find that middle ground again. Will his body
38:13
Speaker 2: allow him? I don't know. Right. It was great to
38:18
Speaker 2: see him healthy this year, but he's got to make
38:20
Speaker 2: those adjustments faster and not be swinging at pitches and
38:26
Speaker 2: trying to pull everything and swinging everything away and chasing
38:29
Speaker 2: and not taking the walks.
38:34
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say I'm optimistic at all about him figuring
38:37
Speaker 1: it out, but again, trading him, what are you going
38:41
Speaker 1: to get? it's going to be another question mark player
38:46
Speaker 1: at best where you're hoping you find something different. I
38:50
Speaker 1: think your best chances to get the production you need
38:52
Speaker 1: at first base are sign somebody who's proven it or
38:57
Speaker 1: hope it's Royce rather than trade him away and hope
39:01
Speaker 1: whatever piece you get back can do it. But also
39:03
Speaker 1: you could trade him away for prospect or something else,
39:05
Speaker 1: of course, too.
39:06
Speaker 3: Like I said before, I think he'd be a great candidate.
39:09
Speaker 3: You take him to Arb, you know, come to camp.
39:14
Speaker 3: And unfortunately for him, it's going to be a make
39:15
Speaker 3: or break camp.
39:16
Speaker 2: Yes.
39:17
Speaker 4: You show up ready to rock and ball out. You're
39:20
Speaker 4: our first baseman.
39:21
Speaker 3: And, and obviously if you sign somebody, well, that kind
39:24
Speaker 3: of handles that already, but then it's like, Hey, you're
39:26
Speaker 3: playing for second base, you know, platoon duties, whatever it is.
39:29
Speaker 3: But like, Royce Lewis has to show up and be
39:31
Speaker 3: the guy Dan's talking about who you know is floating
39:34
Speaker 3: in the mid-8s versus the low 7s and if he's
39:37
Speaker 3: not doing that at spring then you figure out who
39:39
Speaker 3: who Who needs a serviceable guy who can play four
39:43
Speaker 3: infield positions if you need him to, can play outfield?
39:45
Speaker 3: He's a very usable player. He's just not, as he
39:48
Speaker 3: is today as we're talking, he's not a guy that
39:51
Speaker 3: you can plug into the 3-4-5 spot in your lineup.
39:55
Speaker 1: For sure. Well, plenty more to come about Royce this offseason,
39:59
Speaker 1: no doubt. Moving on to Pablo Lopez, who was named
40:03
Speaker 1: a finalist yesterday, I believe, for the.
40:09
Speaker 1: The Marvin Miller Man of the Year Award. Excuse me.
40:12
Speaker 1: I drew an absolute blank there as I was trying
40:14
Speaker 1: to think of the name of the award. But for
40:16
Speaker 1: those of you who don't know, it's there on the screen,
40:18
Speaker 1: but it's an award given to the player whose leadership
40:21
Speaker 1: most inspires others to higher levels of achievement. I've seen
40:25
Speaker 1: it's kind of an on-field and off-field thing. So it's
40:29
Speaker 1: pretty notable that he got selected to be a finalist
40:31
Speaker 1: for it despite not playing at all this year. But
40:34
Speaker 1: of course, he was very present around the team all
40:36
Speaker 1: season acting as a interpreter and other things for the team. Obviously,
40:41
Speaker 1: he was also voted the best Twin Cities Territory Podcaster
40:44
Speaker 1: of the Year at the Hammonagie Awards. So, eventful year
40:47
Speaker 1: for him, but a cool honor for him, Dan.
40:52
Speaker 2: I mean, this is something that, like, this is one
40:54
Speaker 2: of those guys that everybody talks about as one of
40:57
Speaker 2: the best teammates because he's always looking out for guys.
40:59
Speaker 2: He's always dispensing advice. He stuck around the team this
41:02
Speaker 2: year because he wanted to make an impact, even though
41:05
Speaker 2: he was hurt in rehabbing. And part of it was
41:07
Speaker 2: selfish because he knew that being around was going to
41:10
Speaker 2: make his rehab go faster, but you can't fake it.
41:15
Speaker 2: And he is not, you know, he was 100% authentic. It's,
41:20
Speaker 2: it's hard to like, not notice how much he cares.
41:24
Speaker 2: This is a guy that everybody knows. If you engage
41:27
Speaker 2: in a conversation with him, you're going to get his
41:30
Speaker 2: full time. He does not. He'll tell you if he
41:33
Speaker 2: can't talk right then, because he wants to give you
41:35
Speaker 2: his time and attention. And I think that's something that
41:38
Speaker 2: just talks about the character and the person. And that's
41:41
Speaker 2: somebody that the twins thought they were getting kind of
41:43
Speaker 2: expected they were getting. And I think he's surpassed their
41:46
Speaker 2: expectations since coming over in that trade. He's been everything.
41:50
Speaker 2: I mean, even the way he handled himself, you saw
41:52
Speaker 2: it when he was talking about pitching at the pressure
41:55
Speaker 2: of the post season in 2023. And the pressure is
41:58
Speaker 2: a privilege was my favorite quote from him. Like this
42:00
Speaker 2: guy just seems to get it. And, and it, he's
42:04
Speaker 2: one of the smartest people I've met. Um, it's, it's intimidating.
42:09
Speaker 2: He disarms you, but you don't want to get into
42:11
Speaker 2: too much of a brainiac conversation with him because you know,
42:14
Speaker 2: he'll blow you away.
42:15
Speaker 4: You don't, you're like, it hurts your feelings.
42:19
Speaker 2: And he will do it in the kindest ways. You're like, God,
42:22
Speaker 2: I just feel so dumb after this conversation because he's
42:25
Speaker 2: just so man, I mean, he's just very parents were doctors.
42:30
Speaker 2: Like this is just a superior intelligent being. who also
42:34
Speaker 2: happens to be an amazing athlete too. And just a
42:38
Speaker 2: great human on top of it. He's definitely– it doesn't
42:42
Speaker 2: shock me that even though he didn't play, he could
42:45
Speaker 2: be nominated for this and become a finalist.
42:48
Speaker 1: Hopefully he'll come back on the show, Pablo, after you
42:51
Speaker 1: win this thing and celebrate with a plate of ham
42:54
Speaker 1: and eggs with us. But we'll see. We'll see. And finally,
42:58
Speaker 1: on this day in 1991, this was game three of
43:01
Speaker 1: the World Series. The series shifted to Atlanta. It was
43:04
Speaker 1: a crazy one. It was 5-4 Braves in 12 innings.
43:09
Speaker 1: Twins took a 1-0 lead top of the first. Braves
43:12
Speaker 1: then scored the next four runs. Twins tied it with
43:14
Speaker 1: a run in the seventh, two in the eighth, and
43:17
Speaker 1: then three scoreless innings. The Twins had multiple chances to
43:20
Speaker 1: score between the ninth and 12th. Most notably, in the
43:24
Speaker 1: 12th inning, In the top of the 12th, the Twins
43:28
Speaker 1: got a one-out single from Dan Gladden. Chuck Knobloch reached
43:31
Speaker 1: on an error. Herbeck struck out looking. They intentionally walked
43:34
Speaker 1: Kirby Puckett. And then at that point, the bases loaded
43:38
Speaker 1: and two outs in a tie game in the 12th
43:40
Speaker 1: inning of the World Series. Tom Kelly had a tough
43:42
Speaker 1: decision because Mark Guthrie, the pitcher, was due up. And
43:45
Speaker 1: Tom Kelly had used all his players, all his position players.
43:49
Speaker 1: So Tom Kelly sends Rick Aguilera out to pinch hit
43:53
Speaker 1: for Mark Guthrie. uh, Aguilera was actually, he had, he
43:56
Speaker 1: started his career with the Mets. He was a pretty
43:58
Speaker 1: decent hitter. He was a 200, like a 214 average
44:00
Speaker 1: or something in his first four years. So it wasn't crazy.
44:04
Speaker 1: He lined out to center to end the 12th and
44:06
Speaker 1: then pitch the bottom of the 12th and the Braves
44:09
Speaker 1: got the walk off on, uh, who else, but Mark Lemke,
44:12
Speaker 1: that little pest in that series, uh, to get them
44:15
Speaker 1: on the board and make it, uh, two, one twins
44:18
Speaker 1: after three games in that series.
44:20
Speaker 2: But, uh, that's just disappointed that disappointed that on this
44:25
Speaker 2: day in 1991, didn't fall on game two. So we
44:28
Speaker 2: could have talked about Herbeck, Ron Gant.
44:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know. I know we might have to slip
44:32
Speaker 1: that into Monday's live show, even though it's not part
44:34
Speaker 1: of a game seven, but you know, you can't, you
44:38
Speaker 1: can't run past the bag, man. You just can't do it.
44:40
Speaker 1: Just a big mistake by Ron Gant there. That's all
44:43
Speaker 1: I can say.
44:46
Speaker 4: Rules are the rules.
44:47
Speaker 1: The rules are the rules. That's all a reminder again,
44:51
Speaker 1: 11 a.m. Monday will be our live Game 7 rewatch show.
44:55
Speaker 1: We'll have all the details in the description of that
44:58
Speaker 1: by Monday morning, and hope to see you there. Have
45:01
Speaker 1: a great weekend, everybody. A reminder, if you like what
45:02
Speaker 1: you hear, please toss us a like or a subscribe.
45:05
Speaker 1: However you watch or listen, if you're on YouTube right now,
45:07
Speaker 1: there's a QR code there on the screen to make
45:10
Speaker 1: it super easy for you. Thanks, everybody. Bye-bye.