The "Nobody Wants To Come Here" Theory

This thread is filled with question begging. Leading off is "Nobody wants to come here". Following that is "but they would if the Twins paid them more." These are assumptions and there is no way to know if they are true or not. The Twins have retained their own players at a hometown discount (Gaetti, Hrbek) and have paid top dollar (Puckett, Mauer).

Let's look at Josh Willingham.

Josh Willingham's agent, Matt Sosnick, said Thursday to Jane Lee of MLB.com that he "got a good amount of calls last night and this morning" from potential suitors. Sosnick added Willingham is looking to secure a three-year deal and one preferably closer to his home in Florence, Alabama. [Nov. 4, 2011]

As December played out Willingham had narrowed his choices to Colorado, Cleveland, and Minnesota. Looks to me like Denver and Cleveland is closer to Alabama than Minneapolis. So did the Twins outbid those other clubs? One day after the Twins signed Willingham to a 3 year, $21M contract Denver signed Cuddyer for 3 years, $30M. There is no way to know, but I would think the Rockies offered more than $21M for Willingham (if he indeed got an offer from them) yet he signed with the Twins.

To summarize, there is no way to know if the premise of these statements are valid or not.

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Originally Posted by powrwrap

This thread is filled with question begging. Leading off is "Nobody wants to come here". Following that is "but they would if the Twins paid them more." These are assumptions and there is no way to know if they are true or not. The Twins have retained their own players at a hometown discount (Gaetti, Hrbek) and have paid top dollar (Puckett, Mauer).

Let's look at Josh Willingham.

Josh Willingham's agent, Matt Sosnick, said Thursday to Jane Lee of MLB.com that he "got a good amount of calls last night and this morning" from potential suitors. Sosnick added Willingham is looking to secure a three-year deal and one preferably closer to his home in Florence, Alabama. [Nov. 4, 2011]

As December played out Willingham had narrowed his choices to Colorado, Cleveland, and Minnesota. Looks to me like Denver and Cleveland is closer to Alabama than Minneapolis. So did the Twins outbid those other clubs? One day after the Twins signed Willingham to a 3 year, $21M contract Denver signed Cuddyer for 3 years, $30M. There is no way to know, but I would think the Rockies offered more than $21M for Willingham (if he indeed got an offer from them) yet he signed with the Twins.

To summarize, there is no way to know if the premise of these statements are valid or not.

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Probably doesn't matter much, but Minneapolis is closer to Florence, AL than Denver is...

This is baseball economics that I don't understand. It seems Cleveland didn't go Year Three. And why, after the Twins signed Willingham, the Rockies felt they had to pay Cuddyer significantly more. Was there another destination on tap for Cuddyer (I think not). This was something, right up there with overpaying A-Rod by $100 million over the second suitor. Like, they weren't going to sign, or maybe there was a high-end single year offer that the player was looking at.

deuno and vasquez have both agreed to contracts with the twins for 2013

Yeah, I don't buy the argument that players are opposed to coming here. That's CERTAINLY an issue for the NFL (because player have to play in the cold) and NBA (because they would primarily live in Minnesota during the coldest months of the year), but summers in Minnesota are nice. And I think pro athletes have a much broader knowledge than the general public of which major cities are nice and which are less nice based on the fact that these guys travel CONSTANTLY.

The only legitimate part of that argument came from the fact that the team has just been BAD the last two years, and I do agree that some of the more sought-after free agents don't want to play for bad teams. However, this is usually a problem that takes care of itself because teams that are bad for any period of time usually lower their budget, and don't run out and sign guys to $20 million/year contracts, unless they also happen to be a in a huge, lucrative market, like New York.