Time To Step Up

I hate to beat a dead horse but I'm going to do it anyway.

We all saw the Blue Jays make a big trade. They are taking on a lot of salary but they want to compete and they want to win. They are now rumored to be targeting another starter, such as Edwin Jackson or Zach Grienke. With almost every free agent or trade target you are sure to hear Toronto mentioned.

The Twins haven't made an impact trade or signing yet and it's discouraging. It's not that I'm impatient but since there has already been several players the Twins have been rumored to have interested in come off the board, I can't help but think that they aren't really serious about improving this team. I have the sinking feeling that they will continue to undervalue players and not she'll out what it takes to bring in quality players via trade or free agency. It is time that the owners and front office step up and pay the price to field a winner. They have to make realistic offers in trades and they need to offer a real contract to a top end free agent. It's really aggravating to see the Blue Jays doing what Twins fans want and deserve since Target Field has been built and we show up to watch the AAA guys play.

Easy to spend someone else's money.
Toronto and every free agent possible is going to sign there. "Leaks" are not always truths as the faithful readers know.
Are the Twins going to set the market price or are they going to follow? Mauer's contract should be a sign they can overpay. Setting the price for pitching is going to be tricky. All it takes is one crazy team to jack the price and Chicago did that with Baker. All it takes is one team to overvalue someone and they are signed for more than they should have been. Makes it hard for the other teams to assess market price.
Will you be aggravated when the Blue Jays are a .540 team and out of the playoffs? There is nothing that says Toronto will be winning much.
Cabrera was about a .700 OPS before the steroids. Career .280 hitter. Buerle and Johnson do not project well on fan graphs. Reyes will be in a new league. There is nothing certain in Toronto

But they are clearly making every effort possible. And not waiting for other teams to dictate what they can do. My belief is the Twins miss out on players all the time because they were about 500 thousand off the price and won't cave.

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Originally Posted by Chance

But they are clearly making every effort possible. And not waiting for other teams to dictate what they can do. My belief is the Twins miss out on players all the time because they were about 500 thousand off the price and won't cave.

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I suspect that you may be correct, but we have no way of knowing whether this is true. For all we know, Ryan and his people have been spending a lot of time trying to make good trades and/or trying to make deals with free agents. All we get to see are the results when they make a deal, and good deals often don't happen until January or after.

I hate to sound like an apologist but it's early. If mid-December rolls around and they haven't made a significant move, then I'll be concerned.

I am very impatient. I really liked some of the recent offseasons where the wheels were in motion immediately. I have to applaud our old friend Bill Smith in that regard, he was off and running as soon as the World Series ended. That Hardy-Gomez deal happened in early November... as did the infamous Garza-Young swap.

Its not so much that I am anxious to see them make moves to jump in there but It would make it easier for them and give management more leverage if they can get 1 of the starters needed signed and done cheaply. I think that is why we are upset that we lost Baker. yeah he piched solid for us but we thought he would sign quickly, cheaply filling 1 of the 3 spots so we would only need 2. We know the 2nd is likley to come via trade so we would only need to focus on 1 FA instead of 2. that is where my anxiety comes from. I am not concerned at all about the other holes the club is going to try to fill this offseason.

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Originally Posted by Brandon

Its not so much that I am anxious to see them make moves to jump in there but It would make it easier for them and give management more leverage if they can get 1 of the starters needed signed and done cheaply. I think that is why we are upset that we lost Baker. yeah he piched solid for us but we thought he would sign quickly, cheaply filling 1 of the 3 spots so we would only need 2. We know the 2nd is likley to come via trade so we would only need to focus on 1 FA instead of 2. that is where my anxiety comes from. I am not concerned at all about the other holes the club is going to try to fill this offseason.

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Yep, losing Baker stings because it meant the team had one less rotation spot to fill going into December. I fully understand why the Twins weren't interested in giving him a one year $5.5m guaranteed contract but it still hurts.

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Originally Posted by old nurse

Easy to spend someone else's money.

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Sure is. Just look at how easy it was for the Pohlads to spend a half billion of other people's money on their new stadium.

What's hard seems to be for them to spend their own money.

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Originally Posted by USAFChief

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Originally Posted by old nurse

Easy to spend someone else's money.

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Sure is. Just look at how easy it was for the Pohlads to spend a half billion of other people's money on their new stadium.

What's hard seems to be for them to spend their own money.

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$350 million is how much was bonded by the county. Unless you want to include the Pohlad's 125 million contribution as other people's money. Operating Target Field costs the Twins about 10 million a year and they pay 1 million in rent. No free stadium ride there.

There is a hesitance on the Twins part to pay people outside the organization. They have been more than generous within for the players. As of yet we do not know Ryan's capability to gauge free market pitching value. Marquis was a fifth starter. That is what they were looking for. This time last year a starting rotation of Liriano, Pavano, Baker, and Blackburn looked solid. Ryan did ok with replacing position players lost due to free agency.

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Originally Posted by Brock Beauchamp

I hate to sound like an apologist but it's early. If mid-December rolls around and they haven't made a significant move, then I'll be concerned.

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Amen to that Brock.

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Originally Posted by USAFChief

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Originally Posted by old nurse

Easy to spend someone else's money.

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Sure is. Just look at how easy it was for the Pohlads to spend a half billion of other people's money on their new stadium.

What's hard seems to be for them to spend their own money.

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Pohlads will never spend their own money to improve this team. The day they do is when pigs fly.

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Originally Posted by old nurse

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Originally Posted by USAFChief

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Originally Posted by old nurse

Easy to spend someone else's money.

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Sure is. Just look at how easy it was for the Pohlads to spend a half billion of other people's money on their new stadium.

What's hard seems to be for them to spend their own money.

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$350 million is how much was bonded by the county. Unless you want to include the Pohlad's 125 million contribution as other people's money. Operating Target Field costs the Twins about 10 million a year and they pay 1 million in rent. No free stadium ride there.

There is a hesitance on the Twins part to pay people outside the organization. They have been more than generous within for the players. As of yet we do not know Ryan's capability to gauge free market pitching value. Marquis was a fifth starter. That is what they were looking for. This time last year a starting rotation of Liriano, Pavano, Baker, and Blackburn looked solid. Ryan did ok with replacing position players lost due to free agency.

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I doubt the Pohlads put a penny of their own money into stadium construction costs. They borrowed the money, and are making payments on that loan from stadium receipts. Net out-of-pocket: zero.

The rest of your post is...not worth a reply.

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Originally Posted by USAFChief

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Originally Posted by old nurse

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Originally Posted by USAFChief

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Originally Posted by old nurse

Easy to spend someone else's money.

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Sure is. Just look at how easy it was for the Pohlads to spend a half billion of other people's money on their new stadium.

What's hard seems to be for them to spend their own money.

---

$350 million is how much was bonded by the county. Unless you want to include the Pohlad's 125 million contribution as other people's money. Operating Target Field costs the Twins about 10 million a year and they pay 1 million in rent. No free stadium ride there.

There is a hesitance on the Twins part to pay people outside the organization. They have been more than generous within for the players. As of yet we do not know Ryan's capability to gauge free market pitching value. Marquis was a fifth starter. That is what they were looking for. This time last year a starting rotation of Liriano, Pavano, Baker, and Blackburn looked solid. Ryan did ok with replacing position players lost due to free agency.

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I doubt the Pohlads put a penny of their own money into stadium construction costs. They borrowed the money, and are making payments on that loan from stadium receipts. Net out-of-pocket: zero.

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So if I borrow money to buy a Ferrari and pay it back with money I earn, it doesn't really cost me anything? http://www.websmileys.com/sm/crazy/114.gif

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Originally Posted by twinsnorth49

So if I borrow money to buy a Ferrari and pay it back with money I earn, it doesn't really cost me anything? http://www.websmileys.com/sm/crazy/114.gif

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Not if the money you're using to pay back the loan comes from using the Ferrari itself.

And I would have no problem with even that, except if the public paid for 70% of the Ferrari up front, and you promised to pay for the rest of the Ferrari up front, out of your pocket, which you then failed to do.

Then I have a problem with it.

[QUOTE=USAFChief;63798][QUOTE=old nurse;63776][QUOTE=USAFChief;63768]

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Originally Posted by old nurse

I doubt the Pohlads put a penny of their own money into stadium construction costs. They borrowed the money, and are making payments on that loan from stadium receipts. Net out-of-pocket: zero.

The rest of your post is...not worth a reply.

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You can have an opinion. Being dismissive of reality that there are costs associated with running a club and the stadium is to ignore reality. Wether or not the Pohlads borrowed or paid for it out of pocket is irrelevant. They paid their portion. If they borrowed, it was against their assets and has to be paid at some point. For whatever limit you have of accepting that fact is truly strange.

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Originally Posted by USAFChief

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Originally Posted by twinsnorth49

So if I borrow money to buy a Ferrari and pay it back with money I earn, it doesn't really cost me anything? http://www.websmileys.com/sm/crazy/114.gif

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Not if the money you're using to pay back the loan comes from using the Ferrari itself.

And I would have no problem with even that, except if the public paid for 70% of the Ferrari up front, and you promised to pay for the rest of the Ferrari up front, out of your pocket, which you then failed to do.

Then I have a problem with it.

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What difference does it make if they paid up front or borrowed it? Either way they are either paying back the loan through stadium revenue or recouping the loss from insanely paying $150,000,000 up front to build something that will take years to pay for, from stadium revenue.

Paying for something of that magnitude up front is pretty poor use of capital and a very bad business practice. One which no smart business person would do.

Also, even though the Pohlad Family has a net worth of $3B, how much of that do you think is liquid? Do you think they had $150M available to pay for their share in cash out of pocket? Since their net worth is tied up in the several businesses that they own, I doubt it (At least not until Pepsi bought back their stake in the bottling company).

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Originally Posted by twinsnorth49

What difference does it make if they paid up front or borrowed it? Either way they are either paying back the loan through stadium revenue or recouping the loss from insanely paying $150,000,000 up front to build something that will take years to pay for, from stadium revenue.

Paying for something of that magnitude up front is pretty poor use of capital and a very bad business practice. One which no smart business person would do.

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Insanely paying $150M up front?

First off, they promised to pay $150M up front. If you can't see how it makes a difference whether they borrowed the money, or invested their own funds, then look no farther than their player payroll budget. That should help illuminate it for you.

Secondly, the value of their franchise went up something on the order of $200M before the ink was dry on the stadium deal. I'm thinking any smart business person would invest $150 to make $200, or $150M to make $200M, and add in greater annual revenues to the pot in either case, by the way. Or...I guess even better...if they could get away with it...invest $0 to make $200M.

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Originally Posted by SweetOne69

Also, even though the Pohlad Family has a net worth of $3B, how much of that do you think is liquid? Do you think they had $150M available to pay for their share in cash out of pocket? Since their net worth is tied up in the several businesses that they own, I doubt it (At least not until Pepsi bought back their stake in the bottling company).

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Is this a serious post? A family with a net worth of $3B can't come up with $150M cash?

In any case, that's not the point. Of course they can come up with the cash, but if not, why did they promise to do just that when negotiating for a new stadium?