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Vixen Twins watch Wild Wolves and Loony Lynx (MN Sports Thread)


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On 1/22/2021 at 10:36 AM, swede700 said:

I may be alone, but I've always hated the DH and feel they should just get rid of it rather than adopt it universally.  Yes, it extends careers, but it also lessens strategy...and the part about baseball that is even more boring now is that there is no strategy.  It's singles and HRs, period.  I don't need to see the "Twins Way"(r) anymore, but by god, I don't want to see 9 Rob Deers in the lineup either.

There is almost no actual strategy in the NL game. The decisions are almost always the same, while getting two or three auto outs .

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The reason the Timberwolves don't really have any rivalries is because they are not in the same division as the other Midwestern teams in the NBA.

It took realignment for the Wild to develop meaningful rivalries with the Blackhawks and Blues.

The Twins and Vikings, they've always had regional rivals in their divisions.

But the NBA is on the verge of expansion. My top two candidates are Seattle and Vancouver, because then those two can go in the Northwest Division, this would send Oklahoma City to the Southwest Division and Minnesota to the Central.

This would give the Timberwolves and their fans what they have wanted for decades: meaningful regional rivalries.

Furthermore, I've also proposed a change to the schedule format under the new alignment: teams play every non-division opponent twice (home-and-home), while teams in the five-team divisions play 28 division games (7 against each opponent), and teams in the six-team divisions play 30 division games (6 against each opponent.

So, the Timberwolves would thus play the Bulls, Bucks, Pistons, Cavaliers, and Pacers 6 times each. We can finally make the Central Division of the NBA the league's "Black-and-Blue" division as the NFC North is for the NFL and Central (usually) is for the NHL. Not to mention the AL Central in MLB.

Edited by pf9
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13 hours ago, RpMc said:

I'd, personally, still not care even if the NBA realigned.  The NBA style of game doesn't appeal to me as it did when I was younger.

Agree.  The NBA today is just not interesting to me...while certainly the players should have some input, they have far too much control in today's game...it was started by Stern (in marketing the players over the teams they play for) but it has been accelerated under the current administration. 

As it is now, the teams are irrelevant, it's the groups of players that play together that seems to be the incentive.  Back in the 80s (which was actually my favorite decade), you certainly had the super teams of the Lakers and Celtics, but those super teams were created organically, by actual drafting and developing, not players colluding to get to one place, usually a big market place.  With the organic creation, you had super stars in teams all over the place, so the league was far more competitively balanced.  Now, it's heavily weighted towards one conference and the Bird exception is basically irrelevant because the money being thrown around is so big, it doesn't matter whether a team can financially keep the player around if they can't get the players there who their big time player wants to be there..they'll leave anyway.  

Plus, the style of play now is more similar to baseball than we realize...it's all drives to the basket and 3 pointers.  The art of ball movement, the mid-range jumper and playing good defense is gone.  

Maybe it appeals to younger people, but it lost me a long time ago.        

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14 hours ago, PrplChilPill said:

There is almost no actual strategy in the NL game. The decisions are almost always the same, while getting two or three auto outs .

If it is that way, then that's by choice, not by opportunity.  There is opportunity for more strategy without the DH...if they choose not to use it, then that's on them.  

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3 hours ago, swede700 said:

If it is that way, then that's by choice, not by opportunity.  There is opportunity for more strategy without the DH...if they choose not to use it, then that's on them.  

If the choice is always the same, it isn't strategy...... it isn't even really a choice.  Also, if it is always the same, it isn't more entertaining to see auto outs.

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21 minutes ago, PrplChilPill said:

If the choice is always the same, it isn't strategy...... it isn't even really a choice.  Also, if it is always the same, it isn't more entertaining to see auto outs.

It's not necessarily an auto-out if it is as others have said, with how they use the pitchers these days, that they can use double-switches to put the pitchers in different slots in the batting order.  That's strategy...and thus more entertaining...at least for me.  Relying simply on data analytics, as appears to be done quite a lot these days, is fun for some people, but I'd argue not for most. It's good for the Gleemans, but not the Joe Blows.  

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Which makes sense to me...as far as I'm concerned, they are really the same job (with how far the Vols "prestige" has dropped)...the only difference being that Knoxville is a college town, so Fleck would own the town.  But, the things the Twin Cities can offer other than that far outweigh Knoxville (I've visited there once, it's a nice town, but not somewhere I'd want to stay).  

I think it would take a significantly better job to lure him away...something along the lines of a Florida, a USC, Texas...somewhere in that class.  

Edited by swede700
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  • 2 weeks later...

https://www.startribune.com/twins-trade-lamonte-wade-to-giants-for-pitcher-shaun-anderson/600019171/

I love this move. Wade is a big league talent, but he's not going to break in with the talent the Twins have in the Outfield at the Major and Minor League levels. Anderson has a good, live arm and is young enough where he could really develop into a reliable reliever who still has options and team control. 

The Twins still lack that true #1 Ace, but I think the rest of the team looks very solid again.

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7 minutes ago, wcblack34 said:

The Twins still lack that true #1 Ace, but I think the rest of the team looks very solid again.

But the question remains whether they can or will win in the playoffs.  It's embarrassing when the Timberwolves have more playoff wins in the last 15 years than the Twins do.

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2 minutes ago, swede700 said:

But the question remains whether they can or will win in the playoffs.  It's embarrassing when the Timberwolves have more playoff wins in the last 15 years than the Twins do.

Certainly.  A major part of that is their inability to find that Ace. I think they'll need to make a deadline deal this year for a true #1 if they want to win a playoff series. Maeda and Berrios would be outstanding as #2 and #3. The bullpen is solid. Could definitely use a lock down closer too, but I don't think they'll make a move for both. Josh Hader would be a pipe dream. 

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