Monday Morning Minnesota: No, Josh Donaldson still hasn’t signed edition

Previously on Twinkie Town:

• Mitch Garver is doing a charity auction, and there is still indeed time to get your hands on Garv-used catching gear and support some good causes at the same time. Get some if you like Twins memorabilia, or get a whole set of pro catcher’s gear and wear it as armor as you become a vigilante and clean up the filth from the streets.
• Vote in 2020’s first round of DJL44’s annual Twinkle Town Prospect Rankings. Just like real democracy, you can be an uneducated voter (Like me!) and ruin the process for everyone. Yay!
• Blog Lord TJ asked a question on all of our minds. What the crap should we expect from Homer Bailey? Now that Kyle Gibson is gone, who will comfort TJ during the cold, cold winter?
• That very same guy who wrote the last thing also did a funny about Randy Dobnak’s new look.
• James Fillmore did one of those grumpy old long-form book reviews, in a way that only he can. Honestly, I love it. James is a treasure that belongs in museum.

Elsewhere in Twins Territory:

• Per the STrib’s Phill Miller, the Twins have become “pessimistic” about their chances to sign Josh Donaldson. In a development that will surprise literally no one, it seems Minnesota is not his destination of choice. Hopefully titling this whole article after this fact will mean he’ll sign 10 minutes after I finish, thus making me look like an uninformed idiot when this publishes tomorrow.
• Regarding the previous bullet point, Twins Daily wonders “What now?” At what point do we admit the front office did not get the job done this off-season?
• The team doesn’t seem to be showing much signs of win-now urgency, so just how long is the Twins window going to be open anyway? Cody Christie aims to answer that very question.
• The Twins have a new “Director of Baseball Research” in Karim Kassam. Kassam, a big fancy Harvard grad, previously did a similar job for the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers, and was involved in the language learning app Duolingo, whose notification I have been ignoring for like 7 straight months.
• Old Friend Jason Castro has signed with the Los Angeles Angels of California Anaheim.

Around the World in Bases and Balls:

• Definitely read this eye-opening piece by Beyond the Box Score’s Shawn Brody that shows how ticket prices have risen across the board, yet ticket revenue has increased across that very same board. This is just yet another nail in the coffin of the idea that “Growing the game of baseball.” means anything other than “lining shareholder pockets with short term gains even if alienates long time working class fans and potential newcomers alike.”
• Cut 4 introduces probably most of us to “Beep Baseball” which is a version of the sport for visually impaired folks. It is super cool that something like this exists, and again reminds me that maybe we should stop being surprised every time the disabled community shows us how great they are.

Do me a favor and pretend there is a good transition here. Today’s soundtrack is chill lo-fi remix of the Final Fantasy X soundtrack that I just completely adore.