Monday Morning Minnesota: Better names for Cleveland edition

Welcome to yet another edition of the intergalactically beloved MonMorMin. I, as I seem to always be these days, am writing this at the very last second due to a having no internet all weekend type situation. Prepare you brain hole because I’m gonna be rapid firing untested links and low effort jokes straight into your cell matter.

Previously on Twinkie Town:

• TJ broke the news of the impending name change for that one baseball team in Cleveland, which is really cool and literally an entire team history overdue. Interestingly that line about them being called the “Cleveland Baseball Team” is actual rumblings in the rumor mill and might be used in an interim basis. This would be both hilarious, and if you really think about it, only slightly worse of a name than “The Athletics.”
• In any case, I’m personally looking forward to no longer getting a bunch of hate mail from weird Cleveland Clevelanders fans every time I mention in passing that a team shouldn’t have THAT name in current year.
• JohnFoley dives into three bargain big reclamation projects that might be intriguing to the Minnesota Minnesotans. As a pro Twins blogslady, I’m not sure how I would feel about having to learn how to spell “Foltynewicz,” a name that sounds like a password I would enter in a NES game to start on level 3 with the magic sword already obtained.
• The prestigious Nolasco Round of the Worst All-Time Twins Tournament continues, presented by Matt. May the blessings of Ricky himself be upon you this holiday season.
• We, the staff of your favorite website, told you what relievers the team should target. Falvine, I know you are reading this, go get Tyler Clippard back already!
• Brandon continues to do his thing, bringing you all the news about the AL Central rivals in one place for E.Z reading and happy times. (I legit love these, Brandon.)
• I also love this piece by TJ, who am I not at all sucking up to because he’s my boss, about the true value of each individual Twin in 2020. it is pretty eye opening about how fudged up MLB’s economic system is, was, and will probably continue to be until the heat death of the universe. Or the hot death of Earth.

Elsewhere in Twins Territory:

• The Twin and Sir Nelson Cruz continue their stare down. Some dummies thought maybe things might move along now that Rob Manfred released a memo telling teams to proceed as if the NL will NOT have the DH next year (thus cutting Cruz’s potential suitors in half.) However, like most things Ol’ Rob Man does, everyone immediately acts as if his words are bullshit.

• Cool. Its worth saying that both the league and the players want the Universal DH, but ownership is withholding it simply to use it as a bargaining chip, which is both understandable as a tactic and also an absolute trash tier thing to do and we should throw all of the MLB owners into a dumpster, pick it up with one of those big magnet crane things that move around cars in junkyards, spin it around like an astronaut training device, and then release it sending them hurtling through space to find a new galaxy to ruin sports in.
• In that vein, Twins Daily checked in on some fall-back options if a Cruz reunion is a no-go.
• Jay Jaffe of Fangraphs dives into the Hall of Fame candidacy of Torii Hunter, a quintessential Hall of Very Good player, and touches upon his oft ignored bevy of unsavory statements. Still, I’ll never forget him robbing that Bonds dong in the All-Star game. I still have the next day’s news paper.
• The Saints - Twins affiliation is lots of fun for all involved, except the on-field personnel of the saints that is. For many of Saints players past and present, the news is bittersweet.
• Meanwhile Do-Hyoung Park talks to Minnesota’s brain trust about the competitive advantage such a geographically close affiliate brings them. (Spoilers to a thing I haven’t actually red yet: The competitive advantage is ferrying players back and forth between St. Paul and Target Field so you can constantly have fresh arms without having to pay someone real money or give up an actual season of service time.)

Around the World in Bases and Balls:

• Lookout Landings Becca Weinberg tells us how women’s baseball is joining the data revolution and embracing things like Driveline to advance opportunities for women in the sport they love.
• For those of you who like to hear people talk about baseball with our ears, CC Sabathia (yes THAT CC) and Ryan Ruoco podcast it up with Adam Jones and talk about a ton of subjects like Covid precautions overseas, Jones’ post playing-days plans, and how to make the MLB more diverse.
• You can’t use caps to stress a word before “CC” without it seeming like you are also stressing the “CC” part because it is always all caps. Curse you CC, curse your initialism making my text feel slightly more awkward!!!

Today’s Soundtrack is my favorite piece from my favorite childhood game, which I almost beat in one sitting due to no internet instead of working on writing like I should have! Yay!