May 11, 2026 • 40 mins
Aaron Gleeman joins Dan in-studio to discuss his big announcement that he's leaving The Athletic and going back out on his own at AaronGleeman.com! Dan and Gleeman also talk Twins and Wolves.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Past contest. The four o'clock keyword is win.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
W I N go to cafe in dot com make
the keyword win.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
All right.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
We indeed are joined in studio by Aaron Gleeman, who
will continue, apparently to cover the Minnesota Twins. We'll get
into his big decision. We'll get into some eventually, probably
some wolf stuff too. If you have questions six four
six eight six. So you announced today via X and elsewhere.
I don't know what else you do, however, whatever.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Podcast everything, that the marriage between you and the athletic
is over, and it sounds like for you it was
as simple.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
It doesn't sound well. I'll let you speak for yourself.
But is it they were trying to force you out
or are they trying to say no, we like you,
we want you, but we do no longer want this
level of coverage involving the twins. Yeah, it was the latter.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
They told me like a month ago, two weeks into
the season, which was not great time, that we want
to pull you off twins and have you do more
like national stuff, news desk stuff, breaking news, that sort
of thing. And you know, I talked it through what
that job would look like, what the hours would look
(01:24):
like what you know, all that stuff, and I just
kept coming back to the idea of that's not a
bad job for someone or even me fifteen years ago.
I loved working for the Athletic. Like I said, you
know to Johnny Ka, it's true, and same thing about Russo.
I loved being part of it. It was a dream
job for me, covering the Twins. But what I realized
(01:46):
the last three or four weeks was if you are
removing the Twins element from it, for me at least,
and maybe I'm nuts to think this about a losing team,
it's no longer my dream job. And so what I
told them ultimately was I would like to just leave,
you know, get out of my I had a contract
or whatever. I don't want to do the night news
(02:08):
desk or breaking news. And that's and also what do
you need me for that? You know, That's sort of
what I said. And it was a very frustrating process.
Speaker 5 (02:17):
But and it's also I mean, it's a risk.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
I people in my life, my girlfriend and my podcast
called John Bonus, they both sort of hyped me up
into into doing this. But it is a big leap,
it's a financial risk, it's a professional risk, it's a
personal risk. It's it's a lot leaving the Athletic and
the New York Times to you know, Now, if I'm
at a party and someone says, what do you do,
I say, I'm a baseball rare. They say for what,
I say myself for Aaron Gleaman dot com, And they'll
(02:42):
be like, well, what the okay? Yeah, fine, there's a
there's an embarrassing element under two. But I just coming
kept coming back to the idea of I've been doing
this too long to just stick with a job to
make a little money, and I don't want to do
a job that I'm not passionate about that I don't
think I can be motivated to do. And I know
(03:03):
after doing this for twenty something years, I'm motivated. I'm passionate,
I think I'm good at it. I have an audience
for the Twins, and so I just decided to kind
of go all in better myself.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Far be it from me to ever say anything snarky
about Twins management and ownership, But can the argument be
made that they, to a certain extent, are to blame
that part of the reason that folks the Athletics, said Laman,
we love what you do, but it ain't worth it
(03:33):
for us in the Twins because they're meaningless. Does that
enter into this.
Speaker 5 (03:37):
I mean maybe a little bit.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
I mean, certainly if they were you know, back to
back to back division champions or something.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Like that, and they had done if they're more seriously viable,
not even just winning I'm not saying having to win
World Series, but a team that you're most years, they're
in the mix. You know, they're going for things, they're
in the playoffs, et cetera.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
The sad part though, is, you know, in terms of
our they track every metric for readership and all that stuff,
subscriptions and everything. Dan Hayes and I, who for the
last seven years have been the partners on the beat.
We crush all goals, we get great reviews. I really think,
you know, maybe that's part of it. If it would
have been very successful, it would been viewed differently. But
I also just think from what I was told, it
(04:17):
seemed to me on some level that someone high up
in the New York Times or wherever basically said, why
do we have two writers covering the Minnesota Twins of
all teams? And just in general they've scaled back their
local coverage, not only MLB but some other teams. I
think they're at the point now where they're covering less
than half the league, whereas even five years ago they
(04:37):
were covering like three quarters of the league with a
dedicated local beat writer. So that's part of it. They're
going more big picture stuff like that. You know, like
I said, I loved working there. I would have liked
to stay. But once that door kind of closes to
doing what I love and what I signed up to
do and what I think I did well, then it's like, well,
what is this job really.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
If you remove that element from it?
Speaker 1 (04:59):
So what do you do? Do you foresee your role
as changing when it's your deal? Do you have to
expand it in some ways? I don't mean write about
other subjects, although maybe you are. I have no idea,
But how do you go about saying, Okay, I clearly
(05:19):
this is I'm on the line here. You know, this
is my deal, this is my business, is my livelihood.
I have to maybe come up with some different ways,
and I now have the freedom to do it, to
branch out. Is there a way to broaden this or
branch it out or is it still going to be
pretty much all Twins, but maybe reinventing the wheel a
little bit about what you represent, what you give, the
(05:40):
kind of coverage that you get.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Yeah, I mean it's definitely gonna still still be mostly twins.
I'm not naive enough to think people need my thoughts
on everything, but I you know, occasional right about the Wolves,
Oh right, yeah, I know, a Chinese restaurant review. There's
just so much stuff that you can put out there
if there's any audience for it, and it's not.
Speaker 5 (05:59):
Like there's a space.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
It's not like you're taking the space of everything else,
and you know, the independence brings creative freedom. There's also
from like a you know, technological standpoint in terms of
what I'm working with behind the scenes. I'm able to
sort of customize things or even I can do a
live chat randomly during the game if I want. There's
just all kinds of podcasts, video live chat components, and
I am kind of excited about that. You know, I
(06:22):
can no longer, when confronted by the Twins about something
I've written, claim my editor wrote that headline, or my
editor that out of the article.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
It's all on me. That's fine, I'll stand by it.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
So yeah, it's a little scary on that there's a
you know, there's a kind of a safety and filing
a story to someone whose job is to make sure
that the story is not horrible. Yeah, and right now,
at least, I'm a one man band. Maybe at some point,
hopefully I'll hire an editor or something like that. It's
also possible I could hire someone to write alongside me.
(06:53):
Sure at some point, if this thing goes, it goes
pretty well. So it's exciting. It's a little scary because
I'm I don't like change generally. I was at the
Athletic for seven years. Before that, I was the editor
in chief of Baseball Perspectus for four years, and before that,
I was a senior writer at NBC for thirteen years
that long, and I have been in a same relationship,
(07:14):
unmarried for twelve years.
Speaker 5 (07:15):
So I'm not.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Someone who's looking to jump yet, right right, But I
just think if if.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
It's a push, be pushed or jump situation, I'd rather jump.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
You know. Before I started writing, the first jobs I
had in newspapers were as a copy editor and headline writer.
So who knows, I may be looking for a little
extra you know, we can talk although the problem I
learned quickly when I did it. The old fashioned computers
that we used back then, these consoles in the you know,
in the newspaper office, there was a cursor a button
(07:51):
that you pushed, and it just it would basically the
cursor would go around each line, like you're reading each
word in the in the line and you're pressing a button.
And I noticed one day that about twelve paragraphs in
I had no recollection of actually reading four content and
for grammar, the first twelve graphs. If you're it was
(08:12):
all those deals where I get I got on the
paper to write, but the only job was copy editor.
So I'm not sure I'd be reliable. I might.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
I might.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
In other words, there's a kind of self hypnosis sometimes
oh absolutely, and you're probably looking for a real editor
who's going to, okay, help me out if I if
I typos grammar, this makes sense whatever the case may be.
So I might not be your ants.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Yeah, I mean this is inside baseball literally, But like
there's copy editors, like you're describing, where you file stories
to them and they clean it up and they get
rid of typos. But there's also like editor editors where
it's like, hey, what should I write about tomorrow or
let's talk through this. I will miss that element of it,
although I think they got away from that over the
last few years. As you know, we mentioned, like Krazinski
(08:53):
was talking about we. When I started, it was really
a feeling of yes, it was the Athletic umbrella, but
it was the Athletic Minnesota as its own standalone thing.
And it was me and as on twins, it was
Chad Graf and a ref On Vikings, and it was
Russo and then Krazinski, and we had Zach Pierce as
our editor, who's now gone on the bigger things at
the Athletic, and it really felt like we were a
(09:15):
roster in and of itself, and we did kind of
get away from that. It was still a great place
to work, but I do miss those days.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
So explain to people who want to get in on
this how the subscriptions work for I'll give you the free, free, free,
free plug, since we pay you so well for your
appearances here.
Speaker 5 (09:31):
I think I'm down money lifetime and coming to k
I think there's.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
No doubt you probably are. That's because.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
A couple uber rides in a yank c and I'm
down lifetime going here.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
So give us. Give for people say, yeah, you know what,
I like Cleaman stuff. I don't want to lose connection
with him. What do they do?
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Yeah, so you know, same in depth unfiltered Twins coverage.
You'll get multiple articles a week. Also, I'll still be
covering the team. I've talked to the Twins about this.
I'm still in the BBW A, I'm still going to
be in the press box club host. They celebrating, well
I don't know about celebrating, but they were at least
willing to go along with it for a while, so
that stuff won't change. It's pretty simple. It's Aaron Gleaman
(10:11):
dot com now right now, it's just me writing. There's
four articles up today. I'll have a new one tomorrow,
new one the next day. If you just click anywhere
on the site subscribe. It's eight bucks a month or
seventy five bucks for a year. Yeah, and you know,
two bucks a week. It's going to end up being
less than a dollar an article. All that stuff. So,
if you've enjoyed me at the Athletic, or you just
(10:33):
are a Twins fan and you want to support independent
coverage of the team, at a time when that is
sort of shrinking overall.
Speaker 5 (10:40):
You know, sign up for the at least the monthly
plan and give it a shot.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Can you speak to this larger issue that is important
to you, But I think it is important to a
lot of people, especially those of us who've been in
this industry in one form or another forever. You know,
for so long newspapers when they went online, they gave
away their content and then it was, oh my god,
we gave all this content. Now we want to go
(11:03):
back the other way. And people they reject it. They
just go, no, I'm not gonna pay because they got
used to it. Exactly. Has it changed enough back where
more there's a greater number of people who say, you know,
it's a product, it's I should I shouldn't necessarily expect
to be free. In fact, I'm willing to pay a
little bit. Are people do they understand that the general
(11:25):
population or is that still a big part of the challenge.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
It's trickier.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
I would say it's become much more prevalent the last
like three to five years. I mean, we've learned that
John Bonus and I with Gleaman and the Geek as
a podcast which is paywalled on Patreon dot com slash Cleman.
When we first launched it in twenty nineteen, people are like,
what is this, I gotta pay you? And now it's
like okay, and it's I think similar to cable and
satellite TV versus streaming. Now you just sign up for
(11:51):
HBO and you pay whatever fifteen bucks a month, and
I think, yeah, it's a little bit tricky, But I
also think my hope was the reaction this has gotten
today has blown me away, and I think shows this
it's not just I'm asking someone to pay eight bucks
a month for Twins coverage. I am, and I think
you will get your money's worth. I do not take
that lightly. But it's also I think people who have
(12:14):
been reading me or listening to me for years are like,
we want him to keep doing this. We want him
to make a living. Nobody's getting millionaire off this. And
it's like there's a little bit of that and a
little bit of the content itself, and I think people
have just gotten much more use to it. And the
reality is, if you want good in depth Twins writing,
whether it's reporting, analysis, column writing, whatever it is, your
(12:36):
options are going to cost money. Whether it's a newspaper,
whether it's a website. And so I'm just sort of
throwing my head in the ring and hoping that twenty
plus years of doing this and my work and my
reputation and stuff, it can sort of work on this
and convince people to do it. And I'm i gotta
tell you. I posted I flipped the switch to put
(12:57):
the site live at like three am, and I woke
up at five thirty, you know, in a cold sweat basically,
and I get an email every time someone subscribes, and
by five thirty am, I thought, oh, I'm gonna be okay,
and that you missed to give.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
Us a number.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Well, my goal overall, like longer term, like two months
from now, let's say, was to have one thousand paying subscribers.
Speaker 5 (13:21):
And people can do the math on that. It's pretty easy.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Sure, I like an hour ago, hit one thousand paying
subscribers before the end of the first day, first day.
And so now I'm thinking, what more can we do
with this thing? What can I bring in an editor?
Can I bring in design people? Can I bring in
another writer? Like, maybe we can turn this into something bigger.
In the meantime, it just motivates me more to do
(13:43):
good work in a lot of work.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
So does this is this the a compliment to you?
Or is it as well as that funny question, some
sense of despite the anger and frustration about the current
condition as team and ownership, that there's a lot more
baseball fans who don't want to give up on the
whole situation.
Speaker 5 (14:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
I mean, I'll take any kind of compliment people want
to throw me, But I do think that's part of
it is no matter how bad a situation may be
for a team in a short term. And I'm a
lifelong Timberwolves fan, believe me, I know, but there are
people who are into that team no matter what it's
ingrained in them. I'm one of these people with the
(14:26):
Twins and the Wolves. Yeah. And if you're one of
those people, you want good coverage of this team through
good times and bad. And I started doing this in
two when I was in college, and I am old
and balding, and you know, it's been a long time
doing that. And we started the podcast over fifteen years ago.
The first of five consecutive ninety loss seasons was when
(14:48):
we started the podcast, and we were still able to
grow it. So I have learned over the years that yes,
it would help if it was a bigger market. It
would help if the twins were winning division titles every year,
or even help if people didn't despise their ownership on
some level. But also if you are committed to doing
a good job and covering it in a meaningful, true
(15:10):
way and analyzing it and giving opinions and not hot takes,
which is really what I've tried to do, There's always
going to be an audience for it. And the other
reality is I don't need fifty thousand subscribers. My goal
was one thousand. Now I'm at a thousand. Everything else
is gravy. If I can get to two thousand, we
can do some big things with this. And two thousand
people is not allowed of people, no, relatively.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Even in this. Yeah, this is not as big a
metro market as somewhere, but it's a decent population. Clayton
from Rochester writes, this reminds me of when Russo needed
three segments to talk about him leaving the paper for
the Athletic. He made it sound like he was heading
off for war, never to be seen.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Yes, again, the independent contract content.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
Wars is what I'm answering, is he right now?
Speaker 1 (15:52):
That's it exactly all right, Let's get a bottom of
the hour pause in we will talk some Twins stuff.
We got some good Twins questions coming in and maybe
other media questions that people have based on this big
movie you've made. He gleam. It'll be in studio till five,
and speaking of Russo, then he will join from the
arena formerly known as the X to preview the wild
(16:12):
Game four, trying to get to the exact same place
that the Wolves got to last night, a potential pivotal
game five on the road. So we'll get to your
questions and comments. And as I said, talk hockey at
about five o'clock. Rare outings mean more like last night.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
John Krasinski delivers great Peace on nas Reed today. By
the way, here the Athletics Insider each week all playoffs
along with Dan Barrera. He was on about an hour ago.
Thanks to our BC Wealth Management.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Did you tell me during the break that just since
you came on at four, we have helped you double
your subscription total? No, oh, a bit of an embellishment.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Forty one because I get an email every time, which
is sort of a weirdly thrilling thing to be like,
this person has signed up forty one since I got
in the car to come over here, and I'm only like,
you know, thirteen minutes away or whatever. Yeah, forty one
subscription to start.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
We'll get you. We'll get you some more before this
is done, Dan, would you do? This is from Alan
and Afton. We please ask cleman who is a professional
massacrest liking the Twins and Wolves. Why the passion for
the Twins in baseball versus the Wolves and basketball. I'm
sure you will continue to be great, but baseball seems
to this texture to be a dying sport compared to
(17:34):
the other sports. What do you say to Alan in
the Afton?
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Well, I like basketball, maybe as a pure fan more
than baseball at this point. But I think part of
that is I've been writing about baseball like for a
living for twenty years, and any job becomes a job.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
It's a great job.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
But you know, ask Krasinski how many times I text
them some rube question about.
Speaker 5 (17:55):
The lineup or whatever. And you know, I've.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Written some Wolf stuff over the years, and has actually
tried to talk me into writing more over the years,
and part of me is like, I could probably do
an okay job with that, But also do I want
to dip my toes in the water and ruin that
as a fan like good point, the sort of naivete
of just enjoying it as an entertainment product and being
(18:18):
so crazy into it.
Speaker 5 (18:19):
But yeah, I mean, I'll probably write some wolf stuff
at at the new site. Why not?
Speaker 1 (18:22):
I wouldn't, honestly, there be any reason why you wouldn't.
I are you're gonna dabble? Yeah, You're not gonna be
able to help yourself at some point? Yes, why not?
Speaker 5 (18:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (18:30):
To this point? What's the day today? Today's mail? Eleven? Yeah,
seasons started late April. No, I mean late March or
early April, whenever it was. I don't even know, right.
Speaker 5 (18:38):
At the quarter mark.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
I mean, i'll tell you a'n't aside. At the end
of Sunny Sermons yesterday I got a text from lovel
and he just had one word as a question, because
he apparently had listened. He just wrote twins. I think
it was his way of saying, you didn't even mention
them in two hours yesterday? And I said why? And
I admit I might be I might be too board
(19:04):
with the club, but I can't help it. I can't
get it. You know, this notion that well, you know,
it's kind of it's unfortunate that all the all the
you know, attention on the Wolves and the wild and
even the Frost. At this point, we'll get to details
on uh that developing story in a minute. That you know,
the Twins have a couple of nice victories against Cleveland
(19:25):
and it gets overshadowed, and I'm going it should be overshadowed.
I'm sorry it should be overshadowed. But your job is
to look.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
At the lengths I had to go to to get
on this show talk.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
A little baseball. I do resigned from my job at.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Launching a fair point. That's a fair point.
Speaker 5 (19:41):
I'm willing to do it.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
So to this point in the season, five weeks, six weeks, whatever,
it is, the number one Twins story for you is.
Speaker 5 (19:49):
What, uh, Well, that's interesting.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
I would say that they are the starting pitching has
been better than expected, the lineup has maybe been slightly
better than expected, but the bullpen and the defense have
been so bad that it really undermines any ability to
truly have a competitive season. They're what eighteen and twenty three,
which is like a ninety lost pace. Now the division
(20:13):
is horrendous as usual. Yeah, and so they're only you know,
three games out of first place or whatever it is,
but they are the last place team in the AL Central.
I think with a even below average bullpen rather than
a league worst bullpen, they would probably be three games
better and pretty close to five hundred at that point.
But it's also hard to sort of make that sort
(20:34):
of excuse when everyone saw the bullpen as being the
biggest possible weakness coming into the season, so it's played
out kind of as expected.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
A right, will help me understand one thing, because you
I think you either wrote or tweeted or both about this.
I want to say two weeks ago in that ring
and the grievance I think that you were registering was
the bullpen stinks. We kind of knew that was likely,
but that was what was bothering you, was that you're
(21:03):
using people in the bullpen who, realistically, even if they mature,
can't be a part of the future. In other words,
if you're gonna stink, the idea is to stink responsibly,
and that's usually all right. We got some arms that
we like, they ain't ready, we're gonna throw them out there,
They're gonna take their lumps, but we might get somewhere
with them. How is that explainable if what you're saying
(21:26):
is true. Yeah, how does that make any sense?
Speaker 5 (21:28):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
I mean, I think the bullpen after they traded away
their five best relievers last July and then they did,
the bullpen was horrible down the stretch, and it was
largely the same as what you're discussing, which is they
just kept throwing these thirty five year old scrap heap
guys in there and just kind of placeholders exactly, And
then they did nothing during the off season. They signed
you know, thirty five year old Taylor Rodgers's back, and
(21:50):
they brought in all kinds of you know, thirty five
plus soft tossing guys. Liam Hendricks was in camp again
and it was.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Who have no chance to be a part of the few?
Speaker 5 (21:59):
Right And even now they've leaned in.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
They just called up a thirty nine year old from
trimplet And they're the type of guys that if you're
building kind of what you're describing, which is at least
get some young, live arms who maybe two years from
now could be a part.
Speaker 5 (22:15):
Of a good bullpen.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Yes, these are the type of veterans that you might
want a couple of in that bullpen. You may be
a life right right to be the mentors to stabilize it.
But they built the whole bullpen fort of that, and
so they are the softest tossing bullpen in the league.
Speaker 5 (22:28):
They have one of the lowest strikeout rates in the league.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
And they also just have no one that you can
point to as like, oh, yeah, he can handle a seventh, eighth,
ninth inning role. And so what happens is now it's
just you know, reliever roulette, Like they're just sort of
throwing stuff against the wall. A guy who they got
off waivers a week ago, pitched all three games Joandres
Gomez against Cleveland, and he saved the third game. And
(22:54):
it's like this guy wasn't even in the organization a
week ago. And like I said, the setup man for
that was a thirty nine year old Lost Garcia who
had been cut by the Mets two weeks ago.
Speaker 5 (23:02):
So they're just like picking up scrap guys. And you know,
bullpen's are weird in that you can build them.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Out of parts.
Speaker 5 (23:09):
A lot of the times right, you know, quote unquote failed.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Starters or injury guys, rehab projects, guy who learns a
new pitch. It's not like a rotation. Something can click
for fifty innings and a guy can be good. But
they just have such little juice in the bullpen and
such little young, higher upside guys. They're leaning into it
a little more with someone like Andrew Morris or we
saw Rojas during this Cleveland series, but for the most part,
(23:33):
it's just the most veteran, soft tossing, low strikeout and
I truly don't understand what the thought process was going
into the season with that being the entire group. I
get maybe two three guys like that, but they just
they have such little, you know, juice to be had
in the bullpen, and we've seen it play out. They've
probably even been worse than I expected, but I expected
(23:53):
them to be pretty bad.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
The texture. This is more to me than to you
seven six to three guys. Yeah, I get it, Dan,
base is not your main sport. Understandable. I don't dislike baseball.
I grew up on baseball. I grew up on bad
baseball in Chicago with the Cubs. But for me, it
has more to do with the condition of this franchise,
and a perfect example is what you've just illustrated. It.
It just it's mind boggling to think that, whatever the
(24:22):
limitations are from a payroll standpoint, that there's not an
attempt to do what we were talking about here to say,
we might lose one hundred games, but by God, given
our circumstance, the best thing we think we can do
is throw some people out there and grow with them
and see and you know, like you said, there's nothing
wrong with having a couple of.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Mentors or a couple veterans if you can get higher
upside veterans. And the thing about bullpens are for five
or seven million, you can get a higher upside, set
up caliber guy. Their entire bullpen I think makes under
ten million for eight guys at this point, so it
was clearly a money saving thing too. But this kind
of goes back to the question about like, why do
I want to take this risk and cover the Twins.
Speaker 5 (25:04):
I would obviously prefer the Twins to be good.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
You can be compelling when you're bad too, if you
cover the team in the way that I hope to
cover the team and I have for decades now, which is,
don't be afraid to say the bullpend doesn't make any sense,
it's bad. They did poorly here. Don't be afraid to
talk about the payroll being cut or the poll that situation,
or whatever the.
Speaker 5 (25:24):
Case may be.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
And when things go well, point that out. When there
are bright spots, point that out too. But that's what
I've tried to differentiate my coverage of and it certainly
it's got me in trouble with Twins officials over the years.
That's fine, I'm sure that will continue to be the case,
but that's to me, the only honest way to cover
a baseball team for six months, sure, one hundred and
sixty two games, yep. With the ownership, front office payroll
(25:47):
situation that we're watching with the Twins, it can't be
duckies and bunnies all the time, and you can't be
afraid to lay it out bare when it's negative as
well as positive.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
A six to one two guy writes regarding subscription of
websites like gleaming, etc. Personally get annoyed with sites that
are paid for, yet the user gets bombed with additional ads.
I have no problem paying, but pick one way or
the other pay no ads or don't pay and get ads.
Any thoughts on that.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
Well, I will tell you when I first joined the Athletic,
one of the big selling points of the Athletics there
are zero, literally zero ads. It's great and I started
clawing back on that a little bit. And then when
the New York Times took over. Now they just have
a normal amount of ads, possibly even more at this point,
plus the subscription. I currently have no ads. I certainly
do not envision having significant ads. It's possible we might
(26:31):
have a presenting sponsor for that week, just all the
content for this week is presented by you know, filling
the blank. But I don't think it would be intrusive
at all. No, that doesn't sound all that bad. Mike
and New Richmond.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Can you ask Aaron if he knows Dane Moore, Wolves,
Matthew Kyller Vikings. They did the same, going off on
their own. They seem happy doing it. Good luck. That's
Mike from New Richmond.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Dane Moore is probably because I am such a big
Wolves fan. I listened to his podcast religiously. I love
when he has Dane, when it has Britt robson on,
I love when he has the other beat writers Jace, Frederick,
Chris Hein, Kyle Thiegue. He does such a great job,
and that's a podcast versus written. But yes, that is
a great example of someone who is clearly so good
(27:14):
at covering it but also so passionate about covering it
that when he was let go from a writing gig,
he just said, what if I just build my own thing?
And as someone who's been consuming his content for a
long time, it's better than ever and that is something
that at least I can aspire to, you know, a
year from now. My hope is someone who subscribes today
to Aaron Gleaman dot com a year from now goes
(27:36):
not only was it good, I actually think it's better.
Speaker 5 (27:38):
That's kind of the goal.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Let's get another break in. I got more Twins to
get to. I got some Timberwolves to get to as well.
Gleaming and Studio Russo on Game four Minnesota whild which
of course will immediately follow follow our program at six thirty.
Russo will be at the top of the hour. This
is Bumper to Boomper with Dan. One story that might
(28:09):
well get lost as the Twins struggle, notwithstanding taking two
in a row from Cleveland is Buxton? Right. So for
those who have been casual in their twins' interest at
this point, what can you tell us about the Byron
Buxton run to this point and to that end, I
(28:29):
have several texts already asking the obvious, the assumption being,
or the concern being, or maybe the desire being one,
let's just go ahead and do another fire sale? What
the odds are that? That's what we're leading up to.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
So he hit like one eighty with zero homers through
the first fourteen to fifteen games, and his theory for
that was he didn't really have a normal spring training
because he played WBC. But then he got hurt in
that and also he essentially got Banks in center field,
and so I think he had like ten at bats.
Did he take that hard last minded that? But it
was he just didn't get reps. And so then he
(29:03):
comes back to camp and he starts the season slow
because he hadn't seen that much live pitching.
Speaker 5 (29:07):
That was his theory. At least.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
Now he's had thirteen homers in his last twenty three games,
and you know, we saw a Saturday night hits a
leadoff homer. The rest of the team gets no hit
for ten innings and then he hits a game winning double.
That game, he had two hits, he drove in both runs,
and the rest of the lineup was zero for thirty
with fifteen strikeouts and they win. Just it was just
the Byron Buckston show. The other thing is he's played
(29:31):
I think thirty eight he started thirty eight out of
forty one games, and that comes on the heels of
two years ago he topped one hundred games for the
first time in a long time. Last year he played
i think one to thirty six, which was the second
most of his career, and now he's on pace for
like one to fifty.
Speaker 5 (29:44):
There's not enough.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Wood to knock on when it comes to Byron Buckston
in injuries. Yes, and he's thirty two. He's maybe lost
a half step in centerfield. He's still very fast, very
good in center field. And I think he doesn't get
fully appreciated as just a pure slugger because he doesn't
look like a slugger and he's so athletic. And when
he first came up, people envisioned him as being one
(30:06):
of these get on base run, hit the ball in
the ground bunt. That's what Maltar tried to turn him
into as manager initially, and now he's a guy who
can hit thirty forty homers if given enough health for
the season. So he's definitely been a big bright spot.
Ryan Jeffers has been very good for them, Joe Ryan's
been solid. Taj Bradley, who they got in the trade
for Griffin Jacks last year, had been the biggest pitching
(30:28):
bright spot and then he's on the IL now with
a pectoral muscle injury And.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Is this going to be a long one or not?
As it doesn't have to be.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
He was supposed to be getting an MRII today. They're
off today, so they won't give an update. But it
was a pectoral muscle inflammation, which is not bad except
I did look up two years ago when he was
with Tampa Bay he missed two months with a pectoral
muscle strain, so that's a little bit more concerned. But
Mick Abel, who's another guy they got at the deadline,
had pitched pretty well and now he's on the IL.
(30:56):
All that pitching depth starting pitching depth that they talked
about in spring training is basically van already.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Royce lewis, what's what's what's give me, Give me is
it's an ongoing soap opera. It feels like that where
are we with his story now? And where are we headed?
Speaker 3 (31:09):
It's just such a confusing situation. It's a difficult situation too.
I mean, he is struggling mightily offensively. It used to
be with Lewis that the injuries were maddening, kind of
like with Buxton, but that you could count on him
playing at an elite level in between the injuries. Whenever
he would come up back, sometimes he'd homer off the il. Well,
(31:29):
now he's been relatively healthy now for a couple of years.
He hasn't been, you know, the most healthy, but by
his standard certainly, and he's just struggling. He struggled in
the second half of twenty twenty three, or excuse me,
twenty twenty four. He struggled for most of last season.
And now he's hitting you know, one seventy. They've been
batting him at the bottom of the lineup essentially since
opening day, which you know is I'm sure a shock
(31:52):
to his system. But he just has not produced. And
I wonder in situations like this, if the toll of
less injuries, the two blown out knees, but he's had
all kinds of soft tissue and core muscle. He looks
like an old you know, twenty six or twenty seven,
And I just wonder at that point, like, is there
(32:12):
is there a level that he can get back to
or has that sort of you know, has the gas
tank itself shrunk so that you just can't fill it
with as much gas anymore?
Speaker 5 (32:21):
And that would be the worry.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
You know, he had a good, big clutch hit versus Cleveland.
He still makes some nice plays defensively, but this is definitely,
I would say, not a make or break situation for
his career as a whole, but I do think it's
probably a make or break situation for his career with
the Minnesota Twins.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Will your favorite basketball team shock the world? Go to
San Antonio, Davey win Game five, come back here and
end this series in six? Allah ending the Denver series
in six as well?
Speaker 5 (32:52):
God wouldn't that be? I would go to Game six
and that's you wouldn't you? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Uh, no place should be insane.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
I think unless they can get a wemb Be kicked
out again in San Antonio for Game five, I do
think there's a very real possibility they win Game six
and force Game seven, which, as just not so much
a Wolves fan but a basketball fan, I will sign
up for maximum Game seven's that I can get. San
Antonio just seems tough to me. And the scary thing
about San Antonio imagine them three years from now, when
(33:22):
Harper's like twenty three instead of twenty and Wemby's added
some muscle and you know, and they're you know, Castle,
and they've maybe signed a free agent like they seem
to me almost like okayse was like two or three
years ago, where they were close to elite but also
so scary for the future that I just had to
find them so difficult to beat. But as Johnny k
(33:44):
was talking about with you, I was listening on my
ride in like the Wolves, that it can be a
negative that they are so inconsistent and they sort of
don't have eyes on the prize at all times.
Speaker 5 (33:55):
They lose games, they lose leads that are infuriating.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
But the flip side to that is, and we saw
it against Denver a couple different years, they just all
of a sudden click into place and just blow a
team out. And that's what I'm kind of hoping for
if not in game five, at least in game six,
and at least give yourself a chance for game seven.
This has been such a fun series to watch. I
would say up until this last game that I find
(34:19):
san Antonio difficult to root against. But if you're gonna
start throwing elbows into people's necks, then it makes a
little bit.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
You know, to me. The the interesting element here is
there's the Wolves are not a great shooting team, right,
we know that they're a streaky shooting team, but and
I think san Antonio their wing players are more consistent
shooters that the numbers back that up as well as
a group. But what you're looking for is a game
(34:48):
where you're just unconscious because they really I mentioned this
reguards to earlier. You know, Game three was absolutely winnable.
Despite how brilliant Wemby was, they couldn't get a shot.
And if they they're streaky, maybe if they've got two
of the what I call them the medium knockers, not
the big knockers, end up having you know, each of
(35:09):
them shoot like nine for fourteen or something like that.
I honestly think it could. It absolutely could happen, because
against Wemby, you do have to hit some jump shots.
Obviously you don't want to stop going to the hoop,
but you gotta hit some jump shots. And we're not
a great jump shooting team. Quite frankly, we're a streaky
jump shooting team. Above and beyond Anthony.
Speaker 5 (35:29):
I do think.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
And obviously the Vincenzo's out, Yes.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
That hurts him for sure. I do think. Yeahin like,
Shannon's looked good, but he's not a shooter, no really,
so they've been hurt by that. I just think they
need Julius Rando. From the first half of the season.
He was pretty frustrating in the second half and in
this series, I think he's been like they ask so
much of him from a creation standpoint, especially when Ants
is not in the game and he's doing these spins
(35:53):
and these upfakes and everything, and he's turning the ball
over or he's just taking these incredibly tough shots.
Speaker 5 (35:58):
When he makes it, it looks great.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
They need or from him, But here's the reality, the
beauty of having a best player as good as Anthony Edwards.
And you know, as a kid, I grew up loving KG.
I never thought there'd be anybody close to KG. He's
close to KG in a much different way completely. But
not only is he one of the best players in
the league, one of the most fun players in the
(36:20):
league to watch, he is a true killer. And if
he is getting healthier or at least getting to a
point where he is not severely limited by the knee,
and I think we have seen that as the series
is progress, since he's come back, he can just go
off for forty and you can win any game in
that spot when you have a top I don't know,
six or eight guy who is a killer like that,
(36:41):
and it doesn't matter who's guarding him.
Speaker 5 (36:42):
And we've seen that at times during the series.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
That at least gives me a little faith where you
don't necessarily have to be a better team up and
down the roster or even for forty eight minutes. You
just have to have the best guy for that day.
And it's a tall order literally when Wemby's on the
other side. But Andwards just capable of so much in
these playoffs and capable of just going nuts in a
(37:04):
fourth quarter, as we've seen, and if they can get
a little bit more help, I think from Julius Randall
in terms of being an initiator and a facilitator and
someone who can at least, you know, bang a little
bit inside and not turn the ball over. I do
think they can at least take this to seven.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Julius Randall in this series thus far, thirty seven percent
from the floor, Yeah, twenty six point seven percent, and
from a lot of seven point three rebounds, which is okay. Yeah,
one point eight assists four point five turnovers. That's not
a good assist turnover ratio, even if you're not a
point guard. That's miserable averaging.
Speaker 3 (37:39):
Hands as if he's kind of a point forward a lot,
and when he's playing well and they're thriving, he's getting five, six,
seven assists and that just hasn't been there. And I
don't think it's because guys are missing shots at the
end of assists. I think it's good defense. But also
he's just sort of spinning himself into turnovers in the paint.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
I'll leave you with this. I think Guardie and I
have fantasized about this before. I don't remember. My memory
is not as good as it used to be. My
maskills are worse than they used to be, and they
were always pretty bad in all honesty. Anthony Edwards is
the player who was born to play with Kevin Garnett.
Can you imagine talking about two ballers. You're talking about
(38:20):
two guys who are killers. And we all know about
KG though despite the come fourth quarter ring of the ticket,
he wasn't that guy. That wasn't what made him great.
He influenced games. But instead of Steph Marbury, if you
had Anthony Edwards in your backcourt and that mentality with KG,
you tell me how good that would be.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
I did think about that a few weeks ago when
KG finally made his appearance and then he sort of
I think, was sitting out that game in the street clothes,
and there was that viral clip of them, yes, sort
of pointing at each other and then coming together, and
I just thought, as someone who grew up idolizing Garnett
and those Wolves teams, you know, the Flip teams, I mean,
that would be incredible because they do sort of remind me,
(39:04):
not only from a personality standpoint, because they're both a
little wacky and they're both fun but extraordinarily serious within that.
And then we're also just talking about, you know, two
all time great Hall of Fame level players, And I
loved watching Garnett. I don't know that I will ever
be able to say cleanly that there is a better
timberwles player than Garnett, just because that's what I grew
(39:25):
up with.
Speaker 5 (39:27):
But I don't.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
You can't get a better, more fun, more exciting sort
of someone that you want to jump on their back
player than Anthony Edwards.
Speaker 5 (39:36):
And it's amazing to live in it.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
As someone who's been watching the Wolves for his whole life,
it is amazing to live in a time where you
can turn on a playoff game and go, they got
the biggest killer on the court, and as we've seen
the last two and a half years now in the playoffs,
they can beat teams that nobody gives them a chance
to beat.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
Because of that, he wants all of it. You may
not always give it, but he wants all of it.
We're late. Russo's bitter. You're gonna write maybe some hockey too.
Aaron Gleaman dot coyote.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
My theory on that he never liked it was why
don't they get obese goalies?
Speaker 5 (40:06):
And he just thought that was so dumb every time
I would bring it.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
I'll bring it up today. Thanks for coming in. Good
luck on the new Adventure. And let me know how
many subscriptions we sold for you. I'll give you an
I appreciate it. Thank Karon Gleaman in studio. We'll talk
again with him soon. How about some puck talk. Russo
is already at the Moldy Fallness Studios. I hope the
candles are working.
Past contest. The four o'clock keyword is win.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
W I N go to cafe in dot com make
the keyword win.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
All right.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
We indeed are joined in studio by Aaron Gleeman, who
will continue, apparently to cover the Minnesota Twins. We'll get
into his big decision. We'll get into some eventually, probably
some wolf stuff too. If you have questions six four
six eight six. So you announced today via X and elsewhere.
I don't know what else you do, however, whatever.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Podcast everything, that the marriage between you and the athletic
is over, and it sounds like for you it was
as simple.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
It doesn't sound well. I'll let you speak for yourself.
But is it they were trying to force you out
or are they trying to say no, we like you,
we want you, but we do no longer want this
level of coverage involving the twins. Yeah, it was the latter.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
They told me like a month ago, two weeks into
the season, which was not great time, that we want
to pull you off twins and have you do more
like national stuff, news desk stuff, breaking news, that sort
of thing. And you know, I talked it through what
that job would look like, what the hours would look
(01:24):
like what you know, all that stuff, and I just
kept coming back to the idea of that's not a
bad job for someone or even me fifteen years ago.
I loved working for the Athletic. Like I said, you
know to Johnny Ka, it's true, and same thing about Russo.
I loved being part of it. It was a dream
job for me, covering the Twins. But what I realized
(01:46):
the last three or four weeks was if you are
removing the Twins element from it, for me at least,
and maybe I'm nuts to think this about a losing team,
it's no longer my dream job. And so what I
told them ultimately was I would like to just leave,
you know, get out of my I had a contract
or whatever. I don't want to do the night news
(02:08):
desk or breaking news. And that's and also what do
you need me for that? You know, That's sort of
what I said. And it was a very frustrating process.
Speaker 5 (02:17):
But and it's also I mean, it's a risk.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
I people in my life, my girlfriend and my podcast
called John Bonus, they both sort of hyped me up
into into doing this. But it is a big leap,
it's a financial risk, it's a professional risk, it's a
personal risk. It's it's a lot leaving the Athletic and
the New York Times to you know, Now, if I'm
at a party and someone says, what do you do,
I say, I'm a baseball rare. They say for what,
I say myself for Aaron Gleaman dot com, And they'll
(02:42):
be like, well, what the okay? Yeah, fine, there's a
there's an embarrassing element under two. But I just coming
kept coming back to the idea of I've been doing
this too long to just stick with a job to
make a little money, and I don't want to do
a job that I'm not passionate about that I don't
think I can be motivated to do. And I know
(03:03):
after doing this for twenty something years, I'm motivated. I'm passionate,
I think I'm good at it. I have an audience
for the Twins, and so I just decided to kind
of go all in better myself.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Far be it from me to ever say anything snarky
about Twins management and ownership, But can the argument be
made that they, to a certain extent, are to blame
that part of the reason that folks the Athletics, said Laman,
we love what you do, but it ain't worth it
(03:33):
for us in the Twins because they're meaningless. Does that
enter into this.
Speaker 5 (03:37):
I mean maybe a little bit.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
I mean, certainly if they were you know, back to
back to back division champions or something.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Like that, and they had done if they're more seriously viable,
not even just winning I'm not saying having to win
World Series, but a team that you're most years, they're
in the mix. You know, they're going for things, they're
in the playoffs, et cetera.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
The sad part though, is, you know, in terms of
our they track every metric for readership and all that stuff,
subscriptions and everything. Dan Hayes and I, who for the
last seven years have been the partners on the beat.
We crush all goals, we get great reviews. I really think,
you know, maybe that's part of it. If it would
have been very successful, it would been viewed differently. But
I also just think from what I was told, it
(04:17):
seemed to me on some level that someone high up
in the New York Times or wherever basically said, why
do we have two writers covering the Minnesota Twins of
all teams? And just in general they've scaled back their
local coverage, not only MLB but some other teams. I
think they're at the point now where they're covering less
than half the league, whereas even five years ago they
(04:37):
were covering like three quarters of the league with a
dedicated local beat writer. So that's part of it. They're
going more big picture stuff like that. You know, like
I said, I loved working there. I would have liked
to stay. But once that door kind of closes to
doing what I love and what I signed up to
do and what I think I did well, then it's like, well,
what is this job really.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
If you remove that element from it?
Speaker 1 (04:59):
So what do you do? Do you foresee your role
as changing when it's your deal? Do you have to
expand it in some ways? I don't mean write about
other subjects, although maybe you are. I have no idea,
But how do you go about saying, Okay, I clearly
(05:19):
this is I'm on the line here. You know, this
is my deal, this is my business, is my livelihood.
I have to maybe come up with some different ways,
and I now have the freedom to do it, to
branch out. Is there a way to broaden this or
branch it out or is it still going to be
pretty much all Twins, but maybe reinventing the wheel a
little bit about what you represent, what you give, the
(05:40):
kind of coverage that you get.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Yeah, I mean it's definitely gonna still still be mostly twins.
I'm not naive enough to think people need my thoughts
on everything, but I you know, occasional right about the Wolves,
Oh right, yeah, I know, a Chinese restaurant review. There's
just so much stuff that you can put out there
if there's any audience for it, and it's not.
Speaker 5 (05:59):
Like there's a space.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
It's not like you're taking the space of everything else,
and you know, the independence brings creative freedom. There's also
from like a you know, technological standpoint in terms of
what I'm working with behind the scenes. I'm able to
sort of customize things or even I can do a
live chat randomly during the game if I want. There's
just all kinds of podcasts, video live chat components, and
I am kind of excited about that. You know, I
(06:22):
can no longer, when confronted by the Twins about something
I've written, claim my editor wrote that headline, or my
editor that out of the article.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
It's all on me. That's fine, I'll stand by it.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
So yeah, it's a little scary on that there's a
you know, there's a kind of a safety and filing
a story to someone whose job is to make sure
that the story is not horrible. Yeah, and right now,
at least, I'm a one man band. Maybe at some point,
hopefully I'll hire an editor or something like that. It's
also possible I could hire someone to write alongside me.
(06:53):
Sure at some point, if this thing goes, it goes
pretty well. So it's exciting. It's a little scary because
I'm I don't like change generally. I was at the
Athletic for seven years. Before that, I was the editor
in chief of Baseball Perspectus for four years, and before that,
I was a senior writer at NBC for thirteen years
that long, and I have been in a same relationship,
(07:14):
unmarried for twelve years.
Speaker 5 (07:15):
So I'm not.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Someone who's looking to jump yet, right right, But I
just think if if.
Speaker 5 (07:23):
It's a push, be pushed or jump situation, I'd rather jump.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
You know. Before I started writing, the first jobs I
had in newspapers were as a copy editor and headline writer.
So who knows, I may be looking for a little
extra you know, we can talk although the problem I
learned quickly when I did it. The old fashioned computers
that we used back then, these consoles in the you know,
in the newspaper office, there was a cursor a button
(07:51):
that you pushed, and it just it would basically the
cursor would go around each line, like you're reading each
word in the in the line and you're pressing a button.
And I noticed one day that about twelve paragraphs in
I had no recollection of actually reading four content and
for grammar, the first twelve graphs. If you're it was
(08:12):
all those deals where I get I got on the
paper to write, but the only job was copy editor.
So I'm not sure I'd be reliable. I might.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
I might.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
In other words, there's a kind of self hypnosis sometimes
oh absolutely, and you're probably looking for a real editor
who's going to, okay, help me out if I if
I typos grammar, this makes sense whatever the case may be.
So I might not be your ants.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Yeah, I mean this is inside baseball literally, But like
there's copy editors, like you're describing, where you file stories
to them and they clean it up and they get
rid of typos. But there's also like editor editors where
it's like, hey, what should I write about tomorrow or
let's talk through this. I will miss that element of it,
although I think they got away from that over the
last few years. As you know, we mentioned, like Krazinski
(08:53):
was talking about we. When I started, it was really
a feeling of yes, it was the Athletic umbrella, but
it was the Athletic Minnesota as its own standalone thing.
And it was me and as on twins, it was
Chad Graf and a ref On Vikings, and it was
Russo and then Krazinski, and we had Zach Pierce as
our editor, who's now gone on the bigger things at
the Athletic, and it really felt like we were a
(09:15):
roster in and of itself, and we did kind of
get away from that. It was still a great place
to work, but I do miss those days.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
So explain to people who want to get in on
this how the subscriptions work for I'll give you the free, free, free,
free plug, since we pay you so well for your
appearances here.
Speaker 5 (09:31):
I think I'm down money lifetime and coming to k
I think there's.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
No doubt you probably are. That's because.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
A couple uber rides in a yank c and I'm
down lifetime going here.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
So give us. Give for people say, yeah, you know what,
I like Cleaman stuff. I don't want to lose connection
with him. What do they do?
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Yeah, so you know, same in depth unfiltered Twins coverage.
You'll get multiple articles a week. Also, I'll still be
covering the team. I've talked to the Twins about this.
I'm still in the BBW A, I'm still going to
be in the press box club host. They celebrating, well
I don't know about celebrating, but they were at least
willing to go along with it for a while, so
that stuff won't change. It's pretty simple. It's Aaron Gleaman
(10:11):
dot com now right now, it's just me writing. There's
four articles up today. I'll have a new one tomorrow,
new one the next day. If you just click anywhere
on the site subscribe. It's eight bucks a month or
seventy five bucks for a year. Yeah, and you know,
two bucks a week. It's going to end up being
less than a dollar an article. All that stuff. So,
if you've enjoyed me at the Athletic, or you just
(10:33):
are a Twins fan and you want to support independent
coverage of the team, at a time when that is
sort of shrinking overall.
Speaker 5 (10:40):
You know, sign up for the at least the monthly
plan and give it a shot.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
Can you speak to this larger issue that is important
to you, But I think it is important to a
lot of people, especially those of us who've been in
this industry in one form or another forever. You know,
for so long newspapers when they went online, they gave
away their content and then it was, oh my god,
we gave all this content. Now we want to go
(11:03):
back the other way. And people they reject it. They
just go, no, I'm not gonna pay because they got
used to it. Exactly. Has it changed enough back where
more there's a greater number of people who say, you know,
it's a product, it's I should I shouldn't necessarily expect
to be free. In fact, I'm willing to pay a
little bit. Are people do they understand that the general
(11:25):
population or is that still a big part of the challenge.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
It's trickier.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
I would say it's become much more prevalent the last
like three to five years. I mean, we've learned that
John Bonus and I with Gleaman and the Geek as
a podcast which is paywalled on Patreon dot com slash Cleman.
When we first launched it in twenty nineteen, people are like,
what is this, I gotta pay you? And now it's
like okay, and it's I think similar to cable and
satellite TV versus streaming. Now you just sign up for
(11:51):
HBO and you pay whatever fifteen bucks a month, and
I think, yeah, it's a little bit tricky, But I
also think my hope was the reaction this has gotten
today has blown me away, and I think shows this
it's not just I'm asking someone to pay eight bucks
a month for Twins coverage. I am, and I think
you will get your money's worth. I do not take
that lightly. But it's also I think people who have
(12:14):
been reading me or listening to me for years are like,
we want him to keep doing this. We want him
to make a living. Nobody's getting millionaire off this. And
it's like there's a little bit of that and a
little bit of the content itself, and I think people
have just gotten much more use to it. And the
reality is, if you want good in depth Twins writing,
whether it's reporting, analysis, column writing, whatever it is, your
(12:36):
options are going to cost money. Whether it's a newspaper,
whether it's a website. And so I'm just sort of
throwing my head in the ring and hoping that twenty
plus years of doing this and my work and my
reputation and stuff, it can sort of work on this
and convince people to do it. And I'm i gotta
tell you. I posted I flipped the switch to put
(12:57):
the site live at like three am, and I woke
up at five thirty, you know, in a cold sweat basically,
and I get an email every time someone subscribes, and
by five thirty am, I thought, oh, I'm gonna be okay,
and that you missed to give.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
Us a number.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Well, my goal overall, like longer term, like two months
from now, let's say, was to have one thousand paying subscribers.
Speaker 5 (13:21):
And people can do the math on that. It's pretty easy.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Sure, I like an hour ago, hit one thousand paying
subscribers before the end of the first day, first day.
And so now I'm thinking, what more can we do
with this thing? What can I bring in an editor?
Can I bring in design people? Can I bring in
another writer? Like, maybe we can turn this into something bigger.
In the meantime, it just motivates me more to do
(13:43):
good work in a lot of work.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
So does this is this the a compliment to you?
Or is it as well as that funny question, some
sense of despite the anger and frustration about the current
condition as team and ownership, that there's a lot more
baseball fans who don't want to give up on the
whole situation.
Speaker 5 (14:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
I mean, I'll take any kind of compliment people want
to throw me, But I do think that's part of
it is no matter how bad a situation may be
for a team in a short term. And I'm a
lifelong Timberwolves fan, believe me, I know, but there are
people who are into that team no matter what it's
ingrained in them. I'm one of these people with the
(14:26):
Twins and the Wolves. Yeah. And if you're one of
those people, you want good coverage of this team through
good times and bad. And I started doing this in
two when I was in college, and I am old
and balding, and you know, it's been a long time
doing that. And we started the podcast over fifteen years ago.
The first of five consecutive ninety loss seasons was when
(14:48):
we started the podcast, and we were still able to
grow it. So I have learned over the years that yes,
it would help if it was a bigger market. It
would help if the twins were winning division titles every year,
or even help if people didn't despise their ownership on
some level. But also if you are committed to doing
a good job and covering it in a meaningful, true
(15:10):
way and analyzing it and giving opinions and not hot takes,
which is really what I've tried to do, There's always
going to be an audience for it. And the other
reality is I don't need fifty thousand subscribers. My goal
was one thousand. Now I'm at a thousand. Everything else
is gravy. If I can get to two thousand, we
can do some big things with this. And two thousand
people is not allowed of people, no, relatively.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
Even in this. Yeah, this is not as big a
metro market as somewhere, but it's a decent population. Clayton
from Rochester writes, this reminds me of when Russo needed
three segments to talk about him leaving the paper for
the Athletic. He made it sound like he was heading
off for war, never to be seen.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Yes, again, the independent contract content.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
Wars is what I'm answering, is he right now?
Speaker 1 (15:52):
That's it exactly all right, Let's get a bottom of
the hour pause in we will talk some Twins stuff.
We got some good Twins questions coming in and maybe
other media questions that people have based on this big
movie you've made. He gleam. It'll be in studio till five,
and speaking of Russo, then he will join from the
arena formerly known as the X to preview the wild
(16:12):
Game four, trying to get to the exact same place
that the Wolves got to last night, a potential pivotal
game five on the road. So we'll get to your
questions and comments. And as I said, talk hockey at
about five o'clock. Rare outings mean more like last night.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
John Krasinski delivers great Peace on nas Reed today. By
the way, here the Athletics Insider each week all playoffs
along with Dan Barrera. He was on about an hour ago.
Thanks to our BC Wealth Management.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Did you tell me during the break that just since
you came on at four, we have helped you double
your subscription total? No, oh, a bit of an embellishment.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Forty one because I get an email every time, which
is sort of a weirdly thrilling thing to be like,
this person has signed up forty one since I got
in the car to come over here, and I'm only like,
you know, thirteen minutes away or whatever. Yeah, forty one
subscription to start.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
We'll get you. We'll get you some more before this
is done, Dan, would you do? This is from Alan
and Afton. We please ask cleman who is a professional
massacrest liking the Twins and Wolves. Why the passion for
the Twins in baseball versus the Wolves and basketball. I'm
sure you will continue to be great, but baseball seems
to this texture to be a dying sport compared to
(17:34):
the other sports. What do you say to Alan in
the Afton?
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Well, I like basketball, maybe as a pure fan more
than baseball at this point. But I think part of
that is I've been writing about baseball like for a
living for twenty years, and any job becomes a job.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
It's a great job.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
But you know, ask Krasinski how many times I text
them some rube question about.
Speaker 5 (17:55):
The lineup or whatever. And you know, I've.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Written some Wolf stuff over the years, and has actually
tried to talk me into writing more over the years,
and part of me is like, I could probably do
an okay job with that, But also do I want
to dip my toes in the water and ruin that
as a fan like good point, the sort of naivete
of just enjoying it as an entertainment product and being
(18:18):
so crazy into it.
Speaker 5 (18:19):
But yeah, I mean, I'll probably write some wolf stuff
at at the new site. Why not?
Speaker 1 (18:22):
I wouldn't, honestly, there be any reason why you wouldn't.
I are you're gonna dabble? Yeah, You're not gonna be
able to help yourself at some point? Yes, why not?
Speaker 5 (18:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (18:30):
To this point? What's the day today? Today's mail? Eleven? Yeah,
seasons started late April. No, I mean late March or
early April, whenever it was. I don't even know, right.
Speaker 5 (18:38):
At the quarter mark.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
I mean, i'll tell you a'n't aside. At the end
of Sunny Sermons yesterday I got a text from lovel
and he just had one word as a question, because
he apparently had listened. He just wrote twins. I think
it was his way of saying, you didn't even mention
them in two hours yesterday? And I said why? And
I admit I might be I might be too board
(19:04):
with the club, but I can't help it. I can't
get it. You know, this notion that well, you know,
it's kind of it's unfortunate that all the all the
you know, attention on the Wolves and the wild and
even the Frost. At this point, we'll get to details
on uh that developing story in a minute. That you know,
the Twins have a couple of nice victories against Cleveland
(19:25):
and it gets overshadowed, and I'm going it should be overshadowed.
I'm sorry it should be overshadowed. But your job is
to look.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
At the lengths I had to go to to get
on this show talk.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
A little baseball. I do resigned from my job at.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Launching a fair point. That's a fair point.
Speaker 5 (19:41):
I'm willing to do it.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
So to this point in the season, five weeks, six weeks, whatever,
it is, the number one Twins story for you is.
Speaker 5 (19:49):
What, uh, Well, that's interesting.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
I would say that they are the starting pitching has
been better than expected, the lineup has maybe been slightly
better than expected, but the bullpen and the defense have
been so bad that it really undermines any ability to
truly have a competitive season. They're what eighteen and twenty three,
which is like a ninety lost pace. Now the division
(20:13):
is horrendous as usual. Yeah, and so they're only you know,
three games out of first place or whatever it is,
but they are the last place team in the AL Central.
I think with a even below average bullpen rather than
a league worst bullpen, they would probably be three games
better and pretty close to five hundred at that point.
But it's also hard to sort of make that sort
(20:34):
of excuse when everyone saw the bullpen as being the
biggest possible weakness coming into the season, so it's played
out kind of as expected.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
A right, will help me understand one thing, because you
I think you either wrote or tweeted or both about this.
I want to say two weeks ago in that ring
and the grievance I think that you were registering was
the bullpen stinks. We kind of knew that was likely,
but that was what was bothering you, was that you're
(21:03):
using people in the bullpen who, realistically, even if they mature,
can't be a part of the future. In other words,
if you're gonna stink, the idea is to stink responsibly,
and that's usually all right. We got some arms that
we like, they ain't ready, we're gonna throw them out there,
They're gonna take their lumps, but we might get somewhere
with them. How is that explainable if what you're saying
(21:26):
is true. Yeah, how does that make any sense?
Speaker 5 (21:28):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
I mean, I think the bullpen after they traded away
their five best relievers last July and then they did,
the bullpen was horrible down the stretch, and it was
largely the same as what you're discussing, which is they
just kept throwing these thirty five year old scrap heap
guys in there and just kind of placeholders exactly, And
then they did nothing during the off season. They signed
you know, thirty five year old Taylor Rodgers's back, and
(21:50):
they brought in all kinds of you know, thirty five
plus soft tossing guys. Liam Hendricks was in camp again
and it was.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Who have no chance to be a part of the few?
Speaker 5 (21:59):
Right And even now they've leaned in.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
They just called up a thirty nine year old from
trimplet And they're the type of guys that if you're
building kind of what you're describing, which is at least
get some young, live arms who maybe two years from
now could be a part.
Speaker 5 (22:15):
Of a good bullpen.
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Yes, these are the type of veterans that you might
want a couple of in that bullpen. You may be
a life right right to be the mentors to stabilize it.
But they built the whole bullpen fort of that, and
so they are the softest tossing bullpen in the league.
Speaker 5 (22:28):
They have one of the lowest strikeout rates in the league.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
And they also just have no one that you can
point to as like, oh, yeah, he can handle a seventh, eighth,
ninth inning role. And so what happens is now it's
just you know, reliever roulette, Like they're just sort of
throwing stuff against the wall. A guy who they got
off waivers a week ago, pitched all three games Joandres
Gomez against Cleveland, and he saved the third game. And
(22:54):
it's like this guy wasn't even in the organization a
week ago. And like I said, the setup man for
that was a thirty nine year old Lost Garcia who
had been cut by the Mets two weeks ago.
Speaker 5 (23:02):
So they're just like picking up scrap guys. And you know,
bullpen's are weird in that you can build them.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Out of parts.
Speaker 5 (23:09):
A lot of the times right, you know, quote unquote failed.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Starters or injury guys, rehab projects, guy who learns a
new pitch. It's not like a rotation. Something can click
for fifty innings and a guy can be good. But
they just have such little juice in the bullpen and
such little young, higher upside guys. They're leaning into it
a little more with someone like Andrew Morris or we
saw Rojas during this Cleveland series, but for the most part,
(23:33):
it's just the most veteran, soft tossing, low strikeout and
I truly don't understand what the thought process was going
into the season with that being the entire group. I
get maybe two three guys like that, but they just
they have such little, you know, juice to be had
in the bullpen, and we've seen it play out. They've
probably even been worse than I expected, but I expected
(23:53):
them to be pretty bad.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
The texture. This is more to me than to you
seven six to three guys. Yeah, I get it, Dan,
base is not your main sport. Understandable. I don't dislike baseball.
I grew up on baseball. I grew up on bad
baseball in Chicago with the Cubs. But for me, it
has more to do with the condition of this franchise,
and a perfect example is what you've just illustrated. It.
It just it's mind boggling to think that, whatever the
(24:22):
limitations are from a payroll standpoint, that there's not an
attempt to do what we were talking about here to say,
we might lose one hundred games, but by God, given
our circumstance, the best thing we think we can do
is throw some people out there and grow with them
and see and you know, like you said, there's nothing
wrong with having a couple of.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
Mentors or a couple veterans if you can get higher
upside veterans. And the thing about bullpens are for five
or seven million, you can get a higher upside, set
up caliber guy. Their entire bullpen I think makes under
ten million for eight guys at this point, so it
was clearly a money saving thing too. But this kind
of goes back to the question about like, why do
I want to take this risk and cover the Twins.
Speaker 5 (25:04):
I would obviously prefer the Twins to be good.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
You can be compelling when you're bad too, if you
cover the team in the way that I hope to
cover the team and I have for decades now, which is,
don't be afraid to say the bullpend doesn't make any sense,
it's bad. They did poorly here. Don't be afraid to
talk about the payroll being cut or the poll that situation,
or whatever the.
Speaker 5 (25:24):
Case may be.
Speaker 3 (25:25):
And when things go well, point that out. When there
are bright spots, point that out too. But that's what
I've tried to differentiate my coverage of and it certainly
it's got me in trouble with Twins officials over the years.
That's fine, I'm sure that will continue to be the case,
but that's to me, the only honest way to cover
a baseball team for six months, sure, one hundred and
sixty two games, yep. With the ownership, front office payroll
(25:47):
situation that we're watching with the Twins, it can't be
duckies and bunnies all the time, and you can't be
afraid to lay it out bare when it's negative as
well as positive.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
A six to one two guy writes regarding subscription of
websites like gleaming, etc. Personally get annoyed with sites that
are paid for, yet the user gets bombed with additional ads.
I have no problem paying, but pick one way or
the other pay no ads or don't pay and get ads.
Any thoughts on that.
Speaker 3 (26:09):
Well, I will tell you when I first joined the Athletic,
one of the big selling points of the Athletics there
are zero, literally zero ads. It's great and I started
clawing back on that a little bit. And then when
the New York Times took over. Now they just have
a normal amount of ads, possibly even more at this point,
plus the subscription. I currently have no ads. I certainly
do not envision having significant ads. It's possible we might
(26:31):
have a presenting sponsor for that week, just all the
content for this week is presented by you know, filling
the blank. But I don't think it would be intrusive
at all. No, that doesn't sound all that bad. Mike
and New Richmond.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Can you ask Aaron if he knows Dane Moore, Wolves,
Matthew Kyller Vikings. They did the same, going off on
their own. They seem happy doing it. Good luck. That's
Mike from New Richmond.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Dane Moore is probably because I am such a big
Wolves fan. I listened to his podcast religiously. I love
when he has Dane, when it has Britt robson on,
I love when he has the other beat writers Jace, Frederick,
Chris Hein, Kyle Thiegue. He does such a great job,
and that's a podcast versus written. But yes, that is
a great example of someone who is clearly so good
(27:14):
at covering it but also so passionate about covering it
that when he was let go from a writing gig,
he just said, what if I just build my own thing?
And as someone who's been consuming his content for a
long time, it's better than ever and that is something
that at least I can aspire to, you know, a
year from now. My hope is someone who subscribes today
to Aaron Gleaman dot com a year from now goes
(27:36):
not only was it good, I actually think it's better.
Speaker 5 (27:38):
That's kind of the goal.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Let's get another break in. I got more Twins to
get to. I got some Timberwolves to get to as well.
Gleaming and Studio Russo on Game four Minnesota whild which
of course will immediately follow follow our program at six thirty.
Russo will be at the top of the hour. This
is Bumper to Boomper with Dan. One story that might
(28:09):
well get lost as the Twins struggle, notwithstanding taking two
in a row from Cleveland is Buxton? Right. So for
those who have been casual in their twins' interest at
this point, what can you tell us about the Byron
Buxton run to this point and to that end, I
(28:29):
have several texts already asking the obvious, the assumption being,
or the concern being, or maybe the desire being one,
let's just go ahead and do another fire sale? What
the odds are that? That's what we're leading up to.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
So he hit like one eighty with zero homers through
the first fourteen to fifteen games, and his theory for
that was he didn't really have a normal spring training
because he played WBC. But then he got hurt in
that and also he essentially got Banks in center field,
and so I think he had like ten at bats.
Did he take that hard last minded that? But it
was he just didn't get reps. And so then he
(29:03):
comes back to camp and he starts the season slow
because he hadn't seen that much live pitching.
Speaker 5 (29:07):
That was his theory. At least.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
Now he's had thirteen homers in his last twenty three games,
and you know, we saw a Saturday night hits a
leadoff homer. The rest of the team gets no hit
for ten innings and then he hits a game winning double.
That game, he had two hits, he drove in both runs,
and the rest of the lineup was zero for thirty
with fifteen strikeouts and they win. Just it was just
the Byron Buckston show. The other thing is he's played
(29:31):
I think thirty eight he started thirty eight out of
forty one games, and that comes on the heels of
two years ago he topped one hundred games for the
first time in a long time. Last year he played
i think one to thirty six, which was the second
most of his career, and now he's on pace for
like one to fifty.
Speaker 5 (29:44):
There's not enough.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Wood to knock on when it comes to Byron Buckston
in injuries. Yes, and he's thirty two. He's maybe lost
a half step in centerfield. He's still very fast, very
good in center field. And I think he doesn't get
fully appreciated as just a pure slugger because he doesn't
look like a slugger and he's so athletic. And when
he first came up, people envisioned him as being one
(30:06):
of these get on base run, hit the ball in
the ground bunt. That's what Maltar tried to turn him
into as manager initially, and now he's a guy who
can hit thirty forty homers if given enough health for
the season. So he's definitely been a big bright spot.
Ryan Jeffers has been very good for them, Joe Ryan's
been solid. Taj Bradley, who they got in the trade
for Griffin Jacks last year, had been the biggest pitching
(30:28):
bright spot and then he's on the IL now with
a pectoral muscle injury And.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Is this going to be a long one or not?
As it doesn't have to be.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
He was supposed to be getting an MRII today. They're
off today, so they won't give an update. But it
was a pectoral muscle inflammation, which is not bad except
I did look up two years ago when he was
with Tampa Bay he missed two months with a pectoral
muscle strain, so that's a little bit more concerned. But
Mick Abel, who's another guy they got at the deadline,
had pitched pretty well and now he's on the IL.
(30:56):
All that pitching depth starting pitching depth that they talked
about in spring training is basically van already.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Royce lewis, what's what's what's give me, Give me is
it's an ongoing soap opera. It feels like that where
are we with his story now? And where are we headed?
Speaker 3 (31:09):
It's just such a confusing situation. It's a difficult situation too.
I mean, he is struggling mightily offensively. It used to
be with Lewis that the injuries were maddening, kind of
like with Buxton, but that you could count on him
playing at an elite level in between the injuries. Whenever
he would come up back, sometimes he'd homer off the il. Well,
(31:29):
now he's been relatively healthy now for a couple of years.
He hasn't been, you know, the most healthy, but by
his standard certainly, and he's just struggling. He struggled in
the second half of twenty twenty three, or excuse me,
twenty twenty four. He struggled for most of last season.
And now he's hitting you know, one seventy. They've been
batting him at the bottom of the lineup essentially since
opening day, which you know is I'm sure a shock
(31:52):
to his system. But he just has not produced. And
I wonder in situations like this, if the toll of
less injuries, the two blown out knees, but he's had
all kinds of soft tissue and core muscle. He looks
like an old you know, twenty six or twenty seven,
And I just wonder at that point, like, is there
(32:12):
is there a level that he can get back to
or has that sort of you know, has the gas
tank itself shrunk so that you just can't fill it
with as much gas anymore?
Speaker 5 (32:21):
And that would be the worry.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
You know, he had a good, big clutch hit versus Cleveland.
He still makes some nice plays defensively, but this is definitely,
I would say, not a make or break situation for
his career as a whole, but I do think it's
probably a make or break situation for his career with
the Minnesota Twins.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Will your favorite basketball team shock the world? Go to
San Antonio, Davey win Game five, come back here and
end this series in six? Allah ending the Denver series
in six as well?
Speaker 5 (32:52):
God wouldn't that be? I would go to Game six
and that's you wouldn't you? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Uh, no place should be insane.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
I think unless they can get a wemb Be kicked
out again in San Antonio for Game five, I do
think there's a very real possibility they win Game six
and force Game seven, which, as just not so much
a Wolves fan but a basketball fan, I will sign
up for maximum Game seven's that I can get. San
Antonio just seems tough to me. And the scary thing
about San Antonio imagine them three years from now, when
(33:22):
Harper's like twenty three instead of twenty and Wemby's added
some muscle and you know, and they're you know, Castle,
and they've maybe signed a free agent like they seem
to me almost like okayse was like two or three
years ago, where they were close to elite but also
so scary for the future that I just had to
find them so difficult to beat. But as Johnny k
(33:44):
was talking about with you, I was listening on my
ride in like the Wolves, that it can be a
negative that they are so inconsistent and they sort of
don't have eyes on the prize at all times.
Speaker 5 (33:55):
They lose games, they lose leads that are infuriating.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
But the flip side to that is, and we saw
it against Denver a couple different years, they just all
of a sudden click into place and just blow a
team out. And that's what I'm kind of hoping for
if not in game five, at least in game six,
and at least give yourself a chance for game seven.
This has been such a fun series to watch. I
would say up until this last game that I find
(34:19):
san Antonio difficult to root against. But if you're gonna
start throwing elbows into people's necks, then it makes a
little bit.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
You know, to me. The the interesting element here is
there's the Wolves are not a great shooting team, right,
we know that they're a streaky shooting team, but and
I think san Antonio their wing players are more consistent
shooters that the numbers back that up as well as
a group. But what you're looking for is a game
(34:48):
where you're just unconscious because they really I mentioned this
reguards to earlier. You know, Game three was absolutely winnable.
Despite how brilliant Wemby was, they couldn't get a shot.
And if they they're streaky, maybe if they've got two
of the what I call them the medium knockers, not
the big knockers, end up having you know, each of
(35:09):
them shoot like nine for fourteen or something like that.
I honestly think it could. It absolutely could happen, because
against Wemby, you do have to hit some jump shots.
Obviously you don't want to stop going to the hoop,
but you gotta hit some jump shots. And we're not
a great jump shooting team. Quite frankly, we're a streaky
jump shooting team. Above and beyond Anthony.
Speaker 5 (35:29):
I do think.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
And obviously the Vincenzo's out, Yes.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
That hurts him for sure. I do think. Yeahin like,
Shannon's looked good, but he's not a shooter, no really,
so they've been hurt by that. I just think they
need Julius Rando. From the first half of the season.
He was pretty frustrating in the second half and in
this series, I think he's been like they ask so
much of him from a creation standpoint, especially when Ants
is not in the game and he's doing these spins
(35:53):
and these upfakes and everything, and he's turning the ball
over or he's just taking these incredibly tough shots.
Speaker 5 (35:58):
When he makes it, it looks great.
Speaker 3 (35:59):
They need or from him, But here's the reality, the
beauty of having a best player as good as Anthony Edwards.
And you know, as a kid, I grew up loving KG.
I never thought there'd be anybody close to KG. He's
close to KG in a much different way completely. But
not only is he one of the best players in
the league, one of the most fun players in the
(36:20):
league to watch, he is a true killer. And if
he is getting healthier or at least getting to a
point where he is not severely limited by the knee,
and I think we have seen that as the series
is progress, since he's come back, he can just go
off for forty and you can win any game in
that spot when you have a top I don't know,
six or eight guy who is a killer like that,
(36:41):
and it doesn't matter who's guarding him.
Speaker 5 (36:42):
And we've seen that at times during the series.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
That at least gives me a little faith where you
don't necessarily have to be a better team up and
down the roster or even for forty eight minutes. You
just have to have the best guy for that day.
And it's a tall order literally when Wemby's on the
other side. But Andwards just capable of so much in
these playoffs and capable of just going nuts in a
(37:04):
fourth quarter, as we've seen, and if they can get
a little bit more help, I think from Julius Randall
in terms of being an initiator and a facilitator and
someone who can at least, you know, bang a little
bit inside and not turn the ball over. I do
think they can at least take this to seven.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Julius Randall in this series thus far, thirty seven percent
from the floor, Yeah, twenty six point seven percent, and
from a lot of seven point three rebounds, which is okay. Yeah,
one point eight assists four point five turnovers. That's not
a good assist turnover ratio, even if you're not a
point guard. That's miserable averaging.
Speaker 3 (37:39):
Hands as if he's kind of a point forward a lot,
and when he's playing well and they're thriving, he's getting five, six,
seven assists and that just hasn't been there. And I
don't think it's because guys are missing shots at the
end of assists. I think it's good defense. But also
he's just sort of spinning himself into turnovers in the paint.
Speaker 1 (37:57):
I'll leave you with this. I think Guardie and I
have fantasized about this before. I don't remember. My memory
is not as good as it used to be. My
maskills are worse than they used to be, and they
were always pretty bad in all honesty. Anthony Edwards is
the player who was born to play with Kevin Garnett.
Can you imagine talking about two ballers. You're talking about
(38:20):
two guys who are killers. And we all know about
KG though despite the come fourth quarter ring of the ticket,
he wasn't that guy. That wasn't what made him great.
He influenced games. But instead of Steph Marbury, if you
had Anthony Edwards in your backcourt and that mentality with KG,
you tell me how good that would be.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
I did think about that a few weeks ago when
KG finally made his appearance and then he sort of
I think, was sitting out that game in the street clothes,
and there was that viral clip of them, yes, sort
of pointing at each other and then coming together, and
I just thought, as someone who grew up idolizing Garnett
and those Wolves teams, you know, the Flip teams, I mean,
that would be incredible because they do sort of remind me,
(39:04):
not only from a personality standpoint, because they're both a
little wacky and they're both fun but extraordinarily serious within that.
And then we're also just talking about, you know, two
all time great Hall of Fame level players, And I
loved watching Garnett. I don't know that I will ever
be able to say cleanly that there is a better
timberwles player than Garnett, just because that's what I grew
(39:25):
up with.
Speaker 5 (39:27):
But I don't.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
You can't get a better, more fun, more exciting sort
of someone that you want to jump on their back
player than Anthony Edwards.
Speaker 5 (39:36):
And it's amazing to live in it.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
As someone who's been watching the Wolves for his whole life,
it is amazing to live in a time where you
can turn on a playoff game and go, they got
the biggest killer on the court, and as we've seen
the last two and a half years now in the playoffs,
they can beat teams that nobody gives them a chance
to beat.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
Because of that, he wants all of it. You may
not always give it, but he wants all of it.
We're late. Russo's bitter. You're gonna write maybe some hockey too.
Aaron Gleaman dot coyote.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
My theory on that he never liked it was why
don't they get obese goalies?
Speaker 5 (40:06):
And he just thought that was so dumb every time
I would bring it.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
I'll bring it up today. Thanks for coming in. Good
luck on the new Adventure. And let me know how
many subscriptions we sold for you. I'll give you an
I appreciate it. Thank Karon Gleaman in studio. We'll talk
again with him soon. How about some puck talk. Russo
is already at the Moldy Fallness Studios. I hope the
candles are working.
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