By Michael Haas
Just like Hank Steinbrenner before him, Jim Pohlad has quietly assumed the reigns of ownership from his father. In an article in the Star Tribune, the son of 93-year old Carl Pohlad was asked of his title with the Twins, he replied, "Owner works."
So Jim Pohlad is now the owner of the Twins. That'll take a moment to get used to.
The story debunked my theory that the family will sell the team by 2015, thereby raking in the profits of the new stadium and capitalizing on the doubled worth of the club. He also confirmed that the payroll in the new stadium could reach $100 million.
But ya know what? I think this guy is full of shit. Maybe they'll hang onto the club for generations, but I'm calling shenanigans on his payroll figure, for a couple reasons.
1 - He's a Pohlad
2 - It damn well better be $100 million in 2010. Now I realize that just spending money won't make us a better team, but hell, we have the money. And who paid for the bulk of the new stadium?
I've said this before: the Twins will make $40 million more per year than they do in the dome. Twins president Dave St. Peter said that the Twins would put half that into payroll. The payroll last year was about $75 million. With revenue sharing last year, the Twins got about $10 million from the league - so their payroll this year should be close to $80 million. But it's not. What does Jim say about the Twins 2008 payroll being only $60 million this season?
3 - "Our payroll is not yet set." C'mon Jim. It's not yet set? You're going to sign some big free agent yet? The payroll has a better chance of going down than going up.
See how messed up the situation is? The 2008 payroll is almost $20 million less than it could/should be, and he tries to smooth that over by saying that it isn't set yet. He says that our payroll will grow by $40 million dollars in the next two years? First of all, I don't even think that's possible, and secondly, I argue that it should grow more.
At least we won't be scared away from expensive picks in the draft. Right? Right?
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Jim Pohlad and The Payroll
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4 comments:
This does scare me, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt...for now. I'm still pissed that we didn't trade Torii Hunter when we had the chance, but anyways, if this organization is still well under 100 million by 2010, then I think I'm gonna start looking for other teams to cheer for.
wait, is Jim Pohlad the one with the long hair? I bet that guy would spend alot on payroll.
no, Jim is the stick in the mud. Click on the aforementioned article for a picture. All three pohald boys work for the Twins in some capacity. I wonder if the long haired Pohlad is actually as cool as his hair suggests.
I still think the Pohlads will bail a few years into the new ballpark. They are just too money hungry to pass up a deal that good.
A few years back I was really hoping that Glen Taylor would make a real play to purchase the team (this was at the time that he had just spent a ton of money to bring in Cassel and Sprewell to help out KG and I thought he could come in and open up his checkbook for the Twinkies too). I'm not sure Id still support that move now.
I think the Twins came up one pitcher and one big hitter short this offseason of putting together a team that could seriously contend. Im not sure those two players were even out there on the free agent market this offseason but I feel like they are just a couple pieces short heading into this season (depending on how some of the regulars preform). Maybe with all that promised money that is suppose to go into the payroll we will be able to pick up those parts before next year. Only time will tell.
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