Heiny

I like Larnach, Taylor and Walner in the OF and Lewis, Correa(yeah, he's not hitting this year but we are committed to him for another 5 years, no trade clause) and Lee on the IF. Need a 1B. Gotta love Juliens' bat. I don't think his D is as bad as you make it out to be. Give him some time. And I think Lewis could play an outstnding 1B if Mirranda gets it back together. Lewis, Walner, Lee, and Miranda combined will be less costly than Kepler, much less Kepler and Polanco. These are all good young hitters. Why develope them if we're not gonna bring them play.

IF - Lewis, Lee, Julian, Martin OF -Larnach, Lewis, Rodriguez, Martin, Castro and there is potntial for about 30M to spend on free agents. Sorry, my crystal ball is broken, so this is just a personal opinion.

Love to see some uptick from Kepler, and I have to admit that I have a soft spot for him. But, I strongly believe that both Kepler and Polanco will be gone after the season because we have real cheap youth coming in to replace them both. Polanco is injured too often and Keplers slumps and career numbers just don't correlate with the salary.. That money along with the savings from Gallo's contract will be spent in other areas if spent at all.

I have to admit, I was rooting for Gallo in the early part of the season and when he started hitting homers in May I even posted some I told you so comments. But, that only lasted for a short time. I thought he may turn it around as all players go through slumps. But this doesn't feel like a slump. This feels like a "He is what he is" situation. And the team should have recognized this also. He should be gone already and for Pete's sake even a triple A guy should be able to provide more offense than what he is giving. Time to swallow hard and eat the remaining contract. There are multiple ways to get at least a little offense from his roster spot. Try something. This is not working.

That would be an unequivacal "YES". Can you imagine the attendance if the Twins had not signed Joe? In my opinion Joe has been arguably the best value in Twins history. It makes me mad that this conversation even comes yet. Now what they did after signing Mauer for the next several years did not help to improve the roster. I think we all know that you can't win in baseball with just a few contributing players.

My biggest question is "Why" for crying out loud, "Why is Gallo still on the team?" As someone else mentioned, any AAA player can give you more production than Gallo has. It's dumbfounding. Secondly, this offense has been horrendous. Someone has to be held accountable. I put the blame here on Rocco and Popkins. If what we are doing is not working, and this is quite obvious, adjustments need to be made. We just HAVE to get the bat on the ball more often.

Classiest Man in sports. No contest. Humble and appreciative of all that surround him. Will always be remembered as a Minnesota Icon for me. Reminds me so much of Harmon Killebrew in humility and Class. Thank you Joe Mauer for being more than just a great baseball player. No hot dogging that you see so much in sports today. He let his play do the showing off for him. Again, thank you Joe Mauer.

I'm not seeing a problem with payroll for next year. If you lose Gallo, Kepler, Polanco after this year, and I believe that will happen and that is my hope, you're looking at about 30M drop. My crystal ball shows and infield of Kirilloff, Julien, Correa, and Lewis/Lee. If it is Lee at 3b then Lewis in LF, hopefully Buxton in Center and Wallner/Larnach in RF. Re-sign Taylor for Buxton insurance. I can see us keeping Castro on the cheap. Vasquez and Jeffers are C's. Now you are short just one position player. Seems fairly reasonable financially considering the two highest paid among this group have no-trade contracts. I would offer Gray the QO with Lopez, Ryan, Ober and Paddack/possibly Keuchel with Winder, Varland, Mahle, Richardson for depth. Still seems financially reasonable. Bullpen? Good grief! Who knows. But with all that being said, back to the point. With our shot at winning the division this year and anything possible in the playoffs, I can't see any reason whatsoever to hold back a few million more dollars to upgrade this years team. In my opinion, it had to be the asking price for our prospects. And with a dwindling minor league system already, "IF that is the case, I would agree with it. But, with the info the fans are privy to, all any of us can do is speculate. Kinda leaves a little bit of an empty feeling. I actually think the future looks pretty bright with what I think were two very good drafts the last two years so the FO gets at least another year for me. But I would move on from Rocco. How bout we give Toby a shot for a few years.

I realize that I am as guilty of this as the next guy, but I'm getting the feeling that the FO can't ever get anything right according to our loyal TD readership. We are a very critical group and no matter what they do I think as a group we will be unhappy. Just about the only thing we all seem to agree on, is that the Gallo signing was bad. Some liked the Lopez/Arraez trade, some hated it. Some thought the Jose Lopez trade was going to be a big help. Some didn't. Hind sight has shown that the Mahle/Paddack/Pagan trades didn't work out but you can't really argue that there was some potential value in those trades. However it would be nice to see something end up as a "great trade" one of these times. I still think that the best thing to do would be to make me the GM. Can we all agree on that?

Sonny should bring pretty good value to a team in buying mode. I wouldn't be upset if we traded him, but we would need an RP and/or RH outfielder for this year and a top prospect or I would say no.

I totally agree the Kepler is the best fielder of this bunch. But Larnach has been average+ in the field. And personally I think Walners bat outplays Keplers D. And I'll take either Larnach or Walners bat over anything Gallo has done. But I understand your position and apprectiate your opinion. I just don't agree that staying the course is the correct play moving forward.

LOL, Now that is some good old fashioned (yet fitting) humor. Thank you CRF.

So, you believe that we are better off with Kepler/Gallo in the outfield while striking out at herculean paces than the upside of Walner/Larnach. While I would play Larnach in RF and Walner in LF. Both have very good to excellent arms. And as far as sustained ability? The historical ability of Kepler and Gallo in the lineup hasn't shown to be division winning caliber in my opinion.

So Kepler is finally having a mini hot streak. Good reason to use his LH bat as bait when there might be some value there. You are correct in that Miranda isn't a crunch, but there is no place for him now or in the forseeable future. Might as well use whatever value he has to improve what we need now. And I wasn't suggesting that we should try to trade all in one package, but I do believe there teams out there that would have interest in some combination.

Didn't ask for a lot. Polanco being the only one that is not an addition by subtraction. Looking for a RP and a platoon RH corner OF bat? Polanco alone should be able to draw some interest there.

WHY do you think that is less than we are already playing? Should help our pitching and we would be playing current hitters that are hitting better than what we are playing now.

Just a thought, but how bout a trade packaging some combination of Miranda, Polanco, Kepler, Gallo for RH corner OF and LH relief pitcher. If Gallo can't be included somehow, DFA him. Make room for Walner and Larnach in the corners. Play Farmer/Solano at third until Lewis comes back. IF of Kirilloff Julien CC and Lewis. OF of Larnach Buxton and Walner. Keep Taylor for insurance with Castro as backup for both IF and OF. With the return of a RH corner outfielder we can platoon RF and LF and DH. I think Larnach and Walner need an extended tryout to see if the fit for '24 or they can be traded in the offseason. We should still win the division and it would be a good test for the future. With Lee expected to be up next year and others for depth this seems solid to me.

ss- Correa 2b- Polanco dh- Julien 1b- Kiriloff 3b- Lewis rf- Larnach cf- Buxton lf- Walner c- Jeffers bench - Vasquez, Farmer, Castro, trade Kepler + Solano for a rh corner outfielder, dfa Gallo SP - Gray, Lopez, Ryan, Ober, Maeda RP - Duran, Jax, Thielbar, Stewart, Pagan, Balazovic, Floro, Keuchle(sp) Possibly trade Miranda + Pagan + lower level pitcher for another Rp with multi-years Possibly trade Maeda or Gray for multi year Rp + good prospect and move Keuchle to Sp Still have Varland and Winder for spot start or Rp in case of injuries. And THEN: after we win the WS with this plan, hire me as the GM and expect great things in the future. See you at the ballpark, Over and Out.

So, what would it take to get him? Would they like a Wallner/Larnach? with Maeda? Bring up Kuekle(sp)/Winder/Varland? What are looking to give up?

Good win for the Twins today, but I still think there is a lack of hustle and Vasquez could have extended the 10th if he would have onlly slid into second base. Not real impressed with some of the lackluster play. That said, they did some good things today and came out with a win. Need the big boys to get going. Happy with the win.

Not possible to "earn" his bucks on a baseball field. Just saying.

Can't win without scoring runs. Simple as that.

Just my opinion, but let's start with the basics. We have a very talented team with Buxton, Correa, Kirilloff, Larnach, Lewis, Polanco, and others in peripheral roles that are all performing well below their talent level. I'm not seeing alot of hustle. Situational hitting has been horrible. It looks to me that we need a phisophy change on offense. Buxton at DH is not working. Yes, he has been in the lineup more, but to what end? He slides into second and gets up slow, runs into second baseman, gets drilled in the ribs by a pitch, and strikes out at an extremely high rate. I say put him in center and take what you get. If he gets injured, well he gets injured. And he wants to play defense. Correa is not playing to his capabilities. Why? Team strikeouts are just disgusting. Do we need to make changes in the coaching staff? I don't think that's the answer. I just think we need to change the way we are approaching our at bats. Yes, that is going to have to come from the manager and coaching staff, but we are not making adjustments to the poor perfomance to date. Will we realize this as a team? It's not too late. We are still in first place, but that is not going to last if we don't make some changes. I will continue to watch the games and root for my team because I am a die hard, but everything has its limits. I am fast becoming disgusted. You can't win games without scoring runs.

There is absolutely no excuse for Correa not hustling. Damn near got thrown out at second. That is disgusting baseball from someone who is supposed to be a leader. Rocco needs to start chewing some asses. Bad baseball is one thing, but lack of hustle just ticks me off.

I hate to say "I told you so" but, I was behind the Gallo signing from day 1. New York and LA would probably be the the absolute worst places for him to play, He seems to have a great comfort level in Mn. and the potential he brings with the power and on base% outweighs the K's. Just hope it continues for the rest of the season.