Doctor Gast

I saw a clip of him playing Winterball & he really looked good. I'm rooting for Wash & Sano. Hoping Wash can undo what MN did to Sano. Sano bought into MN's hitting philosophy hook, line & sinker.

SO don't matter, do they?

I appreciate that Brian, but like I stated, I used the term worthless relative to how they value HRs to defense. So please don't get hung up on that. We agree that LAD was motivated to move Margot but that $ wasn't negotiable, it automatically came with Margot from TB (not theory, fact), Miller won the GG 2nd year into pro-ball, he's an elite SS which is very hard to come by. He's a switch hitter which adds to his potential. We have a lot of big bats/ mediocre SSs we could have offered LAD but LAD wanted super undervalued Miller & they wanted Hernandez, we didn't have to trade for Margot we could have gone FA. We had all the leverage so we could decline trading Miller & insist on one of our bigger bats/ lesser gloves in trade instead. So the fact that the Twins settled on giving up Miller when they didn't have to, over a different player tells me they didn't really value Miller. `Throwing in a big bat/ weak glove SS (a Sano type) low lotto ticket to add to the glut doesn't do anything for me & nowhere near the ballpark to replace Miller.

Those are some lofty problems. Because they have put him in some positions, doesn't mean he's credible there & SOs are a major concern. I know Twins value HRs despite weakness in defense & SOs that's why he's still around & on the 40-man. Solano is a solid contact hitter who is viable on defense Severino is neither.

Anybody with any foresight could see that Julien's talents & future were a 1B so why try to force him at 2B those years in the minors up to now & created an artificial logjam at 2B? If kept at 1st he would have had more time to master his position while helping out a troublesome 1B last season. I agree with Fangraph, where we are ranked at 2B. Although Lee should be an impactful fixture in the INF for many years, IDK how much of an impact he'll have this year, yet he could surprise us. I see Martin as having a long-term impact on the Twins much like Taylor has had for the LAD. I see Schobel and Keaschall as trade bait.

The point of this blog to show how the Twins overrate HRs where they overlook a player's weakness to strike out & underrate everything else, in this case defense (in comparison to HRs, defense is worthless) & how they need to put adequate importance on defense, baserunning & clutch hitting. To be more like the LAD who has a much better player evaluation, which they can see value in players that their original team could not see & then capitalize on them. One case that comes to mind is Chris Taylor. Who became World Series hero & fan favorite. Taylor loves LAD because they valued him & was able to turn him into the player he was meant to be. Of course, LAD saw value in Noah Miller that's why they targeted him, what gets me is that the Twins could not see it. LAD strikes again, They sold the Twins on Margot who they wanted to move & picked up a desired elite SS.

Evidently he would have passed Annie Savoy standards but failed the Twins sole standard of HRs/ SOs

Hope not to see Margot that often in CF.

I've been accused of being a Cave hater, Polanco hater, Jeffers hater, Polanco lover, Bauer lover & now a Miller lover. Emotion has nothing to do with it. It's about making this team better. I really like Lewis & Lee but Miller would have been the best choice for this team at SS when Correa transitions to 3B. That's all that matters. LAD saw the elite glove of Miller (fact) & his hitting potential & is able to develop him into a 1st class hitter. Which would be a shame because that's what the Twins should have done. If I'd judge between the Twins' player evaluation or LADs'. I'd pick LAD any day of the week (fact). If you think otherwise, you should question your own emotional attachments.

I don't understand why the Twins tried to force Julien at 2B during his years in the minors & his rookie year when it was easy to see that Julien's future & ability was at 1B. And have those years to master that position. 1B was the Twins' worst position last season & I couldn't understand why the Twins didn't bring Julien up right away if they had we'd fare much better there & we wouldn't have to sign anyone outside the organization.

Agreed, spring training means nothing this season. All the new additions will be granted the positions. Miranda, Larnach & Balazovik won't get a 2nd chance unless the newcomers get hurt.

Sorry I'll have to take back my salute, Lewis, Martin & Miller are exactly the same in that they are all trained the same way. Only Lewis & Martin had it in themselves to break away to find themselves, whereas Miller needs to be set aside & coached to find himself. If you look at Martin, you'll see the person he is & you don't need any more proof than that, (like I had done with Lewis). Miller, was the best SS we had in our system which has a lot of value. But the Twins looks at him & see that he's not a HR hitter so by their standard he's worthless & they project this to the fanbase. That's what I fault with this organization. They should have seen his worth, seen he's not an HR hitter, set him aside & helped him to become a good hitter & OB machine.

My point with Martin is he hit 2 HRs in the whole '22 season at AA while trying to be an HR hitter & when he stopped trying to be an HR hitter he hit 8 HRs in half of the '23 season at AAA & AFL. Prorated that to a full season comes to 16 HRs, which is not too shabby.

IMO the fWAR made very little if any difference by the off-season transactions, The new additions just replace our capable in-house players Varland, Alcala, Funderburk, and Sands; took playing time from Kiriloff; took away essential evaluation & testing of players like Miranda & Larnach to see if they have what it takes to belong in the MLB and delayed the promotions of Martin, Cantarino, SWR, Festa etc. 200 innings by Ober, 150 innings by Paddack & any substantial innings by DeSclafani are absurd. I hope management isn't taking any of this seriously & plan accordingly.

If you are one of the very few whose faith in Lewis & Martin never wavered. I salute you. But during their difficult time of finding themselves, great many that were influenced by negative hype said they were no good & that they should be traded. But their trade value along with their rankings had tanked.

Ober is the only one on this rotation, who has been developed by the organization the rest have been obtained. So the others have not been developed but tweaked, there's a difference. I have given them credit for their tweaking & their pipeline (although it hasn't reached the goal that it was meant to be). My concern isn't so much on their pitching development as on everything else.

I've heard that some SPs spend hrs. to prepare for a game. From that to a few minutes is a big change & many SPs especially in the past couldn't make that switch to RP. I marvel at how well Duran has made that transition not only relief but to high-leverage relief which is so much more stressful. That's why the BP is so volatile. I wish our RPs like Alcala has a great spring training & a fair shake of making the team breaking camp.

They said the same thing about Lewis & Martin & most everyone believed it. But they bucked the system & found their own way of being a very good hitters that can hit HRs. I expect Miller needs someone to coached him how to find his way & become a good hitter not a slugger that strikes out a lot. Miller is a GG SS in of it's self is enough to keep him if you have any sense of defense.

Thank you for those kind words Tarheel. Although I don't see any hope that my Twins will accomplish their full potential & I'm pulling back frustrated because of it, I'm not going anywhere.

The Twins were certain that Miller wouldn't be the type of hitter that they desired (a hitter that hits HRs when not needed, strikes out a ton when we need hits). Miller isn't as confident hitter like Lewis or Martin where he could decide to go against the grain & find his own way. But when coached right, Miller will find his way to be an excellent hitter. But Miller's calling card is his elite golden glove at a premium position, Miller is super undervalued and the Twins should have made him untouchable from any sharp eye team to snatch up. But they did not. LAD wanted to flip Margot so they could pick Kiki. So they looked for takers. Not finding any takers, they called up their good buddy Falvey. I advocated for Margot when we really needed a CF sub & when Margot was better, But I doubt right now if Margot is that much better than Castro defensively & certainly not against RHPs where we are of greater need for a sub. As a RH option Martin would be a much better option, I was in favor of trading for Maeda but I wasn't in favor of trading away our top MLB-ready pitching prospect Graterol(I advocated a different trade that included Balazovic), When LAD was very motivated to move Maeda. Here LAD was motivated to move Margot & if the Twins were bound & determined they absolutely needed Margot, fine. But not for our top SS prospect who should have been our future GG SS. That shows very poor evaluation of talent & judgment.

Had no doubt that SWR would see what needed to be done & make the adjustments. High hopes for SWR.

I give up. I know many have no idea what I'm saying. For things to get better things have to change & this FO is not going to change where everything is filtered by big bats. Miller is an elite SS who has promise to become a very good hitter & should become our future SS. but he doesn't have a big bat so he's dispensible. Miller's talents & being super undervalued, he should have been untouchable but this FO didn't see it that way. This trade greatly helped LAD to add future depth to their questionable key position of SS. LAD will teach Miller to become a hitter, not how to strike out. LAD wanted to dump Margot to pick up Hernandez. The SS lotto ticket we got will add to the mediocre SS heap we have that probably won't stick but he has raw power, just what we need. Margot like all the new additions doesn't fill any need but only adds backfill & replacement of well-qualified in-house players would have filled, at the expense of our needed assets. LAD is playing chess where they are a couple of moves ahead. While the Twins are playing Tic-Tac-Toe. Our real needs are a postseason starter, upgrades to our dismal catching depth & catching development. Those were not touched. This FO has been lucky, in '19, Schoop influenced Cruz to come to MN & of course the "juiced ball". '20 was the perfect storm for Maeda, Many good trades (Lopez, Gray, Ryan & Maeda) & Correa fell into their laps that came into fruition in '23. But when things don't fall into their laps they are absolutely terrible. Unless they still trade Vazquez or he, Lewis or Lopez significantly get hurt (heaven forbid). The Twins will win the division but the postseason will be disappointing. The one thing that this FO does well is spin hype. Like I said I give up, this is my last blog. I have given up hope that this FO will ever change or this ownership will ever fire them or the Twins will ever win another World Series. So pile up those thumbs down, quote me & try to undo what I said. I don't care. I'm no longer going to rock the boat, so enjoy your Kool-Aid party while you can.

We didn't need Margot!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Miller was our future SS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How stupid can this FO be!!!!!!!!!! BTW the goal of the offseason is to go forward now & in the future not go backward. I had given this FO an F- so far we haven't fill any real needs, they just backfilled positions that were already filled in-house & gave away players who were real assets to the team. Miller was an elite SS, that had promise as a good hitter. But because he wasn't a slugger, he's nothing? I've had it with this FO, He'd be miles ahead if he had done nothing. It's like '21 but worse. Dodger knows a lot about players. this FO knows nothing

I'm not against HRs & those 3 teams probably aren't against HRs either but they are aware that to be successful you have to know defense & baserunning are important, it's a good idea to develop your own players & have a great evaluation system. LAD wasn't big in FA last offseason. Yet they are a big market team (& like I said we can't compete with them in spending they have money to burn) but what separates them from most other big market teams is that they focus on defense, baserunning, developing their players & have a great evaluation system. You seem to have the bomba squad mentality. Where HRs equate wins, We had the most HRs in the AL, then that means we should have had the best record in the AL last season. But in reality if we went by wins only, we wouldn't have made the play-offs.

I'm a big fan of Paparesta. I'd say a great chunk of IL time was inherited & was related to it. Most injuries are not luck. When you don't train right, you overstretch a player they get hurt, when they get hurt & you don't fix the problem & you keep on running them out there, you are causing a bigger problem that'll take longer to heal. That's how the Twins were operating especially in '22. But it doesn't matter how smart your trainer is if you don't listen to him it's all for naught, But the Twins listened to him & reaped the benefits. Now that the team is healthy we are a much better team, thanks to Paparesta. Of course, there are injuries that can't be helped like being HBP, but I expect an even healthier season.