Doctor Gast

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.

When Pohlad dropped a bomb saying paraphrased "We aren't going after any $30MM/ yr. FA" & " We'll live where we're at". Many fans went berserk, I'm not taking sides if the Pohlads can afford to pay the money or not because I have no idea. But I do know we live in a much lower market than NY, LA & CHI. & can't compete with those teams in spending. But is spending big in FA the answer to being successful? NYY & NYM went big in FA last offseason, how did they do? Is FA the solution to all our problems? I think not. IMO FA is an inefficient way to take care of our needs with FA salaries skyrocketing every year. I'd like to look at 3 different teams that do not go big in FA yet are very productive. 1st is Baltimore, They won the highly competitive AL East Division & are positioned to be a powerhouse for years to come. How did they do it? Much like HOU they tanked for many years & were able to get high draft picks & started to accumulate great prospects. 2nd is Tampa Bay. It's been a while since TB has had a really bad season so how have they done it? By accumulating prospects by trading off hyped players (especially SP) getting near to FA for promising young players & prospects. Another successful team that doesn't rely on FA is Atlanta. Like TB they like to trade but they trade to fortify a need & when they get a player they like to be around for a while they extend them. Can we emulate them? With the new anti-tanking lottery this is no longer a sure bet to build a great team, plus teams like PIT & CO have tanked for years & still are floundering. Maybe build a pitching pipeline like TB & CLE, which we have tried since Favey became GM. Many of our high-ceiling prospects never panned out & Ober (started out as mid-ceiling) is the highest of any of our prospects that have risen but we haven't been able to produce a rotation full of in-house high-level SPs every year so we can trade them to fill weak spots in the team. Maybe we can be more proactive in trading to fill our needs and extend players like ATL? It should definitely help. BAL, TB & ATL are all different but there are a couple of things that they do that are the same. They are great at player & team evaluation & development which separates them from their peers and make them successful year after year. These are areas that the Twins need to improve. CO has tanked for years & they like to throw money at their players but that doesn't do any good if they don't have good player & team evaluation & development. IMO stats like WAR favor sluggers, & any high-focus analytical team tends to focus on HRs & defense & baserunning are minimized. Drafting, developing, team & player evaluations are prioritized on HRs, the rest is ignored. Analytics are very important but we can't be lost in it. We been blessed with 3 high 1st round picks that were no brainers Lewis, Lee & Jenkins. Whenever we get a low 1st round draft pick we often select a big bat cOF/1B/DH (Rooker, Sabato, Larnach, & Caveco #13 was drafted as a SS but most likely will end up at 1B). I'm frustrated with the development of Wallner who has a lot of potential but it seems that all they focus on is for him to hit HRs. I'm frustrated with the development of our catchers. This priority affects us as far as our evaluation of our team needs & players' importance to the team where we hang onto players we could let go & let go of who we should keep. Team & player evaluation & development are very important but where ATL separates itself is that they use that evaluations to find holes in their team & then they go out & make trades that fills or upgrade in that area. We have also been fortunate with trades that fell into our laps like Lopez, Ryan, & Maeda. But once we improve our team & players evaluations of not only our team but also those teams that hold our missing pieces, I'd love to see us to be more proactive in making trades. There are so many opportunities out there once our eyes are open. The opportunities that were open early this season are pretty much closed but there'll be new opportunities & we need to be ready for them. I heard someone praise our FO that if Pohlad allocates X amount of dollars they will spend X amount of dollars. I can see what they are saying but I also see it as something very wasteful because if the Twins had an extra $11MM they could take another unrealistic risk on a Gallo-type that had no real need just because they had the money. Dreaming about picking up this high price FA or that high price FA isn't very feasible even before this Balley mess. The Chinese look at crises as an opportunity, these 2 words have the same root word. We have 2 choices stay the same & fall behind or change our priorities to be more realistic & to become more like ATL & become independent from free agency, & become a better & more competitive team.

My thoughts too. 200 IP is very ambitious. But having a pitcher that's hungry to go more is good. Not wasting his bullets in AAA this year should help his #s. 165+ of even higher-quality innings is what I expect. At Ober's age I don't know how big of an extension really matters.

Sano looked good.

Farmer will platoon Julien.

Farmer is & he's a better 2Bman

A 1st Correa-type contract. A bunch of opt-outs. I see him opt out his 1st year & do it differently

Great job, Cody. In the past, the Twins were very defense-orientated. But under this FO, the defense hasn't been taken as seriously. But I give them credit that post-Cave at CF, post-Polanco at SS & lately addition of Vazquez has tremendously improved our position at the most premium positions. Without an FA off-season, now being in better shape, working on his hitting, being familiar with the team & pitchers. Vazquez should be much better offensively with his valuable defense, he should be still our primary catcher but I doubt that will happen. I'm excited about what Martin can add to the team by being in the OF. 1B isn't a premium position.

I think 30 SBs for Buck is optimistic. I think they'll try to keep him on a leash & I think Buck should be clean up. But with Castro & Martin tearing up the base paths, it'll be hard to hold him down.

They at least partially brought back the winning tradition pinstripes with partial success. Why not bring back the pinstripe fully & experience full success? We haven´t experienced any real success w/o them. We had them thru the 60s & early 70s with a World Series appearance & brought them back in late ´80s & won 2 World series & beat the Wonder As in early 2000´s.

We can pick up another DeSclavani for Kiriloff. Is that what we want? I sure don't! IMO he will get beyond his injuries this year, he'll have the season we expect from him, he just needs that opportunity. Correa/ Lewis/ Lee will be our INF that's easy to see, but unless the sky falls there's no need to rush Lee up in an easy Central Division. Let him sit in AAA for a while. Just let's wait & see what shakes out.