Doctor Gast

I'm a big Buxton fan he's a great player as well as a great person. I'll take whatever his body is willing to give us as long it's through the postseason. Keep him CF & don't try to squeeze every little AB out of him. If he can't play CF don't play him if something is broken, fix it, don't keep playing him. IMO Paparesta has the management ear & the old days are gone along with prolonged, nagging injuries. It's wonderful the fanbase is out. FO has to go out & really improve this team starting w/ a front-line SP via trade much like the Arraez/ Lopez trade. If FO closes their eyes & punt they'll lose everything again.

Noah Miller is the one that I'm most impressed with. With his sparkling defense & heads-up plays, He just needs to get on base a little bit more often to be a very viable MLB player. He still has a lot of time to improve his offense until that time. I'm a little disappointed that Richardo Olivar didn't make the honorable mention list. He didn't put up the #s he did last year but his #s are still sneaky good.

The '87 team probally didn't have greatest production of other Twins teams but I still ranked them the best because they were scrappy. They won the close games when they had to, they reached down & won the games they had to. They did everything they could to finally get the monkey off MN's back. My best memory of being a Twins fan. #1 '87 #2 '91 #3 '65

Castro's time as starting LF is only until they figure what to do with Gordon. Wallner has a lot of raw talent in every aspect of the game that should be further developed. So a short time in AAA shouldn't hurt. What so frustrating about Wallner is all this time in the minors very little development has been realized in his defense, baserunning & even in his SOs.

They kept Gordon & he's out of options, so they'll give him every opportunity to be the 4th OF. Larnach & Wallner still have options so Castro could be given the LF job. If Gordon does well they still may trade him or if he doesn't do well they'll try to run him through waivers.

Buck is the best! Have Buck for the postseason, I don't even care if he gets 80 games in if we make it to the postseason with him with everyone pumped!

MAT was a lifesaver '23 but Buck is in a different position this year than last year. I'm optimistic with the depth of Buck in CF with Castro (SH) & Gordon (LH) as back-up with Martin (RH) in the wings. Whatever the season shakes out we need Buck ready for the postseason. Gordon couldn't break into MLB via INF but shined in the OF when given the chance. Their bright idea of reinducing Gordon in the INF was another bust. Gordon miserablly failed on both sides of the experiment, keep Gordon in the OF. I think all are hungry to show what they can do in '24. including Thompson.

The Twins drafted Mauer #1 in the draft & he has become a 1st ballot HOFer. When was the last time the Twins drafted a catcher 1st round? What has been the highest the Twins drafted a catcher? You draft according to your focus. The Twins have drafted much more big bats/ cOF/1B/ DH types in the 1st round & higher overall than the catching position. If you line up our catching prospects in where they are ranked nationally & how far away they are from the MLB to other competitive clubs, you'll see a large chasm separating us. If your standard for a catcher is mediocre- average defensively that has some punch, then you can find them in the lower rounds. But if the standard is a top defensive catcher who can hit then you need to look in the top rounds. Maybe they aren't confident that they are capable of fully developing the defensive potential of these prospects. so why draft them?

Catching is a super important position & we need to be one of the top catching staff to compete. Signing Castro was one of a couple of great catching moves this FO made. Castro made us viable & in '19 the Garver/ Castro tandem was one of the best in defense & split platoon, we had the team to go far. That year we ranked right up there with Mauer's best years. And will stay the best post-Mauer catching squad for a long time. '23 we signed Vazquez. Vazquez took a lot of time to focus on getting to know every pitcher to work out what was the best strategy to attack each hitter, developing trust. Vazquez vastly improved the catching defense & pitching efficiency. Now that most of the work is behind him in familiarizing himself with the team, I expect his offense will turn around. '23 Jeffers worked hard on his defense & it improved to begin the season. But as the season progressed & his playing share increased his defense waned. Jeffers in a supportive role thrives, '23 as his '20 rookie season he did well offensively but in '21 he had the lion's share of games & he regressed. '22 he was determined as our primary catcher but he quickly became overstretched, crashed & burned. '24 Jeffers is due for a regression, how much depends on how much responsibility he's given. If Vazquez is traded, it'll be '22 all over again if he's in a supportive it'd be minimal & we'll have another year comparable to '23. Comparing Mauer's age 26, 134 OPS (his avg.) to Jeffers's age26, 134 OPS+ (by his far high level mark) thinking that Jeffers will resemble the same MVP season in '24 is ludicrous, Jeffers does not have ability to be great at & behind the plate, he was pretty good at & average behind the plate, for his high-level mark. If Jeffers was pretty good behind the plate & average at the plate on a regular basis then I'd take`him serious. Mauer was not noted for his defense but he had an arm, Jeffers does not. For the 2 more seasons of Vazquez I expect the same level of productivity, but what do we realistically expect after Vazquez is gone? I expect that people will finally come to the conclusion that I made from the the beginning that Jeffers is not a legitimate primary catcher. Then it'd be too late to get a top MLB-ready catcher prospect because we no longer have Vazquez to mentor them. We'll have WS potential team with no catcher to lead them. Our catching will not come close to Mauer era. We still have an opportunity to trade Jeffers for a top-end SP, & get a top MLB ready catching prospect to be mentored 2yrs. by Vazquez in hopes to have our top catcher ready soon & for years to come. To help lead the team to a WS. Nick, I respect your knowledge but my conviction in what I see is that you are too enthusiastic about Jeffers's potential & his importance to the team.

It has been rumored that MIA is looking to move Arraez because they can't afford to sign him to an extension. I put up a 3-way trade offer with SD. Arraez could be SD's Tony Gwinn's second coming. SD was poor at 2B, Kim is a much better SS than 2B man. Arraez for Kim. Luzardo for Julien & Jeffers To make up the difference for Arraez, Twins can move Salas (SS) back home to MIA where he does better & Schobel (SS) (Twins can also throw in Farmer) in exchange for trade bait for MLB ready Romo catcher (CO). Jeffers has proven to me that he can't handle primary catching duties & Vazquez's hungry for primary catching duties. If we let Vazquez go (- trade value) & keep Jeffers it'll be '22 all over again. If we keep Vazquez & trade Jeffers (Jeffers trade value is high), Not only do we have a very good defensive catcher that's due to rebound offensively, we have a 2yr. mentor for Carmargo, (Romo & Carrigg via trade that can potentially be much better future catcher in a short amount of time) than Jeffers plus greatly increase our poor catching depth. We will miss Julien's bat but that's what MIA needs for Luzardo, it's a fair trade-off. This is a great opportunity if we react right,

As you said " Twins aren't in the FA market". So Twins aren't affected by this FA log jam. Teams that are looking to sign big-name FAs , those who lose out will turn to trades. Twins aren't waiting for any big-name FA, they need to trade for a frontline SP. If they come up with a fair deal to get one now we can beat the rush. Delaying to make a deal only hurts our chances. IDK what unloading Vazquez, Farmer, Polanco & or Kepler has anything to do with our off-season success. On the contrary, It tells me that they have given up on getting front-line SP via trade, therefore punting & picking up Happ & or Shoemaker FA (with all that $ we saved on those players) & trying to sell us what a wonderful deal they made. That would be a great way to kill any momentum we gain much like '21.

I'm with you, Nash. C4 will be back, in '24. I'm counting on it.

Any $ money to be spent needs to be spent on Jeff Mathias as catching coach.

I put a lot of stock in what Wash can do. He'll put Sano to work with his coaches. I wish Wash, his coaches & Sano well. If they can correct Sano, maybe then MN would rethink their philosophy?

Great point Matthew. Mauer's heart was in catching. He was catcher that was great at hitting. That's the position he loved & where he felt he could best help the club. Hitting came easy for him, catching came harder although he had the soft hands & rocket arm that are required for being a catcher yet he worked hard at it & took pride in it,

Loved the Noah Miller video that he not only has the skills to be a great SS but also the baseball smarts.

Polanco & Kepler are studs in their prime, they are 100% ready to go. How long has it been since Polanco was allowed to play healthy? He's been dominated when healthy & he's going to mash this year. Play Julien at 1B. Kepler has found his groove he's going to mash. Kepler is in his contract year. He was pumped last season don't you think he's going to be super pumped this season? Other teams know this but they think they can pass off on them a bunch of lotto tickets. No, thank you! Are you still perturbed that they didn't do that last year with Kepler? It made more sense last year than this year. But I'm against trading any of our great players for lotto tickets. Teams think we are desperate to dump payroll and want to make a killing. The message that was sent was the right one.

If we had the extra $, it'd be intriguing. But I'd still like to see the cheaper version Miranda take off there & we still have Farmer to fall back on. Both would be a much better defensive option.

Ryan pitched better in '23 than '22 & I expect him to pitch better in '24 with more Quality innings pitched. Last year like the year before Ryan (like Ober) hit a wall. The secret is look for signs & scale back innings. This year that wall will be farther down the road. Ryan always picks veterans mind, always trying to get better. Of course, he needs to reduce the long ball but a few solo HRs won't hurt. As long he gets his strike outs. (the same as the Twins hitting theory against opposing pitchers of get a bunch of SOs, they won't hurt you as long as you keep hitting HRs when you don't need them)

Both want a trade but MIA isn't looking for prospects.

Many teams are in the same boat as the Twins, no $. Maybe a few who are in a little bit better situation will wait out for a great FA deal. But with trades, there's no $ involved you just have to match our strength to their weakness & their strength to our weakness. Find a way.

IMO Luzardo is the one to target. IMO MIA is serious about trading Arraez because they can't afford his extention. We can rope in MIL who needs a 2B & can trade Adames (SS). We can basically trade Jeffers & Julien for Luzardo. We can work something out for Strobel. I'd bring in a 4th team to make it happen. PS Luzardo will work great with Lopez. I'm a big believer in what E Rod can do, he's valued too low. I really like Myers but hate to give up another Minnesotan for him. IMO Varland is much more reliable than Myers is right now. Cabrera (MIA) has the potential to be a PS SP if the Twins think they can fix his command,

Although Canterino still has hopes to be a SP, he'll start in the BP in '24. That'll put more pressure on these 4.

Fair enough, I just don't like to use the wasted years that TOR & MN were experimenting with him at SS & his swing to use as a comp of what he can actually do. I'd like to start a month or 2 before AFL when he went back to his old swing. Those wasted years unfortunately have to be made up so starting at AAA isn't a bad idea. Especially if Buck is ready at CF. Although getting HBP helps his OBP, I don't like him getting hurt. I wish he'd back off a bit.

I expect better from Martin after 6 yrs. He's a lead-off hitter against LHPs.