Doctor Gast

Thanks your right, I guess I've been frustrated with how things have been run. It'll take too many years for a young normal Latin international prospect to ripen into a full-fledged catcher. So this draft is basically nonessential unless you want to develop a steady pipeline (which is not a bad idea). But does nothing for our current need.

Jeffers was given the full catching reins in '22. He was way overmatched & was quickly overstretched, crashed & burned. '23 Jeffers was a much better catcher primarily because of Vazquez. Offensively because Vazquez was his safety net and defensively just by observing how Vazquez handled his pitchers. '24 if everything remains the same I see Jeffers regressing and Vazquez improving both offensively & defensively. If Vazquez is removed from the equation I see another crash & burn for Jeffers. A defensive catcher takes advantage over a hitting one. where I agree with Blyleven. Jeffers doesn't have the defensive chops, or stability in either hitting or defense to ever make it into the top ten. Is Jeffers underrated? No. he's overrated by management.

I'm sorry Matthew I disagree with you. I'm all in for the art of the game when it comes to stealing a base, taking an extra base, getting a great jump on a batted ball, running a great route, great AB between pitcher & hitter while both go through adjustments. Managers manage a great game by adjusting to the conditions, Picking off runners, throwing behind runners, Catchers throwing out a base stealer, calling a great game plus many other heads-up plays all are artful & legit. Technically stealing signs, using sticky stuff & stealing strikes aren't artful & should not be legit. Why does hockey have a goal light? Don't they want to be artful? No, they just want a fair game and goals to be goals. Strikes should be strikes not be determined by fooling the ump or by umps biases based on veteran, rookie, & or team. Electronic Strike Zone will not take away from the game it'll make it fair.

Keep Vazquez & trade Jeffers for a frontline SP. The only player I'm interested in BOSOX is Teal.

Thanks to the Dodgers the "super-utility player" became appreciated and it has been overused for a lot of players who don't come close to the phrase "super-utility player". But Ceasar Tovar is the true essence of the "super-utility player" the original. Great article. Tovar should be in the Twins HOF if he's not. I wish I had that baseball card of Sandy Valespino & Ceasar Tovar rookie back!

You don't trade a Juan Soto comp. especially when his trade value is low for what he's worth. BTW I wouldn't trade away Lee either. E Rod has Eddie's spirit but with discipline, that's a pretty awesome gift, plus he's not bad in the OF. Some think he'll bulk up and move off CF IMO he doesn't need to bulk up any more than what he is & he'll stay in CF.

I respect your opinion Seik. Overall I see value in it. But when you have a definite need you go after the sure thing. IMO Ethan Salas is the most certain thing to come out of the Latin Americas. Many of our picks accept our 1st & 2nd (yet many of them still don't pan out) are cheap lotto tickets. We need an elite catcher to progress to the WS. What kind of catcher is $300,000 going to get us? Daniel Peña, hits well, he's not a slugger but I don't care. The thing I look 1st in a catcher is his arm. I see Daniel Peña has a poor CS% that got much worse going to FSL, which shows me he has a poor arm & technique. 2nd thing is his athleticism, back up position of 1B doesn't give me much confidence. Again I respect your opinion & thoroughly enjoyed your article, we just disagree on some points

Heard about it about 4 weeks ago. MIA still is very satisfied with Arraez a fan favorite but MIA doesn't figure they could afford to sign him to an extension so they'd like to unload him while he's still worth something, Looks like a good opportunity to hook up with a team that could afford to give up a good SS & needs Arraez and we can land Luzardo. Make it happen

Yeah. this has been unfortunate. So many very good catchers come out of Venezuela, Other teams have footholds there & MN fights for the leftovers.

Yes that was true for me too, my wife is Magali

How has the Twins done so far with correcting wild pitchers? Do they really know what they are doing? Or are they just poking & hoping? The latter doesn't appeal to me but the prior does because MIA's Cabrera has great stuff but they are about to give up on him because of his wildness. He could be a great project on the cheap.

They signed him before I went to the hospital but now that I'm back hope the FO feels free to get things done. 😃

Brooks Lee has a big part of the Twins' imminent future in every aspect of the game, IMO a good All-Star Candidate who can play all 3 INF positions efficiently and is a switch-hitter. Eddie Julien has a good eye, especially against RHPs is stretched at 2B (which is not a good tell). So I'd choose Julien over Lee to be traded hands down. But the Twins need to look further down the road because we a have great core of players that have emerged onto the spotlight with others on their heels that can take us to the big dance. For that to happen we need quality depth at CF, SS & catcher. STL made it to the big dance many times merely on great catching with pitching & defense. Our lowly neighbors KC went to the big dance in 2014 & '15. Losing in '14 but winning it in '15 on the same recipe. My point is that we need to stop ignoring the catcher. I like Jeffers, he's hard-working, he's an average starter overall. Do we want an average CF or SS to start in the WS? NO, -So why are we content with Jeffers? We need a bigger upgrade at catcher. There are a lot of young MLB-ready catchers with high potential to accompany our young core. With good to great arms, athletic, 2-way, some LH or SH ready to be mentored by Vazquez. All these opportunities lining up plus Jeffers is at a high point in his trade value ever is too good to pass up. But if we punt on this one the opportunity will be gone. So who would I trade for Front line pitching? Jeffers would be my choice.

Stallings & Hudson were good adds to CO. Hudson has a pretty good GB% which plays well at Coors. If he dominates with a high fastball for lift-happy HR hitters, he could have a successful season in CO. A lot of CO players are underrated. All their pitchers could do better elsewhere. Catching prospects Romo & Carrigg are tremendously underrated, they both have great arms, are athletic, productive switch-hitters with the potential to become elite catchers. Romo will make it to the Majors this season but IMO Carrigg has the highest upside. It'd be nice if MN could nab one of them but how cheap they are why not go for both?

For about a week, I was feeling like I was going through the process of passing a kidney stone. On 12/29 the pain was getting worse so Magali took me to the hospital & they gave me a tomograph. I did have a kidney stone actually 2 of them but I also had a perforated appendicitis, By all rights I should have died but the good Lord had mercy on me (I think? Just kidding). In some cases the the intestines encapsulate the perforated appendicitis, that's what happened to me. They rushed me into surgery. The surgery took 3 1/2 hrs & it took me 3 hrs to wake up. All I can remember was that I just wanted to see Magali. To make a long story short. Went through some obstacles & setbacks. But through the Lord's grace, we were able to overcome them. After 2wks in the hospital, I was released on good behavior on 2wks of in-house antibiotic IVs. The main obstacle left is the infection, so pray for a quick recovery from the infection. So after a 2 wks off it's good to be back! It doesn't look like I missed much though.

Thanks, Nash, this article was a breath of fresh air. Finally, one that makes sense which I haven't seen since Marlins SPs up for trade. the way it looks to me Polanco will be 100% after years of physical abuse on the field. We all know what Polo can do when he's !000%. Forget about the years of having to play hurt. He's back & in his prime. Keep Polo! Go Twins!

I never said Conger was chopped liver. he' s a perfectly fine coach if your standard is mediocre. Mathis was a better defensive catcher for a longer time, is a highly dedicated student of the game throughout his career. RiverBrian stated & I agree that top catchers are expensive & in demand. A pipeline of very good catchers is not only beneficial to our team but also comes in handy for trading for our needs

Could also add getting a great deal on broadcasting rights but World Peace & unity would even be better

It's in direct correlation to the hitting philosophy of never varying from hitting an HR every pitch. This produces a ton of HRs (we led the AL) but when we needed a hit they'd struck out in clutch situations in close games when the opposing pitcher was on. We need to change this philosophy, Maybe we hit fewer HRs during the year but getting clutch hits to win the great majority of those close games (that especially includes postseason games), it'd be well worth it. I'd prefer wins over HRs any day.

I don't see a problem at 1B. Julien, Kiriloff, Miranda & Farmer are very good & cheaper options. A combination of platoon duty forms a pretty formidable 1B crew,

Too early!

As of now, it's hard to visualize how our lower-catching prospects will turn out. But many are ranked much higher than Carmargo. Carmargo is totally off the radar in the negative sense on the evaluators' charts. I have no idea why. He could be an OK 3rd string catcher but IMO he'll take a while to adjust to MLB, With some of Vazquez's tutoring he could eventually become an OK backup. Overall our standard at catching has been set at OK, OK isn't good enough. Mauer was a phenomenal catcher, a lot of it was natural talent & self-learning, but some of it had to be coached.

* a definition of prayer- an earnest hope or wish. - Blessings & thanks to all TD writers, who continue to give us great articles to discuss even amidst some opposition. - Blessings to my friends at TD. - Blessings & thanks to the moderators who keep the baseball forum civil & open - Wisdom & insight to our FO so they can evaluate our needs & make the right decisions. - Uplift the lowly & humble the proud. - Health, soundness of mind & body to all our players so they can achieve their full potential. - Qualify our coaches to help train our players - Happy New Year to all & a prosperous season! Go Twins!

Best wishes for him! Sad he couldn't play more.

I admire versatility, but I admire honesty more. I know Kepler is a great RFer & maybe is a better LFer & that many have criticized Kepler for being proud & honest about his preference not to play CF. CF is much different from the cOF positions, He felt uncomfortable & not able to command that position. I admire his response & prefer his response over Jake Cave's response of ok I can do it (when he couldn't) & prevent us from getting someone who could. IMO when Kepler played CF his production went down, so at this point where he has found his groove, I wouldn't risk him to lose it. I wish Polanco was more honest to say when he's hurt - "I'm hurt" & not keep playing hurt, plus other things.