Doctor Gast

Now make that into a song :)

You are forgiven, I sympathize with you

Pitching, SS, CF & catching are the 4 most important positions where hitting prowess is nice but it takes a back seat to defense. There's a lot of emphasis on drafting & developing SPs, SS, CFers, and MN puts a lot on bats but catching as of late has been ignored. Defensive catching is a vital need, which any serious team must have. Defensive catchers that can hit are very few & are in great demand. It's not that hard to find catchers that can hit but to draft & develop them into elite catchers is very rare. There has been a gaping wound in our catching depth that goes down deep in our organization since '22 and actually longer when you go beyond Garver, Jeffers & Rortvedt. Vazquez has been a nice band-aid, greatly seeing fantastic effects in catching & pitching. But once we rip off that band-aid it's going to hurt a lot. We need to heal that wound by now trading for, drafting & developing promising young catchers, Below is an interesting article that I'd like for you to read. https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/baseball-believes-in-jeff-mathis-and-the-hidden-value-of-game-calling-by-catchers/ Jeff Mathis was a horrible hitter but his valuable expertise in catching kept him in the game for many years while mentoring young catchers along the way. He has been out of the game since '21 when he caught for the World champion ATL Braves. Mathis is open to coaching, having him as our catching coach will go a long way toward healing our gaping wound by his insight on who to sign, draft & especially development. MIL has made Contreras into an elite catcher & has a great development system. I believe Mathis can do the same for the Twins. With his expertise & experience (which I value the most) he also sees the need to use analytics that makes his work easier. Mathis IMO should be highly sought after & as in any opportunity to fill our great hole we should quickly seize it, he has my vote, How about yours?

Thoracic outlet syndrome is not like TJ surgery. The process is a much slower process for pitchers to come back 100% if they come back at all. In his case IMO he can come back but he's only started that process now. I have little expectation of him for more than 1 inning of low-leverage situations.

Great job, Adam! Well-thought-out trade scenario. Slater should be a reasonable trade target. Unlike most, I believe there's no excess INF depth. If we trade Polanco & Farmer we'd be in very tough shape. But if we don't trade Polanco we can swing it. Because with Slater's help in CF, that could free up Castro to help out the INF when Correa, Lewis & Polanco need subs. Plus when Buxton is in CF we have Slater to play the corners when facing a LHP. I'm a firm believer in Martin who has the makeup to be a MLBer. But more time in CF at AAA won't hurt. I'm a supporter of this trade but IMO it won't happen until well into the off-season. I don't think we are in a hurry for this trade but we are for a front-line SP.

I'd like to add a Lopez-type trade, that'd be nice. That'd be a good off-season gift. Under Paparesta's care, I'm optimistic about the performances of many of our players.

You caught me on one of my brain farts. Good one.

Some of my favorite players played on this team. Also loved the uniform. The vast majority of our best teams played in pinstripes.

OK, he's not technically a rookie, so what? His status is not the point I was making. Why do you keep focusing on one point that has nothing to do with what I said & miss the main point? Please read everything that I texted & throw out the word "rookie" because it seems that you are hung up on that word.

I'm sorry this discussion isn't about Varland's eligibility for the ROY award, it's about his need to gain experience & stamina to be a full-fledged MLB SP so please stop distracting from that.

Sorry, Lucchesi went to NYM so subtracting 5.8MM which PIT received to only 9.8MM makes for a greater deficit of 26.8MM which adds to SD larceny

You are nitpicking. Varland hasn't come close to putting in a full season as a SP, so he's still a rookie in my book, much like the comparison I gave of Ober in '22. He's MLB ready so why waste time with him pitching at AAA? We need him pitching on the main club & have him slowly vamp up to pitching 5 innings. So what do we do with Paddack? Do we have him pitch down at AAA too until he's completely vamped up? No, the best solution is the piggyback system, again Pineda/ Perez worked great, don't mess with something that works.

Varland is a rookie, you can't expect him to pitch the same as seasoned veterans. He needs to be brought along slowly at the MLB level. So I recommend using Paddack & Varland in a piggyback system. This system worked well with Perez & Pineda until they quit & overused Perez. This system will help both Paddack & Varland. If Varland is thrown into the rotation & required to throw 6+ innings, he is susceptible to inefficiency & injury much like what happened to Ober.

https://www.baseballtradevalues.com/trades/83319 Here we see Larnach & Musgrove were close in value, here was a very fair trade https://www.baseballtradevalues.com/trades/83229 The players who headed this trade were Head & Luchessi. Looking backward, Bednar was worth practically nothing. While Endy was a throw-in from NYM. He was worth 2.4. PIT traded away 36,4MM in value & received 15.6MM. a deficit of 21MM, Pirates were plundered. Head & Luchessi haven't amounted to anything while PIT got lucky with Bednar & Endy.

Adjustment is the key! Lewis is great at adjusting. He adjusts his swing depending on the pitcher & pitch. He doesn't have the same swing for every pitch. That is what makes him great & what Twins need to teach each hitter to do so. Not maintaining the same swing no matter what.

Lewis will have a great year that could mean a slight recession. Julien if shifted to 1B I see very little recession. But if he's over-stretched as primary 2Bman I see a much more recession. I agree with the common consensus that Wallner has the greatest recession of the 3.

I'd take Polanco over Hoskin any day. We'd have to trade both Polanco & Kepler (at bargain basement) to come up with enough money to sign Hoskin. What are the Twins thinking of? Just move Julien to 1B & have him play 1B until Kiriloff is ready & then have them rotate 1B/ DH & later have Kiriloff rotate in the OF. Then we'll improve our 2B & OF by not trading Polanco & Kepler. Farmer can play 1B if Miranda doesn't work out but hope he does.

Let's say as an example, the Twins were interested in Ethan Salas (wish they were) & maybe even made an offer with Polanco & Kepler. That would not make the news because Salas is not on the trading block. Likewise with PIT was interested (which was at least well-known around PIT) in Larnach. It only made sense that they'd make a Musgrove/ Larnach offer since they were shopping Musgrove. That wouldn't make the news because the Twins weren't interested in Musgrove or trading Larnach. But my point back then, was they should have been interested in Musgrove because #1 PIT had a very good eye for pitching talent, and #2 they had terrible pitching coaching that really held down their pitchers. Gerrick Cole & Tyler Glasnow are 2 that came to mind that exploded after leaving PIT. PIT was actively shopping Musgrove & that's where the Twins focus should have been (to take advantage of that opportunity) not on signing FAs, Happ & Shoemaker. Twins have a few trading opportunities now and that's where they should focus their attention, not FA.

Beyond the #s that he's capable of achieving. Intangibles are what going to separate him from the rest. Like character, passion for the game, leadership, and instinct. I heard that Royce is still qualified for the ROY award next year (is that right?) If so he could win both the ROY & MVP award the same year.

Please qualify your statement.

I'd love to take Sano on a minor-league deal but as long this organization still has the "bomba squad" mentality, I'll have to say good luck somewhere else.

Our catching depth is very low, especially in the higher levels. highly due to very bad drafting these last years. Our only hope since we have forgotten our catching depth is to trade for promising young MLB-ready & soon to be catchers, there are a few out there. While we have Vazquez to mentor them, it's the perfect opportunity to do so. Catching is a very important position. Jeffers is not our answer to advance into the postseason, Now that his value is high, we have to trade him or we'll be coming short of our potential every year he's there.

Love both pitchers, Luzardo would fit in great next to Lopez. IMO MIA has given up on Cabrera, he'd be a good pickup if MN feels they could fix him. What I heard was MIA is changing ship, and that they want to stock the farm. That means they want more prospects & players with more yrs. available

Catching is a very demanding position, physically, and mentally & is very high contact. Not enough catchers get into the HOF because they don't hit enough HRs due to the drain of the position that affects their offensive WAR. Mauer has done it all, he deserves to get in on the 1st ballot.

https://rumbunter.com/2021/01/05/pittsburgh-pirates-twins-trade-proposal/ Here is one site that showed that PIT had proposed a Musgrove/ Larnach trade.