Doctor Gast

I just hope reason will win out.

To restate, I don't mind keeping Kepler, Polanco, Vazquez & Farmer but if we have to trade someone. Kepler is the most expendable.

Simple move Julien back to 1B where he should have been all along with Miranda & Farmer as our RH options. Larnach was our leading slugger in the 1st half of '23, With Wallner & Kiriloff at RF will give him plenty of time for Larnach to find himself if we ever need him as Kepler found himself the 2nd half.

Wow! we only have Wallner, Larnach & Kiriloff to replace Kepler in RF. Yes, Kepler is much better than any of these but RF is a non premium position where team often hide their less defensive prone players. I really like Kepler & if there isn't any good offers then by all means keep him. But especially with him in his last year IMO he's the most expendable than Polanco, Vazquez & Farmer they play more premium positions. Any thought of putting Lewis in the OF is totally ridiculous. #1 you're placing one of our main reasons of breaking that humiliating curse of winless PS games in risk again #2 lack of quality depth in the INF that includes only Correa, Lewis, Polanco & Farmer. People are crying out to trade Polanco & Farmer & remove Lewis to th OF. Martin will be joining the OF sooner rather than later, Brooks should be much later.

IMO baseball is a family event, where you fully enjoy the game as a family. But now that's very difficult for most families, Some can afford themselves once in ahile yet many can't even do that with this economy. Lower the tickets alone will have a small affect. To maximize we have to do more to create interest.

All this Ohtani thing leads to the Dodger is able to whoo Yamamoto. If they are able to sign Yamamoto, it's extremely unfair even if it's legal. Maybe this could create enough uproar for enough owners get together to completely change how MLB does business. Even not, like NYM tried to monopolize the market last off-season & didn't make the post season I hope the same for LAD unfortunately for Ohtani. LAA, even though they had the players with high WAR to perennially make it to the WS, never made a run.

Cody I enjoyed your miscellaneous news most of all. 1) Castro will be making almost 2x as much $ this season than Ohtani 2) Mauer is on track to enter the HOF on 1st ballot. both would be very shocking to most

jharaldson's blog got me thinking & instead of discussing it on his blog, I was afraid we'd get off-topic so I opened a new one. 1st we have to look at the older fan which makes up a good portion of the total of fans, that would get lost streaming , So cable would make more sense, going back to Midwest Sport Channel or Fox. But cable is more expensive & we have to make Twins games more accessible. The older fans are less active so cable works but more active younger fans needs apps on their phones & something cheaper than cable. If I could buy cable the main reason is to watch the Twins but in Brazil, Twins games are absolutely not an option on cable. Ownership needs to know that the Twins fanbase is dying out. How? #1 Twins fans are literally dying #2 Tickets are too high for most fans #3 Twin games assessibity is very limited, #4 Twins are not as competitive as they should be, so they aren't attracting new fans, #5 as a State we are losing that family/ baseball connection on all levels. Now with some Twins success IMO we have gained some new fans so how do we maintain them & further grow the fanbase? Creating new clean city uniforms won't do it (not that it hurts), Getting back to to main idea of making the Twins games accessible we need a combination of cable & streaming. We can be creative about this & be much more conservative with the blackouts, So even people in Brazil can watch them. Reducing the ticket prices, will attract more people along withsome of my other suggestions. All with the goal of maxing the attendance, maxing the attendance elevates the teams moral, elevating the moral, team wins more games, win more games you increase attendance. As you can see it can produce a snowball affect. So reducing ticket prices can actually make ownership more money. Not including the extra $ from merchandizing & concessions We must have a more competive team. That means aborting the "Plan" of drafting, signing & hoarding big bats while ignoring the rest like defense & details of small ball. FO has made good steps in upgrading premium positions of SS, CF & SPs; becoming more open to good trading opportunities instead of ignoring them. Even trying to encourage base stealing & taking the extra base. The other premium position catcher, they got Vazquez which vastly improved the catching (which elevated it to upper mediocre) & pitching. Other than this the catching position has been completely ignored, never drafting any upper level prospects. The ranking of our catching prospects now are super low. When we lose Vazquez, the level of our catching will greatly decrease with no hope in view. We must start to focus on upgrading our catching by obtaining very good/ elite potential MLB ready & soon to be prospects. Pitching we need to at least maintain what we had. FO can't rest on their laurels & let things slide or we'll lose all the new fans that we gained. We need to encourage & invest in the family/ baseball connection on the State level. By putting baseball in the hearts of families & individuals it's easy to be become Twins fans while improves the community, encourage young people to play baseball & could provide a better avenue of life to some kids. Those are some that I can think of on top of my head. Maybe you have others because baseball should be important to all of us.

That was my point, sorry that I didn't summarized.

Yes, Nick, this subject is very relevent. Our focus needs to be about advancing in the post season. Lopez has the record & experience that'd envy any WS hopeful. Ryan & Ober have made good progress in stamina in '23 but they are still young, I expect further progress in '24 yet still need to take into consideration they are still young. Both Ryan & Ober now have limited PS experience that will help. But we still need an outside SP to add to our rotation. I'd shoot much higher than Maeda, We need another Lopez type trade. Lopez was ranked upper 2nd tier when we got him but advanced well into top tier , We don't have to find a (finished product) '23 Gray substitute. An early Lopez type will be just be fine. Then we might have 3 or 4 to choose from along with Lopez to help us advance in the PS.

1st we have to look at the older fan which makes up a good portion of the total of fans, that would get lost streaming , So cable would make more sense, going back to Midwest Sport Channel or Fox. But cable is more expensive & we have to make Twins games more accessible. The older fans are less active so cable works but more active younger fans needs apps on their phones & something cheaper than cable. If I could buy cable the main reason is to watch the Twins but in Brazil, Twins games are absolutely not an option on cable.

A very decent roster much better than we started out at this time. last year. We don't need any FAs. All we really need is a Lopez type trade, catching upgrade, more clutch hitting & less SOs & look out World Series here we come. Last off season I had given this FO an A+ (OK maybe an A+ was too generous it could have been better), until they signed Gallo then I immediately knocked it down to a B/B+. Let's avoid the Gallo brain fart this season & come up with an A+. Go Twins!

We won't get back what Polo is really worth to us, we'll come to regret it this year and I still don't like Julien at 2B, he's way to overrated at that position. We don't need to cut where it hurts, we mainly can't spend. People say we are short of depth in the OF. Buxton, Castro, Gordon, at some time Martin in premium the position of CF, at the corners all those mentioned before plus Kepler, Wallner, Larnach & Kiriloff. That's not to mention a possible addition people want. Our INF; Correa- SS, Lewis- 3B, Polanco- 2B, Farmer- utility, Castro will be very busy in CF but on rare occasion he could fill in & Julien- 2B fill in. OF depth We have 4 (possibly 5) viable candidates at the premium position of CF we have that position pretty covered, cOF we have 8 (possibly 9), that should cover 2 positions right. (more than likely Buxton & Martin will not be on the field the 1st month/) That seems not being short to me. INF depth 4 players to fill in 3 demanding positions, with one fill in at 2B & cameo appearances from Castro & don't even think about Gordon. That's walking a thin line. definitely not abundance that people think With an already sparse INF we trade away our most reliable clutch hitter Polanco plus we'll never get what he's worth to us. & if that's not enough they want to trade away another viable INFer Farmer. That leaves Correa at SS, Lewis at 3B & fill in 2B man Julien as primary 2B man. (I'd rather have Castro as our primary CFer throughout the season than Julien at 2B.) Who do we have as utility? Castro will spread too thin in CF. PLease rethink this out, Think what a depleted INF will do for our pitching which BTW they want to trade Vazquez which will lower our pitching effectiveness further plus reducing the level of our catching. Yet the one that they can afford to lose (Kepler, $10MM) they want to keep. Can you see how fast this team will free fall if this insanity starts, Even though we have a lot of talent we can end up like '22 & '21 because of bad decisions. I warned you in '21 & '22 & I'm warning you now.

Buxton is our main CF, Castro & Gordon could help us get there. Like Julien, Martin should make an impact when he comes up plus an added impact with his glove. As of right now we look pretty set if something comes up then we can take a look at our options, Although I like Julien as our 1B man, they say that Kiriloff will be limited to 1B so that makes Julien more dispensible but I'd rather use him to trade him for a front line SP

Good point Dr. Wu. Like Miranda we need to see what they can do at their natural position when healty. Both will eventually not stay with the Twins, but it'd be nice if they show their worth so at the trade deadline or next off-season we can get their full worth in trade. Our best option will always be trade & we need to maximize our return.

Thank you Cody for showing Polanco's worth. His clutching hitting & walk-off hits are truly great that's even playing a good amount of the time unneccessarily hurt that also effected his defense. '24 he'll be 100% & with Paparesta supervision he should stay that way for most of the season. Most other teams have a glimpse of Polanco's worth but want to pay for the hurt version of Polanco & sell us a bunch of lottery tickets. We must not overlook his true value & short ourselves. I doubt we can come close to get his true value so we should not be so quick to dump him.

I understand your angst mnfireman because of the catching situation that this FO has gotten us into. But trading Jeffers away for a "Lopez type" SP can be easily resolved. There has been a very good crop of MLB ready or soon to be catchers that can be had, That with the mentoring of Vazquez anyone of them will become a better catcher than Jeffers. We must not overlook the best opportunity that we have,

I expect positional players serious negociations will begin, As soon as Yamamoto signs then the SPs will start, it shouldn't be long before Yamamoto signs, It should be a grind but at least it's moving. Funny how the SPing is hinged on Yamamoto & not Snell. I don't disagree but it's weird. After all that then the Twins will start moving.

Thank you Matthew, for quantifying my gut feeling.

I agree with you Stringer that Martin could be a MLB OFer or 2B man. But like Lewis he could play 2B but they'd like to keep him at 3B, so he'd get established there. So I expect them to keep Martin in the OF until he gets established there. To be an utility player isn't easy because you have to be established in every position & it takes time. That's why Castro is such a valuable & underrated player. IMO Castro finally felt truly established as an utility player & that translated into confidence & his offensive prowess. Some project him to have regression, he might but IMO it'd be slight. Gordon on the other hand IMO in the MiLB wasn't that great as a INF. It wasn't until he was converted to the OF that he became a MLBer. Trying to reverse him back into the INF was a big mistake because not only his adaptation at those positions were bad his offense dropped off. I hope that with their analytics they can see it & keep him our out of the INF.

I was bummed out to hear you said that. MIA was focusing on upgrading at SS & catcher & that's the areas that they were willing to trade for one of their SPs. IMO only the offense from SS & catcher trade will land you one of these players. MIA is looking for an upgrade at catching Betancourt is not much of an upgrade. IMO it's leverage to negogiciate with serious clubs & IMO they should be open to negociate for a catcher if the right deal comes along. FO is good at waiting for teams come to them but is really very bad when it comes to be proactive when the opportunity is there. I hope they prove me wrong. Maybe MIA'll do the same thing at SS & if don't get the offer they want. They keep all their pitchers. It's not the 1st time that it has happen. IMO MIA won't trade a SP just for a non SS/ Catcher big bat. Unless it's a pretty good deal on a CFer.

Putting all sarcasm aside. Because I think some people would really get confused reading your blog. If Flavey has 0 to say about the the Twins '24 budget how much do you think that Correa has? minus something. Levine comment about Correa is only meant as they'd favor his opinion when needed as I hope they talk with Pablo Lopez about MIA's SPs that are up for trade, that's it. I agree with Brandon that we can do some Lopez type trades that can fills our holes & significantly upgrade our team w/o any significant losses & w/o touching any FAs

Very interesting, Just think of the team we would have had if we still had Santana, the concussions problems that effected our top players starting with Morneau, that really hurt and losing Nathan all elite players. Very impressive what they did w/o them. The 2 players that really stuck out to me, were Thome & Valencia (I had high hopes for him).

I believe Yamamoto will get at least $300MM, crazy!

Great job Ted! What has held Martin back isn't himself it has been miss evaluation. He was a 3B man at Vandy, normally prospects go down positional wise not go up, Yet Toronto & MN persisted him being a SS, they should have known right away the he wasn't a SS, that took time away from him to learn CF. Martin has a natural line drive swing that could hit home runs. MN tried to covert him into a slugger, big mistake, it threw him off. When Martin reverted back to himself things changed. Even when he doesn't hit HRs he often stretches singles into doubles, double into triples (not sure if he has turned a triple into a HR but he surely can) by taking that extra base & stealing. He's an OB machine by not being afraid to get HBP or taking BBs. During AFL Martin was out hitting Julien until he got HBP. He still had a very good showing at the AFL also showcasing his potential of playing CF. IMO Martin will have a very good ST but knowing the Twins he'll be sent down. IMO Twins will be careful with Buxton & Buxton won't start out at CF & Castro & Gordon will cover there but Martin will be promoted soon not because Castro or Gordon would be that bad but Martin will shine at AAA. Martin has the talent, spunk & grit to play in the MLB & thrive. He's a classic lead off hitter.