Doctor Gast

Carmargo is not a fast riser, therefore it'll take awhile for him to adjust to the MLB. Although I like Carmargo's arm better than Jeffers still Carmargo's defense is not that great. Carmargo could be a good 3rd string MLB catcher but not backup. With Jeffers arm & averageish defense, I've always considered Jeffers as backup catcher that can run into a hitting streak here & there. Vazquez is a starting catcher that I expect his hitting will rebound this coming season. As of right now we are not over the minimal estimated reduced budget. That means forget about FAs & focus on trades (that's where the opportunity is at). That way we aren't forced to cut neccessary salary. To obtain a SP to replace Gray we need to trade players who have topped out with pretty good trade value. Jeffers IMO is one of the best candidate. Then I'd look for an eliteish MLB catching prospect to significantly upgrade our catching future. I didn't agree w/ the salary they gave Vazquez but that's what FO deemed fair. But Vazquez mentoring an elite catching prospect for 2 yrs, he'd be worth every penny & then some.

I for one will hate to see Kepler leave. If we keep him this year, he'll be our best cOF by having a constantly good season. But odds are that'll be gone the last day of ST like Rogers. Hope they find a good home for him (not NYY, unless Rowson can revolutionize their hitting philosophy).

We largely won the division because of the hiring of Paparesta & listening to him. Our biggest problem in the past was the over-extending of players, they became ineffective, hurt & then ran to the ground & in the 2nd half into the PS they were shot and then blamed it on rotten luck. Next was finally finding a true CF to sub Buxton and this year proved especially important. The FO believes a position is determined by his bat, not his glove. According to them Cave was a great Buxton sub & was very hesitant to move him off the position & Polanco was a great SS. Thirdly, was the hiring of Vazquez which IMO Correa had a lot to do with. Vazquez raised the catching staff from the toilets to average and helped raise the pitching staff from average to top tier. Fourthly. Royce Lewis. He bucked the hitting philosophy & lit the ballpark on fire. This FO inherited a top-tier catching staff. 1st Castro/ Garver, later Garver/ Jeffers/ Rortvedt. I supposed that they thought a top-tier catching staff was too much of a luxury so they totally dismantled it. Because backup Jeffers embraced their hitting philosophy they decided to go all in on him, '22 was the result of that. Twins like to serve us their Kool-Aid like the long list of injuries year after year is just rotten luck, defense isn't important. Cave is a great CF sub, and Polanco is a great SS, These ideas were changed because writers & fans challenged these ideas, they didn't drink the Kool-Aid. CF, SS & catcher are premium positions we need to be deep in quality players at these positions throughout the organization. We have absolutely no catchers of value in our system, our best hope are still years away. Jeffers isn't a great catcher, IMO he's not a starting catcher, definitely not worth totally depending on him for the next 5+ yrs w/o having any decent backup plan. Our catching situation is dire & nothing will change if we keep drinking the Kool-Aid that Jeffers is a great catcher. Actually, things will get worse because that perception will lead us to lose Vazquez. We should have traded for an elite catching prospect back when they dismantled our top tier catching corp. So please stop drinking the Kool-Aid.

Trading Vazquez still makes no sense as far as cutting the budget. You'll end up paying someone to take him plus paying a Leon type to fill in as backup. Any savings would be minimal the difference in overall loss in talent would be Immense.

IDK I could be wrong but LAA is a big market team that likes to throw big money at players like Trout, Ohtani & Rendon. It's hard for me to believe that LAA pitchers don't have access to top analytical equipement. MIA & PIT are small market but even PIT is trying to improve.

You'd think so, but after this FO was showered with accolades in '19 for breaking the MLB season HR record (largely due to the juiced ball) by focusing on big bats, it all went to their heads & they got their "high", It's like being hooked on a drug. you have no sense of reality. you constantly search down the same avenue to try to regain the same feeling,

I don't trust this FO to get this right. My hope is Correa, who is stuck here & wants to win, would sit down & have a serious conversation with this FO to set them straight. Because IMO this FO is more concerned about having the appearance of being smart than winning.

What are these teams need? & how do these proposed trades meet those needs. How do we know that they'd be interested in what we have to offer? But it's a nice try.

Prerequisite is that they can really play CF not only CF is on their resume`. That leaves us with Dylan Carlson or Mickey Moniak. I'm leaning towards Carlson. I like how STL develop their defense.

Polanco was scouted as above avg. speed for SS which has quickness & athleticism. But Polanco didn't have the arm or ankles to play the left side. Yet that's where he played & suffered for several years & having ankle surgeries after some painful seasons. Polanco played hurt most of his career not because he's injury prone but because he wasn't allowed time off to heal which plagued his fielding & hitting. When playing healthy his #s reflected it. In '23 he didn't have ST when he started up he wasn't 100% & his #s reflected that but as he progressed in his recovery, conditioning, vamping up to find his rythym his #s trended upward. In '24 he should be 100% & able to play above average 2B & that's where he should play if he's not traded. IMO it's a waste to have him play 1B & he's not tall enough to profile at that position.

Thank you Greg. It was a very sad day when they traded Dozier. Dozier gave his heart & soul to the Twins, often playing hurt, What hurt more was that they got nothing from the talent rich Dodgers. IMO Dozier's decline wasn't age. it was a broken heart. He wanted to be lifelong Twin, they should accommendated him. If they had handled Martin differently he'd be up here already. If they stick with Martin, he'll give great dividends as also SWR eventually contribute. Looking back this FO hasn't done as well as I thought in this area.

My thoughts exactly. IMO the greatest mistake the Twins made in the post season was to bench Vazquez. Vazquez has a lot of positive post season experience that'd rise to the occassion & Jeffers would be lost. Vazquez is a gamer like Correa who'd want catch great majority of games but saw his playing time diminish. But this was a slap in the face to a proud Vazquez, who should have caught the great majority of the games in the PS. I'd understand if Vazquez wouldn't want to play here with everything that had unfolded & the prospect to play 2nd fiddle to Jeffers in '24 and I wouldn't blame him. Yet I'd hate to see them trade him & our catching return to the toilets. & our rotation digress. FO has made many bad decisions about our catching; concerning short past, present & future. If they want to compete present & future they have to rethink their catching strategy & raise their standards.

I like how you brought up Donaldson to remind us how this FO after striking out signing any viable FA SP, that they back track to Donaldson to try appease the fanbase. We could use another Nellie Cruz type hitter to fill in at 1B because DH is taken unfortunately. Especially because of the budget squeeze, I'd rather roll with some kind of Julien, Kiriloff, Miranda, Farmer or even Buxton combination & spend the money else where.

In cOF we have Kepler, Wallner, Castro, Gordon, Larnach & Kiriloff all capable, proven & bat LH. We aren't deep in this area? Don't shout too loud this FO will resign Gallo. I don't think FO are interested in offering Kepler QO next year, In 2022 we were desperate in the BP. Yet we traded our only proven closer Rogers (because it was his last year of availibity) & took a risk on very risky unproven Duffy & proven terrible Pagan & it all proven absolutely disasterous. Although Kepler is our best cOF, we are deep enough where this FO will move Kepler (not that I agree) with any offer close to their liking unless another FO will offer them a deal they can't refuse on one of the other cOFs.

Kepler is a very good hitter that was hit by a triple whami, switching a juiced ball for a dead ball, pitchers adjusting to the elevated swing & the shift, Although Kepler tried to adjust, it was insurmountable & his production tanked, Now at least the absent of the shift, Kepler was able to find his swing. Now that he's found his swing the real Kepler is back. For his last year, his trade value is reasonable. I don't think the Twin will want to offer Kepler a QO, so they are motivated to deal him but maybe a short reasonable extention if they don't get the deal they want.

I don't think SEA will buy into that Polanco is a 3B man. They're not that dumb.

When I saw this article my gut said no. Then I read Swimbo's comment, then I knew it was his delivery. Welcome Swimbo to TD.

I agree that your eyes can deceive you when watching TV or don't catch everything. Many elite CF can make difficult catches look routine & many below average OF can dive for a ball that you see on the camera at the end of a play & everybody thinks that he just made a wonderful play but when you see the whole play you discovered that this guy just dived for a routine fly ball. I agree that we have much more sophisticated methods to find more correct & precise data like range (range factor/9 innings last year; Julien's was 3.67. The league average was 4.06) & catch probablity which I think is absolutely fantastic! But these absolute stats are rarely used. Some people prefer to use complicated stats with bias baked into them to prove their point. Let me use a simple example that I can even understand. Scouting Grades you have Hit-Power-Run-Arm-Field. One prospect example has Field 50 (yet he can play any position on the field including pitcher & plays CF, SS & catcher very well)- Arm 70- Run 60 (not taking into account that he's a catcher)- Hit 50 (college .388/.426 OBP- milb .350/ .408) & Power 40 (college slg .509- milb slg .600, OPS 1,008). Just looking at the score & everything is equal you'd think his overall score would be the mean of the combined score which would be around 55 which is a pretty good prospect but his overall scouting grade is 45 which tells you he's not that good. He was penalized in his hitting, power & overall because he was a line drive hitter, although his #s were great. Because there's a heavy bias towards HR hitters. FOs love to serve writers a lot of their bias hype & stats & they go on X (Twitter) & serve it to everybody that follow them. And that where too many people get there info from & think it's unbias facts. X is a platform where everyone is pushing their agenda. I don't follow Twitter. I try to keep an open mine. You say #s don't lie but #s can be manipulated, incomplete, not taken in account underlying conditions to push a certain point of view.

Just curious will you be doing deadline - trading vets for prospects which IMO is this FO preference? Or maybe you have.

Manoah is very intriquing. I hope that he's fixable that getting away from the shadow of NYY & big media to a friendly MN would do it. And TOR could be motivated, But I'm scared that like J Lopez it might not work. Like Yogi said baseball is 90% mental, the other half is talent.

Catching is a premium position & Mauer is one of the best in most aspects at catching. He took a lot of pride in his defense because he had to work at it, hitting came more naturally. The Twins raked while he was catching until he got hurt (wish he hadn't). Catching is much more important than many care to believe. Unless you hit a bunch of HRs you don't rate. I wish we had another Mauer right now.

I believe he has the record for the highest BA & OBP for a catcher in a season also

Very interesting, I haven't come across any PIT website lately but I've heard that the fans like Polanco & that they serious to compete. While interacting with a Buc fan though it seems that they are more serious about is SPing so it's hard for me to see them letting Keller go.

Not on my team.

I'm not saying his hitting can't get better by striking out less, he may even hit a couple of more HRs or that he can't field better balls that are hit at him. I'm saying that he could improve a little on what he has done but his trade value will not be significantly effected. And the normal tendency would be that it'd trend lower. Middle fielder criteria on defense is range, Julien doesn't have range so that'd disqualifies him as a mid-fielder (2B). I don't care how good his bat is or how well he fields balls that are hit at him.