Doctor Gast

It's a little disappointing that Rosario is our #11 top prospect but it's the result of this FO's priority in hitter preference & lack of priority of defense & athleticism.

Although I criticize the hitting philosophy, I like how Popkin has helped the team with pitch recognition & laying off bad pitches that leads to more walks.

Rowson became the Twins hitting coach in 2017. The organization had decided to send Buxton down but Rowson stepped in & basically said "over my dead body!" Rowson personally knew each player & tried to find out what was best for each player. That's what I liked most about him, standing up for his players & personally customize each players swings.

Gordon lack of production in the beginning of '23 was an extention of their experiment of trying to play Gordon in INF. Often FO overlook poor production if it's their idea & good production from someone like Castro.

The Twins made 0 effort to draft a college catcher of any signifance.

I still have hope that Miranda can turn it around & be impactful at 1B. But IMO Miranda will have to come out of gates hitting like gang-busters in ST. The only problem with that is that Miranda is usually a slow starter. Cosetti has a great bat & graduated to High A but IMO his defensive is lacking.

When you mentioned Astros & CF. My ears perked up because I love the way HOU develop their hitters & a true CFer could help out. But his SOs is probably why they want to unload him & why MN would be interested. He could become another MAT. The only RP that is close to Myers is Moran. & that would be an overpay for MN if they are motivated maybe a Winder which they would overpay more. Because of the fact that they've mentioned that Myers is available & MN is a possible trade partner seems like to me that HOU has someone in mind from MN. I wouldn't mind either way because of the glove but I think we could squeeze by with Castro, Gordon, & Martin until Buxton is ready. But if we get another '23 Buxton we better get a Myers & figure out the mess later. PS- paying for someone to take away our truly top defensive catcher doesn't make sense to me.

As I thought LAA would be motivated to trade Quero. Here's our competitor stealing Quero away from LAA. There was no cash involved, here it was added so the trade could be accepted by the system. https://www.baseballtradevalues.com/trades/115327 We could have offered Maeda & a RP to get only Edgar Quero & could have been accepted. It's a lesson of evaluating our need, look for an opportunity & ceasing it. Something I'd like to see this FO to be more proactive in. The way that CWS have been proactive in these trades lately. The Twins will regret for not being so. At least some fans will be very disappointed.

First, I congratulate Sonny Gray for coming in 2nd in the CY & thank you for what you accomplished as a Twin. As expected Gray turned down the Twins QO. In this thread I like to show how Gray should appreciate the Twins. Below is a '21 comparison between Gray & Mahle before the '22 offseason Name G GS W L PCT ERA SV IP H ER R HR BB SO Sonny Gray 26 26 7 9 .438 4.19 0 135.1 115 63 67 19 50 155 Tyler Mahle 33 33 13 6 .684 3.75 0 180.0 158 75 78 24 64 210 Here we see that Mahle was a better pitcher than Gray going into the '22 off season. Better record, better ERA & pitched more innings. In the 1st half of the '22 season, Gray pitched 63 innings & Mahle pitched 96 innings. The Reds pushed Mahle & his arm fell off (figuratively speaking) when the Twins got him. Let's supposed that roles were switched that Mahle was traded in the offseason to the Twins & Sonny stayed with Reds to be traded at the deadline. With the Reds wanting to showcase Gray they'd (with Gray's blessing) over-stretch him like Mahle. I'd imagine that Gray's arm would also fall off & prematurely ruin his chances to have anything to show coming into free agency, let alone 2nd in the CY. It'd be very hard to forecast what Mahle could have accomplished if he was properly managed by the Twins if he was traded in the off season. But he could have been just as good. So Gray has a lot to thank the Twins for properly managing him against his stern grievances. And how grateful do you think Sonny should be?

Thanks Rik. I agree with you that this idea is ridiculous. I'm not even sure if E Rod can stick at CF let alone be rushed up. That'd be disasterous. This Longonhagen guy doesn't know what he's talking about. It might look good on his paper but in reality it doesn't make sense at all.

As always, I appreciate your reasonable response Doc. I agree with you that Julien looked hesitant & sloppy at 2B at the beginning but that's just nerves from playing an unnatural position at the MLB level. Yet that's not what I'm talking about. In my book a defensive position up the middle (CF, SS or 2B) the prerequisite is range. If they don't have adequate range then they are disqualified. If they have the range then the rest can be learned. Julien doesn't have the range that I'd like for a 2B man. Many people like place players in position not according to their defensive abilities but how their bats play there. I disagree. I really don't like the idea of Julien being our main 2B man. We'll face in majority RHPs & I'd play Julien mainly there at 1B because AK can play OF & in the beginning AK might be taken easy. I'd try to get their bats in the line-up on a constant basis especially against RHPs.

I've heard that the MIA won't listen to any trades unless it includes a viable catcher.

If Nick hadn't broken his bone, Castro would have been stuck in AAA & not able to shine & probably let go. But the rest is history. I like Gordon is liked by the team but Castro is more needed & ranks over Gordon. Gordon's LH bat is valuable to many teams but although there'd be interest in Gordon, I agree we won't get much for him but he might be a deal maker, throw in in a bigger deal.

Thanks Seth! That's what I think, I've been high on him, I was hoping somehow the Twins could make an attempt of attaining him.

We have a great crop of young talent in the MLB & about to break into. IMO some of these ETAs are aggressive because of lack of openings. For some of these ETAs to come true there has to be some injuries (I hope not) or a few cases that they are breaking down the doors, the FO will try to hold them back a little or if they are really breaking down the doors a trade will happen.

Thanks Seth for another interesting & well explained article. My hope is that they bring all of them back but with lower than expected salaries. I think all of them would want to return. Gordon has proven to be a good OF that can produce out there but his INF leaves something to be desired & his production drops there. Keep him in the OF. He might get traded because Castro can do things better than him defensively & be redundant. Farmer impresses me. To get hit in the face with a FB & return w/o missing a step, WOW. We need him not only his bat & glove but also his presence, even if we don't trade Polanco but especially if we do. He can adequately sub SS, 3B, 2B, 1B & catcher in a pinch

The '19 Twins & NYY success was the juiced ball & their slump was the removal of it & the new adrinalin high that encouraged their organizations to go all out on the focus of HRs. The '22 resurgence of the NYY was the constant supply of juiced & goldilocks balls that were fed to them. The NYY can continue down this same road of philosophy as long they aren't specially treated w/ spiked balls. Twins I hope get off this HR highs. I don't care how many HRs they get in insignificant times when pitchers are more often to make mistakes & still lose. It's not about striking out in crucial times when the pitcher is focused, it's about getting a hit that helps wins the game. I wish Rowson luck & freedom to coach the hitters as he see fit, although I'd prefer it as a Twin. As for Popkin, it seems I read an article that he was working with Gallo before ST, to help him to change his swing when he had 2 strikes (which I was impressed). I think this constant all or nothing hitting philosophy is more FO idea than Popkins. Popkin is just following orders.

Ist I congratulate Sonny Gray for coming in 2nd in the CY & thank you for what you accomplished as a Twin. As expected Gray turned down the Twins QO. In this thread I like to show how Gray should appreciate the Twins. Below is a '21 comparison between Gray & Mahle before the '22 offseason Name G GS W L PCT ERA SV IP H ER R HR BB SO Sonny Gray 26 26 7 9 .438 4.19 0 135.1 115 63 67 19 50 155 Tyler Mahle 33 33 13 6 .684 3.75 0 180.0 158 75 78 24 64 210 Here we see that Mahle was a better pitcher than Gray going into the '22 off season. Better record, better ERA & pitched more innings. In the 1st half of the '22 season, Gray pitched 63 innings & Mahle pitched 96 innings. The Reds pushed Mahle & his arm fell off (figuratively speaking) when the Twins got him. Let's supposed that roles were switched that Mahle was traded in the offseason to the Twins & Sonny stayed with Reds to be traded at the deadline. With the Reds wanting to showcase Gray they'd (with Gray's blessing) over-stretch him like Mahle. I'd imagine that Gray's arm would be in worse condition & prematurely ruin his chances to have anything to show coming into free agency, let alone 2nd in the CY. It'd be very hard to forecast what Mahle could have accomplished if he was properly managed by the Twins if he was traded in the off season. But he could have been just as good. So Gray has a lot to thank the Twins for properly managing him against his stern grievances.

Excellent foresight! One that give us optimium production & results, one that I share & hope this FO shares but seems not. Yes that's 3yrs away & most likely eased into it with C4's mentoring. I can get excited about Miller We have a 1B dilema & where do we put Julien? Why don't we put him in his natural position? 1B. Problem solved.

It seems that you're not very high on Jefferson Quero (MIL). Do you think that MIL is open to trade him?

Thank you for enlightening me

If you trade Vazquez you are paying someone to take our 1st class defensive catcher for maybe a 3rd rate catcher. A cheap catcher will not get you anything & maybe does not improve much over Carmargo. Jeffers is far from an elite catcher. which I doubt can repeat this years limited hitting success.

Gallo & Severino are the type of hitters this FO are enamored with. Gallo was a waste of money & time. The fact that they selected Severino before Martin & ERod to put on the 40 man, tells me that they value Severino and will give him every opportunity to make it to MLB. Do I agree with them? no. I love the fact that he's switch hitter & hopes he makes the MLB but I would keep Severino in AAA until he cleans up his SOs.

In '21 they were in hurry to get rid of Rosario & Larnach, Kiriloff & Cave were to man LF & sub CF. In spring training they all were bad but they were determined to push them through. None of them stuck & we had to convert Robsnyder & Gordon from INF to OF & rush Celestino. They did better than expected but it was a disaster. '22 Lewis broke MLB subbing Correa & shone. But Lewis is a different animal. My opinion is different, that INF isn't very deep. If we trade Polanco & Farmer as advocated, we have Lewis (3B) Correa (SS) Julien (2B) with Castro as sub, I wouldn't like him there very often. And Castro could be very busy playing CF. I wouldn't trust rushing Lee transition to MLB. In this scenario our INF takes a huge drop in quality. Where our defense need to be top to compete. Vazquez helped to turn our rotation from around the middle of the pack to top tier the big difference is his handling of the pitchers. Our catching went from the toilet to the middle of the pack. If we trade him the Jeffers/ Carmargo tandem could take us back to the toilet. I don't trust Carmargo's limited successs in AAA will transition well in MLB. I think Martin could be productive in the MLB. We have to see how well he does in Spring Training. I still won't trust him full time in CF until Buxton is ready to take over. All three areas are extremely important, any deductions from them will affect the competitiveness of our team.

I expect a lot of innings from Lopez, Ryan & Ober have another year under their belts so I expect them to support their workload better, If we pick up another Lopez type trade that would be great. Paddack & Varland should be taken slower to maximize their potential. Again long relief should be implemented & used regularly with spot starting roles. Paddack, Varland, Headrick, SWR, Festa, & Winder are good candidates. If Dobnak turns things around better could figure into the mix.