Doctor Gast

J LO was one of our question marks. It's very encouraging that these doubts have been apparently solved. Let's hope he'll pitch great through the season.

They have Boston their next series, so they have a chance to go 13-0.

I really like Ryan and I believe he'll develop into a very good SP. But his win against HOU was against a below .500 team.

Twins has out hit their opponets 73 to 57. Which shows more the superiority of our pitching than our offensive prowess that also lacks of clutch hitting. But with the absence of Polanco & Kiriloff, a 6-3 record isn't too shabby, also fortunate facing a down HOU team helps. Hoping for a great series against CWS to go into NY pumped up. Julien hasn't been playing a good 2B, Farmer has played very well at 2B with hitting RHPs as well as LHPs and Gallo & Solano has been playing pretty well at 1B. So I'd keep Julien at AAA & have him play more 1B so if Gallo stay out longer or if they want to sub Julien at 1B instead of Gallo & keep Gallo in cOF position, Julien can step in & take over 1B & lead off. IMO Gordon plays better in the OF both defensively & offensively. Although Gordon hasn't been hitting well I'd still like to see Gordon in CF against LHPs & remove him from 2B, to see if his bat takes off.

It'll be great when Polanco comes back, so we can have his glove & LH bat at 2B. So Gordon will stay in the OF where he's more valuable to the Twins. In the mean time, Cease might give the Twins some problems but being at home could prove interesting. Looking for revenge towards the NYY. Go Twins!

Exactly, plus they have great pitching. Twins has trouble w/ great pitching, so until their clutch hitting improves. Twins will have problem with TB.

The difference between Vazquez & last season core is like night & day. Vazquez is constant dialogue with his pitchers because he has a sense of what needs to pitched & last season I did not see that. The whole rotation underacheived last season & one reason was the game calling. It's very rare that a SP will critize his receiver & some SPs will praise him even if they are not that good but Gray came out & said he did not want Sanchez. It was not because Jeffers as that good it was Sanchez was that bad. I didn't follow each & every pitcher but I did follow Archer. He basically didn't have a ST, so he mainly went with his FB/ slider which are his main pitches (which he had very good success) & gradually worked his CU back in, Eventually hitters started to be on his FB/ slider (although they didn't make good contact on them they kept fouling them off), yet by this time he got his CU working. Even though his CU wasn't his primary or even secondary pitch he was getting swings & misses w/ it. A good catcher would see Archer getting whiffs w/ his CU they'd use it as their SO pitch to get them off of his FB/ slider, therefore getting many more SOs & not drive up those fouls. pitch count and allow him to go deeper in the games. But they never used his CU as his SO pitch, they used his CU only to try to set up his FB/ slider. So hitters continued to look for Archer's FB/ slider and they continued to keep fouling them off driving up his pitch count & prevented him from going deeper. Since they grossly mishandled Archer, I presumed they grossly mishandled the entire rotation.

Last year game calling was absolutely horrible. Vazquez is vital to our pitching staff, the way he handles the pitchers. He's a big reason why the rotation is doing soooooooo well.

The way that Correa has been hitting, I think we could move him down the line up. Maybe 5th or 6th so he he can get more looks at the pitcher. Just an idea, maybe that'll wake up his bat.

Great job Hans on you insight of the game. Farmer & Solano were suppose to help us against LHPs but they have stepped up to help us against RHPs as well. Another RH hitter Vasquez, came across with two clutch hits. Buxton created an opportunity for Moran to come in to get some pitches in which Duran could come in to get the save. We had out hit HOU this time by over 3X at one time but HOU knows how to make their hits count. We are blessed to be facing HOU at this time. Lets go for a sweep, Go Twins!

I'm pretty much agreement with the consencus. Polanco in, Castro out; Kiriloff will need to earn his spot back when he does since Larnach is proving himself then I'd let Solane go. When Lewis comes back it'll be a little bit more complicated but something will work it self out.

With this strong rotation there is little need for long relief. which is a good thing because Baldelli doesn't know how to use long relief, he sometime uses a glorified short RP that pitches 2 innings. My hope for Dobnak is to keep him in AAA starting & get back to his old self so we can ship him off to CO, where they are desperate for a GB SPs. Winder has the stuff to be a SP but not the arm yet, hopefully later once he's correctly broken in. He should take over Sands place once he's 100%.

Vazquez is expected to be a pretty good defensive catcher but his hitting hasn't been shabby either. Jeffers' CS% is very low 18% while Vazquez is 34% that is almost 2X as much. Yet you say Jeffers' arm is stronger than Vazquez (I've always heard that Jeffers had a weak arm). That tells me either the way they measure arm strength is off or arm strength isn't as important as the experts say. If arm strength isn't as important than pop up time, quick release & accuracy and that's what the Twins need to focus on throughout the system. Blocking still needs to be improved. Those are 2 very important traits that need be improved on.

Our rotation is great, this the best I've seen Gray, he's a very smart SP & effecient going 7 with less than 100 pitches. Winning a walk off especially against HOU has to really boost the confidence of the team. Even so we out hit HOU 11-5, it shouldn't have been so tough. Great win at a great time with fans into the game, let's do it again today!

Tough game in St. Paul, but overhaul went well as to be expected. Noah Cardenas is on my watch list, looking for a break out. Throwing out runners will be a concern, expect the coaches really working on the pop time of all the catchers.

We could really need Julien at lead off, bring him up at 1B/ DH. 1B until Kiriloff is ready then fit him in anywhere after that mainly our LH DH.

It'll be great when Polanco comes back & get another good LH bat in the line up but should see more platooning with Farmer & Lewis when comes up. I didn't like the Gordon at 2B & Castro in LF IMO they should have been switched & they'd perform all around better in respective postions. Castro won't stay when Polanco returns hopes very soon,

It's time for the bullies get what's coming to them. They didn't look impressive against DET or CWS. We need to hit them hard & often. As our pitching will keep them down. Go Twins!

HOU & NYY haven't really been tearing it up lately either, maybe this is a good time to catch them in a low point. Polanco really looks mean, can't wait to get him back.

IMO hopefully it'll pan out close to what happen last year. The Twins have quite a few good 1st round pick possibilities depending how things shake loose. If Max Clark (#1 prep) is the top guy available, do you think the Twins would spend the extra $ to sign him to keep him from signing with Vanderbilt? or will they skip him? I'm excited about the next rankings.

Thanks Hans, you're right on. I missed your article & finally got to read it. I often get hit by fellow fans arguing stats, stats, stats. Most stats are history & are often spun. What matters more is what are the underlying conditions (positive or negative) which might or might not exists now, that drives those stats. For example I don't put a lot of stock in '20 & '19 into evaluations which a lot of people do. There are a lot of underlying conditions that some have been expressed needs to be figured in to the equation. Like intangibles, a player putting it together or player on a bad or good team when leaves his production changes.

When I saw the roster for Cedar Rapids I saw the potential problem. I'm ready to move on from Cavaco, see if we can find a taker. Probably one will get bumped up to AA soon when Lee graduates, IDK who maybe Salas & he'll get his SS reps there but I don't think he'll stick there. Miller is a stick at SS so I wouldn't mess w/ him & keep him there where his value is. I wouldn't sweat about Miller's hitting because most hitters have some trouble in low A (unless you are E Rod) due to the high level of pitching. Once someone is promoted to AA; Ross & Schobel will play more often with some reps at SS

As I mentioned prior to what you quoted. "I was going to add before but I'll add now, that when Polanco & Kiriloff come back 100% healthy that'll change the outlook quite a bit," Besides the talent, I'd also believe we need the confidence that come from reaching down & winning the tight games.

You had me going there Ted. I believe your point is to have Kepler not to swing at pitches that isn't in his hot zone, that would otherwise not produce desirable results. But unfortunately lot of those pitches that are not in his hot zone are strikes, which would produce SOs. Good hitters would not let them go by but would intentionally foul them off, while waiting for their pitch. Personally SOs drives me up the wall.

I was going to add before but I'll add now, that when Polanco & Kiriloff come back 100% healthy that'll change the outlook quite a bit,