Doctor Gast

Wallner has a lot of raw talent (speed & strong arm) that hasn't been developed yet, which is a shame at this stage. Nevertheless he still that potential and would be a waste at 1B. If he can get a better feel for the OF (getting reads, etc.) he'll be invaluable.

Thanks Nick, always enjoy your perspective. Alex Kiriloff is the only one that Twins have given much time at 1B, except Sabato (which probably won't see any MLB time) . The others the Twins haven't been worried about it, that they can easily transition. (Except for full time 1B like Sabato, the Twins like to throw hopeful catchers there). Which is fine with me because Arraez who had 0 experience at 1B and is less athletic was able to transition on the fly & did fine. So those who are more experienced, more athletic & bigger should be better. Yet, I'd still like them see more time at 1B especially Julien. 1B isn't such a premium position IMO we have abundance of adequate depth there. For a long time I believe that Kiriloff won't make the active roster breaking camp. Because he started swinging late and they want to take him slow.

I felt the same way Luke and was disappointed when he was sent down. It's a big question mark in what happen. IMO he wasn't happy here and wasn't handled right in a few aspects. If he could have adapted quicker and everything worked out better. He'd have been awesome in '19.

I get more excited over the defensive play that Celestino made than a towering solo moonshot. Having Cave in CF those years made me a big Celestino fan. Besides his glove he proved that he can hit the 1st part of last season but not the stamina to sustain it at the MLB level, which will come. He'll still get plenty of time to tear up AAA, while maturing.

I've been on the Jeffers trade train for sometime now when his trade value was up there. I've never seen him as a starting catcher. His trade value still isn't too bad, we should trade him before his value is almost worthless and pick up a decent MLB ready prospect from PIT, LAA or LAD to be mentored by Vazquez.

I've checked different '23 MLB mock drafts. A lot of these players are all over the place but Langford is pretty constant at #3 some at #1. So at this point we may have a better chance getting Skenes or even Dollander over Langford. But it's still early, it'll be exciting. Plus you never know how PIT will draft.

I haven't seen a lot of Jeffers behind the plate. When Vasquez leaves for WBC, I imagine we'll see a lot of Jeffers there. Just wondering how bad they're going to run on him. IMHO Jeffers could become a liability. We'll see. In house through out the organization catching has been neglected, unfortunately. We have a couple lower level but it might take awhile if ever they make MLB. Catching is a premium position that deserves our focus.

Julien had a great start with bat to begin ST but IMO it has cooled off a bit to think of him at DH and he's behind position players at 2B & 1B. Send him to AAA to perfect his 1B. He's on the 40 man so he'll be up when he mashes AAA and when there's an opening.

Really sad to hear about Martins injury. I love his hitting, his spark on the bases and his upward trend. He could make an impact on the Twins very soon. His injury so soon makes me skeptical and make me anxious to get that TJ while he's not needed. But I hope you're right, Minny and that he can back strong soon & hope to see him play some OF. Sorry I don't have that book.

What team does he pitch for?

Love the idea of long relief. Hope Baldelli can figure how to use them. Because he sure was lost in how to use Dobnak. We have some pretty good candidates that can come into a game and keep us it. If we have to have Pagan, we can use him for any mop ups innings.

"I would say, we’d play Buck — and I mean it — we’d play him in center field for 162 games if we could do that," Baldelli said. "What he’s going to need as the season goes on, nobody knows the answer to that. So we’re going to react to whatever he needs, and we’ll give him that." I like Baldelli answer. I don't like any preset answer. You have to play it by ear & plan for the maximium usage. Practically all of Gallo's DRS was gained at the corner OF spot not CF so he should be excluded from this list. Put Gordon there instead.

Gophers played a great game against #4 Ole Miss. In the beginning I thought that Ole Miss was going to run away with it, only for MN came back & tied it. Gopher's OFers made 3 great throw at home beating the runner 1st & 3rd were outs, the 2nd the catcher couldn't hold on. Gophers took the lead but Ole Miss came back & led 9-5 in the 9th. Gophers came back but lost 9-7. Proud of my Gophers valiant effort!

So should we try for an ace or not? How should we go about it? (cont) I think right now we can sit pat with what we have. IMO we can get by in the regular season very easily with what we have. But if you are desperate for an ace right now the least expensive route is signing Trevor Bauer. IMO isn't a bad option. Bauer is very debatable which has been debated here extensively. He'll be cheap, if he doesn't work out we can let him go w/o being out much but if he does work out we could have our ace to start the post season. If we can wait until next year, our next core will start to be MLB ready then we can trade some of our regulars that these prospects can replace (for example unfortunately Polanco). 2 yrs. ago I advocated trading Maeda, Kiriloff & Jeffers in a 3 way trade for Castillo, IMO CIN would have gone for it. I also advocated for Musgrove (PIT).

"For starters, the draft and development approach hasn’t worked out especially well." Agreed we seem to have difficulty to draft & develop our own pitching prospects into frontline pitchers much less aces. So what is the big deal to trade away pitching prospect that might not develop into anything. Odds are great that they won't be an ace and if they do amount to anything it'll be a number of years down the road before they make any impact for someone that will make an impact now. "Trading for established starters (Gray, Mahle, Maeda) has hurt the farm system, and has given the team a bevy of good, but not great, starting pitchers." Agreed trading for Maeda cost us our top MLB ready pitching prospect Graterol. Although it was a fair trade, we could have done much better because LAD was very motivated to trade Maeda. But like Mahle we traded away 2 big bats that wouldn't be able to crack the Twins roster so I don't believe we hurt our farm system, again gaining a needed impact SPs. "What the Twins do have, is a glut of high-minors bats who could help a team as soon as this year in Austin Martin, Matt Wallner, Royce Lewis, Ed Julien and Brooks Lee." These guys are our near future core which we should not traded away for any reason. These guys are athletic 5 tools or almost near 5 tool guys. It's unfortunate that Matt Wallner has not develop his raw talent of speed, power & arm thru his years of college & in the Twins system. I'd love to have Tori Hunter spend some quality time with him, to teach him how to read the ball, get a jump on it and even help his swing so that doesn't SO so often. So should we try for an ace or not? How should we go about it?

With the new trainer & depth, any players in doubt of injury will be taken slowly & treated correctly. That should allowing our key players be healthy towards the end of the season.

For being short Sandy Valespino could really jump. I will always remember that catch that he made. I was in awe because I thought it was gone. Also I remember watching it with Dad.

I have to give Baldelli credit for bringing Molitor in to help out with base running techniques, hopefully they'll take advantage of it. My preference is to have a bench coach as the analytical one to help support the manager with info to make decisions. What I have against both Molitor & Baldelli is that they over rely on short relief which causes the BP to blow up. I contribute that for those long years of not winning a post season game. Because the rotation & BP are shot when that time comes around. I really like our chances of winning a post season game because of the depth of the rotation & BP especially if they follow thru this time with long relief.

Like I said he had no choice of sticking at catcher, it was OF or nothing. But of course that is the question that should be asked when contacting Langford, are you open to catching? My feeling is he'd be all for it. Like I said primarily, Skenes is my 1st choice but my feeling is he'll be gone.

Lanford was a natural catcher when he came to the Gators but they had a glut at catcher & INF so they sent him to the OF where he never played before. Langford was rated #3 with possibly reaching #1. I think what's holding him back is that he's playing OF with talk of maybe playing some CF. which would hurt him in his rating because of his defense there (not that he's shabby).

Wyatt Langford is a 2020 3B/C/1B with a 6-1 220 lb. frame from Trenton, FL who attends Trenton. The primary third baseman has a strong and proportioned frame. Wyatt ran a 6.96 in the sixty yard dash. He has a methodical approach to ground balls on the infield, working through the ball and showed the ability to come in on slow rollers effectively. Behind the plate, he popped a 1.97 to second base. His footwork was short and clean with a consistent transfer and pretty accurate with his throws. Solid upside with repetitions. The right-handed hitter starts with an even base and sets himself up to torque hard when he fires. Wyatt has top of the scale bat speed with a loose swing and lots of length through contact. He has an intent based approach with the ability to drive balls to all parts of the park. Highest level hitting tools. Good student. Lanford is listed as OF, 3B, C and 1B; so he's very flexible, he's durable and a great bat that can generate a lot of power. He played a lot at catcher in HS & early summer leagues. He had some pretty good pop up times. I'd be interested in converting him back to catcher. If he comes to #5, I'd take him under this premise.

Because of past history, pundits like to link power college bats to MN. If Taylor can flash a pretty good glove & arm, I might bite. Saw Skenes pitch against Butler and I was impressed. Skenes is big, strong & dominate. He's on my wish list right now.

I share your sentiment High Heat. Very impressive rotation with Ober, Varland, SWR, Dobnak and Headrick with Sands as a spot SP. Later to be joined by Balazovik & Winder. And the line up of Larnach, Julien, Martin, Wallner, Helman and maybe Kiriloff will rehab some before being called up. Lee should be up to AAA before you know it. Saints should storm AAA.

Concur Karbo, what good is analytics if "the plan" is flawed.

Sands has no future as a SP. He could fill in as long relief if needed mainly in mop up. I couldn't tell you if he'll ever be that good.