Doctor Gast

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?

Plus Gallo & a bunch of AAAA OFers, INFers and catchers. My main concern isn't starting the season but ending the season with all our key players healthy.

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.

I believe you're right. It's very easy for young players when given an opportunity to over do it. Then having them set back because of it. I hate to see him miss precious 3B reps in ST games & practice.

Beginning of '19 our rotation was one of the best if not the best, until our BP blew up. Which has been our problem for a very long time. Our rotation & BP look much better especially the BP. The talk of long relief filling any rotation/ BP innings gap is crucial (I'm not only talking about mop up situations), which has been sorely absent these last few years. The juice ball played a big role in the bomba squad. I doubt the juiced ball will be unleashed upon the entire league again this year. The Twins have been very sloppy in fundamentals since '19 and it has shown. This year Molitor gave a seminar on base running to the players and I've been wondering if they the base coaches have been given any instructions how to send them. Because I've seen very little of it. Until the 9th inning in the TB game when Miller stole 2B then 3B. Gross was notably rattled serving a nice meatball to Keirsey Jr., Miller scored. Keirsey Jr. stole 3B & score on a errant throw, still rattled Sabato walked. Then Sabato stole 2B, advanced to 3B on a WP & scored on another errant throw. The fact that Sabato stole 2B makes me believe that the runners were stealing on their own. We were in route to lose a meaningless game but with the base running antics we won a very valuable one, if management took note. If anything I want to see from this team is for them take advantage of the rule change. Maybe form the Piranhas II and really goof up others teams game plan against us.

Thanks, I figured he was a good pick. His home state CO would have picked him up the same round if MN didn't choose him.

2020 shouldn't be any gauge to measure any pitcher's worth. With the greatly shorten season and hitter's having difficulty adjusting to covid regulations, especially with a steady diet of AL & NL Central teams. It'd be hard for Maeda to live up to his hype. I'd be happy if he could pitch over 100 innings with some decent #s.