Doctor Gast

Funny he was ranked #228 yet we picked him #114 overall. That's quite a difference.

Unfortunately, MLB still plays favorites. So they'll place which balls they want in each stadium. And still gets away with it.

Like they say BB games are won or lost in the mind. With that said we'll have to practice not to get psyched out when playing NYY & HOU. Then maybe we can win around half those games. We have a great team no reason not to.

With all the pitchers coming in and adding velo, it's concerning that Alcala's velo is down. It's still early and I'm glad they are taking it easy on Alcala, hoping he can come back 100%.

Lee has been very fortunate. The year he got hurt was during covid. Being a coach's kid he has a very good understanding of who he is. So he won't take everything in, he'll take in what is pertinent to who he is & let everything else roll off him. Plus his great ability to adapt, I expect him to have even better year. Being a switch hitter, he'll bring a great LH bat to left side of the INF. He'll be a great asset very soon. He'll settle in at 3B & be a HOF next to his name sake.

LAD had Farmer in their system and they wanted to convert him to catcher. Farmer is an adequate SS but his poor hitting against RHPs, wouldn't make him a good fulltime SS for the Twins much less LAD. And right now we need Farmer and he's not worth much in trade, so I hope we don't trade him immediately. I agree Gordon isn't a SS.

I've only seen him as long relief/ spot SP, where thrived in '22. Only when they tried to extend him in the rotation, he started to have problems w/ his shoulder. He said that he's been working on strengthening his shoulder. I'd still put him in that long relief/ spot SP role and slowly see if he can make that transition. We have a few SPs that can give us a few innings, there's no need to rush him.

Very interesting idea, I imagine you have a good view of the LAD talent, LA. I love LAD #9 catching prospect Dalton Rushing's bat & arm but I'd like him to be more agile & closer to MLB ready. Even if LAD are desperate, we won't get much for Farmer. Furthermore, Farmer's immediate INF depth especially at SS is crucial for the Twins. Who knows after Lewis rejoins the Twins and the opportunity is still there, I'd be all in.

"In September and an appearance in October, after spending most of August in Triple-A, Moran showed signs of improving his command and control while maintaining his elite strikeout numbers. In 14 ⅓ innings, he still had an elite K/9 of 11.3 and a very good 1.88 BB/9, leading to a minuscule FIP of 1.78." No matter the small sample size, we know he has it in him. He says he'll have an impact on the '23 Twins, I believe him.

I'm a big fan of the Farmer trade. Before that we were starving for quality INF depth. SS we had nobody, I deemed Gordon & Martin not adequate, Lewis & Lee not ready. 3B we have Miranda that played hardly any MLB 3B. 2B we have Polanco which the Twins want to take slowly, behind him we had nobody (Martin has shown himself worthy in ST, but there was doubts before and depending on debuting rookies never bode well with Twins). With Farmer we secured ourselves a starting SS. I never considered him as our fulltime SS, if we didn't land Correa (which seemed very unlikely), I'd bring in a LH bat Guillorme (NYM) that'd provide us with terrific tandem & the minimum INF depth. W/o Farmer to set the floor in the beginning, FO would be scrambling to find someone at the end. And we all know how ugly that can get. Farmer should played against every LHP and because of our lack of LH bats on the left side of the INF he'll see some RHPs. His durability is a big plus.

I love Julien & Martins trajectory. With all the base running training we had it's kinda disappointing that there has only been 4 SB attempts in 5 games, 3 successful. This is where we need to really break loose & let things fly in ST.

This is early ST so I'm happy with Pablo and Kepler progress yet it's time to work things out & get in a groove. Still a lot of ST games left to do that.

I believe Larnach will make it, he has the talent. Twins have seen his talent & have over depended on him. Therefore trying to rush him too much & too fast. This year they're not depending on him, they're taking him slow and he'll hopefully be healthy & knock down the door to the MLB. The other two I'd have liked to see something before now.

There's a hugh difference between CF to cOF. TOR 1B V. Guerrero won the GG, that doesn't mean he can be a good SS. Cave was a good cOF but he was a terrible CF. The last 3 yrs. Gallo has played 6 innings in CF where Gordon has played 244 innings, last year alone. While they both grade out at avg. in DRS & OAA at CF last year, Gallo is trending down while Gordon is trending up with only 2yrs. experience in CF ever. Of course Buxton & Taylor are the best and should play the great majority of time in CF but if they both need a rest against some RHPs match ups, my choice is Gordon. And keep Gallo in the corners where he excels.

I'm ready for more Gordon. Which means likely not against LHPs, more often against RHPs and less often when Kiriloff & Larnach are on the 26 man. If Kiriloff doesn't make the 26 man due to being held back, Gordon might make the LH bat choice at 1B if they they want to keep Gallo in the OF. Yet I'd prefer Gordon over Gallo in CF.

He'd turn down that BAFO, because he's sure that other better contending teams can do better.

I think it'd Lopez, primarily because he has had a head start getting ready for WBC. But still it could depend if he'd get enough rest prior to slot into there.

The Twins have suffered for many years with a chasm between comfortable innings for SPs and short relief. The result has been over depending on some short RPs and over extending them , then going to poor secondary short RPs options & finally over-extending the SPs. Resulting in blow outs of primary BP and rotation going into the post season with 0 post season wins for how many years? The solution has always been long relief which has never been correctly incorporated. Dobnak entered the '21 season with a great ST & new SO slider. Dobnak talent was his high GB rate but they wanted to convert him into a SO pitcher. Instead of having him slowly incorporate that new SO slider in key SO situations they had him use that pitch on a constant basis. He couldn't maintain that firm grip & left that pitch hanging & got hammered until it totally screwed up his middle finger. I'd debate that Dobnak should've been brought in as a SP (w/o the focus on his new pitch) or at least bring him in a long relief situation where he could win a game not as mop up or high leverage in the experimental "ghost runner". Mop up should should be designated to losers which can not be trusted with any other situation, where Pagan would be a good candidate. Until they can show otherwise. '22, FO suggested a piggy-back strategy (a form of long relief) which was a great idea because of probably our greatest chasm ever between short relief and SPs. But it was never incorporated which resulted again in injuries, ineffectiveness & lost games. Now we probably have the smallest gap we've had for years but long relief is still a good idea to be a safe guard. & coming from Baldelli, I'm more hopeful that it'd finally happen. Winder & Sanchez has proven to be a good long relief/ spot SP and Sands in a less demanding role. If Ober, Varland or SWR can adapt to long relief it'd be a good spring board to get extra MLB innings in.

I'm probably little bias but to me it seemed like the umps were calling a lot of balls for strikes against the Twins especially the rookies (Julien) and strikes for balls for the Phillies. I can't wait for the robo umps. Soto had a great game (my 1st take was when did we picked him up?).

Sorry Cody, I don't like the term position-less players when describing players like Lewis. Because it's not true, they are multi-positional. If their main position is blocked then they jump to another one. To me a position-less player is someone who can hit & can play 1B/ DH but if their position is blocked so they're stuck. But I know what you mean, yet that's a little different from drafting a big bat at SS or CF knowing full well they won't stick. We have to draft athletic types that can field because if we draft a big bat that can't hit, they're stuck in the lower levels.

Great to see Maeda have a decent game. Gordon's bat came alive for a triple. Although I was surprised to see Gordon at SS later I realized that Gordon is probably our 3rd SS before Lewis comes back. IF something happens to Correa & Farmer we're hurting. I'd also like to see how Farmer responds at catcher. If Vasquez gets laid up we could be in a big mess. It was good to see our prospect out on the field. As much I enjoyed Martin on the field, I was hoping he'd be used primarily in the OF to learn the MLB ropes, We have plenty of back up at 2B and Martins future is in the OF not 2B. Just as well start & keep him there as a RH bat for next year.

It took Thielbar to leave MLB, but he never gave up baseball. He figured it out playing small ball. . Some find the key early, some later & some give up & never do. Fortunately Thielbar never gave up & he came back on the Twins radar & is pitching his best stuff for us. Have another great season Caleb!

I was surprised that Arraez led the list of DHing. IMO Gallo, Kepler and Polanco will not see much time at DH

It usually doesn't take much to make a great difference. IMO the changes that Ryan has made will make a big difference. There very little difference between #1- #4, right now I place Ryan at #4 but I can see a lot of jockeying around. like the beginning of '19, Berrios, Odorizzi, Gibson, Perez & Pineda were all having great success each were feeding off each other it was exciting. I believe the same throughout for this season if they are managed right.

Very solid roster Stringer and pretty close to what they'll select. Mine would be a little different. But I'm going a long the lines of TopGun & Doc Bauer except I'd have Ober in the BP to piggy-back with Maeda. I like what they are doing with the position players in being more cautious. Yet our biggest injury & efficiency problems IMO weren't with position players but with SPs. In the beginning of last season they had Bundy on a limited innings, he pitched great. Bundy cried out I feel great, give me more innings and I cried out no, no you are at where should be. They gave him more innings & he never returned to the same efficiency. Just because Maeda says he's fine doesn't mean that we start with the same load as the year he got hurt. I believe it prudent to be cautious with Maeda. I don't want to send Ober back to AAA. I want to start him slow & regular in long relief at the MLB level.