Doctor Gast

La Tortuga does have value although I believe he won't remain a Twin. Catching is a valuable asset, Astudillo could be a safety net for many teams

I like your outside the box thinking but I'd hate to lose neither Garver or Jeffers. But our greatest need is SP so I our depth at catcher and MIA need there is a perfect match. I prefer to keep Garver because he's a more established hitter and has much better arm. I'm also very high on Rortvedt but I won't thrust him in a sole starting position. I'd even hesitate to have him as the main back up right away.

Good job Mill, Like you being conscience of the 40 man roster. It'd be nice if the Twins could put together nice trading package early to get a top of the line pitcher. Then allowing more room on the 40 man to string along a little longer some of our border line prospects.

One thing you can't fault him is determination.

Thanks Neds for this blog. This is the 1st time I've notice your entrance if you are new, welcome. Our system is jam pack with these players yet last year they let a needed CF prospect (Baddo) go to add this DH type (Garlic) to the 40 man roster. This hording needs to be addressed and confronted. Although it has gotten better, our past draftees were abundant with this type. Their excuse were we can easily trade them in the future. Now they are saying nobody wants them. How can there be no market for a commodity which we are obsessed with. There has to be teams out there, like us, that don't put much importance on defense. They have been oblivious to the market and the needs of the organization. We have had many, many, too many to list opportunities which this FO have failed to pursue especially in trades. There is a market out there (though smaller than they originally expected), they just need to leave finally their comfort zone and put in the work. With the eminent DH coming to the NL, this FO needs to take the bull by the horns and take the fore front in this market. We have a lot of needs (especially SP) we can put together packages where we can slide these types into. So FO, I implore you to finally take advantage of the opportunities before you. We have a big problem with 40 man roster crunch because it is packed with this type. We are losing our needed undeveloped CF & pitcher prospects (Baddo, Wells, Clay and Colina to name a few) and it'll only get much worse if not addressed. Like you said Neds we have an abundance of candidates to fill this noncritical position. We need to trade any nonessential players that are worth anything. Arraez and Rooker are a liability on defense so they're our prime candidates. On TD report card (which was very good BTW) Arraez scored a B- while Kepler scored a C-. It's like their defense wasn't even considered. There are teams out there that do not look at defense they only look at bats. Both Arraez and Rooker have intriguing bats which would provide a decent market which in a package could net good pitching. I could go on but I think I've made my point and I wouldn't want to bore you.

I'm a big fan of Lewis, there's no doubt in my mind that he has what it takes to be a super star. 2021 was very important for Lewis, to finally get his chance at the Bigs at some time and to be mentored by the best was euphoric. To me no injury was so traumatic in 2021 for the Twins as was his. Part of his undoing was his over exuberance in his training. I think part of his maturation is to be able to discipline himself, much like Rosario needed to. I hope he comes back completely healthy, but I think it'll be a long process to get back in the groove and learn his position and to be adequate there. I don't know if a year is long enough with even a chance it might not ever happen. So I think looking at more than a year for a temporary SS might be prudent.

My feeling is that MIA would prefer trading away some one from their established rotation to make room for their upcoming talent. MIA could be a little desperate to cover some of their holes (like catching) where they'd accept a reasonable package. A package better suits us because we can help clean up our 40 man roster mess. But I'd be happy with any stud from their stable. If we can get U of M star Meyers I'd be over joyed

Love your blueprint, Cory. Love you going out and getting quality pitching via trade, I believe that's the ticket. Love that you saw all the holes and filled them. BTV is a good tool to get a general idea of trade value but teams have a little different view of player values. Arraez/ Flaherty is an overpay but STL really loves Flaherty so it going to take an overpay. There are other options with MIA and OAK that also could be pursued. The way that you approached this, is spot on. As you say it's flexible, you can substitute the players with other comparable names and it still works and you balanced the budget. If I was the owner of the Twins, I'd hire you to be my FO. I don't trust this FO to be as creative as you.

Pretty good crew. The one that caught my eye was Festa. I see a lot of room to develop and grow. When he makes it to the Majors, we can have a (F)festa. * * festa in portuguese means party.

Hope robo ump will be quickly adapted by MLB.

Thank you Andrew for this article. Makes me excited about these guys. Your work is professional and should be on front and center news at least the forum format. Not the overlooked sometimes blog. I'm a fan keep up the good work and don't be swayed.

To answer my own ?. It looks like they offered him 70M for base pay. This I've heard he has no problem with, it's the incentives where there's a problem. To me Buck isn't asking too much.

Andrew, love your article! Love your common sense backed up with unbias data. I encourage you to write as often as you can because you're a pleasure to read and to disarm any false ideas out there. This is a fair contract (the # of years could be tricky), no more fooling around. Get it done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BTW, what has been offered?

Totally agree with TopGun. You should be our GM.

Underrated players are the players that their stats don't relate to their potential for some reason or another. Many players get overlooked by management because of it and of no or negative media hype. Much like overrated players which get the good trades. FO said we are not in rebuilding. We are not set up for this mode.

Bad idea. We don't any one who comes close to take Polanco place at 2B. Arraez doesn't have the power, speed and the range to replace Polanco. Polanco is MVP caliber. He's just starting to come back and is still is underrated. You never trade anyone who's this underrated and so necessary for the growth of the club! If FO trade Polanco at this point or place him back at SS. I'll be totally convinced they have no idea what they're doing.

I grade them an F, because it does take much talent to sit back in the driver seat with the best pitcher (Berrios) and best offense producer(Cruz) with teams who want to compete in the post games. Signing Cruz is the best thing that I accredit them. They are terrible at initiating big trades we need and evaluating talent. Polhad is delusional

MIA is loaded with quality starting pitching. I agree with the saying you can never have too much starting pitching but MIA seems not able to get it done with just that. Hopefully the Twins have what MIA needs to be able to wrangle one of those pitchers away from them. Mia also has some good pitching prospects coming up

I'm with you Mark. There's plenty of reasons why the Twins did soooo bad this season and Simmons isn't one of them. If Polanco remained at SS like so many wanted, he'd continued his downward spiral and we'd have totally tanked along with Polanco, possibly w/o return. The problem w/ Simmon's bat is the importance the Twins put on HRs. When he hit those early HRs it went to his head and he over swung on everything. That plus the long pause he looked terrible. The focus needs to be is to stay inside yourself, who you are, not who you aren't. You can't look only at errors, you need to look at range. The old infield bled to death with grounders always fining their way through. Going back to the old infield is not an option.

Polanco is not an option. The short time Simmons was out, Polanco was really hurting in all aspect of his game. He might have been hurting physically. We don't have anyone in the system that can step in and take control of this key position. If FO decide to do this, they'd lose all credibility in my book. Adrianza isn't any better than we have in house. My opinion is we need a glove at SS to keep Polanco at 2B where he can continue to rise. So a cheaper FA that fall through the cracks or find a SS via trade. CF replacement, continue to be a sore spot. Let's see if FO finally come through or still think Cave is our answer. SS and CF are crucial positions, we need viable depth there or all is lost.

Totally agree with you Mnfireman, defense is very important. And often overlooked in favor of HRs. Like MinninPa, I love to watch Simmons, Donaldson, Buxton, Kepler and Polanco work their magic on the field. The problem is there is a big drop to their replacements, I quince every time I see them play.

Cave isn't and has never been an centerfielder. Management has been disillusioned to think that he is. This bad mindset has kept us from getting a decent CF back up and cost us a ton of games. Cave is an ok 4th OF that's it. We have a ton of them who are younger. He takes up space on the 40 man who's better

I understand your reasoning but hope Donaldson will pick us up in Cruz absence.

Back in 2019, during the Twins' bid to get in the post season and beyond. A squirrel ran between Kepler's legs and ran around the field, the Twins responded w/ a rally and won that game. I had hoped that the Twins would've capitalized on that occurrance. They could find a domesticated squirrel to run across the field in rally situations to get the team and crowd in the game. I believed that could've gone a long ways, if there'd be any animal rights problems at least create a mascot (Rocky the Rally Squirrel) to run around the field. But alas that wasn't done, they instead dusted off the old Homer Hankies. So I was excited when I saw they acquired Twiggy, the water skiiing squirrel https://www.twinkietown.com/2021/4/2/22311694/mlb-minnesota-twins-news-roster-twiggy-the-waterskiing-squirrel-one-year-deal-nuts-satire You might call me nuts but I think Twiggy's acquisition could give Simmon's a run for the money.

I've thought about writing this blog for some time now. I trust that Donaldson is surrounded by professionals so I've restrained myself from writing on this subject. I'd like to start with personal testimony. A short time ago, I had a surgery and was bed ridden for some time. As soon as I went back to my walking. As usual I stretched out and started my walk. I started out with just a short walk but my calves and hamstrings cramped up like everything. I knew muscle cramps is a deficiency of magnesium. So I started to take magnesium supplements and the cramps went away immediately. Recently I reduced and eliminated taking supplements and my legs started to tighten up when I stretched out. I'm sure Donaldson goes through a regiment of stretching, massages, soaking, use heavy duty calf supports and even most likely was tested for magnesium deficiency. But magnesium blood tests can be deceiving. Magnesium is necessary for proper cell development like muscle, nerve, bone etc. most Americans are deficient of it. I don't recommend Donaldson to nurse his big calves with "milk of magnesium" (sorry I couldn't resist). But I do suggest maybe a magnesium cream, a magnesium sulfate (Epsom salt) soak. Donaldson really works those calves so he might need to take magnesium supplements. Magnesium is normally safe but you can over do it so I recommend to consult his health care giver. I'd really like to see him overcome this problem and be a super star with the Twins.