Doctor Gast

ROX are a bad team, yet they still pack them in. What I heard it's mainly the cheap beer, So, MN must have finally taken note. Tom Pohlad has said that he's not baseball smart, so I'm not afraid of him taking over the baseball opps. He'll find someone that he can trust who he believes knows what they are doing & hand it over to them. I still like the Twins to fill the holes in the pitching, especially a high-leverage RHRP. But with everything up in the air after the offseason, I'm sure it takes time to find your footing to establish relationships with other FOs.

Thanks, Tarheel. I'm still in Brazil. I really don't know what happened. But thanks to Brock, he figured it out.

We have been in almost every game this season. My gut told me that we'd have a good series against DET, TOR & BOS. After the Skubal/ Ober victory with the bats coming alive, I stated we could go 10-0. Right now, we should be 8-0. There were doubters entering this BOS series. After this game, I hope we have more believers. For years, I have been pessimistic about the Twins, even though they've looked good on paper. After the big sell-off of most of the Twins' impact players, I had all but given up on the Twins, even lost all interest in the Twins' prospects. All this changed when Falvey left with all his puppets. Twins weren't disappointing because they didn't have enough money (although, Falvey convinced many that it was so). They were disappointing because Falvey adopted a cheap version of the NYY model. Where defense, baserunning, offense SOs & fundamentals were insignificant. HRs were the only thing that was important. Players' evaluation & development were based entirely on wierd analytics & FA is the team's savior. Instead of being a better version of MIL/ CLE's model which is the mirror opposite of NYY. The best offseason move was the removal of Falvey. We have a new Pohlad, new Business Opps, new Baseball Opps, new manager, many new coaches, many new young & veteran players; it takes time to gel. My hope is for Shelton to throw away the old playbook & Zoll to unlearn all that he learned under Falvey's mentorship & draw from his time in LAD. Even though we look much worse on paper now than before. Now, I'm looking into the future with much more optimism. Tom Polhad is doing the best he can under the conditions. I encourage every Twins fan to go out & support our Twins (they are our baseball team) & stop misguidingly boycotting the Pohlads by not going out to do so. I've been absent from participating on TD for months, because I was unfortunately blocked in Brazil.

I like Fedco. I hope that last night was a breakout moment. We could use a RH OF bat to face all these LHPs that they've been throwing at us. He has played CF but is he a Buxton sub?

So you are telling me that Martin is a natural in the OF when he broke into the MLB. If so, then why did so many fans (probably including you & those who are agreeing w/ you) kept ragging on him? For one thing, his arm isn't suited for playing OF & you could tell that routes, judging the ball & aways getting a good jump were not natural for him. Playing OF at the college level or even in the MiLB is totally a different animal than the MLB. Just because Martin is athletic & played in the OF in college doesn't mean that it's his best position. Normally, it's lacking someone better to man the position. 2B was my natural position, but I mainly played everywhere else because I was needed elsewhere. I played some OF in college & bush league, that doesn't mean anything, it was definitely not my natural position. I am judging by the Twins & TOR saw him as an INFer & that's why they started him out mainly at SS. Also watching his play on the MiLB field with the short time he played 2B, he graded much better. I believe the stats would prove me right.

Martin is an INFer who profiles best at 2B. But Twins analytics loved Julien at 2B (although defensively sucked there) because his bat played there. Julien was cemented at 2B, no matter what. So, Martin was forced to play at SS. That didn't work, so they forced him into the OF. Trying to learn MLB OF, plus Twins trying to convert him into a slugger, greatly hindered Martin. IMO, Twins' greatest mistake, that cost the Twins dearly over the last few years, was cementing Julien at 2B. If Martin had been left alone & seamlessly placed at 2B, Martin & consequently the Twins would have been much more successful. Martin is a good player; let him be himself. Martin basically plays only against LHPs; LHPs are very hard to steal against. Martin is a good basestealer if he's on more with RHPs; he'd have a lot more SBs & wreak havoc with pitchers to aid following hitters.

With DET, TOR & BOS slumping, I was optimistic. After the Twins' bats came alive against DET, I humbly felt that we could go on a 10-game winning streak against these potential powerhouses. IMO, if SWR was managed better in TOR when he was sick as a dog, we could have had a 7-game winning streak. If he had to start, he should have been lifted when he started to run out of gas. Instead of creating unnecessary bleeding & pressure on a low-leverage BP. BOS has won their last 2 games, but IMO, they are still very beatable. Call me crazy, but that's what my gut tells me.

Just to add. Twins have a lot of new young & veteran players. New Pohlad. new FO, new manager, & a lot of new coaches. I was in favor of the management shake-up, but IMO, it'll take a while for everyone to gel. IMO, that gelling is starting. Clutch hitting is crucial. We were out-hit 12-8, yet we won 8-2.

I was one of the few optimistic fan around, & their performance has impressed me. Bradley has been phenomenal, Ryan has been Ryan. Abel is promising. Nice steady performances from Gray, Bell, Jeffers, Caratini, and Martin. Larkin has been good, Lee is showing good life now. Buxton, Lewis & Wallner have had some good games but are still due for a tear. If SWR was managed right, we'd have a 7-game winning streak, which could be extended to 10 now, coming to face a slumping BOS. Concerns: A young rotation & a shaky BP which needs some high-leverage RPs. They've been doing OK if you keep the pressure down. Again, they should bring up Prielip & see what he can do, along with having some long relief. Morris is a good start. Also, we need to improve our INF defense.

It's really tough to steal off a LHP but he wanted to try anyway. If he got on with RHPs he'd have a bunch of SBs to add to his resume'.

Last year, many were very down on INFer Martin, learning the OF & trying to get his old swing back. Even though he should have been left at 2B but he's doing fine in the OF. This year he's doing his job of getting base with a .500 OBP.

I hope the BP can hold the lead after Ryan leaves.

I just noticed now that they have Martin in RF, where he hasn't played much & doesn't have the arm & Larnach. who is a much inferior OFer. in LF; I fail to see the logic

Correa brought a lot of great chemistry when he 1st came here, plus he played a pretty good SS, which brought us our 1st playoff series win for a very long time. But management's inability to improve the team under a restricted payroll & he was ready to move off SS while we had no one to take over for him, soured Correa. Correa is still an impact player who'll help HOU in the postseason. Paying HOU $10M to take him IMO was a very bad deal w/o getting anything in return. Twins desperately need a leader like Correa; they're hard to come by.

Come on Twins, we can win this one!

Thanks for that update. SWR should not have been pitching today, yet he managed 3 good innings. Most of our BP, once our pitching starts to bleed, they don't have the ability or mentality to stop the bleeding, but instead, they make it worse. Our rotation & especially our BP, aren't deep enough, so SWR had to start & was forced to suffer through the 4th. We were still in the ballgame, but Banda killed the momentum and put the game to rest. Banda is an OK RP in low leverage, but doesn't have the ability or mentality to come in to operate & stop the bleeding. We desperately need RPs who can come in & do that. Funderburk & Orse have been surprisingly impressive enough, yet are they good enough? We need another Duran, the best option IMO is Preilip. If we put him in the BP, it doesn't mean that he can't later become a SP. Many great SPs have made that transition, namely Johan Santana. For years, I've been preaching the need for the Twins to insert long RP/ spot SPs & for years, the Twins have carried only short RPs. Which very quickly burns out the BP & consequently the rotation. Instead, promising young SPs are denied much-needed MLB experience & demoted to AAA, where they are wasting their bullets & battle with their confidence. Last night, when SWR was laboring in the 4th, he should have been lifted for such a RP, Which would've kept our momentum going & killed TOR's. That momentum would have won us the game & gone with us throughout the series & into BOS, but now it gave TOR a much-needed reprieve to come back from their slump to battle us for the series win. CWS has recently applied this philosophy of carrying promising young SPs as MLB long RP/ spot SPs. Their rotation WAR isn't that impressive now, but shortly, watch out, I predict they'll become a force to deal with.

Outman has had many opportunities & he has shown that he couldn't readjust. He has some value in defense & baserunning, but he should be kept out of the line-up because he's a lost cause, IMO, he has had too many lost ABs with the Twins. If we DFA him he'll go through but do we have anyone who can get by sitting on the bench so much & playing so little only to pinch-run & late defense at AAA?

I'm happy that Jeffers framing improved. Many felt the ABS system would neutralize framing, but IMO it has little effect & in Jeffers' case it has elevated his stock because his accuracy of getting it right. Many say I hate Jeffers, but no, I'm a big fan. But I'm just pragmatic, when Boras became his agent, it was easy to see Jeffers wouldn't reasonably finish his career with the Twins. So I've advocated to trade him while his stock his up.

Yeah a sweep!!!!!!!

very happy that Lee came through

It's a shame after Able pitched a great game & lost the chance of winning the game.

Great game for Able to grow. Keep it going & let's get some insurance runs

As I stated before, I like Caratini. Meaning I'm in favor of and see the need for a Caratini-type catcher. A promising young catcher you don't sign, you trade for. CWS keeps doing that. 1st they got Kory Lee from HOU, then they got Edgar Quero from LAA. After that, Kyle Teel from BOS, lately they picked up Drew Romo on waivers from CO (CO is worse than MN in developing catching). All these transactions have made Lee unnecessary. These catchers are accessible, they just have to be a priority, Which for the Twins, unfortunately, they aren't. LH hitting cOFers are the priority in MN.

I understand that. Yet, IMO, 2 years away is being very generous, he hasn't faced upper MiLB pitching yet & he still has a long way to go with his defense. The odds that a prep catcher ever makes it to the bigs as a catcher (much less excels) are very slim. Meanwhile, Twins' record of developing catchers since Tanner Swanson left is very bad. So, forgive me if I don't share the same optimism as the past FO in Taite becoming our future successful catcher. IMO, we should trade Taite while his stock is high & get a promising young, MLB-ready catcher that has already been developed.

I've been much more optimistic with this team than most, but I didn't think we had a chance with Ober against Framber. I've been pleasantly surprised by Twins' success against DET. Twins have been in almost all their games but lacked clutch hits & Sheltie's misnavigation in uncharted BP seas, resulting in regrettable losses. Twins' bats are starting to heat up & fortunate in coming in to face slumping DET, TOR & BOS at the right time. After these series; Twins could really turn around the season.