Doctor Gast

I basically traded Kepler for Marquez (CO). Kepler will love the ball travel there and SP Marquez should love to get out of CO a win/ win/ win/ win situation. I signed FA Omar Narvaez to SC duties I like very much his defense, his pretty good LH bat and $.

C: Narvaez ($6.5M) 1B: Luis Arraez ($4.50M) 2B: Jorge Polanco ($7.50M) 3B: Gio Urshela ($9.00M) SS: Correa ($35.00M) LF: Alex Kirilloff ($0.70M) CF: Byron Buxton ($15.00M) RF: Larnach ($0.70M) DH: Jose Miranda ($0.70M) 4th OF: Gilberto Celestino ($0.70M) Utility: Nick Gordon ($0.70M) Utility: Jose Miranda ($0.70M) Backup C: Jeffers ($0.71M) SP1: Sonny Gray ($12.00M) SP2: Tyler Mahle ($8.00M) SP3: Marquez ($15.5M) SP4: Joe Ryan ($0.70M) SP5: Bailey Ober ($0.70M) RP: Jhoan Duran ($0.70M) RP: Jorge Lopez ($3.00M) RP: Griffin Jax ($0.70M) RP: Jorge Alcala ($1.00M) RP: Caleb Thielbar ($2.00M) RP: Maeda ($3.00M) RP: Winder ($0.70M) RP: Varland ($0.70M) Payroll is 6.35% under budget

I don't think that Maki or Watkins should be fired but IMO they should have been move from there positions, Maki back to assistant & Watkins some place else. Coaching should also be accountable for lack of teaching fundamentals. That topic should have been addressed & dealt with. IMO we need a different head pitching coach, 3B coach and a coach to teach & stress fundamentals. It's nice that they had a meeting with the players and they liked & thought they were OK (for that reason, I don't think they should be fired), but that shouldn't be the governing factor. I also think that FO should reevaluate their process because maybe that's where the source of the problem is.

Alcantara is great, never missed a start except the last one they decided to spare him because there was nothing to play for. But still 32 starts / 224 innings pretty remarkable. I was just wondering how you'd modify my profiling standard? If you like?

Love that you addressed the catching problem. Another option is Narvaez, his bat isn't as good as Contreras but his defense is better & he'd be cheaper. I think both Winder & Varland would better in the BP to start with. I'd pick up another veteran SP (preferably frontline) Maybe Lopez (MIA) or Marquez (CO) I like you have Maeda, Ober in as long relief, I'd put Winder & Varland there & have all of them revolving spot start. And have Sands & co. rotate in there as need be from AAA

I have to admit to you guys that I'm out dated and haven't been following any front line pitchers in recent history plus we haven't really had any of them with Twins for awhile. So my profiling should be adjusted a little.

The FA SSs that want big $ & long contracts are out of our league. Intially I thought we could go out & try to sign Correa and trade him when Lewis is ready. But normally those players are hard to move. With the no extreme shift rule, our INF will be hurting if we don't get a premium defensive SS, IMO Iglesias doesn't cut it. Trading IMO is the best answer, NYY has some SS prospects ready to come up maybe they're open to trading IKF & Rortvedt back to us?

Looking at the 1st 1/2 of the season Buck would have won MVP, he carried this team to 1st place in the central. Arraez would have been 2nd. Correa won the 2nd 1/2 and Arraez would be well down the list, I don't care if Arraez was playing hurt, he wasn't hitting. His BA nose-dived the 2nd 1/2 and if they hadn't given him a small rest to recuperate he'd have lost the crown (the blame would not be on him but on management). If they would have better managed Bucks injury and not played him hurt well under 100% & kept agrivating the injury. He could have came back the 2nd 1/2 and he would have won my MVP vote. If they better managed Polanco injury & not run him to ground, he'd be on my list. But how things sit, my vote has to go to Correa because very few showed up (produced) the 2nd 1/2

I'm not in the boat in favor of extensions unless they are an international player w/ ton of potential, sound & who doesn't have Boras as an agent. Otherwise I'd let the clock run out & then evaluate them wether we need to extend them or not. Extention of Polanco was pretty good, Kepler was OK but Sano & Dobnak didn't turn out. There was the same talk about extending Kiriloff the 1st year he broke MLB, I'm glad we didn't.

Right now I think our best option is to sign Correa, we need him. If something down the line happens, we can always trade him. Farther down the line he can be worth more & further removed from HOU, a trade could be benificial once Lewis is ready.

Martin has already hit his 1st AFL HR. heads are turning

Don't give them any ideas, Chief!

My computer goofed up

Sorry to see Cave go, he provided some quality depth when we needed it. Palacios is also gone, he's our top SS after Correa opts out and before Lewis is ready, that's hurts. DET picked him up, believing his bat will catch up to his glove & rightly so. His absense will hurt more right now. They probably thought they could sneak him by but with DET, not likely.

You forgot to mention Gordon & Celestino, who are much better overall than him. Yet because of ?s surrounding Larnach & Kiriloff & Kiriloff's ability to play 1B or a Kepler trade, that is where his ABs will come

What qualifies to be an ace? How to profile SPs? I'd like to give you my take. As was previously stated in part 1, a SP is a pitcher who can regularly give you at least 5 quality innings & sustain that, otherwise is better off in long relief. I'd like to categorize them as 5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd & top SP, ace and workhorse. I will rate them accordingly by stuff & arm strength. Stuff= quality of pitch, # of quality pitches in his repertroire, command & location. Arm strength that's affected by genetics, conditioning, injury & building off previous year. Stuff & arm strength will dictate how many innings that pitcher is able to pitch and that is how I profile them thus. A 5th starter that can pitch the minimum 5 quality innings on the avg. When his stuff is on & he's very economical with his pitches he can go 6 innings. when he's off he has trouble going 5. A 4th starter will pitch into the 6th inning with more regularity. A 3rd starter avg. around 6 quality innings, when he's on he can go 7 innings, a 2nd starter pitches more regularly into the 7th inning, a top starter avg. 7 quality innings and when he's on he'll go 8 innings. An ace is a SP who regularly goes 8 innings, can at times complete a game or pitch a no-hitter. A work horse is a pitcher who has the arm strength that can regularly pitch 7+ innings, his stuff may vary depending how prolific his offense is that supports him. This season, because of shortened spring training & short vamp up time, I'd have started Ryan, Gray, Bundy & Smeltzer at a 5th starter level. As the season progressed I'd graduate Ryan & Gray to 4th starter, later 3rd starter. I'd have kept Bundy at 5th starter through out the season, Because Smeltzer was the most vamped up SP is why I started him in the rotation as the season progressed, I'd stick him in long relief as long as he remains effective. I agree how they handled Archer as an "opener", later 5th starter. Ober, Winder & Paddack as long relief & spot starter (or in Paddack case "opener") During the season, IMO a pitcher should pitch inside his profile, then his arm bounces back & he's able to give you quality innings. If he's extended for any period of time, his arm doesn't bounce back & he becomes less effective or becomes injured. This is what has happened for as long as I can remember to the Twins, even if the Twins limp across the finish line into the post season, our pitching is shot which explains our 18 straight PS losses. But if your rotation is weak (weak not as in bad but not giving you the desired quality innings) and poor BP, how do you cover the innings? The answer is long relief, long relief is our strongest pitching profile that should be exploited not ignored. In 2020, Cash led TB to the World Series. In game 6, Snell was pitching into the 6th inning, leading 1-0 with 1 out and a runner at 1B with Betts coming to bat. Tough situation what do you do? Cash did what he normally does, he yanked Snell. Was it the right decision? It had worked through out the season, but still was it the right decision? The decision didn't work out but was staying w/ Snell would be better? It'd be easy in hind sight say yes but would the out come be different? Snell is no ace but he was on & pysched, it was Snell last game, he could reach back & give that little extra, the BP is coming into the game cold. There is no way we can know for sure. But under these circumstances, you have to go with your gut not analytics.

Any of the top SS will want long term & big bucks. If this is the route that the FO wants to go, Correa is the one. If not I'm not sold on Andrus, we need a much better defensive SS to help support 3B Miranda, 2B Polanco and 1st base Arraez.

Thank you Tarheel! I appreciate it

I love your boldness T&R, the only fault I see is, I think Lewis might have a tough time playing SS to start the season.

Where's your SS ?Lonely

Agree that starting catching is our #1 issue & Contreras is our best option but Narvaez would make a nice 2nd choice. SS is the #2 issue, I was hopeful to eventual sign Correa on a short deal but it becoming more & more unlikely. Unlike you I believe Martin is not close to being our starting SS. Our only inhouse option is Palacios but no one is confident that he can convert his AAA hitting into MLB. So a 1yr. placeholder for Lewis until he's ready is IMO our only option. I'm finally very confident w/ our OF (eventhough I've advocated for years) I'd wouldn't get anyone outside, Buxton our CF, Kepler RF, Larnach & Kiriloff's upside is great, Gordon & Celestino are steady & very competent in CF. We also have Cave & Garlic if need be. I like our talent enough to keep utility inhouse. I'd like at least 1 front line SP. I'd be happy if Maeda would come close to match Archer's #s so since he has experience in the BP that's where I'd put him to begin the season. We need to establish a strong long relief corp. That's our strongest pitching depth, it'd be a pity not to finally exploit that. But even if we don't sign a front line SP. Our long relief could compensate for that. Another high leverage arm would be nice, an option is to sign Rogers, we know how to manage him and w/ us he could be very good.

Congratulations Nick Gordon! You & Celestino have cured our gaping wound for so many years out there as CF back-ups. Keep up the great work!

Duran had my vote too. He was phenomenal all season. Duran turned a ? (wether he could make that transition) to !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (an elite reliever)

MIA has had IMO the best rotation or one of the best rotation for years & still have a strong core of pitchers they can plug into that rotation for years. Yet they haven't been able make a good run for the post season. The problem is they don't have the bats. MIA are not in a rebuild, they want to compete now! IMO they don't want prospects or pitchers, they'd want veteran bats at least MLB ready. The bats that they could be interested in are Jeffers, Kepler, Polanco, Arraez or maybe a Miranda or Wallner.

#1 hole starting catching- sign Contreras or Narvaez, I'd also trade Jeffers to fill a SP hole & find a different back up. #2 hole starting frontline SP- trade for Lopez (MIA) #3 high end RP- sign Rogers, we know how to manage him & could do well w/ us #4 starting SS- priority sign Correa or then a place holder for Lewis I really like our OF- Buxton, Kepler, Larnach, Kiriloff, Gordon and Celestino with Cave, Garlic & Wallner in the wings. Gordon & Celestino have been steadily improving along with their durability will continue to be very valuable to us. I'd also include Kepler in the Lopez trade. I'd like a LH bat to platoon at 3B, because I don't think Miranda can man it by himself. I don't think Arraez can nail that down so we'd need to bring back Urshela for another year.