Doctor Gast

This year was a experience. Instead of placing players on IL or needed rest they played them at much less than 100%. Buxton, Polanco & Arreaz playing hurt & at much less than 100%, really has hurt this team especially going down the stretch. Plus placing a recovering Lewis in CF, is taking an unnecessary risk. I hope they have seen these '22 experiments as failures, & start to think long range.

I agree with Gman that Correa won't find any takers close to that 10yr/ $350 deal. All the big spenders that go to Dior to get their belts have already have their expensive belts. Many have SS prospects that are soon ready so aren't looking for a long term deal. Also Correa still fights that negative cheating stigma that still lingers. I'm not too familar with Philadelphia but they could be one of very few that are interested. I'm sure this FO will wait & maybe try to match a reasonable long term deal or go again with a higher $/ short term deal. I like our chances of resigning him but this FO should be ready with a good plan B &C.

I'm all for analytics but I'd rather have a manager that has a good feel for the game, a good game plan & able to adjust quickly to the shifting of the game. Although Baldelli has some good qualities, I'd rather have kept Sheldon as manager & Rowson as bench coach. FO has always said that they have a plan but never really told us that plan. A game plan of swinging for the fences that was great for '19 has only produced SOs, FOs & void of fundamentals like SBs, sacrifice bunting & etc & resulting in loses in the post juiceball era. Many fans jumped on the positive hype band wagon of Happ, Shoemaker & Colume' from the start and they were wrong. In the same way they have jumped on the negative hype band wagon of Chris Archer & Dylan Bundy, they are again wrong. FO hinted during the off season the possibility of "piggy-backing". Their assessment was spot on, because we had only rookies & Bundy written in the rotation, providing a very weak rotation, plus we had only a short spring training to look forward to. The traditionalists were appalled yet the forward looking fans reaction were open to applauding this strategy. Even with the addition of Gray (shorter yet ST & apparent not in condition) & Archer (previously injured & practically no ST) entering the season, still proved to be a weak rotation. Any form of piggy-backing (for some reason {maybe Baldelli?}) was abandoned. So the strategy to fill the gap between SP & closer. was doubling down on RPs that were obviously not capable, overrelying on poor short relief and over extend our weak rotation until their wheels fell off. So I agree with you Ted this approach was totally illogical. Our strongest & more feasible pitching resource was long relief. We had strong candidates in Ober, Winder, Smeltzer & Sands later A Sanchez, Cotton, Varland & SWR. If long relief was implemented & used, the unnecessary burden on the SP & short relief would've been relieved, converting many loses into wins. Our problem wasn't that Archer & Bundy weren't pitching enough innings, they provided us with plenty of quality innings inside their profile. The problem was they weren't adequately supplemented with long relief. Wins is what matters, if FO & Baldelli change their mindsets that results in wins, Baldelli (FO) will regain their favor with the fans.

Good game by Ober, I guess it's Ober now. Correa & Urshela are not giving up, both are finishing strong. Both are making a case that they are valuable to the team.

I really like Gordon but he has proven himself as a much better OFer than INFer. So keep him in the OF, I think it much better use of time to give Palacios every chance to get used to MLB pitching.

I was impressed w/ SWR because he battled nerves & bad defense in the 1st inning but didn't loose his head & came back & pitched a pretty good game. This had to be a confident builder knowing that this organization had confidence in him to start a MLB game. Now with the 1st game out of the way. He'll come back next year better than ever. Arraez is a gamer but it made perfect sense for him to sit out this game having a aggrevating hamstring. It'd be a pity if he'd lose the batting title because of it.

I'll cheer for all of them. I like Gibson but even at his best is able to save the Phillies. Rosario loves to be a hero but doubt it'll be this year. Graterol is my bet to really shine this post season.

IMO evaluating pitching is absolutely essential. Therefore profiling pitching is essential in how to use your pitchers that you have on hand. My goal here is to give my very simplified version of profiling. 1st what's the difference between a SP and a closer or set up man? And who do I put where? 1st of all, the arm strength of a SP is able to take him at least 5 innings where a RP can't, closer/ setup man normally pitches 1 inning. 2ndly SP needs to pace himself thru the 5+ innings where a closer is a 1 inning sprint, 3rdly, the mentality is different- the SP's mentality is winning the game and usually needs more time to prepare for the game while a setup man or closer's mentality isn't about winning the game it's about holding or saving a win. Although the definition is very simple, the transformation of mindset from SP to a 1 inning RP is very difficult. Almost all pitchers start out to be SPs but very few will ever become an perennial MLB SP. Twins have had many promising SP in the MiLB that couldn't make it as a starter & couldn't make that transition to RP either. Duran has been a very promising SP prospect but his arm hasn't been able to maintain that durability over 5. So he was placed in the BP as a setup man. There is always some doubt wether any SP can make that transition or not. Duran has surpassed all expectations becoming a very reliable elite high leverage RP as a rookie. Duran has become a Twins bright & shining star, deserving consideration for ROY. Long relief which is considered to be part of the BP, but IMO is the extention of the rotation. Why? While long relief usually doesn't pitch 5 innings, it usually pitches 3+ innings, needs extra time to prepare and shares the same mentality as the SP, to win the game. Who should be on long relief? My list is; promising rookie SPs, SPs coming back from injury, any SP that doesn't make the top 5 or any unproven SP that can be used to mop up. The old traditional pitching game plan was the SP to complete the game or at least go 7-8 innings and finish with one of two RP you had on hand. The game has evolved to where SPs never complete their games due to demand of higher velo, spin rate etc that puts a lot of strain on the arm and a plethora of short RPs is needed to complete a game. To win a game you need a plethora of quality short RPs constantly on hand. Long relief is ignored. My evaluation on having a successful season pitching game plan, I believe we have 3 options. #1 have 5 aces & have a couple of good short RPs. This option doesn't work because we don't have a single ace. #2 have 5 good SPs that can give you 5 quality innings with at least 4 quality short RPs available every game. This game plan doesn't work because we don't have the constant supply of quality short RPs therefore over relying on a few & burning them out & later the rotation. #3 having long relief as an extention of the rotation, for example if you have 4 aces & 1 who's not, the 1 you can supplement with 1 long RP + a couple of quality short relief. In our case 3-5 long RPs depending how many quality short RPs we have on hand. This season is lost but next season we'll need to look into this. I'd love to have 5 aces on the rotation or having a plethora of quality short RPs on hand but unfortunately we don't have them so option #3 is our only option. My next segment I'd like to discuss is my profiling of SPs.

Great game! Congratulations to Joe Ryan on a great rookie season, he should get some serious ROY votes. Thanks to Palacios & Contreras for their offensive contributions.

I was hoping that he'd be able to get his feet wet in the MLB yet this season. Hoping for a good outing but anything would be benificial. I was very impressed with SWR's interview with Seth. Love his attitude, I think he could have some front end rotation in him at some time. I'll be cheering for him all the way.

By far our #1 problem was, is & will be is over dependence on short relief. What compounds this is having poor short relief candidates (except Duran) to choose from. FO solution- doubling down on candidates that clearly are terrible and over extending a weak rotation. Result- Injured & ineffective pitching, BP losing many games that offense & rotation were winning- Team overall steadily lost motivation, because of it. Poor BP & weak rotation can be overcome with strong long relief. And we had the potential of a strong long relief core with very good candidates. And they were our solution to this problem.

You're so right!

I think that a AFL stint this year could've cleared up some doubt and started '23 season with more clarity. His stock is super low so we can't trade him & I'd hate to lose him to the Rule 5 draft. There'll be some tough decisions again this winter.

I never thought of Balazovic as a top of the rotation SP prospect. He'll eventually work himself up the ladder to compete for 5th starter next year along with a crowded group of Ober, Winder, Varland, Sands & SWR (IDK where Dobnak & Smeltzer will fall). I'm not really optimistic if he'd be anything more than middle rotation for us.

Correa wants MN to propose a long term commitment. Knowing the Twins, they will open up with an unacceptable offer. Correa will opt out and start to court other offers. Correa will be disappointed & not get what he wants due to various reasons. What'll happen after that is anyones guess. MN has a chance at a very reasonable long term or a one year deal, depending how serious Correa is about staying. I'm all for Correa tying the knot with us.

I'd definitely keep him next year. But after that besides having Miranda at 3B, we might be looking at Lee, Lewis & Martin (what a combo) at 3B possibilities. So I wouldn't extend him. If we end up signing Correa, there might be an opportunity to trade him when Lewis is ready. I don't trust these defensive stats unless they match upwith the eye test.

To me, fashion in uniforms is a certain outward look, winning tradition in uniforms represents an inward winning attitude. I claim that fashion in uniforms has nothing do with the teams success but winning tradition in the uniform has a good deal to do with it. When I was a young boy, I couldn't wait to be old enough to don our city uniform. When I was old enough, I felt much pride & honor putting on that uniform. Much later they decided to change the uniforms, shortly afterwards the team ceded to be. That brought great sadness to me.

Arraez is leading in the BA Title! B Hamilton marveled us by his base running! Wallner stole 2B (maybe there's hope for us) and the Twins pitched a pretty good game. Just our defense left a lot to be desired. Although Correa made a pretty nice DP.

#1 My intial post states that fashion isn't important which lead me to believe you thought that was sarcasm #2 I never said that pinstripe uniforms would (automatically) take us to the WS. I said it'd support a winning tradition. #3 If you think that uniforms have nothing to do with a winning tradition, I suggest you write letters to teams like NYY, LAD & others that basically haven't changed their uniforms for ages due to this belief, and tell them that they are laughable. And see if they take you serious.

Please tell me your statement is sarcasm. Unless you are more into fashion than baseball

Good article Cody. These 3 have great bats and are steadily improving defensively. Kiriloff is our biggest question mark and his stock has fallen tremendously. No one can really affirm how his wrist will respond. Larnach's injuries seems less cronic so hopefully he seems to understand his body better & he'll out grow his injury problems. Wallner will just need to maintain & keep improving. Kiriloff & Larnach have much higher ceiling than Wallner but still have high hopes in all of them. Kiriloff is by far our best 1B & should see more time there. Martin is heading for AFL. My hope is he'll play CF and find himself much like Lewis & Wallner. He could also figure into this mix. With Buxton (hopefully 100%), Kepler (if he's still with us), Gordon & Celestino with Garlic & Cave on stand by. We aren't desparate where we can plug in anyone of these when they are ready, they are worth the wait.

I was thinking back when Roger Maris (Fargo native) was on track of breaking (fellow Yankee) Ruth's HR record. Many Ruth fans despised him during & after that. Maris never got the attention that he deserved.

What's most important is focusing on what we did wrong & improve on it. Styling is meaningless to me, uniforms are important only if they inspire winning tradition. Pinstripes are the only ones that have brought this to the WS level in '65, '87 & '91. Unless the new uniforms have pinstripes, all this is in vain. If pinstripes are part of the package then I recommend them show clips from the '87 & '91 seasons & WS,to reinstill that winning attitude, that have been missing since they started to think about doing away with the pinstripes.

My bad. I thought he still had a MiLB contract.

Dobnak being out for such a long time, it's good to see him have a good outing. I imagine he has ditched his new slider. I'm also excited to hear about our prospects in the AFL.