Doctor Gast

I too thank you tarheeltwinsfan for your service and sacrifice to keep this country free and safe! You have made Minnesota proud and brought me a piece of history I wasn't aware of. This testimony has given me a greater respect and appreciation for you! God bless you!

I haven't read all the posts yet. If I'm repeating some points, I think it's worth repeating. I think the mindset is all off. They think they can fix a problem by throwing a potential bat at it. When their original bat doesn't work they throw a different bat at it. Our biggest problem isn't hitting although it hasn't come through overall. It's the defense, the defense stinks. Their thinking that you can interchange Buxton with Cave without much deviation, that Cave can compensate for inadequacies in LF and RF, when he can't adequately cover CF, just drives me crazy! It's like they never look at the defense aspect at all, let alone prioritize it. I get it that Buxton needs a break and Cave is the best option on the active roster. But that's the problem, we are so lacking depth at CF and SS. Our best option isn't even on the 40 man. We were fortunate to have picked up Broxton especially since he seems to have found himself at the plate during ST. But I wonder if they even consider him because he doesn't fit their mold.You can't keep punching in the same #s and expect a different result. I was all for using Lin at SS (his preferred position) when Simmons was down but not LF. I'd also would've left Berrios in a little longer and now that Simmons is back I'd put Dobnak in where he could succeed in a position to eating up a lot of innings and a chance to win the game. Hopefully place Rogers to close out the game. I haven't given up on Colume but IMO needs to be given a break from closing. Baldelli said that he'd have no closer and bring up the best from camp, IMO he hasn't made good to his promises. Until they changed their mindset, I've conceded that they'll keep on losing.

This series is so weird so far. It seemed the spigot was locked shut with the top 6 players that should've been opened full blast. Only the bottom of the order (Cave and Astudillo) that were able to hit them. And that Pineda isn't a machine, he can have a bad game.

IMO depth is extremely important. We can't expect our starters play 162 games without getting hurt, need a rest or not having slumps through out the season. That means many games will have to be played with subs and those games will determine if we go to and even compete in the PS.

As far as hitting we are very long on potential, but very short on defense. In 2019 with the juiced ball we could out hit any defense deficiency. Hitting can be fickle, how many hitters need to be hot for us to overcome our defensive deficiency? While good defense tends to be more stable. In the past we over focused on defense and nibble away offensively while neglecting the long ball. Now we're at the other extreme, focusing on hitting especially HRs, while ignoring defense. We need to strike a balance, focusing on player's defense depth especially at SS and CF but also can hit and those that can hit HRs in less important positions. Defense can also improve the pitching. So this is where we need to be deep

The best thing on the night was to see Astudillo hit that high pitch for an HR. Looks like someone lit a fire under Cave, maybe he could see himself out the door. I don't understand why so many fans are so down on Astudillo? He's one of the better hitters and adequately covers the holes. He plays 1B pretty well for only being 5'9''. I don't want to be a wet blanket but I'm still not that impressed with Happ. The best thing he did was keeping the ball in the field and was fortunate to have the ball hit right at players. I was more impressed with Brubaker. I'm super happy that we were fortunate to have won this one.

Good article, Cody. I'm hoping that he can find his command and feel for the ball, to become more effective. We need him.

Wish both Kiriloff and Gordon well! I'd preferred if we had minor league games so they'd come up with more confidence and in game experience.

Savior? Absolutely not. Future cog in a highly oiled hitting club machine? Definitely yes. Buxton in what he brings to the table on all levels, isn't saving the team. Together with hitting prowess of Donaldson, Cruz, Arraez and Polanco wasn't enough to save last game. Defense is what mostly lacking, good defense will help with our pitching problems. And Kiriloff won't be able to help us there. Kiriloff has a lot of hitting potential, he'll come around. Like what was said, there's a lot of pressure on him. Rosario was eliminated so that he'd have a clear shot at LF. When Buxton came up we had a gaping hole in CF and was to be our savior. Also Trout has done it all for LAA but have very little to show in PS. Buxton and Trout are not saviors how can Kiriloff? He can't, all this expectation will only delay his development IMO.

I have always thought Berrios as the top of our rotation. My hope from Maeda is that he can give us 5 good innings until the league become accustomed to him. Berrios hasn't yet reached his full potential. He works hard and is driven, so I believe he'll get there preferably sooner rather than later. His durability will play into his performance.

I didn't like the way he had used Dobnak in the beginning of the season but I hope he has came to his senses. His Donaldson substitution, I can understand, he wanted to spare him any risky situation. If he knew that Buxton was going to hit an HR, he'd never do it. The Colome decision, what other option did he have? Do we have an impact fireballer to strike out the side? With this present defense, that's what we needed. I can't really fault Baldelli with what he has to work with.

I'll to state again that trading is good. Many players are looking for a key to transform their careers and can't find it with the teams that drafted them. Some get traded a few times until they finally find the team that has the key they are looking for. The League is full of examples, one that comes to mind is Luis Castillo. He was traded around several times (2x with MIA) until he landed with the Reds. Hanging onto nice guys aren't doing them any favors, let alone the team. We shouldn't feel bad about trading a player and they do well (they just found the key that wasn't available here). Scouting is essential to find needed players to fill our needs that we have the keys to unlock their potential.

Our defense is really terrible right now,except Buck. They have terrible range where not getting to playable balls and making easy routine plays look difficult. Although our 1st line of defense is pretty darn good, our 2nd is downright terrible. Our 40 man roster is full of poor gloves so that we can't fit better players. How many players have to be hot to overcome our defense liabilities. We need to change our priority and greatly improve our defensive depth. Obtaining Simmons greatly improved our team but it's not enough. Broxton is our 2nd best OFer and he's not even on the roster. Even if he hits average, which would put him better than the others (except Buck) that would be an improvement more so defensively we would greatly improve.

It was tough to see Cruz, Donaldson and Buxton not capitalizing on LHP, let alone Sano. I wondering if Buxton is 100%. Again I think we really missed it not bringing Broxton up when we broke camp. It's hard to predict how well his bat would respond (it couldn't be any worse than Cave's) but one thing is for sure is that we could use his glove and speed. With him in CF we wouldn't need to rush Buxton in the lineup.

IMO our biggest problem for awhile is below average defense overall.

Simmons has performed much better than projected, I wouldn't mind signing him to another year. His importance to the team is glaring when he's not in the lineup. I'd rate his signing very high. Others I'm not impressed yet

I too like Doc, am hopeful that Gordon will eventually gain his strength and show improvement at SS. But IMO Gordon doesn't have a real future with the Twins even before he got covid. Was hoping for more news relating to Broxton, Lin and others.

Winning the Triple Crown everything has to fall into place. Buxton has the tools and could attain that illusive award but how things are going for the team I doubt it.

I think too Thorpe too was a victim of bad defense.

I didn't watch the game (got too late in Brazil). Had great hopes for Dobnak but it appears he's broken. I don't know all that contributed to it, I don't know if I can hang the blame on one person. All I know he's broken and needs to be fixed. But again if Dobnak got beat because of infield singles. He had done his job, it's infield not doing theirs. Astudillo seemed to do pretty good as a reliever, maybe we found an answer when facing NL teams. ppl

Ranabanena, love your article and was impressed by your ability and courage to do the interview in Mandarin. Lin is one of the invitees that I've been cheering for. Great to know some of his history and can't wait to see the Tsunami impact the Twins

I like to think it's the curse on Cal Griffin soaking in the baby blues and the absence of anointed pinstripes. The record shows.

I'm really looking forward to the minors finally giving us some action and you reporting it

Good job Ted! Concur with AZTwin Minnesota fans tend to be too negative, to the extent sometimes border on toxic. I'm happy with Arraez's new found power. Not because of the extra base hits but because it makes the fielders more honest. A soft hitting Arraez, the OFers play in; a nonfast Arraez, INFers play back. A low velo contact combined with a good dense Arraez doesn't get a hit.

I think he's using that slider far too much. They are laying off of it and they aren't going for strikes. I agree that he should go back to his old routine and slide in that slider only in opportune times.