Doctor Gast

Looking at recent stats, I agree w/ you pretty much, Tom. By stats I'd probably rate Richards lower & Archer higher but both have a much higher ceiling than what the stats show. I agree that if 2020 was a normal year, Richards would've had time to stretch out & find his rhythm but that didn't happen. Also if he hadn't wasted time by trying to work thru his injury & got the TJ surgery, , he wouldn't be labeled as injury prone. Archer had a lot of hype at TB, but still needed a lot development. TB didn't want to wait for him to develop when they could dump him at his high demand. At PIT they have a good eye for pitchers but don't have the ability to develop them (I'm sad that the FO hasn't taken advantage of this flaw by scooping up their available pitchers). In fact they made Archer to go to his inferior pitches & did nothing for his development. Archer has a few tweaks that need to be done but is well worth the effort by Wes. His prognosis is very good just a matter of time for him get to 100%, get stretched out & work out what needs to be tweaked I doubt that the FO will find a reasonable high/mid-rotation pitcher on the FA so I hope they trade for one. But my 1st choice Musgrove has been taken. Richards & Archer are both low risk & high reward projects.

Was very disappointed that the FO didn't take up the opportunity on Musgrove. He's indeed has a lot of untapped talent that Wes could work w/, comes pretty cheap & showed interest in a fair trade. They were interested in Larnach, a LH corner OF bat that we have abundance of but had no hesitation in trading our promising top pitching prospect.

Love your article Lucas. I think Marquez is great! But it'll be difficult to pull him away from CO. It'll be expensive w/ prospects & salary. It'll be worth it if you can get the $ to balance the budget. We should give Arrietta a shot. PIT Stranton has one of the highest spin rate in MLB but PIT hasn't been able to untap that talent. What do you think Lucas ? is he worth a shot? I believe PIT has an eye for good pitching but have no idea how to develop it. So I'd like to grab anything that comes out of there. Musgrove is under rated & paid, I'd rather FO pursue him. It'd take a lot less prospects & salary costs.

When I heard that NYY were interested in Kluber, I figured that was final nail to put to death MN hopes of landing him

SS factory? Who could Mike be talking about? It couldn't be our Twins? To my knowledge they haven't produced a bona fide SS since Zoilo Versalles. Prospects usually don't pan out and leave or move to a different position. Polanco became an all star because of his bat not his glove. He's a 2B but was thrust at SS when we traded Escobar. It seems that any good SS we've had, we gotten thru trade. Lewis is a good SS but will he stay there? Why can't we produce our own SS, Mike? It's a question that needs to be asked. Thank you Mike for bringing this to our attention.

Nice to know that Astudillo can play LF but rather see him more at 3B or C

International signings are always hopeful. Hoping to find a prospects that we missed out on the others venues. Hoping to find a great SS that can stick and some potential starters. Rather also quality over quantity

If FO obtains both an upgrade SS & a 4th OF that can sub adequately Buxton, I'd go w/ LaStella ( I love his bat ). That is if you can convince him to settle for utility (I doubt he will). So right now as it stands my vote goes to Hernandez. Besides his glove & clutch hitting (which the Twins need desperatly), he wants to prove he can start every day. Which means he can hit if given the opportunity. Like Maeda he's motivated to prove everyone wrong. So I'll bet on Hernandez. Also he wants only a yr. contract.

Exactly the showcase was a lose/lose situation. The Twins were one of the front runners on Kluber but now they may be out

Taking things as face value, there's no doubt we shouldn't invest in a FA DH, including Cruz. We can spend more wisely elsewhere & IMO that rotating at DH is more advantageous & frees up an extra roster spot. But w/ Cruz there is a magical chemistry, a mutual bond that goes beyond stats. I believe Cruz still has at least one more good year in him. In 2019 Cruz ruptured his wrist & we thought he was finished but he came back, he has always came back. He knows his body & what needs to be done to maintain it's maximum level. In this late time IMO they won't bring in the universal DH. It`s time for FO to offer a more reasonable offer.

There is no doubt Santana was 1 of the best Twin that didn't make it to the HOF. IMO he was the best pitcher the Twins ever had in the short time he was a starter for them. The trade was regrettable but Twins were desperate. As things worked out it'd have been better if the Twins would have held onto Santana & wait for a better trade & if that wasn't possible keep him & let him become a free agent.

Cruz at $16 M is probably a tipping point of not signing him. If the universal DH doesn't come thru, which as time passes less likely it will happen IMO. We can sign him for considerably less, which should be our plan A. If we sign for less, we should be able to trade for an under paid SS or SS/CF utility (a FA might be then out of our budget) plus a pitcher Cruz's stats has been great these 2 yrs. 2020 when most hitters slumped w/o the juiced ball, Cruz still put out respectable #s. Beyond the stats Cruz is the heart & soul of the team. Odds are that Cruz can`t maintain his great stats but his heart & soul will still be there. I can see where you are coming from, Cody & I believe it'd be a great plan B

Sure Terry, what I understand is that the Reds are shedding salary. What I mean by rating Castillo or Gray lower is the trades. These trades are offered to attract traders to include Moustakas or Castellanos, high salary deficit players, (that's what I meant by counter weights) Reds IMO will not trade either Castillo or Gray w/o including Moustakas or Castellanos . Twins don't need either of them or their salary, therefore rating their trade lower. Put it another way, the Reds want to dump over priced Moustakas & Castellanos, to balance it out they add Castillo & Gray as the premiere pieces. A Musgrove trade would be more of my liking

FO wants to keep their options open to field the best team possible. Like you said Cooper, it all depends on signing Cruz & I agree on your assessment. I think Kiriloff is the closest of being a lock at LF but I doubt that he'll start there at the start of the season. But if for some reason they decide to wait on Kiriloff I'd go for a FA CF like Jackie Bradley jr. who could play LF & be able to sub Buxton when needed

Story's stats are much better at Coors than away, this needs to be considered but Story is a stud. Baez has a great bat too, last year shouldn't be considered. Baez there's no doubt about his health, if the Twins are sure there won't be any problems w/ Simmons's ankles, I'm fine w/ Simmons also. But I prefer Baez's bat. I also like that Baez is Berrios's brother in law (I`d love the camaraderie between them) maybe you could to talk them both about extensions

As far as looking at trades Story or Baez according to baseball trading values (a site I like to check on), registers Story about 3x more valuable than Baez. Story is worth a little more than Larnach & Baez is worth a little more than Dobnak. If either clubs prefers a combinations of lesser valued players can be negotiated like Nash noted.

I like your list, Ted. I`d just rate Baez #1 & like Otwins remove Bryant. I'd rate Castillo & Gray lower because of the added counter weight of Moustakas or Castellano. Another suggestion is a K Marte & Escobar package which I'd rate very high. ARI hasn't announced any desire to get in the trade market but w/ a poor 2020, I'd think they'd consider rebuilding. I'd put Marte at SS & CF option. Escobar as INF utility mainly to relieve Donaldson early in the season. Both are great on defense & offense. Marte has a 3 yr. contract & Escobar 1 & are reasonable

Just read that the Pirates are interested to trade Musgrove to the Twins for Larnach, they are very high on him. Hate to lose Larnach but I think it's the best deal for everyone. We have an abundance of corner OFs, Larnach will get more playing time. Pirates shed some salary & gain a power LH OF. Twins fill a rotation spot w/ a very good pitcher & Musgrove will access to a great pitching coach which can vastly improve his performance.

Looks like the FO are sending out feelers to quite a few FA (that's good). They are establishing a floor offer & letting them know we are interested, which in turn receive a ceiling counter offer. Things won't happen until things get more defined & more desparate. Once they do it'll be a wild few weeks. Happy they are looking into Gray & Musgrove. Both would be good additions, I prefer Musgrove because he's cheaper & would be interesting how 'd respond to real pitching coaching. Hope we sign Cruz but we have to be patient

W/ an upgrade at SS, I can see a very good year for Dobnak. A lot of grounders that got through last year won't in 2021 that is if Polanco is at 2B

Thanks Disco for your comments! I guess my taste in uniforms is like my taste in food. Some people get hung up on appearance, they take great pains for food having a certain appearance but it taste terrible. Give me something that taste great, I don't care what it looks like. Same thing for me about uniforms, the most important thing is what does it aspires & results, not appearance. "I think the concussion thing sprouting up after 2010 was more of just societal awareness. Players got concussions but played through them." Quite true! In the past they had concussions but contributed them by their symptoms like migraine head aches. You can't just keep playing thru severe concussion symptoms w/o affecting your production & shorten your career. I haven't heard about any Twins stars that were affected by these consequences prior to 2010

How valuable Buxton & Donaldson are, shows up when. they aren't in the line up. Largely due to their def., the stats & record shows this. , The stats & records doesn't only show their prowess & ability to cover ground but also the poor quality of substitution at CF & SS not able to take up the slack when they're missing. Here I'm advocating again the importance of someone to be able more adequately sub Buxton & an upgrade at SS

When Arenado saw that the FO wasn't improving the team in 2020, I saw the hand writing on the wall. The FO wasn't prudent in their actions & it got out of hand & sytmied itself & couldn'y grow w/ it needs. I was very big on Gray & Story. Gray was compaired to Gerrit Cole, except now I know there's 1 big exception, he doesn't have close to the high spin rate as Cole has. I've cooled off on Gray but he's still good, he needs to improve his secondary pitches so his 4 seamer could be more effective. I liked Story as an upgrade last year, he could still be a good option but now we have a lot of options. He probably likes it there at Coors field so I don't think he'll consider that we are rescuing him. Of course Marquez is the gold ring. CO always are hestitant to give up their core so I think they'll try to hold on to Marquez but maybe everyone else would be available. Maybe around the dead line, well into the seaon, they'll know they should rebuild & offer up Marquez

What the Padres lost in the Snell trade they almost made up on the Darvish trade. The trade would've been fairer if the Cubs left off Caratini in the trade. That shows me they really want to cut salary even if they take a loss. Of all the SS that's out there Baez excites me the most. If the Cubs are interested, we could get a good deal + a great SS. For those who think that it's a good idea to trade Polanco for Baez, have no idea how to value a trade. You need to look at history & potential but also the salary & # of years of control. Polanco is also an all star + better salary + I think 3 more yrs. of control than Baez which makes Polanco's value around 4x greater than Baez

There is further thoughts I'd like to probe about this subject. To do this I'd like you to review this prior thread below http://twinsdaily.com/blog/1318/entry-13744-lets-bring-back-the-87-twins/ To summarize, the Twins began w/ pinstripes & were competitive. In '65 they won the AL Championship & went to the WS. In the 1st 2 yrs. of the start of the Western Division '69 & '70 they won. Shortly afterwards they quit the pinstripes & the drought began & became frequent bottom feeders. Out of this era came the Twinkees. It lasted until '87 when they (can you guess it) brought back the pinstripes & won their 2nd AL Championship & 1st WS. Thus starting their MLB prowess, (which I won't list again) which lasted until 2010 when (can you guess) they started to phase out the pinstripes. Which they haven't won a PS game since & seldom qualified. I'd like to note 1 more thing that came to mind. Before 2010 season, concussions were unheard of for the Twins. But in July 7, 2010, Justin Morneau received a concussion through a knee to the head while breaking up a DP. Iron man Morneau was having a HOF career, winning the 2006 AL MVP. In 2010 he was having a phenomenal season, was second in the AL with a .345 average, seventh in home runs with 18 and 10th in RBIs with 56, led the AL in on-base percentage (.437) and second in slugging percentage (.618). Many players have concussions & never suffer any negative symptoms but Morneau (noted for his durability) never came back as a Twin although he had some good years away. The other half of the M&M boys, Mauer suffered a concussion that knocked him out of the catching position & hindered greatly his performance drove him to early retirement. W/o the concussion, Mauer is a lock at HOF but now there is some doubt. Buxton coming through the minors was constantly the #1 prospect. A 5 tool guy that excelled in all of them. Maybe many don't know but he was a HR threat. He was MN HOF hopeful but here he too was bitten by the concussion bug & has yet put up the #s that he was projected. Since 2010 MN has been plagued by concussions, is there any correlations that can be made? What's the big fuss about uniforms? How can success or lack of it be contributed to them? They are only uniforms, right? When researching the confrontation between Yankees & Twins, the Yanks were frequently referred as the pinstripes. Why is that? I beg to argue that the Yankees' pinstripes are linked to the Yankees' prowess, tradition & heritage. I believe the Twins' pinstripes are linked to our success. That's why I'm advocating to stop wearing the "baby blues" & bring back the pinstripes & M insignia. Thank you for your time