Doctor Gast

Love your blog! I was hoping someone would come up w/ this. Although my 1st choice would be to find a diamond in the rough from a team that has no chance of competing MIA,PIT or SF. Eventually it comes down to this, deadline push. Jon Gray is also my 1st choice. Even though a team w/ decent pitching could be competing for an play-off spot, they might be open to trade pitching to bolster an obvious weakness which would increase their trade-ability pts,

I`ve always been skeptical of Rosario`s nonchalant sloppy def. Last year was worse maybe because he was hurt. Hopefully this year he`ll be healthier & more humble so he could be more serious out there. 1 of the best defensive plays last year was when Rosario gun down Cleveland at the plate to save a game winning score, that was amazing. Who knows what would happened if that didn`t happen. He has a cannon of an arm you can`t deny. He could become year to year if he gets worse OFF & DEF. If his bat stays hot he could be used as DH when the time comes. I believe this site is for discussion not just let`s bash Rosario

I`ve commented for awhile the need for the Twins to have a pure SS & put Polanco on 2nd. I like to go to Baseball Trade Values & in the past & set up trades for MN for SS. I got criticized by people, how could you want a SS when we have an all-star. I love Polanco & maybe now we that we have Donaldson, it`ll be the slack that Polanco needs to adjust better at SS

Johan Santana is my all time favorite Twins pitcher (Camilo Pasqual is my sentimental 2nd) I saw greatness in Santana when he 1st start pitching & couldn`t figure out why they didn`t utilize him more as a starter from the beginning (now I better understand). I have the same hope in Graterol as an ace starter. He has the poise to pitch in the ML. He just needs to develop his secondary pitches to offset his FB. Yes, I`d like to see the Twins go all out this year too but the BP isn`t a problem spot where we have to have Gaterol, our problem spot is SP. So there we need to focus on. I think we are better served down the road to have Gaterol start in the minors to work primarily on his secondary pitches & rotate him up in the majors as needed as an opener. Absolutely we need to limit his pitches, we can still do that as him as a starter & slowly increase his playing time. By the time PS comes around, hopefully he`ll have all his pitches working to start in the play-offs if not he can be used in the pen then. Next year we`ll have an more establish starter. All that said I trust Wes Johnson. That`s why they pay him the big bucks & I`m only an armchair manager

SS is a very demanding position hard to find a player to excel OFF. & DEF. much less a sub. If you can find a player like that especially DEF, he can improve the overall DEF tremendously

Well said & I agree w/ you. If he could become more disciplined & take until the 1st strike. He could get a ton of walks. After they catch onto this, try not to fall in the same trap. I have high hopes for him

We need to be good chess players, be several steps ahead of where we`re at. We lost Stephen Gonsalves this year to New York Mets because we couldn`t protect him. I believe Mets have good eye for talent. I don`t think Gonsalves had a clear shot in MN but he is worth something to someone. I believe we could`ve traded him last dead line. What I would`ve liked to see was trading Lamonte & Gonsales to PIT for Archer & Stratton. I believe PIT have a good eye for talent but didn`t know how to develop it so we could have taken advantage of that. Archer was cheap his stock more than doubled since the change in management. Archer could have made an impact last year & greater this year w/ the help of Wes Johnson. Stratton was a high draft pick & has high spin rate. This is my speculation & option which might not be worth anything but like to throw that out there. This year looks like a greater log jam so greater creativity is needed for us not lose any more assets

I agree older experience, leadership & values are invaluable. I believe we wouldn`t have accomplish close to what we did w/o Cruz. Puckett was great in creating a tradition of great center fielders by his mentoring. Good investing isn`t always chasing after a commodity that everyone else is after. But seeing the value of what isn`t

Congratulations & thanks FO! For sticking it out! Keep up the good work! & good & needed article, Nick!

Thanks for raising this discussion. Unfortunately your top 4 do not make my top 4, primarily because the combinations of downside; Age, salary, injury & trading price that`d be asked. At the deadline we`d need a proven starter, of the ones you mentioned I like Kyle Freeland the most, he has great potential & he`s LH (plus I like Colorado pitching for some reason). Like Pineda he had great potential which the Twins saw & took a calculated chance. For Freeland I`d prefer to trade right away & work w/ him before he has proven himself. Here Colorado might not be willing to do because they still think that they have a shot. Coming to the end of the deadline & Colorado discover they don`t have a shot, hopefully we could have wide choice of Colorado pitching. I also like Ray @ AR, which has been mention. But my preference is trading NOW w/ teams that know they won`t be contending & there are many options & some might be willing to trade for lesser value ML proven players. My favorite which might not be the best is Archer@PIT, he was not able to hit his peak w/ PIT, he has great potential & I believe Wes Johnson could unharness that potential. I also like Chris Statton@PIT. He could be an impact pitcher this year both won`t cost much as far as prospects go. More proven pitchers are available which would cost more in prospect. Cubs farm is depleted they might have & motivated to trade a pitcher that we might like for prospects

I think the Twins would do well if they hire you as a pitching instructor & or scout.

Great news! Is there a threat of reoccuring?

I was really surprised that Lewis was knocked down to 18. I know people are knocking Lewis swing but he just won MVP in the Arizona Summer League doesn`t that account for anything? ASL I assumed was on the same level as AAA.

Thank you for sharing this w/ us! We have a lot of talent! The 40 man roster is a welcome problem. What are we going to do to protect all these up coming talent to an already crowded list. I`d hate to lose any of them

One thing that Matt mentioned & what I was wondering about was, Do Twins players, staff & or administration read TD? or does TD have some discussions w/ the Twins about what is discussed on the Forum? I`d appreciate a response

I agree we can get a high upside project that the pitching staff have located to develop that can turn around faster than Graterol (hoping will become a high impact starter in time). There are non contending teams that have pitching (Pirates & Marlins do & we have an in w/ last year Twins coaches) Even contending teams w/ different needs might be open w/ more ML ready players. We don`t have to go after well known aces if the pitching staff are confident in any near future turn around

Yes pull the trigger

Good thought, It depends on what type pitcher he is. If he`s like Bailey, we don`t need another ground ball pitcher. 1 is plenty. I believe we can a get higher upside pitcher. We have plenty of pitchers to fill in as reliever who would do a good job

Thank you for expressing this matter which I`ve been preaching on since I`ve started TD. So many people harp on " we need to hoard our prospects" I haven`t heard any of them speak up in this article. Hopefully they will wake up. On the other hand we can`t totally deplete our farm system. We need to exercise wisdom. I know we often get attached to our prospect which is a great thing. I`d like to address another point. The Twins are in a wonderful opportunity. w/ our powerful offense that can give the young pitcher this year & years to come the chance to pitch & not worry about making mistakes. Together w/ our wonderful pitching coaches (which I believe will continue to strive for excellence) we can take on projects, (from other teams that don`t have our opportunity can take) & develop them.We can be creative in providing opportunities for them w/ openers, give rest when needed, Use the revolving door from AAA to ML plus covering injuries etc. We can develop a fantastic source of pitchers for many years to come. We will have excess of good pitchers (I believe we can develop pitchers greater than we`ve ever experience)that we can trade for any weakness we might have. I`m hoping for a great team for years to come, the out come of this we won`t get high lottery drafts so we have to develop a means to continue to get great prospect & that is by trading

There should be wide spread investigation w/ incentive for player to come forward & severe punishment for all who lie & cheat in this matter. Especially in PS.

All teams do it even the Twins. I believe they are used as fillers until some one else better comes especially non contenders. Maybe you have one high impact arm & the other 4 stinks it makes sense to trade 1 high impact arm for some good arms

I don`t like to disagree w/ Seth but I don`t think Bailey will not be able to produce as well as Gibson or Perez in 2019, he doesn`t have the ability to SO & his style isn`t advantageous to the Twins even w/ Donaldson. But I totally agree that w/ this offense will produce an excellent opportunity for this year & years to come to give young pitchers a chance to prove themselves. Like I stated before we need more impact arms (on page 2, I gave my reasons & examples) so why not trade w/ Pirates & or Marlins for some high upside projects for now & future. Near the end of the deadline we can evaluate, keep what will be an impact arm & trade what won`t

I think almost all our prospects since Mauer have been late bloomers ( Berrios might be exception). Many great prospects were let go or traded for nothing because they lost patience in them ( Aaron Hicks) or they didn`t fit in their philosophy ( David Ortiz ) . Now present philosophy & technology I believe will help bring up prospect & evaluate them faster, cutting down on mistakes. I think Gordon will improve this season but I see him having difficulty to adjust to the big league & he`ll never be more than average. Hope I`m proven wrong

I believe Sano has soft hands & quickness to be come a very good 1B man plus the athleticism & willingness to learn will be a great asset. His fault is the inability to range left on grounders which won`t matter now although ranging right could be. I think he could be very good on pop ups except maybe going back (we`ll have to see), scooping low throws & maybe handling high throws. He`ll have to learn to handle cut offs. Hopefully the transition won`t affect his hitting but once he hit his groove everything will fall in place

I really doubt that! Although thee Marlins might have 1 or 2 that would be nice & hopefully they`re open to trade. The Pirates have Archer & Stratten which would be great project for Wes Johnson. Both clubs have last year Twins coaches which could facilitate the deals. Ray & Gray could be available towards the end of the deadline