Doctor Gast

The BP has been ?????s all season. Baldelli has decided to put all his trust in them even though they have shown that they can't be. Dobnak and Thorpe were impressive in ST. There is where his trust should have been in long relief. They should have been used to factor the short relief out of games until they get their acts together as I've advocated from the beginning. As far as closers goes, I'd try to trade for one 1st. #1- FAs which are left, they are left over for some reason. #2- FAs are rusty and will take some time to get them game ready. #3- we desperately need to make trades to free space on our 40 man to make appropriate moves, like bringing up Broxton. It's a shame we couldn't bring him up when camp broke. Instead they sent him down to cool off. If we look we could probably find a trading partner. Some one who needs to shore up an area where we can help or a team that has conceded to rebuild even if they have shown some promise if they like the deal. The problem is we need to look.

Happy that Gibson is having a good season, he deserves it. The few mistakes he made the Twins made him pay. Wish him well especially against CWS. Yet it was a shame that Buck's performance went for nought. We need to trade for a decent closer. I prefer a trade where we can free up some space on the 40 man so we call up Broxton.

Agreed. Although I didn't agree with the decision, I conceded. It was generally understood that because of coming off an abbreviated season, that the starters would have a short leash. My reasoning is we needed at least 2 full time long relievers to take up the slack. Fortunately both Dobnak and Thorpe were impressive, they could have kept both busy. But they decided to only carry Dobnak. The 1st game they could have gone to Dobnak early, Dobnak was riding high from ST. Baldelli could have given him the ball and say you had a great ST, you have a World Series infield behind you, go out there, pitch your game and win. That vote of confidence would have gone along way. I'd like the odds better going that way to win the game than giving each of his questionable high leverage relievers an inning until they tied the game, leaving no one to close. Baldelli could have repeated that decision in every one of those conditions, as much as Dobnak could handle, increasing his confidence. Instead he chose to show his lack of confidence in him.

You might think this thread is a slam against Shoemaker, it isn't. In 2017 Shoemaker pitched around 77 innings, the next 3 seasons he pitched a little more than the equivalent of 3 complete games each. So he had very little time to build up arm strength. From the beginning of the season, I've advocated that Shoemaker should start out in the BP in long relief until he has sufficient time to build up his arm strength. He has pitched some good games (pitching 5-6 innings) in the beginning but he doesn't have the arm strength to sustain it. Coupled also with the mismanagement of Dobnak and the inefficient BP that caused many ?s through out the ST, IMO helped to create this big hole that we're in. IMO this could've been all avoided, if they had started Dobnak who was hot in ST. I was very disappointed to see that they sent Dobnak down and even more when I heard the reason why. Baldelli said it because there were too many close games so he didn't want to pitch Dobnak. There weren't enough blowouts or situations where he could throw him under the bus. What a slap in the face! He didn't want to put him in an opportunity to win the game which is the role of a starter. He'd rather trust his questionable BP and over tax them so they have to over stretch the rotation in some instances. Dobnak and Thorpe were both impressive during ST. Both should have been brought up in long relief to save the rotation and be less depended on the short relief at the same time keeping them fresh, hungry and get their act together. At least until after AAA starts. Dobnak probably needs to go down to undo the damage and get him back in the groove he had in ST. And what will they do with Shoemaker? Put in him long relief? I think he be a good pitcher if used right.

They exposed them by bringing them up to the active roster then dropping them. They should've left Lin in the minors, keeping him in the system until we really him. Again I still hope they both pass waivers because we're so lacking at SS. It's not a bad idea to keep Riddle on the active roster as a backup SS.

Very strong team all around except the infield. It was pretty reckless exposing both Riddle and Lin. They didn't even use Lin in the infield. Hopefully both will pass

Shoemaker opened the floodgates which was hard to close. KC's Duffy was pretty stingy. Cruz and Kiriloff keep up the good work. That's all I'm going to say about that.

Great game by the Twins! Hope they have these blow out more often to overcome any shortcomings. Happy that Kiriloff broke out, expecting him to sustain this. Also happy for Rortvedt that he got his 1st hit in his 1st game, that will make it lot easier for him.Almost feel sorry for Benintendi (not),getting rob of 2 hits (one possibly a HR) and when he did get on he was picked off.

Hope Riddle and Lin pass waivers.

I know he can be a great hitter, he'll always have those stats. What I mean by sputtering is not getting hits and that is what really counts. Confidence tend to negate being unlucky. And he has been pretty darn unlucky since the beginning of ST.

After simplifying his swing to where he felt more comfortable and beefing up he gained confidence. I could see it last year and a hunger that I hadn't seen before.

I'm a Kiriloff fan but I've thought that it'd be better to have some AAA time in so he could come up with more confidence, instead of sputtering. Confidence will negate being unlucky

Baldelli got the Bomba Squad out was great to see them. But I think our greatest need is to change Baldelli's mindsets. Decisions he makes that doesn't make sense and conflicts stats. These decisions causes many of our loses. #1- Cave is the greatest Buxton replacement- Stats have shown that we have lost a great majority of our games yet he still goes with Cave and leaves our best option (Broxton) off the roster. #2- Colume' is our closer- In the beginning Baldelli stated that there's no set closer yet he constantly goes to him even when he has been ineffective. Confronted with this fact, he concluded that he'd put Colume' in low leverage situations. So he puts him in the 8th inning in which he actually closed out the game with a loss. #3- Dobnak isn't a starter.- Dobnak was very impressive coming off a hot ST. Deserving a starter position yet was put in the BP. In the 1st game was an excellent opportunity to use a hot Dobnak in a long relief role with the opportunity to win the game. But Baldelli instead thought it'd be nice to use all his high leverage relievers with Colume tying the game in the 9th. Without any high leverage relievers they thought they'd use Dobnak as the fall guy. They have continued to waste Dobnak in a mop up role when there many opportunities where Dobnak could've been used to win the games we lost. The last game that Dobnak was wasted as mop up, would have been ideal for Colume to work out his problems. #4- Polanco is the greatest SS no need for an upgrade.- This has been taken out of hands and hopefully not ever be an option. Again, we need a bench coach to take care of routine duties so Baldelli can focus on the game, keep him from making boneheaded mistakes and confront his wrong mindsets.

I'm a fan of Nash Walker's podcast. This morning I listened and he mentioned that it was good to see some of the Twins clinks early so we can resolve them. He alluded to the problems in the BP and that we could pursue the likes of Braves/ Green or Pirates/ Rodriguez early. Again I don't know if either teams are open for a trade but it doesn't hurt to try.

With his mind set, his new found physical strength and stability (since last year) I don't see him slowing down much. Go Buck!

Being a switch hitter is a valuable asset and Polanco has been doing pretty well at it until he hurt his ankle. Patience is what is needed.

It might be difficult but like any trade, is to find someone who need something that we have and willing to give up and we need something they have and willing to give up. Both teams benefit and improve.

I'm sorry, I couldn't find that specific article. So if anyone can that article and post it, I'd appreciate it.

I don't think so. I'm not really confident with this crew. I've advocated trades during the whole off season and still do to improve the bullpen. One of my favorite teams is the Pirates as far as looking for pitching goes. A couple of months or so ago a TD article "Do the Pirates have any more loot to plunder?" (I'll find the article and post it). The Pirates were unloading any veteran they could. Richard Rodriguez was one who interested me. He has been selected by the Pirates to close some time last season. The Pirates BP has impressed me and they have some excellent prospects like Mears coming up. Rodriguez's stock has gone up considerably. I don't know how dominant he is but he has some interesting stuff and he hasn't given up a run yet. Although he's been on the trading block they're might be rethinking their position since they are finding some success. It could take 2 low valued players like Cave, Rooker or Gordon. What do you think? Should we think trade? Who could we target?

Yes, Polanco is naturally a better LH hitter, IMO it's crazy to have him give up hitting LH. IMO the problem has been over stretching him at SS, which caused his ankle problem. Unfortunately that greatly affected him hitting LH. Together with covid and the unjuiced ball really threw a wrench in his hitting prowess. They are on the right track by returning him to 2B. It will take time to undo the damage and find his groove. But I'm confident that he will.

I wouldn't write off KC so quickly. Many doubted the Twins hot start in 2019 and wrote them off. KC could continue to surprise people throughout the season. We can't take anyone for granted.

One side of me when he had his last hit, I was hoping that he'd turn it on and go for a triple to hit the cycle. But the other side was relieved that he didn't.

This is my 1st tv game from Brazil . The Bomba Squad came out as it became the Byron Buxton Show (MVP). Happy to see Garver and Polanco have good games. Happ's doesn't impresses me but he misses barrels pretty consistently. Dobnak impressed me more with 3 SOs/ 2 innings, a groundballer that can come up with some big SOs. Baldelli here wasted him again as a mop up. How many pitchers could've used those innings to work things out and how many games we lost when we could've used Dobnak in long relief. But what really matters today is that we won!!!!!!

He's one of the reasons to help us forget Graterol. But it's not working yet.

I'm not saying that analytics are bad and should be ignored but we can't over look the most important stat which is wins and losses. There are strong indicators in the past that show we win about 2/3 of our games when Buxton is in (lately this is not accurate) and we lose about 2/3 of our games when Cave is there. Yet they say Cave is a viable replacement, much like they said that Polanco was an all star starting SS. I'm not knocking Cave or Polanco they're good to very good players at their appropriate positions. What I'm saying and will continue to say is Cave will not transform himself into a adequate CF. We need Broxton on the field available at any time to replace Buxton. Not only this but also to PR and a defensive replacement in a crucial game. I know last game there's nothing you can do to defend against HRs. This solution is to help limit our loses down the road and hopefully be one solution to one problem that gets us on a winning streak.