Doctor Gast

Larnach is a great hitter. It'd have to be a super sweet deal for the Twins to trade Larnach. The Twins love their big bats. I imagine that they'll find a place for him next year.

Seems like they put a lot importance on power when rating offense. MLB average for BA and OBP is .250 and around .320 (it varies each year) respectively. Simmons's hitting has improved a lot through the years. If you throw out 2 of his low average early years at ATLANTA, he'd have a well above average in both BA and OBP. My only concern is his ankles but it seems they're fine. So I'd still rank him an A+

Happy day indeed! Berrios is motivated to sign an extension. Always thought he didn't want to sign but instead wanted to test the waters. Also Maeda's working on a new pitch. It has made my day. Looking forward to better days ahead.

I like the way that this FO has dove into the analytics and hired coaches to help w/ players development. They way they find players that they can tweak that they help the team. That's how a small market team can survive. I only fault them on not able to make bold and smart transactions which does cost the team too much but able to take the team to the next level.

I'm not expecting any of these to be on the original 26 man roster breaking camp. Hope Duran get called up as soon as possible. Larnach and some pitching prospects should be called up towards the end of the season. I don't understand obtaining Garlic unless they plan to trade a bunch of our over abundant corner OFs. Hope also Wes Johnson can tweak some of the pitchers that were obtained to help out the BP. The only one that I'm really cheering for is Broxton because we really need his glove to back up Buxton. Whatever capacity that may be.

My hope is that Broxton finds himself and start hitting. Because he's our best backup to Buxton. Our best way of keeping him him on the roster is platooning him at LF. He could starting platooning with Cave and Arraez and later Kiriloff. I like Rooker but that'd leave him odd man out.

I like Cody Morrisette's hustle and ability to spray his hits all over the field. Richard Fitts seems to be a solid pitcher, if he'd be available

It's a tough call, they are pretty close. Right now I'd have to agree with you and pick Duran. I trust the competition of our top pitching prospects will help push themselves to the next level.

Polanco should be the next Dozier in time. I also grade him an A

He was a great player and great guy! His goal was to take the Twins to the World Series. The Twins haven't made it but he did. Wished he could have finished his career as a Twin with a few more years and a World Series ring. He was my favorite Twin the time he was with us. Wish him well

I'm afraid maybe SD could be going down the same path of Cubs, R Soxs and CO. Where they bite of more than what they can chew and pay for it for years without little to show for it. They might compete this year but it could jump up and bite them later.

I like Duran's stuff better but like what you said Cody, what makes Balazovic maybe a little better is his ability to hide the ball. That deception gives him an edge. I'm looking forward to seeing both Balazovic and Duran later this season.

I think we have a good chance of getting to the post season but it'll be tough to regain the central title. Twins has improved overall but CWS has a pretty good team and their very good rotation has gotten better. If Broxton can come through with his hitting and if everyone can stay relatively healthy we got a good shot of progressing in the playoffs. Our defense has greatly improved and our BP has improved, hopefully if we can pick up an impact arm before the trading deadline and improve our clutch hitting, we can win the Championship. I'm optimistic

You are in our prayers, Mike. Wish you a speedy recovery!

I believe there's and was cheating. I still don't understand why batters aren't checked for electronic devices during PS games, except that they don't want to draw attention to it and teams like NYY can gain advantage. That's why they don't want robo umps, because certain teams and players have an advantage by human umps that can be swayed. The League bent over backwards to distant players but robo umps which made most sense and most practical, they didn't do anything

IMO 1B is the best place for Arraez, I'd like Sano transition back to 3B whenever needed because he's our best option. They should play Arraez in LF only when absolutely necessary, because there is a lot of ground to cover. I agree that that addition and subtraction of WAR is misleading. The subtraction of Rosario's WAR will be supplemented by Kiriloff and the addition of Simmons will increase the WAR of many players and pitchers. Although I'm not a fan of the addition to the rotation. I believe they are counting on and want to somewhere down the line figure in Duran and Balazovic. And the BP I believe is much better than last year. The way to look at it is, have they upgraded where needed? Have they plugged the holes? Have they met the budget? I believe in the most part is yes

Cavaco is still young, having a poor age 18 pro debut is understandable, there's a lot to adjust to. I believe patience is the best route to take with him. He'll come around in his own time. I'm high on him, as long as his defense is remains strong, his hitting will come around.

This is old news but Archer signed with the Rays for $6.5M plus incentives. 1st I thought this offer is really high. Then I thought it was the Rays that had offered it to him, the same stingy team that let Morton go because they didn't want to pay him the $15M that was owed him. The Rays have kept tabs with Archer and they have a great eye for pitching, that's what keeps them a competitive team year after year. For them to throw this kind of money at Archer means that they are confident that he'll come back fully from his surgery and return to his earlier form. W/o trying to develop him, they'll recycle him and try to resell him. Which will be a shame because Archer deserves better than that.

I like Rooker, the problem is we have a lot of strong bat/weak glove types that favor 1B/DH along with aging vets and other bats we want in the line up. We have an abundance at this noncrucial position. I can see him platooning with Cave to begin the season if Broxton has difficulty hitting for average (IMO if Broxton can hit he should have priority). In that case the Twins would need a true super utility player (someone who plays SS and CF well). Rooker is a strong bat and is MLB ready,I wish him well

Enjoyed your article, Jamie. I was pleasantly surprised by the addition of Simmons and moved Polanco to 2nd. This greatly improved chances to advance in PS. The area where IMO we need to greatly improve is CF back up. Every year we hope that Buxton stays healthy but every year He plays less than we expect and we lose a good majority of the games when he's absent. This year is no different, we hope he stays healthy and pumps out WAR. But we need to finally be prepared, Cave is a good LF backup but he doesn't cut it as CF back up. Even if Buxton stays healthy we still need a decent backup to regularly give Buxton a break. Hopefully Broxton can step up otherwise we need to look elsewhere. My hope is that we field a championship team.

Not really excited about anything out there.

He's back! And he'll do everything that he can to help the club. Welcome back, Cruz! Keep pumping out those dingers

Sands and Urbina have a lot of potential but still have some development yet. Booker I see as a RH platoon in LF at the start of the season depending on how Broxton does. Celestino, I have a lot of hope in, even with that high leg kick.

I've been advocating for awhile to plunder the Pirates. I like Rodriguez but as the main trade it doesn't make a lot of sense because for me the 2nd motive to trade is trim away some unnecessary baggage from our 40 man roster. For Rodriguez it could take a lower prospect even up, which is alright but I'd rather traded for Musgrove or Taillon & tack on Rodriguez, which would include a few more prospects from the 40 man. I`d rather do this than sign Happ. It would've been cheaper & more realistic since our division is dominately RH hitters Now my hopes are on a trade w/ the Reds or LAD before the deadline for a high starter

Most definitely a win/ win/ win. Dodgers wanted Mookie Betts, unload discontented Maeda and win the World Series. They done all of the above and got Graterol out of the deal. I'd say it was because of Maeda that we came out on top of the division. But to many, for the Twins to have a successful season they needed to win a PS serie or at least a game. In this aspect the Twins fell short. Look at last year it was a win/ win. Dodgers gave up a pretty good reliever & got one back w/ a future. We got a runner up CY winner so we came out ahead. Everything worked out perfect for Maeda in 2020. #1 short season- he was not drained. #2- the hitters weren't used to his different delivery. #3- very weak AL and NL Central divisions, the CY winners and the runners up in both AL and NL were from the central divisions. #4- covid, this pandemic seemed affected many hitters but not Maeda. #5- favor of FO, making sure he didn't face the line up more than 3x, have his allotted rest between starts and Wes Johnson expertise. #6 (this should be #1) He was highly motivated to prove himself. Being a normal year and hitters more familiar w/ him, he'll have some regression, he's not an ace as some profess. He'll continue to be a good pitcher. Graterol, has an electric fastball but he could locate it higher. He needs a quality 3rd pitch to become an awesome starter. Dodgers have given him some opportunity to start but they aren't in a hurry to develop him. Dodgers, even with Maeda's new found success, would not want to take back this trade. I like Maeda but I was disappointed the FO traded away Graterol. Dodgers were motivated to trade Maeda, at the end they would've accepted a couple of bats instead. We came out ahead in round 1, next 2 rounds pretty even , round 4+ we lose