Doctor Gast

I'm new to Twins Daily but I was thinking about the Dozier/ LAD trade 2018 & almost trade in 2017 & the lack of depth & quality up the middle especially after losing Dozier. Was there any talk about getting Chris Taylor in the trade? I don't know if the FO mentioned him but I know that Twins Daily sure did! Quote Report Photo Thrylos Oct 20 2017 06:23 PM Unless you really know who was on the table, you cannot judge a non-made trade. Let's say that the Dodgers, in addition to DeLeon, to sweeten the trade they wanted to throw in a journeyman infielder to play second base for the Twins, named Chris Taylor; if that were the case, I'd say that the Twins were the losers in this non-trade. You never know unless you know all the names discussed and what the final offer was. You, flpmagikat and Lefty74 like this Many members thought the same. We were in desperate need back then, why wasn't he on the table? even w/ the Graterol trade why wasn`t he? Just think what would have been if we had a proven Taylor playing SS (he's an excellent SS) or subbing Buxton these last 3 yrs.? Instead of a loser Forsythe.

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

I believe CLE went w/ Mets is because Cohen was determined from the beginning to get Lindor & LAD still are up in the air w/ Turner. CLE wanted a solution quick

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.

Looks like the Mets are no longer interested in Odo, since they got Carrasco

The more I look at this deal the more I think the CLE didn't do so bad. I believe 1 of the 1st thing Cohen did was to try to obtain Lindor. It took him this long to finalize it because CLE wanted Wolfe & NYM maybe didn't want to give him up. CLE does have a great eye for pitchers, any pitcher that they're interested in has to be good

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

Lindor trade finally finalized. After a long time of meetings, Francisco Lindor & Carlos Carrasco are no loner w/ CLE. I haven't studied the trade yet but it seems that the Mets got the best of the deal https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/30668781/sources-new-york-mets-finalizing-deal-acquire-ss-francisco-lindor-cleveland-indians Maybe things will start to shake loose.

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

I'm usually pretty busy so many times when I post things I rush & leave it incomplete, hoping to come back & edit it. In this case I couldn't. What I really want to say is that I've always seen Archer as a raw talent pitcher that could become the next Johan Santana. I'd like if FO would approach him let him know that they are interested & all that they have to offer him & keep TB from low balling him. Offer him a contract simular to Robles. Archer has matured a lot from his TB days & hope he can come back fully & develop to his full potential hopefully w/ the Twins. I believe Archer could be on the IL until he's 100% or when needed, having some flexibity on the 40 man

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

Being traded high doesn't make Archer bad any more it makes Snell bad. I'm glad that the FO didn't bite on either. I was wondering after reading FA ratings & reports, they never mention his surgery. Being skeptical of the surgery myself, (especially after Phil Hugh's past) I decided to dig deeper. I read recent articles & discovered that the procedure now most pitchers can make a full recovery in a few weeks. https://www.forbes.com/sites/lucasseehafer/2020/06/03/understanding-chris-archers-surgery-to-treat-thoracic-outlet-syndrome/?sh=7d55c3775293 I became very optimistic & more enthusiastic for the FO to sign him. Archer is a very good pitcher w/ a strong arm & a lot of potential, ask any Twin who has faced him. Wes can work w/ on his fastball, slider & pitch selection & J Santana can perfect his circle change up. He's low risk/ high reward opportunity. I can see him do very well here

#1 I'm a Rosario fan. No one on this thread slammed on him. I would not judge anyone w/ little to no reason. #2 The main focus on this thread is keep an open mind on Archer. If you think pitching coaching has no bearing on pitchers or PIT ex-pitching coach is the greatest, maybe you should contact FO & convince them to fire Wes Johnson & hire PIT ex-pitching coach, I'm sure he'd be cheap (just kidding) #3 Archer has good stuff that can be improved. The only concern is if he can come back from his injury. So far it has been smooth & the teams that know him the best are the most interested. San Diego bet heavily on Snell so TB will be interested in some pitchers to eat innings. TB knows Archer the best, they know how to scout & develop pitchers so there is probably where Archer will end up

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

It's like High Heat said, basically it's politics (I hate politics on all & every level). The players want universal DH & the owners want to leverage this so they can delay the season (which the players don't want) until the vaccine frees up the fan in the stadium. So it's an impasse & nothing will be done unless ownership sweetens the deal. I personally wish that nothing is done so we have a better chance of landing Cruz. That said; nothing will be decided until the very end when there is no choice. So we have to have patience but if there is a deal that can't wait we must strike & let the chips fall where they may. If at the end there is no universal DH, great! we can sign Cruz if there is universal DH, so be it, will lose Cruz but that can free up some $ to upgrade some where else other than DH