Doctor Gast

As much as I'd like that, IMO, Keirsey should get more regular ABs 1st.

Ryan pitched a great game, so did HOU, Lee had a good game hats off to them but HOU got one more clutch hit.

For examples; I'd like to dream on Eovaldi, Gallen might be too expensive too even as a rental. Both of them, we'd have to wait. IMO, we shouldn't wait. Alcantra would be a bargain for what you'll get. At the very least, we need an inning-eater, Kyle Gibson had a disappointing early season because he had no spring training. He could eat innings, he's great in the clubhouse & cheap. I don't know if the Twins'll do anything but they should. If the Pohlads are around next season, Falvey will be safe.

I have really liked our core. But like always, the Twins look at their WAR & OPS on their spreadsheets & say we need big bats. While we were w/o Wallner & Keaschall & Lewis, Correa & Castro hadn't kicked in yet & Julien was sent down to AAA. We put together a 13-game winning streak by pitching, defense, aggressive baserunning, clutch hitting & chemistry that even when they were behind, we knew we were going to win the game. We have to figure it out & regain that. Even if it means finding another identity. OF from the beginning was strong defensively with Buxton, Bader, Keirsey & Castro plus Wallner & Larnach's bats. INF has been fragile & was terrible when Julien was at 2B, hopefully it can be managed internally. Pitching has been our forte, but pitching is fragile when not properly managed. I was concerned with the amount of innings that Festa (early fatigue arm), Matthews, Simms, & Paddack (arm history) would be able to pitch. I strongly advocated for incorporating long relief even before spring training to save the rotation & BP. The only attempt of long relief was wrongly extending Alcala to 2 innings. I was hoping for more innings from Lopez, but he has become our 1st casualty. Things can & is starting to unravel with Matthews & maybe Ober going on the IL. Plus poor performance from Paddack. We need to incorporate some form of long relief as soon as possible & IMO we need another SP as soon as possible if we want to compete. Vazquez has been a pretty good defensive catcher & he has come through with some key hits. Jeffers is a very good-hitting catcher & can be solid defensively but he doesn't have the stamina to catch as much as the Twins want w/o wearing down. IMO, it's a big concern & what if either one gets hurt? We're cooked. I'd love for Jeffers to sign a reasonable extension but I'm not sure that'll happen & Vazquez, his contract is up next season. Our catching situation is totally up in the air with no MLB-ready catcher cemented on the roster, unless they string Jeffers along another year w/o an extension. I have seen this problem a mile away but the Twins fail to address the problem. (I don't consider getting a bunch of fringe AAA catchers to see if one sticks), I'd prefer for them to seriously address this problem sooner but better late than never. I projected at the beginning of the year that if they don't do anything to solve these problems, they won't be in the postseason. They haven't & it's getting late very quickly.

There are 3 time zones from Brazil to MN. I watched Buxton singled, I got excited & waited for him to steal 2B. That never happened. They have quieted down since Wallner came back & settled in their weird analytics. Jeffers grounded into a DP so I went to bed. We needed this game but the way it was going, I wasn't going to stay up to watch it.

Always hesitant about this rotation with how many innings we could get from Matthews, Festa, Paddack & SWR. When Lopez went down (he was one I was hoping to give us some real innings) and possibly now with Ober, that changes my perspective on the rotation quite a bit, even more so. I've strongly advocated long relief, & now I strongly suggest getting another SP. Alcantra can be a bargain while he's still finding himself. Gallen would be a rental, but still could be too expensive. I could dream on Eovaldi. At the very least pick up Kyle Gibson on a MiLB deal. He had a disappointing spring because he had no time to prepare w/o spring training. He's always been an inning-eater and would fit in great in the clubhouse, who would raise the spirits there.

Danchat took the words out of my mouth. I'm more concerned about our own prospects' playing time. Bride is making MLB money, so good for him. He'll be gone when one of our own guys is ready to come up. Yet I wish him well.

Absolutely deplorable. It's hard to believe that it came from a MN-nice fanbase. He has to be a transplant.

I agree with most everybody here. Baseball needs to be fair, take away bias & human error. Stop MN always getting the short end of the stick. ABS can't start fast enough for me. There's nothing romantic about blown calls.

I've been all for this for a long time. I thought we were going to see some sort of this in '22 but was shut down quickly to the detriment to that rotation. It'll be very interesting to see how they incorporate this plan into the MLB level going forward. IMO it's revolutionary & could be very beneficial if they have the guts to go through with it. They are currently far from that plan on the MLB level.

I like our OF depth. You forgot Bader on your list. He's an important part of our OF. I disagree a little with your priority. I'm open to trading from that depth. MIA is shopping Alcantra, he's still recovering from TJ. He could be had & find himself to pitch tremendously from now & into the future. I'm also for developing our own players. I think we could get by with an inning-eater for depth. But this FO doesn't like to take chances at the deadline (unless they're selling), so I don't expect anything to happen.

It's nice to see a little of what Keirsey can do when you start giving him some regular ABs. Looks like there's still hope for Raya.

Forgive me for not being specific. My hope was that the reader would take what I texted in context. (I know that's asking a lot for some people). The context wasn't the Twins, it was about Wallner hitting a HR when you don't need one & getting an out when you do. Wallner's BA late & close games .000, high-leverage .111, medium leverage .132, low leverage .357. I agree that a Twins' problem is having hitters who can get on base that can take & or steal an extra base, thus having them in scoring position. But what can you do when almost everybody in the lineup aren't able to do that?

For Alcala's sake, I hope BOS can see that someone who had come off the IL, doesn't have the arm & shouldn't be used in multiple innings or on consecutive days. When used properly, Alcala can become a valuable high-leverage RP. A pity Twins couldn't see that & that he was well liked.

Congratulations to Noah Cardenas on his 1st AAA hit. 1 of the few in a hard-fought pitching duel. Hope it's a sign of good things to come.

Given that & it was his 1st outing back. I'd have had SWR on a very short leash. He had 3 good innings, then things started to go wrong. With the guys we have on hand, we desperately need long RPs. We need more clutch hitting from some of these guys.

a lot of little things blew up

I applaud FO for taking the initiative to improve the Twins in the '22 trade deadline. But wished they had looked at the underlying condition of Mahle's arm, not only his stats. IMO, Mahle has the potential, but I hope he doesn't find it against us.

Festa, going through a fatigued arm after his 1st MLB round, makes me very concerned about trying to overstretch him. Have at least 1 long RP instead & use him intensively.

Eeles knee injury was poor timing, he could have been one of the 1st called up. Now we need to wait for his knee to be 100% & his power to return.

I have advocated even before I joined TD that the Twins need a true long RP, to take the load off the rotation & BP. Injuries & tired arms have plagued the Twins for as long as I can remember. By long relief, I don't mean a mop-up guy. I mean a guy that can come in with a close game when a SP goes 5 or fewer innings, give you 3 or more competitive innings & a chance to win the game. I'm a believer that long relief is a great way to break in rookie SPs, rotate them in & out of AAA, and start them out at mop-up to spot starts. Most of our RPs went right from SP to RP with no time in AAA to be broken in. I'm far from an expert, if Baldelli wants his long RPs (future MLB SPs) time in AAA to adjust, then fine, give them some time there. They seem to think that Adams fits the bill, I'm not 100% convinced but hope he does because the Twins really need one yesterday, & especially now. As I've said before, I don't think the rotation, especially Festa (tired arm), Simmy, Paddack & Zebby when he comes back, or the BP can maintain this peak usage. I'm satisfied with the line-up, we have the inner core of Buxton, Correa & Lewis together & starting to click, together with Castro plus a very good outer core. IMO the defense & baserunning has suffered some & need improvement. We have lost the series to CLE, TB, TOR, SEA & KC. Those are the teams we're competing against for the wild-card spots. The pressure is on to improve our defense, base-running, fundamentals & working together as a team. While maintaining our pitching success. Can we do it?

Vazquez look much better at the plate. I felt he was going to smack that ball at that AB.

I stated that Toronto knows how to develop catchers & that's why I check them out period. I didn't say Toronto developed Heineman. I know he's 34 & has bounced around. Neither have I said the Twins should target him. I know it's a small test sample, but still it's impressive. & I agree that you can give credit to Popkins for Heineman's newfound hitting success. It'll be interesting to see how much he can sustain it.

TOR knows how to develop catchers. I've looked at TOR to see if they had a catcher available to obtain. Early, I looked at Heineman, but was not impressed. Looking at him now with a .429/.441/.625/1.066 statline is pretty impressive.

Toronto had good pitching, played much better defense, got clutch hitting & good chemistry. Formula for winning close games, something that the Twins are lacking now. Hitting solo HRs & sac. flies don't sustain rallies. Hitting solo HRs might look good on paper by bolstering stats but they're not enough to win games.