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Doctor Gast

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  1. Doctor Gast
    I liked Caratini; he was on my trade list a few years ago. I like his switch-hitting bat. But I think not only you have to see which-handed pitcher is pitching, but more importantly, which teams are running or not. I think we could pick up someone better via trade. If we weren't handicapped there.
  2. Doctor Gast
    The system is full of AAAA, undeveloped, unproven, mediocre & redundant players, which was greatly bloated due to the great sell-off. We could DFA a few more players from the 40 & still have plenty more room for these players. This year, we don't have any sure-fire no-brainers to protect like years past. But thanks to the sell-off, we have a ton of middle-of-the-road ones that make it difficult to protect them all. We lost Laweryson already, a promising pitcher that IMO, Twins thought would slip by. How many more of these types of players will be claimed? We have a huge glut of OFers, so we have to get busy to find other homes for many of them. Although Gabriel Gonzalez should be protected, yet because of his hype, he should be traded as soon as possible, so we can get as much as we can before he turns into a pumpkin. I'm all for keeping Fedco. Olivar as a catcher was very promising & valuable, but as an OFer he is worthless. It's a pity that the Twins couldn't develop him. Maybe someone else can. We have to protect as many promising prospects as we can now. & as more promising player opportunities come along, we start to DFA those who we can't trade. If we trade anyone else like Ryan, Lopez or Jeffers that'll only compound our existing problem.
  3. Doctor Gast
    One of my greatest frustrations with Falvey is when he goes out of his way to showcase his new acquisitions. Losers he picked up who were liabilities to the team, He constantly gives them opportunities when it's obvious they should be DFAed, while many of our in house players are neglected in those situations, compromising the team's performance & culture. And pitchers, especially in the BP, like acquisitions Coulume', J Lopez, & Pagan, & in house Duffy were elevated to closer, while they were able RPs but unable or not ready to close, yet kept being called to close. Levine proclaimed the Twins were going to piggy-backing when they acquired Bundy & Archer, who were what they were only good for. Then Twins turned around & said ALL pitchers had to go 7 innings.
  4. Doctor Gast
    He could be a MLB GG now. But his bat is lagging.
  5. Doctor Gast
    Preach it brother! I suggest SweetmusicViola for GM.
  6. Doctor Gast
    The team has had plenty of talent. That's why they are always ranked high & look so good on paper every year. The problem is the non continued development of the players once they arrive to MLB. Many come the MLB undeveloped & need further development, which they were not getting. I think Lewis kinda voiced that when he was frustrated that he wasn't getting the help he needed at 3B & hitting. Baldelli delegated to his coaches what Falvey wanted & the coaches coached everyone basically the same. I prefer the more direct & more individual approach. I'll voice again even though Baldelli & Shelton are friends & is familiar with Falvey. Shelton is different. I believe Molitor selected Shelton, then Baldelli selected him. Molitor & Baldelli are totally different but Shelton, IMO, strikes a good balance between the 2, What Shelton has said & his selecting Hawkins is a good start & are heading in the right direction. I'm willing to give Sheldon a pass, until he proves me wrong.
  7. Doctor Gast
    I'd like to add to the player's evaluation. Player's evaluation is so important in how they do it because it affects drafting, trading & promoting players. A big stickler in promoting players, they often look at their bat & nothing else. To go along with that, they position players where they don't belong. Buxton was down a lot in former years & they had Cave as the primary backup & he was no CFer. They were determined that Polanco played SS for 2 yrs. on bad ankles. Julien was never a 2Bman, but that was where they tried to hide him for his entire pro career until this year. They spent a lot of time with Martin at SS, & then CF when it was easy to see he didn't belong at SS & was very green in CF (wasting a lot of time). A more recent example is Gabriel Gonzalez. He is a liability defensively; he's a stretch at RF, yet they are playing him a lot at a more demanding LF.
  8. Doctor Gast
    Watching "Moneyball", my take on Billy Beane's best quality as a GM wasn't his knowledge on analytics (that was Paul DePodesta's job); His best talent was initiating, negotiating & closing on trade deals. What really helped him was his ability & courage to think out of the (old school) box, using analytics to come out ahead in trades. IMO, now, the pendulum has swung far to the other side, where analytics drives the sport & "in the box" thinking is analytics. The analytical evaluation system that's biased on hitting HRs. If you were slow, a poor glove & struck out a lot, but you had at least the potential of hitting HRs, you had a great rating. If you thought outside this box, you were crazy. IMO, the best characteristics for a GM are #1 to do the trades that are essential for the team to be competitive. #2 & 3 have good players evaluations & development. Correct player evaluation is key. Because correctly evaluating players will help you find essential players via the draft, the wire, FA & trade. Last but not least is to develop your young players correctly in the fundamentals of the game in the MiLB & reinforce them in the MLB. If you aren't good in all 3, you'd better find someone good who can head those areas that you are lacking. IMO, Falvey is lacking in every single one. Falvey is 100% analytical as he evaluates his players according to the above model of basically slow, poor glove & strike out a lot but had a big bat, that was his priority. That affected all areas of his control. Yet in all his years of GM at MN where are these "big bats" that were supposed to be developed? So you fill the system with these poor gloves, poor baserunners, bad ABs, no fundamentals, who can't hit HRs when you need them; what good are they? I have to give Falvey some credit, where he's starting to get away from the old mold & focus on more athletic players. If Falvey can't do these areas correctly especially trades & doesn't get anyone who can he needs to step down from the baseball ops & stick with the business (I don't know how well he's doing in the business side).
  9. Doctor Gast
    Pablo is a great SP., We'll never get in return what he's worth, so he shouldn't be traded. IMO, he'll have a very good year & he's a good mentor. Festa should not be considered as a SP, With the mess in the BP we need all the help in the BP as we can get. He should be a 1 inning RP, then long relief, then spot start, then slowly eased into the SP role. His condition takes a long time to recover 100%. Twins need to be very patient with him in his comeback.
  10. Doctor Gast
    We are very fortunate to have someone like LaTroy in this organization. The fact that he was willing & it was a no-brainer, the selection was quick. La Troy has a good eye for talent, but what is even more impressive, IMO, is his being so personable & the know-how to bring along these pitchers into reaching & maintaining their potential. It'd take more time to find & attract the best bench coach outside the organization. LaTroy was my pick for BP coach, Charlie Greene (MIL BP coach) is my bench coach pick, Tori Hunter is my OF/ 3B coach, Nelson Cruz is my hitting (maybe need to bring someone in to help with the bunting)/ 1B coach & Ron Washington is my INF coach. Hunter & Washington may be long shots, but if they were able to land Hunter, it'd be easier to land Washington. IMO, this would make a great team. So far, 1 out of 4 is a good start. & would spark some hope for the future. PS- Shelton & Greene should be able to come up with a great catching coach.
  11. Doctor Gast
    I remember Buck in the minors. His bat was what I remember the most. But when he 1st came up, it was his defense & baserunning that marveled us. His health & hitting adjustments delayed his hitting prowess, but it's finally here. Congratulations Buck, wish you many more awards in a Twins uniform, because you deserve it!
  12. Doctor Gast
    It was pointed out to me that my timeline on Miranda was wrong. I was wrong about Miranda & Kiriloff's timeline paralleling; Miranda's slumping correlated more with your timeline. I am sorry & I am reconsidering my stand on Miranda.
  13. Doctor Gast
    I answered you in good faith (I didn't have to), only to be ridiculed. Arm injury is an arm injury. #1 thing is not to aggravate by overextending it. My understanding, though, is that players come back stronger from TJ surgery (Keaschall) than from shoulder surgery (Miranda), so Keaschall should come back sooner & stronger to be tested in the OF but he wasn't. To begin the "23/24 offseason Miranda was understood to be the starting 1Bman. But Baldelli was deadset against it. So he starting playing DH to start the season but quickly was plugged into 3B because of injuries there & needed others to DH, not because he was fit to go. He said his back started to hurt in May, that was when he started to slump & never recovered. He got beaned at the end of July, 2 1/2 months later. You are wrong about Polanco, he had an incredible 1st half but in the 2nd half he was complaining about his ankles, for Polanco to complain about a pain, that means it was really hurting, & his #s kept dipping (his 1st half #s well compensated for poorer 2 nd half). His large number games he played in '19 is a tribute to Polanco being able to play while playing under extreme pain. A healthy player don't have off season surgery for the fun of it, only to return & do the same surgery the following year. You can check that out not just by looking at his overall '19 #s. I said that his bad knees damaged his career which includes SEA not only MN. Kiriloff didn't point to a time where he did something that he injured his back, it just came on him gradually & steadily got worse. I don't need to see the doctor report to know that if you overuse one part of your body to compesate for another that isn't 100%. You'll end up injuring the healthy part, I can speak by experience. Baldelli got mad at Kiriloff because he didn't communicate how bad it was. I am an amateur but I knew he was playing hurt in May, Why didn't anyone on the Twins know it? And confront him sternly? I felt the same with Miranda & Polanco. IMO, all this wouldn't happen if the Twins weren't so dogmatic about what they think that has to be done no matter what while putting some players in jeopardy unnecessarily.
  14. Doctor Gast
    They may be for some, That's not the point. I'm talking about Miranda, Kiriloff & Polanco, who they completely failed, damaged their careers & Twins chances for reaching their full potential.
  15. Doctor Gast
    I have extensively stated my view on how the Twins have mismanaged Miranda. I get tired of continually explaining & some get tired of me doing so. So I've stopped. When Keaschall hurt his arm in '24, they immediately played him at DH/1B & treatment. They slowly eased him at 2B & kept him away from 3B & OF. This is the right way to manage his arm problem. In '23, Miranda was given 3B. To get ready, he quickly overextended his arm & landed on the IL. He came back in '24, with the expectation of starting at DH/1B. While he played there, he did well. They quickly moved him back to 3B when not 100%, He had overcompensated for his arm, he hurt his back & landed on the IL for the rest of the season. Kiriloff mirrored Miranda's condition, but they placed him in the OF. In '25, Kiriloff didn't want to go through the difficult recovery process; he retired. Miranda dealt with it & struggled even before he got beaned. In '19, Polanco struggled with bad ankles at SS & had off-season surgery. In '20, they continued to play him at SS & again suffered throughout the season with bad ankles & again had off-season surgery. Finally, in '21, they shifted him off SS & he had a career year. In '22, he injured his knee & they kept playing him for about 2 months until he could no longer take the field. This had totally screwed up his knee & his career. Most of Polanco's time with the Twins, he had played injured & hurt. When Polanco, Miranda & Kiriloff were healthy, they were awesome. When they were playing hurt & injured, they struggled. It's the Twins' job to better manage all their players' health so the Twins can maximize their offense. Polanco, Miranda & Kiriloff are lost because of it,
  16. Doctor Gast
    IMO, you have to isolate who is responsible for hiring, whoever is responsible for hiring the likes of Swanson, Johnson, Rowson, Popkins? & why weren't they promoted to keep them around & why was Popkins fired? Who's responsible for the philosophies that handicapped them? Also, who's responsible for hiring Conger & the like & promoting them? Falvey likes everything occult, so he can take the credit when things go right & side-step things when they go wrong.
  17. Doctor Gast
    I was a big Flavine fan. They originally brought in some good coaches like Wes Johnson & Tanner Swanson. They pick up some good FAs, like Castro, Cruz, Cron, Schoop, Perez & Pineda. & Odorizzi trade fell into their laps. The perfect storm of the "bomba squad" that organically came about due to the "juiced ball". This all set up the 100+ game season. Falvey was the head mainly because of the Twins' switch to an analytical approach & his association with the CLE pitching pipeline.; Although Levine did most of the talking at 1st. One thing I didn't like about this regime was its being occult. We had no idea who was responsible for what between Falvey, Levine or Baldelli. But we were winning, so who cared back then? Falvey was hailed as a genius and credited with the Twins' success. This all went to Falvey's head. He did more talking, took more & more credit & more & more control. Resulting in becoming more & more imbalanced. Analytics is a necessary tool that all MLB teams have devoted themselves to developing. Because of this mindset, Falvey has been well thought of. But IMO, this mindset has gone extreme; that MLB baseball has turned into a fantasy baseball game, driven completely by biased stats & HR Derby; that has compromised the game. MLB baseball isn't cold & hard stats. It's a game played by human beings, not video avatars. With human elements like conditions, intangibles like instinct & heart that analytics can't register, or fundamentals that analytics have difficulty measuring accurately. It's time to bring back the baseball-smarts back into the game & not be completely dominated by analytics. I'll state again that analytics is a necessary tool, but we can't not driven by them. We need to get away from this mindset that Falvey possesses. Falvey doesn't have the baseball smarts that is needed to be a GM.
  18. Doctor Gast
    Most of these moves are routine. But a couple made me sad. One was Miranda; he had great promise, but he was mismanaged, both health & positioning-wise. IMO, he had a lot to contribute to the Twins at 1B. 2nd, Lawyerson, like you said, BP is a huge need; there are many question marks. Lawyerson, unlike many, showed some promise.
  19. Doctor Gast
    Yeah, I would have kept Lawyerson over Kreiler, Gasper & Julien. Shelton just got here, I'm pretty sure that he does everything he's told at this point. Especially pertaining to these matters. Congers is gone! That's one big plus. Being a catcher himself, he can see how worthless he is. He picked LaTroy as his BP coach, who was my choice I probably have more faith in Sheldon than you do because Molitor picked him as his bench coach. I usually give grace to people until they prove otherwise.
  20. Doctor Gast
    We can't take any more of Falvey's creative moves, which help us to become more like the ROXS than a contender.
  21. Doctor Gast
    Letting Lawyerson go may come back & bite us. It's just the beginning.
  22. Doctor Gast
    The consequence of failure is getting let go. Failure produces humility & meekness, knowing you're not invincible & know it all. Meekness is knowing that you don't know it all, this is the point where you can start learning. If there are no consequences for failure, you continue to think you are invincible & think you know it all. Blocking the way to really learn & grow, that there might be a better way than his own. The best thing for Falvey is to learn meekness by suffering the consequences of his mistakes by being fired.
  23. Doctor Gast
    Yes, thank you! I meant to include Keaschall. Great take.
  24. Doctor Gast
    The way the market sits, big bats are expensive. So why not focus on drafting & developing them? You may ask, isn't that what they have been trying to do? Yes, they have, but they haven't succeeded. The last 2 years, they have had qualified players in house to work their magic at 1B but they have wasted it on 1-year FAs. This year again, I'd prefer they go in house, Fedco, Lewis, 0r even Wallner or Larnach than going out house.
  25. Doctor Gast
    Frankly, I'm sick & tired of Falvey-type trade suggestions. Trades where it is greatly advantageous to the opposing team, yet on our return, though it may look good on paper to some with hyped-up prospects, but in reality, they never come to fruition. They bloat our system with AAAA, unproven, undeveloped, redundant players that don't fill our immediate needs. For the Twins to get what they need in a Ryan trade, they may need to be creative. Though Falvey likes to use this word, he has no understanding of what it means.
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