Doctor Gast

Your title is misleading. Because Julien should be sent down to AAA so he can adjust his hitting & finally learn how to play 1B so he shouldn't be considered at 2B. But the Twins want him to be, so unfortunately he'll continue to play too much 2B. Castro is needed all over the field, Lee is the 1st option at SS & 3B (still needs to prove he can hit at MLB). We need more stability at 2B & Julien is a terrible choice. Martin is hard pressed in the OF & he's not needed there, we have (RH) Buxton & Bader & (BH) Castro against occasional LHPs. IMO having Martin stable at 2B, which is his natural position, would do wonders for Martin & the Twins. To make it clear, Martin has pretty much even splits. Since you mentioned Keirsey. I'll note he's our only true (LH) CFer that should be used to platoon against available RHP to sub Buxton.

So why does Julien keeps finding too much time at 2B?

Stringer, we agree more than we disagree & I respect your opinion. Jeffers is a very good hitting catcher, A couple of years ago he changed his hitting approach & hasn't been affected by the league adjusting. I know he works very hard on his defense. Contrary to what many believe, I like Jeffers. but I'm a realist. Jeffers is a good veteran hitter where the league adjustment isn't the cause of his last season slump nor was it a hidden injury (although he might have suffered some secret pain due being overextended) but as I've many times before documented that the correlation of Jeffers's slump offensively & defensively is due to the degree of his overuse. Catching is a very demanding position, you need a lot of stamina to maintain your productivity. Jeffers has his limit & that's weak side tandem. And there is no shame in that. Twins hyping him up more than that has compromised us & come extension time, leave it to Borus to try milk every bit of that hype into big dollars to handcuff us financially, or have Jeffers walking away. Both are negative situations. WAR is a terrible tool to gauge the value of catchers, some are worse than others for they greatly undergrade defense. The WAR you are measuring Jeffers as in the top 3rd of catchers seems to be way off. IMO catching defense is the most important position on the field. fWAR has MN in the bottom half, but I'd rate them a little higher not because of Jeffers's hitting but because of Vazquez's defense. It's admissible if we were in the bottom half at DH or 1B but not catching, IMO I'd love to be in the top 5, at least top 10. I was against signing Vazquez, I'm against signing any FA catcher. I prefer developing our own catchers or at least trade for them, who can excel in the MLB. Twins are hoping that Jeffers, Camargo & Cartaya, will miraculously become what they have hyped them to be. I believe in miracles but in this case I need something more than hope. & I don't want us to sign another expensive FA catcher.

Those who value catching & have it tend to hold onto it, MIL values catching, they scout, draft, develop & trade for good catching. I envy them. IMO trading for your needs has no season unless maybe a starting catcher who has so much to prepare to get ready for the season. But a 3rd catcher, shouldn't be a major deal. Yet for the Twins it is for the reasons I gave. The only other options we have this season is A) suffer through another Jeffers 2nd half slump; B) give Vazquez more playing time, that won't happen; C) if Russian Roulette catches up to us & either get hurt, we have to sign an expensive inferior FA from the salvage pile. How can we compete in that scenario this season? As I stated, I doubt Twins will initiate any trade like this Next season w/o a groomed backup catcher our options are A) extend Vazquez, who knows our pitchers (best alternative) B) sign an expensive FA, who we can afford & doesn't know our pitchers. Season after that, Vazquez will for sure be gone, We have 3 scenarios with Jeffers #1 sign him to an outrageous extension; #2 sign him to a reasonable extension or #3 we lose him. Cartaya is iffy & no one behind him. Even if we extend Jeffers our catching will be a shambles. I don't want to even think about what we look like if we don't sign him or how handcuffed we'd be if we sign him to an outrageous extension. We can't afford to keep kicking the can down the road.

Although he has come up as a catcher, he hasn't even caught a single MLB game at catching-starved BOS. He has hit in MiLB but has yet to translate that at the MLB. I don't see any future for him in catching much less grab a backup job.

Anything can happen. IMO, many in the league are tired of Twins looking good on paper but not producing & they have soured on the Twins, I don't think any of them think that any Twin will amount to much.

IMO sprint speed is deceiving. We need to know the distance they use in their calculations. We all know Wallner has very good top-end speed once he gets going but the fact is how long does it takes for him to get going. He doesn't have that quick burst of speed or instincts that a Brooks Lee has. I'm not trying to take away from Wallner's worth.

Right now we have Vazquez & Jeffers as our MLB catching depth. Our MiLB prospects are not MLB-ready and will not contribute to the Twins this season. Jeffers is very good as a weak side tandem, anything more, he has proven that the more he is extended beyond that, the greater his production digresses. Vazquez can handle the greater catching duties & his hitting IMO can resemble his stats at BOS that he had while he was settled in there. Twins hoping that Jeffers & Vazquez keep being constantly healthy the last 2 years & this year is like playing Russian Roulette. Twins desperately need a viable 3rd catcher. #1 we need someone to step in if either main catchers go down & not be a liability defensively or offensively. #2 relieve Jeffers in the 2nd half when he starts to wane. #3 be groomed to be a back-up catcher so when Vazquez is let go or even if they can't reasonably extend Jeffers, a non FA back-up is essential. Camargo has plateaued at AAAA, Cartaya has been hurt a lot & has struggled with upper MiLB pitching. Maybe he's been playing hurt, having back problems would do that. If so he needs to get 100% & then start to adjust to the AAA & then MLB pitching, all that will take time. IMO Cartaya can be a MLB catcher but I have no idea how fast, how far & how healthy he'll be. We don't have that time. Last season, my sleeper 3rd catcher was Joey Bart, SF gave up on him. PIT picked him up for nothing & gave the opportunity he needed, Bart became their best catcher & one of their best hitters. This year, my choice is (LH) Cesar Salazar (HOU 3rd catcher). Salazar seems to be very underrated, BTV has him at .8M surplus trade value while Camargo is 1.5M. HOU could very well value him, but Dias & Caratini are set at #1 & 2, have Hummel as #4, Janek is projected to debut in '27, I'd offer Camargo & IMO HOU could use SPing & Paddack could be a good match. I'd be open for any reasonable offer. Salazar is a disciple of Martin Maldonado, he has a good grasp of defense & has been a good hitter in MiLB & last season at MLB, he showed promise. I like the fact that he's a LH hitter & he's ready to be groomed to be a back-up catcher. IMO this is the least we need to do at catching to be competitive. Ideally, I'd prefer a young future starting catcher that can catapult us into the top ten at this premium position. I know that the Twins don't put the same emphasis on drafting, developing & trading for catching (they rather an expensive FA band-aid) that I do. But I wanted to share my ideas with my TD brothers.

Last year was an extreme test on Wallner's ability to adjust & maintain his power. He past & IMO he came back as a better fielder from AAA, which has been a long time coming. I still don't like his SO rate hopefully he'll see the need to get better there. Thanks to Wallner we are solid in RF.

PHI probably asked for one of these non-roster prospects you mentioned or even higher. I'd trade any one of those you mentioned, because I don't think any of them will make it to the Twins club. They are no more than trade bait. But Twins are prospect huggers, they'll hang unto them for dear life. They'll jeopardize Castellano's development to keep them & gain another in Castellano. Castellano is a keeper but is he worth keeping while jeopardizing his development & Twins' chances to win the division? That is debatable. I'm leaning yes. It's better if they give up a reasonable prospect instead but if that's not possible then I'd try to hide him with mop up duties. I don't like to play chicken with Castellano's development, but I think the odds are on our side & we have nothing to lose.

Funderburg still needs to work on his control at AAA. His call up depends on Twins' patience with Coloumbe. Since he's Falvey acquision, his best shot is when Coloumbe gets hurt.

I wouldn't trade with NYY unless it's an overkill on our part. NYY doesn't really have anyone I'd be interested in, certainly not Stanton, especially not for Lopez.

I'd hang unto our pitching except consensus Paddack. IMO we don't have any big needs except a big time young future catcher, I'd be open to trade. a pitcher for one. I suggested some combination Paddack for (LH) Cesar Salazar (HOU 3rd catcher ready to groom for backup).

Sad but true

Castellano is struggling.

TOR has a good line-up, Twins pitching has come through.

Wow! Miranda HR up 2-0

IMO playable GB got past Julien.

Another impressive inning by Morris

1st time to see Camargo catch, looking forward to it. Morris had a pretty good 1st inning.

Great defense by Tor, lets see what MN's defense will do?

Toronto is hosting this free Twins TV games. Aren't the Twins going to have any Free games that they host?

LineupsMatchups Batters MIN B HR RBI SB AVG OPS Julien2B L 1 1 0 .273 .769 MartinCF R 0 1 2 .167 .485 Lee3B S 2 3 0 .308 .871 Miranda1B R 0 3 0 .250 .596 GasperDH S 1 4 1 .348 .838 CamargoC R 0 0 0 .143 .286 Keirsey Jr.RF L 1 4 3 .263 .883 Alvarez, ALF R 0 0 0 .133 .435 WinokurSS R - - - - - Lineups subject to change Batters TOR B HR RBI SB AVG OPS Gimenez2B L 0 3 1 .261 .737 Guerrero Jr.1B R 1 4 0 .346 .931 SantanderLF S 1 4 0 .235 .880 BichetteSS R 2 4 0 .345 .988 SpringerRF R 0 2 0 .188 .659 VarshoDH L 2 5 0 .308 1.375 KirkC R 1 6 0 .391 1.029 Wagner3B L 0 4 0 .250 .736 StrawCF R 1 6 0 .450 1.079 Lineups subject to change Twins is putting up their C team against TOR A team. Miranda, who should be getting the lion's share of 1B in ST, has been given very little opportunity there. It seems the Twins aren't giving them much of a chance to do anything. God bless them!

Your welcome djm24, I know how it feels to sometimes stand alone & appreciate the support when given.

I am grateful for any amount of time that Buck can give us in CF. Last season he gave us over 100 games; the 1st non-rehab offseason in a long time gives me optimism that he could give us record games this season. He's trending the right way, healthwise. Buck is a good hitter but his fielding & baserunning gets me excited. Last season (RH) Margot was supposed be our 2nd CFer but he was terrible, so Martin had to become our 2nd CFer & blocked our true 2nd CFer, Keirsey. Even though they obtained (RH) Bader, (LH) Keirsey should sub Buck against all RHPs that Buck sits out. With our MLB & MiLB CF depth, IMO Martin isn't needed at CF or even OF & he can be better served at 2B. CF is by far our best position.