Doctor Gast

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.

I agree with your trending. Capt. Jax is the clear #1. Leave Duran in a closing role, he'll be fine. There's too much hype linked to Coloumbe I have him behind Alcala & Stewart. Varland has to be in the group on the active roster. IMO Castellano is a keeper, he is worth hiding in the BP, starting him out at mop up & see what happens. Tonkin has value as low-mid leverage inning eater but IMO, I'd trust our pipeline to supply our needs. IMO that leaves Tonkin & Topo off the 8-man active BP.

You don't understand, Mike, that no one wants to give Dobnak a chance because of his $3M price tag, not his abilities. If you understood what I wrote that if we pay down the $3M with unneeded player capital, a team would receive Dobnak free with the assurance of DFAing him w/o fear of losing him. IMO many teams would do this. Again I don't think he'll be a great SP but he does have value.

I don't think CO prefers FB pitchers so they can watch their opponents hit HRs. MN has a far superior pitching staff than CO, yet MN sees value of keeping Dobnak. They could let him go like they have done to Rosario & Sano. So why wouldn't CO see much more value in Dobnak than MN? The thing is Dobnak would fill a need & doesn't have to be the #5 SP, if they don't need him on the 40 man they can DFA him & not worry about losing him; the problem is the $3M. so if we have one or more players with surplus value of $3M, so before we even start to negotiate for a player we need, we have filled 2 or more CO's needs with players we don't need. Shouldn't that be the goal for CO's FO? But you know what? It doesn't matter if you understand or agree with my idea. Because we both know full well that CO won't approach MN about Dobnak & Falvey, doesn't care about my ideas, he'll do what he feels comfortable doing. So this unfortunately will never happen under his term.

Larnach made a step forward by ditching the old approach & reinventing himself. He is our best bat in LF & the others are better gloves. We are very deep in LF where it'll be very hard to find playing time for everyone who's deserving. & when you figure in DH, which is very deep, it'll be very difficult to give deserving players playing time. IMO it's overkill & some will get the s****y end again.

(Twins have many players they could & should trade), What's the sense of hoarding players we don't need & not give them opportunities they need elsewhere that they won't get here, while we can obtain players we do & bring down payroll.

That's why I said & have explained so many times before, that the Twins have to put a package together. Because of the overpay, the Twins will have pay down that amount with player capital (Twins have many players they could & should trade), to help CO fill the holes that they have.

I believe the main idea of this thread is evaluating our present catching situation & if Cartaya & Camargo are able to take over backup catching duties w/o Vazquez. My answer & the main consensus is no & I added that I doubt the present catching would be able to do so next year, which we also have to look at & deal with now. I gave my suggestion. You think it isn't alright for the Astros to trade Salazar to the Twins but you think it's alright for them to trade him to the Mets? Mets don't need a 3rd catcher to be groomed as a backup; they need an established veteran starting catcher, Whereas, the Twins do. Astros have Hummel as their 4th catcher & I also offered Camargo. IMO HOU could use SPing, that's why I also offered Paddack. IMO switching 3rd catchers is no big deal but could really help the Twins in the future.