Doctor Gast

Falvey's idea of being creative is passively sitting back (an oxymoron) & wait for offers from other FO's who want to flip or dump players. & pick the least bad one & or normally try to find a bargain on the FA salvage heap. On rare occasions, a FO comes with a mutually beneficial offer (MIA Lopez/ Arraez) IMO we came out ahead. We had leverage over LAD because they were desperate to unload disgruntled Maeda, I'm happy with Maeda but we could have done much better on who we gave up. The rest we lost & I was vocal about it on each when they happened. The fiasco in '22 where our fantastic catching core was demolished, because of Falvey's signing of FA Josh Donaldson. Many think that the signing of Correa was a mistake. IMO we were lucky to sign Correa. Correa fell into Falvey's lap after Boras couldn't sell him & Falvey had luckily lost out on Story. When Falvey says he going to be creative, it sends a chill down my back. That means trading someone we need to acquire someone we don't. If they can't fill our real needs then please don't be creative & stay pat.

I'm sorry NYCTK, I forgot you're down on all the Twins.

Thank you Cody for the list of lower-catching prospects here. I'm very interested in catchers because of the importance of catchers & the lack of catching depth we have. I've been following many of the catchers you have listed. Especially Richardo Olivar, he has a lot of tools to become a very good catcher but I haven't seen any improvement since rookie ball. Twins put little importance on drafting & developing. I've come to give up on the Twins to get a good catcher to MLB.

Just curious, how did you get these official player evaluation on Martin?

NO, he was considered as an INFer for most of his career & now lately as a utility player. As the article stated he has the tools to become a good CFer that's why they have experimented with him throughout his professional career, placed him there last season over seasoned Margot & finally now focusing on that aspect in spring training. I guess you are one of those who'll look down on Martin no matter what he does. If hit HRs & struck out a lot & not as good athletically, you'd be singing his praises.

At least with the Twins & probably with any team has he ever been considered as a CFer. There's a big difference between being thrown in CF & try to figure things out on your own & being considered a CFer & trained as one & thrown in CF on a MLB level & expected to perform as a seasoned veteran.

'19 Twins players picked up that the league was using a juiced ball. You often heard that they often got together to discuss hitting (most likely how to take advantage of it). They exploded with HRs & broke the season HR record & came close to the club season-winning record. '20 the juiced ball went away, yet the club decided to make "moonshots" their slogan & team philosophy. Hit HRs as high & as far as possible. Their drafting & development was focused on big bats & everybody hitting HRs, '23 Falvey finally had his opportunity, Twins success was due to their "all or nothing approach" although those who contributed didn't abide by their philosophy. To heck with the SO record by the offense they were pushing through with this approach. The league got the book on the Twins. Those who didn't adhere to this approach Correa, Miranda, Kiriloff & the little that Lewis played were great but the rest of the team was bad & Margot, Santana, Wallner & Farmer were horrid. The SOs mounted up w/o the HRs. I credit Baldelli for bucking the system, & changing the approach & Popovich for implementing it to turn the ship around. We went through a long winning steak after that. They changed the approach so I don't blame the collapse on the old approach (although many hitters when desperate often start swinging for the fences). I blame the absence of veteran leadership & chemistry when Buxton, Correa, and later Kepler were down. Also the breakdown of the rotation & BP, largely due to not addressing the lack of depth in the rotation (depending too much on rookies & Paddack) & not quickly picking up a high-leverage LHRP. I blame this FO for the bad showing in '24. For making many bad decisions on philosophies, player evaluations in placing, getting rid of, acquiring players we didn't need, & not plugging real holes. Making Popovich & others sacrificial lambs doesn't make up for this. Many people are using this bad showing to reflect on what they could improve on, how about Falvey? I guess finally letting go of his pet-hitting approach is a start.

Is Martin our 1st option at CF? The answer is a clear no. Right now he should be our #4 behind Buck, Keirsey & Castro, which is very good depth. If Martin had the power that most Twins fans expected, they'd be jumping up & down with joy with his fielding. But since he doesn't, many fans look at him with a much more negative lens. They tend to overlook plays like the one shown & focus on nitpicking on inexperienced rookie mistakes basically learning a new position at the MLB level. Martin's ability & potential to get on base & not striking out. baserunning, taking & stealing that extra base & fire that sparks rallies (something we need more of). More than makes up for any lack of power. Baldelli's decision to play Martin a lot at CF during the spring training is good. With more training, he could rank higher than Castro at CF. IMO he can be our lead-off hitter, Last season his splits were pretty equal, actually hitting a little better against RHPs. Therefore I'd also give him some time at 1B & have him ahead of Gasper. During the regular season, I don't see him playing a lot of CF, mostly 2B & LF.

1st you have to see your need, IMO Twins feel they don't have a need at catching, To where they think Diego Cartaya is the solution to any need at catching & that they can trade Vazquez away & be OK. If they don't see any need then they aren't looking for trades to add needed catchers & not taking seriously any possible trade offers from SEA, MIL, PIT or any other teams. So you don't hear of them. Most teams value good catching, so yeah it'd be difficult, From the BOS camp they said they'd never trade Teel. But with the right bait, a deal can be done. BOS are in win-now mode & their catching core is inexperienced they need desperately veteran catching w/o it they can't compete. If they value well-experienced catchers a trade could hve been had, If not a creative 3-way trade could have been done to where we could obtain Keel either way without hurting. There are a few young players that could be & should be traded to make a trade a reality But I'm afraid all my advocating & well thought out numerous trade offers at BTV are futile. Because Falvey doesn't care, his head is somewhere else. He'll never be proactive or know what this team really needs. All I can say is the new owners will have their hands full undoing what Falvey has done to make this a winning team again & get fans excited to want to follow the Twins or keep fans from giving up.

Neither am I. Miranda can really mash if you keep him healthy. Keep him from overusing his shoulder at 3B & keep him at 1B will do wonders & put him on the right track to reach his ceiling. That said I wouldn't count on not having any blimps along the way & I wouldn't count on Julien or Gasper to be a backup so we need a bonafide backup either in the system if not a cheap outside trade option. Jeffers does have the stamina to be even an equal tandem catcher so we need a bonafide promising young MLB-ready catcher to spell him & gain valuable experience to help ease him into a more demanding role in the future. We have no such player in the system so we need to trade for one. I'm not concerned about Bucks backup, Keirsey will be a much better & viable option both offensively & defensively than Margot. Castro was a bench player but he was overused at SS &CF which caused the crash, With Keirsey as CF backup that'll take a lot off of Castro's back & hopefully Correa & Lee will be healthier so Castro won't be as needed there, relieving more of Castro's burdens. So IMO will be better than ever. So if kept basically the same with minor upgrades I'd be very happy. If start messing with the core then we'll be in trouble.

The 2.5 catchers are not MLB-ready & shouldn't be counted on to contribute to this year's team. But even so, leave it up to Falvey he'll showcase his shiny new acquisitions by giving them every opportunity to play & keep playing even when they are lousy. Julien at 2B & Gasper as utility on our active roster, We are in deep trouble. If this is what we have to look forward to. We just as well pack it in. I hate this time of year because all offseason you hold your breath hoping that FO won't make any stupid moves. And then this is the time of year they spring it on you & it deflates you like a balloon.

Just wondering, are you a spy for the Mets?

I sincerely hope you are right ML Ready. It seems budget cuts, budgets cuts has been shoved down our throats for too long we tend to believe it. $135.4 could be closer to reality but it's lower than what I've been hearing. I suggested trading Paddack but a TD member said SD isn't interested in him.

I was hoping that MN had a legit shot at Sasaki & I think we could've if there were more & earlier preparations. It was a long shot but we can dream. If MN wasn't going to land Sasaki, I figured & hoped that SD was going to land Sasaki, but unfortunately for them, they didn't. After Sasaki, they finally had a market for Cease but now they need Cease, I don't want to begrudge you the right to dream on Cease & I respect your opinion, T&R. I might be wrong, there may be some legitimacy to this. I fault Falvey for making wrong evaluations & sticking with them for a long time (I could give you many examples but I won't bore you with them), When finally seeing the need, he tries to fix them with a bunch of fringe players. We needed a Cease last season to fill the Gray hole. Desclavani was our savior & trying to extend the rookies & Paddack's innings wasn't the answer. But this season the rookies have a year under their belts & Ober & Ryan have taken another step forward. IMO our pitching is in a good place. If we had all our bases covered & had WS aspirations & no budget limitations, Cease could put us over the top. We have to be very solid up the middle to compete. SS, check- CF check- 2B, check if we remove Julien from the equation- catcher, not by a long shot. Increasing Jeffers innings behind the plate dropped us down to #18th in catching. I've always thought Jeffers was only a backup catcher & each year he has proven me right, Every year when used as a backup he thrives, beyond that he falters, more innings beyond backup the more he falters. Still hoping that he'll become better doesn't make it so. We have to be realistic. For us to compete we need to add not subtract from catching. I appreciate you seeing the importance of catching & the addition of a future bonafide MLB catcher, like Jefferson Quero, Harry Ford or Endy Rodrigues. I could add to that list. We are only as strong as our weakest link. Catching is a very critical link, trading away Vazquez leaves us with backup Jeffers & a group of MLB wannabes will put us firmly in last place in MLB catching. When they finally wake up they'll sign an expensive inferior FA catcher that doesn't know our pitchers, wiping away any savings we gained by moving Vazquez. Gaining an inferior catcher to battle out of an impossible situation could raise us up in the bottom quarter. While not making a dent in the Pohlad's paramount budget-cutting from a significant deficit. We are adding $14M? (I don't see the Pohlads doing that). So IMO because of the devasted catching corp we don't have a chance to compete, thus making rental Cease a waste of money. To reiterate if we do nothing we still need & prioritize a bonafide future catcher. If we trade either Vazquez or Jeffers we need to prioritize 1 more to compensate. IMO FA catchers are a waste of money. If we can't develop catchers we need to trade for them.

I can see that SD would like a LF, DH/1B, C, & SP, that makes sense. Cease is a SP but they don't want to pay his salary. If they don't want to take on Cease's salary why do they want to pay Vazquez's $10M. OK MN will pay down his salary to $5M so that's a $5M savings. From Cease's $14M that's a $9M increase. For over a year we hear our budget is $130M, we are supposedly around $12M over & instead of cutting they are adding $9M? That doesn't make sense. We need catching, trading away catching doesn't make sense but Twins probably don't care. We aren't situated for a postseason run, a rental would be a waste. SD can get a much cheaper catcher than Vazquez in a trade for Cease somewhere else. But what got me thinking is, trading Cease is a big deal, national media should be all over this but they aren't. They aren't taking this trade rumor very seriously. I hope that there isn't any weight to the Pablo trade rumors but you still hear them on national media. Why isn't this?

Great we agree on one point. IMO Everyone is lost & some are intimidated when they come onto MLB CF. If they are brought up solely as a CFer they may be better prepared but they still need to be mentored. Hunter praised Puckett for mentoring him, Span praised Hunter for mentoring him, and Revere praised Hunter & Span for their mentoring. Many pooh, pooh the importance of mentoring but I've heard too many testimonies (Trevor Plouffe always stresses the importance of mentoring) to counter that opinion. Martin has played some CF in college & MiLB but how much has he been really prepared to play there

A very interesting subject. Cody. IMO focusing on flexible athletic SS is a good strategy rather than focusing on unathletic big bats. Sano was quick for a big boy but he was never going to stick at SS. We have picked a lot of pseudo-SSs, with the focus more on bat than glove, we may not have any true SS. What I don't like is Twins pushing players where they have no right to be. Cave at CF, Polanco at SS, Kepler at CF, Julien at 2B, Martin at SS & etc. Lewis before could have transitioned to CF fine until they said you are our SS. Lewis over conditioned (plus his battle with ice) & hurt his ALC. They said you are our 3Bman to Miranda & he over conditioned & hurt his shoulder. In Martin's case, they should have taken him from SS much sooner & immediately given him time in CF to take advantage of his athleticism & become a very good utility player. Castro is a super utility player who is very important, to be a super utility player you have to be good at SS & CF logging a lot of hrs. there & corresponding positions. Martin is a natural 2Bman but needs more time at CF to become better as an utility player. When you have a true SS, CF or catcher I agree you have to capitalize on their talents & keep them at their position as much as possible. Proper evaluation is necessary to know who belongs in what roles.

I'm sorry to break this to you guys but I think all this is a ruse. IMO Preller called up Tingler to make up this story to increase interest in Cease & Twins, Vazquez. Besides a small blimp on MLBTrade Rumors, I've heard nothing on the national social media not even SD websites. No announcements or comments from the Twins, nothing, only TD & possibly Twins X have been buzzing. News like this concerning Cease would light up all national social media & TV, I just haven't seen it. From the beginning, the trade didn't make sense.

I'd love a clubhouse & lineup full of Arraezes, but IMO beyond his $14M is his Boras extension that the Twins weren't willing to put up with.

Oh, who has bewitched you?

The 1st sensible statement I've read in this thread.

My mistake & that explains my thought before that it'd be impossible to be a head catching coach, be the 1B coach & now asst. bench coach. So Conger is just the MLB catching coach. If you could do me the favor to inform me who has the vast catching experience & knowledge that is responsible for overlooking & instructing the MiLB catching coaches on how to develop our catchers plus other head catcher coach (or whatever you want to call him) duties? In other words, Tanner Swanson is the NYY director of catching, who's the Twins.

You have no idea who Keirsey is, do you? He's no MAT of old so you write him off. You are guessing & you're wrong. He's a well above-average fielder & that is for sure & will play well at the MLB level. Maintaining a .760 OPS through each level for a CFer at each level & last year at AAA a .845 OPS is pretty darn good. He has hit at each level, he will hit at the MLB, How fast & how well we don't know. He is a 0 risk/ possible high reward, He won't block Emma from joining the club, an outside Margot will even if he stinks. We have nothing to lose with Keirsey. If he comes up & breaks out we have some options when Emma comes up, like maybe trading Larnach. He proves he's a MLBer hitter (IMO will happen) he can be a valuable LH CFer with options or a trade piece. For sure his glove plays, if his bat doesn't, `we lose nothing & rush Emma through. You are like everyone else including the Twins, so this isn't pointed at you, I'm just ranting.

They were lucky with MAT & in '24 they wanted to resign him & sign Hoskins, we were lucky they didn't. Gasper is an acquisition that does nothing. We'd been much better off last season with Keirsey instead of Margot or MAT. Keirsey is a true CFer who dominated AAA & deserves the right to prove himself on the MLB level as a LH option to sub Buxton. I don't want to take any chances on any more Margot/ Gallo types. I don't have any doubts about Keirsey. Who I do have doubts about is Miranda's backup, Julien & Gasper shouldn't be counted on. But it's all about politics.

How would the Twins have fared in the NL West? Let's compare apples to apples. "You can blame Preller for putting together a lousy player evaluation & development team or fault him for being quick to trade undeveloped talent which I tend to agree with you".- My quotation I agree that it's Preller's job is to delegate the right people in drafting, player evaluation & development & he's responsible. Like, so often I complain about Falvey or even Conger, and you come back with it's not their job. Who's responsible for catching development that knows what they are doing if not Conger & Falvey? Now getting back to GMs, GM don't delegate buying or selling players that's their job. Do you blame Preller for trading Soto? You want to debate me about if Preller was a good GM or not, I don't care that's not my point. My point that you missed is that I appreciate him for being proactive.