Doctor Gast

Buxton wanting or not wanting to stay has nothing to do with my opinion. I was just explaining the atmosphere of the time before everything came down with Buxton. Everything else is debatable which I don't want to do with you. BTW I didn't see any link

This seems to be the most critical point as far as pitching mechanics go.

The front office, lead by Levine who ran contract negotiations while he was here, were in contact with Buxton trying to get things done the entire time. Plenty of articles about this all. Your opinion doesn't seem to be based on very accurate information. I never said that Buxton said he didn't want to be here. Why do you continue to put lies in my mouth. I said that it was common knowledge on social media. I don't give much credence to social media but when nothing is being made public you wonder. You said it was common knowledge that Buxton really wanted to stay in MN all along. Twins Daily Analyst Nick Nelson had an article "What the Hell Are the Twins Doing With Byron Buxton? 11/16/21. Where he quotes Dan Hayes & Ken Rosenthal that Buxton's time in MN was in limbo & Twins were gauging trades, He later reported that Jim Pohlad was reluctant to move Buxton. Nick was expressing a lot of confusion with a lot of conflicting info. One possibility he stated was that Buxton didn't want to stay in MN because of being screwed in '18. he wanted to move to the South and or he wanted to test the FA waters. If it was common knowledge that Buxton really wanted to stay in MN all along, why did Nick mention him leaving as a possibility? You said that it took 4yrs to extend Buxton, if FO really wanted to extend Buxton why did it take so long? When Buxton's requests were finally made public, we could see that they were very team-friendly so this brings up again the question why did it takes so long? I never refuted that FO & Buxton were in contact throughout this period but how serious were they? That is my point. You say you have a lot of proof but it has nothing to do with what I said. If you put into context what I really said you can go back to any social media site you can confirm what I said to be true on what was being said. You just trying to discredit me. There were opinions that I gave & I stated them as opinion which I hope everyone here has the right to do & they should be taken with a grain of salt

Years have passed & people forget but at the time as I said it was all over social media & it became commonly accepted, that Buxton didn't want to stay because they screwed him over & that he wanted to test the waters (it was a lie that somebody started) as I said it was a shock to many (including myself who clamored for Buxton) that Buxton really wanted to stay when negotiations seriously started. People conveniently forget what they don't want to remember. Where is your accurate information that prior to actual serious negotiations that it was common knowledge that Buxton wanted to stay that you are basing your opinion on. There was a lot of doubt because what should have taken a short time if both parties were interested to complete the extension, instead took over a year. So if Buxton was very interested in signing why did it take so long? & FO were so interested in extending Buxton why did they balk at a no-trade deal? That is what is confusing to me.

IMO Falvey didn't want to extend Buxton. According to social media, Buxton didn't want to stay, so that was holding up the extension process. Twins got a ton of offers on Buxton & he was good as gone. Pohlads had to step in & say sign him. & low & behold Buxton really wanted to stay in MN. Falvey ended up extending him to what appeared to me for more than he was asking for. Throwing big money I meant overspending for the player whether big or small. Yet quite often striking out on many big names. Which is fine with me. but that's not to say that he doesn't like to go out there with the big boys. And I agree that extending players at this point is not wise.

I'm really bad as far as commenting on mechanics, especially concerning pitching. This podcast, was interesting and I tend to agree with the author. Just curious what others thought. I also thought the comments were interesting.

Ditto. What I didn't understand when Kepler came up was why didn't they put Kepler (who was the better fielder) in LF & Rosario (who had the better arm) in RF. Didn't they have analytics to figure that out? IMO it'd have better optics for Rosario to where he'd could stay longer with the Twins. Kepler didn't think he could justify playing CF but Seth told me once that he considered himself as a LFer.

I'm a Kepler fan but I think it's strange that Kepler's last offseason was coming off a good season with a $10M price tag. With many teams that could have use his services including the Phillies. Falvey was crying that his hands were tied because of the budget. IMO it'd have been easy to unload his salary so why didn't they?

I'm a big anti-FA fan. It makes much more sense to extend key players who want to be here & be part of what's going on. Instead of letting them go & going out & paying big bucks to sign an expensive FA that might not even want to be here. But Falvey loves to be courted by FOs who are drooling over our players. What he probably likes even more is courting FAs & throwing big money at them. So he's not big in extending players.

No moves are better than bad ones. We are supposedly $12M over budget. I have 0 faith in Falvey on moving fat that we can easily replace with equal & cheaper players as to limit the damage. Falvey should have easily moved Paddack at the Winter Meetings. So that means Falvey moving valuable players at discount that won't be properly regained. As intelligent damage control we have to stay out of FA, every dollar wasted on FA will affect the loss of needed in-house core talent sacrificed. For many reasons no. Phillies signed Kepler for the same price as his last season's salary. Many teams including the Phillies needed Kepler. I was not in favor of giving Kepler away. But don't you think that Falvey could have given him away for a lotto ticket if he was crying so much that his hands were tied (because of the budget) to swing a significant deal?

Jeffers only has 1 more year after Vazquez. Catcher is one of the premium positions if not the most premium. You have the same attitude as Falvey. This isn't T-Ball, where you can put anyone at catcher & if he can hit, you're fine. Before we had Tanner Swanson who helped Garver & Jeffers to become passable defensively, we no longer have him. Jeffers isn't a starting catcher he can't handle catching every day for any extended time. '22 is a good example of that when he was put in primary catching he did poorly & shortly he got hurt. '23 we needed an expensive FA catcher to bail us out. Even in '24 in equal tandem his offense & defense declined longer he caught into the season. After Vazquez is gone, we don't need another backup catcher, We need a catcher that can handle the majority of the time behind the plate. Just because some teams put trust in a catcher maybe a HS catcher & they don't work out does that mean we should give up trying to produce viable catchers? & that they'll magically appear? They are many more examples of SPs that never work out does that mean we should give up trying to produce SPs & think magically they'll appear? Right now I don't see anybody in our system who are even close to a 3rd string MLB catcher. I agree that catching is a very demanding position that many can't maintain that production year after year & have shorter careers. Does that mean that our priority at catching should diminish? (But catching in tandem can help to extend their careers.) No, IMO the shorter the time that good catchers can catch, greater the priority is to produce good catchers so that we can constantly have very good catching prospects coming up to replace any fading catcher. Brewers are a good example of this. They have a very good core of catchers. I'd love if we had a pipeline of catchers, & trade off our excess. Because there's a large demand.

How refreshing! a Twin Owner who's invested in the team, who takes interest in how the team is run, who loves the game, who wants to grow the team & fanbase, who wants to win. Too bad we have we have to suffer through another offseason until that happens.

I really like this article. This is the type of article I really enjoy. I've kept close tabs on MIA for years while Lopez was still there. I advocated a Luzardo trade last offseason which made more sense because we had just lost Gray & had doubts about depth where it could get awfully thin & like Cody E said he's a fellow Venezuelan friend of Lopez & would like Pablo, be a great fit. But that didn't happen. When Thielbar was fading I quickly recommended Pukk who was very cheap. I put in a Luzardo/ Nardi offer at BTV earlier this offseason. The MIA offer is a just slight overpay but is common when buying established talent with prospects. I have cooled off on Luzardo because our rotation has improved over the year & Jax wanting a shot at SP would be a cheap solution to Paddack exodus. But I'm still very high on LHRP Nardi, I have MN #7 Gabriel Gonzales + Compensation pick for him.

Yeah, very high IQ is a good way to express what kind of pitcher he is. The way he trains, gets ready before the game and in-game adjustments. What impresses me about him is during the post-game interviews, it's not about him, it's about the catcher & players behind him.

I've been a big advocate for locking up our key players. We are very strapped for money & I'd greatly prefer to spend our money on extending our key players than spending it on the Margots & Gallos outsiders. When Lewis came up I was all for extending him because beyond the tools he possesses there are the intangibles that made him very valuable to the Twins. Even though of his injury setbacks which need to be figured into any transaction, he'd overcome those trials & still come out on top. I don't see those intangibles & character in E Rod or Jenkins so I'd hesitate to give out that preMLB extension. TB rarely gives out extensions but when they gave one to Wander Franco, that money completely changed his life for the worse. Sano was given a team-friendly extension, he became fat & lazy. Emma has a lot of potential but there is still some doubt in how he'll react to MLB pitching. Those doubts about his staying on the field, hitting & his maturity to handle that life-changing money make me even more hesitant. IMO there is no hurry for E Rod, it'd be prudish to be very patient with him before offering him an extension. There was the same talk about extending Kiriloff.

1st I'd like to say that I really like the writers at TD & I don't blame them for the stories they have to write. If I were a Cubs fan I'd be ecstatic but I'm a Twins fan & it's a terrible trade. You want us to trade away a key player who helped us to break the winless postseason curse, was our All-Star representative & MVP for a Keirsey-type player with Emma ready to come up & Jenkins at the door? If your objective is just dumping salary & you don't care if you are making the team worse so you can turn around & waste money on FAs like Gallo & Margot & make it worse yet. How insane or should I say creative can this team get?

Going to the FA well, will mean trading a needed player like Castro or maybe Correa. I'd rather keep our more valuable players & forego FAs. To take Buxton away from CF to put him at DH would be an absolute waste & self-defeating. Martin only played CF because Margot wasn't the player that he was hyped to be. I was against acquiring Margot & I'm against getting any outside player when we have a very capable Keirsey who has proved himself at AAA the last 2yrs. We lost 1 yr. of establishing Keirsey at the MLB, that was an absolute shame. The short time that Keirsey spent in MLB his value shot up. The only sensible thing to do is to commit to Keirsey & let him show us what he can do in the very short time he has. For at least out of respect to one of our players that put in that necessary effort in our system. Another thing, lets say we sign a FA & put him on the active roster & he absolutely bombs like Margot. No matter how bad that player is he'll remain getting playing time & he'll block Emma when he's ready to come up. Last year we kept on getting these stupid (creative) suggestions through out the offseason. I figured that it was only for discussion purposes. They aren't that stupid to ever do such crazy things to make us worse! To my surprise they followed through on those suggestions. And where did that get us? A 4th place AL Central Division finish. I'm not underestimating how creative they can get. To tell you the truth I'm sick tired of all this creativity. Let's try something new, like common sense.

I was impressed with him in his interview with Seth. Not knowing what he had, I sensed who he is. A hungry young man with a deep desire to be the best that he can be. he won me over, Even with that speed bump the year prior I knew he'd come back. Come back he did, he shone in his time in MLB keeping us in every game he started. Pitching 147 innings with most of them in MLB in '24 was much more than the 113 innings he pitched in AAA the year before. Being stretched much more than he should have been, he didn't break although the quality of his pitches waned the last several games he pitched bringing down his stats. Like you said he's young, he has a lot of time to hone his skills & grow. I can't tell you what his ceiling is but I can tell you that he'll be a very good asset for us & has a bright future.

Why is " we have to get an expensive FA" so ingrained in our psyche? Are you willing to trade a Correa just so we can acquire these guys? Why do I get that "Margot" feeling when I see Laureano? or Rhys Hoskins when I see France? They are the same type of guys. The league has figured out the all-or-nothing types, that's why production at DH, 1B & cOF are way down throughout the league in '24 because these type of players packed these positions. I don't expect a quick or significant adjustment from these hitters. So FO when you get this urge just say NO. We can't afford the money, needed talent lost & expensive unnecessary talent gained. Miranda will be our most productive 1Bman we have had in years. 1 more year removed from a shoulder injury & secured at 1B, I see a much healthier Miranda, who hits well all pitchers & even better against RHPs. But I do see a need for a safety net there, so I'll plug (RH) Romy Gonzales (BOS) again. Last year he absolutely mashed LHPs, great PHer, cheap to obtain, cheap to maintain, He's a very solid glove so when not needed at 1B he can platoon anywhere in the INF or OF so we don't have to have an extra roster spot & he's available for 4yrs.

If you read my blog more carefully you'll see that I've nothing but praise for analytics. The problem isn't analytics, it's the people who overly use them & bypass the human element with its underlying conditions, intangibles & gut feelings. If you put garbage philosophy in the computer you get garbage out. Many stats have bias baked into them & you have to take them with a grain of salt. La Russa's old school doesn't fit into today's game & Zaidi has gone to the other end of the spectrum. There has to be balance & common sense. As I stated, the game has changed, baseball is a game of constant adjusting but there are things that shouldn't change like the importance of relationships, tradition, culture, chemistry, hard work, fundamentals & the human element in navigating the decision-making. Posey has a very brutal uphill row to hoe. LAD, SD & AZ have a large advantage over them to overcome. I expect a long process to compete with them.

I enjoy much more a game when a player is taking that extra base, stealing a base & shaking up the pitcher. What is boring to me is a player hits a HR when it doesn't matter & strikes out when it does which happens far too often for the Twins. What's not fair is too many people look at OPS, a player gets a bunch of singles & steal a bunch of bases which is just as good as hitting doubles, triples or even a HRs but according to OPS it's just a single. We have to valuate more baserunning & athletic pure hitting. Focus on fast athletic hitters who have these qualities. Martin will improve his BRV as he settles in & is put in better situations to shine.

As a RH bat/ safety net I've advocated Romy Gonzales (BOS) who just mashes LHPs. He's also a very solid glove who can cover 1B or anywhere in the INF or OF. He's cheap & has 4 yrs. of availibility.

I don't expect that owners know everything about how to run a team. But I hope they know enough about baseball & are invested enough to know if those you hire are doing a good job or not, I believe Justin does. He makes a living by buying poor companies & revamping them into well-run ones. IMO at the same time it won't be just a business to them. Looking forward to them making the Twins into an exciting team again. Hoping for a smooth & quick transition.

Neither. Miranda is our best option. Quit trying to force something that doesn't make sense.

Jax can fly him home whenever he wants,