Doctor Gast

My point wasn't that I can spell Yamamoto's (Yokomoto) name correctly off the top of my head or to show any disrespect. I'm not as stupid as you try to make me out to be. Where do you get the notion that I believe that Sasaki will only receive from his contract? Ted quoted Ben Nicholson-Smith in the article: Sasaki hasn’t closed doors, but possible “it might be beneficial for him to be in a smaller market” He also stated that money wasn't going to be a primary factor & that MN has a good chance. You seem to be in lockstep with Falvey. If Falvey has the same attitude as you or waits around for him. Our chances of landing Sasaki would be absolutely ZERO.

I'm not crazy about putting guys on the active roster who can't be sent down while we need Varland to be on the active list be sent down. But if they trade for him, creating options, then I'm ok with this.

You have no idea what's in Roki's head, If he wanted money, he'd stay in Japan another year & get Yokomoto's money. Everybody wants him to go to LAD or SD, it seems to me that Roki's pushing back through his agent is that he wants to explore his options in which city he'd want to play for & it's probably not a big market city like your NYM, no matter how much you want him to. If you are the Twins FO you can't harbor your negative attitude, any chance you may have you need to give it all you have. Sasaki could be a heaven-sent, & some justice that not everything falls NY's or LA's way.

Sad to see we lost our opportunity. Extending Lopez was a no-brainer. I would have been very disappointed if they hadn't.

Each culture has its good points. I also spent some time in northern Ontario, when I was younger, they really love their winter & not crazy about their summers. I really miss Minnesota lakes. Some lakes here you have to worry about piranhas & snakes. I also like to add that MN has one of highest International bonus pool money. Another positive,

BOS has been interested in LHSPs Snell & Fried (too late). They've been also interested in a trade including LHSP Jesus Luzardo. With this idea, I started a 3-way trade with MIA where BOS received Luzardo & we received high-leverage LHRP Nardi & we traded Paddack to BOS. I prefer Nardi

I forgot to mention that the MSN article was written by our good TD friend Ted Schwerzler

https://www.msn.com/en-in/sports/mlb/latest-news-on-japanese-sensation-roki-sasaki-brings-hope-for-minnesota-twins/ar-AA1vCsCx Everybody have said "Sasaki will want to be on the West Coast, be near fellow Japanese, be part of a big market, forget about him". I've been saying all along, "Don't trade away our International bonus money, don't give up on Roki Sasaki!" Seems like he's more drawn to mid-market. MN has a lot going for it, laid back atmosphere, very good pitching development, we can center a winning team around him & he'd be thee star not surrounded by prima-donas. When I 1st came to Brazil I was open & was amazed by the culture. I embraced the culture & preferred seeking out Brazilian relationships than isolating myself with other Americans even though I knew very little Portuguese. I ended up marrying a Brazilian & made Brazil my home. IMO Roki Sasaki could be like me. I have heard nothing coming out of the Twins about reaching out to Sasaki. That's a big mistake, they should bend backward to try to land him. He's a quiet guy so Falvey needs to learn not to talk so much & be sincere. Sasaki has a lot to offer the Twins, not only his talents but also a big Japanese market.

Too much of a stretch on these, I don't think so.

Every team is looking to upgrade their rotation, except MIA or CWS. There was a lot of hype with Paddack last offseason. 150 innings, Gray's inherited replacement. That was too incredible. His expectations & management should have been curbed. Paddack is still a promising SP with another year removed from TJ, he'd be an asset on any ML team including MN. His $7.5M isn't expensive but is still too rich for the Twins & he can easily be replaced by Jax. We can then go out & easily trade for high-leverage LHRP Nardi (MIA). We saved $7.5M & gained a much-needed high-leverage LHRP. MLB teams are looking to fill out their rotation & BP. don't wait around, be proactive & shop Paddack & make a reasonable offer for Nardi while we can! We don't need another Richards, Margot or DeSclavani.

Grichuk would be a good fit & for $2M you can't go wrong. He played some CF for some bad teams in a pinch but I wouldn't want him there with us, IMO he wouldn't need to.

I like the idea of trading away players we don't need so we can extend the players we do. Not trading players we do need to sign players we don't. I hope we have money to extend maybe a Ober or Lewis while still have intact a very competitive team.

I can see the wisdom on taking trade calls on Correa. But I don't like the optics of saying that in public for the fans & the players. Some things are better not said. Falvey has the knack of keeping his mouth shut when the fans don't want & opening his mouth when it's detrimental to the Twins. Any talk of trading Correa is the sign of a white flag. That shouldn't be an option with the core we have. I just heard a statement from an evaluator I respect say "If you say a player is untouchable, his value goes up. If you say a player is available, his value goes down". I'd also say if you put a Fire Sale sign up don't ever expect a serious offer. Like last year it's all a part of him being "creative". He must love passively getting all those phone calls even though all the offers are crappy. Personally, I'd rather him not being "creative". I'd prefer him to get a hold of persons who know where our real holes are, put together trades to fill those holes & cut fat & sell it. Not complicated.

The feeding frenzy has started. We'll pick the bones after it's over.

I respect every opinion. But I tend to go with giving Jax a shot. We need another veteran SP & Jax could be an upper-rotation arm. An upper-rotation arm in the 4 hole is pretty impressive. IMO Varland will step up in the BP. But if Jax only turns out to be an OK SP the economics will figure itself out either way. If he & Varland works out, all we need is a better LHRP. If it's better for him to stay in the BP then I have no problem with that because IMO he'll have no problem converting back to the pen & then we'll have to trade for a mid-rotation inning eater. As they say "Nothing ventured nothing gained".

A worthless player on one team can be an asset on another. I won't debate who's better Dobnak or Margot. Dobnak fits into their ballpark. Is he going to light the world on fire? probably not but he can be an asset. What you are saying is ridiculous. We are not offering a Jenkins or any other high prospect just to unload Dobnak in a minor deal. Dobnak is insignificant to us as we are blessed with a few SPs better than him yet an unfortunate budget deficit & CO has poor SP depth and GB pitcher fits better in Coors. I agree with you that the farm is the life blood. But I prefer quality over quantity. That means very good player evaluation, drafting & development. I strongly disagree with you that no prospect (or player) is redundant & should not be traded. The great majority of MiLBers never make it to the MLB & even less when hoarded (that's why we have the Rule 5 draft). Each team has different needs, One of our needs is overcoming a budget crunch. And that means moving a trade value difference lotto ticket in order to take $3M off the books w/o trading a player we need, then so be it. I can't understand why you want to keep an insignificant lotto ticket difference & willing to trade a needed player to try to resolve our over-budget.

That's probably the same attitude that Falvey has & he doesn't give trading Dobnak a thought, he's just an albatross around our necks. It's easier to trade players we need to obtain players we don't so we don't have to use redundant prospects to help unbloat our farm system. We can easily move redundant prospects (players) capital to move Dobnak. A team like CO could use him, if incentivized they could take him on. LAD didn't even in any way want Margot but took him to acquire Glasnow. So what purpose am I defeating? Saving $4M? Trading away redundant prospects/ players that a different team needs? Is anybody coming knocking on the door for Dobnak with $4M price tag? no. Can we be actively creative to come up with a trade that is mutually beneficial? the answer is yes. The choice is do we want to be active or passive? So far Falvey chooses to be passive. Passive you are left behind.

I think it's a good idea JD. IMO the money wasn't the problem with him it was the years. He'd prefer to stay with a team longer so he wouldn't have to continue learning new pitchers. It'd be well worth offering him less money for more time. We need to look into the future for our catching. For a long time I've been interested in (CO) underrated (BH) Romo & Carrigg. Last offseason we could have picked up Romo, Carrigg & Dollander for Jeffers & Dobnak easily. IMO Black would have been motivated to trade for Jeffers. I think he still would be but for Dollander alone would cost us Jeffers & Lopez. There is also (SEA) Ford, (MIL) Quero, & (PIT) Bart was their best catcher, they are attainable, (LAD) Rushing is blocked at catcher & 1B. They are looking for the right trade. Same for (BOS) Keel, Jeffers & Duran fits & might do it but they really like Keel so they may want something more.

I am happy that Soto went to NYM instead of the NYY. W/o Soto NYY is really going to suck.

As teams fill their holes in the back end of their rotation, the Twins are sitting & waiting on Paddack & Dobnak, losing out on opportunities. Trading Vazquez is going to hurt no matter what you do. TB, LAA & CO are backfilling their catching, again losing out on opportunities to move Jeffers. Edman's extension shows how valuable a player like Castro is to a serious team. Falvey's creative approach of putting up a Fire Sale sign, waiting for crappy offers to flood in & at the very end choosing the least crappy one. Trading away needed players so Falvey can dabble in FA to pick up players we don't need. Continue to compromise the '23 core affecting the chemistry that advanced in the postseason to a miserable AL Central 4th place. What we needed last offseason was a FO who was proactive, efficiently trade away our fat, initiate essential trades to fill real holes. That didn't happen & still need a proactive FO, not a passive "creative" one (what an oxymoron). The core doesn't need to change. Falvey needs to change. We have been lucky with players falling into our laps. But our future based on luck & hope won't cut it, we need to see better player evaluations & action. This creative approach won't work, If Falvey can't fill simple necessary holes via trade to build off from our core. Then I see a worse fate than we faced last season, I have total faith in this core but I have no faith in Falvey. If Falvey isn't going anywhere, then I regret to ask why pay Correa & Lopez these big salaries if Falvey has no idea in how to field a competitive team from this core? Come deadline when we are no longer in the wild card race. Trading Correa & Lopez will become a sad reality. Adding prospects to our already bloated farm.

That's the creative approach. Don't you buy it?

In '23 the "all or nothing" Twins led the AL in HRs (233) & led the league in SO (1654) followed by SEA (1603) with 210 HRs. MLB total HRs was. "24 Twins were dead set on the "all or nothing" approach. The league adjusted to the "all or nothing" approach all the way down to the MiLB, HRs for these teams plummeted & SO increased. MN adjusted promptly, but SEA did not. In '24, SEA's HRs dropped to (185) while SOs rose to 1st (1625). MN's dropped from 1st in SOs to 22nd (1306). Although our focus should be production at DH, 1B, cOF, we should steer clear of these "all or nothing" sluggers. The Twins were drooling over Rhys Hoskins but because of budget restraints, we dodged a bullet. This league adjustment won't be easy to readjust to, so we'll finally have to readjust our drafting & development practices. Correa isn't an "all or nothing" hitter, Jeffers adjusted in '23, Larnach adjusted but isn't the same hitter. Wallner has kind of adjusted but still has a lot of SOs, Julien hasn't adjusted. he has to adjust & IF he adjusts he'll be a very different hitter. Julien can't play 2B & IF he adjusts he'll no longer profiles as a 1B man. We can still get something good from him in trade. I wanted to trade him last season but we have to this season (but Julien is one of Falvey's guys) so it might not matter how bad he is or how much he'll hold back the team.

IMO pushing their philosophy & their guys instead of trusting their core was a reason why the Twins fell apart in the 2nd half. The Twins handled their 1st hurdle, of the league having the book out on their "all or nothing" approach. Baldelli & Popovich pivoted quickly & changed their approach, sending 1st Wallner down & waiting too long to send Julien down because we were in a bind. We had injuries & slumps in '23 but this was different because the chemistry was different. Due to the compromise of the core, pushing Margot & Julien into the lineup where they failed defensively & offensively instead of trusting our core & in-house players. That plus not trading for players we needed in the offseason & before the deadline & Baldelli pushing Lewis into transitioning to 2B in the middle of the season all had effect on the chemistry of the club. Again I'll say the problem wasn't with the core, it was with management. The shaking up shouldn't have been the hitting coaches or the core, it should have been management. That's not to say to fill in real holes with trades.

Vazquez's main focus when he 1st arrived was learning the pitchers & getting used to a new team. In '24 he started to focus on his hitting. Although he's not great he's trending the right way. My main concern for my catcher is his defense, handling the pitching staff, having a feel for the game & commanding the field. Any hitting is a plus. At the same time I want production from my DH, 1Bman & cOFers.

1. Vazquez- to start with we'd have to eat $4M of his salary if someone wants him. If we are proactive we can find a team that'd take player capital in trade. Jeffers isn't a starting catcher & Camargo isn't a 3rd string catcher. So if we don't want to crash & burn like '22 then we'll need to be proactive to find a replacement for Vazquez- Caratini would be a replacement type, he's worth $6M for 1 yr. So we save 0 $ & we'll have the same problem the following year & beyond. If we want to go the FA route we end up losing money & with an inferior product, Trade Jeffers we save $4.7M actually over $3M after getting 2 young promising catchers. We not only solve this year's problem but also for years to come. 2. Paddack- Sit back & wait for the best deal we save $7.5M. IMO we need another SP even if we don't trade Paddack. We absolutely need a cheap Paddack replacement. 3. Castro- trade him & we can take $6M off the books but we lose an Edman-type value. Julien is a liability at 2B, Julien greatly benefitted from the all-or-nothing approach. Now that that advantage has been taken away from him he'll have to adjust & IF he adjusts, his power will be drastically affected. So IMO he'll be a liability offensively. Julien isn't a solution, he'll be a liability that needs to be traded. I'm looking forward to Margot free '25 where Martin can be used properly & be that spark plug that we desperately need. But Martin is no Castro. Castro is part of the core, we have a great core but if we continue to compromise the core, affecting the talent & chemistry. If we continue on Falvey's creative thinking of putting up a Fire Sale sign sitting back & waiting, getting crappy offers & picking the best, trading needed players to afford not needed players, expect a worse season than last. 4. Dobnak- save $4M. What we need is this FO finally be proactive. There's a market for Jeffers, there's a market for Paddack, there's a market for Julien, others that we can trade to fill our needs & even Dobnak. TB pawned off Margot to LAD & LAD pawned off Margot to MN. If there's a will there is a way. MN doesn't need Dobnak but a team like CO could especially given some incentive. Take down that Fire Sale sign, get your team together to put together trades that's beneficial to both parties, make them earn their money! FO go out there & earn your money & sell the trades. Quit sitting back & wait. & quit your habit of dabbling in FA.