Doctor Gast

Great memories & great truths. Cito Gaston went with his gut & put seasoned veteran Molitor over Olerud at 1B when analytics said go with Olerud. And it paid off. Heart has been taken out of the game, and replaced with stats. The mid-'80s Twins had great chemistry, MacPhail didn't try to change the chemistry by removing one & replacing him with another but added to it. That chemistry brought us WS championships that magical feeling that many today Twins fans have no idea what it's like & how it happened.. Some had a taste of it in '23, Too bad the chemistry was changed.

True, the chemistry was much better in '23

I applaud you Matthew for bringing our speed problem to our attention. But FA isn't the answer nor trading for a Margot. Stick with our cheap young in-house players. W/o Margot, Martin & Keirsey will be great & I'd like to see Eeles get a chance. Twins have been too slow moving off the slow, big bat, poor glove model to a more athletic, line drive, good glove model. Has Falvey changed his faulty philosophies? He has offered up a lot of sacrificial lambs but the ones that should be gone are still here.

Not relying on their potential at 1B is part of the reason why the Twins are not in the playoffs.

No friend, as I stated in my original statement. Miranda & Kiriloff's potential has proven itself over & over again when healthy. 1B is a good place to recover from their surgeries because there's less moving around & less arm action to limit soft tissue injuries that accompany surgeries. Keep them at 1B so they can fulfill their potential. That's contrary to social media hype but it's the true translation.

This year the league has the book out on the HR-focused hitter (in contrast to line drive hitters) this season a decline of 415 HRs & 1B is loaded with this type of hitter thus we see a big drop off in production this season. IMO we'll continue to see a drop off in production at 1B throughout the league for years. The Twins have focused on this type of hitters in the draft & development for years & it's funny that those hitters never made to the MLB. Now that the book is out, the Twins have to change their focus on hitters & how to develop them. If Falvey had the money he would have spent it on MAT & Rhys Hoskins. Fortunately, we didn't have the money. From now on we need to forget about this type of hitter.

We have tremendous potential at 1B in-house, so again it doesn't make sense to go outside, especially with the salary crunch. 1st we have Miranda & Kiriloff, both profile well there, the only problem is injuries. If allowed to be focused at 1B, that'd help the process of recovery from surgeries & improve their defense. We have Severino on the 40-man, McCusker or someone like Lewis that might be transferred from 3B. I was a big advocate of trading Julien. Not because I didn't like him but because FO wasn't going to play him at 1B, his future wasn't 2B, his trade value peaked & we had big needs to be filled. Now the league has the book on him, they have taken away his HR edge & he'll be a SO king unless he adjusts totally to a different approach. Although his range has improved at 2B, his stats have dipped because he's not making the plays. He has always been low on the 2B totem pole but now it's obvious even to his fans. Julien should have been traded last season at a high trade price but now he no longer profiles well at 1B because his HR edge has been taken away & it's more obvious to most that he shouldn't be considered at 2B. He's no longer should be considered as part of the Twins' future & should be traded while he still has some hype value. I really have great expectations for both Miranda & Kiriloff if finally given the opportunity to be the mainstay at 1B. Don't trade either of them until then & don't try to fill 1B again outside the organization.

It makes a lot of sense. I can't see any of them really wanting to keep the Twins & a lot of them would want the mula. Especially now that they let the cat out of the bag, you can't really get it back in. I have a question for my brothers. If the Pohlads sell the team quickly can the new owners negate the Falvey deal? & undo some of the stuff they have done? IMO selling a house has nothing to do with selling a pro-team. In every transaction I know of, they always try to limit & in most cases cut costs to make the deal more reasonable. Besides if the Pohlads backed out now they'd be tarred & feathered.

Many underrate the utility position. LAD is really the only one that correctly values that position. Castro is a super utility player which means he's very athletic & can play SS & CF very well that means he can play anywhere except maybe catcher & SP. That brings extreme depth to all positions which is very valuable. No one can take his place; not Buxton, not Correa, not Lopez, not Jax. He outplayed his contract & he outplayed his position. A utility player is not supposed to lead the team in games started but Castro did so astoundingly more than the MVP candidates that were ranked higher by TD. He was stretched beyond the limits he should have played, especially at SS & CF. His efforts helped keep MN respectable. With his flexibility, durability & production, IMO deserves to be the team MVP. Martin, a rookie sparkplug who hardly played CF before was abused by the Twins. His time in CF should have been limited but his athleticism proved to be better than anyone else at subbing for Buxton. Martin should have been handled with kit gloves but that was given to veteran Margot, who was used extensively to face LHPs (start & PH). Being overburdened can quickly drain the spark (which the Twins desperately need) out of anyone. With Margot gone, Martin can assume his rightful spot & (LHH) Keirsey can assume his rightful spot (that Martin played) & expect good things from them. With all that said, Martin still can't take Castro's place. Trading Castro would produce another big hole by FO that can't be filled internally & be more expensive to do so externally plus taking a hit chemistry-wise. The answer to our problem isn't FA, it's trading responsibly to fill holes & with any extra money, extend our needed players. The problem is that Castro should have been extended last season, now that he's meeting his expectations he'll be much more expensive.

You trade Duran only if you think you won't compete. Tanner was traded at the deadline for a bunch of prospects because MIA was not competing. I agree with Mindbinder you don't trade Duran at a discount when he slipped a bit, We need him especially because IMO he'll come back to help fill out the top of the BP. IMO our BP isn't that great w/o him.

I like Helman but IMO we have more than enough utility players that can play SS & CF better than him to be excited about.

CLE, DET & KC were impressive. All 3 advanced to the semi-finals. CLE bye, DET swept BAL & KC beat many's favorite HOU. KC was the one who I cheered the most for. Going 1-1 at NYY, going home where they do what they do to win whatever that was but didn't do against the Evil Empire. IMO the Twins had a better core coming off play-off success but FO let us down by not trading adequately for necessary needs & making us worse. Now CLE, DET & KC are coming off better play-off success & riding high. CLE is a better ran team. DET is a better-managed team & KC has gotten lucky with the few FAs they got. CLE will get their injured rotation back, DET & KC will try to get better & we got Falvey, Baldelli, Tingler, Conger & Watkins

I agree with everything you said but I'm ready to move on from the Pohlads.

I really hope so, Seth. & I hope that they don't fall back to the old philosophy. Baldelli said that he got after the players for not following "the plan". That's what I hate, vagueness, what is "the plan"? Being vague we can't evaluate what he's saying, he expects us just to blindly accept what he's saying without understanding exactly what he's saying.

I had my doubts about Popkins when he was hired. Popkins had a sparkling HR production on his resume, so I thought he'd be just an HR-driven coach that fit into Falvey's HR-crazed hitting philosophy. I was assured that he wasn't & I've seen that come to fruition by what he has done helping hitters to get away from that approach & how quickly he had turned around the team early this season, from HR focused ABs to having good ABs. On the other hand, Borgschmite was let go because of the team's high drop in offense in the 2nd half. Popkins was Falvey's sacrificial lamb to take the fall for his faulty hitting philosophy. IMO Borgschmites is worse than Popkins. Another Falvey's yes-men to support his philosophy.

Trading cost-friendly Pablo makes no sense. Trading Pablo only makes sense if we are rebuilding. But then we have to trade both Correa & Buxton, if we can't trade them it'd be counter-productive. Pablo can be up & down during the season while adjusting. But in the postseason, I wouldn't want anyone else.

Many people's solution to Twins' supposing problems is just to get rid of some salary to sign an expensive FA (ex. Goldsmidt) IMO that's nonsense. Keep our reasonable players especially those who are performing at prime positions & have chemistry with the club. Quit spending on frivolous salaries that don't help the club. Proven veteran SPs is always a need, why create another hole while not filling the old ones (like last season)? Keep them. There are other ways to cut if need be.

Absolutely not. FA are expensive, any extra money we have should be spent on extending our own reasonable players not filling FAs pockets. If we spin the wheel on high-stakes FAs, we'll have nothing left over to extend our sure bet players.

It's surprising how far the CWS has fallen. Just a couple of years ago or so, the CWS had a promising young powerhouse team that was projected to dominate the central. IMO their down fall was lack of veteran leadership. Also BAL has tons of young talent but because of lack veteran leadership they don't have enough to take them over the top. We have great young talent but w/o Buxton & Correa around they tend to flounder.

I'd be looking forward to that. Looks like the Twins had only 1 team that qualified for as long as I can remember off hand. How many did qualified? And who was the last before '19? Player evaluations are super important for helping to find players via draft, international signings, trades & even FA. Developing in-house players are the best way to have them on the roster but having quality young players to trade are also important to fill necessary holes. Trading for high-quality players to fill our holes this season was sorely missing to improve our team. IMO this was why we failed miserably & fell way short of our appointed goal.

IMO Pohlads have already dipped their toe in the waters, Their announcing their intentions & stating that this is the right time to sell, tells me that they like their chances & possibility of something breaking out before the announcement if they decide to wait. They could be in negotiations already with different groups. Also their concern for selling to the right group could also mean that there could be several opportunities that they are looking at. For everyone concerned, I hope that the Pohlads aren't too greedy & for a smooth & quick sale.

I see a lot of ?s much like last season, hope won't get it done, We picked up a lot of RPs, with a lot of hype of having a great pen. If hype meant anything we'd be winning the WS but none of them ever panned out. If Duran were kept as only a closer & had Jax as a fireman, IMO we'd have had more success. I'd hope Duran regain his dominance but he's still a very good reliever. Stop wasting Varland bullets in AAA. Sands breakout is a big plus, I didn't like how they used Alcala this last season but next year I expect good things from him. If we can't get anything good for Paddack in trade, I'd put him in the BP. Right there we have a pretty good high-leverage BP. I'd not mess around with Topa, I just trade him while his value is still up. We won't get a full season from Stewart so we have to find a way to have him healthy at the end of the season for the post. There were an awful lot of pretty good LHRPs at the deadline that we missed out on. I'd try to scour to come up with one this offseason. That leaves us with low leverage which we can easily fill out in-house with Canterino if he can stay healthy, Raya, Prielipp or others not to mention maybe acquire Thielbar via FA. We should have a better base at BP, but IMO not good enough to experiment Jax at SP.

If Falvey & Co. are still around next year even with new ownership I still don't see any change. A little extra money for Falvey to blow in FA isn't going to change anything either.

I wanted to believe the best in the Pohlads but it became obvious that they didn't know what they were doing. They didn't know what they were doing because they didn't care. The only one who really cared was Carl's wife.

The moves that was made this last season haven't helped us one bit for this season & IMO made us worse. The absence of Margot will help a lot. Trade is our best weapon, let's use it. Our main need is still a veteran mid-rotation inning-eater to conserve our young SPs. Switch Paddack with Jax? maybe. If we can get a good trade to dump Paddack's salary, go for it. Start Varland in the BP. Maybe it's too late to trade for LHRP butt at least try. Next re-educate our hitters from focusing on swinging for the fences to have good ABs, take what pitchers give you, clutch hitting with RISP not striking out. Of course, if a pitcher serves a big meatball, give it a ride. That'll help our offense the most. IMO these were the biggest reasons for our downfall this season. It's not late to pick up a promising young catcher although sooner would have been better than later. Not only for now but mainly for the future. Our systemic depth at catching is pathetic. We have been very lucky to have Vazquez & Jeffers healthy these 2 years. If you want this team to tank by all means trade Vazquez. Unless these needs are dropped in Falvey's lap, I don't see any change.