Doctor Gast

I'm counting on the soft Sept. schedule & the roster being strong & intact. My main concern is the pitching being so thin for so long w/o being addressed. KC is w/o Vinnie which is a blow. I was hoping they'd keep pounding CLE for us. I'd rather face MIA early in the season than now. My hope is for BAL to start running away with the East so that by the time they face the Twins, they won't care.

Thank you for this info on Bernie Allen. I liked Allen, too bad about his knees.

I didn't want to jump the gun but since Drew Macphail came to the Twins, I have secretly hoped he would follow in his father's footsteps. IMO Andy MacPhail has been our greatest GM by far. With such a rich family baseball heritage with his grandfather & great grandfather in the HOF, he has a deep well to draw from. Drew is the current head director of player development, IMO he has every right to be proud of where the farm system is at. He studied wealth management, and although players & wealth are different (he discovered that he enjoys working in baseball rather than wealth) many of the principles are the same, which he could use in baseball transactions. There was an article in The Athletic about Drew that inspired hope in me that the Twins might be considering him as a possible GM candidate. Even though that wasn't even mentioned in the article. IMO Drew with his background in wealth management, a rich understanding of baseball, analytics, & player evaluation & development, could become even a better GM than his dad.

Correa's situation is very frustrating & baffling, which you never know what to expect. We need him on the field.

Lewis normally is a discipline line-drive hitter. It seems that the last injury that Lewis suffered threw off his swing & he picked up some bad habits. Like he did early in his career he needs to find himself & his swing. When asked about moving to 2B he responded uncharacteristically unsure of himself. Maybe that's where he is right now. He's being tested & needs to find a way to maintain his swing. I'm sure it's frustrating for him. As always he'll come out on top.

Just to relieve Castro at SS would do wonders for Castro. even if Lee doesn't set the field on fire offensively. No pressure

Many of the "all or nothing" players were 1Bmen. When the league had the book out on them they didn't do very well, a far cry from the success they once enjoyed. Meaning, that players like Santana had better fWAR ranking than they normally would for 1Bmen. And that he put in so much time at 1B.

Texas isn't close to being the top spender. IMO Texas got lucky. They spent the money, was bad, snuck into the the playoffs, peaked, & got lucky. And now they are bad & still paying the money. If you have a ton of money to throw away, you might get lucky & get some players that won't get injured, gel & peak at the right time with all the right conditions. But the odds are pretty much against you. Success is much cheaper, more sustainable if you have good player evaluation to draft & trade for players & develop them.

Thank you for your 1st hand report on Dave Roberts, I have no idea what he's like. Like I said I'm not a Baldelli hater but this article is about the GM. After what you said about Roberts, I'd prefer Baldelli but my main focus is I'd prefer their GM to ours. I like their philosophy & the way they develop their players. That's all.

Great win for the Saints. Eeles although he didn't get a hit had 2 walks, 2 steals & put himself into position to score. Keirsey 2 hits & Varland shined & showed what he could do for the Twins this whole season at the MLB level in this role of long relief besides showing prior in the spot starter role.

I disagreed with the Twins' decision to go with Jeffers over Vazquez. In my book catching defense trumps offense (this isn't 1B) plus World Series Championship experience trumps everything. He stayed with Boston into the 2022 season, highlighted by being part of the 2018 World Series championship team. Vázquez was traded to the Astros during the 2022 season, and helped Houston win the World Series later that year. He caught the Astros' combined no-hitter in Game 4 of the World Series. Players react differently to the postseason. One gets up, the other freezes. With Vazquez's superiority in defense and his leadership from postseason triumphs, he couldn't do much worse than Jeffers regarding his offense. Going with Jeffers in the postseason over Vazquez IMO was a slap in the face. Going into this postseason I'd go with both but lead-off with Vazquez.

There seems to be a phenomenon that I love. Teams that think they can win a World Series by spending boatloads of money, seem to backfire. NYY spends more money than anybody & for many years they haven't come close to the World Series. NYM decided to do that with Cohan in '23. They had a great team & a great manager (Buck Showalter) but didn't make the playoffs. LAD FO seems to do everything right & spends a lot of money which supports that phenomenon. Hope that holds true this year also.

I'm not a Baldelli hater but if the Dodgers would like to trade their GM & manager for ours, I'd be all in.

I'm the same way. The few times I've heard Levine give interviews I really like what he says. And the next day the Twins do the opposite. So IMO Levine has zero pull.

I wouldn't be surprised because of the salary crunch that both sides would see that they no longer fit together. If NYY decided to move on from Cashman, IMO Flavey would be happy to have all that cash to play with, instead of being restricted. Twins on the other hand would need someone who can swing a deal. Falvey has produced a pitching pipeline here in MN & he has been very lucky in '19 by picking up Cruz (through Skoop) together with the juiced ball that favored the Twins. Picking up Maeda that produced the perfect storm during covid in '20. Having Lopez & Correa dropped in their laps in '23. In the draft, getting a 1st overall pick in his 1st year, then winning the lottery in '22 & '23 by gaining 8th (Lee) & 5th (Jenkins) overall. As far as signing Buxton they seemed to drag their feet with the assumption that he didn't want to sign. Through the encouragement of the Pohlads they pursued talks & low & behold Buxton wanted to sign & indeed signed an owner-friendly contract,

I might be jumping the gun here. He's very talented & could be a valuable guy who deserves to play in the MLB soon. IMO right now there isn't a place for him but a lot could change next year with the salary crunch. We can stash him like twinstalker said until 2027 to put him on the 40 man for insurance. IMO that's not fair.

Never been a fan of our base coaches, IMO it was all on Watkins. Watkin seemed to fit in with the old no stealing don't take any chances philosophy. But now, the Twins need to change their philosophy along with their coaches. Unless the runners make up their minds to go & ignore Watkins's original sign they don't go, especially the veterans.

I consider a true a true CFer is a OFer that can cover CF & make the plays. Any MiLB player that played some CF or SS don't tell me anything much about what a player can do. Thank you for giving me one more reason for not trusting OOA.

For decades our main problems have been the same. The burnout of our BP which in turn becomes more dependent on our rotation which in turn gets burned out. The effect is a burnout BP & rotation resulting in too many ineffective innings, injuries & worn out, coming into the postseason. Resulting in all those postseason losses. Last season we had the quantity & quality in the BP & rotation where there was an even distribution of innings for all pitchers. Also, we didn't have any pressure from the other teams. Resulting in more quality innings, fewer injuries & more rested BP & rotation. This year even though they added a lot of RPs in the offseason & one at the deadline. None of them panned out. Together with the stumbles from Duran & Thielbar plus the loss of Stewart early in the season, all important high-leverage RPs. Depending more on Jax & raising Sands & Alcala in high-leverage situations have thinned out tremendously our BP. Our rotation took a hit by losing Gray & Maeda & didn't add anyone of significance outside the organization. Paddack was coming back from TJ & needed to be limited (no matter the hype), DeSclavani was in no way to be counted on, rookies Varland, SWR, Festa & Matthews all unproven MLB SPs. With #4 & #5 up in the air as far as the quantity of quality innings was concerned throughout the year. Varland didn't work out the way they wanted so to maximize the yearly total of quality innings. Instead of sending Varland down to AAA wasting his bullets, have him pitching quality innings on the MLB level in the long-relef/ spot starter role which he has done a good job. IMO if Varland was used in this manner, the BP & rotation would not be stretched, we'd have more quality innings & Paddack & Ryan would still be with us. With Paddack & Ryan still with us we'd have a ton quality depth in Festa & Matthews to be used in the long relief/ spot start role behind SWR. A ton of quality innings at our disposal. With a well rested & healthy BP & rotation.

When the SPs have been there, the hitting hasn't. Now the hitting is coming around, the SPs are failing. We need to maintain our pitching strong.

Not crazy about it but let's see. Probably much better than the deadline move. Seems more like a band-aid than anything else. I'd prefer a Varland/Winder-type move instead until something more substantial comes along.

Great job Sherry! IMO it's a head-scratcher why the Twins picked up worthless relievers that can't be sent down & take up valuable roster spots. Winder should definitely be part of the revolving door of RPs to provide relief help to the rotation & BP. Winder along with Varland should be in the BP now! Get rid of the dead weight.

We lost the pre-rain game but won the post-rain game does that count? Nice comeback even though it wasn't enough to make up for the huge deficit. They still can't defend against Martin's swinging bunt. Was hoping for a much better game from Ober. What happened? Happy to get much-needed 3 good innings from Blewett. We have lost the last 3 series (the ones we needed to win). ATL won't be easy but we need to win this series to be better situated in the standings. We need Correa, Buxton & Lee back as soon as possible & Lewis & Miranda to be Lewis & Miranda.

It has been amazing watching Eeles sky-rocketed to AAA from lower minors! He can do everything! I hate to lose him but he has a bright future, I'm afraid it might not be with MN, He deserves to play MLB someplace. Talking about deserving to be in the MLB, Keirsey had another great week. Congrats on being named the International Player of the Week! When will the Twins wake up? Maybe when it's too late.

Nope, I was against the firing of Paul Molitor (not only the money they lost), Molitor had a fantastic knowledge of the game rivaled by few. If Falvey wanted to incorporate analytics he should have had Baldelli as a bench manager & had him to assist Molly with the analytic side of things & to learn the practical side of managing from gut feeling. There was a lot Molly could teach Baldelli. IMO Baldelli was mainly lost & depended heavily on Sheldon his 1st season & did not deserve the "Manager of the Year". After Baldelli's 1st year, he managed according to his & FO's weird philosophies (don't get me started with this) they plugged into their computers with a set game plan they never waver from. Focused on HRs & mainly ignored SOs, defense & small ball. I'm a big development guy but guys like Lewis, Lee & Ryan, IMO mainly developed on their own, while seeking out mentors & even outside sources. There are a lot of managers I'd put ahead Baldelli, Sam Mele being one who was the 1st Twins manager & 1st to take them to the World Series. I like Baldelli, he is a great player-coach & believe he could become a great manager but the way Falvey went about it was all wrong. Falvey wanted an analytical yes man not a manager. For a long time, I couldn't listen to his talks until Baldelli averted a major disaster that SEA's offense suffered, by ditching the "All or Nothing" approach. I respected him for that.