Doctor Gast

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.

I'd prefer he stays at 3B. Unless it's OF. I guess I'm fine with him playing 2B

At the beginning of the season, Baldelli advised the BP to be ready to go extra innings (to keep the pressure off the rotation). He extended that to Alcala who after spent a year on the IL & ramping up that should have been & still be limited to single & nonconsecutive innings, As imagined that didn't last long, only on occasion did they go 2innings & rarely went 3. The need is still there yet more than ever to take the pressure off the rotation after losing Paddack & now Ryan. But now short relief is thin. We need to cull out those that aren't contributing. They have released Okert & should also release Richards & I'm not crazy about bringing Funderburg up either. Next they should prioritize the long relief/ spot-starter role, that means bring up Varland as soon as strategically possible to spot-start (to give the rotation another breather)& keep him up for long relief. With rookie SWR surpassing his last year total & rookies Festa & Matthews kept at 5 innings & you never know when Lopez or Ober might have an off day, we need someone to step in give us several innings to spare the BP. IMO if we take care of our SPs we shouldn't have a need for a 6th SP but still have Varland step up if need be. Besides Varland we have Sands & Winder that can go multiple innings, if Festa is much better the 1st time through the order we can be very creative with BP games, piggy-backing, openers or whatever. In those games that long is used a short RP may not be needed. The focus should be on keeping our rotation & BP healthy & throwing high-quality innings, Short relief we still have Jax, Duran, Alcala with anyone else in long relief to spot short relief more than likely Sands.

Thank you Cody for this refreshing insightful article. Martin has a spunky personality. He has gone through a lot of adjustments & difficulties. Adjusting to a different team, TOR & MN trying to make him into a power SS (?) throughout his pro career, setting him back offensively & defensively. Twins & fans were giving up on him because he wasn't that power SS they dearly wanted. It wasn't until the end of '22 when he said enough, I'm going to be myself & at AFL he became that OB machine, base-path terror that showed remarkable talent in a new position in CF. The Twins showed a lack of faith in Martin & Keirsey by signing Margot (which saddened me very much). The Twins should have handled their new RHH rookie with kid gloves by starting him only against easy LHPs. But no that was reserved for FO's new pet Margot & Martin was stuck with the more difficult RHPs (RHPs that (LHH) Keirsey would be more suited for) that even veterans have problems with. Even with this obstacle Martin is slowly overcoming this with good ABs & constantly getting better due to his spunkiness. Margot signed as Buxton's sub in CF, Martin has usurped him there even though he's a rookie at a new prime position. Due to the obstacles he has faced, Martin is far from his ceiling at the MLB level. Once becoming acclimated to the MLB, he'll become that OB machine that terrorizes pitchers on the base paths, a natural 2Bman that can dominate CF & LF & eventually develop that power that many desire. That spunkiness that keeps him overcoming those obstacles will also spark many rallies & score a ton of runs.

With runners on 1B & 3B with 1 out, I thought they'd try a delayed steal, a squeeze, just send Julien to 2B, a hit & run or something but they decided to do nothing.

Very interesting article but I don't believe in luck. The way they figure luck IMO is ridiculous.

A decent Matthews start for nought.

Keirsey is a true CFer, Cave wasn't much good in CF. Bats might be similar.

SPs have much higher pressure in the postseason push than positional players, So why is it OK to bring up younger rookies Festa & Matthews to compete & not the older Keirsey? The priority was to get RHHs to face LHPs but during the season we had RHHs sit against LHPs & we didn't have enough LHHs to face the great majority of RHPs, we had RHH Martin (CF) to face RHPs far too often. Agreed that the 40-man roster spot is very valuable so why give one to Margot? Spend more money on an inferior product? Keirsey may not be eye-popping but he happens to be very good at hitting, power, fielding at premium position & base-running what more can you ask for? What can you say about Margot? He's ok against an occasional LHP. Margot is gone next year, we gain nothing from his playing time. While Keirsey's MLB experience could be very valuable as far his value even if he doesn't stay for the long term. LHH CFers are a premium, he's well worth the investment. It would have been much better if we did not spend millions on Margot & blocked playing time for more deserving prospects. We needed another LHH in the line-up & CF sub in the OF especially when Castro was designated in the INF. I'm afraid that the most opportune time to call up Keirsey has passed, the return of Lee followed by Buxton, Correa will reduce his need & greatly reduce the needed time to get familiar with the MLB. Keirsey has very good potential, it's a shame that the Twins wouldn't trust his talents. An organization that can't trust its developmental process is sad especially when the economical situation calls for it.

A great game to watch especially since we won. Pablo pitched great, Vazquez kept him focused. Vazquez didn't get a hit but his defense was spectacular. Great pick-off! I'm sure Vazquez works with all the INFers before the games to let them know what to expect. Congratulations, Larnach on the 2HR game! Great offense also from Wallner & Martin. Miranda looked good at 1B, The line-up came through in the absence of Correa & Buxton, plus Lewis & Miranda haven't been their best. Lee & Kiriloff are on their way back. I imagine a lot of moves will finally happen around the 1st that should have happened a while ago. Like bringing up Varland & Keirsey for good. DFA more guys which they started with Okert. Bring back Correa & Buxton, ready or not.