Doctor Gast

Hope is eternal. Hope that the new minor owners step in & take control over the baseball opps. That Falvey has a come-to-Jesus revelation that he sucks in what he does & steps down. But I've given up hope that Falvey'll ever change. As long as Falvey is in control, any manager who Falvey likes will be no good & anyone who'll be good for the Twins, Falvey won't hire. I'm sorry, the Twins' situation is very dire, Twins' greatest problem wasn't Baldelli, it is Falvey. Falvey's BS won't change anything; it'll only get worse. Move over Rockies.

Polanco was an All-Star SS in '19. But his ankles couldn't take it. Falvey was determined to keep him there in spite of it. When it was very obvious that he could no longer play there, Falvey reluctantly moved him to 2B. One of Falvey's biggest faults is that when he gets something in his head, he hates to change it. Polanco's bat played at SS (that's where Falvey wanted him to stay). He had already had Arraez & Julien penciled in at 2B, How dare Polanco change his plans, even though Arraez & Julien were terrible at 2B (but that's where their bat played). If Polanco couldn't play SS, he was then expendable. So they physically abused him by playing him, obviously injured, over long periods of time. That greatly affected his stats & playing time. The neglect of Polanco & the results from missing time, poor offense & defense performance greatly cost the Twins, But the greatest costs were his intangible abilities & clutch hitting. I don't get the Falvey's praise for trading Polanco? They chewed him up then spit him out. A MVP potential player, where is the praise-worthiness in that? For what? A terrible salary dump (Desclvani) who I knew wasn't going to amount to anything (good thing he couldn't pitch because Falvey would have him out there no matter how bad he was), a RP who contributed nothing in '24, a hyped up prospect & another bad salary dump (Margot). Falvey was free to put his Julien at 2B, which was a terrible liability that Correa & Santana couldn't make up for. Topa was a solid low/mid leverage RP in '25 but who would you rather have, Polanco or Topa in '25? Many hype-up Gonzalez. Gonzalez is another example of Falvey's warped evaluation, where defense has no bearing. Gonzalez's bat plays at LF, but he is a great liability there. You could possibly hide him at RF, but he doesn't hit enough HRs to profile there. Gonzales is a free swinger who plays well in the MiLB, but I don't see him play well on the MLB level. Will Gonzalez make it to the MLB? Falvey will give him every opportunity to show something, no matter how hopeless he is. Will Gonzalez ever replace the MVP potential player he was traded for? Never, not even close. I'm happy for Polanco that he no longer has to suffer under the Falvey regime. Where he can smell the sweet aroma of success, instead of the stench of incompetence. The sell-off of proven talent for redundant, AAA, undeveloped & unproven players that did nothing to fill pre-trade needs. All this said to say we cannot trust Falvey to trade away any more of our proven players no matter how hopeless it is to win with Falvey.

It was.

I'd love that & Nelson Cruz as hitting coach & phase him into bench coach when Washington is ready to be eased out. Washington could really help out INFers & Cruz could be an added Latino connection to help out with continuity of the club & international draft.

This the point that I wanted say for my reason for trading him but as he still look good on paper & Falvey ineptness that won't happen. So we are stuck with him.

Twins seem to think that defense doesn't matter except at 1B when they went outside the organization to sign Santana in '24. In '25, they threw defense out the window & went outside the organization & committed totally 1B to France. These moves helped us go from division champs & postseason success to 4th divisional place. IMO, Wallner could have been a pretty good RFer if he had been coached better. But with Emma & Jenkins coming up, he'll be squeezed out. So that means Wallner has to move. We could get something good for Wallner via trade which is my 1st choice, but I don't trust Falvey to do it. In house has always been our best option at 1B, IDK how quick Wallner can be at 1B, but he could use his height to his advantage. IMO, Royce Lewis could be a better option & have Wallner as DH. But it wouldn't hurt playing both there a lot this coming spring training. Whoever in house player(s) they choose they need to commit to them so we can finally improve at 1B. Instead of this stupid FA musical chairs they play every year.

It's definitely in his vocabulary because he is always using it. But he definitely doesn't know what it means. Just like his phrase "taking full responsibility", he has no idea what that means. Otherwise, he'd step down.

Polanco's shortcomings were due to the Twins playing him for a long time despite it being obvious he was injured. This screwed up his ankles, then his knees. Polanco could have had MVP-type seasons & helped the Twins go much further. Polanco no doubt always came through in the clutch. I miss him.

Observing the AL Play-offs, BOS was the weakest team, then NYY. AL East fans complained that NYY shouldn't have to play against BOS, thinking that both teams would win against both AL Central teams. But if that had happened, IMO, CLE would have beaten BOS easily & DET would have beaten NYY. Both AL Central teams would have advanced in that case. TOR would have had a much more difficult time against DET than NYY going all 5 games & maybe not advanced. All AL East experts picked TOR to win the 1st TOR/ SEA game (it was sad). Because TOR had an easy series against NYY & had plenty of rest. And of SEA's tough series against DET & the great 15 inning game where SEA burned their top 3 SPs. TOR's ace was facing SEA's #4 SP. Even with this big disadvantage SEA came out on top largely due to our good friend Jorge Polanco, who knocked in the last 2 of 3 runs. (I predicted SEA to win the ALC & Polanco the MVP). Under the premise of splitting the AL East & Central teams. TOR would not have had the big advantage, if it had advanced at all against DET.

Thanks, Parker, I respect & enjoy your analytical expertise. So your insight for the Twins' need for soul strikes more weight. Analytics has its place in baseball, but Twins have gone 100% analytics & have lost its soul. Baseball is played by humans & you can't ignore the human element. Many like to confront me with stats, stating that stats are everything while refusing to recognize the human element. Twins had very good coaches but Falvey let them walk. And has hired & promoted inferior personnel who can follow his weird analytics. Tingler has failed as bench coach, Conger has failed as catching coach, 1B coach & assistant bench coach, Watkins has failed as a coach & Gardenhire has been a yes-man for Falvey & Saints have been terrible. These guys should be fired much less be considered for the manager job. (I'd be willing to give Gardy a chance to stay w/o Falvey's interference). There has been a big hole for someone who can come in & be that club culture leader & the best one who can do that is Tori Hunter, who has been loved by everybody that he's had contact with. Tori has baseball smarts & fundamentals, a good friend of Washington, who's famous for that. Twins' players seem to be playing w/o soul & confused. Tori can simplify & straighten out these confused players that Falvey has tried to indoctrinate. It has hurt me so to see so many of our beloved former Twins' players like Hunter, J Santana, Cruz & Guardado on other teams' staff. Why is that so? Can anybody tell me? There seems to be a rift between them & the organization. Is it because Falvey doesn't like their advice? Many experienced managers won't want to come here because of the uncertain ownership, reset & lock-out. So Tori makes a lot of sense. His charisma. baseball knowledge, & the right balance of analytics makes Hunter a good choice. Anything lacking a bench coach can supplement. And Falvey keep your nose out of his business

I can't make the night games. But catch the highlights from the games I'm interested in.

SEA has the pitching & the offense but what they really lack is clutch hitting which our good friend Polanco (Mr. Clutch) provided the walk-off. SEA & TOR haven't gone to the ALC for a long time. I hope SEA goes to the World Series & Polanco wins the ALC MVP. SEA vs MIL World Series.

It's early & we have a bunch of SS but I like Cholowski the best of those showcased here.

Keirsey never got regular ABs, but still got some clutch hits when he had a semblance of regular ABs. He also contributed when pinch-ran & as a late-inning defensive sub. His lack of hitting is more from poor managing than a lack of ability. '25 was another wasted year in hitting development. Julien had a lot of opportunities, yet he wasn't an asset in any aspect & was more of a liability. But the greatest liability was Falvey. IMO, this type of article is counter-productive & senseless..

Falvey ran with that. LOL

The deadline sell-off return was very disappointing. We gave up so much proven talent for AAAA, redundant, unproven, undeveloped & none of them filled a present pre-trade need. I have advocated for years the need for at least one young, promising MLB-ready catcher to be mentored & exposed to our pitchers, so he can step in & take over for Vazquez & Jeffers this coming season. That until now, even after this drastic sell-off, hasn't happened. Falvey is completely incompetent to make essential trades. Even after this fiasco, Ryan believed he was traded & the mess of a remnant team that was left, he probably wants to be traded. I would not want Falvey anywhere near making that trade. I'm against any direct trade with BOS, for Ryan. For the sake of survival, we could never recover from the trade of Lopez & Buxton cheap contract & loss of leadership & mentorship. It has made me sick to see what Falvey has done & failed to do with my Twins & what he's capable of continuing to destroy this club when allowed.

The NYY is not that good a team. Nevertheless, IMO, Falvey admires them & tries to copy them, where we become the little NYY. Which makes us a sad inferior copy of them & why we can't beat them. Why don't we get wise & change everything & copy a more intelligent organization like MIL? BTW, Yanks' elimination is my '25 season MLB highlight, not including Buxton's individual accomplishments.

If LAD goes down it'll be the 2nd happiest

Yanks are out! Happiest day of '25 season! Yeah! BlueJays!

I really don't know where you are coming from. I'm not saying that the Twins are shying away from Latin players & I stated that IMO they aren't racially biased. My point is that the Twins system doesn't favor, maximize, or even appreciate the Latin factor that doesn't fit into their analytical mold. The mold that so often holds onto players that should be traded but aren't. Twins are biased, but it's not racial. It's analytical, which often hurts Latinos. Latinos in general have more intangibles that are hard to put in a spreadsheet. So IMO, they are more apt to be traded or falls through the cracks. All those Latin players you mentioned were acquired via trade or otherwise, except ERod & his shine has faded. This reflects on our ability to scout, draft & develop these players. Are the Twins getting the most out of these prospects? I think not. Will they maximize ERod's potential? Will they be able to develop Tait into a respectable MLB catcher? I have my doubts. My point is that Twins need to reevaluate how they do things in their Latino department. Culture shock is bad enough in itself, We need help these guys as much as possible to adapt. That's why I mentioned Nelson Cruz who could help. We don't have much of a chance to acquire top Oriental prospects, so IMO, we need to do better job with our Latino players.

Thank you, Matthew, for explaining how Funderburg improved. By his stats, we could see that he was doing something more successfully, but didn't know what. RPs are a different animal, but that's the key: know what each is good at & have them focus on that (not forcing them into something they are not). It's amazing how Theilbar was good, then not good, then left MLB. He returned & was dominant, he slumped & returned. Last year Twins gave up on him & he returned with the Cubs & was miraculous. Good for him.

Buck is # 5 on my AL MVP list. I'm not big on pitchers on the MVP list. I put him ahead of Springer because, although their offensive #s are close, Buck beats him hands down in defense. On the actual voters' list, Springer comes out on top, maybe Buck makes #9 & I wouldn't be surprized, because others hype, Buck doesn't make the top 10 list. My #1 pick is Cal Raleigh, hands down, because of his demanding position, T-Mobile is a much more difficult stadium to hit in than easy NYY stadium & I'm not sure that Judge doesn't still have a steady diet of "Goldilocks" baseballs.

PIT biggest problem was that they were totally lost at developing pitching. I advocated for years to focus on obtaining their pitchers & then develop them (ex. Cole, Glasnow & Musgrove). PIT had a good eye for pitchers but could not develop them. PIT could see that Archer was a good SP just like MN did but MN didn't want to spend the player capital. TB won the trade because they could see the value in Glasnow's upside. But PIT gain value with Archer, but didn't know how to continue to develop Archer, so instead of helping Archer, they damaged him. PIT has since seen the error of its ways & greatly improved its pitching development; unfortunately, it was too late for Archer. So to blame Archer for the imbalance in the trade is lack of understanding. That's the problem of looking only at stats.

MN does compare to PIT in that they both have beautiful parks that aren't filled. But IMO they compare more to CO ROX as an organization. Both had good teams but INCOMPETENCE from management top to bottom. Mismanagement of the money allotted. Although MN isn't a big market they still often think like a big market in that they think FA is the way to improve. They often spent too much money on FAs & salary dumps that are often useless. To go along with poor player evaluation & development, Lack of vision to see where needs are at & how to fill it. Lack of ability to initiate & close on an essential trade. And bad philosophy based on Falvey's weird analytics. A team who is just flat out cheap. If they chose to spend more money on extending good players they could turn the team around. But incompentance you can spend like drunken sailor & still not see desireable results.

If Lopez & Buxton want to stay, it'd be super crazy to try to force them to leave. Young players need that mentorship.