Andy MacPhail

I'm not fascinated with Martin. My point isn't to glorify him. The point in my 2 blogs is to point out the faulty mindset where Martin has been a victim. To try to open closed minds to see slugging stats like OPS are not the gold standard to judge players. That players like Martin have strong assets that can improve this team & those assets should be developed, not try to transform that player into someone he is not. Let me give you a scenario, Player A hits 2 HRs off player RPs in a 11-0 blowout, his OPS goes crazy. The next game Player B walks, steals 2nd, then 3rd & scores barely on a pass ball. Player A flubs on a ball hit to him, the opponent scores, which ties the game. In the 9th inning, Player B hits a walk off single going the other way. Player B's OPS barely moved the needle. Player B's defense saves runs, Player A's is below par. It's easy to hit a bunch of HRs in low leverage, It's not easy to advance & hit in high leverage, This scenario plays out throughout the season Player A has a hefty OPS, Player B's OPS hovers a little over .700. By today's standard, Player A is lauded & Player B is ignored. But which player is more impactful? I don't pay attention to all the hype on social media, that glorifies these HR bias stats & projections. I prefer to observe for myself & form my own opinion. I'm also open to debate, I can't say I'm always right. I'm sick & tired to see my team look good on paper & have good projections but always fall short at the end. I ask you Laloesch, & those like you, don't skip over what is written & to be open when you read what all have been written & that there is a world outside of OPS to judge our players & be finally successful as a team. Like MIL.

He doesn't need one, he's part of the tandem. My 3rd catcher needs options.

If he didn't care about baseball, he'd hang it up. Young people make mistakes & I'm willing to forgive. But for me it's a character flaw. I DNK how much it'd take for me to believe in him. It'd take more than stats.

"Analytics cannot replace good scouting, strong player development, or experienced baseball leadership. It should complement those areas. A larger analytics department could give Minnesota more capacity to investigate questions that currently compete for limited staff time, work more closely with coaches and players, and build better systems for evaluating talent." I'm all for analytics, but IMO. what makes the most difference is philosophy. If the philosophy is off, it doesn't make any difference in how much analytics you have, it'd be a waste of money. What makes a difference for MIL, TB & CLE is their philosophy. Once that is taken care of, then yeah, analytics is good.

Twins bought into the pie-in-sky hope on GG's potential power while ignoring the facts that he was lousy in the OF, slow, did not profiled at 1B & MLB pitching would eat up his free-swinging ways. From the start I advocated to trade him while he still has hype & get something for him.

IMO. it's a good idea but I don't know if SD would be willing to let their depth go. IMO, Catching should be legit 3 deep. Salas is the only one with options, so they might depend less on him. I don't understand if the Twins had a shot for a SD RP for Larnach & didn't take it. SD has a lot of good RPs. Jackson not having options, makes it very tricky. IMO, it's not worth it. I'd rather find someone who does.

Evidently, Twins embrace the same philosophy as you do, at least in the past, that managing & development have little effect. Which, IMO, shows up in the results. Contrast to MIL, who put a lot of importance on them.

The most disappointing moment for me was who was responsible for playing SWR when he was too sick to pitch? like Ober, he never returned to his normal self for us. Many of his underlying stats never were impressive but he normally got things done. He did well for TOR, but because his underlying #s weren't impressive he was sent down, Wallner was disappointing but how much of that was how he was developed? Royce started out bad, got better but after not being used to a full season fell off. As you can see I tend to blame more management & coaching than players.

For your friend, Harmony. According to Baseball Trade Values; Caratini is at -2.8 & Funderburg is +5 = + 2.2 which could land us a Trent Harris 2.4. After SF traded Bailey they are really hurting at catching, they could be motivated a basis for a trade, On the other hand IMO, SEA would be less motivated. But then again, they could use Funderburg which might swing a deal.

I've been a big fan of Bailey for a long time; he's an elite defensive catcher. I couldn't believe that Posey gave him away for nothing. I'd have thought that he'd have a better appreciation of Bailey. Who have deceived you Posey? I'm very disappointed.

Again, if you look at Rortvedt's overall hitting stats, you'll say he's not a good hitter. Again, overall stats don't tell the whole story. A lot of his ABs were sporadic or he was overextended with TB (again, he's not a primary catcher & probably won't be), But if you look at his performance when he's in his sweet spot (enough quality ABs but not overextended), his hitting is impressive. Rortvedt is a LH hitter, he could be used extensively again RHPs, that can benefit his hitting. Twins need to find his sweet spot & keep him there to unlock the potential. LAD could see his potential & want to keep him as catching depth when Smith & Rushing are down. Again, it's about time for MN to see his potential & take advantage of it. MN needs him much more than LAD. Plus Rortvedt is from Wisc, he can adapt to our weather & be close to his family. With Rortvedt we'll have more flexibility, We can keep Caratini (Rortvedt will make him better) or trade him because there's a demand for catching with very little selection; then we can explore other trade options. Although I prefer the later, it's asking a lot from our GM. Either way, I'd like to acquire a promising young MLB-ready catcher with options to improve our '27-'28 depth.

I'm with you. Still, Caratini isn't a primary catcher, & we need an upgrade, somewhere.

4 free agents are gone, if we want any of them later, we can bid on them. Anybody good with options we keep, anybody without options will have to be really good or we can trade.

IMO, Caratini/ Jackson duo won't get the job done. IMO, Rortvedt could be better than Caratini & cheaper. I don't care what they do with Caratini & Jackson.

Twins had a great catching crew starting with coach Tanner Swanson, whom all the catchers praised, MLB All-Star Castro, Garver, plus promising prospects Jeffers & Rortvedt, Twins did a 180, they let Swanson & Castro go, Swanson to NYY. Twins blew up the rest in a Donaldson salary dump. Garver to TEX & Swanson was high on Rortvedt, so he went to NYY. Rortvedt was injured & NYY wasn't suitable for his hitting development, Next year he was a 3rd catcher & Cole's personal catcher. The following year they traded him to TB. He was their primary catcher & did very well until he burned out, The following year he was traded to LAD, he did very well in the postseason until Will Smith came back. When they traded Rortvedt, they put all their eggs in the Jeffers's basket & the Twins' catching bottomed out. Rortvedt needs playing time to do well yet he's not a primary catcher. Rortvedt in a Twins tandem catching role would be perfect & reasonable.

MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com LAD likes Rortvedt but I think we could use him more. IMO, He's a pretty good defensive catcher, if used in the right tandem situation. IMO, could hit. We should make a serious offer.

Although MIL out homered LAD, 7-1. I guaranteed that MIL never entered the series with the game plan of doing so, it just happened. My point is if they did, they might have lost.

I wasn't in favor of most of the '25 selloff, but trading Ryan at that time would have made much more sense than now.

I like Mercede but he hasn't dominated A+ yet, it doesn't make sense to protect him if we don't have to.

My main objective wasn't to distinguish between hitters because you're right there is a hugh variation of hitters. But more in the faulty HR mindset that HRs are supreme, nothing else is of no concern therefore tremendously underrated. The need to abandon the old NYY model & embrace the MIL model, that goes beyond hitting. I hoped that I had made that clear. IMO, Wallner is a victim of such a mindset.

Yes, that was fun. IMO, MLB instituted the "juiced ball" so the NYY could set the team HR record. But the Twins beat them out. The next year they stopped it, while the Twins started their new obsolete mindset,

Another observation; All top 13 MLB BP teams made the postseason except PIT. I've always stressed putting together a top BP & how to manage it. A top-notch BP & their management is not only essential in advancing in the postseason but also being able to get there. IMO, the main reason it took so many years for the Twins to make the postseason & win a game was that the pitching was totally spent by the time they got there, even though they had an excellent rotation & BP. This was due to poor BP management.

An amusing correlation

There is lot to be said about playing your natural position, when you play your natural position, everything seems to fall into place & 3B is Lee's position. When you struggle at a less than a natural position, you struggle everywhere. An observation. Lee has my vote.

In general, I don't trust national sportswriters' idea of what & how to solve Twins' problems. They look at what Twins have done in the past & try to simulate it. IMO, Twins need to stop this expensive FA, 1B, 1 yr, merry-go-round. It's about time to invest in our own for long term benefits. Lewis is a better bet than Bohn & Keaschal is our best full-time bet. It's better to find a good RH hitting OF platoon player.