Doctor Gast

"Now that shortstops can't swing to the other side of second base, we will see Carlos Correa (aka C4) ranging to his left and making that spin throw on the right side of second base a couple of times this year. I'm excited to see shortstops limited in their shifting ability and see some of the most impressive athletes in the world be able to show it off. The Twins get to be, arguably, the biggest beneficiary." That's what I say, IMO Correa was bored with the shift. I'm looking forward this season to see more spectacular plays at SS. Also 2B will be a ton more difficult with the ban shift. Hope they make use of Molitor's session on base running & will be interesting to see how teams will capitalize on Jeffers arm and seems everybody has adapted to the pitch clock. Seems like Kepler & Gallo are taking advantage of shift ban already.

We didn't get rid of Urshela because we thought he wasn't good enough. It was because we needed someone who played a better SS & could play 3B which was Farmer. They also wanted to give Miranda a shot there to raise his asset here. I'm sure Miranda is excited to play 3B, I'm assuming his early shoulder problem could be from over doing it in the offseason. I hope Miranda can quickly get well to move to 3B, where I think he could play better. With Lewis & Lee blocked at SS, Miranda's days at fulltime 3B are numbered. which he'd get more time at 1B/ DH.

I'd normally say wait. But looking at that CLE has done this deal with Clase', I'd lean towards saying yes. CLE is a very economical club and Duran is in the same class as Clase' so it makes sense. If Clase' got this deal, Duran probably expect the same kind of deal. They should sign Duran to keep him happy, as they should have done with Johan Santana early in his career. My feel is that Duran should become our all time greatest RP, surpassing Joe Nathan, Glen Perkins, Taylor Rogers, Jeff Reardon and Rick Aguilera. They'll do everything possible to keep him healthy, I hope.

Everything has came easy for Sano, he figures he doesn't have to work for it. He probably doesn't have a love for the sport to drive him. So he's not going anywhere. Things are bad if he's not on DR WBC roster. Because his old buddy Cruz is running it.

Maybe there is more serious offers for some cOF LH bats. As to take a chance on Stevenson. Besides possible set backs.

"However, he does have less than three years of MLB service time, giving the club the ability to retain him for future seasons via arbitration if he breaks out at the plate." A crap shoot.

Totally agree to have our best arms out there. Ober will be a waste in AAA. Maeda has good stuff but he doesn't the arm to go long even before he got hurt. Now after TJ he should have a shorter leash. If Maeda has a good night & goes 5 innings maybe Ober can finish the game & save short relief or at least go as far as he can. That can take a lot stress off short relief which will take a lot of stress of the rotation. A scheduled Ober/ Maeda keeps both in routine & loose

"The Twins have played with using a long reliever in the bullpen at times in the last few years and found that the role is inconsistent and sometimes not worth the trouble." ** '19 they used Pineda/ Perez piggy-back and it was great until they both were able to go 5 innings and they dropped long relief. Short relief was over used & blew up, the overused the rotation which drained them & they became ineffective. '21 was a disaster from the beginning. Twins wanted Dobnak to focus on his new slider. The pitch was too hard on his middle finger which he quickly hung too many & later really did a number on it. They used Dobnak for only mop up or junk job of using him as guinea pig with the new "ghost runner". With Happ & Shoemaker we had ample situations where they had to or should have been pulled early and long relief should have been used. Maeda was used beyond his profile if they had limited his innings & used long relief, he wouldn't have blown out his arm. '22 we started out with 2 rookies, later Bundy (profiled limited innings) after that Gray (not conditioned) & lastly recuperating Archer (w/ practically no ST). Winder was long relief, he was used sparsely & hardly anything beyond 2 innings. The few times that Winder pitched in this capacity he was very effective.(The last 2 years with our rotation we could keep 2 long RPs busy). As always Baldelli preference is short relief so again his over-reliance on unproven short relief which demanded more innings from the rotation which caused unduly injuries & ineffectiveness. Because of injuries in early March, Winder was pulled from long relief. Thus ending our brief long relief stint. '23 Maeda returning from TJ and Ober who needs to be slowly worked into the rotation; is the same Pineda/ Perez scenario so a piggy-back strategy would be ideal. Ober should be used coming out of the BP in ST, to see how he adapts. When Ober transitions to the rotation, Winder should be able to take over long relief by that time. Any mop up jobs should be delegated to Pagan. I have to admit that this year long relief is less needed but it's still relevant. ** Long relief has been ineffective only when it's not used correctly & inconvenient not because it's not effective but because it's foreign to Baldelli's TB mindset.

This year with the shift ban will greatly effect 2B. So we need more than someone who can field a ball that's hit at him. We need someone with range. That'll lower your candidate list, especially for the long haul. Farmer might be asked to play more often at 3B while subbing SS. Solano might be asked to play 1B more often. Both are viable 2B. I haven't been pleased with Gordon in the INF. I'm not sure Julien can handle the position. If Polanco is held back to start the season, we'd be hard pressed. To the point of putting Castro on the active roster who has had a pretty good ST. I see Lewis as the heir to 2B after Polanco. So to keep his feel for the INF and be in constant mentorship from Correa to step in there when needed. Martin was very impressive there but I'd like to give him more time in the OF. Lee will be a great 3B and SS fill in behind Lewis.

Not at all. We've been deeper at SS & CF the last 2 yrs. than we have been for years. IMO the depth at the corners is over kill. Saying that SS is the 2nd most concerning position, is saying how pleased I am in how well stocked we are. It'd be hard for me to come up with my 3rd weakest position. Catcher is really my only worry, which can be easily remedied if they react quickly.

Thanks Stinger, it's great that Castro, Dobnak and Rosario are having great ST. But most likely they won't head north with the team after ST. due to history & present depth. Sadly to say.

Yes, may it be.

Sounds good to me but I think maybe you might be off on the Gallen trade. Did you see a Kepler bounce back?

You're 100% right gunnarther. Cody asked if we agreed with the rankings. Of course fangraphs spits out their data. I just don't agree that RF, LF & 1B is in worse shape than SS or catcher. CF, SS & catcher are prime positions which need more quality depth than RF,LF & 1B which is the basis of my ranking of our weakest positions

OK, Wallner is 4th in RF. Where's he on the 1B depth? Kiriloff, Gallo, Miranda, Solando, White, Gordon, Julien, Sabato or anyone else on the active roster they may deem worthy to transition there before Wallner. Wallner's bat isn't MLB ready, he SOs too much, He was expected to get a cup of coffee last year but not as much as he did. That won't happen this season. I doubt he'll have much of any time in MLB. Wallner needs to work his butt off to polish up his raw stuff; to get a better feel of RF, his glove and SO less to lock up any chance of playing RF next season as to take advantage of his speed & arm (that's what AAA is for). With Gallo, Taylor and Kepler probably all gone. So you want them leap frog Wallner over those who has more experience and proven bat at 1B this season and jeopardize his chances to start at RF next season, for what?

I totally disagree with these rankings, I feel we are pretty strong at those positions. But again I mainly look at the defensive side of any positions and how much quality depth there. With GG Taylor in the OF, I feel pretty good if we need him to sub. Even offensively, I like what Kepler, Gallo, Taylor have done this ST and I'd include Gordon too even if he hasn't played out there this ST. The 2 positions I'm most worried about is #2 SS- If Correa goes down for any time at all, the only adequate sub is Farmer which against vast majority of RHPs offensively he's well sub par. After him we have no one until Lewis returns. #1 C- Vasquez is great defensively but sub par offensively yet if he goes down IMO we have nobody adequate to step up. Teams like CLE will run on Jeffers all day, plus blocking isn't that great. I've been wanting to obtain soon MLB ready Endy Rodriguez (PIT) (but now he's getting too expensive) or O'Hoppe (LAA) or at least less expensive Quero (LAA) who can be ready in '24. To help shore up our lack of now & future depth.

I don't think CWS will be much either, although they should improve w/o LaRussa.

Wallner has a lot of raw talent (speed & strong arm) that hasn't been developed yet, which is a shame at this stage. Nevertheless he still that potential and would be a waste at 1B. If he can get a better feel for the OF (getting reads, etc.) he'll be invaluable.

Thanks Nick, always enjoy your perspective. Alex Kiriloff is the only one that Twins have given much time at 1B, except Sabato (which probably won't see any MLB time) . The others the Twins haven't been worried about it, that they can easily transition. (Except for full time 1B like Sabato, the Twins like to throw hopeful catchers there). Which is fine with me because Arraez who had 0 experience at 1B and is less athletic was able to transition on the fly & did fine. So those who are more experienced, more athletic & bigger should be better. Yet, I'd still like them see more time at 1B especially Julien. 1B isn't such a premium position IMO we have abundance of adequate depth there. For a long time I believe that Kiriloff won't make the active roster breaking camp. Because he started swinging late and they want to take him slow.

I felt the same way Luke and was disappointed when he was sent down. It's a big question mark in what happen. IMO he wasn't happy here and wasn't handled right in a few aspects. If he could have adapted quicker and everything worked out better. He'd have been awesome in '19.

I'm happy for CES & Steer doing well and in CIN top 10 prospect list. They'll have a lot more playing time there than here. Here they're blocked from much of any future. Hopefully our FO has learned that teams like OAK & CIN like to showcase their available SPs by squeezing out as many quality innings before they actually dump them. Many times their arms are shot when going to their perspective team. So FO need to examine better their objective trade piece before closing any deal. I expect we'll win this deal this year, & hopefully extend Mahle (which makes more sense than Paddock IMO)

I get more excited over the defensive play that Celestino made than a towering solo moonshot. Having Cave in CF those years made me a big Celestino fan. Besides his glove he proved that he can hit the 1st part of last season but not the stamina to sustain it at the MLB level, which will come. He'll still get plenty of time to tear up AAA, while maturing.

I've been on the Jeffers trade train for sometime now when his trade value was up there. I've never seen him as a starting catcher. His trade value still isn't too bad, we should trade him before his value is almost worthless and pick up a decent MLB ready prospect from PIT, LAA or LAD to be mentored by Vazquez.

I've checked different '23 MLB mock drafts. A lot of these players are all over the place but Langford is pretty constant at #3 some at #1. So at this point we may have a better chance getting Skenes or even Dollander over Langford. But it's still early, it'll be exciting. Plus you never know how PIT will draft.

I haven't seen a lot of Jeffers behind the plate. When Vasquez leaves for WBC, I imagine we'll see a lot of Jeffers there. Just wondering how bad they're going to run on him. IMHO Jeffers could become a liability. We'll see. In house through out the organization catching has been neglected, unfortunately. We have a couple lower level but it might take awhile if ever they make MLB. Catching is a premium position that deserves our focus.