Thread: Are we seeing the next gen Twins?

Brian Dozier, Brian Dinkelman, Luke Hughes, Chris Parmelee, Joe Benson, Liam Hendriks. These guys are all young, talented, and they work cheap. This spring, they have all been performing well enough to play major league ball.

To keep costs down, teams like the Twins need to use a lot of players from their minor league system. Sometimes they're not ready or they're not good enough, but right now I see little difference in quality between guys they've brought in versus guys that are available for the major league minimum. If anything, the guys that have come up through the Twins system seem more focused and determined than the ones brought in from elsewhere. Just today Hendriks pitched very well, Hughes bashed a huge three-run dinger over the left field fence, then Benson knocked Hughes in with a blast to left-center after Hughes smacked a solid liner past the shortstop. Meanwhile Parmelee smacked a single and a triple, scoring both times.

How long is management going to wait? Let's get the next generation Twins up with the club. What have we got to lose, 99 games? With these new guys, that won't happen. We're looking at the core of a new team.

And while they're at it, give Slama a chance!

All of those guys would benefit from some time at Rochester. But they'll see their share of action when the veterans hit the DL. And if the Twins find themselves selling at the trade deadline, I would expect August and September to go a lot better this year.

If the Twins wanted to go with a youth movement, they would. Currently, they feel they have the guys they need to compete, and if they can stay healthy, I would agree. All the guys you named, jimbo, need more seasoning in the minors. The only two that saw ML time outside of roster expansion time in September were Hughes and Dinkelman. I see the Twins bringing Hughes north because he is out of options, is an average defender who could move around, but the rest need full-time innings, and the spots that they play at don't allow that if they were with the ML club.

Originally Posted by jimbo92107

Just today Hendriks pitched very well, Hughes bashed a huge three-run dinger over the left field fence, then Benson knocked Hughes in with a blast to left-center after Hughes smacked a solid liner past the shortstop. Meanwhile Parmelee smacked a single and a triple, scoring both times.

Spring stats mean nothing. Please see Jake Fox's 2011 spring stats followed by his 2011 season stats. Please see Kila Ka'aihue's 2011 springs stats and following season. Please see Mitch Maier's 2010 spring stats and his 2010 regular season stats. Or how about Jeremy Reed's big 2009 spring followed by nothing in his career at the big league level.

There are hundreds of examples of players succeeding in spring training with no translation into the big league level. Of course there are also examples of players playing well in spring and then doing well in regular season, but most of these players are established pros. The bottom line about spring is that anyone can hit well for a two week period in March against mostly AAA players and some pro pitchers who are working on their game rather than throwing at their best.

It's nice to see young players play well in the spring for their confidence, but it has absolute zero predictive value for how they would do in the majors. The jump from AAA to the bigs is the hardest level jump in baseball by a long ways.

Jimbo, Free Slama. If he comes back from injuries to pitch as well as he has in AAA, can we please give him a shot with Alex holding the bench down until his "stuff" comes along?

Originally Posted by jimbo92107

Brian Dozier, Brian Dinkelman, Luke Hughes, Chris Parmelee, Joe Benson, Liam Hendriks. These guys are all young, talented, and they work cheap. This spring, they have all been performing well enough to play major league ball.

And while they're at it, give Slama a chance!

"young" is relative. Here are the ages of the players you mentioned this season:

Slama 28
Dinkelman 28
Hughes 27
----
Dozier 25
Benson 24
Parmelee 24
Hendriks 23

Only 4 of them are younger than (Delmon) Young... Just to put things in perspective...

Not to mention that only Benson profiles better than a replacement player. Throw in a recovered Kyle Gibson and the group is a little more respectable.