Thread: Twins sign International Prospect Amaurys Minier

Originally Posted by gunnarthor

Fangraphs:

“His soft hands, quick feet, [and] strong accurate arm give him every chance to stay at shortstop… He has the natural athletic ability to play any position on the field. Niko is still learning the art of shortstop and the mental grind of playing every day by not talking a bad at bat to the field or an error to the plate.” That same scout also summed up Goodrum at the plate: “He has a fluid, balanced, easy swing… not much wasted movement… The power will come as he physically grows into his frame… He needs 2,000 at-bats for memory work of reading spin and how pitchers work in certain situations. The learning curve is the stage he is in now.”

God I hope so.

Originally Posted by fetch

(also not to be that guy but it's gorilla unless there is some inside joke I am unaware of).

About this:
Not a joke, just a play in words... I was referring to a militant (guerrilla) and not to an ape (gorilla)

Originally Posted by thrylos98

About this:
Not a joke, just a play in words... I was referring to a militant (guerrilla) and not to an ape (gorilla)

haha gotcha. (i know what a guerrilla is, just didn't get the pun)

Originally Posted by gunnarthor

No, he was right. The Twins had a pretty good system established in Venezuela - Wilson Ramos was one of our big signings from there but so was Oswaldo Arcia. The politics in Venezuela made a lot of baseball teams move out, including the Twins.

Why have we not started more academies in other places that do not have such political turmoil? If a number of players are being signed out of the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Panama than why do we not have a large presence there?

Originally Posted by DPJ

When was the pipeline to Venezuela?

The Twins have had Rivas & Mijares & Luis Rodriguez reach the major from Venezuela and that's really it.

130	Juan Rincón	P	Minnesota Twins, AL	June 7, 2001	Active
123	Luis Rivas	IF	Minnesota Twins, AL	September 16, 2000	September 20, 2008
117	Johan Santana All-Star	P	Minnesota Twins, AL	April 3, 2000	Active
71	Juan Carlos Pulido	P	Minnesota Twins, AL	April 9, 1994	April 24, 2004
9	César Tovar	IF	Minnesota Twins, AL	April 12, 1965	September 29, 1976
48	Germán González	P	Minnesota Twins, AL	August 5, 1988	September 25, 1989
35	Álvaro Espinoza	IF	Minnesota Twins, AL	September 14, 1984	July 12, 1997
40	Lester Straker	P	Minnesota Twins, AL	April 11, 1987	October 1, 1988
58	Richard (El Guapo) Garcés	P	Minnesota Twins, AL	September 18, 1990	July 20, 2002
174	Luis Rodríguez	SS	Minnesota Twins, AL	May 21, 2005	Active
180	Alejandro Machado	IF	Minnesota Twins, AL	September 3, 2005	October 2, 2005
139	Carlos Silva	P	Minnesota Twins, AL	April 1, 2002	September 7, 2010
157	Alex Prieto	2B	Minnesota Twins, AL	July 26, 2003	June 24, 2004
230	José Mijares	P	Minnesota Twins, AL	September 13, 2008	Active
249	Wilson Ramos	C	Minnesota Twins, AL	May 2, 2010	Active

Originally Posted by jlovren

Why have we not started more academies in other places that do not have such political turmoil? If a number of players are being signed out of the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Panama than why do we not have a large presence there?

I don't know about Panama, but the Twins do have an academy in the DR. They have been increasing their presence there for a few years now. Puerto Rico is more difficult as those players enter the draft, and are more difficult to hold on to after you develop them, but I'm sure the Twins are there as well.

Great name and I'm sure he'll become my favorite prospect in no time.

Not to pick nits, but Santana was a rule V selection from I believe Houston... He may have come through Venezuela, but not via the Twins.

Originally Posted by jlovren

Why have we not started more academies in other places that do not have such political turmoil? If a number of players are being signed out of the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Panama than why do we not have a large presence there?

Puerto Rico is part of the draft and the Twins have been one of the more active teams in scouting PR - Angel Morales, Eddie Rosario, Daniel Ortiz, JO Berrios, Jorge Fernandez were all recent draft picks from PR.

Originally Posted by fetch

Pretty much everything I've read/heard is that Goodrum is OF bound and Michael is a second baseman.

Huh, that's different from what I've read about Goodrum... If he isn't going to be a SS it's certainly not because he's going to "outgrow" the position. He's very lanky (I don't see muscle/body-mass-projection that would move him off the position), and is definitely still learning the position, but he's got the arm, hands, and athleticism for it. In fact, he's my best hope for a future SS that I see in the organization. This ball left the yard in a big way at ST last year:

DSC01042.jpg

Goodrum was drafted with raw tools (impressive ones) and nobody had any idea if he would develop into a solid fielder or a solid hitter. Early speculation was that the defense wouldn't really develop and the Twins could fall back on just letting him loose in CF. After 2 Appy league seasons there is more confidence but I'm guessing that in July fetch was still reading last season's scouting report. I like Polanco more overall but it was Goodrum that was the SS in ETown so that should say something about his skills since Polanco is a pretty good fielder.