Article: Down on the Pond: Arizona Fall League

yes even the knuckleballing fiedel castro ,but my point was if the twins wanted to make a big splash why didnt they sign players before the imposed salary cap?
you cant tell me cespedes wouldnt look good in right field?
are we even looking at the japenees kid or just watching tapes?
my other point was ryan was in charge, but bill smith did the day to day things and when there was a decision on a player or transaction then ryan would give his stamp of approval.....so infact everything comes back to ryan even though bill had the title of g.m.

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Originally Posted by Seth Stohs

I've always said that Twins fans got really spoiled there for awhile with top talent coming up each year. Baker, Morneau, Mauer, Kubel, Liriano, Span and that was on the heels of the Hunter, Jones, Mientkiewicz, years. Hopefully another run is coming here starting within the next year or so with Hicks, Arcia, Benson, Parmelee, maybe Plouffe can catapult up to a solid player, and then will come Rosario, Sano, and some of that tier... Likely there will be a name or two that will surprise us. I guess I just choose to be hopeful rather than dwell on the lack the last 2-3 years.

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and your thoughts on the 2004 draft? 5 first rounders

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Originally Posted by johnnydakota

yes even the knuckleballing fiedel castro ,but my point was if the twins wanted to make a big splash why didnt they sign players before the imposed salary cap?
you cant tell me cespedes wouldnt look good in right field?
are we even looking at the japenees kid or just watching tapes?
my other point was ryan was in charge, but bill smith did the day to day things and when there was a decision on a player or transaction then ryan would give his stamp of approval.....so infact everything comes back to ryan even though bill had the title of g.m.

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You don't remember Sano, Kepler and Polanco getting signed in one offseason? they didn't sign another million+ prospect until this year but they were still very active signing guys. Just because a team isn't signing a 3M guy doesn't mean that they aren't adding a lot of talent.

Cespedes is your argument? Really? He signed a 4/36M deal with a lot of risk and the Twins are loaded with OF'ers.

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Originally Posted by thrylos98

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Originally Posted by johnnydakota

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Originally Posted by kab21

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Originally Posted by mike wants wins

Winston making the point I have been making. People are in denial about this system.

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This is why the Twins are bad now but I think some have too high of expectations of player development. It's pretty common for teams to have several seasons of the draft not produce much. I think the FO noticed this started getting more aggressive internationally which has resulted in some pretty good prospects in the Twins system.

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which is why they wiated for the salary cap of 2.9 million before they signed any this last june....codo

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Hold it.

They really had to outbid at least a couple of clubs to get Sano and they paid him big time.

And, for all Smith's shortfalls that have been exposed here and there, unfortunately nobody mentions that he is the one who re-turned the franchise into the latin american market big time. And this franchise has historically been a leader there from the 1910s till right about the Bay of Pigs era when they moved to Minny. Last important Latin American signee from that time was Tony O. Before Smith doing what he did signing Sano (about 50 years later - to put things into perspective,) the Twins were just non-players. Back in the day every Cuban wanted to come and play for the Senators (and Griffith's uncle/dad Clark) because they knew they will get a fair deal.

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I've often wondered why we were not in on the Cuban players. With Tony O still a hero there it would seem like we would have a great inside track. But yet I don't recall us ever signing a Cuban player and there have been a lot of them.

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Originally Posted by Winston Smith

I've often wondered why we were not in on the Cuban players. With Tony O still a hero there it would seem like we would have a great inside track. But yet I don't recall us ever signing a Cuban player and there have been a lot of them.

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For the last 20 years Cubans have been paid like FA's and then produced a pretty dismal track record. Combine that with a team that was a little too cheap (for everyone) and it's not a big surprise. I'm just glad the team isn't cheap when it comes to the Dominicans anymore. They have also been doing great in PR recently.

Will any of the AFL players, aside from Gibson, see time with the Twins in 2013?

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Originally Posted by BaseballPirate

Will any of the AFL players, aside from Gibson, see time with the Twins in 2013?

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I think Tonkin has a shot. Then Herrmann, who is not longer playing in the AFL, could see some more time.

Gibson rocked Monday in Arizona.

Gave up 7 hits/6R in the 2nd inning. Included were 2 doubles and a triple.

Tough inning for Gibson, but I continue to believe that he will be part of the Twins rotation early in 2013, probably not out of ST, but by sometime in May

I agree. I also wish there had been Pitch f/x data for that start so we could see whether his velocity was down, or if his pitches were elevated, or even if the batters hit good pitches. And Seth already indicated that there may have been some defensive miscues. I can't wait until his next start!