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2015 was supposed to be his season, his moment. After working his way through two different minor league systems over three years, Alex Meyer was on the cusp of making his major league debut. In fact, Baseball Prospectus had him ranked as the 14th best prospect in baseball, his highest ranking on any national list during his professional career. As Meyer entered his age-25 season at last year's TwinsFest, he compared his age to that of another late bloomer, Randy Johnson. Meyer said, "Randy
With the Twins coming off one of the most impressive seasons in the past four years, the AL Central division has been given a boost from top to bottom. The Kansas City Royals are the defending World Series champs, and the middle of the pack has taken steps forward as well. In 2016, the division once again projects to be tightly contested, and maybe even more so than in 2015. A season ago, I released the AL Central Division Preview in March, this year we're doing it a bit earlier. Prior to spri
The more consideration I give to the 2016 lineup, the more convinced I am that it is falling on the shoulders (fairly or unfairly) of Byron Buxton. Let's look at the ways he impacts the lineup. 1. Lineup with Buxton leading off: Buxton, Dozier, Mauer, Sano, Plouffe, Park, Rosario, Murphy/Suzuki, Escobar. Without Buxton leading off: Dozier, Mauer, Sano, Park, Plouffe, Rosario, Murphy/Suzuki, Escobar, Buxton/Santana. Not only does the first lineup place players in their optimum position, it
Going into the offseason, Terry Ryan and Paul Molitor made quick work of releasing the information that Miguel Sano was going to try and make a transition to the outfield. The exciting slugger needed to make room for Byung Ho Park, and playing right field was how the Twins were going to handle that. The notion was met with skepticism and an almost guaranteed thought that in the end, Trevor Plouffe would be dealt from the Twins. In the end though, Plouffe has stayed put, and it creates a best p
President Barack Obama will be giving his final State of the Union address on Tuesday evening. He is entering the last year as the Commander and Chief and most Presidents like to paint a picture of hope for the future before their term is over. The Twins gave fans hope last year as they were relevant in the final weeks of the season for the first time in half a decade. Let's imagine we are all sitting down to hear a message directly for Twins Territory. What is the State of the Union for the
With the winter months consuming the calendar at the present time, one of the highlights of the offseason has been the Hall of Fame voting. With Ken Griffey Jr. being a guaranteed lock heading into the reveal (even despite three clueless voters), it was a question of who would join him during enshrinement in Cooperstown this summer. After the dust settled, we now know that honor will go to none other than Mike Piazza. For the Twins, the ballot was void of any Minnesota presence. In upcoming ye
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- You can find the introductory segment in this series, including my criteria for eligibility to be a prospect and the list of the 2015 top 40 players who graduated as prospects or are not in the system, here. Here is my 2015 Twins off-season top 40 prospects list (summary of 1-40) for reference. You can find players 36-40 here, players 31-35 here, players 26-30 here, and players 21-25 here. 20 Felix Jorge RHP (29) DOB: 1/2/1994; Age:
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- You can find the introductory segment in this series, including my criteria for eligibility to be a prospect and the list of the 2015 top 40 players who graduated as prospects or are not in the system, here. Here is my 2015 Twins off-season top 40 prospects list (summary of 1-40) for reference. You can find players 36-40 here, players 31-35 here and players 26-30 here. 25. Ryan Eades RHP (30) DOB: 12/15/1991; Age: 24 Positions:RHP
Recently, Fangraphs released their yearly ZiPS projections for the Minnesota Twins. As with most years, the results weren't incredibly favorable. On the offensive side of things, the projections see Minnesota hitters in a relatively good light, it's the pitching where the most is left to be desired. There's one player though that provides a pretty big potential cause for concern. Enter Brian Dozier. On the surface, things aren't all that bad for Dozier. Projections have him as a repeat 3.0+
Ranking prospects within an organization is no easy task. The internet has opened up a wave of new information for writers as they can analyze video, sort through higher-level statistics, and prioritize scouting reports from a plethora of experts. This level of information can be overwhelming at times but it helps to separate prospects at different levels. One of my favorite parts of working on the 2016 Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook is looking at the old prospect lists from yesteryear. It'
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- You can find the introductory segment in this series, including my criteria for eligibility to be a prospect and the list of the 2015 top 40 players who graduated as prospects or are not in the system, here. Here is my 2015 Twins off-season top 40 prospects list (summary of 1-40) for reference. This is the third countdown segment of the 2016 off-season Top 40 Twins' prospect. You can find players 36-40 here and players 31-35 here .
Brandon Warne, Cole DeVries and Tom Schreier discuss the offseason moves in the AL Central. Where do the Twins stack up in the division for 2016? http://www.spreaker.com/user/sbarnard4/the-breakdown-ep-19-where-do-we-stand
As with every offseason, baseball writers and analysts are often observed filling the void by looking at numbers and what may be coming. We pour over prospect lists, and hope that each major league teams shining stars of tomorrow turn out to be just as good as expected. With all of those feelings though, comes that ugly and sometimes less than ideal word: projections. For the Twins, projections do not often see the organization favorably. Obviously there's a handful of factors that contribute
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- You can find the introductory segment in this series, including my criteria for eligibility to be a prospect and the list of the 2015 top 40 players who graduated as prospects or are not in the system, here. Here is my 2015 Twins off-season top 40 prospects list (summary of 1-40) for reference. This is the second countdown segment of the 2016 off-season Top 40 Twins' prospect. You can find the first segment, players 36-40 here. 3
Thus far, the Minnesota Twins major moves this offseason came before free agency got underway. The club signed Byung Ho Park and traded for John Ryan Murphy. Despite having a rather ineffective bullpen a season ago, the club hasn't really addressed the situation to this point. With the way the market has shaped up however, that may be the best choice. So far, the Twins have taken fliers on players like Fernando Abad and Brandon Kintzler. Signed to minor league deals with spring training implic
Forever baseball has operated without a clock. This made it unique from other sports like football and basketball. In baseball teams had to get 27 outs. There was no stalling or running down the clock so the other team could not score. Now this very notion of not having a clock is turning viewers away from the sport. In today's society people seem to have less of an attention span than they did several years ago. They want to have a nice and tidy 2+ hour game and then move on with their lives. T
Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- You can find the introductory segment in this series, including my criteria for eligibility to be a prospect and the list of the 2015 top 40 players who graduated as prospects or are not in the system, here. Here is my 2015 Twins off-season top 40 prospects list (summary of 1-40) for reference. Without further ado, here is the 2016 countdown of prospects, with their ranking in the 2015 list in parenthesis : 40. Emmanuel Morel (--) D
My first Twins game was May 30, 1994 when the Twins took on the Seattle Mariners. As a kid, I was excited to be at my first big league game but it's fun to look back on the caliber of players in both line-ups. Future Hall of Famers Kirby Puckett, Randy Johnson, and Dave Winfield all played in the game. Two other members of that Mariners team are prominently featured on this year's Hall of Fame ballot, Ken Griffey Jr. and Edgar Martinez. Griffey is in his first year of eligibility and he will b
While the offseason has been somewhat slow for the Minnesota Twins, they made one big splash in signing Korean slugger Byung Ho Park. Although Park is not a prospect joining the fold on a big league deal, he'll be one of many Twins rookies in 2016. With one of the best farm systems in all of baseball, it's the home grown prospects in the Minnesota organization that also provide plenty of excitement. As much as the Twins should be looking to address their deficiencies on the big league roster f
The Minnesota Twins will enter the 2016 Major League Baseball season with some questions in regards to their outfield. Despite having adept fielders in both Eddie Rosario and Byron Buxton, Miguel Sano's ability remains to be seen. For now though, I believe there's a possibility that the Sano experiment could work. What's a bigger question is what happens with Oswaldo Arcia. After slugging 20 homers in 103 games during the 2014 season, last year couldn't have gone worse for Arcia. He was up for
Minnesota's minor league system has seen a trend in recent years. Each year there seems to be one prospect that stands out above the rest to have a breakout season. Many of these players are already considered top prospects but their individual performances in one season put them on the cusp of being above-average at the big league level. In 2015, Max Kepler (This year's cover athlete for the 2016 Twins Prospect Handbook) stood out above the crowd on his way to being named Southern League MVP.
The Minnesota Twins finished with an 83-79 record in 2015, surprising many, and sticking close to a playoff race up until the final series. In large part, that record was accomplished due to timely performances by some fresh faces. While regression was expected in certain areas, the slack was picked up in others. As we close the book officially on 2015, the season ahead provides a lot of excitement for the Twins. Looking to expand upon their success a season ago, they will once again need big
On Saturday, Tait went 2-for-4 with a walk and his 17th double. The 19-year-old is hitting .219 with 17 doubles and 15 home runs at High-A Cedar Rapids.
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