Not to be nit picky but Burnett, Parker, Cobb and Achter, this just off the top of my head, were traded to their teams

Ah good Call!! No, let's get it right. So one less FA, but rather in a Trade. [strengthens the case of staying away from FA as a way to acquire pitching ]

Burnett was traded from the Yankees.

• February 19, 2012: Traded by the New York Yankees with cash to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Diego Moreno (minors) and Exicardo Cayones (minors).
  

Archer was indeed traded, however, he was still a minor leaguer. So I put him in the development stage as he came to the big league club on a minor league contract and had to advance up two levels (AA & AAA, 2 years total) before he made it to the major leagues. So I don't count that as a 'trade' as it was not a 'sure thing' and development was the major factor.

• January 8, 2011: Traded by the Chicago Cubs with Hak-Ju Lee (minors), Robinson Chirinos, Sam Fuld and Brandon Guyer to the Tampa Bay Rays for Matt Garza, Fernando Perez and Zach Rosscup.
  

Cobb was drafted by the Rays...

Drafted by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the 4th round of the 2006 amateur draft. (All Transactions)

duplicate...

The Wise One,

I'm sorry about not disclosing the classification distinction I had made . I thought I had a disclaimer in there that I counted guys who despite being involved in a trade, if they were in the minors, AA or below I considered them to be "from the Farm"...as they would have to do half of their development in that system (arguably the most important) half at that, in actually getting that prospect to the Big Leagues.

Not to derail the thread, but idenitfying ptiching prospects early comes down to scouting. Scouting is an area that the Twins value and feel is a strength (I'm not objecting). The problem is that until recently the Twins have not pursued this avenue for acquiring young pitching prospects. The A's do this better than ANYBODY. Trade off a good looking veteran at their peak value for high upside, low minors pitching. Terry Ryan has gotten off to a good start with the Meyer and May trades, but he needs to continue doing this ever off-season.

The Twins have shown this past three seasons that farm system is bare of pitching ready for the Majors. If they were ready we would have seen them up during the year. Trading I don't feel is option right now why would you trade away prospects that are needed to fill whole in this offense and defense at major league level. I think Free Agency is best bet in that can bring some major league arms that are ready and can make a impact. It would allow some young talent to develop and with Free Agents make credible big league staff. The only player left to bring quality prospects and number of them is Joe Mauer if he can demonstrate he's healthy. I think it should be looked at because by time Twins are ready to compete Joe will be way past his prime and will be declining. His value is now and Twins are probably years away from making big run in playoffs. Unless Twins spend some serious money building up the depth and lineup with Free Agency. My guess is that Twins will continue to loose as they rebuild through farm system.