Waiting for prospects

[gunnarthor]

I think the Reusse and Souhan pieces were linked.  Here's the Miller piece - http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/276868431.html

 

Miller talks about the process to build a team and points out the Puckett, Hrbek groups and the late 90s groups of players.  Then he continues: 

"Which is great news, and terrible news, for the Twins. The potential superstars are in the pipeline, and while Twins fans have heard their names for two or three years now, all that has changed during this injury-riddled minor-league season in the timeline. The Twins are developing five of the 50 most promising prospects in baseball, Baseball America judged at midseason, three of them pitchers, and that’s not even counting the young players who already have arrived in Minnesota and begun producing.

But in the meantime, Minnesota has been stricken with a sobering realization: This is what rebuilding looks like. What else did we expect?"

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

There's so much truth to this. But it's this kind of article that makes me uneasy -- it's a straight-from-the-PR-department argument for holding on to the status quo of coaches and game philosophy.

[Mike Sixel]

I expect it to take less than 5 or 7 years. YMMV, but you asked. I also don't believe you NEED to be one of the 5 worst teams in baseball for multiple years during the rebuild.

[ashbury]

I expected a better bridge than we got, to the coming wave of new ballplayers.

[Craig Arko]

I expected rain. I win.

 

But otherwise my sentiments pretty much echo Miller's.

[TheLeviathan]

To a degree we do have to wait, but waiting doesn't mean you do nothing either.  What we're waiting on is true title contention, but we should still be building up the team as much as we can. 

 

I think sometimes these two things are wrongly portrayed as mutually exclusive.

[goulik]

To a degree we do have to wait, but waiting doesn't mean you do nothing either.  What we're waiting on is true title contention, but we should still be building up the team as much as we can. 

 

I think sometimes these two things are wrongly portrayed as mutually exclusive.

I agree and I think the front office has been "doing things" with poor on field results which is why I also think it is time for Gardy and Anderson to ride off into the sunset. You can be a good coach and not get results with certain groups. They are not getting results with this young group and their should hVe been more. No hate, it's just time!

[diehardtwinsfan]

For the talk about a better product on the field, the front office tried that. We were all quite happy when they went out and go Nolasco and Hughes. Pelf was a bit different example, though most of us figured he'd be better than he was. Gibson improved and yet the pitching was still horribly bad. Offense, on the other hand, improved quite well. So I'd argue that the front office did attempt to put a better team on the field.

 

That said, last year, this team was better than their pythagorean numbers by a signficant margin. This year's team was worse than those same numbers by a large margin. This tells me that while it didn't show up in the wins column, the team is better. I do think there's something to be said for patience. The offense was pretty good and should improve next season. With some tweaks, the defense should too. It comes down to pitching. Will Nolasco rebound? Will Hughes regress? Will Gibson and May build off of this season? Will Meyer make an impact when he comes up? Will they find a way to get rid of some of these guys to make room for a FA signing?

[TheLeviathan]

The offense was pretty good and should improve next season. 

 

I think that is a very dubious position.  The offense far outpaced what I thought they could for sure, but they did it on the backs of guys like Danny Santana, Escobar, Suzuki, and Vargas.  There is a good chance we see a step backwards (maybe quite significantly) from all of them.  For some, it'll be adjustments (ala Arcia) and for others it's just that they played way over their own heads.  

 

But if the team addresses LF with a signing that could greatly help offset some of those worries.  

[gunnarthor]

I think that is a very dubious position.  The offense far outpaced what I thought they could for sure, but they did it on the backs of guys like Danny Santana, Escobar, Suzuki, and Vargas.  There is a good chance we see a step backwards (maybe quite significantly) from all of them.  For some, it'll be adjustments (ala Arcia) and for others it's just that they played way over their own heads.  

 

 

True, but Mauer greatly under performed and they do have two legit big time offensive prospects coming up in the near future.  I think they have the pieces to form a pretty good (i.e. playoff caliber) offense.  Some of the pieces will be different but ....

[TheLeviathan]

True, but Mauer greatly under performed and they do have two legit big time offensive prospects coming up in the near future.  I think they have the pieces to form a pretty good (i.e. playoff caliber) offense.  Some of the pieces will be different but ....

 

I too expect Mauer to make up for some of that regression, but I'm wary to count on young players to produce above average.  They might, I won't rule it out, but I wouldn't count on it.

[Willihammer]

 

So how do teams acquire such unique but scarce talent, a Jason Heyward for the lineup or a Felix Hernandez for the rotation? It’s simple: They draft them (or in the case of international players, sign them as teenagers), then develop them.

Free agency is an avenue. Trades are an avenue. Waivers and the Rule 5 draft are avenues. But you'll have to do better than Jim Hoey, Matt Capps, Dusty Hughes, Matt Maloney, Nishioka, Marquis, Correia, Nolasco, Doumit, Florimon, Pressly, and co. Its like Marthaler said on the Sportive yesterday. The Twins track record on FA and trade transactions is so pitiful that you just assume that if a guy is incoming that he stinks and if he's outgoing that he's a pretty good player. "A special brand of hopeless incompetence" is what he calls it. "Wait and see on draft picks" has only become the default motto of this rebuild because they have failed so miserably in every other avenue of acquiring talent that we can't yet say with the same certainty that they whiffed on guys who are still in the minor leagues.