Baseball Prospectus LOVES the Twins farm system

[kellyvance]

Perk is unlikely to be traded.  His contract is not uncomfortable for the Twins and he is a local guy who signed it  to stay near home. If a Reed or Burdi show up, he may want to go somewhere else instead of being moved to set up man. Until that time, the Twins will hope he rebounds well this year. 

[jorgenswest]

How do they best use these assets?

 

The Royals traded some and brought others up quickly.

[twinsfanstreif]

Man is it exciting to see all of these prospects develop and potentially join Arcia, Santana, Vargas, May, Gibson and the likes, the future is bright indeed. I know not all of these guys will pan out but we have a fighting chance with that many potential good ones. I can see Detroit having a massive fall off with no farm system as Cabrera and Verlander get older

[Lakeside]

I agree, but the rest of the division would beg to differ with us:

 

1. Polanco and Rosario are absent for us, but Meadows is absent for Cleveland, Moya for Detroit, Zimmer for KC.

 

2. We have 8 listed, the rest of the division combined has 11.

 

3. We have 5 in the top 50, the rest of the division cumulatively has 4.

 

4. Detroit has one prospect on it, and he's one slot ahead of our 8th guy, Burdi at #99.

 

5. Stewart is #28. Rodon is #41.

I like this too, but it is meaningless unless they can produce at the MLB level. Spring always brings eternal optimism!!!

[bird]

Perkins is one of few quality trade chips we have and having a quality closer right now is a luxury we don't need.  By the time we need a quality closer again (when we are truly competitive), we should have replacements for him.  If we can get a quality prospect or two for him, we should do it.  The fact that he IS getting paid such a good salary is an advantage for us in trade negotiations (as opposed to Papelbon, for example) and should make him worth more.  

My caveat to this is let's make sure his replacement, when MLB ready, is not a drop-off for us. Keep the best relievers, regardless of role, and don't worry about how close we are to competing for the division title, since that can happen sooner than we expect it. 

 

And we may soon have a numbers of fairly high-quality trade chips. Plouffe and Dozier come to mind, and we may even have a starter or two that will at least garner Grade C+ or better prospects. Nice change from Butera for Sulbaran or Fuld for Milone.

[bird]

I like this too, but it is meaningless unless they can produce at the MLB level. Spring always brings eternal optimism!!!

 

This is about the farm system, though, right?

[gunnarthor]

.

 

We haven't seen the former lately because we haven't had excess talent (until now). We haven't seen the latter because to-date Terry Ryan has basically sucked at this.

Ryan traded a ton of guys at or near the peak of their value - Revere, Span, AJ, Milton, Knobby. Kielty, Buchanan, Romero etc.

[brvama]

It is always a good feeling to be ranked or recognized as being or having one of the best. This ranking certainly makes us giddy with hope for the future. I guess I'm less concerned about the individual rank than the overall picture. Thse lists just verify the Twins have a boatload of talent coming versus other teams, expecially the AL Central. Since talent wins the future appears bright.

 

For those willing to trade Perkins, why trade a position of strength when there is not a "certifiable" replacement waiting? Plus, having a closer that can help put games in the win column is important for at least 2 reasons. First, it keeps us moving in the right direction by adding wins now and second it helps change the culture of losing into winning. And finally, with all the clamoring to let the kids play, what would we go after? And would that block our prospects? I doubt very much that trading Perk would net us enough to speed up this transition to a competitive/winning club.

[big dog]

'If there's one thing that we know about Burdi - besides the big fastball, crazy slide, etc. - is that he is not at all lacking in confidence. He'd fit that closer role very well.'

 

with relief pitching being the new vague thing, it would have been a good idea to trade Perkins and his friendly contract to get some more prospects before he starts going too far downhill. may have missed that window to get real value for him.

 

I don't want to trade an All-Star for more prospects.  I want to trade prospects for another All-Star, or better yet, a young major-league player with a floor of Very Good.  It's a 40-man roster, not a 50-man roster.  The system is loaded- use it or lose it.

[bird]

Ryan traded a ton of guys at or near the peak of their value - Revere, Span, AJ, Milton, Knobby. Kielty, Buchanan, Romero etc.

Agreed. And a few of those were high-value players i.e.. Knobby, Milton AJ, Span, which are the types I'm hoping he gets premium returns for in the future. I was thinking more of the problem we've had losing players to FA instead of trading for acceptable returns, like Hawkins, Hunter, Guardado, Santana, Cuddyer, etc.