Depue: Q&A with Michael Lananna (Baseball America)

[Seth Stohs]

http://www.1500espn.com/twins-2/2017/03/mining-minors-baseball-americas-michael-lananna-twins-system-prospects/

 

Michael Lananna is the one who did the Twins Top Prospect rankings this year for Baseball America. 1500 ESPNs Jake Depue chatted with him recently about this process for evaluation and rankings. They also discussed Stephen Gonsalves, Tyler Jay, Daniel Palka, Engelb Vielma, Nick Gordon and more. Very interesting!

[Mike Sixel]

thanks for the link!

[KirbyHawk75]

Very nice find.  Thanks.  

[Bickle19]

So I've been very curious about this because I feel like we have always heard that Gordon has a good arm and that is the least of his worries at SS. Then once again in this article you get a scout saying that he has a plus arm, yet Molitor is already questioning his arm strength. Is there some weird divide here? is it that hard to tell if a kid's arm is strong? Or is Molitor's player assessment ability that poor?

[Bob Sacamento]

 

So I've been very curious about this because I feel like we have always heard that Gordon has a good arm and that is the least of his worries at SS. Then once again in this article you get a scout saying that he has a plus arm, yet Molitor is already questioning his arm strength. Is there some weird divide here? is it that hard to tell if a kid's arm is strong? Or is Molitor's player assessment ability that poor?

 

Don't worry, Molitor won't be around this time next year but yes if you haven't seen Gordon at SS he has an above average arm there.  I think Molitor is of the older school ilk that your SS arm has to be elite like a Shawon Dunston or Omar Vizquel. What I'm not sure that he is taking into account is that the game has changed from his playing days with positional shifting what it has become today.

[The Wise One]

 

Don't worry, Molitor won't be around this time next year but yes if you haven't seen Gordon at SS he has an above average arm there.  I think Molitor is of the older school ilk that your SS arm has to be elite like a Shawon Dunston or Omar Vizquel. What I'm not sure that he is taking into account is that the game has changed from his playing days with positional shifting what it has become today.

http://www.startribune.com/twins-notes-molitor-talks-shift-strategy/304515631/

 

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/sunday-notes-molitor-on-shifts-chen-down-the-middle-rusty-kuntz-more/

 

In January, Molitor told MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger, “The game has changed so much; we’re seeing more overshifts and people not afraid to give up space based on tendencies, so it’s something I’m excited about learning about and applying to the way we play defense.”