About that farm system..

[Bill Brown69]

 

I hope you're right. My preference would have been to bring in an outside guy, but maybe things will really be different.

 

Honest question. Wouldn't doubling the size of the analytics department equate to a bunch of outside guys with fresh ideas?

 

I kinda doubt that TR used that department for the draft and I understand the it isn't easy to compare apples to apples with stadiums having different technology but I do not understand why there is analytics if it is only going to be used for players after coming to pro ball. The NFL spends millions analyzing players long before they ever set foot on a pro field so why wouldn't we run everything possible through that department, at least on the top 100 guys?

[Riverbrian]

I'm not posting this to support any point because it really doesn't support any point. I was just curious where the Twins ranked when it came to trade acquisitions currently in the minor leagues. So... I counted them and I'm posting it in case anybody else wanted to see it.  

 

Minor League Trade Acquisitions

 

Rays 23

Brewers 22

Braves 21

Yankees 20

DBacks 15

Phillies 14

A's 13

Reds 13

Orioles 11

Padres 11

Angels 9 

Astros 9

Mariners 9

White Sox 9

Cubs 8

Nationals 8

Pirates 8

Dodgers 7

Marlins 7

Rockies 6

Royals 6

Tigers 5

Twins 5

Blue Jay 4

Rangers 3

Cardinals 2

Indians 2

Red Sox 2

Giants 1

Mets 1

 

Amateur - International Free Agent Acquisitions

 

Phillies 27

Rangers 25

Astros 24

Cubs 22

Nationals 22

Indians 21

Dodgers 20

Mets 20

Royals 19

Padres 18

Red Sox 17

Reds 17

Tigers 17

Twins 17

Yankees 17

DBacks 16

Pirates 16

Rays 16

Rockies 16

Blue Jays 15

Braves 15

Cardinals 15

A's 11

Mariners 11

Angels 10

Giants 10

Orioles 9

White Sox 7

Marlins 5

Brewers 3

[Darius]

You are going to get all kinds of "but, they are young in the majors", ignoring the point of your post completely. Only Buxton (and now Berrios), of the young players, was brought in in the last 4-5 years.....(probably Duffey also). Jay and Stewart certainly don't look worthy of their picks, and Gonsalves is hurt (along with last year's top pick). None of their international signings are in the top 100 from the last 5 years either, despite having one of the bigger pools.

 

First, there is a new GM. Second, I think the head of scouting got "promoted". Other than that, it is mostly the same scouts and coaches....

 

I'm in full wait and see mode, because nothing much has changed, and there is virtually no data to work from since all they've done is Castro and OLD guys and castoffs.

Let's be fair, here. There are plenty of young kids that were brought in outside of the arbitrary "4-5" year mark, because they are from Caribbean (DR, mainly) and European (Germany) countries.

 

For example, Sano and Kepler are arguably the two most important young players on the team, and are in a position to be franchise cornerstone's for the next decade. Both are also extremely good at the present time.

 

There are pieces there like Kiriloff, Gonsalves, Romero, Blankenhorn, Diaz, Wade, etc, who either a) dropped off top 100s because of injury, or could get very easily end up on some of lists soon. I'm still by no means ready to give up on a premier athlete like Kohl Stewart, either. If he gets himself healthy and fine tunes some things, he could easily reenter to picture as a nice rotation piece down the road. On top of that, there are some serious high-end bullpen guys.

 

I'll agree that the farm system isn't in an ideal place. But, a #1, either Greene or McKay, and a few guys getting healthy, will give it a nice shot in the arm next year.

 

Let's also be honest. This team has far and away the best farm system in the game two years ago. At some point, that's going to turnover. If you consistently have the best farm system in the game, it probably means your big club probably isn't very good.

 

I've been hearing some already calling for a trade of prospects for pitching help. I think that would be a huge mistake.

[Mike Sixel]

Let's be fair, here. There are plenty of young kids that were brought in outside of the arbitrary "4-5" year mark, because they are from Caribbean (DR, mainly) and European (Germany) countries.

 

For example, Sano and Kepler are arguably the two most important young players on the team, and are in a position to be franchise cornerstone's for the next decade. Both are also extremely good at the present time.

 

There are pieces there like Kiriloff, Gonsalves, Romero, Blankenhorn, Diaz, Wade, etc, who either a) dropped off top 100s because of injury, or could get very easily end up on some of lists soon. I'm still by no means ready to give up on a premier athlete like Kohl Stewart, either. If he gets himself healthy and fine tunes some things, he could easily reenter to picture as a nice rotation piece down the road. On top of that, there are some serious high-end bullpen guys.

 

I'll agree that the farm system isn't in an ideal place. But, a #1, either Greene or McKay, and a few guys getting healthy, will give it a nice shot in the arm next year.

 

Let's also be honest. This team has far and away the best farm system in the game two years ago. At some point, that's going to turnover. If you consistently have the best farm system in the game, it probably means your big club probably isn't very good.

 

I've been hearing some already calling for a trade of prospects for pitching help. I think that would be a huge mistake.

Not sure how it is arbitrary to answer the question asked, about the draft since they were bad.... That was the actual question asked, that I responded to.

[glunn]

This thread is an example of how people can disagree and debate in a civil and polite manner. There are a lot of good ideas in this thread and the debate has been thought provoking and fun to read.

 

I love the discussion of the relative importance of scouting, player development and building an optimum farm system. My take is that scouting and player development are both crucial, and that the FO should compete in both of these areas as fiercely as we want the players to compete on the field. This includes keeping "stats" on each scout and each coach,

 

As for trading veterans to restock the farm system, other than Dozier my sense is that there have not been many recent  opportunities. And I am glad that the FO did not trade him to the Dodgers for JDL. What other trades should have been made to build the farm system?

 

I am also glad that in recent times the Twins have not lost/traded  good players because they were unwilling to pay them their market value? I am trying to think of when this has happened since Torii and Johan.

 

[bird]

 

I do agree that those other areas are key contributors, but I don't think we can dismiss the lack of success from draft picks completely either. If they had hit on 2 or 3 more high picks, we probably wouldn't even be having this discussion.

No question about that, my friend. I'm hopeful in one sense and somewhat resigned about things from another. The hopeful part of me is related to the assumption that more eyes will be involved, more in-depth research, both qualitative and quantitative, will be applied, and that Falvey will have a discipline and a strategy about both the draft and about IFA. My resignation has to do with how the new agreements have created such a level playing field and how the use of technology (friggin' video of every pitch a 10 grader throws that all 30 teams have archived) that opportunities to create a competitive advantage via the draft have greatly diminished. So much of it is luck now.

[TheLeviathan]

 

 

As for trading veterans to restock the farm system, other than Dozier my sense is that there have not been many recent  opportunities. And I am glad that the FO did not trade him to the Dodgers for JDL. What other trades should have been made to build the farm system?

 

You can never know what's on the market, but off the top of my head Plouffe, Willingham, Perkins, Hughes, and Suzuki all come to mind as sell-high guys we held on to during a clear rebuilding phase.

 

Not A-list talents necessarily, but certainly valuable guys that we will ultimately watch walk away for nothing in all likelihood.

[drjim]

You can never know what's on the market, but off the top of my head Plouffe, Willingham, Perkins, Hughes, and Suzuki all come to mind as sell-high guys we held on to during a clear rebuilding phase.

 

Not A-list talents necessarily, but certainly valuable guys that we will ultimately watch walk away for nothing in all likelihood.

Perkins is the especially egregious one on this list. Suzuki pre-extension would have gotten something too. I'm much less offended by the other three.

 

Part of the bigger problem is most of the pieces they did move didn't pan out.

[TheLeviathan]

 

Perkins is the especially egregious one on this list. Suzuki pre-extension would have gotten something too. I'm much less offended by the other three.

Part of the bigger problem is most of the pieces they did move didn't pan out.

 

Right, add to that list the (largely) failed moves of Span and Revere and it hurts even more.

 

Also, to add to my earlier point - one of my biggest criticisms of the previous front office was how it used free agency during a rebuild.  One of the reasons we lacked trade assets was self-inflicted.  If you have open spots and available funds, sign guys with upside that you might be able to turn into trade assets.  Instead we frequently dove into the Kevin Correia area of the pool.

 

Our current FO made a similar mistake this offseason with the bullpen IMO.

[gunnarthor]

 

You can never know what's on the market, but off the top of my head Plouffe, Willingham, Perkins, Hughes, and Suzuki all come to mind as sell-high guys we held on to during a clear rebuilding phase.

 

.

There was never a market for Willingham. Even after his first season with us, nothing was available. Adams or Parks, I forget which, said the best you could get for Hammer was a minor league starter with back-end upside and specifically mentioned Sean Gilmartin. And no market developed for either Suzuki or Plouffe although both were rumored to be available. 

 

The Twins have had three (at best) key trade chips - Span, Perkins and Dozier. (Santana might move into that list this year).

[TheLeviathan]

 

There was never a market for Willingham. Even after his first season with us, nothing was available. Adams or Parks, I forget which, said the best you could get for Hammer was a minor league starter with back-end upside and specifically mentioned Sean Gilmartin. And no market developed for either Suzuki or Plouffe although both were rumored to be available. 

 

The Twins have had three (at best) key trade chips - Span, Perkins and Dozier. (Santana might move into that list this year).

 

To be frank - you don't know any of that to be true.  Nor could anyone claim that there was something of value available.  And there is nothing to say that something seen then as relatively low value might have been a worthwhile acquisition.

 

Maybe it would have been nothing, but we don't know what the market actually had.  (And I'm not convinced we ever explored it)  

 

[TheLeviathan]

Hell, not only did we not deal any of those players (even for meh value) and watched their sell high moment pass with no return.......we were more likely to extend those players than deal them!

[bird]

We could quibble back and forth about what was available for whom, but on the larger point we probably agree. And that is we hope the new guys do a better job of making moves and avoiding situations where assets of any value depart for no return at all. 

 

I'm optimistic. And I never want to witness another short era of Matt Capps and Matt Garza debacles.

[Minnesotahorn]

 

 

You are going to get all kinds of "but, they are young in the majors", ignoring the point of your post completely...

 

Well yeah.  Because they ARE in the majors.  Hand-wringing over a depleted farm system when your big league club is by far the youngest in the majors seems obstinately obtuse to me.  When that same big league club sits atop the division standings with 20% of the season in the books, denigrating the scouts who provided that talent seems silly as well. 

 

I don't have any doubt the scouting staff is imperfect and that there are legitimate gripes with particular decisions.  But I can't help but marvel at this entire line of kvetching. 

[whydidnt]

Well yeah.  Because they ARE in the majors.  Hand-wringing over a depleted farm system when your big league club is by far the youngest in the majors seems obstinately obtuse to me.  When that same big league club sits atop the division standings with 20% of the season in the books, denigrating the scouts who provided that talent seems silly as well. 

 

 

Except this just is not true at all. There are 10 teams in the league that have a younger average age than the Twins. If you look at the Twins pitching rotation, pre-Berrios, there were only a couple teams older. I'm not going to try and figure it out now that he's joined, but 1 guy isn't going to move the needle that much. The narrative of this being by far the youngest team is simply not true.

[Riverbrian]

 

Well yeah.  Because they ARE in the majors.  Hand-wringing over a depleted farm system when your big league club is by far the youngest in the majors seems obstinately obtuse to me.  When that same big league club sits atop the division standings with 20% of the season in the books, denigrating the scouts who provided that talent seems silly as well. 

 

I don't have any doubt the scouting staff is imperfect and that there are legitimate gripes with particular decisions.  But I can't help but marvel at this entire line of kvetching. 

 

 

The Twins are not "by far the youngest". 

 

The youngest roster belongs to the Padres 

 

Also... Please respect other posters. 

 

Around these forums... we find it "obstinately obtuse" to refer to comments by others as "obstinately obtuse". 

 

 

Other than that... A sincere welcome to TD. There are some good folks around here. 

 

 

 

 

[Minnesotahorn]

 

The Twins are not "by far the youngest". 

 

The youngest roster belongs to the Padres 

 

Also... Please respect other posters. 

 

Around these forums... we find it "obstinately obtuse" to refer to comments by others as "obstinately obtuse". 

 

 

Other than that... A sincere welcome to TD. There are some good folks around here. 

Well thanks.  If "obstinately obtuse" is too confrontational for this forum I may not be long for it.  No big deal.  It's your (collective) playground and I just happened upon it.  Every place has their preferred culture and I may just not fit with it.  C'est la vie. 

 

Now let's address the meat of the matter. 

 

I was obviously hasty in my declaration that the Twins were "by far the youngest".  I failed to research this point and it won't be the last time.  But they ARE a young club.  Their average age as a roster is skewed older by some bullpen arms nearly as old as I am (I'm looking at Belisle and Breslow particularly)but the core group making up our every day players is extremely young and to pretend otherwise is disingenuous.  And my larger point was that THAT core group of young players is performing better than expected (by nearly everyone) in the majors.  If they were still all down in the farm system it'd be rated much higher (as it was a couple years ago).  But I much prefer them up the majors producing wins there. 

 

Hence my bewilderment over the consternation of a depleted farm system and the dour prognostications about our scouting staff's capabilities.  They've produced an exciting core group of players that's performing well in the majors.  The consequences of that are that it's time to restock the minors.  I'm cool with that and I hope we're able to do so in a way that produces another group like the current one in five to six years. 

[TheLeviathan]

Having a depleted minors and a shaky pitching staff (bullpen and rotation) is not exactly a comfortable situation - that's the consternation.

[howieramone2]

 

BA just released their updated top 100 prospect list. The Twins landed just 1 player, Nick Gordon, way down at 47. I know that there are lots of prospect lists and that being a top 100 prospect isn't everything. However, the Twins have been picking near the top of the draft for 4 of the last 5 years. How could we have possibly missed this many times in a row? I'm not just talking about 1st round picks, but also on those sandwich picks and 2nd and 3rd rounders - they were also taken early in the draft.
 

I want to be excited about this year's start and the future of the team, but for a team that's supposed to be built around home grown talent, the minor league system is pretty bare right now. It's great that we have some exciting young players at the ML level already, but for the most part these guys weren't recent picks and our pitching staff is one of the oldest in the league. The bullpen is nothing short of a nightmare at this point. Where are all those young fireballers that have been drafted these last 5 years?

 

It's pretty concerning that the scouting staff still remains mostly in-tact, despite the change at the top of the organization. What confidence do any of you have that somehow this year is going to be different, and why? If you think the Twins are going to compete for the division in the next couple of years, where is the infusion of talent to make that happen going to come from? It sure doesn't seem like from the current minor league rosters. 

They are competing for the division right now. 19-14, first place.

[howieramone2]

 

Drafting relievers was a mistake, but considering the position players that recently graduated it was not overrated recently.

But the bad draft strategies and lack of other talent acquisition has not backfilled to the level that was needed.

So why is the board screaming for them? Burdi, Melotakis, Chargois. Duffey worked out well. Appears to me to be a very sound strategy. 

[Brandon]

by the end of the season we will probably have 2 or 3 names in the top 100 (See draft) and by next year we could have 4 or more depending on how some of our prospects return from injury and how some advance (Thorpe and Romero) so not a big deal.

 

We have lots of reliever prospects which is good because we need some relievers to be ready to win jobs soon (Now).  The ranking has no bearing on club needs.

[howieramone2]

 

Saying the Twins farm system is bare is factually inaccurate. If you read any of the pundits, they are fairly uniform in their descriptions. Not one of them describes the system as bare, or with any language that would hint at that.

 

You're entitled to your opinion of course, but in my mind, you're making the same old tired blanket statements about bad scouting that are not supported by making genuine comparisons of the results of other teams confronted with similar opportunities and barriers. I'm sorry, but its a hollow argument. And it's just plain ridiculous to act as if they're in line to "blow" another draft. Contrary to your belief, the system is fine, the scouting talent is fine, and that's the reason Falvey hasn't made the wholesale changes so many rather simplistically argue is necessary.

 

Come talk to me about how bad the scouting is when Sano gets MVP consideration, Buxton becomes an all-star. Kepler, Rosario, Dozier, Vargas, Mauer, Duffey, Rogers, Berrios...this group alone represents a good argument that calling the organization's scouting bad is farcical.

Bingo!

[howieramone2]

 I did see an article on this very board, which showed we were the second youngest team in baseball at 25.8 years-old. It was weighted by playing time as I recall.   

[whydidnt]

Well thanks.  If "obstinately obtuse" is too confrontational for this forum I may not be long for it.  No big deal.  It's your (collective) playground and I just happened upon it.  Every place has their preferred culture and I may just not fit with it.  C'est la vie. 

 

Now let's address the meat of the matter. 

 

I was obviously hasty in my declaration that the Twins were "by far the youngest".  I failed to research this point and it won't be the last time.  But they ARE a young club.  Their average age as a roster is skewed older by some bullpen arms nearly as old as I am (I'm looking at Belisle and Breslow particularly)but the core group making up our every day players is extremely young and to pretend otherwise is disingenuous.  And my larger point was that THAT core group of young players is performing better than expected (by nearly everyone) in the majors.  If they were still all down in the farm system it'd be rated much higher (as it was a couple years ago).  But I much prefer them up the majors producing wins there. 

 

Hence my bewilderment over the consternation of a depleted farm system and the dour prognostications about our scouting staff's capabilities.  They've produced an exciting core group of players that's performing well in the majors.  The consequences of that are that it's time to restock the minors.  I'm cool with that and I hope we're able to do so in a way that produces another group like the current one in five to six years.

 

The concern arises from the fact that the Twins have been drafting at the top of the draft for 4 of the last 5 years, and have little to show for it. Almost all of their "young core" were in the organization prior to our current slide, but even if we want to ignore that, where is the pitching? We haven't developed a quality starter since Slowey or Baker. The jury is still out Berrios, and the rest of the guys are now in the bullpen with very mixed results. The Twins gave up almost 120 runs more than the 2nd worst team in the league last year, they finished with the worst record by far, and I don't see much in our minor league system to suggest much help is on the way beyond what we have today. They have the worst overall record in the major leagues over the last 5 years. That does not scream out great organization that has been making good decisions. Blame it on the scouts, the weather, bad luck, poor philosophy or whatever you want, it's really difficult to find any bright side in the Twins recent history, especially when it comes to pitching.

 

If you get your wish and they produce another group in 5 or 6 years like they have the last, we'll be having this exact conversation then, because they will still be losing due to lack of pitching. They just have not drafted and/or developed pitchers well in this organization. I can respect opposing views on most everything else, but it's almost impossible for me to see a point of view that implies the Twins have done a good job finding pitchers. They just haven't done it for a long time.

[DaveW]

IMO the org still lacks from the same three areas that it has lacked for a decade.

 

1. Catching depth- absolutely zero noteworthy prospects to speak of. Murphy is nada, Garver is maybe a backup. No starter potential to be found anywhere.

 

2. Front of the rotation SP- it's better than it has been, but it's still pretty bare.

 

3. Power- not much

[Riverbrian]

 

Well thanks.  If "obstinately obtuse" is too confrontational for this forum I may not be long for it.  No big deal.  It's your (collective) playground and I just happened upon it.  Every place has their preferred culture and I may just not fit with it.  C'est la vie. 

 

Now let's address the meat of the matter. 

 

I was obviously hasty in my declaration that the Twins were "by far the youngest".  I failed to research this point and it won't be the last time.  But they ARE a young club.  Their average age as a roster is skewed older by some bullpen arms nearly as old as I am (I'm looking at Belisle and Breslow particularly)but the core group making up our every day players is extremely young and to pretend otherwise is disingenuous.  And my larger point was that THAT core group of young players is performing better than expected (by nearly everyone) in the majors.  If they were still all down in the farm system it'd be rated much higher (as it was a couple years ago).  But I much prefer them up the majors producing wins there. 

 

Hence my bewilderment over the consternation of a depleted farm system and the dour prognostications about our scouting staff's capabilities.  They've produced an exciting core group of players that's performing well in the majors.  The consequences of that are that it's time to restock the minors.  I'm cool with that and I hope we're able to do so in a way that produces another group like the current one in five to six years. 

 

You are correct... We do have a young exciting core of position players

 

The average age of the roster is skewed by our pitching staff (not just Belisle and Breslow) so if you remove the pitching staff out of the equation... We are very young.

 

However... in my opinion... The pitchers need to be factored in. Our mound guys are not that young and not very exciting. The front office, scouts and team Chaplin can be criticized for that.  

 

I understand your point that the farm will take a hit when you pull the crop out and you are right... but... it isn't quite that simple to some... including me. 

 

Why do we need to restock the minors after our recent graduations?

 

Does there have to be a 5-6 year gap between waves?

 

After 5 years of favorable draft position. After 5 years of favorable trade necessity by being clearly out of contention at the trade deadline. Why isn't there a higher ranked collective pool of minor league players? 

 

Why can't we be enjoying the fruits of this young wave with another wave immediately behind it? 

 

It's not like we get a group of five... and therefore have no room for more in subsequent years... Like we are only allowed to concentrate on five at a time.  

 

I think it's fair to discuss if the front office has slumped a little since 2013.... Not Just drafting but also trading and International Signings. I think it's fair to discuss if our front office was able to turn on all the spigots. Especially considering that we are not players in the Free Agent Market and will have to depend on our farm for sustained success.

 

They had an awesome 2009 by signing... Sano, Polanco, Kepler and Vargas. 

Rosario looks like a nice 2010 4th round pick

Buxton and Berrios might be great 2012 draft selections. 

 

Since 2013? 

 

How did the Red Sox graduate Betts, Benintendi, Bradley, Bogaerts, Vazquez, Swihart and still have enough pieces to trade for Sale, Pomeranz, Thornburg, Ziegler, Kimbrel, Etc. and still have two players ranked higher than our top player? Despite consistently drafting after us. Boston still has options on the farm and almost single handedly fed the Padres and White Sox systems to top ranked status.  

 

This discussion isn't easily dismissed by simply saying we have Sano, Buxton, Kepler, Rosario, Polanco and Berrios. 

 

 

 

 

 

[gunnarthor]

 

To be frank - you don't know any of that to be true.  Nor could anyone claim that there was something of value available.  And there is nothing to say that something seen then as relatively low value might have been a worthwhile acquisition.

 

Maybe it would have been nothing, but we don't know what the market actually had.  (And I'm not convinced we ever explored it)  

Yeah, and you don't know the other to be true yet you keep posting it, on and on and on. We don't know what Hammer's value was but the "experts" at mlbtraderumors or baseballpropsectus (I forget which) said it was Sean Gilmartin. We don't know what Plouffe's value was but the market we did see showed it wasn't much. Considering how much griping this place has made over losing Hu, Benson, Reed and ABW, I very much doubt this board would have supported dumping a ML regular for Sean Gilmartin or some other AAAA type.

 

If you think the Twins should have traded Hughes and Hammer and Suzuki etc, you should have threads right now saying the Twins should be trading Castro and Santana and Dozier etc.

[drjim]

Perkins had legitimate value, everyone else mentioned was bringing back some depth pieces.

 

It would have made sense to move Suzuki and Plouffe, but the value wasn't going to be that high. Maybe they could have gotten lucky.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

BA just released their updated top 100 prospect list. The Twins landed just 1 player, Nick Gordon, way down at 47. I know that there are lots of prospect lists and that being a top 100 prospect isn't everything. However, the Twins have been picking near the top of the draft for 4 of the last 5 years. How could we have possibly missed this many times in a row? I'm not just talking about 1st round picks, but also on those sandwich picks and 2nd and 3rd rounders - they were also taken early in the draft.

 

I want to be excited about this year's start and the future of the team, but for a team that's supposed to be built around home grown talent, the minor league system is pretty bare right now. It's great that we have some exciting young players at the ML level already, but for the most part these guys weren't recent picks and our pitching staff is one of the oldest in the league. The bullpen is nothing short of a nightmare at this point. Where are all those young fireballers that have been drafted these last 5 years?

 

It's pretty concerning that the scouting staff still remains mostly in-tact, despite the change at the top of the organization. What confidence do any of you have that somehow this year is going to be different, and why? If you think the Twins are going to compete for the division in the next couple of years, where is the infusion of talent to make that happen going to come from? It sure doesn't seem like from the current minor league rosters.

TR is gone, and with him some/most of the poor decision making that drafted Stewart/Jay et al.

 

My biggest concern is the development part. Whiffs are a part of the deal here, but that so many players are so ill prepared is the bigger reason why there's new management.

 

Lots more people involved in that failure. It takes a lot of time to change and change over that group.

[USAFChief]

You are correct... We do have a young exciting core of position players

 

The average age of the roster is skewed by our pitching staff (not just Belisle and Breslow) so if you remove the pitching staff out of the equation... We are very young.

 

However... in my opinion... The pitchers need to be factored in. Our mound guys are not that young and not very exciting. The front office, scouts and team Chaplin can be criticized for that.  

 

I understand your point that the farm will take a hit when you pull the crop out and you are right... but... it isn't quite that simple to some... including me. 

 

Why do we need to restock the minors after our recent graduations?

 

Does there have to be a 5-6 year gap between waves?

 

After 5 years of favorable draft position. After 5 years of favorable trade necessity by being clearly out of contention at the trade deadline. Why isn't there a higher ranked collective pool of minor league players? 

 

Why can't we be enjoying the fruits of this young wave with another wave immediately behind it? 

 

It's not like we get a group of five... and therefore have no room for more in subsequent years... Like we are only allowed to concentrate on five at a time.  

 

I think it's fair to discuss if the front office has slumped a little since 2013.... Not Just drafting but also trading and International Signings. I think it's fair to discuss if our front office was able to turn on all the spigots. Especially considering that we are not players in the Free Agent Market and will have to depend on our farm for sustained success.

 

They had an awesome 2009 by signing... Sano, Polanco, Kepler and Vargas. 

Rosario looks like a nice 2010 4th round pick

Buxton and Berrios might be great 2012 draft selections. 

 

Since 2013? 

 

How did the Red Sox graduate Betts, Benintendi, Bradley, Bogaerts, Vazquez, Swihart and still have enough pieces to trade for Sale, Pomeranz, Thornburg, Ziegler, Kimbrel, Etc. and still have two players ranked higher than our top player? Despite consistently drafting after us. Boston still has options on the farm and almost single handedly fed the Padres and White Sox systems to top ranked status.  

 

This discussion isn't easily dismissed by simply saying we have Sano, Buxton, Kepler, Rosario, Polanco and Berrios. 

Spot on. That's what kills me...how can a Boston have so much minor league talent, compared to the Twins? That's not just luck.