Must Click Link: 1996 Baseball Prospectus Annual

[Parker Hageman]

Friend of Twins Daily Brandon Warne unearthed an interesting piece of nostalgia -- an online archived 1996 Baseball Prospectus Annual.

 

In it, you will find all the teams and their season write-ups and player synopsis, including the Minnesota Twins:

 

Now it's 1996, and most of the last vestiges of the great teams of '87 and '91 are gone, with only the always-entertaining Puckett as a slender thread to the glorious past. In many ways, GM Terry Ryan and the Twins are in the same situation that the organization was in entering the '80s, when the front office had to work around Calvin Griffith's commitment to mediocrity. These Twins have a solid farm system, some good major league talent, and some genuine opportunities for young pitchers opportunities created by the worst pitching staffs in Twins/Senators history. The horrors of the last few seasons have let Ryan and manager Tom Kelly get ambitious in their use of minor league pitchers, in the wake of the profound incompetence of the team's veterans. In '95, the team had Brad Radke and LaTroy Hawkins effectively skip AAA, although Hawkins had to return to the minors. Given Radke's relative success compared to young veterans like Pat Mahomes, Eddie Guardado or Mike Trombley, it's very possible the Twins could give long looks to youngsters Travis Miller, Dan Serafini, Brett Roberts and Dan Naulty.

 

1996 ultimately was a snake-bitten season, what with the loss of Kirby Puckett in the spring, but the team did produce a few good offensive seasons (thanks to free agent Paul Molitor and Chuck Knoblauch). Still, the pitching was a mess and probably the 36-year-old Puck wouldn't be able to rob nearly enough home runs to change that fact.

[ashbury]

The parallels look intriguing until you get to that last sentence. Hopefully the talent in the 2013 pipeline turn out better than Naulty, Roberts, Serafini and Miller.

[nicksaviking]

I heard that Naulty guy added quite a few MPH to his heater, I'm getting excited.

[Parker Hageman]

Those guys (Serifini, Naulty & Lawton) were also using some 'roids: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/magazine/05/29/baseball.steroids/index.html

[bird]

Those guys did not use enbough 'roids.

[ashbury]

Those guys did not have enbough talent.