The Twins Have Got to Make Their Loaded Farm System Count

[Lucas Seehafer PT]

27 minutes ago, HrbieFan said:

Thanks! Any word on Duran? 

Not really. He's still shut down. Originally I believe the Twins said something like 4-8 weeks and when I asked recently I was told "it hasn't been the full 8 weeks yet." So I'd be surprised if he pitches again this season to be honest.

[twinstalker]

The farm system isn't as great as you'd think.  Not if you're rating Sabato highly, counting on pitchers with injury issues, and willing to put the 26th pick in the top six and the 36th pick in the top twelve.

[MGM4706]

On 7/31/2021 at 6:16 PM, DocBauer said:

One thing I feel is so overlooked is the results of 2019-2020 with a rookie manager and a mostly new coaching staff. ROOKIE manager Baldelli lead this team to a pair of outstanding seasons. Wes Johnson helped make immediate differences both years for the pitching staff. Rowson was so well regarded as a hitting coach he got a promotion to bench coach for another team, Marlins IIRC. Shelton was so highly regarded as a career milb coach/manager and his job as bench coach for the Twins he got the Pirates job and might have been the Mets coach, again IIRC, before controversy over Houston changed the complexion of things. Jeremy Heffner was the Twins ASSISTANT/BP coach before being hired away by the Mets as their primary PC. Sawyer came in and not only changed how our catchers set up to receive the ball, but also changed how they got batting practice, before they were worn out from just catching everyone.

Mike Bell seemed like a really smart hire as a Shelton replacement before never assuming the role due to cancer and his terribly unfortunate early demise. 

There is a very recent history, despite one aweful and disappointing year, that maybe this FO knows how to change things. They have an almost immediate history of finding high coaching talent good enough to be poached by the rest of MLB. Past players have commented on how the NEW Twins way is about individual development vs some old school formula. 

And I am not picking on LastOnePicked or anyone else. We all have the rights to our opinions. Period! I just get frustrated that "Twins suck", "Rocco sucks", "FO suck" when we are talking about a horrible, disappointing season. It absolutely, positively, "sucks". But sometimes s**t happens, even when you least expect it. 

And blame is easy. It's what happens tomorrow that is important!

Me....stepping off my stool.

Docbauer: One big disappointment has been hitting coach. Sano has reverted back to old ways. Guys in the booth see it. All say until he uses all fields he will remain the strike out king. Larnach is now striking out at an alarming rate. Where is the coach?

Plus not one of the call-ups know how to play a fence! Not Larnach, not Centirino and not our first basemen. None seem to have been taught to find the fence with their off arm and then find the ball! Where is St Paul coaching on that? And why doesn't Rocco at least address the poor fielding one in awhile? Just keeps blaming injuries and staring into his binder in the dugout! Stop that. Get mad once in awhile. Let players know there are consequences for poor play in the field. It appears to be a country club atmosphere!

[gunnarthor]

I'm not quite as optimistic as others, mostly because I just don't see the pitching coming around. I think we have the pieces to keep a pretty strong offense around but it looks like we have a bunch of backend/AAAA arms. I'm done with the Dobnaks, Jaxs, Smeltzers. Woods-Richardson might become as good as Berrios, although that's unlikely.

But it also seems that the Twins have changed their pitching philosophy so we need a pitching staff where we need to have a bunch of effective bullpen arms that we don't really have to go along with a the five inning starter.

[Dodecahedron]

A few things...

1. I can't think of a successful team built on a farm system alone.  The Rays, the team name people throw out there when this topic comes up, has a team of players that mostly came via trade.  The Twins teams in the 00s transformed into playoff teams only after Terry Ryan began making a few smart trades.  
2. Don't forget -- a "farm system" is full of players who cannot play at the MLB level.  With some luck, a handful of them will make it to the MLB and a handful of the handful will have successful MLB careers.  Any team that leans too much on its farm system is going to fail, it's going to become a AAAA team.  We've seen this play out before.

The trade deadline deals the Twins made suggest to me that the Twins are not going to change course drastically when it comes to the mix of home-grown v. traded players v. free agent signings.  Good.  

[TwinsDr2021]

30 minutes ago, gunnarthor said:

I'm not quite as optimistic as others, mostly because I just don't see the pitching coming around. I think we have the pieces to keep a pretty strong offense around but it looks like we have a bunch of backend/AAAA arms. I'm done with the Dobnaks, Jaxs, Smeltzers. Woods-Richardson might become as good as Berrios, although that's unlikely.

But it also seems that the Twins have changed their pitching philosophy so we need a pitching staff where we need to have a bunch of effective bullpen arms that we don't really have to go along with a the five inning starter.

Agreed, I remember when Berrios, Romero, Graterol, Gonslaves, Thorpe, Enlow, Alcala, Jay, Stewart, Mejia, Jorge just to name a few were going to be the key to sustained success.
And how there was a riches of short stop prospects, Lewis, Goron, Javier, Severino, Cavaco, Holland.

What I see from the current group is a bunch trade-able prospects, but of course the problem is they are all getting real close or already required to be added to the 40 man roster.

I hear a lot of people talking about doing it the Tampa way. And yes they trade stars for prospects (Snell, Archer, Longoria, Shields, etc..) but they also do a great job of internally scouting their farm system and making decisions on their prospects and trading them to get current help, or clear 40 man roster, or re-tool with some younger prospects as to not clog up their 40 man.

Example they traded two pitchers to the Twins one on their 40 and one that has to be added at the end of the year for a really good player that will help them this year and then probably won't be with them next year, I would assumed they deemed the two pitchers they traded as one is probably a AAAA pitcher and the other because of only two pitches ends up in the pen, or maybe a starter but will take more time develop thus clogging up the 40. In the end it is a win, win, win for Tampa, help this year, cleared up three 40 man spaces, thus allowing them to possibly trade another good player (or sign) for a few more prospects to reload the farm.

Imagine any of the last three years the Twins trading two prospects similar to Joe Ryan and Drew Strotman for a short term rental. First IMO I couldn't see the twins doing that (I mean since they didn't) and imagine the comments on here about how they are giving up future success and two probably cheap, good rotation players.