Article: Gleeman and the Geek Ep 97: Kohl Stewart and Dancing Fools

[Twins Daily Admin]

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?r=1865-Episode-97-Kohl-Stewart-and-Dancing-Fools

[Steve Penz]

As always, thank you. One part that stuck out for me was your comments about the general baseball-education level of the public. You used Mauer's time at catcher as an example and talked about what is really a top prospect. The TD faithful this is not a new topic. Then I turned on the dvred Twins game and watched the post game show. Tom Hanneman was talking about Chris Hermann and called him a rising star in the minors. That is ridiculous. Hermann is a nice player but a rising star? That is pretty irresponsible. If a statement were made like that on the political topic, the person saying it would get hammered by criticism.

[Seth Stohs]

There's two sides of it though... there's the big picture side, where we have our Top 5 or 10 prospects that we really like (as fans), but where do they fit in the national perspective?

 

I always kind of look at it like this:

 

Top 2 prospects should be impact players

3-6 prospects should be solid regulars and quality starting pitchers.

7-12 prospects are guy that can be OK regulars or 4-5 starter types.

13-20 prospects, you're hoping they can come up and be part-time, role player types, decent bullpen arms, etc.

21-50 prospects, they either have too small a sample to get too excited about yet, or they're guys with a chance to get a cup of coffee, and anything more, we should be happy about.

 

Obviously how that lines up depends on the strength of the organization's minor leagues at a given time. Our hopes for this crop of prospects is a little higher and moves the scale a little bit.

[Steve Penz]

I guess my point was just about journalists and responsibility. People listen. They should tell the real story. Nothing against Chris Hermann, he is not a rising star. He has played well and provides value but what Hanneman said was simply not true and people were listening.

[Seth Stohs]

To be fair though, it also depends on the definition of 'rising star.' To 'casual fans', he had no star. Now he's come up and performed well... in 15 plate appearance... so his 'star' has certainly risen... but it's all about perspective.