Let's Just Roll With What We Have

I do let myself get mesmerized by them though.  Elite strikeout numbers at the minor league level seem to be the biggest indicator that a guy will be able to hold up at the front of the rotation at the MLB level.  The odds still might not be in their favor, but it's exponetially more likely than the kind of pitchers we've been used to seeing around here most of the last decade.  You almost always know exactly what you're getting with the low BB soft tossers, that is, stop gap AAAA pitchers, most of whom will flame out within a season or two. 

 

It's nice to reward Pino, Darnell, Walters, DeVries, Diamond, blah, blah, blah for their AAA accomplishments, but it comes with a price.  These guys should not be getting promoted over guys with promise like Meyer or May when we already know how their story will end.

We all love the K's. But let's not rely on this one example, Meyer, to perpetuate the "preference for soft-tossing pitchers" thing and to dredge up known history, which is that we've lacked pitching talent in the upper minors. You and I were not privy to the discussions, let alone the circumstances involved in the decision(s) to keep Meyer at AAA. There were very competent coaches and trainers watching every pitch Meyer threw. What makes you think they made the wrong call?

But it most certainly wasn't because they have this irrational jones for soft-tossing AAAA starters. Talent has been slowly bubbling up through the minors. It hadn't reached AAA yet in 2015, and therefore we saw the likes of Pino and Johnson. Exactly what should we have done to avoid using those AAAA guys in 2013 and 2014, aside from making our own declaration that Meyer was ready to go? Next year will be the FIRST year where we will have young "bona fide" prospects to choose from, guys like Meyer, May, Berrios, Duffey, Gilmartin, Darnell, Wheeler, Rogers, etc.

You might be right that not calling Meyer up was a mistake on the part of the development staff, but if it wasn't, then the right guys got called up to make the necessary starts.

I'm with the let's just roll plan.   Let's find out what we have and leave room for Meyer, Sano, Buxton, Rosario, maybe Berrios or Polanco to play this year.  While I agree that getting one of the prized pitchers would be an awesome surprise I don't see the Twins doing it.  A reclamation project is just as likely to produce Nolasco as much as Hughes and we still have Pelfrey.

 

 Why not find out what you have in Meyer, Tonkin, Berrios, Pryor, Pressly, Oliveros, Rosario, Sano. etc. everyone was going crazy about that earlier this year.  Are we going to stick with aging vets or find out who has the talent to make it and who doesn't?  There is a ton of talent in the pipeline and lots of 40 man decisions to be made.  Let's find out what we have so we don't lose the wrong players from the 40 man.  Let's go young and keep the young talent moving forward.  Not everyone is gonna make it but throw enough talented bodies out there and a core will stick.  Or keep them in AAA and block everything up.  the talent is in the pipeline lets see what we have.

Dman, they can find out what they have and leave room for every single one of the prospects you just named and STILL attempt to pull off another Hughes-type move and sign a 2-way corner OF for 2015.

If things get crowded in 2016, great, trade from surplus.

That team went 12-11 in April.

 

That team without them went 11-15 in September.

I wouldn't imagine you're suggesting that the April team with the winning record, the team with Colabello, Bartlett, Kubel, Correia, Willingham, Florimon, and Deduno was better in any other way besides its SSS record and it's "experience". SwainZag's point, I think, is well-made, in saying a 40% roster turnover from the beginning of the season represents improvement, and I like the fact that she's still lobbying for a couple of key moves by Ryan this off-season.

My post wasn't advocating for Shields or making any sort of value claims about him -- I was just responding to a specific claim that Hughes is "more of an ace right now (and likely to be next year) than Shields."  It took what is (thus far) a career year with a fluky historic low walk rate from Hughes just to match Shields' career run prevention mark (and still fell short of Shields' 2013-2014 run prevention marks).

I'm "guilty" for having labelled Hughes a #2-3 versus a #1-2. But it was within the context of assessing what we have for a rotation right now leading into 2015.

We've had a few too many instances lately where perhaps our boys have overestimated what they had. I'm hoping Ryan is taking stock of this. Hughes may turn into a consistent #1-2 guy. I hope so, because it will be so much fun reading the comments, one right after another, effusive in praise for that brilliant FA acquisition by Ryan.

No but there would have been plenty to predict they would have outperformed opening day starters Correia, Pelfrey and perhaps even Gibson.  Even if they would not have outperformed them, there really should have been next to no concern about Pelfrey and Correia losing out in what was clearly destined to be another losing season. 

 

Winning doens't happen until the young guys get their feet wet. 

None of those making a prediction that May or Meyer would outperform any one of these three out of the blocks in 2014 would have been employed by the Twins.