Brock Beauchamp

Sure, but then you're sacrificing 50-70 plate appearances in a season by taking one of your better hitters and moving them to the ninth spot in the order.

I agree that lineup construction isn't a huge factor in scoring runs but saying the leadoff hitter only leads off once and therefore power doesn't matter is a bit misleading. Hitting homeruns out of the leadoff spot is also impacted by the probability of the 7-9 hitters being on base during the leadoff hitter's plate appearance versus the probability of the 9-2 hitters being on base during the leadoff hitter's plate appearance. Obviously, any properly constructed lineup will see the 9-2 hitters being on base more often than the 7-9 hitters.

Sure, but in a perfect situation you'd rather have that guy batting 3-5 when it's more likely that runners are on base when it happens.

I agree that if Hicks can maintain a .341 OBP, that's a good leadoff guy. I'm more than a little skeptical Hicks can maintain a .341 OBP in regular appearances.

Given Buxton's toolset, I'm hoping he forces his way into the 2 or 3 spot, not leadoff.

I lean toward Dozier. I think he'll continue to be a .730-.750 OPS second basemen but have a nagging feeling that many of those homers will turn into doubles this season. You don't want a leadoff guy jacking a bunch of solo shots but doubles are a good way to set the table. Plus, he can take a walk and his lack of BA won't hurt as much if there's nobody on base in front of him (ie. missed opportunities to advance runners on base).

There seems to be a growing portion of the Twins fan base that would pay him a good chunk to play somewhere else.

You mean the guy who was the Twins' best starter last season and the guy who just signed a massive contract extension to stay in Minnesota? You think that guy is going to be the Opening Day starter? Yeah, me too. Hughes' right arm could be in a cast and there'd still be a 75% chance he gets the Opening Day start in 2015.

*hat tip*

At least my parents only did it once.

That's the height of ridiculous. It basically breaks the scale of ridiculous.

That is utterly ridiculous.

It's an assumption to say those are the five best starters. Nolasco has a long track record of middling success while Meyer and May are big question marks.

My point is that homers are not the only way to generate power. During his second half "power slump", Dozier's LD% remained solid as those homers turned into doubles. He was still hitting the ball hard, he was simply hitting that ball a slightly shorter distance. Dozier slugged .387 while hitting only five home runs in the second half. That's not the slugging percentage of a weak hitting second baseman.

His control and velocity aren't a problem. I'm more down on Stewart than most because of the strikeouts but scouts are almost universally positive about him so I hold cautious optimism for the kid. The guy has only dedicated himself to baseball for what, less than two years? It takes time to move through a system and flourish when he's starting behind most other draft picks from a development standpoint.

Excellent point. I often find myself forgetting the enormous age gap between them.

With prospects, it's often not a guy did wrong that bumps him down the standings, it's what the other guys did right. And it's really hard to deny that Berrios earned a significant bump in the rankings this season. Is he better than Meyer? Eh... I don't know about that but I can't take anything away from what the kid did in 2014. I'm not nearly as sold on Stewart but that's my personal opinion.

I have vague memories of the pitch limit not being imposed until later in the season, maybe some time in May. He threw 75-90 pitches a game until maybe August or so, when I seem to recall them removing the pitch limit. And then Meyer went down with shoulder issues again.

I'm sorry but this doesn't make much sense to me. Because Gibson struggled when he came to Minnesota in July doesn't mean he would have struggled the same amount had he been called up in May. It's very likely that he would have been worse because isn't that the point of the minor leagues in the first place, teaching kids and preparing him for MLB? You're taking the assumption that Gibson didn't learn anything during those last MiLB months after Ryan said specifically that Kyle needs to go after hitters to be a successful pitcher in the MLB. The Twins obviously saw a flaw in Kyle and attempted to fix it before giving him the call-up. It's not about being ready - because May and Gibson obviously weren't "ready" to be MLB pitchers - it's about doing all that you can to make sure the player isn't so completely demoralized by early performances that you ruin the kid for the rest of the season or, god forbid, permanently. In a roundabout way, you're suggesting that if a student struggles in their freshman year of college because college is hard and it takes time to acclimate, the solution is to start putting high school students in college a year earlier. That... isn't logical.

I believe that it's not so much things are changing as it is "SSS Applies". Most Twins' pitching prospects have been pretty terrible since 2008. We can all agree on that. They promoted slowly because the prospects weren't any good. This was compounded by their "get it over the plate" drafting ethos, which had them drafting higher floor prospects over higher ceiling guys. Well, unfortunately for the Twins, that "higher floor" was well below an MLB acceptable performance level. Then we get to Gibson. The Twins were maddeningly slow with him and when he reached the majors, he was bloody terrible. Pretty hard to argue whether they made the right call there. The Twins knew and saw something we didn't. We move on to May. This one baffles me but I have a sneaking suspicion the Twins wanted him up earlier but he got injured. We'll chalk this up in the "slow promotion and I don't get it" category. Meyer. I wanted to see him last year as much as anybody but the Twins had him on limited innings and lo and behold, it was for good reason. He shut down at the end of last year as well. In retrospect, they have been rightfully cautious with him because he seems incapable of staying on the mound. It's hard to rationalize the promotion of a pitcher you don't trust to throw 80 pitches in AAA every fifth day. Berrios. Dude is flying through the system and has poise we haven't seen in a Twins prospect since, what, Santana? The Twins are a bit on the slow side with promotions but I think it's overblown. The biggest problem is that the Twins have either had flawed or pretty bad prospects that didn't deserve promotions or were held back for various injury/development concerns. They've moved Berrios through the system quickly, Stewart has moved through the system at the same pace, and Thorpe has flown through the low minors at a pace I haven't seen in a long time.

The problem with lack of discipline is that it's only exacerbated the further up the MiLB ladder you go. And then you get to MLB, where even some of the most disciplined MiLB hitters fail miserably. So yeah, not having discipline with that kind of power in A+ ball is a major problem. If a dude in the FSL league can't draw a walk when the pitchers are terrified he's going to hit the ball 800 ft, that's a cause for serious concern. You do not rush that guy or push him up levels just because chicks dig the long ball.

Has Scott Ullger moved to the Twins' training staff?

If it was an outlier, Dozier has been an outlier for around 1,100 plate appearances now. I question whether the home run power will stick around - those homers may turn into doubles instead - but the rest of his peripherals are rock-solid.