Brock Beauchamp

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.

Kirby Puckett career WAR (as you said, started his career at age 24): 50 WAR Mike Trout career WAR through his age 22 season: 28 WAR

We sometimes overlook the fact that we don't know these kids while Ryan & Co know them quite well (or at least their MiLB coaches know them and pass information to Ryan & Co). Meyer didn't get promoted but Polanco and Santana did last season. Rosario has been mentioned as a possible CF candidate in 2015. There's a lot more to these guys than a stat line and that factors into promotion schedules. That doesn't automatically mean Ryan & Co. are right - obviously, they were very wrong with Hicks - but it does mean they're privy to information we do not have. To us, Rosario seems a bit aloof and out of touch. Not unlike Aaron Hicks, really... But maybe he's entirely different in person. The Twins get to see that difference while we may not.

Polanco isn't too valuable to give up but I'd hesitate to give him up for a two month rental. Then again, it all depends on how Polanco does this season. His stock could continue to rise or it could flatten.

At some point, opposing GMs are going to stop letting themselves get hosed by Dombroski, right? The Tigers shouldn't have gotten away with a few of those trades but hey, good for them that they were able to pull it off. I still can't believe they managed to offload that Fielder contract.

It's not about trying to hit for more power, it's about growing into one's body and swing. If Rosario wants to stick at a corner OF position, he's going to have to be either an OBP machine or he has to hit for power. Rosario is not an OBP machine.

The deeper we get into this offseason, the more I share this sentiment. Early on, I thought the Tigers were easily the best team but after looking over that roster a few times, I'm no longer convinced they're very good and suspect they could get really bad in a hurry.

Lovely blog entry, PFH. Just lovely.

That's not really fair. I think it's unquestionable that I'm a pretty huge Twins fan and this is the first package I've even considered due to my personal time constraints. I work pretty much every week night; weekends are the only games that really appeal to me despite me living just four miles from Target Field.

I agree but the pitch clock wouldn't be a real imposition on the players. It would simply be a visual representation of the rules already on the books. If anything, the players should appreciate the clarification.

Something more interesting*, I'm sure. *literally anything

Baseball made it 100 years without the 7th inning salute and no one questioned the sport's integrity and/or patriotism. It's time for the salute to go away and make baseball games about baseball, not faux patriotism.

Agreed. Ultimately, one or two teams will separate a bit but it wouldn't surprise me one bit if 88-89 wins takes this division with several teams vying for the title.

I just don't see that happening. The Tribe look decent on paper but there are a few regression candidates on that roster. If everything goes right, I could see them winning 90-95 games. If luck neutral, I think they're an 80-85 win team like most of the rest of the Central. Obviously, one or two of the Central teams will be better than that while others might falter, just grading the teams on paper.

Joe looks seriously ripped in that photo. Did he step up his offseason routine or is it just the shirt?

I read this as "genital intimidation" and thoroughly enjoyed the post. Two thumbs up.

BTW, minor new feature added, everybody. Do you like a particular user blog and want to receive notifications when it updates? Just go to that user blog page and at the top of the page near the blog title - remember, this is the blog itself, not specific entries - you'll see a "Follow this Blog" button. Click that and you'll be notified every time the blog updates.

Definitely. Some might consider it mandatory.