bean5302

I think it's all about lower body health for Lewis. If he can keep from blowing out a leg, I believe he'll have a great season.

Here's hoping Gonzalez committed to his conditioning and speed improvement and his bat stays hotter so he can be early years Eddie Rosario instead of later career Eddie Rosario.

Outfielders with 600+ PA over the past 3 years ranked by wRC+. Scroll alllllll the way down to 6th best outfielder hitter in all of baseball. So Gonzalez probably falls where? Like in between Aaron Judge and Juan Soto or something like that?

When the pipeline starts off with 4 non-prospects, it feels a little like a reach. Baker is a 27 year old non-prospect. He looked like maybe there was something there until he reached AAA, wasn't able to throw strikes and got hammered when he did throw them. MacLeod is an age 26 player who was left unprotected and no team in baseball selected him. He can't throw strikes and was utterly destroyed in AAA last year. Lewis at least isn't over age 25 this year, but he could have been released altogether. He had a 8.38 BB/9 last year. No, that's not a typo. He literally averaged walking at least 1 guy every single inning he pitched. He couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. Canterino. Really? We're really talking about him still? Wheres Luis Rijo on this list? Culpepper is finally where the list should probably start as a borderline prospect. Entering his age 24 season, he was also passed over by every team in baseball in the Rule 5 draft. Culpepper follows the trend of not being able to throw strikes. Unfortunately, he also couldn't strike anybody out, and he never made it above AA.

In recent history, I think 2018, 2021, 2024 were all more important than this season no matter what happens.

We do not have a viable first baseman. End of story. Btw, Rhys Hoskins was just signed on a MiLB contract. Good thing the Twins have Bell at $7MM Bell is not a 1B, he's a DH who can technically stand where a 1B stands. Clemens can play 1B, but he can't hit. Wagaman projects as probably bad at both.

I think Emma needs to be on the list of potential "backup center fielders" as it's put. If he doesn't have a shot at making the roster over Outman, that's a crime. Best case scenario is Rodriguez rakes in spring training, doesn't warp back into a K monster and Outman looks good enough to get the Twins something back in a trade. I'd really quite prefer the Twins trade Bell before Larnach, but I don't see it happening. I honestly wouldn't mind if they cast both of them off.

Not what I was debating. I was debating whether or not Santana was arguably better during their peaks. Santana comes close with bWAR. Santana's not even remotely in the ballpark for fWAR or awards / accomplishments. Hall of Fame Factor comparison Koufax vs. Santana Black Ink 78 vs. 42 (40 is average) Gray Ink 151 vs. 122 (185 is average) HoF Monitor 227 vs. 82 (100 is likely) HoF Standards 46 vs. 35 (50 is average) It's clear in the voting criteria Koufax is leagues above Santana. Also, unlike Santana, who ended his career with a whimper followed by several lazy feeling failed comeback attempts, Koufax ended his career as the best pitcher in all of baseball. His memory of utter dominance still fresh in the minds of voters. They're just not as comparable as you think. It's night and day with awards. An MVP, an extra Cy Young, 3 more All Star selections... that's a chasm. Onto Santana's HoF case on it's own. Should Johan Santana be in Cooperstown on merit on his own? He was great for 3 straight years, and 1 other year during his career. Outside those seasons, he was good. He just barely squeezes by the Black Ink stats for average hall of famer, and falls short in Gray Ink, Hall of Fame Monitor, Hall of Fame Standards, and Santana falls short in 4 of 5 JAWS categories compared to Hall of Famers. Compared to his would be peers in the HoF, Santana falls well short of average. So Santana is a very iffy selection compared to peers. I think the argument is peers have been overlooked. Pitchers like Hershiser, Viola, Saberhagen, Cone, Kevin Appier (who nobody even remembers) are in that potentially "overlooked" category. There are tons of overlooked players or arguably overlooked players in baseball. Santana was slightly better than most of them at his absolute peak, but Santana was not leagues above his peers in MLB during Santana's dominant peak. There were usually pitchers nipping right at his heels. I'd like to see Johan Santana in the HoF, but my heart isn't absolutely broken he's not in.

I used age 20 season as defined by BaseballReference.com. I'm sorry I had the equivalent of a grammatical error in my thesis based on your personal opinion of grammar style which should be used. Even if we used your "he actually didn't debut until age 23" as a moving goalpost in desperation to help Emma's case, my point remains. This is a make or break year for Emma, who will be in his age 23 season this year. I looked back through the previous 5 years and identified zero players who fell into Emma's bucket (international free agents signed prior to age 18) who have generated consistent value worth a starting position in MLB when they didn't debut before age 24. Feel free to look back 100 years.

I mean... they're somewhat close. Koufax ('61-'66) vs. Santana ('03-'08) 156 vs 156 ERA+ 1632 vs 1305 Innings 129 vs 98 Wins 35 vs 6 SHO 3 vs 2 Cy Youngs 1 vs 0 MVP 5 vs 3 ERA Leader 6 vs 3 All Star 2 vs 3 Led League in pitcher WAR 46.4 vs 39.8 bWAR 2.19 vs 2.85 ERA 0.97 vs 1.03 WHIP 9.4 vs 9.4 K/9 2.3 vs 2.1 BB/9 But Koufax had better base stats, achievements and awards across the board, and Koufax also pitched more innings so he generated more WAR. Santana was perhaps close to as good as Koufax relative to their peers, but I can't find any way Koufax shouldn't be considered the more dominant pitcher.

NO. If he doesn't have the skills in his 8th year under contract, it's not coming.

It's always entertaining to see how the TD Hype Machine spins the fans up on this site. It's not that I want Emma to wash out, I just don't see the production and the skills which should be there by now. ZERO. That's how many international prospects signed before age 18 who have debuted at age 24+ and gone on to be significant contributors in the past 5 years. This IS a make or break year for Emma. He either forces his way onto the roster or he can pretty much be written off. If he makes the roster and doesn't do well, there's still a glimmer of hope, but it's not bright. If he can't even make the roster, it's over.

I think a lot of the issue is the WAR bar changing. 60 career WAR was supposed to be an automatic. Like 3,000 hits or 500 HR or 300 career wins, etc. Somewhere along the lines people changed that to 60 career WAR for consideration. There is no accumulator in baseball history who has ever gotten to 60 career WAR. It's not possible.

Yeah, I'll stick with real life results at the MLB level with concrete examples.

If he's not good enough to make an MLB roster, he's not good enough. He's 23 in 4 days. He's a professional baseball player under contract for his 8th year in the Twins' system now. As an international prospect, he's getting OLD for never having seen a game in the big show. Top International prospects who have significant careers debut before 23. Polanco was 20. Kepler and Sano were 22. Guys like Acuna, Julio Rodriguez, Chourio, etc, often debut by age 20-21. This idea player talent evolves isn't realistic. Players have a certain amount of innate talent. Polish to get that talent MLB ready doesn't take 8 years. It's how fans gets confused about the DaShawn Keirsey's of the world who suddenly grow talent become MLB caliber at age 26. No, they don't. Players who do not reach MLB by age 25 aren't going to amount to anything, but that includes the college draft players. High school picks are 3-5 years. Elite high school players in 3, back end MLB talent is 5 years. If they're over 5 years, they're probably not going to be significant contributors. That means if the high school pick hasn't debuted by 22-23, they're probably not significant impact players, ever. International prospects have debut expectations which are even a little tougher because they start their professional journey earlier. Emma is coming into 8 years in the program. He's had 7 years to polish what talent he has, and he still hasn't been good enough to force his debut.

Not really. He's on his last option this year and he hasn't had a single plate appearance in the big show. I don't expect he's going to get through the year without burning that option meaning this is his last year to impress before some very hard decisions come to a head. Years and years of MiLB experience without making MLB says a lot about his talent level already.

Yeah, it has nothing to do with Baldelli batting Wallner lead-off or Falvey's roster construction. Here are the Twins RBI leaders... 2025 - 83 RBI Byron Buxton 2024 - 71 RBI Carlos Santana 2023 - 65 RBI Carlos Correa Matt Waller, Right Fielder, President of Baseball Operations & Manager

This was what I was expecting from the MRI. This is also the reason I wanted to trade Lopez and/or Ryan this past offseason. Counting chickens before the eggs hatch. The Twins do not have a likely competitive roster and the idea of "just wait for the deadline" has injury realities which Falvey/Zoll do not seem prepared to accept.

I mean, he's going to get an MLB contract, but I think he'll be severely regretting his opt-out decision when the dust settles. 1yr $12MM is what I'd expect now. Personally, I wouldn't want him.

I didn't realize the Twins had added Morris/needed to add him to protect him from the rule 5 last November.

What I've seen is pitchers throw Emma junk because they can get him out on junk most of the time. His "advanced" strike zone awareness needs to be a lot more advanced to succeed at MLB. Now in his 6th year in the MiLB Twins system, it truly is a make or break scenario for him IMHO. He needs to be better than his 50%+ K rate in previous spring training experiences, but he certainly has started off the year great! I'm glad to hear he's in the best shape of his life...

Naylor is like 30 grade speed. He's unbelievably slow, but he did swipe 30 last year. Instincts certainly play a big role. Brian Dozier didn't have great speed, but he used instincts to steal. In regard to Naylor, it's just nonsensical, lol. Put it this way, the difference between Keaschall and Naylor at 2B is about 15 feet on raw speed. Keaschall had an 85% success rate according to the article. Plenty good to be aggressive, if he can maintain that at the MLB level, but the more a player steals, the more opponents are generally going to be watching for it.

Morris got an invite to Spring Training, and that's more than the Twins needed to give him. It's a shot to impress again and potentially make his case, though I'd consider him to be a long shot if there aren't additional injuries.

Griffin Jax and Louie Varland failed to produce at the MLB level in the rotation. Both were given ample opportunity to impress, and both struggled. Jax got 14 starts and produced a 6.10 ERA with a 6.24 FIP with a poor K rate, and he struggled to strand runners without a good out pitch. Louie Varland was just about as bad. A 5.18 ERA and 5.37 FIP with a weak K rate and tons of hard contact allowed across 18 starts. Duran wasn't even 9 months removed from UCL replacement surgery when the Twins had him in the bullpen. If they had decided to keep him as a starter, there was zero chance he would have been available until the 2nd half of 2022. Instead, they were aggressive in getting Duran into the show. Almost every single reliever in baseball is a failed starter.

Probably 30 teams would grab Giolito on a MiLB contract.