twinkiesfan11

Still very limited information on the 2023 class but Baseball America released the top 20 board today https://www.baseballamerica.com/rankings/2023-mlb-international-prospects-bonus-board/ Per BA, the Twins are favored to sign the #13 ranked prospect, Cuban OF Ariel Castro. Fangraphs has the Twins linked to Dominican SS Hendry Chivilli. https://www.fangraphs.com/prospects/the-board/international-players/summary?sort=-1,1&type=0

Article suggestion alert!!! As a sicko that obsessively checks the DSL and FCL box scores every day, I’d love to see an article with a little more info on some of the higher profile players at those levels if any of the writers are plugged in enough to get/share that info. The DSL team has had some really impressive performances from a number of hitters in particular. Rafael Cruz (brother of Oneil Cruz) appeared to be torching DSL pitching before playing in the DSL All Star game and then promoted to the FCL. Yasser Mercedes, Bryan Acuna, Jose Rodriguez, Harold Grant, Anderson Nova and others have put up impressive numbers in their first professional season. Definitely an intriguing group that could use more coverage in my opinion.

This would be a happy outcome from my perspective. Really hoping they target upside as opposed to high floor a little more this year. The minor league system is thinning out rapidly with all the promotions and under performing somewhat touted lower level bats (Sabato, Cavaco, Urbina, Soularie, etc) This appears to be a strong year for prep pitching and position players so hopefully there will be some good options available.

Keith Laws mock went up on The Athletic this morning. He’s got some college bats going for under a lot deals at the top resulting in Termarr Johnson falling to the Marlins at 6, Cam Collier going to the Cubs at 7, the Twins taking Cole Young at 8 and Elijah Green to the Royals at 9. I’m really hoping Johnson and/or Collier slide enough to get to the Twins. Based on recent mocks it seems like Johnson’s stock has fallen sightly where he’s no longer a sure fire top 3 pick. Collier seems to have a ton of helium. They’re my personal favorite semi realistic options for the Twins at 8.

Sad to see Garver go, a fan favorite and giving up the highest upside player in a trade gives heartburn. You’re talking about a guy though who has never had more than 359 plate appearances in a big league season. Prone to injury and slumps, probably best suited to be a high level part time player. At age 31 it’s probably appropriate to move him for the right fit. IKF is younger, more versatile and plays a position of greater need. If Royce Lewis pans out he can transition into a very valuable “multi-position everyday player” which the Twins seem to value. Henriquez is a nice get also, can never have too much pitching depth.

I'm on the Rodon train 100%, exactly the type of gamble you need to take. Sure the injury risk is high but that's a mostly unknowable risk with any free agent pitcher and Rodon's upside is enormous. That perceived heightened injury risk likely lowers the AAV and years of his next contract and for that reason unless the medical records show he's toast the Twins should be targeting him hard. Bassitt seems like a solid target depending on cost, doesn't excite me a lot but would be excited if acquired. I agree that a trade is the most likely scenario to fill the #2 rotation slot. Hope to see them in on all the most commonly speculated names (Sonny Gray, Luis Castillo, Tyler Mahle, Sean Manea, Frankie Montas) but wouldn't be surprised if the real target is someone none of us see coming (similar to the Maeda trade). Pineda seems like such a no brainer to me, he's a solid established major league pitcher and by all reports there's significant mutual interest in a reunion. Maybe another 2-year deal gets it done? One thing the article doesn't address is the gaping hole at Shortstop. It will be interesting to see how this is addressed this offseason. With the way free agency has played out so far I'm hoping Trevor Story's market has dried up enough to get him on somewhat of a bargain deal.

Quick review of his Wikipedia page mentions that he was one of three promoted to Assistant GM with the Rangers after Thad Levine left for the Twins in November 2016. He had been with the Rangers organization in various roles since 2007 so there would seem to be a Levine connection with this hire. I’m interested to learn more about him but sure seems like an exciting hire.

I’m David Popkins…and I’m gonna coach the hell…out of you!

I’m David Popkins…any Questions?

https://www.mlb.com/news/top-international-prospects-rankings-2021 MLB Pipeline posted their top 50 list and have Mercedes ranked 17th. The Twins are also listed as favorites to sign the 34th ranked player Yilber Herrera, a Dominican shortstop compared to Jorge Polanco and the 39th ranked player Bryan Acuna, a Venezuelan shortstop and little brother of Ronald Acuna Jr. Looks like an exciting class to follow!

I was initially surprised that Winder didn't rank higher but upon further review I can see 11 making sense. I assume the top 10 includes Balazovic, Canterino, Cavaco, Duran, Lewis, Martin, Miranda, Petty, Ryan and Woods-Richardson in some order. I think you could easily justify ranking Winder as high as 5th in that group or as low as 11th, all depends on taste. Just an exciting group in general. Now that we're 2/3 through the list and the makeup of the top 10 is pretty clear I'm surprised Emmanuel Rodriguez didn't make the top 30. Pedigree as a top Intl FA signing is similar to Urbina, both are outfielders with lots of tools to dream on and a long ways away. Urbina put up impressive numbers in the DSL in 2019 and overall has been disappointing in Low-A. Rodriguez skipped the DSL and has been fairly impressive so far in the FCL. Did he get any consideration toward the back end of the top 30?

Will we see any of the 2021 draftees debuting soon? Any word on Marco Raya?

Has anyone read or heard of any assignments to the 2021 draft picks or that most will be shut down? Obviously a lot has changed with the reduction in teams, later draft, etc. Just seems like you'd start seeing some of these names showing up in box scores by now.

Yeah - I'm running with the assumption that Miranda, Ryan and Moran are on the active roster by the end of the season so it's more like 7 prospects to me. I have a hard time giving up on Javier quite yet, he's just lost so much development time and there are so few legitimate shortstops in the organization right now. I don't disagree that using a 40 man roster spot on him is kind of a waste either, just glad I'm not in the position to actually have to make that decision!