Sielk

Agree, it's great to see. He was certainly put in an unfair situation when they called him up way too early. But apparently he took it as a learning experience and is now hitting better than he ever did before. I still hope they can extend Buxton. But if they indeed accomplish that I wonder if Kepler could be on the trading block instead. In fact I could see Celestino fill the Kepler role on this team as an okay hitting outfielder that backs up Buxton in center and plays the corner otherwise (if they keep Buck and trade Kepler, that is). Maybe not right away but in the long term.

At this point I would like to just give Winder a shot as part of the rotation. The Twins probably won't do it, they rarely seem to be aggressive with promotions unless an injury at the major league level forces them to be. But he has been a consistent performer, has a deep arsenal, control over it and throws 95-97 mph from what I have heard. I feel like he has the least amount of question marks of all the top SP prospects we have in the high minors and I wouldn't be surprised if he performs relatively well right away. Ober should be a lock and the Twins are too thin at SP to not have Ryan in the rotation as well. Even if he struggles, would you rather have a Happ/Shoemaker type starting over him? Regarding Dobnak, I would prefer to have him as a 6th starter at least on opening day. Injuries will come soon enough and I like him better as depth than someone you pencil in.

Yes, very encouraging. After the last outing that was my main concern, but if he can keep up 92-93 mph through an entire start, I am totally fine with that.

Nice to see Buxton get back on track. I really hope they get that extension done. I also have no problem giving him huge incentives on basis of games played. When Buck is healthy, he is a superstar. Also, hitting looks too easy for Jorge Polanco. Swing... double. Swing... home run. Swing... oh yeah, he adds another double. Fun game so far!

I don't blame him at all for taking that opportunity. I definitely would have done it as well, in his place. I was just commenting how disappointing it is that he essentially missed 1 1/2 month of the season and still didn't get to pitch even a single inning in relief in the Olympics, let alone a start. Maybe the experience alone was still worth it to him but I would have been a little bit frustrated if I had gone to Tokyo only to sit in the dugout. And maybe you're right and the effect on his development will be minimal, considering he is still rather young for AA. I guess I am just a bit annoyed that one of our few top SP prospects that didn't get injured still missed a lot of time this season and wasn't even rewarded for it in the form of an Olympic appearance.

He didn't get to pitch during the Olympics and had to ramp up again to a starter's workload. It's really annoying. Essentially, I don't mind prospects going to the Olympics. But to have him go to Tokyo and thus miss a month of valuable development time only to have him sit on the bench and then miss another month of valuable development time because he has to ramp up again? That's so stupid...

I agree, the last thing I would want the Twins to do is signing another bunch of stop-gaps that only block young pitchers. Especially because this FO has so far shown a lot of reluctance to simply release/trade veterans that are clearly not part of the solution. There always seems to be a fear that the vets might still be needed and thus the Shoemakers and Caves of the world are kept far too long. One exception: If the Twins find a legitimate frontline starter in FA that would actually be willing to sign a reasonable long-term contract here, they should absolutely do it. If there is one thing we have learned from past years, it's that signing a top SP is far easier said than done. It would be too bad if the Twins didn't sign a starter right now, only to find out next year that none of the top starters in that class wants to come here.

It's not just the Twins, apparently it's a Minnesota sports thing. The Wild just drafted a player named Carson Lambos in the first round. ?

Sounds like an interesting class. Just from reading the scouting reports I am a bit more excited about Mercedes and Herrera. But who knows, maybe Bryan Acuna becomes as good as his brother. You never know with these 16-year-old prospects. I would imagine there are quite a few 16-year-old pitchers in this class who will turn out to be really good. The problem is projecting who that will be. I mean, even drafting HS pitchers is incredibly risky and these guys are two years younger. All teams will no doubt sign pitchers as well. But at this age pitching prospects are probably just too raw to rank them as high as position players who are somewhat easier to project.

I didn't watch his start too closely but I think he was at 88 mph the first inning or so and a bit higher after that. Mostly around 90, with 91 occasionally mixed in. But still, that's rather low to be a viable Major League starter, especially since his offspeed pitches aren't spectacular either, as far as I know. I don't think it would hurt to give him one last look but what kind of a future has he here? The fact that he is out of options drastically limits his value as a bullpen arm next year. And do they really want plan with him in the rotation when, at least to me, his upside doesn't seem that much higher than Barnes' or Jax's? Anyway, I really hope to see Joe Ryan for some starts this year, even if he doesn't get the one on Wednesday.

I would argue that protecting Enlow is pretty much a no-brainer. During the season you can stash him on the IL and they'll be able to maneuver around his roster spot in the offseason. There are just a whole bunch of fringe players that I would cut before risk losing a talented young starter like Enlow.

Personally, I would put Cavaco at 11 and Winder in the top ten. I'm still high on Cavaco but for me, he just needs to show a little bit more actual production to rank him that high. And that's not a knock on him, it's just because the other prospects are so good, too. Speaking of the top ten, I find it really hard rank them. If you told me about literally any of those guys that he will have the best career of them all, I would have no trouble believing you.

Great interview with a lot of interesting information. Thanks!

I think I would be okay if they finished with a positive record. There will be (hopefully) a lot of young players, especially in the rotation, meaning that some struggles should be expected. They probably won't contend with the Sox in 2022, but I don't think 2023 is that unrealistic. I definitely don't expect them to be nearly as bad as they are this year.

Nice win. It has become far too rare these days to see the Twins win a pitchers' duel like this. And I am really starting to become a big fan of Bailey Ober, if I wasn't already. Let's hope he can keep it up. I have been wondering about that, too. Putting Arraez in the leadoff spot was easily one of Rocco's best decisions this year, in my opinion. Why is he suddenly reverting back to Kepler there? Now, I like Max Kepler. As a German baseball fan, he was pretty much the reason why I chose the Twins as my favorite team. But what part of his recent play has convinced Rocco that he is the right option for the leadoff spot? Putting him there was somewhat defensible in 2019 when he was actually hitting well. (As long as you want a pull-heavy power-over-hit guy there, which I disagree with.) But now? His OBP is .289! I don't get it. Of course it doesn't really matter who is batting leadoff for the rest of this lost season. It's just one of those decisions that really confuse me...

Some very good points here, both in the article and in the comments. The front office deserves a lot of credit for some of the moves they did. Others look decidedly worse in hindsight. However, it's very easy to criticize decisions after they have gone wrong. There are always so many factors that can ruin a plan. It sure seemed like everything the FO tried this season blew up in their faces. My only real criticism after the offseason was that they tried to fill the last rotation spot on the cheap. (I wanted Taijuan Walker instead of Shoemaker.) Otherwise, I thought the offseason was okay. But then came a plethora of injuries (of which other teams also had plenty, so no excuses here), underperformances and mistakes at the worst possible times, and here we are, in last place in the Central. I will forgive them for this season. Sometimes it just doesn't work out. But this is also a real rest for the FO. Mistakes happen but how do you continue from here? They deserve the chance to prove themselves here. So far though, I have some doubts about how they handled this. The last two months of this season are basically a golden opportunity to evaluate what you have in the system. So why is Miranda still at AAA? Or Moran? In general, I have the feeling that this FO is often way too hesitant when it comes to releasing fringe veteran players who are clearly replaceable. It's like they always think "Oh, but we might still need..." (fill in Shoemaker. Or Happ. Or Cave. Or Astudillo. Or some reliever claimed off waivers. Or even Simmons at this point.) But that ignores the fact that such players and their subpar results can always be acquired via waivers or AAA if you need them. And then these players take space away from younger players. Like, I really don't blame the FO for not seeing Baddoo's breakout coming. The guy had a .683 OPS at High-A the last time he played. No one could have seen that coming. The Tigers didn't either, I'd assume. But if they hadn't been so intent on keeping some fringe guys they might have had the space to protect their Nr. 13 prospect and just give him some time. Sorry for this way-too-long comment. I just needed to get some of my thoughts off.

And here I thought I was the only one who likes the game without DH... I like the symmetrical aspect of it. 9 players bat and field and a successful team has to work around everyone's weaknesses to win. Plus, how amazing is it when a pitcher actually gets a hit in a crucial spot? That's something you remember. That said, I think it's far too late. The NL may still have the DH but the minors don't, college doesn't and some pitchers don't even hit in HS. And then you expect them to step in and hit major league pitching? Of course it doesn't work. I honestly believe there would be some pitchers who could hit somewhat decently if they just practiced it in the minors. But since they will never go back to no DHs in the minors, it's probably the logical conclusion to have the DH in the NL too. But no, I still don't like it.

Lesko might be a good prospect but I wouldn't take a HS pitcher with a top five pick. That's a worthy gamble at 26, but too risky at 5. If they take a position player, I would prefer someone who is projected to stay at a premium position. As far as names go, I also like Druw Jones' scouting report. But then, I'm sure a lot will change over the course of the next year, especially when it comes to 17-year-olds who haven't even played their senior season yet.

Seth, I noticed that Josh Winder didn't pitch since July 21. Do you know if there is any reason for that? Hopefully not an injury? And speaking of injuries, do you think Duran and Canterino will return at some point this season or are they out for the year? Thanks!

I saw that José Miranda was removed from the game after being hit by a pitch. I hope it's nothing serious?! ? Honestly, his huge breakout is such a bright spot in this horrible season, it would just be heartbreaking if he got injured...

I don't disagree but on the other hand, it's not like they spend a top ten pick on him. And since the Twins have two late first round picks I have no problem with using one of them for a risky high upside player.

Okay, a flame-throwing HS pitcher was about the last type of player I expected the Twins to take. I like it though. Was a bit afraid they would go with a bat first college COF again.

So, Ty Madden is still there and clearly the best player remaining. Can we actually sign him, that's the million dollar question.

By the way, something I wondered about: I remember Oakland being the second seed for the playoffs last year. Twins were the third, yet we pick after them. Do they use different rules for draft seeding than for the playoffs?

True. I'm sure the Royals know more than me who has just read scouting reports...