ericchri

I was going to make a similar sarcastic comment, but when I quoted Seth's original post I noticed there was a video link which didn't appear in my browser for some reason. I use Opera typically, FWIW.

Um, Trea Turner's listed position is C/3B/OF? Catcher? Bad proofreading, I hope? He's a lot less interesting with a basically unknown position than if he's a legit shortstop.

Aren't outfielders the second most common concussion candidates after catcher? I doubt he's ever going out there, either.

I've been tossing this idea around in my head a bit as I start getting excited for the upcoming season. We have lots of highly rated prospects, lots of depth, lots of unknowns. I sat back a little and tried to figure out who I was actually most interested in seeing how they performed this year. This isn't a Top 10 prospects list, smarter people than me have already done those. I'm assuming Buxton will dominate. I'm interested in that, certainly. But he's not the guy I'm most interested in finding out something about, I suspect we already know most of what we need to know about him, with him it's hopefully just about waiting. But we have lots of guys I really hope to get a better feel for this year as we hopefully start a large-scale roll over to prospects this year and next. #1: Danny Santana - we've heard glimmers about his defensive prowess and his hitting looks to have some potential. Is he the next Pedro Florimon, or can he be a competent two-way starting shortstop for the next half-dozen years? I think I want the answer to this more than anything else this year. #2: Stuart Turner - I'm not sure exactly why, but I'm really curious about him. He seems like he might be the perfect match for Pinto. A great-defense, mediocre hitting catcher to match up with the good-hitting, mediocre-defense (hopefully better, jury's still out) Pinto. I don't know if he will, but if he shows signs of being able to hit a little, I expect to see him move quickly. #3: Mason Melotakis - There's some lefty starters that look to have more potential, probably, but I still have some high hopes for him. He hasn't had much time as a starter yet, I'm curious how he'll perform in a second year of full-season ball as a starter. An eventual move back to the pen wouldn't be a shocker, but I'm hoping for good results this year to make that a failsafe, not a given. #4: Adam Brett Walker - His power is just so intriguing. Can he hit a breaking ball? I don't know what the overall reports on his defense are, but in my sample size of one (the Cedar Rapids game which was on FSN) he looked pretty athletic, and his stolen base success indicates someone with more going for him than just a powerful swing. He'll presumably be in a pitcher's league in Ft. Myers this year, we should finally start getting a better idea of how he may progress. #5: Ryan Eades - We saw barely anything from him last year, as he threw only a handful of mediocre innings. Where will he pitch? Does he look like he can be a major leaguer some day? I think he's almost completely forgotten about amongst our starters, but if he turns out to be good how awesome would that be? He was a really good starter for a really good team in a really good college baseball conference. Surely he has something going for him? #6: Trevor May - Another of the almost forgotten pitchers. Many seem to already be writing him off as a starter. His numbers didn't get a lot better in a second AA season, but they did improve in almost every category, even if it was small. He still seems like a guy who could be a #3/#4 pitcher for a lot of years, with flashes of being better. Not everybody will be an ace, but he still has a lot of the tools to be pretty good. #7: Jorge Polanco - Will he actually get a full season of playing SS, or will he just fill in when somebody else isn't playing there? Can he actually man the position adequately? I'd be very much on board with a great-hitting, average-defense SS. Can he be that guy? Will he have to move back to 2nd, and if so will he be better than Dozier or Rosario? #8: Stephen Gonsalves/Lewis Thorpe - cheating a bit here. Couldn't decide which of the two I'm most curious about, but high-upside lefty starters presumably playing above the rookie leagues are definitely guys to pay attention to. #9: Alex Wimmers - Will he ever manage anything? A former #1 pick who's barely even pitched professionally. Almost more of a human interest curiosity than a baseball one at this point, but one I'm really wondering about. #10: Amaurys Minier - Is he the next highly-rated International signing to start making waves in the Twins system? He seemed pretty inconsistent this last season (injuries?), but I hope to have a better idea of what his potential might be after this year.

It should hopefully be less of an issue this year as you're never going to be using Suzuki as a DH. Granted you might use Pinto in that role, but he's going to have to prove he can hit well enough for that to be the case, and frankly he doesn't have enough career history for that to be a given. He might very well be in AAA, anyway, to start the year. I've mentioned this before, but I'll toss it out again, anyway. I don't think we're there yet, but I wouldn't be shocked if within 5-10 years many teams are trying to carry 3 catchers as a standard. Not because of some inane fear of pitchers having to bat, but to spread out the beating that the catchers take and hopefully lessen the likelihood of injuries (especially concussions). The problem of course is finding enough catchers that you consider "competent" to play at the level. I honestly think catcher concussions might be the final impetus to actually expanding the roster size limits beyond 25 players.

Arizona Diamondbacks - 80.5 Under Atlanta Braves - 87.5 Under Baltimore Orioles - 80.5 Under Boston Red Sox - 87.5 Over Chicago Cubs - - 69.5 Under Chicago White Sox - 75.5 Under Cincinnati Reds - 84.5 Over Cleveland Indians - 80.5 Under Colorado Rockies - 76.5 Over Detroit Tigers - 89.5 Over Houston Astros - 62.5 Under Kansas City Royals - 81.5 Over Los Angeles Angels - 86.5 Over Los Angeles Dodgers - 92.5 Under Miami Marlins - 69.5 Under Milwaukee Brewers - 79.5 Under Minnesota Twins - 70.5 Over New York Mets - 73.5 Under New York Yankees - 86.5 Over Oakland Athletics - 88.5 Under Philadelphia Phillies - 76.5 Under Pittsburgh Pirates - 83.5 Over San Diego Padres - 78.5 Under San Francisco Giants - 86.5 Under Seattle Mariners - 81.5 Over St. Louis Cardinals - 90.5 Over Tampa Bay Rays - 88.5 Over Texas Rangers - 86.5 Over Toronto Blue Jays - 79.5 Over Washington Nationals - 88.5 Over Tie breaker: The two AL WC teams will be: Tampa Bay, LA Angels Tie breaker 2: The two NL WC teams will be: Cincinnati, Atlanta

I'm curious if he's willing to be a bullpen arm at this point or if he's dead-set on being only a starter again. I'd bet Bruce Chen levels of performance wouldn't be too hard to fathom for most people, and he's been kind of floating back and forth between starting and relief the last couple years. I hope things go well from here, I'd love to see him scrape together a few more decent seasons in any fashion.

I sort of agree that Willingham should play some LF before the trade deadline, but it shouldn't be more than a couple times a week. Enough to show he can do it and that his knee is sound. But he really needs to be a DH, his defense is atrocious. He doesn't even make up for his horrible range by having a decent arm. Kubel doesn't have great range, but I always felt he was a fair outfielder, definitely better than Willingham, and he's got a pretty good arm. Arcia is young enough that he needs to be playing outfield full-time until he proves to be so bad that you just can't play him there. He may never be good, but he's got a long ways to go before I consider him unable to play there. He easily has the most range of the three, hopefully regular playing time at his favorite position (RF) gets him settled in for passing-grade defense. So I guess I say Arcia full-time RF and just a handful of games at DH. Willingham and Kubel get to split LF and DH between them, hopefully slanted towards Willingham getting the most time at DH.

Nothing we haven't seen before, really, but always fun seeing Twins get a big highlight from one of the major sites. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/mlb/news/20140220/miguel-sano-byron-buxton-jose-fernandez-jose-abreu/

Is he willing to give up on LF and play DH? Cause it sounds like he really doesn't want to from stuff I've read. But he's really, really bad in the field at this point and it will just keep getting worse as he gets older. I like him, and I'd love to have the 2012 version of his bat in the lineup, but I really don't want that bat at the expense of him continuing to lumber around in LF.

I know nothing about him besides what I've read on this site, but I like his answers. He sounds a little chippy and very confident, and that's a good thing in a starting pitcher. Definitely seems like we may have gotten a steal. Best of luck to him this season, I hope we start hearing about him regularly as that will likely mean he's doing well.

I'm with Thrylos on this one, but I don't know if the Twins are. If they want to have any chance at being competitive this year, they need the matured version of Aaron Hicks. Presley's ceiling isn't high enough with the other holes in our lineup. His floor also isn't as low as Hicks's would appear to be, so I suspect they'll play it safe and go with Presley anyway. Personally, I can understand the logic that he should start at AAA and earn his way up, but I'd rather see the team playing for the terrific future than playing for the mediocre now. I'd keep Hicks and Presley on the roster and cut ties with Mastro (and I say that as a fan of Mastro's from his 2012 season). Give Hicks all the starts against lefties, and maybe split the starts against righties between Hicks and Presley, but make sure that Hicks is getting playing time in the majors to start the season.

He got an invite to major league camp, right? Obviously they think he's on the borderline already, and while it's a long-shot, I wouldn't be shocked if he's up in May or June. If he tears up AA to start the season wouldn't you just say to yourself as the Twins FO, "might as well let him run wild in the show, he's better than everyone he's playing against otherwise."

I'll willingly admit to being unable to remain objective about Jeter. I recognize he's been a great player, but as the "face of the Yankees" for the last however many years I just can't bring myself to even remotely analyze how good he truly has or hasn't been. I just don't want to know. I much prefer to remain ignorant about his full "greatness" and instead enjoy my hatred for the Yankees and use him as the focal point for my loathing. I don't really hate Jeter more than any other overpriced player who plays for the Yankees, but he's the easiest to point to. I rarely make it to Twins games anymore as it's a bit of a haul to get there, and if I did, I probably wouldn't prioritize games with the Yankees to make the trip, so I'm unlikely to be in attendance for his "farewell" tour. I suspect if I was, I'd probably choose to boo Jeter as a semi-ironic nod to the fact that he's good, but I still hate him for being the glamour boy figurehead for the hated Yankees.

Fernando Rodney was there as a closer (Craig Kimbrel too, if you include the NL). While his power spike that year obviously appears to be an outlier, it doesn't change the fact that Mauer was just absurdly good that year, so it's cool to see it put in this context as a best ever season.

I would imagine most of us will remain hopeful yet skeptical until we hear that his shoulder is healthy and his velocity is back. I definitely don't mind lottery tickets in the system, though, with enough of them your odds of getting lucky go up.

Yep, reports about his defense at SS this year will be extremely interesting, assuming that comment from TR about him staying at SS this year holds true. Even if he ends up at 2B, we're going to get something decent back in return for one of Dozier, Rosario, or Polanco eventually at the very least, you would think.

One of the guys I'm really interested in this year. I've said it somewhere else, our top half-dozen or so guys are probably going to be really good, and that's exciting. It's players like May, though, that if they can find "it", suddenly our farm system and major league futures look amazing. It's probably a long-shot, but he has the stuff to really make a break-through. Fortunately we have a bunch of guys with that potential for break-through so hopefully a couple of them will.

I guess the point is moreso people are making conjectures about his bat now when honestly we don't really have an idea how good a hitter he's going to be yet. Yeah, his first MLB season was horrible, but somehow that translates into he can never be a good hitter? He has the potential (yes, potential, not a prediction of anything specific) to be a much better hitter than people are giving him credit for. Didn't we just do this with Dozier a year ago? Let's let him find his place as a major leaguer, see what kind of hitter he actually becomes, before we declare he can or can't play a corner outfield position. I do agree with some in that if he finds himself as a hitter, he may be more valuable as CF trade bait than manning a corner for the Twins, but let's find out who he is first.

While I agree you would look for a power bat to man a corner outfield spot, that's typically because many of those power bats profile so bad defensively, they can't play anywhere else. In the case of Hicks, he might never be a 20+ HR hitter (though he showed flashes of power that make it seem possible if not likely), I wonder at the reasoning that his bat won't be good enough for a corner. He profiles as a potential higher OBP guy, something this team desperately needs at the moment. It almost feels like people are falling into the same stereotypes that Gardy gets mocked for frequently, deciding that certain positions are supposed to be certain types of hitters. Until last season, Hicks' worst seasons were still a .722 and .735 OPS, and the rest were above .800, and even those two "bad" seasons included an OBP of over .350. Would it really be so horrible to have a .750 OPS'ing corner outfielder who had an OBP over .350 and enough speed to take/steal extra bases occasionally? I'm not trying to predict that's the hitter he will be, but I don't find it particularly far-fetched to think he could. If that included well-above average defense for the position as well, why is that not good enough? To me, I would see an Alex Gordon with a little less power, a little more discipline, and that's a good baseball player.

Platoon DH? I'm all for finding the right timing for when to platoon guys, but essentially taking up two spots on the roster to fill the DH position? That would be hard to swallow.

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/43685/five-breakout-position-players-for-2014 (not behind the paywall) David Schoenfield from ESPN has Pinto as one of his projected breakout players for the coming season, one of 5 position players he singled out. No real earth-shaking tidbits in the write-up, but nice to see somebody outside our area is hopeful about him.

Homerun Derby, Sano vs. Walker. Go!

I really like the increasing notice that Santana seems to be getting recently. All I have to go by is what I read about him (almost exclusively on this site), and he just has never seemed to gain much notice as a prospect, but now suddenly there seems to be a little traction behind him. My general impression previously had been he's the next version of Pedro Florimon, but there's definitely some hints that he's going to be better than that, and if so, we may have a solid shortstop to work with. This was definitely an interesting list to read. It's always fun reading a list that has a few names in different places than the usual. I like the Stuart Turner spot, he's actually one of the players I'm most interested in this coming season. I'll assume for now that all of our top 5 or 6 will put up good numbers, moving them that much closer to playing in the bigs, but players like Turner are really intriguing in that they're the ones who potentially fill in the extra slots on the roster around the big names. I like the notion of an above-average hitting/average defense (Pinto) catcher paired with a great defensive/slightly-below-average hitting partner (Turner) to man the catching duties, it seems like a good combination. Hopefully those two can get to that point, though they're not the only two catcher with potential, either.

If Bruce Chen has enough stuff to hold down a rotation spot then Albers certainly can. That being said, he's got next best thing to no chance to get the #5 spot in the rotation barring multiple injuries to other players. Still having options automatically drops him in the pecking order once you get to the guys without obvious roster spots (huge contracts). It won't bother me to see him get a few starts on the year, though, if injuries/trades cause him to get a chance.