shs_59

I disagree (slightly) with the Detroit assesment They're absolutely in contention for the division crown in 2017 People forget their Rookie Hurler Workshorse Michael Fullmer (who they got from the Mets for Cespedes a few yrs back) HAD a Monster breakout campaign in 2016....People talk about Verlander possibly winning the last cy young, when in reality Fullmer is the best pitcher (and young) on their staff. Detroit has easily leap-frogged both Chi Sox and Minnesota for the next season or 3 and I personally think at this point, they're a little better then Kansas City so in 2017 Cleveland, Detroit, K. C. , Chi Sox , Minny is how i see it shaking out. Maybe our Twins finish 4th , but thats prob. a best case scenerio I think Falvey and Co. have a 2019 or 2020 contention goal right now. Not exactly 2018.

I keep a running tally and Grade of Each of the Twins draft(s) since 2000. Here are my recordings ( i factor in every guy that made it to the Majors w/ or without the Twins , every top pick first 5 rounds bust or not.... and every guy that turned into a star player that the Twins didn't sign , usually High-schoolers) 2000 = D+ Adam Johnson RHP, yuck ..... OF Jason Kubel in teens 2001 = A- Joe Mauer , Nick Blackburn (29) 2002 = A- Denard Span , Jesse Crain (2nd) , Pat Neshek (6) , Adam Lind, Jeff Clement 2003 = D Matt Moses , Scott Baker (2) 2004= B+ Plouffe, Perkins , Waldrop , Fox, Rainville, Swarzak, Matt Tolbert (15) mised out on Adam Wainwright Giovani Gallardo and one other star (we took Fox and Waldrop and Rainville over these names.) 2005= B- Garza, Slowey , Duensing, Tolleson , Yonder Alonso (Garza for Delmon Factors into lower grade) 2006= C Parmelee, Benson, Ty Robertson, Daniel Valencia (19) Tosoni, Manship ect. 2007 = C- Ben Revere , (Chris Heston) -------> Trevor May 2008 = ( ?) Aaron Hicks -------------> JR Murphy Danny Ortiz, Mike Tonkin , George Springer, Kolten Wong 2009 = A Kyle Gibson , Chris Hermann (palka) , Brian Dozier (8) , Bullock/ Diamond 2010 = C+ Wimmers , Goodrum , Pat Dean, EDDIE ROSARIO , Logan Darnell 2011 = F Levi Michael , Travis Harrison, S. Turner, Jason Wheeler (?) 2012 = A+ By Buxton , J.O. Berrios , M. Melotakis , J.T. Chargois (2) , A.B. Walker (3) , Zach Jones, Tyler Duffey (5) , Taylor Rogers (11th) 2013 = ( ? ) Kohl Stewart, Ryan Eades, Gonsalves, Garver ect. 2014 = Nick Gordon , Nick Burdi , Cederoth , Clay , Jake Reed, Max Murphy (probably a C range maybe B ) 2015 = Tyler Jay, T. Blankenhorn, T. Cabbage, Chris Paul, LaMonte Wade ect. (probably a C range maybe B+) 2016 (?) = Kirilloff and 6 or 7 other intriguing H.S.ers and RHP's Griffin Jax and Tom Hackimier I HAVE Terry Ryan, Mike Radcliff, Deron Johnson, and Jim Rantz ect. doing a phenomenal job over the last decade + OTHER than 2000, 2003 and 2011 they hit on every single draft... Which to the blind eye and the common fan is GREATER than the average front office in the game of baseball even today. * even in 2000 they Found Jason Kubel and in 2003 they nabbed Scott Baker in the 2nd round!!! Unbelievable job by those guys; Falvey and Levine have quite a bit to live up to. Its the development and mostly the roster decisions, personnel (trades! ) and FA decisions that have doomed terry and co. obviously some of those were nearly a forced hand that was dealt I.E. letting Torri Hunter leave to the Angels in late 2007.

Don't restrict urself or oneself to JUST the Dodgers in a prospective Dozier Deal The Cardinals would be a perfect match , and have reason to strongly want Brian D. as well. Luke Weaver + Sandy Alcantara would be a nice start throw in a C+ prospect and thats basically a wrap. They're almost a better match for the Twins than the Dodgers are for example.

It is an absolute fallacy that our new regime and Front Office, failed already in assessing their catcher to bring aboard in FA.... they gave Jason Castro $ 24.5MM When Ramos effectively just got 1/2 of that total money allotment. What an absolute and pathetic failure of a start to a "new" team; a new regime. when Ramos could of been had * i don't care if Ramos misses 50 % + of 2017.

Bellinger plus Verdugo and De Leon for Dozier and Perkins ? who says no?

On defense and merit alone, I'm suprised the new regime couldn't get a C+ or B- prospect for him. When healthy, Plouffe has shown he's .250 - . 265 hitter with 18-25 HR pop, and well above average D at 3B. If the quadracepts thing kept the Twins from moving Plouffe to a team with a prospect or whatever thats really a shame, he'll sign with someone like Pittsburgh or Anaheim and probably rake. Remember the first 1/2 of 2015 , Trevor Plouffe and I believe one or 2 others single handedly kept the Twins offense afloat right out of the gates, propelling a near playoff season.

yeah of all nicks points i think the one i disagree with most is Michael Tonkin The guy is no good. I have been off his bandwagon since late 2014. when you have a 96 MPH fastball as flat and straight as an arrow and a slider in the mid 80's with little tilt and mild action that TONKIN RARELY throws and when he does 80% of the time its for a ball.. your're the DEFEINTION of a Quad A Bullpen arm. Michael Tonkin is No good at MLB baseball. I've been trying to package him in trades I.e. Meyer and Nolasco ect. for months and months now.

Pretty rock solid. Light's impending career will always be compared to Alex Meyer for me, so far Meyer is hurt about 2-4 months out of 6 a yr every year, Light is out only about 1 or 2 months a yr every year. So far so good.

Light is essentially a replacement for Meyer, so in affect its almost like trading Abad and Nolasco for Hector Santiago and the minor league which is a flat out steal! While opening up exactly 1 40-man roster spot by shedding Meyer.

Rob Antony for full-time GM!!!! Nunez trade C+ (although at first i wasn't fully on board c-) Abad trade (value) A- Nolasco/ Meyer trade B+ all in all i'm thrilled as a Twins fan, that the direction is more positive at the end of the day then negative; throw that in with Mauer going deep and Mad Max Kepler going deep 3X that SURE helps! :-)

Definately would do the Kintzler for Sandy ALcantara deal ! i was thinking the same thing all week long. NO Way the Cards would give up the following : RHP Jack Flaherty, RHP Luke Weaver, RHP Alexander Reyes, and SS edmundo sosa, of magnierus sierra, and C/3B Carson Kelly.... that leaves us with Sandy Alcantara, Junior Fernandez, Duaner Gonzalez, Jake Woodford, Ryan Helsly, and LHP Austin Gomber as the options. It be a tough choice, but I'd rank them as follows: 1. Alcantara 2. Gomber 3. Fernandez 4. Gonzalez 5. Helsly to get Alcantara i'd throw in Abad too, although the Cards prob wouldn't want him at all. (hopefully they see the value in Kintzler and agree to a match-up there)

Eduardo Nunez might be having a career year in 2016... But i guarantee you he'll hit at least .285 for the Giants next season as well. Wouldn't surprise me if he was in the same .315 range for the majority of the yr. still a Low OB % guy but he's an underrated assett on winning teams Adnan Virk ,of ESPN, who knows baseball very well, COULD not BELIEVE the Twins got only Aldaberto Mejia for Eduardo Nunez he's like you got to get more if you're the Twins in that deal. (i'm not quite in his boat, but i thought we could of got another C+ prospect back as well)

a LH'd Nolasco in his prime would be an exceptional outcome for Alderberto Mejia don't fool yourself. GO back and look at Nolasco's career seasons with Florida Marlins (before they were Miami)

just a reminder for the last several twins potential lead-off hitters Denard Span = Nothing (meyer) Ben Revere = Trevor May and NOTHING (worley) Aaron Hicks = Nothing (murphy) and Now Nunez = Nothing or something? (mejia)

absolutely why wouldn't he be? I'll say its a 60 / 40 chance he'll be a Sept. Call-up this yr

Gotta say I"M impressed with MYSELF and Rob Antony to a lesser degree... as i've been floating out Nunez to Giants for weeks (s) now I offered up names such as Christian Arroyo and Clayton Blackburn for Nunez and Alex Meyer. so to get Aldaberto Mejia for Nunez in a 1 for 1 swap not too Bad I WOULD OF DONE BETTER , but not too shabby i can live with this one. not an 80 trade (aka Pierzynski for haul) or a 20 Capps for Ramos but somewhere in between, about a 60 or 65. (we could of pried Blackburn from them also but ohh well)

Alex Anthropolous is with the Dodgers and their 6 or so GM's already in house. My top guys would be 1.) Jason McLeod - a Very good one, but i don't think he leaves the Cubbies. 2.) Ron Shapiro - former Cleveland GM, is decent freinds with Krivisky . 3.) Young guy - someone in their 30's or early 40's .... the next Doug Stearns or even A.J. Preller...... (the guy Jonah Hill portrayed in the moneyball movie got hired by an NFL team or NBA team recently TOO BAD!!!) -or he'd be #1 candidate Paul DePodesta !!! - too bad or he'd be my #1 candidate.

I've submitted my Resume to the Minnesota Twins. Damn, too bad im probably tooooo late. I would LOVE to be GM. also i'm probably not qualified , if the Twins expect to build a winner, but I do think i'd be great as a member of the Front Office at the very least. No doubt there.

Had the Twins picked up a true rental at last years trade deadline though, As Nick suggests, and then let the relief pitcher walk...via Free agency.... Maybe they would of been in on RP Seung-Hwan-Oh , the Releiver who came over from Korea in the off-season for cheap. Oh ended up going to St. Louis Cardinals on a 1 year contract with less money committed to than our very own Byung Ho-Park Park + Oh would sure make the Twins current situation a bit better Sure would be nice , but Hindsight is a b*tch.

Going back to the Trade Deadine last year, frankly, I was happy the Twins made a move, additionally they probably could of made another one. Anyway did I like the Trade at the Time? HELL no! most of us, as I re-call didn't. Hu + Tapia for Jepsen? yuck But Then Jepsen went on to have one of the more dominant halves for a reliever in Twins recent history. (and was much needed as Perkins, somewhat predictably folded up) SO was the trade worth it in the end? Absolutely and I nor should the Twins have any regrets. Nobody could of forseen Jepsen falling off the face of a cliff so sharply after August / September of last year even at the Winter Meetings just months ago.

Removals: Suzuki (FA) , Jepsen (FA) , one of Niel Ramirez and or Buddy Boshers, 1 of Robbie Grossman or Eduardo Nunez (trade) , and likely Alex Meyer or for sure Fernando Abad (if not) If Ervin Santana gets traded .....that would open up about 6 spots. My additions: Fernando Romero, Trevor Hildenberger, Daniel Palka, Engelb Vielma, Stu Turner or Mitch Garver, and a tough call for the last between Granite, Reed, Burdi , Stewart, Jay or Gonsalves..... but i'll go with Reed. The Twins already have : Melotakis, Landa, Randy Rosario, A.B. Walker all on the 40-man... if you're Byung - Ho Park , Kennys Vargas, and A.B. Walker you 3 SHOULD be fighting for 2 - 40 Man roster spots! (one might get traded/ cutt) thank you (Burdi ain't going anywhere)

I Disagree with this whole notion that Trevor Plouffe "only has value " or "has marginal value to any club" or is a "average or below average trade value" He's actually our best trade chip or trade commodity IMO Defensively ALONE, Trevor Plouffe is worth a C to C+ prospect at the hot corner position. throw in the fact he's been playing 90% of the year un-healthy and not at his peak or usual self. I think offensively, Plouffe is a .260 hitter with 15-25 HR pop, and a low end middle of the order bat. ( Yes, I know his career average mark is probably .249 or so) There are teams out there (Giants, Mariners, and maybe even 'stros) WHO ARE SO LEFT handed heavy they'd give up a lot, possibly an over pay for PLOUFFE IF he was simply healthy. The Twins will almost certainly go into the 2017 season with Trevor Plouffe on Their roster. (Because if they do not , they are giving plouffe away at his nearly lowest end of appreciable value)

If he's still available i want the , SS - Marcos kid out of the DR. he's probably 5'10 or 5 '11" and 140-150 lbs soaking wet but at 16, and an already 65 hit grade from many folks he looks like a Jurickson Profar or dare i say even XANDER Boagaerts in the making to meeeee !! get him done Twins and call this year a wrap .Deal.

Yep , anytime you put up 13 HR's in one month you gotta be "that guy" Congrats to Palka and Granite and Eddie Rosario for phenomenal months And great job Seth on the article, always a fun read.