Han Joelo

Agree all the way around. Speaking of around, how about a circle of life? Might not be hard to find room, either-- Dozier=Polanco Santana/Nolasco=Berrios/Wheeler Chargois=Ramirez Wimmers=Kinzler Park=Plouffe Hildenberger=Abad Garver/Murphy=Suzuki Dang, flipped my table two names in. Darn spreadsheets. Walker and Palka later, I guess.

IF that were to come to fruition, I'd say it would be one hell of a "plan," one that didn't have any shortcuts at all. Hitters in their mid-twenties prime, pitchers a tick younger with lots of fresh bullets, all the dead weight contracts gone. Hell, might even explain holding Berrios back, saving as much money for that prime run as possible.

It almost seems like the most qualified Twins employee for choosing a new GM just got fired. The caricatured comments about Pohlad, St. Peter, and even Anthony suggest to me their knowledge of baseball is about that of 12 year olds. Sigh. I've said this before, but as a (former) Miami Dolphins fan, I remember how Huizenga bought the team from the Robbie's who had owned it forever. Huizenga dumped the mediocre stability and past glory of Shula and Marino, brought in the hot item--Jimmy Johnson, and after that didn't produce a quick championship like what Dallas experienced, it's just been one failed regime after another. Exciting times, I guess. We'll see. I'm afraid the second half is now going to really suck, organization wide, as everybody has to be wondering and worrying about the future.

The Beane comp is a bit painful right now if you're Ryan. Beane got promoted and a stake in the team. Nice write up. My sentiments exactly. All in the eye of the beholder. I hope I am not so petty--and there isn't a reason--that I spend the next five years getting back at the fire TR crowd with I-told-you-to-be-careful-what-you-wish-fors. Judging from a lot of comments I've read, there is already some "firers remorse."

I'm excited for Gonsalves and the other AA pitchers. Hard not to see some or all of them factoring in some way to next years rotation.

This is kind of a vague response to the last two comments, as well as in the spirit of the "Pitcher Development" thread. Saving cash to chase a free agent is a fool's errand. As this season has unfolded, I am more and more surprised Greinke took on the burden of that massive contract with Arizona--he seemed like someone who would have been perfectly suited to playing the Sundance Kid to Kershaw's Butch Cassidy, instead he's like Brendan Fraser trying to make "The Mummy" into the next Indiana Jones saga. I mention Greinke, because he represents almost the best case scenario for an available free agent pitcher, and that movie is not going to end well. It didn't even start well. The real gold in pitching seems to be the secondary evaluation market. (I'd call free agency the tertiary market--pretty good idea of what you are getting, including the decline, and the knowledge you have to overpay) Drafting high schoolers and signing teenagers from foreign country's in the primary market is pretty random, but relatively cheap. The secondary market is where it is interesting. Think about Cleveland--they turned Cliff Lee (secondary market acquisition) into Carrasco (secondary). They have Bauer and Kluber at least that were acquired on the secondary market. Meanwhile, their own drafted talent, Pomeranz, became the hottest commodity on the secondary market--after he had been traded away as part of a deal for Jimenez. Correctly and/or luckily identifying those pitchers--as the Twins successfully did with Liriano and Santana, didn't with Guerra and so far Meyer (hard to say with May)--is the backbone of at least a few successful teams, like Cleveland and the Mets. If I had one great wish for this organization, whether it is instigated by current management or not, is an improvement and willingness to be active in that market. Meyer and May were worthy attempts, IMO, and maybe they have been mismanaged somewhat, but they didn't exactly dominate the dojo. Maybe the Twins just need more volume.

Embarrassment of riches the Nats have. Lopez might serve as another data point for this silly exercise--he seems similar to Berrios ranking-wise. As for Berrios, another great start at AAA. Get him on a plane. Buy a seat for Chargois, too.

Boo. That would be lame.

0/10? No similarity whatsoever? I don't know who Washington's other 3 starters are besides Scherzer and Strasburg, and I'm sure they're all better than Dean, but still--not even a 1/10? How about if the scale goes to 11? Or 111? 1/111--just a shred of similarity? I kid. I appreciate your perspective.

Yeah, I'm not really trying to make any sweeping generalizations. Just chewing on some food for thought. Here's another one, kind of apropos to the thread about developing pitching--Kluber was a San Diego prospect that found success with Cleveland; Pomeranz a Cleveland prospect that found success with San Diego. I will enjoy watching the outcome of the Pomeranz trade. Gutsy, fun move on both sides, with potential for total disaster, total success, and total meh.

Three moves were made this week by other teams. To some, they might have parallels to moves the Twins have made--and been criticized for recently. 1. Astros sign Gurriel, potentially blocking a top prospect. The same--it's just money, why not add talent where you can, BUT--pushes Bregman to third. Does his offense play there? Different--Gurriel is more versatile than Park, as is Bregman. Still, if it is just about money, couldn't the Astros have picked up say, Melvin Upton Jr. for a lesser prospect and the big contract? Similarity to the Park signing: 8 out of 10 2. Nationals demote Giolito after two appearances. Hmm, we've heard that song before. BUT--he's younger than Berrios, hasn't pitched at AAA at all, and the Nationals are in the playoff hunt. Still, he's an elite talent, and his first start was off to a great beginning before it was cut short by rain. Is this how you develop top talent? Similarity to Berrios: 5 of 10 3. Pomeranz dealt to Padres for two prospects, becomes All-Star then flipped for an elite talent. Similar to Liriano? Talented-but-unfulfilled left-hander finds success with fourth team? With Liriano, the parallels start with being traded from his first organization (Pomeranz was part of the Ubaldo Jimenez trade to Colorado,) he was later traded for two middling prospects, and on his fourth team found success. The parallels end, as Pittsburgh didn't sell high on Liriano, and now he seems to have regressed. But still…did all those teams 'mismanage' Liriano and Pomeranz? Did Oakland really screw up by not recognizing what they had? Should Sabean have been fired years ago for that horrible trade? Is Espinoza a product of the Red Sox hype machine (see Eduardo Rodriguez, Daniel Bard, et al.) If/when will Pomeranz turn back into a pumpkin? Similarity rating: 6 of 10. What do you think? Not necessarily trying to defend the Twins; just pointing out that other teams make similar decisions at times.

I think the idea of positive reinforcement for adults might be underrated. I can imagine the players maybe paying attention to this report, and if not them, there are commenters who do who might just let them know, "hey, according to Twinsdaily, you had the best day out of anybody in the system." As my sixth grade coach liked to say (and I didn't quite get), it's nice to get that "feather in your cap" from time to time.

Good job on the player of the day awards for Gonzalez and Rodriguez.

Seems like a hot-hitting catcher with a track record of having had at least one similar stretch would be an extremely desirable trade commodity. Even if this isn't the "real" Suzuki, and all stats and projections say he won't keep it up, gambling that he can for a few weeks might be a pretty good move for a playoff hopeful. Like April games, mid-July games count just as much as game 162.

Has anyone compared Gibson to Arrieta? Just wondering. Hoping there is something in Gibby that could make him a later blooming Ace like Arrieta or Kuechel.

First off, if I were GM, I'd be playing Arcia at DH for an extended period to give him a real legitimate chance. I mean, what, do you expect a guy like Vargas to come up from AAA and just immediately "get it?" Arcia just needs a cha…what's that? Oh. My bad. Like I said, Vargas for the second half. He really needs a chance to show what he can do. Is there a "challenge" trade out there for Polanco? Everyone says we need to see what we've got; I think we know what we've got. I like Dozier, but I think there is a chance he could be the most valuable trade chip the Twins have--depending on other team's needs. As much as some want to blame management for the terrible first half, I want to place equal blame on the players--probably not fair, but that is my feeling. As the team leader, Dozier's terrible start was a huge factor, IMO. Going forward, I'd "sell high" on him and clear the space for Polanco, while retaining Nunez--who I now see as the true team leader, especially maybe for a team that will have a number of Latin players in key roles moving forward. As far as other trades, a system weakness I'd target if trading would be lower level pitching prospects with some upside. If the Twins could somehow trade Abad or Kinzler (or both together in a package) to themselves last year via time travel for a Hu type prospect or tu, that is the type of deal I'd be good with. I agree that E. Santana could be a lot more valuable than some are supposing. I have this memory of him pitching well as a youngster with the Angels in the midst of the playoff cauldron. We'll see. After Gonsalves' game last night, I am really wondering just how far off all that AA pitching talent really is.

Actually it seems to be right in line with the educational psychologist Vigotsky's concept of the Zone of Proximal Development. In assessing children's reading ability, it is common practice to give them harder and harder material to decode and comprehend, until they reach their "frustration level." In between independent and frustration lies the instructional level, a fairly narrow window that corresponds to the ZPD. The theory is that only in that zone does true learning occur. Without getting pushed far enough, you'll never know what you are capable of. So, pushing him to frustration--humiliation, as you see it; hopefully Jorge is mature enough to take it as a learning experience--is actually an authentic form of assessment. Beats a bunch of good 'ol boys going with their gut instincts, doesn't it?

Das Bat. Alarm!

Zach Jones has been pitching pretty well, hasn't he? As has Reed lately. If I can think of a silver lining for Berrios or Stewart, it is that the Twins knocked Cole Hamels out for the second time in a week. Happens to everyone.

Watching last night (I don't watch much/at all, usually radio) he looks like someone who is starting to figure things out. Kind of looked a half-beat behind at times, but adjusting. When he made it to first, I was hoping the first base coach would say something to make him smile. Still looks too damn serious to me. On that note, I was kind of happy to see they weren't overly happy they won. They actually looked like they had expected to win all along.

Well played. While I might be a saber metric nincompoop, I should have gotten that one right. It is the first episode on a collection my kids have watched a thousand times.

I'm glad you cleared that up. I glanced at the box scores and saw the Goodrum conundrum and couldn't figure it out. Before I could, my phone was assaulted by a series of pop up ads on the MiLB site, so I gave up. I thought maybe with the promotions, Goodrum was needed in two places at once. Bugs Bunny once took a taxi-cab to catch a long fly out, from the top of the Statue of Liberty, so it IS possible.

I hope the future is soon for J.T. Good luck.

Holy cow! I haven't checked back on this thread since early this morning. For the first time in probably forever, I got prospect news from somewhere else than TD (Jay's promotion, on Foxsports North via the national Foxsports website.) Total system failure, TD! Just kidding, but a little surprised there isn't a hot topic thread going about all these positive moves; lord knows there is no dearth of negative topics to talk about. 21 pages on Arcia, but no thread on this? Actually, maybe I should look more carefully before posting this. Nah.

Best of luck. Almost one year to the day since I recovered from a relapse. So far so good for me; hope Allen is able to learn and rise from the ashes.