mlhouse

I think you take Hunter Greene. All of the draft picks have risk so you take the absolute best upside. The only issue I have with him is then you dont leave him in the minor leagues for 8 more seasons. Move him rapidly through the system with a target date to MLB when he is 22.

I read the article. You can make whatever arguments you want, but it is without a doubt that Mauer is diminished. It has been 4 seasons since he last had a batting average above 300, a OBP above 400, a slugging pct above 400, and a OPS above 800. And maybe that is too high of a standard to hold him too. But, at the same time he is a first baseman, not a catcher or in reality any other important position in the defensive spectrum, and at his age and injury issues first base is the only position he can really play. As a first baseman his offensive statistics are terrible. He has not hit more than 11 home runs since 2009, which other than the 13 he hit is 2006 were the only years above 11 HRs. His overall power numbers poor, less than 30% of his hits are for extra bases and it has again been 4 years since he has 30% extra base hits. More importantly, he takes up a position the Twins really need to get playing time for players taht should be up in the major leagues. I get the Twins are not going to eat a $23 million contract and having Mauer on the team helps a bit at the gate and is an all-time Twins player. But there is no denying the team would have one more leg up on rebuilding without him. He has no trade value so there really are limited options. Let him finish out his contract and then let the team move on from a local sports hero. I hope he only plays for the Twins and I think all of the money the Twins have paid him in the twighlight of his career can buy that from him.

Who cares. Stats, success, failure. Mauer no longer is evaluated he is only paid. He has one more year on his deal and as long as he is healthy the Twins will trot him out on the field. Then the Twins will move on. I hope Mauer retires after 2018 rather than continuing on in diminished form.

I would have no problem calling up Gordon myself but I doubt the Twins management would even consider that. The only problem is working out the ABs but I play Gordon 75% of starts at SS, Polanco 25% SS, 33% at 2B, and maybe 15% at 3B to expand his playing options in the field. Another guy I would consider calling up is Levi Michael. He would not need as much playing opportunity and can play a variety of positons on the field, some even adequately. I doubt he would stick, but he is a former 1st round draft pick who has spent part or all of the past four seasons in AA. He aint gonna get any better in the minors and I think he is the type of hitter that his minor league stats might translate. The other guy to consider calling up is Zach Granite and let the infield utility work be handled by Adrianza and Polanco. Let both of those guys play 2B, SS, and 3B and use Granite as the utility OF and make Robbie Grossman the mostly full time DH.

If you can make a trade for Escobar, then do it. He does not figure into the long term plan. Escobar had two pretty solid seasons in 2014 and 2015, but his career OBP is < 300 and OPS < 700. He isn't a great hitter to begin with and he did not hit well last season and this season doesnt look that great either. Give Adrianza an opportunity to come back to his mean OPS of 620 and then get a handle on if his fielding is worth it. There is a reason he has been DFAs twice in 2017. But of course, our management would rather have a 27 year old career .227 hitter on the roster than any of the internal prospects.

The Twins have made these errors over and over again. Like I have said over and over in this forum, and suffered some of the same issues you have with the "Owners" of the site, for whatever reason the Twins management, both old and new, have some weird preference in bringing in failed prospects of other teams over their own. Why bring up players like Adam Wilk, Drew Rucinski, and Nick Tepesch ahead of your best pitching prospect JJ Berios, and other prospects like David Hurlbut? I have no clue if Hurlbut is going to be even a marginal major league pitcher, and to a certain degree I defer to the Twins organization in having more insight to the performance of these guys (although as a Fort Myers resident I have seen Hurlbut pitch on several occasions). But not giving him a chance is a completely different story. We make room for guys like Tepesch who we pretty much know are just replacement level and ignore our own.

I make no claims to what Kennys Vargas would be as a player so it is impossible for me to "overrate" them. However, somewhere you need to make a commitment to developing the players and let them play. Methodically plodding them along in the minors and then bouncing them back and forth between the majors and the minors is a ridiculous approach to rebuilding a team. If you have concluded that Vargas is a "stop gap" player, then move on from him. There is no reason to give such a player more time, blocking another player that should be up on the big league roster developing and being evaluated. Get Mitch Garver up and split him between C and DH, maybe some 1B. Give Daniel Palka a shot. Bring up Zach Granite as the 4th OF and keep Robbie Grossman as the regular DH. The problem with the Twins approach is because of the way they have handled a player like Vargas, they simply are not sure. So they will piddle with him here and piddle with him there. Never fully committing but then never saying no. Some of it, particularly for a player of the Vargas type they don't want to have another David Ortiz.

Vargas is one of the symptoms of the Twins approach to player development. He has been in the Twins organization since he was 18 years old, he has 3 stints in the major leagues, and now he will turn 27 during this season......yet we really don't now what we have. The Twins have never just given him the opportunity to play regularly, face the entire rotation of opposition, and get a sample that they can say he is a major league player, or he is not. After his first callup in 2014, when he hit 9 HRs in 215 ABs and had a .772 OPS the Twins should have just given him a full time job in 2015, split time as DH and 1B, and project him out to at least 400 plate appearances. But what did they do, send him down to AA and AAA. Same situation in 2016, when he hit 10 home runs in just 152 ABs. He had a low batting average but his 883 OPS was second amongst all players on the team. How does those performances not rate a "He has earned a fulltime shot with the big league team?" Why can't this team commit to a guy and see what he can do without jacking him around, up and down the minor leagues? Maybe they have the right instincts and Vargas really cannot be a full time major league player, or even a major league player at all. But, when you have 90+ loss seasons you need to evalaute players, not stick has beens in the lineup to pretend you are trying to win.

Any reason given why they gave up on Michael Cederoth? He was a 3rd round pick in 2014, pitched last season in CR with a 2.45 ERA and 61 strikeouts in 47.2 innings. He essentially gave up a year of his minor league development in the Twins convert college relievers into starter strategy.

I think any claims about the Twins pitching staff being elevated are a bit exaggerated. Phil Hughes 5.23 ERA, Kyle Gibson 8.20, Meija 5.79. Hector Santiago 3.80 ERA is a reasonable surprise, but is almost exactly his career 3.84 ERA. Amongst the starting rotation only Ervin Santana who had a career start to the season is doing better than their career average. In the pen, the pretty much the same story. I will buy the anecdotal evidenence that the catchers are working well with the pitchers but I think most of that is the pitching coaches job and I also doubt it makes up for these two players hitting 200 or below.

I still cannot see passing on Green. I look at the college pitchers at the top of the draft and I just don't get the excitement. Are they any better than Mark Appel or Jon Gray? I get the excitment over a two way player in McKay, but I think he is going to project as a hitter and not a pitcher in professional ball. I get the risk in taking a HS right hander, but of course high school LEFT handers have been selected first overall! I take Green and move him as quickly through the minors as possible. He has that Dwight Gooden look to me and he should be in the major leagues by the time he is 21.

You seriously believe this? The entire pitching staff is composed of 30+ year olds. The main starters are 34 and 31. The closer is 32. The next four relief pitchers are 37, 28 (with an 8+ ERA), 26, and 36. We are riding a wave of Ervin Santana pitching at an ERA that is less than half of his career ERA, a closer that is performing beyond his previous stats, and then smoke and mirrors. Everybody beyond that, including Berrios, is totally untested. Our lineup still has severe holes and major question marks. Our catching issue has certainly not been solved and Castro has been an extremely poor hitter. Mauer is a terrible hitting 1B and really hinders the team, but his name probably still bring fans to the stadium. I think the infielders are hitting about as well as can be expected, really riding on Sano who at least helps the team take a step forward by himself if he can keep this production up, but at the same time the infield of Sano-Polanco-Dozier is not going to win defensive medals. I think the jury is still out on Rosario who just does not get on base enough, and to a lesser extend Kepler. And, the biggest mystery is Byron Buxton who is starting to look more and more like a flop, and doesnt seem to be getting any better in his 3rd major league season.

The results speak for themselves. Even with this backup it is clear that the Twins system has been a disaster. In every situation with uncertainty there will be bad luck and injuries, and at least the Twins haven't had any obvious situations were they did not draft talent because of cost in recent years, but the fact is the Twins should have already been well on the way to rebuilding and we are not. The team we have on the field right now is a patchwork of young players and guys that are in their mid-30s, and even if you want to believe in the success we are having, it is unsustainable over the long run. And, just as we get the hitters going the pitching is going to have to be replaced and the cycle will continue.

Whether it is typical or not, the difference lies in the fact that this is how the Twins get quality players and why our team has performed so poorly for the better part of a decade. While the MLB can be hit or miss, the Twins need to be hit. Our international scouting has done a reasonable job in getting Sano, Polanco, and Kepler, the drafted players simply have not kept up.

The problem isn't the comp to other franchises, it is the comp to what the Twins need to create a competitive team. It is the lifeblood of this system. We have really only three ways of acquiring talent: The MLB draft and minor league development The mid-level foreign market The low level free agent market To become a truly competitive team we ahve to find out best players in the first two. Our draft has been a disaster as outlined above. Our foreign acquisitions have been hit or miss. Sano and Kepler were great signings. Our Asian signings, not so much. The Twins need to stop pretending they are a competitive team with their 19-15 record and concentrate on rebuilding for the long run otherwise this cycle is going to spin for a long time.

The other aspect I want to point out from the "hit the other way" issue about Twins prospects is Brian Dozier. After the Twins drafted him as a college shortstop they basically tried to develop him as a "go the other way" type of middle infielder with middling results. He followed the traditional "Twins Way" in minor league development as a slap hitting middle infielder who didn't strike out that much, drew some walks. In 1613 minor league plate appearances Dozier hit 16 home runs. When he finally made it to the Twins in 2012, his initial reviews were not that spectacular and it looked like he wasn't really going to be a player with his .603 OPS and .332 SLG on just a marginal at best fielding SS. What made Brian Dozier into a good major league 2B is that he shedded the Twins Way, gave up the poke it to the opposite field approach, and became a pull hitter that struck out from time to time. His strike out rate increased significantly, but so did his extra base hits. IN his rookie season, only 23% of Dozier's hits were for extra bases. In his second year, 40% of his hits were for extra bases and he hit more home runs than he did in his entire minor league career. If Dozier followed the "Twins Way" his baseball career in Minnesota would have been over in 2013.

The Twins scouting department has been a disaster over the past decade plus. It doesnt take more than a simple look at the draft to see how it has failed. Keep in mind that for much of this the Twins have drafted near the top of the order. In the first round extended, since 2008 the Twins have made 16 selections. Five of those players have played in the majors: Aaron Hicks, Alex Wimmers, Kyle Gibson, Jose Berrios, and Byron Buxton. Moving to the 2nd round, a Twins 2nd rounder has not made a contribution to the Twins since 2005 2nd round pick Kevin Slowey, and has not made a significant contribution since 2003 2nd round pick Scott Baker. Only JT Chargois, 25 games pitched and Joe Benson 71 ABs have even played for the Twins as 2nd round picks since 2005. Twelve years. Want more? Moving to the 3rd round, a Twins 3rd round draft pick has not made a contribution to the Twins since 2005 3rd round pick Brian Duensing. Tyler Robertson and Pat Dean are the only 3rd round picks that have played for the Twins since 2005. 4th Round, 2010 Eddie Rosario has made MLB. Other than Eddie, the last 4th rounder position player to play for the Twins was drafted in 1996, OF Chad Allen, and the last pitcher from the 4th roudn to play for the Twins was Jason Miller, drafted in 2000. 5th Round: Tyler Duffey is all we have to show for that round, 2005 5th round pick Steve Tolleson being the last 5th rounder to make it to MLB. 6th round: The Twins have zero 6th round picks on their roster, the last 6th rounders to make the Twins were 2010 Logan Darnell and 2009 Chris Hermann, with 2002 being the last time a 6th round pick made any meaningful contribution, Pat Neshek. 7th Round: The last time a Twins 7th round pick made it to the majors was 1996. 8th Round: Brian Dozier. If you go past him, the lat Twins 8th round pick to make any contribution to the Twins was 1991, Brad Radke. 9th round: The last time a Twins 9th round pick made it to the majors was 1998. 10th Round: The last time a Twins 10th round draft pick played for the Twins was 1989, Marty Corova. The Twins have not just struck out at the top of the draft order, they have struck out all the way through the upper part of the draft. If you look at how poorly this team has done, the 2011 draft had yielded exactly nothing. THe 2012 draft were the Twins had the #2 overall pick, three 1st and 2 2nd round picks, the Twins made the disasterous choice to try to convert college relievers into starters that has yielded just the Byron Buxton question mark and the JJ Berrios hesitation. Another aspect about the Twins farm system that most of us ignore is that other than this absolutely failed development process, it serves no other value. The Twins do not trade their prospects. A lot fo teams, particularly the rich teams, manage their prospect system as a means of acquiring established major league players feasting on the lower end teams overvaluation of "prospects'. A lot of their prospects are pushed quickly knowing that prospetive trade partners will look at the age of the prospect pitching in a higher level. Look at the Mets-Twins trade of Johann Santana for an example. If Carlos Gomez would have been a Twins prospect he would have been in AA and Deolis Guerra was pushed by the Mets into A+ ball as a 17 year old. As a Twins prospect he would still have been in the Dominican rookie leagues.

What in the F are the Twins doing? Seriously. Of course this is one of their perfect "prospect", some journeyman of journeyman, with a career 4.15 AAA ERA. Why give this guy a shot when you are not willing to give Trevor Hildenberger a shot? Or David Hurlbut, a long time Twins minor league player that is sporting a 1.59 ERA at Rochester? Much less JJ Berrios who is the Twins best prospect and has dominated at AAA level now for 2 years. WHAT IS THE FASCINATION WITH OTHER TEAMS REJECTS?????????? Who is calling the shots???? Is the similarity to previous moves indicate that Molitor is calling the shots? This team is NOT going to get better if it keeps plugging in these non-entities without future while holding their own prospects back. I have seen David Hurlbut pitch several times in Ft Myers. I don't think he has the stuff to be a MLB pitcher but I think that the Twins should run these guys through and give them a chance. If you think this team is a contender over the full season you are fooling yourself. We have way too many holes to fill. Delusions have already set this rebuild back 4 years, and continued delusions will keep this level of futility going for many more.

I get that Baxendale doesn't have much upside, but he and several other pitchers at Rochester are essentially getting to the end of their professional baseball careers, so why not call them up and give them a chance? David Hurlbut is 27 years old and in his 7th year in the Twins organization, and is posting a 1.61 ERA at Rochester. Why not give him a chance instead of a retread like Tepesch? Or Trevor Hildenberger, 26 years old, 5 years in the Twins organization, and has a career 1.55 ERA in the minor leagues. Why not give him a look instead of Rucinski? If they don't make it, they don't make it and then give Baxendale, 26 years old, 6 years in Twins organization and Jason Wheeler, also 26 and 6 years in Twins organization a chance to demonstrate if they can make it on a MLB rotation? I don't think any of these 4 will pitch any worse than Tepesch or Rucinski have at the major league level and I would rather watch them than these retreads, and I think it says something about your loyalty to your franchise to give them the opportunity. Hurlbut and Hildenberger, with their current performance in AAA have definetely earned it, arguably more than Tepesch or Rucinski even. David Hurlbut has a career ERA of 3.17 over his minor league career. Nick Tepesch 3.52. Hildeberger has a career ERA of 1.55, Rucinski 4.52. Thats higher than Baxendale's, 3.78 and Wheeler 3.70. So, why does the Twins management prefer these retreads to players that have worked their way up our minor league system and played well?

He is so bad that I am sure the Twins will find a way to get him right up on the major league pitching staff.

Having watched him at Ft Myers, Stewarts has very good control of his fastball and throws it 92-94 during the game. As I noted after one of his outings in this forum, his problem is that when he throws his slider it just doesn't have any downward movement, and just stays in the same plane. Lower level hitters were able to get this ball in play, higher level hitters will be able to really hurt him. THis season Kohl is having problems throwing strikes, 22 walks in 24 innings which is very high total for him. I think the Twins need to completely rework his slider. I think they have ignored it because they wanted to avoid elbow issues, but at AA he needs to get this pitch moving. He needs to change his release point to get the change in plane movement a sldier needs. I also think they need to work on his change. Because Steward played football his baseball skills are not as advanced as other players in similar draft positions. He was drafted almost purely on projection and is a type of prospect that I advocate taking slower than otheres. I think the Twins should take him out of AA and put him back to EST, work on his slider and change, then get him back to AA.

Oh no....Tepesch is obviously the most qualified. We can work with him so he can be a nice pitcher with an ERA in the 6.00 range. We can't bring up anyone the coaches actually have to work with.

J.J. Berrios isn't a 28-30 year old journeyman, replacement level player. So, of course they have no interest in bringing him up to the majors. It is against the Twins thinking, apparently with both the old and new management, that a player can develop at the major league level. So, if he doesn't have "command" of his fastball like Greg Maddux he isn't ready. Might take 3 or 4 more seasons in AAA to get to that spot.

We have a lot more retreads in AAA that can be brought up. Lets keep that train a rolling. I think that the evidence supports that the Twins system simply does not reward their own prospects, and prefers to bring up washouts from other teams, particularly if they have touched the major leagues, even though most of those performances were terrible. Again, the Twins can pretend they are "contenders" but this hodge podge roster of older players with a handful of younger guys is just delaying the developmental issues that will come when we need to transition to a staff that will play into the future.

Sorry, but 20 year old athletes today are WAY bigger, stronger, and more physically trained than athletes from days gone by. That is just a pathetic argument. Back in teh day the camps and amateur tourneys, the nutrition, and instruction did not exist like it does today. This team isn;t goint to win enough to make the playoffs and even if we improve the record to around 500, doing that by playing non-prospects just postpones the further reckoning this team needs to do in order to create a competitive team. The other aspect that you are missing is that I am certainly not advocating bringing up a 20 year player in Garver. He is freakin 26 years old already. He has stepped up one level every year. Rk, A-, A+, AA, AAA last year and this. If you give him 100 at bats and he strikes out 95 times, big deal. He would suck and you go find the next guy. Wanting to win this year is a huge mistake.