mlhouse

I never quite know what to think of these blueprints with their unrealistic free agency signings.

So, while I am not opposed to picking up a guy on waivers that might have a bit of upside, but other than the fact that the Brewers gave him a better shot, how is this guy any better than LaMonte Wade? Reed was a high school draft pick that made his major league debut in his 4th year after his draft year at 22 years of age. Wade was a college draft pick in Rookie ball as a 21 year old. He finished his 22 year old campaign in A+. Played a full year of AA ball as a 23 year old. As a 24 year old he repeated AA to start and got a late season move to AAA. There was not a single level were Reed was a better player statistically than LaMonte Wade. In the A level Midwest League Reed played one full season with a .785 OPS. Wade has a partial year at Cedar Rapids and had an .805 OPS with virtually identical slash totals. In the Florida St Advanced A league Reed has a .774 OPS. In Wade's half season at Ft Myers he had an OPS of .904. This earned Wade a step up with only a half a season of A+ ball. Then, as a 22 year old Reed advanced from AA with a .802 OPS to AAA and then for a brief appearance with the Brewers in 2015. Reed also was selected to play in the Arizona Fall League at the end of theseason. Wade, as a 23 year old had an almost identical .805 OPS and the Twins kept him in AA the entire season. After making his debut, the Brewers sent Reed back to AAA were he had an OPS of .731 and again got a late season call up to the Brewers. Wade was kept back in AA as a 24 year old and after starting the first half of the season there with a .837 OPS played the second part of the season in AAA Rochester were he struggled at the plate and with some injuries. For those that claim that the Twins are not conservative in their approach to how they move their minor league players, this example is pretty straight forward. When Michael Reed had a decent start as a 22 year old player in AA they moved him up to AAA and gave him a big league call up. The Twins kept Wade in AA despite having the exact same season and then LEFT HIM IN AA TO START THE NEXT SEASON. Wade has been a better minor league player than Michael Reed, not by much but still the better player. LaMone Wade has a higher minor league batting average than Michael Reed .284 vs .269. Wade has a higher minor league on base percentage than Michael Reed .391 vs. .382. A higher minor league slugging percentage than Michael Reed .420 vs .395. Wade has only 3 fewer home runs in the minors 35 vs. 38 in 1,000 fewer minor league at bats. And Wade has out performed him at every level, most often playing in the same exact leagues. Next season Wade will turn 25 years old and still has not made the major leagues and it is doubtful he will next season because the "Twins Way" means he has to prove his AAA year again. By that same age level, Michael Reed has had 3 MLB opportunities with two different teams despite being at best an equal player. Again, competition for roster spots is a good thing for a team but there is no doubt in my mind based on how the Twins front office has worked these past couple of years that they will give Reed the first shot over Wade. I think this demonstrates another example of a tremendous lack of loyalty to the players that are drafted and played throughout the Twins organization.

The new manager needs to be a developer of young players. Pure and simple. If he understands analytics or not, it doesn't matter because it is 1,000 times more important that he teaches his young players how to play baseball. These managers are rare. As we have seen, most baseball managers would rather pencil in the name Bobby Wilson or Logan Forsythe rather than Willians Astudillo or NickGordon because a 30+ year old veteran isn't going to make bonehead mistakes that a younger guy is going to make. Of course, they probably only have a fraction of the talent but it takes mistakes, and hence losing, to fully develop players. Young players will make fielding blunders; strike out looking in critical situations; run the bases like wildebeast without a clue; throw to the wrong base and/or miss the cut off guy; be inconsistent in the strike zone; make bad pitch decisions. But, as we know, even players that have been very conservatively moved up the minor league system are still incomplete players. This new manager is going to be coaching, eventually, the next wave of prospects from our system. The way we approached the first group (Sano/Buxton etc) has mostly failed. We cannot fail on the second group (Lewis/Gordon/Kirilloff).

Basically. Kent Hrbek was a 17th round draft pick in 1978. He got 79 Rookie level plate appearances in 1979. One full year of A in 1980 and one full year of A+ in 1981. He was promoted directly from A+ to the Twins late in 1981 and played the entire season in 1982 as a major league player. At 24 years of age he had 1,881 plate appearances and was the runner up for the 1984 MVP award. Using the "Twins Way" logic, he might have just been given his initial chance in 1984. Puckett had some time in AAA, but he was drafted in the 1982 January phase of the draft. He played that draft year in Rookie, 1983 in A+, and started 1984 in AAA before starting his iconic career with the Twins (I can still recall listening to that game on the radio in my dorm room). Again, using the Twins approach of today, Puckett would have been no where near the majors by 1984. Knoblauch pretty much the same story. Drafted in 1989 and played draft year in A and A+. Then first full season in AA for 1990. Then, started with the Twins in 1991. Again, if Knoblauch was a current Twins prospect he would have started at Elizabethton and probably got promoted to A near end of season. Then he would have repeated A with a call up to A+. Then a season of AA, and at least a partial season in AAA. I guess being rushed through the minors killed these players career.

That Twins era team was competitive within 2 years but not quite good enough. So, while there was struggle, the core gained experience and it takes time to find the players that are not good enough. This is one of the key issues in rebuilding. WHy is that a key? Because if you take too much time gettting a player up to the major league level that cannot play, it takes that much time to move on from him. Like I said, Lenny Faedo was the shortstop of that group. He was the TWins first round pick in 1978. He started his draft season as a 18 year old in Elizabethton. Then moved to AA as a 19 year old and played as a 20 year old there too, but was a late season call up as a 20 year old. In 1981 he was in AAA and 1982 started for teh Twins. By 1983 it was apparent he wasn't going to hit enough so he was phased out. But then, the Twins were starting to phase in another 21 year old SS in Greg Gagne. If the Twins follow the "Twins Way", Faedo hasn't even reached the majors before Gagne established himself in the Twins lineup. One interesting note about Gagne to show the differences in organizational thought. When the Twins acquired him as a 20 year old from the Yankees early in 1982 (Gagne had only played 1 game), Gagne was in A+ Florida State League. The Twins immediately promoted him to AA. Of all the Twins trades acquiring minor leaugers in the most recent years I have never seen that happen. AS far as the claims that the reason these methods are to far in the past, notice that in that argument there isn't any evidence presented. It is a long time ago, therefore it isn't the same. But, I argue that baseball development is still essentially the same in 1987 as it was 30 years later. The baseball draft is still essentially the same particularly with what players can be drafted. The minor league system is virtually the same with the only difference in Twins structure is that they established a low level rookie affiliate in the Gulf Coast League in 1989 (this rookie league was in existence since 1964 but the Twins probably did not have an affiliate to save cost). Regardless, as I have pointed out over and over again, the critical thing that my argument has in its favor is that the "Twins Way" has failed and put us in the spot we are in. a.)The players are very slowly promoted through the system in a conservative, step-wise process. Yet, when most of them reach the majors they are not prepared for the competition level. b.) Even though this team has been struggling and clearly in rebuilding mode the team has not committed to bringing in a manager to work with young players. In fact, they stayed with Ron Gardenhire for four 90+ loss seasons despite the obvious lack of ability to develop young players. c.) When the unprepared Twins prospects arrive at the MLB level, the Twins put them on a short leash and instead of working with those players, they send them back. We are not talking about "young" prospects either. Fernando Romero isn't a 20 year old player. He is 23. Bring him up, he runs into a little bit of struggle. So, they send him back. Romero is a pitcher some have ranked as the #1 Twins prospect. He has a minor league career ERA of 3.02 and has been successful at every level in the minors. Yet, they have zero patience with him. An even better example of this phenomena this season is Willians Astudillo. I get he isn't a prospect, but when he was first called up he hit ok and played all over the field, including one of the worst innings of pitching I have ever seen! But, when Bobby Wilson could play again the FO preferred his 35 year old .523 OPS rather than see is Astudillo would be a guy that could contribute to this team going forward. Why not see if he can that weird utility guy. And the joke was on them when they recalled him and WIllians hit .355 with an OPS of .887. Sample size? Sure. BUT WOULDNT IT BE NICE TO KNOW IF THIS WAS JUST A SMALL SAMPLE SIZE FLUKE???? They found time for 151 PAs for Bobby Wilson, 205 PAs for Logan Forsythe, 109 for Ryan LaMarre, 67 for Gregorio Petit, 54 for Johnny Field, 34 for Chris Giminez, 21 for Taylor Motter, and 8 for Juan Graterol. Everyone knows that their poor hitting isn't a fluke. But, that is the "Twins Way", play the known medicorities (at best) rather than risk playing a guy that could potentially be a player you can use in the future. When you look at it this way, it is very difficult to be a fan of this team.

AS I stated in the response right above, that is because the Twins ownership is cheap. Always has been. Always will be. THey are so worried about how much they will pay a player that they don't care if the player would be successful. IF the Twins would have held him in the minors a couple of more years, then they would not have had their pitcher at the top of their rotation ready to win the 1987 World Series MVP. They could have followed the blueprint they do with our current prospects. In 1981 he would have started out at Elizabethton and probably moved up to Cedar Rapids A ball. 1982, where Viola started in AAA and moved to the majors, he would have repeated A ball with perhaps a promotion to A+ Ft Myers. In 1983, maybe they get cocky and let him move to AA (where Viola debuted as a professional player) but in 1984 he should start the season there and maybe move up to AAA. Then, AAA for sure in 1985 with perhpas a quick hook call up during the season. Same for 1986 and maybe someday he gets enough experience in 1987. And, instead of developing as a team and becoming competitive as early as 1984, such a process would have stretched hte rebuilding out over 5-8 years.

The cheap Twins management has convinced you of this.

Of course you are tired of the history lesson. AS far as lunacy, what is lunacy is pretending that this organization is going to sign the level of free agents or make the high impact trade that will suddenly create a team that is a true contender. And, as far as lunacy, this worked in 1987, extended in 1991, and worked in the M-M days in devloping that team. What hasn't happened in this rebuild is the total commitment to the young talent. Even in 2015, the year the team brought up some of that "era's" main prospects: Sano, Rosario, Buxton, Kepler all of these players started 2015 in the minor leagues (Kepler only got 7 PAs late in the season). Instead, the team plugged in guys like 30 yo Shane Robinson and 28 year old Jordan Schafer. The players that the FO deemed "not ready", at least to start the year, were so much better than the players they played. THAT IS LUNACY. Again, while we have brought up young players, the team hasn't shown a commitment to them. We had managers taht were not good fits for the young players. Instead of giving our own internal prospects up we brought in every waiver wire misfit in the league. At this point, the team should have a much better understanding of the potential of their current prospects than what they do. What do I mean by that? Take an example of Fernando Romero (but you can plug in Gonsalves, Stewart, Vasquez, etc). Do we ahve a firm understanding if he is a going to be a solid picther in the majors? Obviously not. But then, he is already 23 years old. He has pitched in 11 major league games with a 4.69 ERA. History lesson? Compare the treatment of Romero with how the Twins handled Frank VIola. Viola was drafted in 1981. He went directly to AA ball his draft year and pitched 97 innings. He starter the 1982 season in AAA but made only 8 starts there before being called up. Guess waht, he wasn't ready. In 1982 Viola had a 5.21 ERA over 126 innings. But the Twins stuck with him. IN 1983 as a 23 year old, the same age as Romero, Viola sucked. But the Twins sent him out to the mound for 210 innings even though his ERA was 5.49. THAT IS COMMITMENT TO REBUILDING. The current Twins FO does not have done that. THey would have dumped Viola back down to the minors in 1982 and started him down in the minors again in 1983. "He wasn't ready". But, what is obvious, is that the current (and previous) FO approach would have meant he wasn't ready in 1984 either when he placed 6th in the Cy Young voting. He simply would not have had enough MAJOR LEAGUE experience to perform at that level. Maybe in 1985, maybe 1986 they would have felt comfortable.

Has the Twins approach on their players worked? I think the claim of rushing a player is weak if you are properly set up for rebuilding. The problem wth the Twins for the past 7 years is that htey have had managers that have had little time or patience to work with young players, all while the team was losing 90+ games a season. Keeping a guy like Gardenhire as manager, who literally played head games with our young players, from 2011 - 2014 on a team that lost 99, 96, 96, and 92 games (383 losses) was nothing but idiotic. He was not the right manager to develop the young players that needed to develop under the major league system. And, I would argue that although I think Paul Molitor would be a good manager on a veteran club, he wasn't the right guy either. To get to a competitive team we need to develop our players at the major league level and get them up as fast as possible. Again, you can argue that I am wrong all you want. But the facts demonstrate otherwise. We have watched nothing but terrible baseball since 2011. We have had 5 seasons with at least 92 losses, versus two fluke seasons above 500 with the last one, 2017, brought about because we brought in high priced veteran players to just squeak above 500. What we have done has failed, and failed miserably, and it is a mistake to continue down the same stupid path.

Kent Hrbek never played a game above A+ ball. Hrbek played a partial season of rookie ball, then A as a 20 year old, A+ as a 21 and promoted to the majors. Eisenreich, who was in a way overmatched, went from A in 1981 to being hte starting CF in Minnesota in 1982. He didn't even get a late season call up before his major league debut. Being "overmatched" isn't the worse thing for a developing player. Instead, it is being properly coached and developed that counts. The 1982 Minnesota Twins were overmatched. They lost 102 games. But, a few years later this was the core that won a world series. I will take the losses from these developing young guys rather than this excuse of a major league team this front office will trot out their next year.

The path is pretty clear. Commit to rebuild. The Twins are just wasting everyone's time if Lewis, Kirilloff, Rooker, and Nick Gordon are not in the everyday lineup next season. Add LaMonte Wade, Luis Arraez, and Willians Astudillio with them around the remaining younger players on our roster. Sure, that team isn't "ready" but the point because not all of those guys are going ot makeit in the majors but we need to find out as soon as possible who will and who will not. Save our financial resources because the better players from this group will need to be signed going forward and we will need to make deals, both trades and free agents, to fill in the holes once this core gets competitive. Otherwise, we are just fooling ourselves. In this market (which isn't just the size of the market) we cannot build a team via free agent signings and big time trades. It needs to be done by creating a core group of players from players acquired young, smartly developing those players, and making astute choices in players to fill in around those players. This is how the 1987 team was built, and extended to the 1991 team. This is also how the mid-2000's M and M team was built. And, if we are to ever again have competitive major league baseball in Minnesota, how the next team needs to be built.

The number one thing the Twins need is a guy that can work and develop the young players, and has the patience to do it. Needs to be a teacher that realizes young players will make mistakes. From this list, I am not sure who that is and I think I would lean to Joe Espada. He is the youngest candidate and seems to have the right type of experience for this club.

I think Mollie was actually a good manager. The two above 500 seasons I think are adequate testimony to that. What he wasn't was a guy that could develop the younger players and move them from being prospects to legitimate MLB players. The Twins need that type of manager, and have needed it even before Molitor. The manager needs to be patient and teaching, and have a coaching staff that does the same.

I am not sure that "emulating" another team is a necessary condition. If I had to state something to emulate, and it will not be the first time, they should emulate the 1982 Twins. You bring up Kent Hrbek, Tim Laudner, Gary Gaetti, Tom Brunansky, Lenny Faedo, Jim Eisenreich, Randy Johnson, Randy Bush, Frank Viola, and Brad Havens. The ages of those players was 22, 24, 23, 21, 22, 23, 23, 23, 22, and 22. You don't just bring them up until they strike out a couple of times or walk a couple of batters. You hand them the ball and bats and let them play. Guess what, several of those players "weren't ready" to play major league baseball and several of them were also not good enough to play major league baseball. Your commitment to them isn't to keep them forever, but to totally evaluate them through an extensive period of "data collection". And because of this, you are going to lose games. But, finding out who can play Hrbek, Gaetti, Brunanshy, Bush, Viola and who cannot Faedo, Johnson, Haven, and (unfortunately) Eisenreich means you can bring up alternatives like Greg Gagne and Kirby Puckett to replace them in an much more expedited manner. In other words, if you move conservatively on Eisenreich or Faedo, Eisenreich promoted to MLB from A ball and Faedo from AA in 1982, and instead move them slower so they don't make the majors until 1983-1984 or even 1985, that means that the SUCCESSFUL prospects Greg Gagne or Kirby Puckett dont arrive until after that period. Then, after developing the core prospects of the team over a couple of years and seeing their competitiveness increase, you bring in veteran players like Roy Smalley, Dan Gladden, Bert Blyleven II, and Jeff Reardon to fill in the missing gaps. Our process seems like we are trying to fill in the gaps with players like Lance Lynn and Rodney before the core of the team has really fully developed. So, to emulate the 1982 Twins, I bring up Kirillof, Gordon, Lewis, Rooker, Romero, and Gonsalves along with guys like Wade mixed in with our younger players. We lose 100 games, but we should see lots of progress from the players that will be part of the future and get information on the players that will not be part of the that future.

YOur opinion is fact-less. The Twins have promoted their prospects in a much more conservative fashion than other organizations particularly when you consider what type of "mode" we are in (rebuilding v. competitive) and the quality of alternatives the Twins have as alternatives. Lets look at a player like Andrew Vasquez as an example. He was a college draft pick in 2015 and started his draft year with the Rookie Gulf Coast Twins as a 21 year old. This was, ERA wise, his worst season in the minors with a 2.92 ERA but a 16.1 K/9. Then, as a 22 year old he started the season at Elizabethton, Adv Rookie, and finished at Cedar Rapids with a combined ERA of 1.41 and 12.0 K/9. Since he was so successful, it really makes a lot of sense to the Twins managment to keep him at A ball for the 2017 season as a 23 year old. Again, they moved him up to A+ in the second half, but again he had a combined ERA of 1.55 with 13.2 K/9. So, the Twins organization decides in 2018 that of course he has a career minor league ERA below 2 with more than 12 K/9, so we should keep the 24 year old prospect in A+ again. They promoted him to AA and AAA within the season for a late season call up for the Twins. While Vasquez is repeating levels despite significant success, the Twins gave innings to 38 year old Matt Belisle, 31 year old Oliver Drake in 2018 and in 2017 they used every waiver wire reject that major league baseball had to offer. This is the trend of the organization, fielding mediocre at best players who have no future with the team while they conservatively move their own prospects who should be getting the extended looks instead.

I think you are taking the ckaims I made about the front office too seriously and missing the point in the end. But, since you missed it, I will encapsulate it for you: We are a terrible team that has been rebuilding for 8 years, losing 90+ games 6 times including over 100 twice. But, when it came to needing "warm bodies" all our front office could throw out there were duds like Taylor Motter and Bobby Wilson. There were options. Instead of Motter, why not Gordon. He couldn't of hit any worse. Instead of Wilson, why not Astudillio? Instead of all of the waiver wire reject pitchers like Matt Belisle and many, many others, why not get better and longer looks at Curtiss, Bard, Anderson, etc. What is frustrating to me about this is that this was the exact course the previous front office would take, and it has led us to this point.

Taylor Motter hit .197 with a .646 OPS for Seattle's AAA team when the Twins HAD TO get him on our AAA team to hit .182 with a .636 OPS, which OBVIOUSLY was enough to deserve a call up to the major league team were "unexpectedly" he hit .053 with a .195 OPS. His career MLB batting average is .191 with a career OPS of .575. At 28 years old, in the eyes of the Twins Front Office he was a great promotion and apparently was a solid prospect. Gordon is still a legitimate prospect, and if you want to compare Gordon has a much better performance in AA than Motter, and Motter's AAA is impacted by one and a partial seasons were he hit way above his expectations. Sometimes when you are looking at things, you need to recognize flukes. Motter's 2018 performance in AAA and with his stints on the big leagues are the reality.

First, the ages you refer are when they got late season call ups or quick looks. So it is a bit misleading. Second, compare how our prospects were moved through versus players on the Yankees or Red Sox: Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Gleyber Torres, Miguel Andujar, Luis Severino, Mookie Betts, Andrew Benintendi, Rafeal Devers, Xander Bogaerts, Even if you want to claim that "see the Twins moved their players up at the same pace", which I disagree with, there is a singular difference. The Red Sox and Yankees are competitive teams. The Red Sox are going to win 107 or so games with a lineup that is essentially younger than the Twins. We are a rebuilding team, yet we promote our prospects at the same level of contenders. That is just plain stupid and we wonder why this organization is in such a mess.

Totally disagree and he facts indicate otherwise. The Twins are VERY conservative in moving their players through the system. Look at a guy like Mitch Garver. He did not get to the major leagues full time until he was 27, TWENTY SEVEN, and he still doesn't even have 500 career plate appearances. Garver, despite significant minor league success (he was Twins Daily minor league hitter of the year), moved step by step through the system. This was despite his success and the fact that the Twins catching sucked while they were losing 100 games. Addressing something someone raised below, if we wait until a conservative front office decides a player is ready we are going to wait until forever, all while we lose with guys that have no future. The fact is, a minor league player is never ready, and Twins minor league players despite the conservative approach reach the majors remarkably ill prepare and often lacking basic skills. When you are rebuilding you have to acknowledge that the players you bring up aren't going to be ready. They are going to make mistakes and you are going to lose ball games. But, the approach -needs to be a commitment to rebuilding. I advocate bringing up just about every prospet next season: Lewis, Kirilloff, Rooker, Gordon amongst others. Work them in with the existing young talent. We might lose 100 games like the Twins did in 1982, but the guys who can play will be sorted out and the guys who cannot moved on from. The sooner we get THOSE QUESTIONS asked, the sooner we can get a real competitive team out there. And, for those who disagree, how can anyone stand watching this front office bring up Taylor Motter and BObby Wilson, amonsgst other crappy players? If we are going to lose 87-90 games why lose them with these players without futures?

Two points in response: 1. The team has been terrible so we have been drafting at or near the top of the draft, each round, for most of those years. 2. The team has been terrible so we should have been seeing a lot of drafted players moving up quickly to the big leagues. Our drafts have hardly made a dent at the big league level. That is very concerning. I guess the new FO gets some benefit of the doubt until their draft picks make it to the big leagues, but you have to ask yourself if they are going to continue the conservative approach to bringing up minor league players, how long are we willing to wait while watching the mediocre at best players they put ont he field now???

The problem with the Twins draft and minor league development goes way beyond these issues. Look at the top picks in recent drafts that can be reasonably evaluated: 2015 1st round Tyler Jay 2nd round Kyle Cody Reached Majors Andrew Vasquez (32) 2014 1st Nick Gordon 2nd Nick Burdi Reached Majors: Burdi, John Curtiss (5), Trevor Hildenberer (22) 2013 1st Kohl Stewart 2nd Ryan Eades Reached Majors Stewart, Turner(3), Gonsalves(4), Slegers(5), Garver(9), Granite(14) 2012 1st Buxton Supp JJ Berrios, Luke Bard 2nd Melotakis, JT Chargois Reached Majors Buxton, Berrios, Bard, Chargois, Duffy(5), Taylor Rogers(11) 2011 1st Levi Michaels Supp Travis Harrison, Hudson Boyd 2nd Madison Boer Reached Majrs Dereck Rodriguez (6) Jason Wheeler (8) Since 2015 the organization has virtually struck out on top level picks with the exception of J.J. Berrios and several question marks. The major league draft has contributed almost nothing to this organization as it attempted to rebuild after disastrous season after disastrous season. The draft has produced one solid starting pitcher (Berrios) and two limited reliever (Hildenberger, Rogers). On the 2018 roster, just one part time positional player was a draft pick, Mitch Garver playing in his first full time season at the age of 27. Buxton is an enigma trapped in a riddle that to this point has been a signficant disappointment at best. Several younger players might or might now be guys the team can work with in the future, but most of those have not been given much of a chance to prove themselves, includin Vasquez, Gonsalves, and Stewart, as well as Nick Gordon who has not reached the majors yet. Most of the others that have reached the majors have been passed by or do not have much chance left: John Curtiss, Nick Burdi, Aaron Slegers, Zack Granite, Luke Bard, JT Chargois, Tyler Duffy, Jaason Wheeler. An interesting name that has reached the major leagues was Dereck Rodriguez. He started 20 games for the Giants this season, posting a 2.50 ERA. Rodriguez pitched 6 years in the Twins organization and never was given a chance. Some of the time was used converting him as a pitcher, but the Twins methodically moved him throgh the organization without giving him a chance of making it to the big leagues and when he became eligible to get free agency he moved to a new organization that did.

I know it isn't true, but that is what it appears like sometime. During a frustrating, losing season why hasn't this front office committed to the long term? Even if a guy like Astudillio or Vasquez fails, you find that out now instead of later, But they would prefer to roll with guys like Belisle and Bobby Wilson than get the answer to the important question of whether a young(ish) players can contribute. I don't know if Willians is a good enough player or good enough at anything to be in the major leagues. But, on the other hand, maybe the sum of his versatility is enough he should be a contributor, someone that gives you tactical options during the game and a guy that I think the PR department can utilize in a way that Benchwarmer Bob was. I do think it is apparent (and I live out of town so I don't even know if I have seen him play) he has enough bat speed to generate a reasonable AAA-MLB average and slugging pct, without perhaps the selectivity of drawing walks. He isn't going to steal many bases, but somehow he has enough to step in most positions and at least represent a defensive threat.

1. The "try again" approach was also done in 2018. Did it work? 2. The Suzukia/Perkins signings were just part of the pattern I demonstrated. Although we have been a terrible team since 2011, with 2 100+ loss seasons, 3 additional 96+ loss seasons, (counting this season) 2 additional seasons with at least 82 losses, the team has never really committed to rebuilding and has, throughout this period of time over two front offices, seemingly preferred to put in 28+ year old mediocrities over bringing up and developing their own prospects. 3. The term "ready or not" is mentioned in the Twins Daily forums continuously. Let me ask this question: "Ready for what"? Playing in the World Series? Making the playoffs? Losing 100 games? When you bring up young players you have to expect some adjustment time and if you bring up a slew of young prospects those adjustments are going to cause you to lose a lot of games as they will make a lot of mistakes. The fact is, players can develop at the major league level. This is proven over and over again. You need a manager that is committed to rebuilding the team and patient enough to put up with losing. 4. AS I have pointed out several times, the Twins Way of developing players has obviously failed. Again, "ready or not", despite plodding almost all of our prospects conservatively, one rung at a time through the minors, Twins prospects arrive at the big league level poorly prepared with huge learning curves needed to get them ready. There is something wrong in our development system and it is being demonstrated with the win-loss record. 5. Again, as I have pointed out, it would be different if we had quality players to play instead of our minor league prospects. In 2018 the Twins played the following players in the field: Chris GIminez, Taylor Motter, Bobby WIlson, Johnny Field, Gregorio Petit, Ryan LaMarre, and Logan Morrison. 1392 plate appearances of absolute ineptitude. Most of that list is on the other side of 30, and if not, close to it. And the fact that Matt Belisle is on the pitching staff has to make any fan cringe. How can a FO convince themselves that signing him off of waivers is a better idea than promoting just about ANY relief prospect currently in the minor leagues? I would rather lose a game with Luke Bard, given his last chance of making it posting a 9.97 ERA, than a 38 year old player posting the same? Not Luke Bard, how about Andrew Vasquez? Give him Belisle's 22 appearances, plus the 5 he has made since his callup, and from that we could have gotten a good read on his abilities. Basically, that is what it all comes down to. We can lose with these old, non-entitites or we can lose using the time to develop our prospects and get answers on who is going to be a player that can contribute and who cannot.

No, I think that we have a different definition of "commit". Lets look at the Twins rebuild. In 2010 the Twins finished with a 94-69 record, and with the exception of a single game wild card, the last playoff appearance. In 2011, the Twins fell off the board, going 63-99. To most, this significant fall off was unexpected, but it was real. In the offseason, the team should have concentrated on trying to rebuild. Instead. they added 31 year old Ryan Doumit, 33 year old Josh Willingham, 38 year old Jamey Carroll. The Twins finished 66-96 with just a single regular position player under the age of 25 (Ben Revere) and just two positional players with at least 200 abs under the age of 25 (Revere and Chris Parmelee). On the staff, they had one starter start more than 10 games under 25 (Liam Hendricks) and 2 relievers with at least 40 appearances (Alex Burnett and Tyler Robertson). IN 2013, anthother 66-96 season, using these parameters the Twins had one posititional starter under 25 (Aaron Hicks) and two players with at least 200 abs (HIcks and Oswaldo Arcia). One starter under 25 with at least 10 starts (Pedro Hernandez) and one reliever with at least 40 appearances (Ryan Pressley). In 2014, the 4th consecutive season with at least 92 losses, 70-92, the team moved Arcia into the starting lineup as the only under 25 player and added Danny Santana as a starter. They had 4 players under 25 with at least 200 abs (Arcia, Santana, Hicks, and Kennys Vargas). Not a single starter was under hte age of 25 (Kyle Gibson became a full time starter in the rotation at the age of 26 this season). They did not have a reliever under the age of 25 have over 40 appearances, and only had two pitchers under the age of 25 make appearances (Trevor May (24) and Michael Tonkins (24). 2015 was Molitor's first year and they finally had a brief blip above 500 at 83-79. This was finally the year that the heralded prospects arrived with Sano, Buxton, and Rosario with brief glimpses of Kepler (7 abs) and Polonco (12 abs). But only Sano and Rosario had over 200 at bats. Only ONE pitcher under the age of 25 pitched for the Twins that season, Tyler Duffey in 10 starts. 2016 was a 103 loss season as the younger players stepped in. Sano, Kepler, Polanco, Buxton, Rosario all had at least 245 at bats. But, only JJ Berrios was the only pitcher under 25 to start at least 10 starts in his poor initial MLB experience. I will admit that some prospects like Kyle Gibson, Trevor Hildenberger and Taylor Rogers came up to the team after the age of 25, and other prospects followed similar paths like JT Chargois and Alex Meyer. But given the rest of the staff and the Twins record, why did it take so long to move these guys along? Regardless, not until 2015, after 4 consecutive 90+ loss seasons did the Twins really do any rebuilding. THEN, they had a solid record but bringing the full complement of young players made the Twins step back the following year. THe blip in 2017 was done at the expense of keeping other prospects from making their transition to the big leagues and 2018 is obviosuly a year of disaster. Putting in mediocre veterans like Logan Morrison that were signedin 2018 are not going to make your team competitive. They may stave off 95+ loss seasons, but they will not make your team comeptitive int he future. All through these "rebuilding" seasons the team seemed to prefer these mediocre veterans in the hope they could put out a mediocre team rather than biting the bullet and bringing up the prospect, and the losses. Of course, when they finally did, the prospects (at least initially) were better than the mediocrities and they actually won games. Unfortunaltey because the FO has continuously delayed biting the bullet and (lets call it) the 2015 group of prospects have plateaued, the talent in this organization is in the low minors and they need to be brought up en masse. Bite the fn bullet. Lost the games (get a year or two of top draft picks again). Develop the team and if the talent is there they will develop and be comeptitive.

The problem is that is what you have to accept. Way back in 2012 the team should have made the commitment I am speaking of. Instead, they trotted guys like Jamey Carroll and Clete Thomas out there in a desperate attempt to be mediocre. ANd the team still lost while delaying the inevitable transition of their prospects that have been, for the most part, brought in piecemeal. Instead, COMMIT for the first time to rebuilding. Find out who can play and who cannot play. Think about that. THis far into "rebuild" do we really have answers on a lot of players? Take your lumps. If the talent of our prospects is there, it will take some time and some losses but they will eventually become competitive and the rebuild and losses will more quickly go away.