DaveW

Chris Paul OF I LOOOOVE his upside. Strengths Dynamic, Explosive, Electric, Dominantonly a few of the words used to describe Chris Paul's game. Paul is one of the better all-around PG prospects to come along in the past decade, and there isn't much about his game that isn't a strength. The first thing you notice about Paul is his explosiveness with the ball. There really isn't anybody that can stop him from getting to the basket, with his dynamite first step and ability to get the ball above the rim before shot blockers can alter it. Furthering this strength is Paul's ability to recognize offensive opportunities and exploit them. He understands how to get by defenders on the break, and is relentless at pushing the ball and getting to the basket. If he sees a potential help defender slacking, he will be at the rim before that defender realizes what is happening. Paul is a master of things like splitting defenders, and changing pace to gain that miniscule opening he needs. While he certainly has the open court speed of a TJ Ford, Dee Brown, or Raymond Felton, none of those point guards break down the defense off the dribble and consistently get to the basket as effectively as Chris Paul. As a floor general, Paul might not quite have the creativity of the truly great pass-first point guards, but he runs an offense effectively and is very efficient with the ball. Paul has incredibly quick hands, as his nearly 2.5/1 assist-to-turnover ratio would indicate. At Wake Forest, Paul ran an offense full of players that needed consistent shots, and always shared the ball quite nicely. He understands tempo, distributes the ball in an intelligent fashion, and always finds the open man. Some might question why a player of Paul's obvious talents only averaged 15 points per game, and was so inconsistent as a scorer on a night-by-night basis. Rest assured that this is only because of Paul's role as a distributor, and the fact that he played on a team with numerous other capable scorers. In addition to his ability to break down defenses off the dribble, Paul has developed into a great outside shooter, hitting 47% of his 3-pointers this season. He can score in a variety of ways, whether it set shots from the outside or acrobatic, floating drives from the mid-range. Paul has developed a reputation as a clutch player, and always steps up against big competition. He scored 50 points in two games against Duke this season, and had 27 against UNC and Raymond Felton early in the ACC slate. Paul seems to understand when his team needs a big scoring performance, or even simply a big basket. He will always step up his scoring output in these situations. While his team ended up losing, Paul's performance down the stretch against West Virginia in the second round of the NCAA tourney typifies the kind of player that he is. While the Mountaineers kept finding ways to hit big shots, Paul nearly single-handedly matched them, basket for basket, before he fouled out. Finally, Paul is the consummate competitor on the floor. While this desire to win sometimes causes him to take things too far, he leaves it all out on the court every time, and oftentimes simply wills his team to a victory. It's hard not to get excited about a player that is so complete in doing what he can to get a win. Weaknesses Paul is a remarkably well-rounded point guard and prospect, but there are a few negatives to mention. With his quick hands and dominant lateral quickness, you would expect Paul to be a dominant defender. However, he is mediocre at best in this area. While he ends up with a lot of steals, he isn't always an aggressive defender, and doesn't eat up opposing ball handlers the way that he should. Wake Forest was a very poor defensive team this season, and it showed up in the tournament. While some of that falls on Skip Prosser's system and a few of Paul's teammates, Paul's inability to lock up primary ball handlers (go back to that West Virginia game again), is a place to start when discussing the Demon Deacons' defensive woes. At a generous 6'0, Paul is a bit undersized as a point in the NBA. While his explosiveness more than makes up for it, Paul may have to adjust some of the things he does as far as attacking the basket. He may have trouble guarding some of the bigger point guards in the league as well. Finally, while it's hard to call a player too competitive, it seems like Paul may have become just that during the ACC slate this past season. He developed a reputation as a guy who is willing to throw a cheap shot, even before the incident in the last game of the regular season where he punched Juilus Hodge below the belt. Furthermore, there were some late season rumors of locker room unrest at Wake Forest. This is something that NBA teams will probably look into, though it's hard to see a team passing on Paul because of personality issues. He is too dynamic a presence on the floor. Outlook Paul is generally considered the number one point guard in the 2005 draft, and it isn't too hard to see why. There really isn't anything he doesn't do well, and his ability to break people down off the dribble is nothing short of spectacular. Unless something drastic happens, he's a top selection on draft night - probably top 3. Comments While we have Tony Parker down here as a worst-case, that probably isn't very fair to Parker, who would put up bigger numbers if he wasn't running the show in San Antonio.

At some point you give the Twins the benefit of the doubt, this org now has had a top 3 minor league prospect farm over the last 3 or so years. Also, the draft isn't the only place to find pitching, you can always snag some raw high upside guys on the international market as well.

I'm not talking down to you at all.... Yes, several great relievers are failed starters when drafted, but Perkins himself was a first round pick as a starter, not a mid round guy. Nathan was a SS when he was drafted. Hawkins, while a solid RP is hardly considered one of "the best" he had a couple nice years in Minnesota and Chicago but was more middle of the road then anything else. Also a lot of these guys get tossed in the pen in college because college coaches don't have the patience to let them develop.

It's usually best to just go BPA, obviously C is a glaring need for the Twins, but if they like someone more then Rei you go with that guy (chances are Rei never makes the majors in an impact way anyways, like most 3rd round guys)

The reality is in the middle rounds NOBODY is going to be a sure thing, if a guy throws 95+ and is a starter he is pretty much going to get snagged in rounds one and two. If you want a hard thrower in the middle rounds, chances are its going to be a RP, if you want a starter in the mid rounds chances are its going to be a softer throwing type (the Twins already have plenty of those and people bitch every-time they draft a guy who throws high 80's anyways). Of course there are some HS pitchers you can try to snag but they are risky, expensive and can be tough signs, might as wait for rounds 11-30 for those types anyways.

Not to be a jerk, but 6 foot 2 probably indicates he didn't have a huge future on the hardwood....

That's the nature of the draft, especially in the mid rounds, the odds of a player making it to the majors and becoming effective are just so small overall. All it takes is one or two of these effective RP to break through to give us a formidable pen.

Like to see power arms and power bats.

3B often turn into 1B/LF/RF types. Both guys seem to have power which is something the org still lacks.

Name: Trey Cabbage Position: Third Base/Shortstop School: Grainger HS (TN) **Committed to Tennessee** Height/Weight: 6-3/109 Bats/Throws: L/R Tools Running Speed: 40/50 Arm Strength: 40/60 Hitting for Average: 30/55 Hitting for Power: 30/60 Fielding: 40/60

Also he is committed to Kentucky, but I imagine he won't be a super tough sign.

Tools Running Speed: 55/60 Arm Strength: 55/65 Hitting for Average: 40/55 Hitting for Power: 40/60 Fielding: 45/65 Seems like he can have some pop.

I would go with Mark Derosa Jr for the 5th round pick

Throws hard, maybe becomes a starter, could help us this year in the pen? Could be worse! Kind of a weak class overall so I don't mind the pick

Not when the twins are sporting the best record in the entire AL! At some point you have to play for today, and that time is now. I'm sure the Twins could have gotten a couple nice prospects for Jack Morris at the deadline in 1991, but I'm happy with how it all turned out.

As long as the twins are within 4 games at the trade deadline, trading Pelfrey would be the worst possible move Ryan could make (unless you get a kings ransom in return) as it would send a terrible message to the fan base(we sucked for 4 years but hey let's suck for one more year! 20 game plans now on sale!) I would extend Pelfrey now if the price is right (2 years 16-20 million based on IP) worst case scenario he is a back end rotation guy or a great bullpen guy.

I would disagree that Escobar is a quality hitter and NEEDS to be in the lineup. IMO he is a decent util guy and a decent stop gap at SS but a terrible option in LF/DH

3rd on the team in runs. Also the guy hitting two behind him has been Suzuki most of the year...not exactly an RBI machine himsef. Mauers numbers were fine until the last 8-10 games or so where he has been in a big time slump.

As long as mauer is hitting very well with runners on I would keep him in the #3 spot, he is just in a slump right now with the bases empty. He will snap out of it.

Trading Plouffe and hicks right now would be a monumental mistake. Plouffes "salary" hit is a complete non factor, you aren't going to find anything close to that value on the open market.

Trading Pelfrey is the dumbest thing this team could do at this juncture, first off: nobody is going to send back a blue chip prospect for him, so you instantly make the 2015 Twins worse. Second off: Pelfrey is pitching fantastically currently, even if he does falter a bit I think there is a really good chance he could become a shut down 8th inning guy for us. Lastly, Pelfrey is close to home and seems to enjoy pitching here, if the Twins can figure out a way to move Nolascos contract at some point I wouldn't be opposed to bringing Pelfrey back for 2016.

Not implying Pelfrey is all about the money etc But heading into a Free agency year I'm sure he realized that a good strong year as a starter prob nets him another 10-15 million (total) over the following season, while pitching poorly and being a DFA candidate nets him a minor league contract and maybe 1 million in 2016. Never underestimate a make or break season for a guy and in a game of inches, maybe this motivation helped him just a little bit?

Keep Plouffe around since there is a better chance then not that Sano can't stick at 3rd anyways. Have Sano play RF/1B.

Yes, Molitor had no business being a major league manager in 2015

Sweet loss Molitor