jokin

Sorry, I can't decipher this in order to respond?

Not to many of us.

Probably not until he retires...

I'm only posting in the interest of accuracy- the Joe Benson saga and the aftermath discussion were good entertainment on TD. Joe needed to move on, if only for his own sanity's sake. He has talent, but it's still very much in doubt that he can be a productive major leaguer, in any role, perhaps his emotions are his own worst enemy. But your posting continues with more factual errors. 1) Joe Benson was drafted by, and spent part or all of his first 8 professional seasons with the Twins. He was once one of their Top 5 prospects. While he now has nothing to do with the 2014 Twins, you made the "needless" comparisons, it's only logical to project where he might be in the organization now, had the Rangers not claimed him in 2013. 2) Benson was with Texas for most of two seasons, not one, as he was claimed off of waivers by Texas on May 25, 2013, and played the entire 2014 season with the Rangers' AA and AAA clubs. 3) Your original post did the comparing, not me, and your operative statement was that "he couldn't crack a terrible Twins squad" (as an OF) and "couldn't crack two terrible Marlins' squads." The Marlins didn't "suck" in 2014. In point of fact, even though they lost their Ace pitcher, the Marlins were the second most improved team in 2014, improving on their win-loss record by 15 (62-100 to 77-85) and their run differential by over 100 runs (-133 to -29). He was clearly competing for a spot on a team with a much better OF. 4) The Marlins are projected to improve again this season, some say a little, some say fringe contender. With that in mind, Miami was definitely not going to be the place for Benson. I'm not sure why stating the facts makes you "glad that I got my digs in on the Twins though."

As he should be, at least for now. that's his only ticket to the majors.

I nominate this post for Threadwinner

The only possible positive outcome for Pelfrey was in Ryan making the obvious-to-some move that many of us have been calling for from his first year with the Twins. Not out of the woods and into the clover yet though.... the next question for Pelfrey to answer is if he can pitch effectively on back-to-back days. A new Wade Davis isn't built in one ST appearance.

Yeah, me too. In the spirit of the TD blog, I was trying to put a more hopeful, positive spin that the Twins braintrust's thinking could possibly be catching up to reality...

How many variations on this sentence theme have been written over the last 3 seasons?

Plenty of evidence that both should have been called up no later than last May or June (Gardy even wanted Meyer in his pen out of Spring Training) in a year when the Twins were spinning their wheels. Why waste those starts on guys everyone knows were not part of the future?

You keep presenting evidence that supports the case to consider promoting faster.

I think you missed my point- I'm in full agreement that the current status quo is not going to end well. I was saying that the Twins talked themselves last fall into believing that signing Hunter would be both a defensive upgrade by placing him in RF w/ Arcia in LF, plus he would help upgrade Hicks in CF through his mentoring (and perhaps Arcia, as well), as he had been mentored by beloved Twins CF vets previously. Only now in late March have they come to the conclusion that this plan was currently not viable.

Everyone has acknowledged that Gibson was a special case, and having to go back in time to find exceptions to the current situation only makes the current situation more stark in its comparative inepitude.

Your facts are off. Benson was only in the Marlins system last season, he was with Texas in 2012-13. And cracking Miami's very good OF would have been a far higher hurdle than the Twins horrible OF. Miami OF 2014 fWAR (w/ MLB ranking): 13.8 WAR (6th in MLB) Twins OF 2014 fWAR (w/ MLB ranking): 4.5 WAR (21st in MLB)

No. The Twins moved too slowly with him... with respect to moving him back down to AA/AAA after his first 50 PAs in 2013. Leaving him hanging out to dry in a major league starting lineup when he clearly didn't belong bordered on cruel and unusual punishment. He's never recovered. The point being, it's an inexact science to know exactly who is and isn't "ready". Only one way to find out for sure.

MLB debut ages Santana 24 Gibson 25 Vargas 24 Hicks 23

Santana only came up out of sheer desperation from multiple major-mis-assessments of personnel- in his 7th year with the club. Gibson- TJ issues early on, but should have come up in 2013 before the "PJ, Cole and Pedro" show lingered into summer- he was clearly the best SP all year in Roc. (Albers notwithstanding). Vargas also could have been called up in May 2014 when there was roster room and need for a bat- in his 6th year with the club. Hicks was also promoted in his 6th year with the club.

I agree that this one comes down to the "cure being worse than the disease". But isn't there possibly another aspect to this move that you didn't address- on the defensive side? Could it be that the Twins, who were somewhat in denial on the dreadful OF defense situation on the day of the Hunter signing, came to realize in ST, that viewed in whole, that no net defensive upgrade from 2014 had been achieved-- and maybe resultantly, Hicks simply wasn't up to the task of the critical job of manning CF with major defensive red flags Arcia and Hunter flanking him?

What a hoot that could be.... the last time through all of this was some of the best banter ever on Twins Daily... Joe Benson... he who reported for duty to Gardy in a shirt and tie... then the erstwhile "Frisco Kid"... and now possibly, Braves "fence jumper"... looking forward to it.

Chris Herrmann, jack of all trades, master of none. At least with Pinto, there's still a fighting chance that he can develop into a major league bat. It sounds like Pinto is in jeopardy of spending much of another year in AAA purgatory. Is that your take after spending a couple weeks in Ft Myers?

Anyone get a look at "Wade" Pelfrey's performance?

"Minimal Impact?".... so far for the blg club? I sense that you, Paul Molitor and the "staff" are big fans of Terry Ryan's job the last 3 seasons at "minimizing" the "impact", to go along with Tommy Milone's great minimizing job that won him the #5 spot.

Uhh... a lot of WAteR flowed under the bridge... right out of town... and still hasn't yet been replaced. It's going on 3 years now, the losing drought during this time is directly related to the hole created in CF and the holes still unfilled in the SP staff. that's in the present tense- that's why the deal looks sad, right now. I don't know how else you can look at the trades, right now, than that. Again, as I said, 5 months from now, hopefully things will look far more optimistic going forward.

So you're saying that the boys are taking a fresh approach in their analysis....?

Sorry Stringer. Typing and watching NCAA while you had essentially already posted what I just did.