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jokin

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Everything posted by jokin

  1. jokin
    Bingo, Mr Brooks, the temptation to play this newest family game of delay-cliche's (Fun for Twins Fans of All Ages!) for the best starting pitcher prospects, "Consistency", oops, "Prepared"-nessTM, I guess, can now easily extend past the first months and even to the next Super 2 cutoff date in 2015.
  2. jokin
    Pino has been diagnosed with a strained UCL, and has been shelved for the season, per Rhett Bollinger/Dustin Morse. I'm wondering how often this inevitably leads to TJ surgery, in which case, we may have seen our last ever appearance from Yohan Pino. The floor is now open for discussion on a swing starter replacement in the remainder of August and September, as well as implications for Alex Meyer and his ongoing innings limitations.
  3. jokin
    Yep. A minor correction....his BB/K is actually 10/10, but still, a matching 9.1% rate for K% and BB% is quite good, considering the fact that his ISO during this 28 game run continues to climb, now @ .182 with 12 XBHs. Seth is still convinced that Max will have to repeat A+ starting out 2015, but, he's on the 40-man roster, and as you noted, there's lack of organizational depth at corner OF. I have to think he gets one of the AFL spots amidst all of the very deserving Twins prospects, especially if Buxton isn't cleared to play. Assuming Kepler does well there and then gets the nod to New Britain next year, this leaves a very good chance that, assuming Buxton and Sano begin the season there, the Rock Cats could start legitimate prospects at every field position to open the 2015 season. Add the downright scary bullpen that it shapes up to possibly becoming....imagine if you will, 6-7 strikeout machines on the same staff.... Burdi, Zach Jones, Peterson, Van Steensel, Wimmers, Johnson (and Jake Reed looks like he's a level too low in Cedar Rapids). Taken together with a decent-to-good starting staff, that might be the best minor league team in 2015, at any level.
  4. jokin
    Oh, yeah. And it was pretty obvious they had nothing left last night, even when they had an entire pen on two day's rest. Tigers a team in disarray.
  5. jokin
    No doubt. My new favorite Twin. Can everyone now agree (except KLaw, of course), that KLaw was just a little off in his assessment of Kennys Vargas?
  6. jokin
    Wow. Exactly no one has said anything close to what you're intimating.
  7. jokin
    Thanks, Seth! Great to hear your opinion on Kepler, I'm not sure whose spot in the outfield he could take away in New Britain but assuming Buxton is in CF full-time, Rosario splits time in the OF and 2B with Michael (and maybe Harrison?), Kepler should have a shot at splitting time between a corner OF spot and 1B with the Rock Cats, especially if he keeps up his current pace to season's end and has a strong showing in the fall. It seems that Sano and Polanco will likely start out there, as well, and perhaps Walker could also split time in the OF and DH. If Turner also gets promoted, you could actually sport an entire starting lineup of legitimate MLB prospects and not any filler (mostly place holders currently in New Britain, presumably some of them move up to AAA or released). The minor league forum on TD is the place to hang out these days for big-picture positive Twins news, and all of your efforts are hugely appreciated.
  8. jokin
    Looks like they're guilty of their own brand of hubris in those specific cases. And they can't claim any success in "knowing" that Santana was ready, they only called him up out of sheer desperation, to play a position he had no recent experience at in CF, well after they literally had exhausted every other infield/outfield roster option either through embarrassing failure, their own inept roster management or injury.
  9. jokin
    Is this first part of your post actually true? Gibson, May, Thorpe, they all have to go through the transition process to becoming a major leaguer, there isn't something inherently wrong with initial failure, failure in most cases is just another valuable part of the learning process. The part about hubris...?, I am in total agreement. The "actual player" that we currently see in Trevor May is not the player from the scouting reports we've pored over from the day he was acquired.
  10. jokin
    Exactly. I would think that it's SOP for many, if not most other clubs, to send up their top prospects when they've demonstrated mastery of AA, AAA, or both levels. Why not let both of the M & M boys up, find out ASAP if their stuff translates, and if not, send them back to improve on their areas of deficiency. In the case of Meyer, I keep coming back to the case of Randy Johnson, who learned on the job for four bad-to-mediocre major league seasons before he finally put it all together. The question then is raised, what more can Meyer learn in AAA, that he can't learn better with the major league club?.... which isn't winning any time soon, anyway.
  11. jokin
    Seth, in addition to your usual off-season prospect rankings, are you going to do a special piece on the Who? What? and Why? on the September Instructionals? And after that, a projection on who plays where in the system in 2015. Do you have a good feel for where Kepler starts out in 2015? New Britain looks to be sporting an incredible lineup, decent-to-great starting pitching, and a downright scary bullpen.
  12. jokin
    This one really jumps out: While it's a bit disconcerting that Sickels seems more concerned about Stewart's shoulder than the average Twins fan, if Sickels proves correct, and Gonsalves turns out to be the real deal, the Twins would still have 4 high-upside guys in their Top 10 going into next year: Meyer, Thorpe, Berrios and now, Gonsalves. A gutsy call on draft day by the Twins could turn out to be the steal of last year's draft.
  13. jokin
    Max Kepler is making a serious bid in turning the corner on his professional career. In his last 26 games he's now hitting with a .341 BA, a .516 SLG and a .928 OPS. On the first stretch of this run, Max was mostly hitting singles, but he's added 10 XBH in August (6 doubles, 2 triples, 2 HR).... and in the process, his LD% has jumped to 28.3%, while his K% is half of his season average before this run, with an ISO of .176. Before this run, I was convinced he'd have to repeat High-A. It appears he's going to make it hard for the Twins to hold him back. Next year's team at New Britain looks to be freaking frighteningly good. And best of all, all of these prospects will, finally, only be one phone call away from the Twins.
  14. jokin
    I doubt there are very many Twins fans who don't think the Twins are doing what they feel is best for their top prospects. But the actual evidence from around the league- with greater than some 500+ starts from pitchers under the age of Trevor May this season- prompts questions to come about in wondering if the Twins have some serious blind spots, not in how they feel about the player, but in their philosophies and training regimen that might be retarding the development curve for top prospects from being major-league-ready more quickly
  15. jokin
    No conspiracy, just a general disagreement about promoting younger starting pitchers and suggesting that something is wrong in their methodology at getting younger pitchers to the majors. Aaron Gleeman pointed out the facts this year about the Twins and promoting young pitchers: And if bouts of wildness was the drop dead reason for definitely holding Meyer back, right here are 6 Twins pitchers that belie that conclusion, along with their 2014 BB/9 rate (SPs in bold): May 13.00 Pelfrey 6.85 Milone 6.24 Johnson 6.08 Tonkin 4.38 Deduno 3.95
  16. jokin
    I'm not sure there's any big secret information, I think it's pretty clear that the Twins intent and prime goal for Meyer this year was to manage his innings/pitches to keep him pitching and healthy for a whole season. I think Meyer's height/mechanics relative to keeping his arm and shoulder healthy and him pitching effectively and consistent, weighs heavily in the thoughts and plans for the guy the Twins hope ends up as Ace material- pulling the trigger on a promotion just doesn't appear to have been at all in the plan for 2014. Regarding Gibson, if Meyer only ends up at least as good as Gibson, the Twins and Meyer will have badly failed in reaching Meyer's full potential.
  17. jokin
    I don't know about you Hosken, but I believe my own eyes and even moreso, the eyes of every single scouting service, which all have him ranked somewhere in the top 50 prospects. Will he struggle initially if he's ever promoted? Undoubtedly. But talk of being "prepared" or not, as the new setting of the bar, or the reason for holding him back at this point, lacks credibility. If they publicly stated that he's an unfinished product, I could buy into that characterization 100 percent, but that shouldn't mean he doesn't deserve a promotion.
  18. jokin
    I think all we've gathered for sure from May's 3 performances thus far, is that, given his month off due to injury, and his sketchy minor league appearances afterward, plus the usual difficult adjustments that most prospective SPs have after call-up, his early struggles are entirely to be expected, and he definitely looked more the part of a major league pitcher in his last appearance. And as in Gibson's case, these can be thought of as necessary, but arduous, growing pains that may as well be dealt with sooner rather than later. Where your supposition rings especially true for May, with respect to the front office's concern in promoting him, is the fact that thus far, he's far from the "power pitcher" that was advertised. To this point, we've seen a pretty ordinary, strictly low-90s straight fastball, and an utterly useless curve. Certainly not the mid-90s FB/ plus curve, strike-out machine that was previously billed. After seeing Meyer pitch in person, I can assure everyone that Meyer isn't the "previously-billed" May, let alone the current major league May. If the Twins really have even less confidence in Meyer than May....i.e,, to be given at least a chance to get his feet wet this year, than something's really gone terribly wrong with both of Terry's biggest and most-celebrated trades in his second tenure at the helm.
  19. jokin
    It was widely reported that Terry Ryan was the closer on the deal for Kendrys Morales on June 2. And that he more or less has been back full-time since on or before June 11. There have been multiple starting pitcher promotions during these last 2+ months. It follows logically then, that the issue of the prospects for promotion of the #3 overall prospect and the #1 pitching prospect has curiously been in the dead letter file all season- or perhaps, maybe TR is under severe traveling restrictions due to his health concerns?
  20. jokin
    Before August 14, he had a 7 game in a row string of excellent outings. Meyer had an amazing string of five straight games of 6 innings per game, with a 1.50 ERA and a .177 BA, followed by two more strong outings of 5 and 5.2 innings. He's on an innings/pitch count limitation, he's doing what's being asked of him for the most part, and proves he's not a finished product as illustrated in your August 9 and August 14 outings. But he's clearly got the best major league-ready stuff in the upper minors, it's a big question if he's best being served by throwing all of these innings in AAA, or with the big club, which is spinning its wheels anyway. Regarding his inefficiency, all very tall pitchers struggle with their deliveries, particularly as they are developing. Plus, add the fact that he's developed a new third pitch this year.
  21. jokin
    Even more stunning, Ryan's comments apparently imply that Meyer has NEVER been under consideration for promotion because of a lack of definitive information about Meyer's major-league preparedness, information that apparently only Terry Ryan is capable to gather in-person. Baffling.
  22. jokin
    This little Berardino column from early yesterday slipped my perusal: Twinsights: What's the Plan for Meyer? Ryan's somewhat shocking answer, "I don't know yet", and the revelation that this will be his first and only in-person viewing of Meyer in 2014 is pretty telling. "Consistency" evidently has been replaced by "prepared" as the promotion fall-back impediment-crutch-word. I think this little snippet makes it clear that Meyer was never realistically in the plans for 2014. Previously in the article, Ryan expressed how pleased "the plan" laid out for Meyer in 2014 has been largely accomplished- the plan apparently being: "Let's manage innings and pitch count very closely and nurse Meyer through an entire AAA season without a shutdown" ..... and definitely not: "Let's see if we can manage his development and innings limitations in AAA commensurate with as early a call-up to the Twins as possible to continue to maximize his developmental trajectory."
  23. jokin
    I don't know if it's specifically health/training-methodology-related, but the Twins have frequently drafted/traded for pitchers out of the same schools. And perhaps the heavy emphasis on drafting all of these college RPs of late is also a reaction to the heightened risks in drafting the typical over-stressed college arm. And it was well-documented that Stewart was heavily restricted from throwing his "out" pitch, the slider, this season.
  24. jokin
    Pretty encouraging start for Meyer. 10 Ks and ZERO BBs to a Buffalo team that has the second best K% in the IL and the 3rd best BB rate. 62 strikes thrown and only 27 balls called. For the season, he now has a K/9 of 10.87, which if the season ended today, would be the highwater season mark for his professional career. 11 pitches, 11 strikes, 3 Ks in the first inning on 3 pitches apiece (unfortunately, that inning began with a Mastro HR on a an 0-1 count). In the 6th and final inning for Alex, Meyer quickly struck out the first two men up, before running into a little control trouble, throwing a total of 23 pitches in the inning and working a couple of 3 ball counts, forcing him to come in with a hittable pitch in each instance. In giving up 8 hits tonight, I would speculate that Meyer's #1a and #1b priorities for the game was NO WALKS and "managing the pitch count", and in the process, experimenting in finding the right mix and balance of pitches in and out of the zone to maximize both Ks and weak contact. And he did have quite a few ABs that ended as quickly as the ones in his July Futures game appearance at Target Field, so, until the 6th inning, Mission Accomplished! Hopefully, he builds on tonight's performance right quick the next time out. He now sits at 123.1 IP, which only leaves him with maybe a projected 20 to 30 innings left in his quiver- with presumably 2 more starts with Rochester to eat up a significant chunk of those innings. Alas, the call-up to the Twins seems out of the picture, especially if the Red Wings make the playoffs.
  25. jokin
    As a former #1 pick, I hope he can end up being a little more than Beresford.
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