jokin

I should say so. Who else is as worthy on the short list for Exec of The Year?

Not in Minnesota, though... yippee?

Uhh, yeah... could the Twins even get a decent 4th OF for him at this point?

That seems logical and could possibly be the best path for Meyer to reach the majors next year. But Seth didn't qualify his comments with that nuance- he made it sound like RP was his new permanent career track.

The problem with your theory is that he only imploded after the new regime was put in place at the major league level. He had already dominated at the same level in 2014. Clearly, whatever the new philosophy was that went into effect in 2015 resulted in disaster for Meyer's prospect status and downgraded prospective MLB role. As I've previously stated, like the Expos in 1989 with the Big Unit, I fear that the Twins sell low to a team like the Mariners, or the Pirates, or the Rays, and Meyer reaches his full potential with them instead of the Twins.

Umm, I wasn't suggesting a one-for-one swap of Span for Storen. I was suggesting that fairer value in that trade would have been much closer to Span for Storen AND Meyer.. I thought that was obviously stated in my post. Storen was the insurance policy so you had the likelihood of at least some MLB return back for a near-elite CF in his absolute prime, plus your lotto ticket in Meyer. Perhaps the Twins would have had to throw in a C+ prospect to get it done, but I don't know how anyone can say that the Twins didn't get taken in this trade- and there were many of us, including professional writers who said just that at the time of the trade.

Just did a quick Gameday look-in.... ABW does it again. His 3rd HR in the AFL, giving his team the lead, 5-4. He's now 3-3 on the day, 3 RBI, a triple short of the cycle. Any chance that this game will be broadcasted by MLB?

Meyer aint Benson.

3 pitches- 100 MPH 2 pitches- 99 MPH 4 out of 5 were strikes. But you're right, when the slider looks as good as it did on Monday the kid's unhittable. He looks like a totally different player than he was for much of the season.

This is great to see. Thanks Seth for the alert- it looks like we'll soon have another to add to the Spring Training Power Trio (Sano, Arcia, Vargas). Do we know yet if ABW is getting the ST Invite? In addition: -Turner also tossed a guy out at 3rd base (He's now 4-6 in CS in the AFL). -Taylor Rogers also got back up on his horse and threw 5 shutout IP yesterday and Garver got another hit in the same game extending his hit streak.

Amen. Just a more consistent, average 3rd pitch like a change and you have the makings of an Ace-level performer. When I saw him a year ago in August, he dominated Louisville and was throwing what looked like a 3-finger change-up in the 70s. It was clearly a work in progress, but when he could get it near the plate (and not tip the pitch), very effective.

Great post. Great stuff. Yeah... I let Seth have it on his 11-15 ranking thread- if he truly believes what he says (and I have no reason not to think that is the case), Meyer's fall from the top of the national prospect lists- and now going from potential Ace to 3rd best Twins' relief pitching prospect- is a complete disaster (and maybe only 4th best is Jay ends up working out as yet another relief pitcher in the Twins Top 10). Which is why I don't get the disconnect that if this does play out in the way he envisions that it's all no big deal. It is a big deal- it would mean that the trade for Span was one of the most one-sided in Twins history. I for one, don't believe that this is how it will all work out. But as another poster said upthread, and as I've mentioned in the past, I fear that Meyer will end up reaching his full potential as a starter with another organization.

Well stated. Frankly, there's way too much"Burn the Witch" intolerance going on in this country all the way around. Just take a look at history to the countless atrocities against humanity that are often the end result of taking the matter of a difference of opinion- to stigmatization- to hate- to persecution.

And I didn't say it was "benign"... I said "more benign than deserved of being called a racist". See how subtle semantic differences altered contextually can so quickly change the quality of a discussion?

Lots of reasons why lots of people choose to take offense at things. The language about "imposters" was indeed pretty crude stuff- and there's probably an economic argument to be made that more speculative American black baseball players have priced themselves out of the market when there is an easy alternative in that you can sign maybe up to a dozen young Latin players at around the same price as one black ball player in the first 10-15 rounds in the draft ,and certainly when salaries start to quickly accelerate at the major league level . Both of these feelings are probably still a pretty widespread sentiment among the African American community, especially when phrased with less-charged rhetoric than Torii's verbose rant. With regards to "authenticity", if you recall, in 2007-8, there was a strong movement in that same community that Obama wasn't an authentic-enough African American to be deserving of the mantle- I don't recall cries of racism being thrown around during that dust-up. FWIW, I had a chance to coach an inner-city high school team for 10 years. I learned through multiple occasions and testimony that the resentment against the African immigrant and refugee communities is widespread among the African American community.

It's kind-of important when you use one of the most politically charged words in American culture- like "racist", to use them with precision (or else their meaning becomes diluted). It's the same sort of semantic inelegance that Torii demonstrated when trying to explain why his experience as an African-American was different ("more valid") than that of Caribbean Latins of the same race. Quite simply, his behavior was more benign than being worthy of being called a "racist", and also definitionally inaccurate.

"Dominican" and "Latin" are not races, they're nationalities and ethnicities. The players in question that Torii disparaged were members of the same race as Torii- can one really be "racist" against members of his own race? The term you were looking for was probably "anti-cultural bias" not racism. Torii was very clumsily trying to explain why the cultural experience for American blacks as a minority group is "authentic"... versus the experience of non-American blacks who come from a culture where their race is in the majority.

I was just about to let him have it with both barrels. Good thing I read down the thread. Well-said, Sir.

Uhh... Nope... If this is how it ultimately plays out, this is an unmitigated disaster. *** And you're also incorrect about Span's first year with the Nats. He wasn't as good as he was in 2014, but he still produced the identical fWAR- 3.4- from his last season with the Twins. Seth appears to have closed the book on Meyer in the rotation- but you can't simply whitewash the fact that that's already acknowledging the Twins wasted 3 years of failed development time better spent elsewhere- and wasting 3 years of Meyer's bullets in the process. You argue that the Twins simply had to take the risk. Really? What has been the Twins' track record on developing over-sized hard throwers? Zilch. I'd argue (and I did argue such at the time) that the price and risk were far too high in making a strong-up-the-middle-player-for-pure-prospect swap. Dave Cameron followed suit on my opinion within a day or so. You simply can't just shed a cost-controlled and a clearly superior-to-the-average player at an elite position unless you get a useful proven major league piece thrown into the transaction (Drew Storen? 2.3 fWAR from 2013-15)- to compensate if you lose the bet on your lotto pick piece. Losing Span, the heart of the Twins OF defense, left a gaping hole that resulted in one of the main reasons that the Twins were the laughing stock of baseball, save the Astros (look who's laughing now). *** Span has accumulated 8.8 fWAR over the last 3 seasons. By contrast, if the Twins had traded for a Top 10 veteran RP instead of Meyer, the average net accumulated fWAR for the best 10 RPs over the same 3-year span is 5.79. With Meyer going to the pen- and since early results aren't exactly encouraging that he can ever be an annual Top 10 MLB RP, the Twins will almost certainly never recover the lost value that Span has and will continue to accumulate before he retires. Again, it's important to reiterate, a Top 100 prospect over the last 4 years, ranked as such just 6 months ago, one of the two highest hopes to become the elusive Twins Ace- is now only the 3rd highest rated relief pitching prospect (with the other two guys above him full of their own question marks)- which could mean he ends up being a 6th or 7th inning guy down the road if it plays out that way. That's quite a long fall from glory in such a small 6-month span of time.

Says a lot about the respect he must command around the league with all of the other very deserving candidates. I would have probably placed Molly second behind Banister. And Terry Collins was the very deserving winner in the NL. Here's Cuddy's comments about the keys to his managerial success: I wish they could have gotten an additional player quote on Molitor instead of Kevin Gorg.

To reiterate, you are now officially on record with this statement from above: The Twins have not publicly stated that Meyer has permanently been designated as a reliever- it seems more like the opposite is true in their public statements. And to have Meyer considered as such from this point forward- (you do seem "convinced"- for whatever reason(s)- that this is now how the Twins are envisioning that his career path proceeds, right?)- pretty much means that the trade with Washington has been a disaster, most definitely difficult, if not impossible to get a "positive" takeaway here. By these rankings, Meyer is now behind two guys who have had their own share of struggles, but who only ever projected as RPs. Again, this was a guy who only 6 months ago was rated as the BP #14-ranked prospect in all of baseball- not #13 on the Twins. I'm not saying your conclusion is necessarily wrong, just that it's hard to accept the stamp of a positive spin on a guy who's ceiling only 6 months ago was said to be as an "Ace".

The Yankees have to be kicking themselves- sure, they ended up getting McCann, but Martin has vaulted ahead of McCann over the last 3 years- Martin 12.6 fWAR vs. McCann 8.1 fWAR . And Anthopoulos does look like a genius in how he got it done so early in the process (signed on 11/17/14), and yet still convincing Martin's agent to sign a back-loaded 5-year contract- Martin played for only $7M in 2015, and just $15M in 2016.

Uhh, yeah..! And now BOTH Burdi and Chargois rated above Meyer- ? This makes little sense- Meyer was a Top 100 prospect four years in a row going into 2015 and as high as #14 on the 2015 BP list- unless Seth knows something seriously wrong underlying Meyer's current situation and can't state it publicly. This point is where the intrigue kicks in- as more than one TD writer downgraded Meyer's Twins' top prospect rating- before Spring Training and Meyer's struggles began in 2015- while all but one of the national services kept their rating the same or even kicked Meyer's Top 100 ranking higher.

Funny how that phrase actually works both ways its stated: http://scontent-a.cdninstagram.com/hphotos-xfa1/t51.2885-15/10643876_739837772773581_1813009482_a.jpg

Mattingly seems almost a shoo-in at Miami ("Good Luck!"). DougieMint never a serious candidate there? And I do agree, Gardy seems like a good fit in Pad land. Is there a more laid back big city in the country? Also, brings up even more questions... Might he have input on wanting to bring some of his "Gardy guys" with him? Would any GM approve of Andy back in the pitching coach chair? On the player side, would he push for a trade for Dozier, Zuke, even Plouffe?