Vervehound

ryan deserves praise for signing willingham and those that point out we can't develop power hitters are right, but it really doesn't make much sense to keep him as he won't be here when we're competitive next. he makes this team slightly less unpleasant to watch, but that shouldn't be a criteria for keeping him. span's redundant and is a prime asset right now with his age and contract. show that the organization knows how to maximize value on something and sell high. it's more of a kick in the nuts to the fans to keep anything resembling the status quo. blow up whatever you need and get some goddamn arms in house.

cool. i've been hoping to check this out. i believe the story centers on two players - sano and someone named bautista. who's bautista? not sure if you're aware, but the 2009 international class could turn out to be legendary with guys like profar, sano, bogarts, hanson and a whole slew of others showing well. also, curious how you'd characterize the twins player development compared to other organizations from what you've seen.

gcl is essentially double extended spring training where they keep stats. that gcl staff is loaded and the guys starting have more experience - malinowski and gibbons have been at the complex all year, montanez started last year, rosario, jorge and landa pitched in the dsl last year - not to mention there are about ten arms that could/should be starting on that staff and they've already had to incorporate a bunch of rehab starts (gibson, bromberg, salcedo) so there's nothing to be bent about.

looks like martinez signed after all (what in the world happend there?). still might be one or two that haven't leaked out....

we had $260k of our pool in savings to play with and $90k has gone to larson, leaving us $170k. hopefully we signed another one or two guys with that.

zach larson, our 20th rounder, signed for $190k.

i see we signed zach larson, our 20th rounder, for $190k. interesting....

nuttin twins related. if this year's deadline is like previous year's, though, it'll take a couple hours for everything shake out once it passes at 4pm.

there are a few interesting sp's in e-town in boyd, robb and mata but the twins gcl club has more arms with upside than i've ever seen in 20+ years of following the minors. that's the right formula - you need numbers in order to get guys to the finish line. the twins dsl club also has a nice group of seventeen olds.

three-a is filled with prospects at the beginning of the year but, by the time the all star season comes around, all those guys are in the majors. look at anthony rizzo as an e.g. the twins have promoted everyone worth giving a shot to from rochester already so the leftovers are going to be the minor league free agent types.

no, then you'd have a situation like we currently have in ft. myers where santana and michael split reps at s.s. no one really blocks anyone in the minors, especially in an org like the twins that values positional flexibility. btw, the premise is off on this argument - harrison is far away from proving anything with his s.s.s. and the twins like to keep their guys in the lower minors for the whole half/full year. see the e-town seasons of arcia, oswaldo and rosario, eddie as exhibits a&b.

considering they're not part of the players union...no.

one thing that crimps a trade with the nationals was that they dealt a bunch of prospects to get gio gonzalez, including peacock and cole, who'd likely be at the front of any group of prospects we'd be asking for.

the name i keep hearing is minier - listed as a ss but clearly not one. at this point he's an all bat corner if'er/of'er type with a sweet swing from both sides of the plate. vaguely reminiscient of terry pendleton. heh. well kinda. i've also heard we're in the discussion for torrens, who will likely not be a catcher going forward, but there are a bunch o' teams after him. the $2.9 million limit has led to some teams you wouldn't likely hear about during the int'l signing period making a name - notably the rays. signing period starts monday and really, is there anything more exciting in sports than watching a bunch of obscure, alledged 16 y.o.'s sign contracts over a twitter feed? oh, and cool to see a brazilian on the list. learned everything he knows from jose pett. 1. Franklin Barreto, ss/cf, Venezuela 2. Luis Torrens, c, Venezuela (video) 3. Jose Mujica, rhp, Venezuela (video) 4. Alexander Palma, of, Venezuela (video) 5. Gustavo Cabrera, of, Dominican Republic ( )6. Jose Castillo, lhp, Venezuela ( )7. Luiz Gohara, lhp, Brazil 8. Carlos Belen, 3b, Dominican Republic (video) 9. Luis Castro, ss, Venezuela 10. Wendell Rijo, ss, Dominican Republic ( )11. Amed Rosario, ss, Dominican Republic (video) 12. Amaurys Minier, ss, Dominican Republic ( )13. Richard Urena, ss, Dominican Republic ( )14. David Rodriguez, c, Venezuela ( )15. Deivi Grullon, c, Dominican Republic ( )16. Julio de la Cruz, 3b, Dominican Republic ( )17. Jose Almonte, rhp, Dominican Republic 18. Sergio Alcantara, ss, Dominican Republic 19. Frandy de la Rosa, ss, Dominican Republic ( )20. Jose Pujols, of, Dominican Republic ( )

correct. at this point, he's the next ozzie lewis.

one of these years some guy from my alma mater is actually going to make it to the bigs. wish i cared more, but the ghost of jake mauer not being able to hit a single minor league home run in more than 1000 at bats still haunts.

you can say all you want about the twins shortcomings as an organization, but if one of our players came down with bubonic plague, there is no field staff in baseball more prepared to give him a blood letting or the proper poultice.

i'd be curious to know - i a bit of a web search but couldn't find anything pertinent. the reason i remember the 2000 number is because i felt it was outlandish and i got a bit exasperated. i believe the conversation was about rivas and guzman at that time, hence the my dyspeptic reaction.

he made this statement this past offseason so i'm not sure if you should go back over the course of his tenure to grade it but i'm guessing the realization came from inheriting a guy like millar, picking up a guy like ortiz or jason bay who had similarities in their pasts, taking a gamble on jeremy hermida who could've paid big dividends or sticking with a guy like youkilis who many prospect followers labeled a 4a type.

tk used to say that you don't know what you have in a player till you give him 2000 at bats. most of us would find that laughable - that's four full seasons before you cut bait. but the premise there is right - you need to give a guy a chance to adapt at this level and play through it or you're no closer to knowing what you have than before you called him up. this season is a grind and most seem to forget about that on a regular basis. i'm a big fan of theo epstein and would've been stoked beyond belief if he'd have taken over for billy bob. his theory that there are no 4a players, just guys that haven't had enough ab's/ip's in the majors has merit and he's proved it with bryan lahair this year.

look at all the byto names on the minor league board....

it can be done, but the odds are against it. by the time a pitcher is 21, his body is mostly mature and his mechanics are more difficult to overhaul. you just don't see a lot of breakthrough starters once you get past age 24 - the reason being that a lot of things have to come into alignment and well, it's freaking hard. the real issue with this system is that there is no discernible front line starting pitching at any level and i'd rather have to wait a couple more years for it now that a couple more years later when we determine that these guys are relievers after all. btw, the one guy that strikes me as a possilble rotation guy is tyler duffey, our fifth rounder. i think he's got the best shot but his ceiling wouldn't be above mid rotation and that's an unlikely development. finding a backend starting candidate in the 5th round is good value but, c'mon, that's not what this system needs.

but where's the upside? you're not going to get short armed relievers with no distintive change of speed to become starters. it makes me groan to think about it. if they wanted upside, they should've gone after some of the other intriguing prep arms that were eminently available with their second supplemental and two second rounders. i really like the buxton and berrios picks, but i'm not sold on many of the other choices. hope i'm wrong.

i think the byto folks should be segregated from the rest of the td folks so our tone is more readily understood. it'd be like wearing an ed hardy shirt to a club - you've already tipped everyone off that you're a d-bag so it won't come as a surprise when you act like one.

someone asked jim callis this very same question in a b.a. chat last year and he speculated late first round. keep in mind that the kid was 16 when he signed so that increases the risk by a significant margin and lowers his worth. b.a. tries, for the most part, to not rank prospects until they at least hit the rookie leagues because you really have no idea what you have until then.