Thrylos

Having a car over there is almost a must. The area around the ballpark complex is not walking friendly. There are not even sidewalks IIRC. The closest hotels are about 3.5-4 miles away at Daniels Pkwy around I-75. Close to a dozen hotels in that area and another dozen restaurants. Doable, but not recommended.

The ushers are very strict on seating, unless it is late in the game and there are a lot of empty seats. But you can walk around and stand. As far as watching, behind the catcher is always nice OF tables are good as well, but a bit far from the action

Really good stuff I think that there is more to a draft than the first round. I'd love to see how they match up against the other teams in the first 30 rounds of each draft. If you look at that data you would reach the conclusion that teams like the Dodgers, Giants and Red Sox are more successful in drafting players than the Athletics & Rays, which I am not sure it is valid. Bit of a math question. Eyeballing it looks like the pick efficiency average > 1. Shouldn't it be 1? Otherwise your expected assigned values are lower than what they should be. Would be interesting to normalize those with the average pick efficiency = 1. Another cool thing to see is how much of that WAR was actually for the drafted team...

That Chattannoga OF/1B/DH seems very congested: Buxton, Rosario, Kepler, Walker, Harrisson, DJ Hicks plus one of the 3 catchers vying for 5 spots which means that one has to sit on a daily basis... My guess: Rosario as the starting CF in Rochester pushing Farris to UT Hard to argue with your list, but I would include Lewin Diaz and Jorge Fernandez for sure. Chistensen, Williams, Beresford, Vavra are not prospects. Williams was at some point, but...

Now the Twins have 15 catchers in the organization (save for the ones in the Dominican and the majors.) Get GSL out for now (those would be the new picks or DSL) and you got three per affiliate, which is how it should be. de San Miguel will play likely at New Britain Chattanooga even though listed in the Rochester roster currently. Also, Alex Real who played in E-town was hit with a 50-day, so they might even need another catcher at some point...

Re: Vargas: - His BB:K ratio in the minors has been 1:2, so it is likely that he will adjust. He saw a steady diet of junk in the majors (only 49.7% of the pitches throwing to him were FB - last in the team save Morales.) He will adjust - His September decline is likely because he got tired. He played 25 more games and had 150+ more PAs than any other season. And he is not a conditioning monster. Comparisons with Parmelee (other than with the glove - and Vargas is getting better) are not valid. BTW, running out of gas late in the season is a common occurrence for Vargas, same thing happened in 2014. Maybe he should hang out with Berrios a bit during the off-season. - Has to be noted, because it is not common knowledge and not enough credit is given: Vargas (from Puerto Rico, thus subject to the Rule 4 draft) was signed as an undrafted free agent by Bill Smith, same season with the Sano and Polanco signings. To overcome that and become one of the Twins best prospects was pretty amazing. Lots of love for Vargas after this season, but there was only one prospect list that had him on the top ten (he got as high as five there.) I think that he has a monster future ahead of him, if he gets some conditioning.

I think that there might be semantic confusion on rumors and wishful thinking and opinions here.

This is Reusse's proposed lineup: 1-Danny Santana, ss. 2-Hunter, rf. 3-Joe Mauer, 1b. 4-Trevor Plouffe, 3b. 5-Oswaldo Arcia, lf. 6-Kennys Vargas, dh. 7-Brian Dozier, 2b. 8-Kurt Suzuki, c. 9-Jordan Schafer and Aaron Hicks, cf (in a left-right platoon) So: Out Willingham in Hunter, and out Correia in Santana will make a 92 loss team into an 80 loss team? And with at least 4 hitters (Santana, Dozier, Suzuki, Schafer) having career seasons in 2014, and with Hughes having a near career season.

This is a suburban legend, since they finished last in their league only 10 out of their 60 seasons. After the team relocated to MN, they finished last in their league 9 out of their 54 seasons. So the Twins are at the same pace as the Senators

The Twins need to sell high on Dozier. Cannot and should not expend based on a single above average season, otherwise they have not learned from the mistake called Blackburn, Nicholas.

Trying to answer this question, first an illustration of Schafer's career: 2005 (18 years old) Rk-GCL: .203/.256/.352; 3 HR, 12 2B, 3 3B, 13 SB (200 PA) 2006 (19) A: .240/.293/.376; 8 HR, 15 2B, 7 3B, 15 SB (422 PA) 2007 (20) A/A+: .312/.374/.513; 15 HR, 49 2B, 10 3B, 23 SB (626 PA) #25 MLB Prospect per BA 2008 (21) AA: .269/.378/.471; 10 HR, 18 2B, 6 3B, 12 SB (297 PA) #42 MLB Prospect per BA --------- 50 games HGH suspension --------- 2009 (22) AAA: .229/.263/.400; 2 HR, 0 2B, 0 3B, 3 SB (38 PA) 2009 (22) MLB: .202/.313/.287; 2 HR, 8 2B, 0 3B, 2 SB (195 PA) 2010 (23) A/AA/AAA: .201/.268/.255; 1 HR, 10 2B, 1 3B, 12 SB (307 PA) and then downhill from here, traded to the Astros, back to the Braves last season and 4 terrible seasons until he came to the Twins, where he was average. Don't know about you, but I see a whole bunch of red flags here. I was totally surprised that the Twins even offered him arbitration, to tell you the truth. Guys like him are a dime a dozen and I cannot find a season that he was clean and remotely approached league average. Butera on steroids (semi-literally.) Litmus test: a. Can you win with him as your starting Centerfielder? NOPE. b. Would the big boys (Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, etc) have him as their starting CF? NOPE So the Twins should not, unless they do not want to win, or unless they consider themselves second class citizens. One name that is (thankfully) not mentioned: Torii Hunter. That is another NO, and I hope that this manager gets that; the previous one played Parmelee & Cuddaver at CF, so that would had been a risk if Gardy was still around. Doing the same litmus test, Escobar and Santana are also a NO, and Hicks and Rosario are maybe's. AFL notwithstanding (because of Buxton, there) Rosario played mostly Centerfield in 2014. So, I'd have those two battle it out as plan B., because "Maybe" is half-rearending it. But I would really think hard and probably come with a plan A: I'd look around the majors for good defensive Centerfielders who have a year or 2 of contract and can hold the Fort until Godot (sorry, Buxton) arrives and they have been successful and they are what people would think of when they think of a "Major League Centerfielder." And, maybe they are having a performance hickup, so they might come cheap. There is someone who fits all of the above criteria (and he will just be entering his prime and needs a change of scenery big time.) This guy should be the Twins starting Centerfielder in 2015... Plus you get a lead off hitter

What if a LOOGY goes in to face a leftie and then calls the trainer after he is done with the leftie batter. Are they going to let him get out? I am really against anything that takes strategy out of the game. What's next? Eliminate pinch hitters and pinch runners? Do you want to shorten the game? Here: a. Quit the mascot races, T-shirt/hot dog canons etc. in-between inning silliness. b. Allow 30 seconds between pitches; anything more than 30 seconds automatic ball c. Allow only one equipment check/timeout/getting out of a batters box, second and more are strikes d. Catchers' trips to the mount count as coaches' trips. With the second within an inning the pitcher has to get out.

I do. The only exception I made was Polanco, because he was practically a warm body in the majors... Darnell, May & Co have graduated in my book.

I suspect that that 6.5 is decreased as far as Twins' WAR contribution goes, since it includes Revere and his Phillies seasons. a couple of comments: a. Want to see drafting suckiness? Look at the WAR in a Twins' uniform for the Twins first round draft picks from 1961 till Knoblauch (1989). Much less that the aforementioned 6 and change. b. I think that it takes a full 10+ years to judge a draft, so, yeah we can say that Parm sounds like a bust, but Michael? Who knows? c. going back to the data from a. above. Look at the second round. Much better than the first. Frank Viola, Butch Wynegar and Tim Teufel (even Alan Anderson) help. Look at third round: There is a guy named Blyleven, a guy named Castino and a guy named Garvey (who did not sign.). There are more than one rounds in a draft and (despite the dogma) the first round is as important as the rest...

What will it take? In order of importance: Attitude change: play to win every game and hate it when you lose. Do not hang your arms over the dugout railing in the seventh inning, do not go belly up when you play the AL East. Believe that your goal to win every single game and do it. And hate losing. And if you are in a management position make sure that everyone gets it and gives 100% and if they do not get it, get rid of them.Chemistry. It is a team. No teammates thrown under the bus, no players thrown under the bus. Especially the ones who are rookies and need their confidence build up to perform. Coaching and throwing someone under the bus are two different things. Coach, do not blame. If players (and coaches/managers) do not get this, get rid of them.Take the best 25 up North out of Spring Training and play the best 9 most of the time. And then hope for good years, fast starts, etc. Unless you build a winning mentality in the organization, you are not going to win.

They have a (not so small) disclaimer here Excerpt: ScoutingBook.com is the backyard toolshed of a handful of swell fellas (and one sassy lady) who live, work or breathe baseball, online gaming, or both. We use Scouting Book as our own touchstone to collect and share our opinions, rankings, and ideas about baseball prospecting in a connected world. We're also sharing these opinions and rankings here for those who may be interested. We're not ESPN, with a billion dollar budget, hairdressers and a shiny, shiny studio. We're not even John Sickels (though at least one of us would like to have his baby.) We're just a group of baseball-minded folks who needed a place to pool our resources and record our thoughts on prospects while we experiment with some online collaboration ideas. The site has grown a little from there. The Scouting Book website is a series of generated reports from a whole mess of online and offline systems. Scouting Book's prospect 'rankings', our biggest feature, are actually a Combined Ranking: a calculated summary of player valuations based on inputs from across the entire baseball-prospecting world. Our depth charts of current and future closers (our 'Closer Watch' feature) is produced in a similar way. Important: We do not 'choose' where (or whether) to 'place' prospects in the ranked list. Prospects appear where the formula places them each time the calculation is run (usually nightly). A prospect who is highly-ranked on other significant lists (BA, ESPN, etc) will automatically appear in a calculated position on our site, assuming we have their core data in our offline database of 2,000+ prospects. We don't reject old-school scouting reports, and we don't discount modern sabermetric statistics, either: we bow out of that entire argument and use our system to try to deliver values that come from both the head and the gut at the same time. Pretty cool stuff, but you have to take it in context, and the context is up there...

K% by itself is irrelevant. Walker's issue is that he cannot take a walk (pun intended) and cannot judge the zone. Schmidt led the league in both BBs and OBP many seasons. Walker's BB:K ratios and OBPs are up there. Look at those and then look at Schmidt's. They are as different players as different go. Do you want a Walker comparable from Schmidt's era? Here: This guy.

This one recently. 2010 at Philly. The Twins were down 9-4 on the top of the 9th. A couple of HRs by Thome and Mauer tied it. Then Butera of all people hit a PH HR on top of the 10th, Rauch gave one on the bottom of the 10th and the Twins won 13-10 with a rally on the 11th with Tolbert being the hero. Great game and the ballpark was empty by last call. 9 home runs total in the game (4 for the Twins)

My biggest issue with Walker (again) is his OBP and selectivity. And he has been consistent: .310 at E-town, .319 at Cedar Rapids and .307 at Fort Myers. Not league-dependent, not park dependent. Recognizing balls and strikes is the same at all levels. And this is Walker's biggest issue. Not hitting HRs... Reality: Walker had the lowest OBP at Fort Myers this season for players who played 30 games or more there... This is a problem.

Here are the numbers that matter for Walker month by month: April: .208/.290/.441; 11:32 BB:K May: .262/.296/.524; 5:28 BB:K June: .235/.271/.337; 5:28 BB:K July: .226/.299/.443; 10:38 BB:K August: .294/.374/.490; 13:30 BB:K Other than August he was terrible. That is Butera territory OBP. I got him as number 21 on my Twins' prospect list, and unless he gets some plate discipline, it will get worse. Kinda disappointing to see that workout to tell you the truth. What he needs is to stand at a batters box without a bat and take 1000 pitches per day from a machine and recognizing strikes and balls...

I like the rule as is with a single change: A team loses its DH if its pitcher hits an opposing batter, making that pitcher having to bat.

Interestingly enough, the Twins are 14th in the MLB in total revenue (TV included) with $221M, just behind the Angels, Nationals and Mets and ahead of Toronto, Seattle and the White Sox (and check out how their neighbors spend) . As far as operating income goes (earnings before taxes etc) they are 5th in the MLB. You can check the data here (Forbes; sortable list) They need no excuses and there are none.

Farm systems do not win MLB games...

Regarding another thread this week: Norris was drafted 74th overall in the same draft the Twins drafted Hudson Boyd at #55. And a classic VW Camper is not a "Van" people! And from the title of this thread, it sounded like the guy lives in a van as in one step above living under a bridge... Not the case. To each his/her own.

Yes and this is a disgusting practice. Griffith made it clear that when the team moved the whole history moved. Now the closed-minded people who are running the Twins have them wear Giants' minor league team uniforms instead of Senator uniforms just because they happened to be located where the Twins are currently located. Like there are no Twins' fans outside of Minnesota or the whole franchise is tied to Minnesota. Pretty arrogant and historically incorrect position IMO, esp. since the franchise has been one of the founding of the AL...