Thrylos

Glad to see that happen with Esco, but have to say that I was not surprised. The writing was on the wall... Glad he got the opportunity to perform (after they wasted a month and a bit in the beginning of the season.)

I don't think that 2014 was supposed to be a transition season and I don't think that it has been. The truth will come out sooner than later, but looks like Ryan was given an ultimatum from up front to improve the team and he actually tried to build a contender last off-season (and if he thought that this team would content as it left Spring Training to go up North, there are many issues here.) I get Hughes. He is young enough, signed until his peak season. The Pelfrey and Nolaso signings and the fact that Correia and Willingham were still with the team and Meyer and May & Co in the minors, plus the reunion of the 30+ year old had beens, plus the signing of weak bat OF du jour (instead of playing your former first round draft pick who is raking in the minors), plus the signing of Morales (instead of promoting Vargas.) The only transition I saw this season is of shortstops to the outfield. Wanna see transitions and successful ones? Look at Miami. Everyone was pointing fingers when they got rid of expensive talent that did not click a couple seasons ago, trading it for kids and playing the kids. They are more competitive than the Twins this season. (4.5 games behind the WC spot right now and not selling.) The last 3 seasons were half-(baked) rebuilding. You either rebuild or you don't. But you need to know how to rebuild. About the rotation and the prospects and 2015. Nolasco Hughes Pelfrey (in decreasing order of financial obligations) will have a spot. Gibson deserves another, I would argue. So: May (who is out of options, I think), Milone (who is out of options, I think), and Meyer will fight for another. Berrios will not even be close. We have seen that story before, but May and Meyer are not Diamond and Deduno... I still hope that there are a lot of changes next offseason and there is a plan in place, because it seems that this team has been run without one for a long time (other than knee-jerk)

Not sure where MLB Trade rumors got that bit about Adam, but he is not throwing a slider. BA had some stuff from the AFL in 2013 on the topic too. Mid 90s fastball (four seamer) as a starter, plus curve, average change. Good control with all 3 pitches. Fly ball pitcher. If he develops a decent change he might be a starter. The other two pitches are fine for a pen.

This reminds me a lot of what a certain NFL receiver, then with the 49ers, did at Dallas about 15 years ago... I think that the answer was well deserved. Here it is, if you don't remember (and I guess you cannot embed video any more.) Any visiting player who comes to your house and disrespects it, deserves what is coming to him. Common sense. You don't expect the home team to go belly up, unless it does not care...

This is the exact same player the Twins got for Jim Thome & Jamey Carroll...

Not a waste. It will be a promotion for him. Also an opportunity to have a major say in building an organization and an organization culture of competence and competitiveness (which is what the Twins sorely lack) As far as I am concerned, that is more important for a change than just hiring a new manager (who will fail if the ones above him and around him remain the same or have their chairs rearranged again.) This situation is rotten from the top down, and pending a sale to an owner who cares more about winning baseball games than making movies as a hobby, having a new President/CEO who cares more about winning baseball games than the concert gigs and food options at Target Field, is the next best thing.

That might had been right/correct about 2002 or so after that.......................

I think that it is more than Gardenhire & Co at this point (and this comes from someone who started the Fire Gardy bandwagon after the 2006 post-season, when it was cold and lonely out there.) This team needs wholesale changes. I'd offer Joe Maddon a President/CEO position (sorry Mr St. Peter, no more concert planning for you) and let him hire the GM, front office, manager and the rest of the staff of his choice. Got to do it at the top. Ryan is done. The worst think that can happen to this organization (as if not 99+96+96+9? were bad,) it would be if Rob Antony were to be the one who runs this club.

I will be (unhappily) surprised if May does not finish the rest of the year in the majors... They already used an option year on him, their season is going nowhere, there is nothing to lose.

Dumpster diving is a sign of a bad team that does not want to improve. Young is better than Schafer and this does not say too much. Here are some numbers: Schafar: Braves: .163/.256/.213, Twins: .222/.222/.222 Young: Mets: .205/.283/.346 Aaron Hicks: Twins: .198/.338/.262, AA: .297/.404/.466, AAA: .286/.375/.714 So, if you are going to substitute a player who has been performed as good as Hicks did when he was sent down, for a player who has done worse than Hicks at the MLB level this season, and this player, unlike Hicks, has reached his peak and will not improve enough to be part of the future, why don't you just bring up Hicks, who has been raking in the minors? Rhetorical question, but that is what they should do instead of (more) dumpster diving..

Is this a competitive team? Looks a lot like 2014 (too much in my book.) And the best player in the team (The Twins have the second best WAR in the majors at SS, mainly thanks to him,) Escobar, is left out from the starting lineup. Colabello does not belong to a competitive MLB team's roster. Neither does Parmelee. Neither does Schaefer. If the 2015 team looks too close like the 2014 team that is about to lose 90+, it does not look good...

I think we are pretty close. Here is my mid-season list (from 2 months ago, right after the draft.) I would probably push Berrios higher than I had then. Other than the philosophical who is the best prospect, I think that Vargas & Polanco should be a tad higher in your list. Gilmartin is a bit too high, I think (same with Darnell - and they are similar.) Not sure that they will amount to much in the majors.

About a month (and a .143/.211/.143 for that month line) too late. Great guy, but does not belong in an MLB roster of a competitive team.

Unlike OPS, WAR is a cumulative stat. So if Escobar was given the SS PAs wasted on Florimon or otherwise, he would be in the 2.0s easily... Hard to compare WARs with different PAs in this types of equations. Might be interesting to extrapolate WARs for 600 PAs and then compare players in the same position. Yeah. Escobar (quietly) has become one of the best MLB Shortstops out there.

That's the same Jeremias Pineda who was traded for Danny V. and hitting .421/.447/.534 for the GCL in '12 before he turned into a bullfrog. Something is going on there methinks...

There are not many Kirby Pucketts out there. And I think that the point is, unless someone is Puckett or Gwynn or something, it is more effective to go with their strengths as hitters rather than trying to make them something they are not. And the Twins are treating younger hitters different than veterans for sure.

Good stuff. Did you notice whether we was doing any stretch resistance work (with large rubber bands) on the shoulder before he started tossing in the pen before the game?

There is something really big not mentioned here... And this is how Schafer is doing with the stick in 2014. Jordan Schafer is hitting .163/.256/.213 for 2014. Florimon got ousted with a similar OPS, Hicks was sent down and blacklisted with better results. Now they go out and get Schafer? Does not make much sense to me.

Plouffe is pretty much the same player as Danny Valencia is (other than being a nicer guy.) Look how much Valencia has moved and what he was traded for. I think that we collectively overvalue who we have in the Twins. Got to remember that these guys are the people who have been playing every day in 4 horrible teams (and caused the horribleness in those teams.) They just cannot be that good or desirable, with a few exceptions, and, unfortunately, Plouffe is not one of them.

Always liked the red alt jersey they had for a single season. Would be great if it replaces the alt blue. That has been too tired. That was a BP jersey and it showed but red would be great as an alt jersey and a bit more modern than the previous red (which was mirror image of the blue) : http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1044/1176066433_4f3bd98276_o.png I like this Nike fanware Jersey, really clean lines, would look great with the Script Twins in blue (and Minnie & Paul on the sleeve and the logo gone from the chest) : http://images.footballfanatics.com/productImages/_806000/ff_806695_xl.jpg

May is closer to Smoltz than Glavin and Meyer closer to a RH Big Unit (*) than Maddux. May actually reminds me a lot of a young Curt Schilling (*) minus the SF, who was also a late bloomer. (*) Those comparisons are ceilings for the Twins' prospects and have to do with their pitching style and their stuff Berrios is hard to tell yet. I think that moth Meyer and May (and Stew) are ahead of him

FTFY:

It is hard to make conclusions using someones' first couple hundred or so MLB PAs. Remember what Parmelee did his first season up. Killebrew hit .200/.281/.363 & .222/.291/.394 in his first 2 seasons (Hicks anyone?) I think that Santana would be a very good utility player in a championship caliber team (and that's what one should target.) In a horrible team (pick any of the last 4 Twins' teams,) he can be a starter either at CF or at SS (but it will not really matter...)

Not sure, but your second list is of former Cuban Baseball players

To clarify, I suspect that you mean a Latino coach (someone with Latin American origin) instead of a Latin coach (obsolete language instructor.) Been a big proponent of such a move (since ages ago) and finally the Twins added one (Bobby Cuellar) 2 seasons ago. But he is stashed in the pen and does not have the capability to interact with the Latino players during the game. There have been many Latino player voices exalting what veterans like Kendrys Morales (recently) and Orlando Cabrera (not that recently) have done on the bench as far as talking to young players. Definitely a need, and I hope that it is addressed this off-season, but I would not like anyone from the above list and bringing Ozzie Guillen to Minnesota will be like bringing Thome and Favre... Not good. I would look at a list of Latinos who have played with the Twins and have some history with the Twins (unlike the 2 aforementioned gentlemen for example) and might be interested (Tony O is helping during ST, but he just is getting up there). And it does not have to be a bench coach, can be a coach like Molitor is who sits in the dugout (before Vavra's hip flared up.) Here is such a list (and the guys on the tail of the list are hitting 60) : Jose Morales Luis Rodríguez Luis Rivas Cristian Guzmán Javier Valentín Bernardo Brito (has been a coach before in the IL) Pedro Muñoz Junior Ortiz Carmelo Castillo Tom Nieto (lots of coaching experience & currently MiLB mrg, but this bird flew) Mark Salas (current MLB coach role, but bad blood) Álvaro Espinoza (lots of coaching experience) Lenny Faedo Jesús Vega as you can see pretty thin pickings, mainly because until recently the Twins did not have much of a Latino development pipeline...