Thrylos

Beg to differ. If you want pure upside the pick should be Giolito. Bit more of a risk than Buxton but higher upside. I'd take Verlander upside over Justin Upton upside every day (just because it is more rare.)

Agreed, but in order for that to happen, the Twins need to make changes in the FO and field management staff. Here is why the Twins (incorrectly) valued Marquis over Bedard: a. He has thrown more than 200 innings a few times in his career (equated in their brains with a "workhorse") b. He is a ground ball pitcher who pitches to contact and generates ground balls. Unless they hire decision makers who value missing bats and K/9 more than GB/FB and IP, this team will keep overvaluing the Marquises and the Pavanos (and the Blac_burns) of the world. That simple

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- With the Twins having a severe need for pitching in the organization as well as six picks among the top 100, it is certain that more than one of those picks (and probably the second overall pick) will be used to draft a pitcher. To this respect, I am presenting profiles of the top 22 pitching prospects for the 2012 MLB draft. I will be presenting these alphabetically, and at the end I will rank them. I will be doing about one a day and I will finish before the June 4th draft day. You can find all the profiles (in reverse alphabetical order) as they are presented here. I will start with RJ Alvarez and end with Kyle Zimmer. Each profile with contain a bit of background information and statistics, a mini scouting report and videos and photos. Profile 12: Pat Light Profile/Stats: Pat Light is a Junior at Monmouth University. He was born on March 29, 1991 and he is from Colts Neck, NJ. He went to Christian Brothers Academy for High School. He is listed at 6'6" and 210 lbs and throws right handed. Last summer in the Cape Code League, he pitched 12 games (4 starts) and was 0-5 with a 3.77 ERA, 10 bases on balls and 24 strikeouts in 31 games pitched. This season he started in 14 games, pitched 101.1 innings, had 16 bases on balls and 102 strikeouts. His era was 2.40 and allowed a .225 opponents' batting average. He was drafted in the 28th round of the 2009 draft by the Minnesota Twins, so keep an eye for him, as far as the Twins are concerned, on the supplemental round, if he lasts that long. Mini Scouting Report: Pat Light's pitching repertoire features three above average pitches: a low to mid 90's fastball four seam, slider and a changeup. His fastball is above average occasionally hits mid 90s, there has been a report that he touched 99 mph. His slider is truly plus and is his out pitch with a tight horizontal break down and away to righties. His changeup is a slit-change that sits in the upper 70s. Good command of the fastball, especially low in the strike zone, he will need to learn to command his secondary pitches better. He throws from an under 3/4 arm slot, almost side arm. Videos/Photos: Due to the difficulties in embedding videos here, please go to the original post to see 4 videos of Pat Light pitching http://image.cdnllnwnl.xosnetwork.com/pics32/200/AQ/AQSLCVTCWLYKDUS.20120125175832.jpg

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- With the Twins having a severe need for pitching in the organization as well as six picks among the top 100, it is certain that more than one of those picks (and probably the second overall pick) will be used to draft a pitcher. To this respect, I am presenting profiles of the top 22 pitching prospects for the 2012 MLB draft. I will be presenting these alphabetically, and at the end I will rank them. I will be doing about one a day and I will finish before the June 4th draft day. You can find all the profiles (in reverse alphabetical order) as they are presented here. I will start with RJ Alvarez and end with Kyle Zimmer. Each profile with contain a bit of background information and statistics, a mini scouting report and videos and photos. Profile 12: Pat Light Profile/Stats: Pat Light is a Junior at Monmouth University. He was born on March 29, 1991 and he is from Colts Neck, NJ. He went to Christian Brothers Academy for High School. He is listed at 6'6" and 210 lbs and throws right handed. Last summer in the Cape Code League, he pitched 12 games (4 starts) and was 0-5 with a 3.77 ERA, 10 bases on balls and 24 strikeouts in 31 games pitched. This season he started in 14 games, pitched 101.1 innings, had 16 bases on balls and 102 strikeouts. His era was 2.40 and allowed a .225 opponents' batting average. He was drafted in the 28th round of the 2009 draft by the Minnesota Twins, so keep an eye for him, as far as the Twins are concerned, on the supplemental round, if he lasts that long. Mini Scouting Report: Pat Light's pitching repertoire features three above average pitches: a low to mid 90's fastball four seam, slider and a changeup. His fastball is above average occasionally hits mid 90s, there has been a report that he touched 99 mph. His slider is truly plus and is his out pitch with a tight horizontal break down and away to righties. His changeup is a slit-change that sits in the upper 70s. Good command of the fastball, especially low in the strike zone, he will need to learn to command his secondary pitches better. He throws from an under 3/4 arm slot, almost side arm. Videos/Photos: Due to the difficulties in embedding videos here, please go to the original post to see 4 videos of Pat Light pitching http://image.cdnllnwnl.xosnetwork.com/pics32/200/AQ/AQSLCVTCWLYKDUS.20120125175832.jpg

I am confused here: if a free agent signs an one year contract, he is not a free agent after the next season? I understand how arbitration works after trades and waiver picks but didn't Burton just sign an one year contract?

Yes Brown is ranked pretty high by some people. I picked 22 people just because I started this on May 12th and wanted to finish by the end of May. And for the bottom 5-10 of my list I could have picked totally different people. The way I look at this (because I have not seen the kids pitch) is to pay attention to scouting reports, look at videos, look at their records and numbers and also look at the competition they faced. I am very familiar with Rochester MN and I know that the level of competition that Brown has faced is not that high. A lot of High School kids outside big city areas in places like CA, FL and TX and some up in the Northeast fall into this category. So for a High School to break through, if his school does not have a lot of competition, he needs to have electric stuff. Brown's fastball tops at 93. Another thing I look at is where those guys were ranked last season. Here is the Scouting News Rankings of High Schoolers eligible for the 2012 draft, a year ago. Brown was in mid 200s... I am always leery of Highshoolers making huge jumps in one year. (of all prospects anyways, but High School kids in particular, esp. not often scouted High School kids). In too many words, that's why Brown did not make the cut. Will he be good? Could be. Will the Twins pick him? Maybe. They do like to pick local kids out of both College and High School and they might use one of the supplemental picks or the second or third round pick on him. Will he sign? Maybe. He is committed to UCSD and he is an Academic kid as well, so who knows....

He is a free agent after this season. He signed an one year contract. It was not one of those waiver wire pickups like Maloney, Gray and Vasquez.

Both Gray and Burton are regressing to the mean. Burton used to have a 0.042 BABIP at some point. That was unsustainable. So was Gray's lack of runs with the kind of h/9 and BB/9 he allowed. If you can get anything from them (like a D level prospect) try to but otherwise... I think Gray is a goner when Blackburn gets off the DL and I would rather have Slama than Burton any day of the week.

I think that they can be competitive next season and they do need to spend some money but they got to spend them smart. And they got to trade everyone they can trade this season who is making more than the minimum (with the exception of Glen Perkins) and or is over 28, to get SP help. Span, Doumit, Pavano, Casilla, Valencia, Blackburn, Capps, Carroll, Morneau etc the list is long. Some of them will bring nothing but some of them do have trade value. Get 2-3 good young arms in, free about $40-50M to spend in 2013 smartly (i.e. not $15-20M/season on a single player) and you got the makings for a contender in 2013. But of course you got to deal with the biggest issues of this organization, like the front office, the manager and the coaches before you build a team.

I think he means Gibson. Who is actually doing pretty well with his rehab. I think that the Twins will probably need a couple more younger arms for next season or 2014, in addition to Gibson, Wimmers, Hendriks, Hermsen and they can get at least one by trading Span who by 2014 will probably not be in the plans, this season.

Thanks guys (and I am not sure that it is that wonderful). I think that the way the numbers are (those 6 picks among) the first 100, looks like a couple of them would likely be Twins, so we better get to know them. The one I am profiling later today, Pat Light, as a matter of fact was drafted by the Twins in 2009 and did not sign. So I think that it is a good likelihood that he might be one of them with one of the supplemental picks, if he falls down that far.

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- In the age of social media we live in, more and more teams and players are taking opportunity of the available methods to reach out and communicate with the fans. Or just get something off their mind. Or just post some nonsense. Since there is an off-day today, and there is not much else to do (Twins-wise), I decided to present an unofficial Twins at Twitter guide. I have compiled a list of twitter accounts of players in the Twins' organization, front office personnel, broadcasters, coaches and managers and official minor league teams and presenting them here. There are more than 100 twitter addresses, with 91 players. Some of the players are recently departed, but all of them were with the Twins at the end of the 2011 season. Also, new faces for the 2012 season were added as well. Some are more active than others, but nothing like certain former Vikings' players... I am not including twitter accounts, like Justin Morneau's, which are run by public relations people or of long gone Twins, such as Chuck Knoblauch's, even though the latter might be an interesting list to compile in the future. If you have any additional twitter accounts that I may have missed, please comment and I will add them. Thanks! Here is the list: For space considerations, please visit the original post for the list of Twins on twitter

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- In the age of social media we live in, more and more teams and players are taking opportunity of the available methods to reach out and communicate with the fans. Or just get something off their mind. Or just post some nonsense. Since there is an off-day today, and there is not much else to do (Twins-wise), I decided to present an unofficial Twins at Twitter guide. I have compiled a list of twitter accounts of players in the Twins' organization, front office personnel, broadcasters, coaches and managers and official minor league teams and presenting them here. There are more than 100 twitter addresses, with 91 players. Some of the players are recently departed, but all of them were with the Twins at the end of the 2011 season. Also, new faces for the 2012 season were added as well. Some are more active than others, but nothing like certain former Vikings' players... I am not including twitter accounts, like Justin Morneau's, which are run by public relations people or of long gone Twins, such as Chuck Knoblauch's, even though the latter might be an interesting list to compile in the future. If you have any additional twitter accounts that I may have missed, please comment and I will add them. Thanks! Here is the list: For space considerations, please visit the original post for the list of Twins on twitter

So the Twins are a SP and a third baseman away from being WS champions in 2013? Competing for the division? or for getting to .500? As is, the Twins are about 3-4 SPs away, 2-3 pen arms away and 4-5 position players (RF, 2B, 3B, 1B, DH for starters) away from having an elite team and about half as much for having a competitive team. Doumit is gone after next season. It is not just an arm and a bat that would turn this team around...

Yes. but I don't think they should spend it all in one place I think that Greinke has one exceptional season in the AL and a couple of above average seasons. His NL numbers are better but that is NL. Again: Only a single All Star season, only a single season in which he got votes for Cy Young (yes he won it that season.) But just a season. He is not Santana or Sabathia or Pedro. Not even close. And he will get CJ Wilson money. Someone will give him a 7 year 150 mil contract, and I hope it's not the Twins. (Pretty sure they will not be actually and thankfully.)

I really love what small sample size can do

That is for him to know. I suspect that the Brewers were thinking that the Twins' pitchers were hitting their batters intentionally earlier. All I can think. And as far as whether that was intentional or not, everyone who pitched can tell you that you cannot throw behind a batter who hits the same way you pitch (eg. RHP to RHB) unintentionally, unless it is something that got away and slipped and that would be something that flutters at like 45-50 mph max off someone's hand. So it was intentional and it was a good call. Too bad the manager was not thrown out as well...

That ^^^^ He has an option left (remember he started the season in New Britain). Being a 5+ year pitcher he would have to accept optioning and I am not sure whether the fact that he accepted optioning earlier in the season has anything to do with now. Plus he will bring local star quality for the ever-complaining natives there.... /sarcasm The bottom like is that the interim GM made a $3 million mistake. Would be interesting to see whether Terry Ryan admits that he is wrong. About who should replace him? I think that it is about time that the Twins see what Cole DeVries have. He is the best P in Rochester (other than Hendriks) right now.

And, what's exactly wrong with that? Kill many birds with one stone

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch --- With the Twins having a severe need for pitching in the organization as well as six picks among the top 100, it is certain that more than one of those picks (and probably the second overall pick) will be used to draft a pitcher. To this respect, I am presenting profiles of the top 22 pitching prospects for the 2012 MLB draft. I will be presenting these alphabetically, and at the end I will rank them. I will be doing about one a day and I will finish before the June 4th draft day. You can find all the profiles (in reverse alphabetical order) as they are presented here. I will start with RJ Alvarez and end with Kyle Zimmer. Each profile with contain a bit of background information and statistics, a mini scouting report and videos and photos. Profile 11: Brian Johnson Profile/Stats: Brian Johnson is a Junior at University of Florida. He was born December 7, 1990 in Lakeland, Florida and went to Cocoa Beach High School. He is Left hand pitcher and first baseman. He is listed at 6'4" and 225 lbs. This season he starter 14 games, pitched 72 innings allowed 15 bases on balls and 59 strikeouts. He has a 3.88 ERA and his opponents batting average is .256. He has been hitting .313/.351/.469. He is Mike Zunino's teammate. He was drafted in the 27th round of the 2009 draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers. Mini Scouting Report: Brian Johnson's pitching repertoire features a low 90's fastball, changeup, and curveball. His fastball averages 90-92 but occasionally jumps to 94. His four seamer has good movement. Overall it is an above average pitch. His curveball is a sharp breaking curveball and has the potential to be a plus pitch once he commands it better. His change up is a work in progress. His delivery and mechanics are very consistent. Videos/Photos: Due to the difficulties in embedding videos here, please go to the original post to see 3 videos of Brian Johnson pitching http://www.gatorzone.com/baseball/images/bioimg2011/76.jpg

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch --- With the Twins having a severe need for pitching in the organization as well as six picks among the top 100, it is certain that more than one of those picks (and probably the second overall pick) will be used to draft a pitcher. To this respect, I am presenting profiles of the top 22 pitching prospects for the 2012 MLB draft. I will be presenting these alphabetically, and at the end I will rank them. I will be doing about one a day and I will finish before the June 4th draft day. You can find all the profiles (in reverse alphabetical order) as they are presented here. I will start with RJ Alvarez and end with Kyle Zimmer. Each profile with contain a bit of background information and statistics, a mini scouting report and videos and photos. Profile 11: Brian Johnson Profile/Stats: Brian Johnson is a Junior at University of Florida. He was born December 7, 1990 in Lakeland, Florida and went to Cocoa Beach High School. He is Left hand pitcher and first baseman. He is listed at 6'4" and 225 lbs. This season he starter 14 games, pitched 72 innings allowed 15 bases on balls and 59 strikeouts. He has a 3.88 ERA and his opponents batting average is .256. He has been hitting .313/.351/.469. He is Mike Zunino's teammate. He was drafted in the 27th round of the 2009 draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers. Mini Scouting Report: Brian Johnson's pitching repertoire features a low 90's fastball, changeup, and curveball. His fastball averages 90-92 but occasionally jumps to 94. His four seamer has good movement. Overall it is an above average pitch. His curveball is a sharp breaking curveball and has the potential to be a plus pitch once he commands it better. His change up is a work in progress. His delivery and mechanics are very consistent. Videos/Photos: Due to the difficulties in embedding videos here, please go to the original post to see 3 videos of Brian Johnson pitching http://www.gatorzone.com/baseball/images/bioimg2011/76.jpg

interesting... this: 1 - .288/.346/.356 .702 (7) should actually make the people who think that Span is anything more than average lead off hitter, rethink...

Was a typo. Now corrected. Gee

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- With the Twins having a severe need for pitching in the organization as well as six picks among the top 100, it is certain that more than one of those picks (and probably the second overall pick) will be used to draft a pitcher. To this respect, I am presenting profiles of the top 22 pitching prospects for the 2012 MLB draft. I will be presenting these alphabetically, and at the end I will rank them. I will be doing about one a day and I will finish before the June4th draft day. You can find all the profiles (in reverse alphabetical order) as they are presented here. I will start with RJ Alvarez and end with Kyle Zimmer. Each profile withcontain a bit of background information and statistics, a mini scouting report and videos and photos. Profile 10: Andrew Heaney Profile/Stats: Andrew Heaney is a Junior at Oklahoma State University. He throws left handed. He was born on June 5thof 1991. He is from Oklahoma City, OK and went to Putnam City High School. He is listed at 6'2" and 174 lbs. This season he started in 13 games and he is 8-1 with 1.59 ERA, 19 BB and 120 Ks in 102 IP. He also has 5 complete games. Has been a 3 -year starter but he relieved in a few games in his freshman and sophomore season. He was drafted by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the 24th round of the 2009 season but did not sign. Mini Scouting Report: Andrew Heaney's fastball is a plus pitch averaging 90-91 mph and touching 93 mph. It has a good cut and sink to right hand hitters. He is one of the few pitchers to throw a screwball (high 70s up to 80) and is his best secondary offering. He has a slurve and a change up, both which are average and there is room for improvement, esp. on his change up. He has an easy delivery and a 3/4 arm slot. He is a fast worker on the mound. Has been compared to a young Jamie Moyer. Videos/Photos: Due to the difficulties in embedding videos here, please go to the original post to see 4 videos of Andrew Heaney pitching http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/okst/sports/m-basebl/auto_headshot/7388626.jpeg

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- With the Twins having a severe need for pitching in the organization as well as six picks among the top 100, it is certain that more than one of those picks (and probably the second overall pick) will be used to draft a pitcher. To this respect, I am presenting profiles of the top 22 pitching prospects for the 2012 MLB draft. I will be presenting these alphabetically, and at the end I will rank them. I will be doing about one a day and I will finish before the June4th draft day. You can find all the profiles (in reverse alphabetical order) as they are presented here. I will start with RJ Alvarez and end with Kyle Zimmer. Each profile withcontain a bit of background information and statistics, a mini scouting report and videos and photos. Profile 10: Andrew Heaney Profile/Stats: Andrew Heaney is a Junior at Oklahoma State University. He throws left handed. He was born on June 5thof 1991. He is from Oklahoma City, OK and went to Putnam City High School. He is listed at 6'2" and 174 lbs. This season he started in 13 games and he is 8-1 with 1.59 ERA, 19 BB and 120 Ks in 102 IP. He also has 5 complete games. Has been a 3 -year starter but he relieved in a few games in his freshman and sophomore season. He was drafted by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the 24th round of the 2009 season but did not sign. Mini Scouting Report: Andrew Heaney's fastball is a plus pitch averaging 90-91 mph and touching 93 mph. It has a good cut and sink to right hand hitters. He is one of the few pitchers to throw a screwball (high 70s up to 80) and is his best secondary offering. He has a slurve and a change up, both which are average and there is room for improvement, esp. on his change up. He has an easy delivery and a 3/4 arm slot. He is a fast worker on the mound. Has been compared to a young Jamie Moyer. Videos/Photos: Due to the difficulties in embedding videos here, please go to the original post to see 4 videos of Andrew Heaney pitching http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/okst/sports/m-basebl/auto_headshot/7388626.jpeg