Thrylos

Santiago pitched in the WBC. Berrios sat on his ass

Well, the "too long" is a speculation. What if he were up in April and threw the way he did last season? Hard to tell. It is what it is and great to see. Now the Twins need another pitcher to step up

This might be correct, but the Twins took a similar risk in Stewart and seems that it did not pan out. I just don't trust that group to draft high school pitchers. There is another issue also: A College player would a. be able to help the Twins in 1-2 seasons and b. he would be about the same age as the good young core of the team, and with Sano 4 seasons away from free agency, this core might not have the time together to allow a High School kid to be MLB-ready; especially one with one only pitch who might never get MLB-ready, if he does not get at least a couple other plus pitches. McKay is almost there. Greene might not be ready before the opportunity passes for these Twins. Got to look at the big picture here. If Greene had 2 pitches and was putting video game numbers it would have been a different story; and I don't care whether he looks like Adrian Peterson or like Bartolo Colon.

The same Nick Hanson who had a 9.18 ERA and 2.400 WHIP his first season as a Pro?

Which dropped down to .739 with 2 outs and RISP, .672 in high leverage situations, and .532 in "Late and close" situations. That's what "we people" are talking about... And BTW, Here is the big one about his HR last season: Men on: 12 HR / 248 AB (20.7 AB/HR) . Nobody on: 30 HR / 367 AB (11.5 AB/HR) His career numbers: Men on 35 HR in 1104 AB (31.5 AB/HR), nobody on: 87 HR in 1732 AB (19.9 AB/HR) Numbers do not lie.

Sure. Those are 2 PAs from years past. How about his 2 PAs today with men on? Or his .192 last season and .200 this season batting average in high leverage situations?

I don't know about you, but I start thinking that the Twins should had passed on Buxton, based on his performance so far and drafted someone like Corey Seager or Addisson Russell instead.

And that should really be the "All-Star second baseman" who was supposedly worth more in trade than the Dodgers offered. Unfortunately he sucks on big time situations, like today, when he came up with 2 on and 2 out twice and left all 4 on base. But he has been great in hitting solo HRs when the game is not on line. About addition by subtraction time as far as Dozier is concerned...

One more thing because it is getting to be a pet peeve: How many "generational talents" can you have in a generation? 1, 2, 5, 50? I'd take Kershaw, Trout, Harper (and potentially a few more, with Sano knocking on the door) in this conversation for the current generation. If that number gets to how many, some of them are not "generational talents"?

When I am looking at term like "regression", I'd like to look at data that might so deviation to begin with. Here is some of that for the Twins, and their closest AL Central opponents: Pitching: Twins: 4.80 FIP - 4.31 ERA, Indians: 3.52 FIP - 3.98 ERA, Tigers: 4.57 FIP - 4.77 ERA Twins: 72/7% LOB, 12.2% HR/FB, .269 BABIP Indians: 73.9% LOB, 14.3% HR/FB, .308 BABIP Tigers: 71.2% LOB, 12.3% HR/FB, .306 BABIP Hitting: Twins: .282 BABIP, Tigers: .294 BABIP, Indians: .278 How I would interpret that? Regression as far as hitting is not much of an issue (if anything players like Polanco and Buxton are likely to improve.) As far as pitching goes, it is obvious that Santana and Santiaga (other than his last outing) have been playing over their heads, the bullpen is made out of band-aides and spit and Kintzler has a pact with the devil (or something.) But, I hope that Berrios continuous where he starts to provide a serviceable number 2 behind Santana (at this point) and the one of Mejia (.360 BABIP) or Gibson (.359) rebounds (regresses? ) . That is hopeful likely possible. The pen is a bigger story and the Twins need 2-3 late inning arms to keep it up, whether they come within the organization (Bard, Burdi, Chargois, Melotakis, etc) or outside. But, I'd take first place any day

The issue I have with the reported Greene's ceiling is that it is "calculated" based on his fastball and "athleticism". The last is not a huge difference maker in baseball, esp. for pitchers. I'd put mechanics over athleticism all day (and night.) His mechanics are dubious at this point. Same with a fastball. Heard some reports that it "can use a bit more movement". If that is the case, it is pretty scary, because, what you can blow past a Private Religious High School player, you likely cannot blow by an average A class player. And looking at Greene's stats he is "dominant" (48 K per 106 batters faced, 12.2 per 9), but not dominant (18 H + 4 BB per 28 IP, = 0.785 WHIP,) based on the level of competition. For comparison purposes, Brendan McKay has 0.810 WHIP against major conference opponents this season. 100 mph fastball or not. Strikeouts or not (and McKay is striking out 12.4 per 9, a number higher than Greene's.) Let that sink for a while: McKay is about as effective against College hitters and is Greene against Private High School hitters. Plus McKay has 2 other above average pitches (one plus) that Greene does not have. So, if Greene were to go to College and kept his effectiveness rate up, in 4 years he would be about as effective as McKay in getting hitters out, strikeouts or not, 100 mph fastball or not. For me the choice as is right now, is pretty simple. I did a bit of analysis last week here, comparing the top 4 College pitchers and ranked them, based on their objective numbers as well as subjective "scouting" rankings. The results are very clear. The one factor that was not taken into consideration is sign-ability or how much a bonus they might require, but still... I know that Greene is a great athlete, a great story, has an 100 mph fastball and can strike high school kids out, but I'd rather go with the guy who can get College kids out (and even with strikeouts) at the same rate... And he is a lefty.

Ranking Buxton over Sano before they played a single MLB game was questionable. Ranking Buxton over Sano right now is ridiculous. If "baseball" thinks that Buxton has so much value, the Twins should sell high ASAP.

Do you remember Tom Windle and Mitch Brown? The last 2 MN pitchers with a lot of helium before the draft. Windle from the U and Brown from Rochester HS. Both drafted in the second round, and the local media were disappointed because "they should have been drafted higher.". Where are they now today? Windle just started the season at AA Reading (down the road from me), after making the transition to the pen his third season as a pro, in 2015. Second organization. Has difficulties throwing strikes and his numbers are pretty horrible (9some ERA, 1.600ish WHIP). Likely will get demoted to A+ as a 25 year old. Mitch Brown, who is 23, after a career ERA close to 5 as a starter, made the transition to the pen this season in AA and has been ok so far (2.50 ish ERA, 1.200 ish WHIP), but nothing special. Other than Brown the only MN Prep pitcher who was drafted in the second round was Brad Hand (also hyped by the local media as a first round talent) in 2008. 2.8 Career WAR, 2.6 of it coming the last 2 seasons as a reliever. He seems like a good set-up guy at 27. After 10 years pro career. The level of player competition is incredible huge in judging draftees, and especially pitchers (that's part of the reason I have huge issues with the Twins drafting Greene 1st overall btw,). The fact is that the level of competition in MN High School (and College) is low. I don't know how Carlson compares to Winkle and Brown (and Hand 10 years ago.) But I think that the Twins should be cautious looking at their own back yard for talent in the top rounds, because it has not proven fertile enough, because of the level of competition.

That has been a problem. The best pens have 2-3 good veterans (the Twins have none) and rotate a bunch of younger players with options to the minors and they stick when hot, and go down when they cool off. The Twins have been having problems getting the concept of using the whole 40-man roster and not wasting spots for never had been veterans. Re this: If you get a new hat, you don't get a new head. Or new brains. Other than the very top, there is nothing "new" with this Front Office.

I'd argue that: a. there are more advanced RHB in AA than in AAA and b. his 0.84 ERA, 0.66 WHIP, and 25% K% against RHB, even though early in the season, makes me think that he is ok against them.

Would love to see the objective criteria that would be used to include Arrieta, Greinke, Kluber and Verlander as Aces, but will exclude players like Syndergaard and Strasburg. So what is this list based on? Subjective personal preference?

Duluth is too small for a AAA team. AAA teams are in metro areas of about a million people or so. Think State capitals that do not have an MLB team. Even some of those (eg. Charleston WV) are big enough for only a AA team. Or other big metro areas in large states. For Example, the Rochester (NY) Metro is about 1,110,000 people right now. Duluth might be big enough to support an A team, if that. So you are looking at a Midwest League team, like Cedar Rapids.

Not really. About 1/3 of their roster are people with no affiliate baseball experience Just looking at the former Twins: Nate Hanson & Tony Thomas = Older organization fillers with no future in affiliated ball other than someone needing bodies later in the season Tanner Vavra = bombed in A ball and would had not made it there, if his last name was not Vavra and he was not in the Twins' organization Corey Williams = Great College story, great pro potential, just could not make it in AA Mark Hamburger = Do they test for use of herbs in the Independent Leagues? The funnest part about Independent Leagues is when they sign over the hill had beens. Rickey Henderson, Jose Canseco, Darryl Strawberry, etc. Those people sell tickets (and autographs) The level of competition is just a tad above the younger NABA age groups. I really do not mind the Saints. What I mind is that they are potentially taking butts off the seats from my favorite MLB team, and as a Twins' fans, I'd rather see them play somewhere else.

I get it. I do get it and I do enjoy minor league games with my kids. But I am a Twins' fan. Which means to me that if I had the choice (which I do not really do) I would watch a Twins' game vs. an independent (or minor) league game, in season. Saints prey on people who like baseball and do not consider themselves enough of Twins' fans to go and watch the Twins instead. Lots of the "experience" crowd. But heck, if the Twins are in town, there is a game at TF and someone goes and watches the Saints play instead, unless their kin is on the game, he/she should not consider themselves a Twins' fan. That. Simple. Pretty sure that the economics are such that the Twin Cities cannot support both the Twins and a AAA team and the butts on the seats in the AAA will take away profits (aka $ that can be used to get better players and build better teams and win) from the parent team. I don't even think that Rochester (MN) might be a decent enough place for that. Too. Close. Bottom line: If you are a Twins fan, you go and watch the Twins regardless of the existence of the Saints, and, unfortunately, the Saints take away $ that would have gone to the Twins (or even the U of M or other school or City ball) from the casual baseball fans who want to watch baseball and do not care about the Twins enough.

Interesting to see that among the 5 former Twins (Nate Hanson, Tony Thomas, Tanner Vavra, Mark Hamburger, Corey Williams) in the roster, there are a lot of young players. Wonder who will be the next Saint that the Twins will sign... Good luck to them, but I hope the ball park is empty when the Twins play home games and that the local baseball fans support the Twins first and foremost.

Lynyrd Skynyrd would agree

I think that his biggest issue in the majors last season was overthinking and trying to be perfect instead of doing what he knows what to do and go get them. Interesting to see how this will work this season, with a different set of catchers. Hope that the Castro/Gimenez duo helps him over that.

Goodrum is the guy who has been the longest with the organization without making it to the bigs. Interesting.

a. he was jaded b. he had bad council Does not matter. He chose team PR,USA over the Twins, which is what (apparently) matters. Bad choice and he has to learn from it.

Santiago had already an MLB contract, and please remind me where Vargas spent the last month or so?