Thrylos

Sure But there is another huge variable that makes the difference between HRs and FOs: batted ball speed. You can uppercut it, swing through it as much as you want, but if you have Ben Revere's batted ball speed...

He carried the team on his shoulders after Morneau got hurt. No Delmon no post-season then...

74 change is pretty darn good. Are you sure it was not the curve?

Good stuff. Here is some food for thought: The Twins have 20 MiLB managers and coaches. Only the following 5 (25%) were not in the organization as players, either MiLB or MLB: Mike Quade - Managing Twins since 2015 Stew Cliburn - Coaching Twins since 1993 Ivan Arteaga - Coaching Twins since 2001 Luis Ramirez - Coaching Twins since 2012 Cibney Bello - Coaching Twins since 2016 And Cliburn and Artaega have been around forever. Thus 85% of the organization's coaches and managers in the minors are fully versed in the "Twins Way"... I know that 2017 will be an evaluation year, but there is way too much inbreeding for this to be a healthy organization, so I do expect several changes next off-season...

I think that the Twins will go with Gimenez. This list is not what I would do, but trying to predict what the Twins will do, and the 2 things are different. eg. if it were up to me, there is no place for Danny Santana in this roster, unless something happens to Escobar. I think that at this point, the Twins see Gimenez ahead of Murphy. That's all

Agreed. The advantage of someone like Goodrum over Santana and Escobar is that he can play all positions other than P or C. He can play 1B and 3B (ok the other 2 can "play" 3B, but not that great.)

Gimenez (career 899 innings there all pro levels) and Kepler (career 665.3 innings there all pro levels) as is. For comparison, Mauer had only 141 career innings at 1B before he started playing there full time. And Sano needs to learn to play 3B and Polanco needs to learn to play SS. I would not move them from there, other to DH to rest them as necessary.

Hughes was on the record saying that he was not throwing at 100% and will not be throwing at 100% for 2 more outings. I'd wait until his third outing to start getting worried about his velocity, but if he is indeed throwing 87 and 88 at 80%-90% efford, color me happy Re: success with lower fastball velocities: In his 20-4 2.26 ERA, 2002 season with the RedSox, Pedro Martinez's fastball averaged 90.5 mph. In his 16-6, 2.62 ERA, 2002 season with the Braves, Greg Maduxx's fastball averaged 85.8 mph. Not everyone is Pedro and Maddux. For example, even Johan Santana had a hard time being as good as he was when his velocity dropped the last couple years of his career. Different pitchers pitch different ways, and even the greatest sometimes have a hard time reinventing themselves when they lose velocity. FWIW: Other than 2004 Radke was not that effective when his FB average dropped under 90 mph. He was an innings eater with 4.30ish ERA and 4.50ish FIP

To give a little context on Tim Shannon: Career NCAA numbers: 28 G, 14 GS, 80 IP, 93 H, 24 BB, 39 K, 1.46 WHIP, 2.7 BB/9, 4.4 K/9, 6.64 ERA

Still plenty of Spring left I have been surprised by Gimenez. At this point it seems that Garver will play at AAA because he really has not started a single game. JR Murphy is hitting worse than Gimenez. It really is between these 2 it seems and Gimenez is ahead. Don't know about Santana yet, he still has to beat a lot of people. Niko Goodrum is a dark horse in this battle as well. But Santana seems that he has matured at this point

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ------ Ten days ago, before Spring Training games started, I took a preliminary cut at the potential Twins' 40-man roster. My view was that they Twins at this point will value veteran clubhouse presence and defense. I also suspected that participating at the WBC was a negative That 25-man roster was: Starting Pitchers (5) Ervin Santana Kyle Gibson Phil Hughes Trevor May Ryan Vogelsong Relievers (7) Brandon Kintzler Ryan Pressly J.T. Chargois Matt Belisle Craig Breslow (*) Justin Haley Hector Santiago (*) Catchers (2) Jason Castro (*) Chris Gimenez Infielders (6) Joe Mauer (*) Brian Dozier Jorge Polanco (#) Miguel Sano Eduardo Escobar (#) Ehire Adrianza (#) Outfielders (5) Byron Buxton Max Kepler (*) Robbie Grossman (#) Drew Stubbs J.B. Shuck (*) What have we seen in these 10 games or so: Pitchers: I think that Ryan Vogelsong has not really appeared as ready as I thought, and his position is likely going to be taken by Hector Santiago who likely did enough in his game against the Nationals to step up one step in the depth charts. Still to determine whether or not Phil Hughes will be ready, but for the time being, I assume that he will be. I also assume that the Twins will need at least a longer look at Justin Haley. With Santiago going to the rotation, another left-handed arm is needed for the pen and Taylor Rogers is likely on top of those charts. Dark horse: Nick Tepesch who has been pitching very well. So the Twins projected 25-man roster looks like this as far as pitching is concerned: Starting Pitchers (5) Ervin Santana Kyle Gibson Phil Hughes Trevor May Hector Santiago (*) Relievers (7) Brandon Kintzler Ryan Pressly J.T. Chargois Matt Belisle Craig Breslow (*) Taylor Rogers (*) Justin Haley Position Players: As far as catching goes, I think that Chris Gimenez further solidified his position as the back up by playing at 1B and LF as well as a C, being Trevor May's personal catcher and is hitting .500 so far. As far as infielders go, the only difference is that Ehire Adrianza just cannot hit and at this point I do not see him have a position. As far as outfielders go, I think that Eddie Rosario, WBC and all, has solidified a position on the 25-man roster, hitting .375 and playing solid defense. J.B. Shuck has not done so and it is taken off the list. The last spot of the 25-man roster could either go to 1B/DH like Matt Hague and ByungHo Park, both of whom are on fire; however I think that Danny Santana who has been playing all over the field and has not hurt himself with the bat (.972 OPS) has this spot for the time being. So the Twins' 25-man roster looks like this as far as hitting is concerned: Catchers (2) Jason Castro (*) Chris Gimenez Infielders (5) Joe Mauer (*) Brian Dozier Jorge Polanco (#) Miguel Sano Eduardo Escobar (#) Outfielders (5) Byron Buxton Max Kepler (*) Eddie Rosario (*) Robbie Grossman (#) Drew Stubbs 25th man (1) Danny Santana (#) The third version of the potential roster the week after next, while watching the Twins playing at Fort Myers.

Career numbers: 4 seasons: 40 G, 8 GS, 99 IP, 116 H, 30 BB, 58 K, 1.47 WHIP, 2.7 BB/9, 5.3 K/9, 4.73 ERA

I think that Haley has higher ceiling than that. Really. His floor is a mop up guy, which might be higher than Hector Santiago's or Phil Hughes's this season. Both of these guys have problems so far and I would not write their names in stone for the rotation. Hughes admitted that he has not been throwing at 100% (and will not for another 2 starts) and his FB is sitting at 87-88 now. Will figure out more about Hughes in a couple weeks. Saturday is really big for Santiago, if he repeats his first start debacle before he leaves the team for 3 weeks, he is the one who at best will be the mop up guy (his contract is not guaranteed, thus the "at best", the Twins have other options with him.)

Other than Santiago maybe, I just cannot see the others not being on the roster by opening day, trades aside. Here is the thing with Adrianza: he has been pretty horrible with the stick and late in the games against AA and AAA pitching. At this point he bring the same skillset as Vielma does. Escobar's clubhouse presence is also something that is positive for him.

My contention is that SS = 1 is not enough to draw any conclusions in any scientific study. Nothing more, nothing less.

I'd take Vogelsong over Santiago who I don't think is a lock for the rotation. Only the last 2 season he has been a full time starter. As far as OF goes, I think that the only lock is Buxton and maybe Kepler, so Grossman, Santana, Rosario, Stubbs, Shuck, & Palka are competing for 2-3 spots. Not sure that Rosario has earned an MLB job yet, and has an option left. Grossman and Santana are out of options.

Sample size for non-pitchers returning to play who were not treated with the operation: 1. Might be conclusive enough for pitchers (SS = 29) but just one position player... Also what they do not study is the relapse % of players who were operated upon vs not.

Rhett Bollinger wrote that he had a platelet injection before the R&R. It makes more sense then. Still practically unheard of injury for High School OFs...

Not what I would do really, but it seems the most likely scenario: Gimenez. Both Farvey and Lavine have spoken positively of him in his ability to help young pitchers and "leadership".He was the personal catcher of Cleveland's Trevor Bauer, and Bauer spoke very highly of himHe his right handed and hits lefties well (like both Murphy and Garver)He can play first base ok, as wellI think that for this FO 2017 is an evaluation and not a rebuild year, from the Front Office to the minor leagues to the players. They placed an emphasis in pitching (and defense) and want to evaluate pitchers under the best possible circumstances. Again, not what I would do, but it looks like it is Gimenez's job to lose.

This is part of the reason that in my lists I exclude players who played in the bigs. Chargois's ATA (*) was 2016 and he contributed last season. The fact that he still qualifies as a rookie, which is the cut-off of most prospect lists, still cannot change his Time of Arrival (and you don't have to Estimate it, it is actual) to 2017. He arrived in 2016. Fact (*) A for actual

Too early to figure out who the Twins should pick. However. The last prep pitcher who was drafted 1-1 and signed, was a "cannot miss prospect" like Hunter Greene is. The immortal Brien Taylor, lefty mind you. (Great retrospective on that signing here. A must for any Greene fans.) The competition that high schoolers are facing is about 5-10% (at best) of what College pitchers are facing (and this assumes that 1 of their opponents will make it as a starter in a College squad, which is not really true.) And if one has a 98 mph fastball as their only good pitch, he can fool a lot of high school kids....

Interesting. At least they are not playing and destroying Target Field...

Two words: Allan Anderson

No kidding. Here is a shot of him from this week. Colon? Hardly: (check out the change up grip btw. Those are some huge fingers...)

How about this: Bill Smith did more things right in his tenure as a GM for the Twins than Terry Ryan did in his tenures, highlighted by the fact under Bill Smith the Twins have had a better record as a team than under Terry Ryan who was the GM under whom the Twins have had their worst record. Just a fact. But people bringing up Ramos who matter of fact was blocked by you know whom and unless Capps was brought in, the Twins would have not made it in the post-season that season...