Jump to content
Twins Daily
  • Create Account

jmlease1

Verified Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    5,456

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    30

 Content Type 

Profiles

News

Minnesota Twins Videos

2026 Minnesota Twins Top Prospects Ranking

2022 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks

Minnesota Twins Free Agent & Trade Rumors, Notes, & Tidbits

Guides & Resources

2023 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks

The Minnesota Twins Players Project

2024 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks

2025 Minnesota Twins Draft Pick Tracker

2026 Minnesota Twins Draft Pick Tracker

Forums

Blogs

Events

Store

Downloads

Gallery

Everything posted by jmlease1

  1. jmlease1
    Keep in mind, Culpepper was drafted by the Previous Regime (Who Shall Not Be Named); often seems like there are people around here who actively root against prospects from that governance, that's how deep the hate goes. And of course, since a minority of prospects work out, it's easy to call people suckers for looking hopefully to the next big thing and then go "see! I told you they sucked!" if they don't become an immediate star... I dunno if there's any more pressure on Culpepper than any other highly touted prospect; I think he could be very impactful if he comes up and can field well at SS and hit, but I dunno that he's being seen as a savior any more than any other prospect that looks very promising. I think the time is getting close on calling him up, though, and I'm looking forward to it. It might put a charge into the team and fanbase (even if some people already seem to be rooting for him to fail) and it would be fun to see the vision of an infield with him at the head. I'm rooting for Culpepper, who has done damn near everything you could possibly ask for a prospect to date. He was in High A in his draft season at 21 after crushing it in Low A for a couple of weeks. He's never spent more than about half a season at any level in the minors before getting a promotion. He's looking at debuting in MLB in his 2nd full pro season. Not bad for the 21st pick. Looking forward to seeing him at Target Field sooner rather than later.
  2. jmlease1
    He seems to have the ability to stick at catcher; part of the reason he's only splitting time there is he's on the same team as Tait (who also needs the developmental time) and I think the Twins are careful not to hammer their catching prospects with too much of a load. The fact that he's playing so much CF as his second position says a lot about his athletic ability. Whether or not he's a future MLB player or not...well, he's still in A-ball so who knows? I'm not going to start predicting Diaw is the next Biggio or anything, but he's showing something so far. I'm hoping he gets moved up to AA soon and gets more of a challenge.
  3. jmlease1
    It's a pretty even split between CF and C right now, so I really don't think we have to worry about him being "another DH type". Diaw seems to be lining himself up for a promotion to Wichita, who could use his bat. Not an exciting day for the prospects down on the farm, but it goes like that some days.
  4. jmlease1
    Sure, but a lot of A-ball guys never really go anywhere either, drafted or no. You'll have guys like that on the college rosters who figure out they're not going pro (or if they do they'll have to really scrabble in the low minors for little money when they're already in their 20's) while they're playing in college. It's sort of how you'll get someone playing DII who people talk about as being good enough to play D1; they might be good enough to make the level, but are they really going to play a lot? Or get a scholarship? But in D2 they might start 3-4 years, get a scholarship, and have a great time while getting their degree. There's a lot of factors. It's reasonable to think that the level of competition in a Power 5 D1 conference to be somewhere between low A and high A.
  5. jmlease1
    Cossetti looks more like organizational depth to me, but he'll probably get a shot in AAA next season as long as the Twins like the way he works with pitchers. As noted above, catchers have a different developmental timeline, but Cossetti hit the AA wall pretty hard as a hitter. Doesn't exactly look like the next Mitch Garver to me. Mitrovich is interesting, might end up being a guy they pulled out of a smaller program and could be someone. I love a guy with a good changeup, so I'll be rooting for him. I agree that he needs to see better competition; at 22 he's mostly facing guys that are younger than him, including a lot of guys who don't even have that college experience. But good for him for dominating when he's taking the ball. Quick is a guy I really like. When he isn't handing out free passes, he's very tough. If he can develop more consistency and command his pitches he will keep rising "quick"-ly. Biggest issue with him is he simply hasn't pitched very much. Hopefully the Twins can build him up, but I don't expect him to clear 60 pitches in an outing this year. But he's shown he can mow through 4 innings with about 50 pitches which is pretty fun. Whether he gets another promotion this season or not, I'm very confident he'll be in AA next year. Please stay healthy, mah dude.
  6. jmlease1
    After a slow start tot he season, Winokur has done quite well. There's still some concern about his ability to make consistent contact, but he's doing a better job of taking walks when available and going after pitches that he can punish. If he keeps this up through the end of June, I think he'll be heading to Wichita I'd like for them to stop wasting time with him at SS; there's just no real chance that he ever plays there in MLB and he's got a real chance to find a home at either 3B or CF...or both. I'm find with experimenting with guys in A-ball and giving players extended time to see if they can stick/develop at a position, but De Andrade is a better SS than Winokur and they don't trust him there. The Rule 5 draft for him this upcoming offseason will be interesting. Even with a midseason promotion to AA he won't be ready for MLB by a long stretch...and you have to think that the 26-man roster spot would be too hard to give to a guy who still needs real developmental time...but the upside is so tantalizing that if I were a team short on talent I might look at whether he could fill a role like Outman did for the Twins earlier this season: play some OF defense, pinch run, with the occasional start to give him some swings. Will the Twins protect him or roll the dice? Fun prospect to watch. Was worth taking because of all the tools. Like all prospects, maybe he'll get there, maybe he won't but the upside is still there and he's still only 21.
  7. jmlease1
    I get that the Twins don't consider Sabato or Fedko to be real prospects at this point...but at what point to you just give them a chance anyways? Is it after the trade deadline and a sell-off? I get the 40-man issue makes it harder to pull them up and they're hoarding those slots for players they think have higher upside or fill more immediate needs...but both of those guys are doing about everything you could ask for of them. Interesting question for these kinds of borderline dudes...who might just be AAAA players (too good for AAA, not really good enough for MLB) but you just don't know. Twins were willing to roll with Outman for quite a long time, much to the frustration of fans. Is it familiarity breeding contempt? Those guys have been in the organization so long they know all their flaws intimately and it blocks out their assets?
  8. jmlease1
    Houston has been on fire lately; nice to see him hitting well after a bit of a power outage in May. I'd say he's on track for a midseason promotion to AA. It'll be interesting to see where the Twins go with midseason promotions. Wichita could use some hitting reinforcements; their lineup has really struggled after Mendez, Ross, and Olivar all got early bumps. Hopefully more guys get back on the field too and we see a run of good health for a while.
  9. jmlease1
    Talk about needing the starter to chew up some innings...and they got it from Zebulon. Good for him for settling down and getting the job done, and for the defense actually supporting the pitcher. A nice win. Hopefully they can get the rotation healthy, claw together some consistent offense...keep digging for an actual bullpen...
  10. jmlease1
    This is where it's complicated for Royce Lewis. You can't expect him to not take advantage of AAA pitchers and club homers when the opportunity arises. Is his walk rate down at AAA? Sure, but he's also hitting .357. When players on on a hot streak like that they're walk rates are always going to be lower because they're hitting everything and don't have to grind out as many walks. (The OBP is .429, so it's not like he's just swinging at everything) Right now, his approach is working. He's not just hitting AAA pitching, he's utterly destroying it. How to you tell a guy to "go the other way" more when he's crushing it? (Pulling the ball isn't an inherent evil either; ask David Ortiz) He can be pull-happy if his bat speed is letting him catch up to fastballs and he can lay off the breaking stuff away...so is he showing enough of that? Notably, Royce is a confidence player. He was not swinging with any confidence when he got sent down, and he was just guessing at pitches. His confidence has got to be jumping way back up again, which you'd think would be a good think. It does sound like some people around here don't want that for Royce and think he needs to be broken and humbled before he's allowed back up to MLB, if he ever is. (I'd say there are some people who don't want him around at all ever again; as much as there are supposed homers who are back on the bandwagon there seem to be haters who have given up on Royce too and even successes in AAA will be discounted...)
  11. jmlease1
    It's complicated on Royce. You want to see him doing well, which he is. But the difference between AAA and MLB is pretty huge, and it's unclear how much of his current success in Saint Paul is a result of him fixing problems that were ruining him in MLB or the fact that the pitchers just make a lot more mistakes over the plate/struggle more to induce hitters to chase off the place. Now, Royce is also definitely a confidence player, so him clocking a bunch of AAA pitchers is also probably good for that aspect for him? Hopefully he's getting a good re-set that lets him get into a repeatable and sustainable approach at the plate. I'd love for him to get back on track (it's sad to me that there are people on this site who seem to want him to fail and be gone) Winokur is continuing on his nice run. I'd say he's lining himself up well for a midseason promotion to AA, which is great. Diaw is interesting: not showing much pop in the bat yet, but he's doing well at everything else...maybe he gets a promotion soon too? I'm impressed that he's still splitting time between catcher and CF. I'd probably move McDaniel up fairly soon as well; I just don't think we learn much about him watching him beat up on A-Ball pitching, and while I'd love for him to turn out to be a hidden gem that good scouting and vigilance towards the indy leagues uncovered, I'm not going to get too excited about him until he gets up to AA and faces both better and more age-appropriate competition.
  12. jmlease1
    Solid enough effort from Prielipp, and nice to see him get through 6. Back to back solid (if not great) starts got us wins and kept the bullpen from running out of guys already. Pretty important until we get some guys back off the IL. Some good clutch hitting and solid baserunning to help get runs across the plate, and frankly we needed every one we could find. A little fortunate to bunch up hits at the bottom of the lineup; could have used a bit more pop. Mixed bag for Jackson: 2 hits, but also 2 errors. seems to have a good feel for making challenges?
  13. jmlease1
    Encouraging news, but still worried about Abel until he's back in MLB throwing again. Glad to hear Festa is on a path again, but with his initial diagnosis I felt like we simply couldn't count on him in 2026. Wish I'd been wrong, but we are where we are. Hopefully he's able to throw real innings before the end of the season. The real question with Jeffers is what his power stroke will look like when he's back. That's been the biggest drawback for a lot of guys returning from that injury: the power isn't there for a while. And for Jeffers that's an important part of his game.
  14. jmlease1
    Finally, some good news on the injury front. Really hope the issues are past for Soto and he gets to have a healthy second half of the season. He's missed a lot of time, but is a very talented arm.
  15. jmlease1
    it's one of the things that makes this so hard to know right now; Roden has crushed AAA pitching just fine, but looked a little lost in his first exposure to MLB pitching with the Twins last season. Mendez might have similar challenges, you just don't know. The last step is the steepest. The Twins did seem to get quite a bit of value from their deadline deals, but of course they also gave up real assets to get there for some them. The great thing about the deals for Mendez ( and Gallagher) is we didn't really give up much.
  16. jmlease1
    Gallagher is doing a nice job, and if he gets that walk rate back under control he'll have a real chance. The prospect return expectation for Castro was low; Willi wasn't having a great season and was a free agent to be, so getting anything viable in return would be great. Gallagher looks like he could be a contributor soon, which is pretty great business for trading half a season of a utility guy, even if Castro was a guy who did well for us overall and was certainly very well liked.
  17. jmlease1
    Well, it's absurd to suggest that no one is doing more to validate the trade deadline than Mendez, when Taj Bradley has been so good overall as well. (and while Mick Abel's injury is a setback, he was also showing out) In terms of prospect capital that hasn't reached MLB...sure? Tait is doing well, but is still a ways away, but the Twins return was focused on players that already had some MLB experience or were close to coming up (Bradley, Abel, Rojas). Mendez is doing very well so far and as a return for half a season of Bader, it's an excellent return. there's still some concerns about the amount of groundballs he hits and whether or not he'll generate enough consistent power to be a corner OF/1B/DH. But they targeted well and got a real asset in flipping a player that wasn't going to be back.
  18. jmlease1
    Boy i hope the prospects get healthy soon. Tired of seeing so many guys hitting the IL.
  19. jmlease1
    Martin really needed that hit yesterday. Not a great outing for Ryan, who was too casual in his location. Nice to see the offense putting up a pile of runs though. Love it when they're pulling walks, it consistently fires their offense. Nice bit of defense from Larnach in left. Still think they'd be better playing him in RF and Martin in LF, but Larnach has been much much better in the OF this year. I'm sure being healthy has helped a lot, but he's also worked to get in better shape and cover more ground.
  20. jmlease1
    It's hilarious since there's the other article about Lackey where there's much agonizing about whether or not he's really that good of a hitter, etc to see the spec that maybe the ChiSox will actually take Lackey over Roch...
  21. jmlease1
    I'd definitely rather be taking a look at Fedko over continuing to waste time on Outman. While Bell has disappointed and really had a rotten May, there's little chance the Twins cut bait on him and his salary this early. Mendez is doing a fine job pushing for time though, and has the advantage of already being on the 40-man.
  22. jmlease1
    I'm not too worried about the promotion chain yet; I'll worry if they're keeping guys down in A-ball at the end of June not the beginning. Houston's bat has been fine, but he had a fairly significant power outage in May, so it's worth watching to see if that ticks back up in June or if he's spending more time slapping the ball around than driving it. Winokur has been on a very nice run, but with the slow start it's not crazy to see if he sustains this a little longer. Tait needs more work, and that's fine: he's still super young. McDaniel can get pushed up to AA at any time; I'm not sure how much we learn about him beating up A-ball pitching at his age, even if he did need time in Independent ball to get his career back on track. he's a lottery ticket anyways.
  23. jmlease1
    When you have the 3rd overall pick, you don't draft for need. Pick whomever you think is the best player on the board. lackey seems to be quite good: a strong bat who can also play a premium defensive position, with the athletic ability to move to 3B or elsewhere and still have his bat play. Works for me. Is his bat good enough? Who the hell knows. Will his arm translate into a real weapon at the pro level? who the hell knows. It's a baseball draft, and as William Goldman so wisely said, "Nobody knows anything."
  24. jmlease1
    25% of the top prospect list on the IL again. UGH. Hate seeing that. Nervous about Rojas' elbow situation; it might be minor and preventative, but when was the last time the Twins were that lucky? (the answer is never. they've never been that lucky) Hope they get healthy soon. Winokur is on a nice run right now. He's had these stretches before though, so making sure that he can sustain things without an extended slump is what I'm watching for. He's still only 21 so it's not like he's falling behind or anything, but it's good to see him turn those tools into production. Would like to see him do this for another month or so and maybe earn the promotion to AA. At least there's somebody with a high ceiling who's doing well and playing...
  25. jmlease1
    The only real issue with a salary floor from a Twins fan perspective is if too many teams need to meet it in a single season without enough teams needing to get under a cap is that you could end up with a lot of big contracts going out to players that simply aren't that good. But I love a system where the Twins would have bigger annual budget and incentives to re-sign a pitcher like Joe Ryan rather than deal him. As a general rule, I would rather more money go to the millionaire players than the billionaire owners, but what I really want as a fan is for better revenue sharing so that certain teams don't have massive financial advantages based on their geography. Strong revenue sharing is part of what makes the NFL work so well, and why Green Bay can compete effectively with NY or LA to sign free agents, retain players, etc. Now, the overall model for the NFL is different (fewer games, all tv rights controlled nationally, local revenue less relevant, etc) but it doesn't mean that you can't design one for MLB where most if not all teams can be operating in a similar band of budget for players without gifting the owners millions and millions of dollars in instant profits regardless of how competently they run their franchises. This Twins roster would look so much better if we were sitting at $150M right now; we'd have some real bullpen arms to supplement the young guys we're trying out, the lineup would have added a bigger/better bat than Bell for 1B/DH, Outman never makes the roster, etc. And Keeping Joe Ryan would be a much more realistic option...which also increases his trade value because other teams can't just keep sending lowball offers knowing you need to move him. I'm interested in a cap & floor system. you have to yank the bottom 10 up and find a way to pull revenue off the absurd spend of teams like the Mets and Dodgers.
×
×
  • Create New...