Nashvilletwin

You’re not being greedy - that’s being realistic. Lee sometime this year and Prielipp in late ‘24 should be the schedule, right? But I get the sentiment, haha.

Completely agree. We for sure will have someone (probably a couple, if not several) who will “hit” among our list to-date. That always happens. My point was more that here we are through #7 and no one yet seems like a sure bet to be a regular starter. Someone who we could look at and say “yep, that guy is pretty much a can’t miss major leaguer”. If I had to choose one up to now, I’d probably pick Varland.

Boy, lots of “ifs” in these rankings up to this point. I’m beginning to understand why the ranking entities don’t love our prospect list all that much relative to other team’s. Do we have at least one sure fire, above average, every day starter major leaguer up to this point yet? So, Connor projects as an ace, a solid starter, a reliever, or a bust. Sounds like a lot of others - except for the “ace” part, which we really do not have anywhere in the system. Therefore, that increases his overall probability weighted ROI by a lot. But the lack of IPs means the range of outcomes is very high too. Let’s see what have at the end of the year. But, I for one love that we have someone with true ace, difference making upside in our system - that is worth the risk and merits the current ranking..

You make some great points, as usual. Whereas the ranking entities appear to place more emphasis on potential/projection, some of us more casual fans, myself included, tend to value what the prospect has actually done to date. For example, take Wallner. He’s pretty much excelled through multiple layers of the minors and did pretty darn well when he got his cup of coffee. He has a plus power bat with a plus arm, but possibly lacks fielding chops and strikes out way too often. Salas may very well have better projectable tool sets - and ultimately be a better major leaguer. But Wallner has actually proven that he belongs is in the conversation, which we all know how hard it is to even get to that point. Salas has yet to prove real dominance at really any level (unlike Emmanuel Rodriguez) and, sadly, the road is littered with toolsy prospects who never make it to true major league consideration. Wallner and Martin have actually earned that consideration by their play on the field. To someone like me (an under promise/over deliver type), that counts a bit more even if the raw projections suggest otherwise.

Better to know early - particularly this season. Having said that, there is a lot of baseball to be played after April. Besides, for us it’s all about winning the division and it’s hard to see any team in the AL Central pulling away early. Let’s just play ‘em one game at a time and chat in early June.

Agree, with Miranda primarily at 1B, there should be plenty of ABs for Kiriloff in a secondary role there, plus at DH and corner OF.

Absolutely love his speed - that is a trait rarely found among Twins players/top prospects and one that is sorely needed. However, IMHO, we will need to see another year from Salas before we can anoint him a top ten prospect and the reason why the Arraez trade was (as many have suggested) a “steal” for the Twins. From all that’s been published, he appears to be a “tweener” defensively and, at the moment, would rank no better than fifth or sixth among potential Twins SSs (Correa, Lewis, Miller, Lee and possibly Martin). With his speed, the outfield may beckon. With no outstanding defensive home, he will need to develop his plate skills fairly dramatically to earn a role going forward on the big club. Again, with that speed, an OBP demon would seem to be a good fit; yet, the talk is about him developing his power. Let’s hope he gets the right instruction - physical and mental - to build a plus bat. The good news is that he’s young and has the time to do that. Yet, until the bat develops enough to overcome possible defensive questions (i.e., kinda like Julien has), he probably should not be ranked so high - I actually have him behind Martin and Wallner at this point, but could see him jumping both players based on how their respective 2023 seasons go.

I’m generally not shy about giving the FO a bit a heat on the TD from time to time. But on the Ryan/Cruz trade they deserve accolades. With Arraez gone, Ryan is now my favorite Twin - I’ll be tuning in for each of his starts this year for sure.

We will see if we extend any of Mahle, Gray or Maeda (if we are not contending, at least one - most likely Gray- gets traded by the deadline). But I forgot about Paddock in my comment above. So even if we do not extend any of those three and before we add anyone else, right now for ‘24 we have: Lopez, Ryan, Paddock, Ober, Winder, SWR and Varland with at least Prielipp, Canterino and Balazovic waiting in the wings. If we play our cards right and develop some of these young pitchers over ‘23, we can have a pretty darn good, deep and cheap staff starting in ‘24.

Yes, I was actually thinking Radke, or, as MikeLink45 pointed out, Goltz would be a wonderful ceiling for Varland. Having said that, I’d take a floor of 150+ frames, 25-30 starts and an era around 4.00 over each the next five years on essentially league minimum any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Well, it is an unpopular position on the TD, but, yes, in hindsight with us moving on from Arraez, our best lineup would have had Urshela at 3B and Miranda at 1B (and Farmer at utility!). If Kiriloff is indeed healthy, we could have skipped the entire Gallo thing and had him play OF/DH with Buxton, Gordon, Larnach, Kepler and Taylor. But that ship has sailed. It looks like Miranda gets 3B to at least start the year. But 1B looks like more of a long-term better fit for two reasons: 1) his defensive upside is probably higher at 1B and 2) we have two other players coming up better suited for 3B (Lewis or Lee). We shall see how things play out this year (including with Polanco), but I must admit I’m salivating over an infield/DH mix of Lewis, Correa, Lee, Miranda and Julien. All five of those players starting in ‘24 should be in the lineup essentially everyday and batting in the top six of the lineup with Buxton.

The good news for Varland - in ‘23 he should get plenty of MLB starts; in fact, his competition for those starts (Ober, Winder and SWR) should all see a good number of majors starts due to injury, fatigue, or trades of 3 or 4 of our projected starters. He will then be in a position to be compete with those three for the final two spots in our ‘24 breaking camp rotation behind Ryan, Lopez and probably one more addition (i.e. an extended Mahle, Gray or Maeda or someone new). If he can throw 150+ innings of about 4.00 era ball over 25-30 starts per year for five years starting in ‘24, he will be a indispensable, inexpensive cog in our next open window. There is coveted place in the world of MLB for pitchers like that. Lot to like here.

We should all enjoy Polanco while we can - look what happened to the two previous most underrated Twins (Urshela and Arraez)…lol

Agree, he’s overrated (italics sarcasm font) - I have him about 18th on my list of most overrated Twins. I only have (not in any order) Duran, Ryan, Vasquez, Correa (overrated - not overpaid), Farmer, Polanco and probably Jax and Gray behind him - everybody else is more overrated than Gordon. Seriously, give the guy a chance. He finally got his opportunity and did very well - offensively, defensively, with flexibility, dependability, and as a spark plug teammate.

Let’s just hope they get a chance….I just don’t want this ownership/FO/coaching staff to delude themselves into thinking this team is a contender if it’s not, while forgoing the opportunity to invest the necessary innings and ABs to both see what we have and develop the young talent. As I’ve written in several posts - I watched 150+ games last year and would make every effort to catch every Arraez AB. And I’d put down what I was doing to watch him and Buxton. You can knock “emotional attachments”, but, besides winning, that’s basically the number one thing that puts butts in the seats (especially with a front running fan base like Minnesota). If this team does not win and puts Gallo, Kepler and Taylor in the OF when Buxton is not playing, we won’t draw 1.5MM fans and we will delay the transition to the new core. Commercially, both in the near and mid-term, that will be a bad outcome. I hope we see Martin and others this year and start building some excitement into our future as opposed to investing in one year meh rentals and more tenured Twins players who have plateaued or are descending.

I get the desire by the FO not to waste their SP strategy this year. But I’m so more interested in seeing the new young core of Miranda, Kiriloff, Larnach, Gordon, Julien, Martin, Wallner, Lee, Lewis and Rodriguez develop with Correa and Buxton. I really am so over Kepler and maybe even Polanco depending how he does this season, I don’t care at all to watch Gallo, Farmer and Taylor per se - I’m not interested in developing any emotional connection to them. I just hope they give Martin (and Julien and Wallner a chance). Sadly, I’m not convinced they will.

Don’t forget Miranda

I loved Hubert.

Not to be overly cynical, but don’t most people by now just expect that everyone making some sort of public statement is basically lying. Seriously, which public figure doesn’t lie? Please feel free to name a single one you trust to tell you the whole truth - not their “truth” they want you to believe. No really, if you have one example, please share it - many of us probably could use the positive example. I, for one, do not expect to believe, nor really care, what the owners, FO, or Rocco have to say. Like all public figures, they have an agenda. So yeah, I’ll listen, but if what their mouths are spewing doesn’t match what my eyes and brain are telling me (i.e. J. Pohlad’s “the FO deserves an A+“ - I mean, seriously?), then I’ll simply dismiss what they say (and that just makes their credibility that much harder to attain). Sure, I might be the one who has the “truth” wrong sometimes, but I sure as hell will form my own judgements.

Oh, I missed the point. Apologies.

See my post above - clearly Gallo.

The Twins infield lineup would probably be strongest (defensively and offensively) with Urshela at 3B, Correa at SS, Polanco at 2B and Miranda at 1B, with Farmer and Gordon as utility infielders. Two questions pop up: 1. Why not Miranda at 3B? Because when Lee, Lewis and Julien arrive next year (or later this year, hopefully), Miranda will get his most innings at 1B - he’s the most logical of that group to man first (and all of them, with Correa, should be playing everyday in the infield or DH). 2. What about Kiriloff at 1B? First, there really is no telling if he will be back - hope he is, but do we really think he’s up for a full campaign (if we were, why all the chatter about Gallo playing 1B)? Second, he easily could make the team as a corner OFer, DH, and backup 1B. With this infield, keeping Kepler then makes Gallo completely redundant. Even with Taylor, our OF world be Buxton, Kepler, Gordon, Taylor, Larnach, and Kiriloff. Thus, our position player roster would be those six OFers, the five IF’s listed above, and the two catchers. Gallo’s $11MM should’ve been redeployed in the pen, for one more shutdown reliever. What’s better - Urshela, Kepler and $11MM in relief pitching or Kepler and Gallo? I mean, it’s not even close. So, by keeping Urshela we’d have a stronger lineup - both defensively and offensively - plus we got a solid reliever as well. So yes, we pulled the trigger too early on Urshela (and that’s even more clear after the trade of Arraez).

Sounds like a decent prospect but with a long way to go, a lot of people to jump, and an unclear ability to stick at SS. Let’s hope he can continue his progress at the plate and learn a new position so can compete for a major league job as a 2B, 3B, 1B, corner OF, or utility IF. At the moment, he’s probably at best #6 on our “Likely to be Our Starting SS Anytime Over the Next Six Years” list behind Correa, Lewis, Miller, Lee, and Someone Else TBD.

Prayers for Mike and his family. 🙏

Canterino - backend starter or important BP asset as early as mid ‘24 Miller - solid utility infielder; backup starting SS Festa - see Canterino above; will compete against Winder, Varland, SWR, Canterino and, hopefully, Balazovic for ‘24 role. Lewis - excellent lottery ticket Wallner - possible starting RF or DH in 2024 (assuming he gets needed MLB innings in ‘23)