Seth Stohs

They are going to be a blast to follow this year!

If Berrios was still a "prospect" he'd certainly still be the Twins #1 prospect.. I assume Ted would agree?

Unless he dominates, I'd give him the full season in AA. There's absolutely no rush, and it'd be wise not to rush him (in my opinion). He doesn't even have to be added to the 40 man roster until after 2017, and he's already at AA. He can develop at AA in 2017, and then he's got three option years, so even starting in 2018, there's no rush. He's too talented and they need to do what's best for him (which in turn is what's best for him), and I think that's not pushing too quickly.

In February of 2012, we merged four prominent Twins blogs into one. It was the start of Twins Daily. We are quite proud of the community of Twins fans that we have established here at Twins Daily. Our forums are busy, filled with generally intelligent, civilized discussion on Twins topics, positive, negative or informative. We encourage you to create your own blog on our site for more discussion. If you’re like us, you’re not just a Minnesota Twins fan. Many of you, presumably, are Minnesota sports fans. We have Monday morning quarterback tendencies and have all had our moments of Vikings disappointment. That’s true even if we were born since the last time the team lost a Super Bowl. Names like Herschel Walker, Mike Lynn, and Gary Anderson cause a reaction inside us. It is the same reaction many Minnesotans still get when they hear the names of Norm Green or Nick Leddy. Minnesota fans love Minnesota sports, at least a couple of them. Image courtesy of Brace Hemmelgarn, USA Today (photos of Mike Zimmer, Bruce Boudreau) In February of 2012, we merged four prominent Twins blogs into one. It was the start of Twins Daily. We are quite proud of the community of Twins fans that we have established here at Twins Daily. Our forums are busy, filled with generally intelligent, civilized discussion on Twins topics, positive, negative or informative. We encourage you to create your own blog on our site for more discussion. If you’re like us, you’re not just a Minnesota Twins fan. Many of you, presumably, are Minnesota sports fans. We have Monday morning quarterback tendencies and have all had our moments of Vikings disappointment. That’s true even if we were born since the last time the team lost a Super Bowl. Names like Herschel Walker, Mike Lynn, and Gary Anderson cause a reaction inside us. It is the same reaction many Minnesotans still get when they hear the names of Norm Green or Nick Leddy. Minnesota fans love Minnesota sports, at least a couple of them. Tonight, the Minnesota Wild will take the ice in St. Louis for their first game of the 2016-17 season. This should be an exciting season for the Wild. Last spring they fired Mike Yeo. He was replaced by Bruce Boudreau. The 2016-17 roster is a nice combination of veterans like Zach Parise, Ryan Suter and newcomer Eric Staal. They also have a group of 25-and-unders that remain exciting. Names like Mikael Granlund, Jason Zucker, Charlie Coyle, Erik Haula and Nino Neiderreiter need to take a step forward. Two years ago, we launched Wild Xtra with the same goals and the same mission as we have here at Twins Daily. We look to provide quality articles that provoke thought and discussion. We would love to have a intelligent, civil discussion. We want to encourage independent writers to create their own blogs on the site to share their thoughts on the club. The Minnesota Vikings are the NFL’s lone undefeated team as they enter their bye weekend. Even with injuries to their quarterback, future Hall of Fame running back, several offensive linemen and others, the team has played very well. The offense has been all right. The Vikings defense is elite, one of the best in the game. Vikings fans have had reason for optimism in various years over the last decade or so. This year is something different. There is a feeling that this defense can carry the team to the Super Bowl. There is a lot of season remaining for that to be the case, but the team and its players are certainly deserving of its accolades to this point. We launched Vikings Journal a little over two years ago. It has undergone several changes but there is a core of writers each week that provide content. As important, there is a community in the forums that civilly discuss the goings-on with the Vikings and the NFL. Twins Daily, Vikings Journal and Wild Xtra are tied together under the MinnCentric family. If you are registered at Twins Daily, you can use the same Username and Password on the Wild Xtra and Vikings Journal sites. That makes it easy to go from site to site and comment or blog. We would really like to help build those communities. Obviously we appreciate you spending some of your time each day reading and commenting at Twins Daily. But today we want to encourage you to take a couple of minutes of your time to visit Wild Xtra and Vikings Journal. Register your username and spend a few minutes reading the content, and commenting in the forums. Also, if you would like to express your thoughts on the Wild or the purple, start your own blogs. You can follow the MinnCentric sites on social media: Follow Twins Daily, Wild Xtra and Vikings Journal on Twitter. Like Twins Daily, Wild Xtra and Vikings Journal on Facebook. Give these sites a chance. We really appreciate all of your support despite the losing we have seen from the Twins over the last half-dozen seasons. The Minnesota Wild and Minnesota Vikings both have a good chance to make the playoffs and an opportunity to do some special things this season. Hop on the bandwagons and help us grow. View full article

You can vote on Twitter here:

As we did at midseason, I'd like to start another Twins Top Prospect ranking vote. We will use the Twins Daily Twitter feed for the voting, so be sure to follow at www.Twitter.com/TwinsDaily. We'll have votes going for about 24 hours. I'll use my rankings as a starting point for the vote, but I encourage people to make suggestions for who should be voted upon. To be eligible, a player must be eligible for Rookie of the Year in 2017. My hope is that we can vote for our Top 20 or 25, depending upon interest. I'll update the rankings in this original thread and probably update it on each subsequent page of this forum. So, here we go. Please participate and encourage your other Twins fan friends to as well. Twins Daily's Reader's/Twitter Poll: Top Twins Prospects (postseason 2016) 1 - LHP Stephen Gonsalves 2 - SS Nick Gordon 3 - OF Alex Kirilloff 4 - LHP Tyler Jay 5 - OF Daniel Palka 6 - RHP Fernando Romero 7 - RHP Kohl Stewart 8 - LHP Adalberto Mejia 9 - RHP Felix Jorge 10 - OF Adam Brett Walker 11 - SS Wander Javier 12 - RH RP Nick Burdi 13 - C Mitch Garver 14 - OF Zack Granite 15 - IF Travis Blankenhorn 16 - LHP Lewis Thorpe 17 - RHP Jake Reed 18 - OF LaMonte Wade 19 - 1B Lewin Diaz 20 - 3B Trey Cabbage

Good call. Yes, the press release does say "Player of the Year," not "Hitter of the Year." I edited it in my first sentence, and the title was changed by someone as well.

Yes. Very similar types of players.

Already looking forward to their speeches at the Diamond Awards.

Congratulations to Zach Granite and Stephen Gonsalves who were named the Twins Minor League Player and Pitcher of the Year, respectively. Here's the Press Release: Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN—The Minnesota Twins announced today that outfielder Zach Granite has been named the 2016 Sherry Robertson Award winner as the Twins Minor League Player of the Year and left-handed pitcher Stephen Gonsalves has been named the 2016 Jim Rantz Award winner as the Twins Minor League Pitcher of the Year. Granite, 24, spent the entire season at Double-A Chattanooga, hitting .295 (155-for-526) with 18 doubles, eight triples, four home runs, 52 RBI, 86 runs scored and 56 stolen bases in 127 games. He ranked tied for first in minor league baseball in stolen bases and was most recently named Southern League Postseason All-Star. The Staten Island, New York native was drafted by the Twins in the 14th round of the 2013 First-Year Player Draft out of Seton Hall University. In four minor league seasons, he has hit .282 (369-for-1309) with 39 doubles, 20 triples, 109 RBI and 102 stolen bases in 337 games. Gonsalves, 22, began the season at Single-A Ft. Myers, going 5-4 with a 2.33 ERA (65.2 IP, 17 ER), 20 walks and 66 strikeouts. He was promoted to Double-A Chattanooga in early June and went 8-1 with a 1.82 ERA (74.1 IP, 15 ER), 37 walks and 89 strikeouts. He earned Southern League Pitcher of the Week in late August, was named to Florida State League Midseason All-Star team and most recently was named one of MLBPipeline.com’s Twins Prospects of the Year. The San Diego, California native was selected by the Twins in the fourth round of the 2013 First-Year Player Draft out of Cathedral Catholic High School. He becomes just the third left-handed pitcher to win the Jim Rantz Award since it was created in 2002, joining Francisco Liriano (2005) and Andrew Albers (2013). The Sherry Robertson Award, named in honor of the Twins first farm director, was established in 1970 to recognize the Twins top minor league performer each season. Beginning in 2002, the award recognizes the Twins Minor League Player of the Year while an additional award was created to recognize the Twins Minor League Pitcher of the Year. This award was named in honor of former Twins Minor League Director and Twins Hall of Famer Jim Rantz. Past winners of the Sherry Robertson Award include: Butch Wynegar (1974), Kent Hrbek (1981), Gene Larkin (1986), Paul Sorrento (1989), Denny Neagle (1990), Marty Cordova (1992), LaTroy Hawkins (1993 and ’94), Todd Walker (1996), David Ortiz (1997), Doug Mientkiewicz (1998), Michael Cuddyer (2001), Joe Mauer (2003), Jason Kubel (2004), Brian Dozier (2011), Byron Buxton (2013), Kennys Vargas (2014) and Max Kepler (2015), while Jesse Crain (2003), Scott Baker (2004), Francisco Liriano (2005), Matt Garza (2006), Kyle Gibson (2010) and Jose Berrios (2014 and ’15) have won the Jim Rantz Award. Granite and Gonsalves, along with the other Twins 2016 award winners, will be recognized at the 12th Annual Diamond Awards dinner, which will be held on Thursday, January 26, 2017 at Target Field.

https://twitter.com/SethTweets/status/785969532829446144

In my opinion... Mauer shouldn't play more than 2 days in a row in 2017. They have to keep him as strong as they can, so more time off is what should happen. Molitor played him almost every day the first 2+ months of the season. He was performing, but then his legs left him... So yeah, I'd play Vargas at 1B against all left-handed pitching, and also against the occasional right-hander when the Twins see RHP often. The issue becomes Park. What if he's actually healthy this year coming out of spring training and can hit like most think he will. He should be playing a lot and fits into the 1B/DH situation.

What are we to make of the 2016 season of Kennys Vargas? In 47 games, he hit .230/.333/.500 (.833) with 11 doubles and ten home runs. The slugging first baseman/designated hitter will be out of options in 2017. Can he be an everyday big league player or will he need to fit into a role of some type? Let’s dig into some of his minor league and big league numbers to see what they might tell us. Let’s start by looking back a bit. Image courtesy of Rick Osentoski, USA Today What are we to make of the 2016 season of Kennys Vargas? In 47 games, he hit .230/.333/.500 (.833) with 11 doubles and ten home runs. The slugging first baseman/designated hitter will be out of options in 2017. Can he be an everyday big league player or will he need to fit into a role of some type? Let’s dig into some of his minor league and big league numbers to see what they might tell us. Let’s start by looking back a bit. The Twins signed the hefty slugger from Puerto Rico in 2009. He had not been selected in the first-year players draft, but the Twins had enough interest to sign him as a non-drafted free agent. He spent his 18- and 19-year-old seasons in the Gulf Coast League. He then spent a season in Elizabethton. Unfortunately, while playing for the E-Twins, he was suspended 50 games for using a performance enhancing drug. By the rules at the time, his fifty games only counted during the Elizabethton season. That meant in 2012, his season didn’t start until very late. He played just 44 games in Beloit. He spent 2013 in Ft. Myers and 2014 in New Britain, at least until the Twins called him up. He debuted August 1st, on his 24th birthday. He provided power that year and was the team’s Opening Day starter in 2015 but things went poorly. He was optioned twice, once to Rochester, and then once to Chattanooga where he was able to find his offense again. He spent most of 2016 in AAA, though he came up in early July and provided offense for a month. He struggled and a numbers situation (re: pitching issues) had him sent back to the Red Wings. He returned for September and the struggles continued. However, he did make a couple of significant improvements in his game in 2016 that are intriguing as we go forward. Let’s take a look at his numbers at each level of the minor leagues as well as each of his three big league seasons. Low A - 41 G, 186 PA - .318/.419/.610 (1.030) with 10 doubles, 11 homers High A - 125 G, 520 PA - .267/.344/.468 (.813) with 31 doubles, 19 homers AA - 132 G, 556 PA - .282/.376/.483 (.859) with 20 doubles, 24 homers AAA - 134 G, 553 PA - .246/.374/.438 (.812) with 22 doubles, 21 homers MLB - 158 G, 595 PA - .251/.309/.434 (.743) with 25 doubles, 24 homers While Vargas was never considered a prospect, he has always put up some intriguing numbers, He had 20-25 home runs potential. He took quality plate appearances and was willing to take walks. Some of the concerns were that he never really had a good glove at first base. He was very much one-dimensional and that one dimension wasn’t elite. Low A - BB% - 15.0%, K% - 22.0%, XBH% - 11.8% High A - BB% - 9.6%, K% - 20.2%, XBH% - 10.2% AA - BB% - 12.4%, K% - 18.0%, XBH% - 8.3% AAA - BB% - 16.6%, K% - 23.1%, XBH% - 8.0% MLB - BB% - 7.6%, K% - 29.2%, XBH% - 8.2% As you can see above, he has walked at every level, until he got to the big leagues. But the following chart will maybe shed some light on this. MLB Time Only 2014 - BB% - 5.1%, K% - 26.9%, XBH - 8.5% 2015 - BB% - 4.9%, K% - 29.3%, XBH - 4.9% 2016 - BB% - 13.6%, K% - 32.2%, XBH - 11.8% While the 2016 MLB sample size was smaller, he improved two things. First, he greatly improved his approach at the plate and willingness to walk. Over those first two big league seasons, he walked 21 times and struck out 117 times. While he struck out at a greater percentage in 2016, he showed much more power as well. Consider this: Vargas’ 11.8% extra-base hit percentage falls just behind Brian Dozier’s 11.9% in 2016. So clearly maintaining a nearly 12% extra base hit rate doesn’t seem realistic, but the 8% average that he’s had in the upper levels of the minor leagues would mean 40 extra base hits over 500 plate appearances. And if he can even walk 10% of his plate appearances, that would be 50 walks. I think a realistic season for Vargas, playing four to five games each week, would be .250/.325/.400 (.725) with about 22 doubles and 20 homers. It’s a solid season, but it’s certainly not what a team would want from a DH and part-time first baseman. So, let’s consider another set of details, his lefty-righty splits. In 2016: Vs RHP - 125 PA - .168/.280/.374 (.654) Vs LHP - 52 PA - .378/.462/.800 (1.262) Career: Vs RHP - 384 PA - .223/.281/.411 (.693) Vs LHP - 211 PA - .302/.360/.474 (.834) In other words, Kennys Vargas mashes against left-handed pitchers. The Twins have a left-handed hitting first baseman who needs days off. We saw that the last couple of the months of the season. Paul Molitor did not play Joe Mauer often against left-handed pitching. It’s a strategy that makes sense for all involved, for Mauer, for Vargas and for the team. Just a short paragraph on Vargas’s defense. It’s OK. It’s below average, but it’s OK enough to put out there a couple of times a week. It’s a clear step, or six, down from Joe Mauer’s first base defense, but again, it’s acceptable. Vargas had an encouraging 2016 season after a very disappointing 2015 in Minnesota and Rochester. He did in 2016 what he was asked to do when the Twins sent him down to the minors in 2015. He had a better approach at the plate, and hit for much more power. It was a big year for him, knowing he would be out of options in 2017. Vargas showed enough to be in the plans to get some playing time next year. View full article

I didn't put them all in the same category of MLB player... I put them in a sentence of Twins HS hitting draft picks that have had solid MLB careers. And I should have put Plouffe in there. Revere's got 5-6 years of MLB service time. He fits the "had a solid MLB career" status. Waldrop, Rainville and Boyd were HS pitchers, and I noted that they haven't had much success in that type of draft pick. I certainly don't expect anything draft-related to be perfect...

I would say that Miguel Sano, Byron Buxton, Jose Berrios, Max Kepler... those are the guys with the 'star potential.' They are no longer on these lists, which automatically drops the overall rankings down. I believe Nick Gordon can be a potential All Star. Fernando Romero, Alex Kirilloff, Lewin Diaz, and Wander Javier have huge potential. They're just a ways off. Jay and Gonsalves can be 2/3 starters and there's a ton of value in that. Jay could be an elite reliever, and there's value in that. The Twins have done best when drafting high school athletes in the 1st round. Examples include Joe Mauer, Torii Hunter, Michael Cuddyer, Ben Revere, Denard Span, and hopefully Byron Buxton is in that category. (So, as you can imagine, I really liked the Kirilloff, Rortvedt, Baddoo and Miranda picks in 2016!) The college pitcher route hasn't gone as well, though outside of Adam Johnson, they haven't drafted any real high in the draft. Kyle Gibson and Alex Wimmers were drafted in the 20s. They haven't drafted many college hitters in the first round either. Levi Michael was drafted like 30th overall. It hasn't worked but it doesn't make it a bad strategy and the sample size is way too small. High school pitchers... Stewart is certainly a question mark at this point. But I think we all still believe in Berrios and he was a late first-round pick.

Very good point and question... I would think we'd be thrilled. Someone whose opinion I trust a ton on this kind of stuff told me that I ranked two guys took low... 1.) Kohl Stewart. 2.) Brusdar Graterol.

It's what I think most try to do. Consider ceiling and likelihood of reaching that ceiling and come up with the list.

Very interesting Southern League list ( Check out where Stephen Gonsalves ranks relative to Chih-Wei Hu. Check out where Zack Granite ranks relative to Daniel Palka.

For me, Tommy Milone is the only one I would non-tender.

MLB Trade Rumors (specifically Matt Schwarz) developed a mathematical system for projecting arbitration deals. Seven Twins players will be arbitration-eligible this winter. How many do you protect given the projection, and everything else we know. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/10/projected-arbitration-salaries-2017.html Twins (7) Trevor Plouffe (5.162) – $8.2MM Hector Santiago (5.016) – $8.6MM Brandon Kintzler (5.003) – $2.2MM Eduardo Escobar (4.128) – $2.9MM Tommy Milone (4.113) – $4.9MM Kyle Gibson (3.056) – $3.5MM Ryan Pressly (3.053) – $1.1MM

I would say he's out of the Top 50... or I just missed his name and he maybe should be in the low 30s range probably.

Most of his errors came early, and he had a really bad week or two stretch right after the announcement of his brother's 50-game suspension. I don't want to say that this is the reason with certainty, but it has to have an effect. They're very close. Romero has the highest ceiling. Jay is very close... if he can be a starter., but there are questions there. Gonsalves has very good stuff... I don't want to minimize that at all.

The only thing officially reported was that on Monday, Rob Antony met with the coaching staff and said everything was in a holding pattern. Maybe there's been more but I'd kind of doubt it. It'd seem strange that Bruno and Allen would be let go. I don't full subscribe to all Bruno does, and the Ks bug me... but they've been alright. And, Allen has worked with so many of the young players. He would seem to be a successor candidate.