Seth Stohs

Good point! I love this stuff, the memories, good and bad and the life. DeVries had a very solid, unexpectedly good career for a non-drafted free agent from Minnesota!

I think this is the lineup I would go with (obviously Suzuki most of the time over Pinto. I'd keep Santana at the top of the order for a couple of months to start the season and see how it goes. I like Mauer in the #2 spot a lot for many reasons. I'd start Dozier hitting third due to his OBP skills and power. I might flip-flop Vargas and Arcia versus lefties. If Plouffe's a 7-hitter, you definitely have a chance to score some runs. And yeah, if Hicks can hit for any average, he should be able to keep that OBP where it is. Keep him at 9 until he's had a couple of really good months.

I tend to agree with that...

I think Harrison's advancement to AA to start the season completely depends on whether Eddie Rosario starts in AA or AAA. I also think that the atmosphere in Chattanooga will help many of those doubles to become home runs.

DUDE!!

We played flip before every game and every practice in college. It got pretty intense. That was so fun!

I'd move him up to AAA... If he were hitting .270/.360/.570, I'd probably call him straight up to the Twins.

Ironically, there are three examples listed in the article, and a link to almost all of the Tommy John surgeries in history with date of surgery and date of return. His weight has been listed on this site and in the Prospect Handbook and other places several times in the last year, including in the article.

One thing I'm curious for reader thoughts on... what do you think is a fair, reasonable timeline for "shaking off rust?" I asked the question in the article, and the obvious/correct answer is that there is no way to know for any one individual, but what do people think? Do we think he'll shake it off in spring training? It took Rosario months to shake off his rust from missing 50 games, and Sano missed a full season. What are you thinking/hoping/expecting?

260 is Vargas small... Last year at Twins Fest, Sano weighed in at about 260, and he was about the same this year, I believe. In spring training, he'll get to between 250 and 255 which is what he played at in 2013.

I really think people will enjoy this series. It's fun to look at in these smaller chunks. Killebrew is such a fascinating figure in Twins history. I wish I would have known more about him when he was still alive. I wish I would have had the chance to meet him.

He's the kind of guy that they will find a place for and others will be moved.

I don't know... you'll just have to check back tomorrow to find out!

Despite missing the entire 2014 season due to Tommy John surgery, Miguel Sano retains his status as the Twins #2 prospect. In fact, reviewing most of the national prospect rankings, he has remained a Top 20 overall prospect. That is what happens when you have the elite talent and power potential that Sano has. 2015 will be an interesting year for the slugger as he returns to action. How long will it take for him to shake off the rust? More important, how long will we have to wait before we see him in a Minnesota Twins uniform?Age: 21 (DOB: 5/11/93) 2014 Stats: Did Not Play ETA: late-2015 2014 Ranking: #2 What’s To Like When we talk about Miguel Sano, the natural lead topic has to be his power. Few throughout minor league baseball have the kind of power potential that Miguel Sano has. In the organization, Adam Brett Walker and Kennys Vargas come close. At 6-4 and 260 pounds, Sano presents an intimidating presence in the batter’s box. Fortunately, he has been able to back up that power potential with real, effective power. In 2012 in Beloit, he hit 28 homers. In 2013, he hit a combined 35 home runs at Ft. Myers and New Britain. Along with the homers, he added 28 doubles in 2012 and 30 in 2013. In his time in the rookie leagues, Sano was known to swing at a lot of sliders down and away. He has continued to improve his plate discipline each year, and with this power, that has translated into more walks. In Beloit, he walked in 14.5% of his plate appearances. In 2013, he walked 11.9% in Ft. Myers and then 13.0% of the time in New Britain. Miguel Sano is a supremely confident young man. He knows he has huge potential and talent, and he wants to be great. He doesn’t just want to be a major league ballplayer. He wants to win home run titles and set records, and he wants to win baseball games. He is fun-loving, and he will be a media and fan favorite, but he will also work hard to achieve these types of goals. It is my opinion that he will play even better as a major leaguer since he has worlds of talent and he has that drive to excellence. He has an ability to raise his game to the level of competition. That’s not to say there won't be struggles and adjustments, but I have little doubt that he will be able to make the adjustments to get through the struggles. What’s Left To Work On Despite the home run power and the walks, one concern with Sano is his strikeout rate. In the two rookie leagues, he struck out in over 26% of his plate appearances. In 2012 in Beloit, he struck out in 26% of his plate appearances. In the first half of the 2013 season in Ft. Myers, Sano struck out 25.1% of the time. After his promotion to Double-A, he struck out 29.3% of the time. Few players are successful with these kinds of strikeout rates, and yet, those who have been successful have generally been power hitters. However, I think that if Sano can, after a couple of seasons in the big leagues, reduce his strikeout rate to below 25%, he can be elite. There have always been those who question whether or not Sano can play adequate third base defense in the big leagues. The Tommy John surgery doesn’t change that in any way. Before surgery, Sano was able to throw across the diamond as hard as anyone, well into the 90s. If the velocity on his throws is reduced by even 5 mph, he’s still got plenty of arm for the throws. Will he be able to make the plays? Well, in 2012 at Beloit, he made 43 errors at third base, though most were in the first half. In 2013, between Ft. Myers and New Britain, he had 23 errors. Sano is a very good athlete for his size. He started out as a shortstop so he does have some pretty good instincts at the hot corner. He is able to play deep because of his arm. Often, his errors in 2013 were on more routine plays, and he made a lot of highlight reel plays. That said, the question of whether or not he can be an adequate third baseman remains very fair and this is an issue that will need to be monitored. What’s Next The Sano situation is certainly interesting. Trying to predict what he will do in 2015 is very difficult. Obviously, fewer position players have gone through Tommy John surgery. Shin-Soo Choo had the surgery in late September, 2007 and returned to the lineup the final day of May in 2008. Carl Crawford had the surgery in late August, 2012, and he returned to the lineup on Opening Day 2013. Shortstop Zack Cozart had the surgery in August, 2011 and returned Opening Day 2012. In reviewing Jon Roegele’s terrific and thorough Tommy John Surgery List, it appears that most position players who have had the surgery before August were able to return by opening day the next season. The question for the Twins, Sano and the fans has to be, How long will it take him to shake off the rust of not playing competitively for 14 to 15 months? I assume that he will return to Double-A to start the season since he last played at that level in 2013. That said, if the Twins were to decide that they would like him to spend the month of April in Ft. Myers to keep him a closer eye on him and put him in a place where he should experience quick success, I would have no problem with that. I think that, as fans, we need to be a little patient with this situation. It isn’t common. There is no Best Practice for handling this yet. When talking about a 21-year-old who is still believed to be a future cornerstone, doing the right thing is very important. That said, once he gets to Double-A and begins experiencing success, it will then just be a matter of time and opportunity. That could be as early as June, if there were an injury or as late as September. Unless things go very wrong, we should see Miguel Sano in 2015. TD Top Prospect #10: Nick Burdi TD Top Prospect #9: Trevor May TD Top Prospect #8: Eddie Rosario TD Top Prospect #7: Jorge Polanco TD Top Prospect #6: Nick Gordon TD Top Prospect #5: Alex Meyer TD Top Prospect #4: Kohl Stewart TD Top Prospect #3: Jose Berrios TD Top Prospect #2: Miguel Sano TD Top Prospect #1: (You’ll just have to check back tomorrow to find out!) Click here to view the article

Big picture, all three of them have a chance to be upper-half-of-the-rotation starters. Not sure if they can be true #1s, but all three can be guys that you'd feel pretty good about making starts in the playoffs. My personal ranking was: Berrios 3, Gordon 4, Stewart 5, and Meyer 6, but any ranking having those four in any order would be hard to argue against.

You may have to translate for me... does that show how many 3-ball counts there were, or pitches per at bat?

They all were good picks at the time. There's no possible way to know how draft picks will turn out. The Willie Banks pick was considered tremendous at the time. Loewen certainly has had an interesting career. I think last year he went back to pitching for the first time in several years.

Lightfoot, you know that I like Walker and am higher on him than most... but I have to admit that I can't get into this argument. The league championships don't matter much to me in prospect rankings. They're a team thing and he was one of 24 on the team. He was one of the starting 9. It's awesome that they win, but doesn't affect prospect status for me. That said, it was his 3-run-homer in the 9th of the Appy League championship game that sent it to extra innings and then Dalton Hicks' grand slam won it a couple innings later. FSL All Star Game MVP is a nice honor, but one game. A home run derby championship alone doesn't mean a lot. Chris Parmelee won that same championship several years ago. It speaks to his power, but the 25+ regular season homers mean more to me than a HR derby. Walker is a good prospect on his own based on power and potential. Intangibles to me are his personality, humility, work ethic, etc. Those matter to me.

Well said! I like homers too, but I'm probably just as big a fan of doubles, and if the guy is fast enough, some of them become triples.

We know that Arcia will be in LF and Hunter will be in RF, so it really comes down to who will be in CF, and that is subject to change throughout the season.

This is also correct. I think the odds of him pitching in the big leagues this year is pretty low. I hope I'm wrong and I know he's worked very hard to get there. He just might. At this point, I wouldn't put much past him. however, things would have to go really poorly in the starting rotation (certainly possible) and I also think it would need to happen before September. It makes no sense to call him up for September when he doesn't need to be added to the 40 man roster for another year. Same with Buxton. If they're up in July or August, great! If not, might as well wait until next May and protect the 40 man roster. That all said, I would LOVE to see him get to Target Field in 2015.

It was a crazy thing! I don't know how to explain it, and probably shouldn't (dont want to) overthink it as Bill James did. Ha! I remember as an 8-year-old when he was called up liking him, probably just because of his name. I remember as a 9-year-old, getting ready for school, and my mom coming into the room and telling me that Puckett had homered the night before. But to go from 4 to 31 is crazy. He did alter his approach. I think he also did a better job of laying off of certain pitches (outside slider, for example). He didn't like to walk at all, but he definitely had a better approach at the plate and better eye for what was a strike.

Yeah, I would say that is pretty good.

"Like Bradley Cooper on Betty White." HA!!!