Seth Stohs

Star Tribune's Jim Souhan wrote an article today on how Corey Koskie's life after baseball is proceeding. He struggled with the concussions for 2 1/2 years, but not he's a franchisee at Planet Fitness and coaching his boys in baseball and hockey. I particularly enjoy his thoughts on how many parents and coaches are pushing their kids to one sport and other philosophies.

Make my day... Make my day...

Yup, that is pretty cynical. What is the value at this point in delaying anything with Meyer? And, then why isn't Arcia still in the minor leagues? There are things that he needs to work on. There's no question about that. That has nothing to do with service time or costs or anything.

Last week, the Twins signed 25-year-old lefty Luke Westphal from the Joliet Slammers of the independent Frontier League. He had actually pitched as a reliever for Gateway (Frontier League team in St. Louis) where over the last two seasons he worked in 48 games. He had 89 strikeouts, but 50 walks, in 69.2 innings. The lefty spent his winter in Australia this year (it's summer there, of course) pitching for Doncaster, a team the current Twins minor leaguers Lewis Thorpe and Matz Schutte pitched for. In a report after the signing, it showed that in 74 innings pitched, he struck out 136 (16.5 K/9). He is from Clintonville, Wisconsin and went to school at UW-Oshkosh.

Fair question, and Jeremy Nygaard would likely be the best person to answer this with exactness. MLB Minimum Salary is just over $500,000 (I want to say $509,000?). Each team handles those pre-arbitration players a little different. They will generally have some sort of formula to determine how much of a raise they'll offer these guys. It'll generally be some combination of service time and production. There is little negotiation, if any. Once a player ends a season with 3 years of service time (and less than 6 years of service time), he is arbitration-eligible. Of course, there are also Super 2's which generally is for players with around 2.120 service time. Those guys would have four years of service time. Once a player reaches 6 years of service time (without a long-term deal) becomes a free agent. Hopefully this helps.

Nolasco has many years of a solid track record and a large contract. Gibson did enough to be in the rotation on OPening Day. Of course, that's still subject to change after a couple of months. I think the article (and I may be biased since I wrote it and read all box scores throughout the year) pretty clearly gives plenty of reason to give Meyer a month or so in AAA to work through some things. It won't hurt him at all. Meyer is going to get up to the Twins in 2015. There's no doubt, unless he's hurt. But he's going to make it. One or two months is not going to make a huge difference. Talking to him a little bit, he will handle whatever decision they make very well and be better for it.

Some of us older individuals who remember watching a certain "big-boned" centerfielder might disagree... at least for the time being.

I'm very comfortable with our ranking.

MLB Network's show Top Ten Right Now! will air an episode next week in which Brian Dozier will be named the #9 second baseman in MLB... It's based on calculations and such, and I'm sure on the show itself their panel will discuss their rankings... I personally don't get MLB Network and wish I did! Here's the ranking: Top 10 Second Basemen Right Now: 1. Robinson Cano, Seattle Mariners 2. Dustin Pedroia, Boston Red Sox 3. Ben Zobrist, Oakland Athletics 4. Neil Walker, Pittsburgh Pirates 5. Ian Kinsler, Detroit Tigers 6. Jose Altuve, Houston Astros 7. Howie Kendrick, Los Angeles Dodgers 8. Chase Utley, Philadelphia Phillies 9. Brian Dozier, Minnesota Twins 10. Scooter Gennett, Milwaukee Brewers

No, he hasn't... people apparently prefer to discuss the value of stats over the players... but i think you're right. Health is the key for Thorpe. Here's hoping!!

yeah, this is much ado about nothing. I have little doubt that there probably was some crowd noise pumped in, but I don't know that it affected anything. Kent Hrbek responded well.

Yeah, I agree with this... I thought it was a good pick. A guy whose floor was #4 starter, but a guy who 'could' move quickly and have four big league pitches. I think it was a good pick to make... but to this point, the results just haven't been there for two reasons (Steve Blass one year and Tommy John)... he's still only 26, so he's got time, but it will need to happen soon.. obviously.

Yesterday, we looked at one candidate for the Minnesota Twins’ fifth starter job out of spring training, Mike Pelfrey. Today, we continue this series by looking at another candidate. He’s the tallest candidate, but he also has the biggest fastball and the most devastating slider. Can Alex Meyer stake claim to a spot in the Minnesota Twins starting rotation on Opening Day?The Background Alex Meyer was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the 20th round of the 2008 MLB Draft. He was offered $2 million but chose to go pitch at the University of Kentucky. Three years later, he received that $2 million bonus anyway. He was drafted by the Nationals with their first round pick, the 23rd overall pick, seven picks before the Twins took Levi Michael. The Nationals had him start in Low-A where he made 18 starts before moving up to High-A for seven more starts. Following the season, the Twins acquired the right-hander in a deal that sent Denard Span to the Nationals. In 2013, he made 13 starts for New Britain (in which he struck out 84 batters in 70 innings). Unfortunately, he felt some shoulder discomfort and pitched only in rehab the rest of the season. He went to the Arizona Fall League where he made seven starts to get more work. It was clear that the Twins had one main goal for Alex Meyer in 2014: to keep him healthy through the season, and they were successful. He moved up to Rochester and made 27 starts. He went 7-7 with a 3.52 ERA and a 1.38 WHIP. In 130.1 innings, he struck out 153 (10.6 per nine), but he also walked 64 (4.4 per nine). Following the season, Meyer was added to the Twins 40-man roster. The Hope The Twins last had a true #1, ace starting pitcher in 2008 when Johan Santana was still with the team. Yes, Francisco Liriano had an ace-like season in 2010, but he was unable to show any consistency from year to year, much less month to month. When the Twins acquired Meyer, he immediately gave Twins fans a hope for a future ace, whether that was fair or not. Meyer is blessed with good pitches. He has a fastball that sits between 95 and 98 and has even hit triple-digits a few times. He is known to have a devastating slider. With his height, he is able to release his pitches just a little bit closer to the plate which makes it jump on hitters. He has an improving, though still inconsistent changeup. He credited Rochester teammate Yohan Pino for helping him with that pitch. We love strikeouts. Missed bats are exciting. We don’t want quick outs. We want strikeouts. One thing that Alex Meyer can do is get strikeouts. In 2012, he struck out 9.7 per nine. In 2013, he struck out 11.0 per nine innings. In 2014, he averaged 10.6 strikeouts per nine innings in AAA. The Concerns Walks will haunt, right? After walking 3.1 per nine in 2012 and 3.4 per nine in 2013, Meyer walked 4.4 per nine inning at Rochester in 2014. Baseball people often say that for tall pitchers it is more difficult and takes longer to find a consistent release point for their pitches. There are many such examples. In an interview on 1500ESPN at Twins Fest, Meyer was asked about that theory. He said that he is fully aware of it, but he finds it to just be an excuse for not throwing strikes. That’s a very responsible, accountable response to the theory. Regardless, for Meyer to be an effective starting pitcher in the big leagues, he is going to have to harness and control his terrific stuff. Moving up the baseball ladder means facing hitters who are generally more patient and don’t swing at as many pitches outside the zone. Big league hitters will make him throw strikes. One concern is that Meyer, because of the number of walks and strikeouts, needs to throw a lot of pitches. He frequently was able to only go five innings or less because he was at 85 to 100 pitches by that point. In 11 of his starts, he failed to get an out in the sixth inning. The Twins have a rule that if a pitcher throws more than 30 pitches in an inning, he will not come out for the next inning. That is a pretty standard rule across baseball. He had a three-start stretch in mid-June where he couldn’t get to the fourth inning because of pitch count. He followed that with a stretch of five straight games in which he went exactly six innings, something he did just one more time over his final eight starts. That leads to many people wondering if he wouldn’t best be served working out of the bullpen, something he would not be against. However, the goal at this time remains for him to be a starter, and hopefully a frontline starter. More Hope and Unfair Comps If he does not win the fifth starter job, it is possible that Meyer could begin his career as a bullpen arm. That is how the Twins eased Johan Santana onto the roster (obviously under different – Rule 5 – circumstances), and he turned out well. Meyer could replace Anthony Swarzak as a long reliever and work three to five innings when necessary. Of course, he could also go to the back-end of the bullpen and be a more dominant set-up man. He pitched an inning in relief for Team USA in the Futures Game at Target Field in 2014. Many want to compare Meyer to 6-10 Randy Johnson who was just voted into the Hall of Fame last month. He debuted as a 24 year old in 1988 with the Expos. In 1989, he pitched 160.2 innings between Montreal and Seattle and walked 5.4 batters per nine innings while striking out just 7.3 per nine. He then led the league in walks from 1990 through 1992. He finally put it all together in his age-29 season of 1993. He cut his walks in half and became an annual Cy Young candidate, winning five awards and finishing second three more times. It’s fun to compare what Meyer could be to what Randy Johnson was. Is it fair? I don’t know. Comparing a prospect with zero big league innings to a Hall of Famer is fine, as long as fans realize that that result is pretty rare. In other words, patience is a must for Meyer, the Twins and Twins fans. So many look at the fact that he turned 25 in January and think that he’s now too old to be a prospect. People really need to stop that. The guy has immense talent, but he does still have things to work on. If he is called up by midseason, he’s still up at 25 and can have a strong career for 12 to 15 years. The Twins need to not listen to any of that and do what is in the player’s best short- and long-term interest. Meyer Percentage So, if I were to guess the odds that Alex Meyer begins the season as the Twins fifth starter, I would probably put the odds at close to 10%. I think there is a slightly better chance that he starts the season in the Twins bullpen, just due to numbers. If he begins the year in Rochester, this would allow him to work as a starter, getting more innings, working in, and hopefully out of, more situations and continuing to work on his third and fourth pitches. Either way, I have little doubt that he will be up in the big leagues before June, whether it is due to injury or ineffectiveness in the rotation or in the bullpen. When Jeremy and I asked Meyer in November what his goals are for 2015, the pensive Meyer responded by saying, “Every year I’ve set goals, and this year I won’t. I want to let them come to me. I don’t want to set any expectations because you never know what can happen. I’m going to go out there, wherever they send me, whether it’s Minnesota, Rochester, or in Cedar Rapids. I just want to go out there and pitch as well as I can, continue to get better as a pitcher, and whenever the big leagues calls, you want to make sure you’re ready. I just want to go out there and throw as well as I can. I just hope I can help the team sometime during the year, whether it’s from Game 1 in April or whenever that time would be.” Click here to view the article

Patrick Reusse has family down in Ft. Myers so he gets down there a couple of times each spring. He is down there now and had a chance to catch up with Alex Wimmers. It's really a terrific story. He was a very good college pitcher who deserved to be a mid-first round pick. He's had the injury problems and Tommy John, but when healthy, he has a four-pitch mix that can be good. This story talks about the Tommy John club that includes his workout partner Kyle Gibson. Terry Ryan believes he has the pitches that he could still be a starter. Obviously it's a big year for him in 2015.

Baseball's (almost) always good to watch... and even bad teams can have entertaining games. Just enjoy it.

So now prospect lists get turned into Mauer bashing/praising opportunities now? Keep on topic, please.

Of course, now they'll go out and buy James Shields. Ha! Poor guy. Second time he'll have had this done in 4 years.

I think DeVries squeeked into a Top 50 prospect list of mine one year, maybe... I don't think Fox ever did.

For those that got the Twins Prospect Handbook, my personal ranking for this group was: Rogers 11, Thorpe 12, Kepler 13, Walker 14, Gonsalves 15. I really like Gonsalves and think he has very good potential. Rogers has done well up to AA. It's unfortunate that he missed so much AFL time. As far as the concern about him not being able to go 180+ innings, that's fair because he is long and thin. But again, when I read reports of him having 3 solid pitches including a fastball that touches 95, I can't help but get excited. Now if Gonsalves can put together a strong first full season, he absolutely can move way up this list.

Remember that Kepler will have a fourth option year, so I don't think the clock is ticking terribly quickly. It's definitely not ticking on Thorpe and Gonsalves. They have lots of time. And Rogers doesn't even have to be added to the 40 man roster until after the 2015 season, so there's really no rush for him either.

Good discussion. I really like Gonsalves, but I've never read anyone say his ceiling is #1 or #2 starter. That's not to say that he couldn't get there with some development. He's got terrific potential though which is why I like his ranking in the low teens. I don't think anyone makes too big of a deal of his parents being dancers. It's one piece of scouting information. I think his power potential and the strides he took in the 2nd half in Ft. Myers (when healthy and playing every day) and his performance in the AFL remind us that the guy has terrific talent.

Former Twins pitcher Andrew Albers, who was easily the best story of the Twins 2013 season, signed a minor league deal with the Toronto Blue Jays. In the below video link, it discusses him coming back from Korea and getting an opportunity to play for the Blue Jays. He is one of the best people I have talked to. I enjoy his deep thought and he really appreciates the opportunities that he has been given. Definitely one to root for. Try this link.

Which piece did I write on him? I haven't written about him (other than in the prospect handbook) for awhile. he's a great kid though, works hard, very thoughtful and smart, and he definitely has a chance to be very good. We just need to be patient.

I'm definitely not one who believes that spring training performance should be a big factor in decision-making, but I don't know how else they settle this.