Otto von Ballpark

Has this same article been written before about Arcia? Parmelee? Those guys raked in Rochester too. Plouffe eventually did too. None of them have ever generated enough offense to hold down a corner OF spot in MLB.

The Meyer tie-in is that there was no 40 man roster crunch. They could have promoted any other AAA pitcher over Chargois if they so desired.

What was the emergency? Alex Meyer hasn't pitched in over 40 days and could easily go on the 60 day DL at this point. Edit: technically a minor league player can't go on the 60 day DL, but I am pretty sure the Twins could rescind their option on Meyer and retroactively put him on the MLB DL, since he hasn't played since his MLB stint. It has been done before by other organizations.

That's fair, although I think Polanco's admittedly small MLB sample is encouraging -- he's looked pretty darn comfortable as a MLB hitter from day 1, which is refreshing. I won't quibble any further with their prospect rankings, I am more concerned with the lack of MLB opportunity for Polanco.

It was just a statement of fact, they are very close in age. It made no absolute claims based on that fact that could be considered "cutting it awfully fine." It wasn't claiming that Polanco is better than Kepler due to age, or that he can develop more, etc. Just that, if Kepler gets points for taking a step forward on the development curve in the past 12 months, then Polanco might deserve similar credit for his recent performances too because he is similarly young. Not necessarily equivalent credit, if Kepler gets bonus points for his unlikely origins, but comparable enough to cast doubt on the 5 spot gap between them in Seth's rankings (the context of the original post).

I think you are the only one who read Thrylos' statement as "Polanco's recent numbers vs. Kepler's career numbers". Go back and read it again, that wasn't explicitly written nor do I think it was even implied (especially considering the same post invoked their similar ages, which implies the author is far more interested in their current place on the development curve than minor league career numbers, which very few people cite as meaningful, ever). And frankly, Polanco compares pretty well, especially with the added potential to be a middle infielder. I have no problem with Kepler being ahead of Polanco, but I think it is fair to question how Kepler would be ranked #1 and Polanco #6 at this point.

Maybe I am reading it wrong, but I didn't think that was the comparison implied. Just that Polanco's recent numbers stack up pretty well with Kepler's recent numbers, and he is younger and potentially plays a more important defensive position.

That was my first question too! http://www.pressherald.com/2014/05/14/steve_solloway__joe_cronin_lives_with_joe_cronin_/

I don't think so -- Rule 5 eligibility is determined by age and signing date, and the draft signing deadline is now in August so we can't push it to next year, even if he can't play until next year.

I suspect Stewart wasn't that hot of commodity, hence why he only netted Kielty who wasn't even a prospect anymore, just an average-ish outfielder himself.

The first Rick Aguilera deal, perhaps?

Salary was no consideration in the Herrmann-Palka swap. In some ways, Fowler was a salary dump too -- the Astros exchanged his ~$9 mil salary for Valbuena's ~$4 mil. Plouffe is making $7.25 mil. He might get you a Palka (who is interesting but isn't that well regarded as a prospect, in some ways like our own Adam Brett Walker), or maybe he might get you another team's salary dump, but primarily he is going to get you salary relief. Same for Milone at $4.5 mil and in the minor leagues. Packaging them together would actually reduce their trade value, I think. Few teams are probably able to pick up the remaining ~$8 mil tab on those two combined, and those teams will probably aim higher. I still think the Twins will probably have to eat some salary to get anything back of consequence for either of those two players. Which if TR's history is any indication, means we won't get back anything of consequence for them. At best, 2 months salary relief and a fringe prospect. For Nunez, salary isn't really an issue, so he should be able to net a Palka or two or even a bit better (almost certainly not a top 100 type prospect though).

FWIW, I don't know if this is really true. He was never ranked in any of the "big 3" lists, despite being eligible for such lists for 6 years, up until his 24th birthday. The Yankees promote aggressively at times, but Nunez basically repeated both A and A+ levels, and spent full seasons at AA and AAA before debuting at age 23. He was pretty consistently a .260-.280 hitter, 90-something wRC+ hitter throughout, except for a .322 AVG, 116 wRC+ blip at AA. Not a bad young player, could become a decent starter for awhile, but not really a "hot prospect". I think he just got a lot of attention from the Yankee hype machine for a bit -- Nunez's .322 season at AA just happened to immediately precede Jeter's first big decline year (.270 AVG, 90 OPS+), leading to a lot speculation about him taking over the position.

Top 100? That's not happening. Zach Davies wasn't even that level, Sickels didn't even have him in his top 175 entering 2015 or 2016 (although the latter, he did get a mention among "others in the picture" although Sickels went a little overboard listing 145 additional players in that category!). Maybe we could get a project reliever (or two) like the Braves just got for Kelly Johnson: http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/morriak01.shtml

Generally agreed, although it does appear like two infielders will need to be traded/injured in order to get Polanco meaningful playing time this year.

Thanks, I do believe I had you confused with another poster there. There has been so little public discussion of Stewart's character that I conflated the two. Still, I'd be wary of judging anyone's character based on the interactions you described. So he doesn't open up with fans standing around outside games and practices, that isn't necessarily a character issue. And it says nothing about how he might interact with his peers/teammates and coaches.

Huh? What the heck are you responding to here? I never "ignored the rest of Plouffe's work" and I never said that the first 2 months of a prospects career tell us nothing. Plouffe's career tells us he is a fairly low upside guy who may not even be worth his arb award this year and next in the current 3B market. And 2 months of a prospect can be good info, better than nothing but its not as good as 3 or 4 months. Also, it is important to take the opportunity when it is available. What happens if we delay all this until August 1st because we don't want to send a couple mil with Plouffe to offset his salary between now and then, and then Polanco or Escobar suffer injuries over the last two months? Or even more likely, TR still can't work a trade until late August and now you're down to basically a September call-up, and Polanco still might be fighting with Escobar, Santana, Nunez, etc for playing time. There is a cost to delaying things, probably more than offsetting whatever modest gain Trader Terry thinks he is getting from his conservative trade stance. Simply put, the guys relevant to our future are healthy now and ready to experience everyday MLB action. The guy who isn't relevant to our future is unlikely to see his value shift in the next two months except due to his decreasing salary obligation. There is no better time to eat a little money to get things moving. Maybe the Mets would have still preferred Kelly Johnson, but do you think TR was on the phone with them and opening to sending along $2-3 mil cash? If not, that is a problem.

I thought we debunked your overheard conversation from what was allegedly Kohl Stewart's family?

It's not about concluding which players are bad in two months, it's about collecting data. Right now we have a ton of data about Dozier, Plouffe, etc., and very little about Polanco. What's a better use of limited playing time resources in the middle of a lost season, seeing Dozier's career PA # 2600-2800, or Plouffe's career PA # 2700-2900, or Polanco's career PA # 50-250? Especially when we have to make decisions this winter about Polanco (out of options), Santana (out of options), and Plouffe, Escobar, and Nunez (all due raises in arbitration). And the Mets trade for Kelly Johnson suggests trades can come before the end of July if the team wants it to. I suspect the Twins could have eaten $3 mil and moved Plouffe to the Mets for an interesting relief prospect a few days ago. But instead they would rather pay him that same $3 mil for him to play here ahead of Polanco and Escobar in a lost season the next two months, and hope that something better is available July 31st which it likely won't be, given Plouffe's salary and track record and the general 3B market. Also, the Twins aren't only limiting themselves by waiting for trade opportunities. Pat Dean is in the starting rotation, for example, while Trevor May threw 2 pitches in a one batter relief appearance last night, again in the middle of a lost season...

Heck, you could probably even bid on getting Plouffe back, assuming his new team also isn't thrilled with his potential $10 mil arb award.

Rosario actually replaced another fairly young player in Arcia, who is also getting replaced by Kepler right now. And Grossman replaced Rosario. No veteran has been usurped in this series of moves. Polanco played pretty well in limited duty, better than multiple incumbents, but got shipped out again. Trevor May did just fine as a starter too, but apparently he's behind Pat Dean on the SP depth chart now.

Agreed, I don't think a 4 year deal is likely. I wouldn't be all that surprised to see them eventually buy out his last arb year and another year or two, though -- this is the same organization that tore up the last two years of Hughes' original deal to extend him 3 more beyond that, and who -- at the July trade deadline -- saw fit to lock up Suzuki as their starting catcher for 2 years, apparently content with his first half over performance and fearing having to find a catcher elsewhere...

Sounds about right: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2013/08/os-working-on-morse-trade-unlikely-to-land-willingham.html In the most recent Ortiz thread, I posted a quote from Epstein that said the Twins asked for "a pretty good prospect" in trade talks before simply releasing Ortiz too. I get the feeling that the Twins ask for decent prospects and for the other team to pick up 100% of the salary. And the other teams probably say "well, if nothing else works out, we'll get back to you" so nothing happens until the end of July or more likely August or not at all, and we generally get nothing back but <2 months salary relief at best anyway.

Not sure what you mean. I'm more willing to receive cash than offer it too. Twins generally haven't received much cash in trade either -- probably something like the waiver price. Like what we probably paid to get Neal Cotts last August. I guess the Mariners picked up the tab on Bret Boone back in the day, not sure if there have been others.

That's my guess too. Or even if he has picked up the phone, TR isn't willing to eat any money at this point. Of if no one has called the Twins, everyone in baseball knows TR won't eat any money at this point. (Have the Twins ever eaten any money in trade? I remember them dragging out the Morneau discussions with Pittsburgh over his final month's salary.)