Teddy

So, 42 possible points to be given out across 21 voting slots by 7 voters. Two pitchers out of the 21 slots on the list. Sounds about right for what we saw this year. I really hope we see mostly pitchers on this list next year.

I for one am very happy that Jim Polhad and Dave St. Peter went outside of their comfort zones with a fresh perspective. This is likely the seeds of a huge culture change within the organization, one that is welcomed and sorely needed.

Sadly, every pitch I threw was considered a change-up.

Great list, Seth. I will say, though, that I'm a bit concerned about the development of these guys seeing the lack of fundamentals in so many of the guys the Twins called up this year. I'll be curious to see what changes the new regime implements with regards to player development.

Is it just me, or was Berrios also cocking his wrist on the changeup, ala Rick Sutcliffe?

As much as I love the guy, I'm firmly in the "Trade Dozier and Put Polanco at 2B" camp. Trading Dozier right now could yield a Knoblauch-level return, which as we've seen with the Detroit Tigers, could give a huge boost to the pitching staff. Frankly, as Dozier said over the past few days, it all depends on who the GM is going to be.

Are you proposing that they allow Danny Santana to walk away?

While I'm not going to claim to be any sort of a pitching expert here (so is that why I'm about to play one on the internet?), to my eye it appears as if Berrios isn't committing his pitching-arm shoulder toward home plate as explosively as he should. Matter of fact, he seems a little passive with his upper body. Compare the speed of the movement of his shoulders to that of Caminero in the clip on this page. While Caminero may be a bit more violent in delivery than I'd like to see out of Berrios, if Jose could speed up his upper body rotation, and really commit his pitching-arm shoulder toward his target, the ball would explode out of his hand even more and I think he'd be more consistent with location.

I agree with you AZTwin. What is the reason for the deeper farm system? Is there a new scouting department? Not that I'm aware of. Does that mean that the same old scouting team is simply doing a better job? Or are the coaches doing a better job of teaching than a few years ago? Dare I say that the improved depth is because of Terry Ryan?

Any word on what was in the MRI that shut down Trevor Hildenberger? With the stats he's been posting, I was hopeful he'd be a September call-up. That quick one paragraph addition to this story has a very ominous feel to it.

Cody, thanks for including most of the teams' records and their positions in the standings.

Thanksgiving of 1992. My girlfriend and I were traveling with two friends from LA to San Antonio to visit her parents. We flew Southwest, which at the time, had a few rows of seats that faced each other, so families could sit together. The four of us found one of these sections, and sat there with one other guy. Well, at one point on the flight, my buddy said something really idiotic, and so I blurted out, "Oh, shut the f*#k up". Well, at that precise moment, the pilot cut the engines back, and so that word kind of reverberated around the cabin and I noticed that the ten year old boy with the family across the aisle whipped his head around faster than an owl tracking a mouse. I felt like a heel, but didn't say anything more except mouthing "sorry" to the kid. About 20 minutes later, the guy who was in the row with us said to me, "If you were one of the richest players in baseball, would you fly Southwest?" I asked what he meant, and he just pointed to the father of the family, who was sitting in the seat to my right, just two feet away across the aisle. Orel Hershiser. Needless to say, I struck up a conversation with him, and we chatted for a little while. He ended up signing an autograph for the guy in our row. Took about five minutes to craft the autograph. I've never seen a player take so much time to write his name on a piece of paper. He put a lot of care into it, and it was rather iconic looking. I didn't ask him for one, simply because he was with his family and I felt bad enough about the F-bomb I had dropped earlier.

We've got to figure out why two of our best horses, Dozier and Perkins, are great out of the gate but lousy with stamina. For the Twins to contend next season, they can't continue having all-world first halves (well actually, I'd love it if they both had all-world first halves next year) and lousy second halves. I think it's different for both. Perkins seems to break down physically in the second half (Glen: mix in some yoga or Joe's stretching program this offseason) and Dozier seems to break down mentally in the second half, trying to pull everything as his BA slumps.

Actually, with Texas losing and the Twins having the night off, the Twins are just one game back in the Wild Card standings.

Seeing what Stephen Gonsalves has done this year in his two stops in A-ball, I'd love to see him bumped to Chattanooga next season, but I doubt it'll happen. More likely, the organization will want to see more consistency out of him over the first half next year before a mid-year promotion to AA. Is there any reason to think that he's ready to make the move at the beginning of the season?

Respectfully, I don't know that I agree. I think a good first baseman can save a lot of errors from an erratic infield. We know that Plouffe is erratic, and Sano is improving, but some of his hurried throws are off the mark. Florimon is only keeping the SS seat warm until Santana is ready, so it's possible next year we have two error-prone guys on the left side of the infield, so a smooth glove at 1B is imperative. Mauer may not be there yet, with less than 60 MLB games at the position under his belt, but his glove work has the potential to be Gold Glove caliber once he gets the position down. That will only help the infield next year when the kids are ready.

Didn't the Twins draft Ryan Rowland-Smith in the Rule 5 draft a few years ago?