mnfanforlife

Good point Seth. The Michael expample is a good sign that the Twins would start a guy on an accelerated path if they deem the prospect worthy. Levi has either proven unworthy, or that the Florida State league deflates offensive numbers.

Im sorry, but this makes no sense to me. Why would the twins trade Berrios after he dominated last year in rookie ball, and we need starting pitching more than anything. It would make much more sense (if we did trade for Bauer) to unload hitting prospects/MLB talent and keep a gem like Berrios. He may be a long ways from pitching in Minnesota, but he is dang good and it would be foolish to lose him while the organization is desperate for young, quality, starting pitching prospects.

Santana was widely known as the best pitcher "in the game" during his successful years in Minnesota. None of these other guys were ever considered the Ace of Aces in the major leagues. There is no way a list of Twins' all-time-greatest-pitchers doesn't start with Santana rated #1 overall.

I see what you did there. Step to the front of the line, please. Yeah. I don't buy into the malarky of disowning history just because it wasn't local as seems to be the rage of conventional wisdom. The Twins/Senators are a historic franchise, not some lousy invention of the 60s Right, they are the same franchise. But the list specifically says "Twins Top Pitchers of All-Time." I love baseball history though, so it was refreshing to see the "Big Train's" stat line for '13, even though it wasn't pitched in a Twins' uniform. Imagine if some wacko put up numbers like that in 2013...he would be MVP/Cy Young and people would swear he's on PED's

I agree Revere has his limitations with his lack of power. But this is a guy that could hit 20 triples some year. No joke. He has the speed to do it. Hicks has a higher ceiling because he plays awesome D (like Revere) but Hicks has a cannon for an arm, where Revere has a mid-70's velocity from the outfield. Hicks is learning to steal more and more bases, so he could replace Revere immediately in the 2-hole if Revere were dealt to Seattle. (lets hope we do a deal with the Mariners for one of their top teir pitching prospects!)

Wow! Now this is pitching prospect. If I were T.Ryan, I would have to take a long look at the list of prospects we have to offer for Bauer. After checking on the D-Backs needs....They wouldn't want Morneau, Willingham, or Span/Revere. We are not givinig up Berrios. They wont want any of our minor league OF's. So that means Sano and/or Rosario would be the center piece of any trade for Bauer?

True, Delmon and Sano are as different as can be. But they are similar in that they were signed as teenagers. But, Delmon, being from the U.S.(?), was able to play at higher levels immediately. Whereas Sano is not getting that opportunity (for whatever reason). I can see that Sano strikes out a ton and had a ton of errors and whatever. But so did Plouffe. So did Valencia. So did Bautista. Lets just stop right there with listing Twins 3rd baseman that were crap defensively and couldn't make consistent contact.

I don't think you realize what you just did there. You negated yourself in exactly the way that those who pay attention have already understood: "Knoblauch moved more quickly than the "modern era" Twins. Kinda like Joe Mauer." ...wait, what? Not to be a dick, but this whole premise is stupid because you fail to acknowledge the simple and obvious fact that every single player is different. And that's all there is to it. This whole premise is a very inelligent, well-thought-out philosphy of teaching baseball to elite prospects at the higher levels faster than the current trend. Good example with Chuck, mlhouse. Maybe Sano isnt as good as Knoblauch was at the same age? Sano certainly wasnt as good as Harper at the same age. But he is an elite prospect, hence the #1 ratings by most lists.

This is great stuff! No doubt Sano will strikeout a ton in the majors....but he will be productive like many of the high K/high power hitters making millions today

But if we just trust trust trust, then we'd have nothing to talk about. jk

This is a huge factor for me too. I don't like the Twins being cheap, but if you bring Sano up for a couple years and he is brutal, you waste two years of his service time and two years of his development. I would feel a lot differently if Sano was 21, played third well and the Twins were a borderline playoff team. This isn't about being cheap, it's about being smart. 95 loss teams are not being wise in promoting their top prospects well before they are ready so that they can burn service time struggling in ML. It's going to be a tough jump as it is, and bringing them on before the skillset is there is a good way to destroy a kid's confidence or burn valuable service time. Even the Yankees understand that concept. If you bring Sano up too soon, you have two possible results: 1) He struggles and never reaches that potential (example: Delmon Young, Carlos Gomez). 2) He gets good right when he gets expensive. The Twins are in a position where the second option isn't always a bad thing, but regardless, it's poor management from a long term organizational standpoint, and it's risky from a player development standpoint. Likewise, I fail to see how the Twins are being conservative. Sano is very young for his league. He didn't exactly dominate either, which makes me think they put him in the proper zone of proximal development, or whatever you want to call it. His defense is clearly lagging and other than power, his offense wasn't exactly top tier either. I'm not saying he's a bad prospect, but he was challenged quite well based on where his skills are now. Putting him in Fort Myers or New Brittian for 2012 makes that challenge even tougher. People who say push push push seem to forget that the skill level between the minor league levels is much more difficult. Not much is going to be accomplished when you put a guy who needs to hone his contact tools against people who are much better at avoiding contact, and we can find story after story about guys who got pushed too fast and never made it. It isn't about being conservative or liberal with your prospects. It's about being smart. Sano has shown nothing to indicate that the Twins are being too conservative with him. I completely agree that Sano is not ready for MLB playing time now or was last year in 2012. Not even close. But I would have loved to see him get a shot at moving from Beloit to Ft. Myers to end last season, at the very minimum. His batting average was not dominant, but his total offensive production was. He won the HR & RBI crowns with ease, even though he was 19 playing in a 22-yr-olds league. And like I mentioned earlier, who's to say that Sano could not have handled Beloit in 2011 rather than a second year of short-season Rookie ball. Its all conjecture, but we could have had a more polished/valuable product sooner if he were challenged even more than he already has been.

I agree he is not yet ready for big-time production at AA or AAA or MLB. But I would have liked to see him struggle at an advanced level rather than spend his first 3 years kicking the crap out of leagues where he is probably the best overall player (in the league). Who knows, he may have hit .238 in A+ last year with 21 HR's and 80 RBI....I would push those offensive numbers up to AA in 2013 regardless of strikeouts and inconsistent defense (which is said to be improving fast (could it have improved faster if he were pushed to higher levels earlier?)). We just will never know with Sano, since he wasn't given the opportunity​ to struggle (yet).

Totally agree. I might have to make my own list just to stay sane.

I absolutely agree that the Twins have been too conservative lately with their top prospects. As I stated in the comments above, i would have loved to see Sano/Rosario skip ELZ altogether and have a shot to play AA by 20/21 yrs old. But its looking like a full season at A+ next summer for both. Also stated earlier was that if top prospects are pushed to AA or AAA they will get a whole lot better faster than if they light up Rookie ball twice, then spend an entire summer at low-A, then another at A+, and so on....But we wont know if Sano/Rosario would have been capable of that advanced schedule, because they were coddled as teenagers, in my opinion.

This is a huge factor for me too. I don't like the Twins being cheap, but if you bring Sano up for a couple years and he is brutal, you waste two years of his service time and two years of his development. I would feel a lot differently if Sano was 21, played third well and the Twins were a borderline playoff team. I complete agree he isnt going to fly through the minors like Harper did. But I was hopin to see him move multiple low-levels per year to speed things up a bit. The Twins haven't seemed to let anyone skip AAA lately. Which means Sano could be looking at 3 more years in the minors before he gets a full season in the majors.

Nice zone of proximal development self. I agree 100 % with the argument. No reason to rush him when his defense needs so much work and he still strikes out at a very high rate. Just to throw some more teaching jargon out there for you...bringing Sano up at a slow pace may be the "least restrictive environment," but also may trigger a "looking glass self" as he performs to level he is at. If he were to be put into a situation where he is facing better compition, who is to say he doesn't step up the the plate (baseball cliche)? Exactly! i just wish we could have seen him struggle at a higher level last year (and the year before for that matter). He is known as a stud back home (#1 overall pick in the Dominican Winter League draft), so maybe he does figure things out quicker if he gets challenged early as a 18-19-yr-old

I agree that they need to skip levels, but i think they should skip the levels they will easily dominate. And play at the upper levels as an outlier age-wise.

should be used sparingly

yes those guys are rare exceptions. I was really hoping that Sano was going to be one of those rare types. But he is just a tick below that status.

I think if Span is expendable, then so should be Hicks.

Honestly, i would have liked to see him skip Elizabethton and play in Beloit as an 18-yr-old. Then get into the Florida State league last year (2012), and have a fighting chance as a 20-yr-old to get a September call-up. I think he would have been ready for this type of schedule, but we will never know.

We will never know what type of impact Sano could have created in the Majors as a 19 yr-old like Harper or other uber-prospects. But, it definitely generates some conversation. And I would rather side with those that think pushing a top-prospect up quickly is in everyone's best interest, than side with those that want to save on MLB service time and all that yuck yuck. As a teacher, you push kids into their "zone of proximal development." And Sano has not been challenged or in his "zone" by any means. He has been a jewel in a league full of rocks the last two years.

Delmon is a decent comparison for Sano, but Delmon was pushed through the minors quickly like Harper. Delmon played in AAA at age 19. Sano just finished low-A ball at 19. So that isnt a fair comparison either.

Sano will likely be a DH in the majors. So Harper has a big advantage there.