bird

Let's wait awhile longer before we stick a fork in any of those guys. Or, for that matter, in Santana, Vargas, Buxton, May, Meyer, Rosario, Tonkin, Graham, Pressly..... And let's remember that people, perhaps even you, stuck a fork in Gibson, Plouffe, Dozier, Perkins, and recently Hunter (right Vodka Dave?). So when you are (prematurely?) critical of the team regarding Hicks, Arcia, and your former darling Pinto, are we praising them for Perkins, Dozier, Plouffe, and Gibson? And let's remember it's a numbers game with these prospects, for every team. Every team has their Arcia's. And the prospect numbers are so very impressive for the Twins: Sano, Polanco, Berrios, Kepler and many many many other highly-regarded prospects are on the cusp. Because it's baseball, we should expect that, for every Arcia and Pinto, there will likely be a Rosario, and that, like we saw with Plouffe and Dozier, the Twins have exhibited admirable patience, which is something we can learn from them.

Let's be mindful that, in his first couple dozen starts, he may not be as good as studs like Milone, Pelfrey, Nolasco, etc. Gibson wasn't. May wasn't. Meyer isn't.

Makes sense to me. I'm continually perplexed that, whenever we have a bad spell, we get the clamor for the next prospect to be called up. The logic is always the same: the shiny new toy will come up and immediately contribute more than the current guy(s). And time after time, that logic is proven to be faulty, as one after the other proves, in the immediate term, to be less effective than the last guy. With very few exceptions, mind you. Sure, a lot of these prospects will eventually be very productive. Some will eventually be game-changers. But look at the reality: Buxton, Meyer, Arcia, Vargas, Tonkin, Pinto, all among the guys who people were clamoring to see promoted and highly critical of the FO when doing so. The mantra has often been, how can we tolerate watching Boyer, Hunter, Pelfrey, Escobar, Nunez, Herrmann, Robinson, Milone, Nolasco, etc. when we have these better options? The irony is that the same people who criticize the FO and impatiently call for the immediate promotion of the prospects are the people who are most vociferous about winning now, the least patient about incremental improvements, the harshest critics when things go sub-optimally. Sano is just another example. Sure, he may come up and be great, or at least good like Rosario. But maybe he comes up and hits like Vargas or worse, just like Buxton has hit worse than Robinson, or like Vargas is a worse option (at the moment!) than Nunez at DH. Personally, I love all the call ups, because, despite the current record, I can see a benefit in running the risk of falling out of contention in order to set the team up for 2016. But this idea is blasphemous to some of the FO's harshest critics, right? So, regarding Sano. Do you call for his immediate promotion to the big club because you're so sure he'll immediately produce more offense than Vargas, or even Nunez? Did you think the same thing about Arcia? Meyer? Buxton? Are you one who is still absolutely sure about Pinto? Were you one of the critics when Vargas was in Rochester? These are not clear-cut decisions when we're factoring in trying to win games right now.

Here comes Bernier again...

I'd agree with this. Other than Rogers, and probably Achter, based on the stats alone, every reliever in AAA looks to be pretty much interchangeable with the majority of the relievers on the MLB staff. Oliveros can look great one night and awful the next, same with Thielbar. I'm not sure Tonkin, Pressly and Thompson, despite recent struggles and inconsistency, are worse bargains than the guys we could parade up here from AAA. And why put it all on Ryan? Paulie was quoted as saying he thinks Thompson's results can pretty much change at any time, and other than Duensing, he's gotten fair results from the rest of them for decent stretches. I'm thinking the solution probably lies with the net wave of guys now being refined in AA: Jones, Chargois, Peterson, Reed, Burdi. We'll need to be patient I guess.

You just described Delmon.

Okay.

I'm not impressed. Let's see you take on a REAL challenge. Duensing.

In terms of running out weak hitters at DH, you're referring to Vargas, I assume.

And even if Arcia can either improve his negatives or regain dominance with his positive (power), he might be our 4th or 5th best MLB outfielder. And right now, he's probably the third best outfielder in Rochester.

I'm all for seeing Sano up here sooner rather than later, but I think there's a distinct possibility that people are going to be disappointed by the expected immediate impact. We should probably temper our expectations regarding how instantaneously the offense gets turned around, and I'm very skeptical that his addition translates immediately into more wins. OTOH, inserting two generational talents simultaneously into the lineup...hey, go for it.

I don't think Rand is describing anything that's terribly unique to his generation or the half-generation behind him. Social media exposes fans and their expectations, and often makes folly of fans' impatience, among other traits. When a player succeeds, we get the clamor to call him up or promote him, often garnished with harsh criticism directed at the front office. The same goes for failure: trade the chump, send him down, etc. But when we pause and reflect, how often do we find that whatever failings or success we got all worked up about were actually sustained, but simply at a more moderate level? I'm going to take Rand's advice from the last sentence and sit back and enjoy whatever ride these new guys give me, and my hunch is it's going to be good enough. Buxton has been a baseball pleasure, failures and all.

A preemptive comment here: only two of the 23 names mentioned here as the worst of them all were selected within the past decade. And both of those were from seven drafts ago.

Yeah, Torii may not get more favorable calls after his tantrum, and I'm skeptical that Joey's demeanor is helping him get favorable calls. Without proof, I'd suggest Joey's not getting the calls like he used to. Maybe Hunter's act will help everyone? Doubtful, but who knows? But that wasn't the end game I had in mind anyway. I'm not a fan of these tantrums, but I am a fan of seeing the team play with some observable passion and heart. Would just like to see Mauer express some kind of temperament out there once in awhile. Anything. Hit a double into the RF corner and clap your hands together with a smile when you slide safely into second, Joe.

I'm sorry jokin, I should have been clearer that I was talking about Sano's manager, Mientkiewicz, and not Doogie.

I want to see Joe Mauer get in the grill of an umpire. Just once.

Appeal for humility perhaps?

Which is why we have to keep reminding ourselves how few players drafted after about the first 25 or so ever make it to the majors. And why it's a numbers game when you're trying to shore up a weakness via the farm system.

Yeah, I think he dropped because of injury problems. He's finally back and pitching lights out, but he may be a good gamble that doesn't turn out. We have to keep reminding ourselves how very very few of these round 3-10 guys ever pan out.

So, you want them to call up Burdi and Reed from AA? Come on now.

Until Burdi and Tonkin and Jones and Reed, or any of the other candidates are contributing, this complaint will resurface at the slightest prompting. The next recurring complaint can't come soon enough for me.

I suppose one could turn this around and say good decisions on draft day is probably a significant factor as to why we now have one of the very best talent pipelines in all of baseball. Maybe it's not moronic. Maybe it's not ingenious. Maybe it's simply one way to solve a problem that had developed. The system is full of power arms. How do we find fault with that? Only time will tell. A virtual majority of the pitchers we're talking about have spent huge blocks of time recovering from injuries. Tonkin, Achter, Burdi, Jones, Reed, Melotakis, Chargois, Cedaroth, Booser, Peterson, Corey Williams, Luke Bard...and Seth will add a half-dozen new names to the list. You could't find anyone in the industry that wouldn't describe this pool of prospects using superlatives.

Well, I hope you're available for a call, since the 40 Twins scouts that watched Jay pitch lack a full understanding of when the average fireballer hits his peak velocity. Amazing.

A function of some horribly bad injury luck. Corey Williams, Luke Bard, JT Chargois, Mason Melotakis, Yorman Landa, Randy Rosario...

Unfortunately, it really seems like the "best" five players went off the board before the Twins selected Jay. This is a good lesson for those who somehow think that the Twins should be better at this stuff than other teams. It's just not realistic to think that any organization will limit their scouting investment on these early-round prospects. They're ALL going to be good at this stuff. And thorough. The Twins apparently did not miss a single game Jay pitched in this season, for heaven's sake