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thrylos, my dear brother. Dear dear dear. You're making stuff up here, brother. There are thirteen Twins playing in the WBC. All of them are in the big league camp, because they were formally invited to get ready for the WBC. Several of them would not othwerwise be in camp, most notably Berrios and Rosario. This has been widely reported.

What a great spring experience for this kid!!! He gets to hang around with all these accomplished professionals in Fort Meyers with the Twins. Maybe talk a little baseball and get some instruction from Carew, Molitor, etc. Then he gets to watch Rios, Beltran, and Pagan go about their business for a couple weeks. Wow.

Might be Thursday. Or Sunday.

Of course, I don't know what I'm talking about, but something makes me think that Benson is a bit of a late bloomer in terms of the kind of maturity required to be mentally disciplined, to have a plan when you step to the plate. So, because optimism fun,I predict he comes of age, dramatically improves his contact rate, walks more and strikes out less. I predict he is a better offensive performer for the Twins in 2014 than Morneau is with, say Texas, and that Willingham is with, say, Atlanta. I don't want to see Morneau traded, or Willingham traded. UNLESS we get stud prospects in return. The chances of Morneau or Willingham being free from injury in the future aren't any better than the chances that elite prospects will bust. So let's hope for banner years from both, whether we trade them or not.

A careful reading of comments from Twins staff makes it pretty clear that they're going with an eye test regarding Gibson, and will limit him if they see signs that it's required. They have not pre-determined an innings limit. However, they have anticipated that Gibson may start to wear down at some point. I expect Gibson to start 31 games and pitch over 170 innings, with an ERA of 2.89, winning 16 games and winning ROY honors. Kidding.

If Benson bounces back and becomes the player the Twins thought they had, that would be so huge! It would afford the Twins the opportunity to trade Willingham to a greedy buyer at the trade deadline in exchange for a great prospect. The question marks are, number one, were the injuries the sole cause of his dismal performance last year, and two, will he make the necessary improvement in plate discipline to become a reliable bat.

Wood and Roenicke are here because we can't count on Guerra, Slama, or Robertson to emerge as reliable options, we have to have lots of options in case Fien decides to return to 2011 form, Oliveros isn't ready, nor are Hardin and Perez, Swarzak is behind schedule, and the list of reasons go on from there. So yeah, while all these options create the appearance that they're "a dime a dozen", every organization tries to catch lightning in a bottle every spring, like we did with Burton last year. And every team knows they'll have to risk losing a guy or two when they try to slip a few relievers that almost made the club through the system. I really doubt whether being out of options comes into play much at all when it comes time to decide between, say, Burnett, Wood, and Fien.

They just weren't striving.

I just want to put a plug in for thrylos98. He's advertised that he'll be tracking all the spring stats.

Well, of COURSE the Twins are striving for mediocrity. What bugs me is that they could strive for putridity instead, and I'm angry and hateful about this, and have been all Millenium. I think I'll call someone names.

Well. Leviathan, I just had to chuckle at your last response to my post about the effect of having a lower draft order. I couldn't make any sense of it, sorry. I think we're actually more in agreement than you comprehend about the role of GM's in their organization's draft. I don't give Ryan or Smith much credit OR blame for the draft, because no one-none of the commenters here- has ever demonstrated that the GMs have influenced the draft enough to desrve blame or credit. For those of you who still insist that it's baseless to contend that a consistently lower draft order will likely lower the quality of a farm system: where is your proof? Pull out the rosters for last year's All Star game. Looking at ONLY the draftees and not international signees, add up the percentages of the All Stars who were 1st rounders #1-10, 1st rounders #11-20, and 1st rounders #21-30. Then add up the players picked in subsequent rounds. After you do that, come on back and argue that there's no connection between the draft order and the quality of your farm system, and eventually of course your MLB roster.

Actually, the argument clearly made was that "bad draft position" was nothing but an excuse, and a lazy one at that. It's a groundless argument, and perhaps a bit lazy. Poor draft position isn't the sole reason for the farm system dipping. And a lot of factors have gone into the rise as well. I don't know anyone who believes that our draft position is the sole factor. I can find commenters on here who either ignore it as a factor or who minimize it as a factor without putting any effort into supporting their opinion with facts. I find it interesting that people feel such a strong compulsion to finger a single individual for credit or blame. This whole drafting and development business involves a multi-million dollar annual budget. There are sixty employees involved in this part of the business. For those of you in the know, please tell me how you came to know the level of influence Billy Smith had on the signing of Sano. What information do you have that I don't have? Sure is more logical to me to think the credit (and blame) should be shared.

Those guys did not use enbough 'roids.

After watching Peletero, one is left with the impression that the prospect pipeline can be controlled by a handful of influence peddlers. Maybe the Twins just couldn't find a way to establish a Curacao beachhead.

Jeremy, don't you think the new caps on spending evens the playing field significantly? And do you believe we're already seeing a change with the Twins, or not? Minier and Silva were signed by the Twins, both top 25 international prospects, right?

So, I'm just curious, Chief. Who are these other organizations who had an equally poor or poorer draft order for, like forever, as you put it, that have a farm system ranked higher than the Twins? I can only think of a couple that might qualify: Cardinals, Rangers, maybe Toronto? That's been my real point. The common tirade, almost always stated as fact, is about how crappy the Twins are at drafting and development. I want to see something substantive to back this up. Not this lazy "what about Adam Johnson" crap.

Using the W_L record for two years and the lack of a world series appearance as your criteria for calling for a change is completely understandable and legitimate. Other commenters use different criteria to make their assessment, and their criteria is equally understandable and legitimate. At least to some of us, PatMearesFan.

Chief, I don't think you can back up this statement. Although I won't accuse you of being lazy. First of all, my statement about the Twin's draft order is in fact almost ENTIRELY correct, is it not? Excepting Mauer, Hicks, and Buxton I believe. And what makes this excuse making and nothing else? That's a pretty unfair assessment by you. Lastly, haven't the Twins ALSO found good players in the bottom of the first round and in later rounds? It would be lazy and nothing but excuse making to argue otherwise.

Over the years, on balance, Gardy has been regarded by the industry as being a very good manager. Does he have weaknesses? Absolutely! And some notable strengths, with clubhouse management and bullpen management most often cited. My own opinion is that he's gotten burnt out a bit. I think he had a lousy year in 2012, and unless he bounces back in 2013, I'm going to welcome a change.

With all due respect, mike wants wins, my brother, I just gotta aske you: given that the Twins drafted in the BOTTOM THIRD of the draft order for a decade; given that the top TEN prospects are the ones that have an astronomically higher chance of becoming really good players (this is empirically supported by many); given that the Twins have NOT had a top ten choice, until last year, since Mauer; given that both times they did, they hit a grand slam in the opinion of almost everyone with Buxton and Mauer; given that the Twins farm system, despite bottom third draft order, has for the most part maintained at least middle of the road calibre according to the rankers all through the lean times; given that the Twins have FIVE DOZENpeole in the scouting and development department, and that Ryan has been very influencial throughout his long tenure with the Twins through lean times and the current fabulous period for the farm system; given that the pre-Target Field budget probably hampered these five dozen pros; given that, like every single other organization, the Twins must live with a few bad decisions (BJ Garbe) and some bad luck (Alex Wimmers?); given the fact that you have absolutely zero grounds for your opinion that Smith should get individualcredit for Sano, andthat Ryan and others deserve NONE; given the fact that, under Ryan this year, The Twins sined the #7 and #22 ranked interational prospects (Minie and Silva); So, mike, given ALL this, do you STILL want to discredit Ryan by blaming him for a drop-off of the farm system that has NEVER been even remotely as bad as you have characterized it over the last couple years? And exactly how much CREDIT are you graciously extending to Ryan now that the farm system is one of the very very very best? Do you understand why I think you're choosimg to be unbalanced and unfair in your criticism here? In reality doesn't supprt your opinion on this subject, my brother.

Way back, I recall running into Jack Morris in the lobby of the Pfister when he pitched for the Twins. He was in a surly mood. I think he'd lost the previous night.

These seem like standard innocuous spring training fare to me.

Fangraphs did an interview with Ryan O'Rourke, one of Rosario's teammates, who described Rosario as having the quickest hands he's ever seen.

Yep. Once more, thrylos reads a quote. Yep. Once more, thrylos draws the most unfavorable conclusion possible. Yep. Once more, all the rest of us predicted he would. Yawn.

The rest of the AL Central had nine players ranked, none as high as Sano and Buxton. Detroit has Castellanos #21, Garcia #74, and Rondon #95. Cleveland: Bauer #14, Lindor #28; KC: Zimmer #24, Starling #35, Ventura #85; Chicago has Hawkins at #55.