mikelink45

You captured my thoughts - the 10 day has been quite a gift to manipulating the pitching staff.

I like a small hall, but we passed that mark a long time ago. Scheurholz and Selig are two of my recent objections. Let management have their own space - no one has any real ability to judge their impact and Selig impacts the game in many ways. Elections like 2013 that put in an umpire that no one had seen, someone who is only known by some stories is the type of election that drives me crazy. What was the criteria. Managers, umpires, coaches, GMs, Owners (especially owners) and commissioners have no real measure of greatness.

Wonderful stories. A nice Sunday morning coffee break! Thank you.

Kinley made no sense when they drafted him - we had too many good minor league arms to justify having him clog the bullpen for a year. Now that they have signed three veteran BP arms he is definitely not worth keeping. I agree on Boshers and I am afraid that soon Slegers will be a minor league star and a major league bust. He seems perfect for an Asian trial. I am also hoping that after the starter sweepstakes ends we do not do any more adding and keep developing our young talent.

Give him a chance. He has earned it. This is why we have minor leagues we are supposed to develop talent.

I agree, but I think his age and experience have him ready for a fast rise. I would love it. But all of minor league experience is filled with pitfalls and obstacles. Good luck Rooker!

It’s the Hall of Fame selection, not the president of the United States that is being chosen. Its time for all the sabrematricians and the modern sports writers to get off their rocking horses and forget the angst. Jack Morris is in the Hall of Fame. He almost made it in the regular selection process and should have if I chose, but there was no hesitation on the veteran committee. He is in because he was a big game pitcher. He was the head of the rotation, he played for good teams and made good teams into winners. Stuff the ERA and other statistical nonsense. He was a winner and I like winners. I like the horse – the man who is willing to take the ball and give you as many innings as you need. How Jack Morris Complicates Future Hall of Fame Selections is an essay on ESPN http://www.espn.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/85069/how-jack-morris-complicates-future-of-hall-of-fame-pitcher-selections The fact is, I consider it nonsense. Do we really elect by comparison? The man who shines in any decade or period of baseball history does so because he meets the demands of his own time. I know that NY is mad because Jack is in and Mussina is not. But do you realize that the narrative was never the same. They did not talk about Mussina like they did Morris. They did not rely on Mussina like that did Morris. Nice pitcher Mussina, but I never thought of you as HOF. Morris does not present any problems, the limit on how many can be voted on never created any problems. The problem for the voters is that they have to really think about who they are voting for. If there were so many great HOF candidates they could have put in 5 – 7 a year, but they did not. Because someone wants Bonds and someone else does not matters little in the long run. Shoeless Joe, Pete Rose, Clemens and Bonds are getting more press for not getting in than they would have if they had slid in and we had moved on. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa are not in because their resumes are weak. They had chemical induced homeruns, but nothing else. Move on. Frankie Frisch manipulated the committee to put in a number of questionable players – that’s done. We have no vote them out. They set low bars. So what. Move on. When I think HOF I think of players that had great careers, but also players who stepped up in big moments, players who shifted our perspective. I am not looking to compare HOF players, I simply want the best of our generation in with the best of previous generations. I want Jack, I do not want Mussina. I want Thome, not Vlad, I want good stories and if some that I disagree with make it in, so what. I am fine with that. The HOF is about stories and the election process is a story in and of itself. To those who obsess over Jack Morris – Buster Olney – I say give over it. Make your vote and move on. To Jack, I can only say I am delighted that you made it and proud to have you in the hall.

Thanks for that addition. I did not check out minor leaguers, but hopefully there will be many more.

As much as I loved last year, I am concerned about regression, about half year or shorter periods of production at many positions and the potential to select the months we like and project them for the future. Our young team has a lot of growing pains ahead - just look at Sano's time since he came up. Injuries, wrong positions, weight problems, and off the field issues - yet his promise is as strong as ever. I just want to see it fulfilled. Polanco coming back strong was great, but is it real? 2018 promises to show us a lot about our team.

I feel totally unqualified to respond to the extension calls. I understand the wisdom of this and would not object, but what I am trying to grasp is what markos wrote - what is the changing strategies for agents now. Are extensions still acceptable for them? What is the cost, what are the stipulations. We are still in position where liability is all on the team. There is no penalty for the player who under performs. I know the union addressed the craziness of owners offering reduced contracts when any statistic dropped despite the overall value of the player, but now these extensions like the free agency signings have no safety valve. I wonder if they ever will?

These names have been part of our annual ritual and frankly I hope we can begin to move on with some better options. The money is the Twins problem, I just want some good, young arms that we feel good about from the start. No 4-5 game auditions that sets back the team seasons.

Ervin Santana - what does he see in Berrios and Mejia? How does the team look to our pitching leader? How does he keep from regression.

In a recent post there was a lot of reflection about Gordon being listed as only our eighth best prospect and it got me thinking about how we look at these lists and what is the difference between #2 and #8. Gordon at 8 is fine with me.I think his second half decline raised questions about the validity of the first half.Each year the reviews and reports seem to have a slightly less optimistic look at Gordon.It appears to me, if I combine the various TD and other reports that he will be a fine average major leaguer, but not a star.Which is fine, but it is nice to know that we actually have some others in the system now that have higher potential. ​ The minors are so fascinating.How many players are in the minors in any one year and what percentage of them ever make the big leagues?According to a Wiki article there are 19 affiliated minor baseball leagues operate with 247 member clubs.That is amazing.Yahoo had one answer - 5856 which appears to be the high end and 2700 on the low estimates that I found.Considering there are 25 on the active rosters there are 750 major leaguers, if we look at the 40 man rosters there 1200 potential major league players available to each club. https://www.blessyou...e-major-leagues gives even more insight into my questions.In the article they state that 90% of players who make it to the majors do so in their first five seasons - rule V time. In total, pitching and batting, ESPN rankings had 419 players with 1 or more WAR.I suspect that the majority of vacancies will come from the players below this, but some, like Pujols are contract protected. This quest has me fascinated - the 2007 season, according to this article had 80 or the 244 players drafted in the first seven rounds making it to the majors and of those 33 never accumulated a WAR of 1 or more for their career - to date. To emphasize a point made in another discussion, the difference between first round and later rounds is significant.In this 2007 draft class 21 of the players who made it to MLB were first round out of the 80 - a little more than one fourth. To test this number, the 2006 draft class had 90 players make it and 23 were first rounders.The article goes much further, but I find the path of the baseball player to the majors is really difficult so any player that gets ranked on a team top ten or a league top 100 has already accomplished a lot. So how many openings are there each year.Just because there is a good rookie on the list does not mean the team will give them a chance - there is always that free agent who has experience on their resume to block their paths. ​But this NY Times article looked at the average length of a players career and found it to be 5.6 years. Less than half the rookies that come in play 5 years and only 1 percent play 20. At the same time, we have career minor league players who are so persistent. Think about this 2014 article about a minor leaguer named Hessman - the eighth minor leaguer to accumulate 400 home runs. This is playing for the love of the game: http://sabr.org/latest/hessman-becomes-eighth-minor-leaguer-hit-400-career-home-runs In 2011 https://goodmenproject.com/sports/meet-americas-oldest-minor-leaguer/ Told about Andy Tracy - the oldest minor leaguer who played for Reno and was about to turn 38. "In 16 seasons, he’s played for the Crocs, the Hammerheads, and the Zephyrs. Hell, he’s even been an IronPig. All in all, he’s played for 11 minor league teams and one in Japan. He’s tallied 5,298 minor-league at-bats, playing in 1,511 minor-league games." It was his last year. When I watch Bull Durham and listen to the philosophy of Crash Davis I think about all those struggling for what is a very narrow bottle neck in their career path. ​So congratulations to everyone on this list and those who are close.Good luck.

I love Mike Trout doing it all, I would love to see more of this. I think you will agree, he is an exception.

It really is not about attacking the messenger (reporter in this case), everyone should have a list that reflects their own evaluation, but rather this is a fun list because it raises questions and therefore gives us the fun of speculation and discussion. I have no dislike for any of our MN reporters, the more articles the better for me. Gordon at 8 is fine with me. I think his second half decline raised questions about the validity of the first half. Each year the reviews and reports seem to have a slightly less optimistic look at Gordon. It appears to me, if I combine the various TD and other reports that he will be a fine average major leaguer, but not a star. Which is fine, but it is nice to know that we actually have some others in the system now that have higher potential. ​My biggest question in Kirilloff. I want to hope, but I need a full season of ball to see where the injuries have put him. I am much higher on Rooker.

I love base running. The days of Maury Wills and Rickey Henderson were wonderful. It is hard to remember how good and fun those teams were - Hank Aaron stole 240 bases in his career. Can you see any slugger today having SB totally 1/3 of his HRs? The Go Go White Sox with Aparicio and Fox, and there was Lou Brock and the speedsters of Whitey Herzog's cardinals. The Minnesota Twins all time leader is back in the Senator Days - Clyde Milan followed by Sam Rice, but the all time Twin is fourth on the list - Chuck Knoblauch with 276 followed by Rod Carew 271 and Cesar Tovar - 186. ​Lets set some new records. Go Twins!

We have been very unfortunate with the concussion results on the Twins teams. It is a very dangerous situation that no one knows how to combat.

I am overwhelmed by how many catchers there are on the entire list. I would think that there needs to be some trimming. My hope is that Garver gets to show his worth and we start to see some potential movement from the younger guys that will line up for 2020!

I think this is a very exciting list. I really like the potential here and I also enjoy not seeing an expensive big signing clogging this list. ​I will be surprised if Kohl Stewart does anything, but I would love to see Gaterol bust in and take over the rotation. I am anxious to see Gonsalves make the rotation this year. It is interesting to see you comment that Littell is similar to Gonsalves. These are the types of pitchers that can be flipped in a league that values pitchers and used to address other holes. Chargois is like one of those greek tragedies - just as he gets his hands on the top of the mountain an avalanche knocks him back down - I hope he gets over this. ​Right now the future really looks good.

With Justin Morneau returning to Minnesota it just seems to fulfill destiny. The Canadians have only two teams – Toronto (officially) and that offshoot of Ontario called Minnesota with the Twins (Jumeaux). Canada should celebrate both and we should take pride in straddling the border with both temperature and hockey to welcome our northern kin. Morneau was a natural and Colorado was just a blip on his resume. Now he is coming back home. Welcome Justin – you can let your o’s get longer and slip in an Eh! Or two. While baseball in Canada does not get the same respect as Venezuela or the Dominican Republic or a few other slightly warmer places, it is still a viable location for our favorite sport. In fact, they have a Baseball Hall of Fame - http://baseballhalloffame.ca/ Since we have had such a great success with Justin I thought I should give it some additional perspective – who else has come from Canada to be Twins? We might have made MLB history when we replaced one Canadian pitcher – Scott Diamond with another Canadian call up – Andrew Albers. Add in Jesse Crain and we had a plethora of Canadian arms. On February 4, 2015 Cordel Leonard (Corey) Koskie was named to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame! I suspect that Morneau will join him soon. Most surprising to me was Corey’s real name. For some reason I do not think I ever heard it. Koskie had 936 hits 124 Hrs, and a career 825 OPS. http://m.mlb.com/player/136731/corey-koskie He was a good player! Justin Morneau 1603 hits, 281 BA, 247 hrs, and 828 OPS. Damn good player. Imagine Justin and Joe without concussions! Not all our Canadians were stars – remember Rene Tosoni? I was rooting for him. And, of course, we crossed the border the other way too – Paul Molitor was a star for Toronto in the World Series. We were not the only destination for Canadians, but we came out near the top. George Selkirk, a Yankee who played with Gehrig, DiMaggio, and Dickey is considered the greatest of Canadian Players, but maybe they will reconsider. I would put Ferguson Jenkins up for that honor and Joey Votto is moving up the list and Larry Walker is the most under rated. And should you still need some Canadian love – look up Tip, The Woodstock Wonder, O’Neill, the Canadian Babe Ruth! All I can say is Bienvenue (welcome back). By the way is a translation needed: jumeaux = twins.

I am willing to go with most of this, but 3B needs a serious adjustment - Dozier in three more years is not going to have 3B reflexes. More likely Polanco.

I can see Mauer hanging on as a Twin. Would he be worse than having Grossman as our bench guy? If the salary drops to a reasonable amount we could continue to talk about Mauer for a long time. Mauer going somewhere else does not make sense - his personality is basic Minnesotan. Nothing exciting, not rah rah, not a leader, just a guy who goes out every day and plays for the Lake Wobegon local team because that is what he was born to do.

No one should be exempt from trades, but there needs to be some really strong due diligence when the trade is made. I remember the Rocky Colavito for Harvey Kuehn trade back in my ancient history. The HR champ for the batting champ. Talk about news! http://articles.latimes.com/1988-03-20/sports/sp-2150_1_rocky-colavito The baseball world was in shock. "Colavito was 26. He had hit 41 and 42 homers the previous two seasons, more than anyone else in the American League. General Manager Frank Lane complained about Colavito's strikeouts -- he had 89 and 86 in those two seasons." Doesn't that sound familiar -http://www.cleveland.com/pluto/blog/index.ssf/2010/04/50_years_later_colavito_trade.html In the next game between the two teams - "Kuenn had two hits in that game, but severely pulled a hamstring. He played but limped through the next few months of the season. Colavito had a three-run homer in the second game of that series, and the Tigers won it on a homer by Norm Cash (another player Lane traded). This was the start of dark decades of Cleveland baseball." I mention this because we still live with the memory of letting Ortiz go to the Red Sox. I would hate to see Sano go on to find his potential with another team. It is possible that it is a good trade, but BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I enjoyed this, but it is also a reflection of the lack of action in baseball when the site that analyzes baseball has two articles analyzing itself. Interesting, but if we were doing something, would these be written?

I love this addition to the most valuable assets. I have no real basis for making a choice here. I look at the picture of Graterol (I assume that is him) and he looks a lot older than the years listed. Is that accurate? I think Lewis and Rooker caught my attention the most this last year and I am like others in wanting to see some pitchers come out of our minor league system. I still hope Gonsalves is in the rotation this year.