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If our TD writers are accurate, if their reports have considered all the trials and errors in their progress then I am ready to give them a chance.

Other than Blankenhorn I have to ask - who are these guys? Does that mean that we have a new and exciting group coming up or that we don't go this deep with the prospects that matter?

They have proven it in the minors, they have shown their ability so that they have ranked themselves as top prospects. It is like looking for a job and being asked what their prior experience is when they are looking for their initial experience. Give them a chance - see what we have.

I love his approach and his talent - put him at 1B, DH, get him in the bigs this season. Tony Oliva started hitting in the bigs at 23, Griffey at 19. Give this bat a chance.

Gonsalves and Romero have to be told that it is up to them whether they are Twins or minor leaguers. Its time to step up.

Yawn- Seth, I need you to convince me that I should disregard the things you have written about our prospects. I need to know that a 31 year old pitcher is actually better than what we have in our prospects and if you do my expectations of our young talent will take a big hit.

I love this and I hope the Twins are really aggressive with him, Rooker, and Lewis. Remember the Kid? Griffey at 19 in mlb. I love it. move fast, get the talent to the bigs and soar with it.

Its over with. The only thing worth discussing is what we are going to do with the assets we have of the players we can still sign or trade for. I was tired of the Darvish posts already, please lets stop - the Cubs have him. What will we do?

I have enjoyed your responses to my posts. I love to write posts that might agitate and get discussion going. Thank you for reading what I write and responding with interesting and challenging posts.

If you have followed my posts (rants) I am not unhappy. Good luck Cubs. I do not know about the other pitchers - of course on an early posting I said why Garcia is an absolutely nooooooo for me. One good year - 2015, lets go young. See what our minor league pitchers can do and look at 2019 if they cannot perform. Lynn or Cobb for one or two years is okay, not my choice, Archer is preferred, but make sure we can afford him and trading Kepler is okay. The best thing is, I do not have to read anymore Darvish essays. He did not want us and I did not want him.

Lets stop the collusion talk. The slow movement is the Darvish factor. He wants to be in LA and they aren't offering him anything. He is controlling this and the major players are waiting for him to finish his own shopping for a team before doing anything else. ​All I can say is look at the new Baseball Prospectus - mine came yesterday and check out both his listing under the Dodgers and the Percota projections. Nice pitcher, not a Kershaw or Verlander or Scherzer. His projections are downward and the only reason that I want to see him sign with someone soon is so I can quit reading about him and his fishing expedition.

I have been pouring over my Baseball Prospectus and trying to see justification for overpaying Darvish and I cannot. I do not find it in the stats or comments on Darvish - found in the Los Angeles Dodgers section, or in the Percota projections at the end where I look to find him in the leader boards. Yes he is there in a couple, but his rankings do not give me confidence that he is a true ace - I see him as a B+ pitcher, which is still good, but his projections are going down and a large multi-year contract certainly is not supported in this book which I just received yesterday.

I have stopped thinking Kohl Stewart will amount to anything in the majors, I think I gave up on him completely last year. Now I am getting serious second thoughts about Ben Rortvedt. His progress is not what I expect from someone so highly touted. I hate to say it, but I do not know the other names on this list, but that is to be expected when you are still in the thirties.

As you probably know, if you have been ready my blogs, I like the stories that are part of the lore and history of baseball more than the gold rush for free agents. Maybe it is because I am old I like to think about players who really loved the game and not the agents and owners. I recognize the talent and the ability of the Hall of Famers and even those who struggle for years in the minors without making it to the big spotlight. In fact I have my own strange sense of hall of fame with deaf, one legged, and one armed players, players who had a double life as spies and players who lost prime years to the service and still put up great careers. So I thought I might put up some profiles of these personal favorites over the next couple of months starting with Peter Gray who was born in Pennsylvania in 1915, as Peter Wyshner, and lost his left arm at age six when he fell off a farmers wagon and got his arm caught in the spokes of one wheel. Still he continued to play his favorite game and play it well. He was known for his speed which certainly helped him, but speed alone does not make up for the loss of one arm. He played on local teams and even semi-pro teams like the Canadian-American League where, in 1942 he hit 382 in 42 games! This performance got him into the minor leagues which most of you know was much different in those days where we had so few major league teams. Many of the minor league teams were close to major league – check out Joe DiMaggio’s success and records with the Seals in the Pacific League. He almost did not want to go to the majors, but that is a different story. Gray caught on with the Memphis team in the Southern Association in 1943, played centerfield and hit 281! That got everyone’s attention and allowed him to continue at this high level where he hit 344 with 5 home runs and 68 stolen bases in 1944, giving him recognition as the minor league player of the year. Then in 1945, he made the majors as a St Louis Brown. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=graype01 Yes, this was the war years and they needed bodies to fill out the rosters. He might not have made it if not for WWII, but never-the-less he did make it. I wish I could say he blew everyone away with an amazing line of statistics, but he didn’t. He got in to 77 games and hit 218 with 13 RBIs and 5 stolen bases. He was done in by the breaking ball, with one arm he could not alter his swing as other batters could. His best hitting weapon was the bunt – he would tuck the end of the bat into his side and guide the bat with his hand. But of course he could not bunt every at bat and both infielders and outfielders played in to take away his speed and hits His fielding was still exceptional and his managers – Luke Sewell said, "He shows us something everyday. You really don't believe some of the things he does. Believe me, he can show plenty of two-handed outfielders plenty." The statistics do not back up this quote as he had 7 errors in 61 games. “As he played, Gray wore a glove without the padding. When the ball was hit to him, he made the catch with the glove directly in front of him -- normally about shoulder height. As the ball hit the glove, he would roll the glove and ball across his chest from left to right. Somehow, in this process, he learned to separate the ball from the glove. In the motion, this glove would come to rest under the stump of his right arm and the ball would end up in his left hand. In handling ground balls, he would let the ball bounce off his glove about knee height in front of him. He would flip off the glove and grab the ball while it was still in the air. Some said this process allowed Gray to field balls faster than other outfielders he was playing with who didn't face the same handicap. When he was backing up another outfielder, he would drop the glove and be ready to take the ball in his hand.” http://http://www.historicbaseball.com/players/g/gray_pete.html As I read this quote I thought about Jim Abbott, another player on my list who was a one armed pitcher with some real success in the majors, and how he handled his glove. That wartime effort was not appreciated by all the players – in fact many resented it and considered it a stunt to get bigger gates as his New York Times obituary stated, “''He didn't belong in the major leagues and he knew he was being exploited,'' his manager, Luke Sewell, recalled in ''Even the Browns'' by William B. Mead (Contemporary Books, 1978). ''Just a quiet fellow, and he had an inferiority complex. They were trying to get a gate attraction in St. Louis.'' He was evidently resented by some teammates: ''Some of the guys thought Pete was being used to draw fans late in the season when the club was still in the pennant race and he wasn't hitting well,'' Don Gutteridge, a Browns infielder, told The St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1994. ''But I certainly marveled at him. He could do things in the outfield that some of our other outfielders could not.'' He was sent down after that 1945 season with veterans returning from the military and he would not play major league ball again, however, he did not give up. He hit 290 Elmira in 1948 and played on barnstorming teams into the 1950s. His effort was an inspiration to many, but especially to injured service men who were returning to learn how to succeed in a peace time world. Gray visited many of them in their hospital wards. His numerous visits to Walter Reed hospital gave a lot of veterans hope. He lived out his live in Nanticoke where he suffered depression and alcoholism for years until he turned his life around with his biography and a television movie. He never married and died in 2002. This short film gives you a glimpse of Pete as a professional. If you want to know more about him try – the 1986 television-movie A Winner Never Quits, starring Keith Carradine and Mare Winningham; and Gray's biography, One-Armed Wonder: Pete Gray, Wartime Baseball, and the American Dream written by William C. Kashatus, published in 1995 by McFarland & Company. His glove is in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

The pitching prospects are looking good. Lets get the top arms to the bigs by 2019, starting with 1 or 2 this year. Much more exciting than the Darvish sweepstake for me.

It is easy to speculate and say sign him to 5 - 6 - 7 or whatever years, but what does Darvish want? Is it true he has his heart set o Los Angeles? It's not my money, but I sure can anticipate the Mauer like grumblings in years 4,5,6 and in fact, Mauer has not been a bad player, just not playing to his contract. Hard to keep reading these with enthusiasm. Maybe the worst part of this story is that we might sign Napoli.

I see him as a #6 or 7 rotation pitcher - just looking at how he does with good players (Somehow Correa is an exception) here is how the Astros batted against him - http://www.espn.com/mlb/player/batvspitch/_/id/29185/jaime-garcia I think a 1.41 Whip is disasterous - https://www.rotowire.com/baseball/pitchersplit.htm?id=9600 2015 was where he got a good reputation, but before and after his stats make him a poor pitcher - a poor choice to give up either a good contract or good propects - https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/garcija02.shtml Look at his RA9 numbers for every year but 2015 We have numerous pitchers on the list of Twin controlled players who can or should match his success, so why go outside for what we already have? http://www.hallofstats.com/player/garcija02 Look at his WAR - take out 2015 and he is not even a replacement pitcher. Or look at his comps - it is not a list of who's who = but rather a list of who is that. Don't mean to rant, but sometimes we try to hard to get someone from the outside to make us better, but if they do not have talent to change things we only set back those we already have.

I would use Granite before Gomez and I would give Vargas a real chance - I think we have mishandled him. Otherwise sign Martinez and do something really exciting.

I am still not ready for the panic move. I may be the only one looking at the bottom of the list - the rookies and saying - plug them in. It is really too bad to see Santana go down, but as soon as I saw Jaimie Garcia on one of the list I was ready to scream NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Lynn and Cobb, yes. But we do not need three. We brought in enough pitching coaches to fill a roster - put them to work. Throwing money at guys that have accumulated MLB innings is not the solution I like, but letting someone within grab an opportunity and do some - that excites me.

15. Mitch Garver, C - I really liked your explanation of his drop. You are right. By age 27 you should be in the bigs or you are on a path to be Crash Davis. I hope takes his opportunity and makes something of it. 14. LaMonte Wade, OF - As I read your description I kept thinking Grossman. Without the OPS there is nothing to recommend him, but then Grossman has made a career out of it. 13. Lewin Diaz, 1B - still lots of hype, but nothing to grab on to. Lets hope he finds a turning point this year. 12. Lewis Thorpe, LHP - he has been written about so much I keep thinking he is older than his actual age. I can only go with what all of you have written since I have not seen him throw and he has not shown us a really healthy stretch. 11. Zack Littell, RHP - This was a great pick up. As a Wins do Count guy, I am very impressed. You have to pitch long enough to qualify for a win and do well enough to leave with the lead. But his raw numbers do not say star in MLB. Good luck to Zack. I am so pleased, again, to have you break things down for the rest of us. This was fascinating and I look forward to your next list. The only question I have for these ten is this: ​How many of them are really expected to make the bigs and how many are supposed to do something good when they do?

I too am disappointed with Rortvedt's progress. It is nice to see that we got a good player from Atlanta's screw up. First I have really read about him so it will be good to follow. I really expected Jorge to be higher on the list and I hope Jay really steps forward now that he is healthy (I hope) and makes the moves that have been expected. For a team already built around youth, this is a good start for our prospects.

Loved Halsey, but I did not understand at the time what this Gin drinking, cigar smoking guy meant as a true icon of Minnesota sports. I can still hear his laugh. https://vimeo.com/113401282

In the fifties and sixties I would watch Yogi Berra come in to town with the Yankees. He was always described as a bad ball hitter, but he was also described as MVP and HOF. He was my favorite Yankee. Now we have elected Vlad Guerrero and we have another bad ball HOF. In this article - https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/leaderboarding-these-were-the-best-bad-ball-hitters-in-baseball-in-2017/ - our own Brian Dozier is among the bad ball leaders. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=yosted01 What I want to know is what happens when a player swings - Grossman needs to walk to have value. He was a poor version of Eddie Yost who used foul balls and a good eye to make a very good career -

I love this list. I was at the Morris Puckett games, in fact all the home games in 1991. Obviously they do not give points for wrestling moves or Hrbek would be high on the list. I was watching this game in a bar in Arizona with all Cardinal fans and I had such a laugh - extra points from me. I am surprised that the Grand Slam did not make the list. What is really fun is to see the Jim Kaat and Mudcat Grant games. Wow were they fun. In those days the World Series was during the day and as a college student trying to earn money for my tuition I was working at Dayton's - downtown, of course. On either fifth or seventh, they had a room with a single television on a stand and folding chairs. We, employees, would come in and catch what we could. ​Imagine Sandy Koufax, who really beat us in the end, going against Kaat (why doesn't he get any HOF love?). Kaat was magnificent. Tall, lean, and poised. He just controlled things. In contrast my favorite series player - Mudcat Grant - was ebullient and gave us all a feeling we could actually win this series and we almost did. Those games were more dramatic than they are portrayed today. In fact, I seldom see the series referred to at all. Imagine is Pascual were not injured!. Allison's catch, these magnificent pitchers. Thanks for the reminder. That sterile room in Dayton's was still a magnificent stadium for all of us.

I sure do. We had some big crowds and those ramps were almost disasters. At an angle that really moved people around - a fall and there was a pile up. But the thing that stood out to me was how the big erector set vibrated when the crowd started to stamp their feet in unison. I was nervous working third deck as a usher.