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mikelink45

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Everything posted by mikelink45

  1. mikelink45
    Lots of good things to think about. I like your defensive/offensive decisions. They seem to make a lot of sense. Pitching is always our worst area in both performance and discussion because we hav put ourselves in a corner. We have locked in Santana, Hughes, Santiago, Gibson and it seems like we always have to start the discussion on number 5 in the rotation. Signing Santiago seems like another of a series of mediocre decisions. May and Berrios give us something to build on. Eventually Gonsalves and Jay will be moving in so I have to hope for midseason trades to clear the logjam, but that said, I think that we are wasting an arm having Berrios go back to AAA AGAIN. He is fun, talented, and in need of good coaching. Isn't there a Latino pitching coach out there that we can hire? In the bullpen I will be most depressed if Craig Breslow is kept. Move on. I am fine with Tonkin being cut, but leave Duffey or O'Rourke.
  2. mikelink45
    Okay, I give up on hoping for an exciting end to the listing and I am convinced that the national rankings of our system are correct. That said, Gordon is my definition of a good player. Not great, just good. Reminds me of one of my all time favorites - Johnny Logan who played for the championship Milwaukee Braves in the late fifties. Nothing about Johnny was outstanding. He did not have any one amazing attribute, he was reliable, he was durable, and he caught what he should catch and hit enough to fill a good lineup. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/l/loganjo01.shtml I would take that any time. That means I am happy to have him top ten, I am sorry the national rankings have him number 1 and I have tried not to anticipate who is in front of him, although the comments sections seem to have it nailed unless you can pull off a great surprise (which would be fun). I write these knowing I really no nothing. I have not seen these guys, I just read what you and the other opinion and scouting reports say and try to process them. Thanks for keeping us involved.
  3. mikelink45
    "Does he have the full arsenal, and the physical makeup, to pan out as a starter? No shortage of doubt there." This statement is not what I like to see as the preface to the description of the #5 prospect on the Twins list. Then at the end you say, "but it's hard to look at Year 1 of Jay's transition as anything other than a setback. During his 15 starts with the Miracle and Lookouts, he never reached 100 pitches. He wasn't yet at 80 innings in mid-July when the org sent him to the bullpen citing workload concerns, and finished with less than 85." This would be okay if he was #15, but I am beginning to feel like a pessimist or curmudgeon as I read each of these player bios which is a strange place for me to find myself. Still hoping 1 - 4 will perk me up.
  4. mikelink45
    The DH has made the bench different from the old days and a reluctance to bring in the second catcher means we only have three bench players. So one is OF, one is IF and the third has to have a special quality, probably a bat, but could also be legs. Molitor has to look at the teams strengths and how he will rest players and handle the later innings. I do believe that in the age of relievers a larger roster is in order.
  5. mikelink45
    With our resources and reputation is still comes down to developing what we have. Get the best pitching coaches throughout the season. Only the young pitchers count.
  6. mikelink45
    I think, "What's Left To Work On. Everything. I mean, come on… The kid is just 18 years old." Says it all. This is a dream listing. Are we really so short on MLB in the next two years prospects that we have to put so much "wish and hope" into the top ten list? So far I am ready to swap the 11 - 15 for the 6 - 10. I am hoping for much more in the top five, but maybe we just don't have that much gas in the minors right now. I just hope that your hope is on track and there will be a blazing move forward for these prospects, but my old mind wants to see at least a full year in the minors before I can sort out anything.
  7. mikelink45
    Keep bringing in the young, move on from Tonkin, get Vogelsong to give vet presence during the spring and send him away with a nice Easter Basket. Tell Breslow it was nice to see him again and give him his Twin vet returns award and send him off. Rotate players between AAA and MLB until the right mix is achieved. We have been hearing about these relievers for a long time and it is a good year to see what they have. I want to play for a great future and not a mediocre present.
  8. mikelink45
    I like Jay and Gonsalves better, but what I really don't like is the logjam in MLB that needs to be cleared. Jay, Gonsalves, Berrios, May, Mejia would be a nice rotation to see at the end of the year. It's time to quit investing in old and average (or worse) and start getting these young arms ready to compete. In addition, teach Duffey a third pitch, like coaches are supposed to do. I want coaches to do their job and get us set up for a good number of years to be competitive. The bats are lining up, lets get the arms ready too and if we suffer some this year at least we have the potential for next year and beyond. What is Vogelson, Santana, Santiago going to do for us in 2018 and beyond?
  9. mikelink45
    I guess it is a reflection of the weakness of our current system because so far the top ten to date has looked really poor. I hope Stewart can turn things around, but until he does he is not a top ten candidate. At this stage is he really better than the pitchers you had in the 11 - 20 list? I would not think so. Only his draft number is better, but for me I would take Gonsalves and Jay above Stewart and a few of our Latin American pitchers far above him. The post that I like the best is the question about coaching. We have been watching prospects for years not materialize at the MLB level no matter what their potential seems to be. Why didn't Duffey learn a third pitch in the minors, why wasn't Berrios mentally ready? Why did it take so long to get Gibson to the majors and why has his career been so pedestrian? We have sought the Vogelsongs and Nolascos of the world instead of creating a miLB conveyor.
  10. mikelink45
    Since the Twins pitching stinks I thought I would take a look at a really good staff - the Mets, they list seven pitchers competing for the starting rotation - ages Snydergaard 24, De Grom 28, Harvey 27, Matz 25, Gsellman 23, Lugo 27, Wheeler 26. I look at the Twins and I see Ervin Santana (34), Hector Santiago (29), Kyle Gibson (29), Phil Hughes (30), Jose Berrios (21), (Trevor May (27), Tyler Duffey (26), Ryan Vogelsong (39), Justin Haley (25)) Mets average age 25 for the seven Twins average age 28.8 for the nine If we were good this would not be a problem, but for the long run it is. Why we would even sign Vogelsong even if he is our best pitcher is beyond me. We need youth, we need a future. I am not happy, even if the projections are correct, with a .500 team. I want a team that will compete for the top. Our AAA team Jason Wheeler (26), Adalberto Mejia (23), Aaron Slegers (24), Nick Tepesch (28), David Hurlbut(27), Drew Rucinski (28), Nick Greenwood (29), Yohan Pino (33) averages 27+ Starting in AA we are looking like we should. Years ago when Puckett, Hrbek and others were here the Twins were promoting from AA and saying that was there style. It looks like that needs to be the same thing now. Only one of your top 10 is in AAA and if you were to include the MLB team in your top 10, who would be there?
  11. mikelink45
    Looks like an MLB filler, I hope he develops more, but right now as Number 9 he is not as exciting as I would like to see.
  12. mikelink45
    Very optimistic. I would find fault with your number one because a lot of players look great before they begin their careers and I prefer to see them establish a track record before being listed as a number 1 or does this mean that the rest of the potential players aren't good enough to be a number 1? From your description I question Diaz too. Another 1B/DH and you liken him to Vargas. Once again my debate is on potential. I have seen too many potentials go down the tube and for the top five I prefer to see players who have worked their way up. I would love to see the two pitchers really blossom and then see the Twins cut the chaff and get rid of Hughes, Santana, Santiago, Gibson and start working on the real rotation of the future with these two in the mix. Thanks for the work. My criticism is not for your listing, but just my personal preferences.
  13. mikelink45
    No surprises in your headlines, also nothing to get excited about. I still believe in Berrios and think it better to stick with him and work out tipping his pitches, getting to excited or whatever and let him learn at MLB. Nothing, no one else on this list has his potential.
  14. mikelink45
    Hard to see him as #10. There is not enough track record yet, but I hope you are right and he is going to move fast.
  15. mikelink45
    Nick and Seth and Thrylos I do not know where else to post a question to all three of you. As I read these lists and try to read between the lines since I rely on your judgments to replace my lack of opportunity to see and judge myself; which brings up a question for each of you. If you made a roster from just the minor leagues or from your list of prospects who would fill the lineup and rotation - regardless of age or anticipated time of arrival or level of competition. I realize that the AAA guys should whip the rookie league, but if we just look at potential the lower minors look better to me than the upper. Give me a starting 9 and a rotation - more if you like, but put together the all potential team as it is now - no Buxton, Sano, Rosario, Kepler... Thanks.
  16. mikelink45
    I want Vargas to play. I see the remainders on the DH/1B bargain shelf and want to run far away from any temptation. If Vargas fails at least we know we have to move on, if we bring in someone for the scrap heap it is probably just a one year signing and we would still need to move on. Palka hit a lot of home runs, but his K's are too frequent, we do not need to give away more AB's to a wild swinger unless Vargas fails.
  17. mikelink45
    My last thought on this is that when we draft college players - especially in their senior year they are supposed to be on a quicker path to the majors. The fact that he was 22 was a factor of 4 years playing at New Mexico.
  18. mikelink45
    This is an interesting list because I would like to see four of them spend a majority of the year with the Twins. Gimenez is not going to do anything and Garver at 26 is entering his peak seasons if we wait until Castro ends his contract he will be 29-30 and for most players that is the beginning of the downward trend that is in the chart here - see http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/catcher-aging-is-a-curve-not-a-cliff/ That is why my personal desire is to see players in the bigs in their age 25 - 26 years if not before if we think that they are really going to be major leaguers.
  19. mikelink45
    There is a point where that develop has to be in the bigs. No catcher should be behind the plate seven days a week and Garver is now of an age where we should be hitting his peak performance.
  20. mikelink45
    I have this unwarranted feeling that really good players hit the majors by the time they are 25 so when I look at the upper levels and see ages that are closer to the time when MLB peak (30) has passed - 1B - Ben Paulsen (29), Reynaldo Rodriguez (31), Byungho Park (30) 3B - Matt Hague (31), Dan Gamache (26), Leonardo Reginnato (26) it is disappointing. Even Chattanooga has old players from my development perspective. Given that they would probably move to AAA for a year you would have to add another year to their potential MLB age and now we are getting to the veteran MLB stage - 1B - Dalton Hicks (26), Trey Vavra (25) 3B - Niko Goodrum (24), TJ White (25), Tom Belza (27) All of which emphasizes what has been said before, our future, at least on the corners, is in the low levels.
  21. mikelink45
    This is a good list and just frustrates me when I see our high powered FO grabbing Gimenez, a one year 36 year old bullpen pitcher, and trying to go for the left over sluggers. Let's develop these players.
  22. mikelink45
    I look at the top ten list and I think there is limited star power if I am reading the reports correctly. A lot of potential bench players here. Blankenhorn surprises me as #2. I guess I have not read enough about him to have any opinion, but his name just has not been in many discussions. Of course the lower levels are exciting and we can hope that out of this group one of them will really emerge!
  23. mikelink45
    A nice range in talents in this list. Lets hope they really work on Ben to be there when Castro's contract is done. Burdi has been a tease and I know it must drive him crazy too, but let's hope it is a quick return to brilliance. Vielma makes sense as the defensive replacement that Adrianza is suppose to be. I just wish Haley was higher on this list and really looked good. I am wondering where they hope he will slot with the new signings and the long list of potential starters.
  24. mikelink45
    We have not addressed any meaningful change, we just get names to talk about as we hope for the next season, but Stubbs and Shuck and Adrianza represent mediocre players for last place teams. I hope all three are beat out. Give Polanco a full year. Give Sano a full year. Let these players learn and develop. I went to Stubbs baseball record and it is easy to see why he was available. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/stubbdr01.shtml He has been with numerous teams the last two years and his days are over. Rosario, Buxton, Kepler, Grossman are the outfield. Adrianza had one decent year in four http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/adriaeh01.shtml and SF did not want to keep him. In four seasons he accumulated a 0.4 defensive war. J. B. Shuck has an accumulated Defensive WAR of -1.3 over five seasons and an offensive WAR of 0.1 for the same five years. Where is there upgrade?
  25. mikelink45
    Looking at the AAA outfield projection I was struck by the ages. This group has an average age that is older than the MLB outfielders. By next year when they should project up they will be at their prime, but where will we put them if the MLB trio is really set? I suspect Rosario is in the most precarious position. The Chattanooga team is even older. This is not right. If the future is good we should be getting younger at each level (I am not talking the 4th/5th OF). I did not realize that Grossman was as young as he is. If there is any change at the top I would expect that Palka would replace Grossman and Granite might replace Rosario if we decide that we need a glove and a bat this combo would provide it. Beyond that I think the OF is quite set and we might be waiting for Kirilloff.
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