Steve Lein

^ Agree. While his performance up to this point may say keep him in Cedar Rapids at least a month or two, i think they need to push him because of the options. As I mentioned prior, I think they mistakenly held him back in E-town for the second year already. He played in the AFL this year, and while it may just have been to get him at-bats, he did okay for his age and the competition he was facing. Put him in Fort Myers and rotate him in LF/DH/1B.

I've said this many times on this site and elsewhere in reference to Kepler: He's a guy that hasn't really 'wowed' anybody yet with his stats (except for his 2nd year at Elizabethton power binge) but I can say from watching him in person several times, that those stats don't demonstrate his potential, but his actions and play on the field does. One example is when I got to watch him play several games with the Beloit Snappers roster that included Eddie Rosario and Miguel Sano at Spring Training the year of his 10HR breakout at E-Town. I have a notebook on all his at-bats I watched in 3 games: 13 PA's, 7-11, 3 2B's (here is one of them on video), 2 BB's, 1K. Every one of his hits were line drives, and had a couple of 'loud' outs. He was the best in-game hitter on that roster while I watched, and it wasn't even close. Not Sano, not Rosario, not even any of the Twins MLB-ers who came over to get some extra at-bats. During those games, he was the best player on that roster no doubt about it, so I was actually very surprised he never played for Beloit that season. He is definitely the first player I've watched whom my eyes told me was better than his stats or everything else I had read and researched about him. I think he'll be a stud in the future, and will be an elite 1B defender with his athleticism (I would compare his athleticism at 1B to Mauer's at Catcher). Many people seem to not know, that until the year before he signed with the Twins and was playing on national teams, the only position he had ever played was 1B. I'll probably get mocked for some of those statements, but I'm bullish on him. He is one of my favorite prospects in the Twins organization, likely behind only Sano and Buxton. i think this year will be a big one after having his 2013 ruined by injury.

Well, when I look at things like Duensing's Line Drive % (worst on Twins last year), the fact he was an extreme fly-ball pitcher, and that he had the 2nd worst Opponent Slugging % given up in their bullpen (only Roenicke was worse) - those things tell me bad luck with his BABIP didn't have as much impact as you think, but rather he was getting knocked around pretty good. That is also what my eyes remember seeing.

Fair enough. I guess I've just been unimpressed by him out of the pen. I keep expecting better than what I've seen. What scares me the most with him though, because he is a reliever, is his WHIP. The only guy he was better than in the Twins pen last year in that stat, was Roenicke.

When I say "similar," I'm talking about the potential results they could give, not their pitching profile. It's nice to have a second lefty who can throw 95, but if that doesn't come with better results, it doesn't really matter, does it? I mean, how many flamethrowing relievers have we seen extinguished in the minors lately? That doesn't mean they're going to be good or potentially better than anyone else if/when they make it. Just saying the Twins have options now that I think could give similar or better results, and appears to me like Duensing is expendable because of them. As a sidenote to this though, I really wish the Twins would turn Melotakis back into a RP sooner rather than later, because he would fit your profile.

Wonder how long Duensing will be around now. Seem to have a lot of young/cheap/similar lefties who could fill his LOOGY spot pretty easily. (Don't kid yourselves, that's all Duensing is, even if he's not necessarily used that way)

Interesting, I thought the Twins would draft him in 2011 if he was there, but was grabbed a few spots in front of them. I actually like the return, though Gilmartin has far from lived up to his 1st round pedigree. It's always good to have some lefty options though, especially for the Twins right now.

I've actually come around to liking this idea more as I look around. Drew is very comparable to J.J. Hardy, both in offense and defense. He makes up for the fewer HR's with a higher OBP, and while he's still not quite in J.J.'s territory defensively, he's not far behind and likely still an improvement on Florimon. Considering I don't really like any of the Twins SS prospects until you get down to Niko Goodrum (and I think it can be argued they don't actually have a single legit SS prospect), I say go for it.

I don't like the idea of losing the 2nd round pick to sign Drew to the contract he likely wants, but if it's considerably less than the qualifying offer on a per year basis, I wouldn't be against it.

I'm also not as high on Berrios as a lot of people around here seem to be. Great control, great makeup, yada yada yada, but his stuff is very average if you ask me. He's advanced for his age which in my opinion is a large reason for the success he's had so far at the low-levels, but that will catch up to him eventually unless his secondary-stuff improves. I'd probably have him around at #9 or #10 on my lists. Which is right about where a borderline #3 or #4 starter should slot in a good and/or balanced farm system. (The Twins' system would be classified as 'better than good,' but not necessarily 'balanced')

Walker isn't going to land him as a frontrunner in a deal. It would have to start with a Rosario, Kepler, Berrios type, and then Walker as one of the other pieces.

I like the idea of trading for Bailey, BUT, none of us would like what it would take to get him here. I'd think something along the lines of Arcia, Rosario, and Berrios would definitely spark a good conversation, but still don't know if that would get it done. I would say look at the James Shields trade last year. I think Bailey is very comparable to him, not quite as good, but being younger plays up his value. It took trading Wil Myers, a top 5 prospect in baseball, to nab him. We don't have a Wil Myers that we're going to trade. (At least I hope we don't, though I will say I'm scared to death the Twins will listen about Sano, just because of the type of personality he is) But I do agree, any trade like this would have to be contingent on Bailey signing an extension immediately with the Twins. Not even a conversation worth having if you're only trading for 1 season of him.

Agree. Having Turner's name so low on this list surprised me, but have to believe it's just because he hasn't played enough in the Twins system yet. For what it's worth, Mayo on MLB.com has him at #19.

I'd actually still call that fair, since I believe both of those guys wanted to leave, as they did try to bring them both back, right?! I've long felt the Twins make decisions on players based on the wrong reasons for putting an actual good "baseball" team together. It's always great to have "good guys" and players that fit your "mold," but it's also a very limiting factor if you're trying to add/keep actual talent. I think this is demonstrated very clearly with several names in this list, actually.

Yup, pretty much agree with everything said here, Nick. ->

I already addressed that fact. It's definitely something to consider, but don't think it stops the Twins from adding him.

The argument with Walker isn't that he is "old" for the level. It's the fact that he had 3 full seasons of college ball under his belt when he was drafted, and 3 very good college seasons at that. I'm in the camp he never should have been in the Low-A Midwest League, and should have crushed the pitching he was seeing there like he did because he is more advanced than that.

^ That is very true.

I know it happens, but it really isn't that common, that's why I say it's weird. As nicksaviking says, they did have Romero protected like that, I know there has been a few others recently, but can't think of the names off the top of my head, Estarlin De Los Santos maybe? But it also wastes that players option years while he is toiling away at lower levels, so it's an interesting point to consider in his case where he isn't that far along. He could potentially be out of options already by the time he even is considered for a callup. I also had questions about when a player had to be added to the AA or AAA reserve rosters to be protected from the MiLB phases, but they left those out. Not sure if it works where they have to be put on one of those rosters before those 4 or 5 years from when drafted/signed kicks in for the MLB phase eligibility, or if they aren't eligible for anything in the Rule 5, major or minor league phases, until those years are up. I would think it is the latter, but have seen the former mentioned around here too.

Ya, I don't see a reason why the Twins can't, or wouldn't want, to put him on their 40-man roster to protect him. Just is weird having a guy that is only going to be in A-ball there.

I saw this topic being discussed in the Forums a while back, and I don't think anybody had a clear idea about the rules for how players are protected from the Minor League phases of the Rule 5 Draft, so I asked Baseball America. They didn't include all of my questions about how it works, but is a good look at how teams approach a situation such as Kepler's: Ask BA: How Do The Minor League Phases Of The Rule 5 Draft Work? - BaseballAmerica.com

As a 22-year old doing what he has done at the Major League level, he's going to be just fine. You probably won't see many (if any) All-Star game appearances, but a .280/.330/.480-ish hitter is a very good piece to have in your lineup. But he's likely destined for DH duties as I think he's you're prototypical "average" defensive RF-er at his peak (he's not there now).

For the right SP I'd send him off without a second thought, BUT, I also don't believe he's enough by himself to land what that SP needs to be for the Twins. For the royals to get James Shields - not necessarily a stud but very good established MLB pitcher - it took a package built around Wil Myers.

There's actually quite a few that have pretty good MLB lines with high walk rates (say, above 4/9)! But I don't disagree with any of what you say. I do believe though, that no matter how much a guy is told or knows he has to work on something, that the results of what he's doing unconsciously play a larger role in the actions put on the field. I'm certain in your playing days this happened to you Seth, I know it happened to me. I had a coach tell me one year that I needed to swing more in hitter's counts and not end up drawing so many walks... Well, my on-base-percentage that year ended up well over .500, am I really going to, or is there even a reason to, mess with that? I think the same thing comes up here. He's still not walking every guy he faced, and for each of those walks was striking out 2.5. He struck out more than one batter per baserunner allowed. Look up the MLB relievers who do that - it's quite good company. But my main thought is why would you potentially sacrifice something else (like BAA in Jones' case, or OBP in my example) to get, almost certainly, worse results? I guess it makes sense to me that a guy has to struggle in some way to understand what needs to be adjusted as he develops. Jones certainly didn't struggle this year with the end-results.

I would have liked to have seen Zach Jones get promoted. Yes, there's more walks than you'd like to see, but when you're striking out that many guys and are otherwise unhittable, walks don't hurt. I think if they want to see improvement in that regard, he needed to be pushed somewhere where they would hurt him. I got the impression he was just overpowering everybody and didn't have to worry as much about his control because of that.