Dman

Too small of a sample size for me but the trend is still worth pointing out. TIme will tell if you are a soothsayer or not.

Happy to get the win today but things didn't go as well as I had hoped against a hittable pitcher. For as great as Berrios's line was (only 1 earned through 6 innings) He was getting close to 50 pitches after two innings. For a while there it looked like he might only go 4 innings 5 max and these were the pirates not the Yankee's. It feels like he has a lot of things to work out. In the end he made it 6 innings so I guess I can't complain too much but it was pretty brutal to watch IMO. It was nice they got 2.1 innings out of Thielbar so the pen could rest a day. He doesn't look like someone to rely on just yet but a guy who could eat innings when games are out of hand. He looked OK out there to me but not overly dominant. At least he doesn't walk guys like Poppen does, but that is the only reliever I would say Thielbar might be better than in our current pen. Where would this team be at the start of this season without Cruz? Probably in about the same place as the Indians and Chicago. He has been a true difference maker early and yet teams keep challenging him. I see a fair number of walks and hit by pitch in Cruz's future. 4 walks for Kepler bodes well. Pitchers will have to give stuff to hit or put him on 1st for free. Good to see that good eye at the plate and solid contact. He should be a tough out if he keeps this up. Also nice to see Rosario beat the shift taking the ball to left. Beat it a few more times and they might have to play him more straight up again. We don't seem to have the homer magic we had last year but with the improved pitching we are still a tough team to beat. Here's hoping for a few more HR's in the next few games. Go Twins!

Nice to see Eddie beat the shift. They will have to think about how they want to play him.

Ump is not giving that low strike like yesterday to either side.

Man 45 pitches through two innings I thought this was our ace. Looks more like a number 5 right now. Lucky to go 4 innings at this rate, 5 max. Hope the bullpen is ready.

According to the MLB pitch tracker it looks like he just struck that guy out but they were called balls instead. Not that the tracker is perfect either. Still tight zone hopefully for both sides thten.

I am just not used to us pitching this well and having virtually no weak links in the rotation or the pen. The way they have pitched this year gives me hope that this team can do great things. Very happy we took 3 out of 4 from Cleveland as they are a very god team and I don't see them losing a series or much at all with the pitching they are getting. Essentially shutting our lineup down which is one of the deepest in Baseball is no easy task so other teams will likely have a difficult time scoring runs against them as well. Great series and am happy we came out on top and didn't split it. Really excited about this team. Go Twins!

The Twins hitters just couldn't tell if\when the ball was going to break or not and he often didn't throw strikes when they were lucky enough to work the count 3-2. He was going to bury the ball and not throw strikes in that situation until they figured it out. They never did. He was definitely a mind reader last night sensing the Twins would be aggressive when they were and throwing down the middle when he felt they would take. Honestly I think they solve him the next time out. At least draw more walks and bring his pitch count up. I don't see him ever giving up a ton of runs but I think they can make him work even harder and get him out of the game earlier. He had a great night and is going to be good pitcher for a long time. Here's hoping we can find pitchers that are just as good and soon.

I can see he understands his weakness and is trying and that is awesome, but as you can see by his chase rate he just doesn't have a great sense of the zone. Guy has amazing hand eye coordination and can turn on pitches that no other hitter I have seen can. He can hit balls hard that are out the of strike zone, but mainly makes weak contact there. Personally I think pitchers drool over getting to face him because there is little reason to throw strikes or quality pitches just let Rosario get himself out. Hopefully he improves because if he does look out he could be one of the most dangerous hitters in baseball.

You could have two season like in the minors. The first half division winners would automatically have a spot in the playoffs. This accomplishes a couple of things. It means that the first 80 games have more meaning and it allows all teams to start fresh for the second half so you can keep all around fan interest higher. Nothing worse than having a young team flounder in the first half never quite able to make up the ground needed the rest of the way or devastating injuries early and the team can't make up those games the rest of the way. Splitting the season would give improving teams a chance to make the playoffs in the second half. IMO I think splitting the season could solve a lot of problems talked about in this article and mute the main comments against the shorter season.

Yep really nice to see a solid at bat like that for Eddie. He got fooled on ball 4 but still he made the pitcher work so that helps.

Hate to sound like a broken record but pitchers were coming off the board like crazy in the second round. Seemed like a good time to grab one there. Grabbing another position-less player in a system full of them seems well down right wasteful to me. The positives appear to be that he does have a good eye and hit tool so a decent chance to make it to MLB. Also seems to have some power as well. With not a ton of picks this year I thought that maybe they would take more chances on pitching in the draft but I guess it is the same old same old. Not a bad pick but not what I was hoping for either.

Really like the write ups and the list I could quibble about the order but I think all these guys are in range of your projections. I too am not a Lewis fan mainly because of the bat but he looked very good yesterday with a Home Run and defensive gem that made me think why would anyone say he might not be able to play shortstop. It was an amazing play very few shortstops in MLB could make IMO. Anyway like you secretly I have Lewis at number three until the bat comes around. If that bat produces at AA then he truly does belong at number one because no one in the system has close to the athleticism he has. Also I give him props for bulking up. Dude looks huge this year, like he belongs in MLB. Just needs that hit tool to work and he has All Star written all over him.

At this point in time I like Chalmers better. He looks like he might be able to control his pitches and striking out the side the other day means he has swing and miss stuff as well as good velocity. I think if our pen was a little weaker Chalmers would be a candidate for a pen spot this year. Gill is younger and still has potential to start. He got his WHIP down to 1.19 last year in A ball not great but doable for a reliever. It's a tough choice between the two right now, but as I stated earlier right now today I like Chalmers better. If Gill manages better control and a more advanced approach he could be much better than Chalmers who I only see as a reliever. The Twins getting Cave who looks MLB ready for Gill also complicates this analysis for me as Cave has already been a timely asset as he helped last years team to 101 wins when most of the starting outfield was injured. Not having him might have impacted that effort.

Thorpe was a surprise but there must be a reason. Gordon, Blankenhorn and Celestino all looked a bit over matched at the plate so probably not a bad idea to have them move over. Alcala looked a little shaky to me as well. Duran and Chalmers pitched well so no reason to be sent down other than they just are not going to start the year with the big club. Was nice to get to see some of these young guys get a chance and see how they perform.

Agreed. Is Thorpe just not in game shape or do they feel Dobnak had that 5th spot pretty much locked up at this point? Also can someone explain to me why it makes sense to put Romero on the restricted list? I would think he would be back not long after the season starts or is that process going to take longer? Also even though he doesn't take a 40 man spot while on the list can the Twins really afford to use that spot on someone else when they would likely only have spot for short period of time and then need to be optioned? I guess I don't see the advantage unless he isn't coming back anytime soon.

Thanks for this article I remember being very worried that we might not have a good draft after we sold our 2nd round pick and lost our third for signing Lance Lynn. We weren't picking high in the draft and it didn't appear we would have much money to move around in the draft. After the draft I did not feel like they had a "good" draft. I was just hoping Larnach would turn out OK so that the draft wouldn't be a complete loss. I guess I was wrong about a lot of these guys. As I've said many times I bought into the pundits view of Jeffers and didn't like the pick at the time. He made me eat crow from Elizabethton to Pensicola. Seeing where he is right now I think that was an outstanding pick. Sands number from college didn't give me much hope that he would be anything better than reliever and probably take a long time to get there. Again I couldn't have been more wrong as he has really been dominant to this point in his professional career. I didn't even know who Windor was and given he came from a small school didn't give him much of a chance to be successful. I liked his frame and could see potential there but he didn't throw throw real hard and he was in need of third pitch if I remember correctly. Not bad for 7th round pick but certainly no guarantee to work out either. I really didn't care for the Willie Joe Garry pick either. He didn't have a good hit tool and it I thought most of his other tools were average. He started the year out pretty hot and it looks like he has 5 tool potential although the bat could hold him back. Still a good grab at 9 where the Twins always seem to find a little something. I actually liked the Reggie Grace pick at 10 better. He has had control issue's but hoping he come around this year. Anything after 10 is crap shoot but I have to say I definitely didn't see Zach Neff moving as fast as he did. It is going to be a fun class to watch and hopefully the Twins can find a way to replicate that success as they again are without there 2nd and 3rd round picks this year.

I am getting very concerned about the White Sox. They look like they are going to be good for quite some time with a very nice young core. They lack depth right now but if their rookies pan out this year they are going to be a very tough team to beat in the future.

I think that sounds about right to me. I would obviously have us a tick or two higher but we don't have a ton of high end guys so we might be just out of the top 10. Still is a solid system and again I am biased but I think our system will outperform the analysts predictions. Just need some of those guys in the 12 to 25 to up their game and I think we are top ten again. I can see why he has us at 15 though.

I t Yeah most places I read about Larnach stated he had the arm for right field. I don't think any of them stated he was a great runner though so reading between the lines he likely wasn't going to be an elite defensive outfielder. Typically you hide those types of guys in Left field. So I can see how Law got there. I don't know enough to know if pulling the ball is really an issue or not. We are a bit spoiled with Kepler in right as he plays elite defense there and has some thump in the bat as well. It is hard to find right fielders with all the skills he has. Larnach can work in right but probably lacks range so best fit is likely left.

Personally I think Celestino is the answer to your question. Hard to say if his bat will play at the MLB level at this time but his defense is already MLB ready. Buxtons defense has been more valuable than his bat anyway and I don't think Celestino will be a complete black hole at the plate certainly can't be too much worse than Buck. As noted by others if you don't like Celestino there then Kep moves over and you can arrange things anyway you like. I don't see the need to take on the Almora risk. We are close to having a glut of outfielders on the 40 man as it is granted not center fielders but in due time Celestino and if needed Royce Lewis can be used in CF if needed.

I agree. I know the OP is talking mostly about offense in this article but Rortvedts defense is very, very good and he was holding his own with the bat in AA before some minor injuries seemed to impact him. Also don't forget he needs to be added to the 40 man at the end of this year as well so if he is doing well and there is a catcher to be added I think it will be him. Hopefully Jeffers continues his climb because if we need to add Rortvedt at the end of the year and want to add Jeffers at some point as well then Avila will have to move on and they will have to make a decision on the turtle as well. Granted those decisions don't have to happen until next year but looking ahead it is something to think about.

Yeah not too surprised as Law has different bias's than most. Generally I trust what he has to say. Like everyone who projects prospects he isn't always right but most of the time I can see where he is coming from. Not surprised about Duran as there are definitely questions there yet. Larnach is a bit of a surprise for me I mean he was the best the Florida league High A teams had to offer last year and he didn't have any trouble moving up a level either. As I look at more players though you can see there a lot of talented bats so defense is probably the only other way to distinguish yourself. I personally think he is wrong about Larnach and selling him short but no worries Larnach will be good again this year no matter how Law feels about him.

Poppen is a very intriguing player. With the movement he has he seems like a good candidate to start but the one issue he has and it really is a big one when it comes to making it to MLB is his WHIP. It is just too high to be successful at the next level. He has to find a way to throw strikes when he needs them. I am still a believer and I think as noted given his age and control issues to this point the bullpen does sound like a good spot for him. I wouldn't be surprised if they gave him one last year to start and see what he can do at AAA but the stuff he has is good enough if he can harness it.

I am going with Hardy. He is a lefty and had some success in the past. I think the Twins Coaching staff can get a little more out of him than Detroit did. I am rooting for Thielbar as well but I feel like Hardy might be just a little better. Will have to wait and see how things shake out but those two would be my favorite to make it. I really like Tellis but he is an injury or two away from making it up IMO. The Turtle is too flexible and they likely wouldn't need him unless two catcher went down. I kind of thought he would have gone to a team where he would have a better chance to be called up but I guess he likes MN.