Dman

I'd definitely have Kirilloff over Rooker. Kirilloff is younger, a better runner, more likely to strike out less and will have some power maybe not a s much as Rooker but I think his potential is higher than Rooker. With Badoo you may have a point. His numbers are amazing for that league at that age. I believe they were better than AK's when he was there. Will be interesting to see how those two guys turn out. I like them both but probably give Badoo the nod because his power potential looks better AK's.

Yeah Kohl is a guy where you would have to ignore the numbers and believe you can fix him if you want to take him in the rule V draft. He is young enough to make it tempting though. Will be interesting to see how it plays out.

I guess the one thing that stuck with me that I learned on this board is that pitchers with his profile don't translate well to MLB. A few guys have made careers as starters not striking out many guys but the list is very short. The other thing that stands out is he seems to have stagnated in his development. he doesn't seem to be changing his approach much and or grown as a pitcher. The way I see it he needed to be better than Slegers, Enns, Thorpe or Jorge to make the cut. The Twins don't see him as better than any of those guys so he is exposed to the rule V. I personally think he has a chance to turn things around as a reliever but given the dearth of relievers the Twins have it probably didn't make sense to take a chance on Stewart. In the end it comes down to competition and projection. He came up short so he is where he is. I hope he gets another season with Twins as I still think despite all evidence to the contrary that he can be a dominant relief pitcher but I do have a tendency to over value the players I have watched and read about and hoped would help the team.

Yeah I don't understand why the Braves felt they needed to do this as they received a ton of great prospects with all the trades they made and have done OK in the Draft as well. I don't know why they felt the need to go overboard? They would have done well not cheating the system. I guess the one good thing to come out of this is that anyone who thinks they can get away with this stuff indefinitely is going to pay a stiff price when they get caught. Hopefully this will be a good deter-ant to those thinking of breaking the rules.

Very nice write up. If he can get that average and OPS up a bit higher he has a chance. He really needs to dominate to get traction as a prospect. Will be interesting to see how he does on AA next year.

Yeah they couldn't keep every reliever with promise and clog up the 40 man. There are other guys coming up that don't need to be protected so not the end of the world if we lost all of them which is unlikely anyway. This is what the rule V is for I guess. Given the pen we have it was gonna be tough for those guys to make it anyway. Now maybe they will get a chance with another team. It looks like they want more proven players for the pen as they have a fair bit of young blood up for relievers in Hildy, Curtis, Busenitz , Chargios, Moya and Rogers. They'll want some vets to close and work the eighth. May and Duffy might still end up as pen arms so I can see why they did things the way they did.

I was surprised as well. I know lots of people on the board don't like his stats or his chances to make an impact at the Major League level but I was still a believer. I wanted to see him one more year to see if there was any improvement. I also think he could be a good pen arm. Jack up his velo and used in shorter stints I feel like those K's might just come back. I've been wrong about a lot of guys and probably am about Stewart but I thought he had enough stuff to keep. Maybe no one else will like him in the rule V so it won't matter.

I thought April was better than that he must have just had a hot couple of weeks then.

Blankenhorn started the season red hot. I was almost ready to say they should promote him to the next level and he tapered off and then slumped badly. I'm not sure what to think but I am still high on him. If he figures things out as a hitter they can find a position to play him at. I think he came in as a Shortstop so he should be able to handle third but I haven't seen him play there. They must like his speed and agility if they are playing him at 2nd. Maybe looking for another Dozier type player because it looks like Blanky has power. I am thinking he might follow the Max Murphy path at a younger age. It seemed like it took Max a bit to hit the offspeed stuff and be more patient at the plate. If he breaks out offensively then he will be a top ten prospect. I am betting on the Blanket to make it.

Personally I am not surprised. I don't think any manger has taken a team from worst in baseball to the playoffs in one year. He had a lot of challenges this year and he held the team together. The award is well deserved IMO. Congrats to Paul!

If I am giving up prospects I want it to be for a started not the pen. Fix starting pitching first then focus on pen.

I am big fan of Whitefield. Steals bases with ease. Plays good defense and he was hitting around 300 half way through the season and then started slumping or got pitched to differently and struggled. Since he hasn't played baseball for that long and is only 21 I think you have to give him a bit more time to adjust but he looks like the real deal to me. The K rate is troubling but another season will tell us more. That off-speed stuff seems to slow hitters down as they move up levels. I think that with the great defense he provides and a likely improving bat he is worthy of a 26 to 30 ranking.

I agree with you. I am not sure what criteria is used and I like all of them but I tend to feel the manager that took his team from worst record in the league to the playoffs as having done more than the other two who had good teams to begin with.

If I am Buxton I would not give up three FA years for an extension. If I wanted to play that game I would give up one year tops. If giving up one year of FA gave me some financial security I would do it but I would want to reach FA as far under 30 years old as possible. That way you have the leverage of more prime years when going for that big contract. It is a gamble for both sides but if the Twins want any kind of potential discount or even the hope of getting something done they probably have to do it this year. A lot of it depends on how Buxton and his agent view his future. Is 100 Mil career earnings enough money that you don't care what happens for the next contract? or do you want to maximize your potential earnings through your baseball career taking on the risk of injury, performance, etc? Hard to say what path he would choose.

That very well could happen. Lewis has a chance if everything goes right to make it in three years but if it takes his bat a while to come around it could very well take him five and Buck will be gone or on his way out. If Buxton turns out the way we think he will I don't see the Twins doing a long term 50 million dollar a year deal when they have his replacement for $500,000. They will need that money for pitching. So I get your point but let a guy dream will ya.

While I agree given what I have read that Lewis seems destined for the outfield it would be pretty cool if he remained at short and he and Buxton were in the lineup together turning walks into doubles. That would put a lot of pressure on the other teams we play. I say give it some time. If Polanco can do it why can't Lewis?

If and I know that is a big if you could sign Dozier for three years at a reasonable rate then I think that would be tough to pass up given his production. Not sure what that means for the Gordon Timeline but Doziers production is not easily replaced especially his power. He should have another 3 years of solid production in him and or at least it is a good bet. If you felt like Gordon was ready or a better option later on you could attempt to trade him again as well. My hunch is that he gets a four year deal with a fifth year option. Depending on what he costs dollar wise I don't think it makes sense for the Twins to spend that much on a 2nd baseman but he is the team leader and a solid producer so they might see things differently.

I am inclined to agree with those that say QO Dozier. If Gordon doesn't look like he is ready after next year and Dozier takes the QO then we can go year to year with him until confident someone else can step into that role. If he declines the QO we still have Esco and Adrianza to fill in at short if Gordon isn't ready and the potential to get draft pick compensation. I think the worst thing you could do is sign Dozier long term and this is his one shot at the big money so he won't likely take a short term deal unless the market just isn't there. He is one of my favorite players but i agree with others that the money would be better spent on quality pitching if possible.

Buxton is the one I would try and lock up for sure. If he remains solid at the plate other teams will snap him up as soon as they can. If Rosario is reasonable then I would offer him as well. Wouldn't mind doing Kepler but having the whole outfield locked up seems overkill. I know Sano has the potential to be a game changer but his K rate and injury history worry me. I know he will get better and at the beginning of the year when he was healthy and disciplined at the plate he carried this team. I just get the feeling he won't be giving the Twins a deal and I am not sure he is someone who can stay healthy. Tough call on Sano for me. I agree that this is the year to get deals done if the Twins want any discounts. If we wait until these guys "prove" themselves the price is going to be much higher to get those later years. It is a risk but opportunity only knocks once.

I guess my assumption was poor. Sorry to put words in your mouth. I personally don't think anyone knew what was going to happen but this team answered the challenge.

Not trying to call anyone out. Just trying to make a point that I felt a lot of people gave up hope when Kintzler was traded. I guess I could have just written down the number 15. I just wanted to point out how a lot of people felt about it.

And I concede that the people that wanted to stay in the race were correct for believing in this team. I sure didn't think they would make it. All I am saying is that they did make the Playoffs even without Kintzler. Maybe the FO did give up on the team or maybe they felt Kintzer wasn't going to be the difference I don't know their thinking I just don't think they deserve much criticism for the decision. If the Twins beat New York and lose some close games in the bullpen in the next series I will eat my words and concede I wish the FO would have done more. To me this team does not match up well with Houston or Cleveland and certainly doesn't have those teams depth. This has been awesome year of Twins BB. I am shocked at where they are. We just agree to disagree on how the FO handled things.

This was the post from John Bonnes after the Kintzler trade. ""This likely won't be a very popular opinion, but the Twins gave up on this year for maybe five guys who: a. probably don't rank in the top 15 in their organization and b. probably don't rank in the top 300 in the minors and c. likely will make little to no difference in their future? That's what Littell, Enns, & Watson are, right? And given the reliever market (which we just saw for Kintzler), they certainly wouldn't have needed to give up much to add a couple of competent relievers. I know it's been a tough week, but this was a mistake. I don't get why they wouldn't ride it and chance the 9% chance they hat making the playoffs. It feels like panic. What did we gain exactly for giving up?" This article was liked by the following members: hybridbear peterb18 bighat Dave The Dastardly Raven J DaveW whydidnt Hosken Bombo Disco Jerr Highabove shimrod Vanimal46 ChiTownTwinsFan USAFChief pbrezeasap gunnarthor Mike Sixel. I assume all those posters felt that after the Kintzler trade there was no way the Twins were going to make the post season. At least that is how I read it. No one thought the Twins had a chance after the trade and also felt that the Twins needed to add to have a chance. In the end everyone except the FO was wrong because they made the post season without Kintzler. So I guess I fail to see the angst for that trade. Would it be good to have a better bullpen right now sure but was that going to be enough to move the needle enough in the post season matchups? I don't think so, but I am sure you could make a case. Also you would have probably had to give up someone like Hildy or Bussy or more to get a couple of two month rentals. I think the FO did ok on this one.

I guess fangraphs and all the supposed experts are schmucks then because they sure didn't see "it" coming.

Well he is better than getting nothing at all for Kintzler and we made the postseason without Kintzler plus they threw in $500,000 in international bonus money. While Watson is not on any top 100 prospect lists he has been an All-Star twice in the minors as he has moved up. He is young for the levels he has been in. Granted he is not a hard thrower but since he is only 20 there is projection there. I believe he has a good curveball which is all the rage these days. Personally I question if he has enough stamina and pitches to be a starter but he could end up a very good reliever if he can't make it as a starter. He is in our top 20. If you don't like guys in that range or don't think they can make it then you probably don't like the trade. Personally I like the gamble given that we only had two months left of Brandon and too many pitching holes to truly compete with the big boys this year. I'd rather have Watson and $500,000 than Brandon and the same wildcard result. More good prospects = more chances to get someone who makes it.