TheDean

Here's an interesting comp: Chris Parmelee. Between 2012 and 2013 (age 24 and 25), he got over 500 PA at the major league level with trips back and forth to Rochester. His wRC+ was in the low 80s. Last year (age 24), Hicks put up a wRC+ of 84 in a little over 200 PA, but also had trips back down to the minors. I'll be interested to see whether he can advance his offensive production beyond what Parmelee did in his age 25 season. Of course Parmelee had little defensive value, and Hicks plays CF (plays it well, apparently) and has speed on the basepaths.

No speed needed I guess.

Hopefully that bloop gets Hicks going. Speed on the bases.

After getting his first win last week, Peterson got his first save of the season today. He struck out the side in the ninth inning against Brevard County, preserving a one-run lead. He also pitched two scoreless innings on Saturday with four strikeouts and 1.1 on Tuesday with two strikeouts and a hit. Dating back to May 7, Peterson has pitched 7 innings, allowed 1 BB, 2 hits, and struck out 11. His ERA is down to 1.17.

I know that he was likely committed to his rehab, and position players don't have nearly the recovery time that pitchers do, but I have to assume that he'll continue to get better as he A: shakes off the rust offensively and defensively and B: continues to strengthen and grow accustomed to his repaired elbow. He was out of baseball for a long time.

Peterson earned his first decision on Tuesday against Dunedin, pitching two innings of one-hit ball for the win. He struck out two and walked one. His season ERA dropped to 1.45. Opposing batters have a .169/.319/.203 line against him. That's right, they're slugging .203. He's faced 75 batters so far; only one has an extra-base hit.

Bring him up. He's hitting AAA well, so add him to the list of guys who can hit AAA and have struggled in the majors: Parmelee, Colabello (doing better with the Jays I see?), Herrmann, Arcia, et al. What do none of them have that Hicks has? Defensive ability. Sure, it's only a month, but he's not like Buxton, Sano, or even Rosario coming off seasons with absolutely no baseball. He's had a tough time in the majors, but I'd like to imagine it wasn't wasted time. I can buy that he can hit AAA/AAAA pitchers (he did it in Spring Training twice before); it makes sense for his talent level and experience. I don't think it's a mirage. Add on top that he would likely be the second best defensive OFer on the team (assuming Rosario is only here temporarily-arguable on whether he's better anyway, and that Hicks is a more complete OFer than Schafer). Robinson might be better than them all, but even the rookie version of Hicks is on par with him offensively. It's time indeed.

I've been slacking on posts here, but here goes on the update front - Peterson's results remain stellar, only 3 runs allowed so far this year in 16.2 IP. He has no decisions or saves. However, control may be troublesome with 12 walks issued (he gave up 17 in Ft. Myers last year). As a result, his FIP sits at a whopping 2.61. He's still striking out about one in three batters, which I would judge to be good baseball. His longest outing of the season was against Bradenton on the 5th, going 2.1 innings in extras (because of course the Miracle was playing extras). As long as he can reign in the control, I don't see any reason why he shouldn't have an opportunity to shift up to Chattanooga, if room were made one way or another.

Peterson has appeared in three more games since my last post. He ran into his first troubles against St. Lucie, pitching 1.2 innings. He allowed 2 hits and three walks, resulting in one earned run. One of the hits was his first allowed XBH this season. He followed that with two smoother two-inning appearances, allowing no runs and no hits. His walk numbers crept up in this last round of games, but his strikeout numbers are still superb. 10.0 IP, 1 ER, 7 BB, 14 SO. FIP sits at 2.61 and K% at 36%. Interesting factoid: Peterson has pitched 3.1 innings in the 10th inning or later so far this season with no decisions in all appearances.

No Deduno on the mound even!

I had Buxton and Sano up at this point, and was campaigning for a WS appearance. I don't get what's so hard about this, TR. I mean, OOTP=Real Life, right? PS. Chris Herrmann is AllStar material - flip him to the Rays for their top pitching prospects.

Three appearances through the season and Peterson's line is strong as ever. 4.1 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 7 SO. Classic.

I know it's early in the season, and there are better measures of performance out there, but looking at the box with everyone under .250 except Mauer...I'm just imaging everyone with OOTP snowflake symbols next to their names.

Name: Brandon Peterson Position: RHP Birthday: September 23, 1991 Birthplace: Burnsville, MN College: Wichita State (1 yr), Des Moines Area CC (2 yrs) Height/Weight: 6'1", 198 lbs Bats: R Throws: R Summary: Peterson looks to build on past success as he begins the year at Ft. Myers. Twins Daily named him the minor league relief pitcher of the year for the Twins in 2014 based on his performances in both the MWL and FSL. If his numbers are close to what they were last year, it will be difficult to deny him a promotion to Chattanooga. History: Brandon Peterson is a native of Savage, MN, and attended Burnsville High School. He was a key part of a strong 2010 Burnsville Blaze team that finished runner-up to Eden Prairie in the MSHSL AAA tournament. After high school, Peterson attended Des Moines Area Community College where he compiled a 3.50 ERA, 6 saves, and a 6-1 record in 24 appearances during his freshman season. In his sophomore season, he went 6-4 with a 4.94 ERA and 3 saves in 21 appearances, eight of which were starts. He attended Wichita State University (like Twins SP Mike Pelfrey) after junior college, pitching well as a closer for the Shockers. He appeared in 26 games and put up a 1.12 ERA in 40 IP. He earned 10 saves and a 3-1 record, holding opponents to a .189 batting average, striking out 42 and walking 15. The Twins drafted him with the 380th overall pick in the 13th round of the 2013 Amateur Player Draft. According to his MLB.com draft writeup, his fastball reaches 95 mph, usually falling to the low 90s. His main secondary pitch is a slider. After the draft, he was assigned to Elizabethton where he led the Appalachian League with a SO/9 of 13.2. He went 0-2 with a 2.96 ERA in 27.1 IP over 19 games. He walked only 9, striking out 40. He finished 14 games, 5 of which were saves. To start 2014, he only pitched 12.1 innings at Cedar Rapids (with 1 run allowed), before earning a spot in the Miracle's bullpen. He spent the rest of the year there and compiled the best FIP in the FSL among pitchers with at least 40 innings. He was also second in K%. Future: In my opinion, Peterson could be pitching at AA right now and will probably end up there at some point. He's already paying dividends for someone who went in the 13th round. Keep an eye on this guy. No triple digits heat, no big signing bonus, but racks up strikeouts as well as anyone in the system right now. No full-season pitchers in the Twins system last year could best his 13.2 K/9. References: BbRef, Fangraphs, MiLB, 2014 AaP Thread

I'll once again take fellow BHS alum Brandon Peterson. Here's to another TD RP of the year award!

I'd argue that there was room for a FA outfielder due to the lack of outfield prospects near ML level, but I agree to an extent on Hicks. I hope this is just a "rake for a few weeks in Rochester to earn your spot at 8, on defense and in the lineup."

This was my thought. Yeah, outfield is bad, rotation improved, infield the same as last year, but oh man, that bullpen doesn't inspire confidence. I don't actually feel that great about Perkins/Fien for some reason (probably my recent game viewing history) and the rest of the relievers are question marks in some capacity. I hope they prove me wrong.

I agree. If they can afford a 40-man spot, I'd go for it (if he has options). Not sure that he actually has a leg up on Robinson, but he's younger and has a better pedigree. Maybe it's overcompensation for past woes, but I like the idea of stockpiling a few CFers at AAA. He even OPSd over .700 at AAA last year. The Twins have one full time OFer returning to AAA who reached that benchmark there last year (Ortiz). Though Hicks should certainly hit that mark if he's starting in Rochester. Same for Rosario.

Based purely on skillset "fit," and the money required to get them (at least in hindsight), I liked Aoki and Rasmus better than the Hunter signing, but I've come around a bit to Hunter. Rasmus indeed is a free-swinging, streaky "out-machine" and it seems that his attitude was toxic. I'm ready for Hunter to prove his worth with the bat and his attitude in a way that Rasmus would be hard-pressed to replicate. I'm sure all of this has been re-hashed a thousand times already this offseason, but I'm just funneling my excitement for spring training games to begin into these posts. It's a fan site after all!

Yeah, that's what I had thought. Granted, as JB said, the actual contract is double the $4 MM that had been originally reported on MLBTR. Either way, if the Twins had known he would have come in under $10 MM on a one-year deal, you'd think they would have made an offer.

Aoki with the Giants in LF ($4.75 MM), and now Rasmus with the Astros in CF ($4 MM). Boy, hard not to play the "what if" game here. I gotta say that I like the sound of Aoki-Rasmus-Arcia a bit better than Arcia-???-Hunter, and at a lower total cost too. Oh well.

I think this makes the most sense. It's a difficult thing to judge to be sure, gauging the talent in the pipeline and making lineup/roster decisions on it now. The fact that they retained Nunez makes me think that they could be leaning toward Escobar at SS and Danny in CF. If it were me, I would have non-tendered Nunez if Escobar was going to be Utility. Seems redundant to have two similar Utility guys on the bench, neither with the best stick for PH situations. 4-man bench of Jordan, Josmil, and the Eddies? I think the team improves a lot with Hicks in Rochester, and your bench being Jordan, Josmil, Nunez, and _____. Subtle difference, but it subs Escobar for Hicks in the lineup and hopefully improves the bench. Maybe that fourth guy brings a bat or maybe he's just a 3rd catcher so Josmil can get some ABs (if Molitor is scared of DHing or PHing him).

Not sure exactly how it'll all add up, but I'm really hoping that somehow Hunter/Arcia is an improvement over Hammer/Arcia. The corners were just terrible last year...terrible! Overall, it could be basically net-zero on switching out Hunter and Willingham, but really hoping that the depth will be better. If either goes down for an extended period of time, I feel better about giving Rosario a chance or having flexibility in Schafer/Santana/Hicks than last year's "Outfield of DHs" experiment. To be clear, it's still marginal depth, and not a point of confidence at all. I think the OF as a whole could really swing the predicted performance of the team by their over- or under-performance in the field and with the stick. IMO, the OF is the key to the team next year.

For better or worse, I have the memory of watching Arcia play LF vs the Yanks on the 4th of July in 2013 seared into my mind. It was during one of Gibson's first starts in the 2013 season. For a reason that escapes me, it was Arcia in LF and Clete Thomas in RF. I had LF seats, and while watching Arcia play below me, two things became clear: 1. playing major league outfield is hard - the Yankees seemed to send drive after drive tailing in all different directions toward LF. 2. Arcia was not comfortable in LF, and was not good at playing it. I guess I'm saying all of this because Arcia is going to need a lot of work to be even Hammer-level in LF. Until he's above Willingham-grade defense, I agree with the you and the others here that he's going to need to hit a lot to offset his lack of range. He'll probably break out in hitting, but will his net value come close to breaking out? As a side note, I never thought I'd use Hammer as a benchmark for range/instincts.

I totally agree. The Sox should have an excellent pitching staff. And I also agree that they'll probably move to keep the hometown kid on a long deal. Any way you cut it, they're building what should be a better team for next year and probably years to come. I suppose I'm just acknowledging that there's a lot of risk involved here, and as a Twins fan, I hope that none of it pans out.