Hosken Bombo Disco

I've never seen any of these guys play but your Walker-Balboni comparison caught my eye. So I did some digging on bbref (time on my hands tonight). Assuming Walker starts 2015 in AA, both Steve Balboni and Adam Walker will have begun their first season at AA at age 23. Balboni was in the Yankees system in the early 1980s so these are just general comparisons. Balboni was coming off his age 22 season at A with 584 PA, 26 HR (4.5%) with BB-SO totals of 69-154 (rates of 11.8% and 26.3%) and a .798 OPS. Walker's age 22 season at Fort Myers last year was 555 PA, 25 HR (4.5%) with BB-SO totals of 44-156 (rates of 8.0% and 28.1%) and a .743 OPS. Both are fine; Balboni wins by half a length. However, Balboni's AA season he made nice progress, increasing his walk rate up to 13.4%, increased his HR totals and rate, and hitting for a .301 average and .951 OPS. So these are the numbers Walker will need to post at Chattanooga to keep pace with Balboni. Balboni then spent the next couple seasons back and forth between AAA and MLB before he was traded to the Royals, who as it turns out had a use for him (for all his flaws) in their already very good lineup. The point of all of this is to say that, if "Walker's plate discipline doesn't improve, his ceiling will be Steve Balboni" might be amended to say if Walker's plate discipline finally does improve, then his ceiling will be Balboni. And in further comparison, Balboni's minor league production lagged behind other "all-or-nothing" power type guys I checked, like Jay Buhner and Adam Dunn. So, Walker has a lot of work to do, but I've heard good things about him so am of course pulling for him.

I don't think Parmelee got the fair shake that Hicks did. One could even say that Parms was slotted below Bartlett, Herrmann and Escobar on the OF depth chart last year. That said, he didn't really make the best of his chances. I liked him though and wish him luck.

I will confidently choose D. None of the above

Dozier Mauer Gibson

Why not? GM Hawkins? Righty has post-career plans | rockies.com After watching the interview, I'd say Hawkins seems like a guy willing to problem solve and carry some responsibility, and open to numbers-driven decision making. He seems to still have connections within the Twins organization. It also wouldn't hurt to have some competition or a succession plan for when Ryan wants to step down. What do you think? I'm all in. I'd send smoke signals starting now, and then after 2015 I'd offer him a job.

The obvious answer in hindsight is Kirby Puckett. Was impossible not to like him from the word Go. Hustled every play and never saw a pitch he didn't like.

Dozier deserves one, too, but at some point we should ask ourselves if it's wise to continue giving contract extensions to guys based on a single good season: Perkins, Suzuki, Hughes. Maybe it is. I have no idea. It seems to be part of the new m. o.

In a 2016-2018 hypothetical world, my only rich guy would be Hughes, with Gibson, Meyer, Berrios, and any of the intriguing guys in A ball. Having the young guys pan out would also satisfy the Pohlad payroll constraint--which as we are discovering, might in itself be hypothetical

Great off season enthusiasm! Twins have been talking about "two years from now" for two years now...time to make it happen. So I think you are setting your sights too low. Twins did not sign Nolasco and Hughes last offseason to lose 90 games that year, and likewise did not add Ervin Santana so they could lose 90 more games this year. They are in it to win it (and should be) or at least play .500. Also, like last year, keep bringing the young guys up. If they succeed wildly and their arbitration clocks start early, then all the better. Let the Yankees and Angels reward them with big contracts they earned by producing for the Twins. If they struggle, no rule against sending them back to AAA for a spell.

If it comes down to Fryer, Herrmann, Parmelee and Nunez the guys you mentioned, I think Nunez wins hands down. Though I still contend Nunez is an occupational hazard in the outfield.

I'd really like to see Torii more in the middle of the order than the top. Though #2 would be ok if he demonstrates in ST that he can still move from first to third, etc.

I always thought Hamburger looked a little raw, though at 27 he certainly has enough seasoning. Think he's heard these jokes before?

Wow, with you in charge Meyer would reach his innings limit by the end of April

Glad for Douggie and hope this works out for him.

Since we've had maybe a half dozen posters now claim that the numbers back them up, let's see the numbers!

I'm conceding the Ace argument because it's way too subjective. Some people have called Rick Porcello an ace, while others are rationing out only 10 aces across baseball. The source of this whole argument goes back to the Santana signing for me. Santana is probably not as good as Hughes, and in no fantasy world would I take Hughes over Madison Bumgarner, playoffs or regular season, this year or any year. I'd have liked to see Meyer hit the ground running this year AND May hit the ground running. Meyer might develop into a dominant guy for a fraction of the price of Santana, and May might be able to give us Santana's level of performance, again for a fraction of the cost. Your two prize trade acquisitions are both ready to roll this year. That's why I was confused about Santana signing. As the link in the OP said, depth is a short term positive aspect of it. I suppose it's better than the Doumit/Correia/Suzuki/Hunter types of signings he was becoming famous for. Ryan can probably be excused for the "we don't need no ace" comment, as he gives 100's of interviews a year, and even that is harder than it sounds. But his moves really look to me to be random transactions sometimes without a broader vision. I can only assume Pohlad had a part in this.

Another flukey coincidence that the team that believes the playoffs are all luck and small sample size (Minnesota and Oakland) almost always lose to the teams that believe they control their own destiny and can do something about it?

I am conceding the Ace argument. We have two average expensive free agent pitchers over 30, and one pretty good guy in Hughes. Hoping Hughes can make this a trend. Maybe when and if the Twins make the playoffs one or two of those guys will get hot and pitch above their level, or at least out pitch the other guy. However let me say that it's fine for us on the Internet to argue about pitching, playoff luck, etc. But if your General Manager is coming out and making the mistaken claim that "the playoffs are mostly luck" or if that's the attitude of the organization, then that is a huge disappointment to me. You may be right -- it actually seems apparent he hasn't given a minute of thought to it.

A pennant race or even winning record would be a huge success this season. No doubt. I can maybe accept that we have the right players in place this year to shoot for that goal, and that for this year, that would be a good outcome. When the time comes, I hope that Ryan has the guts to cast aside the spectrum of "above average" pitchers like Hughes, Nolasco and Santana and roll with guys who might be huge difference makers, like Meyer and Berrios. Same with the Plouffe/Sano situation.

Ryan is doing what he thinks will make the Twins a playoff contender, not a pennant contender. Setting his sights very low. I don't know if he believes that the Twins playoff record the last decade can be explained away by pure luck and small sample size. That playoff record is quite an outlier.

Just curious, but do you remember the average age of the 2000-2001 teams?

It's a little outside the box, but a Schafer/Hicks platoon in CF might be ok, with the off day guy used as a late inning pinch runner / outfield substitution. If Hunter has lost as much jump and speed on the bases as in the field, then I'm not sure about him batting at the top. Let this not be the year he also loses his bat speed

^ that was also my first thought

Would love to see Hughes repeat his 2014 performance or Santana repeat his 2008 or 2013 performance, if not this year then next year. And of course Gibson continue to improve. Nolasco seems to top out at an ERA+ of 101, however. Maybe he'll be the pleasant surprise in 2015 and we can flip him for some pocket protectors

Point taken--sort of. I wouldn't use the phrase "very untrue" to describe the value of an Ace to a WS contender, which is kind of where I see some posters going. I went all the way back to the 2013 season and saw that Lester pitched pretty good in the postseason. San Francisco has three World Series trips in five years with all their own drafted pitchers. Aces like Cain and Lincecum, plus the occasional schmo like Sanchez and Vogelsong who gets hot. They had both. Admitted they also signed Zito. But Bumgarner has pitched like an ace basically every season except his late-2012 fade. He's also the same age as Meyer, fwiw. There may be several ways to assemble a good rotation but I honestly don't believe the Twins new approach of signing average or above average free agents for their age 30 years is the best way, or even close to the best. It's an imperfect science but other teams seem much more willing to fast track a guy who shows promise. If a young guy is pitching well with confidence, maybe that's the right moment to try him in the Major Leagues.