twinsfan34

Twins or Cubs. Have the best set of prospects coming up. Cubs have no pitching. Albeit, Buxton isn't exactly thriving in the AFL again. Rosario is doing awesome though!

Despite injuries, suspensions, and just a lack of production from expected farmhands to MLB appearances in the likes of Sano, Rosario, Meyer, May, and Buxton we got surprises and production in the form of Danny Santana and Kennys Vargas to the MLB club. With the aforementioned, again, in the chamber to possibly produce this year. It was fun to watch the "patient" and Colabello mashing Twins of April and early May and then August Twins in an otherwise tough year. We had the best 2 free agent acquisitions in $-to-WAR in Phil Hughes and Kurt Suzuki, which is unfortunately lost on most Twins fans. Caveat, Nolasco was on the worst end of that spectrum. I think Mauer will bounce back in this era of uber-metrics. If he's healthy, there's no reason to think he won't. His career batting average, his 3 batting titles, and his hitting style would be the first to not to continue .300+ seasons afterwards. Granted, we are in the 'low ball era' of baseball, never seen so many low ball strikes called before. But...yes, I expect Rosario to be battling to the last week of ST for that starting LF roster spot.

I actually think his defense is pretty good. He has a good arm and he's aware. He's had a number of plays where going to his left when a faster runner hit one down the line and he spun and threw in one motion to get the ball into second to hold the runner to a single. I also distinctly remember him doing the same when a fast runner (Dyson in KC if I remember right) was on 3rd for such a play and he caught a ball in foul territory going away and to his left and in one swift motion he turned and fired a rocket to home, surprsing Dyson and holding him on 3rd. These were not average player plays. According to B-Ref he only 'cost' us 4 runs last year. A little below average. His range factor was actually better than the average RF. He also had 8 assists in 88 GS/complete games in RF. He's not Jon Jay who on a shallow fly to RF, 15 feet from the IF ground, let Billy Hamilton tag up from 3rd. So the guy is aware and he has a strong arm. His 'lacking' is some over-aggressiveness in some plays in throws he shouldn't have made. But he's aware of the runners and has a '6.5 grade' arm. If he cuts down on throws he shouldn't make with a little more accuracy on his throws he'd be top 5-8 among RFs. He was far and away our best, most natural outfielder this year the Twins had. Everyone else looked lost a majority of the time. Exceptions: Shaefer and Hicks, but they weren't season long regulars. Even Fuld had poor paths to balls. And I think he'll mash too. It's a matter of discipline like Chris Davis of the Orioles. If he can discipline himself he's a 35-45 HR .270+ with 170K type of guy. No discipline/approach? .240 28-32 HR 210K type of guy. Worst case a worthy RF pushes him to LF and he becomes an even better OF. IMO.

How often does an A/A+ ball coach get moved to the MLB manager slot? (Mientkiewicz) IF they offered Gardy a position within the organization.....and as Ryan said he was looking for someone who has the 'attributes' like Gardy and the history of how Twins have hired their managers, leads me to Steinbach or Molitor as the most likely candidates to end up as manager. Catchers account for more managers than any other position.

My first thought..who all does this include? Molitor too? But then I found this, Molitor seems to be a solid possibility to replace Gardy. http://fansided.com/2014/09/29/minnesota-twins-rumors-paul-molitor-hired-manager/

I think Jeter is a HOFer based on the way baseball picks HOFers. Unanimous? There's never been such a player. Now what if A-Rod was clean and not a jerk? Or Babe Ruth just had his career recently? Unanimous? That means you have to be adored by all and on the field, above anyone you played against in your era, and perhaps, across many areas. That's likely the criteria you have to fall into. Jeter, never once was MVP and only in 1998 and 1999 did he finish in the top 5 in WAR. He never led the league, and only led his team a hanful of times in, AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS, SB, etc. He played a lot of games on a lot of good teams. HOFer? Absolutely!! Unaniumous? He didn't even win an MVP while he played the game. I think he falls into the longevity category. Al Kaline to Eddie Murray types. Kaline did have a batting Title and legitimately won GGs. If you're picking top players overall, does he get picked in the top 100? How about at his position? Of the guys with longevity: Cal Ripken, Honus Wagner, A-Rod, Arky Vaughn, Ernie Banks, and Barry Larkin? Would you take Jeter over any or all of them? How about during his own time period, of guys without longevity. Would you take Jeter in his prime over (his best 5 seasons) over these guys' best 5 seasons? a) Nomar Garciaparra? Miguel Tejada? c) Troy Tulowitzki? d) Jose Reyes? e) Hanley Ramirez? That's another angle. Season sample sizes. How often was Jeter the best player on his team or at his position in the years he played? Is it better to have 3,400 hits but not leading any major category and zero MVPs, OR hit above .350 two times OR win 2 MVPs but not get the '3000' hits? I think to be unanimous, you probably have to be the the undisputed best player at some point during your career in baseball, even if only for 1-2 seasons.

Ha! What a great clip. Good stuff. Man...I haven't 'caught' in about 15 years...even so, as with Seth, highest velocity I caught was probably touching 90. And it was a big difference of that versus 80-82 mph (what most HS pitchers were throwing in my time and area). Doesn't help being a database engineer and the morning iPhone reading emails has made me near sighted in one eye. I don't know what to think of the 'catch framing'...definitely some catchers are good at moving the ball around. But pitchers pitch. I pitched and caught (most every game I played was one or the other). Only issue I ever had with my catchers was show me the mit or do a 'flash' before hand. Some catchers didn't want to tip location, my thinking was I put it in the right spot, it won't really matter if they know it's there as long as it's not at the heart of the plate. The best 'pitch framer' catches don't correlate to the best pitching staffs. Even a cursory glance at the top pitch framing catchers and their teams will give away the 'best records' or winning teams doesn't have a high correlation to the catchers. http://www.statcorner.com/CatcherReport.php Wish I had the real totals - punch in the gut for not yet having trying to figure out the Retrosheet database and get it install into SQL.

Now THAT, is the inside scoop!!

It tickles me pick to see Santana, night after night, stay back, and lay out a rope, and hustle in for a double or triple. How does he keep hitting .320?! Just amazing, closing in on 400 ABs too.

I was very disappointed they didn't trade him at the deadline especially with guys like Street (Angels) going around for fairly decent package of prospects. Mauer gave us a hometown discount too. Could have easily got another $5-$8M per year from the Yankees, Red Sox, or Dodgers. One person's monetary choice is independent of W-L and performance correlations.

Change for the sake of change isn't good. I mean, we went from Tom Kelly to Ron Gardenhire. Was that a good change? Is Gardenhire the same manager who won AL Manager of the year in 2010 and was 2nd 5 other times...well just a product of the players or was he the reason they did well? I do acknowledge people can get 'depressed' and attitudes can change, we all change as we age - maybe that 'change' in Gardenhire, if the case, is not as conducive to success in managing? I don't think any manager combo of Earl Weaver, Sparky Anderson, Billy Martin, Tony LaRussa, etc etc would have got this team even above .500. As far as the GM, I think Terry Ryan dodged a TON of bullets this Fall in Free Agency. What if we had signed Stephen Drew, Ubaldo Jimenez, and Jarrod Saltamacchia in addition to our fine haul of Rickey Nolasco? I'd actually say that Suzuki and Hughes might be 2 of the top 5 signings in this past FA class. Take $M to WAR ratio.

I'm still hoping MLB takes away the 1st RD pick from the Astros this year so they don't get the #2 slot. Twins are sitting #5 today.

@Gunnarthor, Agree. Would have loved to see the order go 1. Sano 2. Buxton 3. Rosario 4. Pinto 5. Vargas 6. Kepler 7. Polanco 8. Harrison Garver was the 'choice' in my mind as he was clearly 'better' than what was expected while also being solid. A bit old for his class, but he was good all year. For me, only Vargas and Polanco really hit where we expected them to. Murphy was a pleasant surprise, although a very high K% even in the apply lg. The hope of 2015 is that Buxton has a similar Danny Santana/Aaron Hicks rise/position need and that Sano has a Vargas like appearance. Buxton would have to kill the AFL and have a solid Spring and then the CF is still a need position. A long shot. The more likely shot is Sano being added about the time Vargas is added in 2015. I don't know where Polanco fits in 2015. But he could be ready for some more MLB time. If Escobar proves 2014 is no fluke - that's great. Would allow Santana to stay in CF and Buxton to try to dominate AA/AAA vs be pressed to come up. I'm fine with either. So SS has options next year if our young players can repeat 2014. I have to believe Meyer starts 2015 with the Twins. He'll be 25. Start him or long reliever - but he'll be on the 40-man roster and it would seem the only reason he's not in MLB now is the 40-man roster issue. If he can't stick as an SP he'll fit in with one of the the hardest throwing bullpens in MLB by late 2015 (Burdi, Reed, et al). I hope Mauer would attempt to work on 3B this Fall/Winter. I'd love to see Pinto and Vargas break camp in 2015. Obviously, don't love their defense, but if Mauer can play 3B it means one of them isn't on the field defensively. Pinto, worse case scenario hits .225 AVG 20+ HR .310 OBP - in 500 PA, which isn't bad. Plouffe could provide some value in LF and platoon 3B. I'm getting head of myself and off-topic. Let's hope this is next year's list: 1. Sano 2. Buxton 3. Rosario 4. Pinto 5. Vargas 6. Kepler 7. Polanco 8. Harrison

Even before this year's draft assault on relievers, this was our farm system's strongest position. With the additions of Burdi and Reed, it might be the best in the minor leagues. The Twins MiLB teams... 1st - Least Earned Runs Allowed 1st - Least HR allowed 1st - K-BB% 1st - WHIP You CAN'T (really, you can't) get better than that. *These charts courtesy of mlbfarm.com

Ironically, Olbermann just made the Twins marketing that much better.

Frasier hit the nail on the head. Pinto and Arcia as well...other than the year and a half we had with Jim Thome - there's more power in those 3 guys than we've had in a LONG time. Willingham hit a few homers, but not the distance/power factor. Not Hunter, Koskie, Jones, etc of the mid 2000's. I honestly am not sure if the 80's - Gaetti, Brunansky, et al had the same muscle as those three. I could be mistaken. Then there's Miguel Sano...add him to the mix.

I think Berrios is ahead of Meyer. And I don't think it's close. 20 year old vs 25 year old getting a start and starts at AAA. Another interesting comparison would be Thorpe and Stewart. Both at class A. One is 19, the other 18. One has fairly good command, not particularly high K/9 though. The other, has high K/9, but also high BB/9. Is there also some leveling out here as far as prospects go? Has Thorpe gained ground on Stewart? Has Stewart increased the gap? Or has it remained steady?

Are you going to do relievers too? I'm actually very impressed with our relievers, both in this 2014 draft class and previous. Especially of note: Brandon Peterson Todd Van Steensel Dallas Gallant Nick Burdi Jake Reed

Debinson Romero isn't on the 40-man roster. They'd have to DFA someone (could be picked up by another team) to call him up. what's kind of a "oh" is if a guy is on the 40-man and in AAA when the playoffs have ended and is NOT called up. That list: Pryor, Florimon, Colabello, Johnson, Thompson Polanco is in AA, Kepler is at A+. http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/team/roster_40man.jsp?c_id=min Minnesota Twins 40-Man Roster Minnesota Twins 40-man Roster # Pitchers B/T Ht Wt DOB 61 Jared Burton R-R 6'5" 225 Jun 2, 1981 38 Logan Darnell * L-L 6'2" 210 Feb 2, 1989 52 Brian Duensing L-L 6'0" 205 Feb 22, 1983 50 Casey Fien R-R 6'2" 205 Oct 21, 1983 44 Kyle Gibson R-R 6'6" 220 Oct 23, 1987 45 Phil Hughes R-R 6'5" 240 Jun 24, 1986 53 Kris Johnson * L-L 6'4" 205 Oct 14, 1984 65 Trevor May R-R 6'5" 215 Sep 23, 1989 49 Tommy Milone L-L 6'0" 205 Feb 16, 1987 47 Ricky Nolasco R-R 6'2" 225 Dec 13, 1982 37 Mike Pelfrey Disabled List 60-day DL ** R-R 6'7" 250 Jan 14, 1984 15 Glen Perkins L-L 6'0" 205 Mar 2, 1983 63 Yohan Pino * R-R 6'2" 190 Dec 26, 1983 57 Ryan Pressly R-R 6'3" 205 Dec 15, 1988 Stephen Pryor * R-R 6'4" 245 Jul 23, 1989 51 Anthony Swarzak R-R 6'4" 210 Sep 10, 1985 56 Caleb Thielbar R-L 6'0" 195 Jan 31, 1987 64 Aaron Thompson L-L 6'3" 195 Feb 28, 1987 59 Michael Tonkin * R-R 6'7" 220 Nov 19, 1989 # Catchers B/T Ht Wt DOB 26 Eric Fryer R-R 6'2" 215 Aug 26, 1985 43 Josmil Pinto * R-R 5'11" 210 Mar 31, 1989 8 Kurt Suzuki R-R 5'11" 230 Oct 4, 1983 # Infielders B/T Ht Wt DOB 20 Chris Colabello * R-R 6'4" 220 Oct 24, 1983 2 Brian Dozier R-R 5'11" 190 May 15, 1987 5 Eduardo Escobar S-R 5'10" 175 Jan 5, 1989 25 Pedro Florimon * S-R 6'2" 180 Dec 10, 1986 7 Joe Mauer L-R 6'5" 230 Apr 19, 1983 24 Trevor Plouffe R-R 6'2" 205 Jun 15, 1986 11 Jorge Polanco * S-R 5'11" 165 Jul 5, 1993 39 Danny Santana S-R 5'11" 175 Nov 7, 1990 19 Kennys Vargas S-R 6'5" 275 Aug 1, 1990 # Outfielders B/T Ht Wt DOB 31 Oswaldo Arcia L-R 6'0" 220 May 9, 1991 12 Chris Herrmann * L-R 6'0" 200 Nov 24, 1987 32 Aaron Hicks * S-R 6'2" 190 Oct 2, 1989 67 Max Kepler * L-L 6'4" 205 Feb 10, 1993 9 Eduardo Nunez R-R 6'0" 185 Jun 15, 1987 27 Chris Parmelee L-L 6'1" 220 Feb 24, 1988 1 Jordan Schafer L-L 6'1" 205 Sep 4, 1986

I love this. I love baseball. Minor league coverage is better than ever. So is being able to see Royals games and Giants games and so on. I guess I do miss reading more, the articles, well written journalism and trying to piece together the box scores from the Star Tribune Sports section every day and looking for the leaders (would only come 1-2 times a week). I love interleague play. I HATED not being able to see Barry Bonds play when I was a young fan. He was in Milwaukee only a few times a year (closest game). And until Nolan Ryan came over from the Astros to the Rangers, I never got to see him pitch. Tony Gwynn was another, San Diego Padre for life. Yes, the games are long. But I go to a football game and honestly, it's longer for me. I get a pitch every 13 seconds or so. Football plays are 40 seconds in between. I don't buy the 'no action' crap. If you don't know which pitch was pitched and which pitch is likely to come next, you're not paying attention close enough. You're in the YouTube generation. There's a lot more going on with each play than you realize. Do you notice where the pitcher goes when a hit to the OF? How about a hit to RF? The subtle pre-pitch and post-pitch shifts? Do you notice what pitch(es) are effective game to game for each pitcher? What pitch is Kennys Vargas most struggling with? What location? What's Danny Santana's BABIP on balls in the zone vs out of the zone? I do think we're missing some of the 'characters' of baseball. We don't have the WWII group of players - who worked other jobs, who fought in wars, and did whatever they could to play baseball. Money is a bigger factor now - in all sports. Then we lost some of the characters of the 80's - the Wade Boggs eating chicken before every game to the 3rd person references of Rickey Henderson. Reggie Jackson to Jose Canseco. Even Pedro Martinez. I still remember Ken Griffey Jr, Frank Thomas...those guys had commercials quite a bit. I would recommend getting MLB.TV, it's pretty cheap compared to cable and you don't need cable to have it. Just internet connection and an AppleTV, a Playstation 3 or 4, Xbox, etc etc. And you can watch Clayton Kershaw pitch and then Andrelton Simmons play SS, Mike Trout at bat, and Yasiel Puig in RF, and see Billy Hamilton go from 1st to home with 2 outs on a shallow single to RF. Unreal. The ease of Miggy Cabrera at the dish - no matter the count, 0-2, 2-1, it doesn't matter. Maybe we don't have as many generational stars as a few years past? We have them. Mike Trout. Clayton Kershaw. Miguel Cabrera. Andrew McCutchen. Joe Mauer (off year, believe he's hurt, stick is much better since coming back, he will hit .330 again). Albert Pujols. The Yankees and Red Sox aren't good this - kinda hurts some 'press' we'd get from the East Coast writers and advertising money. The Cubs will be relevant really soon - maybe even awesome. They'll get the loveable losers turning winners thing going, perhaps as early as late 2015. Byron Buxton could be a generational talent. As could Miguel Sano. Kris Bryant. Tyler Glasnow. Lucas Giolito. Have you guys seen Jorge Soler, the Cubs prospect who's got 3 HR in his first 3 games as a pro? How about Javier Baez? Guy strikes out a ton - whips the bat around like Gary Sheffield. I guess - trying to figure it out - why I've loved baseball. The stories of great players - generous, kind, sacrificial to me wanting to learn the game of baseball - something to share with my dad. To going to a diamond with either my dad, my brothers, or a few friends to throw the baseball around and hit a few over the fence. To the amazing resource of statistics and record keeping that it offers for analysis. Unless your son is a quarterback - it's tough to teach him football or share with him much as far as individual skills development, it's more weight room stuff. Basketball - sport has changed so much - very few players have high enough basketball IQ to try to teach them that. One on one with 50 year old dad vs 18 year old son doesn't go so well. Baseball, it still works. He ain't seen a knuckler like that before or a changeup with the same armspeed of a fastball. My dad, even in his late 50's could fool me with velocity that would only hit mid to high 70's but could vary enough to impress you. Then you watch a few more baseball games an try to see the subtleties of what made them good players.