EGFTShaw

I had hoped that Nelson Cruz would have taken him under his wings and taught him more about being a professional. The weight issue, (I deal with it), often can be discipline issue. but when he connected on a FB at Target Field it often ended up at Mall of America. 😉

Well now we know, it was the Twins who let the Dogs Out.

Touche 😉

Exactly this. Find some better content. We are getting too many articles with Click Bait Headlines about things that are more knee jerk reactions. I expect it from a place like Fox News/CNN, but Twins Daily???

LA (Evil Empire West) Dodgers Broadcasters: "A healthy Buxton, a gift to baseball" This is my take away from these early games. Plus, I'll take Ober's response to a horrible game with a solid start along with AK-19 hitting.

What was Taylor's HR potential before his career year in 2023 and how does that compare with Margot's HR for this year? Curious and BORED Twins Fan.

@DocBauer Did we replicate Royce, which if we did thank you, thank you, thank you. 😁 Great points. I've been bored this off season, not so much by the lack of movement by the Twins but because there wasn't a lot of movement needed. You can never have enough quality SP in this league, but I am glad we didn't regress to our old format of scrap heap pitchers. I want to see these young Guns. Also, can someone answer a question for me? I understand that hitting is a difficult task, but fielding? How can a player as talented as you have to be to make it to the Big Show, not be competent at fielding? I understand that when they enter the minors at Low A ball, they may not be average, but you have Low A, High A, AA and AAA to teach them to be competent.

So that averages out to: 9, 17, 14 and 15: 13.75 Or if you the skating scoring system from the 80s, throw out the high and the low (usually US & USSR judges), you get 14.5. Either way just a tad bit above league average

What a tease...but damn those stats from the DSL are amazing. Thanks for putting another prospect on my radar, which at my age has intermittent glitches. 😁

Keith Law's notes on David and Marco. The following is for informational purposes only and not my opinion, but belong to Keith Law. Bashing Law is pointless since I am quite sure he is not on the TD website. David, ranked 8th. Festa’s a 6-6 right-hander whom the Twins popped in the 13th round in 2021 out of Seton Hall. He’s developing into a potential back-end starter if he just gets another half-grade of control. He’s always had a 55 or better changeup and his velocity has ticked up in pro ball to the mid-90s, while the slider has developed enough to be a weapon versus right-handers, so he showed no platoon split whatsoever in 2023. Marco: Ranked 5th Raya’s a smaller right-hander who might have the best pure stuff in the Twins’ system, but he’s had trouble staying healthy and doesn’t pitch that much when he is on the mound, maxing out at 63 pitches in a single appearance in 2023. It’s 94-97 mph with a four-pitch mix; both the slider and change miss bats while the fastball has good life to at least limit hard contact. He missed 2021 with shoulder soreness and now has thrown 127 2/3 innings in the last two years. You have to develop him as a starter because of the upside, but you can’t reasonably project him in that role when he’s had this much trouble staying on the mound. Just to add to this because KL has a pitcher between these two: Charlee Soto: ranked 7th Soto was the Twins’ second pick, 34th-overall in the 2023 draft, earning a bonus just under $2.5 million after a spring where he’d show three plus pitches … if you saw him at all, as he pitched somewhat infrequently for a Florida high schooler. He’s hit 98 mph with some life to it, probably more for sink than ride up top for whiffs, and can both spin a hard slider and show a split-change with late fade. He didn’t turn 18 until after the draft, so the Twins gave him the summer off. He’s inexperienced and it can show on the mound in terms of command and sequencing. It’s probably No. 2 starter ceiling, depending of course on him staying healthy with this kind of arm strength at his age.

Agreed on Keith Law and his assessment. I only added it here to give perspective to the comments about Gabby.

A couple of notes: If the stats are virtually the same between 4 & 5 and they are interchangeable then the younger one should get the bump if only because he is doing it at an earlier age. In this case 3 years difference. Gabby is ranked #4 prospect by The Athletics' Keith Law. PS - I am not pro or con either one. I personally hope they all pan out and I am not quite sure we are quibbling here about the ranking of our own prospects that at the moment are good.

Well, this got people talking. 👍 That said, thanks for the information regarding PPI rule. My take is not about Lee, but about the rule itself. It seems too limited to me. The criteria are very extreme. Why not have a broader set of criteria that allows for a pick after each of the first 5 rounds or something. That way you incentivize teams to promote players who are close to MLB ready which may benefit them more than team control over the salaries. As a business I see the rationale of what happen to Bryant, but as a human I think it downright disgraceful. Excited to see how Buxton's knee holds up. Excited to see how certain pitchers perform this year; Ryan, Ober, Pollack and Varland. Looking forward to see how far Jenkins advances this year. Also looking forward to see what Festa and the pitchers at Wichita perform. Last Play Ball!!!! PS - I want to see the Twins Run 50% more than last year and strike out 25% less.

A good friend who is a FFBaseball junkie asked about Polanco. I said draft him every other year. 😉 I liked Jorge, I'd rather traded Farmer and I like Farmer too. I'll just say I wish Jorge a fabulous career in Seattle or wherever he ends up over the next 5-6 years. I hope Prospect #3.5 shows me something this year. Still betting on Carlos "Guitar" Santana resurrecting his old self and winning a Grammy...wait...I mean team MVP consideration.

There is a reason we try to forget Jorge....Squirrel... Fast..😁

You'd be right to be upset, BUT 99.44% sure that didn't happen unless you define a real pitcher as something different than I do. Kepler/Polanco together was not going to pull away a starter I'd be happy with give the value of their contracts. Seattle could still flip Polanco at the trade deadline if they are out of it and recoup some of the Prospect #3.5 (GG). The rest of the trade I am sure Seattle doesn't care too much about. So, unless I snort some Yellow Snow and Carlos "Guitar" Santana hits .300 and 30+ HRs it could be possible for Seattle to "win" this trade.

Exactly!!!!💯💯👍👍 I believe the Kids Are Alright and we really need to know what some of our top talent is capable of so we can decide what it is we really need. We will never be the type of team that can just spend its way out of trouble. So, because of this we need to draft and develop our talent, (we seemed to be doing better at this than in the past), and decide from this talent who to parlay it into a better team either via promotion and trading a veteran or trading the talent for a established veteran under team control.

or kidneyed? or perhaps you can stomach this quoted thread...😆

I love speed. I have a Need for Speed. But I think Greg Maddux might have been hands down the best pitcher in the modern era. He knew how to pitch with stuff, as mentioned above, would be sneered at today. He flat out could pitch. I always wanted to hire Mike and Greg Maddux as my pitching coaches. I'll say this about the Twins Org, they are developing young pitchers.

Much better than the Gallo signing last year. I said we had one hitter and 2 outfielders between Gallo/Kepler at the beginning of the season. It soon became just Kepler, Gallo was that bad. I have always been in the camp of Young Guns. See what you got, then go get what you need. I am seriously glad this was the most we spent on this slot regardless of who it is. If I am trading for a pitcher, I want a guy who is at least a Number 2 and can battle for the number 1.

I was going to ignore avid defense of your opinion, but in re-reading your post I changed my mind. If you had read my post correctly, I never compared Gallo to Soler. So, your petty comment about how you compared the two players is just that. You never mentioned that Soler is expected to get at least 3 years at $15M, so where is the money coming from a team notorious about spending money conservatively. SMH

It is not a hole caused by the Polanco trade. Polanco has never been our everyday DH and there were no plans to make him our everyday DH.

First, I loved Polanco. Second, we don't necessarily have a hole because we traded Polanco. Stop with this storyline. We needed a right-handed bat last year and we had Polanco. That said, if we can find Cruz type DH with the ability to produce on the field and be a leader in the dugout, let's do it. But I am also on board in giving every opportunity to our young guns and for once we seem to have a fully loaded system of young guns. I don't think we will get Soler on our budget. I do NOT want a Joey Gallo 2.0 either.

I am SHOCKED... 😄 That we haven't had a plethora, (I can use that word cuz Twins fans are smart vs NYY fans...), a let's hold our horses posts... Athleticism is a good thing. I wonder if 3rd would work out, can you imagine the diving range at the hot corner of someone 6'5" to 6'7". Also, how many HRs could he rob in center at the fences at that height. I just like these posts so I can get a better handle of what we have in the farm system. Thanks!

You would also have to have Pham commit to arbitration for his fantasy leaque disputes...😆