benji21

This. This may be one of Beane's strongest teams that he's put together. I love that he continually tries new things and, pardon the cliche, thinks outside the box. His newest market inefficiency would seem to be the overvaluation of prospects and he has jumped into it with both feet. Good for him.

I'm surprised Graver hasn't moved up. I haven't seen reports on his defense or how it compares to Turner's but he has earned a promotion imo. I wish their draft spot didnt determine their hierarchy in the org so much. He was only 3 rounds lower, lets see them compete and split time in Fort Meyer.

Small thing here for me. I think it would be helpful to put the name of whoever is in a picture under the pic. It may show up in the full version, but not in mobile and I access the site via phone 95% of the time. Thanks for the great site and continuing to strive for excellence.

What's not to like about that day in the minors?! I love this time of year. Exciting promotions that's we've been clamoring for and what not. Thanks to Shane Wahl for the GCL players to watch and lets all cross our fingers for pitchers having there best control in buxton at bats.

Well, here we go for a stroll down GM way: Dodgers: GM Ned Coletti- Took over the Dodgers from the Giants and posted the third best record in the NL since his hiring after inheriting a team that went 71-91 His team has the lowest starter ERA in the majors and he continues to use his impressive resources to acquire top flight talent. Cubs: GM Theo Epstein- Took over the team after years with the Red Sox. While Chi Town has not experienced success on the major league level, he has successfully built the best minors in baseball through a combination of drafting, shrewd offseason signing that led to trades, and in-season trades. The future definitely looks bright for one of the only clubs to boast a better farm than the Twins. Orioles: GM Dan Duquette- Following a successful career in several other organizations' front offices, he took over the Baltimore job in 2011. They made the postseason in 2012 after 14 consecutive season on the sidelines. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Duquette Tigers: GM Dave Dombrowski- Taking over the Tigers in 2002, it took him a few years to find success, and success he did find. Consistently making bold moves and selling at the right times has led him to acquire an impressive array of talent including MVP Miguel Cabrera, Doug Fister (then not Fister), Prince Fielder (then not Prince Fielder), and Max Sherzer to name a few. After his rocky start, the Tigers have dominated the AL in recent years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Dombrowski Giants: GM Brian Sabean- This one is a little cheatery as Sabean took over the top job after serving in a high-level FO job beforehand. However, he gets points for being pretty new to the franchise (three years in the org vs. decade+ still counts as fresh), long story short with Sabean, stars and scrubs seasons with 2 World Series Championships and several blah years. Sorry, getting lazy here. Anyhoo, fresh eyes and voices help. This is a short list which could probably easily be expanded with deeper research. I know one could make a list to the contrary, but here are some success stories with fresh voices leading to fairly rapid turnarounds in some cases. edit: just noticed that you wanted no retreads or previous GMs or something. Well that's not going to happen. The point is Ryan/Gardy are done here, for me anyways. What for you would be a fireable offense, or are jobs jobs for life?

Ive seen you try to make this point in other threads and I don't think it holds much water. First, he said Ryan and Gardenhire, not just Gardy. Second, just because some new hires elsewhere hasn't seen some sort of sweeping improvement in the early going, that makes them failures? No, this is silly. When a person gets a job in any sphere, it is not a position for life or until you give it up. Orgs need outside thinking to stay fresh, period and yes, just that simple.

Yeah, super depressing. Wimmers at the time was the absolute Zenith of Twins philosophy pitching and we could all probably hear a collective groan with that pick. I understand about hindsight blah blah blah, but seriously, look at those names and wrap your head around their nearly realized potential in the immediate future. They are knocking on the MLB door much sooner than Wimmers. Shouldn't 'professional' (I type that with all the sarcasm my fingers can muster) baseball people know there is no such thing as safe??!! Go with upside Twins, not 'safe' college pitchers. Geeeeeez.

Wow, where to begin? There seem to be a lot of exciting young men in the lower levels. Berrios and Thorpe may be figuring out their respective levels, Swim, Garver, Christensen,Kanzler, Burdi, Boyd, Murphy! (Just to name a couple). Pretty cool to follow these guys. Hopefully some can pan out.

Nice to see levi michael playing again and grabbing a hit. Some nice hitting performances yesterday all over the system! However I can't help but notice the conspicuous absence of May's start. Where is that guy??

End of the first half seems like a good time to say thank you to Seth and everyone else who puts in so much time throughout the busy weeks putting these together. Ive followed you each since before TD and these reports continue to be my favorite part. Thanks fellas!

I want him to fail as a starter. This is because I have a strong desire for May and Meyer to come up. They are not getting any younger and their time is now. Twins need the dead weight to fail miserably to force their hand into cutting bait because we all know that the FO has to be dragged kicking and screaming into decisions.

I love that the twins are picking Australia clean. Other of there strategies make me sad but this one I am fully on board with. Really sharp and Gibson may be another fun prospect to follow.

That's encouraging from young Mr. Thorpe. Hes been improving in each start. So, who's dog did the Red Wings kick to get black balled from the all star game?!?!

I agree with all the level-headiness in this thread. I am usually a doom and gloomer but for Thorpe being so young for his level, I think you just want to see improvement, which we have. The dip in stats, I would think, has to be do to the level of competition. These guys are going to be better at laying off the edges and such. Thorpe will gradually figure it out and start killing the competition again while seeing his walks drop and K's increase....I hope. Maybe Fort Meyers middle of next year?

Thanks for the transcript, good stuff. I always like chats.

That really sucks. Another one of the Twins 'good' young pitchers goes down. Felix Jorge was ineffective, Yorman Landa, who knows on him, and now Romera. All three seem to be toast. Such is life following the minors I guess.

Am I missing something or has it been a long time since Stephen gonsalves has started?

With all our favorite prospects playing well, I'm left to feel sad that Levi Michael is left out of the fray still with his injury, right when he was hot. Injuries stink, go twins

That approach and mindset is sooooooo flawed and makes me so angry I can't even believe I'm a fan of this organization sometimes. Do the Twins realize that when they make a splash with one player he turned out to be one of the best minor league prospects they have ever had??? Seriously, they paid 3.15 million (way more than the measly 1 they won't go over) and have a previously ranked #2 in minor league baseball. Everyone is not Sano, but obviously the approach works when the player deserves it. Sure, spread the money around and buy more lottery tickets, but when the odds go up, go all in. Please...

Brock - I agree in part. With there being a number of worthwhile prospects out there to get, it does make sense, in a sense, to spread your chips around and hope to hit on one or more. My point is, the time that they did "blow their wad" is the time that they landed one of the best prospects in all of the minors. So why not use that approach again? When I advise my young son in his pokemon card trades, I tell him one great card is better to have then many mediocre ones. I believe that fits here as well

Haha, yeah something like that! And as the person in your blog wondered about how pitchers did after coming to the Twins, I saw something exactly like that too somewhere (I know, really helpful, right?). The results were not favorable.

Good article, thanks. Although I didn't like this pick in light of the other players I'd rather have had at that point and not wanting to use a high pick on 65 innings, he seems like a cool guy. As long as we have him, he may as well be fun. It'll be nice to see him light up the radar hopefully next year!

I have to agree with you Thrylos and use your comment as a taking-off point. Others on this site in the past have compiled the stats of pitchers coming into the org and leaving the org and having their stats significantly dip and rise respectively, after working with Anderson. Hughes appears to be an exception however. There are surely a myriad of causes for this, but Anderson has to be a large piece of that pie. I really don't like or trust him as a coach. Even if he is or was good, sometimes it's good to shake things up. It's not like we have the Popovich of pitching coaches back there; maybe it's time to give someone else a try.

Yes and no. Rick Anderson coined that phrase and yes, has publicly said what we take as the meaning is not what he meant. However, our meaning has characterized his staffs for a decade. He is pitch to contact and he needs to go away forever before he gets his mitts on Meyer, may, et al.

Best luck to you AJ. I hope you really enjoy the next phase of your life.