gunnarthor

I guess it depends on what we get back but Escobar is good insurance for Santana - either if he regresses a bunch or needs to get moved to CF. There's also the possibility that he could hold down third base if Plouffe was moved before Sano came up. If another team is actually willing to give up something that suggests they view him as a starting SS, great. But if it's just a bullpen arm or a C+ prospect, I'd rather have him on the roster.

Kyle Cody, my apologies. I was thinking his name was Cody Kyle. He's a 6' 7" RHP from Kentucky. He's been pretty good so far this season. Was a top 20 talent coming into the year but might end up a top 5 or 10 guy. Hits 97 on occasion and sits in the 93-95 range.

SIckels at minorleagueball.com is working on his top 100 right now - might be top 150 - and didn't include Stewart in his top 50 pitchers. In the comments section he wrote out his concerns - "The top high school pitcher selected in the 2013 draft, Kohl Stewart had a season of mixed results for Low-A Cedar Rapids in 2014. On the positive side, he posted a pretty ERA, showed good command, demonstrated a better change-up than expected, and impressed scouts with his mound presence. On the negative side, his fastball was usually in the low-90s instead of the mid-90s he showed when drafted. Velocity drops in pro ball are normal, but more disturbingly the heater was also straighter than it appeared in high school and his breaking stuff was not as crisp as expected. Worst of all, his velocity sagged into the 80s as the summer progressed and he ended up on the disabled list with shoulder problems. He was active in instructional league though his velocity hadn’t returned to earlier standards. It is hard to know what to make of this. The shoulder issue isn’t supposed to be a big deal, but you know how arm injuries are. Stewart could still develop into a rotation anchor given his youth and pedigree, and he certainly wasn’t bad by any means, just different than expected. My instincts are saying to back off a bit and be cautious with a Grade B, but that may prove to be an over-reaction." On Gonsalves he wrote: "A fourth-round pick in 2013 from high school in San Diego, Gonsalves has been statistically very successful to this point of his career, thanks to sharp control of his low-90s fastball and above-average changeup. His workload has been managed carefully, which is good, but he needs more innings to refine his breaking ball, which varies between solid and terrible depending on the alignment of Jupiter in the fourth house. He’s already picked up 15 pounds of strength since signing and his fastball could be in the mid-90s eventually. Gonsalves could develop into a number three starter who throws strikes with three solid pitches, or failing that a power relief arm. I’m intrigued but let’s see more innings. Grade B-."

It's way early but I have to admit I'm not really thrilled with Happ. Some of the scouting reports see him as a tweener and I don't think Cincinnati plays in the toughest baseball conference, although I could be wrong. But that they still don't know where he'll play in the majors is a bit of a concern. I'm still really hoping someone like Aiken, Tate or Kyle is there at 6. Maybe Allard, too. And I'm really going to be interested in how Cameron plays this season.

I would be stunned if that happened.

SI had the link today - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQVV6fJin-s Kid makes Federer come to the net and then kills him with a lob shot. Hilarious.

Yeah, I was thinking the exact same thing. Molitor urged the FO to sign Hunter and benched a player for not hustling. Sounds a lot like Gardy.

It's an interesting article and it was actually what Souhan argued for at the time. But I disagree. Mauer is probably going to the HOF so it's pretty hard to argue that the Twins made the wrong choice (one could also point out that David Wright was available too). I don't think it's likely that Prior would have stayed healthy and Baker's impact on him is overstated - even during the draft there were rumors that some scouts hated Prior's mechanics. (And isn't that what this article is actually suggesting - do everything you can to win in 02 and 03? Dusty rode his ace). The only way Prior comes up on top of Mauer is if both of these things happen - 1) he stays healthy (and the number of pitchers with a few great seasons and then hurt is very, very long) and 2) and he continued to pitch at a HOF level. I don't think it's fair to say that a WS ring in 03 would have made it worth it.

I think there's a few reasons. 1) As I mentioned above, all three have had some struggles at AA and are all still working on their defense. Making a decision based on the small amount of ST at-bats would be a bad idea. 2) AAA is less a learning environment. The atmosphere there isn't always that great for young prospects. A couple of the prospect writers at BP have touched on this. 3) The Twins (and most teams) have started to use AA as the jump point to the majors and then use AAA as the place to refine.

I think he makes the team out of ST but I'd rather he worked on things in AAA. It just seems that, at this point, expecting good things out of Hicks isn't a great idea. I understand that he's probably just a place folder for Buxton but I really had hoped he'd be a regular for us. Letting him get things straightened out in AAA with less pressure on him seems like a better idea. If one wants to be optimistic, he did hit well in the minors after his demotion and managed a .340 OBP last year, which isn't horrible (although everything else was). It does seem that he's this close to making things work but just can't get there. Maybe Molitor and Bruno and a different ML atmosphere help him. But it sure would be nice if got it all together.

Good grief. Sano missed a full season, it's not unreasonable to start at AA. Rosario has a .260/.302/.403 line in 150 games at AA. He hasn't really shown an ability to hit pitching above A+ yet. And Polanco has a mere 37 games at AA and hasn't hit that well there either. And all three are still working on their defense as well. Additionally, all that ignores that fact that the Twins don't have any problem promoting players from AA to the majors without stopping at AAA.

Levi Michael. (Technically is was .389)

Bummer for them.

Yeah, I want Meyer but May has better stuff than the others and I'd rather he gets a shot before those three.

In the long run, they have enough bodies where we will probably be ok. Among Dozier, Santana, Escobar, Polanco, Rosario, Nunez and Micheal, we'll probably be able to find two able middle infielders over the next few years. I think Plouffe does get traded at some point when Sano is ready to come up. If the Twins are flirting with .500, they might keep him but I think Ryan moves him for prospects and lets Sano take over third for the remainder of 2015 and all of 2016. At that point, he'll make a decision on his defense and possibly move him. I don't think the Twins will trade Dozier. He's sort of the new face of the team, works hard and doesn't have any negative character issues. And he should be at least a good second baseman for the next few years. Mauer's playing first until his contract runs out.

I love everything I read about him. This Chattanooga team is going to be pretty exciting for a month or two - Buxton, Sano, Rosario, Walker, Berrios, Burdi, Polanco etc. Cripes, the former 1st round pick, middle infielder who put up a .390 OBP last year is an afterthought there. Weee!

http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/8877600/v43440083/minpit-sanos-long-home-run-ties-the-game-at-1 Weee!

To add to that, McDaniel, the week prior to saying it was "crappy" said something to the effect that it was hard to gauge a draft this far out but assumed it would end up being about average. So I wouldn't overly worry at this point. In any event, the 2012 draft was supposed to be weak - even at the time of the draft - and the Twins got both Buxton and Berrios out of it. And the 2010 draft was supposed to be amazing and, while it was pretty top heavy (Harper Machedo Taillon), its depth hasn't really shown up.

I read that as nothing more than he needs to pitch well. IIRC, the team gave him good marks on his injury rehab work in 2013. I certainly don't remember anything suggesting character issues with him.

I'm not really sure this is a problem for Ryan as much as people think it is. He traded away AJ and Dougie baseball to make way for Mauer and Morneau. Span and Revere for Hicks (results not as good). A lot of Gardy's early teams were pretty young, actually. Ryan changed the nucleus of the 02-04 Twins pretty seamlessly while letting go of guys like Jones, Everyday Eddie, Koskie, Milton etc. My guess if you look over Ryan's teams you'll see that most of the important guys were younger than you think when they came up. I also think we tend to over worry about vets blocking guys. Every team has some vets signed, not just the Twins. Rangers had some insanely well regarded MI prospects coming up but still extended both Adrus and Kinsler to huge long term contracts. Phillies famously signed Thome instead of letting Ryan Howard make the majors. Ryan certainly haven't done anything like that.

See, I think this is a pretty good example of why people shouldn't overly read into these things. We had the same hair pulling last year when Gibson still had options while Worley, Deduno and Albers didn't (or was it Diamond, can't remember). In any event, everyone was pretty sure the rookie would have to stay in the minors while Ryan said whoever earns the spot will get it. The other thing to remember is that no pitching rotation is just 5 arms. Last year, the Twins had 7 starters make 8 or more starts, the year before it was 10. Depth among starting pitchers is a good thing. I'd rather have Pelfrey, Milone and May in the wings than De Vries, Pino and Deduno.

I think Meyer gets the #5 spot out of ST. If Nolasco is struggling after 6-8 starts but Gibson, Hughes, Meyer and Santana are pitching well, then the Twins would probably be ok record-wise so Nolasco would have a short rope and May (or Milone) would get the spot. The concern would be if the #5 starter and Nolasco (or a different starter) were both struggling. It would be hard to trade Nolasco in that case and it would be harder to remove him from the rotation.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/12448205/denard-span-surgery-core-muscle-miss-washington-nationals-opener Bummer. Span had surgery on a "right core muscle injury" and will miss 4-6 weeks. Hopefully, he recovery goes well. He's a FA at the end of the season and a good season will lead to a pretty nice payday for him.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/295560791.html I pretty much agree with all this and am getting a bit more on-board with Pelfrey being a good bullpen arm (sorta like Perkins switch). Souhan pushes pretty hard for Meyer - "If Meyer is the fifth starter and pitches well, that would allow Pelfrey to become a power arm in the bullpen, and Millone, Stauffer and May to either bolster the bullpen or wait for the inevitable call-up from Class AAA Rochester. If Meyer winds up in the bullpen, the Twins will have traded Span for low value. If Meyer winds up at Class AAA, it will be a signal that, at 25, he is a work in progress instead of an impact player." Not a lot of wiggle room there and I pretty much agree with it. The team can't keep him in AAA just to keep Milone happy. I'm sure others will read more into Ryan's comments than I do - “One of them is Tommy Milone. He’s got a lot more experience than Alex Meyer. He’s got somewhat close to the same stuff. He’s won 13 games in the big leagues. He isn’t going to want to hear that … stuff. “There are guys competing out there who want to send Alex Meyer back to the minors. Alex better realize he has to earn this thing. Which is a good position for us to be in. “Stauffer is another guy. He had a good year in San Diego about three years ago. He’s no slouch.” The Stauffer line reads like such a reach that I just think that's Ryan just not wanting to say something a month out and he wants to see Meyer win the job.

Yeah, that's a good point. I haven't looked at his other lists yet so I'm not sure how often he suggests relievers but guys like Graham and Burdi might have a bigger impact this year than Polanco.