gunnarthor

Sweetspot wrote about this a few weeks ago - IIRC, he said the Twins could start by asking for Piscotty or Kaminsky (two of their top three prospects) and maybe go down a bit from there. I would think Suzuki would bring back someone in another teams 5-10 prospect range. Cards have a pretty solid system and are a bit OF heavy, so we might get someone James Ramsey who isn't going to be a star but should do a lot of little things right.

http://hallofverygood.com/2014-articles/the-hall-of-very-good-adds-three.html Kind of nice. I think Oliva has been a bit underrated. He had a legit HOF peak but his other seasons were a bit blah. He was also pretty old when he had his rookie season.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/min/bernie-pleskoff-prospect-kennys-vargas-could-provide-power-to-minnesota-twins-lineup?ymd=20140723&content_id=85901258&vkey=news_min Includes video. Nice write up - author thinks Vargas could be a legit middle of the order bat who hits mammoth home runs at the ML level. Thinks he can actually improve his power with a bit of a mechanical change in his swing. Likes Vargas approach - not a lot of strike outs for a slugger, willing to take a walk.

http://deadspin.com/the-top-200-ways-bleacher-report-screwed-me-over-1608499729 Interesting article. Former writer for BR says that the company didn't pay its young writers but strung them along on the hopes of a future payday while using its money to bring in "named" reporters. The writers would generate high page counts for BR and led to it being one of the largest sports site on the internet. I have no interest in journalism (although many here do) but it's a pretty scary article about how hard it is to break into journalism and make a career out of it. And Bleacher Report (like many businesses) seems to be taking advantage of unpaid workers/interns "featured columnists".

Not a surprise - http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/07/central-notes-indians-royals-rios-twins-willingham-cards-peavy.html Also lists Reds and Pirates as possible destinations for Willingham. Obviously, Twins and Pirates have made a few moves together the last few years and the Pirates system is one of the richest in the game.

I do hope they trade Perkins for the reasons you mentioned but they won't. It would be hard to get back equal value.

Didn't see a thread about this - http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/07/twins-suzuki-far-apart-in-extension-talks.html Hopefully if they don't extend him they trade him. Doesn't really make sense for him to not go to FA after a career year and a weak catching crop of FA.

Twins will be at Castillo's workout. Wolfson doesn't seem optimistic about our chances - it'll come down to money. http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/mlb/cuban-outfield-prospect-rusney-castillo-gearing-up-to-audition-for-mlb-teams?ymd=20140719&content_id=85246578&vkey=news_mlb I think Castillo was compared to Puckett in terms of body. RH OF with some power.

My wife sent me this link. I was hoping it was a hoax but it looks real. http://abcnews.go.com/US/mass-boy-battling-cancer-birthday-bunch-birthday-cards/story?id=24626702 A kid with cancer wants birthday cards.

I do think the Twins should be a lot more aggressive in getting international talent that falls outside of the international cap (Cuba and Japan, mostly). For whatever reason, they aren't. I don't know if they have their own value on these guys that is too low or if the Pohlads don't want to spend that kind of money on unknown talent or if don't trust the ages or what. But I do wish they'd spend more money there - seems like a relatively easy way to increase the teams talent pipeline.

The post was in the "more baseball" thread to discuss an org reneging on a promise to the 1-1 pick and the potential of the union getting involved into filing grievances on the players behalf. A pretty big deal. It naturally led to other Astros gafts (they've had a bad year). Seems like a perfectly fine topic to discuss. I don't think anyone (except you) has tried to make comparisons to the Twins or attempted to derail the thread into a Twins FO v Astros FO. If you want to defend the Astros, go ahead. If you want to debate the Twins FO vs. Astros FO, start another thread. If you don't want to participate in this thread, that's ok too. But don't assume bad motives on the people participating in the thread.

This is the minor league thread. Really no point in talking about any of these guys if that was the criteria.

I have no idea if Bruno is a good hitting coach although it does seem that he gets a lot longer leash than Vavra got from the fans. Some teams have started carrying two hitting coaches so maybe the Twins should do that next year. But generally, this isn't a great offense regardless of who the coaches are.

Two problems with that. They could have gotten Buxton and McCullers (but not Ruiz) and McCullers and Ruiz are not nec top 100 guys. McCullers was last year although he's struggled some this year and people are starting to think he's a bullpen arm long term. Ruiz might get ranked next year but hasn't been prior. The Twins draft - Buxton and Berrios - was easily superior without going cheap or gaming the system.

Cuddy played a ton down the stretch in 02 and was the playoff starter. Pretty mean of Gardy to do that. Sure, Cuddy got hurt in 03 and couldn't crack our OF in 04 (I mean, it was a playoff team and our top 3 OFers were #1,2, and 4 in WAR that year). So Gardy tried to keep him in the lineup at second and third. The bastard. Kubel put up a .230 OBP after July 1 his rookie year (06). Can't fathom why Gardy wasn't willing to give him more AB - wait, he did. And he made him a major part of the 07 team (7th in ab). Neshek was a prominent piece in the pen as soon as he came up (as were other young arms like Mijares and Crain). I have no idea what the Parm complaint is - Gardy basically started him full time until he was sent down. Plouffe was clearly a gold glover until Gardy mentioned he wasn't good with the glove. Like he did with other "rookies" like Lamb, Baustista, Harris, Dozier ... Gardy's relied on young players from the get go. Kyle Lohse got 3 of his 8 2 WAR seasons in with us at 25 and under. Guys like Slowey, Blackburn, Perkins, Baker got a lot of opportunities as young guys. In the late 2000s, Gomez and Young (and Casilla) got a bunch of at-bats. I mean, the Gardy can't relate meme is based on two things - 1) 2006 and 2) anytime he says anything about a player, he's throwing him under the bus. Even if it is the most casual truthful comment possible. I've posted before how Gardy hasn't done half the stuff other managers have done. The Nats manager pulled Harper for failing to run out a ground ball to the pitcher. Joe Maddon told the press that Wil Myers had to work on his defense and be better prepared mentally for the game. The Mets manager said something about Wheeler needing to focus more and the NY media went crazy saying he threw the rookie under the bus. Washington made one of his pitchers give him the ball "the right way" when he was being removed. Since Gardy took over, he's had to deal with a bunch of different types of players - young guys coming up, journeymen, crappy minor leaguers, vets on their way out, MVPs, Cy Young winners, players from all over the world. It's insane to suggest that he hasn't been able to relate to young players considering how many young players he's had that he developed. He gets young guys into games immediately. His players usually know their role.

Yeah, drjim is right. Their moves have been a bit puzzling, to say the least. They tanked on the promise of the future and they basically traded this years 1-1 and a fifth round pick for next years 1-2. That's a horrible exchange. Lunhow hasn't made any earth shattering trades - he did a good job getting Lowrie from Boston but didn't get much in return when they flipped him a year later. They moved a young 23 yr old pitcher to the Rockies for Dexter Fowler. Value-wise it's probably a push but Fowler will probably be too old to be a part of the future team whereas the young pitcher (Jordan Lyles) would be in his prime in a few years. Not really a strong move. And a lot of the pitchers they've acquired - either in trades or drafts - have been pretty bad in the minor leagues. And of course this year they tried to strongarm Springer into signing a team friendly extension, he refused and he was sent back to the minors. Their ridiculous trade proposals (Bud Norris for Dylan Bundy) became public and now the Aiken/Nix fiasco. Individually, every move they made can probably be defended but as a whole, it's really bad.

You realize that is exactly what Gardy had for most of 2002-2009, right? I mean, I know the Gardy can't deal with rookies thing keeps floating around but there really is no actual reason to believe that. He's often had some of the youngest rosters in the league and he usually outperformed his pyth w-l record, so what are you basing this idea that he isn't maximizing his talent? Just a hunch? A third hand report where he said something mean to someone? Kevin Slowey?

http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/540/658/5e8.jpg

Well that at least clears up the switch hitting thing. I hope he does well and ends up playing LF next year.

Changing the subject slightly, I have to admit to being somewhat surprised that nothing awesome has happened in the A's/Orioles series. Yet. I mean, sure, 3 Orioles hitters got hit Friday - including Hardy get beaned by new A's pitcher Samardzija. I was hoping for a lot more than that.

All prospects talk to teams before the draft to get a sense of what they will sign for. A team might say, "if you're there at #4, will you take slot?" or "Will you take X amount below slot if we take you at #2?" I suspect a lot of players/agents next year will be a little more defensive toward the Astros. There isn't anything a player can do to prevent the Astros from lowballing them after the draft but a lot will be wary of agreeing to favorable deals pre-draft like Aiken did.

6 innings (complete game in this case) 4h, 0bb, 5k, 1er. And the loss.

I agree. I think the Springer and Aiken fiascos are going to really affect the team although probably not very publicly. But if I'm a top 10 talent in next years draft, why would they trust the Astros not to lowball them again?

I think his teams overachieve with the talent given - both the good ones and the bad ones. I think he does a good job with managing his players and the club house. I don't think his players quit on him, he protects them and I think they respect him. It's hard to place value on managers but Gardy's teams generally outperform their pyth records. A hardball times article a few years back rated him the best manager based on bullpen management, outperforming pyth record and player productivity before and after being managed by him.

I believe he must have done something like that, his agent (adviser) would make sure of it. My guess is that Aiken will file a grievance and has already gotten a pretty good idea of his chances otherwise he'd have taken the money. If he loses his grievance, he'll go to junior college or the St Paul Saints and be a top 10 pick next year.