gunnarthor

We might just be arguing past each other. I like May. I wish he was up and if I was in charge (and we should be glad I'm not), he would be. But using fip isn't a good argument and, with May in particular, his stuff is not in question but his command is. That might not always show up in stat lines since minor league hitters won't be as patient as major leaguers. So I assume the Twins have more knowledge of things than I do and expect that Ryan, who has managed to rebuild winning teams before, knows what he is doing in the longterm.

Minor league fip numbers are pretty useless. In a recent chat, KLaw said as much. Here are the AAA fip leaders among starters from 2007: Kevin Slowey, Yovani Gallardo, Dallas Braden, Jason Hammel, Matt Garza, Aaron Laffey, Jae Kuk Ryu, Rob Bell, Kurt Birkins, Mark Difelice. Couple decent starters in there but a lot of jetsum as well. May's problem has never been stuff but command. Nothing wrong with giving a few starts to Pinto (and he was excellent in his first one). May will be up eventually.

His command was a concern in the draft and I think we sometimes overrate college hitters. I'm not sure a noraml college team is better than a team in A ball. So Burdi probably threw stuff today that might have gotten swings/misses in college but the guys he was facing were a bit better at laying off of balls out of the zone. I think Burdi will be fine but he could be another Shooter Hunt.

Seeing as how Ryan has successful rebuilt teams in the past, yes, I do think he recognizes the difference.

I think the next manager will be Mientkiewicz although I don't know when. I suspect he'll be a bench coach next year.

As long as the injury is as minor as it sounds, it's nothing to worry about. May will be up fairly soon but I don't mind Pino getting a couple more starts. He's paid his dues and I think he could play the long guy/spot starter role better than Deduno in the long term anyway.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/prospect-hot-sheet-chat-june-27-matt-eddy/ Couple questions relating to the Twins: Lien (Tn): Is there a reason why Hunter Harvey has not been promoted? Matt Eddy: I personally don’t have an issue with teams holding back young pitchers early in their career. Let them build an innings base and some stamina, then fast-track them when they get established at Double-A. Plus, Delmarva is a very nice pitcher’s park for Harvey to gain confidence in his secondary pitches. He obviously has a big league fastball. JP Starkey - Bozzi (Manchester, CT): Was quite unusual to see J. Polanco get called all the way up from Hi-A. What can we expect from him, and if he holds is own, is he here to stay? Matt Eddy: Jorge Polanco is a fine prospect, but I think his callup tells us two things: (1) The Twins were desperate for someone who can play SS (and Polanco was on the 40-man roster), and (2) they value his mental makeup enough to trust that a callup will not hinder his development. I would expect him to head back down to the minors before long, though he might finish the year at Double-A and get a longer look next year. Jorge Polanco (On a plane, not a bus!): The Twins put me exclusively at shortstop this year and told me no one was ahead of me there. Now, suddenly, they're hyping Daniel Santana as the future! Once I get these errors figured out, I'm better than him, right? And now they go and pick another fella in the draft? What is my future? Matt Eddy: Ha! I bet it shakes out thusly: Nick Gordon at SS, Jorge Polanco at 2B and Santana at UTIL or on another team. Nothing against Santana, he’s a pure shortstop who can hit a little bit, but those attributes make him a nice trade chip too.

One other thing to consider is the scouting vs. stats. As has been noted, some prospect people, even the ones that like him, have some concerns. Maybe the Twins also have those concerns. If they think it's better for him to develop his 3rd pitch in a more comfortable pitching environment then let him do it. I like Berrios but I think he's a #3 starter at best.

I think, and I could be wrong, that 1) the Twins expect one of Nunez/Plouffe to be back soon so they only needed a few days to be covered 2) Romero isn't really a MI and they wanted someone who could play short.

OK, so of the 09 international signings (Sano, Kepler and Polanco) who had Polanco reaching the majors first? Anyone? Baseball is strange. Hope he makes it a tough decision to send him back down.

They can move Correia but Hughes, Gibson and Nolasco figure into the future and won't be moved. Pino/Deduno are blocking May, who should be up at this point, but have no trade value. Correia has a bit of trade value and I do think he gets moved at some point but he's not going to bring back anything huge. Perkins is the only pitching asset we have that can bring back real value.

Now they just have to convince St Louis to give up Tavares for Perkins ... More seriously, I was a bit surprised on how iffy the Cards pitching has been. They certainly could use another solid arm or two in both the pen and the rotation. Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of that to move.

I'm ok with the team trading those three (and I'd listen on offers for Perkins if someone wants to really overpay). A team like Atlanta could use a lot more offense but I'm not sure if our guys fit. They'd certainly trade BJ Upton straight up for Aaron Hicks at this point but, unless they think Justin could move into center there really isn't room for Willingham in their outfield. St Louis could be a fit. Orioles might need Suzuki with Weiters out. They have some decent prospects to get it done, too.

BP has a nice article comparing two young arms - Daniel Norris and JO Berrios. It's behind a paywall but the comments aren't. While some prospect guys are down on Berrios b/c of his height he certainly has some who are very impressed with him. http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=23981#commentMessage

I guess I'm just not seeing the same deadends that you are. I've greatly enjoyed the additionally stuff brought it - the 100 extra characters someone else mentioned. To each his own, I suppose.

I disagree. The show is great for doing what it has with such large source material but all that texture Martin has added to the books really rewards readers. There's enough crappy fantasy literature out there that's been dumbed down into straight fantasy quests.

My guess is that most people have unrealistic expectations for most of the young players and Ryan is trying to create a competitive team now while still having flexibility for the Buxton/Sano foundation coming along.

Can we drag Thome out of retirement? Maybe get some White Sox pitchers to throw to him? It'll be like old times.

Yeah, Twins rarely give up on a prospect too early. Sometimes for the good (Dozier, Baker, Plouffe) and sometimes not so (Benson). Unless there is something else going on like Hicks saying he doesn't want to be a Twin anymore or another team being absolutely stupid, I imagine Hicks will stay with us for a bit.

Marc Hulet at fangraphs had a bit on Berrios - Standing (maybe) just 6-foot on the mound, Jose Berrios is far from an imposing figure on the mound — until he unleashing the ball. The Puerto Rico native is enjoying a breakout season after ranking sixth overall in the system entering 2014 and coming in at 93rd overall on the Top 100 prospects in baseball. Currently pitching in High-A ball, the right-hander has struck out 90 batters in 77.1 innings of work while issuing just 21 free passes. His secondary stuff is starting to catch up to his mid-90s heat but he continues to be a fly-ball pitcher. To dominate in the Majors, he’s going to have to find a way to generate a more consistent plane on his offerings. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/prospect-watch-al-central/

I always assumed it was Mauer but I don't actually know. I think I read somewhere that suggested Mauer had his agent call the Twins in ST and complain about being used too much. But I could easily be wrong on that.

This was like the anti-Mauer column without actually naming Mauer.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/264125071.html?page=1&c=y Kind of a different article. Souhan talks about a few things but one thing that he mentions is "after years of tolerating young players nicknamed “The Fun Bunch,” the Twins are welcoming young players with a competitive edge. Dozier has it. Santana has it. Arcia, despite his recent struggles, has it. Gibson has it. Twins minor league staffers rave about the competitiveness of Buxton and Sano. Injuries to Buxton and Sano have slowed the Twins’ recovery, but help is on the way. Even better for the Twins, some of the help is already here."

Nothing is concrete yet but the Astros GM has strongly suggested that Correa will miss "significant" time and might be able to make it up in the AFL. If his ankle is hurt badly, i think that might be the straw that gets them to move him off of short and onto third. There had been a lot of debate about how well he can stick at short - with many prospect guys thinking he'd get too big for it.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/mlb/astros-prospect-carlos-correa-appears-to-injure-leg?ymd=20140622&content_id=81023680&vkey=news_mlb Correa was, of course, picked ahead of Buxton by the Astros. Probably will be a top 5 prospect on most lists now. Severity hasn't yet been disclosed but he was carried off the field so that's a bad sign. Got hurt sliding feet first.