gunnarthor

I think you're just over reading this a bit. Ryan's full quote indicates he was talking about the up the middle defense, and he's right. Ryan (and no one in baseball) thinks Plouffe is a good third baseman or that our corner OF's were good. And there is a difference between worst and most disappointing. Ryan isn't ignoring the problems in the rotation just b/c he says he was more disappointed by the teams inability to score runs.

Sano doesn't have to be protected yet. I don't remember who else had to be protected but they'll easily have the spots to protect everyone they need.

I think that's a good deal. This'll probably be his last contract with the team. I think Dougie Baseball takes over in 2016 with that young core intact.

"Our team defense hasn't been all that bad, especially up the middle. I think it's apparent that (Pedro) Florimon and (Brian) Dozier can handle those spots defensively. And certainly for the time that (Aaron) Hicks was up here, he could really play some center field." I don't think any of that was controversial. And I think the offense was far more disappointing than the pitching. We knew the pitching would struggle but Plouffe, Doumit, Morneau, Willingham, Parm were all dissappointing and even Mauer missed a big chunk of time. I think coming into the season we were all a lot more hopeful about the offense.

What's Rick Knapp doing?

I would imagine if it's a discussion of Gardy's fate, he'd have to be fired today, wouldn't he? (Well, ok, he's a FA but same thing). If they were going to keep him, they'd go through GM/manager meetings first before resigning him, I would think. I they don't do that until after the season. I think he should come back, for whatever that's worth.

Nice, thanks for posting that. Is there a chat to go with this at BA later? I was surprised to see Walker that high. Polanco is a nice sleeper for us. Love Berrios and Buxton, obviously.

Right now, Parmelee's a AAAA guy, is that b/c of his talent level or Gardy? If we blame him for a guy like Parmelee not making it (when he probably shouldn't make it) do we then give him credit for a guy like Mauer? Hicks had an expected season, Gibson was disappointing but it was also his first year back from TJ surgery. He'll be fine. Plouffe and Diamond played to their talent level. Worley was disappointing. It's hard to figure out how much a manager should or shouldn't get blamed on young players development. But on the whole, I think Gardy's a positive. I think if you go over all his teams, you'll see that young players always played big roles on the team. (In 06, for example, Gardy rode Boof down the end and put Mijares in the big set up roles).

Out of curiosity, do you split up a guy if he was picked up in a trade like Pavano and then resigned here as a FA? Or was all his value put in the trade category? Good list. One small point, you wrote "Overall, the average Twins Amateur Draftee has pitched to a .88 WAR season. But take Radke out of the equation, and the average drops to .60 WAR." I think a person could read that and then say Radke skews the results and the Twins real return is .60 WAR, among the worst in the AL. But I would imagine every team has one player who skews high. And a follow up question, if I'm reading the chart right, it says the Brewers got 20 seasons from the draft and 20 WAR from them. Ben Sheets was drafted by them and amassed about 25 WAR in 8 seasons. So, did they get -5 WAR in those other 12 seasons or is something amiss?

To add a bit to Oxtung's point on Giolito, the Nats also are in win-now mode and coming off a pretty disappointing season. Span and LaRoche have one year left on their contracts (w/options), Werth is getting older but is still pretty good. They have a really nice young but competitive nucleus. Whatever they decide is their flaw is, they have the resources to fix it. I don't think the Twins nec match up well with them (they seem to need on-base skills and a little health) but some other team might be able to get a guy like Giolito from them since they are making win-now moves (sorta like the Meyer/Span trade). Hopefully, for the Twins, some team decides that Perkins is the final piece (maybe the Dodgers, Red Sox or Tigers bullpen can have an epic post season collapse) and we can get a nice piece pack.

It's almost like they changed the post season set up sometime in the last century. For most of baseball's history, only the 06 and 10 teams would have even made the post season.

Under that logic, Gardy should get credit for the strong seasons from Dozier and Florimon. The Gardy can't relate to kids thing is insanely over blown. Most of his teams were young guys. I think the idea that Gardy has gone stale is possible (I don't agree but it's possible) and you could argue that he's had trouble relating to Latino players (maybe). Both would be valid reasons (if you believe them) to go in a new direction next year. But a general idea that young players don't develop under him - and citing a guy like Plouffe as the example - is iffy.

For a season it was probably Dozier's break out. Hopefully, he can keep it up. Team wise, I probably enjoyed the Twins taking 2/3 from NY in NY to salvage a pretty rough road trip in July. Gibson outpitched Sabathia and we still had some hope that he would have a good season for us.

I don't think he gets in. First, it seems that the closers that are in are special in some way - Mo's the GOAT, Sutter had 'invented' the splitter, Eck redefined the role, Goose was the great fireman (in NY). I think another one was famous for his knuckler and ate a ton of innings. Relievers like Guisenberry (sp), who was really, really good, were generally one and done in the HOF balloting. Secondly, fair or not, Nathan has come up remarkable small in the playoffs and in the Rangers play in game last year. That'll always be the knock on him unless he changes it. He's also pretty old - his first great season was at age 29. The Twins will probably eventually put him in their HOF but he won't go to Cooperstown. Great career though.

Report: Raicel Iglesias Detained For Attempted Defection - BaseballAmerica.com There was a report that he had defected a few days ago but it sounds like he was caught before he could do it.

Good thing the GM didn't say that.

I'm not sure there's really all that much in the interview to get upset or surprised about. The Twins have one pitcher for next years rotation - Correia. This year they had 8 pitchers make at least 10 starts. Last year it was 9. They'll need arms. Pelfrey managed to throw 150 innings while recovering from TJ surgery. Of course the Twins would want him back. He isn't a great pitcher (although fWAR likes him based on a really low fip) but the Twins need 8. He'll likely be one of them.

The rumors were that his value wasn't very high, despite his strong season b/c he was still on a 2 yr deal, was aging and had injury history. Teams were wary of that. The reports were #4 type starter prospects like Atlanta's Sean Gilmartin. If nothing else, a strong first half next year will still bring back that type of prospect.

Two points 1. Santana was a surprise (although Houston was pretty good, they needed their roster for playoff teams and the rule v thing was one less year of protection). But he's the exception. Kevin Goldstein in baseball prospectus noted that Cliff Lee and Santana were about the only two aces that were really surprises. And both were lefties. But when scouting types are evaluating someone, they are trying to make future predictions. So Jorge might be a #3 but he might never get passed A+. A #3 placeholder on him is the scouts best prediction at this time. He can improve. One example would be Nick Blackburn. He went from basically nothing to a #3/4 put on him. 2. This is a scouting tool so results don't really matter much. Radke pitched a lot better than a #3 but that's what his stuff was. As Sickels comments show, the #'s work better from a scouting POV than it does in the ML where results tend to matter more. There are exceptions to everything but this is what scouts mean when they tag someone with a label. Being tagged a #2 doesn't mean that Cain isn't having a HOF career, it just means that, in scouting eyes, he lacked (at least when Sickels wrote this) something to make him a #1.

When scouts talk about #1's or 3/4 etc, they are usually using a grading scale based on stuff. A true ace - Kershaw, Santana - is pretty rare. That pitcher should have 2 plus pitches ie above avg (60 on the scouting scale). But, besides just a strong pitch, they also need advanced command and control of the zone. Santana had that perfect change up put he also had a very good fastball and his slider was at least avg if not better. He pounded the zone and his k/bb rate was very good. A #2 starter is also pretty rare. They should also have two advanced pitches but maybe a little less control/command. Sickels pointed to guys like Cain, Greinke and Bumgarner as current #2's. A #3 is a really good pitcher. He has one plus pitch (60 on the scale) and two avg pitches to go with it. The Jorge write up seems to suggest that he might develop one 60 pitch (breaking ball) and that his fastball seems to be at least avg. If he can develop his change up to avg, he's a #3 type. If things fall below that, he's a #4 or maybe a bullpen arm. Defining 1-2-3-4-5 Starters - Minor League Ball And it should also be pointed out that this isn't a perfect thing - it's a tool for scouting. Not results. Brad Radke had a better career than Josh Beckett despite Beckett usually being considered a #1 or 2 type pitcher and Radke being the definition of #3. But that article should give you a pretty good idea of what scouting services (BA, minorleague ball, Klaw, BP etc) are thinking when they say a pitcher is a backend guy or future ace.

He's a sure thing to stick at catcher, has decent plate discipline and he had a long season. His defense is well regarded. His ceiling may not be that high but he has a pretty decent floor (backup strong defensive catcher) that's easy to reach.

It really looks like will be able to get a pitcher either at #4 or 5 if we want one. Should be a good draft for us. Hopefully we get a quick mover.

Minor League Ball Top 75 Prospects: End of Season Update - Minor League Ball Five Twins make the cut and Stewart is actually above Meyer. Buxton is #1 (no surprise) and Sano is #3 (also no surprise).

There have been a few - Nationals signed Werth to a long term contract when they still sucked but obviously had the right pieces ready moving forward. And the Nats might have been a top 10 revenue team. Not sure. Brewers signed Lohse last year and I think they lost a draft pick b/c of that. Not sure if you call Lohse elite.

There's a pro team in Tulsa?