Jeremy Nygaard

There is some rule that prevents non-Caribbean/Latinos from playing in the DSL.

In case you're curious, here is a little more background: Papiamentu is Zaino's first language. But in school, the teachers teach in Dutch. Growing up in Latin American, Zaino needs to know Spanish. And of course, he takes English classes in school. How impressive is that? Could you imagine speaking one language at home, going to school and using another language, while learning another one... and then using a different language at the grocery store? Holy wow. Before he told me that, I thought, "Wow, pretty good at English for it being his second language.." But it's his fourth(!).

If this were an elaborate hoax, you can call me Manti Te'o. But it's not. Zaino is real!

Message from Zaino: I will do my best to describe our educational system curacao has the same educational system as the Netherlands. Therefore i finished 10th grade as you know it in the united states. and there are 3 different levels of schooling in curacao/Netherlands 1 being the lower level finished in 10 grade so only 4 years of high school 2 being the slightly more advanced finished in the 11 grade 5 years of high school 3 being the advanced level right at the door of entering university finished 12 grade 6 years total of high school i made the decision to go pro so i won't be going to school in the near future i will put all my effort to better my game and to reach major. i think i have all the tools i need to reach my goal and that is my god given talent and the 4 languages i speak this of course will help me breach all communication barriers with manager/coaches/teammates and fans in the future i don't exclude a degree in economics it might come handy down the road if you know what i mean and probably online of course hope i have cover this part as for the question about LLWS the answer is no i did not have the privilege to be on a LLWS tournament my island is divided in 3 districts namely: liga pariba / liga pabow and liga willemstad i have always played for the underdogs liga willemstad and as a team we never stand a chance. in 2013 my family moved to the pariba district and that's how i ended up representing curacao in panama (latin america championship) and world series 2014 at bangor maine with liga pariba

I have money on "under .272".

From Zaino: If i reach the majors it can be both cause I have a solid glove and I am a good contact hitter.

He says he honestly has no idea where he'll play. He found his name on the GCL roster, but only Minier has skipped the DSL in the last handful of seasons. His parents have no plan to move to the US.

If anyone has any questions for Zaino, leave them here. He told me he'd answer them.

Two years ago, as we all looked forward to the start of the 2013 MLB season, some of us – or at least, those who had MLB Network – were captivated by the World Baseball Classic. After the USA failed to make the championship round, some people just stopped paying attention or found a reason to follow a different team. The Cinderella of that tournament happened to be the Netherlands, who fell just two games short of claiming the championship. There was something that stuck out with that team: athletic shortstops. As a prospect follower, I’d been aware of the likes of Jurickson Profar, Xander Bogaerts and Andrelton Simmons. There they all were suiting up for the Dutch team.All of them, as well as Jonathan Schoop, were on that 2013 WBC team, which featured Bert Blyleven as a pitching coach. It led me to wonder: Why the heck aren’t the Twins signing guys from the Curacao, an island in the Caribbean that helps form the Kingdom of the Netherlands? The Twins have had Shairon Martis, a relief pitcher, and Curt Smith on their rosters in recent seasons, but never have they signed a player directly from Curacao. Until now. That changed on August 28, 2014 when the Twins, led by scout Lester Victoria, signed 16-year-old Zaino Henriquez a 5’ 11”, 165 lbs shortstop from Curacao during the international signing period. While Henriquez wasn’t one of the more decorated names in the class, he’s been playing baseball for quite some time and has even played in two tournaments in the United States. In fact, while participating in the Senior League World Series in Bangor, Maine, Henriquez had a walk-off hit over an American team just two weeks prior to signing. The Latin America team that Henriquez played for lost to that same American team, from Texas, just two days later to finish second in the tournament. In the six games Henriquez played in Maine, he went 6-for-16 with seven RBIs and three runs scored. He drew five walks (and had an impressive .545 OBP). He stole three bases. He also committed three errors in 27 total chances. As if his stats aren’t impressive enough, Twins fans, he also wore #7. After a game against a Connecticut team, their manager told the Bangor Daily News that Henriquez “made a lot of plays…in the hole and up the middle. He’s really good.” Henriquez has a message for Twins fans: “My childhood dream was always to sign as a professional baseball player. I always worked hard to reach this goal. My mind was set from day one to sign. Because of this, I always showed respect to my coaches and be disciplined. All the coaches can ascertain my character as a team player and hard worker. I sacrificed free time to be on the field to better prepare myself. Now that I have this golden opportunity in hand, I will work even harder because the dream just started. My mission is to someday play in the major leagues and represent my island on the highest stage of baseball: To be the next Andruw Jones or Andrelton Simmons." We wish you the best on your mission. Click here to view the article

Too bad Cameron Booser hasn't pitched about E-town. He'd be fun to bring in against power-hitting lefties: high-90s heat with plus slider. He's a little erratic now... which might make those same lefties uncomfortable.

Even a deal like Jose Tabata isn't as bad as it looks. You take on a risk with money that's similar to what the Twins pay Ricky Nolasco for a season's worth of starts. The flipside of that they Twins get a very team-friendly deal. That's how extensions are supposed to work: Each side is rewarded, while also taking on some risk. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2011/08/pirates-extend-jose-tabata.html

Here's what I had: 2016: 750K 2017: 3.25m 2018: 5.5m 2019: 7.75m 2020: 9m (first FA year) 2021: 11m (club option with $1.75m b/o) 5 years/$28m guarantee.

What?! You're joking. Right? We've hashed, rehashed and triple-hashed a potential extension for Brian Dozier. We've even thrown Trevor Plouffe's name around in those talks. We've loved (or mostly-loved) the Phil Hughes (unnecessary) extension. But we haven't talked at all about a player who makes sense - eventually - to approach about a long-term deal. It's not a "How Did We Miss Him?" discussion at all. Mostly because this player hasn't been very good.Oswaldo Arcia debuted early in the 2013 season out of pure necessity. He has spent parts of the last two seasons in the minor leagues. He strikes out more (244 big-league K's) than (insert your least favorite Twins blogger here) did in college. He teases with 34 MLB home runs, but more than mitigates his power by playing subpar defense in right field (-3.4 defensive bWAR in '13 and '14) and now he's moving to the more spacious left field. Nothing hear screams "SIGN THIS GUY TO A LONG-TERM DEAL" and it shouldn't. As it is - right now - it shouldn't even be on the Twins radar. But there's a pretty simple it showed up on mine: 1.132 Oswaldo Arcia's service time. There isn't a set number that qualifies you to be a Super-2, instead it has to do with the top percentage of players who fall short of three years of service time. Over the last six years, that number has fallen between 2.122 and 2.146. Right where Arcia projects to be next year. So what does that mean? The best example I could find that was presentable and makes sense is a comparison between Dexter Fowler and Austin Jackson. Both players are set to enter free agency after this season, but their paths through the arbitration process has left them in different spots financially. First, the players aren't perfect comps but are as apples to apples as I could find. Jackson, though, is much better according to bWAR. Over his career, he's worth 20.2 bWAR compared to Fowler's 11.3. A bigger different, however, is that Fowler was a Super-2 and Jackson was not. Because of that, over the course of their careers, Fowler has made over $24.5m and Jackson has made only $18.5m. Think what Fowler would have made if he was as good as Jackson. I don't think it's unfair to say that Fowler could have earned very near $30m, or 62% more than a superior player who only comes up short, statistically, in terms of service time. (Like I said earlier, it's not the best comparison, but the best I could find.) So back to Arcia: For this to make any sense, he'll need to improve. He'll need to show that he is part of the core of this team moving forward. Basically, he'll need to make a jump - both offensively and defensively - that Trevor Plouffe has made over the last couple of season. Plouffe, by the way, earned $2.35m as a Super-2 in 2014, the same exact figure that Dexter Fowler made as a Super-2. If Arcia makes that jump this year and we're heading into the late summer, the Twins should absolutely explore the idea of an extension. Arcia should absolutely listen. If Arcia falls short of Super-2 status, he'll make somewhere around $575k next year. If he hits the yet-to-be-decided cutoff, he makes between four and five times that. Teams look for cost-certainly. Players look for stability. And at the end of the day, teams want control through a free agent year (or two). There are many times teams and players get creative and escalate the figures of a contract if guys qualify for Super-2 status. The Twins and Arcia, if he turns the corner, would benefit from hammering out a deal this summer. The worst thing that could happen for the Twins is the next wave arrives, the team gets competitive and their lack of being proactive forces them to lose part of their core, like Arcia. Of course, if he falls on his face this year, he might be in danger of being non-tendered as a Super-2 and this article is moot. Let's check back in July and see what Ozzie is in left field. Click here to view the article

Once you've named the first two kids with the same beginning letter, you've committed. I have a harder time with people who have the same first and last initials.

The thing about Stewart is that, despite not striking hardly anyone out, opponent's batting average is very low. You could point to a hard-to-maintain low BABIP, but from the sounds of it, not many people hit the ball hard against him... Imagine when he's throwing his best pitches, has better fielders behind him and can command his fastball. That's why he's so highly regarded.

When the Twins used the 4th overall pick in the 2013 draft on prep right-hander Kohl Stewart, it marked the earliest the Twins had drafted a pitcher since 2000. That was the year the Twins selected Adam Johnson second overall from Cal-State Fullerton. Stewart also became the highest drafted prep pitcher since the Twins took Willie Banks third overall in the 1987 draft. Adam Johnson broke Baseball America’s Top 100 Prospects twice. Willie Banks took expectations a few steps higher, as he was twice ranked in Baseball America’s Top 15 prospects. As the old adage goes, “there is no such thing as a pitching prospect” and Johnson, with his one MLB win and 26.1 innings pitched, posted a -1.1 career bWAR. Comparatively, Banks fared much better, but don’t be fooled: in his 610.1 career innings as a pitcher, Banks was as replacement-level as they come. So as we proceed with the countdown, don’t forget: When it comes to pitching prospects, proceed with caution.Age: 20 (DOB: 10/7/94) 2014 Stats (Low-A): 87 IP, 3-5, 2.59 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 62/24 K/BB ETA: 2018 2014 Ranking: 4 What's To Like When the Twins added Stewart to their stable, they were adding a powerful right-handed arm. Stewart has a fastball that currently sits in the low-90s, but has been clocked at up to 97 mph. As a prep, he showed a slider that projected as a future plus pitch. He also flashed a changeup that impressed scouts. His scouting report has evolved through his one full season of professional baseball. He spent a lot of time at Cedar Rapids honing his fastball command. He didn’t throw his slider much, but instead relied on a curveball, a sinker that is new and a changeup. The full picture of Stewart can’t be painted without mention of the fact that he committed to Texas A&M to eventually compete to become the successor for Johnny Manziel and passed over scholarship offers from other schools, such as Notre Dame. Stewart passed on his football commitment when he decided to sign for $4.5444 million. Stewart comes from a very athletic family that includes seven children: Kyle, Kayla, Kohl, Kelly, Kade, Katie and Karli. Kelly plays volleyball for Auburn. Kade is an All-State prep golfer in Texas. What's Not To Like While there aren’t any red flags - if there were, there is no way the Twins invest a 4th overall pick on him - there are a few reasons to keep the caution flag handy. Stewart missed time in his debut season after cutting his foot on a seashell while walking the beach. No big deal. A bigger deal is that he missed a four-week span in 2014 with a right shoulder impingement. His return from the injury lasted only two outings - 5 ⅓ innings - before he was shut down for the season. That left Stewart at only 87 innings, short of the targeted 100-plus that previous prep pitchers have gotten in their first full season. The always-cautious Twins, who limited Stewart to 75 pitches per start in 2014, will continue being cautious with Stewart’s innings moving forward. Instead of the 140 innings that Jose Berrios threw a year removed from Cedar Rapids, Stewart is likely in line to throw somewhere between 115 and 125 innings. One number that has prospect-followers alarmed is 6.4. That number, of course, is Stewart’s K/9 during the 2014 season. How could an arm so electric produce only 62 strikeouts in 87 innings? Well, the answer, hopefully, is that the combination of working on his fastball command and trying to be frugal with his pitch-allotment, left Stewart striking out fewer batters than he’s ultimately capable of. Stewart, a Type-1 diabetic, also has a mound attitude that can rub opponents and umpires the wrong way. Time will tell how this will play out as Stewart matures. “He's very loyal and driven," his mother told the Pioneer Press shortly after being drafted. When he's passionate and invested, he's all in. So he really invests himself in whatever it is -- friendship, family, whatever." What's Next After spending a full season in the Midwest League, Stewart will get his first chance to crack the Florida State League in 2015. Stewart told Tyler Mason of Fox Sports North earlier this month that his shoulder feels stronger than ever and that he's reintroduced himself to a throwing routine that involves tossing around the ol' pigskin. Like Berrios did last year, Stewart hopes a strong first half can help him advance from Fort Myers to Chattanooga, which would leave him knocking on the big-league door. Realistically though, the projections haven't changed much since being drafted: Stewart is still a few years away and likely won't pitch in the majors until 2018. Let's just hope that when he gets there, he has more success than Adam Johnson and Willie Banks. Click here to view the article

When the Twins traded Ben Revere to the Phillies on December 6, 2012, fans expected immediate dividends from Vance Worley, who became the Opening Day starter less than four months later. We all know how that chapter of the story ended. We are also very familiar with how the second chapter of that trade began when Trevor May stepped on the mound to make his major league debut in Oakland on August 9, 2014. But his part of the story is far from over.Age: 25 (DOB: 9/23/89) 2014 Stats (AAA): 98 IP, 2.85 ERA, 1.163 WHIP, 94/39 K/BB (MLB): 45.2 IP, 7.88 ERA, 1.774 WHIP, 44/22 K/BB ETA: 2015 2014 Ranking: 10 What's To Like Since debuting as the Phillies 28th best prospect in 2009, according to Baseball America, May has spent the next six off-seasons wearing the “Top 10” label. His repertoire has largely stayed the same: the large-bodied right-hander features a low 90s fastball, a low-to-mid 80s changeup and both a 75-to-77 mph curveball and a slider in the low 80s. Combine that four-pitch mix with the fact that, up until missing a month last summer with a calf strain, May had never missed a start in his professional career, and you have the makings of a solid, back-end starter. May has also had a penchant for striking hitters out, too, supporting a 10.4 K/9 through his seven professional minor league seasons. In the high minors (AA and AAA), that number has dropped to a still-impressive 9.1. What's Left To Work On Though May offers a four-pitch mix, durability and high strikeout rates, there are two pretty significant roadblocks preventing him from becoming a top-of-the-rotation starter: inefficiency and lack of control. In his 45 2/3 inning MLB cameo, May averaged 18.67 pitches per inning. That’s about two pitches per inning higher than his year in AAA (16.11). To put that in perspective, Kyle Gibson (15.61 pitches per inning) and Phil Hughes (14.52) averaged much less. That’s the difference between going five innings in a start and the seven innings a team would love to get from their starter. The knock on May since his pro debut has been one of the reasons the pitch-count gets so high: walks. He has improved through time, though not enough, from 5.4 BB/9 in his 2010 full-season debut to 4.7 BB/9 in AA in 2012 to 3.6 BB/9 in his 98 AAA innings this year. His MLB debut saw him put up a 4.3 BB/9. What's Next There are two Trevor Mays you’re probably familiar with. The Trevor May who we all felt bad for on that summer night in Oakland. The Trevor May who labored through two innings and 63 pitches with only 28 strikes. The Trevor May who walked seven A’s batters. Then there’s the other Trevor May. The Trevor May who dominated AAA. The Trevor May who mowed down 10 Chicago White Sox without walking any. The Trevor May who was selected to pitch on the Target Field mound at the Futures Game. (He missed the game with the calf injury.) There are plenty of reasons to believe that we’ll see Trevor May secure the fifth and final rotation spot this spring. May will be under the tutelage of Neil Allen, who wants his pitchers ramped up to throw well over 100 pitches. May can look to #1 starter Phil Hughes who set an MLB record for lack of walks. And, finally, the Twins were in a similar position last spring before the guy (Kyle Gibson) with a rocky debut the previous season took hold of a rotation spot, the exact position that Trevor May is in coming to Fort Myers in 2015. If May fails to lock up the last rotation spot, the Twins will be in an interesting position: send the 25-year-old back to AAA, a level he owned last year, or move him to the bullpen. Click here to view the article

When I saw him in Cedar Rapids he threw three pitches: A super fastball and two sliders - one in the zone that locked up knees and one that people chased out of the zone. It was very electric.

Greatest Twin to ever come from Bradley University! You all realize that my feelings for Murphy stem from me correctly projecting the Twins drafting him exactly when they did... and then him tearing up the Appy League. It was a snowball that just kept keeps rolling.

Lol. "Threadjack" a minor league prospect list thread by talking about other people's/website's prospect lists? I had Minier as my #17 prospect in the 2013 version and had hopes that he could stick at 3B, felt good that - unlike Sano or Polanco - he skipped over the DSL completely. Loved his bat. Dropped him off in 2014 amid the shoulder issue he had fixed in the off-season and didn't think he'd get a full year in, wanted to see how he'd recover. He had a good enough year to get back on the list (#23), but the 50/50 chance that he ends up as a 1B left him lower in my mind (same with Diaz). Obviously, I'll re-evaluate that thought next off-season. There's too many questions, for me, to rank him ahead of the guys I had in the Top 20. Turner checked in with him at #18. I believe Turner to be a better prospect than Garver, who I had at #22. For me, Garver has less offensive upside than Minier, but more defensive certainty. So I gave Garver the nod over Minier. I believe Turner's defense outranks Garver's, even though Garver is better with the stick. Again all my opinions, which will probably be wrong. Apparently you know better... Thrylos, on 03 Feb 2015 - 6:38 PM, said: Turner over Minier? And Duffey 16th in this system? Ouch!

I wasn't just going to dump my whole list on there... I wanted to show how they were bunched up. BTW - I am assigned to write a couple Top 10s. If Murphy doesn't show up by then... HE JUST MIGHT!!!