chpettit19

Was just watching MLB Tonight on MLB Network between innings and they were just talking about this. It's hard for a scout first and then an organization afterwards to explain why they take a guy with less velocity and more pitchability. It's part of the struggle of the information age. We all know how hard everyone throws and it's super cool to say our guys throw 100, but if they don't know where it's going they have no future in baseball. But if a scout goes in and tells his bosses they should take the kid throwing 92 with control over the kid throwing 100 with projectability he won't have a job for long. And if the Twins take Wright over Greene they're going to have fans upset because they had the chance to take the 17 year old throwing 100 who had an article in SI all about him.

I know it's fun to think of what a 17 year old throwing 100 could become, but I am yet to see a report from any scout or baseball publication that suggests any of his secondary pitches are going to be above average (I've seen a couple that say he could develop his slider into slightly above average). That's not a starting pitcher in the bigs. As I've seen others say on these threads, I don't want a closer with pick 1:1. I think that's really what he comes down to. Can he develop a secondary pitch, or preferably 2? 100 is fancy and fun, but you cannot be a major league starter if you can't get hitters to worry about a pitch other than your fastball. If the Twins think they can teach him how to throw some legit secondary pitches he's the guy. You plan for the year off he's going to need for Tommy John at some point early in his career (I'm only partly kidding about that), and force him to rely on his secondary stuff in the low minors instead of just blowing gas.

I actually agree with any frustration you have towards the idea of not signing bullpen help or free agents. If by "not trading" you're referring to the guys we've had in the bigs over the last 6-7 years then I agree with you that we should have been open to that. If you're referring to trading prospects I don't understand what you thought that would have accomplished. Instead of losing 95+ they'd lose 90+ and have nobody in the system coming to help and nobody to trade for help and have to rely simply on free agents? I suggested they are going to have to trade Sano before he hits free agency. I don't think that's a crazy idea. Losing your best player for nothing is killer for a mid market team who's owners want to be run as a small market team. Obviously, there's conversations that will have to take place behind the scenes that we'll never know about and the first choice is to extend him a couple years past his arb years and to do it sooner than later, but I don't think it's going out on a limb to say Sano is going to want a big, fat paycheck down the road and the Twins are not likely to pay it.

I wasn't saying there was no talent in the system. I understand how it can be perceived that way, but it wasn't my intent. The most likely outcome of the current system is that it will provide 0 star players, but will produce a number of solid MLB players. The current Twins team has a few guys who could turn into stars, a handful of guys who will be solid players for a number of years, and some old guys we shouldn't be counting on beyond a year or 2. The current pitching staff (starters and bullpen) have 1 guy who may be above average, a handful of guys who can be average (#3 starter, solid bullpen arm), and a whole bunch of junk. Trading away all of your depth in the minors for a single starter gives your pitching staff 2 possible above average starters, a handful of guys who can be (emphasis on can be) average, and a whole bunch of junk without any real depth coming from the minors. That doesn't help the 2017 Twins let alone the 2018-2022 Twins. And while we have good prospects and depth in the minors we don't have anyone that gets you a top ranked pitcher. As someone pointed out earlier it took a top 25 prospect to get a Drew Pomeranz last year. Piling a whole bunch of mid level prospects doesn't get you a #1 or 2 starter. Teams want big time prospects. That means it takes Gordon and Gonsalves to even start a conversation for a pitcher who may actually help. To me this all comes down to the fact that this Twins team is more of a mirage than a true competitor this year. And to me you just don't sacrifice anything of the future for a run during a year where you're not realistically going to win in the playoffs. Getting to the playoffs and getting swept, again, isn't something worth hoping for for me. I know it'd be nice to be there, but I'd prefer they run with the team they have. Win 78-83 games. Get the young guys a ton of at bats while mixing in the guys in the minors here and there to start seeing if they're going to be pieces of the team the next couple years. Draft Kyle Wright and let him advance quickly if he's showing he can. Get him some time in the ML pen at the end of the year and hope he's running 1,2,3 with Berrios and Mejia by June next year with Gonsalves joining by then as well and Romero and Stewart getting cups of coffee to fill in for injuries. Fix the bullpen this offseason and be ready to roll for years. I think much of this is a difference in approach between some of us. I want sustained success with realistic shots at the WS. I don't think trading for a single player this year accomplishes either of those things and actually sets the Twins back from being able to do either because it depletes their depth. I want them to complete this rebuild and then be able to trade both major leaguers and prospects to help maintain success. They're never going to be big players in free agency as the Pohlads just won't pay for that. But trading some major leaguers (probably Sano if we're being realistic) as the reach the end of arbitration to bring in big time prospects and also trading some prospects to help fill holes balances things out and lets them stay competitive. The team is just too far away right now to start making trades for individual players.

At this point in a rebuild, yes. The previous regime's idea of "doing it the right way" and not trading away prospects wasn't their problem. Their problem was they still thought baseball was the same game as it was in late late 90s and early 00s. The game and the way it's played passed them by in a hurry. And they were awful at developing the talent they did have. When you have as many holes as the Twins have had the last decade trading packages of prospects for single players isn't productive in any way. It depletes your system while giving you a couple good players who can't win anything because single players don't win in MLB (go ask Mike Trout). Trading for 1 now gets you 1 guy. And with the prospects we have we're not looking at Kershaw coming back to us. We're looking at a #3 pitcher most likely. That's not making any significant difference this season or the seasons to come. And then what's your plan for getting the other 2? Signing big free agents? Would be nice. But be realistic...that's not happening. So now we have Berrios as a #2 if he works out as we all hope. The #3 we traded our prospects for (Gordon would have to be included, not just the AA arms we have). Mejia as a #4, or #3 if everything goes perfect for him. An aging Santana who is quickly coming back to earth and will continue to decline in the next couple years. That's 4 pretty solid arms, I'll give you that. But who's the 5th starter? And when the injuries come (and they always do) who are #6,7,8? I'd be ok with Berrios starting games 1,4,7 of a playoff series if he turns into what we all hope he does, but he's not carrying you to a World Series title. The Twins have been here before. They were running out the Cy Young winner and 2 MVPs and couldn't make noise in the playoffs. It takes all 25 guys on the roster to win in the playoffs. The Twins are finally in a position to have some depth and run 25 legitimate major league players out there for years to come if they keep developing their system and supplementing it with some free agents. Don't ruin that for Jeff Samardzija or someone of that ilk. Not trading prospects isn't "doing nothing." It's building through your farm system. Like most teams have to do. How many times have pretty much all of us condemned the old regime for resigning Suzuki, Hughes, etc. after flash in the pan seasons? Getting excited about a solid start record wise and trading away prospects for the hopes of making the playoffs and getting swept in the first round isn't a good strategy. The Twins now have a +1 run differential this year. They aren't legitimate threats to win in the playoffs. And as for the comparisons to the Royals trading for James Shields...if you can show me the Herrera, Davis, Holland bullpen we're going to run out there I'll find that to be a useful comp. That was their strategy. They went bullpen and mediocre starters with 1 guy to be a stopper if needed. The Twins don't have that bullpen that makes it a 6 inning game so having a whole bunch of subpar starters doesn't kill them. And the trade for Shields didn't make a drastic difference, either. I don't think anyone can say there's no way they win if they were running Meyers out there in right instead of Shields on the mound as his playoff stats were not impressive. The front office needs to (and I believe they will) be realistic about what this team is and show some discipline and restraint. They are playing some good baseball most nights, but they aren't dominating by any means.

I don't know if this is sarcasm or serious, but it's exactly the move that ruins a rebuild. They're in the hunt for the division right now, but Cleveland is going to get hot at some point and Detroit could put together a run as well. Even if the Twins were to win the division they're in line to continue their inability to win a single game in a postseason series. They are not 1 pitcher away from being a legitimate WS threat. They are 2-3 starters, and an entire bullpen, away. Trading any prospects this year would be a disaster and most likely lead to 5 more years of awful baseball like we've seen for far too long already.

1. It being "basically the same front office" is techinically pretty accurate, but in practice it coudn't be further from the truth. The guys leading the front office are very different and are giving different directions to the people under them and are looking for different things when determining what players to have at what levels. Not to mention Falvey is known for the work he did with the pitcher development program with the Indians, and it seems to have worked out pretty well for them. 2. There's a huge difference between a MLB veteran (Santiago) going through spring training and the start of the season and a guy who had a cup of coffee the year before (and got absolutely rocked in the short stint). The veteran's confidence isn't going to be hurt be a slow start to the season. Berrios getting rocked again would have worn on him and possibly broken his confidence for a long time. It's a lot like the mistake Mollie made putting Buxton in the 3 hole for absolutely no reason. Too much pressure on a young guy who had no track record of MLB success to fall back on confidence wise when he struggled again. They aren't robots or just numbers put into a system. They're people and these things matter. 3. As I've said on other threads, the struggles Berrios had last year were mechanical/skill things that he could work on in AAA. Him striking out a ton of guys in the minors because he simply has filthy stuff doesn't mean he's going to succeed at the major league level. Buxton was up despite his history of struggles because his problems are mental and his inability to handle major league pitcher's control of their breaking pitches and the sequencing of their pitches. Berrios starting in the minors to show that he had corralled his arsenal and could pitch to the corners and not just rear back and throw is the smart move. The minors are there for exactly this reason. Give young guys the chance to work on their skills and refine their mechanics. 4. I would've liked to see him earlier because I'm a fan and I have the luxury of living off hope that he will perform as we've all been told he has the ability to. The front office doesn't have that luxury. They don't get to come in and say "hey we hear this kid is going to be great so we should just throw him in and watch him be great." He got shelled last year. In every start but 1. He showed almost no glimpses of being MLB ready last year. Filthy stuff with no idea where it's going ever. The claim that he was "one of their best pitchers" is purely prospect love. He hadn't showed anything last year or this spring for that claim to be based in anything other than pure hope that he turns into what we want him to. The idea thrown around on these threads that the Twins should just be randomly calling up prospects to "see what they have" is absolutely ridiculous. I didn't have much faith in the previous front office regime, but calling guys up just because they throw hard, or are supposed to be good, or have stolen a bunch of bases, or are hitting for a high average in the minors is not how you run a major league organization. Analytics are great and I'm glad we finally have people in MN who are going to use that info, but simply looking at a spreadsheet full of numbers and saying "he has nice numbers on this screen so lets call him up" would be disastrous. Internal scouting and seeing how they are getting the numbers they're getting is vital. Simply being more physically talented than minor league players doesn't mean you'll automatically succeed in the bigs. There's so much more to it than that. Good (even great) minor league numbers don't mean you'll have even average numbers at the next level up. Go look at the leader boards for the minors and see how many guys you've never heard of put up some good numbers.

I think it really comes down to, as others have said, do you believe in calling the best pitcher on any given team a "staff ace" or do you reserve the term "ace" for just the top pitchers in baseball. I'm a believer in the idea that the words you choose mean a lot and overusing them kind of ruins the true meaning. Because of that I'm not a fan of the "staff ace" phrase. You can be your team's best pitcher or their number 1 or whatever, but for me if you're going to use the word "ace" you should be talking about one of the handful of best pitchers in all of the game. Depending on the time, and the influx of talent at that time, I don't believe in there ever being more than 5-8 aces in all of baseball. A lot of it to me is the feeling they give you. I don't put Ervin in that category (even this year) because it wasn't a huge shock that he had a game that he gave up a bunch of bombs against a good offense. He's been pitching great this year and I'm happy to have him, but if you hear Kershaw, Scherzer, Kluber or Bumgarner (in the postseason) gave up 4 blasts and 6 runs in 6 you're shocked. Ervin gives that up and it's more of a feeling of "yeah, he was due for one of those." That speaks to having to have some sustained success. When Ervin takes the mound this season I do expect the Twins to have a good chance of winning and expect him to put up a "quality start," but am not floored if he gets lit up. I also don't expect him to end this season with a 1.50 ERA. He's just not that pitcher. But I sure am going to enjoy the majority of his starts as I believe he'll always compete and give the team a chance to win.

I think so many of us dislike the "pitch to contact" phrase because we're so used to guys with mediocre (at best) stuff "pitching to contact." When your stuff isn't overpowering and you're laying in strike after strike after strike without nibbling it usually leads to the results we've seen over the last handful of years; lots of balls flying out of the park. When you have electric stuff like Berrios you don't have to be as fine with your location and you don't need to nibble so much to induce weak contact. "Pitch to contact" is a mantra often used to help guys with electric stuff who want to strike everyone out learn they can be in the zone and get a few 2 pitch outs and last longer as opposed to all 5 or 6 pitch at bats that end in strikeouts. Kyle Hendricks doesn't "pitch to contact" in that way because his stuff isn't that explosive. He nibbles and paints corners while mixing pitches really well. The problem with the Twins using the "pitch to contact" mantra was they didn't embrace the velocity era until a few years ago so they had guys who's stuff dictated they needed to have pinpoint control who were trying to just induce weak contact all the time while throwing a ton of pitches over the heart of the plate. When you're filthy "pitch to contact" means quit nibbling and attack the hitter (depending on the situation). When you're running out a mediocre array of pitches "pitch to contact" means throw pitches that start as balls and end as strikes on the edge of the zone to limit the number of balls hit 450 ft against you.

To me Duffey just doesn't have the stuff to go through a lineup multiple times. I know he was good his rookie year, but that's his first time through the league with nobody knowing anything about him. I think people got the scouting report on him last year, and as someone said earlier, they knew to sit on fastballs in the zone and let it fly. You don't need big velocity to be succesful, but if you don't have it you better have big time command. Duffey just doesn't seem to have that type of command on his fastball. He can get away with low velocity and not great command once through the order and maybe even twice. But the longer you leave him out there in an outing the higher the chance that he leaves 89 down the middle and it goes 450. Someone mentioned his HR/FB% numbers and that it was unsustainably high last year. It may be unsustainable to stay at 19.5%, but I'd expect to see him at the top of the league in that percentage every year as a starter. When big league hitters can eliminate all but one of your pitches they get really, really good. And when that 1 pitch is an 88-92 straight fastball that you don't command very well they get even better. I know Mariano only had 1 pitch, but he had pin point command with it on both sides of the plate and up and down. And it was a filthy pitch. All that being said I just think his repetoire lends itself to having more success in the pen than in the rotation. I'm of the belief that if you can get 3 outs you should be able to go through the lineup once and get 7 or 8 outs. I'd like to see Duffey (and almost every reliever) used in that way. Not just in games the starter didn't get through 7 in, but whenever he's needed. Go out there and go through the lineup once and hit the showers. Andrew Miller in the playoffs style. I think you could have 2 or 3 guys that do that for a full season and throw 100-110 innings and really make up some ground for a less than stellar rotation.

I think Buxton is all between the ears. He's missing fastballs cuz he's got no idea what's coming at him. I think in the minors he was just sitting and hunting fastballs. The major league pitchers have scouting reports on him and know the holes in his game and they're abusing him by mixing pitches and keeping him off balance. I think he's going to bust out this year, and I'm hoping it's soon, but I also do think there is a pretty drastic difference between minor league players and major league players.

I am pretty close to your side, yes. But the difference, to me, with Buxton and Berrios is that the things Berrios needs to work through are things he can do in the minors where it isn't hurting his confidence or the team. Buxton is baffled by big league pitchers being able to spot their breaking stuff and mixing pitches on him. The guys in the minors are not as good at those things so he needs to be facing major league guys with scouting reports on him and learn how to adjust. Berrios needs to tighten actual physical skills. He can, and in my opinion should, work on those struggles in the minors. The things he's trying to fix are the things that the minors are there for. There's plenty of guys who throw gas and have a nasty breaking ball, but being able to harness those things is why they go through the minors. Him learning to harness those things is what I see as his struggles right now. And I think he's pretty close. He looked awfully good in the WBC. But right now there's not an opening in the rotation (although I'd be happy seeing Gibson go to the pen, dude can't go through the order more than once). Without a glaring "this guy is torpedoing our rotation" opening at this point in the year I think you let Berrios tighten his mechanics outside of the spotlight.

I know its the same coaches and scouts, that's why I said they're being given different standards and different direction. If your boss gets fired because the company is failing and new guys come in to run things they give you different ways to do things and have different expectations. He's going to dominate AAA. We already know that. But getting people out in the minors is different than getting them out in the bigs. The way he gets people out in the minors matters. He needed to tighten his command and control after last year. There's no way you can argue that point. He had no idea where the ball was going. In the minors you can get away with that because the hitters aren't as good or smart. Doesn't work in the majors, though. It's why some guys end up in the pen. You can't be a starter and survive without knowing where the ball is going. It's the same thing Buxton has struggled with the last couple years. He can hit fastballs. In the minors he just looks for fastballs and pounces because the pitchers don't have the control of their breaking stuff to challenge him well enough. The guys in the majors do. Until he learns to recognize and hit major league breaking pitches he'll fail. He can't learn to do that in the minors so he needs to take his lumps in the bigs. Berrios can learn to control and command his stuff in the minors. There's no reason to have him struggle in the bigs and lose his confidence when he could be working on things in the minors. As Dantes929 said...he's not a robot. There's a human element to things and if he hasn't improved his command he'll get shelled again. And it doesn't matter who you are, if you get beaten enough times it's going to effect you. When he comes up he needs to have everything in place to succeed. When he does come up I'd like to see him in the pen where he can just let it fly and see that he can get big league hitters out. Once he has that confidence and there's no doubt in his mind that he can succeed then you unleash him as a starter and have him carry that confidence and attacking mindset over. The Cardinals do it with all of their guys and it seems to be working pretty well for them. Danny Duffy talks about it all the time as well. If Berrios is throwing pitches without 100% confidence that he's getting the guy out on that pitch he will fail. Any pitcher will. Letting him dominate AAA and tighten things there before you bring him up is a good decision, in my opinion. Working on things while you get your brains bashed in against big leaguers is not a good strategy. For him or the team.

Different people leading things with a different set of standards and different directions given to their people. My guess would be that with this front office Berrios would have been up last year, but we would have been in the pen. Not getting his brains bashed in every 5th day. But point taken. It's not easy to trust this organization yet. But pitching is supposed to be Falvey's thing so I'm hoping for some good things to come.

It's going to be hard for anyone not actually at the games watching him throw to determine if Berrios is ready. Him putting up dominate stat lines doesn't mean there's nothing left for him to work on at AAA. Walk numbers and strike/ball ratios are good and all, but don't tell the complete story. AAA hitters are going to chase more pitches than the guys in the bigs will and get themselves out more. This is a situation where we need to trust the Twins' internal scouts and coaches to determine when he's truly controling his pitches and not just throwing it down the middle or completely missing the zone. His stuff is major league ready, his control wasn't even close last year. Stat lines are only going to tell us so much at this point.

That's all speculation. If we knew for a fact Granite provided all those things at the major league level it'd be one thing, but we don't. Not even close. Granite is still just a prospect, and not a very high end one at that. The only thing in there that we know for sure is that he provides more speed and better defense (not saying much there). There's a legitimate chance Granite is never more than a pinch runner/defensive replacement.

I think the 16 straight games and the fact that the starting pitching is drastically out doing their expectations are good reasons to keep the extra pitcher around right now. I think the effect it's having on games is overstated at this point. Why does your DH need a day off 9 games into the season? The guy stands there and watches 20 pitches and swings 3 times a night. If he's tired he needs to be cut cuz that's ridiculous. Him sitting was because Mollie wanted to get Escobar in there along with Polanco. Sitting Mauer and Kepler against a lefty is another questionable excuse as well since almost everyone on here was just praising Mollie for sticking with his best defensive lineup and allowing the young lefties to face lefty pitchers early so as to not make them platoon players at the age of 24. The 9 men that are in the lineup shouldn't be changing as much as it is. Nobody should be tired yet and none of these guys are unknown commodities. We know the young guys need ABs and we know Giminez, Santana, and Escobar are not everyday players (you could argue EE maybe, but Polanco needs to be in there). Molitor is making this all more complicated than it needs to be. Mix and match the lineup order, but he has his 9 starters already. The 13 pitchers is an overstated problem. There's no world beater sitting in AAA because of the extra pitcher. It'll be nice to have Vargas or Park up at the end of this 16 game stretch, but it's not a gigantic issue that they aren't here now.

The Royals pitching was awful and made it easy to take walks. But the Twins still deserve credit in doing what they should and taking those walks. My hope is that seeing how much taking walks helped them win games will help them continue to be patient as the season moves on. Especially Rosario. He has an incredible talent to get the barrel to the ball and with just a little patience to get better pitches to hit he could be a big time hitter. Buxton needs to be dropped in the order starting tonight. He never should have been in the 3 hole to start, but he's clearly pressing and trying to do too much right now. He needs to hit in the bottom 3rd until he relaxes and starts having success. Overjoyed with the success of the team so far, but have a terrible feeling in my gut that we're watching Mollie completely torpedo Buxton's career by putting him in a terrible position. It's amazing how much more fun it is to watch good baseball than that trash we had to watch last year. Even if they don't make the playoffs or even reach .500 I'll be much happier with it all if they just continue to put up professional at bats and play sound defense.

I like the overall construction of the order yesterday, except for Buxton in the 3 hole. A good September is nice and all, but we all know September stats aren't overly telling due to roster expansion. Buxton looked confident and aggressive in spring, but didn't exactly light the world on fire. Hicks looked confident and aggressive a few years back in spring and we learned awfully quick that that doesn't mean much. Buxton is the future of your franchise and putting him in a spot with excessive pressure when he's had no real success in the bigs outside of 1 September surge doesn't make sense. "He struck out, one of three on the day, but I'll still take him in that spot right now" suggests you'll accept him in the 3 hole until he continues to strike out in big situations at which point you'd like to see him dropped in the order. If that's what happens it's an absolute failure on Mollies part. Buxton has the talent to make Mollie look like a genius by ripping off a .330 10 hr 30 RBI month and we all hope he does. But his track record shows he's more likely to have a .220 1 hr 4 RBI month and force Mollie to lower him in the lineup and crush his confidence. I don't understand the logic of putting so much more pressure on the kid instead of just letting him hit in the bottom 3rd and find some success before moving him to the heart of the order. This very well could have been an outlier since Mollie wanted his lefties in the lineup yesterday and there was a nasty lefty on the mound, but even in that case Polanco, who has shown he can hit big league pitching already, would have been a better choice. Flip Polanco and Buxton and I love the lineup. Buxton's speed on in front of Dozier as the lineup turns over sure would be nice too.

Loved the win, and loved the fact that they did it by playing solid, fundamental baseball. Taking walks when given to them and playing good defense. Hopefully they can keep that up all year. That being said, am I the only one with a huge concern over hitting Buxton in the 3 hole? Kid has great potential and looks like a totally different hitter now, but he has still never had real success in the bigs. I know he had a good September, but it's pretty broadly accepted that September stats should be taken with a grain of salt due to roster expansion. He's finally showing that he may be turning a corner after a good spring training so I don't understand why you would throw him in a spot with a ton of added pressure at this point. It very likely may have been simply because Mollie wanted his lefties to hit and they had a tough lefty on the mound, but if that was the concern why not switch Buxton and Polanco? Buxton needs to just go out and play as pressure free as possible to find some success and then move up the order. Polanco has shown he can hit big league pitching. I don't like the added pressure on Buxton at all. I think he's a confident guy and a few bad games in the 3 hole won't kill that confidence, but why even put him in that position?

1. I agree with all the people saying postseason Miller isn't something we're going to see during the regular season from any team for quite a while. You'd blow your guy's arm out in a month and a half. 2. I'd say the reason the Indians and Cubs were able to use their "closers" in different situations is more because of bullpen depth than it was out of those guys simply being so good. In the playoffs the games are generally all very close and getting out of a jam in the 5th-8th inning by using your best arm is only good when you can bring in someone else you trust to get those 3 outs in the 9th. The Royals are still the real blueprint people are/should be following. It's getting 3+ arms that can get 3 outs with 0 runs on the board almost every time out. At that point you can use them however you see fit. The Royals prefered set innings and just knew the other team wasn't scoring after the 6th, while the Cubs and Indians mixed and matched their power arms and had them going at different times. The Orioles have followed the Royals set roles strategy to great success with Brach, O'day, and Britton. The true blueprint is to have multiple arms you can really rely on and then it's up to your manager to know his guys well enough to know if they need set roles or if you can move them around like Miller. Chapman clearly hated pitching anything other than the 9th inning in a save situation and it nearly cost them the World Series. It was the only thing you could say Joe Maddon didn't do perfectly correct, but he didn't have a great read on Chapman or at least wasn't able to fully convince him that he was being used correctly. 3. As for the Jay draft pick...I'm not a fan. When you have a top 10 pick you have to nail it. I'm not an advocate for "drafting for need." Especially that high in the draft. There will always be a need for pitching. "You can never have too much pitching." But you need to get your pick right and drafting the guy with the highest ceiling and best chance of reaching that ceiling is the best way to do that. Collect assests and then consalidate them when the time is right. The argument that Benintendi would still be in the low minors for the Twins if we had drafted him is a huge indictment of the way the Twins do things. He is better than any Twins outfielder right now and if you're looking at things objectively the Twins would trade any player on their roster for him right now. He'd be the best player on the Twins right now. Buxton is the only guy you could argue would block Benintendi. But there's 3 outfield spots so that wouldn't be a problem. Rosario and Kepler are not even close to the type of player Benintendi is. He's going to hit in the top 5 of the best offense in baseball. As far as the draft goes, taking big time college bats is a safer bet than taking any arm. It's all really about the amount of risk you're willing to take and weighing ceiling verses floor. A dominant college reliever has a pretty reasonable floor, but their ceiling is also relatively limited and the likelihood that they reach that ceiling is much smaller than the likelihood that an elite college bat reaches his. Draft assests and trade from positions of strength to fill positions of need.

I like having as many dangerous hitters at the top of the order as possible. Having a Schwarber or Santana type guy at the top provides big advantages in the late innings. Focusing on how someone does leading off an inning is focusing on the wrong thing, I think. He's only guarenteed to lead off 1 inning. It's nice to have a guy who can work the count and make the pitcher work right out of the gate, but also be a threat to take that first pitch, get-me-over fastball 400 ft into the bleachers. Then late in the game when it's close and you're scratching for runs you want to have a dangerous guy up as soon as the line up turns over. You want a guy with some extra base pop and RBI skills to help drive in 2 out runs when someone at the bottom of the order gets on. And you want to follow him up with another good hitter. I never understood the Punto, Casilla, etc. 2 hole hitter. Why would you turn your line up over and have a guy who can't hit sitting there trying to drive in those big runs. Put your best hitters at the top of the order and give them as many PAs as possible throught the year to maximize the damage they can do.

I don't know if you seriously think a front office that's been in place for 3 months needs to be taken to task or not, but it seems a little aggressive to me. What moves would you like to have seen them make? I can see frustration with no real bullpen improvement, but other than that I don't know what moves you wanted them to make. I really would have liked to have seen Greg Holland get signed and there were a few other decent options out there, but with only 2 decent trade chips and a really weak free agent class in the areas that the Twins drastically need to improve I'm not sure what the front office really could have done.

From what I've seen on a number of the TD forumst just about everyone wanted Dozier dealt. The difference is whether or not it was a smart move to trade your best player and a proven MLBer for 1 pitching prospect. I don't think that's a smart use of your assets. De Leon isn't Urias or some other 20, 21, 22 year old who may be a top of the rotation guy. There's very few people out there that think he's a number 1 or 2 arm, and I think this situation shows that the Twins scouts and FO personnel didn't believe he was a number 1 or 2. He's 24 which isn't old for a prospect, but isn't young either. Most people think his upside, not floor, is a number 3 arm. If you want more young upside arms in the organization trading your best player for 1 guy who's upside is a middle of the rotation arm isn't the way to go.

I'm with you on almost all of this. It is disappointing that there's really nothing that should get us excited for the upcoming season beyond the hopeful next steps of Buxton and Sano. My question, though, is what things did you want the FO to make happen? We all want to see better pitchers take the mound for the Twins this season, but the FO can't just make them appear. There were a few options out there for the guys to look into, but I just don't see any moves that would have made significant improvements.