diehardtwinsfan

I like the idea, but it may have more to do with the fact that I think this is not good on relievers from a health standpoint. Not sure if that's an assumption on my part or if there's something there. But Gardy's bull pen use really made me wonder if a lot of the reliever health issues were due to this.

Here's the issue with Vargas... Brock said it the other day. His plate discipline went away when he came up here last year. To some extent, that's normal. It happens to most prospects I'd guess. Guys like Arcia (who didn't really develop that until AAA) struggle a bit more there and I suspect that's part of the reason why he hasn't quite lived up to the expectations (side note, speaking of breakouts, I think he has a big one this year). With Vargas, his plate discipline has always existed. Now that he's used to playing up here, Vargas won't be dealing with the nerves and those types of things. If he simply returns to his old habits, I don't think he regresses much at all and may come closer to his minor league numbers. He may have some bumps in the road (that's pretty normal for a young guy), but compared to Santana, I think he's got much better odds succeeding than he does failing.

I'm not sure another BALCO scandal is what baseball needs

He had a lot of first round busts, but he did quite well internationally. Smith was a bad GM, but I will say that his work with the farm system wasn't really his downfall.

OK, did I just read minorleagueball correctly, but did the Rangers just pick up Anthony Raunado for their version of Brian Duensing? If so, where the heck was Terry Ryan on that? I'd have added Milone to sweenten that deal in a heartbeat.

You'll be buying playoff tickets if that comes true, and I'll personally buy you a drink!

A good season in AA should erase those doubts.

yeah, I'm not liking these options. Hicks has had 2 excellent spring trainings in a row and has followed up with some pretty dreadful seasons. I'm not sure if this is mental or something else, but I really wouldn't want Hicks to be my primary option. I really think he needs to earn it, and that may be performing well in an injury callup type situation. The kid needs more time in the minors to develop. They keep throwing him out in the majors and watching him fail. I don't like it.

The Twins drafts during that timeframe were definitely on the low par. That's why there was so little from the farm to come up and help when it all hit the fan. I think though if you did a WAR study of the entire class, the numbers wouldn't look a lot better. There are a lot of reasons for this, and I think it's a bit unfair to simply pin it to one reason. I see a few (in no particular order): 1) Conservative drafting (metrodome days for the most part, but definitely played a role here) 2) Lack of draft slotting that exists today 3) Injury (though truthfully, I expect all teams to have this problem, I'd be curios what the percentages looked like in relationships to other teams) 4) Just plain old bad picks. 5) Development (I do believe that guys who can succeed in one system can fail in another, having the right coaches for the right personality along with situational differences does make an impact). I think the Twins have done a real good job addressing lots of these. The 2012-2014 drafts (so far at least) are looking to be real good.

There's quite a bit of issues with their ordering in my opinion. Polanco, Thorpe, May, Santana, and Walker are all way too low given the upside and/or major league production. Garver isn't listed all and is certainly a better prospect than most of the guys on the bottom. He's got Burdi pretty high, but Zach Jones is near the bottom and they have similar profiles. Tyler Jones and Reed aren't even on the list, and they are also quite similar. I'm not a fan of high ranking relievers, but all four of these guys look to be back of the pen shut down options.

There are no universal rules. Everyone has a different opinion, that's what makes ranking fun.

That's very true. I think the 2001 Twins is a good example here personally. I wouldn't be surprised if they got hot out of the gate. Who knows.

contend? No, I don't see it. Pretend? Yes, I think that happens. I think .500 is a pretty reasonable goal and they have talent to do it. What needs to happen: 1. Nolasco and Mauer rebound. (Good chance) 2. Arcia takes that big step forward on both offense and defense (Good chance offensively, not sure about defense). 3. Dozier, Gibson, and Plouffe make small incremental improvements in their game (good chance). 4. Suzuki, Santana, and Vargas don't regress that badly (not sure about this one). 5. May has a good first season (50/50). 6. Hunter and Santana play how their paid (50/50). If all of these happen, they can contend. In reality, some won't. But I do think they will take a big step forward.

I was really hoping they would add Kemp. That made sense on a ton of fronts. I'm not quite sure how the other 4 guys in the deal weigh out to what the Twins would give/receive, but I'd have definitely been in on that.

Honestly, if they took care of housing and nutrition, they'd never need to address the pay. If you a place to stay and food to eat, you don't exactly have a lot of costs. I'd think both would be very beneficial to teams as a whole.

'would have taken a shot' does not equal signing a guy. That, I think, is problem number 1 with this debate. One does not equal the other. Problem number 2 with this debate are the league's tampering rules, that do allow them to comment on what they are/are not doing. Problem number 3 is that for most of this time, they were on a Metrodome budget and there was way too much risk to go with the reward (and by proxy, I think we can safely assume they weren't in on them during that time). In all, this is a lot of arguing about something that quite frankly none of us can prove either way. We don't know who they were and were not in on, and I highly doubt that we will ever find out. I think we all would have loved for them to get Abreau, and I personally have stated that I think they should break the bank for Moncada, so I'm not here saying we shouldn't do it. But at the end of the day, we are arguing about stuff that NO ONE CAN PROVE. It can be a fun discussion, but at one point, I'd advise people to simply move on. Side note (and a mod note), but in the rare occurrence that a person from the team or front office chooses to post in a thread, I'd strongly recommend people read their posts very carefully and ensure a higher standard of respect than what we mods enforce around here. They are under no obligation to post here. Their presence here adds a tremendous perspective to this site and you cannot find it anywhere else. Approaching them in a combative or abrasive manner is a good way to ensure that they don't return. I'm not saying not to disagree, but I am saying that there were some really poor examples in this thread about how to do it.

Evan Gattis, that's my guess.

Crossing my fingers that he goes all Buxton on the MWL this season.

I'm sorry, but this argument drives me up a wall. Every single guy in the minors was an all star in high school and going into college. They all carried their teams, because they were THAT good. Walker certainly has done well, and I don't mean to denigrate his accomplishments, but if being a star in baseball was about some sort of mental fortitude, your drafts would look A LOT different than they do today. I think everyone agrees that the kid could be a star, and I don't agree that if he ended up repeating A+ that it means he's done as a prospect. But in all seriousness, I think you should slow it down just a bit. He has flaws. Those flaws will only get magnified as he moves up the chain. That was very obvious in Fort Meyers this year, and better pitchers in AA will zone in on that even more, as they can locate pitches much better than the guys in A+. He's got monster power potential, but a ways to go. I think the Twins are right in taking the slow path here. Perhaps he could be another Vlad Guerrero, but more often than not those types of prospects fail. Honestly, the one thing I really hope he works on is defense. If he can be an above average defender in the corners, he will carve out a nice career as a defensive sub/4th OF with some pop.

I'd love Aiken if he dropped to the Twins. You can never have enough potential aces in your system, and he's one of them.

Walker improved quite a bit as the season progressed. We tend to look at the overall stat line and forget that he was below the Mendoza line for what seemed like a month to start last season. I don't have a problem with him being in AA, though I'd rather him not be hitting behind (or in front of) Sano, if for no other reason than I want him seeing a regular diet of pitches designed to exploit the holes in his swing. It's the only way he's going to improve.

yeah, adderal can go both ways. It's a drug of abuse by some, but it's also a PED... Kind of like Speed though not nearly as dangerous.

Yeah, that made me wonder about the quality of MLB's medical plan. I doubt any of my former plans would have told me something like that was elective.

while we are at it, can we end interleague play? (note I realize that the leagues need to be lined up for this to work)..

I think there's something to be said for stale voices, and that Gardy and staff definitely had been there too long. My beef with Gardy has always been that he doesn't put the team in the best position to win games due to silly beliefs... that and his treatment of younger players. If Molitor is open to some of the newer defensive concepts and can avoid things like play 2nd bat second, etc., I think that will help. How many wins that's worth, no one knows. Hopefully, he can manage a clubhouse and develop rookies. That, I think, is going to be his biggest job. I'm not sure Gardy was well suited for that.