diehardtwinsfan

I wouldn't mind them grabbing Kyle Serrano or Carolos Salazar. Both are HS top of the rotation potential type guys that project to go in later rounds... That said, all of the guys on this list look pretty good too.

Personally, I would have DFAd Butera, Herman, or Hermsen... but that's me. While I was really hoping for Benson to succeed, it has become painfully obvious that he won't succeed with the Twins. Hopefully he gets a shot with Texas. If he doesn't put it together soon, he's going to be a 4th OF, and that's it.

And I think Terry Ryan knew it too, which is why Trevor May was included.

I'm not sure what John is saying, but if we don't sign a pick in the top 10 this year, we get it back (1 spot lower) next year and the cash to sign the draftee as well.

Have to admit I'm a bit surprised at vitriol targeted towards Brock. While I don't always agree with him, I find his posts to be pretty intelligent and well thought out. That said, the left sucks... and the right sucks.... Vote Libertarian.

I'm not sure I'd go that far. The man built and runs an organization that knows how to scout players. He may not be able to pull off another AJ trade, but to say he cannot draft talent or still make good trades is a bit far off. I'm not terribly keen on the "average fan" crap going around in this thread, but smart fans (and that should have included every one on this board) were smart enough to know that this was a rebuilding year the moment Span and Revere got traded... Why people are upset about that 40some games into the season is beyond me. They are rebuilding. Next year's draft is strong... Another top 5 pick is going to make 2015/16 even that much nicer. May as well look forward to the future.

What does this have to do with trading Mauer to Boston?

If there's a guy on in this system who can tell you first hand how a bad attitude can sour some things, it would be Dougie... If people remember right, he didn't take the Morneau thing very well.

yeah, I wonder now if he'll fall to the second round, and if by chance we could get Stewart to sign for 3M, that might be enough savings to get Manaea in the 2nd.. I'm dreaming, I know it won't happen, but I can still dream.

I'm not one of the anti-Mauer people to be clear, though I would be in favor of trading him in the right circumstances. The trade I joked about in the previous post is what I think would make it worthwhile, but I also think Boston would be incredibly desperate to even be considering such a trade (and this doesn't take account for the NTC), and would be foolish to execute it. The Twins, on the other hand, shouldn't trade him for less. Truth be told, in Mauer we have the following: 1) Hometown guy with marketing capabilities that are non-existent elsewhere. 2) First ballot HOF in the making that will retire with his team 3) Incredible production both offensively and defensively from a guy in his prime at a position where it's hard to find that kind of production. Mauer would be a massive upgrade at C to just about any contending team. His production at C is one of the big reasons why the Twins could get away with substandard production at the bottom of their order for a number of years on contending teams. 4) One big reason why target field was financed. The backlash on trading him, even for the scenario I mentioned earlier would be immense. I'd argue that would be what it would take in order to make it worth while, as it contains 2 middle infielders, 2 pitchers, and a replacement catcher. The 2016 team would now have some depth at those key positions so if/when certain prospects fail, there would be others to take their place. But back to reality, I don't see it happening. There's no way he should be traded for anything other than a truckload of prospects. It's fun to wonder "what if", but this is nothing but a Vervehound fantasy.

I think this is the right move. MLB exposed some weaknesses and heads down to Rochester to work on them. Parmelee, on the other hand, needs to play every day and needs to get more than a 3 week trial. I don't know if he's an answer or not, but we will never find out in sporadic playing time.

Johnson was picked first in that draft. Not to point out the obvious, but Utley went 15, not second. If Johnson doesn't play baseball, the Twins would have likely gone with someone else in the top 5 of that draft. It's kind of unfair to cherry pick a guy that they Twins would not have been looking at for that position.

Vargas went long. Sano with a couple of hits.... kind of quiet on the minor league front otherwise.

Boston: Hey Terry, what do you want for Joe Mauer? Minnesota: Bogarts, Barnes, Lavernaway, Coyles, and Ranaudo. Boston: long period of silence.... Really? Minnesota: For those guys, I might be kind enough to eat about $20M of his contract. Boston: Never mind. That's about how this conversation would (and should I might add) go.

I'm guessing Trevor would have to get hurt or fall on his face pretty bad. He's likely going to get to NB this year and I'd guess start out in Rochester next year. That's pushing him pretty hard.

The question at hand is what percentage of fans come to see Joe play. It may be a small number, but I have no doubt that there are people out there who do.

I'm not necessarily certain it's either...

I think there's a few reasons. They are all fairly simple, regardless of whether or not people like them. 1) He hasn't flat out dominated and given his talent can still improve in AAA. I get that Gibson has performed similarly, but he also has more room to grow. 2) Walters is out of options and while they've performed similarly, no "decision" needs to be made on Gibson this year. 3) Innings limit. 4) Money. 5) Draft order. I'd guess it's a bit of all of them personally. I highly doubt that just one reason is the reason here.

There's no way I see Joe going to Boston for anything close to what is being suggested in this thread, and I don't see Boston offering anything more. Mauer getting traded just won't happen.

As I said previously the rounding out is what concerns me, but the 2016 team has a lot of potential to have stars/above average guys in most postions, with most having some ML experience to go with it. C - Mauer/Pinto 1B - Mauer/????? 2B- Rosario SS- ??? 3B - Sano LF - Hicks CF - Buxton RF - Arcia SP - Meyer SP - Stewart/Appel/Gray SP - Gibson My point is that there's pretty good reason to think we will have above average production from all of those spots and star level production from some of them, with the biggest potential drawback being injury (especially to the pitchers). But if these guys are healthy, and their development continues to progress as it has, then plugging average or even worse production into those other spots will still amount to a winning team. And that assumes that guys like Parmalee/Plouffe/May/Benson/Walker/Vargas/Santana/Berios/Darnell/Banxendale don't develop into something that can contribute as well. All of those guys have good reason for people to be skeptical, but they could still easily pan out into something useful.

Sometimes errors come due to extreme range. I seem to remember Jose Reyes getting a lot more errors, but that had a lot to do with him knocking down hits that no other SS could get to.

I see a lot of moves in a few weeks. I have to think that Rosario is coming up with Sano, and likely a few others from Fort Meyers as well. I suspect Baxendale, Darnel, Meyer, and even May will be headed up a level. Not that a promotion is going to help this, but better defense behind May might reduce some of those control problems if he's not always out there so long... The problem with that, truth be told, is that May isn't going to see better defenses in Rochester or Minnesota when he gets there.

Truth be told, these moves all scream 2015 and beyond. You might not like Ryan, but he's clearly looking out longer term. In terms of confidence, I have far more confidence in the front office than I do the field staff. You and I may not like the decision, but regardless of what the PR folks spun it as, this team is clearly taking a rebuilding approach. Why I have confidence in the front office is that they have done a great job restocking the farm system, and in the case of Ryan, he has done this before with success. The concerns I have is how he's going to augment this team come the latter half of this decade. If there's a big hole in the middle infield or on the mound, how does Ryan fill it? Another KC? If so, then that's where my confidence is gone.

This team won a lot of games last decade, and in my opinion, that was in spite of the coaching staff, not because of it. I'm not a Gardy supporter (though up until recently I've been a bigger fan of Anderson). I don't think Gardy is the right person for the job going forward either... but in answer to this question, regardless of who is managing, I think the 2016 team will have no problems winning 88 games. Your concern regarding Gardenhire/Anderson is quite valid.

I'm not sure why you needed to look up that elite players tend to come up earlier than average players. That's the nature of the game. That said, these stats are complete cherry picking. We don't know yet if Buxton will be elite. You are simply pointing out that today's elite players came up at a young age, but you are ignoring the failure of every player that came up at a young age that isn't elite... The fact that the 10 best position players were 23 or under when they arrived says absolutely nothing about whether or not Buxton should be on the Trout timeline or not.