clutterheart

Fun read. Did he have anything of interst to say on the twins regional scout? Players on the KY team must get excited when he is in town.

3 things 1 He was the best pitcher on the worst staff. 2 He had a track of pitching poorly. 3 Most of the complaints was not the signing but giving him a second year. So if he repeats his performance and has another solid year than most of the critics will have been wrong.

After reading the latest from Wolfson at 1500 I am thinking it might be empty rhetoric. It has some pessimistic indicators. Hopefully they are just playing games with agents.

According to espn.com the Twins are telling agents they are not interested in giving up their 2nd round pick. This takes two potential guys off the list further narrowing the field.

Thankfully Pinto's track record shows a career .790 OPS and the last two full seasons an .800+ OPS. Questions remain about his defense but some of the reports I have seen show that he is improving as he advances in the system. I think the Fryer angst is due to him being on the 40 man but that's only relevant if the team loses a player of consequence. Today, its not a big deal, but down the road it might be.

Floyd - Please no. If he wasn't coming off TJ surgey, it would be OK. But I do not want another spring training hearing about how good he looks only to watch him struggle followed by quotes like "im getting there" and "its coming back." Arroyo - I don't care about the 3rd year. What else does this team have to spend money on in the next three years? No player is going to need locking up. Twins have a 3-4 year window to spend as much as they can on FA as there isn't anyone in the system who will need a long term contract

Berardino needs some perspective: Herrmann played 12 games Pinto has played 7 games There is no useful data from that sample. - especially since the players don't really have a spring to get back their timing. Furthermore the team Pinto is playing for has Wilson Ramos on the squad. Who is DH'ing Anything Pinto can learn from that guy would be great!

Are these downloadable for audio only? I can't watch them live

Hope you are right. I have never looked at runs scored as anything meaningful. I usually just ignore it right away. Maybe you are on to an underlooked stat, but I will leave that investigation to others with more time. And if he could become an impact bat it would be great!

Yikes, a healthy, motivated and pissed off Fielder could have a monster year in TX. I'm glad he is out of the central, but it probably means Detroit will spend big on the starting rotation which is probably a better investment.

Has a trade like this ever happened before? After racking my brain, I can't remember a team trading a guy Back to an organization for another guy. Did the MLB ownership group work out some kind Returns/Exchange Counter at the winter mmeetings?

I grabbed a few of those names on this list Walker OB% was .319 - not good McGuire in A ball was .393 Buhner was .392 Sexson as a 19 Year old in A ball was .338 High K% and even a Low BB% is fine if you can find other ways to get on base - especially if you got power. Walker needs to do that, if he does..MAN he could be fun. But I don't have a lot of hope on college guys who keep having the same issues.

1 - Vargas 2 - Harrison 3 - Walker 3 - Hicks At the start of the off-season I said if Vargas was added to the 40 man he could get a shot a at 1B sometime around July or August in 2014. - Because there wasn't that many options at 1B in the system. But now that Mauer is there, I don't think thats likely. However, if he continues to hit for power and get on base, he might get a shot in 2015. As a DH, right now he is being blocked by Willingham/Doumit/Colabello. All three of those guys probably won't be with the team in 2015, so he might be in the mix. He is a switch hitter and seems to hit OK from both sides of the plate but might be better from the right side. His ceiling is a power hitting 1B. And based on positional value, probably the lowest ceiling Harrison - He is supposed to have a great swing and is a hardworker. I dunno. I have seen bad comments on his D and he hasn't produced. But he is young and has decent plate discipline, maybe he can get it going. If he improves at the plate, I would say best case is 2016 arrival. He might have the highest "ceiling" of the 4 but he would have to learn how to play the OF. Walker - My feelings on him were already said. Unless he learns how to get on base, his ceiling is a 4th OF with some pop. If he makes it will be 2017. - But if he changes his approach at the plate and learns how to get on Base he would be at the top of this list. Hicks - He has the lowest ceiling but OK power. He is a 1B who adds some depth to the organization and could get a cup of coffee in 2017.

I'm most suprised about Vargas. I think the twins feel even if someone takes Achter they have enough similar talents it doesn't matter. But I dont think he will be taken

I am not sure I have ever seen "runs scored" as a stat to evaluate a prospect especially one with a bad OB %. For me, I'm not sure what you mean by "comps" as his K% & BB% are not good and red flags. That's just a fact. You can say you think he can overcome those red flags and I hope you are right. But that coupled with the reports I have seen that say he struggles with balls that have movement tells me he will has problems as he faces high quality pitching. I hope you are right and I am wrong.

I guess the below guys stand a chance to be added or risk being taken: Polanco - Surely Kepler (maybe - But there is little chance he could stick on a 25 man roster unless he gets stashed with a phantom injury) Vargas (strong maybe - some team would have to be really sold on his bat) Darnell (double strong maybe - His handedness could give a team a cheap team controlled LOOGY) Beresford (triple strong doubtful, but some team could take a chance on his bat/glove) everyone else should not be protected because they won't be taken. - However I am not sure how the minor league portion of the draft works

No need for skepticism. Just because there hasn't been formal offers put out there doesn't mean they are not talking numbers. I would guess we have a lot of agents waiting for first deals to get out there and then the dominoes will start falling. By all accounts the FO is going out and trying for some of the top names in the FA pool. That is way different than last year, and really its all we can ask for, to be in the mix. Hopefully they can land a few.

Agree with you on Kepler. One of the few good things about his AFL performance was his ability to take walks despite seeing a quality of pitcher he has never seen before. This is a positive indicator despite his otherwise poor AFL stats. His baseball experience is still pretty low so I expect this portion of his game to improve. Regarding the natural cycle, my point is simply I don't think of what the system has as "depth." I think its top heavy with some super prospects on the verge followed by a bunch of "maybes" in the low minors. I think the team needs to hit on some position players next year in the draft. And of course if they could sign another Sano type player as an international FA, I would take that too.

Why? What has he done to be factored in? He has already been passed by Santana, and he did nothing to deserve a promotion. His play shows he deserves to be sent down to CR next year. He should not block anyone

I wouldn't say depth, I would say question marks. Twins could go from a Top Tier system to a mid-tier system next year if some of the CR all-stars don't do well. The current top 4 or 5 guys would be the top prospects in any team's system. This is a given and these guys are what makes this system a top tier system. All 4 of those guys have the ability to contribute next year and make this team into a contender comes 2015. But after that there is a huge drop off to guys who were in Cedar Rapids/Rookie Leagues last year. There is no other pitcher who ended the year at Fort Myers or above last year who I have any reasonable hope to be an 1 - 4 type pitcher. (Maybe May, but he looks to be bullpen arm to me) There is lots of interesting pitchers below Fort Myers but we can only reasonably expect 1 or 2 if we are lucky to actually make the Twins due to injury/talent and other TINSTAAPP issues The current system is weak on OF prospects with power - Outside of Arcia who is there who could help the team in 2014 or even 2015? – Don’t say Walker because he has HUGE contact/SO issues that he hast to fix and he hasn’t been able to fix even though he played college, he needs to prove it against pitchers who can throw with movement. Now that Mauer moves to 1B, this removes a potential problem at this position as there isn't anyone who looks to be a good hitting 1B until we reach Vargas. I do think Polanco will become the best prospect in the system, and hopefully he can end the year at AA next year – that would be huge!. And I liked a lot of players at CR/E-Town/GCL last year. But I think after the Buxton, Meyer, Sano, Rosario wave graduate, the system could drop to Middle of the pack because of the weakness in the upper levels – Unless of course everything goes right next year with Vargas, Walker, Polanco, Stewart, Thorpe, Rosario, Landa & Felix.

I am in China and can view the website fine But I have to type in a captcha before I can enter. I feel discriminated against and have called my local consulate officer to complain about your site. She hung up on me.

I wonder why Herrmann isn't getting steam as an option at catcher. He caught 80 games in 2012 and 67 total between the MLB and AAA last year.

I am getting tired of seeing the below, and fans buying into it: What team isn't wary of a bad contracts? Bad contracts are the risk of FA, just like missing on a draft pick is the risk of missing in scouting & development, or missing on trades like the Revere trade. The only difference is a miss draft pick/trade doesn't hurt the ownership's pockets like a bad a contract. This current team is not good, and they have a system that lacks pitching due to bad drafting/injuries/bad luck. So...unless you want to stink, you have to take the risk of bad contracts. If you don't, you are a bad team unless your prospects become good.

Good for Joe Best for his long term future and family. Big bummer for the team though. His "value" goes down significantly and it makes his contract much too high

Yuck. Albers, Correia & Deduno are 4th - 5th starters on most other teams Diamond is a spot starter/bulpen arm on a decent team, who is only good if he is getting GB. Vanimal is in the bullpen on most other teams. Over their career, these guys have shown to be sub-par pitchers, with a proven record of being bad. Any replacement level pitcher is capable of a putting together a few decent starts. In my opinion, Worley is the only guy who might have a "bounce back" year and become more than 4th or 5th starter. None of those guys should hold back anyone or stop Ryan from getting a good FA pitcher. Hughes would be an OK start, but if he is the best we get, its going to be another long year at target field.