Vanimal46

Whether it's fair or not, I'm just not a fan of Tonkin. Don't think he's anything more than a 6th-7th inning guy in low leverage situations. But you are right, he's going to get his real shot because he's out of options.

Not sure why there needs to be a comp to prove the players have value.... Even if there was a comp, there's a 99.9% chance it's not accurate. I'm not sure what your point is in the 2nd paragraph.... Most teams trade prospects before they reach the failure point. Like Steve said, most every trade in the MLB is a proven player for prospects.... Your solution in the 3rd paragraph is to hoard all prospects until they no longer prove useful? Even if there's not an available slot to put them on the MLB team for 2-3 years? That also makes very little sense. The perceived value of these prospects are different for each GM. Steve's point is all 3 he mentioned are consensus top 10 prospects in a very good farm system. There's going to be some demand for the players. How much? Hard to say when we're not involved in the trade discussions.

5 very worthy storylines to follow this month. I'm most looking forward to Buxton forcing the issue to be the opening day CF, and Park's transition to the MLB. I'm in agreement with you Nick that Berrios is most likely starting in AAA for a couple of weeks to get that extra year of control. I think another storyline to follow is which one of these flame throwing relievers is going to force the issue? Like I've posted many many times this off-season, I wanted a proven FA reliever to join the team. Since that didn't happen, I will embrace the youth movement. No more Tonkin's, Kintzler's, Buddy Bosher's out there. Let's see one of the young guys step up and make the team out of ST.

I'd like to see more than 1 HR from Gordon, since that's approaching Ben Revere territory, but really I'm not too concerned about it. I'm hoping that Gordon continues to develop, and can be a lead off hitter for the Twins in the future. That would be extremely valuable to have a table setter at the top of the order for Sano to drive in.

Both Miggy and Pujols weren't even close to Sano's weight in their 3B or OF days... Heck, Pujols isn't as big as Sano even today.... The pictures don't lie.... Here's Pujols his rookie year http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/G_s81JXi7Vk9z._3RH9SmQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTI0MA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/YahooSports/1307346769.jpg And Miguel Cabrera during his 3B and OF days http://img.fanbase.com/media.fanbase.com/8/38072/c69820af4cdf3e66e4f5018314c3edede990b71a.jpg?x=300&y=450&sig=47d2537b92d3d171ecca28f1c0d06561

Yeah I'm not sure what kind of return that group of guys can bring back. I agree with you that Plouffe brings back little in return, along with your assessment of Walker/Arcia not bringing back anything special. What I agree with Steve about is the idea of selling Polanco this season before he runs out of options. The mindset from the Twins and bloggers of Twins baseball is Polanco has question marks of whether he can stick at SS or not. Is that a league wide assumption that he can't stick at SS, or is it just us? Wouldn't it be nice to sell him to another team with the glimmer of hope that he could stick at SS, instead of 1-2 years later when it's more definitive that he can't play SS, thus his trade value dropping lower than today?

This situation is way too cloudy for the next 2+ years with Dozier entrenched at 2B, and Escobar + others coming to the rescue in the next 2-3 years. I think this situation could end a couple of ways for the Twins. If the team is contending for a playoff spot in July, IMO Polanco should be trade bait to acquire a player who can help the MLB club this year. If the team is struggling and the outlook for a playoff spot isn't great, IMO Dozier should be traded and the team can plug Polanco in at 2B to let him grow. For the time being, it's nice to have depth, but at the same time it's also wasting a potential trade chip for 2-3 years while he waits for his chance at the MLB level.

I had no idea Stewart is going through these issues. I'm no expert on diabetes but yes, that is a concern going forward. At 21 I hope he can still develop into an MLB pitcher, but it wouldn't surprise me if 5-10 years down the line there's a thread on this site titled "Remember Kohl Stewart? What's he up to these days?"

This article is nice breath of fresh air. As fans we all like to point the finger at someone as to why the organization is run this way. It may all boil down to the culture set at the top. It's no secret that it's a very stable organization, with almost a country club type atmosphere. It can be a very bad thing (Cleveland Browns come to mind) when an organization changes direction, philosophy and voices too much. I'd argue it can be just as bad when the same voice and philosophy remains the same for too long. I think complacent is a perfect word to describe the current status of the Twins. No one near the top of the hierarchy is in jeopardy of losing their job. When that's the case, who's pushing them to be better? And who's telling them to think outside the box and take chances? I can't imagine the Pohlad's are doing this. So when everything remains the status quo for so many years, why should we as fans expect different results? TR's comfortable doing the things he's doing, almost too comfortable. TR does good things for this organization. He knows how to draft and develop talent, which is a good trait to have with a mid-market team. However, Mike Sixel said this well in the Not a TR fan thread, that I don't trust TR to be the closer when the team needs to be more aggressive to get them over the hump. I agree with what he says. I think right now would be a great time to find a young, hungry baseball executive and put a plan in place that he or she will take over as FT GM in the next 2 years. TR can teach his ways of scouting, development, and drafting, and the new person will have a more aggressive mentality when the time is right to do so.

The Pohlad's, hell most every owner in sports minus Jerry Jones and Mark Cuban, aren't the ones pounding the pavement to improve their teams. That's the job of the GM... So you may be putting your frustrations towards the wrong person. I'm just as frustrated as anyone here that there seems to be a budget put in place that the GM can't go over. At the end of the day, it's the constraints we have to live with as fans as long as a Pohlad owns this club. There's a couple of guarantees in life: death, taxes, Jeffrey Loria having a fire sale every 5 years, the Cleveland Browns being awful at football, and the Twins having a set payroll budget.

shhh. You're bringing facts and logic into this.... It doesn't fit into the narrative that the Twins are home grown kids and signing FA's hardly ever work out!

The Indians seem to have been the hot sleeper name in Feb/March the last 2-3 years.. I believe in their pitching staff, and Lindor from my SSS of watching him looks like the real deal. I said it in the White Sox thread, but you can make cases for any team in this division to finish in 1st, and just as many cases for any team to finish in last. Cleveland's no different.

Believe me, you're one of many (including me) on this site that felt it was time to see if Sano can play 3B. Hopefully by the trade deadline or in 2017 we'll see that happen. In the mean time, we're stuck watching Sano play at a position he's never played before in his life.

Unless things change, Meyer's coming into ST looking to earn a spot in the MLB bullpen. His ceiling and floor have certainly changed since 3-4 years ago if that's going to be his new role.

I'm just piling on here but yes, the floors for both Jay and Stewart are way too high. Berrios is close enough to getting his shot in the MLB that his floor/ceiling makes sense. I'm sure if this article was written 3-4 years ago Meyer's floor was back of the rotation starter, and ceiling top of the rotation starter.... Now we're hoping he can be a 6th/7th inning bullpen guy. A lot of things can happen between A ball and AAA to get these players off track.

From a long term perspective I agree, the Twins have the depth and upside over the Sox and Tigers. What the Sox and Tigers have over the Twins is a larger payroll. The Sox have both Danks and LaRoche's horrific contracts coming off the books next year, $40 million total with their other expiring contracts. Who knows if they make a splash in FA or choose to sell/rebuild beginning next season. EDIT: Math isn't my strong suit anymore....

I'm with RiverBrian. As Twins fans, I don't think there's a team in this division that can be overlooked. From a pitching standpoint, the White Sox seem to have the upper hand over the Twins in at least 3 spots, possibly 4 if Latos finds his way again. This division is tough to predict. You can make cases for any team to finish in 1st place, and just as many cases for any team to finish in last place.

So this is the list of names that the Twins couldn't think about messing up with a FA signing this off-season. Can't say I'm too excited beyond Perkins, May, and Jepsen. Hope I'm proven wrong. I like Thrylos' take on Rogers that he could be on a Perkins' career path. Why have him continue to start when he's 9th in line when he can be a potential difference maker in the bullpen?

Yep. I would say there's a pretty big delta in wanting to win as many games as possible this year, and anything short of a WS title is a failure.

I would argue that KC did make big sacrifices to get over the hump and become WS champs. They gave up Finnegan, their #4 org prospect and 2 other prospects to get Cueto. It's debatable if Cueto helped or hindered the team during the regular season, but I'd be willing to bet every KC fan would make that same trade again after his CG in the WS....

That is a wise and reasonable take. Isn't that the usual route that most future top of the order hitters take? I'm perfectly fine with Buxton setting the table for the top of the order hitters this season, and hope he evolves to be the future lead-off or #3 hitter in the lineup 1-3 years down the road.

If this scenario were to take place, which I sincerely hope it doesn't, it would be because Buxton has a god awful ST. I think the job is Buxton's to lose, and the only way he does is if he has a .125 or lower BA, and strikes out over half of the time.

That's all fine and dandy if Suzuki can find a middle ground between 2014 and 2015's numbers offensively. I think a bigger concern is Suzuki's defense.. Mike a month or so ago shared the Fangraphs article about Gibson where they mentioned Suzuki was one of the worst pitch framers in the game, and caused more harm than good with the pitching staff. And we're all aware he was letting base runners steal at ease last year. I don't want Suzuki to get the number of PA needed to vest his option next year. Let's hope for a 60/40 split on playing time leaning more on Murphy this season.

These are great features you're putting together Seth. On this particular article, the most important thing I grasped is Shag-waa is how you pronounce that dang name! Every time his name is mentioned on TD, I've read it as Char-Goy... I was WAY off!

19 players signed their letter of intent to join the Gophers next season. They did lose out on WR Dredrick Snelson, who chose to sign with UCF instead of Minnesota. Good luck joining an 0-12 team pal. Here's the link of the Gophers incoming class if you are interested.