BoomBoom

People need to recognize that this kid is a talent. Niko is off to a great week and end of the season stretch. I could see it being useful for Niko going to Arizona Fall League or Winter Ball somewhere. Batting .314 in August stretch with 2 doubles; 3 triples; and 3 HRs. Niko also has a 7 to 7 BB/ K output. His arm is still the BEST infield arm in the system and he should truly get the chance to play SS more. The Twins messed up in that evaluation IMO. They expected him to get bigger and be able to play third in the future. He is the most athletic person on the Chattanooga roster and that might have included Buxton.

It is amazing how Walker has tailed off so much in the last 2 months. That being said: He still has a 12 HR lead over any one in the Twins organization and 18 RBI lead over anyone in the Twins organization as well at this point. Seems that his walk to strike out ratio has improved drastically this month (BB/K) 12 to 21 and is arguably the best it has ever been. His power numbers however, have dwindled under his new approach. Walker has only 4 extra base hits in the month of August despite striking out nearly half as much. If it's not the pitchers figuring him out and striking him out more, why is he making more contact and batting much worse in terms of efficiency the second half? No Power and No BA? Still at 27 HRs and 94 RBI despite hitting below .210 in second half. More Contact = Better Results? I just don't know?

Any better

How does minor league portion of Rule 5 draft work? Who's eligible for that part of draft? We lost Tomshaw (in AAA for Marlins now) last year. With so many key players on Chattanooga, could we possibly lose any of those guys to minor league portion of draft? And if so - who might we lose? Want to know particulars before starting new thread.

I agree with Goodrum. 4 RBI with HR and Triple tops Buxton IMO

I see the 7 players as such: Stuart Turner Adam Brett Walker Nick Gordon (ala Buxton route) Nick Burdi Luke Bard Brandon Peterson JT Chargois

Brewers - Lucroy and Segeura and Kris Davis Twins - Duffy - Meyers - Walker - Arcia - Burdi - Turner

Agreed there is no need to compare - Walker has many things he doesn't do well. But there are also MANY things he does exceptionally well and those are XBHs and run production. All the things Twins fans are complaining about with the parent club. Regardless to how he gets it done - He gets it done year in and year out. Based on his minor league sabermetrics - He shouldn't be half as successful as he has been, but he somehow repeats his habits in a winning cause. Adam Dunn 1 playoff series in his career - Walker Championships in two of his first 3. Just saying................Lol

How about the guy who averages 26 HRs and 100+ RBI every year? With all his SOs, the one thing he is not doing is hitting into inning killing DPs. We need the MASHer who out MASHed our only true MASHer we have right now (Miguel Sano). At least in Chattanooga he did Lol (15 to 22). Why not see how flawed he is at some point? Everybody might be surprised. Otherwise let Arcia do his thing, because he can hit the ball given a chance. I'd rather have Arcia (24) than Mauer going forward as a promising hitter.

To your point about protection. This is the first year Sano has played with Walker and Sano was batting 3rd in lineup while Walker was batting 7th. Walker has never had what one would call protection (speed in front of him or power behind him in the lineup). Sano has had the likes of Rosario; Buxton; Kepler; and Polanco; in front of him and Vargas behind him in his career. Walker has rarely had a power threat near him in the lineup. IMO

Great to see so many Lookouts making the Top Tools List: That little 2nd baseman for the Lookouts is a very underrated defender and prospect IMO http://www.twinkietown.com/2015/8/13/9151025/twins-prospects-earn-best-tools-honors-from-managers-and-coaches Thoughts......................

When I look at Walker's 26 doubles to go with his 26 home runs, I can't help but think ABW II is more than a "All or Nothing" / "Boom or Bust" prospect. His 55 XBH are tops in the Southern League. Glad to see his breakout game after a long drought at the plate. His August numbers of 12.5% BB rate and 23% K rate are encouraging signs as well. What I like about high XBH numbers, is that it tells me a player can put himself in scoring position without the help of others.

Never should have gotten rid of Gary Lucas. Can't think of a pitcher who pitched under him who flamed out at any level? Berrios learned to pitch in A and high A ball under Lucas and see how he turned out. Bet you can't find a pitcher in the system who didn't love Lucas as their coach. Just saying.........

No doubt

I think he is just laying off pitches better. He was never affected by Buxton and Sano in line up. He always hit after them and usually in the 7th hole when they were there. He has never had the luxury of being pitched to in his minor league career because of someone behind him or in front of him for that matter. Sano has had the likes of Buxton, Rosario, and Polanco batting immediately in front of him (base stealing threats). He also has had the likes of Vargas, Kepler, and Walker batting behind him. Walker has never really had that type of protection (so to say) on a consistent basis. They don't have to throw him fast balls because of a base threat in front of him or worry about putting him on because of a HR threat behind him. Long story short. I think he is just laying off pitches better.

Is this progress? ABW II has 9 BB in the last 10 games and 11 Ks. In the month of August he has more BB than Ks. All that said - as he works on his BB/K ratio and makes those improvements, he is also batting .091 over those 10 games (3 for 33). He has 2 RBI and scored only twice despite the high walk rate. It is obvious, that as ABW II works on his faults (zone discipline), his lack of production has been detrimental to his teams success of late. The Lookouts are starving for offense ala the Twins. Improved contact rate and improved zone discipline don't necessarily convert to success. Or does it in the case of ABW II? Personal Success or Team Success? How to continue to Do You as you work on those flaws. That's the ticket, and not always an easy one when trying to win too. 4 home runs in last 40 days when he use to average 1 home run per series? Is this progress?

I think that Kepler deserves a September Call Up, but I don't know how much a .330 BA - .400 OBP - 48 RBI - 6 HR player jump starts an offense. He doesn't score a lot or drive in many runs despite getting on base alot. I think Kepler will continue to hit at the MLB level, but not enough to cure the Twins problems. Arcia can be that game changer where as Kepler is not. Twins need to score runs. Kepler needs people of similar skill sets around him to help this offense. Arcia doesn't. I again believe Kepler could be as effective as Robinson or Rosario, but he is not the answer to our run scoring woes. The fact that we do not have more than 1 player batting over .280 is the problem. Kepler batting .300 is not going to change this offense. Answer - Several good hitters or a Few prolific HR hitters - One of each is not the answer Right now we don't have either.

Getting on base is very important (OBP), but getting to home plate is more important in the game of baseball. The team that scores more always wins. We need run producers. Our team is designed for .300+ hitters and high OBP players across the lineup. Everybody driving in everybody because everybody is finding a way to get on base. That only works when you string hits together or hits with walks. If you have a team full of high OBP players with .240 to 260 batting averages - GAME OVER!! WE NEED GAME CHANGING THREATS - RUN PRODUCERS Not just Sano. Hell - ABW II has 24 Doubles and 26 Home Runs to go along with 86 RBI. He has a #$@& load of strike outs, but even with those type of numbers he has consistently been a GAME CHANGER. If you're taking chances on OBP players, why not take a chance with one of the only 2 (Sano) GAME CHANGERS in the system. A spark is a spark. I'm tired of not scoring.

Well deserved

I like your thinking Outside of the Box. Definitely a younger Power hitting voice that the Twins do not have in their system. Oliva is great, but Thome probably brings more to date credibility for these younger players.

Hey people: PLAYERS NEED TO PLAY Our two face of the franchise players (Mauer and Perkins) are having very poor second halves. You wanted an all star - well we have the best 1st half all star reliever in the game, in Perkins. Nothing is guaranteed. If TR would have brought in an all star and that all star struggled, people would have wanted his head for bringing in the wrong all star. We are still in it. Let's hope Mauer and Perkins get back on track and bring what they do best. I STILL BELIEVE

No that's funny Lol

Maybe that is why they don't have a hitting coordinator anymore. Maybe they felt they were taking a cookie cutter approach with an overall coordinator. Each level should provide different needs and each player should have different needs within that level. Otherwise it would be like a strength coach starting everyone with the same plan and same weight amount. That would not maximize a players potential.

Players have different abilities and I think you should work to those strengths while addressing their weaknesses along the way. Working towards their weaknesses and addressing their strengths sometimes takes away from their strengths IMO. I can bet that no one on this board actually has heard the Twins address an organizational Approach. We as fans talk about the lack of approach from players, but never really know what the prospect is told about his approach from hitting coach? We speculate based on what we know about baseball. We hear about it when players are demoted from the MLB, but never while in minor leagues. For instance: taking pitches and working count is great if they are not throwing you a ton of strikes and striking out is terrible if they are throwing you a ton of balls. We as fans never really know how players are being pitched and assume based on a philosophy. We assume the prospect must be swinging at balls if striking out to much and is over aggressive. We assume that the above results are based on traditional approaches and rationale. When in fact a player may strike out a lot because he just can't hit the ball in the zone often enough and a player might have high pitch counts because he never sees a strike or because he fouls off a lot of pitches in the zone? What is the approach given to prospect from year to year? Are they in fact following organizational instructions and we don't know proposed approach. You know damn well the organization is not going to say "oh yeah" that's on us when a player performs poorly. All we have to go on is results in season and credit the hitting coach. The only hitting coach to receive grief is the MLB coach.

Not just getting Walker down from 30% K rate to 20% K rate, but all of these accomplishments are things we haven't seen since Watkins worked with them. Polanco high RBI & BB numbers - Harrison double digit HR numbers - Hicks triple digit RBI numbers, etc., etc..