Rosterman

The rotating names of catchers in and out of glory (not named Posey) is many. Yes, Ramos was the future, especially if we knew Mauer was going to first. Pinto really was never a catching prospect (folks, this IS true). You can get by with sub-standard production if they can call a game and hold runners. But even now, any of those "prospects" won't be starting 2017 with the team. There's always specialists, like Centeno, and you can usually find a Butera floating around, if you really want to sacrifice production. Murphy should be a good solid placeholder, although no one is excited after his less than dozen appearances behind-the-dish. I'm glad right now we didn't sign Weiters, or trade for Leucroy. Even Samatacchiaalinia (whatever) would've been a difficult justification for what he wanted or got in payroll. And A.J. is even slowing down. We should be happy for the Mauer years. May never see anything like it again!

The trouble is, if you add Beresford, then you run the risk of losing him if he is sent back out. Is he valuable to the AAA team? Better to reward him a call-up at season's end if you do have a 40-man hole, or someone on the 60-day DL. Then, as the season ends, he is still eligible to be cut for some other hot young prospect, but still remain (maybe out of gratitude) with the organization, unless someone really comes calling. The situation the Twins face with Mastro, now. If they do send him down to the minors, he will have to go thru waivers and you run the risk of losing him, good or bad for one party or the other. Fine if you don't need him. Bad if you don't have someone to advance if you lose him.

So we wait four years. About that time the Twins will have money to burn, winning the World Series in 2018 and 2019 and 2020 with all the uys they would trade, today, for Trout.

You would have the second coming of Joe Mauer and not have any of the players who will be the mainstay of your organization in 2018 and 2019. Yes, he is younger, but better just to wait to see if you can unload the bank vault if he becomes a free agent and would want to play in Minnesota. That's going to be the new rub. What free agent wants to come here now unless they are overpaid, looking for a job, or a minor league guy looking for a job.

Yes, you have to bring in a wisend old vet for the bench or the bullpen to JUST be a team leader of sorts. But usually those are guys on the downside of their career (Nunez and Abad are good examples this year, but not necessary leaders). That 82 team did have a lot of youth who went on to play multiple seasons with the Twins. But practically no experience!~

Both will probably have to be protected on the 40-man this coming fall?

Its the organization's job to develop players. Part of that is putting people in a position to succeed. The Twins can't even figure out what positions their top prospects play and their field staff doesn't seem to be on the same page either. Its a complete mess. Amen. Seems we see a lot of, okay, let's try this guy out here. Is there no long range planning? If Plouffe is your once and future third baseman, then start playing Sano elsewhere earlier. Is Kepler an outfielder for the corners. Is he heir to Joe Mauer at first base? Minors is where you sort this out. Move Danny Santana back to infield reserve, then better get him time playing there -- in the minors. Yes, it is nice if ALL players can play ANYWHERE. Dream on. If you got a dynamite prospect, then you move aside the aging vet who is playing predictable ball for that prospect, or you flip that prospect for somtehing you really need. Period.

Is there a fear that an external candidate might clean the house too much, from manager and coaches down to minor league coaches and the way to do things, that prospects would be jettisoned randomly rather than looking at a potential bigger picture (and realistic) that the Twins will compete come 2018, not 2015 (the surprise) or 2016 (the dream). The talent is there. They just need the seasoning, the exposure. But whoever becomes general manager also has to realize that the couple of missing pieces, when the team IS ready to make a push, may be expensive and also a roll of the dice. Not just surrounding the core with mid-level (and expensive) middle of the rotation guys, or castoffs from other teams. Any player added to the roster from outside the organization should be a player that another team might covet, not ignore. I would vote YES for an outside the system general manager if the Twins were in shambles. If there was no talent on the farm. If there is a shakeup, it will be on field management. Do you promote the guys who have been working with the future (Dougie M, Jake Mauer, etc.). Yes, the rebuilding process will not sit well with the common fan who spends dollars to watch a game and buys the shirts and whatnot. The Twins have to figure out a way to put butts in the seats, or be content that their profits may dwindle (and, I guess, the payroll really shrink). But the payroll can't really shrink too much, and shant shrink come the time to compete, which may not be fullout until 2018 with victory in 2019 if so many pieces fall into place.

Where have all the prospects gone? They haven't arrived yet. And too many of them are just that, prospects. You draft 40-50 a year. You maybe trade for a few. Sign a few more from other teams when their rosters get too big, or from the international pipelines. But it can take a minimum of 3 years, and often five before a prospect reaches the majors, and then 9 out of 10 times there are still growing pains. To recap, let's look at the Twins draft choices who made it to the majors - with or not with the Twins - since Joe Mauer was drafted in 2001. (-) = # of players drafted that are still playing ball in a pro organization major/minor. 2001 (2) Joe Mauer, Jason Vargas, Nick Blackburn, Matt Macri, Kevin Cameron, Jose Morales. 2002 (4) Denard Span, Pat Neshek, Brock Peterson, Garrett Mock, Evan Meek, Clete Thomas, Jesse Crain, Kyle Phillips 2003 (1) Scott Baker, Levale Speigner, Travis Metcalf, Steve Pearce, Mike Holimon, John Gaub 2004 (3) Trevor Plouffe, Glen Perkins, Kyle Waldrop, Matt Fox, Anthony Swarzak, Matt Tolbert 2005 (4) Matt Garza, Kevin Slowey, Brian Duensing, Steve Tolleson, Yonder Alonso, Alex Burnett, David Hernden, Charles Leesman, Rene Tosoni 2006 (7) Chris Parmelee, Joe Benson, Danny Valencia, Tyler Robertson, Brian Dinkelman, Anthony Slama, Jeff Manship, JP Martinez, Andy Oliver 2007 (6) Ben Revere, Seth Rosin, Chase Anderson, Chris Heston 2008 (11) Aaron Hicks, Tyler Ladendorf, Mike Tonkin, George Springer, Adam Conley, Aaron Barrett, Kolten Wong, Tyler Anderson 2009 (7) Kyle Gibson, Brian Dozier, Chris Herrmann, Mario Hollands, Pat Light 2010 (11) Pat Dean, Logan Darnell, AJ Achter, Ryan O'Rourke, Cody Martin, Eddie Rosario 2011 (17) Kyle Barraclough 2012 (20) Byron Buxton, Jose Berrios, Tyler Duffey, Taylor Rogers, Zach Jones (DL) 2013 (20) - 2015 - still waiting. Yes, the Twins are pretty lucky with signings like Kepler and Sano from outside of the country. But it is players from 4 years and six years back that are just entering major league roster hood. So rebuilding takes a lot of time. Even those names NOT ON THE 40 MAN that will probably get a callup this season, will just contribute next season as they get their major league legs. And another crop from a rich organization will make their debut in 2017. Boy, there is a lot of names of guys that the Twins couldn't sign that made it with other teams. And rally, when you look at the BIG draft picture and the amount f money doled out, the results aren't knocking you off your chair. You have two issues with building a PROSPECTS-BASED TEAM, either they all come up for big contracts in roughly the same 3-5 year period, or your minor leagues are so rich, you lose guys because you don't have protected roster space for them. Which means you constantly trade down...the 2nd/3rd/4th guy on your ladder to the majors for a lower level prospect who MIGHT make it. Or veterans for mid-level prospects (i.e. May and Meyer are examples) that could flame out or have entirely different roles than when you traded for them.

I want to see more from Berrios. But the Twins starters haven't been making the rain-out requirement much in the past week. Is that a rain cloud over Dave St. Peter leaving the Target Fields offices right now?

Santana in center. Mastro called up to play center. Kepler can play center. Looks like we have too many centerfielders. Maybe a BIG TRADE on the horizon for another top pitching prospect!

It's 9:00 p.m. Anyone see any rain yet!?!

So we should be playing ALL the rookies together, at some point. Humm. Look at the AAA roster this year and the last few. How many of these guys would you actually see, long-term, in the majors. Seems the AA roster is the last "core of youngsters" development stop. Filling your AAA franchise with minor league free agents, so many so that some spill down into AA and even high A means you may have something wrong, overall, in your player draft system. Not enough guys making it past year one or year two to hold fort and PUSH these prospects playing at, say, AA ball into AAA...even if overmatched? Must you always wait half-a-season and move guys up, if you feel like it. Or go ahead and have Baxendale, Burdi, Reed, even Gordon START at a higher lev. You can always go backwards for a tune-up. But then, we are bad if we do bring up Meyer, or Kepler, or Buxton (or Hicks, or before that Gomez) and watch them be overmatched on the major league level, not getting proper coaching advice (?) and having to go back down and be a superstar in the minors. What is the TRUE development answer. Let the guys play together and win in the minors (as they have been) and then lose in the majors? And, yes, the Twins did overpay for some rotation fodder. They answered the call of the fans who thought the organization was stingy and keeping large profits for their own purses. And then we turn around and bash them that they didn't get the right guys...and overpaid. That's a tough one. Who wanted to come to Minnesota and pitch after the dreadful four seasons of losing. Will a player go somewhere if they are rewarded handsomely, rather than just give a contract that they could probably get anywhere else? Damned if front office does, or doesn't. Ryan knows what he does right. Molitor is a solid manager. We need to fear, it seems, someone totally different coming in and really throwing everything out the window and starting all over and maybe making a shambles of things, or if they come in too comfortable, then it is still the same-old same-old with different names. Hey, did you catch all the new foods at Target Field and the new bar in centerfield. Plus concerts now at the park. And no lines!

And then we have Houston and their rebuilding process. Will the Twins suffer same status next year?

And then we had the evening of May 4th!

Someone honestly believed that the Twins would contend bigtime this year. Hey, they came in second last year! The fact that theri record was barely above .500 was never considered. Yet the rotation started out gangbusters this season with a putrid offense backing them up. The bullpen vets blew games all over the place. Somehow, the offense has stopped its strikeout binge, but now both the rotation and the bullpen have come down from the stars. We continue to point fingers at Ryan and Co., and bring Molitor into the conversation. The line-up seems all over the place. Catching is a big hole. There are no empty 40-man spots. The Twins have prospects that need to play (Polanco, Kepler, Buxton, Meyer, Berrios). All of their hot bullpen arms are still at the AA level, many still struggling and wonder if they can make the jump not just to AAA but to the majors. The Twins DID spend money on a rotation. But the front office still doesn't quite know what direction to take. They traded off too many centerfielders, but can't move a Plouffe and balked at moving a Gibson or a Dozier when they might have more value and there are guys coming up or in the system that need playing time and capable of being the next best thing (not to mention you can always grab a first baseman/DH from Korea or a 2B/3B guy from Cuba - maybe). Last season the team was very lucky, having a modest season ticket base that got excited and few tickets were sent to StubHub so the Twins reaped the ahrvest of $$$ by controlling the majority of empty seats. But if this keeps up, there might be less than 10,000 fans in the stands (although 18,000 seats will have been sold) and many a bored concession booth person getting sick of leftover hot dogs. I'm not even sure what the marketing plan was for this season to get fans excited (oh, I know, new bar in centerfield, or maybe it is to listen to the Twins on a radio station that does no pre or post game stuff, and because of the ill will in the radio biz, no one else really cares to talk about the Twins with a Vikings Stadium about to open on the horizon. Is the problem the top of the organization? Is it the field staff? What are the coaches doing? Do the players listen or care? Is there a leader in the clubhouse? Is there anyone the Twins can bring in to do something behind-the-plate? At least Park is hitting them out of the Park and if that continues, along with substantial gains from Arcia and Sano, the Twins will offer some batting excitement to go with promises of a quality hard-throwing pitching future.

Milone didn't exactly show the ability to go thru the order not just once but twice and not be...bad. Meyer is still young. He will get his innings. But is he out of options next season, or does he have two years left. Either way, the Twins DON'T want him to fail, otherwise those trades of Span and Revere netting us the middle relief of May will look really bad. Quality offense to build up a pitching staff FOR THE FUTURE. Looked good on paper. We have no crystal balls. But, yes, May does deserve to be in the rotation. Meyer, too. Berrios. Duffy as the swing guy. Let's just hope that Nolasco, Gibson, Hughes and even Santana develop some value and teams come a calling, offering us more minor league depth if nothing else. But Meyer's short stay should work miracles, or he doesn't want the major league money and job enough. He knows what he has to work on. AAA is not the major leagues by a longshot.

He as kinda forced into the centerfield environs last season (who else was there). He does have blazing speed and Carew and Molly and others have been working with him. But that doesn't work if he doesn't get on base. Bunting is a skill and you have to have a certain comfort level. As well as slapping the ball. Buxton seems to want to work on just his natural hitting more so than develop things that may keep him from adding to his own personal strengths. That's a tough call with players these days (see the Twins and Carlos Gomez, for example, where they tried to work on his speed rather than jsut hitting skills). Buxton IS also young. He has had the big league experience. He has to learn that there is no necessary showboating, just getting the job done. And it is a team sport. I think he will be more than fine. He has to be as good as Span, better than Revere (whom everyone seems to hate, but the guy gets on base and steals them...what more can you ask there). Now let's talk Kepler, also in a similar overmatched boat and coming up on being out-of-options sooner rather than later and needing a place in the outfield.

So Wheeler may be increasing his stock in the organization after being removed from the 40-man last year.

Let's see. I was hoping the Twins would break camp with Hicks as the backup and have Murphy work thru his issues starting regularly at AAA. That didn't happen, and for some reason the Twins felt they should waive Hicks rather than, say, Pat Dean, who is behind Rogers in the AAA lefty pecking order and if push came to shove, even behind non-roster Logan Darnell. They didn't. There is hope that throwing Murphy out there more regularly will make him a better catcher. But a catcher learning new pitchers as well as struggling with his bat, is struggling, period. You want the defense to shine. But it is cloudly behind-the-plate for Murphy. There is the hope that Murpjhy will pull togetehr and shine defensively. And the offense will come. And that the Twins will flip Suzuki so they can promote some otehr talent for the moment, or even give a prospect time if they decide to go into total rebuild mode. Of course, we could bring back the .429 hitting Drew Butera! Someone has to make outs in the lineup every game. So someone going 0-3 is no worse than having your pitcher bat in the Natiuonal League.

it's also how well you use the bullpen, proper matchups, maybe calling on someone too soon too often (like Pressly getting a week off for some reason). And I don't think roles have been perfectly defined. Who are the long relief guys. Is everyone a situational,and how often is it a necessary fact to use them this way. The bullpen has been a mess. Especially when you look at the rotation overall.

Is it for his entire life. Does he pay 10% on whateverr he earns whenever? It is kinda like a signing bonus, in a way. But still don't see it. And we are talking about $23 mill being made by the player before investors start to see dollar one on their return. And besides giving a player a nice nestegg, which is a plus, what else do they do for the player except wait in the tree branch above like a vulture!

Ron Davis memories. Arrghhhhh! Fien and Jepsen means we try and win instead tomorrow is the new rally cry, I'm not sure the solution. We deep-sixed Stauffer and his million or so early. Is Fien the second coming of stayed-around-too-long Jared Burton? Is there any reason to think anyone would give us anything for him (his last value was in 2014 and I don't think anyone was banging loudly on the door to get him then). We got Jepsen fairly cheap. DON'T let him close and see if he can re-establish some value. We can say that the NEW KIDS wouldn't be any worse than the OLD GUYS, and we can shuffle them back and forth for awhile to see if they can work stuff out. Is that the path to take? If it is - THE TWINS HAVE TO PLAY the guys they feel will contribute in 2017 and beyond, and no one else, period. Do I have any offers?

You might say this is a pre-throwing day for Meyer. But why or why when every other pitcher goes an inning or less for the Twins, you send Meyer out there again in the 9th after a fairly rough inning THAT HE MANAGED to get himself out of. I'm sorry. You could've pitched Milone for that mop-up inning. Or start having some of the other guys get more than one or two outs. Meyer threw a comfortable amount of pitches in his 2/3rds of an inning, got to work out his nerves, got to show his stuff for comment. Instead, you elt the kid get literally clobbered again. Go figure. Yes, we lost this game BEFORE the bullpen came on the scene, but still...Fien is serving what purpose that a Graham can't, or a Rogers shouldn't. Five pitchers needed to pitch the final four innings? WHo, besides May, is supposed to be a long man...and you can even argue that.

If the Twins keep playing as they are, losing a series instead of winning, say...then they have to look closely at the longterm needs of any of the vets, be it Fien or Jepsen or even Abad. If you are playing sub-.500 ball, you really DON'T need a named closer, as you can go days without having a save situation, which does nothing for the closer who MIGHT have to pitch back-to-back-to-back if you do have a winning situation. It does give you an opportunity to try multiple YOUNG arms out in the role. Not ALL the young arms, but the ones with the best chance of success. Now the question comes is that someone currently on the roster like May, who SHOULD be a fixture in the rotation more or less (or is he the next Rick Aguilera). Do you advance Chargolis and let him get his feet wet in major league ball, skipping AAA. Are names like Dean and Graham really in the future mix? Of course, the Twins have two weeks to run Meyer, Berrios and Duffey thru the mill...two weeks that can temper decisions made down the road. Of course, a couple of the arms you MIGHT like to see in the bullpen are still toughing it out in AA (Reed, Burdi) and even A+ (Bard).