It’s time people start paying attention to Engelb Vielma. Vielma, who turned 21 a month ago, has been the starting shortstop for the Miracle this season. Always known as a top flight defensive prospect, the diminutive Vielma has done little to discourage that perception in his first 2 seasons of professional ball: in the Midwest League in 2014, Vielma posted a .636 OPS (a wRC+ of 84) and so far in 2015 his OPS sits at .648 (wRC+ of 99). Certainly, this represents a modest improvement, but it
Introduction Over the past few weeks there have been a number of articles focusing on the Twins early season success, and asking one, simple question: can the Twins keep on winning? These articles have focused on two main points: the Twins potent offense (they rank 9th in MLB) despite a mediocre OPS (18th in MLB) and their stellar record (4th best win percentage in MLB) despite a much less impressive run differential (8th best in MLB). Their conclusion has tended to be that the Twins performan
This is the first part in one I envision being a three part examination of the Twins bullpen. In Part I, I will look at the 2015 Twins bullpen as a whole, and compare it to the other bullpens in MLB. In Parts II and III, I will look at the performance of the individual members of the Twins bullpen and then at several players in the upper levels of the Twins minor league system who could be viable replacement options. There are two main features of the Twins’ bullpen so far in 2015: it’s bad, a
Jorge Polanco has been a favorite prospect of mine for several years and at this point he has certainly established himself as one of the best prospects in the Twins system. His discipline at the plate and positional flexibility make him seem like a relatively safe bet as far as prospects go. However, Polanco’s lack of power and speed have prevented him from being viewed as a dynamic prospect; you won’t see him on any top 100 prospect lists. But after 3 steals in four games, is it time to ree
Over the past year, Lewis Thorpe has exploded on the scene. An unknown commodity heading into the GCL last season, he was so dominant as a 17 year old that he has appeared on various preseason Twins’ top 10 prospect lists. He has made even more news this year, skipping the Appalachian league and going straight to A ball from extended spring training. However, the Midwest league has not been kind to Thorpe, who has posted a 5.40 ERA with a 31:15 k:bb ratio in 35 innings over 8 GS. Despite these s
There have been mixed feelings about Kohl Stewart this season. Some cite his low ERA as evidence that he has been excellent, while other point out his low K-rate and claim that he is struggling. Let’s take a closer look to see which is the case. A Closer Look The first thing we must consider is Stewart’s age. A prospect’s performance should never be viewed independently of their age: if a player is old for their level, they should be expected to perform well; conversely, if a player is yo
The upper-levels of the Twins minor league system is stocked with relief pitchers performing at a high level. Here is a quick rundown: Michael Tonkin (AAA, 24)- Tonkin has been arguably the best reliever in the Twins system since the start of 2012. This year in AAA, Tonkin has a 3.08 ERA—nothing special—but his K and BB numbers are excellent: 26 K’s to just 4 BB’s in 26.1 innings. He’s been even better in this department since the start of June: 18 K’s to 1 BB in 18.1 IP. Tonkin has pitche
Here are three legitimate prospects (all are 1.7 years younger than the average player in their respective leagues, according to Baseball Reference) who, at first glance, appear to be struggling so far in 2014. A closer examination, however, tells a different story: Taylor Rogers (AA SP) 32.2 IP in 8 GS The bad: 5.36 ERA 1.53 WHIP [*]Why he’s better than his numbers: The obvious indicator is his 3.50 FIP, almost 2 full runs lower than his ERA; in fact, this difference is the high
Here are three legitimate prospects (all are 1.7 years younger than the average player in their respective leagues, according to Baseball Reference) who, at first glance, appear to be struggling so far in 2014. A closer examination, however, tells a different story: Taylor Rogers (AA SP) 32.2 IP in 8 GS The bad: 5.36 ERA 1.53 WHIP [*]Why he’s better than his numbers: The obvious indicator is his 3.50 FIP, almost 2 full runs lower than his ERA; in fact, this difference is the
Shortstop appears to be the weakest position in the Twins organization. Danny Santana is the closest legitimate SS prospect to the majors. But with a .691 OPS this season and 29 errors already (Alexei Ramirez leads all shortstops with 21), does Santana have a legitimate chance to be a franchise shortstop? Here’s a closer look. Hitting Here are Santana’s numbers the last 3 seasons: [TABLE=width: 433] Year PA Level BB% K% BB/K ISO OPS 2011 409 A 6.1 24 0.26 0.126 0.676 2012 547 A+ 5.3
Here are 4 prospects that are showing major signs of improvement that have generally gone unnoticed. JaDamion Williams (LF) 2012 (A): 9.6%BB 28.3%K .34BB/K .106 ISO 9.6%IFB .651OPS 2013 (A): 14.5%BB 20.7%K .70BB/K .180 ISO 5.3%IFB .852OPS JD Williams has made significant improvements in both his BB and K rates, which has allowed him to draw over twice as many BBs per K as a year ago, a staggering improvement. He ha
Heading into the 2013 season, there were 5 2B prospects that were generally considered to be among the top 100 in baseball: Jedd Gyorko of the San Diego Padres, Nick Franklin of the Seattle Mariners, Kolten Wong of the St. Louis Cardinals, Jonathan Schoop of the Baltimore Orioles, and Delino DeShields Jr. of the Houston Astros. My question is this: how does Eddie Rosario stack-up statistically against these more heavily hyped prospects? Rankings Baseball America Jedd Gyorko (2B)- 71 Nick
Before we all go assigning values to the Twins’ trade chips based off of how good we think they are, it is important to remember that, like most things, the value of players at the trade deadline is determined by the market. In short, a market is composed of supply, which is made up of sellers, and demand, which is made up of buyers. Buyers If the trade deadline were tomorrow, I believe there would be 16 teams considered buyers. Of course there are the 6 division leaders (Boston, Detroit, Oa
I went to see the final game of the Rock Cats’s series in Portland on Monday. Because I was only watching one game, didn’t see BP or fielding drills, and am not a professional scout I am not making any conclusions. My purpose was more to provide details that cannot be found in a boxscore as well as a very modest scouting report. I focused on Sano, Rosario, and Pinto. Unfortunately Danny Santana wasn’t in the lineup, as I was hoping to get a look at him playing shortstop. Hitting Sano
I really hold back what I would like to say about then payroll arguments here. The fact that people don't accept the amount taken in dictates the amount going out requires one of two things. Extreme financial ignorance or fanatical bias that prevents the acceptance of something some basic. I did not change the argument. It's the same idiocy over and over. Do you really want to be on the side that suggests revenues does not determine spending capacity?
At this point in the pre-season, I’m just so happy to be seeing games again, I don’t care about the Twins record in 2023. I think they’ll win it all, unrealistically speaking 🙂
I really hold back what I would like to say about then payroll arguments here. The fact that people don't accept the amount taken in dictates the amount going out requires one of two things. Extreme financial ignorance or fanatical bias that prevents the acceptance of something some basic. I did not change the argument. It's the same idiocy over and over. Do you really want to be on the side that suggests revenues does not determine spending capacity?· 0 replies
