This is the first part in a series examining the Twins system, position-by-position in order to get both a near and long-term perspective of Twins' system. With regard to first base, there are a number of question marks, certainly, but it also seems to be the case that there is some hope both in the near future and definitely down the road. Let's go from top to bottom, starting with the Twins: Minnesota: Justin Morneau: LH, DOB: 5-15-81. STATS: .296/.340/.415 (.755), 10 doubles/0 triples/
I am not sure many really expected all of this. The Twins are now 8-7 and have won four games in a row. This is while starting without their best 2012 starting pitcher for nine games, with Vance Worley being bad until his fourth start, with a horribly struggling rookie in Aaron Hicks, with Justin Morneau at even sub-2012 levels of production, with Ryan Doumit struggling, with . . . . well you get the idea. The fact that the Twins are over .500 is surprising when you consider that only Joe Ma
Last year's crew didn't do so well overall, especially the pitchers. This year only one of the 10 players returns to the list. These are guys under the radar a bit, but could have breakout or breakthrough seasons (from bottom to top of system): 1. Dereck Rodriguez (EST, E-Town or CR): Rodriguez had a solid 2012 season when healthy. He is turning 21 in June and has been moved very cautiously in the Twins system (much like Nate Roberts). I have to imagine that he ends 2013 with Cedar Rapids, esp
It is time to return to an analysis of the farm system in terms of how prospects by position are moving up, moving down, appearing, disappearing, or reappearing on this year's list. This is an attempt to gauge the overall status of the system from year to year and entails, indirectly, an analysis of the 2012 draft, but also the development of players still in the system and the emergence of talent up into the big leagues. I used the 2012 compilation list from myself, Seth Stohs, and Twinki
Here it goes: Hicks, CF Mauer, C Willingham, LF Morneau, 1B Doumit, DH Plouffe, 3B Parmelee, RF Dozier, 2B Florimon, SS Bench: Carroll, Escobar, Boggs, Ramirez/Colabello Note: I don't care about Dozier and Florimon at the bottom (Carroll will fill in), I like a Hicks-Mauer-Willingham first inning a great deal. Worley Pelfrey Hendriks Correia DeVries (Diamond DL) Pressley Slama Robertson Fien Duensing Burton Perkins (Swarzak DL, Guerra DL) I like this rotation with Diamond sliding
This concludes my 1-60 prospect list in depth. I hope it is helpful for everyone to get a grasp of the depth of the system and to help in formulating one's own top 20 or 30 prospects lists. Note: yes, neither Randy Rosario nor Anthony Slama appear in this top 60, and for entirely different reasons. Rosario needs to have a good 2013, and Slama appears to be done in the system, or it doesn't even matter to include him anywhere. Also, note: I am going to analyze the prospect movement trends fro
This concludes my 1-60 prospect list in depth. I hope it is helpful for everyone to get a grasp of the depth of the system and to help in formulating one's own top 20 or 30 prospects lists. Note: yes, neither Randy Rosario nor Anthony Slama appear in this top 60, and for entirely different reasons. Rosario needs to have a good 2013, and Slama appears to be done in the system, or it doesn't even matter to include him anywhere. Also, note: I am going to analyze the prospect movement trends fro
10. Trevor May (DOB: 9-23-89), RH starter: May came over with Vance Worley in the Ben Revere trade. That trade was a steal for the Twins. Not only did they get a competent middle of the rotation guy for 2013, but they got another for 2014 or 2015 in May. There has been some talk about May’s struggles in AA in 2012 and the potential move to the bullpen. I am not at all clear as to why such nonsense has been uttered. If one actually looks at the numbers, May in 2010 at A ball was dominant. He str
This is the sixth part of my detailed prospect list. These five are impressive in various ways with power, plate discipline, and speed that makes the Twins offensive prowess in the system start to seem pretty impressive before even cracking the top 10. 15. Adam Walker (DOB: 10-18-91), RH right fielder: Walker’s .250/.310/.496 line at Elizabethon is impressive, but it doesn’t overwhelm. However, he hit 14 homers, 7 doubles, and 4 triples in 254 plate appearances, continues to work hard on his d
The fifth installment is comprised of 5 high upside guys who could all be very good major leaguers. I guarantee that at least one of them will be very good, another will be good, and the other three will all make it to contribute in a real way (or be used in a trade). 20. Matt Hauser (DOB: 3-30-88), RH reliever/starter: Hauser has a mid 90s fastball, a sinker, a slider, and a changeup. He was great at Fort Myers in relief then started some games successfully and moved up to New Britain where h
In the fourth installment, things start to get quite interesting with some strong upside talents and some almost tragic time-is-of-the-essence prospects in limbo. 30. Mason Melotakis (DOB: 6-28-91), LH reliever: Melotakis was moved quickly from Elizabethon to Beloit last year and didn’t miss a beat. The hard-throwing lefty (mid 90s fastball) also has a great power slider. In 17+ innings at Beloit last year he gave up only 4 earned runs, struck out 24 and walked 4. He could fly up this list and
This is the third segment in my prospect list breakdown. These ten have good-to-great upside in most cases and essentially all of them are facing crucial seasons in their development, for various reasons. 40. Angel Morales (DOB: 11-24-89), RH outfielder: After the 2010 season, I placed Morales at number 5 on my prospect list. That was a bit high for him, but he certainly made the vast majority of top 10 lists. Morales spent half of 2010 in Fort Myers and has been there ever since, battling inj
Here is part two of my detailed prospect list. This is where it tends to get pretty cloudy with a lot of reliever types, but these names either were or would have been in the 25-35ish range in the Twins system 2-3 years ago. That is a good sign. 50. Dakota Watts (DOB: 11-16-87), RH reliever: Watts bounced back from a rough 2011 to have a substantially better 2012 and remain on this list. He still walks to many batters and that is going to be the main issue going forward. His AA performance was
This is the first in a series of blog posts breaking down my top 60 Twins prospects. I realized that I had omitted Ryan Pressly and Zach Jones from my initial list, so they will make it into the series now. Overall the system has improved dramatically in the past two years, both at the top and with respect to depth. Honorable Mention: Matthew Koch, Bobby Lanigan, Tyler Grimes HM: Matthew Koch: After an inconsequential 2011, Koch started out of the gates hot in the first half of his season a
There is strangely now much more uncertainty about the 2013 roster than there was for 2012. A little over a month ago it seemed like things were clear-cut. There was a 50/50 chance that Span would be traded, but otherwise it looked like much of the 25-man roster was pretty clear. In the past few weeks, the Twins have traded Span (for prospect Alex Meyer), traded Ben Revere for Vance Worley (and prospect Trevor May), signed Kevin Correia, Mike Pelfrey and Rich Harden, and selected Ryan Pressly
This is under the assumption that no more prospects are going to be added to the system before the beginning of the 2013 season. So here are the top 60 prospects in the Twins organization: 1. Miguel Sano 2. Aaron Hicks 3. Oswaldo Arcia 4. Byron Buxton 5. Alex Meyer 6. Eddie Rosario 7. Jose Berrios 8. Kyle Gibson 9. Max Kepler 10. Trevor May 11. Joe Benson 12. Travis Harrison 13. Chris Herrmann 14. Nate Roberts 15. Adam Walker
Like the pretenders and imitators of the real Slim Shady, the Twins appear to have a preposterous situation at the SS position throughout the organization. Here, I discuss the 15 top shortstops in the organization with regard to their current output and future potential. Initially, the term "shortstop" will designate those players in the organization with significant playing time at the position in 2012 (Eduardo Escobar's 10 games at the position is the low point in terms of playing time at SS).
This concludes my 2013 blueprint. So far it has involved adding Edwin Jackson and Shaun Marcum as the two new additions to the team. It also would mean a return of Scott Baker on an incentive-laded deal, giving Anthony Slama a chance, and a wait-and-see approach with Kyle Gibson. In terms of position players, instead of worrying about who to trade, I have argued that having a good PH option for every game is actually a good idea, whether it be (by rotation) Parmelee, Morneau, Mauer, Doumit, Will
In Part Two of the 2013 blueprint, I discussed the pitching staff. Now . . . that problem has . . . .clearly been solved. So something much easier is in store. This is the lineup/bench I propose for the 2013 Twins Span CF Revere LF Mauer C Willingham RF Morneau 1B Plouffe 3B Doumit DH Dozier 2B Florimon Parmelee Carroll Mastroianni Herrmann The bench is meant to be a return to the "Thome bench." This means that the Twins would have either a good replacement already up with the team in c
In part one of the blueprint, I laid out the Twins 2013 roster as I see it should be (disclaimer: this means that this is what the Twins *should* do, not a prediction as to what they *will* do). In part two, I focus more intensely on the pitching situation, and turn the pitching staff first for obviously reasons. I am not completely against trading away MLB players or even some prospects (lower levels) for MLB-ready or near MLB-ready pitching, but I do think there is a better way to go about i
This is the first part of four parts of my 2013 Twins blueprint. The following is an overview of the roster. Part two will focus on the pitchers, part three on the position players, and part four will be centered around both contingency plans for 2013 and looking toward the future beyond 2013. Last year, I actually put out three versions of a 2012 blueprint depending on payroll (110, 105, 100) and I was right about a few things. Jamey Carroll and Ryan Doumit were added, and I even had Scott Di
Last year, I actually put out three versions of a 2012 blueprint depending on payroll (110, 105, 100) and I was right about a few things. Jamey Carroll and Ryan Doumit were added, and I even had Scott Diamond as a fifth starter in one of them. With regard to 2013, I have done a considerable amount of thinking and re-thinking. I had thought for some time that the Twins should trade Morneau for either two varying level prospects or one prospect and one MLB-ready pitcher. It is good to be constan
The discussion regarding outfield depth that took place earlier in the season was interesting because it had almost been assumed that the outfield was the brightest spot in the Twins system. In the early-to-mid part of the season, legitimate question marks about the outfield depth were raised. Joe Benson (24, AA/AAA), and Rene Tosoni (26, AA/AAA), the two prospects who had been with the Twins in 2011 for a bit of time, were struggling and struggling with injuries, and the only other prospect to
Early this season, I wrote about 10 prospects who I believed would have breakout seasons. These are not top prospects but 25-50 ranking prospects who I believed would emerge into serious big league contenders down the road. Here is an update on them and my prognostication results are definitely mixed. (age), team, PA, slash, 2B/3B/HR, BB/K, SB/SBA or (age), team, IP, ERA, K/BB, WHIP The Good: Nate Roberts: (23-6), Beloit, 339, .303/.435/.435, 18/3/4, 43/34, 27/34. Roberts stayed in Beloit
When coming to form one's beliefs or making evaluations about things, the rather vast ocean between blind faith and evidence sets up a stark contrast in reasoned (or un-reasoned) judgment. This post is not about evolution or theism, but about something much less important in the grand scheme of things. This post is about the Twins' evaluation of Anthony Slama. Let's first examine the evidence, sticking to Slama's minor league and major league statistics. In parts of four seasons in AAA Roche
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
