baseball is all about adjustments, some guys can make them and make them quickly and some are one trick ponies.  Oswaldo Arcia could crush low pitches, because he dropped his hands and hip.  There was tons of these power hitters in the league and coming up through teams systems.  Pitcher figured out high fastballs and breaking balls away and in the dirt.  Coudnt adjust his swing to catch up to the high heat so he hurried it and was susceptible to the breaking ball.  Very similar to Sano in early 2019.  Sano adjusted hand placement mid season and mashed!!!!!  Arcia never could adjust.

Putting a 280lbs infielder who never played any OF with limited ST time to practice in RF was a terrible idea and a terrible position to put Sano in.

Romero had a ton of late life on his fastball and a very nice slider. Control was always an issue. Not sure if he was trying something different mechanically that just didn't work or an injury or just lost his delivery.  The twins kept him on the 40 so he will have a decent shot to make the team if he has the stuff back and some control. Not completely lost yet but guys out of options with stuff like that are going to stick in your system if you cant keep them on your roster.

Fernando Romero seems like a guy who just throws instead of pitches. It's not often that you see a young promising guy's walk rate increase like his has as he developed. I also don't really understand why they've got him throwing a sinker that he can't control. I remember watching him pitch this year and he was throwing 96 with life but it was in the bottom of the zone where guys were just dropping the barrel and hitting lazers. 

baseball is all about adjustments, some guys can make them and make them quickly and some are one trick ponies.  Oswaldo Arcia could crush low pitches, because he dropped his hands and hip.  There was tons of these power hitters in the league and coming up through teams systems.  Pitcher figured out high fastballs and breaking balls away and in the dirt.  Coudnt adjust his swing to catch up to the high heat so he hurried it and was susceptible to the breaking ball.  Very similar to Sano in early 2019.  Sano adjusted hand placement mid season and mashed!!!!!  Arcia never could adjust.

 

Putting a 280lbs infielder who never played any OF with limited ST time to practice in RF was a terrible idea and a terrible position to put Sano in.

 

Romero had a ton of late life on his fastball and a very nice slider. Control was always an issue. Not sure if he was trying something different mechanically that just didn't work or an injury or just lost his delivery.  The twins kept him on the 40 so he will have a decent shot to make the team if he has the stuff back and some control. Not completely lost yet but guys out of options with stuff like that are going to stick in your system if you cant keep them on your roster.

Not sure i agree on Oswaldo Arcia. I remember him very well in his time with the Twin and he was always a free swinging maniac. IMO he didn't make it as a Twin because of his crazy free swinging, high strikeout, low batting average performances year in and year out.

His problem always stemmed back to never developing a good approach at the plate or an eye for pitches. You might be able to get away with that in the minors but not in the majors against elite pitching. I don't blame that entirely on the Twins. Some guys just don't have it and never make it in the big leagues. It is what it is i guess.

The same might be true of Romero (let's hope not). It's hard to say if his struggles are the switch to being a reliever or him just throwing the ball and not developing an approach to pitching. Some guys are just all gas and no brains which would be unfortunate for him because he has good pure stuff.  

Also illustrates the dangers of hanging on to EVERY prospect instead of making trades when other teams offer serviceable players for prospects who are still just prospects.

His problem always stemmed back to never developing a good approach at the plate or an eye for pitches. You might be able to get away with that in the minors but not in the majors against elite pitching. I don't blame that entirely on the Twins. Some guys just don't have it and never make it in the big leagues. It is what it is i guess.

I agree, the organization shouldn't be blamed every time a player doesn't pan out. It happens all the time. Teams spend tons of time developing players but they're human beings, there's no process that you can put in place to make them successful 100% of the time. Arcia played for 4 teams in 2016 and flared out with every single one. Occam's Razor for me is that it's an issue with the player be that mental or physical rather than the organization. Some guys have all the physical tools and end up in baseball oblivion.

I was just thinking of Romero the other day, perhaps when I saw that Adalberto Mejia got DFAed this week for the fifth time in five months. Ah, the names we remember. What's up with Mark Funderburk these days? 

I know Romero was used exclusively as a reliever this past year, but given where we are at and that pretty much every pitcher starts spring training by only throwing an inning at a time, I hope he's still at least on the preseason Jim Kaat Award Watch list. Or at least still on the marker board in Wes' office.

The chances are minute, and he's way behind the Dobnaks of the world at this point, but let's at least keep the option open to strike lightning in a bottle with a fresh start. As you note, there was a time he was highly regarded, and he's still pretty young.

Arcia was a bust, and many prospects simply flame out. I don't think the Twins did something wrong.

Many have pointed out Romero's move to the bullpen as the cause of his lost season, but I firmly believe he would have pitched about the same as a starter. Heck, pitching as a starter in the majors is incredibly difficult, and Romero simply didn't have it this season. They'll need to see if they can fix him in 2020, as it's his last option year.

I think he is out of options. Optioned in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

I think the Twins were granted a fourth option year on Romero, but it won’t matter how many options he has if he can’t learn to adjust. I was super high on him when he first came up, much more so than Gonsalves, and had visions of Berrios, Graterol and Romero atop the rotation. Now I’m dreaming on Berrios, Graterol and Duran.