Which Pitching Prospect Will Help Twins Next?

44 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

"Who I want to see help" and "who is going to help" are two different questions given the number of MiLB pitching injuries we're seeing right now.

While researching this, I was flabbergasted to see Winder’s ERA all the way up to 3.5 with apparently only 2 IP. After some digging-- mostly in very recent articles on TD and a post on Twitter, I was mostly reassured that he escaped largely unscathed!

That’s a tough one. I picked Charlie Barnes who is at least at AAA.    He’s a lefty.   Who knows if he can “help”.   

I say the Twins take a chance and actually give us the ANSWER to this question.  Jettison/trade Pineda and Happ and put Barnes and Winder in the rotation with Berrios, Maeda and Ober. Dobnak and Thorpe are your AAA depth when they come back from injury. Move on from Robles (trade), Colome (trade or DFA) and Theilbar or Coloumbe (trade) and call up Hamilton, Vazquez and Cano. Pitch the starters every 5th day and use the relievers like real relievers in 6th and 7th inning situations. When inevitable 10 day IL stints occur, hope that one or more of the presently injured or AA guys like Sands, Duran, Caterino or Moran can fill in. Let's be Darwinian - may be the best guys win!

My guess is that Winder will show enough to be penciled into the 2022 rotation along with Ober, but Barnes will be more of a 6th starter/long man/ AAAA guy. In the bullpen, Hamilton and Cano will be middle relief arms next year and Vasquez will be another long man/AAAA guy. But what do I know? Let's settle this in the arena!  

3 hours ago, LA VIkes Fan said:

I say the Twins take a chance and actually give us the ANSWER to this question.  Jettison/trade Pineda and Happ and put Barnes and Winder in the rotation with Berrios, Maeda and Ober. Dobnak and Thorpe are your AAA depth when they come back from injury. Move on from Robles (trade), Colome (trade or DFA) and Theilbar or Coloumbe (trade) and call up Hamilton, Vazquez and Cano. Pitch the starters every 5th day and use the relievers like real relievers in 6th and 7th inning situations. When inevitable 10 day IL stints occur, hope that one or more of the presently injured or AA guys like Sands, Duran, Caterino or Moran can fill in. Let's be Darwinian - may be the best guys win!

My guess is that Winder will show enough to be penciled into the 2022 rotation along with Ober, but Barnes will be more of a 6th starter/long man/ AAAA guy. In the bullpen, Hamilton and Cano will be middle relief arms next year and Vasquez will be another long man/AAAA guy. But what do I know? Let's settle this in the arena!  

I'm all for it. We’re going nowhere with Happ and possibly Pineda. I think you’re right in that we can’t know who the pitching equivalents of Larnach and Kirilloff are unless we give them a chance. Some really intriguing relievers too! 

Charlie Barnes is probably the next in line, but Josh Winder is likely the next one that will really be impactful (not to dismiss Barnes, I think he's probably a #4 guy for a good long while; Winder is a guy who I think could make us all quickly feel better about trading Berrios).

Moran and Duran. Upside is high for both.

On 7/9/2021 at 11:15 AM, Lucas Seehafer PT said:

Jovani Moran and Josh Winder are definitely the closest to MLB ready, in my estimation, and also are pretty much the only two who are healthy at this point (sounds like Winder is going to be ok after taking a ball off the neck in his last start). I'm pretty high on both, but we probably won't see extended looks at either until next summer. 

I would agree with you and I think both Winder and Moran could pitch in the big leagues this season,

On 7/8/2021 at 9:44 AM, strumdatjag said:

That’s a tough one. I picked Charlie Barnes who is at least at AAA.    He’s a lefty.   Who knows if he can “help”.   

You've got first dibs!

It's a tough call. You don't want to advance, then send them down all next season (or beyond) as 40-man spots are precious. You will probably go with folks like Ian Hamilton and Andrew Vasquez, who if they bomb you can just let them walk before making the ahrd decisions in the fall.

It would be nice of Smeltzer, Dobnak and Thorpe came back and actually pitched as starters. Then I would feel better about Pineda and Happ leaving and Ober being shutdown because of innings. Of course we all wanted to see Duran and Balazovic this season, but now seems unlikely.

I had precious hopes for Griffin Jax. Hopefully he will get another start or two and a decision can be made.

But I see them ONLY bringing up prospects at this time who would be protected come the 40-man revision in the Fall. Anyone NOT on that list would be a longshot.