Hahaha, I'm wrong on prospects all the time. Sometimes I think they'll be great, sometimes I think they'll flop.

The truth is, you never really know if their game plays until they start playing at the MLB level. My biggest mistake recently is I didn't have high hopes for Jhoan Duran. I felt like if MiLB hitters could lay off his stuff and take walks, MLB hitters would for sure have him figured out. Seems like Duran's struggles with walks last year might just have been the UCL or maybe he's just gotten better with control considering he's never been this good at controlling the free pass at any level.

In any case, he's walking almost nobody this year and still striking everybody out.

I feel like there is more to the story for Fernando Romero than just visa issues. This isn't based off of anything. Seems weird to me to give up on a career in MLB from that. It's not like there aren't hundreds and hundreds of international players playing in the minors/majors.

45 minutes ago, Tibs said:

I feel like there is more to the story for Fernando Romero than just visa issues. This isn't based off of anything. Seems weird to me to give up on a career in MLB from that. It's not like there aren't hundreds and hundreds of international players playing in the minors/majors.

Romero is playing in Yokohama, Japan for the past couple years where he's had mediocre results after appearing in MLB across 2 years where he struggled. Romero also looked pretty rough at AAA in 2019 where he was too hittable and walked too many guys. He just doesn't have much of a track record of success.

Sometimes players are just overhyped.

Speaking of the hype machine, Brusdar Graterol is having a solid season with the Dodgers' out of their bullpen. He hasn't turned into the starter fans were hoping he could be, or the elite closer for that matter, but he is having an above average season and adding solid value. That said, chances Graterol turns lives up to the massive hype is pretty limited.

1 hour ago, Tibs said:

I feel like there is more to the story for Fernando Romero than just visa issues. This isn't based off of anything. Seems weird to me to give up on a career in MLB from that. It's not like there aren't hundreds and hundreds of international players playing in the minors/majors.

It was the Visa, combined with poor results due to bad control. Made it an easy cut

I was fooled by Romero too. Thought for sure he was going to be a power arm out of the twins bullpen for years. Whoops! I was convinced that he just needed a little time to settle in and things would be great, that he'd shown enough as a starter that he could make the transition. Nope, nope, and nope.

The others on the list i don't think I was ever that attached to. They kinda fell into the "hey, maybe this guy can turn out to be somebody!" bucket where I was rooting for them, but not necessarily all that convinced.

Chris Parmelee, on the other hand...I jumped all over that hype train, thought he was going to take over for Cuddyer and we wouldn't miss a beat. but I'm grateful to Mr. Parmelee, who taught me to be skeptical of September call-ups and Small Sample Size.

The post and comments are why the Twins should consider trading a few prospects for relief help or make/ put together a sweet package for Luis Castillo.

I remember once upon a time there was a Fernando Romero & Stephen Gonsalves duo as next wave of Twins SP of the future.

Prospects are really hard to predict.

(Although Byung-ho Park was not a prospect, I remember there was a lot of hype going on with the Korean slugger too)

Anyone remember Eddie McBain?

I was big on Arcia.  In part it goes back to when he was in AA I went to a game he was playing and the ball just sounded different off his bat.  He came on the scene and looked like he could be a hitter for years.  He just never adjusted to how MLB pitchers would pitch to him.  His attitude reflected that as well when he would make comments about he was there to hit HR. 

I was really big on Stephen Gonsalves.  His early low minor numbers were great, but he just never fully developed.  

54 minutes ago, Karbo said:

Anyone remember Eddie McBain?

No, but Ed Bane I remember well

33 minutes ago, annismark said:

No, but Ed Bane I remember well

 

Yes McBane was a nickname for him. It had something to do with McDonalds but I really don't remember the whole story.

17 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

The post and comments are why the Twins should consider trading a few prospects for relief help or make/ put together a sweet package for Luis Castillo.

I agree. I believe most prospects are extremely overrated when it comes to actual value

49 minutes ago, Jack Griffin said:

I agree. I believe most prospects are extremely overrated when it comes to actual value

I think the pitchers are harder than the batters. No Arcia didn't make it, but the Twins had a bunch of hitting prospects at that time with Arcia, Rosario, Sano, Vargas, Santana, Kepler and Polanco all debuting 2013-15. Overall, that was a pretty solid group. 

The pitchers seem to be more flakey, though they seem to be a bit more predictable with the current front office. I think towards the end, Terry Ryan understood his biggest flaw with his pitchers was that he historically struggled to get guys with velocity and strikeout ability. He tried to correct that with the Romero, Gonsalves and Graterol types, but he hadn't figured out how to balance the command issues that come with those types of players. He got a good one in Berrios though.

Haha .... Nothing is more blinding than single perspective prospect love.

I'm sure I probably wrote a comment along the lines of "... there is no way I'm giving up Romero AND Gonsalves for JT Realmuto ... "

I'll probably do it again, too. ?

4 hours ago, Karbo said:

Yes McBane was a nickname for him. It had something to do with McDonalds but I really don't remember the whole story.

Thinking of this Simpsons guy?

I was intrigued about Chalmers and thought he might turn in to a really nice bullpen option.

Was there anyone who didn't hold out great hopes for Romero? I mean, he was the real thing, right? (sigh)

Jay was a big one for me. I wasn't sure about the conversion to being a starter, but I thought at worst he was going to be a top, back of the bullpen arm. Just a huge disappointment.

Rich Becker is one of the biggest disappointments, "I was so wrong", player prospects for me.

And if I want to date myself, and drag my memories across hot asphalt covered in broken glass, there are about 10 pitching prospects around the mid-80's that were all seemingly can't miss starters or at worst, quality bullpen pieces. 

I was certain Arcia was going to be awesome!

Oswaldo Arcia regularly hit > .300 in MiLB. For some reason he thought that when he came to MLB his job was to hit 500 foot home runs. He swung so hard he hurt himself. More than once.

I truly believe that someone else with the same talent could have made a MLB career for themselves. That was just sad.

On 7/13/2022 at 8:16 PM, Brazilian Twins Fan said:

I remember once upon a time there was a Fernando Romero & Stephen Gonsalves duo as next wave of Twins SP of the future.

Prospects are really hard to predict.

(Although Byung-ho Park was not a prospect, I remember there was a lot of hype going on with the Korean slugger too)

Don't forget included in that group were Berrios, Meyer, Thorpe, Jay, Jorge, Stewart, Mejia

22 hours ago, Jack Griffin said:

I agree. I believe most prospects are extremely overrated when it comes to actual value

I agree. Why is that?

When I say the title I immediately thought of Romero and Arcia.  The amount of threads and pages dedicated to discussing Arcia on here/BYTO had to be in the 100s.  So many varying viewpoints on him.  If only he could have gotten regular ABs!! Lol.

I would like to hear some prospects you thought that went the other way.  For me it was Jorge Polanco.  I never thought he would be a productive player and that calling him up as a 20 year old in 2014 was a huge mistake.  I also think they left him at SS for way too long and should have been moved to 2B years before he actually was.  

5 hours ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

Don't forget included in that group were Berrios, Meyer, Thorpe, Jay, Jorge, Stewart, Mejia

I don't even wanna think about the name Kohl Stewart after his time with the big league ball club. lol

2 hours ago, SwainZag said:

I would like to hear some prospects you thought that went the other way.  For me it was Jorge Polanco.  I never thought he would be a productive player and that calling him up as a 20 year old in 2014 was a huge mistake.  I also think they left him at SS for way too long and should have been moved to 2B years before he actually was.  

ooo that's a good idea. I know Griffin Jax is the first one that comes to mind. I was pretty low on Kepler after his first month or so too, but that's definitely something I'm gonna like in to.

4 hours ago, tarheeltwinsfan said:

I agree. Why is that?

The almighty, unmeasurable attribute known as "potential" lol

4 hours ago, tarheeltwinsfan said:

I agree. Why is that?

It is called Hope, simple as that, hope of the future is always brighter and more alluring than the present.

Imagine if at some point during the 21 season, somebody said dream if you will the Twins are 3.5 games up on second going into the all star break (With all stars Arraez and Buxton and the Twins went out and signed Carlos frickin Correa to a one year contract and traded for Sonny Gray) , should they go for it and trade some of their top prospects, I would guess most would say heck yea because the hopes and dreams of next year are bright, but when it actually happens some of those same people are like no we shouldn't make those type of trades because our futures is the future. and why? because it diminishes their hopes and dreams of a brighter future.

Humans are funny animals

Luis Rivas and Bobby Kielty