18 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

Hello to Liam Hendriks, Kyle Gibson (picked before Mike Trout), etc. Twins current prospects look good to me but this is pretty relative over the years. One caveat concerning too many trades is where the bodies fit.

While I won't go out of my way to say the old front office (but remember 2009 was Smith's administration, not Ryan) was good at drafting/acquiring talent, this is a bit unfair. Almost all of baseball passed on Mike Trout (hilariously, including the Angels as they picked 24/25 and Trout went 25th), Gibson was a fine first round choice. Currently, out of all 2009 first round picks, he's 7th in overall rWAR. It's definitely not a jaw-dropping pick but a team that chooses a Kyle Gibson career in the first round every year will be a perennial winner.

Now, if you want to talk about horrible evaluation of talent, there's always the drafts of 2013-2015...

But back to 2009, that was actually a BANNER YEAR for the Twins. They drafted Gibson and Dozier while they signed Polanco, Kepler, and Sano to international contracts all in that same year. That's a stellar year for a baseball organization. Those guys are worth 73 career rWAR and still counting upward every season.

They probably aren't realistically going to drop payroll to $50 mil.  However I can see them reducing it to $90-100 mil.  That will be unfortunate because we won't have much to watch.  I agree that they should either go all in or give it up and start over.  I don't want to start over again but it sure looks like it will happen.  Perhaps if there is a prolonged lockout the few fans that are left won't care anymore.

3 hours ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

While I won't go out of my way to say the old front office (but remember 2009 was Smith's administration, not Ryan) was good at drafting/acquiring talent, this is a bit unfair. Almost all of baseball passed on Mike Trout (hilariously, including the Angels as they picked 24/25 and Trout went 25th), Gibson was a fine first round choice. Currently, out of all 2009 first round picks, he's 7th in overall rWAR. It's definitely not a jaw-dropping pick but a team that chooses a Kyle Gibson career in the first round every year will be a perennial winner.

Now, if you want to talk about horrible evaluation of talent, there's always the drafts of 2013-2015...

But back to 2009, that was actually a BANNER YEAR for the Twins. They drafted Gibson and Dozier while they signed Polanco, Kepler, and Sano to international contracts all in that same year. That's a stellar year for a baseball organization. Those guys are worth 73 career rWAR and still counting upward every season.

Sorry with my wording as it was completely misunderstood. My point was that prospects are highly thought of by their fans/teams in any year. Lately, there has been a ton of references to the current prospects finally having talent as opposed to the stiffs of years ago. Does anyone remember Willie Banks? He was the Hunter Greene of his day. Also, I have  never denigrated past managers or front offices. I do not blast the current front office either. I  respect the baseball acumen of Falvey, Levine, and Baldelli but maintain that as they gain experience they will be as good as Ryan, Gardenhire, and Molitor. Again, I was unclear in my comments. Prospects are generally relative across the years. 

On 11/21/2021 at 10:54 AM, tony&rodney said:

Sorry with my wording as it was completely misunderstood. My point was that prospects are highly thought of by their fans/teams in any year. Lately, there has been a ton of references to the current prospects finally having talent as opposed to the stiffs of years ago. Does anyone remember Willie Banks? He was the Hunter Greene of his day. Also, I have  never denigrated past managers or front offices. I do not blast the current front office either. I  respect the baseball acumen of Falvey, Levine, and Baldelli but maintain that as they gain experience they will be as good as Ryan, Gardenhire, and Molitor. Again, I was unclear in my comments. Prospects are generally relative across the years. 

They're already better than those fossils.

On 11/21/2021 at 8:54 AM, tony&rodney said:

Sorry with my wording as it was completely misunderstood. My point was that prospects are highly thought of by their fans/teams in any year. Lately, there has been a ton of references to the current prospects finally having talent as opposed to the stiffs of years ago. Does anyone remember Willie Banks? He was the Hunter Greene of his day. Also, I have  never denigrated past managers or front offices. I do not blast the current front office either. I  respect the baseball acumen of Falvey, Levine, and Baldelli but maintain that as they gain experience they will be as good as Ryan, Gardenhire, and Molitor. Again, I was unclear in my comments. Prospects are generally relative across the years. 

Willie Banks was never the Hunter Greene of his day. Unreal. 

6 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Willie Banks was never the Hunter Greene of his day. Unreal. 

Well he didn't bat like Greene does, but Banks was a top 15 prospect two years in a row. He was probably the team's biggest pitching prospect prior to Adam Johnson.

12 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

Well he didn't bat like Greene does, but Banks was a top 15 prospect two years in a row. He was probably the team's biggest pitching prospect prior to Adam Johnson.

Hey, don't get me wrong. I got his autograph once, and was thrilled.....but he's no Hunter Greene. 

Greene has resurrected his status, #47 last year but up to #26 now after being #1 once. Still time for him, for sure. Keep Bank's autograph, and Adam Johnson's too. Prospects are fun, fairly relative. Willie Banks was the best ever: great name. looks, everything - like Willie Norwood.