I'm looking for some opinions on who you folks think are our top 10 starting pitchers in the minors. It's pretty easy to pick out Meyer, Berrios, Stewart, but for some of the guys in the lower levels, I have no idea how guys like Landa and Jorge stack up, or the power arms of the 2012 draft like Bard or Melatokis rank, or Baxendale, etc.

 

What would BA say?

What would BA say?

 

Not sure what BA would say, but MLB.com says this: (go there and then click on top 20 by team, select the Twins and you will get the top 9 position players as well...)

 

1-11

 

Alex Myer

Kyle Gibson

Kohl Stewart

Jose Berrios

Trevor May

Ryan Eades

Mason Melotakis

Luke Bard

JT Chargois

Stephen Gonsalves

Felix Jorge

My list:

 

Alex Meyer

Kohl Stewart

Jose Berrios

Kyle Gibson

Trevor May

Lewis Thorpe

Stephen Gonsalves

Ryan Eades

Mason Melotakis

DJ Baxendale

Alex Wimmers

My top 10 (12) Twins pitching prospects:

 

Stewart

Meyers

Berrios

May

Summers

Duffy/Baxendale

Melotakis

Gonsalves/Thorpe

Eades

Jorge

 

I am not counting Gibson since he is on the 25 man roster. I am also not counting Albers because he might soon be on the 25 man roster. Would Albers fit in the top 15? I'm not sure, but I hope he gets promoted so we can see how he does against mlb hitters.

 

Is this a great list of prospects? No. Is it better than what the Twins have had for the last five years. Yes! If the Twins have, in June 2014, as they have had in the past two Junes, one of the top five draft picks in each round, then I would bet that they will take the best college starter available in round one to deepen the pool of potential #1/#2 starters in the system, and then I suspect that they would take high ceiling high school starters in rounds 2 and 3 to really flesh out their starting pitching depth. That would complement their position player depth. It is nice to see prospect starters at all levels of their minor league system now--Meyer and May, for example, will likely start next season at AAA (although it is also possible that one of them could break camp with the Twins for the 2014 season).

What a sorry list! Only Albers is as high as AAA, and he sounds a lot like a white Bruce Chen-clone. Pheew! Meyers and May at AA--because the Twins PR machine has to agree with Ryan's trades--I sure hope they are correct, but my skepticism meter is flashing red. The rest are A-ball and lower--total hype for now.

 

There has been much back-and-forth in other threads blaming GM/not blaming GMs but let's face it the scouts, the cross-checkers, the whole personnel gang has been in place forever. If there is a group to blame it's them!

My completely poorly informed list goes like this:

 

Stewart

Meyer

Gibson

Berrios

Hendriks

May

Gonsalves

Wimmers

Thorpe

Baxendale

So we have a sorry list of positional players in our minor league system too? Man shoot, Buxton is only at high a. Man shoot Sano and Rosario are only at AA. Man we have a sorry list. When will the twins ever win with all these good prospects low in the minors. We need to fire everyone because we have the number one minor in the game right now. Fire everyone now. If we don't we will continue to have a bright future with one of the best farm systems in the game. Fire them NOW.

Alex Myer

Kohl Stewart

Jose Berrios

Trevor May

Ryan Eades

Mason Melotakis

J.T. Chargois

Lewis Thorpe

Logan Darnell

B.J. Hermsen

My top 10 list.

Gibson

Albers

Diamond

Walters

Hendriks

Darnell

Vasquez

Worley

DeVries

Blackburn

All our AAA/IR starters. lol

Not sure what BA would say, but MLB.com says this: (go there and then click on top 20 by team, select the Twins and you will get the top 9 position players as well...)

 

1-11

 

Alex Myer

Kyle Gibson

Kohl Stewart

Jose Berrios

Trevor May

Ryan Eades

Mason Melotakis

Luke Bard

JT Chargois

Stephen Gonsalves

Felix Jorge

 

good list but I think chargois is staying in the pen. Jorge could be flipped with either Rosario, landa or Thorpe. the one guy I like that you left out is duffey - he's got better stuff than most people realize and has shot at being a no.3.

So we have a sorry list of positional players in our minor league system too? Man shoot, Buxton is only at high a. Man shoot Sano and Rosario are only at AA. Man we have a sorry list. When will the twins ever win with all these good prospects low in the minors. We need to fire everyone because we have the number one minor in the game right now. Fire everyone now. If we don't we will continue to have a bright future with one of the best farm systems in the game. Fire them NOW.

 

I think your post is inadvertently hilarious.

What a sorry list! Only Albers is as high as AAA, and he sounds a lot like a white Bruce Chen-clone. Pheew! Meyers and May at AA--because the Twins PR machine has to agree with Ryan's trades--I sure hope they are correct, but my skepticism meter is flashing red. The rest are A-ball and lower--total hype for now.

 

There has been much back-and-forth in other threads blaming GM/not blaming GMs but let's face it the scouts, the cross-checkers, the whole personnel gang has been in place forever. If there is a group to blame it's them!

 

It's actually pretty middle of the pack if not slightly above average. Pretty rare for teams to have several arms at AA or AAA.

 

I would recommend taking a look at a few other farm systems for some context.

So Hermsen is no more. Albers came out of nowhere. DeVries is dead. And no one knows what to make of Logan Darnell.

Stewart

Meyers

Berrios

May

Eades

Gonsalves

Everyone else

Stewart

Meyer

May

Berrios

Eades

Jorge

Thorpe

Chargois

Duffy

Gonsalves

so does landa's stuff not match up or what? His numbers look great, and from what I have heard he has pretty good velocity, so why is he not considered a top young are in the system?

It's actually pretty middle of the pack if not slightly above average. Pretty rare for teams to have several arms at AA or AAA.

 

I would recommend taking a look at a few other farm systems for some context.

 

Are they also at the bottom of BB in pitching? Everyone?

For me it would be:

Alex Meyer

Kohl Stewart

Jose Berrios

Kyle Gibson*

Trevor May

Alex Wimmer- yes I know, but I'm still optimistic

Stephen Gonslaves

Ryan Eades

Flex Jorge

Yorman Landa

Randy Rosario

Lewis Thorpe

Mason Melotakis

 

throw in Bard and Chargios once they have pitched a little.

Gibson (still counts)

Meyer

Berrios

Stewart

 

May

 

Baxendale

Duffey

Eades

Melotakis

Wimmers

so does landa's stuff not match up or what? His numbers look great, and from what I have heard he has pretty good velocity, so why is he not considered a top young are in the system?

Hard to rate him right now. Need more scouting reports and results. Stewart is easy to rate right now because he was the number 4 pick in the draft and was highly scouted. His rating has more to do with ceiling than anything else right now. Full season ball is where prospects start to stick out from fillers.

Very interesting - I was recently made aware of the "Big 3" in E-town, and find little praise for them.

That's kind of what I thought but it still seems weird to me that Flex Jorge is getting some major attention and Landa is not. I do have to say that I am very excited about the potential Cedar Rapids rotation next year. i.e. Stewart, Gonslaves (if they play full season) Landa, Jorge, and Rosario.

Very interesting - I was recently made aware of the "Big 3" in E-town, and find little praise for them.

Lack of a track record, lack of reports. It easier for fans to keep track/ follow guys if they were aquired in big trades, were high bonus babies, or are on the cusp of the Majors. Beating up on guys in Appy doesnt get you a lot of love, Arica did it and most fans still didnt notice. If they were high draft picks they would be getting more attention then Gonslaves or most of the pitchers The Twins have in Low A right now.

I will throw my hat in also, with explanations, Gibson , will be a#2 or most likely a #3; Meyer, barring injury has a good shot at being a #2; May is probably a #4 or reliever longterm(nothing wrong with being a 4, especially compared to the #5 and #6's we have now. Berrios, just my opinion will not make it to the bigs, as a starter, he is great in the lower minors because he is advanced for his age, but not a lot of projection, as I heard someone else say, he is what he is. This years crop of pitchers I havnt formed an opinion yet, but looks promising, but then don't all new high draftees look promising.

I would toss Gibson out. He's already pitched a bunch at the ML level and will not be eligible for any list this offseason. I'm leaving Albers off because to be fair, he isn't really a prospect. I am hoping he gets a shot and can prove himself, but I think at best he's more of a back of the rotation type guy. Also leaving off Worley. Here's my list:

 

1) Meyer - potential ace. Injury is the conern right now. ETA at some point next season.

2) Stewart - potential ace. potential for 4 plus pitches. Doing what he should in GCL.

3) May - gets the Ks, walk rate is dropping. Could still top out as a 1/2 type guy, but looking more like he'll be a 2/3. Not a bad pitcher. ETA next season some time.

4) Berrios - potential #2

5) Eades - potential #2. Could rise through the minors quickly.

6) Thorpe - potential top ceiling guy, but still way too far away

7) Gonclaves - potential top ceiling guy. Hard throwing lefty. Too far away, but doing his job in GCL.

8) Darnell - potential #3. Struggling a bit in AAA after flat out dominating AA. Needs some time and will likely be in the rotation at some point next year. Delievered results at a high enough level that despite the lower ceiling, he belongs on this list.

9) Bard - potential 2/3 type guy, but has been rehabbing an injury. This is a lost season for him. Could rise through the minors quickly next year if healthy.

10) Melotakis. Potential 2/3 guy, but I think he's likely going to be a 3/4/5.

 

HM: Wimmers, Hendricks, Baxendale, Hu, Fernando Romero, Jorge, Rosario

 

Truth be told, this really isn't a bad list. I know pitching is considered the weakness of the system, but a lot of teams would be very happy with this group of pitchers. There are a number of high ceiling arms in there (and that includes several of the guys on the HM list), unfortunately most are pretty far away, and as high ceiling arms go, most will likely fail. There are 3 guys in the system who can all be above average pitchers who will likely see MLB action next season. I still think they need to add high ceiling arms, but Ryan and company have done a decent job shoring this one up.

What a sorry list! Only Albers is as high as AAA, and he sounds a lot like a white Bruce Chen-clone. Pheew! Meyers and May at AA--because the Twins PR machine has to agree with Ryan's trades--I sure hope they are correct, but my skepticism meter is flashing red. The rest are A-ball and lower--total hype for now.

 

There has been much back-and-forth in other threads blaming GM/not blaming GMs but let's face it the scouts, the cross-checkers, the whole personnel gang has been in place forever. If there is a group to blame it's them!

 

Wow. We have five better pitching prospects than we've had since Liriano and you call it a "sorry list", just because there are no AAA pitchers on it? Just wow.

That's kind of what I thought but it still seems weird to me that Flex Jorge is getting some major attention and Landa is not. I do have to say that I am very excited about the potential Cedar Rapids rotation next year. i.e. Stewart, Gonslaves (if they play full season) Landa, Jorge, and Rosario.

 

Jorge is the classically projectable of the three. Rosario and landa are both six foot on a good day. I think you're up in arms over nothing - a couple people have included him at the bottom of their list.

Top SP prospects: For my list the player has to currently be in the minors

 

1. Scott Diamond- Has shown ML success

2. Nick Blackburn- See number 1

3. Vance Worley

(Big drop off)

4. Stewart

5. Meyer

6. May

7. Berrios

8. Whimmers

9. Shooter Hunt

10. Alan Anderson

Top SP prospects: For my list the player has to currently be in the minors

 

1. Scott Diamond- Has shown ML success

2. Nick Blackburn- See number 1

3. Vance Worley

(Big drop off)

4. Stewart

5. Meyer

6. May

7. Berrios

8. Whimmers

9. Shooter Hunt

10. Alan Anderson

Tinstaapp.