Your 2022 Twins Sleeper Rotation Arm

Nice speculation.  I am watching Winder and Balazovic (or I would if ST were happening).

Ober's paid his dues, put in the work and stayed healthy, the next Ober will do the same. Many prospects will finally get their chance this season, hopefully Sands will stay healthy and do well.

My sleeper is Strotman. I don't' know what happened after Twins acquired him, trouble adjusting or tired arm, but looking for him to take a step forward this year.

Wouldn't call him a sleeper, but I see Winder as being a key part of the Twins rotation...assuming there is baseball at some point.

Last week I selected Sands as my choice to click on 2022. So I like this article (haha). We will see.

Having said that, I’d take four starters on essentially rookie contracts around a 4.00 ERA like Ober last year coupled with a shutdown bullpen any day of the week. That combo wins a lot of games. 

I don't believe the article specified this and since I wanted to know, I thought I'd share (after I looked it up) that Sands was originally drafted by the Houston Astros in the 22nd round of the 2015 MLB June Amateur Draft from North Florida Christian HS (Tallahassee, FL) and then redrafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 5th round of the 2018 MLB June Amateur Draft from Florida State University (Tallahassee, FL).

In 2022 if we have major league baseball, my sleeper arm will be Randy Dobnak. His ability in the past to make me shut the TV off and go to bed is when I do my best sleeping.

I think Winder is more or less a given, so he doesn't qualify as a sleeper. Neither does Balazovic. But Sands is one of 2 sleepers for me, Strotman being the other.

Sands has flown under the radar a bit for reasons I don't understand. All he's done is perform and perform well since being drafted. Yes the walks were a little high in 2021, but doesn't it seem that was an issue all across baseball? Feels to me the return from the lost 2020 not only affected health, but control as well.

I will be surprised if Sands doesn't make an appearance at the ML level in 2022, even if it's to assist the pen.

Strotman is my top sleeper. He also suffered from a rise in walks last year coming back not only from rehab but the lost 2020. The rest of his numbers looked pretty good before coming to the Twins. Again, was he running out of gad?

Now, can we please just play some ball so we can actually see these kids play?

It amazes me that people are counting on Baily Ober to stick. 

If we will be relying in the prospects who will be limited to less than 150 innings in this coddling world of present day baseball, and some just around 100, we will be needing a dozen sleepers.

4 minutes ago, cHawk said:

What is there to suggest there’s a strong chance he won’t stick? I mean he’s not going to be the ace of the staff (at least I hope not) but I don’t think it’s unfair to slot him in at one of the 3-5 spots.

This years Randy Dobnak. The hitters are not MiLB hitters in the show.

7 hours ago, h2oface said:

This years Randy Dobnak. The hitters are not MiLB hitters in the show.

I don’t think they are going to jack Oner around like they did Dobnak. Nor is it very nice of you to project that Ober will be injured. Man, you can be such the downer dude.

24 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

Against the Sox last year he gave up 4 (ML debut), 5, 0, 3, and 0 earned runs. He actually got much better as the year went on and teams got tape on him. Certainly not suggesting he's going to have a 2.5 career ERA, but I don't get why it'd amaze you that people think Ober can stick. Over his last 10 starts he gave up 1, 3, 0, 2, 0, 2, 2, 3, 4, 1 earned runs while averaging 4.9 innings per start. He had a 3.31 ERA in what was essentially an average length start in terms of innings (average AL start last year was 5.0 innings). Seems rather reasonable to expect someone who dominated the minors, improved as his rookie year went on, and dominated the best team in the division as he faced them more to be able to stick in the majors.

My two cents on Ober is for me personally to temper expectations. If the Twins have a have/had a similiar plan with him as last year, I don't expect him to be any worse than last year, meaning keeping his innings down but keeping his pitch count down. But if the Twins plan to extend his pitch count consistently to 80 or above, it will be hard to predict what that means for him, he could thrive or maybe he gets exposed, we don't know, we can only assume or predict. He didn't start that great (or really that terrible either) last year, seem to find his grove in July and excel in August and fall down again in September, that was making 7 5 plus innings starts and pitching roughly 75 pitches per start (for those 7 starts). Minus a couple of starts, after hitting that 80 pitch mark the next star was usually much rougher. IMO if the Twins plan to continue to push his pitch count he will be more up and down. But if they plan to use him like last year 25 or so stars, 5 or less innings, and around 65 to 75 pitches, I would expect him to have even better numbers than last year.

As for my sleeper it has to be Sands, first he is already 24 and will be given a chance before any younger prospects because they have to figure out where is fits in the Organization and because he is on the 40 man and so far has the least expectations of the pitchers on the 40 and unless things go real bad, I don't see many of the starting pitching prospects not on the 40 being added.

23 hours ago, old nurse said:

I don’t think they are going to jack Oner around like they did Dobnak. Nor is it very nice of you to project that Ober will be injured. Man, you can be such the downer dude.

I just meant performance, not injury. Assume.........

Perhaps you should utilize the ingnored user option in your account settings, dude...........

I wish the best for Ober. I just don't see it progressing much better than Dobnak's progression has, All 100 or so innings. September was telling. I hope I am wrong. 

2 hours ago, h2oface said:

I just meant performance, not injury. Assume.........

Perhaps you should utilize the ingnored user option in your account settings, dude...........

I wish the best for Ober. I just don't see it progressing much better than Dobnak's progression has, All 100 or so innings. September was telling. I hope I am wrong. 

One bad inning is telling of something?

Someday I hope we can have hope that we have studs , aces and bulldogs to talk about ,, Will petty fit that bill ....

For now I'll have to hope for the competitive baseball  that front office has promised us and we will find out who the real sleeper is ...

Just can't put a finger on a sleeper with minor league results 

I like what little I just saw of Cole Sands. Do you see his body language after the pitch? Total lack of concern, like he's sitting in a rocking chair. That's a cool customer on the mound. Like he's been a pitcher since he first started playing baseball. 

Cool Sands.