Jim H

Keep going. If you cut 6 players and promote 6 to Rochester, you have to promote 6 to New Britain, 6 to Fort Myers, 6 to Cedar Rapids, 6 to Elizabethan, and 6 to the GCL team. And probably hope nobody gets hurt at any level because you could run out of bodies, at least at some positions, plus having people playing at levels they may not be ready for.

You do realize the Twins won? If anything the Cleveland pitching was worse than the Twins, they couldn't throw any strikes. It is probably a little early to write "sky is falling" articles. Especially since the Twins are 3 and 3. Let's wait a couple of weeks, maybe after the weather settles a bit, then you can write about how the sky is falling.

I like your takes on the 10 players. I have some slight optimism for the offense. I believe that if the Twins can find 2 players to bat in front of Mauer(I like him 3rd) the Twins offense could be pretty good. I hope it doesn't take all year. Maybe Hicks and Dozier can do all right eventually in the first 2 spots, there really isn't anybody else on the roster or all that close to the majors. Unless you believe that Santana and Buxton will be up soon.

There are have been plenty of suggestions that the Twins lack those things. I don't know how accurate those thoughts are. Since many of them come from feature writers who aren't with the Twins everyday or "visitors" like our Twins Daily guys, they may or may not be seeing things they expect to see or want to see, they may be missing the reality of the situation. Mostly, I think the Twins lack talent. If/when more minor league talent graduate to the big leagues and prove to be premium talent, I expect people will quit talking about leadership, cohesion and enthusiasm.

I don't think Santana is ready for the majors and I really think Escobar is more utility man than starting big league shortstop. I expect you will have to put up with Florimon getting most of the starts at shortstop this year. Maybe Santana will make enough progress to change that next year.

I am interested in the group of pitching prospects who are relatively close to the majors but kind of flying under the radar. Like Melotakis on your list, maybe Darnell, and some of the other recent college pitchers who could move pretty quickly if they figure things out. Also guys like Wimmers and Salcedo who have been around awhile, who injuries have set back, but who were highly considered at one point. I would like to see a guy or two out of this group really challenge for a starting major league job within the next year. Combined with the higher profile guys like Meyer, Gibson and May, this could have the Twins looking pretty good over the next few years.

The Twins bought, potentially, about 270 or 9 seasons worth of starts this off season. They have spread them out over 4 seasons with 3 pitchers, Nolasco, Hughes and Pelfrey. I don't expect the Twins to get anywhere near 270 starts out of these 3 guys and ideally at least 2 of them will be replaced by better young emerging talent before they make all their starts. Assuming they all stay healthy, which they likely won't. I think I expect that if the Twins get 150 to 180 starts out of these guys, that would be pretty good. Especially if the reason they are replaced is that the Twins have better options rather than total ineffectiveness. This year I would just like the 3 of them to be healthy and for all 3 to pitch in the range of a mid-rotation starter, which is pretty much their upside anyway. If that happens, well the sky isn't the limit, but the Twins could have a pretty good year. There will still be room for young guys like Meyer and May, if they show they are ready. Decent pitching might allow some of the young hitters to develop without the need to try to hit 5 run home runs. It is really hard to guess what the offense will do this year. There are so many youngish guys who haven't quite shown themselves to be big regulars yet, but still might. There is the very young talent that might start arriving this year, but may or may not be ready to really help yet. I am fairly optomistic about this team, but what I want to really see is some progress.

I think the idea of Terry Ryan changing his stripes is silly. He has gotten to where he is by being what he is and that isn't going to change. Signing Drew isn't out of the realm of possibility but it would have to be on Ryan's terms. Which would likely be a short term contract. Drew isn't enough better than Florimon to justify the likely cost coupled with the loss of a draft pick plus the resulting lack of flexibility that might result. Morales is interesting but I don't see it happening. It looks to me that Ryan is trying to manuever his roster so that Willingham becomes the full time DH and that there will be a couple of real defenders in the outfield everyday. Morales doesn't help that plan.(If that is the plan) The difficultity of course is that nobody knows if Hicks can hit enough to be a full time outfielder or when Buxton will actually arrive. Or for that matter whether Arcia can be acceptable in RF, whether Plouffe could hold down LF when Sano arrives, or Rosario could. Most everybody else on the roster look like backups, bit players or perhaps some sort of situational/platoon guys.

Albers won't be moved, but his best chance to make the Twins roster is as a long reliever. Which makes some sense. There might not be any left handed starters, Swarzak might get more meaningful innings, Pressey could start the year in AAA, so there might be an opening for a left handed long reliever who could swing to starter in an emergency. A lot depends on how many relievers the Twins decide to carry in 2014, and whether any get traded this winter.

You have a fun list. Exact rankings probably don't matter, and I haven't seen any of these guys play like you have, but Vargas seems pretty high. I would think him and D. J. Hicks are about the same till they get to AA. I expect at least one of them will have a lot of trouble with advanced pitching. I like Polanco too, but I wonder if he really will end up at short. It sounds like both Santana and Goodrum have better shortstop tools. It is just wether either can develop them and hit enough. I like the fact you have different young pitchers than others that do these lists. I consider that a good thing. If the Twins really have that many young pitchers that merit some consideration, well maybe some them will develop into something good. It is a lot better than a few years ago when the only young pitcher getting much steam was Salcedo.(other than high draft choices) Thanks for your list. I still don't think Deb Romero belongs, he has never dominated any level and even at AAA now, the numbers are not that good. I don't see another Casey Blake here. And yes, I am ribbing you a bit.

I am enjoying your list, so far. You make some interesting comments on the guys you have chosen. I don't place much value on the actual rankings on these lists, but I enjoy the facts about them and who appears on the lists and who is left off. I think some of your young pitchers are so far away that being on your list is interesting only in I didn't really know anything about them before. I also don't know why Deibison Romero is on your list, I would think he is largely a non-prospect at this point. Still, a fun list. Be interesting to see what you do with the last 15.

While I expect this is a different view than most of the people frequenting this site hold, I don't really care which free agent pitchers the Twins sign this offseason. I expect the Twins to sign 2 free agent pitchers, and perhaps even a 3rd "flyer" of some sort. I have no favorites and really don't think it matters who the Twins sign or necessarily, for how long. First of all, I don't think there are any difference makers out there(With the possible exception of Tanaka). Many could possibly give you a very good season, but are clearly unlikely to do that for the length of a multi-year contract. A very good season in 2014 from any free agent pitcher, isn't by itself going to turn the Twins into a contender in 2014. Even 2 free agent pitchers having such seasons won't. The Twins pitching staff needs some immediate help. John Bonnes wrote recently that the Twins Daily crew had identified 16 free agent pitchers better "than Correia". Beyond the fact that this is a rather low bar, he didn't set out their criteria. My guess is they are including guys who were better than Correia but haven't pitched much recently due to injuries. He could also be including guys who should be better than Correia but haven't been (like Hughes). In any case this is a pretty small pool, when you consider the fact the at least 25 major league teams are likely looking for starting pitching help. The odds of the Twins actually being able to get any of the guys they really want with that much competition, isn't very good. The only way for the Twins to get significantly better is through internal improvement. The young former prospects like Hicks, Arcia, Plouffe, Dozier, etc. have to get better. The youngish starting pitchers(Diamond, Worley, Deduno) need to be able to pitch to their fairly recent major league success. The near ready prospects like Gibson, Darnell, Pinto need to perform like we think they can. And finally, and most significantly, the true impact prospects(Sano and Buxton) need to get to the majors and be something of an impact, almost immediately. The potential free agent pitchers the Twins could sign and will sign, don't really matter very much. Unless some of the above begins to happen, the Twins won't get better. Not in any meaningful way. That doesn't mean the Twins shouldn't sign any free agent pitchers. They should and will. It doesn't mean they shouldn't sort through the available free agents, carefully and throughly. They need some immediate help and should get it. But, no matter who they get, the pitching help won't be that impactful. Also, the longer the contract the Twins are forced to give, it becomes extremely doubtful that pitcher will provide any help the last year of that contract. I hope that the Twins get a bit lucky in their free agent signings. I hope whoever they sign stays healthy. That isn't all that likely with most of these guys. I actually hope the Twins can sign whoever they really want to fairly short contracts. When the Twins start getting good again, well there is no way to know what they really will need and how much it will cost to get it. I don't want to see resources tied up in long term pitching contracts or least not to any of the guys available in this free agent class.

It seems many feel the way this thread is going, the Twins should draft a college pitcher with the no. 5 pick in 2014. I don't feel strongly that way, in part because I think the Twins have a lot of starter type arms in the system right now. Most won't stay as starters, and many will never make the majors, but some have top of the rotation potential. If they stay healthy and develop, they will reach the majors quickly. Pitchers with top of the rotation stuff, get to the majors quickly and they will likely perform at high level pretty quickly as well. They should actually (if they make the majors as starters at all) match up pretty well with when the Twins position player prospects start performing at a high level(if they ever do). What I hope happens is this, the sign at least a couple of free agents this winter. I don't mind if they are "make a wish" types, that is guys who are recovering from injuries and are one year contract guys. As far as the draft goes, just find the best players available, some will be pitchers in the early rounds. If any turn out to have top of the rotation potential, they will get to the majors soon enough. When the Twins position player prospects start getting good at the major league level, there should be some starting pitching prospects getting good as well. Who knows how all this will actually work out, but I am not too excited about overpaying guys like Hughes(who was a great deal worse than Corriea this year) or not drafting the highest ceiling prospect in the first round in order get a college pitcher who might contribute sooner.

I really don't pay that much attention to what other teams do in the draft. I have no idea who the Twins should/could/might take in the 2014 draft. I do think the breakdown of college kids versus high school kids is interesting. It seems to me that over the years there have been some patterns to how the Twins draft. During the first 3 rounds they seem to employ "the best player available" stragedy. They may draft high school or college players and there doesn't seem to be a particular leaning toward either pitchers or position players. After the first 100 players are selected it seems the Twins will still go after the best player available but with a greater focus on college guys, through about round 10. There are guys drafted in this part of the draft every year who turn into very good major league players. This is where the Twins found Kubel, Crain, Valencia and others. Kubel was a high school player but the Twins don't seem to take a lot of high school guys in this area of the draft. From about round 10 to about round 20 the focus is still largely on college guys but it seems the Twins focus more on organizational needs. Some years middle infield, maybe catcher some years, or often pitchers though a lot pitchers are taken every year. They might take a shot at a high school player in this range if he has fallen a bit in the draft and the Twins think he might be signable. Some of the new draft money rules may make this tougher. The back half in the draft is interesting to me. Often the Twins will draft high school players they don't necessarily expect to sign, but once in a while they will. Like a Brock Peterson or more often some toolsy kid not really interested in college. The rest of the signees can be a mixed bag. Often 4 year college guys from smaller colleges who had nice stats against poorer competition or major college guys who didn't put up great stats but may have some tool that makes them interesting. I think some organizations don't really put much effort into this part of the draft. I think the Twins do, but they still occasionally will draft, oh say the manager's son, or perhaps the nephew of one the coaches who is blind in one eye. As far as the 2014 draft goes, I kind of expect that the Twins will draft "the best player available". They might like to get a pitcher at number 5 but I think they will go for another toolsy high school position player if they think he is likely to turn into a superstar and they don't think any of the college pitchers available at that point will. Just a guess.

You are aware that in the last 2 drafts the A's have taken high school players with their first round draft picks? Whatever the A's thought was the correct way to draft in 2002 isn't apparently what they go by now. That isn't to say that the Twins shouldn't take a college pitcher with the first pick in the 2014 draft. But, I don't think your premise that taking a college player is always a better idea than a high school player is something most organizations follow. Including the A's.