kab21

Herrmann is a 24 yr old repeating AA with a .737 career OPS. If he's not catching then he's barely even a prospect.

I'm not seeing it for Herrmann tbh. He is on a tear in August though. I don't really understand how it's possible that Felix Jorge isn't a top 50 prospect. Imo he's at the tail end of the interesting but young group in the 10-20 range. He's thrown about the same number of pro innings as Berrios and the Berrios bandwagon is going nuts.

Arcia has been killing it this year as a 21 yr old in A/AA ball. He's going to make top 50 lists and he's still a hair ahead of Hicks in my book. Rosario is a lock for top 100 lists but will probably fall out of the top 50.

Aside from the league/city contracts I cannot understand why anyone would want a full season ball club north of the Twin cities. The weather is awful in April SOUTH of the Twin Cities and it gets worse as you move north. Cedar Rapids seems like a nice improvement at low A though.

complete nonsense. Prospects have been promoted slowly for the last ten years because the Twins have had very few (if any) prospects deserving of a fast track. That's the difference with the current farm system.

I would rather overpay for Lee than overpay for Anibal Sanchez but I would prefer to stay away from 34 yr old owed close to 100M.

It's worse in Taiwan (and most of Asia). That's how parents approach academics. I wonder when (if) this craze to push young children will ever end.

The thing is that I don't really need to flip guys like Cuddyer and Buehrle. I have prospects coming up everywhere and there is pretty much zero interest in them.

My end is all about Harvey. I needed another really good MLB pitcher since that's what sunk my season this year. I also have found too many prospects to keep this year although I wasn't happy putting Arcia in the deal.

I'm guessing undrafted 4th yr senior.

Herrmann is on track to post <.700 OPS at the MLB level. That has no value unless he's playing C. The Twins will be top 10 in the rankings. Sano, Buxton, Arcia and Rosario are all going to be top 50 (or really close). Gibson, Hicks, Berrios, Kepler and possibly 1-2 others will be in the top 150. BA doesn't rank that high but pretty much the entire top ten are legit prospects and not many teams have that kind of depth. Very few have more upside. The only problem with this org is that it's almost all hitters.

For next season: no chance. 2 years ago: yes and I suggested it on BYTO. This team is not a Mat Latos away despite what some think.

How am I underrating Herrmann's defense? He's not good enough to be an everyday catcher and his bat isn't good enough to be a starter at any position (OF/1B) other than catcher. I fail to be impressed at all with a 24 yr old that has a .717 OPS his second time thru AA. I like Berrios A LOT but this is too high too fast imo. There is absolutely no way that I can be convinced to put him over Gibson. I would also move Minier's upside up a tick or two. He has more risk than those around him in the rankings but he also has more upside.

So you think the best time to eventually pay for it is when you are coming off of consecutive 90 loss seasons?

You forgot Felix Jorge. He's thrown just as many innings as Berrios whom you overrated imo. Jorge would have been somewhere in my 20's before the season and he hasn't disappointed yet. I think you also overrated Harrison based on his appy league stats. His bat is good but he likely carries no defensive value. I'll take Kepler easily since he is younger, less developed as a European, performing better and will have more defensive value. I also don't get the love affair with Herrmann. he's only ranked 16 here (not ridiculously high) but he's a 24 yr old that has a <.800 OPS (sub .750 OPS) and he doesn't have good enough defense to be more than an occasional catcher. And by love affair the constant mention that Doumit's 2/7 contract is seemingly going to block him from being an MLB'er. His mediocrity is going to block him from being an MLB'er.

I think it's nothing more than Ryan being realistic about the chances of landing a good SP'er in FA. There are probably only 6 or so out there and over half of the MLB teams are going to be competing for them. It's not hard to do the math that some (most) of the teams will miss out on landing a good FA starter. And those that land the good starter will have to pay the big bucks and get stuck with an early 30's SP'er on a big 5 year contract (Buehrle and CJ Wilson for example) that is not going to end well. Everyone here thinks that the Blackburn contract hurts payroll but that is nothing compared to having 15M tied up in Lowe, burnett, lackey, or any of the many non-elite arms that signed big contracts in their 30's.

The amount that you pitch does not matter. Super 2 and when you can become a FA depends entirely on the amount of service time (days on the MLB roster) that you have. But I thought it was already decided said that he was going to the AFL in September.

Super 2 is one reason to delay his callup but delaying his FA is another. If you wait until May 2013 to call him he'll be a super 2 but there will be one additional year before he is eligible for FA. That is a big deal and more important than super 2 imo. Super 2 costs money but the player is still in the org.

That was actually my untradeable rankings (not in any order). Plouffe is somehow the 2nd most untradeable player at the MLB level and that perhaps says what is wrong with the current Twins.

Other teams also want that higher upside player lower in the minors. And just because other teams like the Jays and Braves had scouted Liriano doesn't mean that they were in on Liriano. I think it's pretty clear that other teams WEREN'T in on Liriano.

Mauer is obviously off the block. Plouffe would be second on my list since I believe that he can be at least an average 3Bman and he has 5 more years of min/arb contracts. Revere can be traded because it's an org depth. burton only has one more year of arb left so he can be traded but if not I think they should try to extend him a reasonable 3 yr deal. I would rather keep both Perkins and Burton (extended) due to the nightmarish 2011 but if you get a really nice SP'ing (2012 nightmare) prospect offer then goodbye. I could see an argument for not moving Diamond since the Twins don't have any pitching but I'm not the biggest believer yet.

Wow, I had no idea so many people loved Liriano and missed his run of awful the last few seasons. He might have an excellent post Twins career because he does have excellent stuff but this has to be one of the most obvious situations where it's better for two sides to part. The good Liriano wasn't going to happen in MN.

This could be so that they have some flexibility in the future since there are a lot of OF'ers and very few 1B prospects. If a 1Bman is athletic enough it's easy to move to the OF and learn to run down flyballs but it's not as easy to learn to play the infield. It's a very different skillset.

You can pretty much count on paying that salary regardless if it's this year or next year. I would be shocked if a team claimed him and if there is a trade then the Twins will be picking up at least half. Maybe the Twins can add a decent prospect at the next deadline for him. Maybe not but right now they would be lucky to land Eduardo Escobar unless they paid the entire salary.

C Liriano wasn't close to worth extending a 12.5M qualifying offer and he didn't have much trade value. The pieces that the Twins got back are uninspiring though. One thing that the Liriano boo birds need to be careful about is that he could make the Twins look very foolish. He has upside but it was time for the two to part ways.