TheLeviathan

I think the statement is that he is a AAAA starter.

I believe you may still be confused about how you misused WAR. In any case, yeah, I'm not seeing anything thus far to see this as sustainable. The lack of strikeouts will catch up to them and I still feel like this bullpen is an implosion waiting to happen. That could seriously mess with the pitching staff if/when it occurs.

Oliveros?

So, Molly....you dodged the Boyer bullet twice. Can we stop playing with fire now?

I'll be really curious to see the leg kick in action. As a fan I have two things I want to see from Hicks early and often - the ball getting actually driven and his play in CF looking less like it deserves a Benny Hill soundtrack. Do that and I'll be very excited about his prospects for contributing.

You're right, they may once again have it screwed up. But at least it's a different kind of screw-up I guess if that's the case. But neither of us know that. My bigger issue is that you are basing far too much of your argument on Schaefer and not Hicks. Schaefer is irrelevant. His play is irrelevant to what is right for Hicks. If Plouffe gets hurt tomorrow and Sano isn't ready, you want them calling him up too? I would hope not. Prospect development should be independent of major league roster developments. (Good and bad) I just cannot disagree more strongly with the logic that a bungling of the current CF situation requires us to bypass what is right for Hicks in order to fix it. That's compounding the problem if Hicks isn't ready. They can get a long look at him if he comes up in June too. The problem is if this is "too soon" then it's over for Hicks. I'm just not ready to give up on him yet and I don't think he's sufficiently worked on what they want from him or he'd be up already. So good for the Twins being patient and finally putting his development in front of their MLB needs. At least that's how I see it.

They should be. They royally messed up the development process not once but twice, I think they are trying to right that wrong. We need to let go of all these PAs in the big leagues and consider them what they were: the mistakes of a poor plan. The risk in bringing him up is that if he fails he's a 4th OF and possibly a DFA before September. Keeping him down and making sure he's ready to step in and claim RF/LF or CF until Buxton comes up makes him a legitimate contributor to the future. 4th OF? Meaningless. After thought. I consider that to be a wide gulf in upside and certainly one worthy of considering a high risk. The time to field a competent CF was back in December. Or, hell, two years ago. Those mistakes aren't undone by calling up a non-ready Hicks. Considering they just bypassed him for Rosario tells me that they don't think that his game is ready. Nothing has changed that drastically in the last few days, which reinforces the point many are making here: this is about his approach as a professional. That might include his maturity and his approach at the plate, but we need to stop using 19 box scores to proclaim readiness. Hicks is not at that stage in his career and until the Twins feel like he's ready as a professional, he should stay down there - box scores be damned. If you want to bemoan the crappy CF situation - blame the GM for that. Not on when Hicks gets called up.

That mistake was made in the offseason, no reason to double down on it now.

To your first point - every game presents an opportunity for challenge and adversity. Overcoming that is Hicks' biggest obstacle. Another month of those opportunities gives a chance to see if things have really changed. To your second point - comparing his start this year to the Twins' past asinine decisions to bring him up is sort of unfair. No one denies he has gotten off to a good start. Some of us are just tired of a small sample of productivity being enough for this guy to keep getting the call. If the professional evaluators in the organization think he's turned the corner, I'm on board. 19 boxscores, no matter how good, don't sell me on this particular guy. I've seen enough of that with him. And I damn sure don't decide his future based on anything to do with Schaefer. That's a really poor way to develop players.

Right, it seems kind of odd to say he's ready and he has to be up now so a AAA slump doesn't wreck his confidence. If struggling a bit in AAA is all it takes to shatter him than he really isn't ready.

What, exactly, makes you so sure he is better? Hicks has had two shots and has been as bad as Schaefer has both times while playing some pretty subpar defense to boot. I always targeted June 1st as the time for Hicks unless he forced the issue. His problem is consistency and bringing his A game no matter what else is going on. Can that be shown in a month of AAA? To me, the answer to Hicks' readiness isn't going to be found in the boxscore. It'll be from the coaches reports on his attitude and approach. But let's be clear about things, the last option year is not a reason to jump now. If anything, it's more reason to get it right this time. There is only one chance to salvage Hicks as part of the future, rushing to judgement out of fear of options only adds to that pressure. Also, the fact of Schaefer's age and similar production as reasons for promoting Hicks are a non-factor. Schaefer has zero chance of being a part of the future. Hicks still has a slim chance. This has nothing to do with a comparison of career production and everything to do with Hicks having only one more shot to get it right. I don't find that argument particularly compelling yet, not unless his coaches down there see him as a changed man.

Those teams aren't playing good baseball, but their appearance as "bad teams" comes in part from the beatings the Twins have put on them. I don't think this is a case of beating up on bad teams but more the Twins playing some decent ball and catching some teams at the right time.

It's the first week of May and we're watching Mauer use the whole field, Rosario homer on his first pitch, actual platoon usage!, and young players like May, Santana, and Vargas working through struggles and adjusting. Our record may end up sucking, but some things are happening that have needed to happen for awhile. Are there still some nits to pick, absolutely. But hard to complain with 3 out of every 5 days there is a starter part of the long-term plan taking the mound and and 5 or 6 bats that are part of it in the lineup every day.

I think it's more about his approach than the results. I'd love to see him stick.

Love it! I hope he's in the lineup tomorrow, will give me another reason to tune in and see how the kid does.

Embarrassment of riches clearly.

On whether he's worth locking up and forcing a move by someone to another position? Yes, I absolutely believe that is up in the air for a number of factors. To me, I wouldn't lock up Plouffe unless it was at the 4/30 mark being discussed. Anything more than that would depend on how likely Sano can stay at third and I'm not sure any of us have much of a clue about that one way or the other.

We have a DH spot manned by a guy with a sub .600 OPS. I'm not going to worry about things if Sano's bat forces the issue. But if Sano can play third, then I trade Plouffe, not extend him. But the notion you can just toss any dude out in RF and it'll be "ok" is one I couldn't disagree with more.

It's possible he could stick either place, moving him out of fear Plouffe might be a good player seems like exactly the kind of poor thinking that has plagued this team.

I'm confused as someone who generally agrees with you about outfield defense, why you are so comfortable just tossing a career infielder into RF and assuming it will work out. Plouffe's done a lot of great things. If we're ready to get Sano up, there is another young beast he could replace and Plouffe could stay right where he is. Or, we could give Sano a chance to keep refining his game and worry about 3B when he forces his hand.

My working theory is that most of the hype of minor league defensive prowess comes from national scouts and not so much the people working directly every day with the players. So a guy like Hicks gets almost a default boost based on his prospect status and then some national scout that seems him 5-10 games the whole season tries to take that small sample size and make generalizations based on it. Other than arm strength I'm just not sure how that is a reliable opinion. That doesn't mean the opinions aren't worth reading or considering, but it damn sure means to keep them in context. Remember, before Delmon Young hit a big league field there was talk of him being a CF option who would move to a corner and become elite. We all saw how that turned out. I don't form a good opinion of a player's defense by eye test without a considerable sample size just like the stats, I wouldn't trust even the well-trained eye of a scout to be all that much better in that narrow of a viewing period.

Great post. I had the same question and I wonder how often this happens to other teams. Plouffe was a similar issue and there may be others I'm not remembering either. Either way, it's made me take all defensive scouting reports on minor leagues with a giant grain of salt.

I believe Hicks can learn a lot in the next few months (and needs to), why is it so hard to believe that Pinto might do the same? Or the same as any other prospect that puts things together in the minors? Also, that 104 wRC+ ranks 13th in all of the big leagues for catchers with at least 30 ABs. So maybe "hitting well" is a bit of an overstatement, but replacement level is probably too far the other way.

This isn't really fair though. Most people are consistent in their philosophies towards this issue. Of course there is a wide spectrum of opinions that will constantly put Ryan as "right" in some eyes and "wrong" in others. I think most people critical of the front office are pretty consistent in how they do that. (With some exceptions that give all criticism a bad name, clearly) I don't see anyone here being inconsistent either, it's just a broad brush comment that doesn't seem to fit the discussion.

Right, Suzuki's play at this point is making anything Pinto does down there a non-factor until Suzuki is traded or hurt.