halfchest

If there is a decent comp in the minors I'd like to see it. I think he is a crazy outlier. I'd like to see a good scouting report on him. With his insane K numbers, I'm kinda surprised he's gotten enough good pitches to even get the extra base hits he has gotten. Is he Vlad Guerrero like in his ability to smack stuff out of the zone? (Not saying Guerrero a comp at all, not even close, but just asking is he hitting his homers on pitches out of the zone? Or are guys still giving him decent pitches here and there despite the high chance he'll strikeout? He's a confusing guy for sure. I hold out a glimmer of hope that he'll somehow develop some better pitch recognition and start walking a bit more at some point. Maybe become an Adam Dunn 3 true outcomes kinda guy. That's probably his best chance at becoming a relevant major leaguer. He doesn't have to be as good as Dunn at the plate either since he brings some defensive value and more speed than a guy like Dunn. But yah, to the main point yes, I agree his K's are what keep him from being a top guy like Sano.

Yah, his homerun rate is fine. another positive is his K/9 is back up over 9 during his second year in AA. Hoping he gains enough velocity and/or better offspeed stuff to keep that up once he hits the majors. I'd be interested to know what his groundball rates are too. If he can be a 7-8 k/9 and a groundball guy that would greatly increase his outlook.

At this time, I'm gonna doubt we see him up for the Twins this year. I have to think we can get similar use out of some of our AA/AAA guys if we need them. Hoping the Twins give Oliveros a shot and consider bringing up Meyer for the pen. Give him a taste and if he succeeds let him stay in the pen this year. Consider moving him back to the rotation next year.

Ya know who else broke the model? Nick Blackburn, at least for awhile. In all honesty though that's a really bad comparison. Gibson's struck out more guys both in the minors and majors and has a much better pedigree than Blackburn ever did. (although wasn't Blackburn our #1 prospect one year after he tore up AA?). While I don't expect Gibson to be a 3.00-3.50 ERA guy every year or possibly any year. I think he could settle in nicely and have a career at just under 4.00 ERA. Also, while he was almost scared of a strikeout the first 6 starts and had a backwards K/BB ratio, he's turned it around and has struck out 44 over 49 IP with a 44/13 K/BB ratio over his last 8 starts. He's probably somewhere in between those two guys but I think he's still developing and has a very good chance to improve his K/9 numbers over last year and what they are over the first half of this year.

Any word on the Saturday starter yet?

As far as the Sano for Hamels . . . . yes I can see that. As much as it would be sad to never see Sano take an at bat for the major league team, they already have an above average to great offense and that's with a realtively young core and lots of parts in the minors or injured right now in Buxton, Polanco, Vargas, Kepler, Arcia, Pinto, Walker, etc. Think of this current offense with a rotation of Hamels, Hughes Santana Gibson May/Pelfrey/Berrios/Milone The Twins suddenly have one of the better rotations in the game to pair with a great offense, improving defense, and still stacked farm system. Wonder if that would be enough for Hamels honestly? Might have to give one more piece like a young upside picher Wu or Gonsalves too. Still might be worth it. While I struggle to condone trading a guy like Sano, Hamels might be one of the few pieces out there you consider dealing him for. It almost has to have them taking Nolasco though for salary and to open up a rotation spot.

Tough to trade anyone who is making a positive contribution when you currently look like a playoff contender. Especially an everyday guy and take a chance that a prospect can fill that void left by a guy like Plouffe offensively or defensively. Long term, sure we all assume Sano is the better player but for 2015 and even 2016 the truth is Plouffe may be the better man to stay there. If Sano forces the issue and shows he can handle major league pitching in 2016 then you look at your options that offseason or maybe even trade deadline in 2016. I don't see any issues right now with just seeing how things pan out. A lot can change between now and when they are really forced to bring Sano up. If the Twins are still sniffing the playoffs come August then we see some callups of guys like Buxton and Sano so they are playoff eligible. Otherwise barring injury or big drops in performance I don't see a need to force Sano or Buxton up.

I say until at least the end of the year. His performance this year has been awful but changing long term plans on a guy following a 6 weeks worth of games is not the way to handle a prospect. I guess if he can't get out of this funk by the end of the season then the Twins have to start seriously re-evaluating long term plans for the guy.

Like how he looks in a very small sample. Just appears more confident at the plate and in the field. Really hoping he has turned a corner and can become a quality contributor for this team. Would love to see both him and Buxton in the outfield by the end of the year.

Nice update, like Seth pointed out, can't move someone too much based on 5 weeks of baseball.

Let's not completely write off Meyer yet either when talking about replacements. Can't write him off after a rough first month.

Before we start talking trades and returns lets give the guys a chance to sort things out first. If all four young outfielders turn out to be above average players then we can start discussing trade scenarios. I'm a big fan of Hicks and hope he finally sticks. I feel like his defense combined with patience is what can make him a valuable guy. He doesn't have to tear the cover off the ball to have a high OBP, get steals, and play good defense. Will he be an all star? not likely but could he be a valuable corner guy that can be your backup CF? yes. He also brings value in a corner position in that he can be your backup CF allowing you to have more of an all bat/no defense 4th outfielder rather than a Jordan Schafer, mastroianni, etc. type. Wouldn't take a lot for him to be a valuable guy, worst case he ends up as a better option for our 4th outfielder than picking up random AAAA players on waivers.

I understand making him wait a little bit. I can't say the Twins have wronged him in any way after the last two seasons handing him a starting job. That said, yah I'd like to see him up fairly soon now with how he's hitting and given the alternatives. If he could hit well enough to lock down a corner position long term that would add some great value. I'm hopeful he's matured and can deliver in the big leagues.

It's six starts, I'll agree he's likely had some good luck but I also think he's likely going to increase strikeouts and decrease walks which will limit his regression to the mean. So I guess I'm saying I believe his peripherals will get better over time but his luck will probably also swing the other direction and we'll see a solid mid-rotation starter when all is said and done. I was really hoping he would get his K/9 up to 6-7 range this year. Right now I'm just hoping he can get back to his career averages. For now, just enjoying a little good luck and hoping he can keep it up.

I think my biggest disappointment was not bringing up Meyer or May when the suspension news came. In small part because I was interested to see if Pelfrey could reinvent himself in the pen like Perkins did. I'm expecting some pretty big changes to this roster within the first 6-8 weeks. Only time will tell.

It would be nice to add the Twins players 2014 statistics to compare to the other guys in the league on these articles. Just a suggestion as I find myself going to baseball-reference to double check what their line was from last year while reading these articles. #firstworldproblems

.250/.350/.420 18 HR, 38 2B with good defense and he'll be the best 2B in the division. Betting Kinsler continues to drop off a bit at age 33. Kipnis and Dozier will be one and two if I had to bet on anything. I don't really expect him to increase his BA or anything really but to hold steady overall with his 2014 numbers.

This is a great discussion. I've honestly flip flopped a lot reading the arguments which is rare. I usually form an opinion and stick with it. It really keeps coming down to it depending on the numbers. Do we just sign him through his arb years and add some options? That to me is best case scenario. The Twins get some cost certainty and Dozier gets some guaranteed wealth in return. Then put some well paid options on the end of the contract. Then if Dozier continues to be a 3-4 WAR player you pick those up. I don't believe any contract he signs will prevent future contracts so after thinking it through I think an extension would be fine as long as there aren't large guarantees in years 5 and 6. I hope those will be options where the Twins can either cut their losses or pay dozier what he's worth for a couple seasons. It's not winwin and it shouldn't be any extension has some risks for both sides. When it comes down to it I would be fine with the Twins going year to year as well. They may pay more for those four years if he continues to produce but they won't be stuck with someone who is injured or if there is a sharp drop in his production.

To be clear, despite my reply above stating I think the staff should be much improved I figure best case scenario we're about a .500 team and settle in around 3rd or 4th in the division. I guess true best case scenario is 90% of the scenarios we talk about break positive for the Twins and then yah we're sniffing the playoffs, but I' not holding my breath. Still looking forward to a much more entertaining team this year.

He may have had the names wrong but the point was still spot on. 2013 we had guys like liam hendriks, scott diamond, vance worley, pj walters, pedro hernandez, rookie kyle gibson who was awful combining for 48 starts that combined for over a 6.0 ERA that's not including pelfrey with 29 starts at a 5.19 ERA. In 2014 Pino had 11 starts at a 5.07 ERA so I wouldn't call that decent. In addition to that milone, may, darnell, and pelfrey combined for 28 starts all pitching over 7 ERA. The point being it seems like we have better options this year for our spot starts and just our opening rotation has much better options. Now anything can happen but you have to figure with regression to the mean(Nolasco, Milone, Hughes) and improvement from younger pitchers (May, Meyer, Gibson) we have much better options than the past two years. You also add in Santana as a planned starter rather than Correia or Pelfrey and it would almost take some horrible luck to not be a much improved pitching staff.

This honestly changes my opinion. I'm not much more in favor of waiting a year than previously. Worst case his price goes up a bit. If he signs now it better be for a decent discount.

I look back to where the Twins waited too long on guys like Hunter and Santana and ended up losing them. Now obviously nothing is for sure but both of those guys would have been more likely to re-sign at a reasonable rate had the Twins gone after them when they were under team control for more years. I also look at the Span contract and how that worked out and I'm all for the Twins exploring this now. The only bad extension the Twins have done is probably Blackburn and that was still pretty low risk. This is obviously a bit higher risk but he's shown some consistent power and plus defense. If he puts up another year like last year I see his price skyrocketing. To me this is the perfect time to pursue an extension but really, no one can judge it until we get some numbers.

It's pretty much impossible to judge an extension without seeing the dollars and years. I think the best deal would be a reasonable purchase of his arbitration years to give Dozier some guaranteed money in case of injury or decline and the Twins some cost certainty. In addition having a couple of higher price option years that are representative of how he should get paid if he continues to hit 20 homers and play top notch defense. That way the Twins aren't stuck with him long term if he declines rapidly but he also gets a couple nice paydays if they do keep him. I'm all for taking a chance on an extension, if he puts up another year like 2014 his price is going to increase rapidly next offseason.

There are a lot of guys who are on the cusp of that list that have been mentioned like Polanco, Burdi, Rosario. Then there are a couple guys who graduated this year in Vargas and Santana that would be no doubter top 100's, right? Can't complain about having such a glut of top end talent and a lot of it being close to major league ready. Change seems to be on the horizon even though we had a lost year from out two top prospects. Last year was the first year I enjoyed watching the Twins despite their losing ways, there was some bright spots and some young talent. I'm excited to see some of these top prospects contribute.

My main beef with saying we should go after Lester is it just seems like those top flight guys get so many offers they go where they want. If you trade for a guy well then you've got him. I also think sometimes we value the prospects too highly. I guess it would depend on the price overall but I would have zero problem giving up one of berrios/meyer as a centerpiece in a deal for Hamels. So while I agree that it's not the exact right time, it's not like guys like Hamels with 4 years of control are on the trade block all the time. Even though yes, maybe money wise Meyer/Berrios would be worth more to the Twins long term, they may both be busts, we don't know. At some point the Twins may be smart to make a deal for an established #1 pitcher. I would be very happy if they went after Hamels.