worm33

Disagree....A more likely scenario would be Appell falling with Stewart available and the Twins taking someone like Reese Mcguire....I do not buy the twins taking Stewart. They have not taken a HS pitcher with their first pick in a draft since Dan Serafini in 1992 26th overall. Let alone one with signability concerns and leverage on his side. This is the 4th pick, I just dont see it. My #1 wish is Bryant followed by Gray.

Casper Wells

Off-speed stuff looks really good and he has good control of it...If he just had a little fastball command....

Beltran and Molina yes. They have 4 major league starters and 1 utility guy...Pretty compareable to a spring training lineup.

All star level lineup? Um no

I think this has mostly to do with the Twins selecting mostly High School position players for the last 10 years or so. For recent examples, Revere Span Parmelee Plouffe Cuddyer were all 1st round draft picks from high school who spent a ton of time in the minors. Mauer was really about the only one that was fast-tracked.

Dont blame you, that was 1 amazing season.

Its funny how you took the 2012 BA and coupled it with the 2009 OBP and SLG?

One of the best bits of news ive heard all spring.

Who cares, lets just hope Rosario sticks at 2b and has a good year and one of Polanco Santana Goodrum etc stick at SS and develop this year. Im optimistic about one thing right now for the Twins...2015 and beyond

To be fair the league AVG OBP the last 3 years is about .322. In 1999-2000 it was .345 But still you think maybe the Giants should have signed Becker in 2001 and had him leadoff in front of Bonds 73 homeruns instead of having Marvin Benard (.320 OBP) or Armando Rios (.332).

Becker was well ahead of his time. Amazing that his last 2 years in the major leagues he posted the following lines... 1999: 327 AB 258/395/371 2000: 357 AB 242/384/375 His last 684 AB in the major leagues he posted a 390 OBP and couldnt find a job after that.

Yes, Rich Becker is a much better comp for Hicks then Hunter.

I think Hicks best comp as a hitter is Milton Bradley. Prolly a better person though

You are without a doubt the most optimistic Twins guy out there and I respect that. But this team is the 2nd or 3rd worst team in the AL without a doubt. They have the worst rotation in the AL, (Yes I will take Astros current Norris Lyles Harell Bedard with Humber/Peacock but just barely) and the 2nd worst bullpen behind only the Astros. Everybody in the AL is loaded in the bullpen this year, and the Twins 4th best reliever is a guy gave up 2.59 HR/9 in AAA in 2011 (Fien). Their defense will also be one of the bottom 3 worst in the league with Plouffe Willingham and Parmalee (RF) all weak spots and Doumit catching 40-50 games or so. This does not bode well for a team who will again have the least strikeouts of anybody in baseball this year (and by a wide margin again. Last year Twins were 5.9 K/9 and 30th in the league. Indians were 29th at 6.78!) I do believe this team will hit. If Hicks starts the year in CF and can at least post a .330 OBP 1-7 (assuming Mauer hits 2) will be pretty decent. IF everything breaks just right this team could be .500 but thats if we catch a ton of breaks AND stay healthy.

Are you joking? As a 27 and 28 year old playing AA he has posted some great on base numbers while striking out an avg of 17% of the time. So playing against guys he was 4-5 years older then he was a useful player. This is not surprising or hard to do.

29 and has 80 ab's above AA. Probably a late bloomer

I never said that, I think his defense will be pretty bad in RF. The good news is he has to play RF for about 50% of 1 year for the rest of his career so I could really care less about his defense in RF for the first 60-80 games of the season.

It is fairly amazing to me how low everyones expectations are. If you throw out the beginning of 2012, when he made the team without a role and predictably struggled in part time play this guy has been nothing short of EXCELLENT in his last 400 ab's. 228 of them in AAA and 170 in the majors. 2011 Parm gets called up for September after a great growth season in AA where he increased his OPS by 70 points and hit for more power and drew more walks. He proceeds to hit 355/443/592 with a 13% BB and 15% K. That is nothing short of exceptional. Once he got sent back to AAA last year (with no prior time in AAA) he absolutely raked in his 228 AB. Many of you dont know that on a per AB sample he was easily the best hitter in the international league last year. Lets put this into context. AAA line was 338/457/645 good for a .1102 OPS. In 2012 and 2011 combined the highest OPS for any international league player was .930 and these were all by older journeyman players who have had tons of AAA time, not a guy in his first exposure to AAA. After getting called back up in the 2h of last year Parm held his own is his 92 AB. 272/302/478. Good power but didnt control the plate like he did in AAA and his prior MLB stint in 2011. Im expecting Parm to post something along a .270/330/440 line this year in his first real extended exposure to major league pitching. For a guy who is expected to hit 7th or 8th anything approaching an .800 OPS is very very good. This team is going to hit if they stay healthy. Pitching and defense, is another matter however.

Back to the original article....Baseball Prospectus | Spinning Yarn: Removing the Mask Encore Presentation If you go right under the first big table with all the qualifying catchers there is a link that says "data for all catchers is available here". Scroll down to #68