mikelink45

At catcher Perez by a mile - are we showing home town bias before he even plays a game in the central when Vasquez is chosen? Perez has been the most dependable player on the KC team. But I hope you are right - we could use a good catcher again. Schoop does not rate in the top two, but he has put together a good career for Detroit and would be my third 2B. I am leaning to Luis Robert's in CF in a tie with Buxton. Austin Meadows over Kepler in RF Josh Bell at DH I give Detroit their only player on the list and the Twins are down one.

I love the fact that the essay has to start with a definition of satire! That was my biggest laugh - I almost spilled my salsa when I saw that.

I am not sure of him. The hype is good. Here is what Keith Law has to say "there isn’t a plus pitch here and the four-seamer lacks life. I think he’ll struggle with hard contact — although, to be fair, he didn’t have that problem at all in Triple A — and end up a back-end starter or a reliever." Law ranks him 10 and has the top rated prospect pitcher at 7 - Balazovic. He believes in Balazovic despite his bad year and writes that off to injury. MLB.com has he rated 6 and has Prielipp at 4.

It is interesting to see how he ranks on other lists - he is number 10 on just baseball list. MLB.com has him number 6. Bleacher Report rankings has him #`13. I like to see outside opinions. The Guardians Giminez and Altuve get the majority of top ratings.

Not make or break - he has already made it. He has established himself and yet he is not a star we cannot live with. I advocated trading him last year and advocate that again if we can get something really good in return. A package of Polanco and Kepler ought to have some market value and we do need to rebuild our prospect list and BP

What I like about these prospect rankings is the dialogues that it generates. Even though you and I are on opposite sides of the globe on this debate, it is still fun and I look forward each day to the comments and even the criticisms. So even though you are wrong, thanks for the give and take.

I can't see it. After he pitches this year I will have something to hope for, but video games, like fantasy, just don't translate to the real world. I am delighted he has so much potential, but this is the top ten of our prospects and so far it is not giving me lots of hope. The last ones on the list I am not even speculating on - obviously Lee and Rodriguez and I would assume Lewis is still a prospect - I guess reading TD hasn't filled in the last three names for me so I will be curious. I do think this is a fun exercise and allows for debate.

Nope. Wallner - minor league - 299/435/597 Witchita, 247/376/463 ST Paul. GALLO 160/159/162 were his batting averages for the three teams he played for last year. I do not even want to go further in this comparison. Wallner has potential to be good, Gallo has proven who he is.

We just have a lens. I want to see players progressing towards MLB. Wallner has shown he can hit in MLB. You cannot complain about Wallner striking out if you support Gallo. Canterino has been injured but has shown ability. We will not drop Buxton, Larnach, Lewis, Kiriloff, Polanco because they have been injured so that is not a disqualifier.

This is from the essay and all I have to go on. And this is from the Essay on Martin - It’s questionable at best as to whether Martin can remain at shortstop. He has played some second base and outfield however, and could morph into a guy that has utility all over the field. His speed plays well on the grass, and while his arm strength is nothing to write home about, it works at other positions. I need more than this to get excited.

Great post. For a person who dislikes Gallo this is more fuel for my frustration. I don't want either, but I hope Sano gets another shot with a team like the Reds or Marlins or Pittsburgh or Oakland. Lots of lousy teams that he could fit in with.

I tend to agree with all the comments that this is premature and too high. Let him prove himself before rating him above Wallner, Canterino, Varland or Martin. In fact he sounds like a Martin comp - good speed, but defensively challenged. His 250 BA for a speed guy is not impressive even at his young age. I have hope for him, but I need more justification than the fact he ranked #5 in the Marlins system. Despite all their bad years, the Marlins minor league system only ranks 16 by MLB.COM. But we rank #23 and I think the rankings so far for this year bare that out. So far our players have not jumped off the list to get me excited. Waiting for more names.

I find it hard to think of him as underrated by the Twins - I think he might be underrated by other teams or we should be trading him while he has value - I know that is counter to the article and comments, but trade a player when he has value if you have replacements ready and then you build the prospect list. I don't underrate him, but I think he is replaceable and I hope we do not keep him too long or like Kepler we will not find a good trade partner.

As I read the quotes I think about all the "junkball" pitchers who made big careers despite not having the blazing fastball. Stu Miller won 105 games and gained 27 WAR. He pitched 26 years. “He's got three speeds of pitches – slow, slower and reverse,” the sportswriter Jim Murray said Klye Hendricks has a fastball that does not reach 90 Rip Sewell was famous for his Eephus pitch. He won 143 games and had 26.9 WAR. Rich Hill is 42, I don't think he is dazzling with his fastball. Jack Quinn pitched at age 50, won 247 games and had a WAR of 58.7 I doubt he was blazing fast all those years. Jamie Moyer won 269 games, had WAR 49.8 and lasted 25 years. And we have had our share of slow pitch pitchers like the essay on Dave Goltz. Jeff Zahn was our best pitcher for four years, but not a Strikeout artist. Blackburn was our top pitcher for five years - I still don't know what he threw. And in his team mates - Slowey (great name) and Baker. There is pitching and there is throwing.

Can he be our next Dave Goltz? I hope so and I hope we start making room for these young players in the rotation.

Gallo is too high on most of these - number 7 is the place I put him. I do like the Gordon lead-off idea, but doubt it is a possibility. The problem is that we do not have a lead-off player like Arraez and Julien and Martin are not here . If Kiriloff got back to what he did in the minors I could see him up there at some point. Right now I would have Polanco Correa Buxton Miranda Larnach Kiriloff Gallo Vasquez Kepler But I hope I am wrong and there is a major change in the roster. When Gallo flames out Gordon takes over for him and moves everyone down a notch. At that point Martin might come up or Julien. If Kepler is gone it will depend on the trade, but at some point Martin, Lee, Lewis, Julien play into this mix.

I would bet on Julien first

I hope he meets all the high expectations, but at this point he is not above Wallner for me. I hope this is the year he proves me wrong.

I believe the take away is that the teams spend as much time bullshitting us to think they have their act together as they do actually attempting to get their acts together.

We know that is true. But there is a new group in charge of the thought police now

Good essay and I partially agree. Urshela should have been worth more, Gallo worth less, and the maneuvering had left us with an odd composition. I still hope for another trade or two as Spring Training progresses and as always I would prefer a young (larnach, Wallner) instead of a reclamation project.

Nice memories. A small town MN boy just did not belong in California, but happily we got to enjoy him with the Twins.

This won't make you feel better, but the Guardians have two pitchers on the mlb.com prospect list at numbers 16 and 65. Keith Law has their pitching prospects at 33, 36, and 42. ESPN has them at 18, 33, 53 and 93. No matter who your choice ranker is the Guardians do not look like their pipeline has dried up.

I like Wallner and Festa and hope Canterino gets his health back because he it the one I like best in this group of five. The other two are long shots for MLB as far as my limited reading provides. I do hope that if the Gallo experiment fizzles that Wallner will get some DH time. I know the trades reduced our overall quality and Balazovic took himself out of the top rankings or at least one of these would drop off.

This challenges me since I do not know the minor league arms for the other teams and read about our prospects regularly on TD. I will still put Cleveland first, KC and Chicago have potential. All I can say is this it the best rotation that this FO has ever had and I have hopes for health and production, but also want to see some young arms show well for when injury or free agency decimates the roster.