Jeff P

The Yankees are a logical team to trade with but it seems too good to be true that we would get as much or more for Willingham as we got for Span. I think a good prospect at lower levels would be more realistic (on the level of a Max Kepler). I would rather have that than another 5th starter.

Yea that was a fun read, thanks for sharing. "Griffith did make a trade to show his fans he was trying, but it was inconsequential: he acquired Second Baseman Cesar Tovar from the Cincinnati Reds for Pitcher Gerry Arrigo." It was inconsequential for 1965 but Cesar Tovar turned out to be a pretty good player for the Twins.

Thanks for putting this together, it should be interesting to see the changes as the season develops. I am in the camp of taking the BPA, but if it is basically a tossup then you go with need or at least go with a player at a premium position. I am sure it will be hard to take a HS CF this year after taking Buxton last year, but if Meadows (for instance) is your guy, I think they should still take him. Hopefully a pitcher emerges from the pack and there are four high ranking pitchers this year so Minnesota is guaranteed one of them.

I would have thought JD Williams would have done better, he definitely would have been on my list for a breakout season at the beginning of the year. Hopefully he picks it up next year, with all the guys coming up from E Town, he could get lost in the shuffle real quick.

I have not heard how he is progessing defensively. He seems to be under the radar and does not get a lot of attention. With all the examples of prospects with good production not doing well as they move up, I can't get too excited about him yet either. Still, I am hopeful and with so few true prospects in the organization in the middle infield positions, I am following him more closely than I think most here are. In any case, he should move way up the rankings if he hits next year at Beloit.

I agree, he looked good last night and I doubt he would be having anywhere near as good of a year with the Twins. Some people need a fresh start and he was one of them.

I have to admit I hated the trade at the time, but it looks much better now with Diamond performing and Bullock struggling with control. The other point is that relief pitching is one area where both the major league team and the upper levels of the minors look solid so a guy like Bullock would be behind a bunch of other players. Depending on what happens with Kibson and a couple of other guys, this draft could be ok. A lot of recent drafts have been bad to horrible, and the weird thing to me is how quickly so many early round picks wash out quickly or never get past the lower levels.

18M seems optimistic for Greinke given Cain's deal but in any case I like the plan, whether it is Greinke or someone who is clearly at least an above average starter, we need much better starting pitching. Hopefully Gibson, Wimmers, and Hendriks can all turn into at least average starters. They will be cheap for a number of years and this will free up money to spend on a couple of free agents. Jeff

Thanks for the report, Wimmers is a guy a lot of us are hoping will develop into a solid starter for the Twins in the next few years. Guerra has been really successful out of the bullpen, I am a little surprised he started back at New Britain. He is on the 40 man roster and I would think he would be a candidate for a Sept call up.

It is fun to project these things even though we all know that a whole lot will change. I feel much better about the future of the position players than the starting rotation, hopefully Gibson and Wimmers can get past their issues and develop into solid starters. If the projections hold up (or at least mostly hold up), the Twins would be set up for a long window because many of the key players would just be entering their prime and would be under club control and at relatively cheap rates for a number of years afterwards. I could see a window of 2016-2020 or longer. BTW, Appel, Gibson, and Wimmers will all be two years younger in 2015 than you list here. Jeff