Doomtints

.235 - .250 / .288 - .305 / .422 - .450 17 HR, 22 2B, 8 3B, 16 SB Don't forget, he is still having trouble at the plate and he is still quite young. His peak years are further out. If his breakout year actually happens in 2017, here's what we're looking at: .280 / .335 / .500 22 HR, 27 2B, 9 3B, 20 SB

Pitchfx shows that Hughes is a 'right down broadway" type of pitcher. Without velocity there are no good things that can happen for Hughes. Batters need to do very little to adjust to hit off of him because the ball is always going over the plate in the same spot. Hughes has to learn to paint the corners if he can't throw 92.5+. Maybe Santana can show him how to throw it down and away once in a while.

I'm very excited about Polanco's future. He is going to be a cornerstone of some good Twins years coming up, once they manage to turnover the pitching staff.

The bar is low with this team. If Hughes can achieve a 5.00 ERA, he's already the #2 on last year's team. Last year's team looks a lot like this year's team. I would think the ceiling for Hughes is about a 4.50 ERA -- and it almost pains me to put his potential as being that good. I'm not expecting him to be serviceable. I would love to be proven wrong.

In my opinion what will hold Sano back is his lack of focus, lack of dedication. He is clearly gifted but I don't think he will ever put in the work required to live up to his potential. This does not mean Sano won't be good. He will smack a couple hundred homers in his career, but he could hit 500 if he put in the effort.

I think an injury will cut Sano's season short. But if he plays through the year: .230 - .250 / .325 - .345 / .460 - .485 30 HR, 26 2B, 2 3B

.240 - .250 / .310 - .325 / .425 - .450 25 HR, 33 2B, 3 3B

.270 - .290 / .320 - .340 / .420 - .450 15 HR, 29 2B, 6 3B

.230 - .245 / .300 - .320 / .390 - .415 15 HR, 25 2B, 2 3B

.270 - .280 / .350 - .365 / .385 - .400 9 HR, 30 2b, 3 3B

Projection systems don't look favorably on Rosario. I think he is currently underrated, but as to how much he is underrated I have no idea. We seem to have him rated higher than the projection systems do. We usually overrate our players but Rosario isn't usually a benefactor of that. My gut tells me that he is a 17 HR, .280 BA, .780 OPS guy, but this is near the upper edge of the spectrum of what the algorithms are spitting out.

They're playing in late afternoon/early evening. It won't be that warm in the evening, it will be in the 40s. And again, you're ignoring what I said, so I'll paste it: "Temps in the 40s and 50s aren't a big deal to us, but the team has been in Florida for the past few months." I'll add a bit more: Some of these pitchers have never played in Minnesota in April.

Too bad they're not playing on Tuesday. But you can always go and see them on Monday evening (40s in the evening), Wednesday (40s/rain), or Thursday (40s) before they hit the road to another cold-weather city.

Not many balls will be flying out of the park when the temp is 48.

Twins won't be playing a game in a warm city until the 24th. As Molitor suggested, having 13 pitchers on the roster is only temporary. If having 13 pitchers reduces the misery of the players playing in the cold and thus reduces the misery of the Twins W-L record, Molitor will be touted as a genius. Temps in the 40s and 50s aren't a big deal to us, but the team has been in Florida for the past few months. As for Park starting in the minors, raise your hand if you didn't predict that happening. All of the moves over the past few months pointed in this direction. As for Santana/Escobar still being around, sure it's not great. But again, we all should have predicted it.

With all the new shiny analytics that they have now to sign the best talent out there, it seems strange that they signed a catcher and that's it. It's almost like they were world champions instead of finishing off the worst year in Twins history.

It would be ideal if he could just hit like Henry Blanco did when he was a Twin. Blanco did not have a great batting average, but he banged out doubles and home runs when it mattered. He looked like a superstar at the right moments. If Castro can play defense as some people suspect and he can swoop in offensively with a superman cape when the situation is dire like Blanco did, all will be fine. It's OK if he's Clark Kent the rest of the time at the plate.

This is like saying privileged kids should all start in the 2nd grade. Sure they'll be behind, but they'll figure out it. First grade is for the kids who have lower ceilings! Rebuilding teams tend to have a lack of depth. I think you may have witnessed rebuilding teams putting players in the majors who are not ready yet. They do this out of necessity. This is not strategy, it is desperation. The Twins of the past 5 years have proven this to be the wrong plan. Pitchers like Berrios who have not yet learned control need to be in the minors. Berrios has already had many "failures" in the majors and won't learn by having more of them. There is nothing to be gained by Berrios playing in the majors and continuing his MLB ERA of 8.00 or whatever godawful number it is. I think we all agree that Berrios is not an 8.00 ERA guy. The Twins saw enough of Berrios to know if he is ready or not. If they say he isn't ready, I believe them. Regarding Viola, your comparison is unfair on a few levels: 1) As others have said, that was a different era. 2) Viola flashed brilliance right out of the gate, His problem at the beginning was his tendency to give up home runs at the wrong time. Berrios has control problems, a completely different problem to tackle. 3) Frank Viola's ERA over his first two seasons would have made him the 2nd best pitcher on the 2017 team. Berrios is nowhere near where Viola was as a rookie. 4) Viola pitched in college and high school. Look, we all know Berrios is going to be pitching for the Twins this year. There is zero reason to worry about that. It is completely inconsequential to the Twins playoff hopes if he stretches out in the minors first. Give the kid a chance to succeed! If you have this "sink of swim" mentality sometimes you run across some very competent people who sink because they're simply not ready yet. Think of the future, not what you want right now. Didn't you watch Willy Wonka as a kid?

Honestly Santiago could go either direction. The deciding factor on Santiago will be how the defense performs behind him. It's difficult to imagine the Twins having a good or elite defense this year. Betting against Santiago is the safer choice.

You must be living in a bubble because that's all Twins fans talked about when he was first signed.

I would think that the way to prove k/9 and k/bb are effective would be an associated low ERA....

: mic drop :

No disagreement there. Buxton has to prove he can do it first.

Fair enough, but which is better: 1) Buxton hitting a single or double with Polanco on base 2) Polanco (or anybody else) hitting a single or double with Buxton on base Remember, Buxton is as fast as it gets. Buxton could score on hits when anybody else ends up at 3rd.

Don't be so sure. Buxton was the fastest runner in the league last year. Blink at the wrong time and you may miss one of his triples.