gunnarthor

That was a nice send off for Mauer.

I listed the age the guys made their significant ML appearance - I ignored Polanco's cup of coffee at 20, for instance. Buxton played in 46 games at 21. Sano came in third in ROY voting at 22. Rosario came in 6th at 23. Kepler played in 113 games at 23. Berrios made 14 starts at 22, etc. It's not misleading at all. Second, Aaron Judge debuted at 25, Sanchez and Andujar at 23. Torres at 21. So that's not really different. Lastly, yeah, the Yankees and Red Sox are better. Frankly, this argument has been boring for twenty plus years. Let the Twins spend a billion dollars on payroll over a five year period and see how that affects the team's ability to be competitive. It's ridiculous to say that because Servino signed for 225k, the Yankees and Twins were on the same level. The Yankees and Red Sox simply have more resources than the Twins and have used those resources smartly. For instance, the Red Sox got 2+ WAR from 10 players this year and they drafted/international signed only 4 of them (Betts, Bogarts, Bradley and Bennintendi). (Twins only had 6 such players but 5 were home grown. None had the season that Betts had although Berrios would have tied for second and Gibson tied for third). Having three former Cy Young starting pitchers on your roster and paying 100m to JD Martinez probably helps a team win 100 games. Give the Twins the resources that let the Red Sox do that - and they did that with massive payrolls over a period of years - and then the comparison works. The Twins shouldn't be rebuilding. They were playoff competitive in two of the last four years but have had two "total system failures" in between. That's on the ML staff, not the development team. The FO has to figure out why the ML team is f'ing up but I think the pipeline people have done fine. They've had failures but they've had successes in all fields - pitchers/position players, early round/later round, big money signings/low value signings - and have pushed the guys multiple levels with regularity. Most of the problems are on Molitor and his staff. I don't know if they can fix it and would rather the FO found a new team to work on it.

No, the Twins were relatively dark horses on Jay and most (except Callis) had him getting picked by the White Sox, who would turn him into Chris Sale 2.0. The Twins were linked to a lot of players, including Daz Cameron (who I wanted), Tyler Stephenson (who nobody wanted) and a few of the HS pitchers. Jay was mostly surprising, especially in the lead up to the draft. And when the drafted him, they drafted him as a starter. It wasn't a relief pitcher strategy. In fact, the 2015 draft was mostly a position player draft - although they did take a college reliever in the 5th round.

I'm not overly concerned about Garver. Look at the promotions of the guys in the minors since Steil took over. They are pushed. Just a few of the ages of guys when the made the majors since 2012. 21 - Buxton 22 - Sano, Polanco, Berrios, 23 - Rosario, Kepler, Hicks, Littel, Gonsalves, Stewart, Romero Sure, they haven't pushed everyone as hard - Gordon for example - and injuries affected others (Jay and Burdi) but generally, the development team has pushed the guys. Kiriloff misses a year and immediately starts a level above where he left off and gets a mid-season promotion. Most of our best prospects get mid-season promotions and/or start at higher levels than others. Lewis, for example, is at higher level already than Greene and Gore and the same level as college pick McCay. Sano has already been an all-star and Buxton has already put down a 5 WAR season with MVP votes. Berrios and Rosario have played at or near all-star levels. I think the development team is doing fine. There is something wrong at the ML level that needs to get fixed to address why Kepler has plateaued and Sano regressed etc.

I think there's a lot of stuff to complain about the FO but I'm not sure we should say they are conservative in rushing minor league players. Frankly, that's been a false narrative since Steil took over. The Twins have pushed a lot of young guys up the system. I think the development guys are doing a pretty decent job, frankly. It's the ML side that needs to be fixed.

I made this comment a few weeks ago but Stewart's stuff is better than Slowey or Blackburn's stuff. But they both knew how to pitch with their stuff and both had much better command/control. Stewart's ceiling is better than both of them although I'm not sure he can reach it but I hope he does.

So if the Twins had drafted the college players, here's what they would've nabbed (based on the best college player after their real pick): 2012 - C Zunino or P Appel. (Appel was considered the best college player by far, Zunino went #3) 2013 - 3B Colin Moran 2014 - P Aaron Nola 2015 - P Tyler Jay 2016 - C Matt Thasis (although we picked 16th so maybe we could nab a HS bat at that point?) 2017 - P Brenden McCay (although $ played a big part in the selection here and later in the draft) 2018 - OF Larnich The obvious upgrade is Nola over Gordon although Nola was not favored when discussing the draft at the time. Would still rather have Buxton over Zunino or Appel. McCay wasn't even my favorite college arm (I wanted Wright) so I'd rather have Lewis. Thasis seems decent and close to the majors. Kohl Stewart or Colin Moran? On a side note, it's interesting looking back at the drafts and remembering some of the names. I really liked Alex Jackson and I remember rooting for some scenario where Kolak falls to us. Shows what I know.

I think Stewart is unfinished and I think Jay won't be a Twin much longer.

He's not ready yet. No reason to burn away three years of control while his bat waits to catch up.

I think pitching is a smaller concern, which is a bit shocking. But Gibson, Berrios and Odorizzi are all solid enough and we have Romero coming up and a bunch of arms behind that. I'd be ok adding another top arm, of course, but I'd rather the FO focus on improving the lineup.

They need talent. Only three guys - Buxton, Sano and Rosario - have all-star or better ceilings right now and Buxton and Sano have big question marks. Kepler and Polanco can be serviceable starters in the MI and RF but they're just complementary pieces right now. After that, the Twins have some big holes. C- Garver/Castro - ugh, but probably passable in today's MLB 1B - Sano 2B - ? SS - Polanco 3B - ? LF - Rosario CF - Buxton RF - Kepler DH - ? If we're dreaming, Manny Machado is the perfect fit for us (and every other team). But realistically, the FO is going to have to fix the line-up substantially. I like Cave as a 4th OFer but I'd be ok if we moved Kepler and plugged him into RF until Kiriloff was up. But the Twins can't have a bunch of black holes in the lineup again. They need some professional hitters. I'm not sure what's out there though. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/12/2018-19-mlb-free-agents.html

Buxton's handling early in the season and Rosario's injury last night are pretty jarring. Those are two pretty important guys. I have no idea what the answer is - obviously, the guys want to play and might say "I'm good enough" and the manager believes them. But when the injury is obviously affecting their performance, like Buxton's foot, I think we can pass blame from the player to Molitor or up.

Just keep letting Stewart pitch. I think he can be a solid ML pitcher for us but he'll have some growing pains.

Frankly, Ryan made a lot of changes when he came back in 2012 - nearly all minor league coaches are from 2012 or later. Brad Steil came in to run the minors and we saw him be much more aggressive in mid-season promotions. I tend to think the problem isn't really on the minor league coaches/development people. Something isn't clicking on the ML side of this. I still think Molitor is the biggest issue. I'm not sure what it is but we've had a couple seasons now where Molitor's team seemed completely unprepared for the season. I'd like to see a different kind of manager with this core of young players. As to the FO, I agree a lot of things that they did on paper makes sense but many haven't worked out as well as they should've. I'm not sure that means they are doing good things but I can at least understand most of their moves - Logan Morrison is a cheap buy, has good LH power, let's get him. Makes sense, didn't work. Reed is a good young arm with some success, let's sign him. Makes sense, he's not good.

Some of this is conjecture but a lot of it simply isn't true. The reason the Twins were competitive for most of a decade was because Ryan was a pretty aggressive seller - fans on forums back in the 2000s hated how the Twins would let vets go but it was a successful process for a team with payroll concerns. We'll see if the new FO can make and keep the Twins competitive for a similar window of time.

I'm not sure how anyone looks at Kepler plateauing or Sano's issues or how this team is managed and decides that the current FO isn't to blame, but rather the old one. It's too early to make a decision on Levine and Falvey but the early returns haven't been great.

What vets did they sign and trade?

I guess we're still in the honeymoon period for Falvine. Also, the Twins did win 83 games under Ryan in 2015.

I agree with you. In 2006 or 2009, he would have flirted with .400 if he played at Fenway and ESPN would've had breaking news stories on it all the time.

I hope he retires.

Ignoring the opener bull****, Stewart really looked good yesterday. He had some periods where he was just dealing. There certainly is talent there. I'm not sure the Twins will be able to get all of it out of him but he's had flashes. For those old enough to remember Nick Blackburn and Kevin Slowey, Stewart seems like he has better stuff but doesn't yet know how to pitch like they did when they were on.

I think the FO's argument about performance rings pretty hollow when they brought up Field. If Field's performance has been good enough to warrant a call-up, then so has Buxton's performance. If Buxton's wrist was hurt the FO should be fired for making him play in AAA with an injury. This was service time manipulation that puts 2022 ahead of 2019.

90 ML at-bats. Injured for most of them. Yes, I want the Twins to hand him CF next year.

It's not impossible that he could be an avg corner OFer for a year if the team wanted to move Kepler for something but that's his ceiling and it's optimistic. He's more likely a decent 4th OFer. But he shouldn't have any bearing on Buxton's future.

If the Twins are dumb enough to move off of Buxton and Sano after a bad year, they deserve everything that comes to them. Buxton is the future of this franchise. Jake Cave is a 4th outfielder. He shouldn't even be in the discussion about the future of this franchise and his feelings shouldn't have any bearing on what this team does.