TRex

I was there the day Kirby Puckett woke up blind in one eye. Coor's Field has never been the same in my eye (I am also blind in one eye, but this doesn't hamper my avocation)!

I think Graterol's career has been so unique that you would have a hard time finding a congruent one to help define incongruity ! My opinion is that anyone who maintains upper 90's heat into the seventh inning has to be included in 'top of the rotation potential' discussions. While the odds of him reaching that potential are not great, 99.5% of pitchers can't even be included in the discussion.

Just so that we are comparing apples to apples... Gore and Lewis signed for near-identical bonuses ($6.7 million). However, while Lewis was $1 million under slot, Gore was slightly above slot. Being able to go over-slot and match the highest signing bonus to date (Green, McKay and Wright signed later), indicates to me that it would have taken slot-money to sign Gore. With the extra money the Twins were also able to overpay for Blayne Enlow (slot $775k; signed for $2 million). So, for me, the draft comparison is Gore vs. Lewis AND Enlow (or 80% of Enlow). While there is no way to dislike the Gore signing, I am still happy with the progress of Lewis and Enlow.

...the 4-time gold glove winner who had 155 stolen bases through age 27, or the other one? Sorry, you may have been talking about batted ball statistics and not the 'one tool' discussion.

I wonder if they incorporate OF position into their fielding metric. Rosario and Kepler came up playing mostly CF (on non-byron buxton teams), while Raley has played <5% of his innings in CF.

Royce Lewis' most telling stat to me is the OPS split between facing LHP and RHP (.839 vs .541). Reminds me of Torii Hunter's 'what is that pitch with the dot' days.

... I think you should choose another player from the long list of examples. Yes, Polanco OPS'd .592 there... but he was 16 years old and moved up to the GCL the day after he turned 17! I have been a big Polanco fan for a long time !

...especially combined with a WHIP of 9.00!

Ben slugged .286 in FM and .556 on the road! Here's to hoping the move boosts his overall power numbers !

You can try him out in the bullpen, but it would be an absolute waste if he doesn't have the physical ability to pitch on back to back days (not everyone does).

I am high on Miranda as well. Not mentioned in the blurb (perhaps blessedly!) is the horrible start he got off to in low-A. Through May 12th (in 103 AB), his line was: Avg: .165 OBP: .232 Slg: .232 That gave him an OPS of .455! He got a few days off, and whatever he did worked, as he came back on May 15th and proceeded to hit .315/364/.507 over the next ~300AB.

While I would agree with your statement, remember that Wells would need to be added to the 40-man roster following the season anyway. If he has a good season, they may want to see if his stuff plays in the majors prior to protecting him.

I guess you are right in that 'the plan' was to have the starter come in (when appropriate) during the middle of an inning! I am not sure I like this idea (i.e. designated starting reliever), but can you imagine some of the pairings that you could generate by having a scheduled day to use a reliever? For instance could you imagine pairing Brusdar Graterol with Jamie Moyer (vice-versa, actually)? I bet Moyer could handle that role even now!

...this may also be a bit of a quibble, but I don't think it went quite the way they planned, as he left the bases loaded! However, double bonus for us in that we got to see Romero in both a high-leverage situation AND get in an additional 5 innings!

He did make the last put-out on a fly ball in the bottom of the second and didn't bat in the top of the third, which suggests he hurt himself on the catch... or he had to catch a plane!

... without the metal plate in his head, of course!

While I agree that we should not assume he will be effective throwing 91mph fastballs; I also think that we should not assume he is airing it out in these A and AAA starts. This is his spring training. We fret all the time about mph in spring training and it frequently comes to naught, especially with seasoned veterans. I won't get too worried unless he is still not hitting 93 after a couple of MLB starts (which may come to pass).

I agree with the excitement on Graterol. Two points from the video that make me even more excited: the power is not due to over-throwing (or slinging like the aforementioned Liriano), as Seth points out and, it looks like he still gets plenty of arm-side movement on the pitch... it definitely wasn't straight!

I assume it is like why I always find my keys in the LAST place I look (I stop looking after I find them). I also think that if they are there for injury rehab, their goal is not to destroy minor leaguers, but just get their innings in.

Wonderful article (again), thanks for writing it. I was just wondering, since we ARE talking about Toby Gardenhire, if you had an error in your transcription in the following statement... “Gore’s the same way,” his manager said. “He’s ‘game on.’ He’s funny, but the way he goes about his business, the way he goes out and gets after <sic> it every day –

But, assuming he stays in the majors all season (e.g. he is a September call-up), there is no difference. He wouldn't use an option until (or if) they send him down next spring.

...maybe we have discussed it already and I have missed it, but I wonder how Kohl's stuff would play out of the bullpen? It isn't like he is a slinger, or a max effort guy; would he gain a couple of mph on his FB? Are they worried that his arm will not have the same resiliency as others because of his diabetes?

Not sure if pitch location for low-A games has Trackman-like accuracy, but scrolling through Graterol's pitches through those 3.2 innings was very impressive. He was around the strike zone the whole time, and the second 'hit batter' was only a baseball-width off the plate.

That Sadaharu guy is going to drive some fans crazy... as he is going to be much, much older than league average no matter what ML team he is placed on! This will be proof that the Twins promote too slowly.

It looked like all (or almost all) of those strikeouts came on off-speed pitches that broke like a slider. Is that his changeup? Whatever it was, it made the AAA players look really bad. However, a lot of them were off the plate and more experienced MLB hitters (not named Buxton or Hunter) will be less likely to bite.