d-mac

When it comes to 16 year olds it's about quantity. 3 is better than one.

#FreeTaylor

While, I'd prefer the Twins to send Pelfrey to the bullpen when Santana comes back, I think it's great that the Twins are thinking outside the box here. We'll just to have to see how it goes, if they decide to go this direction. Of course, each pitcher will likely react differently and... we shall see.

It's that time of the month already? I always enjoy these summaries on our top performers, Seth! Keep up the good work! There absolutely is no reason why the entire top 5 shouldn't already be at the next level up, other than maybe Muren with his recent promotion to AA.

I agree with both of you guys here. They put all of their 4 million proverbial eggs in one basket. It's really hard to predict what a 16 year old from a third world country is going to turn into. I'm sure the Twins are convinced that this is a can't miss prospect, but I'd prefer if they had spent it on 4 $1 million dollar kids. I think the odds of getting a productive major leaguer are better that way. And if they are going to go over- just do it and spend money like drunken sailors. No need to pussyfoot around. Sign as many top guys in a year as they can.

I think that's a bit of over-simplification. I think they tend to be waaaaayyyy too aggressive when promoting hitters from AA to AAA to the majors, or in many cases straight to the majors from AA. Conversely, I think the ARE too conservative when I comes to promoting pitchers. I also think they move players up too slowly through the low minors (Rookie ball through the Midwest League) and that is even more the case with college players.

Pshhh! I use fangraphs. And you're right about not* being Hicks. Switch hitting is a b***.

But he was a negative fWAR player in his first taste in the majors. So I'd disagree about "not having to hit to make a difference." I'm just worried that he'll struggle so much because he's not ready with the bat that it will ultimately harm his development and we end up with Aaron Hicks, part deux. Plus, this team isn't a real contender this year- so there's no reason to throw Buxton to the wolves just yet when we have Hicks (granted he's healthy), Rosario, and Robinson to fill in in center for a few months while Buxton develops in AAA.

You are absolutely right, it is a small sample size. But the eye test matches the data set at this point. And it's disconcerting.

Probably the same people that told him Aaron Hicks was ready after the 2012 season. Or that Brian Duensing should have been tendered a contract. Or advised Bill Smith to trade for Matt Crapps and give away J.J. Hardy in order to sign Nishioka. I could do this all day.

I don't think CF defense was his problem. He always had major league ready defense when he was drafted. However, I wouldn't consider an OPS of .501 with a 38.5% strikeout rate to be ready. I don't care how good of a prospect he is- no major leaguer can be successful with that kind of batting line. And for that matter nearly every ball he put in play was hit weakly on the ground- evidenced by his 61.9% groundball and 18.2% hard hit rates. Major League infielders are much better than the ones he saw in the minors, he isn't going to get by using his elite speed to beat out everything hit to the left side of the infield up here. His bat needs more time in AAA. It is abundantly clear.

Yeah, what exactly is the harm with that? It's a good problem to have.

There is no reason Sano, Kepler, and Polanco shouldn't be in AAA today. I'd leave ABW in AA for a full season. I'm glad they moved up Berrios to AAA. Here's how I'd play it: I would have Sano getting reps at 1st and in RF in addition to his time at 3rd. I would also like to see Mauer and Plouffe get time in RF. Mauer isn't going anywhere with that contract and there is no reason to trade away Plouffe yet- he's an established, productive player and we don't have enough of those on this team. I would like to see what Sano's bat would do against more experienced AAA pitching, before I'd bring him up. He's going to strike-out at the ML level, but Sano has shown the ability to reduce his K rate the more experience he gets at each level- so I'd wait for that point where he starts to reduce his K% in AAA before bringing him up to make that jump as easy as possible. I think Polanco can come up and play SS at anytime- from what little I've seen he looks ready with the bat- and he's probably no more error prone than Santana, who has no bat. Kepler, is likely almost ready to- that BB/K ratio is a thing of beauty. But he likely needs to stay in AAA until September to round off some of those rough edges. When Buxton is healthy, he needs to go to AAA. He clearly wasn't ready. Leave him there until September.

I agree on both parts. I think that is likely the best strategy, however, I'd consider moving Plouffe or Sano to a different position first. And Terry Ryan would have made a great politician in a different life. He's rarely truthful, only speaks in half-truths and platitudes.

Meanwhile, Phil Hughes allows 1.55 HR/9. So, .60 is good- it's 39% of what Hughes has allowed this year.

May is our best chance to have a young, solid #2 starter. Move Pelfrey to the pen. He's been incredibly lucky this year stranding runners- He's going to turn into back into a pumpkin at some point. Moving him into the bullpen will hide the fact that he doesn't have a second pitch.

Wow! That would be great. I like Eaton.

To your first point Nick, I say TINSTAAPP. Kepler is less than a year away and doesn't have as high of a risk of having a career altering injury. But I completely agree with the other points.

Oooooh. Nice comp. I never thought about that. I went and looked at Jacques' stats from back in the day- those two will seem to have similar K/BB ratios, similar BA. However, Jones probably had more power and I think Rosario is likely to steal bases at a better rate when all is said and done.

Hahahaha too funny! Sadly, this seems like it could almost be true.

My midseason top 20 prospect list: 1. Sano 2. Berrios 3. Polanco 4. Kepler 5. Jay 6. Hu 7. Gonsalves 8. Meyer 9. Thorpe 10. Harrison 11. Walker 12. Stewart 13. Gordon 14. Minier 15. Diaz 16. Z. Jones 17. Rogers 18. Chargois 19. Burdi 20. Reed

I was wondering the same thing, but it's an awfully small sample size at the moment. But those scouting reports have given me some pause.

I had all but given up on him as a prospect last year, but he has made me a believer.

Brain injuries are a b****.

The Twins couldn't find a quality relief option from their own AAA team if one walked up and punched Terry Ryan in the face.