nicksaviking

Nice work Seth. Hopefully shortly MLBTR will have an update to the original May item with a Seth Stohs and/or Twins Daily plug.

I think the only question is if he can survive a month of roster crunches long enough to make it to September when rosters expand and he can sit on the bench unnoticed for the rest of the year. My money's on "no" as the Rochester/Minneapolis AAAA pitcher rotation will inevitably hit a snag at some point and the team will have to go to a 3 man bench, even if for only a day or two. I have no problem with Parmelee as the backup CF. Like the old saying goes, if your backup CF lacks range, does he really miss more balls if no one is around to see it?

People who are against the signing would probably point out that we have no clue if there was a reasonable return offered. For all we know Ryan was offered Dylan Bundy but still said no and opted for an extension. Or he may have been offered a box of gas station doughnuts. We will never know if this was a good move barring full disclosure from the front office, and we know that will not happen.

Looking at the roster the last half decade, there appears to be ample evidence to indicate that they are indeed OK with that kind of production.

Consciously, I never liked extending him because it's not a smart move to sign guys at their peak, especially when they seem to have value to other teams that could be exploited. However $6 mil per isn't exactly an overpay. I think my biggest issue with the move is subconcious. The players and the managerial staff have all been demanding that the team re-sign him. Very few of them have done much to demonstrate that they deserve to keep playing or managing this team, let alone having the gall to make demands. Basically, I'm mentally resistant to the idea of giving them what they want since they aren't giving us what we want.

OK, lets put the whole team on waivers now and see who slips through. You'd think now would be the time that any questionable players would make it.

Ha, who's going to bat leadoff for the Tigers now? Is a team that has Rajai Davis as an every day CF and leadoff hitter going to win the World Series?

Ha, MLBTR keeps crashing. Can't wait to see what's going on here. No way is Smyly and Franklin the best Tampa could do.

Let the Tigers have Price, he's a free agent after 2015 and Scherzer's a free agent next year. The Twins won't be competitve during that time, meanwhile the Tigers will have to decide which pitcher they want to give another albatros contract to for their decline years. Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll give them both 7 year $200 million contracts.

Which wrist did Buxton get hit on this time? I know this next suggestion sounds impatient, but it isn't. Perhaps Buxton should get promoted to Rochester and not New Britain. I know a double jump in the minors is pretty unheard of around here except in emergency situations, but as mentioned, New Britain is circling the drain while Rochester is in a playoff push. Let's get Buxton in that kind of atmosphere. Jumping Hicks might be the final nail in what appears to be a fragile physical and mental development stage, but who knows, maybe it would motivate Hicks instead of crush him. Either way, Hicks is no longer the priority and while the "seniority" principle still appears to be in place for pitchers, it clearly isn't for the bats. Also, while many of us are frustrated with how the Twins are handling their top pitching prospects, there does not seem to be the same hesitancy with the batters. Buxton was supposed to be a possibility in the later half of 2014, even if slim. The CF situation is still bleak at the MLB level. I know many would disagree, but I'll bet the Twins would actually welcome the possibility of Buxton winning the CF job in spring training next year (or maybe a month later when they won't lose a year of his services) and the best way for that to happer would be to have him knocking at the door in AAA.

I have to say that I'm getting tired of people who want to see the steroid users inducted calling those that won't vote for them "The Morality Police." That's BS. I could buy an arguement around not basing a vote on what a player does off the field, but if you are actively cheating on the field and manipulating the record books for a huge payday voters should have every right to take that into consideration. They cheated, they knew they were cheating and they knew omission from the HOF would almost surely be one of the consequences of getting caught. They made the choice to risk their HOF induction when they took the PEDs. They didn't give a damn about the game then, why should voters be required to give them a pass now? It's not morality, it's enforcing the expected (even if unwritten) consequences of the actions taken by these individuals.

I don't think the 5th starter candidates get packaged together. I think one of them gets packaged with a reliever like Duensing/Swarzak/Burton or Fein. Perhaps another starter gets packaged with Plouffe. His days at 3B are numbered and the Twins have been talking about Mark Reynolds.

He has had many positive things to say about the Twins, but not everything has to be glowing. We don't need to be in the business of advertising for the team. They are in the entertainment industry, they need to please us, not the other way around. Regarding the drug issue, this is Rosario's fault, but I wonder if the Twins have some kind of centralized contact that the players can reach to check whether or not they can take something. I also wonder if such a contact exists if the Twins make this available in Spanish.

Hughes, Arroyo, and Vargas Maybe, No, No. This team does not need more contact heavy pitchers. I'm not a big Hughes fan, but Arroyo and Vargas should not be considered under any scenario. This team puts the questionable infield defense to work enough as it is. Get league average strikeout pitchers or better, there are plenty of them this offseason. Otherwise turn to internal options.

I wasn't sure about how he would adapt to US culture and the nature of American interviews, but I guess Crash Davis taught him well: "I was seeing the ball well," Kepler said. "I'm getting my knocks and doing what I can." The must have left out: "I just wanta give it my best shot and, Good Lord willing, things'll work out." I wonder if a good AFL might make some of the scouting wonks re-consider him for top 100 lists.

I disliked John Moses and did so vehemently. Mostly it was unfounded as it was because he simply replaced Tom Brunansky in RF when Bruno was traded for the human puddle of vomit. Side note, I also disliked the human puddle of vomit. I loved Bruno and no one was going to replace him, I would have felt better if the team had run only eight defenders out each inning and just asked Puckett and Gladden to cover the entire outfield. I did enjoy one thing about Moses; he was the first position player that I remember coming in to pitch in a blowout. It wasn't a new practice but it was novel to me. The Twins actually asked him to pitch three times, though Cuddyer, Butera and Carroll laugh at his 9.00 career ERA.

"Early returns have the parade starting in 2015." Which early returns? Are you talking about the success of the youngsters that are supposed to help bring this team back to contention, Hicks, Arcia, Gibson and Parmelee. Something is broken and it needs to be fixed. I think it is complacency, time to clean house. Do some people deserve to get the boot? Probably not but they are supposed to be in the business of winning so if it is not clear which part is broken, why not replace it all? Your post is one long contradiction. He's only been back in charge for 21 months so we need to show patience yet you for some reason assume to know his goal, which you state is to avoid a long rebuild. How do you come to that conclusion? Especially when you are also preaching patience?

I'd like to see them a little more active also, though to be fair, they did get Jose Berrios and Luke Bard in exchange for losing Cuddyer and Kubel. They probably could have gotten better than Bard for Kubel, but Berrios for Cuddyer isn't a bad swap. That system is long gone though so a more active trade deadline is probably more justified.

This is MLB not the NFL, I don't think championship rings mean a whole lot to the voters, but even if they do, he's on a contending team now. I've made this arguement before, I think Nathan will end up getting in after some Blylevenian wait and SABR debate. I think he'll get in due to his dominance during his peak years. Considering the innings pitched, closers generally don't produce a ton of WAR. I know, WAR sucks, blah blah, but considering how few variables there are for a closer, it actually matches up well for this position. A 2.0 WAR is a pretty good season for a closer. Joe Nathan is in the middle of what looks to be his 6th 2.8 WAR season. Mariano Rivera is far and away the best closer ever, but HOF'ers Rollie Fingers and Dennis Eckersly have a total of four 2.8 WAR years. Combined. Trevor Hoffman only had 3. The aforementioned Billy Wagner had 3. Other contemporary top closers Jonathan Paplebon, Francisco Cordero, Francisco Rodriguez and Jose Valverde have six years with a 2.8 WAR. Combined. This of course this isn't an end all be all arguement but I think it shows how much more dominant Nathan was than his contemporaries save Rivera. He'll likely still need to pitch well a couple more years to pad his stats, as HOF voters like traditional stats too, but only 14 more saves from the top 10 is a big number. I think 72 more saves to get to 400 would be hard to argue against and barring a complete nose dive in 2014, I think he's a shoe in to get there in 2015. 4th all time in saves is well within the realm of possibility.

Great interview, regardless of if these two make it or not, we should be seeing them in the system for a long time barring trade. They both seem to be good enough ballplayers for the orgainzation to give long leashes. I like that Melotakis acknowledges that he needs to continue to work on the change up and I'm not surprised he said they are starting from scratch with that pitch but I'm a little surprised they are doing so with the slider. I'd think that would be a big reason why his K numbers are down. Rebuilding two pitches has to be pretty tough at this point yet he's still pitching well enough. I'd imagine if the changeup develops those K numbers will rise quite a bit. Hicks is my adopt a prospect and after the draft I took him last year too. I remember looking at the college numbers and thinking, wow, this dude is not a 17th round pick, especially in a day and age of profession baseball where the strikeout is not nearly the stigma it once was.

Great write up. I don't know why I didn't read the previous ones but I will certainly go back and check them out now. Trading up for Verlander sounds like an awesome idea, but it would have required the Twins to open up the wallet. San Deigo drafted Bush over Verlander surely because they weren't going to pay Verlander's price tag. The Twins always were in the same boat as the Padres, they too were known to avoid paying large draft signing bonuses back in the day when that was more relevant. Besides, Ryan has always seemed to prefer the rare quantity over quality approach.

Well sure, but does anyone actually have faith that the Twins have this ability? Tampa drafts hard throwers and molds them into hard thowing pitchers who are able to man the front of a rotation. The Twins haven't shown this ability. Ever. Hopefully Berrios and Gibson are the first in a long line of exceptions but that remains to be seen. Though they have little practice at it, I do have faith that the Twins know how to write a check. Everytime I go to the grocery store I seem to end up behind two little old ladies who are able to manage this feat.

I think the short term solution is just to give Doumit regular bench duty. His bat is better than most of the bench options the Twins typically have, but hasn't that been a concern? It would seem to me that Arcia's bat in the lineup is an improvement and Doumit's switch-hitting, multi-positional bat on the bench is an upgrade. Win on both fronts if you ask me.

A very similar situation occued for this team just over 20 years ago. Kent Hrbek was the beloved Twins 1B but they had promising prospect Paul Sorrento lurking. Hrbek was also 31 and Sorrento was putting up some exciting power numbers in the minors. The Twins chose to move Sorrento instead of Hrbek. It didn't work out well for the Twins as Hrbek had difficulties staying healthy and retired early but that was largely due to his poor conditioning. (I forget, did you write that great article a month or so back about Hrbek Cody?) If Morneau looks healthy and productive perhaps history repeats itself; the Twins haven't been shy about trading last decades 1st round picks this off season. I haven't heard the Hrbek/Sorrento parallel drawn yet but I'm sure it will come up often as the trade deadline approaches.

Great article, it's cathartic to read eloquent articles that properly sum up our collective frustration. Mike Illitch and the Tigers spend money on the team and field a competitve product to prove their loyalty to the fans, and as expected, the fans buy tickets and spend money at the stadium. Contrarily, the Pohlads and the Twins ask the fans to prove their loyalty to the team in the form of buying tickets and spending money at the stadium before they'll spend enough money to put a competitve product on the field.