Tag: Trevor May

Santana suspension shock to Twins and to Twins fans

I was out on the back fields of the CenturyLink Sports Complex on Friday afternoon watching the Twins AA and AAA teams take on the Red Sox AA and AAA teams. Both games started about 1 PM but I was particularly interested in the AA Chattanooga game and was surprised to see Mark Hamburger start the game for Doug Mientkiewicz ‘s gang. I was disappointed that Miguel Sano was not playing but Byron Buxton, Adam Walker, and Max Kepler all played. Once of the hardest hit balls in that game was a bullet line drive over the head of the Red Sox minor leaguer center fielder off the bat of Max Kepler who was DHing in this game. I had asked Max earlier how his arm was doing and he said it was good but obviously management is still not ready to play him in the field, at least they didn’t on this particular day. Kepler has a beautiful level swing and line drives just shoot off his bat, with his size if he applied some lift to the ball he would hit a bunch of home runs.

The crowd watching the games was pretty small, the players not playing in either game and sitting in the stands watching the games out numbered the fans by about five to one. As normal GM Terry Ryan, with stop watch in hand was standing between the two fields and keeping an eye on both games. I decided to give the poor guy a break today and not bother him with my questions and comments. About 2 or 2:30 PM I looked over where Ryan had been standing and he was nowhere to be seen. That seemed very unusual to me because Ryan always seems to be out there when games are under way on the back fields, he seldom leaves before the games end. After a couple of hours in the hot sun I decided I had seen enough and headed home myself.

2015 Minnesota Twins Photo DayAround 5:30 PM I sat down on my PC to look at some of the pictures I had taken at the ballpark when I was shocked to see a report that Twins pitcher Ervin Santana had been suspended for 80 games for PED use. There was no chatter about this at the ballpark earlier and news like this would have spread like a wild-fire. Shortly there after Press Releases were flying in every direction. MLB had their PR announcing the suspension, the Twins had their PR statement on the suspension, The Twins sent out another PR on the recall of Aaron Thompson and of course Santana had his own PR through the players union which actually seemed to have a time stamp even before the official MLB PR regarding his suspension. I don’t know how the process works for these kinds of deals but MLB must give the player and team a heads up on what is coming in an upcoming PR and then at the agreed upon time everyone hits the send button on their press releases.

This suspension is a killer for everyone, Santana himself, the Twins team, and of course the fans. Santana loses about $6.5 million, the team loses a good starting pitcher, and the fans lose even more hope in a team that wasn’t expected to be in the playoff hunt but had hopes of at least making a run at .500 baseball.

Now as the new season is about to begin and fans all across Twins Territory prepare to watch their new team strut their stuff in 2015 this suspension strikes clear out of the blue and Twins haters come firing out of the woodwork to blame Ervin Santana and the Twins organization. I am not saying Santana is innocent here but who knows for sure if he took this on purpose or if he indeed did take it without knowing he did so. I haven’t heard any whispers about Santana and PED’s previously so I am willing to give the man the benefit of the doubt here. Still it hurts to lose a pitcher of his caliber for half the season.

How can you blame the Twins organization for this? They obviously would not have gone after Santana and paid him the money they did if they had any idea that something like this would happen. But yet it is another ding on team that has been barely treading water since 2010. The Twins have had their share of bad luck, injuries, and bad decisions by management. Twins fans are grasping for anything that will show them that there is reason for hope but it seems like when the Twins take a step forward they also take a step back and it is hard to get anywhere at that pace. The ballclub is mired in this muck and their only hope is their cadre of young future stars that are banging on the clubhouse door. The Twins have spent the last year or two bragging about the potential of their farm system and most everyone in baseball agrees that the Twins have some young stars in the wings but yet the Twins keep signing mediocre players to play at Target field and keep sending the young guns to Rochester and Chattanooga.

It is like a poker game, you can only bluff so long before you have to put your cards on the table and show us what you got. I think it is a bunch of BS that you can bring up a young player too soon and traumatize him to the point that he will never be the player that they could have been with another year or two in the minors. The guys have played baseball their entire lives and they have had their share of butt-kickings, losses, and lessons learned, another humiliation or two at the big league level won’t kill them. What is the old saying? What doesn’t kill you helps to build your character. Football and basketball have no problems bringing kids straight to the big leagues when warranted, why can’t baseball do more of this? I think it is time for the Twins to bring their young studs to the table and let Miguel Sano, Byron Buxton, Eddie Rosario, Max Kepler, Alex Meyer, Trevor May, and Jose Berrios play some ball at Target Field. Give us Twins fans a reason to come to the ballpark and see something new instead of the same old wait until next year crap. The Twins can’t spend $250 million dollars on player salaries so they have to look for new and creative ways to be competitive, maybe the old tried and proven older methods needs to be tossed out on their ear and some new radical ideas need to be tried.  What have you got to lose? Loyalty and experience are great but if you have young players that appear to be better than what you have on the big league club, why not give the young guns a chance to prove they are what you think and say they are.

So Mr. Ryan, do yourself and all of us Twins fans a favor and bring up these young stars sooner than later because every hit they get at Chattanooga or Rochester is one less hit they will get in Minnesota. If these guys show us they can’t pitch or hit at the big league level then we are ahead of the game, we know something that we didn’t know before. Potential is worth nothing unless it can be realized. Taking Mike Pelfrey from the bullpen and putting him in the starting rotation again isn’t exactly trying something new, how can you expect something new and better when you keep doing the same old things?

 

Quality Starts and Twins Wins

A pitcher gets credit for a quality start (QS) any time he allows three earned runs or less in a start that lasts at least six innings. John Lowe who was writing for the Philadelphia Inquirer at the time developed and coined the term Quality Start back in 1985.

Most arguments against the QS begin with the statement that a QS equals a 4.50 ERA and an ERA of 4.50 is not seen as top-notch by anybody. If you look up QS on Wiki you can find some strange situations for and against the term QS, for example, in 2000 Mark Mulder goes 6 and 2/3 innings giving up 15 hits, nine runs but only two were earned and so he gets a QS, in 1982 Mike Scott goes the required 6 innings giving up 7 hits, 5 walks, zero strikeouts, allows 7 runs albeit only 3 earned and he get a QS, on the other side of the coin, back in 1974 Gaylord Perry goes 15 innings and allows 4 earned runs and get no QS, same with Randy Johnson who pitches a complete game while striking out 19 but gives up 4 earnies and gets no QS.

Since 1961, the most MLB QS in a single season record is held by White Sox knuckleballer Wilbur Wood who had 37 QS in 41 starts in 1971. Next on the list is Dodger great Sandy Koufax with 36 QS in 1966 (his final season) in 41 starts. The career leaders in QS from 1961-current are Don Sutton with 483, Nolan Ryan with 481, and Greg Maddux with 480.

LHP Jim Kaat
LHP Jim Kaat

The Twins top five career QS leaders are Jim Kaat with 253, Bert Blyleven with 218, Brad Radke with 208, Jim Perry with 156 and Frank Viola with 144. The Twins most QS in a season  record belongs to Bert Blyleven who had 31 QS in 1972 in 38 starts. That 1972 Twins team had the most QS in a single season with 114 in 154 games, that means that 74% of their games were QS and yet the team finished with a 77-77 record. The others starters that season were Dick Woodson with 26 QS, Jim Perry with 22, Jim Kaat and Ray Corbin with 14 and Dave Goltz with 7. Compare that with the 66 QS in 2014 where the team leader was Phil Hughes with 20, Kyle Gibson had 15, Kevin Correia, had 13, Ricky Nolasco had 10, Yohan Pino had 3, Trevor May and Sam Deduno had 2 each and Tommy Milone put one in the books.

Bert Blyleven
Bert Blyleven

But how close is the relationship of a QS to what really counts, a team victory. If you look at the list that I have provided below that shows the Minnesota Twins QS and the team record you can get a feel for how the two compare. Sure, there are outlier seasons like 1972 when the team had 114 QS and finished the season with a 77-77 record or when the opposite happened in 2006 when the Twins went to the play-offs with a 96-66 record but only had 73 QS. By the way, I don’t remember seeing any Rick Anderson for governor buttons back then.

The Twins historical QS numbers are kind of strange, almost a bell-shaped curve. The Twins have had 90 or more QS in a season 11 times and went to the playoffs zero times. No Twins team with 72 or less QS has sniffed the playoffs either. The Twins have advanced to the playoffs 11 times and their QS were always in the 73-89 range and if you exclude the 2006 season with just 73 QS, the other ten fall between 78-89. Having said all that, in the past 54 seasons the Twins have had 4,266 QS, the team record during that period is 4,274-4,335. 4,266 QS and 4,274 wins over 54 seasons, is that strange or what?

The chart below shows you in a pictorial fashion the relationship of QS and Twins victories. Click on the chart to make it larger.

Quality Starts versus Wins

 

Twins Quality Start History

YEAR QS RECORD
1972 114 77-77
1967 105 91-71
1968 100 79-83
1966 99 89-73
1963 95 91-70
1973 93 81-81
1978 92 73-89
1974 90 82-80
 1984  90  81-81
 1988  90  91-71
 2005  90  83-79
 1965*  89  102-60
 1970*  89  98-64
 1991*  89  95-67
 1969*  88  97-65
 1971  88  74-86
 1989  88  80-82
 1964  86  79-83
 2008  86  88-75
 2010*  86  94-68
 1976  83  85-77
 1992  83  90-72
 2004*  83  92-70
1980  82 77-84
 1987*  80  85-77
2001  80  85-77
 2003*  80  90-72
2007  80  79-83
 2011  80  63-99
 1962  79  91-71
2009* 79 87-76
 1998 78 70-92
 2002* 78 94-67
 1961  75  70-90
1990 75  74-88
 1985 74  77-85
 1979  73  82-80
 2006*  73  96-66
 1975  71  76-83
 1986  71  71-91
 2000  71  69-93
 1977 70 84-77
 1993 69 71-91
 1996 69  78-84
 1983 67  70-92
 1982 66 60-102
 2014 66 70-92
 1999 63  63-97
 2012 62  66-96
2013 62  66-96
1997 61 68-94
1981 56  41-68
 1995 43  56-88
 1994 37  53-60
 TOTALS  4,266  4,274-4,335
* = went to playoffs
 .

Twins QS data by decade

DECADE QS AVG. QS PER SEASON
1960’s 816 90.7
1970’s 863 86.3
1980’s 764 76.4
1990’s 667 66.7
2000’s 800 80.0
2010’s 356 71.2
Data provided by Baseball-Reference Play Index.
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I asked Jim Kaat if he would comment on Quality Starts and here is what Jim had to say-

Thanks John,
I’m happy to comment on “Quality Starts”. It’s one of my favorite subjects because it is misunderstood. My pitching stats person, Merrianna McCully, has compiled a 25 year profile on QS’s in her book ‘Three Up Three Down’. She kept all sorts of pitching stats for me from 1988-2006…
The MINIMUM DAILY REQUIREMENT,[ like a vitamin pill] is 6 ip. 3 er or less..the actual earned run averages in a Quality start is a little under 2 in the NL and about 2.05 in the American league..DH factor…The IP’s in a QS game will close to 8 innings pitched. The records show that if a team got just a minimum daily requirement for a QS they would win about 2/3 of their games unless they had an extremely ineffective bullpen.

Jim

According to Elias

 

Trevor May
Trevor May

Trevor May walked seven batters without recording a strikeout in his major-league debut, a 9-4 Twins loss at Oakland last night. No pitcher had issued that many bases on balls without a strikeout in his first big-league game since the White Sox Ken Kravec (7 walks) on September 4, 1975 versus the Royals. And the only other pitcher in Twins franchise history with such an inauspicious debut was the Washington Senators’ Joe Krakauskas, against the Philadelphia Athletics on September 9, 1937 (7 BB).

No major-league pitcher had issued 7+ walks without a strikeout in any game since the Blue Jays’ Ricky Romero (8 BB at Detroit) on August 21, 2012. And the last Twins pitcher to put up a line like this was Willie Banks (7 BB at Boston) on July 25, 1992.

Post All-Star game thoughts, notes and links

2014-MLB-ASG-LogoHosted by the Minnesota Twins at Target Field the 85th MLB All-Star game and everything surrounding it is finally in our rear view mirror and to be honest, I am kind of glad to see it come to an end. Don’t get me wrong, it was a fun event and the Twins and the Twins Cities did a great job putting together all the festivities but the constant barrage of All-Star game hoopla on TV, the radio, the internet and newspapers was getting to me. This was a long-term project for the Twins and as a former project manager myself in a former life,  I know how tough and pressure-packed it can be, but when the project comes to a successful end it is nice to sit back like George Peppard, aka John “Hannibal” Smith used to do on the “A-Team” and say “I love it when a plan come together”. Great job Minnesota Twins!

All-Star Fan Fest was an interesting event and the only All-Star activity that I actually attended in person. I attended Fan Fest from about 11 AM to 5 PM on Friday and was shocked at how few people were actually there. You could walk up to any activity or display and there were no lines at all for anything but some food concessions. There were many cool things to do and see. This place was baseball heaven for kids and I am sure the crowds picked up in ensuing days and many baseball fans were able to partake in this fun event. What I particularly liked at this Fan Fest was that once you paid your entry fee pretty much everything else inside the event including autographs from former Twins players and Hall of Famers were free unlike Twins Fest where you pay to get in and then still have to pay to get autographs from former Twins players. Maybe the Twins should consider this approach to TwinsFest too, I know the money goes to the Twins Community Fund and that is all well and fine but don’t price yourself out of the range of the average fan.

Brian Dozier
Brian Dozier

What about the Home Run Derby? Yep, I watched it on TV and for the most part it was pretty boring. They say the Home Run Derby is better in person but on a cool windy evening with a 90 or so minute rain delay I think sitting at home in front of the TV served me just fine. Twins second baseman Brian Dozier participated in the derby with his older brother Clay pitching and I thing Dozier knocked three balls into the stands but not enough to move on to the next phase. Colorado Rockies first baseman and former Twin Justin Morneau was also a participant but he too was eliminated fairly early in the competition that ended about 11 PM local time when Oakland A’s outfielder Yoenis Cespedes hoisted the Home Run Derby Trophy and what looked like a professional wrestling belt high into the air claiming his second Home Run Derby championship in a row. What’s with the weird belt?

Jacobson, Jacob supposedly injured handYou can’t talk about the 2014 Home Run Derby and fail to mention foolish local lad Jacob Jacobson, 19,  who tweeted a picture of his “injured” hand that supposedly he hurt trying to catch one of derby participant Giancarlo Stanton’s home run balls. Stanton caught wind of the tweet and responded that he would give Jacobson one of his gloves and a Home Run Derby ball. The next day the teen’s father, Jeff Jacobson, told the Star Tribune the appearance of his son’s hand is actually from a birth defect, and that he’s “learning that social media is not necessarily the venue to use to make fun of situations.” Jacob Jacobson ended up apologizing and said that what started out as a joke between friends ended up getting away from him. Hello – earth to Jacob!

I watched the All-Star game on TV and it held my interest for most of the night, not a great game but an interesting game for the most part. The “I grooved a pitch to Derek Jeter” comment from Cardinals hurler and National league starter Adam Wainwright and then shortly thereafter Wainwright recants and says he really didn’t mean to say what he said added some spice to the game. Pitchers having been grooving pitches to batters for a variety of reasons in MLB for as long as I can remember, they just don’t announce it to the general public 15 minutes after they did it. I could care less if Wainwright grooved a pitch to Jeter or not but the way he handled the situation was pretty dumb, an embarrassment for MLB, Jeter and himself.

 

Scott Diamond
Scott Diamond

The Twins thought that they had found a genuine diamond in the rough when they acquired Scott Diamond from the Atlanta Braves as a Rule 5 draftee back in 2010 but less then four years later found out they had cubic zirconium instead and threw their diamond back into the rock pile and wouldn’t you know it, the Cincinnati Reds came by and put Scott Diamond in their pocket hoping to hit it big. Diamond had started 58 games for the Twins over the span of three seasons (2011-2013) and posted a 19-27 record with a 4.43 ERA. A pitch to contact starter, Diamond allowed 398 hits in 343 innings. Diamond had his best season in 2012 when he went 12-9 with a 3.53 ERA for a team that won a total of 66 games.

 

Kendrys Morales
Kendrys Morales

Kendrys Morales who the Twins signed a month or so ago and are paying roughly $7.4 million dollars has been sending out feelers recently that he wouldn’t mind staying in Minnesota on a longer deal. I sure hope that the Twins don’t bite on that hook and resign Morales, actually their best move would be to send him packing at the trade deadline for whatever they get offered. In 34 games todate this supposed power hitting DH/1B has hit one home run and is hitting for a .230 average. Signed to be a full-time DH,  Morales has filled in at first base now and then since Joe Mauer has taken a vacation of yet undetermined length from his first base duties due to yet another injury just when he thought he was getting hot after his average dipped to .254 about a month ago. By the way, is there a slower runner in all of baseball then Kendrys Morales? Man, this guy can clog the bases like no one I have ever seen before, I think former Twins catcher Earl Battey who was not known for his speed could have run circles around Morales.

Former Twins pitcher Jim Kaat still has a web site at Kaat’s Korner where he does not blog that often but when he writes it is always worth reading. Recently he did a nice piece on his take on arm injuries that you can read at – http://jimkaat.mlblogs.com/2014/07/14/arm-injuries/ .

You hear the term that so and so was optioned to triple AAA and that he has no options left. What does that mean and how many options are there? Neil deMause did a nice blog about options and their history that you can check out by going to Sports on Earth.

GM Terry Ryan
GM Terry Ryan

The Twins dropped their first post All-Star game to the Tampa Rays yesterday at Target Field 6-2 and now stand seven games under .500 at 44 wins and 51 losses. Time for Terry Ryan and Rob Antony to raise the white flag and start listening to offers for a number of players on this team, too many to mention by name. Start bringing up some young players and let’s see if all those potential future stars in the minors can play big league baseball. You can’t keep selling the future forever and now is as good a time as any to see what you have under the covers. I know Byron Buxton has been hurt most of the season and he is currently in A ball but had he not been hurt he would have been at AA and maybe AAA by now. Your best coaches are here in the big leagues, why not just bring Buxton up and throw him in centerfield and see what the man can do? Centerfield has been a black hole for the Twins for some time now, how about putting Buxton out there now? Miguel Sano is injured but why not bring him up on September 1 to travel with the club, get acclimated to the big leagues and maybe even get an at bat at DH now and then? You have some young pitchers in Rochester like Trevor May, Alex Meyer, and Logan Darnell and others that can strut their stuff at Target Field so why not buy them a ticket to Minneapolis and show your diminishing group of Twins fans that you indeed have real players that can play baseball and are not just something called “potential”. Don’t forget that potential is defined as possible, as opposed to actual, expressing possibility, capable of being or becoming. OK Mr. Ryan, the fans are calling you, time to turn over your hold cards and show us what you really have in your hand.

Barely a week left in spring training and things are not looking good

Vance Worley
Vance Worley

The Twins announced yesterday that RHP Vance Worley, who posted a 13.50 ERA in spring training, was sent outright to Class AAA Rochester on Friday. In order to send Worley to AAA Rochester, Worley has to clear waivers, which he did. That means that every team in baseball passed on Worley, who finished third in National League Rookie of the Year voting in 2011 with the Phillies and was last year’s Opening Day starter for the Twins. Was does that tell you about the 26 year-old Worley if no team in baseball is willing to take a chance on the guy that was 3rd in ROY voting just a couple of years earlier when pitchers are in such demand? Are the Twins wasting a AAA roster spot and possibly delaying some others pitchers development by having Worley there? If I was the Twins I would have the “Vanimal” on a very short and tight leash.

Twins GM Bill Smith traded outfielder Ben Revere to the Phillies in order to acquire Worley and minor league pitcher Trevor May in December 2012. The only saving grace from this trade is if May becomes a decent starting pitcher for Minnesota in the near future.

We were at Tuesday’s game when Worley had his last start this spring for the Twins and it was a pitiful performance as the Tampa Rays pounded the Twins to a tune of 11-3. Worley lasted just 2 and 2/3 innings and gave up 11 hits (including 6 doubles) and walked 2 while giving up 7 earned runs. If I remember correctly there was not a blooper in the bunch, the Rays were crushing the ball. As I said earlier, the Twins lost that game 11-3 and we left after 7 innings with the Twins trailing 8-1 and we hardly ever leave games early. The Twins had 8 hits and 9 walks in that game and could only muster 3 runs, that is some bad baseball. When we attended a rained out game against the Cardinals earlier this month we were able to send in our $10 parking ticket for a refund, I wonder if I should send in my parking ticket for this game to Dave St. Peter and see if I can get a refund because of the Twins poor play that night? Maybe I will.

Rob Antony
Rob Antony

The other day acting GM Rob Antony made some strong comments about outfielders Aaron Hicks and Alex Presley not stepping up this spring to earn the centerfield starting job and the lack of hitting by free agent signees Jason Kubel and Jason Bartlett. I applaud Mr. Antony for saying what is on his mind and being honest about the state of this ballclub and I wish more of the Twins organization were as honest. I really expected this team to play close to .500 ball this year (and I still think they can) but based on what I have seen todate the team and its fans could be in for a long season. We all know that spring training means next to nothing as far as team regular season wins are concerned but the Twins play does send a message to Twins fans on what they should expect this season. Spring training is winding down and has about a week to go, the Twins had better start playing some better baseball soon if they want to see fans butts in the Target field seats this year.

The team started off spring training full of optimism in spite of GM Terry Ryan’s cancer diagnosis but the Miguel Sano injury seemed to drain the life right out of this team and its staff. Now is the time for manager Ron Gardenhire to step up and show his stuff by playing what he thinks is his best line-up and getting this team ready for some real baseball. The Twins strategy should be simple, the best players get the jobs and if they don’t cut the mustard then it should be “next man up” until this team starts to show some life and energy. Twins fans deserve to watch a team that wants to play and to win!

Byron Buxton is 2013 Minor League Player of the Year

Byrron Buxton futures game 2013

Baseball America announced today that Byron Buxton is the 2013 Minor League Player of the Year joining Joe Mauer (2003) as the only Twins players to be so honored. The Twins second overall pick in the 2012 draft from Appling County High in Baxley, Georgia is on the fast track to Minnesota. A few days ago the Twins announced that Buxton will be joining the Twins contingent of players heading for the Arizona Fall League where he will join infielders Eddie Rosario and Max Kepler along with pitchers Trevor May, Alex Meyer, A.J. Achter, and Zach Jones playing for the Glendale Desert Dogs.

Buxton started the season at low Class A Cedar Rapids and was promoted in late June to high Class A Fort Myers, Buxton hit a cumulative .334/.424/.520 with 49 extra-base hits, 55 stolen bases and a sparkling 76-to-105 walk-to-strikeout ratio in 125 games. He led the minors with 18 triples, finished second with 109 runs scored, one behind Marcus Semien of the White Sox and 12th in stolen bases. Even more impressive, Buxton ranked sixth in the minor league batting race, 10th in hits (163) and seventh in on-base percentage, despite being a full year younger than any other member of those top-10 lists.

Twins minor league attendance numbers

I enjoy the work that Ballpark Digest does and check their site every day, as a matter of fact I have their RSS feed going to this site whenever they publish anything new. This past Monday they published their 2013 minor league attendance totals and averages for every team as well as how they ranked over all. They also have affiliated attendance by league. Check them out, they are interesting to look at and see how the Twins minor league teams rank.

 September Call Ups

The Minnesota Twins announced on September 8th that they have recalled infielder Eduardo Escobar, outfielder Chris Parmelee, left-handed pitcher Scott Diamond and right-handed pitchers Michael Tonkin and Cole De Vries from Triple-A Rochester. Additionally, the Twins have selected the contracts of catcher Eric Fryer and right-handed pitcher Shairon Martis from Rochester. To make room on the Twins 40-man roster right-handed pitcher Sam Deduno and outfielder Wilkin Ramirez have been transferred from the 15-day disabled list to the 60-day DL.

Arizona Fall League 2013

AFL logoThe Twins recently announced their contingent of players to participate in the 2013 Arizona Fall League that begins play on October 8 and ends play about mid November. This season the Twins will be part of the Glendale Desert Dogs and the team will be managed by New Britain Rock Cats manager Jeff Smith. Their pitching coach will be Tom Browning who pitched for the Cincinnati Reds for a long time and the hitting coach will be Johnny Washington who never played in the majors but spent a number of years in the Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Dodgers organizations. The AFL team rosters are usually made up of players from five or six different big league teams and this years Desert Dogs team is made up of players from the Twins, Dodgers, Marlins, Reds, and White Sox. This year the Twins will be sending outfielder Byron Buxton, infielders Eddie Rosario and Max Kepler along with pitchers Trevor May, Alex Meyer, A.J. Achter, and Zach Jones.

The AFL started play in 1992 and will be playing their 22nd season this year. The league was started by MLB in order to create “an easily accessed offseason league. A concern was that some of the best ball players left to play winter ball out of the country, such as in the Caribbean and there was no way to monitor them. If Major League Baseball created a league that it could govern and monitor, it would be better organized. If a player was injured, proper care and treatment would be on hand. With the Arizona Fall League, managers, coaches, scouts and league officials could participate.”

Since the AFL started play in 1992 the Minnesota Twins have sent 125 players to play ball in the desert. Of these 125 players 74 of them (59.2%) have gone on to wear a Twins uniform at one time or another and several others went on to wear big league uniforms for other teams. 14 players (7 hitters and 7 pitchers) on todays Twins team have participated in the AFL at one time or another.

The eligibility rules to play in the AFL are simple.

  • The roster size is 30 players per team.
  • Each Major League organization is required to provide six players subject to the following requirements:
  • All Triple-A and Double-A players are eligible, provided the players are on at least a Double-A level roster no later than Aug. 1.
  • One player below the Double-A level is allowed per Major League team.
  • One foreign player is allowed, as long as the player does not reside in a country that participates in winter ball, as part of the Caribbean Confederation or the Australian winter league.
  • No players with more than one year of credited Major League service as of August 31 are eligible, except a team may select one player picked in the most recently concluded Major League Rule 5 Draft.
  • To be eligible, players on Minor League disabled lists must be activated at least 45 days before the conclusion of their respective seasons.

 

Players that get picked to participate in the AFL are usually the “cream of the crop” and stand a good chance of making it to the big leagues. Naturally there are no guarantee’s but your odds are pretty good as the Twins 59.2% success rate shows us. I have spent some time in Arizona over the years and have gone to a few of these AFL games and they are fun to attend. Since there are only a couple of hundred people at each game, you can sit pretty much where ever you wish and ticket prices are very reasonable. I would say there are probably as many scouts and various officials from major league team attending each game as there are fans. When I was there I was able to interact with some scouts and actually chat with the pitchers in the bullpen as the game was taking place. It is a very relaxed atmosphere. Arizona is a great place to be in the fall and all the ballparks are relatively close together so you can watch the teams of your choice at home and away. If you get a chance to take in some of these AFL games, I would highly recommend them if you are a baseball fan because the players you will see could and probably will be on a major league team in the very near future.

Good luck to these future Twins and the Glendale Desert Dogs this season.

Twins Minor League Player of the Week

Trevor May
Trevor May

New Britain (AA – Eastern League) right-handed pitcher Trevor May is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week. The 23 year-old 6’5″ May tossed 7.2 scoreless innings allowing just four hits while striking out nine Erie batters on June 18. May has a 3.56 ERA over 14 starts and a 1.80 ERA (20.0 IP, 4 ER) over his last three starts for the Rock Cats. His fastball is in the 92-94 range with heavy sink, and his secondary pitches, curve and a straight change are almost ready. In his sixth season of pro ball, May already has over 600 innings of minor league ball under his belt. His career SO/9 rate is 10.8 but his BB/9 of 4.7 is what is holding him back from moving up the ladder. May was acquired by the Twins this past offseason from the Phillies along with Vance Worley for Ben Revere.

Previous winners this season include (in order): P Tyler Duffey, INF Miguel Sano, OF Adam Brett Walker, INF Jorge Polanco, P Kyle Gibson, INF Chris Colabello, P Logan Darnell, P Taylor Rogers, P Andrew Albers and OF Byron Buxton.

The road to Minnesota is long and hard

long windy roadThe 2013 MLB draft is coming up on June 6-8 and baseball fans everywhere are excited about the draft and can’t wait to see what great players their teams will draft. Some fans will agree with the home towns team picks and others will complain loud and hard about how clueless the picks may have been. Certain fans spend a lot of time studying who is available to be picked and who will drop to their favorite team when it is their turn to pick. There are even fans out there that are more interested in the minors then they are in their major league team. I enjoy following the Twins minor league teams too but unless I lived in one of their minor league cities, I don’t understand the love affair with minor league players because if the player you are cheering for does well, he moves up the ladder and you no longer get to watch him play.

From 1965 when the free agent draft first started until 2012 each professional team has drafted about 50 players each year and signed what, maybe half of them? In 2012 MLB changed the June amateur free agent draft from 50 rounds to 40 rounds. Some of the players drafted are labeled “can’t miss” prospects while others will be long-term projects, they may come out of high school, junior college, or out of a 4 year college. Some of the picks may eventually find their place to the Hall of Fame one day while others may never even get a sniff of a major league spring training invite. Regardless where they come from, they all have the same dream, to get paid for playing a game they love. The road to the big leagues is a long and torturous one and most of the players that start this long hard journey will fail. The odds are long but as long as there is a chance, there will be players willing to sacrifice everything to get there. Players are often willing to risk it all, including their future health and a long life by taking drugs just to wear a major league uniform.

Feel free to get excited about Twins draft picks in 2013 but remember that the road to Target Field is long and bumpy and full of potholes that can take a player out of action for a day, a week, a month, a year, and maybe forever. Most importantly, no matter how good the player may be, it is unlikely that they will wear a Minnesota Twins uniform before their fourth year of professional baseball unless they are a collegiate pitcher. Miracles can certainly happen but history tells us that if Joe Mauer couldn’t get here in quicker than his fourth year, then the odds are pretty slim.

How many get drafted and signed?

I am not sure that most fans understand how few draftees actually ever get the opportunity to put on the major league uniform of the team that drafted them. To give everyone a better understanding of how few make it and how long the road can be I spent some time looking at the Twins drafts for the last 15 years (1998-2012). During this time period the Twins have drafted about 758 players (about 50 a year) and they sign maybe half of them. In the case of the Twins from 1998-2012 they have signed 372 players, 49.08% to pro contracts.

Some interesting and fun facts about the drafts from 1998-2012

  • Of these 372 players, 41 (about 11.02%) have reached the big leagues wearing a Minnesota Twins uniform and eight more (about 2.15%) reached the big leagues wearing a uniform of another big league team. That means that as of May 17, 2013, 13.17% of the players the Twins drafted and signed from 1998-2012 have put on a big league uniform. In addition, many of these players big league careers were very short.
  • Of the 41 players that debuted with the Twins, 20 were drafted out of high school and the quickest to appear in a big league game were C Joe Mauer and OF Ben Revere (both first round picks) in their fourth year of pro ball. On the end other end of the spectrum it took 38th round pick Tommy Watkins until his 10th year of pro ball before he put on the Minnesota Twins uniform. You really have to love baseball to be willing to put in that many years to achieve your goal of putting on a major league uniform. The 20 players drafted from high school were 13 position players, 5 RHP and 2 LHP.
  • Of the 41 players that debuted with the Twins, 4 were drafted out of junior college and the quickest to debut with the Twins were Rene Tosoni (round 36) and Terry Tiffee (round 26) in year five. The longest wait was for Willie Eyre a RHP who debuted in year eight. The 4 players drafted from junior college were two position players and two RHP.
  • Of the 41 players that debuted with the Twins, 17 were drafted out of a 4 year college and the quickest to debut were first round picks Matt Garza and Adam Johnson, both RHP who debuted in year two of pro ball. Having said that, Johnson pitched in 9 Twins games before being released and Garza pitched in 26 Twins games before being traded. The quickest 4 year college position players to debut were SS Brian Dozier an eighth round pick and C Chris Herrmann a sixth round pick in year four. First round pick RHP Matt Fox was on the slow and steady road and debuted in his seventh season of pro ball and pitched in just 1 game in a Twins uniform. Six days after he pitched for the Twins the Red Sox claimed him on waivers from Minnesota. The 17 players drafted from a 4 year college were 5 position players, 10 RHP and 2 LHP.
  • Only two pitchers drafted by the Twins in this time period have started 100 or more games, Scott Baker started 159 games and Nick Blackburn started 137 games.
  • The most wins in a Twins uniform for a pitcher drafted by the Twins during this fifteen year period is 63 for Scott Baker, second with 43 victories is Blackburn.
  • The Twins have only drafted three players that made an All-Star team, Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau with the Twins and Evan Meek who the Twins released made the NL All-Star team with the Pirates.
  • The Twins have drafted two league MVP winners (Mauer and Morneau).
  • The top three home run hitters drafted by Minnesota between 1998-2012 are Justin Morneau with 206, Jason Kubel with 104, and Joe Mauer with 96. You know who is fourth? Trevor Plouffe with 38. Yikes!
  • The perception is that the Twins draft and “grow” their own players. But, the drafts from 1998-2012 have produced just ten regular position players and six of them are on this years team.  1B Justin Morneau, OF Jason Kubel, C Joe Mauer, OF Denard Span, 3B Danny Valencia, OF/1B Chris Parmelee, OF Ben Revere,  3B Trevor Plouffe, 2B Brian Dozier, and OF Aaron Hicks.
  • This years Twins staff has 3 pitchers the Twins drafted and signed between 1998-2012 on the current roster and they are Glen Perkins a first rounder out of a 4 year college, Brian Duensing a 3rd rounder out of a four-year college, and Anthony Swarzak a 2nd round pick out of high school.
  • The draft class of 2006 has produced the most players that have gone on to wear a major league uniform, as of today, seven players have made their major league debut and all were in a Twins uniform.

 

Drafts year by year

Year Drafted Signed Twins Debut Other Debut High School College
2012 43 27 0 0 0 0
2011 52 33 0 0 0 0
2010 50 31 0 0 0 0
2009 51 24 2 0 0 2
2008 52 24 1 0 1 0
2007 50 22 1 0 1 0
2006 51 19 7 0 3 4
2005 54 20 5 1 1 5
2004 54 25 6 0 3 3
2003 50 27 1 1 0 2
2002 50 18 3 2 3 2
2001 50 30 3 1 2 2
2000 52 25 5 0 4 1
1999 50 23 5 1 4 2
1998 49 24 2 2 1 3
TOTALS 758 372 41 8 23 26

Interactive Whiteboards by PolyVision

Details year by year

2012 – zero so far

2011 – zero so far

2010 – zero so far

2009 – Chris Herrmann was drafted in the 6th round as a C after 4 years of college and debuted with the Twins on 9/16/2012 in his fourth year of professional baseball. Herrmann has played in 7 games for the Twins and is currently in their organization.

2009 – Brian Dozier was drafted in the 8th round as a SS after 4 years of college and debuted with the Twins on 5/7/2012 in his fourth year of professional baseball. Dozier is currently the Twins starting 2B.

2008 – Aaron Hicks was drafted in the first round (14th overall) as an outfielder out of high school and debuted with the Twins on 4/1/2013 in his sixth year of professional baseball. Hicks is currently the Twins starting center fielder.

2007 – Ben Revere was drafted in the first round (27th overall) as an outfielder out of high school and debuted with the Twins on 9/7/2010 in his fourth year of professional baseball. Played in 254 games for the Twins before being traded to Philly after the 2012 season.

2006 – Chris Parmelee was drafted in the first round (20th overall) as an outfielder out of high school and debuted with the Twins on 9/6/2011 in his sixth year of professional baseball. Parmelee is currently with the Twins and starting in right field.

2006 – Joe Benson was drafted in the 2nd round as an outfielder out of high school and debuted with the Twins on 9/6/2011 in his sixth year of professional baseball. Still in the Twins system, Benson has 24 games in the books as a Minnesota Twin.

2006 – Tyler Robertson was drafted in the 3rd round as a LHP out of high school and debuted with the Twins on 6/26/2012 in his seventh year of professional baseball. Still in the Twins system, Robertson has 42 games on his Minnesota Twins resume.

2006 – Brian Dinkelman was drafted in the 8th round as a 2B after 4 years of college and debuted with the Twins on 6/4/2011 in his sixth year of professional baseball. Still in the Twins system, Dinkelman has 23 games on his Minnesota Twins resume.

2006 – Jeff Manship was drafted in the 14th round as a RHP after 4 years of college and debuted with the Twins on 8/15/2009 in his fourth year of professional baseball. Manship left the Twins as a free agent after the 2012 season and is currently in the Rockies system and to date has appeared in 41 big league games, all with the Twins.

2006 – Danny Valencia was drafted in round 19 as a 3B after 4 years of college and debuted with the Twins on 6/3/2010 in his fifth year of professional baseball. After playing in 273 games for the Twins he was traded to the Red Sox in August 2012 where he appeared in just 10 games before the Red Sox sold him to the Baltimore Orioles and Valencia is in their system today.

2006 – Anthony Slama was drafted in the 39th round as a RHP after 4 years of college and debuted with the Twins on 7/21/2010 in his fourth year of professional baseball. Still in the Twins system, Slama has 7 games on his Minnesota Twins resume.

2005 – Matt Garza was drafted in the 1st round (25th overall) as a RHP after 4 years of college and debuted with the Twins on 8/11/2006 in just his second year of professional baseball. Garza pitched in 26 games for the Twins before they traded him to Tampa in November 2007. Garza was eventually traded to the Cubs where he is today. Garza has a total of 170 big league games under his belt.

2005 – Kevin Slowey was drafted in the 2nd round as a RHP after 4 years of college and debuted with the Twins on 6/1/2007 in his third year of professional baseball. Slowey pitched for the Twins in 100 games before being traded in December 2012 to the Rockies. The Rockies quickly moved him to the Indians where he spent 2012 in the Indians organization and left as a free agent after the 2012 season to sign with the Marlins where he is currently pitching.

2005 – Brian Duensing was drafted in the 3rd round as a LHP after 4 years of college and debuted with the Twins on 4/10/2009 in his fifth year of professional baseball. Duensing is currently with the Twins and has pitched in 183 games wearing a Twins uniform.

2005 – Alex Burnett was drafted in round 12 as a RHP out of high school and debuted with the Twins on 4/8/2010 in his sixth year of professional baseball. Burnett pitched in 174 games for the Twins before being waived this past March and picked up by Toronto. Toronto waived Burnett after about 2 weeks and the Orioles claimed him and he is currently in their system.

2005 – Rene Tosoni was drafted in round 36 as an outfielder out of a junior college and debuted with the Twins on 4/28/2011 in his fifth year of professional baseball. Tosoni appeared in 60 games for the Twins before leaving the organization as a FA in November 2012.

2005 – Steve Tolleson was drafted by Minnesota in the fifth round as a shortstop after 4 years of college. Tolleson was claimed on waivers by the A’s in February 2010 and made his big league debut with Oakland on 4/28/2010 in his sixth year of professional baseball. Todate Tolleson has appeared 54 big league games with the A’s and Orioles now finds himself in the White Sox organization.

2004 – Trevor Plouffe was drafted in the 1st round (20th overall) as a SS out of high school and debuted with the Twins on 5/21/2010 in his seventh year of professional baseball.  Plouffe is currently the Twins starting 3B.

2004 – Glen Perkins was drafted in round 1 (22nd overall) as a LHP after 4 years of college and debuted with the Twins on 9/21/2006 in his third year of professional baseball. Perkins is currently the Twins closer.

2004 – Kyle Waldrop was drafted in the 1st round (25th overall) as a RHP out of high school and debuted with the Twins on 9/5/2011 in his eighth year of professional baseball. Waldrop pitched in 24 games before being granted FA in November 2012. Waldrop is currently in the Pirates organization.

2004 – Matt Fox was drafted in the 1st round (35th overall) as a RHP after 4 years of college and debuted with the Twins on 9/3/2010 in his seventh year of professional baseball. Fox pitched in one game for Minnesota before being claimed on waivers by the Reds Sox in September 2010 where he pitched only 3 times before being waived and claimed by the Mariners.

2004 – Anthony Swarzak was drafted in the 2nd round as a RHP out of high school and debuted with the Twins on 5/23/2009 in his sixth year of professional baseball. Swarzak is currently a Twins reliever.

2004 – Matt Tolbert was drafted in the 16th round as a SS after 4 years of college and debuted with the Twins on 4/1/2008 in his fifth year of professional baseball. Tolbert appeared in 247 games as a Twins before being granted FA in October 2011. Tolbert spent a year in the Cubs organization and is now with the Phillies organization.

2003 – Scott Baker was drafted in the 2nd round as a RHP after 4 years of college and debuted with the Twins on 5/7/2005 in his third year of professional baseball. Baker pitched in 163 games for the Twins before sitting out 2012 with TJ surgery. Baker left the Twins after 2012 and signed with the Cubs but is currently on their Disabled List.

2003 – Levale Speigner was drafted in the 14th round as a RHP after 4 years of college and was selected from the Twins as a Rule 5 pick by the Nationals in December 2006 and made his big league debut with Washington on 4/2/2007 in his fifth year of pro ball. The Nats returned Speigner to the Twins in June 2007 but worked a trade with Minnesota and reacquired Speigner a few days later.

2002 – Denard Span was drafted in the 1st round (20th overall) as an outfielder out of high school and debuted with the Twins on 4/6/2008 in his sixth year of professional baseball. Span appeared in 617 games for the Twins before being traded to the Nationals after the 2012 season.

2002 – Jesse Crain was drafted in the 2nd round as a RHP after 4 years of college and debuted with the Twins on 8/5/2004 in his third year of professional baseball. Crain appeared in 376 games, all in relief, before leaving Minnesota and signing a free agent deal with the White Sox where he has pitched ever since.

2002 – Pat Neshek was drafted in the 6th round as a RHP after 4 years of college and debuted with the Twins on 7/7/2006 in his fifth year of professional baseball. Neshek pitched in relief in 132 games for the Twins before being claimed on waiver by the Padres. After leaving the Padres, Neshek was in the Orioles organization before being purchased by the Oakland’ A’s where he is currently pitching.

2002 – Evan Meek was drafted in the 11th round as a RHP out of high school. After 3 years in the Twins system in which Meek had pitched 97 innings and walked 100 batters and struck out 84, the Twins had seen enough and released him in June 2005. Meek hooked on with the Padres and eventually moved on to the Pirates where he made his big league debut on 4/2/2008 in his sixth year of professional baseball. In 2010 he made the NL All-Star team. Meek is currently in the Rangers organization.

2002 – Kyle Phillips was drafted in the 1oth round as a C out of high school but was released by Minnesota in April 2006. Phillips caught on with the Brewers but they too released him and he joined the Blue Jays and made his major league debut on 9/14/2009 in his eighth season of pro ball. In total, Phillips played in 5 games for the Blue Jays in 2009 and 36 games for the Padres in 2011 and is no longer in baseball.

2001 – Joe Mauer was drafted in the first round and first overall as a C out of Cretin-Derham Hall High School and debuted with the Twins on 4/5/2004 in his fourth year of professional baseball. Mauer has appeared in 866 games for the Twins. Mauer has been a league MVP and 5 time All-Star.

2001 – Jose Morales was drafted in the third round as a SS out of high school and debuted with the Twins on 9/8/2007 in his seventh year of professional baseball. The Twins converted Morales in to a catcher in 2003. Morales appeared in 96 games for Minnesota before being traded to the Rockies after the 2010 season. After leaving Colorado, Morales was in the Pirates organization for a while but is not currently affiliated with a major league team.

2001 – Nick Blackburn was drafted in the 29th round as an RHP out of a junior college and debuted with the Twins on 9/3/2007 in his sixth year of professional baseball. Blackburn has pitched in 145 games for the Twins, mostly as a starter. Blackburn is currently rehabbing an injury and is not currently on the Twins 40 man roster.

2001 – Kevin Cameron was drafted in the 13th round as a RHP after 4 years of college and claimed by the Padres in December 2006 as a Rule 5 draftee. Wolfe made his big league debut on 4/5/2007 with the Padres in his seventh year of professional baseball. Cameron’s big league career lasted 69 games from 2007-2009.

2000 – Adam Johnson was drafted in the 1st round and second overall as a RHP after 4 years of college and debuted with the Twins on 7/16/2001 in his second year of professional baseball. Johnson appeared in 9 games for the Twins between 2001 and 2003 and was released by Minnesota after the 2004 season. Johnson played for the Arizona and Oakland organizations but never again reached the big leagues and was out of pro ball after 2006.

2000 – J. D. Durbin was drafted in the 2nd round as a RHP out of high school and debuted with the Twins on 9/8/2004 in his fifth year of professional baseball. Durbin pitched in 4 games for Minnesota before being picked up by the Diamondbacks on waivers in March 2007 where he appeared in one game. Durbin then became a waiver claim of the Red Sox but never appeared in a game there before he was again waived and picked up by the Phillies where he pitched in 18 games. 2007 was the last time that Durbin spent time in the big leagues. Durbin then spent time with the Dodgers organization, played in Mexico, Japan and several independent leagues and was once again signed by the Red Sox this past spring before again being released.

2000 – Jason Miller was drafted in the 4th round as a LHP out of high school and debuted with the Twins on 5/26/2007 in his eighth year of professional baseball. Miller appeared in just 4 games with the Twins and was out of baseball after the 2008 season.

2000 – Josh Rabe was drafted in the 11th round as an outfielder out of high school and debuted with the Twins on 7/17/2006 in his seventh year of professional baseball. Rabe appeared in a total of 38 games as a Twins and was granted free agency after the 2007 season. Played some independent ball in 2008 and then left baseball in his rear view mirror.

2000 – Jason Kubel was drafted in the 12th round as an outfielder out of high school and debuted with the Twins on 8/31/2004 in his fifth year of professional baseball. Kubel played in Minnesota through the 2011 season appearing in 753 games before leaving via free agency after the 2011 season and signing with Arizona where he is still playing today.

1999 – Rob Bowen was drafted in the 2nd round (Expos took Brian Phillips one pick later and the Pirates selected Ryan Doumit 3 picks later) as a catcher out of high school and debuted with the Twins on 9/1/2003 in his fifth year of professional baseball. Bowen appeared in just 43 games before moving on to play for the Padres, Cubs and A’s during his 5 big league seasons and 216 big league games.

1999 – Justin Morneau was drafted in the 3rd round as a catcher out of high school and debuted with the Twins on 6/10/2003 in his fifth year of professional baseball. Morneau was converted to full-time 1B duties in 2001. Morneau has been a league MVP and four-time All-Star and has appeared in almost 1,200 games for Minnesota.

1999 – Travis Bowyer was drafted in the 20th round as a RHP out of a high school and debuted with the Twins on 9/10/2005 in his seventh year of professional baseball. Bowyer pitched in 8 games for Minnesota and in December 2005 was traded to the Marlins for 2B Luis Castillo. Bowyer never pitched for the Marlins and was actually out of baseball for 7 seasons before surfacing with an independent league in 2012.

1999 – Willie Eyre was drafted in the 23rd round as a RHP out of a junior college and debuted with the Twins on 4/6/2006 in his eighth year of professional baseball. Eyre appeared in 42 games for the Twins in 2006 and was granted free agency after the season ended. Eyre went on to pitch for the Rangers and the Orioles.

1999 – Terry Tiffee was drafted in the 26th round as a 1B out of a junior college and debuted with the Twins on 9/1/2004 in his fifth year of professional baseball. Tiffee appeared in 91 games for the Twins between 2004-2006 and in 6 games for the Dodgers in 2008 but has been in the minors ever since.

1999 – Brian Wolfe was drafted in the 6th round as a RHP out of high school and released by Minnesota in May 2005. Wolfe was with the Brewers and Blue Jays organizations and  debuted with the Blue Jays on 5/30/2007 in his ninth year of professional baseball. Wolfe’s big league career lasted just 72 games but Wolfe has pitched in Japan since 2010.

1998 – Kevin Frederick was drafted in the 34th round as a RHP after 4 years of college and made his big league debut with the Twins on July 15, 2002 in his fifth year of pro ball. Frederick appeared in 8 games for Minnesota before being waived and claimed by the Blue Jays in March 2003 where he appeared in 22 games but that proved to be the end of the line as far as Frederick’s big league career was concerned.

1998 – Tommy Watkins was drafted in the 38th round as a SS out of high school and made his big league debut with the Twins on August 10, 2007 in his tenth year of pro ball. Watkins appeared in just 9 games for the Twins and moved in to the Twins minor league coaching ranks after the 2009 season.

1998 – Saul Rivera was drafted in the 9th round as a RHP after 4 years of college and waived by the Twins in November 2001 and picked up by the Mets. Rivera debuted with the Nationals on May 25, 2006 in his ninth year of pro ball. Rivera pitched in a total of 249 big league games for the Nats and Diamondbacks between 2006-2010. Out of baseball today.

1998 – Juan Padilla was drafted in the 24th round as a RHP after 4 years of college and traded by the Twins to the Yankees as the PTBNL when the Twins acquired Jesse Orosco in September 2003. Padilla made his big league debut with the Yankees on July 16, 2004 in his seventh year of pro ball. Padilla appeared in 42 major league games between the Yankees, Reds and Mets.

Where do Twins players come from?

I mentioned earlier that the perception is that the Twins draft and groom the majority of their players. Let’s take a look at the players that most people today would consider the Twins top prospects. I will not include anyone here who has made his major league debut with the Twins and I will list the players in no particular order. Let’s take a look to see how the Twins acquired these up-and-coming stars. It just goes to show that the amateur free agent draft in June is not the only way to acquire talented young players.

3B – Miguel Sano – signed as an amateur free agent
OF – Byron Buxton – 1st round draft pick in 2012
P – Alex Meyer – acquired in a trade
P – Kyle Gibson – 1st round draft pick in 2009
P – Trevor May – acquired in a trade
2B – Eddie Rosario – 4th round draft pick in 2010
P – Jose Berrios – 1st round draft pick in 2012
OF – Max Kepler – signed as an amateur free agent in 2009
SS – Daniel Santana – signed as an amateur free agent in 2007

 

There are many ways to make up a 25 man major league roster, here is how the current 2013 Twins roster was assembled. On the position side, six players were drafted, four were signed as free agents, one was signed as an amateur free agent, one was acquired via a trade and one was picked up on the waiver wire. On the pitching side, four were signed as free agents, three were drafted, two joined the team via a trade, two were Rule 5 selections, and one was acquired via the waiver wire. The Twins line has always been that you grow the majority of your own players and you sign a few free agents to fill some holes. This years roster does not necessarily hold dear to that principal, maybe that is why the Twins will struggle to reach the .500 mark this season.

New draft strategy?

Maybe Terry Ryan and the Twins should change their draft strategy. All the so called draft experts out there are clamoring for the Twins to use their early picks on pitching help and don’t get me wrong, the Twins need good pitching. However; with the Twins poor history of drafting pitchers, maybe they should quit spending their high draft picks on pitchers and focus on drafting position players and then either put them in their line-up or trade them for proven pitching. You need to go with your organizations strength and the Twins scouts seem to find good hitting but pitching, not so much. Then you use Terry Ryan’s trading expertise to swap hitting for pitching. Then again, is the June amateur draft much different then the Powerball tickets I just bought? I spent my money knowing the odds were long but the carrot for the huge payoff was out there but this time I walked away empty handed. Fortunately, each of my Powerball tickets cost $2 and not several million dollars like a number 1 pick will probably cost the Twins. But you can bet your bippy I will try it again.

Twins active but lots of work remains to be done

It has been awhile since my last post but web site hosting issues have caused me a lot of extra work and taken me away from more fun activities like keeping up with the MLB Winter meetings and the changing Twins roster.

With the recent trades of former first round pick (2002) outfielder Denard Span to the Washington Nationals for 2011 Nats first round pick RHP Alex Meyer and just a few days later sending another former Twins first round pick (2007) outfielder Ben Revere to the Phillies for RHP’s Vance Worley and Trevor May the Twins and GM Terry Ryan have held true to their word that changes were coming and that they were going to snag as many pitchers as they could. These trades should also clear up any confusion that some Twins fans may still have had that the Twins were going to be “reload” and try to become a playoff team once again after suffering through two dismal seasons. The Twins are in a full-scale rebuilding mode but not the kind of rebuilding mode that we may have seen from the Twins in the past. In the past they would get rid of all their high salaried players and start from scratch but that is a much harder sell now days with the Twins just having moved into their new digs at Target Field in 2010. The Twins aren’t stupid, they know they can’t afford to totally alienate their fan base that they have built up with a with a new ballpark and a nice run since 2002 but they also know that they let their starting pitching fall into disrepair the last few years and in the process have lost 90+ games two years in a row. The team grew stale, changes were few and far between on the player, coaching and management sides and their “smoke and mirrors” approach to their pitching staff caught up with the team so quickly it seemed to catch the entire Twins organization off guard.

The Twins are not a huge market team but they can not plead poverty as they have in the past. The team has a decent fan base, a relatively new ballpark and ownership that has money to spend but I am not sure that they are willing to spend it. The Twins like to brag that they are one of the top organizations in baseball but when it comes to taking out their wallet to bring in some high-priced talent the team claims it is not all about the money. I understand if they can’t put Zack Greinke in a Twins uniform but I can’t get a handle on why you can’t get Joe Blanton for example if the Angels can get him for 2 years for $15 million. This team has just two starting pitchers going into 2013 and I surely don’t grasp why the team would supposedly make an offer to Francisco Liriano after his history with the team between 2005-2012. I think Terry Ryan is a very good GM but I sure don’t know what his logic is for this move. At least throw us a bone Mr. Pohlad, give us some new blood and something to at least give us some hope instead of having us pay to watch that same old crap. I understand loyalty but you can only keep hitting your head against the same old wall for so long before someone shows up to haul you away in a white coat. Show us some loyalty and a reason why we should pay big league prices to watch the Twins in 2013.

This Twins team has more holes than my fishing net but I still love baseball and every year teams come for nowhere to play winning baseball and I can only hope that the Twins will do so sooner than later. There are still serviceable pitchers out there on the FA market and I hope that Jim Pohlad lets Dave St. Peter and Terry Ryan know that his checkbook is there and he is willing to carack it open long enough to sign at least one if not two more starting pitchers. It all starts at the top. The recent splash the Twins have made in the trade market should be just the beginning of what the Twins need to do to become competitive again and not the final chapter.

Josh Hamilton is still a free agent and if Texas doesn’t resign him they could use a power hitting outfielder and if I were the Twins I would be happy to send Josh Willingham to Texas for a shortstop like Jurickson Barthelomeus Profar that could fill that shortstop hole at Target Field for many years to come. The Twins recently announced that they had signed 35-year-old pitcher Jason Lane who played the outfield for the Astros and Padres from 2002-2007 and turned to pitching in 2009. The team also signed 1B/C Jeff Clement who has played in the big leagues with the Mariner and the Pirates for parts of 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012 and hit .218 in 385 at bats. Why in %#@* do you spend the money on players like this? You don’t win with quantity, you win with quality, I am not sure the Twins look at it that way.

In the recent major league portion of the Rule 5 draft the Twins selected 23 year-old RHP Ryan Pressly from the Boston Red Sox. After starting since 2008 Pressly was turned into a reliever late in 2012 and pitched well in that role in the AFL over the last month or so.

It is still early in December and the 2013 season is several months away but the Twins brain trust needs to keep their nose to the grindstone if this team is going to break their two-year death grip on last place. If I was Ron Gardenhire, the way things looks right now, I would be signing on to the PC and updating my resume.