The common wisdom among the Twins' fans and the media that cover the Minnesota Twins is that the Twins are on the prowl for adding starting pitching. Unfortunately, the spendthrift ways of Terry Ryan have already resulted in a huge number of sub-par starting pitchers, the best of whom is Vance Worley or Scott Diamond (depends on who you ask) and they are tops number 3 starters in a competing team. This massive mess of starting pitching is the result of Ryan's love for MiLB free agents. Right now the Twins have enough older Starting Pitchers in the organization to fill an MLB, a AAA and a AA rotation (and then some), which guarantees stagnation of their prospects by being stuck at most at Fort Myers (and some of them pitched at AA last season.)
Here is the mess, analytically:
On the 40-man roster and projected on the 25-man roster:
Kevin Correia
Scott Diamond
Vance Worley
On the 40-man roster potentially fighting for a spot for the Twins rotation:
Cole De Vries
Kyle Gibson
Liam Hendriks
B.J. Hermsen
Pedro Hernandez
not on the 40-man but got a shot to make the Twins' team (and if not, they will be in AAA):
Nick Blackburn
Luis Perdomo
Samuel Deduno
Scott Elarton
Jason Lane
Michael O'Connor
Bryan Augenstein
Virgil Vasquez
PJ Walters
Sairon Martis
This is 18. Enough to Fill the MLB, AAA, AA rosters with a couple to spare. This means that unless some of the MiLB FAs are cut, the following will start at most at Fort Myers:
Unaccounted Prospects:
Trevor May (40-man)
Alex Meyer
Tom Stuifbergen
Manuel Soliman
Pat Dean
Madison Boer
Marty Popham
Matt Houser
Adrian Salcedo
Steven Hirschfeld
Andrew Albers
This is at least 2 rotations worth and sorry to the SPs who pitched at Beloit or Elizabethton last season: Cedar Rapids and Etown will be your destination this season. This indiscriminate collection of pitchers who are not good enough, in addition to not creating a competitive major league team, it destroys development of the best prospects. Unfortunately Terry Ryan once again is going for rotation breadth vs. depth throughout the organization.
Here is the mess, analytically:
On the 40-man roster and projected on the 25-man roster:
Kevin Correia
Scott Diamond
Vance Worley
On the 40-man roster potentially fighting for a spot for the Twins rotation:
Cole De Vries
Kyle Gibson
Liam Hendriks
B.J. Hermsen
Pedro Hernandez
not on the 40-man but got a shot to make the Twins' team (and if not, they will be in AAA):
Nick Blackburn
Luis Perdomo
Samuel Deduno
Scott Elarton
Jason Lane
Michael O'Connor
Bryan Augenstein
Virgil Vasquez
PJ Walters
Sairon Martis
This is 18. Enough to Fill the MLB, AAA, AA rosters with a couple to spare. This means that unless some of the MiLB FAs are cut, the following will start at most at Fort Myers:
Unaccounted Prospects:
Trevor May (40-man)
Alex Meyer
Tom Stuifbergen
Manuel Soliman
Pat Dean
Madison Boer
Marty Popham
Matt Houser
Adrian Salcedo
Steven Hirschfeld
Andrew Albers
This is at least 2 rotations worth and sorry to the SPs who pitched at Beloit or Elizabethton last season: Cedar Rapids and Etown will be your destination this season. This indiscriminate collection of pitchers who are not good enough, in addition to not creating a competitive major league team, it destroys development of the best prospects. Unfortunately Terry Ryan once again is going for rotation breadth vs. depth throughout the organization.
36-year old Scott Elarton
1 comment:
Out of the 13 listed for AAA/AA, I would only task six for rotation and at most four as long relief. Assuming 1-2 might end up disabled...well, the next 11, I would want to see at least 4 of them in the higher classification rotation. Yes, people like Blackburn and Elarton and Waters are keeping prospects from floruishing. You only need to much backup, right now the Twons have to think young and who will contribute to the team. Look at the AAA outfield/DH -- you have Bigley, Dinkelman, Ramirez and Boggs. You should have Hicks, Benson, Arcia for sure. Go figure.
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