Wednesday, May
19, 2010
One Last Thing…
The best part, for me, about being a blogger is the interaction with
other Twins fans. It’s the e-mail discussions and the comments in the comments
section each day that make the writing and the podcasts worthwhile. I don’t
claim to have all the right answers, and I would hope that no one takes my
opinions as the only way to think. I believe that baseball teams can win (or
lose) in many different ways. The Yankees and Red Sox can win year in and year
out by outspending other teams and getting the top players. The Twins and Rays
go about winning by drafting high-upside talent and developing them and
building from within. The Cubs and Mets spend a ton of money, but it hasn’t
guaranteed them much. The Pirates have gone the way of player development and
it hasn’t done much for them.
I love following the Twins minor league system and have been doing so
fairly religiously for the past six or seven years. I love minor league baseball
and the process that it takes to become a big league player. It takes a ton of
work to be a big leaguer, a star, or a role player. And each of the players in
the minor league system is also working very hard and deserve
to be recognized as well. I have my opinions on player development and what
stats are good to look at, and understanding that minor league stats are what
they are and that scouting and potential are as important as the numbers. The
Twins have a philosophy. I guarantee that not every member of the Twins front
office, or every scout, or every minor league coach believe 100% the same
thing, and in the same way, I don’t expect to agree with every decision that
the Twins make as it relates to player movement at the big league level or
below. We question, and that’s OK. And I certainly don’t expect everyone to
agree with me on every Twins minor leaguer either. Hey, I thought Danny Matienzo was a future Twins DH. One year, I had Matt
Moses ranked as the Twins #5 prospect. One year, I had JD Durbin ranked
as the team’s #2 prospect. I thought the Mike Lamb signing was great for
the Twins. I thought that giving Type A free agent Juan
Cruz a two-year, $4 million contract would have been worth the first round
pick that it would have cost the Twins. Horrible pitching by Cruz and the draft
selection of Kyle Gibson proved me and others wrong. I would have been
willing to give Felipe Lopez three years and $18 million. I thought Jesse
Crain should have been given the Twins closer role in 2004, since he did it
so well in the minor leagues instead of going with Joe Nathan, who had
just one career save going into that season. I could go back in time in my
seven years of blogging and come up with a really fun “I was VERY wrong” list
of topics and we could all laugh about it.
This week’s example of me disagreeing, or to be fair, not understanding
of a Twins personnel move was the demotion of Joe Benson from AA New
Britain to Hi-A Ft. Myers. I laid out some of the reasons for my confusion the
other day. I probably won’t mention it again because, as I stated, the goal isn’t
for him to be in New Britain, it is for him to be the best big league player
that he can be, and in the end, maybe this will be a good move for him. And if
so, that’s all that matters. As someone with the Twins once told me, the goal
is not to get players to the big leagues as fast as they can,
it is for them to be ready when they get there. When you draft a player with
the incredible potential and upside of Joe Benson, patience is a very
good, very prudent thing. So again, I won’t dwell on it because I understand
the end game, the grand scheme.
However, in the comments section of my blog the other day, I had one of
the best
comments I have received in a comments section. I probably should
highlight more comments and e-mails that I get because additional insight into
these topics is terrific. I don’t do this often, but I really wanted to
highlight one particular comment that I thought was great. This is a comment
from “Dave Nelson” that I like because whether or not you or I agree with each
part of it, it is well laid out and backed by facts and stats.
I hope
the demotion of Benson wasn’t BA motivated but I suspect it was the main
factor. .219/.346/.419 is a solid line especially considering his BA is so low.
As for
who the better prospect; Revere or Benson, if you think it Revere, you are
ignoring performance, tools, upside and defensive ability, and hoping that Revere
starts taking more walks, learns how to play CF and develops gap power. Revere
has been living off of almost hitting .400 for more than a year now.
2009 FTM
Benson: .285/.414/.403
Revere: .311/.372/.369
2010 NBR
Benson: .219/.346/.419
Revere: .279/.353/.328
Add to
that Benson playing better defense and being a more versatile defender. Ben Revere
is not even a good base stealer. Benson gets demoted despite playing better
this year than revere, and I’m sure Ben is well on his way to a 3rd consecutive
player of the year award because he happens to be in an organization that’s
allergic to walks and absolutely hypnotized by batting average and speed.
There’s
a pretty good chance revere is going to be a huge disappointment. He doesn’t
hit near enough to play a corner outfield position so his only role with the Twins
would be to take over CF and move Span to a corner. But right now reports are
that he doesn’t play CF particularly well, so he might not be a good option to
move Span. Either way he’s got Hicks on his tail as CF of the future. And if
Hicks does supplant Revere in CF, Revere has few tools to transition to a
corner spot.
Please feel free to discuss. Have a great day! Leave any
comments here.