AP: Twins Future Pitching Surge

Dave Campbell of the Associated Press reviews the status of the three guys that the Twins are counting on to be competetive in the future: Kyle Gibson, Alex Meyer and Trevor May. For those looking for optimism, obviously it starts here. Gibson seem to be open to his role this year, at least publicly....

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There won't be a pre-set limit on Gibson, Ryan said, but rather a monitoring of the way he performs on the mound. Gibson said he'd be happy to pitch out of the bullpen, if that's what the Twins decided was best.
"It's just one of those things I can't worry about too much," he said. "It's exciting to think about getting that call-up at some point this year, but at the same time, I've got a lot of things that I still have to work on. The Twins have told me the whole time, `Whenever you're ready, we'll call you up.' I've just got to trust in that and just keep working hard."

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Personally, I wonder if we're not putting an awful big number of eggs in those 3 baskets.

Twins have hope for future starting pitching surge | StarTribune.com

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Originally Posted by John Bonnes

Personally, I wonder if we're not putting an awful big number of eggs in those 3 baskets.

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Don't forget about Berrios (yes a very long ways to go) and Wimmers. While he might not have the upside of some of these pitchers he was a first round draft pick who has talent. On top of that there is a good chance the Twins add another high upside arm in this years draft. That would make six arms in the Twins system with average or better potential with three having frontline potential. We shouldn't forget about Worley either, while he isn't a prospect he is young and has pitched very well when healthy.

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Originally Posted by Oxtung

Don't forget about Berrios (yes a very long ways to go) and Wimmers. While he might not have the upside of some of these pitchers he was a first round draft pick who has talent. On top of that there is a good chance the Twins add another high upside arm in this years draft. That would make six arms in the Twins system with average or better potential with three having frontline potential. We shouldn't forget about Worley either, while he isn't a prospect he is young and has pitched very well when healthy.

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Nice post. I concur.

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Originally Posted by Oxtung

Wimmers. While he might not have the upside of some of these pitchers he was a first round draft pick who has talent.

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Wimmers' main selling point was that he could go the Mike Leake route and see the bigs in short order. He was a polished guy with a low ceiling, but a high floor. Then that floor collapsed when he got Memento disease and couldn't recall the description of the strike zone. Now he's coming off TJS. I'd say expectations for him should be pretty minimal by now.

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Originally Posted by Oxtung

Don't forget about Berrios (yes a very long ways to go) and Wimmers. While he might not have the upside of some of these pitchers he was a first round draft pick who has talent. On top of that there is a good chance the Twins add another high upside arm in this years draft. That would make six arms in the Twins system with average or better potential with three having frontline potential. We shouldn't forget about Worley either, while he isn't a prospect he is young and has pitched very well when healthy.

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Unless there's a can't miss MI that I am unaware of, they better not get complacent about drafting upside arms. There are at least 3 guys in the draft who could be pitching with the big club as soon as 2014, or 2015 at the latest. I think Twins fans should be excited if 3 of the 6 guys mentioned above pan out as top- or middle-end SPs and positively giddy if 1 or more others become serviceable on the back-end. Hopefully, they don't feel like they can check off their SP "to-do" list if the "Big 3" start to accelerate their development in 2013; they shouldn't stop for one second in their quest at shooting for a legitimate ace in their favorable draft positions both in 2013 and (quite likely) 2014, provided that it's a fairly clear choice over a position player.

They really should have had Butera playing winter ball working on his pitching. He could start a whole new trend of carrying a 13th pitcher who is also your 4th bench guy.

If he pitched one decent inning for every at-bat he gets playing catcher, he might actually be seen as a viable roster option

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Originally Posted by spideyo

They really should have had Butera playing winter ball working on his pitching. He could start a whole new trend of carrying a 13th pitcher who is also your 4th bench guy.

If he pitched one decent inning for every at-bat he gets playing catcher, he might actually be seen as a viable roster option

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Don't let him off the hook that easily.... :)

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Originally Posted by FrodaddyG

Wimmers' main selling point was that he could go the Mike Leake route and see the bigs in short order. He was a polished guy with a low ceiling, but a high floor. Then that floor collapsed when he got Memento disease and couldn't recall the description of the strike zone. Now he's coming off TJS. I'd say expectations for him should be pretty minimal by now.

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Yep. I'd say Hendriks (who's the same age as Wimmers, BTW) has a much better chance of becoming a staple for this team. Surprised he's not even being mentioned here.

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Originally Posted by John Bonnes

Personally, I wonder if we're not putting an awful big number of eggs in those 3 baskets.

Twins have hope for future starting pitching surge | StarTribune.com

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Other than Gibson, two of them weren't even with the organization last year... don't want to think about the whole eggs/basket thing last year. Personally, I suspect they draft a college ready arm and flip one of Willingham or Morneau for another one this June/July.... Hoping for 5 baskets.